From Weakness to Strength

What a joy. I mean, I'm so happy to be with

three CI. I'm living the dream.

What a privilege to be able to be with you this evening.

Experience Jesus with you. Can you tell the person next to

you? It's a blessing to be here.

It's a blessing to be here. I want to tell you something

about about 3 CI. Three CI.

You do not know what you did to us.

My wife and I 2007 felt the call of God to go and plant a church

in Clarkstorp. We had two babies and a third

one on the way and we came and you hosted us for the for a week

in 2007. Many of you were not here.

The still, the tent was just built, tent was like a two years

or three years old. I don't know if Peter and

Amarinda is still here, but we lived in Peter and Amarinda.

Where are they, Peter and Amarinda?

They're still in the church over here this morning, I suppose.

We stayed in Peter and Amarinda's house.

We attended one of the home groups.

There were 42 people in the Home group, Peter and Amarinda's

house. And you shout us with gifts,

gave our children's gifts. You invested in US, and we're

living in the benefit of men and women like you, Faithful 2007.

And still today we're benefiting from a week of impartation and

input that we received in this church on this property.

Can you give God thanks for faithful men and women that came

before us? I want to honor you for your

generosity. I want to honor you for the

privilege of being able to pray for you, but also praying for

us. You do not know what happened

like a few weeks we were like, we just heard God that we needed

to transition the leadership of our church in Clarksville.

We, we were leading a church in Clarksville.

So can we give God thanks for these guys?

They came all the way from Clarksville tonight to be here

with us. It's a real privilege, but we

just heard God. God spoke to us.

We didn't know where we're going to go.

We were still praying. We're in.

We just like God just said, America.

We were like, we're in America. We were like, we would even go

to Florida because Ellen's kids are so parents are sorry.

Ellen's parents are there. And we were like, we'll go

anywhere God tells us to go. And then we went out for dinner.

Clint prayed for us and you guys prayed for us here at an evening

celebration and we went out for dinner that night.

And that week we made contact with the church in Charlotte,

NC, that needed a leader. They didn't have a leader for

two years. That dwindled down to about 60

or so people. And and it was kind of COVID.

And we were like, hey, maybe Charlotte.

And then Rory said to me, listen, Nasir just got a puppy

puppy this week. Guess what's the name of the

puppy? The next moment we are in

Charlotte, NC leading a church in Charlotte.

Isn't that awesome? Can we give God thanks?

I want to clearly show you show you a few pictures if you don't

mind just the privilege of being with you.

This was in the middle of the building project.

I want to tell you what Marie and I used to do.

This was covert time. You see the the masks there and

we used to come and pray here on the property because Rory said

to us because we built and we experienced it.

And I was like, Lord, I'm so excited because God loves paying

for buildings and I remember us praying together and this was

like a well of life for us. Can we look at the next next?

There we go. Now do you see the Rockstar

caps? I don't know if you guys

remember the Rockstar that season of of of three CI, but

those Rockstar caps. Listen to this friends.

Andrew, which was he was on staff here, drove through on a

Friday afternoon and brought us Rockstar caps from for me and

Marie and my whole family. And that's that's our family is

our three kids and the oldest is 21 in January and the youngest

will be 18 in January. In the middle one is 19 years

old, El Manet, Joshua and John. Mark is the youngest.

And that's me and Marie. Can we look at the next one?

This is when your staff came to have lunch with our staff in

Clarkson. Can you give it up for the three

DI staff? There we go.

You can see Mitch then Damian was there.

I've got another picture of Damian.

This was life changing for us because we used to come here to

learn from you and you guys would go there generously just

to come and encourage us in a very, very tough time.

And we were also in a building, we were building a kids building

at that point in time. Can we give God thanks for just

faithfulness? Isn't that awesome?

One more, one more picture. I think it's on.

This was that breakfast that we had.

Clint, I want to tell you my life changed on that breakfast.

