Shine | Pastor Joel

You're listening to a message to go from at church.

We hope this message will light up your.

Tea Matthew five, verse thirteen to sixteen.

If you have a Bible, see yeah.

If not, it's going to come up on screen, and

let's read that together. You are the salt of the earth.

But if salt loses its flavor, how can it be seasoned?

It is then good for nothing but to be thrown

out and trampled under foot by man. You are the

light of the wall. A city that is set on

a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a

lamb and put it under basket. But on a lambstand

and it gives light to all who are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may

see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

So praise God for that word. It talks about being

salt and light. And when you think about salt, what's

the first thing that comes to your mind?

Food?

Any cl Wow, the students will go like anacl food flavor?

I think.

I I'm not sure whether I send you guys a

picture of like what salt?

What?

What's some salt attributes? This is according to not my

genius plan. But chat GPT. Okay, So salt is it

helps you in your nervous system.

It helps improve sleep.

Okay, guys, if you're sleeping, now, eat some salt tablets.

Okay.

It's good for color enhandser for baiting your eyes, anyone

baiting ice, that's saleine saline solution, okay. And then it's

good for extinguishing grease fires. I don't know why there's

two flavor Enhans's there. Reduce sugar cravings, right, You're gonna

get rid of one evil, add on another evil, right, right,

so you're gonna reduce sugar.

Add some salt right that that's what they're saying.

They reduce sugar cravings, improve these things. It doesn't make

the beast thing better, right, but it helps with these things,

and it relieves these things. It kills poison ivs for

those who have green fingers, you've got poison iv is

going around your yard.

And you also remove what stains.

And there's there's so many attributes about salt that we

can learn from. And I think the world have got

asses and reminds us that you are salt of the earth.

And in Melbourne, I think in Australia, it's a how

many of you have tried fish and chips? Okay, generally

fish and chips? How many of you love fish and chips?

Okay? Anyone here? They sort of okay.

When people come to Australia and then they tried the

fish and chips in Australia, they asked us, this is

so good, and what do you put in it?

Salt, vinegar, what else? Fish fries?

You know what they Australia is known for. They add

this thing it's called chicken salt, chicken salt that is

sprinkled and it happens at every fish and chip salt.

You go there and then you order a fish and chip.

Then you're like, all.

Right, here's your fish, fish and chips, and would you

like chicken salt?

And I go like sure, what's that right? What is

chicken salt?

And they add this seasoning and like I spoke in

a Ninji church plan, they say, it's like your MSG.

It's like your MSG that takes your normal fish and

chips to the next level. Yes, and they're making you

guys hungry, and so it elevates the fish and chips.

And we've got like people coming from London, and they're

known for their fish and chips. And then when they

try the fries and we tell them, like, guys, the

secret is in the sault. And so I want to

tell you, guys that God's secret lies within us in goodness,

that his secret is that we assault.

So that adds my taste and see that He is good.

And so what can we learn from this today is

I've got just three points, but I want us to

catch it and put it into practice as well. Number

one is to season my speech with grace, walking wisdom

towards those who are outside collotions four of us five

to six, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be

with grace, season with.

Salt.

Again, today you can learning a lot about salt that

you may know how to.

You ought to answer each one.

So some of us you're in a place of like

I don't know how to witness to my neighbor. I

don't know how to speak to my friend. How do

I do this? And what does it say here? Let

your speech be always with grace. Let your speech be

always with grace and season with salt. And so I

thought to myself, I'm like, there's something about this seasoning

here and grace.

And let's study the word grace.

The word grace here speaks about graciousness. I've got definition there,

that's an abstract. Let's read that literal, figurative or spiritual,

especially the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection

in the life, including gratitude, acceptable, benefit, favor, gift, gracious joy, liberality, pleasure.

And thanks.

So when you put that back in that verse, you

go like, let my speech be beneficial that when someone

encounters me, someone has a conversation in me, that they

walk away feeling better, feeling seasoned, not like ouch, but hey,

I am drawn, I am one in that sense. Let

my speech be a gift that when I encounter someone

in my chat, do they walk away feeling weighted or lifted?

Think about that. Let my speech be with joy.

