311 ~ AT THE MOVIES - Part 5

We welcome you to the We Are Zion sermon podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

This summer we are going deeper into heartwarming movies to find

gospel gems and Kingdom truths for our everyday life.

As you listen in, we hope that through these familiar

characters and sweet stories, you have a fresh revelation of

the victorious life we have in Christ.

We've we are continuing with our at the movie series.

We still have two more parts and it will get over the end of the

month. Last week we saw the first part

of this movie, The Wild Robot. And I think as I was preparing

through for the 1st and the second part, I think three

things that we saw is we are poised in our reality, which

means we know where we are present, what our reality is.

We pivot in the direction God is present.

And I think that really as I was preparing, I didn't realize the

intensity till I was actually speaking about it.

And I believe today a lot of us have in this crucial place where

you're making that pivot, either we've started following Christ

or you're following Christ and God is doing some character

change, situation change. He's asking us to pivot.

But a lot of us are struggling with that pivot because the

pressure of our past is bringing us back to where?

And so God is we'll continue on with that.

The second part and the third thing we saw is to be persistent

toward what, toward what God has called us for a lifetime.

And one thing which I talked about is in God's Kingdom, we're

not measuring up to something that we have pre built in our

head, but rather it's God up where we're asking God, God,

what is it that you have next in my season?

What should I do next? It's not a long jump.

It's just a, it's just that one step, that 1° change that I can

make in our lives. And so today I've been, as you

go into the second part, this I've titled the sermon as

endurance takes me to the finish line.

Endurance everyday takes me to the finish line because

endurance is not a one off thing.

I know a lot of you might be having trauma from going to a

gym and hearing the word endurance, but that's not the

endurance we're talking about. But today when I'm talking about

endurance, it's this Christian walk because you and I are

called to walk in endurance and mind you, what better way to

actually have endurance For those of you who are probably

thinking probably thinking are the state of the world is

chaotic. He's placed us here and requires

us to have endurance. How many of you believe that you

know, as you watch this, I believe there are some truths

that that God's asked me to speak.

And as I, as I, my hope is that for those of you who've lacked

that endurance, that we'll be able to ask him for that.

For those of you who feel you need a fresh injection of that

endurance because you've stepped in, fatigue has stepped in.

I know for how many of you feel that.

But it's that if we don't feel encouraged and get that

injection weekly when we come here, not just alone from God,

but within from the community of believers, we will lose out on

certain things. And so as we watch this clip,

we'll get into the sermon after that saw the clip.

I'm sure a lot of us probably are seated here thinking, you

know what, I was on the verge of giving up.

I know what you're wanting to give up on, whether it's a

dream, whether it's I don't know.

This day and age when you're reading a lot of these articles

that are coming out, it can be even work.

I know how many how many of you felt like giving up on work with

AI coming in, you suddenly feel irrelevant or just looking at

everything that's happening around you feel today.

I pray and ask that as we go through the sermon that you'll

have the endurance to run the God-given race that's marked out

for you. Each of you have a marked out

race in your life and I pray that you have endurance to run

it because we can. When God's brought you into

salvation, you've pivoted when God's lifted you up from the

mighty clays put you on a rock to stay as you've come to that

place. You need endurance to stay.

And one of the things when I was looking in my life itself and

there was a point in time when actually Tina was telling me

Geshom, you know, one of the things that I'm scared about as

you get older is that probably you'll give up because early on

in life you started carrying so many things which you know.

And she spoke candidly about what her fear was with regard to

me. And I remember the starting of

the year didn't start as much as divine takeover.

As a priest about it, the inner struggle for me was always to

strive to make sure things happen.

And if for those of you who know me, I, I move towards certain

things, you know, with the, with faith that we can see God come

through, we'll see it happen. But then somewhere along the

line between faith, what happens is it becomes striving.

And so in that striving, she said, allow God to work in

entry. And then I remember struggling a

lot between Jan, Feb, March and in April.

I remember I had to say, God, I'm going to stop striving now.

I'm going to say God, I'm going to listen to what you have to

say. And I started converting

everything of that part of my struggle, the breakthroughs that

we wanted into prayer. And it's in that I realized God,

I need more endurance than that because faith is not absence of

Indians. It's rather more endurance to

push keep showing up still to keep doing it.

And so today as I'm standing here, I know like it's it's like

a hard topic to talk because you've not run of the race to

actually talk about Indians. But the interesting thing is

when I was in BBS, all five days, all the older people of

our church were actually coming and doing devotions.

And as they were doing devotions, I also realized in

their rage, they still haven't reached the end game.

There's not the end line. They still are working towards

maturity. And the New Testament called

keeps talking about this, that we are living out a Christian

life and working out our maturity.

We don't come to a state of fully mature here or in our Gen.

Z word Zen mode, we don't come to that place here.

We come to a place of working on it continuously.

So which means even in their age they need endurance.