Sacrifice releases power. If you remember only one thing,

this is 1 powerful word. Sacrifice releases power, and

Clint imparted God imparted something through Clint in my

life that morning. It was so powerful to be able to

spend that, those two hours with Clint and Rory and just just

drinking from the well of of the Father through them.

And then I remember just how God, I just came back filled

with faith. Honestly, friends, we've

experienced such a transformation in Charlotte, and

it's because of these partnerships that God has used.

It's really, really powerful. And Clint, I just want to say

this of you just in front of everyone.

I just want to say that you're a mighty warrior and you're a

breath of fresh air. You make deep deposits that

feeds the soul. You make deep deposits that feed

the soul. And every single time when I Hoy

that little spice that you gave me on my bright lace, it's sort

of like a because you just don't get spiced like South African

spice. There's some some love from

Clint. Is that right?

And then I want to tell you one thing.

I was I was going through a little bit of a tough patch and

I'll get this voice note in the middle of nowhere out of the out

of the blue by Damian and he and he starts blessing me, praying

for me over over voice note friends, never underestimate the

power of just sending someone an encouragement being being Holy

Spirit lead and sensitive to the Holy Spirit and Damian, I don't

know where you are can't see you, but I just want are you are

you somewhere? There we go.

Damian, Damian, you don't you don't understand the seeds of

hope that you sowed into my heart by being faithful.

And I want to say that's an example.

I believe that this church carries that, but you express

it. And so thank you for expressing

that. My brother.

Bless you abundantly. Amen.

Are we ready to get into God's Word?

It's 47 seconds. There we go.

I've loved this Romans 8 series. It's really impacted my life in

a big way. So thank you.

I love just how Terence spoke. Chad, you blessed my socks off.

Hello. How powerful was that word just

about being forgiven, forgiven by God and just this reality of

just literally you, you are not your mistakes.

It was really, really powerful. And then when Mitch spoke about

sonship, I was so blessed by the fact that we come to God as a

son. And then last week, Wendy spoke

so powerfully about this reality of suffering.

Who do you remember that? And I thought, wow, Wendy, this

is great because she did not know.

I mean, none of us knew, but I had prepared already and I was

like, Lord, this is so good because we're going to go into

Romans 826. So if you're, if you've got your

Bible, let's go to Romans 826. So Father, I want to pray as we

come into your words, speak to us by your spirit, Lord, here we

are. We want to hear what you have to

say. We want to hear your heartbeat

in Jesus name, Amen. Likewise, the Spirit also helps

us in our weaknesses. Can you say weaknesses?

For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but

the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with

groanings which cannot be uttered.

Have you ever felt weak through CI?

If you ever gone through times when you're like, listen Lord,

there's not enough of me. I don't know.

I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do.

There's not just I just don't have the strength.

I'm here to say to you that God specializes in weak people.

God specializes because he says, let the weak say I'm strong, let

the poor say I'm rich, let the blind say I can see by.

Why? Because God is the God that

strengthens the weak. And when you and I are weak,

that's when we are strong. When you and I are at a place

where we just don't have enough, that's when God is more than

enough. Come on, isn't that exciting?

And so even when we battle to connect with God, even sometimes

when I struggle to pray, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

Have you ever wanted to give up? I believe that our strength in

life comes from our relationship with God.

Everything flows from your relationship with God.

Three CI and I believe that God wants you and me to be able to

draw strength from Him. Have you ever heard of a man

called David? He was one of the greatest kings

that ever lived. David.

King David And so in first Samuel chapter 30, he was not

1 Samuel 30 · chapter mention

yet king. They came back to Ziklag, which

was like their house, their, their homestead.

And when they got back, they saw that literally all their wives

and their children, all their wealth, all their livestock was

taken. And so these people start, start

literally they, they, they're in despair.

They're so weak. The Bible says that they were

not even, they did not even have strength to cry anymore.

They were so weak. They were at such a have you

ever been that low when you don't even have the strength to

cry And then verse 6, the Bible says that now David was greatly

distressed for the people spoke of stoning him.

So his own people Speaking of stoning him.

