3.14.21 | Sunday Service | The Pursuit

[Music] so [Music] [Music] uh [Music] feeling [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] um [Music] uh [Music] so [Music] [Applause] uh [Music] um [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey good morning pursuit good morning come on stay to your feet if you're able we're gonna get started with our service today want to welcome you if you're watching by way of internet welcome to the pursuit i want to invite you to make your way down to the altar this morning come on find your place in worship here we [Music] come on go those hands together come on let's sing this simple chorus [Applause] [Music] together [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] there is one thing that i ask [Music] there are two things that i seek [Music] to behold your [Music] there is one thing singing there is one thing that i ask there are two things that i seek to behold your beauty to behold your beauty lord and in the house [Music] [Applause] [Music] is as your presence fills this place it's your face oh god we [Music] [Applause] [Music] do your best work here [Music] me [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Music] like me [Applause] come on [Music] is [Music] all i need is you now listen listen listen [Music] oh let's make a melody before the lord this [Music] hands like morning before the lord [Applause] [Music] release yourself release yourself [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] understand [Music] [Applause] lord all i need to know is [Music] i trust [Music] when i [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me till my song becomes i trust you jesus [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] he will come again [Music] [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and i'll praise [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's who you are [Music] it's who you are [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is you raise [Applause] okay he will come again [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and i'll bring you this song i'm bringing my heart i'm bringing my soul come on that's it just lift up your sound this [Music] you even see morning miracles [Music] [Applause] [Music] is this is a faithful god and i believe that i will see the goodness [Music] the goodness [Music] change your faithfulness [Music] yes [Music] is [Music] [Music] you hold it all together you hold it all together [Music] you hold it all together [Music] you hold it all together you hold it all together [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is is [Applause] [Music] [Music] story yeah sing it over yourself believe it today until you believe it he's god of my prayers i know he is [Music] every day every moment [Music] you hold it all together [Applause] you hold it all together yes [Music] [Music] [Music] remains is it's all praise will be my song how can i contain it i cannot contact the love that i have for you and praise [Music] inside me has to praise [Music] hey [Music] [Applause] [Music] my [Applause] my i cannot contain [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] hey [Applause] is this morning [Music] now listen if you came here this morning and you need a miracle in your body you need a miracle in your family you need a miracle in your finances you need a miracle in your soul your mind i want you to come out of here [Music] now listen this might be the first time you've been to the pursuit but here's the deal it's okay in the house of god yeah just for you you're in a safe place okay that might not be your normal thing but you're in a safe place [Music] you say well why do i gotta come out of my seat can't god touch me where i'm at absolutely but there's something powerful when you take a step in the natural it unlocks the [Applause] a step in the supernatural it unlocks the supernatural so there's something powerful about you saying yes scott i'm gonna step out and leave this place where i've been and i'm gonna step into my future and what you have for me so come on come on in your seat come on down you're believing for a miracle this morning you're believing for cancer to be healed you're believing to be healed you're believing for heart disease to be healed blood disorders will be healed depression will break off with you sons and daughters are coming home come on come on [Music] is [Music] [Applause] is down [Music] [Applause] [Applause] oh come on would you lift your hands all across this place let me pray for you this morning father the body name of jesus we thank you for who you are for what scripture says you can do and today we avail ourselves unto you we make ourselves available we know that at the name of jesus every other name and voice bows its need and so we declare the authority and the supremacy of king jesus in this place we say no king but jesus no authority like jesus no rulership like jesus and god today we engage in that warfare not against flesh and blood but principalities and powers that oppose the work of god in this region and we say in the name of jesus the spirit of infirmity goes now at the name of jesus the spirit of confusion goes now come on in the name of jesus the spirit of false religion bows its knee at the name of jesus cowardice and timidity bows its need and so god now we say do your best work in us i declare over you today you will be strong and of good courage for god has given you the land scripture says let it be done unto you according to your faith and so we're going to use our faith this morning to believe it jesus is as good as scripture says he is and so we say god do that work in us god show off your beauty and your brilliance and our lives and in our spheres of influence and god we say today what david said in the book of psalms my soul will magnify the lord and as we magnify him in this place we multiply his benefit in our lives now we magnify you we make you high above we make you bigger than any other problem any other distraction any other worry in fact we cast all our cares upon you for you care for us come on guys let's see this all get closed [Music] from you are all things you deserved [Music] you [Music] [Music] you were [Applause] you are worthy of it all [Music] foreign [Music] you deserve the glory [Applause] you deserve the glory [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] hey