Church Hurt: How to Heal Secret Wounds and Silent Cries || Pastor Diego Mesa

I know those two little rug rats back there that

we're in that picture.

Praise God.

How many of you grandparents love your grand babies. Didn't

sound too convincing, but I'll just accept that because I'm

in a good mood today. But praise God, what a

privilege to be with you today. I was sharing with

our four o'clock prayer group that it's been five years

since I've preached a Saturday night service. So this is

pretty exciting because we shut down Saturday service during COVID

and that was March of twenty twenty and so here

we are in March of twenty twenty five.

It's been five years since I've preached.

I've been here in attendance when Pastor Adam has preached,

and so these are often you live long enough, you

get very sentimental because you've been around a long time.

So you've got a lot of things to reflect upon,

and today it will inevitably be one of those. Pastor

Adam came to me a couple well, probably about a

month ago, and he said, Dad, there's a series that

you did many many years ago. I'm wondering if you

would bring it back two point zero and remake it

and The reality is, there's only two people in this

church that ever heard that series, my wife, Cindy and

my mom. Everyone else has never heard this series. So

the reality was the first service that we had in

our home thirty one years ago had thirty people, but

the majority of them were my family. How many of

you know when you have a big gathering, your family

shows up. The second week is really where the church launched,

and those were the original.

Twelve people that showed.

Up at that second week is when I launched this

series that we are going to preach on. Back then,

I preached for fifty five minutes an hour.

Back then it was four weeks.

I preached four hours on this particular subject. And I'm

not telling you yet. It's behind me what I'm going

to be sharing. But I'm just so grateful that our

beloved pastor challenged me and asked me to bring this

before you because it's the essence of what founded this church.

And again, we don't as a younger generation, even my age,

don't appreciate history.

We don't value history.

Back in the day, you had people that had occupations.

They were called historians, and they recorded everything to tell

the next generation.

Actually the Bible says that.

Do not remove the ancient landmarks, and so they would

stack twelve stones so that hundreds of years later they

would travel and say, what are those twelve stones represent?

Those twelves stones represent that God delivered us from this

Red sea, and when we got to the other side,

we placed these twelve stones here as a marker to

remember the God that delivered us from Egyptian.

We've removed all the ancient landmarks.

And so when you look around and see this fourteen

thousand member church and all that it.

Does, you've got to say, how did that happen?

Especially for you that I have not been around a

long time or a younger generation. One of the pivotal

points is what I'm about ready to preach. It's about

what I'm about ready to preach is what God entrusted

to us.

And a lot of people.

Came during that period of time, not for the series,

but because of the anoint you know, the Prince of

God or how God used us with this message that brought.

A lot of healing to the body of Christ.

So that's why I'm giving a little bit of four

one one on that right now.

And so Father, I thank you for the next few moments.

I'm really really excited God, So I just pray that

you talk to your people today and we honor you

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Okay, we're gonna read a little bit, so let's stand

on our feet. Let's stand on our feet. In Genesis

twenty one, we're gonna read a story that's going to

launch the principal character of the story that you and

I are going to relate to. In Early in the morning,

Abraham got up, took bread and a water skin and

put them on Hagar's shoulder. Remember this word hagar. Hagar

is referring to an outcast. She's a stranger. I don't

know if you've ever felt like an outcast? Have you

ever felt like a stranger? The word also means to flight.

There was a flightiness within her. Okay, so it put

wash skin and put it on Hagar's shoulder and send

her and the boy away.

This was her son.

She's a single parent raising ishmael, single mothers, single dads.

She left and wandered in the wilderness of Bathsheba.

Nothing promised to her, don't.

Know where she's going to live, doesn't know what the

future holds It goes on. When the water in the

skin was gone, she left the boy under the bush.

She's exhausted, no more resources. What the man gave her

is over with now, okay. Then it goes on and

went and sat at a distance, about a bow shot away.

For she said, I can't bear to watch my boy

die die. Well, she sat at a distance. She wept quietly.

Now she wept. What I don't know if you've ever

been to a point where you have wept loudly, that's

where she's at. God heard the boy crying. Hmm, it

said she wept, But God heard the boy. Okay, God

hears things that man can't hear. And the Angel of

God called to Hagar from heaven. This is God and

said to her, what's wrong, Hagar? What a silly thing

to say. He's trying to locate her. Talk to me, now, Hagar,

have a conversation with me. I'm not Abraham. I'm not

the man who hurts you. I'm your God, your provider.