His own people are rejecting him.

And what happens is the Bible says because the soul of all the

people was grieved every man for his sons and his daughters.

I love this light in the Bible says, but David strengthened

himself in the Lord. He's God.

In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness, but David

strengthened himself in the Lord. 3 CI want to say this is

that living whether you live in South Africa or in America, it's

tough. Life is not easy.

You go if you're raising one child, you're rising 4 kids.

I don't know if you're married to a wife or you marry to a

husband, It's going to be tough. It's not always easy, but you

can strengthen yourself in the Lord.

You can strengthen yourself. Psalm 46 there's one to two says

God is our refuge and our strength, our very present.

Can you say present our very present help in time of trouble

or in time of need? Sees Lewis said this.

He said that the presence of God is found, found in the present.

The present is the place where you find the presence of God.

And so God when he made Moses at the burning Bush, he didn't say

I will be or I was, even though God will always be and he was

because he's today, yesterday and forever.

But the way that God introduced himself to Moses, the way that

God Moses found God was. I am because God is in the

present and His presence is in the present, because God is our

refuge and our help and our strength in a present time.

He says, therefore I will not fear, even though the earth be

removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the

sea. Remember in 2004 I ran the

Comrades Marathon. I only did it twice, the 1st and

the last time. Now I'm just joking.

I still want to do it one more time if I can.

I've only done it. Sorry, I've only done it in

2004, but I'll never forget this.

My wife is a psychologist. And so.

So the night before we ran the Comrades, we were praying and I

was like, Lord, how do I prepare myself for this thing?

Because it's a mental race as much as it's a physical race.

And notice those of you do not know if you've run.

Anyone run the Comrades? OK, I'll see.

I see that hand. Respect.

Respect. Right.

There we go. Thank you, Gene.

That's awesome. So what happens is I went to

Glen Reach Church on the Sunday because this was our custom.

Maria and I, we were, we were in the, we were in the Methodist

Church, we were in another Pentecostal church.

And Glen Ridge Church was like this well, that we would always

go to whenever we were on holiday, even if we stayed in

Nivongo, we'd be driving or we stayed in Belito, we're driving

to Glen Ridge because Glen Ridge, we want to be there at

Glen Ridge. So we went to Glen Ridge the

Sunday before, comrades, this was the highlight.

Go a few days early, go to Glen Ridge.

And so we go to Glen Ridge and they sing the song Jesus, Son of

God. What is your name?

I am having the most amazing time with God.

It feels like in the worship, my spirit gets strengthened.

Have you ever experienced that in worship?

I sent some of that tonight. They said God breaks into your

life. You know what I'm talking about.

And so I have this moment with God.

It's so powerful. And Marie helps me with a

pressure point on my leg to connect that memory when I ever

it's like pressing play. So I'm like pressing my my leg

here and then I go back to that moment.

Jesus, Sir, Awesome. So I run the Comrades first

study cases, the easy, then it became hard.

Then I hit Drummond and when I came to halfway I saw them

putting ice on people's legs. I thought, that looks very nice.

Never done it before. If you would like doing it, I

don't know who you are, but they put ice on my legs and then all

of a sudden I'm like, I can't, I can't run.

And I remember, I want to give up.

I'm looking for the bus that picks you up, the truck that

picks you up. And I put my, my hand on my

finger, my finger on my leg like this.

And I go back to Jesus, son of God, worthies.

And my weakness becomes strength.

And I'm like, what's happening with me?

I can't believe that I'm, I'm, I'm actually running.

What? Hello, I don't know, you might

not be running a comrade, but the marathon you're running at

work tomorrow morning. I don't know the marathon you're

running with that child that is struggling with their addiction.

I don't know the marathon that you're running with your

finances and the date, the whole of date that you've got to get

out of. I don't understand the marathon

you're running. You've maybe you've got a cancer

diagnosis and I don't know the the process that you've got to

persevere through. But I want to say this to you,

Jesus, Son of God, worthy is his name, because God will give you

strength in the midst of your pain, give you strength in the

midst of your weakness. Is that OK?