would you take a minute and say hi to a friend on the way back to your seat bed thanks so much for joining us for church [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning pursuit family whether you're joining us here in person or online welcome to service here are your morning announcements you are invited to pursuit night we have pursuit nights every first and third monday of the month so you're invited tomorrow march 15th at 6 p.m as always this is the time to get connected worship together and grow as a church family dinner and child care provided for free so join us tomorrow 6 p.m here at the church we want to remind you to come to good friday and easter at the pursuit our good friday services are april 2nd 6 and 7 pm on easter sunday april 4th we are having four service times 9 10 11 and noon there's plenty of room and service times to choose from so bring the whole family all of your friends we would love to spend this easter weekend with you we launched a brand new pursuit website and app if you haven't already go check it out at thepursuitnw.com you can find sermons ways to give the pursuit podcast ways to serve and learn more about who we are at the pursuit again that's thepursuenw.com and you can find our app by searching pursuit nw we have a women's event march 26th here at the church starting at 6 30 pm this is the first time the women's ministry is gathering in a year so you do not want to miss it child care and appetizers are provided so bring a friend and join us friday the 26th at 6 30. pursuit youth as always we're having youth this wednesday night from six to nine we will be having a laser tag night and sonic is catering bring a group of friends and come hang with us hey friends pastor russell here we're standing in the oldest church building in all of snohomish bell chapel built in 1885. we've got an exciting event coming up here that we wanted to let you know about yeah guys i want to let you know on march 19th friday night at 6 00 p.m we are going to be meeting here for a time of prayer and worship we're just going to come together we're going to rally we're going to seek god together and just see what happens for 136 years people have gathered here for worship in prayer we're excited to be extending that legacy an opportunity for us to pray into some of what god is doing in the region hope to see you there again march 19th 6 pm and that is all the announcements we have for you today as always if you're looking for ways to get involved there is a connect card in your seat back fill that out and turn it into the connection center after service and a team member will contact you with more info stay connected with us throughout the week on all of our social media platforms facebook instagram and youtube at the pursuit nw and check us out online at thepursuitnw.com hey pursue family we want to say thank you again for joining us thank you so much for all of your financial support and prayers during this season god has continually shown its faithfulness within our community and we wanted to extend an opportunity for you to partner in giving today there are a couple ways that you can give on the screen here you can text to give through the new giving platform by texting the pursuit to 77977 give online to our website or come up to the front and put your tither offering in the bucket in a few moments the band will start to play and that will signify an opportunity for you to get out of your seat and come forward again thanks again for faithfully sowing into our church and we'll see you guys next weekend welcome online campus we are so excited to have you joining us today my name is emma and i will be your online campus host i'll be joining you in the chat shortly to answer any questions you might have or get you any information you might need take a moment and introduce yourself in the comments below and thank you again for joining us [Music] yes awesome hey well welcome to church uh this morning glad you made it for daylight savings time i know for some of you you lost an hour of sleep and so maybe showed up at the 11 30 or the 12 30 service but uh glad to have you the house of god uh this morning i wanted to just kind of reiterate two things uh uh this morning that you may have seen in the announcement videos are seen on our social media march 19th obviously we've got a worship and prayer wrap friday night yeah it's happening at bell chapel and bell chapel is right on avenue b it's super close to the church and the church actually owns an office building right behind bell chapel and uh and the owner of the chapel has graciously allowed us to use that building for our staff prayer and devotion and we thought man let's extend that opportunity to the people here in this church it doesn't fit a whole lot of people maybe a hundred max but we thought let's pack this place out and let's worship and pray in the oldest church building in the city absolutely it's going to be incredible absolutely you know how many know every that that at least that i've found so far every move of god every revival every outpouring was preceded by uh the cry of the saints and a prayer movement right and so i don't know about you but we were just prophesying singing something's changing in the spirit something's shifting i can feel it i don't know about you but i feel it and i feel like it's time for the body of christ to get together to seek the lord to ascend in worship to really ascend the hill of god to really see what he's saying hear what he's saying see what he's doing right so we want to invite you to come and be a part of that it's gonna be good and then in about a month like a little over 30 days from now the pursuit is hosting really its first ever conference in quite a while and we're so excited to be able to invite our community to this the reason why we're making this announcement today is because registration is now open for people who are at the church we haven't yet announced registration is open for folks who are outside the church that's going to happen on monday this is going to be a ticketed event and it is going to sell out we've got bill johnson benny perez corey russell and they're all coming up i believe to really invest in the work of god here in the northwest and so we're going to invite you to be a part of this it's going to be an incredible night i'm not sure how