Their age they need endurance. So today I wanted to look

through a couple of verses. The first verses from Hebrews

Hebrews 12:1–2

chapter 12 verses 1 to 2. A lot of us know this verse in

the NIV it says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such

a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that

hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run

with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our

eyes on Jesus the pioneer and the perfecter of faith.

For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning at

shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The minute we are made aware of our sin, the minute we say no to

sin and yes to Christ, the minute we are redeemed by Jesus,

when we've prayed the sinner's prayer, and then the minute we

are set apart by the waters of baptism because we publicly are

telling people from here on, I'm not a follower of the world.

I'm a follower of Jesus. What happens?

You and I have started the race of endurance because Satan's

only game is to keep giving you the opportunity to see sin and

participate in sin and take you out.

And So what does this work entails?

In fact, in the message it says that there are pioneers who

blazed away. Which means people who've gone

before us. When we come every Sunday to

church, why do we look through the scriptures?

Why do we look through some of the people who've gone before

us? Because they have pioneered

their faith. They didn't have a road marked

out. It's in revelation of God that

they saw that this is a path they have to take in faith.

They took it and they kept pioneering.

What is pioneering? Let's say you're put in a huge

sugar cane land and you've given a sickle and you have to go in a

direction. What will you do?

You won't just weed off, you'll just start cutting out and

paving away. And So what happens today as a

husband, when I start doing it, who comes alongside me?

My wife, she starts and then suddenly our kids have a way to

go. But when God unfolds their life,

they start doing the same thing what they've seen.

And so today we are all pioneers in some way.

When we start this journey, all these veterans are cheering for

us. It says in the message, what

does that mean? Those who've gone before us,

they're already in eternity and they're cheering, saying you can

make it. That's why when someone takes

baptism, if you notice what happens, they say many are

cheering in heaven. They're happy for you, for the

decision you made. And so today I want us to come

to a place So it says that couple of things to do, which

Eugene Peterson writes it in his transition first says strip

down, start running and never quit.

No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins, no saturated

fat, no whatever fat you want to call it.

None of that, which means none of my past experiences matter to

run, which means a lot of us are trying to do this Christian

journey with oh, I know this person or I know that person or

that person is a friend of my father, or this is how my mother

did it. This is how my father did it, or

we were part of this thing. God sakes, strip everything

down. You're running the race for

yourself. And so there are a couple of

things which I wanted to highlight because a lot of times

we think endurance is something which we which we just have to

show in particular areas of our life.

But the beautiful thing about a Christian life is everything is

integrated. I can't just show endurance in

work and not show it in myself or not show it in what God's

called me. It's not compartmentalized.

Any New Age guru will say you need to compartmentalize

everything, but a God is like everything is intersected.

When he redeemed you from sin, he didn't compartmentally redeem

you from sin. Holy, the very tag sinners

changed. He's redeemed you from that.

And So what is endurance is the ability to continue doing

something for a long time. You don't need endurance to do

the bad thing. How many of you can agree?

If you have to be mean, you don't need the endurance in that

because when you're mean, what do you somewhere you feel happy

inside? Do you do you need endurance to

lie? No, you just need endurance to

maintain the cover. Same stories.

What lie you told SD should work today also, as you all saw,

mothers are able to find every lie that we say you will soon

realize. So our endurance that's needed

is only needed to do the right things.

It's only needed when you have to give up food which has

saturated fat. So today I would ask you Church,

as much as we are have compartmentalized and segmented

certain parts, I pray and ask that we'll have endurance fully.

We are called to endure and turn build endurance.

A lot of you have a lot of us. In fact, many a times the

narrative, especially in India when they call Christians as

rice bag people and you know, they have those slurs about

about us. A lot of us tend to think the

endurance we are called to endure under suppression.

No, we're called to endure with freedom.

We're called to endure with seeing hope being fulfilled.

We're called to endure in what God is forming in the tapestry

of our lives. So don't allow the the world and

what culture is dictating with regard to that.

Today we are living in a world where we are always fighting

things we face with our strength.

How many of you agree homeophys And so many a times we feel

battle weary. For example, if, if I have to

ask, what does endurance look like in a real world scenario?

We all have a system in which we go through rigor of life.

You know, now it's started way early, 2 1/2 years old itself.

Parents are thinking we need to put them in something so that

their energy gets dissipated. But there's endurance that's

built in school that takes us to the door of the college but

doesn't take us through college. How many of you know that that's

endurance that's built in college that takes us to the

door of probably a masters or the door of getting placed into

a company, but not necessarily gets us ready for work.

That endurance that takes us in work and realizes every day is a

step of faith because you keep showing up.

You soon realize there are so many things.

Then from that what happens? You suddenly realize you end up

dating and you think, OK, this is what marriage is going to

look like. But the endurance from dating,

when it goes into marriage, it becomes even.

That's a whole other ball game. And then when you get married,

every day is a day off endurance because you don't know what

someone really laughed. It's why is it because you don't

know what's going to come? You don't have you?