I mustn't talk about the comrades.

It's like, you know, you meet other people on that day, right?

So anyway, but in in in Isaiah chapter 40, it speaks about

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

giving strength to the weak. Have you ever experienced that?

So in Isaiah 40, it says, but those who wait on the Lord, can

you say wait? Those who wait on the Lord?

So this is what I experienced in the Comrades is I experience

what it means to wait on the Lord will renew their strength.

The Bible says those who wait on the Lord will renew their

strength. They'll mount up on wings like

eagles. They'll run and not be weary.

They'll walk and not faint. So those who wait on the Lord

get strength. Can you say strength?

So waiting unlocks strength, but something happens and I want to

unpack that tonight for us to explain what that word wait

means. Because what often happens to us

is we like, Lord, I need strength and you say wait on me.

And often we think wait is it's like waiting, like passively.

That word wait is not a passive word.

It's an active word. The Hebrew understanding of that

word is to plat yourself into God.

I'm abboud, my mass Afrikaans. It's from yourself.

The flak I'm yourself and hot and the flak we hot as who he is

and what he's done for you is to say, Lord, I'm going to wait on

you. I'm going to weave myself into

you. I'm going to, I'm going to

plaque myself into God and the promises of God, the person of

Christ and the promises of Christ.

I'm going to weave myself into God.

Something happens in your spirit.

Something happens in your heart when you weave yourself into

God. That's what that word wait

means. And how do I wait on God?

Because what that word wait does to me is it does a few things.

It helps me to mount up on wings like eagles.

You know what an eagle's got? The ability to rise above a

storm so it doesn't take the storm away.

See, we think that when we sing these worship songs, then we

don't have to get pain anymore. The pain doesn't go away The,

the, the, the challenges. Like Wendy said last week, the

suffering doesn't go away, but the way we experience and go

through the suffering that changes.

See our our perspective on the storm moves from being under the

storm to rising above the storm. There's something that happens

that you no longer the storm is not away, but your place or your

positioning or your posture in the midst of that season

changes. You move from being literally

overwhelmed into a place where you see above the storm.

You know what you see above the clouds?

You see the rays of sunshine. It's so bright up up there.

It's dark under here. It's bright over there.

And that's why an American eagle, I come from America now

I'm an African American. There we go.

Oh yes, thanks African Americans, there we go.

And so on. American eagles got 2 eyelids.

You know that. You can go and Google it today.

Ask Chatty PD. They'll tell you 2 eyelids.

Here's the thing, the one eyelids, like you're on my

eyelid. It's the physical, it's the

natural one. The other one is like

sunglasses. It's like having built in

Oakleys. Why does it have built in

Oakleys? Do you know why it has built in

Oakleys? Because when it gears above the

storm, the only way it can see, because it's so bright, the only

way it can see. Look into it can look into the

sun, it can look into the sun and it can actually have that

perspective, a brand new perspective.

You know, when you and I wait on God and He gives us strength,

we're able to see Jesus, the sun of righteousness, and we can

look fully to his wonderful face, and we can turn our eyes

upon Jesus and we can look fully to His, and the things of the

earth can grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and

grace. Can you give God praise for the

fact that He's calling us to rise above the storm?

Now what's amazing for me is that waiting gives strength.

But Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 10 says do not grieve for the joy

Nehemiah 8:10

of the Lord Israel. OK, whoa, this is exciting

because you say to me, wait, So what does it mean?

How do I plant myself into God? How do I connect with God and

the person of God? How do I weave myself into God?

Here's the key. The joy of the Lord is your

strength. Waiting on God is your strength.

So that means joy and waiting must be connected.

Hello. So that means that if I rejoice

in God, what does it mean? To rejoice is to revisit, to

reconnect, to re mind myself of who God is and what he's done

for me on the cross and who he is in character and in hope.

So guess what happens? I rejoice in Him.

