Catch The Fire Toronto - Live (August 29th, 2021)

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hey friends steve long here my wife sandra and i we are the senior leaders of catch the fire church in toronto and it's our privilege to welcome you to be part of our online church family we have thousands of people in southern ontario thousands of people around the world that this is how they do church and so we want to welcome you whether this is your first time or you're a repeat part of catch the fire by watching our meetings being a part of our meetings and friends i want to encourage you don't just watch participate we are purposely doing what we're doing so that you can experience god today the purpose of our church is to help people to encounter god's transforming presence so i want to encourage you during the worship time during the teaching time during the ministry time and there's going to be a couple different ministry times offered participate pretend that you're in the front row of our of our live church meeting and so when they say stand stand if they say put your hand up friends i want to encourage you participate in the meetings and you'll be able to experience god's presence today friends we have lots of things that we offer as a church and for those of you that are considering making catch the fire church your church there's three things that we encourage people to do that sort of get the fullness of our church family and number one is by attending and there's two things that you can be a part of you can be part of every sunday we have a live meeting you can watch it on demand as well we have live prayer ministry we have life prophetic we have live healing that takes place every sunday we have live small groups that take place every week you can be a part of all of those communities all of those teams you can be a part of you can serve and that's number two you can serve on these teams you don't have to be in our building to be able to serve you can serve from your home like many of our small group leaders are doing and number three is giving everyone who's part of our church family is encouraged to equally uh sacrifice to equally give to be able to cover all the expenses of our church and we have some incredibly generous people and it's like as all of us do a little we do a lot together so friends expect to meet god today thank you so much for joining us and i want to bless you to encounter god's transforming presence the one whom we adore the one whom we love and the one who loves us and so this morning i would like us to just stand together you know god has been speaking to me about standing recently i share maybe a little bit later but there's something in standing and even when we stand to our feet there's a declaration that we're making that we're standing here in the presence of god to worship him and so i would like to start off by reading a scripture this morning that's been on my heart and i believe it's the call of the lord to us today to remind us of who we are to remind us who we carry inside of us to remind us that we are instruments of love and that love we turn back to the one who loves us above anybody else who can love us and give him our abandoned worship i'm reading from first peter chapter two and i will start at the beginning and it says therefore i'll sorry i'll read from that verse 4 as you come to him the living stone rejected by humans but chosen by god and precious to him you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house say i'm a spiritual house a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god through jesus christ for in the scripture it says see i lay a stone in zion a chosen and precious cornerstone and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame now to you who believe this stone is precious but to those who do not believe the stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone and a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them to fall i love what he says in verse nine whenever there's a but we take we take notice and pay attention he says but you are a chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation god's special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light once you were not a people but now you are the people of god once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy come on we have received mercy we are royal priesthood when you are royalty you do not care you do not care about what's happening around you you take your position as royalty and you declare what comes out of your mouth and this morning we are standing in our royal priesthood before the great priest who is jesus christ and we are going to worship him with all of our hearts because the bible says that jesus is the great savior jesus is the one whom we worship he's worthy of our worship on the mount of transfiguration the father looked down at jesus and he said this is my beloved son listen to him everything that we do is about jesus and so this morning i want to share with you guys that i've been hearing this and i know some of us don't like certain words because in our minds you know we it just uh it sounds like something negative but as i was driving in this morning to church i heard the lord say give me violent worship this morning come on are we ready to give him violence is the passion of our hearts and i want us to remember jesus wanted us to remember god the father wanted us to remember who we are in christ jesus and that's the one from whom we have obtained mercy we're gonna worship him with violent worship this morning with the passion of our hearts so jesus we worship you we come before you this morning with adoration we come before you lord god with thanksgiving and we come lord god to surrender the worship of a whole being before you to declare that you are the one who deserves lord god all glory all worship we bless you this morning jesus and we say you are the one who we adore you are the one we come to worship you are the one o lord god that we give a full abandon to this day we say welcome holy spirit and help us to worship jesus with all of our hearts all of our souls all of our minds to worship him in spirit and in truth amen [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] god you love goes on and on time and again we've known your kindness peace [Music] always the same your love surrounds us [Applause] [Music] you [Music] god your goodness never sleeps there's no promise you won't keep time and again you stand beside us [Music] [Music] faithfully [Music] thank you for the blessing that is thank you that you're faithful in the mystery thank you that you're working when i cannot thank you that your love has got a hold thank you for the blessing that is thank you your paper is me [Music] thank you for the blessing that is over my life thank you that your love is oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] faithful [Music] know your love won't stop [Music] [Music] you are good you are good when there's nothing good in me you are love you are love on display for all to see you are light you are light when the darkness closes in you are hope you are hope you have covered all my sins you are peace you are peace when my fear is crippling you are true you are true are joy you are joy you're the reason that i see your death is lost [Music] nothing compares to your embrace light of the world forever [Music] if you are more you are more than my words will ever say you are lord you are lord all creational proclaim you are here you are here in your presence [Music] [Applause] [Music] the riches of your love will always be enough nothing compares to your embrace night of the world forever [Applause] [Music] the riches of forever [Music] got you forever [Music] no other name jesus jesus my hour said no other name jesus oh jesus said no other name jesus for jesus for jesus [Music] [Music] will always will always be enough [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] this morning [Music] forever [Music] no one else has my heart today but you jesus [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] jesus jesus [Music] jesus jesus jesus [Applause] jesus jesus jesus [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus jesus jesus come on just say the name of jesus all across this room let's just lift up our voices and declare the name of jesus come on [Music] come on jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] every knee