Catch The Fire Toronto - Live (August 15th, 2021)

[Music] is [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] beauty is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] hey [Music] [Music] you are holy [Music] oh [Music] but there's still good days ahead of us and uh this morning i was like oh he feels almost like the fall the weather i don't know i felt it was a bit cooler but it was so nice wasn't it uh it's so nice to to see you all so nice to be together and we're going to start as usual we're going to start with some worship and my thought this morning was it's not beautiful that we get to gather together to focus on jesus and to encounter him if we hear today is because we all had that revelation we we met someone who reconciled us with god god can't wait to meet with us and this morning i want to encourage you i want to welcome everybody online who's watching i want to welcome all of you here in the room and i feel this morning that jesus won't spend time just revealing his face forced to focus on him here's what i have on my heart for us this morning i feel that jesus wants to lead you to to to focus on him to see his eyes for the giant in our lives to become so small and a revelation i really had in my heart this week that i really nurtured the whole week was once you have him you have everything and that's very much what i feel for this morning the fact you have jesus you have everything so let's worship him this morning would you stand on your on your feet and if you're at home i encourage you to stand on your feet as well and focus your eyes on jesus and and protect this time we're gonna have an hour and a half together protect his time for the next 40 minutes just to look at him and to let him reveal his love really reveal his face to you so would you close your eyes we stretch out your hands towards him can we worship him with all our hearts this morning jesus we we thank you for your heart for us we thank you that you are willing to go on the cross for us if we gather together today is because you're so love the world and the father so loved the world that he sent you to die on the cross for our sins to reconcile us with the father whoa so jesus this morning we want to see you we want to love you thank you that is not a religion but it's a relationship with you and this morning we want relationship with you so holy spirit come and fill our hearts fill our soul fill our body with your presence make jesus real to us and together as a family jesus we want to tell you we love you so would you tell him with your own words would say would you tell him what you love about him would you start to say jesus i love you i love because you saved me i love because you're you're real to me or i love because i need you in my hope let's worship him this morning let's pour our hearts to him start to start to pour your heart with your own words this morning [Music] i'll come and let your presence fill our praise fill our praise come and let your presence fill this place come and let your presence fill our praise fill our praise come and let your presence fill this place oh come and let your presence fill our praise fill our praise come and let your presence fill this place oh come and let your presence fill our praise fill our praise come and let your presence fill this place [Music] will jesus shine through all the praises [Music] [Applause] [Music] your presence fill our praise fill our praise come and let your presence fill this place oh come and let your presence fill our praise fill our praise come and let your presence fill this place [Music] [Music] all the praises that we said [Music] me [Music] jesus shine through all the [Music] for praises here we are here we are jesus here we are yeah it's all for you [Music] here we are here we are [Music] it's all for you yeah here we are here we are [Music] yes it's all for you here we are here we are it's all for use all for you it's all for you [Music] here we are it's all for you [Music] here we are here we are here we are here we are it's all for you here we are here we are it's all for you [Music] here we are [Music] [Music] shout out let it shout out and bless the lord on my soul and let all that's within me shout out shout out and bless the lord on my soul and let all that's within me shout out let it shout out oh bless the lord [Music] let it shout out oh bless the lord on my soul and let all of us [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we [Music] we [Music] we love you [Music] we love you we love you [Music] it's all for you here we are here we are jesus here we are yes it's all for you here we are here we are sophie jesus it's all for you we fix our eyes here we are here we are [Music] it's all for you fix your eyes today here we are here we are [Music] it's all for you [Music] here we are here we are it's all for you jesus here we are here we are so far it's all for you here we are here we are it's all for you so for you hey [Music] so come fill our hearts [Music] [Music] today [Music] jesus come and fill our hearts lord come today [Music] hearts lord [Music] it's all for you here we are here we are only you only you it's all for you jesus here we are here we are this is all for you here we are here we are yes it's all for you [Music] here we are here we are [Music] so [Music] or you go before [Music] my victory [Music] you go before i know that you've even gone to me [Music] your love becomes my greatest defense and all i did was and all i did was worship and all that there was about [Music] you have saved me so much better your way [Music] when hallelujah so much [Music] better and you go [Music] your mercy is the shade you restore my faith and hope again and all that dear was praise and all i did was bow down [Music] oh so much better [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Applause] is so much better [Music] we trust you when i thought i'd lost [Music] picked up all my pieces put me back together you were the defender of my heart [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh is [Applause] [Music] hallelujah is you knew where i'd put me back together me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] is your name your name your name is the tower that i wrote your name your name your name will be my dwelling place your name your name and lord the rock did i cling to [Music] how i should pull on with your name your name your name the one i call to in times of trouble is your name your name your name the only name by which we save