Faith Forward

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Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging to you.

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Good morning.

Nice to be with you all this morning.

Thank you so much, young leaders.

We really appreciate you very, very much.

They're enjoying that beautiful sunny uh outdoors.

God bless them as they camp and refresh.

I was uh sitting here this morning thinking about just exhorting you in an area.

Is that okay?

Is it okay for me to exhort you?

Kind of step away a little bit from my notes just to say something to you?

Ronald Reagan made this statement.

He said, freedom is just one generation away from extinction.

Do you believe that?

I believe that.

What he was meaning was that if one generation does not fight, if something, the the principles of freedom are not passed on to a next generation, that next generation may lose the freedom that it was fought for so bravely by the generation before them.

Josh McDowell, taking that very line, who is Josh is a Christian apologist.

He used to go to all of the universities and sit and discuss faith within the campuses, and something, by the way, that doesn't happen anymore.

Many of the universities have been closed.

You know, universities, they're on a little bit of a rabbit trail, but you know what university means?

It means one truth.

Uni, the unification, versi coming from the Latin meaning truth.

And the universities that were established in Canada were built around the principle of there's only one truth, one way to wisdom, one way to true knowledge.

And it was the study of scripture.

Go take a look at the mottos of all the universities across Canada.

They were built on that.

Today we no longer have universities, we have pluriversities.

We believe in many truths rather than the unification around the Lord.

But getting back on, shooting that rabbit, getting over to the where I was going.

Josh McDowell made the statement, he said, Christianity is just one generation away from extinction.

And what he meant was that if the generation emerging doesn't stand up for the things that are very, very important, then Christianity will die off with the previous generation.

So the transfer not only of knowledge, but of calling and gifting and love and service and everything that we can absolutely transfer over to the next generation is critical.

Absolutely critical.

I haven't uh lived my life this long and been a pastor this long to give up now and not in not transferring everything I know to the next generation so that they could be successful.

You remember that scripture from Moses?

Where Moses was up on the mountain with Aaron and Ur, and they as long as his hands were up there interceding, Joshua, who was the next generation, was down there fighting.

As long as his hands were up there interceding, Joshua was zigzorious over his enemies.

I want to say this to you.

Those of us who are older, I won't say old, but older in this congregation have a spiritual responsibility to stand in the place of the Moses and lift up our hands and do everything within our power to see the next generation succeed.

And when I look at this team leading us in worship this morning, my heart almost broke as I looked at them and I thought, they're gonna be carrying the torch into the next generation.

And are we gonna be there for them?

Or are we gonna say, well, we did our part, we ran our part of the race, and now you, you know, you do your own thing.

Or are we gonna be there for them?

And I so I want to tell you, young people, I'm gonna be there for you.

Every step of the way until you're conducting my funeral one day.

And then hopefully your word will be over my life.

He believed in us.

And I I pray that for every single one of you who are 50 plus in this congregation, that you will go, you know, we have a responsibility to the next generation.

We had our time, they're gonna have their time, but we're gonna be part of it if we're if we're actually standing with them in faith and believing God.

And so my heart to you is don't back off, don't check out, don't watch and observe, actively intercede and raise those hands towards heaven and pray for their success like you've never prayed before.

Because the generation that is rising up is having to face stuff in the nation of Canada and in their culture that you never, ever, ever, ever dreamed of having to face.

The fight that they're having to fight and the the war that they're having to wage is of an extreme level.

And they're going to need all of the intercession and the support, financial encouragement, exhortation, standing with them, standing alongside of them, believing in them, trusting in them, putting your weight behind them to break through for their own culture and generation.

Do not back off and say they don't need you.

And don't be pining for the day when God used you.

God used you and God will still use you, but you need to transition to.

Some of the things that I used to do, I can't do any longer.

I don't have the strength and the energy to do it anymore.

But there are some things that I can do and I can pray.

And I can give financially.

I can do what I can do to make them successful.

So uh, is that okay?

All right.

I hope that you're standing with me on that level.

Been away for a few weeks.

And uh last Sunday was here, was good to hear the word uh shared, but just a little bit of a uh report to you.

Turn to someone this morning and say, if you've got a pulse, go take a look at their pulse.

Touch their pulse.

