Unseen: Angels All Around - Week 2: Angels On Assignment

All right.

Now, if you're just not joining us, you're one of our first time guests.

We started a series in here last week entitled Unseen.

And our tagline is Angels All Around.

Now, I'm going to encourage you, if you were not here last week, go back and listen to the message from last week because I spent the whole message kind of setting the whole thing up.

I don't want to dive right into it.

I wanted to give it a good introduction.

And a big reason why I want to do that, I wanted to give us a strong reason why we're studying this.

Because for most people, this is the first time you've ever been in a church where they're teaching not only a message, but a whole series talking about angels.

And I want you to understand the reason why I think it's so important.

I think it's important because God is coming back for a church that is a glorious church.

And I believe the time of Jesus' return is closer than we realize it is.

I think at any given moment we could hear that trumpet sound and get caught up to meet the Lord.

But what he's coming for is not a weak church, not a fearful church, not a defeated church, not a church that the only thing we're ever concerned about is trying to get enough money to pay our rent at the end of the month.

He's coming back for a victorious church.

And one of the things that God has been doing systematically is restoring back into the body of Christ revelation that I think we let slip away from us.

And one of the revelations I believe that we let slip is this revelation of angelic help that's available to us.

And I'm trying to give a good balance because there's clearly a difference in how we look at and see angels operating in our lives compared to what the disciples and apostles did in the book of Acts.

When you read the book of Acts, it was like a regular occurrence.

They weren't even shocked when an angel showed up to help them.

Whereas today we almost look at it like it's DC or Marvel Comics to even think about an angel.

And so when you look in the book of Acts, I remember one story, I'm gonna share more of this as we get into the message.

But Peter had been arrested, and Herod was getting ready to have him killed the next day.

And you had a group of Christians at this one house, this lady named Mary, that they were at her house having a prayer meeting, and they were praying for Peter to be set free.

Well, the angel comes and sets Peter free.

Peter ends up at that house, he knocks on the door.

This young girl named Rhoda comes to the door.

She said, Who is it?

He says, Peter.

She's so excited, she doesn't even open the door.

She turns around and runs in there and says, Is Peter at the door?

And this is what they said.

No, it's not you out of your mind.

Now think about it.

They're praying for Peter to get free, but have no expectation he's going to get free.

And so they say, No, you're out of your mind.

But then this is what they said.

They said, That's not Peter.

They say, Maybe it's his angel.

Come on, what has changed from there until now to where it was easier for them to believe that Peter's angel was at the door than it was for them to believe it was actually Peter at the door.

Clearly, they had an understanding of angels, angels showing up, angels helping them, that we are not walking in today.

Give me a good amen, somebody.

So we've been establishing that there's this very real unseen realm.

I know I'm looking at you right now and I can see the clothes you're wearing, I can see your hairstyle.

You can see me here on the stage.

But this natural realm that we see is not all there is.

Literally behind this kind of curtain that we have right now, there, if we peel this back, we'd be able to see into the spiritual realm and we'd realize there's an unseen world.

And part of that unseen world, there are beings that the Bible refers to as angels.

And I gave you last week in our introduction a few things about angels.

Number one, we told you angels are actually real.

Give me a good amen, somebody.

What do you mean?

That means that we're not angels, they're not fictional, they're not mythology, they're not just something we made up to make ourselves feel better or feel more safe.

Second thing we told you is that angels are created beings, which means they are not little gods, they are supernatural beings, but they are created beings.

Third thing we told you, this was a big one right here, is that excuse me, people do not become angels when they die.

Well, it's important to correct that one, man, because a lot of times we walk around and we've allowed Hollywood to shape our theology.

And Hollywood makes you think that everybody that dies, they gain their wings, they become an angel.

So you hear folks saying stuff like this God needed another angel in heaven, so he reached down and picked up grandma.

Or you hear somebody, I see this all the time on social media, somebody say, you know, so-and-so.

Janice gained her wings.

And they'll put a little picture of Janice and she got some wings coming out of the back.

Can I just tell you if Janice didn't have any wings when she left here, she don't get any wings when she gets to heaven?

Why?

Human beings do not become angels.

Now, I'm not saying that you ought to go around and being Mr.

You know, I know the Bible more than everybody else, and correcting everybody and straightening everybody else out.

If somebody's loved one passes and they want to put some wings on them, you just pray for them to have some comfort and peace.

But I'm trying to help us understand so that we walk around with proper theology because that may make us feel better and comfort us, but it's not biblically correct.

And the truth of the matter is, watch this.

If a human being were to die and become an angel, that would be a demotion.

Because human beings, according to scripture, are on a higher classification than angels are.

In fact, so much so to when David was writing a song over in the book of Psalms number eight, he's writing, he says, his mind is blown.

He says, What is man that you're mindful of him?

What is this human being that you're always thinking about us?

What is a son of man that you always visit or you attend to, you pay attention to us?

Then he wrote this, he said, You have you have made mankind a little lower than then the translators use this word angels.

