The Journey of Faith: Worship, Walk, Witness, and Wait || Pastor Gerald Brooks

Tonight, we're gonna continue that. Like Gabe said about talking

about expectation, we have really someone that to me is

the second loudest voice in my life. My dad would

be the number one loudest voice in my life, and

Pastor Gerald would actually be the second loudest voice in

my life. He has been my mentor for decades at

this point, since I was a teenager. I've been consuming

his sermons, his leadership books, and Gerald also serves as

one of our overseers and board members of Patriot and

so twice a year he comes and shares with all

of us on a Wednesday night Tomorrow morning for about

five hours, your church will open its door and about

two hundred pastors and leaders will come into the church

and through Pastor Gerald's ministry be equipped throughout the entire

day on how to lead it a better way as

a believer in Jesus. And so we host it every

single year, and so we're gonna have pastors and churches

from all over LA and the Inland Empire with us

as Pastor Gerald pours five hours into them and into

their leadership.

And so we're really looking forward till tomorrow.

But for right now, we get to hear a dynamic

where Pastor Gerald's going to be sharing a word here

in a second, and it's based off of this book

he has. And you may be new to faith or

may not know, but Hebrews chapter eleven is one of

the greatest chapters and passages in all of the Bible.

It's called the Heroes of Our Faith passage. And so

when you leave here today, if you want to dig

in deeper, if you're a reader, and I've had to

learn over the years to be a reader because readers

are leaders and leaders are readers, and so if you

want to go to a greater length than your walk,

just like it is when it comes to reading your Bible,

so is consuming books and content. And so when you

leave here today, if you want to dig deeper, Pastor

Jerald and his team, and there's a few other books

out there, but this one on Hebrews chapter eleven, it's

all about faith and how to grow your faith and

how to trust God and your faith and what faith

actually looks like. So I'm excited that Pastor Jerald is

going to come and deliver a word to us tonight,

and so get ready to expect that God is going

to speak to and what you welcome. One of our overseers,

Pastor Jerrold.

Brooks, thank you so much. I love you so much. Well,

you can be seated. You can be seated. It's always

a thrill for me to come and to be here

at this church.

There's a couple of reasons.

One, I love the Kingdom of God and I love

to see the Kingdom of God operate. And around here

you're constantly seeing the values of the Kingdom unpacked and

you're seeing lives changed and needs met. But that's one

of the reasons. But another reason is is because of Diego.

I considered Diego to be one of my best friends

in all of life. And please understand, when I talk

about a friend, it's someone that I know that on

my worst moment, my darkest day, would be in my corner,

and I know that he would be there, and he

knows that on his worst day, in his darkest day,

I would be in his corner.

See, it's always nice to.

Know that on days that are really really bad, that

if you really needed somebody, that they would be there.

There's never been a question in my life that he

would be there. And I don't think there's ever been

a question in his life that I would be there,

But the dream of Diego has gone beyond that. Because

of my love for Adam and my love for Nathan.

I get to interact with thirteen thousand churches every year,

given the platforms that God's privileged me to have. And

on those platforms I get to see some of the

best of the youngest and brightest. And there's no one

younger and brighter in doing things for God as Adam

and Nathan are. And I just want to say to you,

thank you, thank you, thank you, Heavenly Father. Would you

help us this evening. Lord, none of us have time

to waste. We don't want to go through the motions.

We just don't want to be at this thing called

church and somehow miss you.

Lord. We want this to be a divine encounter.

We want it to be a moment that our lives

are impacted and changed.

So through the word of God and the Spirit of.

God, would you speak to us, would you minister to us,

would you change us? Would you help us to be

more like Jesus than ever before? In Jesus' name, we

all agree together saying, you know, one of the words

that get choosed. A whole lot in church is the

word faith, and that word faith gets articulated, and sometimes

it's articulated based on people knowing what that word really means.

But what I'm finding is is that a lot of

people don't have a great perspective on faith. Tonight, we're

going to take a brief journey through the various corridors

of what the Bible would tell us about faith.

So let me just start.

In Romans chapter one, in verse seventeen, it says, and

the just shall live by faith. In Galatians chapter three

and verse eleven, it says, and the just shall live

by faith, and he breached. Chapter ten, in verse thirty eight,

it says, the jush shall live by faith. Now, let

me just help you with something. Our Father God doesn't

waste words. If he repeats himself, it's because he's expressing

a value. If he reiterates something, it's because he's communicating

a thought. So three times Romans chapter one, verse seventeen,

Galatians chapter three, verse eleven he brushed. Chapter ten, verse

thirty eight, he says the exact same thing, the just

shall live by faith. So our immediate takeaway is that

God expects faith to be a part of our life.

