Sermon
The Force of Faith: Understanding Heaven's Power
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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All God wants you to do is win, win, win, win, win, win, win.
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He wants you to win so much that he came in the form of man,
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in flesh and blood, and he purchased your victory with his own blood.
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That's how much he wants you to win, win, win.
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God Himself wants you to get tired of winning.
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That you'll be winning so much.
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Welcome to the City Light Church podcast.
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Thanks for joining us today, as we look into God's word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us.
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If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com.
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That's citylightnyc.com.
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Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit
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is already working in our hearts and minds.
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As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God,
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that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you.
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We started this year 2025 with a word from the Lord that it was going to be an uncommon year,
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a year of breakthrough, a year of moving forward, a year of Holy Spirit surprises,
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a year of advancement, and we're locked in, amen.
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It's not some New Year's resolution because it's April.
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Can we all say that it's April?
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Don't repeat after me.
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In the first service, I was quite blessed by the encouragement.
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Everybody said together, we're in April.
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But I mean technically it's the last day of March, but it's April already.
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Tomorrow.
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Is it? No.
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Tuesday.
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Can we just say that it's April?
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You know, people have forgotten their New Year's resolutions are ready or what they were hoping
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would happen in the New Year, but we're locked in.
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The Lord is going to increase us.
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The Lord is advancing us, and so I want to feed you in accordance with the word of the Lord.
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We're moving forward.
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I want to give you the food from the word that's going to help you receive and actually experience
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what He promised us, amen.
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For some Christians, it's enough to just talk about it and never receive it.
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I'm not like that.
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I hope you're not like that.
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And I hope you realize there are Christians who are content to just talk about it.
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And it's always in the future.
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But that's silliness.
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If we're going to talk about it and it's real, it should be manifested, amen.
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And that's why faith is so important.
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I mentioned last week, hope is important too.
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On earth, there's those three things, faith, hope, and love.
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Hope is important and to have a heart of hope, but hope is always in the future.
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And in a way, hope will come in and support faith and hope can spark faith,
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but hope is always in the future.
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That's why so many Christians, they believe that life is only going to get good when they die.
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Can you imagine that?
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Life is something to endure, to struggle through.
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It's kind of a hell and then you die and eventually you inherit heaven in the sweet by and by.
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But we're not putting our eyes just on the future, otherwise it's always in the future.
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But faith says I have it now, amen.
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Now faith is the substance of things hope for, the evidence of things not seen.
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And so I want to get you strong in your faith and my role model is Jesus Christ himself
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who was the ultimate faith preacher and teacher.
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Amen.
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There was a while there where the term faith preacher had a dirty name.
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Oh, is that one of those faith preachers?
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One of those faith teachers?
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What other kind is there?
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In order to realize how the New Testament church should flow,
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how New Testament ministry should flow, you know who's a good person to study?
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Jesus.
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Really?
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Read the gospels, see what he focused on, see what he emphasized.
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And we should do the same thing and the same proportions that he did.
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And one thing you'll find when you study the gospels and the ministry and life of Jesus
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is that he talked about faith a lot.
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He taught on faith.
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He constantly was provoking people to have more faith.
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He would comment on people's level of faith.
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They really weren't with it.
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He would say, oh, you have little faith?
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To those who really shine, he would say, great is your faith?
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To the unfortunate few, he would say, where is your faith?
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It was like he had a faithometer.
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And he can detect the substance of faith.
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Someday, what didn't even register?
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And yes, indeed, faith is a substance.
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You know why I think we got messed up because in modern English, in the vernacular,
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that word faith is really misused.
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Like people will ask you, what faith are you?
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Are you of the Christian faith?
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Are you of the Muslim faith?
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Are you of the Buddhist faith?
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Are you of the Jewish faith?
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And that's not at all how the Bible uses the word faith.
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Faith is a force.
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Faith is stuff.
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And it's stuff.
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Hebrews says faith is the substance.
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We're robbed when we think it's just something ethereal.
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Like Pixie does.
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It's just faith, you know?
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Even George Michael said, you've got to have faith.
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The faith, the faith, the faith, you know?
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You just got to have faith.
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No, faith is stuff.
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Light is stuff.
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My man was brought up blown where there was 9th or 10th grade physics class.
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I learned light was stuff.
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Particles, photons.
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You don't think it's stuff, but you concentrate enough for that stuff.
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And put the photons together and it's concentrated into laser beam middle burn through steel.
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Amen.
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Air is stuff.
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You don't believe air is stuff, but if 50 pounds of air fell on your head, it would hurt.
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You feel that.
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Sound waves, there's stuff.
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And faith is stuff.
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It's a substance.
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And it's a substance that can increase.
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And it's important for us to increase because everything will ever receive from the Lord.
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We will receive by faith.
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It always comes by faith.
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Salvation is by faith.
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Technically, it's by grace through faith.
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But the channel it'll always come through is faith.
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Amen.
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I'm looking at that part of the sanctuary because I'm I didn't share this in the first
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ever, but I'm just reminded how in 2009,
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city light was seven years old.
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And we struggled the first five or six years.
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I mean, it was tough.
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And all of a sudden got the break through in late 06, early 07.
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And by 2009, we were packed out in the Grammarcy Theatre and things were really popping.