Say, if you got a pulse, you got a purpose.

Turn to them and say it.

If you got a pulse, you got a purpose.

Honey, you got a pulse?

You got a purpose.

Number of months ago, I was given an opportunity to, and a request was asked that I attend a leadership banquet of parliamentary leaders in in uh Ottawa.

And I want to just comment a few things with you this morning.

Ottawa's an incredible city, beautiful city, powerful city, has the opportunity to impact the whole nation right out of that little community.

When I went to uh to Ottawa, I had an opportunity to go to the leadership uh banquet in the evening, and one of the interesting experiences that I had with that was meeting Kim Fu.

Kim Fu is Vietnamese.

How many of you remember that award-winning picture to the left of the screen from the Pulitzer Prize winner?

This was right after an APOM bomb had dropped on the village, of which Kim was a part.

And uh when she she emerged from that bomb, she was completely stripped, and you can see her in the center there, uh running without any clothes on because they were actually burned and seared right off her body.

And of course, uh that led her into a place where she needed a lot of uh medical help, and she was flown to Cuba, which was another communist country.

There, her wounds healed.

She met a Cuban man and and married him, and they were looking for a place to have a uh a honeymoon and could only choose another communist country, and that happened to be Moscow, went to Moscow, and on their way back from the honeymoon, uh the plane that they were on was running out of fuel, running low on fuel, and had to land in Gander, Newfoundland.

She and her husband got off and applied for for refugee status in Canada.

And uh she was welcomed into Canada and now lives in uh in Toronto.

Uh and of course, my heart has been moved towards uh Vietnam for the last 12 years.

I've been in her community where she was she was born, had a chance to meet her, and uh she has uh she has accepted an invitation to come and share her faith uh of her journey from hatred of the Americans to forgiveness.

And I thought, man, this would be a wonderful thing to bring the Vietnamese community in Kelowna together at.

She actually was uh speaking in uh Washington, D.C.

And there was uh uh she was talking to Vietnam vets, she told her story and of her forgiveness and how the Lord she had met the Lord, and uh at the end of it, one of the guys said, You need to meet this man, and she went over and met him, and it was the man who actually dropped the bomb on her village.

And uh he had come home from Vietnam, absolutely wasted, an alcoholic, uh wrecked his life, met Jesus, and became an ordained Methodist pastor.

And in that time period uh in Washington they were able to meet together, ask forgiveness, get some things healed up.

What a powerful, powerful testimony that was to parliamentary leaders from Supreme Court justices right down to, you know, the leaders of the national party.

So very, very grateful.

And soon I'm praying that Kim will be here.

We'll set that that meeting up.

Then uh had an opportunity to attend the 53rd uh national prayer breakfast.

Oz Guinness was there.

Oz Guinness is uh great, great, great, great, great-grandson of the Guinness uh Brewery.

Um, but he was born in uh in China to missionary parents and developed a love for Jesus and has written like 30 books and is one of the top apologists in the world today uh in terms of his faith and and sharing about faith.

Um he's an older man, but I tell you, when he came to that meeting at the prior breakfast that morning, he articulated that the greatest threat to freedom was freedom itself.

And this is, he said, we warned that as leaders we can use our freedom to either promote or diminish the freedom of those whom we serve.

And he said, given what was taking place in the summer, job grants being removed from churches and charities across the country because we uh those who would not believe uh or agree to signing off on abortion.

Uh, the SOGI agenda uh that is invading our schools, the Trinity Western case uh that is before the Supreme Court of Canada.

It was an incredibly important message to bring that morning to the nation's leaders.

He uh he argued that freedom of religion is at the heart of a free society, and then he concluded that the greatest foundation for that freedom is found in Jesus Christ and in Christianity, and he encouraged the church to rise up and be strong in Canada for the sake of the nation.

It's a powerful, powerful word.

Right after that, we had a chance to meet with uh one of the leaders of the opposition, Andrew Scheer.

Um Andrew Shear was uh at the table with us for a few hours in the morning.

I had been asked to present a brief uh to political heads of parties.

The only one that responded was Andrew Shear from the Progressive Conservative Party.

Uh Andrew kindly gave us uh uh a couple hours of his time that morning.