And so when I rejoice in him, that's how I wait on him.

That's how I plaque myself into God.

I rejoice in him. That's why it says in

Philippians 4 says rejoice in the Lord just every now and then

when the interest rates are lower.

Hello, always rejoice in the Lord always and again I say

rejoice. Hello man, isn't that exciting?

Now watch what happens when you rejoice something happens inside

of you. You go from being stressful to

being gentle. Verse 5 says let your gentleness

be known to all men. The Lord is.

The Lord is near in an atmosphere of rejoicing,

atmosphere of waiting, an atmosphere of remembering.

The Lord is near because the Bible says God inhabits the

praises of his people. So when you're going through

weak seasons of your life and the Spirit helps you, this is

how the Spirit helps you. You rejoice in God.

You remember who God is. You remember what he's done, You

remember his character, you remember his promises.

And as you rejoice in Him, you become gentle.

And as you become gentle, guess what happens?

He's close to you. Then it says, be anxious about

nothing, But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with

Thanksgiving, present your request to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,

will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

So when I weave myself into God, I remember who he is.

I'm rejoicing him and his joy becomes my strength.

And that's what I do is that I behold him because as I behold

him, I become like him. As I behold him, I experience

him. Tim Keller said this.

I need to share this quote with you.

It's not in the notes, but I just quickly, I got it this

yesterday morning to behold the beauty of the Lord.

Listen, what it means is to dwell on the perfection of His

character until our hearts are full of love and joy and rest.

That's what it means to behold the beauty of the Lord.

It's a place of waiting on God. It's a place of experiencing His

presence because when we connect, the presence of God is

in the present and it's in the present.

It's in the season of pain. It's in the season of

hopelessness. It's in the season where I'm

saying, Lord, I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on You.

It's in that place where I find His strength.

It's in that place where I experience even close to me

because He never leaves me nor forsakes me.

But I sometimes struggle to experience it.

And it's in that place where I experience it.

It's that place where I go from being weak to being strong.

It's in that place where the promises that were dead in my

life become alive. It's in the place of of his

presence where my fearfulness becomes boldness.

Hello. Where idols in my life start

falling down. CS Lewis said the following.

He said the moment you wake up, you should begin to take refuge

in the presence of God, for he's always near, always available.

Isn't that awesome? It's by the Spirit that we live

this. If you ever heard of a guy

called Manny Pereira, Manny and Dawn Pereira, you know, Jeff and

Jane used to be on eldership. Yeah.

Yeah, Jane used to be Manny, Benny, Dawn's daughter.

Jeff and Jane moved to Portugal. You guys supported them, sewed

them into the nations. Can you give God thanks for a

generous church like this? Just amazing what you guys have

done. I went to Florida and I heard a

guy called Paul Alexander, which is he's the, he's the president

of Trinity Bible College in in the US and in Florida.

We were at this gathering and he tells a story about this couple

called Manny and Dawn Pereira. I'm like, wow, I know them.

And he says, listen to what they did.

They went to the UK and they went to go and preach at a

church and the church didn't give them any, any anything like

to thank them. But someone in the church came

and brought them a guitar. They said, Lord, what do I do

with the guitar? I mean, this is nice, Thank you

very much. But we need to now get it back

to South Africa. And so Manny's praying and he's

saying, Lord, I want to worship you with my life because that's

how Manny lived. And so Manny ends up taking the

guitar, leaves it in the rental car, goes and books into like a

little bed and breakfast. And as him and dawn wake up the

next morning, they smell English.

Breakfast is waiting for them downstairs.

And as they come downstairs, the the couple sit there and say,

you know what? We know that you're believers

and we just, we've been praying and we've today want to bless

you. We don't want you to pay for the

place to say and we want to bless you with breakfast.

Manny and daughter's like, wow, this is so over the top

generous. They trusted God to go there and

yeah, God blesses them. And as they sit there, Manny

says, Lord, how can I worship you?

How can I glorify you? Yeah.

