Contending is More than Wanting | 09/27/2026

And what's happening is that we come today and we're expecting to be served by God, okay?

I'm not just trying to be mean or something, but it's not here right now.

It is dormant because we're disconnected.

This is what Pastor Garner was saying.

God is his word says, draw close to me, and I will draw close to you.

Seek after me, knock and the door shall be open.

He gives the idea of someone going to a friend's house late in the middle of the night.

Very inconvenient.

Going and knocking.

Very uncomfortable, okay?

Hebrews tells us, give us a sacrifice of praise.

That coming, I'm and it even says, I will not give, I'm not going to give God something that doesn't cost me.

Sometimes pressing into God what he wants from you is going to feel very uncomfortable.

When we show up on a Sunday, church is not about your personal comfort.

This is not about a service for you to be served.

This is us coming together to worship him.

And that's the problem.

It's it's and I'll get it.

I've been in services where it's the last thing I want to do is to engage with what's happening.

I just want to watch.

But his presence was so tangible, and God wants to do something.

And maybe you don't need something, but what about the person next to you?

What if the person next to you needs a miracle?

And to be honest, we always need more of him.

That idea that I don't need anything, that's a lot.

And so we're not trying to be mean here, but worship leaders are up here not to entertain you, they're meant to lead you into the presence.

Does that make sense?

And so that's our heart here at Generations Church is to have the culture that says, Lord, there'll be times that we'll feel it and we'll just want to do it, but then there's times we don't.

And I believe those are the times that we need to really respond.

Past our comfort, past even what people think of us.

Sometimes I don't want to praise, I don't, you know, I don't want to do the thing I feel God pulling me in to do.

Some of you, God pulls you to come up here and get on your knees, but you don't because you're afraid of what everyone thinks.

He's wanting to break off a fear of man.

I've had to do this many times.

I'm just embarrassed.

I'm like, what is everyone gonna think about me?

Who cares?

So, Lord, we just um we just repent, Father.

Lord, we take personal ownership, Father, to come and worship you, to give you a sacrifice of praise.

Can y'all just close your eyes and just imagine Jesus right now in the Garden of Gethsemane?

I want us to think about this, our comfort level.

Do you understand what he did?

It was not his comfort to do that.

Is he worthy of our praise and honoration?

If you were to be to travel in time and be right in front of the cross, would you be stoic?

Arms crossed, lifeless.

These people that walk with Jesus, when they encountered him, they felter their face.

Like it's not a game.

This is not just like this is not a going like going to the movie theater.

These people of all would come into the presence of God, they would fall flat on their face.

It's like there's like where's the fear of the Lord?

Jesus, Jesus, Lord, we repent.

Lord, we repent, Father, for comfort Christianity.

I repent for comfort Christianity.

I repent for only pursuing what's convenient, what's comfortable.

Lord, forgive us, Father, for just waiting on you, God.

And Holy Spirit, we invite your presence in the here to manifest yourself.

Those that wait on the Lord, strength will be renewed.

Forgive us, Father.

Forgive us, Father.

Jesus, the doors are open, you're welcome in here.

You're welcome in here, Jesus.

Is he worthy of your pursuit?

Is he worthy of your affection, your devotion?

Is he worthy of your self-image?

Is he worthy of what people think about you?

Is that a cost that you're willing to pay?

Close your eyes and I want you to have this conversation.

Answer this to yourself.

Is he worthy of that?

Do you even care?

Does this matter to you?

When you think about Jesus on the cross, does that move you at all?

If it doesn't, it's time to get real before Him.

Is Christianity in our call as Christians, is that like an afterthought?

The people worship me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

He wants your heart.

That's what this is about.

This is about a real thing with a real God.

It's not about a real show.

It's a real thing, a living relationship, young and old.

He sees you.

He is calling you.

He loves you.

He sent his son to die for every one of us individually.

He knows the plans that he has for you.

He knows the amount of hairs on your head.

He knows every tear that you've cried.

He knows the callings and the things he's put inside of you.

He knit you in your mother's womb.

And he sent his son, who is perfect, blameless, to die on a cross for you.

Can we give him a sacrifice of praise in the American church?

Does that mean anything to us?

Does that move us at all?