we call on you we call on you if we call on you and jesus [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] oh [Music] i'm gonna trust you [Music] jesus i won't look away [Music] i'm gonna trust you oh [Music] i'm gonna trust you [Music] [Music] i'm gonna worship and adore you [Music] put my hope in [Music] i will i will trust you [Music] jesus i won't look away i will trust you i will trust you cause you are good wow [Music] yes [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] enjoy [Applause] you today oh today today today [Music] for the faithful god [Music] everywhere [Music] god [Applause] [Music] [Music] come on let's clap for him this morning come on he's so good so good come on lift him up lift him up [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you [Applause] [Music] suck you've always been good jesus my jesus oh my jesus what a beautiful name jesus what a beautiful name [Music] oh we just continued to invite him today yeah just lift him up today wow [Music] [Music] just keep hanging on to him stay in this place such a beautiful place oh father we love your presence [Music] we love you you love you it's how we love you and we love your names [Music] we love your name [Music] we love your names we love your names [Music] we don't need a song to sing to be with you to connect [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh hallelujah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] imani [Music] inside [Music] are gone with us and we love your name and we love your names we love your name father we love your name [Music] we love your names [Music] [Applause] oh god us god for us imagine you well [Music] [Music] sun [Music] well you are god with [Music] us we [Music] we love your names [Music] as we love your name [Music] we love you [Music] we love your name [Music] [Music] messiah our constant provider [Music] [Music] the redeemed of the [Music] we lord your name [Music] please [Applause] your name we love [Music] we love your name [Music] we love you [Music] yes so [Music] keep your eyes on jesus this morning i really feel on my heart there's an invitation to all of us this morning to go back at the foot of the cross and to let in our lives take place the fruit of what jesus paid the price for these battles that you fight with your own strength that the victory is at the foot of the cross and i i see not just emotional and mental health battle but physical healing when jesus went on the cross he looked at us and he saw how lost we were [Music] and his passion to see her redeemed gave him the courage [Music] to suffer and to die on the cross for using my sins and maybe you know that already but this morning there's an invitation for you to go back to the cross and to surrender your life one more time once again so would you do that if you feel like going on your knees go on your knees or if you feel to take a posture to surrender there's a battle you're battling in your in your own life and the victory is at the cross it's not a battle for you to fight is a battle that you want already and as you surrender to jesus you're gonna yeah you're gonna see circumstances changing [Music] at the cross jesus died for you to have a full access to the holy spirit full access to the father so would you come with all of you to him today would you go on your knee and say jesus i give you everything the good the bad and the ugly i give my whole not just my circumstances i give you my heart i give you my future would you say that with your own words i give to you my family i give to you my health i give to you my well-being i give to you my my job i give to you my finances jesus pat the christ the price on the cross for the supernatural to take place in your life is not a battle for you to fight the main battle is for us to to surrender to him [Music] wow and as we do that again this morning maybe some of you are watching online maybe some of you are in the room and you have no idea what i'm talking about because you probably never met jesus you pretty heard about him but if you haven't noticed the the world is a mess things are upside down and and it's for one reason the bible teach us that as human we decided to go our way separated from god and that's why we're in that mess but there's one way back to our to reconnect with god is through jesus by faith in jesus [Music] and i did that 22 years ago i invited jesus to come in my heart and when i did that an overwhelming sense of peace and joy came in my heart and god made himself real to me and that's an invitation for you this morning if you don't live in peace if you don't know god that's an invitation for you to accept what jesus has done on the cross for him to pay the price he paid the price for you to have access to god he paid the price for all our sins so as we all do that as we go on our knees as we fix our eyes on jesus i want to invite each one of us everybody [Music] to invite jesus to be lord and savior of our lives again meaning the one that rule over our lives the one that we submit to the one that is a redeemer who come and redeem our lives we give our life to you jesus this morning would you tell him with your own words jesus i give you my life this morning [Music] i invite you to come and live in my heart and i surrender everything to you [Music] wow and as you do that this morning would you fix your eyes on jesus again all of us [Music] and this is compassion [Music] sees love sees authority sees beauty and would you tell him i love you jesus beautiful [Music] the most precious gift that has been given to man [Music] and as you surrender your life to him i want to remind you that he said it's better for him to go because he will send the holy spirit so as you at the foot of the cross i ask holy spirit that you come and fill us up this morning with peace with joy with love with awareness that god is real and god is good as we sing it this morning and as you move holy spirit come and and bring healing to our bodies this morning [Music] in jesus name [Music] whoa [Music] would you stretch out your hands in front of you and would you take another deep drink of the holy spirit and as you receive the holy spirit be thankful for jesus that when he suffer he saw you and i being filled with the holy spirit that's why you went to the cross for you to be filled with the holy spirit to be redeemed you have access to him right now so breathe in his presence and breathe out any anything that is not from god that is not him any depression any fears we receive you