bowels and every tongue must confess that jesus christ is lord at the name of jesus demons flee at the name of jesus sickness goes in the name of jesus we see miracles take place do you believe this morning [Music] the name of jesus goes higher higher higher it goes higher [Music] jesus you are higher [Music] the name of jesus you are higher higher [Music] [Applause] jesus you are jesus [Music] [Applause] jesus oh jesus you are higher [Music] jesus [Music] jesus you are higher higher [Music] much greater [Applause] [Music] [Music] than our circumstance greater than how we feel we don't let our emotions dictate how we worship you god so even beyond how we might feel this morning i declare that jesus you are higher come on if that's you this morning i just want to encourage you to lift up your voice to lift up your hands to lift up your your heart and just say jesus you are higher then how i feel and what i'm going through [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Laughter] [Music] jesus [Music] [Laughter] [Music] do you believe this morning [Music] do you believe this morning come on i don't know about you but this gets me so excited [Music] [Laughter] because it means that i don't have to do anything i get to lay my burdens down i get to lay all fear down all anxiety down all stressed out and i just get to say jesus you are higher jesus you are greater [Music] that's all he wants [Music] all fear is lifted all anxiety is lifted and all pressure and i just i just have a sense this morning that there are some of you here that have been feeling a lot of pressure on your shoulders pressure to perform at work or at home or to provide for your family or whatever the case might be [Music] and if that's you i just i just feel this morning just to almost just to release a big breath of relief just take a deep breath and just release it to him and i just see the father just coming like this and just just lifting it off he's lifting it off this morning all the pressure all the noise in your in your mind seeing that you're not good enough that it's not gonna work out that it's too difficult but jesus says nothing is impossible with me [Music] nothing is impossible with me [Music] so the pressure is off wow the pressure on our shoulders is off and he says let me carry it let me carry it jesus we let you carry it if that's you just say that jesus i let you carry it i let you carry it i'm tired of doing this on my own i'm tired of striving of trying so hard [Laughter] [Music] i let you carry god oh there's so much peace and joy in letting him do it thank you god you are higher higher higher [Music] you are higher higher higher than all things jesus you are high higher [Music] higher than all things jesus you are higher [Music] jesus you are [Music] [Music] oh he's so pleased this morning at the sound of your heart of your worship oh jesus [Applause] jesus you are jesus you are [Music] higher than all things jesus you are higher higher higher [Music] jesus jesus you are i am jesus you are higher higher than office jesus you jesus [Music] jesus you are [Music] i things [Music] hey [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] foreign [Music] you've been so so good [Music] before i took a breath you breathed your life in me you've been so so kind to me and all the overwhelm never-ending reckless love god oh it chases me don't fight still i'm [Music] i don't deserve it still you give yourself away oh the overwhelming never ending reckless love of god [Music] [Applause] [Music] when i was your still your love fought for me you've been so so good to me [Music] when i felt no worth you paid it all for me [Music] you've been so so kind [Music] [Music] oh [Music] i don't deserve it still you give yourself away oh the overwhelmingly [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] there's there's no shadow you won't light a mountain you won't climb up coming after [Music] coming after me [Music] coming out why [Applause] oh i don't deserve it till you is [Music] [Music] coming out of the bed coming off my [Music] [Music] light [Music] coming after me [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh it chases me dog fights in life and i couldn't earn it i don't deserve it still you give yourself away all the overwhelming [Music] never-ending reckless [Music] oh [Music] jesus who brings me through jesus it's always you jesus [Music] you're the one you're the one we can't depend on the one we can rely on when we need you [Music] you say you never leave us [Music] never forsake us you always come through it's just what you do here you always come [Music] reckless love of god oh it chases me dog fights till i am found this [Music] never ending reckless [Music] it's who you are i sense that there's a call from god this morning [Music] for us to first [Music] acknowledge who he is [Music] acknowledge who we are in him [Music] it feels like the lord is speaking and he's been speaking clearer and more than i personally have heard him in a long time [Music] jesus as i said earlier high priest is seated on the throne he makes intercession for us with the father [Music] as you know shalom was talking about jesus being higher and how she she doesn't need to be anxious or careful for anything because she knows that jesus has this there's also another aspect of us believing and knowing that jesus is our high priest and our intercessor and our savior and our lord in john jesus talks about him being a good shepherd [Music] word good it precedes shepherd which means there could be bad shepherds but jesus says i am the good shepherd and my sheep hear my voice [Music] are you hearing his voice today [Music] are you really hearing his voice today well i want to tell you i was on a sabbatical for a month and i was at the lake and i came back home with swimmer's ear if you know what that is and my ears blocked my right ear interesting it's my right ear someone else that i know has their right eye blocked and they cannot see out of their right eye in the last few days the same thing with me and i started to seek the lord and ask him what this means you know prophetic people we tend to get a little bit you know we want to go digging everything is a prophetic uh demonstration well in this case i believe it is last night i gathered some intercessors and we were praying [Music] and we were praying about this and praying about this morning's meeting [Music] this morning as we're driving into work uh my one of my intercessors that comes in with me diane wallace we're praying and asking god again about this whole blockage the ear [Music] and she had a vision of these microphones falling from the ceiling right here on the stage several microphones just dropping and as we prayed we felt that god was saying listen i'm speaking listen i'm putting more microphones here so that you could hear clearer and as we started talking she was sharing a little bit about war and i was reading about that yesterday and it says that during time of war that the soldiers don't hear on the battlefield and many of them come home with tinnitus and deafness or partial deafness because when you're in battle and war you don't hear i hope you're hearing me i am not prophesying war [Music] but it feels sometimes like we're in a battle and we're in a war and in those times we become anxious and we become fearful and we do not hear the voice of the lord very carefully and we don't hear it clearly so this morning i want to encourage us come on let us come to our high priest this morning if you feel like that's where you've been maybe it's in your job maybe it's any relationships maybe just living in today's world feels like that again i said i am not prophesying war what i'm saying is that if you have felt like this is what the atmosphere feels like around you come on let's stand up we are going to pray that god would take the blockage take that blockage out that we will hear him clearer than we've ever heard before because god wants to speak to his children and he wants to speak clearly he speaks clearly and he wants to give us the true word of the lord in this hour come on let us not depend on others to hear from the lord for us we can all hear his voice so come on let us start to pray father we thank you that you are the god who created the ear the word of god says don't you who created the ear hear yes you do hear god but you also want us to hear and so this morning father we are saying that whatever is going on around