Talk to me. What's going on.

Be real with me. Don't be afraid. For God has

heard the boy crime. He's heard the boy crime from

the place where he is.

Get up, Help the boy up.

Grasp his hand, for I will make him a great nation.

Then God opened her eyes. It was there all the time,

but she didn't see it.

God opened her eyes and she saw.

Well, that's symbolic. She started to get well. Her eyes

were close. She wasn't well. God opened her eyes, and

she's gonna get well. Went and filled the water skin

and gave the boy a drink.

You may be seated today.

In the next few weeks, we're launching a series called

Secret Wounds and Silent Cries. While hurting people, hurt people.

That's what happened thirty one years ago. That was the title.

But I have a two point zero version and a remake,

Secret Wounds of Silent Cries. But my remake is to

be a healer for excuse me, to be a healer

for Jesus. You must let him heal you. In the

essence of that message, I said this, that we live

in a hurtful and a harmful world.

It is a very lousy excuse me, lousy.

It is a lousy sometimes it's a very noisy. It's

a very noisy and loud world that we live in

that often makes us feel like victims or casualties.

To secret wounds and silent cries, and.

Because to that, people often the result of that is

they become untrusting in nature, They become overly critical, they

become angry, they become hostile, they become disfunctional as individuals

because of the secret wounds and the silent cries of

hurting people. Here's what happened to me. I had been

in a church for fifteen years. I had been full

time nine years. This is what happened more than thirty

one years ago. I went to my pastor. I said,

I don't understand it. I just feel a call of

God on my life. I think I'm called to be

a senior pastor, but I submit to your authority.

I don't even know how to.

Do this, and I think it's going to take about

a year for me to figure out how to plan

this out. I shared that with innocence, I shared that

with purity. They said, well, pray about it. Come back

tomorrow and we'll talk about it. When I came back

the next day, they put all my stuff that I

had had in my desk drawer for nine years in

a box and they told me, go obey God, and

if you liked it, you could write a letter and

we'll read it to the congregation on Sunday morning.

And that was it. That was it.

After fifteen years, I get the left foot of fellowship.

All my friends are gone. Everything I know is gone.

Thirty thousand dollars of income that I had to pay

my mortgage with. I took care of my three little

boys with was now ripped.

Out of my life. And I would love to tell

you that I just said, praise the Lord.

The Lord is my provider, Jehovah jiro No. I was

full of animosity. I was full of bitterness. I was

full of angry, and I was full of if you

could get this hate, how could someone put me in

this predicament and do that? During that moment, I was

in my car with emotions of secret wounds and silent cries, how.

Hurting people hurt people? And I turned on the.

Radio, and you're gonna hear the song that I heard

that I started to weep as a baby as God

began to speak to me. Have you ever been lied to,

maybe mistreated?

Take it for granted till you just can't standing where

you have a mistake?

Thought to feet some one that you just can't be

where's the love you? Love takes time? Care I just

want to be love. Love paint blind. You see it again?

You see love? Love takes time.

Yes, please.

See everybody, because not just trying to be love love

paved line, sigh sa, fine, take any time out.

Geez, love taste time. Thank you guys, Thank you guys.

That's how it went down.

I pulled off the side of the road and I

wept like a baby because God was speaking through that song.

God told me in that song, have you ever have

you ever been like to you? Yes? Have you ever

been mistreated?

Yes?

Have you ever been taken for grant? Yes? You just

can't stand it?

Yes?

Then love takes to I don't want to hear that.

Please be kind. I don't want to hear that. And

God began to minister to me. And so in the

second week of the existence of this church, I broke

out with this four week series called Secret Wounds and

Silent Cries. You're going to see the actual notepad that

I still have today on the screen. That's the notepad

that I preached from. Those are my notes thirty one

years ago. That's my notepad. Let's talk a little bit

about what we're talking about when we talk about secret

wounds in silent cries, all of us have skeletons in

our lives.

All of us have remorses.

We have shames, failures, we have guilt in our lives.