He was already in in um in uh receipt of the the briefs that we had given him uh to talk about with a number of leaders around the table, freedom of religion in Canada, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, uh, the abortion issue, and the thing that I brought to the table had to do with parental rights or human rights.

And uh went back in history and found out that the very first right that was given Canadians in confederation was the right of parents, the primary right of parents to raise their kids according to the values, the religious beliefs that they had.

And therefore, denominational schools were set up in confederation for the Protestant and the Catholic community so they could raise their children according to their belief system.

Without that primacy of parental rights, the confederation would never have happened.

And so uh we had a chance to dialogue very, very closely to him.

Wonderful thing for me is there's a young lady that is sitting right next to him.

I'm in the picture, but I'm behind one of the men that's leaning forward.

Um the the uh young lady that was sitting at that table I met in a conference a number of years ago and spent some quality time with her.

She came out of Faiten's camp.

And how many of you know Faiten and her ministry, My Canada and the Cry in Canada?

And uh she said, My heart is to be involved in politics.

I'd I'd I love to serve and make a way uh for us to have an impact on public policy.

And so I'd spent a significant amount of time with her when I walked in the room.

Guess who I met?

I met a young lady that I'd I'd spoken into, and she is now the executive assistant to Andrew Shear.

And she said, Well, anytime you want to talk to him, isn't that wonderful?

You see how loving on one person can open the door uh to position people in positions of authority and power.

So we're very, very grateful for that opportunity.

The second thing I want to talk to you about this morning before I I share, is that um uh you'll see this morning as you were pressed by on Highway 33, as well as coming into our parking lot, there's a big sign on property development.

How many of you saw that coming in this morning?

Are you excited about it?

That happened this week uh with uh our meetings with a um a company in the city who have offered us$6.5 million on the 2.2 acres on the front and a share, uh 50% share in the profitability of the project.

Isn't that wonderful?

The uh city it's already passed uh, praise the Lord.

The city has uh been looking at our proposal, uh, other than a few questions, we and we've already redesigned the project to uh facilitate that.

There's a great openness in the in the city council for the project.

The intent of that project has been to build a brand new Christian school and uh to have a society that is absolutely free from debt and able to have resources in its hands to be able to be a blessing.

And so continue to pray with us.

They are the company is establishing a performa.

Uh they're coming back to us with their what they're in agreement to.

Uh that'll go to the board.

The board will spec all of that through, and if we're in agreement with that, we will come to the congregation, and the congregation will have to make a decision whether we want to go forward with it or not go forward with it.

But I want to tell you this is good news.

Um, the first offer we had on that land was$2.1 million, then I went to 3.2 and 4.3, and now up to 6.5, and we're very, very grateful.

We've got some independent studies that have come back affirming the value of our land up front.

So that's good.

Are you happy about that?

Um I thought that that news should be shared with you.

I want to express to you uh today, uh, and I know there's going to be a uh celebration of life for David Deck uh coming up shortly, I believe on Saturday.

Um, David uh faithfully led the uh building committee during a very, very difficult period for probably 10 months last year until November, and I'm very, very grateful for David's work.

And we wouldn't be here today without the kind of uh passion that he had in his heart to see this project go forward.

And so we're very, very grateful, Terry, to you and and your husband.

Would you stand with me, please, this morning?

I know I took a few minutes on that, but I want to I want to deposit some other things in your heart today as well.

Hopefully, this will encourage you.

The Roman church uh was a minority in the city of Rome.

They had to learn how to be Christians in a secular environment that rejected Christianity.

How many of you know that Canada was a Christian nation but is no longer a Christian nation, is a secular nation.

A lot of Christians in the in the nation of Canada, but we have lost the DNA of our culture.

There is a fight to gain that back.

I think it's worth that fight for the sake of our children and our grandchildren.

But Paul writes an epistle to the Roman church and says, Listen, you've got to get activated in your heart, don't give up.

And he reminds the Christian believers in Rome of how the Israelites used to stand against their enemies successfully, and God would come through on their behalf.

He would talk to them about it from a perspective of is Jesus really the Lord of your life?

Is he the Lord?

If you meet a soldier on the street in Rome and he greeted you as Caesar is Lord, what you would your response be?

Are you gonna respond Caesar is Lord?

Or are you gonna respond Jesus is Lord?

