PS _ Hold on to Faith When Life Breaks Your Heart
Transcript
00:00Amen.
00:01Thank you, God.
00:02Thank you, God.
00:03Thank you, God.
00:04Thank you, God.
00:05Amen.
00:06Amen.
00:07Amen.
00:08I just want to tell you, you know, this is a momentous blessing.
00:23I want to tell you how privileged I always am when I have the treat of being
00:36a part of whatever Gateway Church is doing. But this gathering, on this
00:41occasion, with all of us together in this room like this, I remember the days where
00:46we were hopping buildings from one location to another for Pink Impact and
00:51here we are in this room. And I don't know if you have, like me, sensed how
00:57special this day has actually been. Like, you know, you would think that the
01:03speakers get together and discuss with each other what it is that we're going
01:07to speak about so that we can connect dots and so that we can make sure that
01:11we are all on the same page, but really we don't do that. We just trust the Holy
01:15Spirit to do that. And I don't know if you have detected, like I have, the thread
01:22of God's Spirit speaking to us today. Listen, if you've not heard the voice of
01:28God, you ain't been in this room with us.
01:33Because God's speaking up in here. And I have ears to hear. I want you to know
01:41that last night I laid in bed. My husband can attest to this, Jerry, that's over
01:46off to the side over here. I laid in bed thinking about you last night. Just
01:53talking to the Lord about what I wanted to share with you. I had a few thoughts
01:56in mind. I could speak on one of those messages that I kind of had prepared.
02:02There's nothing like standing in front of 9,000 people and you're not prepared.
02:08So I could share with you something that I prepared. But last night while I laid
02:16in bed there were some other thoughts that I just started to jot down in my
02:20little journal quiet time thing.
02:27So I wrote some thoughts on this page and on this page. And when I heard
02:33Charlotte share what she shared with you today. I did not know last night, but I
02:39think this is what the Lord wants to say to us. So I'm going to pray over these notes.
02:45And then I'm going to ask him to use these to speak to maybe the one person
02:51in this room. And this is for you. Lord Jesus, I am asking you to put an
03:01exclamation point on this afternoon. I'm asking you to seal in somebody's heart
03:08your love, your grace, your care, your kindness for them. And Lord I'm asking
03:13that these little words scribbled on this page last night. That Lord if this
03:17is for somebody in this room. That you would encourage them. That you would call
03:21them to victory Lord. That you would speak to them in their language in the
03:25very personal way. That they and that me and that all of us need to hear your
03:30voice. Lord we have heard so many incredible things. We worship you. We've
03:34rolled out the red carpet for your presence. And so Lord I'm asking that you
03:39would put a big old exclamation point on this day. That you would seal your word
03:44in our hearts. In Jesus name, amen. My boy, I have three sons. I have Jackson who is
03:52my 13-year-old. Jerry Jr. who's 11. And then Jude. Jude is my 7-year-old. And
03:58Jude and I were sitting next to each other on an airplane. And as we were
04:02sitting next to each other on this airplane. I don't remember exactly where
04:06it is that we were flying to. But I remember that we were sitting toward the
04:09the middle of the airplane. Because he was looking out over the window. Through
04:13the window. And we were sitting right over the wing of the plane. So he's
04:17looking at the wing of the plane. And he was just glancing out at it until he
04:21looked back at me eventually. And he said, mom how do they get that thing on this
04:26plane? How do they connect the wing to the plane? And I said, babe I have no idea
04:32how they get that wing on the plane. But you can ask your uncle Vaughn. Jerry's
04:39brother Vaughn, their uncle, works in the airline industry. He works to connect
04:45the different parts and the veins and the wiring of airplane aircraft,
04:49aircrafts. And so I said to him, you can ask him. Because your uncle Vaughn
04:53can probably tell you how that wing got on this airplane. And in that little
04:57moment I thought, this is actually kind of a teachable moment. Because I said to
05:01him, you know your uncle Vaughn knows lots of things about airplanes.
05:04And do you know that you can actually do anything you want to do
05:09when you grow up. If you want to put together aircraft like your uncle Vaughn
05:13does. You can do that. You can be anything you want to be sweet little Jude, my
05:18seven-year-old. If you want to do that you should talk to uncle Vaughn about it.
