Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You.
[00:00:04] Good morning, church. Let's grab our seats. It's brilliant to see everybody this morning. What a wonderful time of just exalting God this morning and yeah, can we I just want to really honor people who serve in this place. You know, the church is one body, many parts, right? One body, many parts. Nod if you agree with that. Yeah, there's some nodding. So I just want to thank really publicly everybody who from the start of this journey, since January, has really served, gone above and beyond for the local church. And the local church, we believe, is the hope of the world, right? Yeah. The local church is the hope for the world. We are it.
[00:00:53] We are the representatives on the earth. Look at your partner next to you and go, you are it.
[00:01:01] You are it. By God's grace, we are it.
[00:01:06] At this time. It stops with us. It's quite a thought, really, isn't it?
[00:01:11] Are we asleep? Are we awake?
[00:01:16] The local church, there's nothing like it. Next year will be 30 years since I've been serving the local church. I was 17 years old when I had a passion and a calling from God that was confirmed through other people and just to serve the local church. And I love the local church. Absolutely love the local church. I think it's messy, I think it's problematic. I think there's complications, but there will always be because that's us, isn't it's? US, it's people.
[00:01:46] But I love what God loves, and we should love what God loves. Amen.
[00:01:53] Phil was supposed to be speaking today, but I kind of hijacked his spot because I just felt that I needed to continue from last week and kind of sort this before we lost, really, what God wanted to say amongst us at this time last week.
[00:02:12] I wonder if somebody could just close those doors. Yeah. Thanks so much, Sally.
[00:02:17] Last week we looked at we read the passage of the Israelites. We've been on it a few weeks, the wilderness way, and they had escaped the Egyptians, and they were at that place. Do you remember? They were at the border.
[00:02:33] They had the mountains either side of them. They were absolutely snookered, naturally speaking. You had Migdol, you had balzeth on. These were two high rocks, high places. You had the Egyptians, the enemy behind, and you had the sea in front. Okay? There is nowhere to go, naturally speaking. And the Israelites found themselves cornered. And you remember God's plan? We explained that God's plan. God said to Moses, he said, do you know what I want you to do? I want you to come back on yourself, okay, Lord? If that's your plan, come back on yourself so that Pharaoh will assume that you are completely confused in the wilderness. You don't know what you're doing. You haven't got a plan. And that will cause Pharaoh's heart to harden and he will pursue you. Now, I don't know about you. But if I was one of the Israelites, I'd be thinking, who wrote this plan? Who came up with this idea? That the enemy, and thousands of them, by the way, if you've ever seen the Chariots, if you go back in your history box and look at the Grand Chariots and the armies of armies, I mean, Egypt were the best of the best. And if you're there standing, okay, God, your plan is that Pharaoh would be so provoked that he would come after us with full pelt, like, just because we're here, we're going to egg him on because he thinks we're snookered. I mean, anybody think that's a good plan?
[00:04:08] Anybody think that's a good plan?
[00:04:10] Naturally speaking, it was a ridiculous plan, but it was God's plan. And all the Israelites had to do was stand still. They had to allow God to work on their behalf. They had to allow God to fight for them.
[00:04:27] I believe, as we step foot in our generation, I really firmly believe it as a church. I'm going to talk about this in a minute, if you want to get ready. James One, in Scripture that as a church, the greatest way we're going to be a witness to the world is when we know how to allow God to be God.
[00:04:46] I think it's as simple as that, but it's not as easy as that. Come on. When we allow God simply to be God. So this morning, I want us to turn to James One.
[00:04:58] Remember we said also that the Israelites, they were in this trial, this testing of their faith, they'd almost come out of one situation, one fiery furnace, and they were about to enter another.
[00:05:13] But we're going to look specifically this morning about the trials, the challenges, the hardships that we may have in life. So. James. Chapter one. Let me just read this, starting from verse two. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience or perseverance, if you're reading the NIV. But let perseverance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not man suppose sorry. So let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.
[00:06:24] Wow. And then we get a bit of a slap this morning.