Joy is I would I just give you a quick

definition of joy. A lot of us think like joy

is like just being happy, right, But happiness can be

taken away in a snap of a second.

Like I've got a daughter.

Her name is Sophie, and her favorite thing in the

world is ice cream. Right, so she swings she's an

ex claim. Now she chose to go there with her

mom with her cousins. So she loves ice cream. And

when I get her ice cream right, and then she

goes like, I want that one with strawberry, and then

she holds it right and then she's like, okay, smile

and then it drops right, the whole thing drops, and

her happiness just is gone, like dropping an ice cream.

I've learned that happiness can be gone. Joy is when

even though the ice cream drops, I know my father

can get me another one. I know that there's something

about like, even though this can go wrong, even though

I'm going through.

A storm, my God is there with me. That's joy.

Happiness is I mean about it's gonna sink and then

you're like, oh, but when you have Jesus in your boat,

then you know, like, hey, you know what, even though

there's a storm, it's gonna be okay. So think about

my speech, Think about hey, how am I being an example?

I've learned a lot true our daughter as well. She's

she's very vocal. So there are times that as as

leaders in church we have to do like Pasadeniel, thanks

for having me. But I'm sure he goes through fans

of things that he doesn't tell you. Guys, as well, uh,

And there are challenges that we face as as church leaders,

as church servants of the house, and sometimes like me

and Delia will be in church early, and then Sophie'll

be like, why are we the earliest always? Then I'm like,

because you get to be first. She's like, okay, all right.

Then she learns from us, all right, she questions us.

And there are times where things don't happen the way

that we expect, like something always wrong. Someone was supposed

to do expresso and then they didn't read the chat,

and then we're.

Like, oh no, no one has espresso.

And then guess who jumps on it? My amazing wif

deally she like, dody, I got it, and she jumps

somewhere get something done, and.

Then we're like, yay, save the day, Thank you Jesus.

Right, and then we're in the car, and then Delia

and now we have this commission. We're like, oh my goodness,

and we start on a conversation that starts to get

in a complaining mode.

And as we're.

Driving it's forty minutes to go back home in within

fifteen minutes, Sophie starts, guys, why you're always complaining when

you get into the car.

And this is me driving.

I'm just like at that point, I just want to

just bang something, right, like like whoa god.

Is in the car.

She's like guys, yeah, and listens, you got in you're

complaining about something.

What is it? Then I'm like, uh, nothing, nothing.

Sophie why she caught me and she says, I don't

think that's very kind.

You should be gracious.

Then she said anti Elo and ex kids said, we

have to practice grace.

You have to be gracious.

We just want to go back and have another article

for ourselves, right, yes, And we learned that we were

and we apologize. Is it sorry, Sophie, You're right, we

should be gracious. We're not going to complain about anything

about anyone anymore.

And we learn true the.

Small The other person I learned being gracious is from

Basa Kennav himself. There are times where things don't go

as planned and he has the face of brace. Pass Sandra,

I'll tell you that right, it's like it's not going

to plan and you look at Pass Kenavy and he's

like he's smiling.

I'll give you a story.

We were in Melbourne and we were traveling to visit

a friend of pass Canavan Bassandra, and then along the

train ride, it's an hour to get to this person's house.

An hour and we bumped into her along the way.

So we're waiting in the train, sitting and then suddenly

she came and she's.

Like, hey, hi, you guys are early. My house is

not ready.

And then I looked at pass Canow I said, yeah,

I think the house is not ready. Let's let's go

hang out in the mall. Let's go somewhere else. And

then pass Kende, being really gracious, he says, oh, don't worry.

Let's let's just go to your house and we're chill.

Then she's like, but it's in a mess, Like just

just just think about like maybe we can hang on

the mall. They said, yeah, maybe we can hang on

the mall, and Kenna says, no, I think we're just

going hang on your house. And so we arrive in

the house and we go in with her. She says,

my husband's going to come in at six thirty. It's

five thirty now, one hour early. And we arrived the house.

Guess what house? This in a mess? Okay, she's not lying.

I was like, what's the turners? The house is in

a mess. Let's go to the And then he's like, no, no,

we're just cheer here. We just be gracious and we'll

just hang out with help a clean.

I was like no.