And if you take it at face value, you think that God is here, angels are there, and human beings are here.

But if you scroll back to the original text, the Hebrew that the Old Testament was written in, the word that that David used, he didn't use a word that's translated angels.

He said, You made mankind a little bit lower than here's the word Elohim.

Elohim overwhelmingly is used in the Old Testament as one of the names of God.

In fact, in Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, when he says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

Go look it up.

The Hebrew word that is translated God is Elohim.

So what was he saying?

He said, You made mankind a little bit lower than yourself.

That lines up with scripture where the Bible says the heavens, even the heavens, belong to the Lord, but the earth he's given to the children of men.

God's plan was he was gonna rule in heaven, and he put Adam down here to be the one who ruled on the earth.

So human beings are not lower than angels.

And if you thought I didn't know what I was talking about, go read what Paul said.

Paul said, When this earth wraps up, watch this, we shall judge the angels.

How would human beings be in a class lower than angels if we're gonna be the ones that judge the angels?

What are you trying?

What are you trying to say, Pastor?

I'm trying to say, when grandma passed away, she did not become an angel.

When you see grandma again, she watched this, she's gonna have the same sense of humor she had.

She's gonna still be straightening your behind out like she used to when you see her here.

She's just gonna have a body now that don't have any more sickness, no more disease, no more pain.

Come on, no more corruption.

Come on, say amen, somebody.

Amen.

Well, now let me spend my time today talking to you about angels on assignment.

Because I established last week that there is a real spiritual realm.

Angels are indeed real.

But if angels are real, what are they out here doing?

Because they're not out here just playing dominoes or Uno, they're not out here with a TV watching Love Island.

If angels are indeed real, what are they doing?

Let me tell you this angels that are here, they are on assignment.

They're not here just to walk around and do nothing, they are here on assignment.

Hebrews chapter 1, verse 14 says this.

Hebrews 1:14

Are they talking about angels, not all ministering spirits?

Somebody say ministering spirits.

Are they not all ministering spirits who are sent forth?

Somebody say sent forth.

Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?

Somebody say, minister for those who will inherit salvation.

So there are three things that that that we gain here, three things that are told to us.

Number one, we're told that angels are ministering spirits.

Remember, I told you you got to go back to the original text.

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the New Testament was written primarily in Greek.

And the two Greek words that are put together to give us ministering spirits are the Greek words lay tujika pneumata.

Laituriika pneumata.

And when you break those down, later literally means pertaining to service or ministry, especially service that is performed in an assigned or official capacity.

It's where we get our English word liturgy from.

And it specifically means service done on behalf of another person.

So we could say it this way.

We could say that angels, another way of saying angels, is that they are serving spirits.

Everybody say serving spirits.

Come on, say it like me and say serving spirits.

What do you mean when you say that, Pastor?

I'm trying to say angels don't have their own agenda.

Angels don't wake up and say, you know what?

I feel today like I ought to go out and do these five things right here.

They don't have an agenda, they are serving spirits, they are sent to go do an assignment.

Second thing that we learn from that verse here is that they are sent forth.

That comes from a Greek word apostello.

It's what we get our English word apostle from.

And it means to be sent out to dispatch or to send somebody on a mission.

So when we again think about angels, we could think of it this way: they are spiritual servants dispatched on assignment.

Are you still tracking with me?

Are you still tracking with me?

Angels are spiritual servants dispatched on assignment.

And the last thing we learned from that verse right there is that they are sent to minister for those who will inherit salvation.

Anybody grateful that you've inherited your salvation from Jesus?

What does that mean?

That means we didn't work for it.

I didn't have to work for my salvation.

Come on, you didn't have to sell any chicken dinners to get your salvation.

You didn't have to knock on any doors and get so many people saved to earn your salvation.

We didn't we didn't earn our salvation.

Jesus did the hard part.

We surrendered to him.

Come on, and we inherited eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Well, I'm going somewhere with this because the Bible says that angels are spiritual servants dispatched on assignment, and their assignment is to minister for those who are heirs of salvation.

So everybody that just got excited that said, I'm an heir of salvation, I'm trying to tell you something.

Angels are on an assignment to minister for you.

Now here's the problem: if you're learning for the first time that there are even angels that exist, surely there's no way you've been having them minister for you at their full capacity.

Or if you're all you've ever heard is Hollywood's version or a little bit every now and then in church about angels, but you don't really know what they're here for, then there's no way that the angels that have been assigned to you are operating at their full capacity.

In fact, some of them might be unemployed.

The angel used to be, you know, like big burly angel.

Now they like real skinny and weak.

Because they've been sitting around with nothing to do.

Come on, somebody.

Because we hadn't been taught how to properly engage and get them operating at full capacity, but that's about to change.

Come on, say amen, somebody.

So they're real quick.

There are two takeaways before I get into this.

There are two takeaways I think we need to get from this passage.

Number one, let me drive this home.

Angels don't just do their own thing, they are sent.

They're not spiritual free agents, they're not out here kind of, you know, uh just roaming.