We have embarrassments, we made mistakes, we have sins. Some

of us have been raped, and some of us have

raped other individuals. Some people have had abortions. These are

skeletons in our lives. We have regrets, we've gone through divorce,

we feel guilty of something. There's wrongs in our lives,

and maybe we've committed adultery. We all have these skeletons

in our lives that we need to be healed from

their secret wounds and silent cries. Some of us have

corpses in our lives that have actually killed us. We've

been betrayed, we've been abandoned, we've been rejected, we've been backstaffed,

we've been light upon. We all feel sometimes like that

corpse where something in me is now dead, it's not

alive anymore, a crime has been done against me. And

then sometimes in all of us we just feel like

a dummy. I was really dumb, I was really ignorant,

misled trick, defrauded, deceit, light upon, played on.

And ripped off.

But all of us have this in our lives one

way or another, this corpse in our life, this skeleton

in our lives, or this dummy in our lives. And

if we don't allow Jesus, and I'm going to give

you some scripture right now to poke around and to

touch those hurts.

Here's what I know.

You could go to heaven, but you will never fulfill

the call of God on your life. You will never

serve God to your potential, and you will always walk

around as a victim and a casualty until you allow

God like Hagar to heal your most secret wound and

silent crimes. And that's not always easy, because we could

sometimes play into that.

But here's what the Bible.

Says in the Book of Psalms Psalms thirty four and

verse eighteen.

The Lord is close to the broken hearted.

He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

Here's another translation. I love this one.

If your heart is broken, you'll find God right there.

If you're kicked in the gut, He'll help you catch

your breath. Look at this other translate other scripture. I

want to share with you. He is the healer of

the broken hearted. That's the Bible.

Okay, I have skeletons, I have corpses. I feel like

a dummy. Somebody has mistreated me, lied to me. But

God says, you don't have to stay that way. You

can allow him to heal your broken hearted. He is

the one who bandages their wounds. And one more translation

here says he heals the broken hearted, and he bandages

their wounds.

And that's what God wanted to do. There came a.

Point in this church where God allowed me to be wounded,

and allowed me to be hurt, and allowed me to

manifest some of those things with his long sufferingness for

a season. Then God says, you know what, I'm bigger

than your womb, and I don't like where this is going.

It bleeds. You think it's secret, but it's not secret.

You think it's silent, but that's the deception of it.

You're bleeding all over the place. Everyone sees you broken.

You just become a functional Christian, like a functional alcoholic.

So after the first year, God says it's time. And

I knew what that meant, because it would bleed out.

It bleed out in my thoughts, it bleed out in

my conversations. I couldn't let it go. Bleed out in

my marriage, it bleed out in other relationships. That I

was now very defensive and protective, didn't trust nobody, no

more was half committed, no longer fully committed like I

once was. Nobody's gonna rip me off again. Nobody's going

to do that to me ever again. I went up

to Big Bear one year into that happening, when on

a three day fast, didn't eat nothing but drank water,

and I cried out to God to deliver me, because

I recognize and I'll get to that and land it

toward the end that I was not just dealing with

an emotion. I wasn't just dealing with a feeling. I

was dealing with a spirit. And that spirit wanted.

Me to stay bound, because if I was bound, I

could never be used by God and never reach my potential.

And so I went on a fast and at the

end of the three days, God said, you're delivered. And

it broke. And it broke. Explain everything all I could

tell you, It's in the Bible, and it happened, that's

for sure. And I never had those feelings of hatred

anymore toward that person, animosity anymore, or just simply a

non caring spirit about them anymore. Love took time, and

I began to be kinder so much so you want

to test me?

What's this? Two years later I heard that she was sick.

God said, go visit her, take your young family, and

go visit her and say thank you for the fifteen

years and the nine years.

I ain't going to do that.

Then you would not be here today, because this building

would not exist in the name Patrere.

Would not be here today.

I promise you, the favor of God would not be

on this ministry. But I humbled myself and I went

there because God had healed me, and God wanted to

test and show me that I was healed, that I

could stand before this person and not have any ill

feelings in me and really bring closure, because a couple

years later she would die. I didn't know that, but

God knew that, and he went ahead and he offered

me this opportunity to bring closure to a situation celebrate it.

Rather than should have could have would have been living

in regret. I don't know if I'm talking to anybody.

Let's go over what.

We're gonna We're gonna spend the rest of our time

here in Psalm sixteen. So we're gonna go back to

the story of Hagar, the stranger, the outcast, and we're

gonna talk a little bit about her.