So she asks us to sit and then everywhere she's like,

you can sit. Oh no, there's something there, you can sit.

And we say, oh, you know what, We just sit

on the dining table right sit there.

Wait, and then she prepares the food.

She prepares pasta, and then we're getting started and then

her husband comes in, I think. And then we were

sitting at a table and as a husband comes in,

we go like, hey, hi Kevin, okay, don't don't don't

google up anyone named Kevin. Okay, Hi Kevin, you won't

find him. But hi Kevin, how is it, how's it going?

And all this, and was sitting at a table and

then she's like, oh, they came slightly early by. I

hope it's okay. And we start eating. And as I

got up, I was like going to greet Kevin. I

was going to shake his hand, and my napkin dropped

and I was like, oh no, and I was trying

to get it, and I put my leg under the table,

and I flicked the napkin towards me and I put

it on me. Then Passa Sandra looked at me. She's like, Joe,

what are you doing? And so, guys, it was not

a napkin. It was something else that's triangular shape, that

is part of a laundry that was on my neck, okay,

and so Passussandra was like, what.

Are you doing? I said what? I said, what, I'm

putting my napkin. And then I said I'm putting it there,

and she's like what. She's like what?

And I looked at it and I freaked out because

a thousand things went into my head. Is number one

she told me your house is not ready? Number two?

Is is messy? Number three? Is this laundry even clean?

And then I just threw it down and both me

and Passasandra trying to kick it away, right, we're kicking

this thing, and passus Sander just burst out laughing. You

know her, she doesn't hide, so she just bursts out nah,

And Bassa Kenneth says, oh what are they laughing at?

Notice that they're just probably just tickled. They a long

day and they said, oh that's great. Got that long

story short as we were going out the door, Busy

Kenna said, thank you for being so gracious to invite us,

even though we were early. And this person said, I'm

so glad you came, because I wouldn't have thought that

you would come anyway. And Busy Kenna said, in his

own gracious words, he says, no, God has called this

to be gracious, and so we're here to extend grace

to you. So we hope that we brought some grace

to your home. And that's when I learned the face

of grace. Even though the wool is going in Timoril,

things are going wrong, and I just looked at buzz Kenna.

I'm like, Buscin, what's happening here? And he goes, it's okay.

Just give them the face of grace. So you can

look at your neighbor now and just give him the

faith of grace, because that's something.

That we can practice in church.

Things will go wrong in church, in your family's things

will go wrong, But can you in part grace Amen one.

Timothy four of US two.

He says, let no one despise your youth, but be

an example to believers in word, in conduct, and love

and spirit in faith and in purity.

That's one Timothy Luke for verse twenty two.

Let's read that it says here so all bore witness

to him, this is Jesus, and marvel at the gracious

words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said,

is this not Joseph's son? So Jesus was recognized through

his words as well. If people come into contact with

us before even we tell them about Jesus, do they

know that gracious? Do we practice grace? Do we practice

that extra benefit of the doubt even though things are

not going to your plan? Matthew twenty six for seventy

three to seventy four. This is another guy that was

close to Jesus. A little later, those that stood by

came up and said to Peter, surely you are also

one of them, for your speech betrays you. And then

he began to curse and swear, saying I do not

know the man, and then a rust the crude. This

is Peter. When Jesus was going to be crucified, and

they caught him. And then Peter was hanging out in

this area where he was trying to warm himself up,

and the servants and all those there recognized he said,

this is Peter. He looks like one of Jesus' followers,

and he says, your speech betrays you. So it gave

me an example that if we have Christ in us,

there's a way that we talk, that we bring grace

to others that people will recognize it. And the only

way he could not show that he's part of this

Jesus gang is he starts to curse and swear and

then a ruster quote. So I'm here to tell us

that in our conduct, can we again be more christ

Like in our speech, not just with those outside, starting

with those that are in the house, those that are

even in your family. We practice that a lot now

because what we realize as a family is it's easier

to be nicer to people outside and harder to those

day around you because you expect them to know you better.

But can we extend that same grace that when not

just your children, but like those around you go like, hey,

you know what, there's something christ Like about this.

I want to know Christ. I want to know Jesus. Amen.

So we're not just meant to be like seasoning, to

be bland, but to add flavor.