How many of you, I don't know about you, but I got college

prospectus. When, when, when I have to

apply. And then nowadays you have

websites that time you have to like send ₹50 or something and

apply. And then they'll send you a

prospectus. So when you see the prospectus,

it'll be wow, great. They'll show you the food

they're serving in hostel and you know how the campus is and

all that. Wow, this is such great.

So we we want prospectus for a marriage.

We want prospectus when God's given us children.

We want prospectus when it comes to work today.

What they call that the the Facebook alphabet or they call

that one when abbreviation is there.

No, you want to get fan. Yeah.

And when you think of all these, we want something that's well

structured. Everything.

But God said, no, your life is 1, which is dependent on me.

And so as much as you're looking for the prospectus, I will give

you the step each day to build this endurance a deal.

This is built in marriage. And eventually that when

parenting starts, it's a whole different thing.

And then from parenting, it moves to mentoring and then it

continues on. Endurance is needed in

everything. And so today, whatever stage in

life you're giving up on endurance, I would ask, would

you ask God? I need strength like never

before, especially to do the right things in life.

One Corinthians 1558 says, Therefore, my dear brothers and

sisters, stand firm, let nothing move you always give yourselves

fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor

in the Lord is not in vain. To read this endurance that we

are called to do is one of Labor in the Lord.

This is not full time missionary calling.

It's labor in the Lord if you are redeemed by Jesus, we are

living our lives out for Jesus. And so it's that labour.

And what does that labour look like?

The the Greek word for labour's copas, which means it, it's to

stand strong. So when a blow on a strike is

hit hard it it doesn't it weakens, but it doesn't

debilitate us. It it it we labour in such a

sense that we we keep moving forward it.

And so that's what Paul is asking us that we will have deep

fatigue. We will find extreme weariness,

but still the joy of the Lord will be my strength.

When Paul talks about that, he talks about the resurrected life

in that particular chapter. He says the hope of all gory

when we go, our eyes are set on eternity and so today I would

ask you for those of you who want I pray that the sermon will

encourage you to continue in endurance for those of you

who've given up and are saying you know what God this Christian

life is too hard. My prayer is that it'll restart

you'll be able to restart enduring and doing it for God.

For those of you who like you know what that's one aspect of

Christian life I've never thought about.

I just come on a Sunday. I hear what has been said.

I deceive it and I go about, but I prayed as we introduce

endurance to you today, there'll be a shift internally so that

you'll be able to do things for God's glory.

The first thing I wanted to ask you to make a note is endurance

is personal and life giving. It's personal and life giving.

You know, it's always good to cheer someone on.

How many of you have seen that? You know, especially now as

parents, when you come, it's so easy to tell our kids to study,

but we only know how difficult it was to study, you know, And

so and we create these rules like as if we followed all those

rules, you know, And so you say you need to study, you need to

finish it on time. And then Tina will say, did you

actually do that? And I'm like, no, I didn't do

it. And so you know that that so we

endurance is personal. And so today, as you're seated

here, I want you all to make a choice for yourself.

Will this endurance be personal for me?

Because there are so many things that are gods rested on our

shoulders. He's saying, I'm wanting to

journey with you. But if you're not willing to

journey this, this is not moving anywhere.

How many of you feel stuck in a spiritual sense?

How many of you feel physically also you feel stuck.

Nothing is moving. I'll ask the Lord, we come to

your altar to say, Lord, I need endurance.

Lord, for some reason I've just been, I've not taken

responsibility. So I pray that today as we go

out from here, our mind will be made-up to do things Jesus way,

you know, a mindset that we need to break.

We somehow think, you know, the entire family's endurance.

No, it starts with me. The minute I'm showcased in

endured enduring and moving forward automatically others all

will follow. That's the beautiful equation

about the Christian faith. So when we take that step

towards endurance, it has to be personal.

The enemy marks us out because just imagine, I was just

thinking through my the what I was feeling a couple of months

back, the pleasure of it and everything.

And God had to realign some of my priorities.

And as he was doing that, I was just thanking God because one

thing he'll do is if he takes me out, who does he take out?

He takes also as far as if in a family equation, if he takes one

out 1 is out out of the four and like that each one he can take

out so three, you play a vital part in the bigger equation, but

your equation also matters. Your equation also matters.

And what a coincidence I'm talking about this.

Every seat matters in today's election.

Talk according to a seat when we can, when we can believe that,

you know, so that your life pant is somewhere down the line.

You're thinking, oh you know what, I'm just part of the rat

race. No, you are uniquely created.

You are thought of. You are beautifully structured

for a time such as this. Esther had to be structured for

a time such as this to be in the courtrooms there to go and save

her people. Just imagine if each and

everyone are ready to wait for God's unfolding.

God won't just give you your entire life strategy plan when

the minute you say God, I'm ready to endurance because you

know you'll get scared. But as you go take that step,

he's like, I'll put one, yes. Next, the beautiful imagery in

that was when he said if he has to fly from morning to from dawn

to dusk to put that stones, endurance will feel like that.

It'll feel like little wings doing the job, which and it'll

be because of God. Endurance is personal because

the weight of living it out is hard.