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And I felt the Lord, you remember mom, those days, the Grammarcy.
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How many of you, anybody here from the Grammarcy Theatre days?
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You have a melon.
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Who else?
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You were there.
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You remember Grammarcy Theatre.
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And in 09, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, I want to church in Queens.
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So I didn't know any better.
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I just came out the next time I said, we're starting a church in Queens.
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With the Lord put on my heart.
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And it was the spring of 09.
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And also, I mean, church planters would want to just pull their hair at the way I did church
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planting. It was like no planning, no strategy.
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The Lord said it.
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Let's do it.
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So it was spring of 09.
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And I just announced, I looked at the calendar and I said, hey, September 20th, 2009.
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That's a good Sunday.
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Because all is always a good time.
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And you don't want to have it too close to Labor Day.
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So third week of September.
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And we put on all our printed material.
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I get up every Sunday and say, we're starting a church.
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The launch date is September 20th, 2009.
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We didn't have a place, though.
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We didn't have a place to meet.
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And because you're not in the biz,
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you might not realize there's no like hotline.
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No 800 number pastors call and say, you know, I'm in the market for a place to rent.
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Give me a list of 10 buildings in a story of Queens.
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I mean, if you had to get a church building, how would you do it?
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The same way I do it.
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I don't have any other special way of doing it.
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You drive around and look for a building.
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So I did that for weeks.
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Just driving around.
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If you see a good building, you take a number, you try to call, you knock on the door.
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I did that for weeks.
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Nothing was coming up.
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I'd still get up the next time they go.
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September 20th, we're launching City Light Queens.
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And then one day, when I really, really didn't want to go out
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and just drive around a story, I really felt from the Lord, go out.
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And I was driving down 31st Avenue here.
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And I saw this church with a bunch of really tall grass.
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And I got excited.
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Because the church with tall grass means no one's meeting in it.
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So I parked my car, not being on the door.
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And a priest opened it up.
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He later, he told me he'd come in two or three times out of the year.
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And I ran into one of those two or three times.
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And this sanctuary was full of statues and icons.
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And what it actually was was a big storehouse
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for the Anglican Church.
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And I quickly talked to him.
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And I'm at this point, so I'm 33 years old.
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But I'm wet behind the years, really young looking.
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And you know, when you're talking to somebody from high church,
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you always wonder, are they even going to take you seriously?
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Are they going to dismiss you?
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Because the Anglicans, you know, they've been here for centuries.
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King George, he bequeathed, acres and acres to the Anglican Church in New York.
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When how many centuries is City Lighthold?
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Oh, you know, we started in 02, but we're here to wheel and deal with you, baby.
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And I noticed he's taking me seriously.
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And so I had in my mind a budget what we could afford
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was $1,500 a Sunday.
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So right there, right, right where you're sitting.
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Right there, we're talking surrounded by statues.
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And I said, hey, about price, what we can do is $1,500.
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And he goes, $1,500 a month, you got yourself a deal.
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You know, because I thought $1,500 a Sunday.
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He said $1,500 a month.
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And I just, you know, that's when you try not to crack.
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You're like, yes, sir.
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That's right.
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What you just said is right.
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$1,500.
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And do you know how much we pay to this day?
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It was $1,500 for years and years.
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I know, I think it's up to $1,900.
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Just because in the last few years, they said, all right,
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we got to put in like a three to five percent cost
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the living increase attached.
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Okay, so now it's, find a space like this
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for 1,900 a month with 24, 7 acts and anywhere.
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How was that?
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It was by faith because faith is always released
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by your speaking.
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You show me what you're saying.
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I'll show you what you're believing.
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Faith cannot be contained.
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The Bible says, if you confess with your mouth,
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if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart.
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So faith is one half in your heart.
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But if it's just in your heart, it's saying locked up.
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It's released through your words.
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And we kept on saying, we're starting a church in Queens.
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We're starting a church in Queens.
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Will do you have the money to do it? No.
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Do you even have the space?
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No.
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What do you have other than graphics saying that you're doing it?
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That's it.
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And God said, that's enough, amen.
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And keep saying it.
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Hallelujah.
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So I want your faith to grow.
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Because big faith means big promises received.
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Amen.
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Little faith means little promises received.
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I don't want you skinny with faith.
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No scrawny faith.
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I want you swole with faith.
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I want you diesel.
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I want you to be so pumped up with faith.
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You got to turn sideways to get inside a room
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to fit through the doorway.
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Big faith, big receiving, big promises manifested.
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Amen.
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Hallelujah.
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Let me show you up this awesome scripture
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from Mark chapter four, verse 30.
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Because Christians,
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Christians for, I'm still studying this.
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I mean, I have some theories.
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But Christians seem to be addicted to littleness.
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Everything is little.
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Like we're growing as a church.
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And we don't really get persecuted much.
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But watch when we break a thousand.
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Then all of a sudden the persecution comes.
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Only Christians are against mega churches.
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You hear that?
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Oh, is that a mega church?
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Like it's a, oh, that, oh, one minute.
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Like the Christian church was started as a mega church.
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Yeah.
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In Acts, when the church was birthed,
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Peter preached and 3,000 people.
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God saved.
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And started the first mega church.
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The first mega church was a mega church.