Is that good?

That's first point season my speech with grade second point

is to be set apart.

It says here you're alive. Well.

A city on a hill cannot be hidden. A city

on a hill cannot be hidden one Peter one Versus

fifteen to six, and says he who called you is holy,

you also be holy in all your conduct, because it

is written, be holy for I am holy, Be holy

for him holy. That word holy. When you hear the

wit holy as a child when I hear it wit

holy even sometimes now when you think about the wit holy,

you think like it's such a high standard, right, but

it's just me. When you hear the word holy, you

go like, oh, if someone calls you holy, how do

you feel? You feel like, oh, right, the first thing

someone says like, wow, you're very holy, and then you

go like, oh no, no, no, I'm actually not right.

You feel like I can't live up to the stand it.

And in this verse it actually says like, hey, you

know what God is calling us to be holy? And

what this holiness mean. Let's go into some study the

root word. This is going to surprise you. The word

holy comes from this word called hagios. And what's the

meaning of hagios an awful thing. I love how God

chooses something that's awful and brings about something is beautiful.

That's so like God.

And that's that's the word holy means to set apart

and set unto set apart and set yourself onto Him

exclusively His and so were called not just to be hidden,

but to be holy. Don't hide, don't don't set yourself

aside and go like some people think, like, oh, if

I wear the cross, then I'm holy. If I take

her across, then I'm not holy. No, wear the cross,

put on all your Christian t shirts. But hey, you

know what, you carry Christ in your conversations. You carry

Christ as you set yourself for Him. I've learned this

as a child I was going through. I was telling

the chapel students that as a child, between eleven and twelve,

I attended on a weekend, I attended the Presbyterian Church,

the Catholic Church, and the Full Gospel Assembly. Right, three

churches in one weekend. Who would thing I'm the most

holy guy?

Right? All my friends were like.

Oh my gosh, you go to three churches who a weekend?

You must be very holy. I wasn't very holy. My

parents are here to testify that right. They were the

first ones to go like, huh not holy and guess cool.

In the Catholic church, there's this room called the confession room.

How many have you been in in a Catholic church before?

If you haven't, let me give you some details. There's

a confession room in the Catholic church that you go

there and you make right with God. You open this

window and a priest will be there. You don't get

to see the priest's face. You get to talk to

him and you tell him, this is my fiftieth.

Sin. Please forgive me. I did this. I disobeyed my parents,

I didn't finish my homework. This is me and this

is this is this.

And then the priest says, okay, good that you told

me this confession, and do five Hail Mary's and say

the Lord's prayer and all this will be gone. And

I thought, wow, I'm going to this room, putting all

my confession here in this confession room. And then oh,

my son is gone. And what I discovered is I

thought like I needed to go to this man to confess,

and this man will make it all go away. But

all that came to a stop or made me ask

myself who is this man? And who is God is?

When I was playing soccer in the Catholic church compound

and the ball went up to the priest's yard. Okay,

the ball went up to his yard. He stays there.

You know me, I'm always getting into trouble. So I

go there. I'm like, oh, the ball's here, and then

I pick up the ball.

And then I look. I'm like, oh, it's his house.

Who wants to see a priest house?

Yes? Me right. So I go out the window and

then I'm like oh wow, and.

I peek in, and then what I saw just shattered

me as like eleven year old kid because he was

there and he couldn't. I was like, oh, no, see me.

And he took a cigarette out and then he just

blew it and he was smoking in front of me

as a twelve year old I think eleven or twelve

year old. I was thinking, my school tells me no smoking,

my parents tell me no smoking. And I thought to myself,

I think missed the priest.

You.

I was thinking, you need to be in a confession box.

You and I started thinking like God, who am I?

Who have I been confessing? My sins to It's good

that you confess his sins to one another. But I

realized that he wasn't God. He couldn't forgive me for

all my sin. And I begin to ask myself, who

is God? And how do I get right with Him?