He expects it to be a part of our daily journey.

He expects it to be a part of what we do.

But what a lot of people don't know is those

three verses are all quoted from an Old Testament verse

in Habacca chapter two in verse four, where it says,

and the just shall live by faith. See, it didn't

matter whether it was the Old Testament or New Testament.

God wanted people who followed him to follow him in

the domain of faith. But when you come up to

Hebrews chapter ten in verse thirty eight, and it says,

and now the just shall live by faith, there's an

interesting little caveat that happens because in Hebrews chapter ten

and verse thirty eight it quotes Habacca chapter two and

verse four. But it's the only time in the New

Testament that it also quotes verse three of Habacca. And

that verse three is very interesting because it says, but

what if the Lord carries What if the Lord's not

in a hurry? What if God hasn't looked at your calendar.

What if God hasn't looked at your schedule?

What if He.

Isn't walking on the timeline that you're walking on. See,

it's the first issue of faith. Can you be a

person of faith when God's not in a hurry like you?

Now, I need you to think about it. See.

A lot of people want to be a person of

faith as long as all the money came in so

they can pay their mortgage by the tenth of the month.

A lot of people want to be a person.

Of faith as long as by the fifteenth they get

their car payment paid. A lot of people want to

be a person of faith as long as by this

time in their life they're married, or they have a child.

They have all these expectations.

But what do you do?

Can you be a person of faith when God's timeline

doesn't match yours?

See?

In life, a lot of people lose their faith, not

because they don't believe in God, but they lose their

faith because they don't understand the timing of God. And

when God's timing doesn't match our timing, you know what

people do. They throw up their hands say, well, you know,

I've tried this faith thing. I've tried believing God and

when I prayed it didn't happen. I've literally in my

church had people say things like this, to me, well,

I'm not praying anymore, I'm not believing God anymore. This

faith thing just doesn't work. And I'd say, well, why

doesn't it work? And they said, well, I was believe

in God for my house payment and we needed it

by the tenth and it didn't come in. And because

it didn't come in, I'm not going to do this

faith thing. And I just look at him. I said, so,

I want to get this right. Your faith is as

big as your house.

Are. Your faith is only as large as your car.

So what is the circumstance that you put God on

the clock where you hit the timer and said God, now,

if you don't do it now, if you don't do

it by then.

But see what the writer.

Of Hebrews is doing is he's challenging the first issue

of faith, and that is can you still be a

person of faith when God's schedule doesn't match yours? And

let's be honest, there are people that used to be

in church that are no longer in church. And it's

not because they didn't believe in God. It's because God

didn't follow their calendar.

Someone say, men, and.

See that's the first step of faith. Well, we got

to have it done now. We got to have this.

Then if we don't have it done now, this isn't

going to work. And if we don't do it now,

and God's just asking the question, he says, but what

if the Lord terrries, What if he isn't in a hurry,

What if he isn't on speed dial on that particular moment,

What if he isn't responding as quick as you want,

as fast as you want can and you still be

a person of faith. Now, everything that he's about to

say is really to get you to a place that you.

Can answer that question.

Because in Hebrews chapter eleven and verse two, it says,

in by faith the elders, let's just think about that.

God looked two thousand years down the road and he

put a verse in the Bible for everyone in Rancho Cucamonga,

by faith the elders. The truth of the matter is

is most people in this room don't know who the

elders are. And the real truth of the matter is

is that we could live our whole lives and be

pretty happy not knowing who the elders are.

But God's very intentional.

Because what he does is he gives us a glimpse

of faith, he says, by faith.

Elders, Notice that it's in the plural.

Notice it's not singular, because God's teaching you a second

aspect of faith. And the second aspect of faith is

faith was never designed to work alone. It was always

to include other people. There were always to be other

individuals in your journey of faith. There were always to

be more than just you and your faith. And see

what's happened in many people's lives as they've navigated their faith.

Whenever they go through a hard time, they tend to hide,

they tend to isolate. They tend to say, man, you know,

I just don't.

Want to talk to people.

I know I used to go to church, but I

just don't want to. You know, this is really really

hard on me. What the Bible is saying is when

faith is hard, you need other people. You need other people.