[00:06:29] Consider it joy when you go through trials of many kinds.
[00:06:36] Wow. What a thought this morning that we can actually walk through the land with joy. And we've been speaking a lot about this as a church, that it's not this outward happiness lawson, you spoke about it sometimes this happiness ha ha we go around with. But there is this constant connection with God that allows us to walk with joy. And it has to be that constant connection with God, because without that constant connection with God, we will not walk with joy through our trials. We will collapse, we will cave in, and we are called to persevere. And James says here, we've got to allow perseverance to do its work in us.
[00:07:24] We're at a time, aren't we? Let me say this overseas, gently, to the younger generation. We're at a time where we want everything now. We don't really want to work hard for things. We don't want to see the fruit in 20 years time. We want to see the fruit now.
[00:07:40] Sometimes as a team, we look out of the church and we say, okay, what about the fruit? And I say, Actually, the fruit could come in five years, in ten years.
[00:07:50] It's not just now. We've got to keep persevering. And so Israel were on the edge move. That going to hit it. Israel were on the edge of the land. They're on the edge of their trial. And how many of us, when we get to the edge of a trial, things are really desperate, things are really hard, that we want to start writing our own exit plan. We want to start kind of going and thinking, how can I get out of this trial? Or how can I get around this trial? How can I make it through this trial with least wounds and burns as possible?
[00:08:30] How can I I but what about God? God this morning, when we do things our way, or when we try to get out of things our way, when we're hitting trials and hardships in our life, we don't bring glory to God.
[00:08:53] Whenever we do things our way, it just doesn't bring glory to God. In every trial that we go through, whether it's financial or it's health or anything we go through as a church together, let us go to our knees first and say, Lord, let us do it your way. Let us do it your way.
[00:09:16] So often we start from a position or is it just me? We start from a position of being negative. Yeah. How many of us, when that initial news comes in, the initial trial, we start from that place of being negative. It's a default of as.
[00:09:37] It's time to change that for the church. It's time to change that, the church being a church of faith.
[00:09:44] And so the Israelites, when they came to that edge, they said, we're going to die in the desert. Who told them they were going to die?
[00:09:55] Who told them they were going to die? They said, we're going to drown here because of the great waters in front of them. Who told them they were going to drown?
[00:10:07] Who told them they were going to die? Who told them they were going to drown. And then they came to the conclusion, well, okay, if it doesn't get as bad as that, this is what we'll do. We'll go back and be slaves. Because if we go back and be slaves to how things was then at least the houses are good in Goshen. At least there was some water, at least the food wasn't bad.
[00:10:34] And I think that's how the church has played it out for too long. We've stayed comfortable because actually we don't like the boat being rocked.
[00:10:45] We go with fear rather than faith. We go with unbelief instead of believing. We go to vocalizing negative things rather than having that mouth of freedom. Do you remember Pi? Ahiroth.
[00:11:01] Pi ahiroth? Maybe be a church that says Pi ahairoth. My mouth is going to be a mouth of freedom. Freedom.
[00:11:12] Freedom. You see, they couldn't see God's route to freedom. And I'll tell you why they couldn't see it. First of all, because I mean, you'd have thought they'd be a supernatural people, wouldn't you? After all they'd seen.
[00:11:26] But they were not a supernatural people.
[00:11:30] They couldn't see beyond the problems.
[00:11:36] God in their eyes was not big enough to see the way out.
[00:11:42] How big is God in your life this morning church? Is he big? He needs to be. Come on. He needs to be because the world is shaking.
[00:11:53] It's shaking hard. How big is your God this morning church? You see, they couldn't see their way up to freedom because they were thinking in the flesh. They were thinking as natural human beings.
[00:12:11] They were walking by sight.
[00:12:16] This region, Newton Abbott, the Southwest, okay, is desperate to see a church and hear a church sing out, declare out, live out how confident they are in their God. If God really is our God, if God is as big as the word of God says he is, which I believe he absolutely is, then the world need to see the people of God living in all confidence and boldness through every single situation and trial. Because trials actually bring glory to God. They bring absolute glory to God and thank God for the church of Jesus Christ so that when we do face trials, we've got our brothers and sisters who are walking next to us, who are full of faith, who are surrounding us. See, that's the beauty of the local church.
