A Day of Remembrance

Hello and welcome to the Arise Church Podcast.

We are so glad you're here and want to thank you for joining us

today for the audio version of our Sunday morning message.

We want to invite you to join us in person at our Sunday morning

celebration every Sunday at 10 AM.

We are located on Old Jenks Rd. in Apex, NC.

Amen. Amen.

Well, today is we have two kind of things on the same day, but

I'm actually going to bring them together.

First of all, it is Memorial Day, Tomorrow's Memorial Day

here in the United States where we honor those who gave their

the ultimate sacrifice, their life for this country.

And what a gift that they've bestowed to us.

And I know some of you who have served in the military, you may

even have friends, some of you may have family that gave their

life for us that we could sit here with full freedom to

worship. And so I would love for us to

pause and to pray for our families of those who gave their

life and to pray for our country.

So would you close your eyes? Father, we thank you for the men

and women who have given their life so that we could live free

in this nation and that we would have a prosperous nation.

And Lord, we pray for in all the families of our servicemen and

women who lost their loved ones. And Father, we pray that you

would comfort, comfort, comfort. And Lord, may you benefit on

them. Just wonderful benefits of their

sacrifice. I pray that you, just as your

scripture says that you're not mocked.

Whatever a man sews that he will reap.

So as these families literally sow the greatest sacrifice

imaginable, may they reap. Lord, may they be comforted.

May they be filled with your presence.

For those that don't know you, may they come to know you and

may they be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Father, we pray for our Nation Today as we're in the current

war, we have conflicts in different areas.

We pray that you would bless the United States of America, God

Bless America. Maybe just say it out of your

mouth, say God bless the United States of America.

We declare blessing on this nation.

We declare blessing on our leadership.

We will bless. We will not curse in Jesus name.

We pray that you would give wisdom to our leaders, even

where they may in their own flesh and their own intentions,

their own ambitions, make arrant decisions.

I pray what Scripture says that the heart of the king is in the

hand of the Lord, and like the rivers of water, he turns it.

And so Lord, I pray for our leaders that like the rivers of

water, you just turned their hearts towards your plans,

towards your will, that even in their own flesh, they wouldn't

even be able to air because you've got them, you've got them

captured. You got their heart in in your

hand. Lord, so we we declare blessing

over this nation in the name of Jesus, Amen, Amen.

Also, today is Pentecost Sunday and actually want to pull these

two things together and I really feel like the Lord led me in

this because I really have never heard nor have I thought of

Memorial Day, which is of course, you know, a more modern

holiday. I know that for our country.

But Pentecost, because Pentecost actually originally was the day

of remembrance and was the day of remembering the faithfulness

and the goodness of God. And so I'm hopeful that you're

going to catch some things that I've been catching from

Scripture about their, their origin of Pentecost, which

really in the Jewish holidays, which they still celebrate those

who don't yet know Jesus as Messiah, they still keep the

holidays of the law. And one of those holidays is

called the Festival of Weeks, the Festival of weeks.

And basically it says that fifty days after Passover, you're

going to celebrate and you're going to bring an offering to

God. And when you bring this offering

to God, you're going to remember all that God's done for you.

And so you give an offering at the beginning of those festivals

or those weeks, and then you give another offering on the end

of that which would be today. And so when the Bible says in

Acts chapter 2 that they were all together on the day of

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Pentecost, you have to remember these were Jews gathered

together. So now they had been waiting on

God for some time. They had been waiting on God for

a few days. But on the day of Pentecost, you

have to remember they were remembering and recounting what

God had done for them. So it was in an atmosphere of

Thanksgiving and remembrance that the Holy Spirit fell.

And I think this is a key because a lot of us, especially

if you grew up in more of a Pentecostal tradition, we just

think we just call Holy Spirit come, Holy Spirit come, Holy

Spirit come. But I'm going to tell you right

now where the Holy Spirit comes. He comes where people remember

God. He comes where people are

thankful and they remember all that he has done for us.

That's what they were doing in the upper room.

They weren't sitting around, crossing their legs, going home

like they were not Buddhist, OK? They were not Muslim.

These were New Testament believers and they were giving

thanks to God. They were remembering all that

he had done. I want to read to you from just

some description here that I pulled from the website Jews for

Jesus to describe what this was like.

Once Israel was settled in the land and there was a permanent

sanctuary, an entire ritual developed around the bringing of

first fruits here with Pentecost, and we were

instructed, we being the Jews, to take some of the first of our

harvest. Place it in baskets.

We don't do baskets in church anymore, so that used to be

relevant. Place it in baskets, take it to

the Tabernacle which was later the temple, and turn it over to

the priest as an act of worship and gratitude to God for the

land He gave us. The holiday was more than just

the beginning of the first of the crops to present before God.

It was a time to remember how Israel arrived in the land,

which was something not to be taken for granted.

Just as an individual might tell their story of their journey of

faith, so our ancestors recounted the journey of faith

of the entire nation. This meant never forgetting

where they had come from in the past in order to continue to be

thankful in the present. It meant remembering that the

land was a gift from the Lord, and it was also an opportunity

to rejoice, to enjoy the fruit of the land, and yes, even to

party with family and with family and visitors.