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Amen.
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Oh, you can be prosperous.
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Just not too prosperous.
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Just so your needs are met.
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Don't have any spillover.
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And then they obsess over scriptures like with the mustard seed.
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Like little faith is prized.
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Like little faith is what our aim and goal should be.
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And I heard this when I first got saved all the time.
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You know.
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You always know it's full of doubt and unbelief
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when they start with the sing-songy voice.
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You know, Jesus said,
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all you need is faith, the size of a mustard seed.
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And I was like, huh, huh.
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I even, I say this as a confession of sin.
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I, and this was 1992, I just got saved.
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I don't, you guys were in the city of 1992?
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Where do you, people forget this?
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Do you remember?
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And you may not.
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But I was 18 then and I was,
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that there were waves of rollerbladers everywhere.
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Like up and down 50.
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That like just disappeared.
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But there would be, like, you know how everybody right now
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has a $200 bike from Timo and is bringing you your Uber Eats delivery?
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It was like that, except all rollerblades.
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And I rollerbladed from four stills,
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down Queens Boulevard to New Life Christian Center.
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And not in New Life, New Life, what's it called?
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New Life, the book, the Christian bookstore in Jamaica.
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Yeah, and you know why?
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I got myself a mustard seed necklace.
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I'm sorry, father forgive me.
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It was, it was, this, as only Christians can make,
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this cheap plastic but spray painted gold
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with a little, little plastic case
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and inside was the mustard seed.
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As though that's the goal to have a little,
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it, it's a complete twist thing of the scriptures.
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Jesus never, and I'll show it to you.
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Jesus never prize little faith.
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He just said, this is the baseline.
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This is your starting point.
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Even if your faith is little,
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don't stay there for goodness sake.
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But even if it's as small as a mustard seed,
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you can get stuff done.
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But faith should be growing.
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Hey man, let's look at that scripture.
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Then Jesus said, to what show we like in the kingdom of God
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or with what parable should we picture it?
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The kingdom of God.
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And this is the second time he's using the mustard seed example.
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Have you ever seen a mustard seed?
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It's ridiculous looking.
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The size of a pinhead doesn't look like,
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it looks like a piece of dust.
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But when you planted, it grows into one of the largest trees.
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The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed,
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which when it is sewn on the ground
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is smaller than all the seeds on earth.
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Yet when it is sewn, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs
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and shoots out large branches so that the birds of the air
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may nest under its shade.
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Mustard seed faith is ever increasing faith.
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Growing faith, expanding faith.
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This is basically one long intro to my sermon,
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which I'm about to begin in a few minutes.
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But I am here to pump you up
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to fill you like a Thanksgiving turkey.
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Stuff you with the word of God and the word of God.
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Because faith is vital.
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You receive everything via faith.
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So you should have big faith.
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How does one get faith?
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Faith is a substance.
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It's a force.
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It's a force that goes and brings the promises of God
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out of the spiritual realm into this physical earthly realm.
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It makes the invisible visible.
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It's like spiritual currency.
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And by the way, you get to decide.
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Isn't that good news?
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Some people are scared.
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Oh, I can.
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And again, Christians love to put all the blame on God.
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And they think it's like giving all the glory to God.
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But they put all the blame on God and all the emphasis on God.
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Oh, whatever God wills.
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Huh, huh, huh.
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You know, whatever.
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No.
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Jesus would go up to people and say,
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according to your faith,
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be it unto you,
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you get to decide in accordance with your faith
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or in proportion to your faith.
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So how much faith do you got?
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You can go into Best Buy, get a 75-inch
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OLED TV with 20 bucks.
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You don't got enough currency.
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I want you to have big faith
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overflowing spiritual currency.
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Amen.
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Hallelujah.
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I'm aware as I preach this.
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I tell you who I'm preaching to.
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Everyone.
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I always preach to everyone.
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But I'm really preaching and ministering to those
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who are under the gun right now,
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feeling it.
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The Lord, about 36 hours ago,
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I felt some people's weight.
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I felt there's people.
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You did a good job just to show up today,
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but you're suffering.
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Life's not fun right now.
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Life sucks right now.
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You're waking up.
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No energy.
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You feel beat up.
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Hope for the future is gone.
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You're barely putting one foot in front of the other.
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Every second on earth is pain.
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There's people like that right now.
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God sees you.
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He knows what's not going to help you
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is that they're their hog.
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They're there.
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No.
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You need an injection of the God kind of faith.
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Hallelujah.
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That faith is going to move.
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Mountain's faith is going to turn it around.
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Hallelujah.
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Hallelujah.
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I just said the God kind of faith.
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You know where that term comes from?
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Mark 11,
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where Jesus
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curses the fig tree.
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And then turns to the disciples
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and says,
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in many English translations he says,
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have faith in God.
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But I dare you to Google it
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or talk to chat or grok,
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wherever you're talking to right now.
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And ask it what to unpack the original Greek.
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And it's more accurately,
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more closely translated to
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have the faith of God
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or have the God kind of faith.
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Which is very controversial
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to those same people who love defeat.
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They love smallness.
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They want you to suffer.
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A hellacious life to just die.
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And then you get rewarded.
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They don't believe in victory on earth.