[00:13:16] We need one another. I feel sorry for people who love God but are not attached to a local church. The local church is God's plan. Come on, love one another, serve one another, turn out midweek to be with one another. Can I say I love our life group? You will never, ever know what goes on in our little life group only because just the lovely sense of genuine, sincere brokenness that we display in front of each other is healthy. But we're seeing God move and we sense God moving in our living room. That is the beauty of the local church. It's wonderful coming together as a whole on a Sunday. But if I can encourage you to get into small groups they're so powerful, they're so beautiful. It's where our faith and maturity grows. You know another reason they couldn't see God's route to freedom? All no.
[00:14:20] For the sake of the recording this morning, I'm grumbling.
[00:14:24] They grumbled, they complained, they were moaning. I've been in church for nearly four decades. I know I don't look old enough.
[00:14:37] Four decades and I've seen enough Mumbling.
[00:14:42] I've seen enough Mumbling.
[00:14:45] I've seen so much destruction come from Mumbling. Because, you know, Mumbling and grumbling is really a self centered desire to have your own way. That's true.
[00:14:58] Can I suggest, before we mumble and grumble, like the Israelites did, that we actually pray we drop to our knees before we grumble and mumble. Whoa.
[00:15:09] Wouldn't it be wonderful as a church, instead of grumbling Mumbling, we just dropped straight to our knees?
[00:15:15] Because this is what happens to grumbling and Mumbling, right? It basically says, God, you're not sufficient enough.
[00:15:25] It says, God, I need to moan about this because my moaning can change a situation?
[00:15:32] No, it can't bring disunity.
[00:15:36] It will thwart the plans of God over your life could affect another generation growing up.
[00:15:43] And the Israelites, they moaned and they groaned, and it was only by God's grace. If I was God, and thank goodness I'm not, I would never have parted the sea. I'd have gone, you're on your own, you lot.
[00:15:58] But God in his grace and in his mercy every single time. And let me tell you, I have been one of the guilty ones. I've seen enough rubbish in church life. I think often, Why am I still here? I should be like, I don't want anything to do with the church.
[00:16:17] I won't even start to tell you what I've seen in church.
[00:16:21] In the church. But she's beautiful, she's glorious.
[00:16:26] And God has got a plan for the church. Our mumbling and our groaning. They couldn't see the route out because of their moaning and their grumbling.
[00:16:38] You're on the edge when we have trials, when we have relationship difficulties, because, let me tell you, we're not even a year into this church journey. There will be some relationship difficulties. You do know that, don't you?
[00:16:50] But are we willing to persevere or are we willing to go? Do you know? I don't want to sort it out. I'm going to throw in the towel and I'm going to go somewhere else.
[00:17:00] See, the world is longing for a church that says, I want to persevere. We might not see eye to eye on everything, but I'm going to persevere. You know, I'm going to go to that person and I'm going to try. And instead of being offended, I'm going to love them. It might not be what I want here, or it might not be to my taste, but I am going to love them, I am going to pray for them. See what God does to church like that. Because where there's unity, God what commands the blessing. Blessing? Who wants the blessing? I want God to turn up here because we're loving one another so deeply, so passionately, that he says, do you know, there's hardly any grumbling. They're not gossiping, they're being the kingdom of God on the earth. What a picture of the church. You know, Bill Johnson says this. He says, If God inhabits our praises, who inhabits our complaining?
[00:18:02] It's brilliant. I wish I could claim responsibility for that one. If God inhabits our praises, who inhabits our complaining? In other words, our mouths can either attract the presence of good or the presence of evil.
[00:18:20] Do you imagine going to your workplace tomorrow, you go into the school playground and such and such, or on WhatsApp there's a little bit of tearing or wherever it may be, and you just bring the light and the love of Jesus into that situation. Tell you what, things will shut down straight away, arguments will fall down because the enemy's out to cause chaos, to take the church out.