us we choose lord god to position our ears so that we can hear from you we can hear your voice come on put your hands on your ears father we ask that you would come today and that you would anoint your ears anew and afresh oh lord we're asking that whatever bacteria got into our ear physical or spiritual bacteria you would come and cleanse our ears today father we're asking that whatever got in and blocked our hearing today god we surrender we surrender our ears to you we give you your our ears god and we say will you now speak will you speak by your holy spirit [Music] father come remove anything wax spiritual wax physical wax and cleanse our ears pour in a fresh anointing of your oil o lord god you know that's what shepherds would do with their sheep they would regularly pour oil in their ears to keep it from getting parasites so father we say in the name of jesus if any of the spiritual parasites have made their way into our ears today we ask you to come with your oil to pour it in to cleanse your ears oh lord god to annihilate every parasitic thing speaking into your ears and god give us clean refreshed anointed ears to hear you yes god [Music] father we ask even for our sight today that you would make us sights sharper than ever we're asking lord that you will give us eagle's eyes this morning that we will see far we will see white but most of all we will see what you want us to see father we ask that you will cleanse your eyes from any influences that have caused us to see differently from your heart [Music] father we ask that you would help us to be deserting of the influences that impact our eyes and our ears in this world today [Music] and god most of all we ask that you will draw hearts onto you god and that you would remind us of whom we are carrying inside of us and all this week the lord has been speaking to me and he says remember who you carry inside of you and what comes out of you needs to be demonstrated in that and he says i want my people to be remember i said to my disciples by your love for one another they will know you are my disciples and today father we're asking that you will remind us and it's not a feigned love it's not a word that comes out of our mouth but it's the depth of jesus's love inside of us that reminds us to love one another to love god to love others and so god we say fill us with love this morning fill us with a new impartation of your love that as we leave this place and we go into our communities that the love of jesus christ will be so evident that people will be drawn to us because of that love father we thank you that love brings unity i know we can't hold hands in here right now unless you're with your own family but i want you if you're with someone just grab a hold of their hand this morning and let's just believe if they're in your your bubble or your community come on let us reach into jesus heart this morning say jesus we are crying out for more love we are crying out for your love to come and flood our hearts we are crying out for love for one another and we're crying out for love oh lord god for those that don't know you we're asking jesus that we will demonstrate that love that wherever we go it will just emanate from us that we will ooze love our lord god in our actions and our words and in our thoughts to one another jesus we thank you that you are the author of love and we love because you first loved us and so we ask again god help us go deep into our hearts this morning and god remind us that we carry your precious holy spirit in us and jesus said it's not what goes into a man that defiles him it's what comes out we say god help us to be a people that speak blessing at all times that whatever comes out of us will be a blessing to others we're crying out for that love this morning and we thank you god for the reminder that we carry a holy spirit inside of us our lead and our guide who helps us to love we thank you today lord that as you clean our ears and as you cleanse our eyes that we will leave this place renewed refreshed we will see things differently we will hear clearer and as you say this is the way walking it we will walk in at god thank you jesus thank you jesus father this we want to take a moment to repent right now that wherever lord god we have allowed ourselves to listen to listen to the enemy's voice instead of yours we repent of that we ask your forgiveness lord and we say thank you we have renewed ears clear ears that we will hear your voice that we will hear you speaking to us that we will hear the true word coming from our father in heaven [Music] oh thank you jesus we make agreement lord some of us are holding hands and some of us are making agreement in our hearts with your holy spirit [Music] for cleansed ears cleansed eyes and for love deep inside our souls and our spirits that will define us as your children we bless you in jesus name thank you lord thank you jesus thank you jesus i feel like some of you here are having a little bit of a struggle and you you're trying to lock into jesus but it's probably because you haven't made a commitment to him you haven't given him lordship over your life and so this morning i'd want to speak to some of you here that have never said yes i want a relationship with jesus yes i believe jesus christ is lord and savior the bible says if you will believe in your heart and you will confess with your mouth that jesus christ is the son of god that he is the savior of the world [Music] that he will come to you that he will have relationship with you and you will have relationship with him so if you have never made that commitment and you have found that this has been a hard time a war for you where your hearing has gotten dull and you want it sharper and you want to hear from the good shepherd jesus i want to invite you it's a very simple act of belief very simple act of saying i believe you jesus i believe you came to this earth to die on that cross for me and when you died on the cross all my sins were forgiven all the wrong things i've ever done all the bad decisions i've ever made have been forgiven and that i can now have a relationship with you i want to say if you pray that prayer or if this is what you're feeling in your heart and you would like us to pray for you please come up here to my left we've got a ministry team that would be happy to pray with you i just want to say please do not hesitate if you know the holy spirit is speaking to you and you're feeling feeling the pressing of holy spirit on you that that you know the pressing of the holy spirit is just that in your heart you know that you need to do this today the bible says today is the day of salvation please come on up yeah thank you jesus thank you jesus come on let's encourage them thank you jesus come on up we have a team that's going to pray for you and i know there are others here you're just waiting i don't know why you're waiting but there are others here just come on up jesus is waiting to say hello to you our team is waiting to pray with you and to introduce you to him and if you're online and you've made this decision we'd like to ask you to go to ctf toronto slash get prayer now we have a team that would pray with you online so that ctftoronto.com front slash get pray now bless you guys bless you for making this decision for jesus oh thank you lord whoa well welcome everyone again it is so good to see you great to have a full house again and um to worship god i'm just going to ask satya and shalom to stay on here for a minute uh they're taking a sabbatical am i allowed to say i know that was kind of awkward right um satya and saloma are taking a six month sabbatical and they're going to the beautiful island of jamaica where they'll sit on the seashore and seek god and have have communion sorry yeah that's where shalom's family is uh residing right now and shaloma lived there were you born in jamaica yes she was so they're going to have some family time but they're going to have some time with the lord as well on the beach i want you guys come on up friends why don't we stand up we're just going to pray for them for a couple of minutes let's just release come on what you know we're a church who believe in impartation and release so come on let's stretch our hands towards them and let's bless them to have a great time of family and time with holy spirit father we bless satia and we thank you for the hearts god we thank you for the hearts of worship and we ask lord that even as