we're going to fit a thousand people in this room but we're going to do it and we want you to be able to get in on this opportunity for impartation and development you know these moments i think often times are are once in a lifetime or once in a generation where you're able to bring generals of the faith like this together to really speak into what's happening here and like snohomish is a city of 10 000 people 10 000 people live in city limits and so the fact that we're able to host what we're hosting here and do this it just reminds me that god i think has a special place in his heart for small cities and we're going to see a move of god here and we're going to invite you out april 22nd through the 24th i hope you'll be able to join us yeah it's going to be a great job a great time awesome hey thanks so much again for all of those who uh helped share and like and and and and spread a little bit of our our social media messaging over the last week uh as you know we released a video statement just kind of letting people know our position i've learned a secret in life if you don't want to be criticized just do nothing say nothing and be nothing and some people have committed to do all three of those things and essentially have avoided critique in their life but i didn't get in this to be liked i got in to make a difference and so we're going to do everything we can with the tools that god has given us to reach people where they're at and part of reaching people where they're at is being uncompromising in our conviction to follow jesus every step of the way i've said it before and i'll say it again christ is the head of the church not caesar not political opinions not legislation christ himself is the head of the church and so we take our direction for church from the head which is christ scripture says the fullness is in his body which is you and i but he gives us the leadership the direction and the authority scripture says in the gates of hell will not prevail against the church which means this the church is not on defense it's on offense we're not trying to protect land we're trying to take territory and so we want to be a church that's advancing we want to be a church that's continuing to grow and and uh and and we want to make room for people on on every step of the journey and and i i want to reiterate for you this morning i am not somebody who is anti-government i'm not even necessarily anti-mass or anti-vaccine or anti-anything i'm just pro-jesus and i'm pro-church and so that's our position and i want to take time today to formally apologize to absolutely no one for keeping the church open and so as long as there's a jesus who sits on the throne which i think is going to be quite a while we're going to have a church that gives him worship and praise in the northwest and so we're going to be those type of people in this type of city and come hell or high water i'm reminded this week of something winston churchill said he said you'll never reach your destiny if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks there's a lot of barking there's a lot of opinions there's a lot of chatter a lot of people said well if i was you i would do it this way well you're not me and i'm not you and that's the beauty of the gospel is that we can be fully who god has made us to be and for about a year i've said nothing and been quiet and just put my hand to the plow but the reality is is that there is very little different about what we do today that we haven't done over the last nine months beginning in july our team our elders made a decision that the church ought to be open and by the grace of god we've stayed open every sunday so i'd appreciate your prayers as we continue our ongoing what i would say work with different leaders and political systems and government type folks and and uh and we appreciate your grace this is you might be here today or watching online and you might say well i disagree and i have a different opinion and the good news of the gospel and the good news of church community is that you're invited to do life with people that you don't always agree with and that's actually a good thing not a bad thing and and i think sometimes people crave an uh an isolated echo chamber by which the only voice they ever hear is their own and we have a team of people and a church of people who don't always see things eye to eye and i'm not asking you to agree with every position i've ever taken in my entire life i am asking you to agree on this that jesus is worthy of worship and the church at least ought to be open for people who feel comfortable to be here and so at the end of the day that's our position and we want to extend grace and we also want to receive grace and we want to partner with people on every part of their journey and and it there's very rarely any environment that you will find where you absolutely a hundred percent agree with everything that's ever communicated in your life that doesn't exist in marriage it doesn't exist in friendships it doesn't exist in workplaces it just doesn't exist and sometimes we crave kind of this socialistic totalitarian utopia by which everybody has the same opinion that's really boring and that's actually not how god created us to function and one of the great things about church is that you can sit down next to people who have different perspectives on the issues of life and hopefully grow and be challenged and and all sorts of things and and together you and i we're going to make it we're going to be okay in mark 3 mark chapter 3 i want to read to you today a story about the life of jesus that i think reflects on some of the principles of of the moment or the cross-section of history that we find ourselves in today the gospel of mark is written by a ministry companion of the apostle paul a guy named john mark and john mark writes about his uh his his eyewitness account of the life and the ministry of jesus in the new testament it begins with four gospels matthew mark luke and john matthew mark and luke are what are considered synoptic gospels meaning they all tell the same story and they all follow a rather similar timeline but they share it from different perspectives and in the book of mark it includes a detail that i think is important for this moment this story that we read in mark 3 is repeated in matthew and it's repeated in luke but i'm