05:21He can tell you all the cool things about putting airplanes together. And he
05:25looked back up at me and he said, but mom when I grow up I don't want to do what
05:29uncle Vaughn does. I want to do what you do.
05:37Yeah I was I was impressed at first too.
05:43Until I looked down at my son and I said, so babe what do you want to do? What mom
05:49does. I didn't know exactly what his answer would be. I didn't know if it'd
05:55be maybe be writing or telling people about Jesus or what aspect of our life
06:00it would be. But he looked back at me and he said, mom I want to do nothing. You do
06:05nothing. All day, every day, nothing. That's what I want to do.
06:20I said babe, you know what
06:28I said babe, you know like every now and then there might be a little book that's
06:33written or a Bible study or every now and then you know there might you know
06:37there might like that little film that we did. There are little things that are
06:41happening. What do you think mom is doing when she's sitting behind the computer
06:44you're doing nothing. You just relax all day, every day.
06:53It was just a couple days after that conversation with my boy that I got a
06:59call from my publisher. I'm only sharing this with you. I hope you all know me. I
07:03hope well enough to know that I don't say this in any prideful way just to
07:07make a point to you. But it was just a couple days later that my publisher
07:12called me to tell me something I did not know. I didn't know that that
07:16fervent book on prayer had been on the New York Times bestseller list. It was
07:21something I didn't know until she emailed me two days after that
07:24conversation with my boy. And in that moment I opened up that email and I saw
07:30this news about about this book being on the New York Times bestseller list. I
07:35thought to myself that while I was doing what to my son look like nothing.
07:42That book was getting written.
07:49And last night I thought how often it is that I think God is doing nothing. That
07:58while I'm circling and circling and circling and circling I feel like he has
08:02forgotten that I'm there. That I don't feel like he is hearing my prayer. That I
08:07don't feel like he is on my side. That I've forgotten that he is for me. That he
08:12is not against me. I have forgotten that there is no weapon that is formed
08:15against me that will ever be able to prosper. I feel like he is doing
08:20absolutely nothing. But it's while I feel like my God is doing nothing that in
08:25that moment he is crafting something brand new that is going to be a
08:28masterpiece, a story he's going to tell with the chapters of my life. Sometimes
08:36it's hard to handle the feeling that God isn't doing anything. And I was thinking
08:46about all of you while Charlotte was talking about that circle and how being
08:50in that circle can show enough be hard, can't it? When we feel like we are on our
08:55own, like we are circling whatever intimidating mountain is in front of us.
09:01And we wonder if God has forgotten that we are there. And I was reminded of John
09:07in Matthew chapter 11. I want to just read this to you. The first several
09:13verses. John the Baptist. Now when John in prison heard of the works of Christ he
09:20sent word by his disciples and he said, are you the expected one or should I
09:26look for somebody else? Y'all this is John the Baptist. This is the one who had
09:31previously recognized Jesus and had said, this is the one whose sandals I'm not
09:36even worthy to untie. This is John the Baptist who when Jesus had come to him
09:41wanting to be baptized, John had recoiled at the idea because this was the Savior
09:46of the world. This was the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. He
09:51knew that he was the forerunner for Jesus the Christ. But in Matthew
09:55chapter 11 we see that guy who had been so sure of his faith. We see him sitting
10:02in a prison on the cold hard floor staring through the bars of
10:07circumstances that he never thought that he would be in. And I'm thinking about
10:11how many people would be in a room like this. And right now you are sitting in
10:16circumstances or circling around them and you never in a million years would
10:21have thought your life would have turned out like this. And honestly you want to
10:26voice a question that many of us are not brave enough to voice. But John the
10:31Baptist voices that question for us. Are you who you say you are? Can you really
10:38do what you say you can do? Several days ago I went to go see a friend of mine.
10:47That visit is what kind of began to stir these thoughts last night. She lives east
10:53of town about an hour and a half or so. So I got in the car, drove
10:58toward Tyler, Texas from here so that I could go visit my friend Lauriana.