So it's interesting to me that that is Pentecost.

So in the when you're celebrating the day of

Pentecost, it's not just about a Holy Ghost.

You know, let's just start praying in tongues.

This is about giving thanks and remembering what he has done,

and they even brought an offering to boot.

What's interesting to me about this as well is that Pentecost

was a day they gave thanks for the giving of the Law because

from from their vantage point, Moses was given the Law 50 days

after Passover, 50 days after they were basically delivered

out of Egypt. Moses found himself on top of

the mountain. New Testament believers were in

the upper room and he was set apart and he's up there by

himself. And guess how God showed up?

God showed up in fire. God showed up in thunderings,

and it was that fire that inscribed on stones the law.

So the Jews, they celebrate and this festival of weeks and the

last day they celebrate that God gave them the law through fire

on the mountain with Moses. Interestingly to me is that in

the book of Acts, on the day of Pentecost, He showed up again in

an upper place with what fire? And not only this time did He

show open fire, but He inscribed His Word on our hearts as

Scripture prophesied. Scripture prophesied that there

would be a day where it would no longer be written on stones of

tablets, but that His word would be written on our hearts.

Or where did that happen? The day of Pentecost.

So as more than just pray, pray, pray in the Holy Spirit, though

that was good. God was doing a work in there.

This is why those Christians who skip the power and the the

anointing and the presence of the Holy Spirit, there is a gap

because there's a riding on you that only God can perform.

There's a fire that has to come on you so that you're seared, so

that you are changed so that something happens in you so that

you now can take that that life giving message to other people.

Are we all catching what I'm saying today?

So, so amazing that thousands of years separated these two

instances and yet God was forced.

He was foreshadowing. He was foretelling with Moses,

but that wasn't the end game. And the day of Pentecost 2000

years ago with the early church, that wasn't the end game either.

And so I'm like catching these things and I'm like, Oh my

goodness. And I'm, I know other people's

other people have taught it. I've just never heard it.

And so I just, I felt like the Lord, before I even knew any of

this, had instructed me go over some of the testimony of Arise

Church today. And I was thinking in regards to

Memorial Day. So then when I was like, well,

let me look at the origins of Pentecost and remind myself the

origins of Pentecost. And then when the two meet

together, I'm like, Oh my gosh, these things are not separate.

These are absolutely tied together.

So if you'll allow me, I feel like on today, on Pentecost, we

need to remember and give thanks for what the Lord has done here.

And then we're going to expect the Holy Spirit to fall again,

which empowers us for us to keep going into what He has next and

what He has for us. So I brought a stool because I

thought, well, this is a little bit of story time and it'll help

me stay focused and not preach too much.

But you know, for some of you who are new, this is important

because you may not know how we got to where we are today in the

life, in the, in the life flow of this church.

And so in the, in the Old Testament, God would command the

older generation to tell the younger generation of all that

he had done. Why?

Because they hadn't experienced it.

They weren't there when God delivered them out of Egypt.

They weren't there when the Red Sea parted.

They weren't there when Jericho, Jericho's walls fell flat.

So he said, you got to remind them.

Because if you don't remind them, what will happen?

They will forget. And when they forget, they'll

serve other gods. Because the pressure will come

and the, the, the temptations will come and the other

opportunities will seem like those are better than our God.

And he says those are the moments where you better

remember, remind to them. And so we're not unlike those

people. We need the same thing.

Have you ever noticed how it's easy to forget how good God's

been? In fact, as I was, as I've been

writing the book, I'm remembering testimonies and and

it's just been four years, so not mention my whole lifespan of

ministry and walking with the Lord and all that he's done

there. So I'm like going through and

remembering. As I'm remembering, I get weepy.

I get weepy because I'm like, oh, you've been so good to us.

You have been so good to us and God forbid we ever become

entitled or or complaining or feeling like we did this

somehow. We did not do this.

I did not deliver me. He delivered me.

I did not save my own soul. He saved me.

I didn't heal anybody, He healed them.

So I remember the story from Lily and I when it comes to this

church actually started in December of 2019.

And I don't tell this story often, mainly because it's not

meant to to be a shame. It's meant to be a testimony

though. But in 2019, I was asked by the

district supervisor of that time if I would consider moving from

our church in California to come be senior pastor here of the

church that was at that time called Hope Chapel.

Lily and I prayed and I felt the Lord say this is what he said.

Go through the process. Go through the process.

That's all he said it wasn't it's all going to work out for

you. And he didn't give me indication

of what was to come. All he said was go through the

process. So we went through the process

and it began to be very evident that this was working out.

We we were told to purchase plane tickets to come house

hunt. We were we were told that to to

come check it out, check out the church.

You know that we're going to get a personal tour by the district

supervisor at the time, all of that.

So we told our family, Hey, this is looking really, I mean, you

know, in, in our denomination, you don't go house hunting

unless it's probably going to work out.

So we said, OK, so let's tell our family.