See I watch people all the time. Their marriage gets

in trouble, and so what do they do. They run

away from church. One of their kids starts having struggles,

so they run away from church. You know, they're having

job crisis, so they run away from church. And what

God's saying is is you don't want to run from

you want to run too, because it was always designed

to be around other people. Now, I grew up in

a military family, so that's always been a perspective in

my life. But the Navy seals down at Coronado Island

that are training right now, one of the things that

they trained for is a thing called the Halo drum.

The halo is just an you know, an.

Acronym that means high altitude. So it's referring to the

Navy seals coming out on a plane at the highest

possible altitude where there's.

Not enough air to breathe.

So when they jump out of the plane, they're gonna

jump out of the plane with the oxygen mask on

because they don't want anyone to see where they're coming from.

They're usually gonna do in the pitch start and they're

gonna jump out of that plane and so it's his

high altitude, but then it's his low opening. They're gonna

wait till the very last minute that the human body

can survive the impact, usually over water, it could be

over land, and they are going to open their shoes,

so it's going to be low opening. It is the

most dangerous thing that a Navy seal ever does.

But Navy seals are.

All taught that when you do a halo jump high altitude,

low opening, as soon as you hit whether it's the

water of the ground, you ask three questions. They're all

trained three questions. The first question is where am I?

Just? Where am I?

You know before the mission, where you intended to jump

and where you wanted to land, But where am I?

And see, a lot of people don't want to be

honest about where they are. They don't want to be

honest that maybe they're not close to God right now,

that maybe they're not vibrant with God right now, that

maybe they're not in a place where they're tight with

God right now. But you've got to be honest, and

you've got to ask yourself this question, where am I?

But then once you begin to ask that question, you

ask a second question, and that is where's my buddy?

See when a Navy seal jumps out of that plane,

he's responsible for the person that jumped right before him.

And the Navy seals have a same The quickest way.

To die is to be alone.

And let me just say to you, the quickest way

to kill your faith is to be alone. Isolates yourself

from other people. But I'm going through a hard time.

That's when you need other people. Well, people don't understand, Yeah,

you still need other people. Well you know my schedule

doesn't work. No, you need other people because the quickest

way to kill your faith is for you to be alone.

And see, God says that we need the elders, we

need people, and the Elders just talks about mature people.

Who've been there, people who've.

Had bad marriages and they've worked through him, people who've

had the kid it look like Beelzebub.

And now you know they're doing all right.

People who've gone through the trauma of death, who've gone

through difficult times. But they're taught to ask three questions.

First of all, where am I? Where's my buddy? And

then thirdly, where's the enemy? And those are the three

questions because there's an enemy out there that Jesus said

wants to still kill and destroy, and so you want

to know those three things.

So he starts off.

And he just says, hey, can you take a journey

of faith knowing that God's schedule isn't going to match yours.

You may not get married when you want, You may

not have kids when you want. Your job career may

not advance when you want. Certain things in your life

may not happen when you want. Can you still believe

God when God's schedule doesn't match yours? And then when

you're struggling with your faith and you find a group

of people that will be around you, and that group

of people that will be around you will inspire you.

And there will be elders, people that have lived through

things that you're living through right now, and they're gonna

put their arm around you, and they're gonna say you're

gonna make it. They're gonna say, Hey, you're gonna make it.

You're gonna get through this. You're gonna begin to accomplish this.

But then the writer of Hebrews goes and he gets

very specific and he says down in verse four and

by faith able, now Abel is one of Adam and

east kids. And it says, and by faith able he

offered a more excellent sacrifice. Now, what you need to

know is biblically, this is the first example of faith

ever in the Bible. So we're going back to the

Genesis days. They've been kicked out of the garden and

the very first example of faith is by faith able.

Now were there other examples of faith, there could be.

God didn't record them, but this is the first one. Now,

if you do what I do for a living, then

one of the things you know is in Bible interpretation

is this is that there is the law of first mention,

and that is, whenever a subject is mentioned for the

first time, the core characteristic, the key content is being revealed.

So God may mention something the first time, and he

may add to it, and he may expand it. But

the core content, the foundational truth, the aspect of ed

is right there.

And so abel is.

Important because it's the law of first mentioned. It's the

first example of faith ever, it's the first time faith

is mentioned in the Bible by faith able. He offered

a more excellent sacrifice. And see there's a principle here

that begins to unfold. And the principle is that God's

showing us what faith is. And if we don't get

the core content right, faith will always be a struggle.

And let me just say to you, I've pastored for

forty eight years and for some of you, faith is

a struggle because you.

Haven't gotten the core content right.