[00:18:52] Our mouths can either bring on the presence of life or death. It's powerful and phil. You spoke about that. So let perseverance do its work in us. It's quite exciting, if you think about it, to persevere, because we will get to see what happens at the end. In fact, we already know the ultimate story, the story of salvation. We know the end. We know Jesus has got all our days covered. Praise Him.
[00:19:25] But you see perseverance when you persevere and you keep going and you see the reward of your faith. And I believe God wants to reward us now, not just in eternity.
[00:19:35] He wants to reward faithfulness. He wants to reward your steadfastness. Don't you think he sees you when you're there getting up every morning before the kids get up, or you're getting up before work and you're there for ten minutes, 15 minutes, whatever, and you've got the Bible open on your kitchen table, don't you think he sees you?
[00:19:53] Do you think the blessings just come? Sometimes they do. But God sees these faithful acts, he sees the steadfastness, he sees the decades of service.
[00:20:04] But when we get tired, when we want to throw in the towel, when we go, well, such and such has upset me this week in church. And it's all you're on the edge.
[00:20:15] That's where we're either going to glorify God or we're not. That's our mouth of freedom.
[00:20:23] We want to live free. Our mouths have got to be full of life.
[00:20:27] Life turn really quickly to James. Such a good book. James. I think we need to do a whole series on James.
[00:20:34] James, chapter five.
[00:20:46] Let me start from james, chapter five. Let me start from verse eight.
[00:20:55] Establish your hearts.
[00:20:59] What does it mean to establish our hearts to put things in place now to say, okay, I might not be walking through a trial now.
[00:21:13] Newton Abba isn't experiencing war right now, not a physical, spiritual war, but to put things in place.
[00:21:23] So my heart is already going to believe regardless of what is going to happen.
[00:21:30] Does that make sense? Yeah. To establish our hearts now.
[00:21:36] Don't decide when you hit that trial, when you're literally on the edge. You've got to be when you're on that edge of life. We're on the edge of a new season as a church. We've got to decide then what we are stepping in faith. So it says, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
[00:21:57] What does that mean? It says it's near.
[00:22:02] It's near.
[00:22:04] Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. I mean, that's sobering stuff, isn't it?
[00:22:15] Don't complain and grumble against one another lest you be condemned. You know, condemned. There is lost, doomed.
[00:22:23] I find that so challenging.
[00:22:26] So challenging because the church for decades has grumbled against each other and grumbling and unbelief and moaning and complaining was what stopped a generation going through to access the promises that God had for them. I don't want us to be the generation where our children are growing up in say, well, on your watch you just complained and you moaned and you didn't persevere, you didn't hold on, you didn't chase the things of God lest you be condemned.
[00:23:00] Behold, the Judge is standing at the door. My brethren. Take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience.
[00:23:12] You know, I encourage you all this week go and look at the epic stories of faith because they are very ordinary people, men and women like you and I. In their generation. The only difference with a lot of them was that they actually believed that God was really big.
[00:23:27] God wasn't small, god was big.
[00:23:31] And they kept their eye on the prize.
[00:23:36] See, grumbling and complaining will take our eye off the prize and right there into the hands of the enemy and it says, look at the prophets for their example of suffering. Patience indeed. We count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. I love that. I'm going to put that on Instagram later and I want you all to favorite it, if you follow me. All right, all right. It says this. It says job. You know the depth of suffering that Job went through. And it says this. It says, we have seen the end intended by the Lord. If you know the story of Job, everything was restored, and some not in eternity. Here some of you, in fact, all of you, I'm going to pray for you. You believe today things are going to be restored to you and some in this life. Do you believe it the end intended by the Lord? And the Lord is compassionate and merciful. You see, we've got to let perseverance do his work, do its work in our lives, so that we can experience the compassion and the love of the Lord. I want to experience the love and the mercy and the compassion of the Lord over my life. I want, at the end of my days to go, oh, they were hard. Well, they are hard days.
