The Donkey, the Elephant, or the Dove | God Dreams | Pastor Mike Signorelli

This message is entitled the elephant, the donkey, or the dove.

And it's very important that we understand that there is no united

States in heaven, but there should be heaven in the United States.

It's very important that we understand that who you are is of

the utmost importance in this era.

Your identity is what matters most.

This is a war over identity.

And don't be seduced by a party that will give you an identity,

but not give you salvation.

They'll give you an identity, but not give you true freedom.

This is the land of the free and the home of the brave.

But true freedom only comes through Christ, not even a constitution.

See, the inalienable rights that our founding fathers fought

for was predicated on the idea that a creator created us.

When you remove God, you rip apart the very fabric of our nation,

and you destroy our possibility of even functioning under

our constitution, which is why Christians have really, in this generation,

emerged as the most important group in this entire equation.

And so my wife and I have already voted.

I would encourage each and every one of you to exercise the

right that blood was spilled for and vote.

If you can vote, you need to vote.

We are a church that believes in the ability to vote.

You know, as my wife filled out her ballot, I did think about

women's suffrage and the fact that women did not have that right.

We must exercise that right.

But as your pastor, my job in your spiritual formation is not to

tell you who to vote for, lest I become controlling, because I cannot

force you to think the way that I think, but it is to rather

rightly divide the scriptures so that you will draw the conclusion

that is the most righteous in an hour of great need such as this.

But I want to focus, as a father in the faith on who you are,

because who you are matters first.

Thessalonians, chapter four, verse eleven, is the scripture that

nobody's preaching this Sunday.

Because all the pastors that are trying to grow their church off

of christian nationalism and are going to browbeat today, and

they're going to talk about how important Donald Trump is today,

and then the pastors that are trying to grow their church off of

social justice and these different issues that are traditionally

issues of Democrats and things that their pulpit are going to try

to talk about why Kamala is the choice.

And I said, Lord, in the midst of all that noise, let's be honest.

My church is a red church and a blue church.

V one church is incredibly diverse.

And I don't think for a second I don't have a delusion about me

that of the thousands of people that attend our church physically

and digitally, that we're all going to agree.

But what I am going to tell you is that when I sought the Lord,

I literally fasted for this sermon this week.

I began to ask him, God, what would the apostles of old say?

Because sometimes these pastors have selfish ambition.

Sometimes these pastors are doing things out of pride.

Sometimes these pastors are doing things with ulterior motives.

And you can't trust pastors nowadays because pastors have their

own ambitions and own motives and their own ulterior motives.

And the thing that I have gotten to this point simply because

I've really tried to surrender my own thoughts and ambitions and

motives to God and say what's best for the people, what's best

for the sheep, what's best for those that are here.

And it's with that deep conviction that I want to show you

what I see in the scriptures and what I think that the apostles,

if they were alive, would say today because they said it back then.

So let's look at one thessalonians, chapter four, verse

eleven.

It says, these instructions are being given to a group of people.

And it says, and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own

business.

Does yours say that?

Mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed

you.

Now look, as we instructed you is another way of saying, I told

you once, now I'm telling you again because you're clearly not

listening.

So that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent

on no one.

Okay, let's unpack this scripture.

It's okay to write in your bible, by the way, and aspire.

You can put a line under or circle the word aspire.

Aspire to live quietly.

That means make it your goal.

A lot of you have goals.

Some of you have goals to get a bigger apartment.

Some of you want your own house.

Some of you want to upgrade your car.

We have goals.

Some of you want to go to college.

But it says, aspire to live quietly.

What if you swapped your goal out and your goal now became the

quiet life?

I want to live quietly.

What if anxiety is the result of the wrong aspiration?

What if when you change the aspiration, then you actually reduce

the anxiety?

It's the quiet life.

What is the quiet life?

And I know you're not even going to believe me when I say this,

but Julie and I's goal, especially when we moved to New York,

was not to fill Times Square.

That was, matter of fact.