Jesus, you're worthy of more.

You're worthy of more, Father.

His presence is ever presence.

The Holy Spirit is also called the hold the Spirit of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is here right now.

Imagine Jesus standing in front of you, looking you right in the eye.

What would you want to tell him?

What if he returns today and you're standing in front in front of him?

That throne.

What would you say to him?

Lord, I'm sorry, I wasted my life.

I was too busy chasing my own passions.

I was too busy chasing comfort.

I was too busy not trusting you.

I was too busy not forgiving.

I was too busy just trying to get rich.

I was too busy just watching Netflix.

I was too busy watching pornography.

I was too busy getting high.

Because that was more pleasing to me.

That had more purpose than pursuing you.

What would you say to him?

Does it mean anything?

I just rebuke and bind her as a spirit of complacency right now.

It's a spiritual you're you're not hungry for him because you're so full of the world.

There's a when you when someone's desperate, it looks like something.

When someone's desperate.

The time right now, y'all, if you don't know what's happening, this is a time of repentance and reverence.

This is a time to be honest before the Lord.

Lord, I have idols in my life.

Some of it it's your social media.

How about we just pull out your phones, okay?

And let's look.

You probably spend about 10 to 12 hours a day on your app, probably Instagram, TikTok.

How about let's call that your idol?

And let's be real before the Lord and let's come and repent.

Lord, I'm so full of junk entertainment media.

You were getting high this weekend, no one knows about it, and you're great showing up to church, and you just want to listen to some songs and maybe be entertained by a message.

That's a lot of American Christianity.

That means nothing to you.

We understand there's a God that sees all that.

There's nothing you can do hidden from him.

There's no thought.

He knows the perverted fantasy thoughts that you have.

He knows the thoughts of anger, rage, and murder that you have.

We're not here to act like good Christians.

We're here to be sanctified by a power of a living God.

The blood of Jesus is alive today.

It's here to set you free.

The Lord says to someone in here, He says, Yeah, I know you're sleeping with your girlfriend.

You claim you claim my name, and you're fine having sex outside of marriage.

You're not, you don't even feel bad about it, but I saw you doing that.

You don't realize what you're doing, you don't realize the doors you're opening in your life.

You don't realize you've opened doors to the demonic, the enemy that wants to kill you.

You're letting them into your house.

That means nothing to you.

I saw you doing that.

Last night, the Lord says, I saw you doing that.

And my eyes are on you.

You cannot escape from me seeing you.

This is three fourteen through twenty-two.

This is a letter to Jesus, okay?

This is a letter to the churches.

He writes a letter.

Um, I know what I'm hitting today, the reason I can hit it with so much conviction because this has been me.

And this is still me from time to time.

Okay.

Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea or Laodicea.

This is the message from the one who is the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's new creation.

I know all things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold, and I wish that you were one or the other.

I've gone and ministered.

My wife and I, we've gone and ministered in California, where it's so bad.

Do you know that the church services have the spirit more free than they do here?

Do you know the people engage in undignified praise easier than here?

And I was talking to someone, the 33rd Company, who was here a couple weeks ago, and they said, Yeah, because they're hot or cold.

If they're bad, they own it and they're bad.

And if they're gonna be hot for God, they're gonna be sold out for God.

But here in the South, you know what we do is we play the middle ground.

I want one foot in the world and I want to pose as a Christian.

I want to act godly, but I want to reject the power.

And it's it's a worse place to be.

It's more dangerous to be, y'all.

I know all things you do that you are neither hot nor cold.

He knows if we're hot or cold.

He knows if we're posing.

But since you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

Oh, the one that we're sitting there, oh God, thank you so much that you love me.

And he's like, I'm spitting you out of my mouth.

You say I am rich.

Look at what how he says this.

He says that you say, There's times that I say I'm rich.

You say I'm rich, I have everything I want.

I don't need a thing.

This is the problem right here.

We don't need them.

Oh, you got health insurance, you get sick, you just go to the doctor.

You got some savings, you got groceries, you got food, you got friends, you got a job.

Yeah, life's okay.

You don't need anything.

And he says this this is what Jesus has been telling me.

This is how I'm getting life, Ty.

It's not because I just realize how amazing I am.