this morning and we love you [Music] oh my goodness i can feel so much of the holy spirit here and i know i know even you on the internet is encountering you you want to encounter you now god is on the move friends and he's looking for hungry hearts [Music] thank you holy spirit [Music] amen stay in his presence keep connecting with him keep focusing on jesus we have a great sermon coming up but this time of worship i feel we could spend all day worshiping when you see jesus everything makes sense suddenly and uh wow wasn't it beautiful can you give a hand to the worship team guys that was beautiful that's amazing thanks being anointed to do what they do for us to experience god is it's amazing how god does things happy sunday everybody great to see you all great to be wow back in person here and i have some short announcement we're going to transition into uh someone i'm going to invite steve to come on the platform um just a quick announcement you know when we pour our heart to jesus like that this morning that's the best thing you can do with your life to be at the feet of jesus to look at him to give him your all he encounters you and life is at his best you have a taste of heaven when you do that so and invite you to do that as a lifestyle and um part of it i i want to invite you to to even with our finances to to worship god meaning here's everything i have body soul and spirit everything i am and this morning i want to give you an opportunity to worship as well with your finances so you can make donations and um today either way on push pay you everything on the screen on how to make donations but you can as well in person today and only today will be in the bookstore if you go there if you need to pay by credit card or debit card you can make your way to the bookstore after the service or even now and you are you're going to be able to make payment there we want to thank you very much for all your donations everything we do runs because of your generosity so so big thank you and uh without further ado i want to welcome you steve and i have to say it's an honor to uh to introduce you steve no need to introduce you mind next doesn't everybody needs to be introduced because not everybody knows who i am that's right for all our guests today if you don't know steve yourself i didn't interest myself actually that's a good point this is david binet from france as you can see married a girl from our church from ireland so that makes him a canadian thank you steve you came to the school of ministry how many years ago 10 years ago 11 years ago and never left never left became canadians as a daughter's canadian so my wife irish i'm french and she's canadian a canadian baby perfect but it's for you today steve and steve i want to honor you because as a leader um when you work here but as you guys all benefit you know this leaders that make you thrive and uh steve his passion for christ and for for the for the church is contagious and uh and for the supernatural but i want to honor you for your character steve i feel my heart feel always safe around you because of your humility and that's the main thing i want to highlight your have a humble heart who is so willing to serve and um i i'm thankful to you to learn from you and to your job you lead us here so i know this morning is going to be rich in wisdom as as always but be ready for god to move out as steve speak because we know that god is about to move with power and we know he chose stephen sandra to lead us in the in that wave that's coming so be ready to receive i want to pray for you steve as we as we start but father thanks so much for steve thank you for his passion thank you for his wisdom [Music] thank you for his leadership and thank you for his love for you father and i pray wow i pray that as you speak this morning you will move among us with power and with love that we'll get to experience you at all new level this morning ask you to wrap your arms around stephen that he will feel your heart hear your voice and release your anointing this morning in jesus name we open our heart to receive whatever you put on his heart this morning amen amen thank you david morning church good to see you just a couple uh housekeeping things for those of you that are at home and for those of you that are in the room uh in two sundays from now it's september and the very first sunday in september i think it's september 5 we're going to start having two meetings on sundays 9 a.m like we did today and then 11 15. so that's a little change from way way back before covert began where we had 11 30. so it's 11 15 and 9 a.m are the other start times for the two meetings and the second sunday that we meet in september the 12th is when we're going to begin to have kids church youth church prophetic ministry healing ministry all those kind of interactive opportunities we're going to start those again so the first sunday in september is a practice for us just how do we get two groups of people in and out uh cleaning the building doing all those kind of things to make you very very safe for them in the building and those of you at home just to let you know that means we can double our capacity means you're able to uh to come and be here if you'd like or you can continue to be at home and watch church from home i hope you don't just watch church i hope you when you're at home you're participating and so like when we're having a ministry time today i want to encourage you if i say stand up want you to stand up in your home even if you're still wearing your pajamas uh stand up and and just fully participate with uh with what we're doing here i cannot believe it friends but uh we are finishing our year this month so we do our church year we follow the the bible calendar which is september to september is the uh the bible's god's calendar year and this past year we've been having a theme called the awakening and we've been pushing in and the key verse that we've been looking at from romans 13 is this you know that it is a strategic hour in human history wake up for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed night is dissolving away as a new day of destiny dawns and that's been our our sort of theme is we're in very uncertain times and whenever there's uncertainty it's always the time to push into god and to ask the holy spirit what are you doing what are you doing in my life what are we doing in the life of our church and friends i'm just very very excited for september september we're going to be kicking off