Our car, which was a 2006 Kia sportage, praise God.

Died in Times Square when I was moving my family here.

My car died in Times Square because it overheated on the drive.

So I did not aspire to fill Times Square.

Matter of fact, I remember telling everybody, I'm gonna make

the church where we actually make disciples.

That make disciples.

That was my only goal, and I aspired for that.

And it says to mind your own affairs.

Why do you care about other people's affairs?

If you're taking notes, let's break this down.

And this can be free therapy.

You care about their affairs because they make you feel better

about your own affairs.

You care about their failures because they make you feel better

about your own failures.

And some of you are living in a trauma response.

And I'm saying this across all of our locations, there are couples

that fight each other so that they can get to makeup because they

don't know how to have intimacy without having conflict.

Because in the home, they were raised in, the hugs, and the love

was always mixed in with the shouting and the yelling.

And so when you have a trauma response, you will recreate environments

of trauma because it's more comfortable for you.

And I tell this story all the time, but my mom did her very best.

And growing up, we didn't have nice things.

So what became comfortable to me was a certain environment that

was, like, a little dingy, a little older.

And I realized that when Julie would buy new things and bring them

in our house and try to make it nice, it didn't feel like home.

Because to me, home was not filled with nice things.

Home was filled with old things.

Dingy thing, y'all I'm a hill half a hillbilly.

There's this song by Loretta Lynn called Coal Miner's daughter.

And I know some of you New Yorkers came back from the military

loving country music.

So maybe a few of you can recognize this song, but it talks

about coal.

You know, I'm a coal miner's daughter.

This song was about we didn't have new shoes in the summer, but

daddy always found a way to feed us and the culture of the poor.

That's where I come from.

I listened to Loretta Lynn's granddaughter sing that song yesterday

on Instagram and bawled my eyes out sitting in my brand new

couch.

And I was like, I've come a long way, but it took me a journey,

because for me, I would fight you over the new couch because I

was more comfortable in the old one.

So sometimes God tries to upgrade your life, but you're the

biggest barrier to the upgrade, because all you know is

trauma, and all you know is drama.

And you're fighting your own upgrade because it's because the

old couch.

You would rather have familiar and drama than unfamiliar and an

upgrade.

Does this make sense?

Okay, I'm gonna keep going.

And it says, mind your own affairs.

So when somebody comes to you.

Now, I've been pastoring for a long time.

Do you know how many people I've ever pastored that have admitted

that they gossip?

Zero.

Zero.

You know why?

Because when they gossip, they say, well, but I prayed about it.

When they gossip, it's because they say, well, you know, but I'm

a leader at the church.

I need to know this.

When they gossip, there's always a reason.

Gossip is, like, the most justifiable sin that any christian

ever commits.

And I think that what was happening in the church at Thessalonica

is mind your own affairs is really hard.

But let me give you another scripture.

It says, no good soldier entangles themselves in the affairs

of the people.

So it's like, you can't be a good soldier and be entangled in

the affairs of other people at the same time.

In other words, you can't accomplish your mission but also

be on side quests at the same time.

So when people are like, oh, did you hear about so and so?

It's like, yo, that's a side quest.

I don't have time for that.

I've got a main mission right now, and it doesn't include this

affair.

Does that make sense?

Okay.

In other words, I like even the word affair.

Isn't it like when you cheat on your wife?

It's called an affair.

So it says.

It says, mind your own affairs.

In other words, it's like, stay committed to the thing that

God's put right in front of you.

And then it says, work with your hands.

You know, an honest day's work is something to be cherished and

valued.

And there's not a lot of people like that anymore.

You know, we live in a generation that cheats on the time

clock, and they clocked in for 8 hours, but they only work three,

and we got too much.

And what's happening is we're using our hands to entertain.

But they're saying to the church through thessalonians, you

know, work with your hands.

Because what it's saying is the more time that you're spending

off of mission, the higher your levels of anxiety, the higher

the levels of drama.

And there's something about just doing what you're supposed to

be doing.