They're not out here, you know, being rebellious, doing their own thing.

They are sent by God.

You see this in Daniel chapter 6, when Daniel gets saved from that lion's den.

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

This is what he says.

He said, My God sent his what?

Come on, I can't hear you.

My God sent his what?

His angel and shut the lion's mouth.

How about over in Acts chapter 12 when Peter gets set free?

Acts 12 · chapter mention

This is what he says.

When Peter had come to himself, he looked around and said, Well, now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his what?

Sent his angel and has delivered me.

Notice over and over, angels don't just show up on their own.

They're sent by God.

The Lord sent his angel.

God is the source, God is the authority, God is the one who establishes the assignment.

Listen to this.

Angels are not independently roaming the earth looking for things to do.

They are on a divine assignment.

So first takeaway I need you to grab it is that angels are sent.

Somebody say they're sent.

Come on, say again, say they're sent.

Here's the second thing I need you to know about angels.

The Bible tells us, and I'm not I'm taking you to the scripture so that we don't have to get, you don't have to give me your opinion about what you think about angels.

And you don't have to take my opinion about what I think about angels, because your opinion and my opinion don't matter when it comes to the word.

So the Bible says this about angels, that they are sent to minister or serve for God's people.

Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who inherit salvation?

Notice I'm making a distinction.

They're sent to minister for those who inherit salvation.

Notice what I'm saying.

They're sent to minister for.

Notice what I didn't say.

I didn't say they're sent to minister to.

Come on, language is important, man.

There's a difference in somebody being sent to minister to you and somebody being sent to minister for you.

Anybody agree with that?

Kind of like if you go to the if you go to the doctor, man.

Go to the doctor and you walk in and you tell them what's wrong.

They take your insurance card and your license, and they send a nice single doctor.

Brothers.

Well, now why after after I tell the doctor what's wrong with me, then watch the doctor, it just takes off, they start doing their own thing.

Right?

Then she's checking my lungs, checking my heart, checking my pulse rate.

I told them at the desk that my shoulders hurting, but you know, she's checking my pulse, she's checking my heart rate.

She's looking in my ears.

Leave my ears alone.

I didn't ask her to do any of this.

But after I've told them what's going on with me, the doctor has their own protocol.

They're following their protocol because she's here to minister to me and to go through their checklist to make sure they figure out what's going on so they can give me a diagnosis and tell me what I need to go do.

On the other hand, when I go to a restaurant and I pull up at the restaurant and they get me seated, the young server who happens to be, what's your name, man, man?

My name is Jaden.

Hey Jaden, nice to meet you, son.

What is this?

Oh, it's a menu.

Thank you for the menu.

Thank you for the menu.

And I started looking at the menu, and did you notice that Jaden's just standing there with his notepad and his pen?

You notice that Jaden didn't look at me and say, you know what?

You look like you need a lobster.

I'm gonna go get you a lobster.

Jaden's just standing there, giving me time to look at what's available to me.

And watch this.

If I don't ever tell Jaden what I need, he'll keep checking back, but he's not gonna go and randomly start bringing me stuff.

You know why?

Because he's not here to minister to me, he's here to minister for me.

And he's waiting on me to give him an order off of the menu so he can go and execute what I just asked him to execute.

Well, guess what?

For the born-again believer, the Bible is your spiritual menu.

And anytime you start ordering or making a request off of God's menu, your angels are standing by to go and be dispatched on assignment to bring back into your life what the word of God says you can have.

That's the reason why, for us as believers, we can't afford just to speak anything.

You can't just afford to just start telling him, I won't, I want this or that.

It's gotta be something that's on the menu.

That's why you can't sit around and act like your co-workers who are not heirs of salvation.

You can't sit around and start talking about how bad this thing is, this economy is so bad, the gas is so high.

Your angel's like, that's not on the menu.

I can't do anything with that.

But when you start declaring that my God supplies all of my need according to his riches and glory, when you start declaring it doesn't matter what the economy is like, I have given and it is given unto me, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

God is sending men and women to give into my bosom.

Your angel says, I can work with that.

That's on the menu, I can deal with that.

So understand, the angels are not sent just to minister to us, they're sent to minister for us, and we got to give them something to work with.

Amen?

I said amen.

So here's a question.

What are angels assigned to do then?

If they're on assignment from God, what are they assigned to do?

Number one is this this is a big one.

They're assigned to protect us.

Thank God for police officers, thank God for military, thank God for having your own weapons and ability to protect yourself and Second Amendment, all that good stuff.

But understand this, you have a whole army at your disposal that you don't even see.

Angels are assigned by God to protect.

Psalm 91, verse 1 says, If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the most high your shelter.

Psalms 91:1

Has anybody declared that God is my refuge and my shelter?

Come on, you really mean that?

Come on, you trust that if I'm in Christ, I'm in his secret place, he's my refuge, he's my hiding place, he's my shelter.

He says, if you made him your refuge and your shelter, then no evil will conquer you.