a new year as it were in in terms of preaching and emphasis for our church and if you read the blog this week that santa and i had question and answer time uh september is going to be vision month we have been spending behind the scenes 18 months pushing in listening to prophets asking the holy spirit okay church has been rearranged all around the world what do you have for us what catch the fire toronto supposed to look like and we're going to be beginning to share that a little bit every sunday in september and the last sunday is going to be vision sunday sharing with you 35 statements of what we think god's wanting our church to look like in 5 to 10 years 35 statements you don't have to memorize them not going to be a test but just for you to know this is where we feel god's taking us taking us on a journey so good any of you watched cp 24 last night and see an outreach that was happening at the albion arena we take a team there pretty well every saturday unless it's raining we've been going since vaccination clinics began we've had a team of people eight ten sometimes i think the fewest we ever had was two of us and we give out water coffee granola bars to everyone heading in to get a vaccine and sometimes we've been on the back end where we have what we call a spirit cafe we take our prophetic people our healing people pray ministry team and we have a little pop-up tent and we do ministry the times that we've done that every time people come to know jesus it's been just amazing and yesterday they i didn't know this but they had carabana day at the arena to try to cause a a crowd to come and if you watch cp 24 or you go to my facebook page you'll see that there was a feature there was cameras there and i saw the camera guys so i'm staring at the camera guy and what i didn't realize that as i'm staring at the camera guy uh two caribbean dance girls that are too poor to have the full outfit so they just had a very small bit of clothing on but it sure looks like i'm staring at them but if you look closely no i'm not i'm i'm looking at the tv camera it just happens that the camera's between these two girls anyways i'm sitting there eating my lunch one of the so it looks a little awkward just i'm just giving you full disclosure where the camera was what i was looking at was cameron not the bikini girls not happily married sandra's right here yay sandra anyways it was a lot of fun and uh one of the one of the best parts i think i've said this to you before but when we do the outreach we thought we would be connecting with the people in the queue and we do but mostly it's you know they're they're moving in the into the arena getting their vaccines and it's fairly quick but what we've connected with is the team that do the vaccinations that do the organizing and yesterday there was probably about 75 volunteers and paid staff that were there to facilitate and we buy them a popeye's chicken sandwich every week and so we walk in and we wear these red t-shirts that say you know like we're the bosses basically it's what it says um and as soon as they see us they go oh hey you're back you know we're glad you know they start putting their order in they want spicy chicken they want regular chicken you know and we just have a wonderful time connecting with these people so i want to let you know that if you'd like to be part of part of that just send me an email steve.long at catchthefire.com and to give you the details uh for helping out at those outreaches perfect so friends we're finishing off this month uh in fact david who is just here i think is going to be preaching next week and we're going to be we're talking this month about one of our core values which is who we are in christ and trying to figure out trying to be confident of of uh what's our place in the kingdom of god how does god see us how do we how do we behave how do we act and today we're going to look at a story and we're going to talk about i am who jesus says i am so you have friends and family you have maybe a partner spouse you have parents and they say you know you're this this this and this and you grew up thinking well that means i'm this this and this but jesus often sees something very very different than we see and i'm going to suggest to you that what jesus sees about you is more important than what you see about yourself it has more opportunity to change your life for the better if we begin to believe what jesus says about us would you agree with that principle perfect so that's what we're going to be talking about today and we're going to talk about a lady named mary and mary in the scriptures there's several different mary's there's a mary a from magdala who the bible says was demonized and jesus cast out seven demons from this lady and then there's um uh mary the mother of jesus that's talked about and then there's another mary who is the sister of lazarus and martha and perhaps the best story that we know about this mary is that she's sitting at the feet of jesus one day there her and her sister are hosting jesus probably lazarus is still there as well and they're in mary and martha and lazarus home in bethany which is a suburb of modern day jerusalem and they're hosting jesus and remember martha's running around making an amazing meal for jesus and he's sitting on a couch on a chair somewhere and mary is sitting at his feet and just drinking in everything that he says and martha comes and says you know i could use some help jesus could you tell my sister to help me in the kitchen and remember jesus famously says she's doing the best she's she is doing something that is at the heart of god is that when god's in the room we pay attention to god yeah jesus i'm sure enjoyed a meal but he much more enjoyed someone who was listening to him and loving him and we have this amazing picture of mary who's this lady who just is passionate about jesus but did you know that's not where she started here's what john chapter 11 verse 2 says this mary whose brother lazarus now lay sick was the same one who poured perfume on the lord and wiped his feet with her hair so there's a story in many of the gospels about this lady who brings very expensive perfume washes the feet of jesus kisses his feet looks after him cares for him and john says her name is mary and she is the mary of martha and lazarus that's the girl and just for full disclosure luke's passage which tells this story is out of sync with the other stories about this lady and so some people feel well it's two identical stories