But I'm gonna give you this quote from M. L.

K Jr. And this quote that he says is this.

As my suffering mounted, I soon realized that there were

two ways in which I could respond to my situation.

Either react with bitterness or seek or seek to transform

the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow

the latter course. There's a flower. It's called the moonflower.

And the moonflower is a white flower that only blooms

at night time. It does not bloom during the day.

And there's some things that God wants to do in

your night season. That's beautiful. If you're willing to allow

Him to do that in your life, even in the nighttime,

you can bloom at your darkest hour. God can bring

forth something beautiful out of that.

And I'm a witness of that.

And now you will see Hagar is a witness of

that in Genesis sixteen and verse one.

Now we go back to the origin.

I fast forward it in the beginning to show you

the latter. Let's go back to the beginning. Abram's wife

Sarah had not bore him children for him, but she

owned an Egyptian slave name Hagar, outcast, stranger flight. So

Sarah said to Abraham, since the Lord has prevented me

from bearing children, which was a culture of the time,

go to my slave. Perhaps through her, I can I

can build a family.

And Abraham agreed what Sarah had said.

He didn't fight back at all.

Amen, praise the Lord.

Sounds good to me, so Abraham's So, Abraham's wife, SARAHI

took Hagar, the Egyptian. She didn't ask for this, She

didn't ask for this what's about ready to happen, and

gave her to her husband Abram as a wife for him.

This happened.

This happened after Abraham had lived in the land of

Canaan ten years.

He slept with Hagar. He slept with her, and she

became pregnant.

And when she saw that she was pregnant, her mistress

became contemptible to her. Now we're gonna see emotions start

coming in now, and some wounds are gonna start taking place.

Then Sarah said to Abram, you are responsible for my suffering,

just like a wife blaming the husband.

It was your idea woman, not mine. But I guess

I did have her responsibility too. But anyways, you're responsible

for my suffering.

Always blaming someone. It's easy to blame someone for where

you're at. I put my slave in your arms, and

when she saw that she was pregnant, I became contemptible

toward her, bitter, angry, judgmental. May the Lord's judge between

me and you, So both of them are contemptible toward

each other. And Abraham replied SARAHI here, your slave is

in your power.

Do whatever you want with her.

Then SARAHI mistreated, mistreated, secret root, silent cries.

Mistreated her so much that she ran what away.

She booked it like Booker t I'm out of here.

I'm not taking no Jack Diddley from nobody.

Okay. The Angel of the Lord found her. God finds you.

You can run from man. You could try to run

from your hurt. God will find you.

And the Angel the Lord found her by the spring

in the wilderness, the spring on the way to shore.

He said, Hagar, slave of SARAHI where have you come from?

And where are you going?

There's a question locate yourself. Do you know what's going

on in your life?

Woman?

Do you know what you're feeling right now? Do you

know where you're at? Do you know where you're not

supposed to be. Locate yourself. She replied, I'm running away

from my mistress, Sarah. Watch this, this is what happened

to me.

The Angel the.

Lord said, go back to your mistress and submit to her.

The Angel of the Lord said to her, watch this.

I'm gonna put a caveat here. If you go back

and submit to her authority. If you go over there

and take your children.

To the house and obey me, then I will gratefully

multiply your offspring, and they will be too many accounts.

I'm gonna royally bless you for doing this for me.

Then, the Age of Lord said to her, you have conceived,

and we'll have a son. Way says, you will. Now

we're back to the beginning. Now, okay, we will conceive.

Remember she ran away. She's bitter, but he's saying, if

you go back, I'm gonna bless you, and you're gonna

have a son.

She didn't know that You're gonna have a son, and

you will name him Ishmael. For the Lord heard your

cry of affliction.

This man will be like a wild donkey's hand will

be against everyone. And this is where the Arabs come from. Now,

Jews and Arabs come from. These two boys. Now, God

made a great nation out of them. Okay, Now you

got to understand. Back then we refer to Arabs. And

I'm not trying to be political or anything as Muslims.

Muslims didn't exist then.

Muslims only came into existence five hundred years after Christ,

five hundred years AD. These Arabs were believers back then. Okay,

so don't think of it as a bad thing. Maybe

I said too much. Sorry, everyone's hand will be against him,

but he will settle with his relatives. So she named So,

she named the Lord. So she named the Lord who

spoke to her. You are l Roye, So she said,

in this place, I have actually seen the one.