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If you have victory on earth,
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they have faith that it's going to end soon.
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So you can go to
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what's to them, normal Christianity
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of misery and suffering.
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They get very upset at that.
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Oh, what's God is God?
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He doesn't need faith.
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He just is.
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What do you know about what God is?
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And I'm going to take Jesus's words over yours.
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Jesus said, have the God kind of faith.
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Do you know when he said it?
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Right after he cursed the fig tree.
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When I was 16 years old,
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newly saved,
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I read Jesus cursed the fig tree.
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I thought,
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like, what did he tell it to do?
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Oh, what did he?
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I thought Jesus cursed out the fig tree.
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No, it says he cursed the fig tree.
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And it doesn't.
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Yeah.
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Like, you know, you're stinging the fig tree.
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I'm going to get a fig and
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I don't know figs.
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I'm like, Jesus.
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Pretty emotional for the son of God, you know?
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Like, fly off the handle and
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no, listen, he calmly.
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Look at the scriptures.
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He came up to the fig tree.
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This is how we cursed it.
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He spoke.
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Let no more fruit grow on you from this day and after.
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And says the fig tree withered away.
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So what's the God kind of faith?
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It's faith that is released when you speak.
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Is it so preposterous to imagine that faith is a substance?
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It's not to me because the scripture says faith is a substance.
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But faith is a spiritual force.
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When we get to heaven, it'll make sense.
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You know, electricity wasn't invented, right?
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Electricity was discovered.
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It's been around that whole time.
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It's discovered a little over a hundred years ago.
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But try to explain it and describe it to somebody just in the early 19th century.
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Faith is a force.
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Faith is a substance.
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And you see God using it in Genesis 1.
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How, when he spoke, right in Genesis 1, 1, God, looking over.
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And he says let there be light.
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And each of the creation commands was indeed a vocal command.
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Let there be, let there be, let there be, and creation happen.
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Jesus speaks to the fig tree.
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And then right after he speaks to the fig tree, curses it, he says have the God kind of faith.
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In other words, have the faith, real biblical faith that believes that when you speak,
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and it's aligned with the word of God, it will happen here on earth.
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Some of your minds are getting blown away.
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You never heard anything like this before.
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You need to rediscover the Jesus of the Bible and the principles that he taught.
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Some of you, you have been using faith just in reverse.
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You've been cursing your own lives, speaking doubt, speaking unbelief,
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speaking death, the Bible says death and life are in the power of the tongue.
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And some of you, it's the same, some of you get happy when something bad happens.
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You've had faith for something bad to happen, then something terrible happens,
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and you go I knew it, I knew it, it's always happened, I just knew it.
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I'm believing, I'm believing for my landlord to throw me out for like six months.
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I knew that was coming and he called me to, I just knew it.
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Imagine if you actually apply the God kind of, you've been flowing in it, you've just been
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cursing. And know what the scripture says, death and life are in the power of the tongue,
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and they that love is will eat the fruit.
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They're off. They that love what? They that love this truth that you have creative ability
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and power in your mouth. By the way, it all begins with salvation.
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You did not get saved with duct tape across your mouth.
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You open that mouth and you said, Jesus, I believe you are Lord.
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Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.
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What is all that?
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Got media preaching.
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Good try though. Whoever that is back there, that's good stuff.
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I'm going to preach it out of Mark 1123, but a very good verse.
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Nonetheless, a very good one.
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Whoever's on, I can't see who's on the media, but don't mind me messing with you.
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If you didn't, there's a contract we're going to get, it's finalized now.
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You sign up for that. If you're on media, it's a relationship that we develop.
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Let me show you Corinthians. Second Corinthians 413.
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Big faith comes from the Word of God. It's when your convinced of God's will and his word is
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his will. See, there is nothing in the Word of God that says, you're going to begin a church
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plant in Manhattan, and then when that church plant groweth, then thou shalt surely set
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thine sights upon queens. I've searched. It's not in the 66 books of the Bible. It's not in there.
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But what is in there is that he'll give you victory, that he'll be with you, that he's commanded
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you to go and preach the gospel to every nation, and then he'll key came and gave me a now word.
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Fresh from the oven of heaven. Spoke something to me. Now I have his written word,
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but I also have his spoken word. What has he been saying to you? In the midst of regular
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Monday in life, in the midst of drudgery, even if you're going through it, this is why we get
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with God to hear his sweet whisperings, because he's giving you a better word, a better word for
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and if you will get a hold of that word and believe that word, it's that word that'll manifest in
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your life. Amen. And since we have the same spirit of faith, Paul teaching in Corinthians,
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according to what is written, I believed and therefore I spoke, can you get any more plain
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than this? Don't tell me you're believing and not speaking. Now, you're always saying something,
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even when you're depressed, busted and disgusted, you're just not speaking anything positive,
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but many people end up going through the phone instead of the throne, calling up their friend
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and then they vent. You won't believe what happened. And then one goes for 45 minutes and just
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douses their buddy with slime, and then it's the buddy's turn. All right, I endured your nonsense
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for 45 minutes, and you think that's bad. Wait till I tell you how my week's been going.
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And you're prophesying your future and you're releasing faith just in reverse.
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Luke 17. Oh, no, we got to read Romans. I didn't know in the first service, but we got
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Romans because we're talking about big faith, strong faith, Romans 417, that flexing faith.