And I know right now it got real quiet because everyone's like,

lord, I think I've only worked 3 hours in the last month.

Cue the music.

And I know what I did.

You need a job.

You need to learn how to work with your hands.

Let me tell you, this is a message out of love.

And the reason why is because we have so much noise and distraction.

It's like I said last week, a lot of you don't have a lust problem.

You have a laziness problem.

My solution for lust, and there's only one solution, is do

what you're called to do for your family and for God with all

your might, to the point where you are so exhausted, you don't have

enough energy for lust.

That's the only thing that works.

It's just like this.

Everything I do now.

I used to get in trouble for doing, and God redeemed it and changed

the direction of it.

Like, you get what I'm saying?

Like, I can't stop being rebellious.

So the Lord said, I'm going to teach you how to rebel against the

devil.

Does this make sense?

I can't stop.

Like, I'm rebellious by nature.

Like, I can't help it.

But the Lord says, I'm going to redeem your rebellion and just

rebel against witchcraft, rebel against the new age, rebel

against all the works of darkness.

It's like, you know what I'm saying?

I am so glad that me and my friends are saved because we are

dangerous people.

You get what I'm saying?

And so it's like, that's why God did not ask you to come into

the kingdom and be soft.

God asked you, like, to remain dangerous, but be dangerous for him.

But the problem is, it's like, work with your hands.

Like, I'm trying to refocus you because you're not built for

this biologically, physically, emotionally.

The way that we're living our life is violating our design.

That's why we are so stressed out.

Go to work.

Work your job honorably.

Be a light of Christ.

Stop inviting people to church and just shine the light of Christ.

And when you turn the light on, they'll come.

And remember when I said nobody ever invites insects to their

house, but when you turn on your light, your light does.

Stop inviting people to church and just learn how to shine.

But it comes through working with your hands, because we love

talking about how senile Joe Biden is.

We love talking about Donald Trump's little hands.

We love talking about how Kamala code switches.

Well, I'm saying, why?

Who cares why?

It's so stupid.

Work with your hands.

Mind your own affairs.

This is the most countercultural message that's being

preached on this Sunday.

And stop making it about the elephant, or stop making it about

the donkey and make it about the dove.

Because this is the point I was trying to get to in this scripture,

so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent

on no one.

I haven't even got to the main point of my sermon.

I'm getting there in seconds.

Stay with me.

Luke, chapter 16, verse ten.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

One who is faithful.

Everybody say faithful.

One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much.

And one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in

much.

How many of you never had a pastor read you that whole scripture?

What's the only part?

You know?

If you were faithful with little, he'll make you ruler over

much.

But did you know it says if you're dishonest in little ways,

you're going to be dishonest in every way.

God, why haven't you promoted me?

Because you want me to put you in full time ministry, but you wouldn't

work a full time day.

God, why haven't you given me more finances?

Well, because when you got your giving report, you didn't even

come to 5% of your income, let alone ten.

I want to give you more, but is it just to spend more?

Is it to give more?

If you're faithful with little, he'll make you rule over

much.

But if you're dishonest in little ways, you're going to be dishonest

in every way.

So I'm going somewhere.

I know this is deeply convicting, but I.

In the late nineties, my mom and I stood in a balcony in Chicago,

in a stadium, and we didn't even barely have the gas money to

drive 15 minutes because we lived 15 minutes away from Chicago's

loot.

That's where we lived.

We could barely get there.

We scrounged together.

My mom was working at White Castle.

My mom.

You guys know Sandra as this global voice.

Sandra was a fast food worker.

So I want this to settle in.

Pastor, Sandra would have taken your order in a white castle

drive through and made your hamburgers for you 25 years ago.

And there was me.

I worked for the ham and water department, and I was a full time

college student.

I would dig holes with a shovel all day.

I worked with my hands.

This is your pastor.

And I digged holes in the ground dirt.

And I would put my college books in plastic bags.

And I would jump into the hole because we called it grave digging,

because it destroys your back.