You forgot what God said about Able, it says by

faith Able, See, the first act of faith was not

of someone receiving from God. It was of someone giving

to God. See if you listen to a lot of

people when they talk about faith, it's about receiving from God.

Well, you know, I'm gonna walk by faith.

My needs will be me and my circumstances will be

changed issues and all of those thoughts are valid as

long as you keep the core content right where it

should And the first example of faith is not on

receiving from God, but giving to God. So what it

able to The very first thing he did was he worshiped.

He gave to God. He gave to God, He presented

to God.

And see, if you're going to be a person of faith,

you've got to understand that the primary characteristic of your

faith needs to be you presenting yourself to God, not

giving your problems, giving you, not giving issues you give you.

And it says in by faith Able, he just worshiped God.

He just worshiped God. He just worshiped God. He began

to give to God. And see, there's a lot of

people that want to receive from God who never give

to God.

I was just at a church this last weekend.

It's a church in Miami, and so a lot of

the people are from Central and South America. It's a

really interesting characteristics talking to Adam and Diego about it,

because the pastor said, we have a rule in our church,

and that is if you're not here in the first

five minutes when worship sets in and we start worship,

and you have to stand in the lobby until worship's over.

He said, we.

Won't let anybody disturb the presence of God for someone else.

I just thought, in my church, how many people would

be there if we made it a fifteen minute rule.

But I was thinking about that as thinking, you know,

in the culture that I pastor, I probably can't pull

that off. But I was thinking of the value that

we don't let anything disrupt the presence of God and the.

Act of people giving to God.

That they're saying you are God and there is no

other besides you, and that I'm coming today and I'm

coming with worship, and I'm saying that you are a

good God, and you're a great God, and you're mighty God.

But more than anything else, I'm saying to you that

everything that.

I have is yours God. Everything. So God says, hey,

what if I carry? What do you do your worship?

What if I'm not in a hurry, you worship. What

if things aren't happening and you're not receiving, You give

yourself to God. You present yourself to God. Because the

very first example of faith had nothing to do with receiving.

Yet if you went around and you listen, you would

think it's all about receiving, But it was about giving. See,

every day we have a chance to say, this is

the day the Lord hath made, and I will be

glad all to Jesus.

I surrender all to.

Him, I freely give, I will ever love and trust

Him in his presence daily live. You just present yourself

to God. So if you're a person of faith, how

are you doing on the presentation of you giving to God? Well,

God's just sayah, helping me. I'm not receiving from God. Okay,

how much are you giving to God? The law first

mentioned says the core characteristic is always revealed. It the

first the core characteristic of faith is not you receiving,

but you giving. But then it goes on and it

says this, it gives us another example, and it's in

verse five and it says, and by faith Enoch. And

it says, and by faith Enoch, he walked. In fact,

it goes on and it says he walked for three

hundred years.

Now I realize we don't live that long. But he walked.

See God's teaching you the second characteristic of faith. What

do you do when you're a person of faith? You

worship God and you give yourself to God. But the

second characteristic is you walk with God. Someone says, what

is walking? Is taking a step today, I take a step.

The next day, I take a step. The next day,

I take a step. The next day, I take a step.

It turns into a week, it turns into a month,

it turns into a year.

I just walk.

It didn't say he ran with God. It didn't say

he leaped with God. It just said he walked. He

just did every day with God. He did every day

things with God. He just kept. But see, here's our dilemma.

We live in a time where everyone doesn't want to

walk in faith. They want a magic wand of faith.

And see, the magic wand of faith is just simply this.

We live our lives and then all of a sudden

we get ourselves in trouble, and we reach into the

closet and we begin to pull out the magic wand

of faith. And then we began to wave it around

and we utter the secret words in the name of Jesus.

And then when we.

Uttered the secret words in the name of Jesus, if

it doesn't change, we say faith didn't work. What God

said is he says, faith isn't a magic wand it's

just a walk. It's just a walk. It's just a walk.

So let me talk to you a minute. Let me

sort of build a bridge about walking. My son and

I Cody, who travels with me most of the time.

We're always at airports and we're always flying, and because

we're always flying, there is a walk that we have

at airports. We know what we're doing. We're not amateur travelers.

We are stereotyping you. We avoid people that pack as

though they're moving and not going on a trip. You

know where they've got seven pairs of shoes in everything.

We will not get behind you. We are sophisticated. We

are not going to be slowed down. Now, if we

go to an airport, we walk fast. We know where

we're going. We know what we're doing. We don't want

to spend an extra time. If you don't know what

you're doing, do exactly what TSA says, show up four

hours early and figure out what to do at an airport.