Who sees me. We'll stop there.

She named God, the God who sees me in my affliction,

In the God who sees me in my pain. I

want to talk a little bit, and in the weeks

to come, we'll talk about different secret wounds in silent cries,

and our preachers will do that all over our campuses.

Today I'm going to talk a little bit about the

secret wound in silent cry with the rest of the

time I have of church hurts, because Abraham is like

the pastor, and Sarah is like the first lady, and

Hagar is like the member.

Of the church church.

And so today I'm gonna talk a little bit because

that's what happened to me.

A church hurt had happened to me.

But before you identify with being the victim, I want

you to recognize that the statistics say that fifty two

percent of pastors have been hurt and harm by parishioners.

Because I recognize after forty years in ministry full time,

in thirty one years in this church, sheep bite.

They may be little.

Lambs that are docile, but man, they got to bite

to them. And I've been bit by a lot of them.

So before we think that it's one sided, it's double sided.

And I know people who say I've been to you

through that I'm a victim of church hurt, and you've

never been a victim a church hurt. You just have

been disciplined by the church, and you don't like that.

You've been disciplined by the church, so you call that

church hurt.

Biblical examples for that.

Peter could have said, I'm church hurt when Paul called

him out. No, you're not church hurt. You're a hypocrite.

And I publicly shamed by the truth.

Of the hypocrisy you were doing.

So he called out Fileemen of how he was treating Nonissimus.

That's not a church hurt, that's speaking truth. That's disciplined.

Philippians talks about two women in Philippi arguing and God

said stop arguing. That's not church hurt. That's discipline. So

so many Christians call church hurt the fact that they

were disciplined as church art. But that's not church hurt,

and we'll describe to that in a few moments. Church

hurd is nothing new. The Corinthian Church experienced some things.

There'll be a slide in the Corinthian Church. They were

choosing sides. I'm of Apollos, I'm acephist. They had sexual

immorality in that church. A son was having sex with

his father's wife. In the church, they were suing each other,

they were judging each other's diet, they were getting drunk

around the communion table, they were misusing spiritual gifts. There

were superior spiritual superiority in the church. It's existed all so,

if you're looking for a perfect church, don't join it

because it doesn't exist. And if you join it, it

just becomes imperfect because you're there. So let me talk

a little bit about what I've seen in the years

that I've been around pastoring, where sometimes some body shaming

takes place in the church. Sometimes there's some body shaming

going on where we shame each other in what we do.

Some of the church hurts that I've seen in the

Body of Christ is the abuse, the abuse and the misuse.

Of money and finance integrity within the church.

We've got people that are pastors who are fleecing the

people for money. We've got pastors who are not stewarding

the finance as well. The church is always in debt.

There's always some kind of gimmick going on in the church.

Sometimes people are overpaid for what they do. Sometimes there's

extremism when it comes to pastors. They get an anniversary offering,

a birthday offering, a go to a Vegas offering a

vacation offering. They got set first offering, second offerings, third

offerings in the church, and all of that can sometimes

lead to people having secret wounds and silent cries. But

I recognize some things that have happened that I have

seen within the church. One time special offering was taken

by a guest speaker and he took up a large

amount of money. I mean a large amount of money.

People gave to that, and he quantified it by We're

going to bless our church. And I want you to

give generously, and I want you to give appropriately, and

I want you to give by faith, and I want

you to know whatever you put in the offering basket,

God is going to give you one hundred folt return.

About one hundred thousand dollars came in that offering. That

preacher walked out with a fifty thousand.

Dollars check.

And asked the pastors, how could you do that? I

was an assistant pastor, and they said, well.

He worked for it, he earned it.

It's the least I could do to honor him and

bless him. Sometimes people become apprehensive about tithing and giving.

Here at Patriarch, we have an annual audit that's done

here at Patriarch. We come before the church and we

show you the budget of how much money come. That is,

I'm in to try to maintain a certain level of

financial integrity. The loaning institutions won't loan us any money

if we don't have a yearly audit and pass that audit.

So I want you to know those things take place.

The second thing that I've seen is sexual impurity that exists.

That is being a player in the church, using the

church as a dating service. I'm talking about members and

the pastor messing around with the women nowadays. Even beyond that,

it's like Mumbo number five going on, a little bit

of Monica, a little bit of read, a little bit

of Tina going on in my life. I remember me

and Pastor Kenny when this church was much more smaller.