Come on, no plague will come near your home.

Why not, God?

Because I'm lucky?

No.

Because he will order his angels to do what?

Come on, he'll order his angels to do what?

He'll order them to do what?

Protect you, but let's finish this to protect you wherever you go.

Come on, man.

That means you walk, come on, you're walking around with a crowd, you don't even know it.

You've been walking around talking about I feel lonely.

You couldn't be lonely if you wanted to be lonely.

You got a crowd going with you everywhere you go.

He's ordered his angels, hear me out to protect you wherever you go.

Can I tell you what that means?

That means his angels can protect you when you're driving down here in the ground, but they can also protect you when you're flying at 35,000 feet.

You know what that means?

That means you don't have to be afraid to fly anymore.

Come on, somebody.

They can protect you when you're riding on a train.

They can protect you when you're out there on a cruise ship in the middle of all that water.

And how many times do we come into church, man?

We sing all these great songs.

We talk about how great God is, how faithful He is, how good He is, and then we live our lives in fear.

I don't know, folks right now, man, that will not get on an airplane to save their life.

Drive all over the country, take you days.

I've been to California and back five times.

You still just made it to Texas.

Do we believe the Bible or not?

He'll give his angels an assignment to protect us.

His angels watch it, they can protect you on the roller coaster.

I got three hands one up on the roller coaster.

He's like, Come on now.

You hear me with the train and the plane.

The roller coasters are necessary.

I'm not saying you gotta enjoy roller coasters, but I'm trying to help you understand something.

There should be, hear me out, there should be no area of your life that you're not doing a thing because you're afraid.

Understand this about the enemy.

The enemy doesn't play fair.

If he can get you to have a little bit of fear that you're hanging on to, fear does not stay in one pocket.

It spreads like a cancer out of control.

If you let a little fear stay right here, before you know it, that fear will creep.

Now you're afraid of something else.

You're afraid to get in the crowds, you're afraid to go around people, afraid of germs, afraid of you're gonna get this disease.

Before you know it, fear starts backing into a corner where you can, this is all the life you got right now.

Where God wants you to live an expansive life.

I'm here to tell you if there's something you know you're dealing with that there's a fear, you need to go and face it head on, just so you can put it in its proper place.

I said this at Easter.

For those of you that are with us down at the arena for Easter, we filled that place out down there.

And I and I and I talked about it.

If you're afraid of flying, I said then, I said, you need to go get on the plane.

Even if you do nothing but get on the plane and fly to Atlanta, get right back off and fly right back home to Jacksonville.

A couple months ago, Pastor Crayshawn was on a flight going somewhere, and when he walked in, this lady said, she said, Pastor Kresha, she said, I just want you to know I'm only on this plane because Bishop said at Easter.

That if you're afraid of flying, you need to get on a plane and fly to Atlanta.

She said, That's what I'm doing.

Then she said this, and I was getting ready to get off until I saw you and I knew the Lord must be on this plane too.

And she did.

She flew to Atlanta, waved goodbye, and said, Now I'm going right down here to get to my gate, and I'm going right back home.

But guess what?

Whatever you gotta do to overcome that fear, don't you let the devil come on.

Control your life.

Don't you let him push you into a corner?

Don't you live just a part of the life that God has blessed you?

Why?

Because he will give his angels charge over you.

They will protect you everywhere that you go.

Amen.

They will hold you up with their hands so that you won't even hurt your foot against a stone.

Do you realize how much God loves you?

He loves you so much he doesn't even want you to accidentally kick your toe against a rock.

That's how much he loves you.

Now we gotta ask a question then.

If that's the case, he loves me enough he doesn't want me to kick my toe.

He'll give his angels charge to protect me wherever I go.

Why do we have tragedies and accidents that do happen to Christians sometimes?

That's a good question.

Let me give you the answer.

I don't know.

I wish I could, you know, write a book and be certain this is actually.

But anybody that tries to do that, they're messing up because there's no way you can I can tell you for sure.

Why I can tell you this much.

This is what God promised.

Can I also tell you this?

Don't ever let your trust in God be based on what happened in somebody else's life.

I'll tell you something.

Don't ever let your trust in God even be based on what happened in your own life.

I have said this for the whole 30 years I've been pastoring this church.

If the if you looked at my life and it looked like the word did not work in my life, don't stop trusting the word.

George Davis is not the barometer for whether or not God's word is true.

Our trust should never be based on an experience we had or somebody else had.

It should be based on the reality that if God said it in his word, he's true to what he said.

That's why you gotta declare, no matter what's been going on, you still need to open your mouth every single day of your life.

This should be a part of your confession.

A thousand may fall at my side.

Come on, ten thousand in my right hand, it will not come near.

Well, me, when you're looking at the news, man, and you see some tragedy just happened, it's it's terrible.

Pray for that family, and then out of the out of your mouth, so you don't let fear grab hold of you.

You need to declare a thousand may fall at my side and ten thousand in my right hand, but it will not come near me.

Why?

Because God has promised that his angels will be there to protect.