To dig a hole, any man knows what I'm talking about.

And I would jump in the hole with my college books and plastic

bag and take it out and read it and study for my test.

And we barely had enough money to go to the stadium event.

My mom looked at me while worship was happening.

She said, mike, I don't know how and I don't know when, but one

day we're gonna go from the stands to the stage and we're gonna

be doing stadium events.

But let me just tell you, I work for God the same way I work

for man.

When I worked for man, I worked with my hands and I gave it

my all.

And that's why when people talk about me on the Internet, I'm

like, you're an idiot.

You clearly don't know me.

You clearly don't understand.

I don't do ministry for the income.

I do it for the outcome.

But the way I work for man is the way I work for him.

Matter of fact, the way I got into full time ministry is I went

before Jehovah and I was reading the scripture that says the

harvest is vast, but the laborers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers, and he'll send them.

And something clicked in my spirit, and I said, that's, it's

like I have a supervisor at my job.

So if, but, but God says there's supervisors over the fields

for harvest in the earth and all.

And it says, ask him and he'll send harvesters.

So I just said, lord, I would love to be in full time ministry.

And I said, lord, send me.

I'll harvest your fields.

And then, boom, within months, I was in full time ministry.

And not that I glorify that, because full time ministry is whatever

God called you to do.

If it's in the banking industry and that's what God called

you to do, you're in full time ministry.

If it's in law, you're in full time ministry.

If it's in government, you're in full time.

Full time ministry is your full time life.

But the reason why I say this is because the Lord told me the message

that's not going to get preached in America today is the

message of faithfulness.

Kings and kingdoms will all pass away.

There's just something about that name.

Long after the election, long after the riots, long after the fights,

who's going to be faithful?

They might make a new program here in Brooklyn, if we vote a certain

candidate, but I'm not waiting for them to feed people in Brooklyn

through a government program.

I'm going to get into a line with my wife, and I'm going to feed

them in Brooklyn, because that's who I am.

And people are going to vote a politician to do something that you

were called to do with your life.

This is the message that's not being preached.

I didn't wait for a social program in Brooklyn.

Matter of fact, Pastor Eddy, why are there lines all the way down

the block in Brooklyn if we already have social programs here

in Brooklyn?

I am the hands and feet of Jesus, and I'm not waiting for Kamala

to do that for me.

Do you all feel the holiness of God on this?

Because it's like, it's not about them, it's about the dove.

We are the answer.

If you removed every righteous person from this nation, it would

be destroyed in a day.

The only thing that we are, the yeast in the dough, that causes

this thing to rise.

When your children go to school, your children are the best

part of that school, because the holy Ghost of God walks into

that school as he walks in with your children.

When you own a business and you're distributing the things of

your business, and you're a christian business owner, you are

the best part of America.

You are the reason why God has.

Withheld his hand of judgment upon this.

Nation, because you are here.

So it's about faithfulness.

There's a greek word, pistos.

It means trustworthy and reliable.

Everybody say trustworthy.

Everybody say reliable.

The word is faithful.

That's the word that was used in Luke, chapter 16, verse ten.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

Watch this.

It's a word that's used to describe believers, but I want to

show you, it was used to describe God's faithfulness.

In one corinthians, chapter one, verse nine.

God is pistos.

He is faithful.

By whom you were called into the fellowship of the Son, Jesus

Christ, our Lord.

So God is this greek word, pistos, he is faithful.

That's who he is.

He worked with his hands to form out of the dust.

Adam, he was faithful.

Even God worked with his hands to form out of the dust.

He did it first.

He built.

He created all that we see, and then he was faithful.

And then when he saw the sin in the garden, he said, I'm going

to be faithful to send my son, and there's going to be a renewal

of all things.

And then he sent Jesus.

Now watch this.

Revelation, chapter 19, verse eleven.

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

Then I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse.

The one sitting on the white horse is called pistos.

Faithful and true.

And in righteousness, he judges and makes war.

So now God is called faithful pistos.

