Crush It: Letting Jesus Shape Your Life Under Pressure || Pastor Aaron Levy

All right, we're gonna be in Philippians chapter three, verse

twelve through fourteen. Let's all stand to our feet. Please,

we stand to our feet to honor God's word. I'm

gonna be reading from esv. You can read from your Bible,

or you could simply listen along. Not that I have

already obtained this or am I already perfect, But I

press on, say, press on to make it my own

because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I

don't consider that I have made it second time we

see the word it my own. But one thing I

do forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what

lies ahead, I press on, say, press on towards the

goal for the prize of the upward call of God

in Christ Jesus, Let's pray, Heavenly Father, we acknowledge that

your word is true. We acknowledge that your word has

the power to change our lives. Help us to lean

into the Holy Spirit, where you convict, strengthen, encourage, transform

our lives. I thank you God that it will feel

like we're the only person in the room and you're

talking to us. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen, Amen,

you may be seated. You guys look good. In twenty

twenty five, she said, I received that. Oh, I want

you to look to your neighbor and give the servid title.

Look to your neighbor and say crush it. We're gonna

crush it. In twenty twenty five. Right now, look to

your other neighbor, the one you rejected. They looked at you.

You didn't look at them. It's awkward. Now look at

them and say crush it. Now here's the question, what

are we crushing? There's a lot of times I grew

up in church and the pastor is say say this,

I'll say it, say that. Yes, said amen, I know

none of it. I didn't know what it meant. I'm

just saying it. I'm singing it, but it really doesn't

have a meaning in my life. So when I look

at verses twelve through fourteen, we're gonna press on. But

he uses the word it twice, so we're gonna crush it.

But what is the it? And we gotta look at

scripture and context, because if we don't look at scripture

in context, we'll just only think about what's on our

mind and not what's on God's mind. There is a

man named Paul. If you're not really familiar with the

Book of Philippians. He is a pastor. He's on his

second missionary journey, and while he is in prison, he's

writing a letter to a church he planted in Philippi,

and he is sharing some reflective thoughts to give them

joy and encouragement. And he said, I haven't made it

my own now. Before when I would read this without

context that it, I would claim it. I'm gonna my

it is a six pack, my it. I'm finally gonna

lose weight. My it is a promotion. My it is

a property, my it. And sometimes we set New Year's

resolutions that are fine, but that have nothing to do

with what God has planned for you this year. So

we figured that we start off by saying, what is

the it that God wants us to focus on. I'm

glad you asked. Let's look at contexts. Philippians, Chapter three,

verse eight through eleven gives us a hint, A few hints.

This is Paul reflecting, I count everything as loss because

of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all

things and count them as rubbish in order that I

might gain Christ. We're getting more of clues right now

and be found in Him now, having a righteousness of

my own that comes from the law, but that which

comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that

depends on faith. That I may know Him and the

power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming

like him in his death, that by any means possible,

I may attain the resurrection from the dead. And after

I read that multiple times, I began to see what

was on Paul's mind. I began to see what was

on God's mind, and it aligns with the vision of Patrio.

I've reduced each one to the verse because at Patriarch

we seek the loss, teach the fountains and the disciples.

If we look at Philippians three eight, we seek the

loss because we want people to gain Christ. So that's

why Paul is saying, I'm counting these things as last.

We got to count our past as a loss so

we can gain Christ. And then at Patriarch we teach

the found so we could be found in Him and

learn who He is instead of just learning more about

what we want from life. And then we send the

disciples becoming like him. Now we know what the it

is becoming like him because he hasn't arrived yet. But

he gives a perfect illustration of what the it is. See,

we wanna know God, and he said, I want to

know God by knowing his power and to sharing his suffering.

The ultimate illustration of that is the resurrection, because we

have God showing his power to raise from the dead

by suffering on the cross. He brings a light in

dark places. That's why he's our father. But he'll suffer

with us because he's our friend. We sing songs. He's

the lion and he's the lamb twenty twenty five. We're

gonna press on even though we suffer. With press sures.

So we want to know God. And it's not just

knowing his power. I thought I could just come to

church and I say, hey, God, just bless me. I

want your power. But no, no, no, no, chill on

the suffering because you're a good God. He says, you're

a good God. You don't want me to suffer, do you.