And so if you see in Galatians 5, there's an interesting

passage where Paul urges the Galatian church not to gratify

the desires of the flesh. And as I mentioned earlier,

endurance is not needed for doing the wrong thing.

But as we do the right thing, we also need to realize that the

wrong thing is something which we need to run away from.

We need to, we need the endurance to run away from.

So I say walk by spirit verse 16 onwards, and you will not

gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit and the

spirit what is contrary to the flesh.

They are in conflict with each other.

So you so that you are not to do whatever you want.

But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the

law. The acts of flesh are obvious.

Sexual immortality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry and

witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish

ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies

and the like. And I warn you, as I did before,

that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of

God. The beautiful aspect of this

passage is we're not just one and done.

As we continue on with life, all these things start suddenly

coming out. You suddenly feel God.

I've been following you for like 15 years, but suddenly jealousy

is suddenly starting to manifest.

It's suddenly starting to show up because I'm suddenly starting

to see other believers having their breakthroughs and I'm

starting to engage in this fruit of jealousy.

But God said no, endure, Endure towards patience, endure towards

seeking me more. And so it's needed for us to

really pivot every time these things keep coming up.

Endurance is needed to enjoy the fruits of the Spirit.

So today, what are So today, where are we really?

Is a salvation real or are we wearing a mask?

The easiest place to wear a mask is in the church among

believers. But God's like saying, can you

come forward today and say God, this is where I am.

I love in open heavens. When he met again, God was

reminding me, the altar has to become the safest place for you,

the altar of God. And when we are in this place,

what happens is the revelation that he gives when you come to

the altar should be 1 where like God.

Thank you for revealing that. I will take a step towards that.

In the message it says when you continue on about the fruit of

the Spirit. But since this is the kind of

life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure

that we do not just hold it as an idea in our head.

Lot of us are holding goodness as an idea of our head, or it

will be nice if it can be good. So on, on my birthday, I'll be

good. What happens to the remaining

364 days? Oh, I, I, I'll show love this

time. Oh, joy this time.

Oh, peace this time. No, he's saying let it not just

be an idea in our head or a sentiment in our hearts, but

work out its implications in every detail of our lives.

Which means when you have to have love, he'll put you in

situations where it's difficult to love.

Yashum, I didn't want to hear that in May May's vacation time.

I wanted to be free from my Christian emotions, Jesus

emotions. But here the truth is, when you

have to endure peace, where will he put you?

He won't put you in a beach where you have you're seated,

you have a tender coconut in your hand.

He's not going to do that. He's going to put you in a place

of peacelessness where your bank balance is running dry.

You're getting that everyday alert saying it's gone below the

balance, although probably you're getting that e-mail

thread that's you see time and again where you're like, God, I

don't have the strength to complete this, but Lord, I'm

losing my peace on this. And so I ask you today, maybe

work out its implications in every detail of our lives.

That means we will not compare ourselves to these each other as

if one of us were better and another worse.

We have far more interesting things to do with our lives.

Each of us is an original. Each of you are an original.

And so today, when we personally live with endurance, the love

that we show will be different. The joy that we show will be

different. The peace that we show will be

different. We won't.

We will be understanding of the peace that's around us and we'll

know how to conduct ourselves. Forbearance, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The journey is going to be hard. No, there's no doubt in that.

There'll be. There will be times when you

feel like giving up. That's because we are trying to

constantly fight who God has created US versus what we want

to be. Endurance is to make sure we are

free and enjoy the freedom. And if I'm not enjoying that

freedom, feels I'm compromised somewhere.

Galatians 51. It's for freedom that Christ has

set us free. In Deuteronomy chapter 5, he

Deuteronomy 5 · chapter mention

says verse 30 to 33. So be careful to do what the

Lord your God has commanded you. Do not turn aside to the right

or to the left. Walk in obedience to all that

the Lord your God has commanded you so that you may live and

prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

A lot of us are waiting for promises, but if we don't listen

to the instruction of God over our lives, If you're looking

constantly to the right and to the left, and in today's

culture, we don't have to look to the right or the left.

We just have to look down. We are scrolling, doom

scrolling. We're looking at other people's

lives and thinking for wow, they've got it.

Ask every person who's editing a video and everything, Everything

is staged. Nothing is real.

Everything is staged. Everything when you see in a

real is staged. No one's life is that perfect.

The beauty treatments that they go, the food pictures that they

put. How many of you have actually

gone to a food joint after seeing a review and found it's

completely opposite from what that person said?

That's true because the person is coming because a guest of

honour is coming. They would have made extra

butter and made the food taste good.

But then when regular things come, it'll look, it'll taste

different. So don't get distracted.

Our Christian life is 1 where he's saying walk with endurance

because a lot of us, if you're not walking with personal

endurance, our marriages will not move any further.

The the endurance journey of a marriage depends on us.

It's 5050 parenting. You can't just say, OK, we've

had our kids. They'll just know endurance and

that also it was interesting in this season of our lives.

I took a back seat in some of my kids things.