I'm getting I'm getting life and peace and joy in my life.

He says this, you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

This is what breaks the father's heart.

His children not needing him, they think they're fine.

And he's like, you don't know how much you need them.

Anna and Garna, Miss Kim, Elijah, myself, we can worship and get God's presence in our house.

If we're not going to contend for it as a church, we're just wasting our time.

Sort of cracker, bro.

This is the the reason we do this is to all of us to corporately go together.

All of us corporately.

They're not here for you to watch them, they're here to lead you.

How did David bring the presence of God back into God's city?

Through undignified praise.

You don't realize that you're wretched, miserable, and poor, blind and naked.

We're a church that's contending for revival.

You know what this means?

It's a people that are desiring, we're trying to break out of the mold of thinking we're okay.

That's the heart of it.

It's not a bragging right.

We're contending for revival.

Contending means a struggle to overcome.

What are we struggling to overcome?

Our own self-sufficiency.

That's a struggle.

It's a struggle to realize, oh my gosh, I actually do need him.

Oh my gosh, I'm spiritually wretched.

I'm spiritually poor.

It's desperation.

It's the one coming into the temple.

It's not the religious leader standing there, you know what, I've got my, you know, I've got it all figured out.

No, it's the it's the wretched sinner who's coming falling on his face.

That's the one who's leaving forgiven.

That's the one leaving closer to God than he was before he entered.

That's who I want to be.

That's who I want to relate with.

So I advise you to buy gold from me.

Gold is gold that has been purified by fire.

You know what that means?

It's the gold bought from him.

This this references back to Peter.

He says, the gold is your faith, and it's purified through the fire of testing.

Lord, I want to be closer to you than expect to test and expect trials.

And a lot of times, the moment the test of trials come, I've watched it time and time again.

I'm not even a pastor that long, but I've seen it enough times.

People get on fire for God, they're up here crying.

A couple months later, I never see them again.

Because God answered their prayers.

I'm going to purify your faith.

And the moment life gets hard, you're a God who's a slot machine, just there to fulfill your wants and desires, didn't do what you wanted him to do.

So you're going to go find it in the world.

I came to church.

I just felt like the Lord said this.

Someone's here.

I just came to church to find a spouse.

So you come here for, oh, you can't find a spouse, then go to go church.

They got more people there.

Maybe there's slimmer, you know, maybe you can find somebody.

I advise you to buy gold for me.

Gold that's been purified by fire, then you'll be rich.

Also buy white garments.

Do you know what he's talking about there?

The cleansing blood of Jesus, but it's us walking in righteousness, not spiritual hypocrisy.

God cares about the sins, even the little sins of the heart and the little sins of the mind.

He watches how we act in our marriages, folks.

He watches how you talk to your spouse.

He watches and knows the thoughts you have.

He knows we could come in here and cry and shine, and we could pray over people, you know.

We could cast out demons, we could prophesy, we can have some of the greatest revelations ever.

And you know what Paul would tell you?

He'd say, Listen, if you don't have love, that means nothing.

It means nothing.

Buy white garments for me so you will not be ashamed by your nakedness.

And then he says, Buy ointment for your eyes so you'll be able to see.

People read this and they think that's like spiritual vision, seeing, you know, the spirit.

Oh, and I can see angels.

He's not talking about that.

The ability to see is the ability to see our own condition.

It's the ability to see our own depravity.

It's literally the thought, hey, do I need God?

You're here.

There's people in this room.

Listen, the Spirit gives discernment.

God knows your thoughts.

He did this in the Bible.

He called out the thoughts of people around him.

I'm I'm the Holy Spirit's telling me people's thoughts.

There's people in here, all I say is you don't need him.

You're like, I don't.

Do you know what sin does to you?

It separates you from your creator, it separates you from God.

Do you know why Jesus came?

He came and gave his life as payment for your sins so that you could have a relationship with your Father.

Some of you are here today, you're not actually saved.

Jesus Christ isn't your Lord.

You just have gone through the motions.

You said a little prayer.

It didn't mean anything to you.

This means this doesn't mean anything to you, and you're on very dangerous ground.

You think you're okay.

For many will stand in front of him thinking that they're okay.

And it's gonna be too late.