choosing to read it out of the gospel of mark this morning because mark includes details that i think help give flavor and context and culture to the story in such a way that you and i can pull out some principles for our life and our development even in this moment the bible says this starting in verse 1 and again jesus entered the synagogue and a man was there with a withered hand i love the details of this story i love the way that mark writes about his perspective on the ministry of christ at this moment in the public ministry of jesus there is conflict all around him jesus is threatened his adversaries surround him a trap waits for him at literally every turn in the journey and yet nothing will keep him from entering the synagogue why because the business of heaven waits for no man and we know this from the life of jesus that his central obsession is to be about his father's business he'll remember when his parents leave him behind in the temple and they don't realize it until a few days later and they come back and they say why have you done this to us and he says i must be about the business of my father the business of bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth in a way that tangibly demonstrates the character and the ethic of the heart of god and in matthew in mark 3 we see jesus entering the synagogue and i think maybe because of our culture today we tend to not fully appreciate the story communicated in mark 3. and by that i mean this we see a man with a withered hand but i want to focus on that man for just a moment this morning it's likely his family is in poverty it's likely that he's looked down upon in his community he probably only survives with handouts from his friends the religious leaders would have viewed him as cursed by god he doesn't have a skill he can teach his children he might not have a wife who is willing to stay with him he has no recourse of action no governmental aid or assistance and a future that doesn't look so bright but when jesus entered the synagogue he found i get a water be great your boy gonna have a stroke up here bless god almighty it's likely his family's in poverty he's looked down upon by his community he already survived with handouts from his friends the religious leaders viewed him as cursed by god he don't have a skill he can teach his children he might not have a wife who is willing to stay with him he has no recourse of action no governmental aid or assistance and a future that doesn't look so bright but when jesus entered the synagogue he found this man see jesus has come watch not as a doctor for the healthy but instead for the sick he is not calling the righteous but instead the sinner under repentance watch what jesus says when he tells the parable of the great supper go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind go out into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled that means this if you came into this building with injury today jesus is looking for you if you came into this building with sickness today jesus is looking for you if you came into this building with depression today jesus is looking for you for the one who sees the sparrow has set his eyes on you and you know that your injury will either keep you from community or place you in community the choice is yours how about the injury of offense i've been hurt therefore i must stay hurt and allow my life to revolve around this hurt and in doing so develop an injury with no cure i love something john mark comer says he says don't give up on church live in a thick web of interdependent relationships quietly defy the individualism that is wreaking havoc across the west surrender your autonomy to the constraints of community for it is there that we are set free it's not just the injury of offense but how about the injury of disagreement started promoting this conference online i think the first comment we had on facebook was well does this church really believe with all really agree with all of bill johnson's theology i thought to myself i don't even agree with all of my theology and you know who doesn't agree with all of our theology the one that we worship and when we get to heaven all of our theologies are going to be corrected your timelines your fancy charts your flannel graphs all the ways that you've understood all the nice little boxes that you've placed him in all of the ways that you've understood your system of theology guess what when you get to heaven jesus is going to correct it it doesn't mean that we're not certain of a few things but i think so often we have an arrogant theology that says i figured out the end from the beginning and we reduce an infinite god to a finite minds and in doing so we think more highly of ourselves than we should well i can't be anywhere i disagree well it sounds like you're going to be alone it's the injury of offense or how about the injury of disagreement or how about the injury of preference let me be clear we are walking into what four generations people have been praying for and it might look different than what you imagined but when i think about what is happening here i sense the presence and the nearness of god we are hosting a move of god in the northwest and i think so often people pray for revival and then refuse to join it when it arrives because it dares to look different than what they had imagined and if you could for but a moment not build an altar to the nostalgia of what god did in the past and instead say god rework your story in my day in this way then maybe you too could be a part of what's happening here well i was going to look a little different that's the good news we serve a god who is more creative than our formulas and verse two the bible says this and they meaning the religious leaders watch jesus to see whether he would heal him on the sabbath so they might accuse him see the sabbath was a saturday of rest that the pharisees had added so many layers of complication to that it was impossible to fulfill and that's exactly what religion does it takes what is pure and simple and adds layers of complexity in such a way that the principle of the matter is lost in order to preserve the letter of the law watch the principle of the sabbath when you trust god with your rest he trusts you with his results when i trust god with my finite he trusts me with his infinite the religious leaders