We told our staff at we were at a Church of 6 to 7000 people at

the time. So there were with spouses

included. It was well over 100 people.

So we told them, we announced it.

We started to you know have our goodbyes, all of the things and

this we were about to tell the church and I'm not kidding 2

hours before the 1st service of the weekend we had Saturday and

Sunday services. So 2 hours before the Saturday

night service, I'll never forget where I was standing outside the

sanctuary that church and the district supervisor called and

said, hey, someone else has has approached us to put their name

into the consideration. And he said, and I feel like I

need to allow that process to go through.

And I was like, well, good to know because we're about to tell

several thousand people, but you know, the Lord immediately began

to speak to me and said keep your mouth shut because you

know, your flesh gets involved. And the Lord said keep your

mouth shut. And I remember the impression he

didn't say this to me, but the impression was do not disqualify

yourself because of your mouth. So I told my wife that we're

going to keep our mouth shut. I told my parents that I said

we're going to keep our mouth shut because we're not going to

be disqualified. Now, I didn't know all that was

going to happen over those next weeks.

Well, eventually they interviewed the other pastor.

They went with the other pastor. OK, I knew the man and honestly,

at that time, he had a great reputation.

So I'm like, makes sense to me. We're very different people and

so we just kind of thought, OK, well, we got to move on.

So we just kept going within our local church, but something in

US knew that God was still speaking to us.

So an opportunity came up within our denomination for me to step

into a role that brought us to the East Coast.

And we, we landed in Maryland and we stayed in Maryland for a

couple years. Well, in the meantime, the

pastor who was selected to come pastor here, he went through a

rough time. Not all of y'all were here, but

that's fine. And anyways, he had to go when I

knew because I was working for Foursquare.

So I, I knew what was, what had happened.

The Lord spoke very simply to me and said, that's still your

assignment. Now remember, we guarded our

mouths. We weren't mad at anybody here.

We weren't mad at anybody in the district.

We hadn't said any words. We didn't curse anybody or cuss

anybody, nothing. Come on.

Yeah, you might want to relate some of this to your life

because this is this is church stuff.

But you can relate just to to work stuff too, because same God

who's watching over all and he's Lord over all.

And so sometimes you don't get that promotion and you go to

Kirsten and cussing and, you know, telling people what you

really think about it. And all the while there goes

your qualification from potential promotion.

And so for for me, I felt so thankful.

And so the Lord said, that's still your assignment.

So I restarted her supervisor. She was a new, it was a new

person was not the the one who originally selected someone else

here. And so I told her the whole

story and we went through the process again, but this time I

knew. This time I knew.

And, and the Lord was gracious to me and Lilia.

He was gracious to this church. And we moved here four years

ago. And two weeks from now and two

weeks, it'll be 4 years since we loaded up EU Haul and moved from

Hagerstown, MD to Apex, NC. Our rental is in Cary, but we'll

call it Apex. And so this timing even of me

remembering some of these stories is important.

It's been four years. In Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse

Deuteronomy 32:7

7, it says remember the days of old.

Consider the years of many generations.

Ask your Father and he will show you your elders and they will

tell you when the Most High divided their inheritance to the

nation's. When he separated the sons of

Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the

number of the children of Israel, for the Lord's portion

is His people. Jacob is the place of his

inheritance. All of chapter 32 of Deuteronomy

is the song of Moses. This is this is Moses singing

these things. But remember the days of old.

Remember the days of old. Now four years is not really the

days of old. We can agree to that, but some

of you would just have no idea of the amount of details that

had to go into place for us just to get to where we are today and

to have the leadership that we have today.

I also want to read out of Deuteronomy Chapter 7, verse 17.

Deuteronomy 7:17

If you should say in your heart these nations are greater than

I, how can I dispossessed them? You shall not be afraid of them,

but you shall remember. But you shall remember well what

the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great

trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the

mighty hand in the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God

brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to

all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

Moreover, the Lord your God will send the Hornet.

Among them, oh, I love this. I I felt like the Lord said

include that one. Don't skip that one.

Moreover, the Lord will send the Hornet among them.

Listen until those who are left who hide themselves from from

you are destroyed. This is spiritual stuff, but you

shall not be terrified of them for the Lord your God, the great

and awesome God is among you. Glory to God.

I love the Scripture because it's saying when you're afraid

of people, remember who I am, when you're afraid of obstacles

you're facing, remember what I've done for you.

And so as we as a church keep moving forward, I feel like the

Lord says, look backwards. Remember his faithfulness,

remember what he's done. Remember how he's, how he has

prophesied, how he has provided all the things.

Remember well, that's not just for our church, that's for each

of us. What has the Lord done for you?

It might be good for you over the next day or two to as you

remember those who have given their lives for the services of

this country and the same time remember the Lord and give

thanks to the Lord for he is good and the Bible says his

mercy endures forever. So he says when you're when you

when you do this, remember the great trials which your eyes saw

the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched

storm. I feel from the Lord like, and

this is this is part of an A correction and an instruction

correction is we don't remember enough.

We don't take time. See, God set festivals like the

Festival of weeks Pentecost so that they would multiple times

throughout the year remember him.