Then you see that Jesus comes riding on this horse, and the name

is the same.

Faithful, reliable, trustworthy, you see, the same word.

Jesus was faithful.

He didn't want to die on the cross, but he died on the cross.

He didn't want.

He did the thing that he didn't want to do.

He said, nevertheless, not my will, but thy will, because I am

faithful.

Somebody say faithful?

And then look at this.

Number three, human faithfulness.

Luke, chapter 16, verse ten.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

Now let me read it again.

One.

Be one who is pistos and very little, and you'll also be faithful.

Be like God.

Be like Jesus.

Be faithful.

In a world that is unreliable.

Be faithful.

When everybody else gives up on those.

People, you refuse to give up on those people, because God refused

to give up on you, because Jesus refused to step, forgiving

you every time you ask for forgiveness.

We are faithful in little, because we are like the one who is

called faithful.

You're going to hear people use the.

Phrase my season at v.

One church is over.

And some of them, they did hear from God.

And some of them, it was a season.

But where my wife and I come from, because we come from another

place, northwest Indiana.

And Julie's family came from Alabama, people would say things

like, I've been attending this church for ten years, 20 years, 30

years, their whole life.

And of course, there were people at that church that annoyed

them, but it just got funny after a while.

Oh, doesn't so and so get on your nerves?

Yeah, but that's just.

That's just Rudy.

That's the way he is.

Oh, what do you think about?

And they would stay in church for years, and I see this new kind

of Christianity, this new kind of Christianity that's rising up

in the earth, and it's.

It's not Pestos, it's not faithful.

The only faithfulness they've ever demonstrated is to themselves.

Faithful to their own dreams, their own ambitions, their own desires.

But I want to hear the stories of how long have you been going to

view on church?

20 years, 30 years, 40 years?

Because, you know, this whole.

I went there for a year, but God called me somewhere else.

I went there for two years.

God called me somewhere else.

I went there for three years.

But did he or did God call you to a group of people that are imperfect,

that you need to demonstrate peace dose that you need to demonstrate

long suffering, kindness, patience.

Because you know what happens in an election is we get tired of

people after four years and we vote in another person.

And some of you are changing pastors like you change presidents

because you don't understand peace.

Dos I'm saying this with love because the people, when I was growing

up, we went to a church and we stayed there.

We stayed there no matter what.

And you know what?

I'm not advocating that there are reasons to leave a church, but

there's something missing.

You know, I'm eleven minutes over my time.

Is that okay?

Can I just pastor my own church for a second with all this

stupid technology?

I just got back from doing events all over the US and it was

the last events that I'm going to do because I canceled all of my

itinerant speaking indefinitely to go all in on v one

church to a greater degree.

And I've been asking the Gen Z, how many of you speak in tongues?

And virtually none of them speak in tongues.

But when I ask the older generation how many speak in tongues,

almost all of them say yes.

Because what's happening is there's a gap in the generations

where things are not getting down to them.

It's not transmitting.

And if I were to say there's something that's not translating

to this generation, it's faithfulness.

And we talk about, oh, these churches are all about entertainment.

But you know how that happened.

A whole bunch of unfaithful people needed to be entertained and

they made the pastors who are willing and to entertainers and the

pastors, and then you got the charismatics and the Pentecostals.

I feel the holiness of God on that.

We're about to close, but just stay with me.

All these Pentecostals and charismatics that are chasing these

spiritual highs that are making the pastors and the ministers

and the worship teams feel like we got to get louder and we

got to cry harder and we got to scream louder.

We're creating this in this need.

But what's missing is faithfulness.

Faithfulness is making this thing get so weird.

It's like a tumor that's distorted and it's growing into all

these different areas.

And I feel like I told the Lord, what is this weird?

Why are these pastors acting like they work for Donald Trump?

And they're giving these entire sermons and they're quoting

one scripture and the whole thing's about Trump?

Why are these churches showing whole communal speeches in their

service and there's no scripture and it's like, what in

the world is going on?