they go on the sabbatical that father you will meet them that father himself will come and meet them that you will minister into their hearts god that you will go deep in your revelation of what you want to give to them in this season we ask holy spirit that you'll open up the way that you'll open up doors for them that there will be surprises and lord god there will be suddenlies that they will have experiences with and god that they will hear from you and they will know where you are calling them to god in their relationship with you and god we ask that as they come back that they will have deeper revelation that they would have met with the father they would have met with jesus and they would have met holy spirit in great and awesome ways father we thank you for providing all that they have need of traveling lord traveling favor and father everything that that they would require for the sabbatical that you will be the provider that you are to your children in jesus name we pray amen bless you guys have an awesome time bless you well friends a couple of things i'd like to remind you before uh we have david boney come up and share with us um at the end of this meeting we've got a ministry team and we've got a healing team um that are online praying for that that are happy to pray for you we also have a prophetic team that ministers to people and this happens earlier around nine o'clock but for the prophetic team you need to go on a website on the prophetic team or under a prophetic word and register in advance the ministry team will be available to you we've got them on site and we've got them online so if you're online again you'll go to ctftoronto.com slash get prayer now and you will be able to access that we'd like to remind everyone that our we are so thankful that we've been able to have kids camp and youth camp this week yay they're all leaving today for camp and we would like to ask that you please keep them in your prayers cover them this week whenever holy spirit reminds you please pray for them we will all be praying for them as well next week what's next week people yes it's labor day we know it's labor day weekend but next week is the beginning of september and we have some exciting news about that we've had a full house for a while now and we have felt that in order to accommodate every one of our church family that wants to come to sunday morning meeting we are going to two meetings yay so everyone say two meetings next sunday you have the choice of going online to register for the early meeting at 9 15 or the second meeting at 11 30 and we'll still have our ministry team and a prophetic ministry as well so um thank you guys uh for registering and um and that makes it so much easier for our team when you come into the building thank you again um i believe that we have a special uh message from pastor steve long so if we could run that now that would be great hey friends steve long here and it's my privilege to share something to you as we get ready to give our ties and offerings and for those of you that pre-give and can i just say for those of you that are newer to catch the fire 85 percent it's probably more than that now of our church family give with a phone app that's called pushpay and if you need any help with that contact us if you're in the building today go to the little table by the door on your exit one of our team will be able to help you if you're at home call our office send us an email we'd love to be able to help you set up for you to be able to give the easiest way possible is through online giving through a phone app etc etc friends here's what i want to talk to you about today when jesus was asked he had people that were coming trying to trap him in an argument and they said uh you know here's a roman coin what should we do should we pay our taxes should we not pay our taxes and jesus said like well who's whose image is on that coin and it was the roman emperor caesar and he said famously he said give to caesar what's caesar's and to god what's god's and i want to challenge you what's god's what's the part that is god's of your life and i personally believe that that's we give a tithe of all of our income all of our income that we're supposed to give a tithe of that to the lord into the ministry and we're also supposed to when the lord says to be generous and to give to missions to give to an organization to give to someone that's poor to give to a community to give to a disaster relief whatever those things are when god inspires us to give an offering we're to do that as well i think that's what is god's so when jesus said give to caesar with caesar's we know that's taxes give to god what's god's that part was also very very important so i want to bless you church family as we honor god and give to god what's god's father thank you so much for the privilege of being givers father thank you for the generosity of everyone who's a part of catch the fire thank you that without these wonderful people we just wouldn't be able to do all the things that we're seeking to do so god bless you friends on the screen all sorts of different ways to give and again is if you need any help contact us love to help you to be a giver god bless you excellent good morning church happy sunday everybody thank you steve for the announcements just one to add something on the announcement for next week the change right we have two services starting next week but we change the time so for you to make sure you're you don't miss anything first service is at nine o'clock second service is at 11 15. we were used to that 9 15 11 30 we moved everything 15 minutes earlier 9 o'clock 11 15. all right excellent it's great to be together i'm so excited to be all here in one room and welcome to everybody online so nice to you to be all together i'm uh david bonie and uh by my accent you might hear that i'm not fully canadian yet i'm working on it i'm originally from france and i'm married to joanne who is from northern ireland and we have a baby girl who is two and a half years old and she is canadian and so she's perfection right funny story i she's a she's correcting me on my accent now she's two and a half six months ago i was teaching her french or english i'm reading books and she stopped me in the middle of reading to say daddy no not lullaby lullaby and i'm like what two and a half which helped me understand that my level of english is probably under two years old i'm working my way to a three years old which is way ahead of the game you look like but that's that's my pure joy to be a father and um here uh at casual fire i'm the pastor of the school of ministry and it's a it's really a passion of mine to see people coming from all over the world to encounter god to be transformed to change the world when they go back home but the topic we're going to talk about today is really central to what we do at the school of ministry so in a few minutes i'm going to play a video to summarize what we talked about last week mel rogatoli did an outstanding job on her teaching if you haven't watched it if you were not here online you can watch it but we're going to play a video in a few minutes that summarize her talk and it's very much what we do at the school of ministry but yeah i as a pastor of the school of ministry as a husband as a father of my daughter i think one of my favorite things that bring the most joy in my heart is when i uh spend time with my daughter when she to see her growing and changing and uh two weeks ago again she was saying something i'm like man the way she changed i think i'm in trouble and i need your help guys you need to help how i'm gonna do that as a father two or three days ago i was putting her in bed and you know i was like okay now it's time it's time to sleep that is going to go we read a story we prayed and uh i said good night kissa good night go leave the room and i hear that that sweet voice sing daddy daddy because i love you so much could you stay a bit longer i i i tell you my heart melted so much i jump back i was like sure what do you want to read a book sing a song and i was like i'm done i'm done i'm like i'm in trouble she's two and a half where are we going with that you know but it's the best thing in the world hearing your little girl calling your name and um another one was i think last week or the week before she um to her nanny and and other people i heard her for the first time speaking about her daddy and like i mean like