And when a set back came, God reminded me that was something

you were supposed to do. Why did you take a step back?

And I realized when I had to look through back, a lot of my

own personal things came up, which I thought those were more

important. So God's asking you do your

thing, I'll do mine. And a lot of times they're

trying to get into the list, which God is saying He'll

handle. You know, for those of you

who've been struggling, especially in this area, I pray

that Jesus will give you the strength.

Because a lot of times when we keep falling, especially it says

in Proverbs 24 verse 16, in passion for the lovers of God

Proverbs 24:16

may suffer adversity and stumble 7 times, but they will continue

to rise over and over again. And I pray that that will be

something that we'll do in Christ.

It will be hard, God, this, but God here, thank you for

revealing this to me again. I'm sorry, God, I'll show up

again. I'll end your I'll press the

accelerator and move forward towards you.

The second thing, the first thing is endurance is personal.

The second thing is endurance is tested so we don't lose ground

every time. Endurance is tested and if you

take a step back, you're losing ground, you're losing territory.

And who gains territory? The enemy every time, because in

your personal life, if you haven't overcome what he's what

you're fighting him against. I, I, I want to encourage you,

Church, the Christian life is one of battle.

Only in that battle you'll enjoy the blessing.

That's the beauty about it. How does he do it?

I don't know. The seasons of hardship come and

the seasons of fruitfulness also happen at the same time.

Seasons of confusion comes. But then there's a season of,

you know, his revelation coming and making us understand this is

far bigger. So today as you as you hear

this, my ask is, would you realize that you won't give in

to the fear and allow your SO pick yourselves up?

So when you're tested, you're not losing ground.

In the Old Testament, we see from Abraham, the promise is

given. He has numerous stars in the

sky. Joseph gets the dream, David is

anointed and 20 odd years later he gets anointed as he becomes a

king. You see that they all had to

show endurance. All had to show endurance time

and again. There's So I want to ask you

today, is your endurance, is your shield in your life looking

like it's tested or is it glossy?

You know, you've got a nice Polish and you just kept it,

which is shelf worthy. Is your endurance battle tested

today? Has it?

Does it have the scars of resisting the enemy?

A lot of us have a God-given promise.

We are working out a salvation is being put to work.

So today as you're, as you're trying to take ground, are you

saying, God, I'll hold on to the place where you've called me to

hold on and resist the enemy. You need endurance for that.

I want to show you a picture of a shield, one of the Roman

Shields that were there. The shield making in centuries

before was strong enough to endure the attack.

Just a single shield will be there.

But the interesting thing is as Shields evolved, as metal and

all that grew, they started adding it around.

But the centre had a whole ball of a steel structure that was

kept which so that that could take the highest impact.

And why is that is because behind it was a person who held

it that was always clamped to their arm.

And so today a lot of us, if there's anything that Satan will

do is we always are worried about what he'll hit on the

outside, but he's actually always hitting at the centre.

He's not playing fair. I've, I think preached about

that earlier. He is wanting to hit you right

at the centre. It's called a shield boss.

The central Dome. It's heavily hammered.

It requires us and so if that core of our being today.

I want to ask you never ever allow the enemy to pull you down

and who God's created you. If he can take you out on that,

he'll take you out with everything else.

Everything else is just everything else is even if a

person says something, it'll directly go down to that.

Be so sure that you're forged in the image of God right here on

earth spiritually, yes, but right here, which means you need

to speak to yourself. You might say, you know what, in

30s there's revelation that's coming.

Oh, you know, I was bullied when I was in school.

I was this the world will give you language to what all you've

gone through, but go back to the creator and say God, what did

you create me for and realize that what you've gone through is

just a testimony at the end of the day, because you know Jesus

already. That is what you have to do.

And so parents don't succumb when your kids are coming and

saying this is fearful that is there.

I've been this person is bullying me.

Rise up and tell them K keep the game.

Keep your eyes on the bigger part of the game.

Rise up because today if you don't overcome this bully

tomorrow, you can't overcome the bully at work.

You can't overcome the bully that that you'll meet outside.

So today you and I have to personally walk through it and

keep strengthening the central frame of our shield.

So I pray that you won't because every time we think the the

beautiful thing about the Christian walk is that God and

sake Geshom, go make disciples, build a Kingdom and build a

legacy. He didn't say that.

What did he say? Go make disciples of all nation,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy

Spirit. When you read it in mark what

you say, go perform signs wonders, liberate them, set them

free, let them live in freedom. You and I are called to live in

freedom today, not to be bound, but that comes at the cost of

resisting the enemy. So you and I today are called

not just to protect ourselves, but to take a stand against the

darts of the enemy. Darts of the enemy.

When you look at this entire process of the shield being

forged, especially that centrepiece, it goes through a

lot of hammering, lot of hammering.

So if you're having doubts, if you're having ideas like God,

this is I'm struggling with this thought like as even as we're

celebrating Mother's Day, it's probably a childhood is 1 where

people called us names and told us things come down to the thing

of God. You've created me as an

original, created me as an original.