I don't know why sometimes tragedies and accidents still happen to Bible-believing good Christians.

I can tell you a few things that I do know.

I do know that we got to get better at listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

I can tell you this much with confidence.

There has never been a Christian face of tragedy when the Holy Spirit wasn't trying to redirect us.

Never.

Never.

I'll tell you this much.

I do know this.

I do know that we have to keep our lives covered in prayer.

Sometimes we think prayer is not that big a deal.

Prayer is the engine, man.

It's the engine.

Come back next week because I'm gonna teach you about what's happening in this heavenly realm when we pray.

I do know this.

Watch this.

I do know that we have to get better at esteeming spiritual matters higher than secular matters.

That many times we'll bust our buttons.

We'll go to work, man, when when we don't feel well.

We go to work when you know we got difficult stuff going on at home.

We look out the window and it's raining, but we still get up and go to work.

You know why?

Because we want that paycheck in two weeks.

But you know how many times we look out the window and it's a little cloudy and we just decide I'm not going to church.

Family come to town and we just, oh, we just gonna stay in this weekend.

We gotta esteem spiritual matters higher than we do secular matters.

We'll sit around all day long, talk about how broke I am.

I, you know, I would tithe, but you know, it's just tough for me right now.

But then they announced that Chris Brown at Usher concert.

You got some money from somewhere on.

I saw your Instagram.

I saw you I did.

We gotta esteem spiritual matters.

Come on, man.

Spiritual things have got to be more important to us than natural things.

I taught this at the earliest of the service just before this, and then I get down to the altar call, and as soon as we started worshiping God, people thought it was over.

Stepped out.

He had a it wasn't a lot, but it was enough to irritate me.

We're still in the middle of worshiping God.

When I tell you the anointing was thick in that place, and people stepped out, started leaving out, going nowhere.

I know you ain't going nowhere.

Just trying to get to, I know it's a lot of cars out there.

They're trying to be the first one in the parking lot so they can get to the light before they know you get stuck at the light, been a long line.

You know that that's esteeming secular stuff more than spiritual stuff.

I'm just trying to teach you a lesson.

Then we want, then we watch, then we wonder why stuff doesn't work out for us.

Then we want to get mad at God.

Maybe sometimes it doesn't work out because I don't I I I I want to give a two-cent effort and get a thousand dollar result.

That could be, right?

Here, here's something else I know.

Watch this.

I do know that we cannot afford to live on the devil's playground and wonder why we keep getting hit with his swing set.

That could contribute sometimes.

It's easy to point the finger at God what he didn't do.

Why'd you let sometimes it could be?

I'm not saying sometimes it could be that I've been over here on the devil's playground and I'm getting mad because I keep getting hit with the swing set.

If I don't like the swing set, getting hit with it, it's probably good for me to get off that playground.

Here's the other thing I do know.

I do know that there's some things we simply will never understand until we make it to heaven.

And we got to get to the place where we stop getting stuck on the why and get consumed with the who.

He's faithful, man.

That's why I'm telling you about that invitation card.

There's somebody, there's somebody in your family, maybe somebody you work with, they they stopped coming to a church because they got mad at God.

They prayed for something, it didn't work out like they thought, and and it might have even been the preacher that added to it, because they stood up and said, The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away.

And left them thinking that God is the one that took their 13-year-old child.

If you told me God says he loves me and then he killed my 13-year-old kid with cancer, how you want me to turn around and say, I love this God?

But people have blamed God for all kind of stuff that God didn't do.

What I know about the Lord is that the Bible says the Lord is good.

Every good and perfect gift comes down from above.

You cannot tell, the Bible says this if here, if you know how to give good gifts to your kids, you got enough senses you wouldn't put cancer on your kid to teach them a lesson to serve you better.

But we think God would put cancer on one of his kids or cause a car accident to take some 25-year-old dad away from his family so he can make the rest of the family serve him better.

There are things we have blamed him for that he had nothing to do with.

That's why we have to study to show ourselves approved, get educated in the word so you don't just accept the first thing you hear come out of somebody's mouth.

Amen.

Can I get a good amen?

See, what I know is what I know is this is that there have been many times when it was God that stepped in and intervened, protected us.

I told you a few weeks ago about a family member that had been in a car accident, and and I got a notification on my on my on my phone that that they were in an accident and I took off before the bus was done and ran past a little stop sign they had out, didn't even realize, and they sent me a ticket.

I'm still mad they sent me a ticket.

They should have known my heart.

Come on, someone.

But what I didn't tell you is when I got to the scene of the accident, the family member, the loved one had was in a parking lot, in like a fast food parking lot, had just pulled out of a parking space and hadn't hadn't been driving less more than three seconds, five seconds, and apparently blacked out and ran into something because it had passed out.

And what they ran into, right there, there they did those, they had a big old electrical box that powered that whole area around there.

And they had two cement pillars right in front of it because if somebody was gonna hit something, they'd rather you hit that cement pillar than hit that electrical box.