11:09Lauriana's life has changed in an instant. About a month ago her husband who she's
11:17been married to for about 20 years or so, they have a business, a thriving business
11:22together out in the Canton area and they have built a life together not only with
11:27their business that again is a thriving business that people come from all around
11:32to be beneficiaries of what they do but they built a beautiful life together, a
11:37little farmhouse that they built from scratch. Taking years actually, years to
11:42find, this is what they love to do, find architectural salvage to put in the right
11:46places and to hang every single chandelier. They didn't want to use a lot
11:50of contractors. They literally used their own hands to build this business and
11:55build this home and create a sweet life for themselves out in the country. And she
12:00said to me, Priscilla, here we are at 60 years old, pretty young, 60 years old. She
12:05said we were just getting to the good part. The good part of sitting back and
12:10sort of enjoying the fruit of all of our labor. But a month ago as Willie, her
12:14husband was taking on one of those projects, those many projects that he
12:18would do in their business, the handy projects that would be necessary to hang
12:23those chandeliers and find that architectural salvage and make things
12:27beautiful. He was using a chainsaw to cut through a branch of a tree when one of
12:32those limbs came back and smacked him in his forehead. He had a concussion. He got a
12:37little fracture in his skull and fractures in your skull heal like
12:42fractures in your ribs. It just takes time. The doctor can't do much about it
12:46other than to tell you just to rest for a little while. And so that's what Willie was
12:50doing. I have some voicemails from him literally right now on my telephone. He
12:55and I had just been talking over the last couple of weeks, Willie and I. He
13:00sent me a picture of himself in the hospital. Couldn't believe he had hurt
13:03himself. And he was doing well on the road to recovery four weeks ago. But
13:08he's had over the last four weeks lots of headaches. And he's had a little
13:13trouble with his blurred vision. And he struggled a little bit. Laureana has
13:18noticed that his anxiety level is higher than normal. That he's normally
13:22just a happy-go-lucky guy. But he seemed a little depressed. And there have been
13:27outbursts of anger that just have not made any sense. And I don't know if
13:32any of you got to see that movie that Will Smith was in last year called
13:35Concussion. Where sometimes after a concussion there was a traumatic brain
13:40injury that causes someone to spike down into a depression in an instant. That is
13:46so severe that suicidal thoughts overtake them. And last Monday night this
13:51happy-go-lucky healthy guy went and took his life. And so I drove to East Texas.
14:02And I sat with Laureana as this tragedy, this unexpected circumstance like John
14:11the Baptist where you find yourself sitting in a place that you never
14:15expected in an instant. And I know in a room this size there are so many of us
14:20that have found ourselves in circumstances that are not what we
14:23planned for. That we could not have in a million years thought that we would end
14:28up right here. With a spouse that is lost. With a child that we've lost. I'm thinking
14:38about sweet Jan that just stood up on this platform just a few moments ago to
14:42pray over us even though it is her body that is riddled with cancer. This is not
14:47a place she expected to be. The last time she beat cancer we were supposed to be
14:51done with this. But here she stands in a place that she did not expect to be in. In
14:58a group this size. I know there are so many of you that right now are in
15:01circumstances just like John the Baptist. Where you're sitting in a prison cell of
15:07your own. Where you are circling around a mountain that is so intimidating to
15:12you. And what makes it worse is that just like John the Baptist not only are you
15:16where you never expected that you would be. But it says that while he was in
15:21prison he was hearing of the works of Christ elsewhere. Somehow through the
15:27grapevine news was getting back to John the Baptist. Of this Jesus the Christ
15:31that was healing people. That was causing the blind to see this Jesus the Christ
15:37that was causing the lame to walk and the dead to be raised. Miracles were taking
15:41place all around but John's circumstances were not changing. It's bad enough to be
15:46in prison. It's worse to be in prison and you're hearing about what Jesus is doing
15:50for everybody else. And if the truth be told there are a lot of us in this room
15:56and honestly we are discouraged. We are frustrated. We are disappointed. We have
16:00been encouraged in our faith because Charlotte has just told us how to circle
16:04that mountain. But if the truth be told there are many of us in this room just
16:08like Lorianna that are saying are you the expected one or have I placed all my
16:16eggs in the wrong basket. John the Baptist hadn't done anything wrong. John
16:23the Baptist in fact had been doing everything right y'all. He'd been
16:27preaching and teaching. He'd been rolling out the red carpet for Jesus. He was
16:31actually in prison for doing the right thing. That's how he ended up in that
16:35circumstance in the right place in the first place. And you may not have been
16:39the perfect wife but to the best of your abilities you've been the wife that God
16:44has called you to be and yet here you sit in this marriage that is so desperately
16:49in need of revival and resurrection and you can't figure out how you got there.