Ointment for your eyes to be able to see.

I just started asking God to help me see myself right.

And he's answering the prayer.

And I have a lot of junk, I have a lot of stuff wrong with me, I have a lot of stuff wrong in my heart, but I will tell you this: I have more peace in my life than I ever have, and I'm having more spiritual growth in my life than I ever have, and I'm having more spiritual fruit, and it's not because I got more amazing, it's because I got real with my father.

He's not looking to shun you, he's not looking to just be angry.

This is a loving, he has eyes of fire that burn for you.

He just wants it to be real.

That's all.

He wants your heart, he doesn't want an act.

This is not a dating app.

Swipe right if you're interested in Jesus.

This is the real thing.

This is a real God, and just because you don't see him, he's spirit.

God is spirit.

But one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

It says, I correct and discipline everyone I love.

So be diligent and turn from your indifference.

We have to be diligent.

It's these moments right now.

It's the moments that you don't feel like it.

The greatest breakthroughs in my life happen in moments that I did not want to do something.

I did not want to go to church.

I did not want to respond to the pastor.

I did not want to be faithful and obey.

That's how the Spirit works.

We are learning to die to ourselves.

We're learning to give up our life so that we can have his life.

It's very simple.

And the length of time you've been a Christian does not determine how mature you are as a Christian.

There are sons and daughters acting like mothers and fathers.

There's mothers and fathers acting like sons and daughters.

It's our response to him.

You never get too old for God.

You never outgrow him.

You never just finally arrive on this side of eternity.

Be diligent and turn from your indifference.

Look, I stand at the door and knock.

He stands at the door and knocks at our heart.

We cannot hear him.

When I'm in my house and I've got the TV blasting, I can't hear him when people are at the door.

Some of you are getting your counsel from Chat GPT or other AI things.

It's coddling you, it's comforting you, it's giving you counsel.

You need to repent of that.

You're opening some dangerous doors in your life.

The Lord is He is jealous.

He's jealous.

You need to put Chad GBT on the altar.

That's not your Holy Spirit.

If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends.

Jesus told his disciples that I call you friend now instead of slave.

He said, because you obey my commands.

You're not being called friend because you just said yes in a prayer.

And you like to soak and listen to worship music and you like to cry when you think about God.

It's obedience that creates intimacy.

It's obedience that establishes authority.

Responding to the voice of the Lord.

And those who are victorious, this is what's interesting.

This word victorious means to overcome.

We are contending for revival.

We're struggling to overcome.

There's certain issues, you've had disagreements, and you felt betrayed by people, and you've been hurt and you're offended.

You're fighting through unforgiveness.

What the Lord is wanting to do is to show you how wrong you are in that situation and you're unwilling to hear it.

You vilify people.

They're so bad.

You're led through your emotions.

You know, I'm studying this whole book on this stuff, and it says that people, when they have an emotional reaction to something, something negative happens, they write a story in their mind.

And a lot of times the story is not actually true.

You write a story about your spouse.

You write a story about your boss at work.

You write a story about your brother and sister in Christ, and it's an emotional story.

It's one based in deception.

And the Lord wants to clear that.

He wants to heal your eyes so you can see yourself appropriately.

Some of us were waiting for that person to come and apologize to us, and God's waiting for you to go repent to them.

Someone over here, I guess, has been hurt.

Preach.

Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.

Just keep playing, Anna.

I'm going to invite.

When God convicts me, I get angry.

Especially submit, I need you to hear this.

When God convicts me, my first reaction is anger.

I'm learning this about myself.

When I get angry at something being said in a setting like this, I'm like, okay, wait a second, Lord, you're talking to me.

Or it's shame.

Lord, I feel guilty.

If that's you, I want you to come up to the altar.

We're just going to get before the Lord.

And we're going to come to that throne of grace, but we're going to repent.

Lord, I'm owning up to this.

I've been wrong.

Please forgive me.

Hey, Lord, I've had idols in my life.

Please forgive me.

And when you do this, the blood of Jesus, that living, powerful blood of Jesus, John says this.

He's faithful and just to con to forgive you.

He's faithful and just to cleanse you of your sin.

And you can be made into a new creation, whiter than snow, and he remembers your sins no more.