Why are these charismatic Pentecostals chasing these spiritual

euphorias?

But these same people have sexual sin in their life they've

never got free from.

And our biggest pastors in these movements are all going down

from infidelity.

And they have no character.

Man, I'm sorry.

I'm broken.

And I'm like, what is going on?

And it's getting worse.

And you got church members fighting each other in the comment

sections like buffoons when a lost and died world.

This is why.

Let me take you back to the beginning one.

Thessalonians, chapter four, verse eleven.

I promise you, this is the best job I can do of exegeting this

scripture for you.

If the apostles were alive, I promise you this is what they would

say.

Aspire to live quietly, go to church every single Sunday.

Try that.

What if that's the only thing you haven't done, is went to church

every single Sunday and just live quietly, mind your own affairs.

What if you've never done that?

What if you've never locked in on your own life and you've just

never focused, mind your own affairs.

Work with your hands.

What if you've just never worked on honest day's work and you're

always trying to get out of something?

What if you just actually did your job?

It's like, this is what I think they would say, as you may,

but this is the point.

And I want to end on this point.

And we're going to pray so that you may walk properly before

outsiders.

I love this venue, and I love preaching from this stage.

I invited 300 people to come to this church to meet me here today,

last night before I went to bed.

And the reason why.

And I was looking at this venue on the maps, and it has a whole.

If you go to apple maps and you look up this venue, it's LGBt.

It's party.

All the pictures are from clubs, nightclubs.

And this whole place is filled.

And I cried looking at those pictures last night.

I cried because I said, lord, that's my church.

This not the Brooklyn Monarch, that's my church.

God.

That's where we worship.

That's where people get free.

And I saw all these pictures from New York City of all these people

in this room.

And I saw our.

This is our led while we installed this, and I was crying,

looking at those pictures.

I said, God, this is my church.

This is not a music venue.

We got in trouble for putting a drape over that $100,000 worth

of alcohol.

That's over there.

Cause it's a fire hazard.

So now we gotta figure out what to do about that.

But I love this venue.

Because when I look, every sermon I've ever preached from this

stage, when I look out through here, and, y'all, if we got a fundraise,

we'll get some flame retardant things for that curtain.

Amen.

You're all with me.

You like how I did that?

But see, there's windows out here.

Somebody's walking by right now.

And every single time I've ever preached a sermon from this

stage, it's forced me to look out those windows and be reminded

about the outsiders.

Because really, what's happening?

And you're sitting there with your beautiful wife.

You were an outsider.

We rented a movie theater.

We got Miami, and we got New Jersey.

Sorry.

And in a movie theater, and sometimes as a church, you'll curse

the movie theater.

Oh, I hate this place.

Well, guess what?

You were the outsider that was working at that movie theater.

And we said, what if the only reason why we're in this movie theater

is to lead every single employee to.

Jesus Christ before we graduate to another venue?

And now you're sitting on the front row with your wife.

See, this is the whole point of this sermon.

So that you may walk properly before outsiders, so that you may

walk properly.

This is the secret.

Would you all stand to your feet for a moment?

I went 17 minutes over.

I'm confessing my sins one to another.

I don't know how to get rich.

I don't know how to get rich.

I don't know how to build multinational organizations.

Matter of fact, by the world standards, I don't even know if I'm

a good leader.

But I have had so much trauma in my life.

If you met me in my younger years, I would be unrecognizable

to you right now, because that's how jacked up I was.

Nobody ever came and saved me.

All the pastors that raised me in the faith cheated on their wives.

But I'm thankful for my story because it forced me to do two things.

And they were the only two things that mattered is one that

drove me to the real Jesus, so that I stopped blaming pastors for

my lack of freedom.

And I started going to the throne.

And then number two is I began to make my life about other people.

And then I found the secret is, when you live your life for others,

you find your true life.

That's it.

I don't know how to make money.

I don't know how to make large churches.

All I know is that it will always be about people.

It will always be about people.

That's.

My heart bleeds.

So for you right now, oh, I got pain.