And he laid out the details of how to remember him, how to

bring an offering, how to give give back to him, how to honor

him, how to worship him. Why?

Because he knew if you go too long, you will forget.

And in the time of forgetting you're going to slip and you're

going to do crazy stuff. And I felt from the Lord for us

like we need to have rhythms of remembrance, rhythms of where we

come back and we say, look what the Lord has done.

In spite of our flaws, in spite of sometimes mistakes, in spite

of whatever, the Lord has been good, the Lord has been faithful

to us. I remember in the early days of

our church, there was a lot of woundedness, there was a lot of

pain. There was a lot of of things

that had to be overcome. And so one of the things that I

remember, though, is how God healed the soul of this church.

We sit in a very different sanctuary than the sanctuary I

started with four years ago. I remember our installation

service was was a dumpster fire because it was you weren't here,

but it was. In fact, there was one lady who

stood up and she said, come on y'all, let's gather around them.

Like we gathered around the last pastor.

I'm like, I couldn't say it because I was the new guy, but

if, if I wanted to say no thank you, that didn't work.

But there was it was a lot going on.

But you know what? I remember how God methodically

healed the soul of this church, healed its leaders, healed

their, their, the hurt places. How many of you can testify

because you were here, that God has healed the soul of this

church? Yeah.

Keep your hand up. We say.

Thank you, Lord, for your work, for your spirit that's done this

thing. We could not do it of ourselves.

You did. We thank you for the servants

you sent, like Harriet and Bill Mauer who came and they sat with

some of our team. I thank you for some of the

prayer times we had where we even came down here and we just

anointed things with oil and we said whatever's rooted down,

we're going to pluck it up. Thank you for it, Lord.

Thank you, Jesus. I thank you, Lord.

In fact, there were several particular leaders that were

healed, that were touched while they were here.

I'm going to be bold about even reminding us there was a service

we got to have with Sydney and Peyton.

Stand up Sydney, so everybody sees you.

He's he's caring for his babies back there, but way better.

Everybody, this is Sydney. He's one of our assistant

pastors. And I remember they had been

wounded from what had happened and yet the Lord brought him

back here. And I remember just to there's

this lovely wife, Peyton with the stroller.

Awesome. They didn't have babies when I'm

telling this story that the babies are new.

But I remember Sydney, I just felt like the Lord said, you

know, just give them opportunities and wanted to

bring them back through. And so I said, hey, Sydney, just

for some extra cash, will you paint the offices?

Because we, we needed it, needed some new paint colors.

I wasn't thinking spiritual. I wasn't thinking nothing except

we needed things to be painted. And, you know, I thought it

would be good for him to be round and give him a little

extra cash. And, well, he told the story

about how just painting over was like God started a minister.

And so he started crying as he's painting the offices because it

was the new beginning. We have to remember those

things. And I want you all to remember

that, too. God's got a tremendous plan for

the two of you. Tremendous plan for you.

There are seeds in you that are greater than any of us know, but

God knows and they're still there.

And you're doing exactly what you need to, both of you

nourishing and cherishing your precious family.

But we hadn't seen the last of y'all.

There's a lot of ministry down in there.

Thank you. You know, I remember the early

days. In fact, I went back to look and

it was November of that first year, somebody in the church

approached me and said, you know, have you ever thought of

recovering and restriping the parking lot?

And I, and I said, you know, actually I just whispered to the

Lord, I sometimes walk the property and pray.

At that time, I, I did it a lot because I felt like I need to

regain some spiritual things that needed to be addressed.

So, but one of the practical things I just kind of whispered

is like, Lord, I'd like to recover this and, and restripe

it and next year or two it might need it again.

But at that time, I didn't know. I didn't even know how much that

kind of stuff costs. You know, you just, you don't

think about it. Well, somebody came and said,

have you considered? I said, yeah, you know, I just

actually prayed about it. He said, well, I'll take care of

it. OK.

So he did. He got a quote.

It was about $22,000, and it was covered and restriped and paid

for it. Now, anybody who was around at

that time knows that was a blessing because it wasn't going

to be something that I was going to do within the first six

months of being here. Like, you know what we ought to

do. We ought to, you know, people

would have probably they would have whipped me right out of

this church, but the Lord knew it needed to be done and he

found a faithful servant within our church that was obedient to

say followed his own prompting of the Holy Spirit.

So I'm over here praying, they're over here hearing and

God connected the dots. Well, that's the Lord.

That's how this stuff works. That's why I'm testifying of it

is because that's not a one and done instance.

That has happened multiple times here, multiple times, in fact.

Within a short amount of time, different team members started

to just make themselves known and available.

Thank God for Dan and Diane Parker.

Don't shake your head. They're so humble.

But you know, Diane was the bookkeeper.

Or actually she was. We had a bookkeeper, praise the

Lord, but she worked with the bookkeeper.

She did so much of the administration and she just saw

us through all of that. When we need a consistency,

Thank God she didn't peace out on me.

She stuck right there. We met Dan.

Dan knows more about this building than any human being.

Only God knows as much about this building as Dan knows.