[00:25:08] It's not a walk in the park, this Christian life. But at the end of it, I want to say, wow, Lord, you've been so good to my family. You have brought me so far. I'm not worthy enough. I don't deserve it, but you have brought me so far. And I'll say to us today, church, perseverance is the word till the end of this year and the end of our lives, actually. But let's this year say, as a church, we're going to persevere to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. We're going to persevere so that we can say, god, you have been so good. You see, do you know what perseverance does? It matures us as disciples of Jesus Christ. This time next year, I want to be mature in my faith. I want to be bold in my requests, bolder than what I've been this year.
[00:25:57] It grows us up. It matures us. How many of us wants to mature? Do we want to mature in our faith as we follow Christ? Absolutely, we do. Do you know what it does? Perseverance. It helps us fulfill the plan that God has got for our lives. If we don't persevere, some of us here, and I know because I've spoke to you, are waiting on things to happen. We're waiting on promises to be fulfilled. We're waiting on those prayers that we prayed for decades to come about. Let me tell you, God is faithful. He will fulfill his promise to us. He absolutely will. I still laugh at the whole idea of Joseph's bones being carried.
[00:26:38] Do you remember what we said a couple of weeks ago? We said that when the Israelites left Egypt, and this was a couple of hundred years before they even left Egypt, jacob. Sorry. Joseph says, do not ever leave my bones in Egypt. You get my bones. Now swear you'll take them. Swear on oath that you will take my bones and you will take them with you to the Promised Land. Why? Because he said, Because surely God will come. See, there was a life. Joseph knew. Did Joseph have it easy? No. For over a decade, he was locked in a cell, in a prison cell, a literal prison cell, for doing nothing.
[00:27:21] And he said, surely, he said, Let me tell you, surely God will come to your rescue.
[00:27:26] You're going to go into freedom because he's promised it. And when that happens, you get my bones and anything else that's left. I don't know, gold tooth or I mean, no, but you get my bones and you go see what perseverance does. It helps us to overcome perseverance. When we have run the race we will get the crown of life come on I want the crown of life come on. Oh, I can't wait to get the crown of life yesterday we were tidying up at Bank Street. We were cleaning out coffee machines and thank you so much. Can we give you a round of applause, the team? Thank you so much. It's getting so exciting down there. I mean, who thought cleaning coffee machines was so exciting, all right? But it was. It was wonderful. We looked a mess, I tell you, all right? But Lydia and Heidi, for the whole entire 2 hours that we were there, walked around with crowns. They had found some plastic crowns and they were walking around Gloria with these crowns. And, you know, while we had a little giggle and as they passed us, we'd say yes to Your Majesties and all that kind of stuff. As they were making tea and coffee, it was almost symbolic. Come on. I was like, Lord, this is symbolic of all the lives that are going to be walking into Deo Gloria coffee shop, right? And I want you to see every single person that comes in with a crown, that crown of life on them. Because we're saying, Lord, bring salvation.
[00:28:59] It's not just for us. Sat here on a Sunday, there are hundreds, thousands of people that I can't wait to see will receive the crown of life with us. Along with us.
[00:29:16] David said he said this. Sing it. Psalm 37. He said, I was young and now I'm old. And I have never seen the righteous forsaken I've never seen their children begging bread.
[00:29:32] Want you to go this week and look at some epic stories. Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego thrown into this fiery furnace. And they said, our God will rescue us. But even if he doesn't, we want you to know, King Nebuchadnezzar, that we are no way bowing down to you.
[00:29:53] Could we have faith like that?
[00:29:57] I've got this doctor's report and I am going to believe that God you've got healing for me. But even in the mysteries of God, if it doesn't, I'm going to trust you to carry me home all the way.
[00:30:13] Have we got faith like that? What about Queen Esther?
[00:30:17] If I perish, I perish.
[00:30:21] A young woman coming to the kingdom for such a time as this, and she stands at the edge, pihyros mouth of freedom. And if I lose my life, then so be it.