Because if you don't set yourself right, your spouse also

won't be able to set. You're just going to do more

harm in your marriage. You're just going to do more

harm in your parenting. And So what happens in this is

the shield when you're going through life, it gets tested.

And honestly speaking, you're not aware of the test.

It's not an appointment that the doctors made.

You're making to the doctor to go see.

It's one thing by it'll come. And so even this last week, I

was going through certain things and I had to make certain

decisions. Tina was sitting on a

conversation which happened in a conversation and the

conversation reminded of 15 years back of a conversation

we've had with with another friend.

And honestly, you know, if you're battle weary, what is

battle weary? God, how many times will the

enemy be hitting here? God it feels difficult and I had

to and we had to say this Tina said feeds like 15 years back

and I was reminded he just wants to take us out.

He just wants to say I can't do it.

You know what I give up this post.

You know what you just do whatever you want.

If we give up what will happen? The enemy will come and sit over

there. You and I have to come to a

place of saying God even unto my old age till I close my eyes.

I won't give up, I will endure. The enemy won't Take Me Out.

The enemy won't Take Me Out. It's hard, you know, if we don't

come to a place of controlling ourselves now in our 20s, in our

30s, forties, if we don't act right as men in our old days.

If you're acting funny, the root cause is because we didn't deal

with it here. So I pray that we'll have

endurance to do the right things here, endurance to stand for the

truth, endurance to stand so that we'll be able to see God

reveal His true self in and through us.

So I pray if you're feeling fatigued now, I pray today we'll

you'll feel refreshed even as we partake of the Lord's Table,

you'll be refreshed. Don't give too much room for

your mental script because the mental script keeps changing.

The next day when you wake up, if it has not rained, you might

feel like writing a better mental script.

But if it's rained and if you're feeling cozy, you'd write a

whole different mental script. If you've had hot chocolate, you

might write a different mental script.

For those of you living in pain, guests, if you're drinking, that

occurs old coffee, you just have to.

It'll be a different mental script.

You can't base it on emotion. You need to base it on who God's

created you to be. So when you rise up, rise up

with strength and encouragement in it, God is not wanting to

break us. Rather He wants us to move

through the struggle so that we go into maturity.

Every step is going to be 1 of maturity.

So I pray that as we enter into this place, it enables us to

pull down every smokescreen and mirage that the enemy has.

A lot of times we are stuck in a place where we think the enemy

is out there and it's just a mirage.

With endurance, you'll be able to see that God's placing you on

firm ground. James One versus 2 onwards, it

says consider it nothing but joy.

My brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various

trials, be assured that the testing of your faith through

experience produces endurance, leading to spiritual maturity

and inner peace through experience.

You and I have to walk through it to experience the endurance

that God has built in and through us.

And so in fact, when we go through that, we were seeing

even the same verse in our men's Bible study like starts off,

James starts off with that and it says when you go through

verse 4 and verse 5, it says if any of you lacks wisdom, let him

ask of God who generally see gives without reproach.

And so when you see in that you understand that you need his

wisdom as you also go through this endurance experience in

Christ produces endurance. So which means in when as I

endure through this joy will be present, testing will come, but

God will take me through it. It talks about you will have

inner peace. So which means I won't exist to

have outer peace. How many of you long for inner

peace than outer peace? You can't control outer peace,

inner peace you can. And so I pray that we'll a

thorough work is done, which means you are you are going

through endurance where even though you're attacked from all

sides, you will survive. The enemy is just not going to

attack on one side, which means a lot of us think, oh, he'll

only attack us physically. No, he'll attack us with a

spiritual mind with in our spirit.

He'll attack us on our on our mind also and our emotions.

And so in every level we will have endurance to push through.

The third thing is when we when it is personal, when it is

tested, it is also accounted for because we are a collective.

Endurance is accounted for because we are a collective.

We are accountable because it's mutual edification.

At the end of the day, when we gather like this, what we endure

is mutual edification for someone else.

None of us are called to do this singular stand alone journey,

but rather I'm called to surround myself with people.

A lot of us, a real Christian or a real Christ follow will not

choose to live in an echo chamber.

What is an echo chamber? I don't know if there was a

movie where this where the guy apparently has apparatus, he

could just put it. He'll just become a bubble

around him and he can scream whatever, and then it'll go off.

And a lot of us are wanting those echo chambers was like,

no, you don't need echo chambers.

You can't. Your echo chamber doesn't give

life. It brings death.

It doesn't give you clarity, it gives confusion.

So today, as you do endurance, what will happen is with mutual

edification, you'll be able to realize, wow, they were in the

midst of that struggle. They were able to still see God,

man, I can, I can step on endurance this week.

I don't have to give up. Well, that person has stayed

away from their family and they're in a hostel and they're

able to get through their exams. Well, hey, even I can push

through. I don't have any excuse.

I can ask God. You see, suddenly the church

becomes a place where you're able to see God walk in and

through each and every one of us.