And this verse Holiness speaks about that. It's like, be holy,

for I am holy? And I started to ask myself

who is Jesus? And who am I? And one Peter

two verse nine says you are a chosen generation, a

royal priesuit, a holy nation, his own special people, that

you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you

out of darkness into his mouthless light. This is one

of the verses that I hung onto from a child

right up to know that, hey, you know what, doesn't

matter what you're going through. God has called you. You

are a chosen generation, a royal priesuit, a holy nation,

his own special people. And so your specialness comes when

you set yourself apart to Him.

Let me give you some verses. Romans twelf.

It says, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God,

present your body a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God.

That is your reasonable service meaning make it practical again.

The most reasonable thing you can do for God is

make yourself a living sacrifice, make yourself holy, and do

not be conformed to this wall. Be transformed by the

renewing of your mind, and then you will you get

to prove what is good, acceptable, and the perfect will

of God. I'm just going to teach you how do

you know the will of God? This is a question

whether you're a teen and a student, a young one

kid out somewhere. You're thinking, I'm changing my job. How

do I know this is God's will for me? Go

back into this verse. It says, present your what is essay,

living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. So when you set yourself apart,

then you'll know his will. It starts by presenting your

life to him and say, Lord, not my will, but

yours be done, and then the will of God will be.

You will know what's good and acceptable.

So I'm here to tell you that some of us

you're questioning you, You've got questions and different stages of life.

God is saying that, Hey, you know what, if you

want to know My will for you, set your life apart. Amen,

keep yourself, if you keep yourself pure. Timothy to verse

twenty one. It says you will be a special utensil,

use for honorable use. Right, your life will be clean.

You'll be ready for the Master to use you for

every good work. So when you set your life apart,

it says that you'll be a special utensil. You think

about that, you go like, Wow, God wants you use

you in a special way. Don't compare like Basiden can

play the guitar. He can saying he can play pick

a ball, Like I'm not even going to pick up

a pick a ball next to him.

I heard he's really good.

So go like, oh God, I want to be like

Buzza Dan right, and he God says I've got special.

Calling for you.

You can get inspired by Passiden, But you know what,

your way is a different way. I'm going to show

you if you would set your life apart, I'm sharing

with you how God works in individual lives. As a

twelve year old, I said this prayer. Remember I told

you I was in a church called Full Gospel. It

was the second floor and it had two floors. It's

a small church. And in that church there was a

guest room for different guests and pastors that come and

visit and in a guess room there was a bed.

For some reason, there's.

A guess room, and on that bed there was a guitar.

And so on one of those days, we had a

youth group meeting and then I wandered into that room again.

Me one enter his room.

I saw it, this guitar on a bed, and then

I sat next to it, and then this guitar looked

at me. I looked at the guitar, and then I

was thinking to myself, Wow, this looks like a cool guitar.

How cool will it be if I could play the guitar?

Right?

And then I did whatever kid does, just use your

hand in strum. It wasn't magical, Okay, it wasn't no magic.

But then came a voice, I started, a guitar speaking

to me. Would it be nice for you to learn

to play the guitar? And I was like, yeah, I

think it would be nice. And he said what would

you do if you could play the guitar? And then

I started, I'm like, if I could play the guitar,

I would serve God in every way, right, silly prayer me.

What I learned is I was having a conversation not

with a guitar, but with his spirit that works in

the trual lives.

And there was my encounter. I was thinking, how nice

would we play the guitar? And that boy said what

would you do?

And so the following month the church had I sign up, Yeah,

we need musicians.

Guess who signed up? I signed up, yay, and we

went for the class.

We had a teacher and his name was Albert, and

we arrived at his house, arrived in his house. The

first lesson, we rang the doorbell and then his wife

came out and said, what are you doing here?

My husband is sleeping.

And we were like, me and my brother and this

other guy, we were like, we're here to learn guitar.

He said, oh, okay, okay, okay. And so that lesson

was pretty much no lesson. And so we bought ourselves

a guitar hard book. I don't know whether that's even existing,

it exists now, but we bought a card book. We

learned three chords, and I'm here to share with you

that it's by God's grace that he started using us.

Because the church ministers to not just Bahasa, but Mandrin

and English, and so they've got different language groups and

suddenly the Mandarin church says, Joe, we need a musician.