But Paul will reflect on this. Let's look at a

little more context Philippians one twelve through thirteen and the

reason why I'm doing this. We're gonna be in Philippians

all month, and I really want you to get acquainted

with Paul's story in the Church of Philippi. But look

how he's using this power suffer thing again. He's saying here,

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened

to me has really served to advance the Gospel word.

So that has become known that throughout the whole Imperial

Guard and to the rest of the rest, that my

imprisonment is for Christ. Paul didn't commit a felony. Paul

was on a second missionary trip. Have you ever done

something good for God but it left you with suffering?

Wait a minute, what the heck is going on here?

So it's saying I want to know him. So, man,

I'm going on this mission trip. I'm gonna preach the Gospel.

And some of us would think I'm in prison, so

I'm stuck. But Paul would say, no, I'm chained to

my purpose. I'm gonna suffer this and I'm gonna start

a prison ministry. And now more people in prison are

getting saved because his perspective is I want to know him,

his power and his suffering. He does this again in

Philippians one twenty one through twenty five. It's okay to

clap in church. If other people clap, he say, oh, yeah,

that's good, that's okay, it's welcome. For me. To live

is Christ and to die is Game. So I want

to know Christ, and I want to live a life

that models that power in suffering. If I'm the liv

in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. If

I want the power of the fruit, I gotta suffer

with my flesh. You see what he's saying here. So

he knows God, and now his life is paralleling that.

If you think about Paul's life, he wrote thirteen books

in the New Testament, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Fileman, and

he wrote, I mean you are thirteen books. Four of

them he wrote while in prison. That's crazy because for me,

like in my personal time, I've been praying to God God,

I want to write more. I want to write more books.

And then I look at his story and I'm like,

I'll just put some things on some post it notes,

and then I don't want I don't want those problems.

I don't want those problems. But there's this quote by

this pastor Allan He's an evangelist, it should be on

the screens here and says, when God wants to do

an impossible task, he takes an impossible man and he

crushes him. Dang, Happy New Year. See. I want this

type of Christianity where the series is called press On,

So that I pressed on. I pray to God, God,

get rid of all my problems, change my wife, please

change my kids. Right. So then when I want God

to do something, I press on. Start coming to church.

When God wants me to do something, I press off.

And see some of us try to use religion to

press on. Hey God, I'm gonna come to church. I'm

on the dream team. Whoop. I go to Saturday morning prayer,

I'm in a neighborhood group. I'm reading my Bible. I

keep it on my desk at work. And then when

God says, hey, I want you to forgive that person

that hit you. Oh God, you know how hard that you.

So we're gonna press on amidst life's pressures. We gotta

stop saying no to God when it gets hard, because

those very things that are hard, God's trying to squeeze

out of you. The power that's not only gonna be

a blessed to you and your family, but to other

people as well. Amen. This whole thing that Paul's talking

about is I don't want to just know Jesus. I

don't want to know about him. I want to become

like Jesus. And see religion get you tricking, because it's like, well,

all you gotta do is these steps and then God

will bless you. So we say things in church like

I'm the head and not the tail. Yeah, you are

the head and not the tail. That doesn't mean your

tail won't suffer. It's it's about then, say, I grew

up in church. I know all the phrases, but some

of those phrases ain't even in the Bible, and I'll

just be making that my doctrine. I gotta look and

see what scripture says, because when I look at the scriptures,

if I'm to become like him, I'm gonna have his power,

but there's gonna be some suffering God I gotta go

through to get that power. Amen. So that goes to

our very first point. You can't impress Jesus. You can't

impress Jesus. Man, we be using religion sometimes to try

to impress Jesus. So did Paul see before he was

pastor Paul, he was just sinful. Saul, very smart man

in church, but he thought everybody in church was doing

it wrong. So he's gonna fix it. So I have

his resume that I want to share with you is

in Philippians chapter three, verse four through seven. Look at

this cat right here. He says, though I myself have

reason for confidence in the flesh, also if anyone thinks

he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I got

more circumcised on the eighth day. They didn't wait till

day nine for me. But the people of Israel, the

tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law Pharisee,

as to Zeal secutor of the church, I'm going to

persecute the church because they're doing it wrong. And I'm

smarter than God as to righteousness under the law blameless

verse seven. But whatever I gained I had I count

as loss for the sake of Christ. There's been so

many times in my life where I go to God

with my resume. If you've been going to church for years,

Pasha Diego say yo reputation on He's a love when

you would say that, man, that guy's crazy. But so

many times where I want to give this to God. God.