One of the key aspects of endurance is not just for us to

get stronger, but for us to lock our Shields to becoming

something stronger for His Kingdom.

The Romans used this Roman shield formation called Testudo

and I have a picture of that. And as I was just.

Going through that entire formation, what it showed was

this is what we as a church are called to do every Friday when

we meet, what are we doing? We're saying we're coming

probably 5 or 10 or how many of us are coming?

We're saying we're locking in our Shields to say God, we're

not done. We are here to stand and

testify. We are here to stand and

infiltrate the enemy's camp. See, we can only infiltrate the

enemy's camp. And we have a common goal.

How many of you agree? I might want to pray for

healing. Tina wants to pray for

spirituality. Someone else might want to pay

for provision. All that are individual

endurances. But when we come here, we have a

common goal as to what the church has called us to pray.

And So what happens is we are able to push through the NEP

camp. We're able to take ground.

What is God called via Zion today to do?

It will only happen when all of us come together in unison, in

unison. What happened yesterday night

was, and I'm glad it sounds political, but it came.

It was a good analogy for me to use.

The other single voters from different parties all agreed

that they didn't want president's rule and they wanted

us to have a democratic rule. So they came together in that

consideration and they've given their confidence so that our

government will be formed. There was a singular vision to

which they came together, but today we have a far bigger

vision. We are just one part of the body

that's gathering here. Imagine how many churches are

there around when we gather like this, when we keep pushing

through, automatically we'll be In Sync with other churches who

are moving in that direction. We start praying.

We start taking claim in what God's called us.

Our church specifically is doing things for the stretch of Omar,

which means families are there. You're praying for marriages,

which means people are struggling to have kids.

We are right on top of a fertility clinic.

These are all the, all the different walls that we are

going and banging time and again.

We have a whole load of colleges and workplace people here.

We are praying for all of them to have a better understanding

of what it is to work, what it is to study, what it is to have

for their future. Dreams which are supposed to be

built here, are starting to die here.

So you're asking God, God, would you enable us to start seeing

your purposes come alive? And so when you look at this

imagery, we are called to go and infiltrate the enemy's camp.

You're not here to come feel good, have things and go.

No. What are some of the things

you're going to infiltrate? One of the key things of this

formation, if you see as you see that image, is when they log the

Shields, they're able to go to the walls that are there, and

they're able to stand there and take ground.

In fact, there'll be a picture. Yeah.

You're able to go to the ground, to the walls there because we

are united. That's why seasons of fasting

are important. Seasons of praying are

important. So today, what we're doing as a

church, even with the endurance, I'm giving you the bigger

picture. If we can work on our personal,

when we are tested in our personal, we'll be useful as a

collective for what God's calling us.

I'm believing for signs, wonders and miracles.

The enemy has built fortified walls, which we are scared

about. Oh, we won't touch that.

We won't do that. The spirit of this age, ever

since code came was awareness, but awareness does not bring

transformation. How many of you know that if

awareness brought transformation, we won't be

having drugs. If awareness brought

transformation, we won't be having alcoholism.

Awareness does not bring anything.

It's only with awareness when you put it to work with

endurance brings transformation. So church today, if you and I

are to are placed in a place like this where God's placed us

in the city, I believe we are called to India for far bigger

things, far bigger things. But the challenge is can we do

it for our own lives? First, there were three things

why the shield formation was done.

It was used to safely reach walls, undermine fortifications,

and batter down gears. Three things, safely reach

walls, undermine fortifications, or batter down gates.

That's why mutual edification is important.

So when someone comes alongside, and I think this is what you're

praying for, this is what you're going towards, we're standing in

agreement. Together.

We are united together. We are seeing God come and move

so that we can go together. Hebrews chapter 6 verses 4 to 8

Hebrews 6:4–8

says it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened,

who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the

Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and

the powers of the coming age, and who have fallen away to be

brought back to repentance to their loss.

They are crucifying the Son of God all over again and

subjecting him to public disgrace.

Land that drinks in the rain, often falling on it, and that

produces A crop useful to those for whom it is farmed, receives

a blessing of God. But the land that produces

thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being

cursed. In the end, it will be burnt.

And the reason why I wanted to give this verse is all of us in

that first section of verses 4 to 6 are partakers of that where

we've received it. But today, what is our land

looking like when rain falls? Is it bringing a harvest or is

it bringing thorns and thistles? Am I magnifying my hurts and my

worries and my things so much? Or am I saying, God, you are

bigger than everything? Every Friday when we meet, one

of the things God always pushes me to always say is I'm here

waiting for you. Which means everything else I

bring is lesser than him. Everything else, when I have

that understanding, I'm able to worship him.

When I'm able to have that understanding, I'm able to see

God. You will work it out for good.

It's only when my things are heightened and God is smaller.

God, what are you doing? God, why is this happening in my

life? Why am I not seeing a victory?

It's when I bring everything and say, Lord, I pulled this very

fear of mine to the to the to the ground and say, God, it bows

before you. It won't undermine you.

That's when I'll be able to see God being glorified.