but two different ladies i don't know that that's true i think it's one story and it's the same lady so here's the story from luke chapter 7. it says this when one of the pharisees invited jesus to have dinner with him jesus went to the pharisees house and reclined at the table a woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that jesus was eating at the pharisees house so she came there with an alabaster box of perfume and as she stood behind jesus at his feet weeping and she began to wet his feet with her tears and then she wiped them with her hair kissed them and poured perfume on them by the way friends whatever your salary is for year that's the cost of this perfume this is expensive stuff when the pharisee who'd invited jesus saw this he said to himself if this man referring to jesus were a prophet he would know who's touching him and what kind of woman she is that she is a sinner that was the name that he had for this lady because she lives a sinful life because she does sinful things and the bible doesn't say what those sinful things are but because she's a sinner sorry doing sinful things the label that she has in this town is cenur that's her label that's perhaps how she knows herself she's a sinner and then jesus turned towards the woman and he said to simon who's the pharisee do you see this woman i came into your house and you did not give me any water for my feet but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair you did not give me a kiss a greeting but this woman from the time i entered has not not stopped kissing my feet you did not pour oil on my head but she has poured perfume on my feet therefore i tell you her many sins have been forgiven that's an amazing statement he's not talking to her yet he's talking to his host as her great love has shown so jesus somehow in this action that she's doing sees an incredible love that's in her heart that's what jesus sees and remember we already told you she's going to be the one sitting at the feet of jesus later when jesus is in her house again demonstrating this incredible love that she has for god so jesus continues but whoever has been forgiven little forgives little and then jesus said to this lady your sins are forgiven and the other guests began to say among themselves they began to murmur began who is this who even forgives sins and jesus said to the woman your faith has saved you the word faith you remember is the acting on a god revelation on a god idea so jesus is discerning that she'd had this idea when she heard that jesus was at simon's house this wealthy man and she goes i know what i'm gonna do this thought came to her i am gonna take the most expensive thing that i have i am gonna give it as a sacrifice to jesus i'm going to and the other passages say prepare jesus for his burial in advance prepare him for the cross this is an anointing time a commissioning time as it were and she has this god thought this is what i'm going to do and then she followed through and that's what faith is is hearing god and doing your faith has saved you and we talked about the word saved a few weeks ago it's the greek word sozo it's the best word in the bible friends we can translate this your faith has delivered you your faith has healed you your faith has given you a breakthrough your faith has saved you that's the word sozo it's all encompassing for an incredible god encounter that's what this means she has just had a god encounter that she initiated because she had a god thought she did it and jesus acknowledges and and because he's in the spirit realm all the time he just sees what's going on and he goes oh my goodness and he says to this lady your faith has just given you the most incredible break that you could ever have so what's the breakthrough friends it's a simple little thing her identity was changed at that day at that meeting everyone knew her as a sinner everyone knew her as this this lady who lives a very very sinful life that's her label when she's walking anywhere that's what people know they just that's that's the lady and history not not even history tradition says that she's probably a prostitute and i find it fascinating i find it fascinating that and she's an uninvited guest but she knows where he lives and knows how to get in his house that says a little bit about perhaps who simon has had relationships with in the past who knows but she's she finds her way into the house and the other guests all know who she is this is her reputation they know who she is and they're talking about her how did she get an invite i thought just i thought it was just us meeting jesus and look look who's here today oh my goodness look what she's doing wow and friends you can you can guess that this incredible box of perfume that if it's just poured out on his feet the smell is overwhelming in this house beautiful perfume that costs a year's salary is being broken out so here's the summary friends i uh those of you know how i like to preach i like to read the story from the bible tell you what it means and then let's do it so that's we're going to do today so mary's known as a lady who lived a sinful life she's known as a sinner jesus says to her your sins are forgiven that's in the past starting over you gotta you got a future you have something ahead of you that you can now live for your sins are forgiven and jesus also talks about her faith that she's had a god thought that if i do this god will do something for me if i do this somehow i can i can hope for a difference a different life a different future and we don't know this friends when you and i get to heaven we can interview mary take her for coffee i think our coffee shop will be in heaven friends so just thinking that it'll be good coffee like that when we get to heaven so look up look up um at well cafe and take mary and say can i buy you coffee and when you're having coffee with her ask her what was the revelation that you believed what was the hope that god gave you in your spirit and friends i'm gonna guess it was this that i can have a new start if i connect with jesus i can do something that shows him how grateful i am for meeting him for the opportunity to have him do something in my life and if he's given all these other people breakthroughs perhaps she knew about mary of magdala who seven demons had come out of perhaps she knew about this simon this simon is mentioned in other places and he's called simon the leper meaning he used to be a leper lepers don't host house parties for jesus and friends if