I got my own trauma.

Guess what?

I got bad news for you.

No one cares.

We all have trauma.

We're all jacked up.

I don't know if you notice we're all jacked up.

But when you get kicked in the stomach, your body turns into a ball,

because the more you're in pain, the smaller you want to be.

And that's why when we say lift your hands at worship, you're

making your body big, which is the opposite of a trauma response.

And that's why when we ask you to serve and we ask you to show up,

it's the opposite of a trauma response.

That's what the Lord's trying to do.

And that for me, I thought that I was coming to New York City

to help people.

But I will tell you, I've been.

Pastoring this church for eight years, and.

It has helped me more than it's ever helped anybody else, because

every single time I served, when I didn't feel like it, the anointing

began to flow and the Lord began to minister to me.

So if I just want to leave.

You with this thought because we're in.

A pending election, choose the dove.

The Bible says that like a dove, not as like a dove, the Holy

Spirit descended upon Jesus and said, this is my son, in whom

I'm well pleased.

So the dove is always affirming true identity.

We were driving on the way here, and there were crowds of young

people that were leaving the club, surrounding this club.

And they were wearing their outfits, you know, their club outfits.

And I thought to myself, you know what they really want?

Affirmation.

They want somebody to put their hand on their shoulder.

This is what they want.

And to say, I'm so proud of you.

I'm so proud of you.

Think about that.

There's one young person walking down the street because they

stayed in a club until 08:00 in the morning, and there's another

young person who shows up to play the keys to worship with you.

It's the tale of two cities.

Two cities are colliding.

New York City with the heavenly City, New Jersey with the

heavenly New Jersey, Miami with the heavenly New Jersey, Miami.

There's two worlds colliding.

So here's what I want to ask you.

Is there anybody here across all of our locations that needs to

surrender their life to Jesus Christ before we move on.

Just lift up your hand and say, I want to accept Jesus.

Anybody?

Okay, come on.

Anybody else?

We're going to pray in a moment.

Praise God for all the salvations across our locations.

Can we just take 10 seconds before I say the next thing and acknowledge

the presence of the dove?

The Holy Spirit's here.

Do you feel.

He'S here?

I believe this is a call to faithfulness.

Come on.

The devil won so big on us during the pandemic.

He got us all fighting.

He got us all divided by race.

Come on.

We're not going to let him do it to us again.

You know what's going to happen this time?

I'm prophesying from this stage.

What's going to happen this time is when the world looks and

they see v one church.

The outsiders are going to say, let me in, let me into that

love, let me into that grace.

Let me in, let me in to that.

Not this time.

Not this time, devil.

Wow.

So here's my question as I come to a close.

If you're like Pastor Mike, I have my political convictions, but

beyond that, I want to be a child of God and I want to step into

faithfulness.

The Bible talks a lot about those that endure to the end.

That's what this is all about.

When Jesus comes back on a white horse, his name will be called

faithful and everybody like him will be caught up with him.

It's about an identity thing.

Faithful.

Faithful.

Faithful.

Faithful.

The roots.

You know, I found this video.

It was the Lord.

I was here ten years ago, premeditating, launching this church.

And I was in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and this young man took

me aside and he said, I have to prophesy something over you.

He didn't even know that I was going to launch a church.

And he said, I see your church, and we didn't even have a

name, you know, he just said, your church, as this tree and the

root system goes so deep in the soil of this region that it will

be immovable.

And all the roots represent the people that go down deep.

Their roots go down deep.

And so I believe what's happening in the history of our church

is we're getting rooted right now.

Rooted.

We don't need.

Guess what, worship team?

I don't know.

I feel like to say this across our locations.

You're alleviated.

You don't have to sing the perfect song because we're not here

for a perfect performance.

We're faithful to this house.

There's something about that.

Hey, campus pastors, I want to alleviate you you don't have to always

say the right thing, because we're rooted.

We're here.

You see how that doesn't fear go away?

Perfect love cast out all fear.

I got good news.

Things get a little bit easier when.