There was a young man in here and he'd be

dating a woman, and then the next month he be

dating another woman in the church, and the next month

he be dating another one in the church. And we

went to them and said, brother, this is not a

dating service for you. You are not allowed to date any

woman in this church. The next woman that we hear,

you will be expelled from this church because we are

shepherds who protect the congregation and what goes on in

this church. Now, he could leave this church and say

I was church hurts. But that's the kind of discipline

we're gonna honor. These are brothers and our sisters. This

is not a dating service. People have been married in

this church. But they come under the authority of the church,

and women come and say do you know brothers so

and so? And brother so and so comes and says,

do you know sisters so and so? And they ask

us to somehow be involved as an overseer, or not

to make personal decisions, but just accountability, because how do

you when a date two people dating in church goes wrong,

how do you still stay members in that church?

You don't.

Either both leave or one stays. And that's not the

way it's supposed to be. So sometimes we've seen sexual

impurity exist within the church.

Then there's the misuse of.

Spiritual authority by the leadership, manipulation, intimidation, domination, control and demanding,

or sometimes preachers and deacons and elders and people in

authority want to bully the people around by throwing out

their title, or throwing out their giftedness or throwing out

their anointing.

God says, touch not my anointed.

I've been there, and you got to go to the

pastor for permission on this and permission on that. And

he's overstepping his authority and he's involved in people's personal matters.

I've seen pastors say, don't go visit the church. You

gotta be here every Sunday. You can't go.

Out to outside events. Who do you think you are?

But it's a controlling nature that exists, and it causes

people sometimes to really be hurt sometimes. Then I've seen

false teaching within the church, totally unscriptural, wrong theology, wrong interpretation,

with spiritual and scriptural illiteracy going on within the church.

The Bible says study to show yourself approved. So I've

seen the hyper grace teaching in the church where there's

no need to repent for anything. I've seen the prosperity

extreme that based upon how much money you make shows

you your level of faith. I've seen universalism within the

church that everyone is saved. You don't have to accept

Jesus Christ, or he just died for everyone, so it

doesn't really matter I've seen work based salvation. Everyone is

basically good, nobody has to repent up Jesus Christ, relativism,

everything is subjective to truth.

What is truth?

And then not believing the Bible to be the authority

in our lives or the denial of hell or judgment.

And then I've seen legalism within the church that has caused.

Hurt and pain within the church people. Legalism on that

you shouldn't wear makeup or you shouldn't dress a certain way.

Legalism about jewelry or the length of hair, legalism about

wearing nikes going to Disneyland, or the Sabbath is Sunday, No,

the Sabbath is Saturday.

Legalism that exists. God looks at our heart, the purity

of our lives. Sometimes people could get so legalistic about

things that women are not supposed to preach the gospel

and the pulpit. You got to interpret the scriptures right

before you make a.

Statement like that.

That's a legalistic spirit that can often come into the church. Legalism,

and then we see preferential treatment that exist.

The Bible show tells.

Us not to show partially partiality to anyone, but there's

preferential treatment when it comes to love and grace and mercy,

where we give our time and the attitude and the

actions that we have towards certain people and not to others.

We show preferential treatment in where people get to park,

preferential treatment where people get to sit in the sanctuary

based upon their looks, their status, their income, their education,

or their race.

I've had celebrities in our.

Lifetime come to this church ask where they're supposed to

sit where everyone else sits.

What are you talking about?

I've had political official You'll say, I just want to

let you know I'm coming to your church on Sunday.

We well, thank you so much. Come.

They want preferential treatment, and so people could get hurt

when they see some people are treated one way and

other people are not treated the other way. Sometimes and

last of all, I've seen the last one I'll go

into times run out is just not keeping promises.

The Bible says, let your yaba and your navy Nay.

You promised to love me, you promised to give, You

promise to serve. You promised to pray. You promise to

live holy. You promised a disciple, you promised to witness.

You promise to attend and you're not doing.

That, sheep.

So it goes backwards and forwards.

So now I'm hurt.

Why do I have to do all the promises and

you don't, or vice versa, or pastors making promises that

we're gonna own this, we're gonna buy this, we're gonna

do this with the money, and you never do it.