Because Jesus is Lord meant you went into the amphitheaters of Rome and were killed for your faith.

That's the people that Paul was writing to in Rome that encouraging them that it's not just believing in your heart, but confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, not trying to hide your Christianity under a cloak so that the world doesn't know.

But stand up and declare who you are, even if it means the price of your life.

So that's what he's saying.

So I'm gonna read something to you, and then I want you to read with me.

He says, Remember the early days when after being spiritually enlightened, you patiently endured a great conflict of suffering, sometimes by being made a spectacle and publicly exposed to insults and distress, and sometimes by becoming companions with those who were so treated.

You showed sympathy and deep concern for those who were imprisoned, and you joyfully accepted the unjust seizure of your belongings and the confiscation of your property.

Do you believe that could come in Canada?

I believe it.

Conscious of the fact that you have a better possession and a lasting one that's prepared for you in heaven.

So then he says this.

And it goes on to say this.

Next one, for yet in a very little while he who is coming will come and will not delay.

We sang about that this morning.

God will show up.

Would you say that to somebody?

God's going to show up.

Okay?

But my righteous one, the one justified by faith, shall live by faith, respecting man's relationship to God and trusting him.

And if he draws back, shrinking into fear, my soul has no delight in him.

Our way is not that of those who shrink back to destruction, but we are of those who believe.

Would you say that?

We are of those who believe, relying on God through faith in Jesus Christ the Messiah, and by this confident faith we preserve our.

Soul, our mind, our emotions, our will are intact by making this decision that our confidence is in Him.

So, Father, thank you this morning for your word.

Help us to be as brave as the Roman Church.

Help us to be strong as families together.

Lord, help the older generation here to ante up and be strong in their faith and encouragement to the next generation so that we have something that continues to roll over generation to generation.

We have a multi-generation impact by the help of the Holy Spirit.

I ask that, Father, in the name of Jesus.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Now I took a lot of time this morning talking to you about stuff, so I'm going to fast track it.

Is that okay?

The Protestant Reformation was built upon this passage of Scripture that the just shall live by faith.

Now you're not righteous because of your own righteousness.

It's not earned.

It's a gift.

Righteousness is a gift given to you and to me by God.

We come to Him by faith and say, we have nothing to offer.

There's no reason why you should save me, but by your grace I come by faith, and I trust that you will do something in my life that will shift me.

And God, by His grace, saves us.

Not by any works that we've done.

He saves us not by works, but unto works.

There are things that God has ordained for us to do.

And so we all come to Him.

We all come the same way.

No one's got a better shot at it than anyone else.

We all are ex-somebodies, right?

Nobodies that become somebody in Christ.

Hallelujah.

The just shall live by faith.

Scripture makes it clear that we're saved by faith, to walk by faith, to live by faith, to fight by faith.

One of the weapons God has given you is the defense of your of the shield, which is the defense of your faith.

If you don't have a faith in you to deflect the fiery darts of the enemy, those thoughts and philosophies and ideas that are coming in to take care of your snare your soul, you're going to be in trouble.

Faith is there to fight by faith, to protect ourselves by faith, and to overcome by faith.

Our faith in Him is the most precious thing about our life.

And God values that.

That we actually would believe in someone we cannot see and trust our lives and our future to him is an incredible gift from our heart to God.

And God values that.

When you repented of your sin and put your faith in him, God accepted that faith as a gift in who he was.

I've lived long enough to see that faith in God birthed in my own life and grow as I trusted him in various certain circumstances in my life.

I saw miracles.

I was tested through the fire of loss and grief and suffering.

But the Bible says this, remember this, God is faithful.

Would you say that?

God is faithful.

Now, I want you to understand it from two sides.

Not only is God faithful and will act on what he said he will do, but he is also full of faith.

So even when we are lacking in faith, he is not lacking in faith.

He is faithful.

He's full of faith.

And I want to have that same faith of God resting in me.

The opposite of that is the fear of the enemy.

I want the faith of God operating in me, the same faith that God has towards circumstances and situations that I'm facing.

I want that same faith in me.

And God says, the scripture says in Corinthians, God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tested beyond your ability to resist, and he will provide a way of escape so you can overcome.

So we say this with confidence that the Lord knows how much I can handle.