People will come and ask me what about this?

Then the other, I'll ask Dan, but thank God for that and thank

God they they that was God's provision, though that wasn't

random. God provided people.

I remember Beth Farrell came and said, Hey, if whatever you need,

I'll, I can help you. I can help you assist you and

and I said yes, please. And so God provided Beth Ferrell

in those early days to assist and she knew everybody.

I didn't know anybody. So she was the face of the

church when I was still building trust and I was still building

rapport with people. Thank God for her.

I thank God for our church council at that time.

Raise your hand if you're you've been on the church council over

the last four years, raise your hand real high.

Come on, let's thank God for our church council members.

They made needful decisions throughout the four years and

they did it with grace. They did it with care.

They did it spirit LED. And I'm so thankful I've had the

best experience with our church council.

I cannot speak higher of each person who has partnered with us

in that capacity. And so I just say thank God for

them. But those folks were godsends.

So it's important to remember this because otherwise

entitlement will say, well, that's just the way it's, you

know, it's just church. You know, entitlement is

dismissive. It doesn't acknowledge

sacrifice. It doesn't acknowledge what went

into thing for things to happen. It just is like it's it's almost

like we deserved that. And I'm just going to tell you,

I don't deserve any of it. I'm not that good.

I'm not that good of a leader. I'm not that that anointed for

that kind of favor. It's it's God's grace.

Do you hear what I'm saying? Have we tried to be obedient?

Yes, of course. Have we tried to be faithful?

Absolutely. And I believe God does honor

that. But at the end of the day, even

the ability to do those things is His grace.

Amen. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord. You know, I, I just recall over

the last few years, you know, just different families that

have been reconciled. You know, I just thank the Lord

that there's been family reconciliations.

There's been moves of God among different families.

So many of y'all are in this room and you've testified and

you've told me God has done a work.

Some of you are still standing. So it's good for you, for your

family. So it's good for you to hear

that God's done it for others and he'll do it for you.

You may be new into this walk of faith.

And I, I can tell you there have been works of reconciliation in

this church among families. In fact, raise your hand if

you've seen that work in your own family in the last few

years. Raise it and wave it mine.

I'm raising mine and waving it. And I thank you, Lord, because

you know how much prayer collectively we targeted our

families with. And you know what?

The Lord's still at work. He's still at work.

You know, my, I, I part of what I recall to mind in the last

four years is my brother-in-law has gotten radically born again.

He still lives in California. But this week, I mean, not only

is he born again, he's full of the Holy Spirit.

I know he is because this week he called me on a day I needed

and he said, hey, brother, I just felt this morning like I

needed to call you and tell you how much I love you and how

proud I am of you and how I'm just so thankful to God for you.

And all of these things were just a few years ago.

He was like, he was, he would ridicule and he would blast

Christianity and he would make fun of my wife.

He would do all of those things. And now he is not only born

again encouraging me, but also in the last few days he called

and he, he and I are basically in coercion together to bring

full reconciliation to the whole family.

So now we're in cahoots together, Holy Ghost cahoots to

redeem and to restore and to heal wounds that have been he

called generational. This is my atheist

brother-in-law from just a few years ago is now born again Holy

Ghost generational cursor breaker in Jesus name.

Now I know how they got full of the Holy Ghost when they started

to remember what the Lord has done because that's the kind of

stuff that will make me run around this church.

I think the Lord that we've seen different people walk through

their health journeys and all the way to healing and recovery

and to wholeness. In fact, raise your hand if

you've received healing in the last three or four years, just

raise your hand and wave it. Look at that, look at that, look

at unprompted. I'm not paying them after the

service. Come on.

Some of the nonsense you see online nowadays, like there's

some sort of conspiratorial issue or we just coerce people.

No, God healed me. Raise your hand again.

We thank you, Lord, for healing our bodies.

Thank you, Lord, that you are the one who heals our diseases.

Every sickness, every kind of disease.

I thank you for it, Lord, and I thank you that you've done it

for one. You will do it for others, Lord,

that this is a House of healing. We've declared it so and it will

continue to be so in Jesus name. Thank you for the increase of

anointing for healing Lord glory to God.

This I recall to mind and I am persuaded glory to God.

I love you Lord Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord thank you Lord.

I, you know I celebrate some of the growth we've seen in our

next Gen. ministries. I, if I'm not mistaken, a first

Sunday Lily and I were here, there was 4 kids in the ministry

and three of them were ours and the other one was the worship

pastor's kid. But you know, we start with four

kids now every Sunday we have between 25 and 30 kids back

there while we're sitting here. That's that's zero years old to

5th grade. We went from 4 to 25 to 30 and

we're just getting started. Those I'm I bless the Lord for

it because he who brought us from 4 to 30 will take us from

30 to 300 right? Why?

Because there is a next generation that absolutely needs

the Lord. And my conviction has been is

that the greatest key to this community is reach the next Gen.

reach the children and you'll reach the parents and the

grandparents and the aunties and the uncles and some of y'all are

here because your kids like to be here.

And so you'll suffer through, you know, and then the Lord gets

you. I love the Lord.