So promises have often been broken. Back then, a promise

was made to me. That promise was made that you

will pastor this church in Pomona. That promise was not kept.

That's why I went back and started a church in Pomona.

A promise was made to me that when you become

the pastor, we're gonna let you live in our house.

We're gonna give you our house. You didn't give me.

That house, but God raised up Joe Nasser who gave

me the down payment to buy the house in Fontana

where the church would be started. So where man fails you,

God will come through. Do not feel disappointed.

Promotion doesn't come from the north to southeast and the west.

Promotion comes from God. Stop looking to man. So now

I end this. Here's my application, and here's where I'm

going to end it. It'll be on the screen. Here's

the walk away. Now, secret wounds and silent cries are

never secret or silent. I told you that you manifest,

you bleed out. It's in your attitude, It's in your cynicalism,

your judgmentalness. Secret wounds and silent cries always manifest. They

bleed out somewhere along the line we see it. The

second thing is the road to recovery is a choice.

God wants you well, but it's up to you. Can't

make you well. He told the paralytic, do you want

to be made well? You can't walk, but I want

to ask you do you want to? And there's some

people don't want to be made well, they just don't.

Road to recovery is a choice. And last of all,

sometimes it's more than an emotion or a feeling. It's

a strong man. And I'll end with this. Here are

the scriptures that I want to share there on the screen.

How can someone enter it in a strong man's house

and still his possessions unless he first ties him up

the strong man, then he can plunder his house. This

is talking about us, the spiritual world a demon. Then

it goes on Isaiah to console those who warn in

Zion to give them the beauty for ashes. Watch this,

the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise.

What does it say next? A spirit? He didn't say heaviness.

He called it a spirit. And some people have a

spirit on them. The spirit of heaviness, it won't leave you.

It torments you, It controls you, It manipulates. It's more

than a moment. It becomes your personality. That's how you

know it. And last of all, the last scripture, Please

make sure that no one all short of the grace

of God. And that know what says, root a bitterness. See,

if you don't let God heal you, it can turn

into a spirit. If you don't let God heal you

could turn into a strong man. And if you don't

let God heal you, it becomes a root. And how

many of you know roots are hard to pull out. Father,

I pray the message minister to people today, and I

come against the root of bitterness that exists in people.

I come against the spirit of heaviness that's in people's lives,

of grievances, hatred, unforgiveness, grudges, And I come against that

strong man that has people bound up because of something

that someone did to them.

I thank you God that.

You could set the captives free today. And if people

want to be free today and let that heaviness.

Lift off of them, Oh God, and be.

Like Hagar and get well and get to know God

in a way you've never known God before, and live

out and give birth to something great. I pray that

it happens right now. We lay it at the altar. Now,

we lay it at the altar God. If there's anything

that anybody has ever done to us, Oh God, that

would look like a secret wound and a silent cry

through a church hurt that whether I have caused others

to hurt.

Or I have been the victim of the hurt.

I pray your healing touch come upon people right now

and deliver us and heal us in Jesus' name. Amen,

Can we give the Lord a clap offering? Well?

I pray that was a blessing to you.

That was a secret room, silent Christ two point zero

the remake, So imagine imagine.

Where I was thirty one years ago when that was

just so.

The sting was right there. It was pretty amazing. But

look at what God's done. How could I mourn over

what something someone did to me when I see I

thought about this, and we're going to go. If dead

people could talk to you, If dead people could talk,

what would they tell the living? If dead people could talk,

what would they tell the living. They would tell you

that Jesus matters. They would tell you that heaven exists.

They would tell you that hell is real. They would

tell you a savior is needed. They would tell you

judgment awaits. They would tell you eternity is forever. They

would tell you the things of this earth are fleeting.

They would tell you that false ambition is vanity and empty.

They would tell you that sin produces death. They would

tell you to listen. They would tell you to stop it.

They tell you to wise up. They tell you to

wake up. They would tell you that living doesn't end.

They would tell you that repentance is now. They would

tell you the Cross is full of love and mercy

and forgiveness and salvation. And they tell you to give

your life to Jesus.

While you have time. If you could talk to the dead,

that's what they would tell you today. If you've never

accepted Jesus.