I was nice to my wife. God, I was on

time to the huddle. God, I went to Saturday morning

prayer and I'm listing all these things and God looks

at it and says, crushes it. That's religion. Righteousness is

filthy rags. Aron. Oh you're trying to do stuff for me.

How about you just be with me. So there's been

so many times, maybe in your life as well, where

you may think the faith journey is a corporate ladder.

So the more that I do things at church, the

more I'm gonna be blessed by God. Yes you will

be blessed, but there's also gonna be some trows in

your life to test if you really have faith. We

don't do this religion stuff to be exempt from trows.

We have these disciplines so we can endure troughs. Does

that make sense. We're in a fast right now, a

lot of us, and we're putting down crushsoda and we're

picking up the oranges. I was looking at Pastor Ashley

had the little waffle. That waffle was calling my name

right now, because what is a fast. A fast is

saying no to your flesh, so you could be prepared

to say yes to the father, right. But when I

look at this soda right here, and I think that's

why relationships are called crushes, because we do things that

taste good to us but not necessarily good for us.

And the more that we crushing, more we burping, faring on, bloating.

I got it. What it looks like, it's fruit, but

it ain't fruit. So for those that are newer to Patrio,

because I want, I wanna. I remember when I was

brand new to Patrio and the church would just talk

about things and I'd be like, yeah, yeah, okay, we're

gonna go on a fast. What is that the list

of things you don't eat? So God, here's you. So

let's just talk about it in the natural. If you

go see your natural doctor, the doctor won't even see you.

If you're gonna give blood or surgery. He says, fast

eight to twelve hours before. Now, could you imagine going

to your doctor flexing how much soda you drink? Hey doc,

I've been crushing it. Doctor won't even see you until

somebody in the front takes in, take paperwork from you,

and I'm not really used to this. My wife's a

nurse practitioner, so I feel like I should never have

to go to the doctor. I could just ask my wife, Hey,

what's up with my elbow? Can you get you know,

just take care of it? But sometimes I gotta go

to the hospital and I be feeling vulnerable y'all because

I where's the doctor? Who are all these people with

this glass in front asking me these questions? But here's

what they ask? What's the reason for your visit? Am

I telling you or the doctor? I'm not like these

people in here. I gotta I gotta be careful on

what I'm sharing. I don't trust you. Where are you

experiencing pain? Are you going to email this directly to

the doctor? Or is it everybody gonna know allergies in

the spiritual? What substances or environments are you around to

get a negative reaction out of you? Hey? What's your

family history of medical conditions? Hey? What are some generational

things that see it's tripped up your dad, it tripped

up your grandfather, tripped up your ground. What are some

generational things that are susceptible to trip you up. Hey,

what about alcohol? How often? Well I had it? Truly?

I mean does that? I don't know? Does that count?

We start negotiating with ourselves. Are you sexually active? Have

you had multiple sexual partners in the past year? I

have a testimony. You're just asking parts of it. I'm

not gonna say. And see, when we go to the doctor,

the doctor is asking us to fast away from the

things that need to be cleansed out of us, and

to be honest about where we really are. He can

work on us somehow when the spiritual we think, I'm

gonna eat oranges and plums, and then now, God bless me,

I'm gonna deny my flesh so I can be open

to the Father's assessment in his will in my life.

Let's put up. Let's put up the ingredients of a

crush solder right now. Can you imagine going to the doctor, Hey, doc, man,

I've been on that esther gum. I've been on that

high fruit toast corn soor that's citric acid. Can you

imagine flexing like that to the doctor. That's what we

do every time we go to God. Hey, God, I

went to Saturday morning prayer. A servant kids thank you

for doing that. But that's not a response for God

to bless you. That's your response to his goodness. But

if we look at all these things that are in

the crush, look at the very top. Contains no juice,

And this is what I look like for years. Just

know a little bit about church to talk like I

have some fruit in my life. But if you really

open me up, I contain no juice. How about you?