He's strategic. He knows the way to to hook you

and pull you in like a big fish. Glory to God, I thank the Lord

because we've seen tremendous fruitfulness in our youth

ministry, our youth ministry, and, and we have a wonderful

youth pastor, Crystal Steinbeck. She's back there in the booth

playing double duty. But now every Sunday night at

6:00 PM we've got a great group of youth, including two of my

own, soon to be all three of mine here learning and loving on

the Lord. And in two months we're going to

send 19 minimum because that's how how many are signed up now.

But there's still spots available 19 to youth camp.

Let's make it 20 by the end of today.

Amen. When we came, we started back up

young adults ministry and ever since then we've started to see

more and more young adults coming.

We've had different ones serve in the capacity of helping to

lead the young adults and I'm so thankful for them.

And now every every Friday night, 6-7 PMI got to get my

number straight. 7:00 PM. We have between 15 and 20 young

adults and we sit around and we have Bible study and we have

dinner together and we enjoy fellowship and worship together.

And we have a team now, a great team of people.

And so let's thank the Lord for the growth.

And next Gen. the Lord has done this.

Not only has next Gen. grown, but I thank the Lord our adult

services have grown. I've added chairs three times.

And so I keep adding chairs and I go around and I pray Lord fill

these chairs. And there's plenty of chairs to

be filled still. And you know what I don't do?

I don't look around and say, man, there's a lot of empty

chairs. I said, oh, no, there's chairs

to be filled, and they will be filled.

I use my words to fill them, right?

And I blessed them. But, you know, when we first

came, it was about 60 people. That included everybody.

And as Joe Ellen would do at the local bar church, he adds dogs.

I wanted to add dogs. I wanted to say, anybody got

dogs here? Let's add them in anybody with

child will will add them to, you know, just add them all in.

You know, you remember we came from a Church of thousands of

people. And so it's like, all right,

thank you, Lord, we got the remnant.

We got the remnant. This this property, if you don't

know, it was built about 30 years ago and it just under 30

years ago. And it was built when a church

for a Church of about 1000 people.

And just through a lot of different things, you know, it

declined. But we're not declining anymore

and we're going to keep increasing.

Why? Because when I drive around this

neighborhoods and I see massive temples, it's in idols being

built. I know our job is far from done

and we're not giving up territory.

We're going to take territory and we're going to, we're going

to by love and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we're going to

see many people saved and delivered and set free in Jesus

name. That's a good place for an Amen.

There's work to be done, there's work to be and, and by the grace

of God, we're well positioned. We're full of the Holy Spirit.

We function in the gifts of the Spirit.

We're discerning, we're healthy. So when the unhealthy come in,

we know what to do. We're not triggered, you know,

like we're not. We don't freak out because

somebody with their past and their own things going on, bring

it in. We're like, oh, no, no, this is

the right place to be. You know, I think the Lord for a

young man named Skyler, and I don't see him, but there's a

young man named Skyler who he came early on and the Lord's

done a tremendous work in his life.

And when he came in, we loved him and just everybody scooped

him up. Why?

Because if there's any place where someone needs healing and

restoration, they should be right here and they should be

comfortable to be here. Amen.

There's many more scholars out there that the Lord wants.

And all of these empty seats, seats to be set free in Jesus

name. Thank you, Lord, Thank you Lord.

You know, I want to just acknowledge too, by the grace of

God, there's been multiple families that have moved to

North Carolina, not for jobs, not because the economy is

better, not because California is crazy, though it is or New

York is crazy. You know, there's, but there

have been multiple families that have moved here.

First of all, I felt like I want to honor my mom and dad, my mom

and my dad. If you haven't met my mom, you

will hear my mom in the service, in the service of the Lord.

She's the she's my Amen corner. But they were senior pastors in

Greensboro and they resigned their church to come partner

with me and Lilia. Now let's let me just be honest

with you. It was first the grandkids, then

it was y'all, but the Lord called them we.

They could have moved to California, but there wasn't

time. But they when when they knew we

were going to pass their first up in Maryland and then down

here, they resigned their senior pastor to come and and serve

under their son. That requires honor.

So can we thank them again now? We literally all live together.

So thank the Lord. And it was my dad's birthday a

couple days ago. So happy birthday.

I want to, I want to thank several other families like Ryan

and Francesca Philippi, because in Brooklyn, who's sitting by

them, they were in California. They literally heard from

someone else. We were being considered for a

pastor in North Carolina. It wasn't even the ink hadn't

even dried and they were here looking at properties, finding a

house and they were so in because God moved them.

He prompted them come, come join Ty and Lilia at this church.

And so they got a rental before we got a rental.

And that's faith. They moved by faith.

And now Ryan has a great job over at the Apex Toyota and is

killing it. So if you need a car, you know

where to go. But that's favor the Arevalos

tribe. This whole front row over here,

Rob and Yoli and Nathan and Tori and Michael, they sacrificed to

be here. They gave up a lot.

They they left other family members in California.

Now they've got one in Tennessee.

The Lord sees all that he is not mocked.

Whatever a man shows that he will also reap.