Christ as your lord and savior, or you're Christian, that's

right in the fence of compromise. We invite you. We

invite you to give your life to Christ today. Don't

run from God, run to God. And just like we

said it a hundred times, a whole bunch of ex somethings,

and there we don't qualify to be saved so many people, preacher,

Let me get right and then I'll come to Christ. Really,

how long do you have to wait for that one?

Everyone in the Bible came to Jesus just as they

are broken, tore up, jacked up, messed up, and he's

the one who changes and delivers you. That How did

the prodigal come home with the pigs, clothes smelling like stitch,

laying around with all those women, they all the stunk

was on him. He came just as he was, and

the father ran out, washed him, put sandals, cleansed him,

and brought him in. Let God deliver you. You come

to Him just as you are. I don't care what

you did today. I don't care what you did last night.

I don't care how many years you've been doing it.

Jesus doesn't care. There's enough mercy on the cross to

forgive anyone and everything just not where you.

Should be as a Christian.

You got Jesus in one pocket and you got the

world in the other hip pocket, and you're just You're

only as strong until the next temptation comes, and then

then you sin. You say I'll never do it again,

and then when temptation knocks on your door, there you

go again. Something is broke on the inside. You're not

strong enough. Something needs to get right. When I count

to three, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand

like this. It's going to take boldness and courage to

do it. But it took boldness and courage for Jesus

to die naked on a cross like this, not like

the Italian plant paintings, with a loincloth on him. Roman

way was absolute humiliation, and he died. I haven't been

saved all my life, and let me talk to you.

I don't need to describe it. But when I was

a sinner, I'd cuss in front of you, I fornicate

in front of you.

I'd fight in front of you.

I didn't win all my father, but I was fight

in front of any I fight in front of hand

and fight anybody. Now, all of a sudden, people come

to Chross. I don't want no one to see me.

Let me do it in the closet a secret play.

Wait a minute, he died naked in front of the

whole world. You haven't been saved all your life, and

you were bold out there. Why don't you come to

Christ just like that?

One? Two?

Here we go, raise our hands for Jesus, give your

life for you. Dedicate one, two three. Wherever you are,

raise it up, Hi, raise it up. Do one more

thing for Just stand on your feet. That's all I

want you to do.

Stand up for Jesus. Stand up.

If you raise your hands, stand up, that's all to

stand up. We celebrate you. Let's just say a simple prayer. Say,

dear Lord Jesus, you know who I am, and you

know everything about me. I come before you just as

I am. Forgive me of my sins, and I ask

you to come and live in my heart and be

my lord and savior.

Now teach me how to follow you.

In Jesus' name, you may be seated, Sammy, would you

talk to us a little bit?

Come on, can we think our founding pastor pastors? I

think we can get a little bit louder than that.

Can we just thank our founding passer. Thank you so much.

You could grab your seat. We're about to dismiss in

a few seconds. But here here's what I would say.

I would encourage you.

It's a few weeks before our Sea Clearly series.

I want to encourage you to show up whether it's

Saturday or Sunday and be here for this series.

Well, if you gave your life to the Lord or.

Recommitted it, I want you to go to this website

right here, www dot grow dot Faith, which will help

you grow in your faith. Another incredible series that our

pastor Diego put together for you to walk in your faith.

Well, how many.

Guys love that message? How many as leaving encouraged? Anyone

leaving with it? With the pain out of your life,

You're like, oh, I gotta get healed.

Thank you Jesus.

I can't.

I can't leave.

Well, hey, before you leave, I'm gonna praying one more

time and dismiss you. We have an incredible opportunity out

in the courtyard. You might have saw it when you

walked in with a missions experience that's going to be

coming up.

Hey, we got five more missions trips.

This I saw somewhere going to nepall the Philippines all over.

There's some incredible places that they're gonna be going to.

But I want to encourage you go.

Check it out.

They're integrating a lot of different incredible things. But my

life was changed on a Missions trip I did fifteen

plus years and Missions I was in my junior year

and everything changed.

My parents took me there, And so.

I want to encourage you, whether for you or your

kids or your grandchildren.

Go check it out and go sign up. Spots are

moving fast. Amen. Well, let's pray together. Lord. We thank

you so much for this series.

We thank you so much for the series that Passau

Diego preached over thirty years ago, and this being a

two point zero and we pray, Lord, would you heal

us of our church wounds, and would you let us leave.

Never the same?

And Jesus name, and everybody said, Amen, bless you family,

bless you Patre.

We will see you very soon