And you know what Manny does, the Holy Spirit tells him to go

and get the guitar out of the car and to bring the guitar and

give it to the couple as a gift, not knowing anything.

And the couple start crying when they open the guitar and the

wife saying you don't understand what you just did.

They said what happened. Now our 16 year old boy for his

16th birthday wanted a guitar for his birthday.

But the kind of guitar that he wanted, he took us to the guitar

shop and we could not afford the guitar he wanted.

It was too expensive for us and we thought we don't want to buy

him a cheap 1 so let's give him a card for his birthday with a

guitar on the card and in the card we said an IOU we will buy

you your right guitar. But you don't understand, the

guitar you just gave us is the exact guitar that my son said I

want to be able to get from the guitar shop.

See, when you live your life for the glory of God, miracles

happen, life's changed, Jesus gets praised.

It's an awesome way to live. I remember when I was almost

four years old, my grandfather died and I didn't have many

memories of my grandfather. But one good, very interesting

memory I had is he used to drive a Mercedes-Benz.

And what he would do is he would put that little armrest on the

backseat and I would sit on the backseat like a lacquer bootman

here, you know what I'm talking about.

And my Gran and I'll never forget that.

And I always said to myself, one day I want to own an old

Mercedes-Benz, one of those classics like my grandfather's.

And so guess what happens? A friend of mine phones me one

morning and I'm actually we busy ministering in the South Coast

and he phones me up and he says God spoke to me this morning, I

need to give you my Mercedes-Benz.

I said he lives here in Pretoria.

He says to me, my Mercedes-Benz, the name of my Mercedes-Benz is

unto him. The name is on the on the number

plate, the number plate of the Mercedes-Benz unto him unto

Jesus. He says it's a collector's item.

It's been put professionally evaluated.

It's collectors. I'm putting the thing in your

name. Send me your details.

I get here to a parking lot here in this area.

I get my Mercedes-Benz. My wife drives home with the

other guy. I get the Mercedes-Benz.

I'm driving a Mercedes-Benz that I didn't pay a St. for.

I'm thinking I'm crying on my way home, it's late at night,

I'm crying. I'm saying, Father, why are you

blessing me like this? I don't deserve it.

Why do you bless me like this? The father says to me, I want

you to experience. I want you to experience my

love. I want you to experience my

generosity so that you can turn it back to praise because that's

what it means to wait on God is you turn the experience of the

Father's love back to praise team.

And I remember just praising him.

And I used to drive that Mercedes-Benz every single

Sunday to church. And after church, sometimes I

would feel a little bit down because I don't always preach

well. I know, I know.

Yeah, they've always preached well.

But there with me, ask these guys.

I didn't always preach well. And I'd feel a little bit down

and then I would just sit in my car with my daddy, my heavenly

Father, and he would just love on me.

And for years, I just drove that Mercedes-Benz until we were in a

building project. And Marie and I, we prayed and

God said to us, it's time to let go, to give because we didn't

pay for it anyway. Let's sell the Merc to a

collector. And then we put the money in the

building. So a collector went with me to

Nedbank and he put the money across.

He had the keys. And when we got outside of

Nedbank, guess what happened? He gave the keys back to me.

He said. He said God told me he wants to

give it to you twice. So you know what we did when we

built the kids ministry building?

We gave it twice, we got given it twice and we gave it away

twice. And God said to me, every single

opportunity you have. For instance, we don't only

worship with our lips, We worship with our lives.

We worship with what what the Father blesses us as we receive,

we give. The Bible says in Romans 8 verse

Romans 8:5–6

5 to 6, for those who live according to the flesh, set

their hearts, set their minds sorry on the things of the

flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set

their minds on the things of the Spirit.

For them to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the

mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

That's what it means to wait on God.

That's what it means to rejoice is I set my mind on the things

of the Spirit. Psalm 84 verse 5 says blessed

Psalms 84:5

are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on

pilgrimage. Tim Keller said this.

He said faith is not the absence of fear, It is confidence in the

presence of God when we see him rightly.