you're a leper but if you were a leper and had been healed by jesus you're going to have a dinner party and that's who this simon is he's a guy who's been healed of leprosy by jesus he's very very grateful he invites jesus and his friends and a hooker comes to the party as well and she's hoping for the very same kind of breakthrough that simon is known for people know that simon used to be a leper he's not a leper anymore because he met jesus yeah so i think this lady was believing that if if i do something for god sorry for jesus i don't know that she knew he was god yet if i do something for jesus perhaps he can help me perhaps life can change for me perhaps what do you see sorry what you see what others see in you isn't always what jesus sees i like that friends what i think about myself and what i hear others whispering sometimes about me and what i think that they're thinking about me um you know most of us when we're having negative thoughts we feel that everybody else sees all of our flaws all of our negatives and they're talking about me and when you feel that way it's one of the most overwhelming feelings of abandonment shame i don't belong and you sort of look and it looks like two people are talking and they're laughing and if you've had any kind of hurt in your past a thought is well they're laughing about me no no they're laughing about the blue jays lost last night they're laughing about you know whatever it was a joke that was just told but somehow when there's issues in our heart issues in our life and we look around and it seems like everyone else is enjoying life everything that they do everything that we feel is life's against me and this is just not good and i'm nothing i'm i'm not good enough for god i'm not good enough for my spouse i'm not good enough for my family and especially if your parents if your siblings if your partner your spouse if your boss are speaking negative about you we can very quickly begin to see all the negatives and feel all the negatives do you know that pretty well every single person who has thought about suicide has felt that they're rejected has felt that the best thing that they could do for their family and friends is to be gone and to take their life and life just overwhelms and are they bad people no they're not bad people but the the thoughts of what other people think and what they think about themselves and what satan adds into the mix because he is not your friends remember satan's job jesus gave his resume in john chapter 10. satan's job is to kill you to steal all of your assets all of them and to destroy every single relationship you have and yet somehow the world listens to those negative thoughts and we begin to take them on as if they're true and jesus says no no no no no no no no no no i've come to give you life and abundant life not just get through life i've come to change your life and jeremiah says and to give us a future to give us hope god's whole agenda friends is for us and if we're like this lady mary if you're like me if you're like you if you're like the people sitting around you often we're just really overwhelmed with what do people think and how do we get free how do we get into those those breakthrough areas i've shown you this photo before folks it's not flattering but this guy in the middle number 31 that's me in high school that's me in grade nine do you see the thick glasses technology's come a long way these are still very you know focused glasses my eyes my eye doctor i didn't see maria today but she's in the house she knows that my eyes are not very good i'm right on the line i'm i'm sort of i can't drive a vehicle uh without having glasses and do you see how the head isn't straight the head's sideways why why who walks around with their head in a photo for a championship basketball team because we we won uh the ottawa valley basketball championship grade nine i was on the winning team and what kind of guy who's just want to want a a championship has their head to the side someone who doesn't have confidence someone who feels shame what you can't see is my face is full of pimples in grade nine you can't see that what you can't see is lots of shame do you see how skinny i am compared to number 34. he's a beast if you've been on sports teams you'll know that there's twice as many people as actually get on the field and in basketball there was there's five guys who who play and then you have seven or eight subs and i was the sub for number 34. like he's a little taller than i am he's the same age as i am uh he's just bigger stronger and look at his hair doesn't he look like he knows what he's doing he's he's missed your confidence this this guy i can't even remember his name but he's mr cool everything that i was hoping for um he's got bigger stronger good looking no pimples nice hair and here's steve long and friends high school was a hard time for me because of what i looked when i looked in the mirror and what i saw was just oh my goodness that's not me i don't like me i think when i was probably about 14 i was doing something in the mirror brushing my teeth doing something like that and i actually cursed god and said why did you make me like this why did you make me skinny like i was this tall when i was 13 i'm 220 pounds 99 kilo and back then i was 140 pounds and i was just a skinny little runt i used to joke that if i had a cigarette in my mouth i would fall forward from the weight i was just a skinny skinny guy had to run around in the shower to get wet all those skinny jokes that was that was me and i was hiding and what i would do in high school was because because i'm clearly a freak how i look uh it to deflect attention i would be funny i would be the class clown and so my i began to be an extrovert in terms of humor and things like that to to hide and to mask all the stuff that's on the inside of how i feel about myself and sadly when sander marries me uh sander bought into the the pretend steve the good news is she saw behind all of those things but friends it wasn't until my 40s when i came to this church and began to have inner healing and deliverance ministry that those deep-seated things from a long time ago got healed and i'm very comfortable with who i am now i'm okay when i look in the mirror i'm i'm happy that i'm this tall i'm happy that i'm this heavy or light not sure which way you say it but i'm very happy in my skin now but that's not who i was and friends here's the good news is that one encounter that mary had with jesus it would appear