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You say, it's very hard for me to speak positively, and I know it's hard. I've struggled with that,
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because this is how I've likened it. You know, I used to say crazy glue. I guess that doesn't
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exist anymore. Now it's all about that gorilla glue. But back in my day, that was crazy glue,
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and the working class man, right? He put it at his heart hat.
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And the crazy glue kept them on the steel beam. It's like when you're really going through it,
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have you noticed it's like the devil himself comes and applies, if you're older, crazy glue,
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if you're younger, gorilla glue, to your lips, and seals them tight, when you're going through it,
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and why? Why does the devil want you not speaking? Because if you're not speaking,
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you're not releasing faith, and you're not creating with God. Yeah.
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You think you got it bad? You say, my circumstances don't match what the word of God says.
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How can I, how can I speak? Imagine your Abraham, and your name means father of many nations.
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That's what Abraham means. And you got zero kids.
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And every party you go to, you know, he wore that little tags. Hi, hello, my name is Abraham.
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You know when, at the socials, the leasing agents open house, they have to put on the tag,
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people come and go, Abraham, that means father of many nations. Wow, how many kids do you have?
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Zero.
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Yet God had him keep saying Abraham, Abraham, Abraham, and decreeing that thing out of his mouth,
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because that is how faith is released. You don't think he got discouraged? We have scriptural proof
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that he did. But he kept calling himself by his new name, Abraham.
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As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed.
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God, who gives life to the dead, who gives life to the dead, everything he touches shall live.
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Oh, hallelujah. There have been times in recent history I was dead. It felt like I was just busted
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up on the inside. Sometimes life just happens. Things happen. And life just happens. Things happen.
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And then Satan comes in and he says, pushing in on that and leaning in on that wounded.
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Next thing, you know, it's like the whole world is spinning and you're just, oh, Lord,
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help me make it through the day. But God gives life to the dead. He'll turn that thing around
-
so quick. If you're feeling dead today, look to Jesus. He specializes in resurrection.
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God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist, it's describing the
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God kind of faith. See, city like Queens didn't exist, but we talked about it like it did.
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And then what are the chances? I just wanted to have a normal day and Lord said, get out,
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get out, go in the car and you need to go look for a location. But I did that. The laundry might
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won't have us. And that day we ended up here. God calls those things which do not exist as though
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they did. Maybe your prosperity doesn't exist. Call it as though we did. Yeah, maybe your spouse
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in your life right now doesn't exist. Call them as though they did. The breakthrough doesn't exist.
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The promotion, the increase. Call it as though it did. Hallelujah.
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Who contrary to hope, in hope believed so that he became the father of many nations,
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according to what was spoken, social your descendants be. Verse 19, this is pumping now. And not
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being weak in faith, you see the Bible has categories for different kinds of faith. When heaven
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looks at me, I wanted to say he's not being weak in faith. And I've been there. Would man be
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panby weak, scrawny, Mickey Mouse faith. And you know what? God would even work with that. And that's
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what Jesus meant. You need faith as a mustard seed. See that don't be happy with mustard seed size
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faith. But I work even with that. Not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body.
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He was about a hundred years old. They hadn't invented a little blue pill.
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He needed real resurrection power if you catch my drift.
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You guys are kind of young. You took health. All right. Just making sure that joke landed.
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Since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb,
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I got a throat and that's how we get the religious people out. He did not waver at the promise
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of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith. That's what we're talking about this
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morning. Getting strong in faith. See when you're walking in faith, the world comes alive. It's
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like going from black and white to color. Your very cells are crackling with the life of God.
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You can't wait to get up because you're like, I wonder what he's going to do today. That's God's
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best for you. Hallelujah. He was strengthened in faith. And how was he strengthened in faith?
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He gave glory to God in verse 21, being fully convinced that what he had promised,
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he was also able to perform. What has he promised you? Hallelujah.
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I know what he promised me. I know that for years, the opposite of what he promised me seemed to
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be happening. That's painful, but that's where you develop endurance. The book of Hebrews talks
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about that. You have faith, but you need endurance. You need endurance. If anybody can have faith by
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the end of this sermon, no, but endurance comes on a Wednesday morning, on a Thursday afternoon.
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When you see Jenny by the water cooler again, not Jenny. I don't know about Jenny.
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It's been a rough morning. Trains delayed and now there's Jenny.
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But he's still to any Jenny's in here. I speak healing over your soul for the damage that might have
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caused you. All right, Jesus teaching on faith. Luke 17 verses 5 through 8.
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Yeah, enduring faith is during the bad times when you don't see it happening.
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The whole Bible is a collection of stories of men and women of God who didn't give up and endured.
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And the Apostles see, they got the idea. They realized, hey, this man,
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capital M, no man ever spoke like him before. He speaks with authority. The signs and wonders.
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He's definitely got our attention. He keeps teaching and preaching about faith.
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So they connected for them. You know how many Christians never even realize I need more faith.
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I need to grow stronger in faith. I need big faith. At least the disciples got it and they realized,
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okay, we're lacking in this department. So Lord, increase our faith. Next verse,
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I'll tell you what the Bible doesn't say to their request, what Jesus didn't do after their
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request to increase their faith. He didn't wave his hand over them and go, more faith.