Can you help out in the Mandarin service? I said kay, right,

but me go like, okay, yes I can. And I

was serving in the Mandarin service, sometimes more than in

the English service because of the need. And I started

serving there, and then when we moved to Johovaru, there

was more language groups there, and then different needs came

up and moving on to As I came to Columbo,

I started serving and then guess who, I thought, I'll

take a break, right, So I told Bassis Sandra. When

I first came to x she said, hey, you can

play the guitar or anything. I said, uh, and I

said maybe not.

I'm done. I did my time right.

I did my time, and then she said sign up right.

She didn't give me a chort to sign up. And

as I begin to take that responsibility, she said, you

know what, you have to put aside yourself and think

about what God wants to do a lot of times

we put our pride and our shyness in that spot

and you go like this, I don't like playing the

guitar in front of people.

I don't like singing. That's me. If you ask me

to sing, I'm like, do a performance.

I would say, like, not me as Juliana as Pasadan,

But that's not for me.

I don't perform.

But if you ask me, hey, you know what you're

in to worship God, then I'll be like, you know

what my heart is forgot, let's do it. And so

I came to that place of realizing that you know

what your talent or your gifting comes from God, won't

you use it? For God can only use once you

make yourself available. Won't you avail yourself? And so I'm

here to challenge you that it's that voice.

I'm going back to that voice again, the voice that

was in that second hole in that room, that spoke

to me true. The guitar is the.

Voice of the Holy Spirit, the voice of the Holy Spirit.

And I'm here the encourages. I feel that the church

without the Holy Spirit is no power. We can we

can sing all the songs, we can get testimonies up,

but it's the Holy Spirit.

Read the Book of X. It's the Holy Spirit that

when the power of the Holy Spirit came upon a church,

things were going to happen. And even Jesus himself said,

you know what, when I.

Leave, it's to your benefit. It's to your advantage. I

go because I'm giving you the Holy Spirit. And so

I'm here to tell you that you know what, exactly

what I told pass If I said you know what,

I'm just gonna tell him that you need invite the

Holy Spirit in for you to encounter more. God is saying,

won't you fuvail yourself and invite the Holy Spirit in

a lot of people. You can be Christians, but you

can know Jesus, you can know the love of God.

But is there the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We

say it at the benediction the whole time right for

the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of

the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

And so we all love when God loves us.

God loves me. He gave me a testimony great. And

then we think about like, hey, you know what, Jesus.

Jesus died and across from me, so I'm set free

from sickness, hallelujah.

And then we forget the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit

is our comfort there and friend, Holy Spirit is there

to help us. Some of you are thinking, I can't

even change the way I talk.

How can I be kind? How can I be gracious?

Galatians five. Let's read that together. It says, the fruit

of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, are long suffering, okay,

anyone going through suffering. It's not just patience. Is another

word for patience, is long suffering. Okay, So next time

when you think there you're going, you're having a heart day.

I tell this the dealer all the time. I'm like,

oh this is hot. I'm like, long suffering, patience. We'll

get true this not by ourselves, but through the fruit

of the whole whispirit, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

Against such there is no law that means can you

practice this with non Christians?

You can because there's no law.

Like let's say, if I speak to I don't know

someone who is not in church, if I'm all loving.

To them, is there a law against love? No.

If I practice grace with them, if I give them joy,

if I'm patient with them, if I'm kind with them,

don't you think they will be drawn to Jesus. It's

true this fruit of the Holy Spirit, so holiness will

lead us to bearing the fruit of the spirit. Set

yourself apart, and then there is food.

Is that good?

Last point here, I hope you are catching this is

to shine for him.

Shining.

Yesterday they had Victory Academy had a stage show, a

performance and it was how many of you were there

or your kids are involved?

Yes, it was amazing.

When I watched it, I was like, Wow, all these kids,

I think the whole school was involved. Every single student

was involved in putting a production together.

And I was like, wow, that's amazing. And I was

thinking some of them are not even.

Christian, but through this production they would maybe taste God's goodness,

They might taste his love.

True.

That experience of being involved you rub off and you

realize that, hey, you know what, there's something more than

just singing a song.

Maybe God is real.

And so I'm here to say that shine for him

is what God has caused us to do. Shine Matthew five,

verse sixteen. Let your light shine before man, that they

may want see your good works and glorify your father.