We're not showing up four hours for anything at an airport.

We know what we're doing, and we walk fast.

We do not have luggage that we checked, because as

soon as you check the luggage, you no longer control

your destination. The airline does, cause you got to be

on the plane with your luggage. So we always want options.

We're pulling the carry ons with us. But I watch

families even today as they got on to come to

Ontario Airport, and they had their little kids pushing a

little bit of luggage, and you know, you just think,

how many pieces of luggage does one family need.

It's called a vacation.

And so we're watching and I see this, and I'm

just going, oh my goodness, But we're gonna stereotype.

Now.

If I know you and I see you at airport,

I'm gonna wave, I'm gonna be friendly, but I'm not

slowing down for you.

I'm going where I'm going, and I'm getting there quick.

There's only one person who changes how I walk at

an airport, and that is my wife, Ginny. I've been

privileged to be married to the prettiest girl for forty

eight years. And what I can tell you is is

when I go to the airport, she can't walk as

fast as me. She's gonna carry more luggage than me.

But that's all right. I'm gonna change how I walk.

And the reason I'm gonna change how I walk with

Ginny is because I love her. And see, if you're

walking with someone you love, it shows up in how

you walk. And see a lot of people people say, well,

I believe in God, but it doesn't show up in

how they walk. I watch people who shout on Sunday,

who do horrible things on Monday.

What he said was this.

He says, if you're worshiping God, if you're really worshiping God,

then it shows up in how you walk in life.

So don't come crowd the altar and then the next

day be no different. If you're coming close, then live

like you're close. If you're going to be loud, then

you make sure your faith is loud. You make sure.

Now again, what I know is This is too much

church for some of you because you want to come

to the altar, and then no one on Monday would

know that you knew.

How to spell altar. But see here's what he says.

He says.

By faith, Able, he worshiped God. By faith, Penick, he

walked with God. Do you realize the first two illustrations

have nothing to do with receiving from God? The problem

is is that face easy to teach as long as

you don't read the Bible. But the first two examples

are this, you worship God, you walk with God. But

then he gives us a third one and Noah by faith,

Noah he built an arc. Now, just imagine if you're

living during Noah's day and you see Noah in his

front yard. First day, you may not pay a whole

lot of attention to first week, maybe a whole lot

of tension. But a month then you see him building

something that is so massive, and then all of a

sudden you see animals starting to creep towards what he's building.

Can you imagine how many times people came up to

him and said, Noah, what are you doing? And he said,

I'm building something for God. I'm building something for God. See,

every time he built it was a message about God.

Every animal that showed up, it was a message about God.

And so Noah's out there and he's just building.

And Noah's out there and he's just doing his thing,

and in the middle of it, it's just a message

for God. So I want you to get the progression

of faith. Faith is worshiping God, it's walking with God,

and it's being a witness for God. Has anyone ever

noticed you doing anything for God?

That's what faith is. If you just read the Bible.

He begins to tell us, faith is about worship the

more excellent sacrifice. Faith is about walking, just every day,

putting one foot in front of the other. And even

if it does your whole lifetime of however long in

his case, three hundred years, you just keep going.

And then it's about being a witness of God.

So if we are going to follow what the Bible

teaches us about faith, then we see the sequencing. Our

worship turns into a walk, our walk turns into a witness.

Our worship turns into a walk, and our walk turns

into a witness.

It's only to you get to.

The fourth example in Hebrews eleven that you see someone

receiving from God. Only then it says in by faith Abraham,

Abraham's gonna end up believing God because God said, I'm.

Going to give you a child.

But remember how we started in Hebrews chapter ten and

verse thirty eight, and it says, now the just shall

live by faith.

But what if the Lord carries.

The first example that we have is someone receiving and

faith from God is from the time God told Abraham

it's going to be twenty five years, twenty five years. Well,

I need it right now, twenty five years. If it

doesn't happen right now, See, you have this progression of faith,

the worship, the walk, the witness us, the wait.

It's faith.

It's the outline of faith. That's what Hebrews eleven is.

It's the outline of faith. Worshiping God, walking with God

every day, worshiping and walking with God so much that

you become a witness for God. And then God's going

to speak to you and you may.

Have to wait on God. But I need it now.

Twenty five years, twenty five years. I knew one lady

she prayed for her husband to get saved for seventy years.