The Lord knows how much how much difficulty I can bear in my life.

And God is faithful.

He will not allow me to be tested beyond that which I'm able.

But he will, in the test, provide a way of escape that I can endure it and come out of it overcoming.

And that's something that maybe some of you have come in the building this morning, you've got to have in your heart, and you've got to know that deep inside that God will not let you down on that level.

I know that God loves it when I put my faith and my trust in Him.

And the enemy hates it when I refuse to deny the Lord in my life.

Still, there is this battle for our faith.

God wants our faith to go stronger and stronger.

The Bible talks about growing from faith to greater faith.

So we all have a measure of faith when we give our life to Christ.

Without exercising that muscle, it won't grow.

God has given us a measure of faith.

We took that measure of faith and planted it into Him, and God says, okay, I'm here.

That's why I think with when young Christians give their life to Christ, and it seems like every prayer they pray gets answered.

Have you ever seen that?

That's almost every prayer they pray, God's answering their prayers.

And you go, what's going on here?

What is God doing, do you think?

He's building their faith.

He's building their faith.

When we get a little older, some of our prayers are not answered.

And we're having to find out whether we're going to trust God regardless of the circumstance.

What is God doing?

He's building our faith.

And we have the opportunity to go from faith to greater faith.

Abraham grew stronger, exercising his faith when he was facing the impossibility of having a son and a child.

But the enemy wants our faith to be weakened.

And the God who is faithful wants that same spirit of faith that is in him functioning in us.

And so Paul exhorts the church and he says, test and evaluate yourself to see whether you are in the faith.

You know, unless you guard over it, your faith can get go from strength to weakness.

Unless you protect and guard over your faith and invest in your faith to believe God, that faith can start to erode in your life.

And you can wind up in a situation where you're no longer believing God for anything.

You have more faith in your doctor, your economist, your financial advisors, your next door neighbor, come on, the counselor down the street, than you have in God's counsel and his ability to provide for you.

And if you don't guard over that, you'll lose it.

Faith has got to be used or it will be lost.

And so Paul exhorts the church as I am with you this morning, saying, test and evaluate yourself to see whether you're in the faith and living your lives as committed believers.

Are you a believer?

If you're not a believer, you won't be a receiver, one man said.

You've got to constantly be in a place where you are exercising your faith and believing God beyond your circumstances.

Examine yourselves.

Well, here, let me for a few minutes this morning talk to you about three faith killers.

You interested to find out what these faith killers are?

Number one, ignorance.

That's a faith killer.

The Bible says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

There's no other place in the world for you to get faith than to be finding that faith in the Word of God.

You're not going to get it by watching television.

You're just not going to get it from hearsay and opinionation.

You're going to get it through the word, the living word of God.

The Bible says faith comes by hearing.

Hearing is an interesting word here.

It's a kua in the Greek, and it means this.

If you haven't done what the word has said you to do, you haven't heard.

Come on, let me say that again.

If you haven't done what the word says for you to do, you haven't heard.

Faith comes by hearing, meaning not just hearing with the ear, but hearing of the heart that says, My life is now committed to living this out.

When your life is committed to living out this word, you have truly heard it.

Once you've done it, you've heard it.

And the Bible says, faith comes by this kind of hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

That word, word there is rhema, not logos, not just written word.

It's when you read the Bible and all of a sudden the word becomes alive to you.

That's Rhema.

That's the life-giving, God-breathed word.

You read it, and all of a sudden it became life, and you went, Wow, that's God speaking to me.

Right?

It was a book you were reading, but now it's not a book.

It's the living word of God.

And that living word of God can change your entire life.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

And then it goes on and says this my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because they reject knowledge and despise the word.

But I cannot tell you the number of times I've had confrontations with my brothers and sisters in Christ when I've said this thing, this is what the word of God says.

And they say, I don't care what the word of God says, this is what I believe.

And I realized I'm not fighting my brother and sister, I'm fighting a spirit that is trying to keep them, divorce them from the power of honoring the word.

Jesus said, Go into my word in John 8.

You'll be in my disciples if you're in the word, and the word's in you.

And you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

The enemy is interested in keeping you bound up.

Your life messed up forever to destroy.

My people are destroyed through a lack of knowledge because they reject my word and despise it.