So your good works or my good works have to

be seen, hey man, Ephesians five, verse eight. For we

you were once darkness, but now you're a light in

the Lord. Walk as children of the light and then

Peter and John. It says here now, when they saw

the boldness of Peter and John and perceived them that

they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. The next

verse is where I want us to catch Then they

realize that they've been with Jesus.

And I read this verse.

I was thinking, like, I don't no one thinks that

I'm uneducated or I'm trained when they come to me.

Oh my gosh, this person is so educated uneducated.

Right, But.

Then they marveled because they realized that, hey, this guy

has been with Jesus. Jesus, the one who conkered the grave, Jesus,

the one who died four cents. Is that amazing? And

seeing the man this is the story of the man

being healed. They could say nothing against it. When people

encounter you and then they realize that it can't be

anyone or anything else.

It has to be Jesus. Only Jesus could have healed me.

Just now, someone said like, I'm an avid runner, right,

and I said, I'm not really an avid runner. I'm

I'm I'll share you a little my story. I've had

a PCL and an ACL tear. Doctors in the house

would know that ACL is your front ligament. Your PCL

would be your posterior appreciate ligament. And when we when

I was in the doctors and he said like, hey,

you have this tear here, and he told me that

you have another tear there. He said, you know what

you're going to be in for you to fix this

whole thing, it would take about twelve months.

At that time, I was like, oh no, I'm going

to be founded.

There goes. I used to love soccer. I used to

so my wall just crumbled and it just crashed. As

a campus student then working at ots, thinking like what

am I going to do? Am I a runner? And

I was thinking I can't do anything? And at that

point God met me in the hospital bed. Because you

come to a point where you turned your left, you

can't do left. The right is there's no one that

can offer you advice, and then you can only look up.

You can only look up. Passed Canna spoke a message

on between Pharaoh and the Red Sea, and he said, oh.

He said that sometimes there'll be.

Pharaoh's army chasing you from the back, and then in

front of you is what the sea right, the Red Sea,

And he realized that where am I going to go

and where am I going to turn to look up?

At that point, I realized that Lord, you are many things,

but you are a heeler, and I pray this bearer.

I said, Lord, if you could.

Help me run, I will run for you forever in

the es sense, in my best capacity, I will run.

And it didn't again happen overnight, but it took daily

challenges of God saying, hey, if you really want to

get back your use of legs, your legs, why don't

you try one kilometer? And I'm like, I totally now

I look at basic NF. I'm like, I know how

that feels, because years using the crutches is one thing.

Getting your use of legs again and then trying to

balance and then you get frustrated because you're not where

you used to be. And I started comparing him, was like, oh,

I could be doing soccer. I could be doing this.

And God was saying, I've different I'm going to call

you for a different thing. And I took up running.

And my testimony is why I shared it with I

have a seventy year old guy that's in the gym

in Melbourne, and I shared it with him.

I said, do you know.

When the doctors looked at my still might they look

at my skin and they go like, I don't know

how you're running. I don't know how you're running. I said,

I'll tell you how I'm running. Running not by mind.

Not my power.

But I said, God enabled me to run, and I

shared with him the story that I'm like, you know what,

I'm his testimony that you know what, I may not

be the greatest runner, but God has called me to run.

For this time, I can run, and that's for me

to give him praise.

I've never run a marathon where it or even half

marathon went didn't make it to church. And so half

the time I'm running, I'm thinking, oh, no, church is

happening this morning. And people ask me like, oh, why

do you run for so fast? I said, so I

can make it to church, so I can be there

in God's house. And I'm here to tell you that

every single challenge can be used for His glory. And

so I'm someone here. You're thinking, like, I'm in this

place where I don't think God sees me. I came

into here today. Someone says that I don't think God

sees where I'm at. I'm here to tell you that you

know what God can speak to a burning bush. He

sees you beyond what you see yourself. If you would

just say, Lord, use me, Lord, Holy Spirit. I welcome

you into my life. Be my helper, be my guide,

show me how it can be an offering that's pleasing

to you. That's you in this place. I'm here to

pray with you, and I'm here to tell you that

God is real. God is real. He helps us, he

enables us, He equips this.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit aschurch org. We are

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week is going to be a good week, a hit

for you. God bless