Seventy years. She prayed every day for seventy years. Sometimes

we wait in faith, ye, but we want to skip

the weight. It's like going to a doctor. How many

of you get to skip the waiting room? I mean

it's a shell game. You have the outer waiting room

where they have magazines that are two years old. Then

they move you to another room and you wait in there.

You know what it's designed to do to make you

think you're not waiting. But after a while you catch

on you're waiting. And so how does someone wait with God?

They worship them, they walk, and they witness, Because that's

how you go about waiting on God. Now, if you

take faith, which I've done, and take every verse in

the Bible, I did it with a yellow pad of

paper because I'm old. And you write down every verse

on faith in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, and

then you begin to look at those you will find

out that faith has basically three categories. Three categories. But

then if you take the verses and you begin to

put them in the right category, what you'll find is

is the primary way faith is taught in the Bible.

It is transcending faith. It's faith that's bigger than this life.

It's faith that's greater than this life. It's faith that

carries on beyond this life. It's faith that surpasses this life.

It's a primary way. So there's verses like Two Corinthians,

chapter five and verse seven. It's wonderful verse it says

we walk by faith and not by side. And it's

true that that verse can be extrapulated. We don't look

at the circumstances, we don't look at the problems. It

can be extrapolated, but contextually that's not what it's referring

to because verse eight teen, as it says, we walk

by faith and not by sight, because to be absent

from the body is to be present with the Lord.

It's talking about transcending faith. Now, the principles above can

be taught because they're illustrated other ways, but that's really

talking about transcending faith.

Now. I'm a pastor.

Over my forty eight years, I've literally held the hands

of seventeen people when they died. I didn't get the text,

I didn't get the email, I didn't get the Instagram.

I was holding their hand.

I was there when you could fill the last beat

of blood.

I was there when you literally heard.

The last breath come out of their lungs seventeen times. Now,

let me tell you all seventeen times what my sight

told me. Remember, we walk not by sight. My sight

told me it's done, it's over. You'll never see them again.

There's nothing about what you see at that moment that

gives you anything beyond it's finished.

Seventeen times. But here's the thing my faith told me.

Their spirit left their body and now they're with Jesus.

See a lot of people don't understand the main thing

your faith does.

Is it gets you from earth to heaven.

But we're the only group of people that make going

to heaven failure. Sight says it's over, it's done. I

can tell you all seventeen times, all seventeen times, and

they took that last breath. When I felt that last pulse,

I felt sorry for them. I thought, how horrible, how difficult.

But what I couldn't see was, in a split second,

they were feeling sorry for me because I was seeing

from earth, but they were looking back over their shoulder

from heaven, and the very people that I was feeling

sorry for were now feeling sorry for me.

Let me just help you with something.

If you've had a loved one die and you're in

this area of the country, Let's say you're in Rancho

and this is your home. When they go to heaven,

none of them want to come to Rancho. They're not

one to come back here. They're in heaven all seventeen

times I knew. See, Christians sometimes get messed up and

they say, but but that.

Moment's so hard.

Well, let me tell you what the Bible says talks

about those that are asleep. Remember when you were a kid,

And when you were a kid, you'd go out and

you'd be with your parents and they'd take you somewhere,

maybe with relatives, maybe with friends. You'd play all day,

but at the end of the day, the parents would

say it's time for us to come home. And when

they would say it's time for us to come home,

you would crawl in the back seat of the car.

But you're just a little kid, and you fall asleep.

Your mom or dad drives home. When they get home,

they see you're asleep in the back seat of the car,

so they don't wake you up. They pick you up

and they carry you and put you in your bed

in your room, so I want you to get it.

You fall asleep in the car, but you wake up

in your room. You fall asleep at the cart, but

you wake up in the room.

See. All that happens to a Christian.

Is that we fall asleep here and we open our

eyes in heaven.

See.

That's why the Bible says, oh death, where is thy steam?

The sting for a Christian is the same thing as

falling asleep, which several of you have done during my message.

That's why there's no steam.

Some of you work all night to fall asleep, but

you just fall asleep. You close your eyes here and

you wake up there. You close your eyes here and

you wake up there. And Romans chapter eight and verse

thirty seven, nay, and all these things were more than

a conqueror. And see that's one of those verses. People love,

I'm more than a conqueror. I'm more than a conqueror.

I more than a conqueror. But they don't tend to

read what it says. It says in there and death

and Life. Now get that it says you're more than

a conqueror and death and life.

See, none of us would write a verse that way,

here's what we would write.