And so when she when she passed out, she literally was headed straight for this electrical box.

And she knows it was because she nipped the corner of it enough to move the shell that covered the electrical box, but not hit it head on.

And when the paramedics got there, we were talking, and we both said if she had hit that electrical box square on, that thing potentially would have exploded, and there wouldn't have been enough time for anybody to get her out of that car.

You cannot convince me that as she passed out and heading toward that thing, that there wasn't an angel that steered that car.

See, we have a tendency to judge our situations by the accidents and the tragedies that we know about.

But listen to this we have no idea how many times our lives have been hanging in the balance and our angels stepped in to save the day.

Think about how much we don't know.

I mean, you know about the accident you survived, but what about the accident that never happened?

You know about the person God protected you from, but what about the person who never reached you?

You know about the danger that you escaped, but what about the danger that you never even knew existed?

Somebody ought to praise God for the stuff he protected you from that you don't even know about yet.

Some of you gonna get to heaven and meet your angel and gonna be like, Well, praise God.

I'm glad we both made it.

They're gonna roll back and show you all the stuff they kept away from you.

Second thing that the angels do on their assignment is that angels deliver.

They protect, but they also deliver.

You say, What's the difference?

Protection keeps something from ever happening, but deliverance gets you out of something when it is already happening.

Anybody glad God protects and delivers?

How about Acts chapter 5, verse 17?

Acts 5:17

The high priest and all his friends, a group called the Sadducees, became very jealous.

They took the apostles and put them in jail, but during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and let the apostles outside.

The angel said, Go stand in the temple and tell the people everything about this new life.

That's deliverance, man.

How about Acts chapter 12 when Peter was in jail?

Acts 12 · chapter mention

Suddenly an angel of the Lord stood there, and a light shined into the cell.

The angel struck Peter on the side and woke him up.

Hurry, get up, the angel said, and the chains fell off of Peter's hands.

Then the angel told him, Get dressed and put on your sandals.

Peter did.

Then the angel said, Put on your coat and follow me.

So Peter followed him, but he did not know if what the angel was doing was actually real.

He thought he might be seeing a vision.

They went past the first and the second guards, and they came to the iron gate that separated them from the city.

The gate opened by itself for them, and they went through it.

When they had walked down one street, the angel suddenly left him.

The angel is there one minute, then suddenly he disappears.

Why?

Remember the story.

You had believers at this house that were praying.

So they're they're there praying, doing something in the seen realm.

And the whole time they're doing something in the seen realm, God is working in the unseen realm.

I'm telling you now, man, if you've been praying, don't you dare stop praying.

Especially this, if you've been praying and just got some discouraging news, pray harder.

Because the reason why the enemy tries to bring that discouraging news, he's trying to get you to stop praying, change your confession.

But if you're if you if you if you receive some new discouraging news, it's because the enemy knows how close you are to getting your breakthrough.

Amen.

I said, Amen.

Years ago when I was still a young minister in Detroit before I ever moved here, I was probably 24 years old.

And I remember this guy, he was an usher at our church in Detroit.

I remember he came in one Sunday.

He was all beat up, man, like he had been in a bad fight.

And he came and told the story of what had happened to his family.

He said the night before, I think it may have been two nights before, they were at home just relaxing in the house, and out of nowhere, about four or five guys kicked in their front door and came in with automatic weapons pointed at them.

And they started screaming saying, Give us the money.

And he's like, What?

We don't have any money.

He's like, give us the money.

Let me give you the backstory.

Their house was like two doors down from a drug house, a dope house.

And these guys kicked in the wrong door.

They were trying to kick in the door to the drug house and rob them, but they kicked in the wrong door.

But they're they're convinced that they got the right door, and so they're command that demanding them, give us the money, give us the money.

And finally they start beating the dad.

They beat him to a pulp.

And he tells, we don't have any money.

They say, Okay, if you're not gonna give us the money, then we're gonna tie you up and we're gonna beat your wife and your daughter.

They tie him up and they head over to start beating the wife and the daughter.

Now, I have a wife and a daughter, I can only imagine how helpless he felt.

And in that moment of helplessness, he can't do anything to defend them.

This is what he did.

He started screaming at the top of his lungs, Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! And he tells a story when he started screaming, Jesus, these guys with guns in their hands turned around, their faces looked like they had just seen a ghost.

They dropped their guns and took off and ran out of their house.

I mean, I think that's deliverance.

I think that qualified for deliverance.

Now you say, Well, what happened?

I wasn't there, so I can't tell you exactly, but I tend, I I can hear somebody saying, Well, when they started screaming Jesus, they just kind of felt bad in their hearts because they remembered their Sunday school lesson, so they decided to leave them alone.

Well, if they just took off and left, we may be able to say that makes sense.

But why would you drop your gun?

All of them dropped their guns, police confiscated their guns when they got there.

I can tell you what happened.

When they turned, he started screaming, Jesus.

And almost like the Jericho wall, man.

There's a shout that pierces through the darkness.