So since we can't impress Jesus, point number two is

we gotta let Jesus press you. Philippians, Chapter three, verse thirteen,

very important verse. We already read it. What it says

is I don't consider that I've made it my own.

But one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and

straining forward to what lies ahead. Now notice this, preachers

do this. Preachers say I got one thing to share,

and then we share two. I'm gonna close in five minutes,

and then we give twelve. Right, So Paul is doing

that right here. I got one thing I'm gonna do,

but he shares two things. But remember we were talking

about power and suffering. It is one thing I need

God's power to release my pa and I'm gonna suffer

through my present situation to straightforward. It's one thing. So

let me try to illustrate this for us. Because I'm

a father and my daughters love eating oranges, but they

don't love pelling the fruit the fruit to get to it.

And this flesh needs to die to get to the fruit.

So they come to me as a father and they say, hey, father,

can you peel this off of me? There's a lot

of times when my girls come up to me and

I tell them to clean their room and they say, hey,

is my room clean enough yet? Because they don't really

care about the values that the father was saying in

that moment. They just cared about being good enough to

do what they wanted to do. Do we treat church

that way? See, this is who we are. And there's

a lot of times when we go to God, God

them all together, not like how I used to be,

Praise God. Let me tell you what God wants to

do in our life. We God knows we wouldn't kill

our flesh fast enough to get to the fruit. We'd

just be doing a little bit little pain. But what

God wants to do is say, you know what, I'm

gonna take this situation. Because Paul said he was hard

pressed between the two. And God may be trying to

get your attention right now from a situation that's squeezing

you and it's frustrating you when it's hurting you. But

as you are broken, look at the beauty that's coming

out on the other side when we allow God to

press us. I'm trying my best not to get this

juice on me. But that's the life of a Christian.

When you allow God to pressure, not only do you

get blessed, it gets blessings all over your family, blessings

all over whoever's around you, because you get squeezed, and

you get squeezed and you allow God to minister to you.

See this right here represents brokenness. Look at that brokenness.

This right here represents breakthrough. And if we want to

experience the breakthrough, we gotta allow ourselves to be broken.

There's been so many times in my life trying to

put my life back together for how I planned my

life to be. And by this age, I was supposed

to look like this. And then your friends, our friends

will start telling it, eugh, why are you looking like that?

Why are you because they haven't tasted in seeing that

God is good yet so they're trying to have you

look like them. But you say, I'm on a different journey.

I've allowed God to squeeze me, and as God has

put pressure on me, I come out being a blessing

to other people. Can we go deeper? This is our past,

this is our present situation. I want you to be

thinking about a present situation in your life that you're

experiencing pressure. And this is what God wants to do

it look how much more room we have to grow?

This is why Paul say, I haven't made it my own. Okay,

So we're supposed to do this daily so we know

He's faithful. And now we're in a different situation. And

anytime we're in a pinch, no, no, hold on God,

hold on God, you tripping? God, hold up? And instead

of forgetting what lies behind, we're double minded. Like the

Book of James, this is our present. We're rolling back

to our past. We're going back to the present. I'm

gonna give with God. Ah, I'm rolling back because I

miss my girlfriend and I want to do it. Nah.

I gotta move forward. I got That's why he says,

I gotta forget what lies behind and move forward because

it's a strain. I don't know if you've done this.

I've done this in my life when I'm trying to

like negotiate, like, am I gonna let God? Damn? So

first God, wait, hold up, God, hold up, Let me analyze.

Because I'm a thinker, I'm a processor, right, so I

use responsibility to negate my faith sometimes and I say, Okay,

I'm wanna process some things that have happened in my

life and this is this is a thing that I

did a few years ago, and I really don't think

you can use me in this situation because of this,

And then I end up putting shame in my pocket

or some of you. It's not that what you've done

wrong is how you've been wronged, and God is trusting

you to trust, is testing you to trust again. You've

already committed I never trust nobody again. So what you

do is you roll back and forth, you zoom into

this situation and let me know all the details. Well

you did this and how you do this. It was

nineteen ninety six, and see what this does. We don't

recognize this is preventing us from being in the presence

of God because we take this piece of information, Give

me all the details, give me the cheese man, give

me all the and we and we go all these details.

Do you want God to do that with you? See

with God, thank you for your mercy. And then our

spouse hold up, tell me everything? What is good? Whoa

and see? Some of us picture God being like that.