absolutely transformed her and that one dinner party that she's not a guest's and just made her way in that one action that she did with jesus and jesus now speaks to her and says you're forgiven for your past all those things are gone you're a lady of love i see your heart full of love it's been misguided in the past it's been misdirected but i understand you're full of love that's who god's made you and then you're a lady of faith you're a lady who understands that when god speaks and you do it you can get your breakthrough you're smart enough to know that and mary had her breakthrough that day and from here on mary that we read in the scriptures the sister of lazarus and martha is a hero in the christian church she's one that we emulate and say we need to be like mary and sit at the feet of jesus where did she first sit at the feet of jesus perhaps as a hooker reputation and jesus saw through that friends and saw who she really was i'd like you to stand with me friends we're going to answer these two questions that we got on the screen those of you at home if you don't mind uh standing with me as well so the first question i'd like you just to close your eyes look at the questions first question is who do you see when you look at me so we're talking to jesus so just close your eyes now and just ask him to to give you a word a thought so what is the word that jesus wants to say to you today of how he sees you for mary it was three words forgiven loved faith just say jesus is there a word for me what's the label what do you see in me that perhaps i don't see in myself and friends as soon as you hear something can you just put your hand up just so i know when how many people have heard something i'm not going to ask you to say anything today but i want everyone to be able to participate and hear from god today those of you at home if you're in the chat just write in the chat i heard something if you want to write it in you can but you don't need to ask jesus who do you see when you look at me do you see failure do you see hopeless do you see shame i'm going to guess friends he doesn't see any of those things he sees what god's able to do in you and he sees your future he sees you as someone who has received forgiveness jesus sees us as someone who he died for in the cross as david said earlier all of our breakthroughs are at the cross because of what jesus has already done and you remember the bible says that on the cross he took our shame it would appear that jesus was naked on the cross no clothing his body is mangled ribs open gashes in his side not just blood coming out of him but body liquids coming out of his body as he's dying at a cross and he did that for you and for me to say forgiven loved you have a future second question take a look at it on the screen jesus what do you want to say to me about my future just close your eyes again jesus what's what's what's coming up for me and he could talk about a purpose in your life he could talk about your personality jesus what do you want to say i just heard the brian johnson song of he's still with me after all these years i'm hearing jesus say that he's proud of me i hear him say that he's happy with the journey that i've pursued to push into god some of you won't know this but the last job in the world that i wanted was to be a pastor because my dad was a pastor and i just felt that's the lamest job you could ever get it's just like oh my goodness why would you want to do that and yet that's what the lord had for me i remember when he spoke to me i was 18. and he said you're going to be a pastor and i was like i don't think so and i had a couple jonah years of sort of running from god feeling miserable and i can remember i decided okay i'll give i'll give god a summer and i quit my really good paying job i think i was making 20 an hour in 1978. that was good money and i quit that so that i could work at a christian kids summer camp and i said god i'll give you my summer i'll give you july and august and then we'll see can you get off my back if i do that is that good enough to be instead of being a pastor can i go to kids camp for two two months and while i was there god used me and affirmed yep this is your destiny and i enrolled in a bible college for a year i enrolled in the four year course which you could just take the first year of ended up finishing four years started dating sandra found out as i'm dating sandra that the lord spoken to her when she was 14 to say you're going to marry a pastor and it's like oh well i guess she's dating me that's who i am and just love to be on this journey friends and i love the story of mary because mary's me marries you marries you god sees who we see the worst of ourselves and he sort of has a big smile shakes his head sees into our heart and says no no no i died for you i gave my life so that you could have a breakthrough how do you close your eyes one more time let's look to heaven this time how about you just put your hands out a little bit [Music] god could you say the word sozo over my life again could you speak those incredibly powerful words steve long receive sozo receive salvation receive deliverance receive breakthrough receive healing it's the if i could say it it's the magical word it's not magic it's the anointed word for when god breaks into our lives and things change and just talk to jesus right now and say jesus i need more of your change i need more of your breakthroughs in my life i'm saying again to you jesus that what you say about who i am is is more truthful than what i think it's more truthful than what my friends think my school teachers thought what what you say that's who i am and friends remember the bible says this paul the apostle says that we're already seated in high high places and heavenly places when god looks at us he sees through the filter of what jesus has done for us and god today looks at you and me and we're already seated in heavenly places we're already above all the issues that's how god looks at us and church family those of you in the room those of you at home want to speak this blessing over you [Music] you're god's family you're his children his children you're a son you're a daughter the bible says that god knows your name knows your name and he's for us he's not against us he's with us at all times that's what the word immanuel means always with us jesus is the god of abraham isaac and jacob he's the god of generations always always with us he's with our parents he's with us he'll be with our