only watch jesus so they might accuse and i've found that some people in your life are just like that the only reason they pay attention to your social media is so they can accuse the only reason they watch their stories is they can mock the only reason they ask a question is so they can gossip friend don't lose sleep over people who are committed to misunderstanding you don't lose sleep over people who are committed to being offended by everything except sin i'm not saying don't be friends with people who have different perspectives i'm saying don't cast pearl before swine and then expect them to understand your heart [Applause] i don't argue with people online these days i don't have enough time we're doing more important work and sometimes we end up validating opinions that have really no foundation in the kingdom by giving our time energy attention focus and mental real estate to convincing people who refuse to understand our heart in the first place you know jesus didn't spend a lot of time debating with the pharisees he walked into the synagogue and healed a man with a withered hand and said what are you going to do with a god like that and walked out and i think sometimes because of our lack of power in our faith we have over relied on intellectual and dogmatic arguments to prove our point and if i can argue you into an encounter then the world can argue you out of an encounter so let's just be people who said i wasn't fine in speech or eloquent in talk but these men had been with jesus could we be those type of people in this world today [Applause] there's some people who are just committed to misunderstanding you and don't matter what you say no matter how you look it don't matter how many books you read it don't matter how many hoops you jump to they are committed to maligning and misunderstanding you and i tell you what 2021 would be a real good year to let go and move on and jesus said to them and by the way when the religious leaders accuse jesus they are partnering with who scripture calls the accuser of the brethren and you know who the accuser of the brethren is not a person with discernment the enemy god didn't give you discernment and wisdom so that you could partner with the accuser well i'm fine with questions i'm fine with different opinions i find with people who say pastor i see it differently than you but i love you and i love jesus and i think i will hang around until you say something too crazy i'm fine with that but we see in our culture today sociological constructs that are devoid of things like grace mercy or or or or any sort of generosity and all they do is just accuse and accuse and accuse and i'm just not gonna do the work of the enemy in this season he's already doing work overtime i'm not gonna help him now watch jesus said to the man with the withered hand come here let me read it again don't miss it jesus said to the man with the withered hand come here your injury is a source of invitation watch what jesus says come to me all who are weary and burdened and i will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls watch for my yoke is easy and my burden is light come on can i reimagine that verse for our context today come to me all who struggle with sobriety come to me all who deal with anxiety come to me all who face terrors at night come to me all who are abused and alone and i will give you rest your injury is also your invitation that's why we can't ever allow the accuser of the brethren to label us with disqualifications that keep us from the house of god the people of god or the presence of god the enemy will work overtime to get you to believe a conspiracy theory about yourself and in doing so disqualify yourself from partaking in his presence and i'll tell you what the more you miss church the less you miss church the more you miss the presence the less you miss the presence i'll tell you what man when you've been marked by the presence of god nothing else satisfies dry dead religion doesn't satisfy hyped up ted talks that mentioned god twice don't satisfy four minute worship sessions with no oil don't satisfy when you've been touched by the presence nothing else will do it for you i tell you what come to me oh who are wearied and burdened watch and jesus said to them is lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm to save life or or to kill it but the bible says they were silent and jesus looked around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart and said to this man stretch out your hand he stretched it out and his hand was restored when moses stretched out his hand god worked great wonders in the land of egypt when joshua stretched out his hand god gave the nation military victory when elijah stretched out his hand god raised a widow's son when jesus uttered these words stretch out your hand every jew in that synagogue knew what was about to happen the god of moses joshua and elijah would show himself strong it might not be perfect it might not look great and in fact it might not even be impressive to other people but if we'll just stretch out our hand watch what this god will do i'm reminded of the life of jesus working with the boy who only had five loaves and two fishes watching the widow who gave but she only had two mites talking about faith like it's only one mustard seed but if we will give what we've got watch what god will do and see jesus asked a question but he already knew what was in their hearts and the scripture tells us that he was grieved at their hardness of heart and he looked at them with anger we've so bought into a culturally relevant pacified version of jesus a jesus who never gets rattled a jesus who never confronts sin a jesus who never calls people to a higher level a jesus who just agrees with whatever the normative political narrative of that day is we forget that jesus was a revolutionary he was counter-cultural he commanded people to leave all forsake all and follow him he wasn't looking to build a big ministry but instead to build big people and what jesus did with 12 is more than so many do with 1200 and this jesus got stirred in his innermost he was grieved by their hardness of heart and his anger became a problem-solving emotion that resulted in the healing and transformation of a man watch what happens when god gets angry psalms 97 clouds and darkness surround him righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne a fire goes before him and burns up his enemies round about his lightning's like the world the earth sees and trembles the mountains melt like wax at the presence of the lord at the presence of the lord the horse shakes the heavens declare his righteousness and the people see his glory i think sometimes in life what we have done is we have divided in our own mindset emotions that are inherently negative or sinful and emotions that are inherently awesome and beautiful and righteous and what if i could challenge you today to let you know that your emotions take on the morality of the user that anger isn't inherently sinful in fact scripture says be angry and yet do not sin which means this god created me to feel god created me to be moved with compassion and those things often function as triggers for the supernatural and i don't know about you but it's high time somebody in this community got angry at what the enemy is doing in the northwest i don't know about you but i'm pretty angry at suicide in young people i don't know about you but i'm pretty angry at drug addiction and bondage i don't know about you but i'm pretty angry at mental illness and disease i don't know about you but god is looking for people who are willing to get stirred enough to do something about it and we can for the rest of our days curse the darkness or we can get moved in our spirit to do something about it and jesus was moved i love this watch what happens the pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the herodians against jesus how to destroy him the reason why i chose the gospel of mark to tell this story is because it includes this detail that no other author mentions the pharisees are so upset they are offended by everything except sin they are so irritated that jesus would have the goal to heal someone on the sabbath and the bible says after this man stretched out his head and all of a sudden was made whole the bible says the pharisees leave in a huff and immediately go to conspire with a group called the herodians now if that name sounds familiar it should be the herodians were a political cult allegiant to king herod and the pharisees teamed up with them in an attempt to destroy jesus if you hear anything today friend hear this the religious spirit and the political spirit are teaming up to try and kill a move of god and i will oppose both i will oppose dry dead religion that bores people to sleep while the world is going to hell and i will oppose political overreach that seeks to silence the church i will oppose a gospel that says we are saved by our works and i will oppose a government that classifies worship as non-essential i will oppose lukewarm christianity and i will oppose nanny state bureaucrats we must resist the religious and political principalities that seek to diminish the beauty and the brilliance of jesus come on stand to your feet pursuit let's give god a great shout of victory here in the northwest come on friend we are coming into a move of god in this region i sense the wind of the spirit like i've never sensed it before we will not shrink back in our hour of testing come on we will not develop a spirit of timidity or cowardice in our moment of opportunity for god has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind [Applause] and when the religious and the political establishment gathered around me to eat up my bones god defended me and when the religious and the political establishment tried to shut down the church god stood as our victor and when the religious and the political establishment started to bring accusation and start to sow seeds of discord and start to criticize every move we made it was god who defended our reputation and when the religious and the political establishment tried to shut down the church there was a group of people who rose up in the northwest who said we will not be silent we will not give up we will not be deterred we will not be depressed i might be pressed down and persecuted but we ain't dead yet come on there's another move in the [Applause] [Music] northwest [Music] fred that's what we're believing for and that's where we're asking you to stand with us in this season not because we always get it right but because we worship the one who does not because we have it all figured out but because we worship the one who does and in this season we're going to press in like never before and we're going to pray that his kingdom would come and his will would be done in the northwest even as it's being done in heaven and together you and i are going to step back and see god work in mysterious and in wonderful ways and here's what i hear from the spirit of the lord this morning and you haven't seen anything yet [Applause] [Music] come on would you raise your hands all across this room let me pray for you today father i declare courage over god's people i declare strength over god's people god today i pray that you would shake us loose from the opinions of people who are committed to misunderstanding us god today i pray that you would shake us loose from the fear that is often too small to be felt until it's too large to be broken god i pray today that you would cause us to stand strong in this hour that god you would add pillars to the house of god that you would add families to the kingdom of god that you would add orphans and prodigals to the church of god that in this season the injury would be the invitation and that as people draw near to god and as he draws near to us and as the person of jesus is lifted up by the church of god and he in doing so would draw all people unto himself and god will go give you the praise you the honor you the glory in jesus name come on all god's people said amen amen hey friend if you're here today and you like prayer before you leave and we got our prayer team up here in front love to challenge you and partner with you in faith believe for god's best for your life if not god bless thanks so much for joining us this sunday i hope to see you again next sunday let's do this thing together invite a friend let's build the house of god and see a move of his spirit like never before god bless you

Channel: The Pursuit NW

Views: 614

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: AH0ELnBJe20

Length: 100min 28sec (6028 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 14 2021