So that's how we treat others. But Isaiah forty three,

verse twenty five said, God chooses to forget our sins.

One of my favorite scriptures that helps me to move

forward from situation like this, either shame I would carry

in my pocket or when people have done me wrong.

It's Philippians four, verse four through seven. I don't have

time to read it, but I'll reduce it to one phrase.

The peace of God is greater than a piece of information.

You can have the piece of information. Hey, some of

us think if I just knew this and knew that

and knew that, Okay, now you have more information, you

still don't have peace. So God is saying, we gotta

let that go forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to

what lies ahead, because we're not gonna just talk about

breakthroughs from the past. What is the present thing that

God is trying to squeeze out of your life, not

just to be a blessing to you, to be a

blessing to other people. Look at the mess of my

life life right here, according to who's looking at it

right see, because the father is looking at this, the

world looks like this TikTok, part six of the trauma

that I've experienced. And we always talk about all this stuff.

All this talking we're doing with no redemptive qualities. So

let's just be mindful of all the stuff that we're

feeling and doing all these things. Wait a minute, God

is like, but I can use that. I can use

a failure. I could use a divorce, I could use

it foreclosure. I can use somebody getting fired because when

it comes in here, that person grew and now they

have a faith to trust me in the future, and

I'm gonna use them more. So we know that we

can't impress Jesus, we might as well let Jesus press us.

And to conclude, let's press on with joy. Let's press

on with joy. You know, I don't have time to

read it, but I'm going to kind of summarize it.

If you look at Philippians Chapter two, verse one, through eleven.

You don't have to look there. Just maybe I pray

that like seek sermons or just commercials for you to

get in the Bible. So I pray that you have

notes and then okay, I'm gonna get in Philippians chapter two.

So Philippius chapter two, verse one through eleven. There's two

things that I want to highlight that's in Paul's mind.

He says in verse two, he says complete he talking

to the church in Philippi, and he says, complete my

joy by demonstrating the same love and being in unity

and get along. And I'm like, that's what you want

ball you in prison. So when we read the scriptures,

we gotta be honest with ourselves, Like what would I

want if I'm in prison. I went on a mission

trip and I'm in prison. I'm sending a letter to

my wife. Complete my joy by bringing me some red vines,

bring me some new tella. I'm thinking about me like

I'm in this bad situation. But Paul knows that I'm

gonna press on amidst the pressure. It's just the season.

It's temporary, because Jesus pressed on for us. Philippians chapter two,

verse seven, Jesus came from heaven to earth, and the

Bible says he emptied himself, so he was crushed on

the cross, emptying out his blood so we can have

right relationship with him. So now that that's on Paul's mind,

he knows what it is. I'm not trying to make

this world heaven because i know that awaits me later.

I'm gonna allow myself to be crushed and I'm gonna

press on with joy. So when Philippians chapter two, verse

seventeen through eighteen, look at Paul's reflections from that, he says,

even if I'm to be poured out as a drink,

offering upon the sacrifice, official offering for you our faith,

I am glad and rejoice with you all, and likewise

you should all be glad and rejoice with me. What

Paul is saying in that moment is I put Christ first,

and no matter the situation that I'm in, I'm gonna

press on because Christ has given me purpose and my purpose.

As I'm becoming like Christ, more people are being introduced

to Christ. We don't win people to Christ by just

quoting scriptures. Scripture, scriptures, scripture, scripture. No, that's not how

that's not That's not how I got one to the Lord.

What happens is are we living the life that's pleasant

to others? They're in that situation. They didn't complain. Man,

they don't lie, they don't gossip, they have joy, they

always smile. What is that about that person? Because I

know their story? What's different about them? Instead of them

trying to improve their life, they surrendered their life to

Christ and they allow the pressures of life to squeeze

out God's pay to be influential to other people. So

to conclude, I want to share a story. We had

our first conference in October of this past year by

run of Applause, where you blessed by Our conference in

October packed house the whole weekend, and I had the

honor of being a part of the leadership team to

put on the conference. And there are some complex things

that were happening with my family while the conference was happening.

Because my wife's birthday is October thirteenth, that was the

last day of the conference. So I'm trying to figure

out how I can figure this out at work and

then make my wife feel special as well. But also

my middle daughter Faith, she's thirteen years old. She was

gonna miss the conference because she was going to Washington, DC.