And I believe that scream of Jesus caused God to peel back that natural realm.

And even these guys who came there to rob them were able to look into the spirit realm.

I don't know what they saw, but I tend to believe they saw some of the biggest, baddest angels you could ever imagine.

And they realized if we want to survive, we better leave this here and get out of here.

Third thing that we understand that God does is this through angels, angels are used to strengthen us.

Matthew 4 11, Jesus has just been tempted.

The Bible says, then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him.

Another translation says they came and attended to him.

One says they came and cared for him.

Another one says they came and waited on him.

And even another one said they came and helped him.

How about Luke 22, verse 43?

Luke 22:43

Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He's facing the cross, he's in deep anguish.

And the Bible says, then an angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him.

See, only heaven knows how many times you've been right there on the verge of quitting.

Feel like I can't take anymore.

And without even realizing, God sent an angel that strengthened you and built you right back up.

See, sometimes God sends help to get you out, and sometimes He sends help to get you through.

Amen.

I'm not done, so please don't unplug just yet.

But I want to show you a video, a quick video.

And it's a story in this season as we're commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9-11.

It's a story of a lady by the name of Janelle Guzman McMillan.

And she was the last person rescued from the rubble at the Twin Towers after those towers fell.

She was in the building, trapped in the building, towers came down.

She was trapped under the rubble for 27 hours.

And this is not just a story I heard about.

We actually invited her to the church about 10 or 15 years ago and had her stand and she gave her testimony.

Our church had a chance to have breakfast with her in the back.

So I heard this story firsthand.

And she tells her story about how she didn't really know the Lord, had blown off all the stuff her mother had told her.

But under that rubble, all the stuff her mother had shared started coming back.

Don't stop sharing Jesus with your loved ones.

Even if they don't want to hear.

Under that rubble, it started coming back to her.

She said when she was just about on the verge of giving up, a man reached out and grabbed her hand.

And this man talked her through, stayed right there with her until the rescuers came and were able to deliver her and get her out of there.

I have no doubt that that angel came and strengthened her.

And I have no doubt, bless God, that it was God right there in that rubble with her.

Take a look.

My mom passed away in 1999.

She was a Christian.

I think I wasn't really listening to her.

It was all about me, self, self, self.

And I didn't understand what Jesus did for us.

I just thought about my mom, what she had said about heaven and hell.

And I knew, I knew what I wanted to do, and I know I wanted that chance to make that commitment.

I was just asking for his forgiveness.

And at one point, I wanted to give up.

And I said, I said, God, are you listening to me?

Please show me a sign.

He showed me a sign that you did, I can't, I can't do this anymore.

And then someone grabbed me by my hand.

He told me his name is Paul.

And he kept holding my hand and keep telling me that you're gonna be fine.

Help is on the way.

I'm not gonna let you go.

And he said, Janelle, I got you.

And I remember holding on to his hands so tight.

And I said, Thank you, God.

The rescuers, I would hear the song of the radio was going off.

I called out and I said, Hello.

And Paul told me to keep talking to them.

He said, They're almost here.

Keep talking.

And I could hear them like coming up closer and closer.

And I hear one of them saying, I see her, I see her.

I just knew I was gonna go home.

I am the last survivor of buried for 27 hours.

I myself couldn't believe that I survived it.

I couldn't believe it.

And I think Paul definitely was an angel looking out for me.

I wasn't hallucinating, I wasn't dreaming.

I knew the conversation that I had.

There is angels amongst us.

And God sent me that miracle that day.

It was a wake-up call for me.

Something happened under that rubber.

I found Jesus that day.

Come on, somebody.

In our time of need, God can use an angel to strengthen you, to give you what you need, to keep holding on, keep trusting until you see his full deliverance.

I got one more for you, and we're done.

Angels can sometimes give us direction.

Sometimes God uses angels to help move people toward his greater purpose for their lives, his greater agenda in the earth.

In Acts 8 26, it says, Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip and said to him, Arise, go toward the south.

You read the story, the Bible teaches that Philip obeyed.

He encounters this Ethiopian official.

He shares the gospel with him.

The man receives Christ, he baptizes him.

And then that same Ethiopian official leaves, goes back to Africa, and the gospel then spreads into Africa.

So God used an angel to speak to Philip to help further along his purpose.

How about over in Matthew chapter 1 and chapter 2?

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

When Mary has come and told Joseph that I'm pregnant, but it's not by another man, it's the Holy Spirit.

Joseph's like, Yeah, right.

And it takes an angel to show up to Joseph.

Joseph and say this, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, and then goes ahead and gives him instructions on what even what to name him.

Later on, when Herod is on the verge of plotting to kill Jesus as a young, roughly two-year-old, an angel shows up and tells Joseph, take the child and go flee into Egypt.

A couple different occasions where God used an angel to help give direction to point a person in a certain direction.

Let me give you this word of caution.

The primary way that God gives us direction is through the Holy Spirit.

We're never told to seek the direction of an angel, but only direction of the Holy Spirit.