That's what's beautiful about repentance.

Tina, do you have something?

Rick has something?

It's humorous to me at times when the Lord aligns some things.

So some of what the pastor was talking about is some of what I heard.

But I I uh the Lord has spoken to me earlier on about uh many of us has looked at the wrong calendar, and and the calendar was a misprint because the enemy wants to make you feel like you've missed it, and and you've looked at uh the appropriate time frames of what calendar you're looking at, and and you haven't met the criteria you think you're supposed to be meeting, and the Lord is showing you the calendar that he presents and uh and the timeline for that.

And we've we've miss so much because of the flesh, because of sin, or because of whatever.

Put your finger on it, and and then not even in the right purpose, but the Lord is correcting because now he's flipping the hourglass.

The enemy has stolen time from us, and uh, and much of it are full, some of it is uh the attacks, but at the same time we missed it nonetheless, and so now he's restarting many of us in the right direction, and and David's right, this is important to know religion is not relationship, so we have to know relationship first and foremost with the Lord, with the Holy Spirit, and and our Father God, and watch the calendar put you in alignment to what He is planning and purpose for each of us.

I I want to add something.

When David said open our eyes, God, to see who we are.

There's a veil of deception, and it's so subtle that comes in and it and it blinds us, not overwhelming, but just very slowly to where we don't we see ourselves and we and we look in the mirror and we're like, we're okay.

But what God is saying today is that open your eyes.

He's given an opportunity for the veil of deception that we have allowed ourselves to be drawn into, to be removed.

There's grace now.

There may not be grace for this tomorrow.

Some things are seasonal, some things are opportunity, some things you can miss.

So that's you.

Don't miss this opportunity.

One other thing I I negated, and it's important.

Because of where the enemy had fun with us and and putting us in the wrong timelines and discouraging, and people give up.

Be ready to receive and turn this thing around because we know we've had purpose and not be delayed, because no man knows the hour, as we do well know.

But we also know that um we got to have fuel to burn brightly, even in our navigation, until he comes to get us, right?

So it's time to restore and refill this lamp.

Amen.

And he could say up there, worship team come too.

Sorry, I didn't realize y'all were still up here.

Um I used to be very much against the talk about repentance.

It had like a like a religious taste in my mouth, and I used to um get really like angry.

And um repentance is something that's very beautiful.

When you actually think about it, it's actually it's beautiful.

It's like it's complete love.

Love and action.

The Lord wants to unlock this in some of our lives.

We don't have a repentant lifestyle.

When I talk about sin, I'm not saying, hey, go figure it out and stop it.

The idea of this is that we can't do this on our own.

One of the keys to overcoming is that key of repentance.

And this may sound like it cheapens it, but it really doesn't.

When I sin and mess up, the it's usually what I feel is that I don't want to go talk to God.

I want to hide from him.

Okay?

But what it says is come immediately.

And that's not gonna feel natural.

You're gonna feel some ashamed.

You might like, oh I just gotta wait a day.

You know, I don't deserve forgiveness immediately.

I need to wait a day before I repent.

I used to do that.

I'm like, ah, it's too soon.

This is the key.

This is where I'm getting breakthrough.

When you continually do that, you're saying, hey, I'm not going to allow this just to be in my life.

I'm not going to allow this to become normalized.

Because if we're not repenting, we're going to begin justifying it.

It's no longer going to be something that we see is wrong.

We're no longer going to feel sadness about sin.

That's the danger.

I mean, I've had sin.

Um, I've had things in my life when I was in like my younger times and twenties and stuff that I just didn't I had no conviction.

When I was in church, I had no conviction.

Doing bad things.

It's not until like you allow the Lord, like when He shows you something, you look at it and you say, wait, this is not okay.

Lord created me a clean heart.

Give me a heart that cares about that, that's sad about sin.

Like it's normal to not be to not care about sin.

It's normal, you know.

Hey, you're looking at pornography.

You don't care, it doesn't bother you right now.

The Lord can awaken that where it does.

Okay.

That's the point.

Lord, I know this is not okay.

Lord, here's my heart.

I need you to breathe life into it.

I want to I I hunger for righteousness.

It's just desperation for him.

Repenting, repenting, repenting.