16:54You weren't a perfect mother but you were the best mother that you thought you
16:58could be but still your young adult child is now living a wayward rebellious
17:03lifestyle that is in no way congruent with the way you raised them. And you're
17:09trying to figure out how you got here. You weren't perfect but to the best of your
17:13abilities you were being the grandmother or the career woman or the single woman
17:17that God has called you to be and yet here you sit in circumstances that are
17:21not what you prefer. And John the Baptist is brave enough to voice what many of us
17:26want to. Are you the expected one or have I wasted my time? I want to encourage
17:37somebody today. I want to encourage the one of you that has sat through this
17:43entire day and you know that tucked within the recesses of your heart because
17:48listen, listen y'all. I don't know if you've ever sat with somebody in as raw
17:55of a situation as I sat with Lorianna a couple days ago. I don't know if you've
18:01watched tears fall from somebody's eyes in so much desperation that they cannot
18:05talk and that like Lorianna said to me, I can't even pray. She said, I can't find
18:14the words to pray. I have literally been texting Lorianna recently over the last
18:19hours and days. I have been texting her prayers because I've just said to her,
18:23you just read this right off the page. Have you ever sat with someone who has
18:30lost not the first miscarriage, not the second, not the third, the fourth baby
18:37that they have lost and they are trying to figure out, aren't you who you say you
18:41are? I'm thinking of my friend Sharon whose husband has just decided he don't
18:52want to be married anymore after 25 or 30 years of marriage. And I wonder if
18:59you've ever sat with someone whose emotion is so raw because at this season
19:03in her life, this is just not where she thought she'd be. And maybe you're the
19:08one that honestly you can't even pray anymore because you can't find the words
19:12to say. What I want to encourage you about is just two things. As I pray, God
19:19will just put an exclamation point on what he wants to do in our lives over the
19:24course of this morning and this afternoon. Of course, there's still the
19:27evening session as well, but I'm asking God to just seal this in your lives by
19:31telling you just a couple things. That when John the Baptist asked the question,
19:37are you the expected one or should I look for somebody else? What I want to tell you
19:42is that Jesus did not send back a rebuke. He did not send back a response of offense.
19:49He was not mad at John's frailty. That if you've wavered just a bit, if you've
19:55wondered, if you've asked questions, you need to know that our God is not mad at
19:59you. You need to know that our God sees you. He knows where you are. He knows
20:04where I am. He sees every single tear that falls from our eyes. And I want you
20:10to know that not one of those tears has been lost in the carpet fibers of your
20:15bedroom floor. Every single one of them have been captured in the palm of all
20:19mighty God. As you circle around Jericho, would you know that your God sees. He sees
20:29every single step that you're taking. He sees every single time you take a
20:34couple steps back. He sees every single time you have asked the question that
20:38you've wondered, God, have I put my eggs in the wrong basket? Are you really who
20:42you say you are? And I want to tell anybody who can be as honest as John the
20:47Baptist and say, my circles actually haven't been clean and clear, that I've
20:52wavered in my faith sometimes. Anybody that's brave enough to do that like
20:56John the Baptist, what I want to tell you is that Jesus heard John's question and
21:01he was not mad at him for asking the question. And if you've wondered if God
21:06is mad at you, I came to tell you from the south of town, he's not. I came to
21:16tell you that it's okay. I came to tell you that sometimes our faith is best
21:23built in the gymnasium of obscurity. That sometimes when we don't quite see God
21:29the way we want to see him or in the light that we desire to see him. And
21:34sometimes when we ask questions, that that is the way our faith becomes
21:38stronger and more sure. That the woman you're going to be ten years from now is
21:44going to be strengthened and reshaped. The woman I pray that I am five years
21:48from now is going to be completely different because of the struggle that I
21:52went through in my faith in this season of my life. That it is the wrestling that
21:57strengthens us. And what I love about this passage of scripture with John the
22:02Baptist asking that question that honestly could have been offensive to
22:05Jesus, but Jesus not rebuking him, what I love about this question is that it shows
22:12the humanity and the frailty of a man who's going through some stuff. Anybody
22:17ever just gone through some stuff? And in a group this size and all the people
22:22that are watching during this simulcast, I know that there are some people right
22:26now you going through some stuff. And listen, if you're not going through some
22:30stuff right now, we want you to know we are happy for you.