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He didn't give them a book, 11 principles to greater faith. What he gave them was the word of God.
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He begins preaching to them because faith comes from the word of God.
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And this is what Jesus says when they say, increase our faith. If you have faith as a mustard seed,
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now that's a misquartered all the time. If you have faith as small as a, like it's glorious to
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have mustard-sized faith. No, this is the baseline. If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say
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that this mulberry tree be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea and it would obey you.
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Next verse. And which of you, now let me just pause right here. I used to get confused by
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things like this because I was only 16, had no biblical training. And to me, it seemed like
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Jesus would teach sometimes like he had ADD. He would just bounce from topic to topic.
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Like they say, increase our faith. He talks about a mustard seed. Then he starts talking about
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servants performing tasks and duties. What does that have to do with the price of eggs? Which is
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come down, by the way. It's connected, actually. Whenever it seems like Jesus is going off topic,
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he's not. He's very good at what he does, the best. He's not going off topic. He's teaching on
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faith here. And which of you having a servant plowing or tending sheep will say to him when he
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has come in from the field, come at once and sit down to eat. But will he not rather say to the
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servant, prepare something for my supper, encourage yourself and serve me, serve me till I have eaten
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and drunk. And afterward, you will eat and drink. Is there next verse? I think that's it. That's it, right?
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That's it. What is Jesus talking about? He's saying faith is a servant. Faith is a servant for you
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designed to work for you. So get your servant to work. Amen. Maybe today we can't relate to this,
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back then people had served. Today we don't have servants. It's like hope. You know, maybe
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Tuesdays and Thursdays for a few hours just to tidy up. The Bible says faith is a servant.
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Your servant. The problem is your servants asleep. Your servants in the basement has been asleep
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before a week. He's underutilized. It actually, this servant isn't a begrudging servant. This servant
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lives to serve. This servant, it doesn't good to serve. But some people, because they're not
-
releasing faith, they're not speaking faith, they're not agreeing with the word of God, some people
-
servants have been asleep for a week, some people's for a month. There's Christians, they smell musty
-
and dusty. You can tell that they're asleep just like their faith servants is asleep like
-
Rip Van Winkle for over a hundred years. Go get your servant. Wake him up. That faith servant
-
brought salvation to you when you said yes to Jesus. That faith servant brought the baptism
-
of the Holy Ghost to you when you said yes to the Holy Spirit. That faith servant will bring
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healing to you, blessing to you, the goodness of God to you, but you got to release in that same
-
spirit of faith, believe and speak as Paul taught. Hallelujah. I feel something shifting in there.
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Some of you are getting it. Some of you got it enough to say, I better check the words that I'm
-
speaking. I better check on the words that I'm saying. But then you're going to take it to another
-
level where it's not just now you're not saying the cursed things you've been saying over your
-
life. Now you're going to replace the saying of negative things with actually co-creating with God
-
and agreeing with his word. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
-
Zachariah, that's John the Baptist's dad. An angel showed up to tell him that
-
Elizabeth was going to supernaturally conceive John the Baptist. He had all these questions
-
for the angel and he was in ministry, a position of authority. Now I don't know about you. I'd like
-
to think of a 15-foot angel showed up before me telling me stuff hour ago. Yeah. I agree. I mean
-
Mary had that sense. Gabriel showed up to Mary and she said, let it be unto me according to your
-
word. Zachariah has got all these questions. He wants to face two frontal lobeans, two logical.
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I mean Mary was a virgin. She should have had more doubt in unbelief. Zachariah's just couldn't
-
conceive with his wife. So you know what the angel did? This is in the Bible by the way. Some of you
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are looking at me like I'm making this up as I go along. I can't show you all the scriptures.
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Kuri, the first few chapters of Luke, the angel strikes him dumb, mute. So he couldn't speak.
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Wow. Yeah, mom, thank you for that. You were always there for me with amen's and wow's. Always.
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Why? Because he was exhibiting such doubt and unbelief. The angel heard from God himself,
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I believe, and said this guy needs to, we got to put the mute button on. Lower that volume.
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Because the way this guy started, he's not going to end well and he's going to end up undoing.
-
You can abort the promise of God. There are spiritual abortions. God says, I want to bless you.
-
I'm with you. I'm going to multiply you and you end up going, well, I don't never happen.
-
And you know, the, you know, the boomers took all the wealth, you know, all the boomers,
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they didn't leave me. It's so hard for Gen Z and millennials now to get a home, you know,
-
and you're committing an abortion in the spirit. Agree with God's word or agree with man.
-
Pick a side. Amen. Abraham considered not his own body already dead. That means he ignored it.
-
He wouldn't think about it. I'm sure he had an acting voice. Bro, you're old. Bro, you're really old.
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You're a hundred. You're not going to have kids. But he ignored that voice. He considered not his
-
body. Whatever voice you're hearing that's saying, you can't. You look at God. You hear his voice.
-
The word of God that says, you can. Hallelujah. Oh, thank you, Lord.
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Worship team, I'm going to call you up in about five minutes, just letting you know.
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First Corinthians 1557, because we, we see the importance of faith and we know faith comes from the word.