three times within 30 minutes well my daddy and she started to talk about me or can i see my daddy i want to see my daddy now and you're in a different room you listen to her speaking about her daddy and you're just undone there's nothing more precious to that so that's that's a big part of who i am what i do and what i love to do but i need your help because being a father nowadays seems more challenging than it's ever been so it's a bit of a funny thing but i wanted to read to you the difference between between parenting in 20 2020 in 2021 and parenting in the 80s or 70s and this world is getting more complex we have so access to so much information then you feel that the pressure is on on how to raise a kid we know way too much about how we work emotionally how we grow how we messed up before and stuff and it feels like the way i got raised was a bit simpler so i'm going to give you like the 2021 version of parenting versus in the 70s and the 80s perspective on parenting remember it's a joke right 2021 make sure your children's academic emotional psychological mental spiritual physical nutritional and social needs are met while being careful not to over stimulate understimulate and properly medicate helicopter or neglect them in this on a in a screen free processed food free gmo free negative energy free plastic free body positive socially conscious egalitarian but also authoritative nurturing but fostering of independence gentle but not overly permissive pesticide-free two-story multilingual home preferably in a cuda sack with a backyard and 1.5 siblings spaced at least two years apart for proper development and also don't forget the coconut oil you know all these things you add in nowadays to make sure everything is healthy i think in the 70s from what i understand or the 80s parenting was about feeding you kids sometimes and i i feel the pressure i'm always like screen time not too much too much is it too strong the way i talk to her not enough you know but it's all good guys i think it's because the world's improving with so much more aware of what healthy behavior is and stuff like that so that's my heart as a father being a father is is my big honor because i um okay just got a message the video is not going to play but that's okay my my honor as a father is that the more i grow in my faith with god the more i realize that my role to my daughter it's a huge representation of what god wants to be to us and the way my heart melts when she say daddy because i love you could you stay a bit longer i know that's the way the father feels when i'm like daddy i want to spend more time with you when when i hear my daughter speaking to others and saying well my daddy i know that when we talk to each other about the father when we speak about jesus to each other when we speak about god to one another the father's heart is looking at each one of us and bursting with love and being so proud and and very much listening and caring for every word that come out of your mouth when you speak about god you don't have like a a god that is far away watching you and seeing you know what you do right or what you do wrong is a father who is caring for you is loving you he's loving each one of us the goal of my talk this morning is um i entitled this this sermon the fight over who we are and whose we are and this month theme has been identity huge topic very passionate about it but identity can't be dealt with you can't address the question of identity without speaking about the father and it's not just a spiritual biblical truth that we're going to look it is biblical but finally in the society we live in where we're way more aware of human development and healthy behavior and all of this the role of a father in the development of a kid it's a there's tons of studies and it's very clear that there's a specific role that the father play in a child's life and one of the specific things the father does is to define the identity of a child as a kid when you grow up what your father is saying over you define what you're going to believe about you and i know it's not a black and white science of the role of the mother the role of the father and for all the single that of single mom in the room i i just want to give an ovation this morning to you guys who play both worlds you speak identity over you your kids and the nurturing level as well it's a it's an outstanding role you're playing but i have to say that as a as a father the word you speak over your child or the word you're not speaking over the your child is gonna define what your child is gonna believe about himself or herself as an adult and i didn't make that up you can research it you can look there's there's psychological studies about it but it's not new if you look at the bible you find that truth in there and of course our model is jesus he's the best is is the perfect example of what is like to live a perfect life jesus i love jesus i don't you love jesus when you when you read the story of jesus is not only that he was willing to die on the cross to reconcile us with god it's it's it's it's even more than that it's you see a son that loves his father and because he see the love of his father for humanity he is willing to sacrifice himself to go through the cross to restore the relationship between the father and the creation he has a beautiful heart when you look he's full of grace and compassion but here's what i want to say about jesus today is jesus is our model what god decided to do when he came as a man he decided not to live as god but to live as human it it took away his divinity but he was fully man and fully god but he didn't use his power as god he jesus decided to be just like you and i with one difference he immodeled to us what is like to live a life redeemed by god what i mean is that if you look at jesus every time you read the scripture and you look at jesus you can put yourself in his shoes and and and think this way you read the scriptures through this lens if i'm fully full of the holy spirit i can be just like jesus you know we've been separated from god that's why we we sin but if you let the holy spirit work in you and transform you you will be just like jesus will act you will behave just like jesus full of compassion full of love full of power but here's the thing about jesus he he said only what he heard the father saying and he it did only what he's seen the father doing his his relationship to the father was so close and the what i want to look at this morning is in matthew 3 at the end of the chapter 3 and and the chapter 4 when jesus was tempted and that's really the the myth the scripture i want to look at for the talk today um jesus journey in life chronologically it's a model for us to follow and let's read it first um actually let me just mention it for sake of time matthew 3 verse 17 you see jesus um getting baptized and just that is a different topic i'm not going to dive into it but jesus being baptized why does he has to be baptized you know that's a different question but john the baptist himself looked at jesus coming towards him and said i'm not worthy to baptize him and and jesus said i have to get baptized and he said unless i get baptized you don't partake with what i have is jesus has to be baptized it's a different question but i believe that why he has to be baptized is because there's a chronology in the life of jesus that is a model for us to follow jesus until 30 years old around 30 years old just you know live his life like you and i you don't see any miracle you don't see any i will say signs of him being god except when he spoke at 12 years old in the synagogue they were amazed by what he was saying so you know he had a relationship with his heavenly father but miracles didn't start yet then you see jesus getting baptized and when he goes under the water and come back out of the water open the the heaven open and the voice of the father speak over him this one is my beloved son in whom i'm well pleased and here you see your father who look at the sun is below its sun and affirmed with its word who is this one is not just my son is my beloved son in whom i'm delighted i'm i'm rejoicing i am proud of i'm you can feel the excitement of the father remind yourself when you read the scripture you can be just like jesus as you follow this different step as you die and get baptized when you come back to new life means restoration in christ you're restored in your relationship with god