So I asked, can we stand firm? Can we strive to be?

Can we strive together as one for the faith in the gospel?

According to Philippians, one was 2728.

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of

the gospel. Whether I come and see you or

only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you

stand from in one spirit striving together as one for the

faith of the gospel, without being frightened in any way of

those who oppose you. So today you and I have to stand

united. We have a singular vision

because our trust is in Jesus. It says that no flinching, no

dodging the enemy, which means we don't give in to the to what

Goliath was telling the Israelites.

We don't shudder, we don't show up.

We're saying, God, you are far bigger.

So I pray today as we come to this place, real transformation

only will happen when you're honest with God.

Can we be honest with God today? A lot of us are so easy honest

with counselors. That's probably because you're

paying them and we have no one else to listen.

But today I want to ask you, can you be really honest with God?

You're probably aware of certain things in your life, but

transformation will come when you're honest with God.

And can we go all in? Endurance is going all in.

Is this not saying the right things?

Honestly, saying the right things is very easy today.

You give access to either copilot or to open AI.

They'll read through your inbox. They'll write a message that

will make you feel happy about yourself.

But you need to come to a place of saying God.

I want to come to a place that I even I don't know what, what are

the right things to say, Lord Jesus, but I want to come to a

place that in this endurance, I want to come even if even if I

don't have the words, I know I'll be able to push through

because you are with me. For those of you who are

struggling because you're like God, the thing didn't come.

I got battered and I'm battled weary.

Healing begins when you stop hiding and start confessing.

One of the beautiful things about a Christian faith is to

confess, to say God, This, this is a struggle.

This is where I the cross is where I meet with you to say

Lord, I can't do this. As I said that we are an

original. Your purpose is all the inside

you. You don't need it to be revealed

by anyone. You don't have to wait for

someone to come and talk to you about it.

It's all the inside you. You just have to say, God, I'm

ready for you. The New Testament doesn't talk

about building a legacy. So take the pressure off.

If you live right, that's an outcome of living right.

An outcome of living right is legacy.

Don't strive for legacy. Suddenly in our 40s and 50s,

we're like, Oh no, I have to now do good.

I need to do that. I need to do this.

I need to be known for this. No, if you've lived your life

all this long, legacy is already built.

You don't have to strive for legacy.

That it's a very Indian mindset. I'm talking to so many church

leaders and movement leaders. They're all saying I need to

have legacy. I have to.

You don't. If the Spirit of God is moving

in and through us, we will be doing it right.

God didn't ask us anywhere to build legacies.

There was no structure around, yet there was uniformity.

There was so much of uniformity across the believers when one

church in the in a struggle, then other church was able to

give and Paul commended them for that when it was not asked for

you gay. Why?

Because the Spirit was moving. They didn't write an e-mail or

send a letter or a messenger. They didn't do anything.

The Spirit of God will impress on our hearts.

We need to come to a place where our faith is growing to that

kind of a place. And mind you, we won't be able

to break any stronghold if you're not united, if we are not

united. And so I'm praying specifically.

I, I did mention, you know, that we felt that there was a lid

over the church, that there was a lid over a Sunday school.

We have been praying specifically.

And I want to ask you also that as we continue to pray, we're

going to ask for a outpouring this Sunday, next Sunday,

Sabbath Sunday, even as you take some time off, I would encourage

you to pray. God, what do you want me to be

filled with the Spirit for? It'll be only for his glory, but

God, I'm making that room for you.

So even as next week is we don't have church service and the

following we can meet for Pentecost Sunday.

We're coming to say, God, we want that fresh wind, fresh wind

for the season, fresh wind for what we have to do, fresh wind

for what you're going to do, Lord Jesus.

And so today, even as we take some time to pray and even as

the communion elements are being passed around, and I want us to

come to a place where we're saying, God, I'm ready for

battle. For those of us who've tapped

out and are sitting outside and saying, God, let them fight.

No, God, I want to push through my own lives and move through

endurance so I can see you clearly.

Lord, can see you clearly. Even as the communion elements

are past. Could you hold it even as I

asked Tina to come forward and lead us into time of prayer?

That as you hold the elements, One of the things Tina told me

this week, which was kind of like mind blowing, was about

processing. A lot of us are unable to.

We are like, you know, I'm processing this, I'm processing

that. And then Jesus didn't process

too much about God's will in the Garden of Gethsemane.

If he was because he was human, if he was processing, he would

still be would still not be redeemed.

We are holding this today because God who walked in human

form as much as the trouble was real.

He came to a place saying Lord, let not my will, but your will

be done. There was a step of faith in

Jesus himself who did that. So as you hold the elements

count that count the cost that he's already done.

If you're lacking faith, say God, I'm going to ask you for

more faith, Lord. If you're lacking courage,

you're going to say God, I'm going to ask you for more

courage, God. If I've been unable to dream,

I'm going to ask you, God, would you bring your plan and purposes

alive in me? We hope you enjoyed today's

message and we're blessed. If you liked what you heard and

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