Everything else else takes its proper size.

Lachlan said when half of our church left, I was praying with

Jesus. I said, Jesus, please take me to

heaven right now. But if you can't do that, please

take me back to South Africa because I just, I'm done with

America. Like I'm just being honest with

you. I was like, and you know what my

father said to me? He said, he whispered to me, He

said, I'm with you, my boy. I'm with you my boy.

So when we need strength in our lives, friends, this is what God

is calling us to do is to engage with God's strength by rejoicing

in him no matter every single part of our lives.

Lord, if there's an area of my life that that I'm weak at, it's

in that area where I need to rejoice.

If you're weak and you're struggling with unforgiveness

and bitterness, it's in that place where you rejoice in him

and you say, Lord, thank you for your forgiveness in my life.

Because as you rejoice in his forgiveness in your life, you

get strengthened to extend forgiveness to other people.

If you're struggling with your finances and you're saying,

Lord, I just don't have enough, God is saying it's in that way

that you say, Lord, how do I honor you with my finances?

How do I put you first in financially because you loved me

first and I want to rejoice in you and I want to give to you

first because I trust you and that's how you rejoice.

You bring the strength of God into your finances by honoring

him. It's like Lord, when I'm not

enough as a parent or a spouse, then I go to God and I say,

Lord, thank you that you're more than enough for me.

And when God's more than enough for me, I overflow, and He

becomes more than enough for them through me.

And when I'm fearful about my future, I rejoice in Him, that

He holds the future, that He's faithful and He'll never leave

me nor forsake me. Is that right?

I rejoice in who God is and I rejoice in what God has done.

That's what I love doing. So what I do is sometimes when I

feel, I don't know if you ever feel like you're not good enough

or you're not worthy, when I don't feel righteous, you know

what I do? I rejoice in Jesus that became

sin for me on the cross because he became sin so that I can be

the righteousness of God in Christ.

And so when you don't feel like you're good enough, go and

rejoice in the one that became sin for you on the cross.

When you experience, you say, Lord, I feel fearful of curses

and of crime. The Bible says that he became

cursed for us. Cursed is any man that hangs on

a tree. He became cursed so that we can

be blessed. Our blessing is not determined

by our circumstances. Our blessing is determined by

the one that hung on the cross for us.

When I feel sometimes friends, when I feel ashamed and I feel

like I'm not, I'm not worthy and sometimes I'm ashamed of things

I've said or done, I go to Jesus and I say, you became naked on

the cross. You became ashamed so that I

never have to be ashamed. And sometimes, friends, when you

feel rejected because I felt rejected by people in the

States, I went there, I poured my life out for them and they

just rejected me. And when they rejected me, I

went back to God and I said, Jesus on the cross.

When you hung on the cross, you said, my God, my God, why have

you forsaken me? And I said, Jesus, you became

rejected so that I could be accepted.

And now, no, I rejoice because it brings me strength.

And then when I feel rejected, I go to the Father and he accepts

me and I don't need your acceptance because I have his

acceptance in Jesus name, Amen. I'll never forget this.

John Wesley. John Wesley went as a

missionary, but he was did not really know God.

He was a religious man. He did not have the Holy Spirit.

And in his book on the on experiencing the baptism and the

empowering of the Holy Spirit, he says what changed his life

was they were in a life threatening storm with Moravian

believers and they were going to die.

Everyone knew that they weren't going to die.

It was dire straits. They were they were desperate

and he knew he was going to die and he saw these Moravians

worshipping these Moravians going going for it, Holy, holy,

holy. They were just worthy is your

name. They were worth worshiping God,

singing songs of worship while they were busy dying.

And John Wayne looked at them and he's like, what if you guys

can worship God? There's something that you have

that I don't have. And he started seeking God and

he got empowered by the spirit and the race is history.

We've got the Methodist Church today, millions upon millions of

people's lives impacted because a man saw Moravian people

worship in the storm. Will you worship God in the

midst of the storm? I want to tell you my last

story. I'm a Methodist youth pastor and

I'm at a four way stop in my mind.