22:41But for anybody who's struggling, for anybody whose faith is wavering just a
22:56little bit, I want you to know that God hears every question that you're asking,
23:01all of the ponderings of your heart, anything that others around you may have
23:06made you feel guilty for asking. What I love about this y'all is that God gives
23:10John so much grace to wrestle through his faith. He said Jesus doesn't rebuke him,
23:16he gives him all the margin he needs to ask whatever questions he needs to ask.
23:20Because although Jesus has not changed, he is still who he always was yesterday,
23:25today, and forevermore. John's reality has changed. Jesus doesn't,
23:31the reality of our lives does. And so when your reality changes like
23:36Laurie Anna's has, like our sweet Jan's has, when your reality changes and there
23:41are new questions to ask in that new circumstance, you need to know that your
23:45God loves you enough to give you margin and grace to ask the questions that you
23:50need in that season of your life. Oh, if the people of God, the church,
23:56would give each other as much grace as Jesus gives to us. There is only one who
24:03has ever been able to say, he who is without sin cast the first stone.
24:08There's only one who's ever had the right to cast the stone and he chose not to do it.
24:15And yet we have so little grace for a brother or a sister in Christ who
24:19honestly is just wrestling. Not because he's changed, but because their
24:24circumstances have changed. And I say to you that if you know someone,
24:29if you've got a dear friend in your life, if you've got a Laurie Anna who just needs
24:33a friend, I'm saying don't scold that person because they're struggling.
24:40You give them the same grace Jesus does. While they figure out what it means to
24:44keep their mouth closed while they're walking around that mountain,
24:47if they slip up in the building of their faith, if they question,
24:51if they have wonderings and ponderings about whether what they've read and what
24:55they've heard preached in church, whether or not it's really true as they struggle
25:00through that, would you just let them? Habakkuk, he asked questions.
25:08Habakkuk looked around him and said, God, you have got to be kidding me.
25:12He said, do you see the havoc that is being wreaked in our culture?
25:18Do you see the violence all around? And he wondered, how long, God,
25:22are you going to let this happen? Job, Job had a few questions.
25:27He wondered why in the world the Lord would allow so much damage and so much
25:31devastation to come to his life. And Gideon had a few questions.
25:36The Midianite army continuing to ravage them year after year after year after
25:42year, and Gideon said to him, how long are you just going to sit back and
25:45let this happen? If you're really who you say you are,
25:48you could change all this in an instant. All of these people and more in the
25:53scriptures had questions. God heard the questions and did not
25:57rebuke them for asking. And I just wanted to encourage somebody
26:02today that if you're asking the question, you keep on asking because your God hears
26:08you and he will give you an answer. Y'all, life is hard.
26:19Stuff happens. And we have questions sometimes that
26:26cause us to have to wrestle through our faith, and our faith is strengthened and
26:30it is encouraged through the wrestle. I wrote down here that God equals an
26:41ocean. Do you know the ocean is vast and big
26:48and huge, monstrous? I just saw on Twitter, I follow Google
26:52Facts, and I just saw literally in the last couple of hours one of the random
26:57Google Facts that they just tweeted through was that there are species,
27:01more than can be counted, species in the depths of the ocean that marine
27:07biologists still to this day with all of modern technology cannot get to all
27:12the species within the oceans, that they haven't gotten to the depths,
27:16that they haven't gotten to the full, vast, broadness of the ocean.
27:20They'll never know everything that is to be known.
27:22Even with all the advances in modern technology, they will never know all that
27:27is to be known about the ocean. It's just too big and it's too vast.
27:32But even with all that information that they don't know and so we don't know,
27:35what we do know is that when we go on vacation to the beach and we walk up to
27:39that body of water, what we do know when we put our foot into it is that it's wet.