And they've sowed into our church and they keep sowing into

our church, including, and I already said her, but including

Tori and Michael. Tori was helping us lead worship

on her own for the first time for several months and just

killed it and just blessed us for all those months.

So we thank you, Tori. I mentioned them, but Crystal

and Zack Steinbeck, they moved from the mountains of

California. Crystal was helping us sort out

our bookkeeping. And I was on a call with her one

day and I'd known her before and had connected her, her husband

just connected with what the Lord was doing in me.

And so one day I asked her, I said, Crystal, have you guys

like, what's next for you? Like, what are you guys thinking

about, you know, with the ministry?

I said, would you pray about moving to North Carolina?

And at first I just asked her to pray about coming and serving

this role, helping with services, Zach, helping with our

tech team and whatnot. And they they up and resigned

their job at a Foursquare camp and started plowing full steam

ahead to move here. It's now been two years.

It'll be two years next month. And, and then while they were

planning on the move and everything was getting in order,

I said, Crystal, would you pray about being our youth pastor?

Because that opportunity opened up.

And I it was the godsend because she had a lot of years of

experience in youth pastoring. And so thank you, Lord.

They came not again because of a job, but now Zach works for NC

State and has so much faith, faith there.

And we forgive him that he's part of the Wolfpack, but he has

favor. But you know what, where we can

agree is anybody but Duke. That's what we can agree on.

We will find a place of agreement.

I thank the Lord for the Silva's who moved across country.

Now, the Silva's literally, I don't recommend it, but this is

what they did. They loaded up their car.

They called us. Now, we knew they were praying

about it. I didn't know the timing.

And they called us and we're like, we're on our way.

What do you mean you're on your way?

Well, we're in the car and we're headed out of California.

Oh, where'd you get a place? We don't know yet.

We don't know yet. OK, That's faith.

That's Abraham faith. Like, go to the place.

I will show you. I'll show you when you get to

North Carolina, the place. But you know what they did?

And now they have a beautiful home, Michael or not Michael.

George has a wonderful job with Orkin.

And now he's recruited several other men in our church to be at

the same company. And they're all being blessed.

Hello. Just too many details for

everybody. No, because I'm, I'm telling you

what God's at work doing, but we don't, I don't even have time on

Sundays to tell you what's happening.

I don't, I I'm trying to keep track with what the Lord's

called me to, to minister and to preach.

That's relevant. But on today when I'm

remembering, I remember. And then just this month, we

have Tim and JJ Versalono. To.

Now it's two months, now this week is 2 months and they

resigned their senior pastor to be a part of our church.

And I don't make a big deal of these things because we all

sacrificed. But they sacrificed even

financially, all kinds of stuff. There's no big package here yet.

In fact, everybody, I think I've asked them to come before we

talk anything about money because I'm like I, I cannot be

your provider, but God will be your provider.

And I'll well as best as I can do right by God for you with our

church. And our church council helps me

make those decisions as well. But there are many others whom

you may not have come and originally for a rise church,

but God has brought you here. In fact, raise your hand if

you've started attending here within the last four years,

raise your hand. Look at God, look at God.

And we're so glad you're here. We're so glad you're here.

We're so glad you're here. And as as integral as some of

these folks are, so are you. We needed you and we still need

you, and there are many more to come.

May the Lord bring everybody He wants to be here.

What he's doing is extraordinary.

I'm thankful. And I remember over the last few

years that we've had clarity, a vision we have, we know what our

mission is, discipling generations to arise now.

And the Lord has increased us in multiple ways, including our

finances. My first month, actually the

prior to, before my first month, I'll start with April 2022

because that's what I was agreeing to enter into our month

income that month I looked was $16,700.

Now I'll remind you our mortgage was $9100.

No one went, oh, come on, I wish somebody would capture that.

Total income for this whole place was $16,700.

Ninety 100 of it was spoken for. That's not the electricity,

that's not the insurance, that's not all the other things.

That's what we said yes to by faith.

By faith, I had people saying, oh, you're going to a great

church in Apex. And you know what?

By faith I knew it was a great church, but at the moment it was

a fallen knife. Financially it was.

It was. But you know what?

In March of 2026 our total income was $96,000 and in April

2026 our total income was $894,000.

Only God can do stuff like this and we paid off our mortgage

that when I first came the balance was $1.35 million and it

is now stands at 0 zero. Look at what the Lord has done.

I would falter to recall to mind all the Knights of worship we

had, the Knights of healings we've had, the new marriages

we've had Hallelujah, the new babies that have been born.

How many of you have had a baby in the last four years?

Raise your hand. Come on, somebody praise the

Lord. There's you know what?

I just saw a lot of middle-aged people go, no, I don't receive

that. I'm not talking to y'all talk

about the I'm talking about the baby Havers.

We love. We love weddings and babies.

Praise the Lord in that order. Weddings, then babies, but we've

had many battles. 1 you know, second Timothy chapter one verse

5 says when I recall, when I call to remember, it's the

genuine faith that is in you which dwelt first in your

grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and I am persuaded as in

you also. It's in you.

Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in

you through the laying on of my hands.

For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and

of love and a sound mind. Revelation chapter 12, verse 11.

Revelation 12:11

And they overcame him, the adversary by the blood of the

Lamb and the word of their testimony, and they did not love

their lives to the death, and in Revelation 1910 says worship

God. For the testimony of Jesus is

the spirit of prophecy. So as I've been recalling to

mind, as I've been reminding us of who God has been to this

church, I sense the spirit of prophecy, of what is to come.

This has just been Foundation Lane.

And it's in this atmosphere of remembrance, of recalling to

mind that I welcome God to fill this place.

In fact, let's all stand to our feet and I've recalled to mind

things just this church, but I hope you've remembered for you.

What has the Lord done for you in just the last three or four

years? Maybe in the last three or four

months, what you used to wipe the floor with in prayer has

been answered. So now can you wipe the floor

and praise now that he's answered it?

Or are we entitled? I don't think so.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to give praises to His

name, for you are good and your mercy endorse forever.

I bless your name, Lord, for all of the work you have done here.

Lord, I bless your name for all of the miracles.

Lord, I bless your name for all of the provision.

Lord, I bless your name for the weddings and the babies.

I bless your name for the callings that have happened.

I bless your name for the healings and the restorations

that have happened. I bless your name for the family

reconciliations that have happened.

I blessed your name that you have done a good work here and

you're going to keep doing a good work here.

I blessed your high name to Lord today, Lord, glory to the name

of Jesus. Glory to the name of the Lord

Jesus. Come on, let praise just erupt

out of this place today. Let praise just erupt out of

this place. You have been good to me, Lord.

You have been good to me, Lord. Oh, I blessed your name, Lord.

I glorify your name, Lord. Oh, it is you who have done it.

It is you who have performed it. It is you who have done it,

Lord. I blessed you, I blessed you.

I blessed you. I blessed you, I blessed you, I

bless you. Oh, I love your name, Lord.

Oh, I love your name, Lord. There is no one like you, Lord.

No one like you, Lord. Rakando roto Locoho.

I love you, Lord. I bless you, Lord.

Oh, you've been so good to me, Lord.

You've been so good to me, Lord. You've been so good to me, Lord.

You've been so good to arise church, Lord, and I thank you

for it. Lord, I pray for any and every

person that's going through a. Great trial right now, a great

sifting and testing, and I pray that as we've recalled and

recounted these testimonies, that faith would arise in their

heart. That he who promised is faithful

and he is well able to perform it.

I pray that wherever hope has felt like it slipped, I pray

that it would be snatched back in Jesus name.

That hope would arise in our hearts.

That faith would arise in our hearts.

That the same God that turn this church around is the same God

that'll turn your family around. I believe it in the name of

Jesus. The same God who turned the

finances of this church around is the same God that'll turn

your personal finances around in Jesus name.

Oh yes, the same God that paid off this mortgage is the same.

God, that'll pay off your mortgage.

Oh. Yes, yes, yes.

The same God who healed people all over this church is the same

God who will heal your body and heal your diseases.

The same God that set others free from addictions and

patterns and habits and loose them from the bonds of sin is

the same God that'll loose you and let you go.

Glory to God. Thank you, Lord, thank.

You, Lord, thank you. Lord, you know I made a

profession earlier this week that I'm going to make to you

right now in front of God and everybody.

We are not going back. We are not going back.

We are not going back. We are not going back.

We've taken ground by the grace of God, and we're not going

back. We're going forward.

We're going to take more ground. And here's what I want to ask

you to wrap your faith around with me.

I'm praying that an evangelistic spirit hits this church.

What do I mean that we're going to see more salvations.

I love healings. I love all of that.

I love being people being delivered, but what is all that

for except that the soul be saved?

So would you agree with me that part of what's ahead is souls

being saved on a daily and weekly basis?

Thank you, Lord, we agree for that, Lord, in the name of

Jesus. I also want to acknowledge one

of the testimonies is now we're not just here, but we've got

house churches watching us here in North Carolina, in Tennessee,

and in Indiana. Come on, let's thank God for

them. And I just declare over you what

I'm prophesying here is for you and everybody gathered in your

home today in Jesus name and everyone watching online.

So Father, we thank you for your work at our Rice church.

I thank you that these are just the beginning of days of a great

outpouring for this area. Help us to not miss it.

Help us to be right under the spout where the glory comes out.

We pray in Jesus name. Would you say Amen and clap your

hands in agreement? Amen and Amen and Amen and Amen

and Amen. Well, I kept you overtime today,

but I'm not sorry because it is good to give thanks to the Lord.

But before you leave, at least find a few people and just tell

them I'm thankful for you too. Go and tell everybody around you

I'm thankful for you. God bless you.

We love you. Have a great Sunday.

We want to thank you again for joining us for the Arise Church

podcast. We hope you were encouraged by

what you heard today. You can find

[email protected] and on Instagram at Arise Church NC.

If you need prayer or support or are interested in learning more

about Arise Church, we encourage you to connect with us online or

in person at our Sunday morning service.

Thank you and God bless.