Some of y'all, you get so discouraged.

You you beat yourself up so hard the moment you mess up.

And it's like you just give up.

I'm never gonna do this.

It's the repenting.

Here I am again, Lord.

Here I am again, Lord.

Here I am again.

Please help me.

There's times I mess up being a good husband.

There's times I don't say things that I'm I'm not nice.

I seem to have wrong hard.

Lord, please forgive me.

Help me be a better husband.

Please forgive me.

Please forgive me.

Here I am again.

He starts to work something in us.

He starts to get to mold us.

I've cared so hard what people think about me.

There'll be opportunities like this moment, David.

Go, go, do uh, go praise me undignified.

It begins to break that in me.

It puts me right face to face.

Are you, you know, what are you holding on to?

Your image?

What are you holding on to?

So, Father, we just even say peace to the minds right now.

We just we just uh come out of agreement with condemnation.

That's the finality of guilt.

We just break off condemnation.

I feel the spirit on this.

We break off condemnation, this finality of guilt.

We break off this unloving spirit.

You you're not even able to have love for yourself.

That sounds kind of weird, but you're you don't like you reject yourself.

You look in the mirror, you you say word curses, you're so ugly, you're a failure.

Some people in here, you call yourself dumb.

Um, we break off those lies in the name of Jesus that you those things that you've spoken on over yourself.

Life and death is in the tongue, and you you speak in death over yourself.

I'm never going to be successful, I'm always going to be broke, I'm stupid, I don't know what I'm doing, I'm not a good wife, I'm not a good husband.

We're just coming out of agreement right now in the name of Jesus with word curses we've spoken.

We break contract with those things.

I thank you that greater is He that is who is in us than He who is in the world.

I thank you that the Bible says that we're made into new creations who created for good works.

Lord, I thank you for these wonderful people here, made in your image, Father, called according to your purposes, God.

And I thank you that the Spirit of God in them is making them a new creation.

Some of you, I just heard the word self-mutilation.

That could that's a thing now.

People like cutting themselves, self-mutilating, but there's also people that mutilate when something good is happening, you sabotage it.

You don't, it's like, even I hear this thing with relationships, like when something's good and something's safe, it's actually good for you, you sabotage it.

There's this thing like I don't, I'm not, it's kind of weird.

I'm just flowing right here, Tina.

But you don't feel worthy of that, so you sabotage things.

You start getting good, like Christian friends, and you're like, ah, and then you just cut it off.

You make these drastic decisions.

You self-sabotage yourself.

We just break that off in the name of Jesus.

We break that off in the name of Jesus.

Hmm.

Um, we come out of agreement with jealousy.

I see this jealousy and envy.

This is a huge one.

You're always looking to the left and right.

You're never satisfied with what you have, and you feel unseen by God.

He blesses everyone else around me.

He's not blessing me.

We just need to break this.

This is a lie.

We need to come out of agreement with this.

When you start to dwell on certain thoughts that are not true, you open a door.

It's like you're saying, Here's the keys to my house.

We have to take our thoughts, the word of God shows us that we have to take our thoughts captive.

We have to make them yield, okay?

We have to make them submit, surrender to the word of God.

We have to catch it.

We'll get thoughts and we'll think it's our thought a lot of times when it's not.

When you agree with a lie, God doesn't really love me as much as he loves them.

You've just given the enemy access to your life.

And you have to repent of that.

It's not your family or even your pastor.

You've got to break that control.

Rick and Tina, they do lots of deliverance.

They understand something very simple.

We have to repent.

Isn't that true?

We have to want to be free.

Maybe you don't want to be free.

That's fine.

This is all a choice.

We'll all stand before him one day, and Jesus is going to say, okay, your whole life you had a choice.

Did you choose me?

And many people are going to be like, uh, unfortunately, no.

It's going to be a really sad day for them.

This is all a choice.

You want to be free?

Jesus came up to a person who's lame.

Do you want to be healed?

Sometimes we don't want to be healed.

That's an odd thing to think about.

What would life be like if I was actually made whole?

What would life be like if I actually was empowered?

What would life be like if I actually believed the verse that we are more than conquerors?

Well, I could I wouldn't be able to make excuses anymore about everyone and all my circumstances and life and everything.