you can hear the father speaking over each one of you each one of us you are my beloved child in whom i'm well pleased and i will tell you for me personally but i know is the cry of humanity we are longing to hear these words more than any other words in fact i believe that all the tv we watch all the the sin we fall into uh only for one reason is that our heart is longing for peace for joy for love love for approval for affirmation for for being celebrated for being feeling you know wanted and uh celebrated i think our the depth of our heart is longing to hear our father looking at us and rejoicing and saying this one is my beloved son in whom i'm well pleased so you see jesus here hasn't done one miracle yet means that all of us here we might feel the pressure i need to perform miracles i need to i need to to bring the kingdom i need to lead people to jesus i i need to do more at church they keep telling me to to to do more i need to read more my bible well if you follow jesus model you don't see him doing more ministry in fact he hasn't done any ministry before he heard these words from the father this one is my beloved son in whom i'm well pleased this month the topic is identity and it's not just a theme because it looks good or because it's fashionable it's a foundation that if you don't get that first everything you're going to build on is going to go sideway you're going to do all the right thing for the wrong reason if your heart is not rooted in that affirmation from the father that's that's the truth i wanted to bring this morning i was like buzzing during worship was such an anointed set and and my second point when i'm going to uh lillian of course prophet in the house just cover that point so i'm gonna i'm gonna go to it now but but the first truth i want you to get is your heart and my heart our hearts is longing to hear one truth is the eyes of the father looking at you and saying is proud of you and that you are enough before you've done anything because what god wants you to do because you loved not for love once you know you're loved you can do all the things he asked you to do for the right reason if you don't know he is proud of you you're going to do all the right thing but for the wrong reason jesus is a perfect example and if you keep that story of matthew 3 verse 17 if you go to the next chapter verse chapter 4. right after jesus heard the voice of the father saying he's proud of him you see jesus fasting for 40 days different topics while fasting would be another sermon but 40 days fasting who here think you'll be starving after 40 days yes right after this 40 days the spirit take jesus in the white wilderness now it's dry it's hot we have a bit of a taste of what it's like nowadays like lately here doesn't it by the way i'm just like i'm from the south of france and i feel home here at the moment so hot lately but it's great love it jesus is in the wilderness it's very hot he hasn't eaten for 40 days and satan can't come to tempt him and i heard that these three things that satan tempted him i heard many messages growing up about this confrontation between evil and good between jesus and satan and i always heard the thing that we are the weakest on that's what satan come and tempt us tempt us on which is is a point is a good point jesus fasted for 40 days satan come and said if you read the son of god turn this stone into bread and eat it well of course he's going to present bread when he's starving okay good point but i never heard i kind of like blank the first part of if you really the son of god turn this stone into bread the temptation of jesus is not in his flesh of eating food the temptation of jesus is to doubt who the father said he is if you really the son of god and the tone of voice of satan here echo what you can hear in genesis when when eve adam and eve speak with the the snake with the with satan and he's tempting them same tone of voice did god really say you can't eat that fruit and what did he what did he do in genesis same thing is like god just know that if you eat that fruit you're going to become like him he's attacking adam and eve on their identity just a few verses before you see god say let's create them in our likeness that's their identity they're they are made like god they have they haven't done anything yet they just look like god and god is proud of them and their communion they look like god can you imagine that and satan come right after and say he doesn't want you to look really like them so that's why he's saying don't eat the fruit i'm paraphrasing of course satan attacked adam and eve on their identity when jesus came in his weakest time and when he got a chance to talk to to jesus face to face satan just went after one thing did the father what the father said is it really that you're the son of god if you believe what the father said well if you believe it turn this this stone into bread and eat it this morning i'm i don't want to just like diff like give a good talk of what identity is and and let's let's you know work on on declaring who we really are or doing some medicating what we feel about ourselves that's not my point today my heart this morning is and i feel burning inside of me is that we as a church forget that we live in a battle and that's where lilian was spot on this morning is is we forget as christian oh that there's there's a battle going on over our heads and i'm actually feeling really bothered about it and i was so excited to speak this morning because the father spoke to each one of us that's why you're sitting here hopefully you met jesus and jesus reconciled you to the father and the father told you who you are but there's one enemy who look at you and hate you and as as human being and i keep falling in that trap to think that my neighbors my spouse my myself are my enemies i look at myself in the mirror i don't like what i see we have an argument with my wife we each other we blame each other for the we are the problem she's the problem and the bible is very clear we don't have to fight flesh and blood but all spiritual reality when you follow the life of jesus you see that there's one enemy and your enemy my enemy is not people around you is not people with of different race or different gender is not people of different social status is not christian or non-christian as human being there's a battle over our head to define who you are and the only one who can tell you really who you are is your heavenly father the thing that satan used a lot first is to hide but then he used people around us and because our heart is longing for father to speak into us who we really are satan hates families he hate fatherhood he hates motherhood he hates healthy marriages and he's coming to us to attack us on on to turn against one another you know to divide us we are all in the same boat friends when it comes to identity there's one battle to be to be fought is to listen to the father to hold on his words to nurture ourselves with his words to let him father us jesus died on the cross to see you running to the father's arms and to get a huge hug and to let him whisper in your ears why he created you and if you experience that as i did 2009 i came as a student to the school of ministry that was the biggest revelation and transformation i stay on the floor for hours listening to the father i had a massive identity issue didn't know what i liked what i didn't like who i am but the father was picking over me and i and to let him father me was a challenge why because your earthly father the word father is loaded with your experience of what a father look like so depending of what a father looked like to you you're gonna want god as a father or you're not gonna want him as a father let me let me just bring perspective again on that fight over our heads satan in the in the word i don't see a lot of descriptions about satan i don't find chapters and chapters about satan's and i believe it's because god doesn't want us to focus too much on him he wants us to be aware he is him but he want our focus to be on him knowing who he is and and worshiping him and being known by him and listening to his voice but satan would be like a lion that roar but can reach us but think of this that's the context we live in our human experience is before any of us were here before creation satan from what we we we know from uh i think is isaiah um in isaiah you see satan was the most beautiful archangel who led worship