[00:30:36] You know, I can imagine Joshua and Caleb, you know, the only two that made it into the Promised Land. Come on, we can take it. There's giants everywhere. It's a mess. There's so many people. The enemy's out there, but God has promised. I imagine when they were right there at the sea, that Joshua and Caleb I mean, they would have been really young, wouldn't they? How young would they have been? I don't know. Quite in the 20th, 40, 85. Okay, thank you. All right. I imagine they would have been there and said, I would rather drown.
[00:31:08] Honestly, I do. I think Joshua and Caleb, full of faith, would have gone I would have rather have drowned in the sea than gone back to be slaves. And I can't believe there was a generation of people, after they'd seen all that God had done, said, let's just go back.
[00:31:24] I can't get my head on it. But then when we are in those hardships, I'm shocked with what comes out of my mouth. Anybody else?
[00:31:34] I'm being vulnerable here. I just want to be real. There are times when those hardships comes and I'm like, I can't believe Phil will tell you. He's like, Esther, I thought you were so full of faith. Like, why are you crumbling?
[00:31:45] And then we get back up again. We remind ourselves of God's word. We say, oh, Lord, let me persevere again. Let me persevere again.
[00:32:02] If somehow in our praising, we could praise like we truly believe God will come through for us.
[00:32:12] Can you imagine a church like that?
[00:32:15] If we dance in the storms, if we praised like we really believed the God of this Word, if we prayed, if we somehow prayed like we knew God was so big and capable, I think our prayers would completely change if we lived our lives and our lifestyle pleasing Him, his ways and his will all the time. Can you imagine what that would look like?
[00:32:51] I'm so thankful, though, for God's wisdom and his mercy over our lives every single time. He's merciful church. You may be here this morning and maybe you've derailed a little bit, but you can get back on. That is the good news of the gospel. There is still time. You can get back on. You can have your sins completely forgiven, the slate wiped clean.
[00:33:14] You come back as children again. You say, Lord, I want to be confident in you that you are merciful.
[00:33:25] Young people, as I was just preparing this and thinking over this, can I say to you this morning, I want you to have a love for the local church.
[00:33:35] This isn't Esther Daniel speaking. I believe it's the Holy Spirit saying it to you to have a love for the local church. I believe this generation I know we're good at we're going out and there's lots of organizations, and that's brilliant, but I believe the local church is such an incredible place to grow your faith, to serve, serve well. Paul says this, the Apostle Paul said about Timothy. He says, I have no one like him.
[00:34:06] I have no one like him. He said, everybody looks to their own needs.
[00:34:10] Their own concerns.
[00:34:12] But Timothy, this young lad who was nurtured by his grandmother and mother, Eunice and Lois Paul, says, I have no one like him.
[00:34:22] Can you imagine? In this place, we have loads of young people, and we say, we've got no one like them. They are just set apart for the purposes of God. While you're young, while you're young, use your life, use your energy to love the local church, and that means to love God's. People persevere. Persevere even when it gets lonely, even when things don't look glamorous. I know, I've been there. A young person persevere, get on your knees, seek God like never before, because this is the time to do it. When you're young.
[00:35:06] For us as a church, are we just too comfortable?
[00:35:14] Like, we can pen great sermons. Yeah. And we can put the challenge across, and I've sat under many of them, but are we just too comfortable?
[00:35:25] Are we going to walk out here and really say, lord, yeah, I need to persevere, and this is how I'm going to do it.
[00:35:35] See, salvation is a gift, and I'm going to wrap up here. But salvation is this gift yeah. Free, given to us. We accept it or reject it. It's one or the other. It's this wonderful gift that God has given to everyone.
[00:35:49] But we can neglect our salvation.
[00:35:54] It says, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
[00:36:01] We can neglect it.
[00:36:04] We need a church coming back to saying, I've received the free gift that God's given me, and now I'm going to action everything that he says. I'm going to action it in my life. I'm going to live it out. I'm going to persevere through the trials. When I'm at the edge, my mouth is going to speak life, not death. It's going to speak good, not bad.
[00:36:27] We just bow your heads this morning.