They don't value what the word of God says.

I've gone through this many years as a pastor.

It's been quite the experience for me when you speak into people's lives and you think they're actually going to go away from the people and do it because the word of God says they're going to do it, and then they wind up not doing it, and their lives are destroyed.

It's very painful to walk with people through the brokenness.

But you cannot keep strong in your faith by living off the faith and the knowledge of other people.

Miracles don't help you access your promise, just as miracles didn't help Israel access the promised land.

If you're going to have the faith that conquers giants, you have to have faith in God in you.

And the only way to catch the spirit of faith, to be that victorious, is to be in the word and the word living like a rhema life inside of you.

Faith is eaten away through the area of ignorance.

The enemy of our soul traffics in ignorance.

And where there's a vacuum of righteous thought, he injects unrighteous thought, and we have believers who say they believe in God, believing things that are not godly.

And this opens our lives to demonic control.

When the word of God is not ruling your life, and other thoughts begin to move into your life and dominate, it will lead you into fear and anxiety and depression.

It's the word of God that gives you peace.

It's the word of God that gives you a sense of confidence about your future.

And don't let go of that confidence that your faith has.

Ignorance.

Yeah, you do.

Are you in the word?

Is the word of God in you?

Is it alive in you?

Because when the enemy comes at you, if you're thumbing through your Bible or trying to find it through Google, some sort of a retort and it's not coming out of your spirit, the enemy knows you're just bluffing.

We're entering into some very difficult days of spiritual conflict.

And if the church is not strong, and the church is you, not bricks and mortar, if you're not strong, you're gonna lay open your life to fear and anxiety and depression.

If faith in God does not reign in your heart, then any other spirit will settle in.

The word of God is what keeps you clean, the word of God is what keeps you free.

Hallelujah.

Secondly, it's the area of presumption.

When you presume that you know when you don't know, and when you say things that God hasn't not said, and when you act on things that God hasn't authorized, and when you function from a place of hope so rather than know-so, when you try to make God's promise happen in your time, you open your lives to a spirit of confusion and disappointment.

God told Israel, Don't you go up.

You said you didn't believe in me.

You said you're gonna die in this wilderness, then therefore you will.

What you see and what you say will happen to you.

They said, Okay, we're sorry.

We're gonna go up.

They went up, and the Bible says they presumed to go up, and they were disqualified.

Spent another 40 years going around a mountain that they'd already gone around.

Would you sign a contract without reading the fine print?

When we listen to the world's news and what it's saying 99% of the time, and you seldom pick up the good news, it'll lead to bad news.

Your life will be impacted when you presume on your having faith when you're not exercising it.

You know what God says about how you're supposed to live?

You know what the will of God is concerning you?

Just open up the book, you'll find out what the will of God is concerning you.

There's a third thing that'll keep you back, and it's the word unbelief.

And unbelief doesn't come out of nowhere, it's not a sudden thing, it's an erosion.

The word unbelief is often used uh as unpersuadable, meaning, not now, God.

It's inconvenient for me to believe.

And we fill our heart with excuses and we do everything other than what God's word says.

Unbelief takes everything God has said and chooses not to move forward into God's purpose.

Unbelief is pretty serious.

If a person is filled with doubt and they don't understand, I get that.

Doubt simply is to be caught of two minds and we don't know which way to go.

It's my responsibility is to help define their doubt so that they can move it to a place of faith.

What the enemy wants to do is to take their doubt and move it to unbelief.

It's amazing the number of believers who have become unbelievers in the church.

And talking to some of these politicians in uh Ottawa, they said when the church gets it together and they can come in unity and talk to us about what they believe, that would be great.

You could probably change the nation.

But the fact is that we're of many opinions.

And the political forces of the of the nation look at us and go, you don't know what you believe.

There's all kinds of opinions out there.

It's when the church will come together and stand up for what's true and speak out with one voice that that's when miracles happen.

That's when shifts and changes happen.

So listen to Luke when he says this.

So watch your step, friends.

Make sure there's no evil unbelief.

This is Luke talking in Hebrews 3.

Make sure there's no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God.

For as long as it's still God's today, keep each other on your toes so that sin doesn't slow down your reflexes.

If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we're in this with Christ for the long haul.