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And I'm excited to preach this message. I believe it's a reinforcing, a reinforcing to mature
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believers, but the Lord has been doing something so precious in our midst, so many new people,
-
especially people that are completely new to Christianity, like I was when I got saved.
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And that's who we're seeing. The Lord bring more and more of. So what you're hearing this morning,
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you probably never heard in your life before. Nothing remotely close. Study the person of Jesus
-
in the gospels. You'll fall in love with him when you see him as he really is. And then you'll
-
get a little bit mad because you realize religion lied to you your whole life. Renaissance paintings
-
lie to you. Established mainline churches lie to you. He's different. He's unique. He's
-
irresistible. It's amazing. You cannot read about him without falling head over heels and love with
-
him, bowing the knee and utter respect and worship to him. Jesus. Study the person of Jesus and then
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study one of his primary teachings. Faith. And watch what happens in your life. Watch what happens
-
as your faith grows. The Bible in Hebrews. It says that there was in them found an evil heart.
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When you hear evil heart, what do you think of? Like in the natural, I think of a pedophile,
-
an evil heart. I think of Hitler, an evil heart, right? You know what it says? An evil heart of
-
unbelief. That's what's evil. The 10 spies. It says they brought back an evil report. And what
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was their report? They were giants in the land. And we can't take the land because they're too
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big for us. And we were like grasshoppers in their eyes. By the way, the giants never even said,
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hey, you guys are like grasshoppers in our eyes. They had this inferiority complex. They put
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words in the giants mouth and said, oh, we're like grasshoppers. It was an evil report. And when
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God is saying, I'm going to bless you. I'm with you. I'm for you. Even if you're so down and out,
-
you can't hear him. You can't hear him telling you directly. You can read it in his word. He's
-
speaking to you directly. And an evil heart will then go, no, that's for everyone else, not me.
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Nothing good ever happens to me. I break it off for you in Jesus name. I break it off for you.
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May the good things of God overwhelm you. He's a good God, a loving God. And he leads you in
-
victory in Jesus name. So I want to give you three scriptures. The three most common areas.
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People struggle in number one is the very concept of victory.
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I just had like a DJ collid flashback. I mean, he thinks it. And everybody gets excited.
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All I do is win, win. All God wants you to do is win, win, win, win, win, win, win. He wants
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you to win so much that he came in the form of man in flesh and blood. And he purchased your
-
victory with his own blood. That's how much he wants you to win, win, win. God himself wants you
-
to get tired of winning, that you'll be winning so much. But thanks be to God who gives us the
-
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's all say together, but you say it in the first
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person. Thanks be to God who gives me the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
-
Just ask Pastor Mnemon knows about my bad days. Just don't go into the details with them.
-
They don't need to know that kind of ugly. Just ask him if it's true. As Pastor Bo exaggerating,
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he'll tell you, I'm not exaggerating. There are, and I wish more pastors would be open.
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There's a buffeting that can take place sometimes. And there have been times where I felt like my
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spleen was coming out of my nostrils and my lungs out my ears. I mean, just like the old cartoons
-
when they get head over the head with a mallet and all you see is the birdies. It's like,
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and I felt like a loser incarnate. You're nevertheless in those times even when you struggle to believe it,
-
say it. I would say it. I would say it with a groan, but thanks be to God who gives me the victory
-
in Christ Jesus. That's when it counts. Anybody can actually say it in service.
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Anybody can say during the good times, but when it counts and when it reverses your environment
-
is when you don't feel like it. Number two, people struggle in the area of finances.
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The Bible has a lot to say about your finances and prosperity, but this is my favorite verse
-
about it. There's dozens of them, but this is my favorite verse because I never heard it preached
-
and never even heard anybody talk about it. It's very explicit. You can't argue with it. It's not
-
like some obscure verse and you're like, let me read between the lines. It's pretty direct. And when
-
I discovered it in the Bible, it leapt up and I thought, why, how come it whenever preaches this?
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Christians are very, very famous for telling people they should be poor,
-
for celebrating poverty, but they're not famous for celebrating God and His prosperity.
-
In fact, the media is done a wonderful job of just putting prosperity and gospel together
-
and slandering that whole thing. Oh, is he with the prosperity gospel? No, no, he's a good
-
preacher. He's with the poverty gospel. He's okay. Don't be concerned. He really, really likes poverty.
-
So he's one of the good guys. Let's put that verse up. Psalm 35, 27. I liked it so much.
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I hadn't put it on all the offering envelopes. And this is the word, if you're struggling in your
-
finances, you need to know this verse like you know your own name. Find others as well. But what
-
a powerful verse that reveals the character of God, that reveals his will. See maybe you don't
-
believe God for abundance and prosperity because you're not sure whether he wants that for you.
-
And that's where most people fall. They don't doubt God's ability, but they think like God has
-
His favorites and then God has His like kids that He just tolerates, but they're the bad kids.
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Yeah, this is for all of His children. Let them shout for joy and be glad.
-
Who favor my righteous cause and let them say continually, let the Lord be magnified who
-
takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servant. Oh, religion hates that. In other words, God just
-
doesn't begrudgingly give you prosperity. He loves to. He enjoys to. But within limits, right?
-
Well, you get to decide how much He can trust you. I know. I see the character of God.