That would make life a little bit harder if I actually had to take responsibility for my own salvation, like it says in the Bible.

Work out your own salvation, faith and trembling, or fear and trembling, but faith too.

I added that.

David Translation.

This area where God is bringing revival, this is hard ground.

And many of you are coming here, we have people coming here, God's just telling you to come here.

This is hard ground.

And it's not because we just have the most amazing services and we get the most amazing programs, or maybe we just get a lot of miracles.

Jesus did tons of miracles, it didn't change everyone's heart.

But I believe this when there's a people that just get hungry, hungry enough, not satisfied, and just say, Lord, here's my heart and search it out.

And I want you to really show me, and I'm willing to listen, and I'm willing to have my eyes open to what you want to show me about my condition.

Paul tells Timothy, the word of God is meant to show you what is right and reveal to you what is wrong in your life.

Lord, here's my heart.

Here's my life, here's all my thoughts, my actions, all my excuses, everything laid out here.

And I don't know where to start, Lord, but you do.

Show me.

And as I come to you, here's the sin that I've committed.

Here's the thought that I've had.

This wasn't pleasing, Lord.

Here's the time.

I felt your spirit tell me to do something, and I deliberately disobeyed.

Lord, forgive me for not fearing you.

You can love God and not fear Him.

It's the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom.

I've had to repent of that this year also recently.

Lord, I'm really good at loving you.

And I'm really good about being passionate, but fearing you, I'm not afraid.

I don't fear you.

There's certain things that I don't take seriously because you know what?

It's not convenient right now.

And it doesn't make me feel comfortable.

And some of the things you want me to do, you know what?

It kind of hurts my self-image.

I'm not ready to do that.

Pass.

Sharing the gospel of people, that's a little uncomfortable.

I'm not ready to do that.

Pass.

Giving up addictions and stuff.

Oh, that's you know what?

I'm just, you know, life's a lot easier with those things.

Pass.

Loving people beyond just a mere hug on Sundays.

Pass.

Thank you, Jesus, for your faithfulness.

Thank you for sending your son.

I think this is a great time to take communion, actually.

Phil, thank you so much, sir.

Jesus was with his disciples.

They were having the Last Supper.

He took some bread, he took wine, but he said, This is my body that was broken for you.

There is a there's a God in heaven, the creator of the universe, who loves you so much.

And didn't just die.

It wasn't a quick death.

There is a reality, you know, that there could be mercy within a quick death.

It was not a quick death for him.

Okay?

But his body was broken for us.

The word tells us is that by his stripes we are healed.

His body was mutilated for our healing.

When God purchases something like this, we contend for what he purchased.

You know what I'm saying?

Hey, this was already bought for me.

I want that thing.

I'm not okay.

Hey, you pray for healing, it doesn't happen.

Keep praying.

Because he purchased that, he paid a high cost for that healing.

We're praying here almost weekly for people to be healed, but we don't necessarily see everybody healed.

We're gonna keep praying.

Don't give up.

I've prayed 990 times for something.

What if the thousandth time is the time it hit it happens?

Don't buy into this false doctrine, mumbo jumbo.

God doesn't heal today.

Those first centuries just to start the kingdom.

You like okay, if you understand like interpretation of scripture, you have to do a lot more work to prove that to be true.

You have to add things and take away things in order for to believe that.

It sounds spiritual.

It sounds because I understand a lot of the denominations, they use spiritual terms and they sound like know-it-alls, they're contradicting the scriptures with the points that they're making.

God still heals today.

And we're gonna believe.

And we're gonna pray, and we're gonna ask God, and we're gonna keep asking God, and we're gonna keep praying.

Brick, I pray for you all the time that your blindness is gonna be healed.

I prayed for my father in law, Pastor Pete, who lost sight in one of his eyes, that he'll be healed.

For my for Pastor Sharon, my mother-in-law, that she'll be completely healed from a stroke.

I prayed for my mother to get healed and she passed away.

My faith has not wavered.

He's still a healer.

Lord, we thank you for your body that was broken.

For our healing, and we remember that.

You can take the bread.

Um is something that established a covenant.

A covenant is beautiful.

God does this with Abraham, God does this with David.