but he saw god and he wanted to be god think of this he had an amazing position in heaven he saw god face to face every day he was a leader in heaven the proof is when he got cast out of heaven and again i don't like to talk too much about satan so it's quite rare for me but listen when he got casted from heaven a third of angels came with him that's so yes you know it deceived a third of angels that's all we know from the scripture here's my point when satan got cast out from heaven to be fully rejected to be away from the presence of pure love pure joy pure peace he got cast out and a bit later i don't know how long later god was like with jesus and the holy spirit together speaking like hey let's create man in our likeness satan wanted to be god god cast him out and then he created you and i just like him what do you think satan sees when he sees you and when he sees me is he what he should have had what he wanted what he you know i wanted to be god there like god and he's the rejected the one who has been cast out and he's so jealous of you and he's so he's so angry at you and he's if he can still can kill and destroy he will use everything he has to make sure you don't know who you are to make sure you don't know who is your father because if you know he's in trouble because he knows who has authority is your heavenly father if you know your daddy if my little girl when she knows who she is she knows what i would do for for her when she was three three three days old i went to the store i'm a pretty kind nice guy but it's first time i felt the the potential to to kill someone someone the she was three three days old and with the stroller someone just bumped him just a bit to grab something on the shelf i was like and you can feel inside he's like that's my precious girl no one will touch her you know the father is looking at you and it and he knows that satan hates you and everything that comes against you is not because of anything else than because of satan who is jealous of you your safe place is in the arms of the father listening to his voice nurturing yourself with whose who we say you are and who's he say you are you belong to your heavenly daddy he can't wait to give you a big hug so much that he sent his only son to die on the cross for you to have access to him is not based on what you have done or what you haven't done by grace you can run to him and let him hug you so this morning i would like to pray together as christians we transform this world if we walk in in who's the father says we are so would you stand where you are relax for a minute or actually just i said you would be more comfortable sorry about that i i think and for anybody at home as well if you take a comfortable position i want you to hear what the father has to say today and i have two things that burn in my heart one is that i feel that for some of us what a father look like has been misrepresented and when i speak as god being a father you're not sure if you want him to father you because father hasn't been a good experience for you and some of you even what you believe today you know that the way your father treated you has affected the way you see yourself and the view the beauty of the gospel is that god wants to heal our hearts and redeem all of that so holy spirit would you uh ask the holy spirit holy spirit ask you to show in our hearts any lies any hurt that came from our earthly father them that misrepresented who you are as a father this morning i feel angels that won't come in the room and remove blockages in your heart to receive the words that your heart is so longing to hear that the father is proud of you that is delighted in you but there's a blockage because of your negative experience with your father so would you and we can all do that because no that is perfect would you um would you look at your earthly dad are you experience of your earthly lad and let the holy spirit reveal to you what is the thing that you received what what you earthly that communicated to you that are created hurt or ungodly beliefs that is damaging the way you see yourself so let's do business just between you and god is between you and and and the holy spirit let holy spirit show you did my dad say i love you or did did he not say i love you did he ever say something positive was he more of a quiet person was he absent or was he too angry what are the things that your earthly father has said over you or again your dad your earthly father is not your enemy he gave you the best he had but your but satan come in between to bring division and that's what we're dealing with here as you see the things from your earthly dad that affected you negatively would you forgive him right now and i want you to i want to help you participate in that in if you have a memory if you have something that you feel you know is a challenge between you and your dad i'm gonna ask you to be vulnerable and most of us have something to work on in our hearts but would you stand where you are forced to pray together if you're like i need to forgive my dad it could be minor it could be oh he missed my birthday once you know i don't know but something that affected your heart would you would you stand where you are if you're if the holy spirit is showing you yes there's still thing between you and your dad is affecting the way you relate to me as a father yes well done well done keep going and for some of you if maybe your father is sitting beside you and that's you know that's not blaming anybody i know we're all protective of our father but it's just no father is perfect and this morning i want to remove blockages that help you hear your earthly father saying your heavenly father saying i love you i'm proud of you so let's all pray this together would you say just look at your earthly father and say father i forgive you for everything you you did that that hurted me and for all the things you haven't done that hurted me i haven't said and for some of you ask you to to make that action if there's words that hurted you a negative word that your dad spoke over you would you take that as an arrow from your heart and and unplug it take it out of your heart i remove any arrow that hurt my heart and and pull it out of your heart as a prophetic act and father we thank you that your good good father lilian was speaking about being jesus being a good shepherd well the father is a good father and our heart is longing to hear his voice so let's all stand together and i want you to ask the father to speak over you right now let's take one one minute just where it's between you and the father and i remind you the real identity the real you is only revealed by god the father so father i ask you to come now and speak into our hearts give us a picture give us some words and speak in our hearts words that we need to hear and as you listen to the father i just want to say that i want to invite you in the journey to know god as a father to let him father you jesus is not jealous if anything he died on the cross to see you being back in the arms of the father and to see you being restored in your relationship with god as a father he's not asking you to perform in any way to make him proud he's already proud of you and i feel the heart of the father bursting this this morning for each one of you to say you are my beloved son you are my beloved daughter in whom i'm well pleased and the voice of the father want to be louder and louder and lilian didn't know i was speaking this message of fighting for whose we are and that's exactly what she prayed for for our ears to hear because the the foundation of a thriving christian life is to know who we are in christ to know whose we are because the father and and god paid a high price for you to hear his voice so hear his voice this morning hear him speaking over you and let me speak the heart of the father over you son i'm proud of you daughter i'm proud of you you look just like me i'm not blaming you for anything the blood of my son cover all sin but i'm longing for a heart to heart with you i'm longing for your heart to know that i'm proud of you i'm longing to see these lies that the enemy brought over you to be removed that you're not enough that you're ugly or whatever he's saying i'm telling you you look just like me i'm proud of you i'm longing for connection with you i want to play with you i want to have fun with you i'm delighted in you i i feel the excitement of the father as he's looking