-
He's willing to do, I'm seeing things if He can trust you. I'm seeing. Yeah.
-
Where's your team coming up? And number three, people struggle in the area of physical healing.
-
If you've got a pain, a disease, know that God wants you to be at ease. And once again,
-
they have a hard time believing God for healing because they're unsure of His will. Again,
-
they don't doubt His ability. They just doubt His willingness. That's the one in Matthew.
-
Matthew chapter eight, I believe, the first couple of verses where the leper comes up to Jesus.
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If you're struggling in your faith, number one, you have to be convinced of God's will.
-
But where do you find God's will? You find it only in the Bible.
-
One of the things, and it'll always happen. One of the things we're big on in the life group.
-
Don't start your sentence with, I feel. I feel. Have you ever noticed when people talk about God?
-
Well, I feel that God, who cares? Like, seriously, who? God's truth doesn't hear about your feelings.
-
You feel, well, I feel that God, you know, I don't really feel there's a hell. I just feel like God
-
at the end will just, who? I mean, feelings and opinions are a time it doesn't.
-
Everybody's got to, you get 10 people together and say, what do you think of God? They'll all share their feelings.
-
Feelings change. The word of God is to stay the same. It's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
-
The plants, weather, the flower fades away, but the word of the Lord will stand forever.
-
So, what does the word say?
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And may the Lord heal you if your feelings were hurt over me saying your feelings don't matter.
-
May he bring his healing bomb, because I felt some people, you know, people are made so sensitive
-
today. Isn't that right? Be like, oh, okay, he hurt my feelings. And behold, a leopard came
-
and worshipped him saying, Lord, if you are willing, see, he didn't know. He had feelings.
-
And he was wondering, I don't know, Jesus, how you feel about this? I mean, I'm nasty to look at.
-
I'm a leopard. You know, they weren't even allowed to hang out with regular people,
-
they had to be over in a leopard's colony. Off to the side, you get near them, they got a shot.
-
I'm clean, I'm clean, so you get away from them. What a way to live. So, he didn't know how Jesus
-
felt about him. A Lord, if you're willing, you can see him. Just trepidacious. You can make me clean.
-
And then the next verse, Jesus settled the debate once and for all about God's willingness.
-
This isn't the only I will with regard to healing, by the way, in the scriptures.
-
And he always demonstrated healing. Never did he turn somebody away and go, you know what, you?
-
Not, not you. Everybody else gets a miracle. Everybody else gets a healing, but not you.
-
That never happens in the Bible. It was always, I am willing, I am willing, I am willing.
-
Jesus put out his hands and touched them, saying, I am willing, be cleansed,
-
immediately, his leprosyly was cleansed. And by the way, did you notice that Jesus spoke?
-
This will open up your eyes. Look at the miracles of Jesus. They always come with words. So, where are your words?
-
When I was drowning in debt, I actually spoke to my mailbox.
-
You might say, that sounds really weird and goofy and crazy. Yeah, but I'm debt free.
-
In my pee, I spoke to my mailbox because I found myself very nervous. I always go to my mailbox.
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What credit card statement, a 29% APR is waiting for me now. So, I started speaking to my mailbox.
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I said, in you, that come credit card bills, but checks and surprises and money and good things.
-
Hallelujah. The reason why religion hates this message is because it's empowering.
-
Religion doesn't want God's people empowered. Everything is about keeping you low, keeping you desperate,
-
barely existing, then dying. And then even their view of heaven, then you die and graduate,
-
and you get to play the harp. I don't want to play the harp. You get to play the harp on clouds.
-
No, Jesus empowered you. You know what religion hates when Jesus said to those who whom the word of God came,
-
have I not said you are God's lowercase G. This is a teaching that can get bent, but listen,
-
Jesus said to those that are my offspring that have received the word of God, you are God's.
-
Who is your father? Is he divine? Then what are you?
-
All right. We needed to lose three more.
-
I mean, religion has done a great job of teaching Christians to think nothing of themselves.
-
Yeah, Jesus empowered you and spoke life over you. When the Bible says he's king of kings and Lord of
-
Lords, what kings and Lords do you think it's talking about? Some king and some country and another
-
continent that's going to eventually bend the knee? Yeah, that'll happen. It's talking about us.
-
Hallelujah. He's king of kings, Lord of Lords. The Bible calls you a royal priesthood.
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I know that new thing is in calling one another kings. If you're not doing it under the umbrella of
-
Jesus, it's nonsense. Under the umbrella of Jesus, yes, you are royalty. Yes, you are.
-
Yes. And you should have your identity in that, that your father who made you, who formed your inward
-
parts in your mother's womb, the king of kings and Lord of Lords has taken you and made you royal
-
to yourself. Therefore, hence, hitherto, you qualify for the good things of God. You qualify for
-
his victory. You qualify for a life that's richly blessed in every area, peace in your home,
-
peace in your mind, peace in your finances. The shalom, nothing missing, nothing lacking, nothing
-
broken peace. Amen. If you receive it, shout amen. This is the City Light Church podcast.
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If you've missed any part of today's message, or if you would like to find out more about
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Pastor Boyan Jansik in City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com.
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Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you.
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We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God
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loves you, and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you
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subscribe to City Light Church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.