You're more than a conqueror in life and death. Only

God starts with the word death. Why did he start

with the word death. He started with the word death

because he said, after death, there's still more life for you.

That's what makes you more than a conqueror. Yes.

See, if you're going to be a person of faith,

every day you stand up and worship God and you say, God,

I give everything I am to you, everything's yours. If

you're going to be a person of faith, every day,

you just take a step when you don't think you can,

take a step when you don't want to, You just

take a step because you want to walk. And if

you put enough days of worship and walking, eventually your

life becomes a witness. And if your life becomes a witness,

there may be things God wants to do in your

life that you're going to have to wait on. But

it's all right because you're waiting with God, not away

from God, and it begins to change your life.

So tonight, how are you doing? How are you doing

with the faith thing? How's the worship part, how's the

walk part, How's the witness part, how's the waiting part

are you doing.

I've had people when I talk about going to sleep

here and there and they say, well, I don't believe

in that.

It didn't matter.

If you believe in that there's a heaven to gain

and there's a hell to shun.

Well, I'm not sure about that. It didn't matter.

If you're sure there's a heaven to gain there's a

hell to shun. You either go on one or two places.

And the main thing your faith does is your faith

gets you from here to there. That's the most powerful

aspect of your faith. These having all died in faith

looking for a city whose builder and maker was God.

It's called faith. God asks you to be a faith person.

Now the just shall live by faith. I don't believe

in that faith message.

Yeah you do. Now the just shall live by faith.

You live your life every day just walking with God,

worshiping God, being a witness for God, and sometimes waiting

on God.

But it's all right, because.

One day you're going to walk beyond this earth and

you're going to find out that your faith was bigger

than earth.

Your faith got you to heaven. And that's the greatest

aspect of faith.

Every head bowed, every eye closed, tonight, I want to

ask you three questions. The first question is this, do

you have a relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Have you ever done that first part of worship where

you've given yourself to God.

You've given everything to God.

You've given your goods, You've given your badge, You've given

your hopes, you've given your fears, You've given the things

you dream you given the things you dread.

That you've given everything to God. If you haven't, tonight's

the night. But then the second question, are you close

to him?

See a lot of people believe in God, they're just

not close to him because more than giving yourself to God,

you walk with God. You stay close to him.

Tonight I'm asking are you close to him?

Because a lot of people get busy in life, and

a lot of things happen in life, and you get

distant from God and life. But if you can say, ye,

I've opened my heart to God and I believe in

God and I'm close to God. Then Thirdly, have you

ever been filled with the spirit like it talks about

next chapter two and verse four, where it says, and

they were all filled with the spirit and began to

speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utter. See, really,

if you take the New Testament, there's only two real promises.

There's the promise of Jesus that secures your future, and

there's the promise of the Holy Spirit that gives you

power to live for today. In some of you, you've

got a great future, you've just never accepted the power

to make it through today.

You need both of them. So my heads are bowed

and eyes are closed in any one of those three areas.

You know that I'm talking to you. I want to

pray with you if you'd like to be a part

of that prayer. If you just raise your hand wherever

you're at right now. I see that hand. I see

that hand. I see that hand. I see that hand.

I see that hand. I see that hand. I see

that hand. I see that hand. I see that hand.

I see that hand. I see that hand. I see

that hand. I see that hand. I see that hand.

I see that hand You know, there's just so many

hands that are going on. If you can do me

a favor, if you raise your hand and you're.

Us about what of those three we're talking about. I

need you to stand up and come down here.

You don't worry about your mamma, You don't worry about

your boyfriend, your girlfriend.

You just come right down here. We've got time. You

keep coming, you keep coming. Now.

I know that there's some of the prayer team that

come up at the end of these services. If you're

a part of that prayer team, I want you to

come up here too. If you'll come up, peers stand

around them right now. Now, let me tell you what's

going to happen. We're going to pray a prayer, and

that prayer is going to do one of three things.

If you don't know Jesus, you will know them. If

you know Jesus and you're not close to him, you'll

get close to him. But if you know Jesus and

you're close to him and you want to be filled

with the spirit, you'll be filled with the spirit by him. Now,

any one of those things can happen according to what's

in your heart, or all three of.

Them can happen at the same time. You get to.

As you in your heart, you get to believe. Now,

let me say to the people out there. Church is

in a spectator sport. No one paid a cover church

to get in here it nobody gets to come to

church without using their faith. And so you're going to

help these people receive in faith by you using your faith.