at you so if you close your eyes would you ask him father reveal your love to me if we can have some music maybe it would be great father ask you to come around the room and wrap your arms around each one of us some of us we are aware that we need a big hug from our heavenly father so the father is saying i have a plan and a future for you i have a plan and a future for you some of you need to hear that again the father is saying i have a plan and a future for you you're not a mistake i created you because i want you to sound just like you and i wanted a daughter just like you the tenderness of the heart of the father is ferocious he's fighting for you as you pay attention to what he says in the storm of all the information we have of what we should be or what we should do that still small voice of the father for you is what will ground you in that peace that joy that love that he has for you some of you see the father gathering angels around you and busting about you do you know that the father is boasting about you look at what she's done look at what he said he's proud of you he's not angry he's not mad at you he's not staring staring to all the the the thoughts the the the thing you do or don't do he's looking at you and he sees son jesus in you and he said that he's proud of you so i washed from you this morning and you need to perform to please god and i declare over you you approved you wanted he's proud of you he's delighted in you you know some of us are in our hearts we feel almost uncomfortable of i don't know if i want to hug from a father i build my own life and i'm pretty fine thank you the father is asking you this morning and i'm going to leave you with this question would you let me father you this week would you let me father you today when jesus died on the cross we are coherent with him in one john 5 it says we are children of god that's who we are your identity is not what you do your identity is your son and daughter of god in whom is well pleased he doesn't hold anything against you is delighted in you and as i'm speaking let your heart receive his affection this morning the father has so much affection for you he so loved the world that he sent his only son he so loved the world friends the father is delighted in you and your heart need to hear it again and i'm going to say it until you believe it the father is proud of you is delighted in you he's rejoicing over you he's passionate about you and he's looking for connection and relationship with you [Music] father i pray that you will bring dreams and visions of who we are and whose we are and as the enemy come to steal kill and destroy we'll rebuke him and push him away to be able to hear and focus on your voice that remind us of who we are and in this battle father ask for your grace and and for your holy spirit to guide us wow thank you father david thank you so much for that impacting reminder of identity and uh knowing the father friends second corinthians 5 17 says faith comes by hearing hearing the word of god and every time we gather and we hear the word of god it needs to have an impact on us and it needs to change us so i hope today that this word has brought you faith hearing the word of god has increased your faith that as you leave here this morning that you have been transformed to another level because the word of god has made an impact on your life i'd like to thank those joining us online today and all of you that are in the house i'd like to remind you online if you would like to have prayer we've got a ministry team and you go to ctftoronto.com get prayer now for those of you in the building you just need to go to my left through those doors and you need to take everything with you that you brought in because you're going to exit by another way if you would like to have extra prayer this morning please feel free to walk through those doors to my left the big double doors and there's a team there that'll direct you to get some pray so we bless you and thank you for being with us today i just want to pray over you would that be okay i just want to pray father i'm asking that as we leave today that god that your holy spirit who always goes before us who's also in us will direct us and guide us in this coming week that lord we will have new encounters with you father that we will meet you and our hearts will get deeper revelation of who you are and our identity in you and god we're asking that you will continue to anoint us and anoint our ears and god that you will help us to hear from you to know how we are to be influenced in this coming week how we ought to navigate around issues of life and god we ask that you will increase our faith in this coming week and that you will help us to go into deeper depths with you and to love jesus more we thank you god that you through you in you and by you that we can do all things and that you in this day and always will be our stronghold our sustenance the one in whom we depend we trust in your lord god and we know that you are for us so we bless you father and thank you that you go ahead of us in every step that we take and father i just i i just feel like some of you um right now i feel like some of you are heading into some challenges this week i didn't mean to do this but i won't miss the opportunity if the holy spirit shows me something i feel like some of you are heading into some challenges this week there's going to be change coming to your life and you're not sure about it i even feel like someone in a ministry position right now that you're contemplating what to do about ministry and whether you're meant to stay or you're meant to go i feel like you you've been offered certain things and um and it feels like uh you you're not certain if you need to step out so i'm just going to say in jesus name right now may the holy spirit of god come and empower you may he come and lead you and guide you may he give you the answer in the moment father i'm asking that you'll give us the answers in the moment when we need them that you will be ever so present lord god because you are close to us and holy spirit that you are even closer so we're asking that you will bring the answers and god that whatever changes that you're making in the lives of your children this coming week that father we believe by faith it is for good because your word says that you have good gifts for us that you give good gifts to your children so we declare the good gifts of god to come into our lives this week and father i ask in jesus name that you will continue to lift off every spirit of fear that has come upon us lord fear for parents and children about their children father we're asking that you will give us the faith that god that will combat any spirit of fear that would even try to break into our hearts because god you said that you have not given us a spirit of fear and so today we make a declaration of ourselves that god has not given us a spirit of fear that we walk by faith and not by sight and we believe by faith that god will lead us into all and everything that is good for us in jesus name we pray amen [Applause] friends thank you so much for being with us today for our online church we are so glad that you were with us my prayer was that you've had a good experience of meeting god i'm hoping maybe even cried a little bit i'm hoping that you felt the presence of god when the prayers were given for you so we want to bless you today and just to remind your friends one of the best things you can do for us and for you is to press that like button to press that share button and just post this on your social media so that your friends see what you're enjoying and we sort of get the word out and i want to encourage you again that if you feel that you want to be a part of what we're doing at catch the fire three things that you can do be attending regularly be serving all those opportunities you'll see on our website and being a part of our financial contributors so thank you so much god bless you have an amazing day [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so so so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do so [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Catch The Fire Toronto

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Rating: 5 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

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Length: 135min 11sec (8111 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 29 2021