27:45What we do know for sure is that when we stand in the current and that tide comes
27:49rolling in and it pushes us back because it's so strong, what we do know is that
27:53the ocean is powerful. When a bit of it gets into our mouth and
27:57so we taste that salt on our tongue, what we do know is that it's salty.
28:01We can't figure out the depths. We can't figure out all of the mysteries
28:06that are within it. But what we do know is that it's wet and
28:09it's powerful and that it's salty. That's the same thing about God.
28:14That we will never know the fullness and the vastness and all the mysteries that
28:18there are to know about our God. But what we can know when we put our foot
28:21in Him is that we can taste and see that He is good.
28:29What we can know is that He is kind. What we can know is that He has a plan
28:34for us, that He has a plan to prosper us and not to harm us.
28:38So we may not know the fullness of Him. We may have to wrestle and struggle as we
28:42continue to get to know the depths of Him, but we can know that our God always has
28:46our best interest in mind, that He will never, ever leave us,
28:50nor will He forsake us. And so He lets us struggle.
28:54In His grace and His mercy, He lets us ask questions that need
28:57to be asked and He gives us the mercy, the grace, the margin,
29:01the room for growth and struggle. And I just want to encourage somebody
29:05to ask the questions you need to and that the Lord will allow you the
29:10opportunity to do that. The second thing I wanted to share
29:13with you is that Jesus' response to John the Baptist is this.
29:20He says to the disciples, go and report to John what you have seen
29:29and what you have heard. Jesus could have written a letter.
29:36He didn't do that. Jesus could have gone to John the Baptist
29:39Himself to tell him the answer to his question. He didn't do that.
29:44Jesus sent some representatives to build John's faith.
29:49He sent some disciples who had heard Jesus' preaching and teaching,
29:53who had seen Jesus cause blind eyes to see and deaf ears to hear
29:58and the lame to walk and the dead being raised.
30:01He said, I want y'all whose faith is strong to go over and tell the one
30:05who is wavering just a little bit, who's in the midst of the struggle
30:08as his current circumstances are not what he expected and anticipated,
30:13devastating actually. I want you to go and be a witness.
30:17Share your testimony of what it is you have seen me do.
30:21And when you share the testimony, you will see that that answers the question
30:25that that individual has been asking. And so I thought today,
30:31in a room this size, what someone who has lost the child or lost the spouse,
30:38what someone who has had the toughest year of marriage that they could fathom,
30:43what someone who has had a valley year with your finances or your business
30:48and honestly you're wondering if you will ever recover,
30:51for someone who right now, like John, is sitting in circumstances
30:54where there are little whispers in your heart wondering if your God
30:59can do the miracles for you you've heard talked about in this room
31:02or whether the Scripture stories that you've heard taught and preached
31:06at your local church or in Bible study, you are wondering
31:10if that God really can do it for you. I wonder
31:13if the reason why He's allowed all of us to be in this atmosphere of faith
31:17on this day is because He has sent some disciples to answer the question
31:22that you've been asking. Because there's a room full of women
31:26who have a testimony of how great their God really is.
31:30And I just wonder if the answers to the question you've been asking
31:34is going to come in the form of the woman who is sitting right next to you.
31:38And so I wonder, if you are in this room
31:42and you have ever had a struggle in your marriage that was so desperate
31:46that you never thought the two of you would ever be able to recover,
31:50you thought that for sure the two of you were headed for divorce court,
31:53but you are here in this room today with a testimony of God's miracle
31:58working power in marriage. You have seen Him snatch the two of you
32:02back from the brink of divorce court. I just wonder if there's a disciple
32:06in the room who the Lord might have sent today to be a living,
32:10breathing testimony to someone who right now is so discouraged,
32:14wondering if their marriage can make it. If you have that testimony in this room,
32:18would you please stand to your feet and be the living, visible illustration
32:22of what God can do in marriage?
32:36You stay standing. Stay standing.
32:43I want to ask if you are in this room and you have ever been shackled
32:48to an addiction that you never thought you would ever be free from.
32:51You never thought you'd be able to refuse the drug or refuse the alcohol
32:55or refuse that illicit behavior that was getting you in so much trouble.
32:59You never, ever thought you'd experience victory.