We'Re faithful to each other.

We don't have to worry all the time.

We don't have to look over our shoulder all the time.

It's not about the perfect performance.

It's not about the perfect speech.

It's about us having the heart of the father and being faithful

to each other.

And when we get done praying this prayer and we walk out for service,

I want you to hug each other, because we have a gift in each other.

We're not always going to be together.

People die in the local church.

I would do anything to have Ivan Marty here to see what's going

to happen at the breakers this weekend because he told me we were

going to be in stadiums, but we did his funeral on Long island.

We got to stop always being so disgruntled.

We have to stop always examining people's faults and failures.

It's not the heart of the father.

Because when the dove is in the room, you'll feel what I'm feeling.

Because he looked at me when I was at my worst, and he didn't call

out all my faults and failures.

He washed me, he cleansed me, he baptized me.

He kept telling me I was more.

When I felt like I was nothing.

So when are we going to start being like the dove?

Donkeys are stubborn.

Elephants are intelligent and crafty, but doves are gentle.

I want us to be known as the church that loves better than any

other church.

And I felt like I had to go long today because it's like I'm

sitting all my kids down and I'm saying, I don't know what's coming,

but I know how this family's gonna act.

I know how this family's gonna act.

And when you walk into our church after the election, a Republican

and a Democrat better be hugging each other.

And a liberal, even you liberals.

Come on.

Nobody agrees with you these days, but we love you.

That's this church.

I better see white hugging black, asian hugging brown.

I better see it in this church.

This is how this family operates.

Enough of this foolishness.

That's who we are.

I better see young honoring the old, but old, you better honor

the young, because they're gifted and anointed, too.

And if we keep waiting, we're going to wait too long.

So we had to have a family conversation today, Lord, help me,

let me pray.

But it's because of the outsiders.

Because when the outsiders see what we have, they're going to say,

I don't care about joining the Republican Party.

I want to join the kingdom.

I don't care about joining the Democrats.

I want to join the.

I'm going to say something.

I got invited to be in a room alone with Donald Trump, and I turned

it down.

But I also got invited to the DNC and I turned it down.

And I thought to myself, what pastor in America got invited by

both parties?

I must really be confusing them.

And then I thought, good, good.

But I don't need either one of their endorsement because I don't

work for them.

I work for him.

And I'm here to lift up the name of Jesus above every name.

Now, I voted biblical convictions and I put my name down,

but you hear what I'm saying.

So I want to pray right now with each and every one of you because

this is what our house is.

Lord, we've been faithful with little.

Would you make us ruler over much?

Give us more orphans to be adopted.

Give us more lost people to be saved.

Lord, those people coming out of the clubs at 08:00 at night or

08:00 in the morning after being out all night, give them to

us, God.

Lord, we choose the dove.

We choose the dove right now.

Would you all just pray this prayer.

With me across every location?

Lord, help me say, heavenly Father, wash me with your blood.

Forgive me of my sins.

May I work with my hands diligently, faithfully.

May I mind my own affairs.

May I be faithful like you're faithful.

Let my roots go down.

And may your love radiate from my life around everybody, my friends,

my family, the outsiders, that they would all come because they

feel your love.

And I say yes to your will and to your way, Father, in Jesus name.

Now let's lift up a prayer individually across all of our locations

right now.

A prayer for the breakers, a prayer.

For our nation, a prayer for what God's doing.

Father, I thank you.

I thank you, Jesus, for what you're.

Doing, Lord, that many will be saved.

Because of our obedience.

Many will be delivered because of our obedience.

Many will come into the family of Goddesse.

Many will join and be faithful.

And Lord, I thank you that today we're marked, marked by your

love, marked by your love, marked by your faithfulness to us

for a thousand generations.

You're faithful, God.

Lord, I ask for an impartation of faithfulness to every single person

watching right now.

That they would receive endurance, long suffering, faithfulness,

kindness, gentleness, meekness.

And the fruits of the spirit would be in our house.

Jesus name, amen.