So we're like, oh man, she's not gonna be here,

and then like we're gonna be like really like doing work.

And during that time, behind the scenes, we were planning

on launching Patriot Alameda. Very busy season, and Faith's on

the East Coast. So the week of the conference, Faith's

out in Washington, d C. She face times me and

she's say, Dad, my stomach hurts. I'm having a real

hard time at my stomach. And we have this running

joke because she always drinks milk and you who's And

I'm like, you probably just got gas, just far, just fart,

just let it out, trying to fight in front of

your friends. Was that like, So we're just playing and

I noticed she wasn't laughing, so I'm like, what, okay.

So we're praying for Faith. But then we're now we're

in the like two days away from conference. We had

a team rally and then I was selected to pray

for all the families of everybody that served the conference.

Anybody remember the team rally we had, So I'm praying

for families. God bless their families. Protect our families, give

us rest, bring us more families, blah blah blah blahlah,

and Jesus' name a man. I get off stage and

as I'm walking right to her hobby, as my wife

meets me right there and says, I need to rush

to Virginia Hospital right now. Faith's on an ambulance. Her

appendix just burst. She needs emergency surgery. So those are

one of the moments in life where I'm confused. I'm frustrated.

I felt God's power on stage. I felt like God

was really using me. Why do I gotta go through

this suffering? God? Do you see how hard I'm working?

Do you see the things that I'm trying to do?

Do you see the things I'm praying about? I asked

you to protect Faith, and God's like, I still am,

but not the way that I pictured. So what is

up happening that night? You know, I tell you my

wife is a nurse practitioner, So it's like, now all

of our information is gone. She's on the airplane, and

now the doctors are calling me because they need consent

from a father. So they call me at one am,

they call me at three am, they call me at

five am, I'm overwhelmed, I'm frustrated, I'm tired. But the

next morning, my job was to teach a breakout session.

You know what. The breakout session was called for the

conference Navigating your Faith Journey. Bruh. I don't feel like

talking about faith. I feel like getting a call from

the doctor right now saying everything is good, and God

saying wait, I'm the great physician. Why are you depending

on a doctor to call? Why don't you trust me?

So I find myself on the other side of the building.

Eileen is teaching with me, and this is the illustration

of power and suffering. I'm teaching others how to navigate

their faith journey while I'm awaiting a call for the

doctor for myself. This was the last picture I got

from faith, right before I taught my class. And see,

the thing about ministry ministry is people are getting crushed

in what comes out of it, people are blessed by

Because when I'm in that class, it's not my turn

to draw a pity party and draw attention to myself

of what I'm going through. God has assigned me to minister,

so I have to do the role of a servant.

But what about you I want you to think about

a situation that you've been in, because the only reason

why I'm sharing that about my family is to share

that we are not exempt from trials. What ends up

happening is faith surgery was successful. She's completely restored, and

then we just had some daddy daughter time. So I

flew her out with me to Patriot Allen meet up

for Vision Nights. So we spent some daddy daughter time

and I just couldn't contain myself because of the goodness

of God. But I wouldn't know how much me and

my wife are team players, how much God is a healer,

how brave faith is. All these things that I love

earned becoming like Christ, not just knowing about Christ. See,

there's times in our life where there's a situation that happens,

and God squeezes those situations out of our life. And

every day we're supposed to die daily, so every situation

that happens, we're supposed to give to the Father. There's

these other things that like what happened with my daughter

when one my wife was on the plane. This is

how it sounded. And I don't know if you've ever

been at church, and it's hard for you to hear

the preaching because of the trauma that's going on in

your mind right now, the sounds of the frustrations, of

the bitterness, of the betrayals, and what God has said. Hey,

that situation. I want you to give that situation to me.

Let me press it out, let me kill all the

thing that was negative. That there's fruit that I want

to do in your life. Hey, your relationship you've been

praying for. I know it's loud. I want you to

give that situation to me. I know it's a messy,

but look at the fruit on the other side. I

want you to trust me. I want you to trust

me where you allow God to press on. When you

press to the noises in your life, that no matter

what happens in your life, Jesus is faithful, Jesus is holy,

Jesus is merciful. This noise will stop and fade away.