But it was actually a two way stop, which meant that Wagner

and Valdu fainter crashed right into me and smashed my car so

badly that the guy that was next to me could not get out of the

door. And the first thing I did was I

was in a car crash and I thought, this is the end.

Candace, I'm sure you remember the story, but this was the

sorry Candace and Chad. But you, I mean, what a

blessing. They they come from clocks.

Oh, Candace comes from clocks store.

And So what happened was I remember experiencing, oh, I

don't have insurance. Whoa, this is the end of the

world. And I had a chauffeur in my

door. And the first thing I did was I

took a chauffeur out of my door and I started walking around the

car. Jesus, you're so awesome.

Jesus, I'm so thankful. Whoa.

You're going to work all things together for the good of those

who love you. Jesus, You, you're with me.

Ah, Jesus. Then the guys come out.

They're these Breakers. They they come out there.

They're holding me. They're like, hey, what?

I said, don't worry, I've got money.

Don't worry. Jesus is awesome.

Most of Jesus. Jesus, I was a broke youth

bastard. I didn't have any money.

I didn't have a place to stay. This car was given to me by my

dad. I didn't have anything.

Jesus. Poop, poop, poop.

I go to the police station. The police tells me who is The

Who bumped into you? I said Wagner and Val Defender.

They said Wagner and Val Defender.

They said didn't. Why didn't they hit you?

I said what? They said they hit everyone in

town even for no reason. You gave them a reason and they

didn't hit you. I said they didn't hit me.

The police are like, yo, you were very lucky.

I said no, I'm blessed. Vanna involved who phones me on

the phone. He sways at me, he screams at

me. He says to me he wants that

insurance sorted out now. I was broke, I didn't know what

to do. 3 days later I pray for Vanna.

He comes, he brings me a handful of PS chocolates.

He worked for Cadbury's. He gives me PS chocolates.

Sorry for the way I spoke to you.

Sorry for the way I spoke to you on the phone.

You won't be. This is the best.

The best is I did not have money to fix the car.

I hosted a Christian band, 1000 kids came to the Christian show

and the the band that was the biggest show in South Africa.

The band said to me, we're going to give you 25% of the money we

made the 25% paid all the repairs on my car.

But the best news is that Van and Valdo came to the Christian

show and Van and Valdo gave their lives to Jesus and they

committed their lives to Christ and Jesus changed their lives.

Now I'm not saying it's because I I blew the shofar, but one

thing I do know is that sometimes in the crashes of life

and the disappointments and the mistakes that we make, we can

invite the strength of God in and the pain can actually be

redeemed because God is involved in your life. 3 CR Let's stand

together. I want to pray for us, Jesus.

I want to thank you for every man, woman, and child in this

room. I want to thank you, God, that

you never leave us nor forsake us.

I want to thank you that when the storms come, we can be like

those Moravians and we can sing worship songs.

We can sing holy forever, Lord, because we have a God that is

faithful. And Lord Jesus, we want to thank

you for what you did on the cross today.

We want to thank you that we can meditate on your character and

that your joy and your peace and your race can flood our souls.

And Lord, thank you that we will rise up on wings like eagles.

And so right now, God, I want to thank you for every man and

woman. And if you're standing here this

evening and you under the age of 16, Marie really felt like God's

got to got something for you. If you're under the age of 16,

just put your hand up there where you are.

And if you're under the Angel of 16, God just this morning wants

to say to you this evening wants to say to you that you are mine.

And I'm calling you this evening, calling you and I'm

calling you home. And the Father says, come and

experience me. I'll never leave you nor forsake

you. I hold your future in the mighty

name of Jesus. And Father, I want to speak your

blessing upon this beautiful church.

I want to thank you, Lord, for Rory and Mel and the eldership

team. I want to thank you that this

church is a Church of worship, the Church of your presence, and

that we are strengthened by your presence, by your closeness in

our lives. In Jesus name, Amen.