If everyone in this room will repeat after me, Heavenly Father,

you said in Romans chapter ten, verses nine and ten

that if I believe with my heart and confess with

my mouth that Jesus's Lord, that I would be saved.

Today.

I'm doing that. I believe with all my heart that

you are my Lord. Therefore I thank you for saving

me and changing my life.

Forever in Jesus' name.

And today, Lord, I'm asking you to fill me with

the Holy Spirit and to give me my heavenly prayer language.

And I believe you said if I ask, I will

receive today. I'm asking. Therefore, I thank you. I am receiving.

And she's a snake. Amen.

Now, all of you up here, I want you to

look at me. I want you to look at me.

Jesus loves you so much. This is a moment of faith.

But wherever you're at in your faith, don't let it

just stop at a moment.

Let it become alife.

Because He loves you two thousand years ago, he chose you.

Tonight just choose him a little bit more.

There's prayer workers around here that will help you. But

I'm gonna turn it over to Pastor Adam.

Yeah, thank you. I'll just stay up here for a moment.

I'm gonna just ask us all if we could just

do this for a moment, Can you guys close your head,

your eyes one more time?

The whole congregation can.

Join us for this. But I'm gonna give you thirty

or forty seconds just for you to talk to the

Lord yourself. You may say, man, I've never done that before.

I've never I don't even know what to say. Well,

Pastor Gerald told us about three categories. Number one, you

may be up here because you're ready to surrender your

whole life to Jesus. So during those thirty or forty

seconds of silence, start surrendering. If there's some things you know,

you got to start letting go right now, Start telling

God God right now. Here's my faith action. I'm letting

go of unforgiveness. I'm lunging go of addiction, I'm letting

go of bitterness. If you're making a rededication right now

and you're saying God not just been wayward, I've been lost.

Just make that commitment, that faith commitment right now, or

if you came up here because you want to be

filled with the spirit, speakin to pray, begin to talk

to the Lord. Let the Holy Spirit work through you.

So I'm gonna give us about thirty seconds. I know

silence is awkward because we hate it, but it's good

to sit in silence because that's where God can speak

the loudest. So let's just sit for a moment. You

start talking to God yourself. We worship you in this place. Lord,

we lay it all down at the foot of the cross. God,

we thank you so much for your presence that has

filled this space today. Father God. I pray Lord Jesus,

that what you've started right now, Father God, you may

complete it to fullness. I pray that as confessions of

faith are being made, Father God, may this moment be

sealed in their heart as a different day, God, a

day where you have radically captivated their heart. Lord, I

pray God that your spirit will fill them with all

good gifts. God, may they move in the gifts of

the Spirit. Father God, may you increase their prayer life. God,

may you increase their faith walk. God, may you increase

their understanding of your word.

God. May you dwell in their mightily God. I pray

as we leave this place, Lord.

There will be a new strength, a new breath, a

new hope, a new vigor, a new joy, and a

new healing and a new freedom in Jesus' mighty name.

Amen and Amen.

Can we celebrate God's goodness in this place tonight. We're

so glad that all of you came forward. It's a

big moment in the Kingdom of God. Before you leave,

if you want to take some next steps with us,

it's totally up to you. But we have a weblink

that's easy. Everybody's got a phone nowadays. And so when

you go sit down, or before you sit down, if

you want to go to ww dot grow dot Faith,

we'd love to get some resources in your hand, a

really small PDF book that you can read over a

cup of coffee, but it really start your faith off right.

If you've never done it before, please go there because

we're gonna be able to get this into your hands

to be able to walk this journey with you as well. Additionally,

if any of you want any one on one prayer,

like Pastor Gerald said, then I'm going to ask in

anyone else that's here hang back, because our prayer team

they're going to walk in front of you into the

front of the altar. And if you need anyone to

pray over you, or come into agreement about anything, or

pray deeper into something that you've been wrestling with, then

that's what our elders, deacons and prayer team are up

here for. So just make sure you hang back when

I conclude right now, and then for everyone else, I'm

gonna pray and I'm gonna bless this out again. If

you'd like any of Pastor Gerald's resources, they're out in

the foyer. And if you think his messages are blessings,

the books he writes are just as much of a

blessing into our lives as well. So I'll pray for

us and we'll head out tomorrow. Lord, We thank you

God for your spirit that has dwelt in this place today.

Father God, I pray as we leave here that every

person would be blessed and highly favored with the presence

of God in their life. In Jesus Mighty name, Amen

and Amen. Prayer team go ahead and head up to

the front. Anyone can hang back who may need prayer.

God bless your family,