He encourages them.

He said, Listen, if you allow one belief to slip into under the door and into your life personally, and you'll stop, you stop believing, things are going to start falling apart in your life, sin will creep into your life, evil will come in under that door, destruction will come into your house, into your marriage, into your family.

Come on.

That's what he's saying.

Watch it.

Last meek uh week I, you know, I we all have our days, haven't we, don't we?

Do we have our days?

Anybody here have your days?

I've been around a long time.

And my eyes have seen miracles and sorrow both.

And there are things I rejoice over and make me happy, and there's things I ponder over and get sad about.

And I got a bucket list, I've told you this, I've got a bucket list of questions to ask them when I see them.

There are times I have more answers than I have questions, and sometimes I have more questions than I have answers.

I don't think I'm any different than you.

I've seen seasons come and go, and I love seasons of fruitfulness and harvest.

I've also seen dry seasons.

I've also seen God's purpose unfold regardless of the season, but God works his work.

It can be hurricane season for the world and yet harvest for the church.

God's in charge.

I believe that.

I believe that sovereignly.

Last week I met with Pastor Diane from Lake Country Life Center, our church plant in Winfield.

We had a great talk together about some of the challenges and blessings that they're experiencing.

And I want to I want to say I I applaud Diane.

I've seen a warrior in her over 36 years, I've watched her live out her face.

And she is a warrior that would rival any man.

And as she was packing up, I looked at her purse, and this is what I saw.

There's this, and I think I took a picture of it.

The devil whispered in my ear, You're not strong enough to withstand the storm.

Today I whispered in the devil's ear, I'm a child of God, a woman of faith, a warrior of Christ.

I am the storm.

Oh, she has money to buy a really nice skook'um purse.

Come on.

But that was her purse, a handbag, right?

But on the outside of it, I'm a warrior of Christ, I am the storm.

I don't just react to the storms that are coming my way, I bring the storm.

Would you stand with me this morning?

I want you to say something with me today.

You know, there was a time in KCC's history we had three services.

And uh I remember my second oldest son saying, Dad, why do we have to go to church again?

I already worshiped God this morning, right?

How many of you know that we've got to be very thankful that we can assemble?

I talked to you about Vietnam this morning.

Vietnam, the doors are being shut.

Into Vietnam.

If you go to a church in Vietnam, whether it be above ground or below ground, the names of everyone in that community have got to be given to the government.

If you give anything in the offering plate, you've got to record what how much you gave to the government.

They can't ordain their pastors, they're having a hard time meeting anywhere.

Sometimes I think we take it for granted that we actually are able to assemble.

Are you thankful for this house, this place to assemble?

Thank you, Lord.

I want us to be people that know how to bring the storm.

I said, I want us to be people that know how to bring the storm.

Okay?

When you sit in a place where you have an opportunity impact, I want us to bring the storm.

So I'd like you to say this, turn to somebody beside you and say this after me, if you would, please.

Just turn to somebody.

Grab the hold of their hand if you want.

Say this too.

I will not let go of my confidence in God.

I will not throw away all that I've learned.

I will continue my battle.

I will stick it out.

I will believe God's plan.

I will see the completion of my faith.

I will enjoy what God has promised me.

Come on, say it out with.

I am not a quitter.

I'm a person of faith.

I will not quit until I get my reward.

I will wait and not give up.

The Lord will come to my aid.

I will not retreat from the storms of life.

I will bring the storm.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

So, Father, in Jesus' name, help us to be the storm.

Help us not to shut up, back off.

This is a time to contend for our faith.

To stand with our sword in one hand and our shield in the other.

And say we're not going to give up until there is closure, there's completion, there's a reward of the faithful, because the just will live by faith.

Father, help us as a church.

Help us to remain faithful to the call, to be a bright light in this city, and to extend our influence as far as you give us the right.

So that Lord Jesus not only be taught, but He can be lived out through our lives in a powerful way.

We ask that in Jesus' name.

Everyone said, Amen.

May be seated.

Come on up here.

Just before you go, I just want to sister gave you this shirt.

How many of you remember the Chicago Cubs?

Two thousand sixteen, a hundred and eight years waiting for victory.

Okay, guys?

Just say it with me.

It's our time.

It's our time.