[00:36:39] I want to really pray over people this morning, okay? And this is something I've had to allow God to really work in my life some in this room this morning, there is a default to grumbling and moaning.
[00:36:52] It's just there that default. I mean, that programming word, that computing word that says that first thing, I go back to that when things hit me. I seem to go back to grumbling. I seem to go back to moaning. I seem to gravitate towards seeing the worst rather than believing the best.
[00:37:16] And I want to pray over those people to begin with, okay? You don't need to tell me this is a private thing, and I just want to pray over you this morning, Father. I pray over people sat here in this room this morning who naturally gravitate to thinking the worst, to believing the worst.
[00:37:38] And Father, I pray right now in the name of Jesus that you would set people free this morning. That, Lord, you would change our fleshy thinking into a spiritual thinking, Father, that you would change us, transform us, Lord. That we would allow you to do your work in us, that we would persevere, lord, as we walk through this land, as we live our lives, father, right now will you set minds free from this default of thinking the worst, of always thinking that someone's saying something or thinking something about me? Lord, you will break that suspicious mentality, Father.
[00:38:27] Lord, renew our minds. You've told us to renew our minds.
[00:38:34] Help us to know the truth, to speak the truth, to think the truth, Lord, and set us free in Your name.
[00:38:53] For those of us in this room this morning, Lord, who are desperate, desperate to become more supernatural, desperate to really, really believe, to have more faith, Father, I pray over those this morning individuals, you say, Lord, make me gutsy for your kingdom.
[00:39:18] I want to be gutsy.
[00:39:21] Help me to persevere. Help me to trust you fully.
[00:39:27] I pray, Lord, that all those eggs that I would put in the basket of your kingdom that I wouldn't keep some back as a safety net, that I wouldn't write the script of my life, that I would allow you to write your destiny over my life, that I would trust you even when things just don't make sense. I trust you to provide the relationships that I need. I want to trust you to provide the finances that I need. I'm going to trust you to provide the answers that I need. Oh, God, help me to trust you. Lead me, lead me, Lord, to trust you. Help me, Lord, to be like Job, to be like Joseph, to be like the Esther's, to be like the Daniels. O God, that first and foremost, I drop to my knees to trust you, to ask you to believe, Lord and Father, for us as a church, as a whole church, father, I pray that grumbling and moaning and complaining, Father, would be far from our lips. Lord, we repent.
[00:40:36] We repent, Lord, for our groaning and moaning spirits at times, Lord, we repent, Father, I say, purify our lips. Purify our lips, Lord, so that we can seek you and we can serve you. And we can stand shoulder to shoulder in our generation to see you move in power, Father, as we step out this week as a church in different areas of our lives, father, I pray that we will step out with boldness, Lord, in who you are. That we would have full confidence in who you are, Lord, that the people around us will listen to our speech, will see our conduct. They will see a supernatural change within us, Lord, because we are reliant on you.
[00:41:35] And for those going through hardships right now, Lord, I thank you that we can run under the shelter of Your wings. I thank you that we can run there, we can rest there, we can be hopeful there, even amongst the tears. We thank you for your hiding place, lord, pray that we'd make our lives, Lord, that place where you can come and dwell too.
[00:42:02] We bless your name, Lord, we bless you. Come on. Just as we finish here, can we use our mouth just to start? Don't worry. Can I say don't worry who's, who's next to you? To your left or your right? 20 years ago I so threw that out the window. I was such a shy, a very shy 20 year old lacked so much confidence. And one day I thought, oh, God, I don't care anymore. And it was so liberating.
[00:42:30] Can we just now start to exercise some freedom with our mouths? Come on, let's stand. Come on, let's stand.
[00:42:37] If you're able to. Don't worry who's listening next to you. Just start declaring some praises.
[00:42:44] Just say, Lord, help me. Help me this week. Help me this week.
[00:42:50] Proclaim your name. Proclaim the name of Jesus. We proclaim your name. Come on. All over this place. I'm going to shut up and I'm going to let you go for it. Come on, come on. That's.