Um, we've even talked over this when we talked about the covenant, the idea of marriage.

Covenant is the idea of that when you, we're in an agreement, but when you do something to break the agreement, I'm gonna pay the cost so that we can stay in relationship.

Do you know that?

Like we approach marriage like it's, well, if you quit doing your part, then I'm gonna divorce you.

The whole point of covenant is that the expectation that, hey, you're probably gonna mess this up some, and when you do, I'll pay the cost so that we stay connected.

Yeah, we don't think like that today, do we?

That's what this blood, that's what we're remembering.

And we're so willy-nilly or unforgiving towards our spouse, towards friends, towards our church members, towards people.

It's it's the complete contradiction of this.

That's why the Bible says, don't take this out of their own heart.

Lord, thank you, Father.

You've paid the price while we were still sinners.

Your blood was shed so that we could be forgiven.

You take the cup.

Um, church, I love you.

Our leadership here loves you.

Being obeying the Lord is gonna be that you have to you have to have a desire to please the Lord more than man.

This was not comfortable for me, just so you know this.

This type of stuff is very uncomfortable.

Um, but I I will say this is that if we're gonna have leaders that are gonna help sustain revival that's gonna happen, you're not gonna have to care about what people think.

And your primary motivation is not going to be to have just fill up a church with people.

This is going to be a culture where we're gonna be real before the Lord and we're gonna hear the messages that we need to hear.

It's not the kisses of the enemy, okay?

It's the rebuke of a friend.

That's the real thing.

I heard this business guy say he's like a business leader.

I love this.

I heard this business leader, um, he's like a Christian motivational guy, written some books, but he talks about his church just got a new pastor, and he said, I love this.

The way the pastor opened his first sermon.

The new pastor opens up his first sermon and says, Listen, I'm not here to be your buddy, I'm here to make sure you go to heaven.

I'm like, I'm stealing that.

Get real before him.

This is a God that loves you.

And if you don't believe, if you like, listen to me, if you're here today, you don't have to raise your hand.

Be honest.

If you don't believe, I want you to say a prayer to say, God, if you're real, will you show me?

Seriously, just try this.

God, if you're real, show me.

And then just keep an eye out and watch what happens.

God, if you care about me and you want me to give my life to you, I'm ready to do it, but will you please show me?

Go ahead and try that.

If you're afraid of the answer and don't want to try it, then whatever.

That's your choice.

Let's please stand.

I love y'all so much.

This was very different today, but if we're gonna go somewhere, we're gonna have to, we're gonna be contending for revival.

I want to encourage you, church, the culture of this church is that we go into his presence.

Our worship leaders, listen, they do their part behind the scenes, they get their cups full of God before they get on the stage.

The heart is, hey, follow me as I go into the presence.

Pastor Garner, I'm about to say Pastor Anna.

Well, come on.

Where did I think of this goodness?

What happens sometimes is Garner's like, alright, here we go.

Let's go into the holy of holies.

Let's go to those deep waters.

And he turns and runs and he looks back, and no one's with him.

Pastor Garner, we're sorry about that, man.

You were doing such a good job up here, brother.

We appreciate you and we honor you.

He's we're they're not entertainers.

We go in with them.

Feel free.

This whole thing, we you know one of the reasons that we have the seats back so far is to make room for those that want to press in.

For those that want to dance and dignify, for those who want to fall on their face.

We have guys have I love this.

Even Austin Morton right in the back row.

Pre-service prayer.

He was up on his knees.

There's a hunger stirring in him.

I can see it.

Lord, I don't know what it looks like, but I just want you.

Here's my life laid out.

That's the best place you could be.

Lord, thank you for this day.

I pray that you'd see what's happened today, Lord.

I pray that it would go real into our hearts, and I pray you would reveal yourself to those that don't fully believe in you.

They don't know you.

Reveal yourself to them in the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen.

Y'all go have a good week.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Let's say Yasmin had her birthday real quick.

Miss Yasmin, right over here.

Raise your hand.

She had a birthday.

She is one of the sweetest, kindest people you will ever meet.

And one of her spiritual gifts is giving gifts to people.

And I love it.

Like she loves to just give gifts.

On her birthday, we're doing our birthday.