33:02But you're here today as a testimony of the miraculous freeing power
33:06of your God. Would you please stand up and be a living, visible illustration
33:10to somebody that needs their faith and courage today?
33:26I wonder if anybody is in this room. The doctor has said to you there is
33:30absolutely nothing else that we can do.
33:32Apart from a miracle, you will not be able to be saved.
33:36But I wonder if there's somebody here today who had an x-ray
33:40and what the x-ray showed this month is not the same thing it showed last month.
33:44And it is a miracle of God upon your life. Would you please stand
33:48as a testimony of healing?
33:55I wonder if there's anybody in the room today and your heart has ever been so
34:05devastated, so broken, your mind ever been so
34:09fissured that you never thought you'd ever be able to live healthy and whole
34:13because of some
34:14devastating loss or grief in your life. But you're here today
34:17and you've been able to sleep well at night. You've been able to hold food down.
34:21You know what the peace is
34:23that passes all understanding. Not because you got it from a good self-health book
34:28but because the Holy Spirit of God Himself
34:31put peace on your life. Would you please stand to your feet
34:35and be a testimony.
34:48I wonder if there's anybody in the room today and you've ever had a spouse or a
34:53child or a parent and you never thought they would come to know Jesus Christ as
34:57Savior.
34:58You prayed and asked the Lord to bring them into a saving knowledge and it sure
35:02did take a long time.
35:03But you're here today as a testimony that God can remove the scales off of the eyes
35:09of the people that we love
35:10and draw them to Himself. Would you please stand and be a testimony for somebody
35:15today.
35:24I wonder if there's anybody in the room
35:29and you've ever had such a financial disaster you never thought you'd be able
35:33to recover.
35:34You didn't know if there would be food on your table. You didn't know if your house
35:37was going to be able to be paid for so that you could keep it.
35:40You didn't know if you'd be able to take care of your children month after month.
35:45But you are here today as a testimony that your God can
35:48take care of all of your needs according to His riches and glory.
35:53If that's your testimony would you please stand to your feet and be an illustration for somebody today.
36:10Look what God has done.
36:16And if today,
36:21if today your heart is broken, if today your bills have yet to be paid,
36:27if today your marriage is faltering,
36:30if on this day you wonder whether or not you'd ever be able again to
36:35have a whole
36:36heart because of how it's been broken by betrayal or
36:39or loss. If you're wondering today if your God can heal your body.
36:44He sent some disciples to tell you the good news.
36:48He wants you to know today that what He has done for others
36:54He will surely do for you. Come on y'all let's honor God today.
37:08If you're discouraged today and you're wondering how in the world you're going to keep circling
37:13and have your faith built and be able to reserve your voice for the shout that is
37:17coming when your God does
37:19what He plans to do on your behalf. If you're struggling through that faith right now
37:23would you please lift your hand. There are some disciples in the room that cannot
37:26wait to surround you
37:28and encourage you in prayer. Y'all come on if there are some hands around you would
37:32you please just turn beside you,
37:34in front of you, beside you, in front of you, wherever.
37:37Would you just lay your hands on them or reach your hands toward them. We're going to pray
37:42over them in Jesus' name. Lord right now in the matchless name of Jesus the Christ
37:48I ask that for every hand that is raised because of loss
37:51or betrayal or tragedy or devastation Lord they are circling something that is
37:56in their estimation too big to handle. Lord I thank you right now that you
38:01receive our questions that you're not upset by them. I thank you for the margin
38:05and the grace that you give us to strengthen our faith in you. I pray
38:10right now in Jesus' name you would exchange their discouragement for a
38:15cloak of
38:15encouragement. Lord I ask right now by your spirit
38:19that every assignment that the enemy has trained and assigned to these people
38:24I pray right now in the matchless name of Jesus Christ
38:27that that assignment would be canceled by his blood that has been shed on Calvary.
38:32Lord we release hope, we release encouragement,
38:36we release a strong level of faith Lord and hope
38:40in the name of Jesus Christ. We thank you for the
38:44disciples that you sent today to spread the word
38:47that you are who you say you are. You can do what you say that you can do
38:52and so it is in the matchless name of Jesus Christ
38:56that all God's daughters in the room agreed with me when they said amen.
39:01Amen.
39:03Amen.
39:06Amen.