And as that noise starts to fade away, and you

be able to reflect on that season of your life.

There is one when I'm trying to put together my life,

but there's this other situation. I don't even recognize what

I used to look like. Because my job is to

be a blessing. So cheers to Jesus for allowing him

to put pressures in our life to crust my desires,

to crust my plans, but to give me something sweeter

and something better. And what happens is this is the

role of the church. Because there are people in your city,

on your street, in your neighborhood that have not tasted

it and seen that God is good. But if you've

tasted and seen that God is good, what you do

is you show that you've been pressed. And when you

meet a new friend, hey, I've been pressed. Let me

tell your story. Let me tell you about Jesus. I

used to trick soda, but now I got something for you.

Hey, hey, let me tell you about Let me tell

you about two years ago what God did in my life.

Let me tell you about his faithfulness. Let me tell

you about his mercy. Let me tell you how you

changed my values. Let me tell you how you changed

my life. This is the process of the church. Have

you allowed God to press you?

Not just for you to be blessed, that's one level,

But our job is for others to be blessed. Paster Garfield,

I want you to be blessed. That's the whole season.

Hey Adam, I want you to be blessed. Hey Curtis,

I want you to be blessed. You see what I'm saying.

I know these men are fasting. There would be a

lot of times in my life where this is all

I had to give. But now we have a story

to tell, and some of the situations on how people

can't even recognize you shows the goodness of God in

your life. You no longer need to analyze all the

things that have happened. They're dead. You made it. You're

in twenty twenty five. But let me be honest with you,

there are some things that you will be assigned to

suffer through, but surely goodness and mercy shall follow you

all the days of your life. God is with you.

God loves you, He wants to bless you, and a

part of him blessing you is crushing you. Heavenly Father,

we thank you so much for what you taught us today.

May this illustration bring up situations in our soul and

give us more perspective and clarity on who you'll be

through this situation. Sometimes we won't understand all the details,

but God, we thank you right now that you'll give

us a piece that's surpasses understanding in this moment, that

situation that's on our mind. We're going to release it

into your hands, so there could be fruit that comes

out in Jesus' name. Hey, before we leave, I want

to tell you a little bit about myself. The first

time I came to this church was in twenty ten

on Easter, and I sit way in the back up there,

and I came late on purpose because I didn't want

nobody in my business. People talk in the fourier. I

grew up in church, so I knew how that worked.

I just wanted to hear songs and sermons. So I

would sit way in the back and I would leave

early and come late because I wanted God, but I

wanted to avoid people. And the more that I got

to know God, the more I recognized that God would

use situations with people to test if you really love God.

So I recognized, Hey, I know a lot about church,

I know a lot about God. But I don't look

nothing like God. I don't look nothing like Jesus because

I don't have the same values. I just did things

that did things that tasted good to me but wasn't

good for me and maybe that's you. Here's the same

invitation that I got in twenty ten. Way up there.

The start line of Christianity is not improvement, it's surrendered.

It's us confessing I have sinned, I have messed up.

There are some things in my life I don't want

to nobody or know about. There's some things I'm trying

to control of it. And what we do is, Jesus,

I believe that you died on the cross for my

entire life, and I'm gonna move forward in your forgiveness.

That's the faith journey, and the steps of navigating the

faith journey is transitioning, not just to be your savior

for your sins, the lord of your decisions. And many

of the problems that I've got into or you have

got into, is that we don't include Jesus and our decisions.

So then we make our own choices and then ask

Jesus to beil us out of those decisions. For twenty

twenty five, what if you started different? You know the gospel,

but has it influenced your values? That's the question. I'm

asking you to just move forward and say I surrender.

I'm moving forward. God, I give you my heart and

I trust you. I believe right now people are doing

thatal this with a prayer. If everybody could close their eyes,

I want us all as a community to repeat this

prayer together to encourage those that are praying this prayer

for the first time. You're going to give your life

to Christ. You're not giving your life to Patriot. This

is not marketing for our church. This is an invitation

to a relationship with Jesus. Repeat this, please say, dear

Lord Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross

for all of my sin. I receive your forgiveness from

this moment forward. You are my savior and my Lord.

Teach me to trust you again. Give me a desire

to be in your word and to become like you.

In Jesus' name, we prayer.