If God chooses to give us direction using an angel, he will make it abundantly clear this is what he's doing, and whatever that angel says to us will never contradict what God has actually said in his word.

Can I get an amen, somebody?

One last thing, why don't you lift one hand towards heaven?

Let's close with this prayer right here.

Let's conclude with this prayer.

Why don't you say this with all your heart?

Say, Father God, thank you that you've not left us alone or without help.

Thank you for the supernatural resources you have assigned to serve your purposes and minister on behalf of your people.

Open our eyes to recognize that even when we cannot see what you are doing, you're always working.

Teach us to trust you when we feel surrounded, to believe you when we feel trapped, and to remember that your help is never limited to what we can see.

We put our confidence in you, knowing you are our source, our protector, and our deliverer, and that your angels are on assignment in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Come on, give God the best praise you got.

Come on.

Come on, lift your voice and give him praise.

Praise them, praise him, praise him, praise him.

Were you blessed by the word?

Were you blessed by that word?

Yes.

Listen, we've reached the most important time of the service today.

I'm gonna ask that nobody move within the auditorium unless you've been assigned to, because arguably the most important moment of the service.

We've worshiped, we receive word, but none of it matters if you haven't made that decision.

Bishop talked about uh ministering angels, he talked about how we have angels that protect and angels that uh go forth when we speak.

But if you haven't made that decision, then I'm not saying that you don't have angels.

I believe that even without you making that decision, you have angels surrounded around you.

How do I know that?

Because when I wasn't saved, I still had angels protecting me.

I still have mom and grandma praying that those angels will intercede.

But watch this without making that decision, you won't have the spiritual authority to speak to those angels, you won't have the knowledge, the divine knowledge to go ahead and send them forth.

So I want to give you an opportunity to accept Jesus Christ right now if you haven't done so.

All eyes closed, eye uh heads bowed, nobody moving within the room.

If you're listening to me here in the auditorium or in the over floor, maybe online, and you haven't made that decision to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, the the world will make you think, and church will make you think that you have to do 10 things and say 15 other things to accept Jesus Christ.

But the truth of the matter is that Roman tells us clearly if you confess with your mouth and you believe with your heart, you shall be saved.

So located in the seat back pocket, right in front of you, is a card.

It says, Say yes to Jesus.

And I, in three seconds, going to uh ask you to grab that card.

And if you're ready to make that decision, I'm gonna ask you to get that card out of the seat back pocket right in front of you.

And again, I'm gonna go ahead and count to three and give you that opportunity.

One, the word says that today is the day of salvation.

Two, don't allow the enemy to trick you or tell you that this it this isn't a decision that you ought to make.

Three, go ahead and lift up that card as an acknowledgement that you're accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.

I see that hand.

I see that hand.

Come on, I see that hand.

Maybe you online.

I see that hand online.

You're gonna receive a poll, and that poll is gonna give you some type of indicator that you as well are receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.

I see that hand.

Thank you.

I've been waiting for that hand.

Repeat after me for those that made that decision.

In fact, the entire room, I want us to repeat this together in connection and in conjunction with those that are making that decision.

Father, thank you for this opportunity.

At this very moment, I confess with my mouth and believe with my heart that you, Jesus Christ, died on the cross of Calvary for my sins.

Come into my life, save me now, and from this moment on, I boldly proclaim I am born again in Jesus' name.

Come on, put your hands together.

Let's celebrate that decision.

Did you just make a decision for Jesus?

Welcome to the family.

We're so excited.

Trust me, we're clapping for you, and we believe that you've made an important decision today.

We'd like to help you on your journey.

So if you'll follow the directions that are on screen, there is a free book you can download.

It's going to take you five to ten minutes of your day for the next seven days.

But our pastors have put together some amazing resources that we believe will help you on the journey ahead.

If you don't want it, nobody's going to email you, text you, bother you, anything like that.

We just want to make sure you are successful in your walk with Jesus.

Now, let me tell you, one of the things you should consider is baptism.

And if you're in the Jacksonville area, we do baptism after our first weekend service every month.

And you can just scan the QR code that's on the screen, sign up for that.

I'd love to be a part of that journey with you, or any of our ministers would.

If you don't live in town, we do believe you should find a Bible teaching church and at least go get baptized, even if you're still going to watch our service.

But download that book, it's free.

We're excited for your journey ahead, and we can't wait to be a part of that.

Now, this is a part of the service where we also demonstrate our generosity.

If you're just checking this out today, you don't feel any pressure to give.

But for those of you, this is your church, you know that we are generous is one of our core values.

And so you can give online or you can give through our app, which I really like.

You have the Apple Pay option right on our app.

Just go to your Google store or your Apple store, download the We Are Impact app.

It's also a great way to study notes that um come from the sermons that you watch on here.

And there's a lot of events on there as well.

But you can give through that app.

It's super easy, and we're just grateful that you partner with us week after week.

Well, we're so excited you joined us today.

Hope you have an amazing weekend, and we'll see you next time.