kids he's for us in holy spirit i'm asking that you would come now and do that sozo stuff and friends for some of you you need to believe that right now the the negative words over your life the negative things that you've been feeling about yourself that they are gonna go right now as god speaks over you and he says sozo change breakthrough [Music] i woke up this morning and i was taken to a passage in second corinthians i can't remember exactly where it is i'm going to say like maybe 11 or 12. and it's where paul talks about one of the hardest times in his life where he says that he has a thorn in his flesh and it's a new phrase that he's never used before and so as soon as he says that he tells you what he's talking about and he says this it's a tormenting spirit it's a tormenting spirit and you remember he three times he said jesus please heal me take this away three times and because paul had massive pride issues that he talks about he acknowledges big issues of pride remember he's a pharisee of the pharisees he's a roman citizen he he's in the elite of culture he was a lawyer went to the best private school in the knowing hebrew world gamalio he's up there he's an elite person struggles with pride and now this tormenting spirit is coming against him it's a suicidal spirit that's what it is a tormenting spirit all against his identity challenging him and three times he says god can you can you take this away and god says yeah i can but for you because of who you are you're going to feel my grace upon you and so i'm going to have a very specific time of prayer friends right now and i'd like you to be very vulnerable because there's people in this room today there's people that are watching that really struggle with suicidal thoughts self-harm those kind of things and friends if that's you we want to pray that off of you because two options as paul said god just takes it off of you and you never have it again that's plan a that's the good one that's what paul wanted plan b is god's going to be with you every single time those struggles come so can i get you to be very vulnerable this morning and if you're in the room and you struggle with self-harm suicidal thoughts from time to time can i get you to hold your hand up really high don't be ashamed of this just go ahead friends because i know there's lots of you okay there's some people have their hands up those of you that don't have this challenge can you just point your hand look around and see somebody's got their hand up keep your hands up friends and the church just stretch your hands to someone who's got their hand up and let's pray for them [Music] father we're blessing our friends this morning father in the name of jesus may those tormenting spirits be lifted off of them right now as jesus said that he could do we're asking that those voices be silent those voices that say harm yourself cut yourself those voices that say end it life would be better your family be better off if you went around father we silence those words right now we command those demonic spirits that have had assignment to shut up and to get out right now in jesus name and father we're blessing that the closeness of jesus would be with you at all times that you'd never feel alone you would know that god's with you that his love is extreme for you you'd always feel the kindness of god around you spirit of god come and be with us how about everyone put your hand in the air now everybody jesus i need you how about you just say that jesus i need you i need you more than ever need you how about you say this i am who you say i am that's who i am period dot exclamation mark and just let the holy spirit come friends let him wash over you [Music] may his grace grace his second chances [Music] grace is get a bad golf shot and you get to do it again no penalty grace is a redo on an exam don't count the first exam [Music] grace is god with us every single day [Music] and we don't do anything to deserve grace it's all because of god's love for us because of what god sees in us and friends because of what god sees in you he asked jesus to go to a cross for you to die for your sins so that you can be part of his family that's who jesus is he saw the potential in each of us and holy spirit we're asking that you come and cleanse our hearts cleanse our emotions cleanse our physical bodies today we welcome your presence can you feel the holy spirit around you friends [Music] can you feel weight on your hands tingling in your body feeling peace that's all god that's god [Music] it's god with us with us thank you father come come for those of you at home we have a wonderful prayer team that's ready to minister to you right now and there's going to be a link on the screen in fact it's there right now ctftoronto.com get prayer now if you click on that and go to that website for the next half hour there's a team of people right there ready to minister to you pray with you they can do prophetic ministry they can do healing ministry they can do general ministry amen so those who church at home god bless you we're going to say goodbye to you and so we'll see you next sunday church in the room same thing we have a prayer ministry team that are heading into the back room over here and if you'd like someone to minister to you prophetically healing ministry or just general i just need someone to pray with me this morning and agree with me then i want to encourage you to head into this room uh we're doing all the social distancing kind of things keeping your mask on all of those kind of things church family thank you so much just to let you know sandra and i are going to be struggling from the for the for the lord the next two weeks we're taking some vacation time and so we won't be here the next two sundays but god bless you you're in good hands with other uh of our team and we will see you labor day sunday uh first sunday in september we're back we'll see you then but god bless you and as you see we need to exit the building and so pick up all your belongings and god bless you church we'll see you next week [Music] 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Channel: Catch The Fire Toronto

Views: 1,732

Rating: 4.7460318 out of 5

Keywords: Worship, Praise, Canada, Music, Christian, Spontaneous, Live, Encounter, Presence, Transformation, Church, Production, Broadcast, Stage Design, Musician, Catch The Fire, Christmas, Message, word

Id: fMH_prMcaDs

Length: 106min 16sec (6376 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 15 2021