City Sanctuary Worship Service 11:00AM

[Music] is [Music] every day [Music] [Music] he can't move [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning city sanctuary why don't you stand to your feet in this place we were talking to the worship team who said this the day the lord has made we choose to rejoice in him blessed be his name hallelujah [Music] lately i've been reading watching the nightly news can't seem to find the rhythm i just wanna sing the blues feels like the song will never stop it feels like it's never gonna gotta get down [Music] i shot it on the count of three [Music] [Music] the time has come to make a choice [Music] [Music] never stops feels like it's never gonna gotta get that firefight back in my bones before my hot heart turns into snow so somebody please pass the megaphone i'll shout it on the count of three come on with us one two three [Music] it move [Music] you gotta let it move [Music] down in my heart down in my heart now if you've got joy come on lift up your hands in this place come on and shout out to the lord this morning oh lord we want you and you alone we choose you o god that the joy of the lord is your strength i wish somebody in this place would open up your mouth and praise him so i [Music] choose [Music] [Music] [Music] down in my heart somebody ought to give the law some praise [Music] [Music] out there today the joy of the lord is our strength god strengthen us today [Music] fill us with your strength how we love you guys this morning and we're gonna express that love to you y'all can stay right here [Music] cuz [Music] grace breathing in life [Music] oh that you've done [Music] oh [Music] your [Music] we um our place in you we found our place in youtube [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign this morning [Music] you're the only one hey [Music] how can we ever say we love you or not we love you jesus you first loved us but there was nothing lovely about us you already knew who we could become [Music] [Applause] me [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] such an is gadget [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] you're the only one [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] show us your glory we've seen your love god show us your glory show us your glory i wanna see my eyes seek your face come and make your throne upon our friends and heal in this place have your way the moment that we see you we are changed show us your glory can you wonder and surrender we fall down we cry show us your glory show us [Music] not by might but only by the cross we come alive [Music] show us your glory show us your glory [Music] glory lift it up say show us your glory can wander and surrender we fall down [Music] god don't let us but faint our eyes we would have fainted lest he see your glory but open our eyes okay open our eyes here i cry this morning to change fall fear about right here right now cause she's a you change [Music] change everything [Music] right now jesus jesus you'll change everything [Music] you change everything we cry out to you this morning we call out to you this morning because we know jesus should change every we look to you god the author and the finisher of it all you're the beginning and you're the end of it all cause we know in our hearts jesus so we speak we say chase [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus should change everything hallelujah hallelujah hold on come on praise him [Music] hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah we're getting into the presence and the glory we're getting into the presence of the glory [Music] you see we've been invited by the holy spirit into his presence this morning and in his presence everything changes we can't be like peter who saw the transfiguration of christ and he didn't know what to do he started talking said we built three tabernacles whatever he was trying to say how can we keep a habitation not a visitation he wanted to build a tabernacle which was a good heart [Music] but the father said this is my son hear him the glory is about you praise god forever and jesus and when you get into the glory you need to praise him and you need to listen to what he's going to tell you to do and when he tells you to do it you do it if you need to believe for healing you believe it right then thank you lord i'm healed start praising it if you needed this shake your body and shake off the chains in a symbolic form i'm not if you need to stomp your feet devil get behind me and under my feet whatever the holy spirit leads you to do but i guarantee you for all of us here he wants to pour out his glory you can receive the baptism in the holy spirit where you are at home right now here in this building psalm 81 one says open your mouth wide and i will fill it i'm amazed that god can move and we can just sit there and not say anything friend let me tell you if there's something going on in the room in your heart open up your mouth and begin to praise him hallelujah [Music] hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah glory glory hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah [Music] come on and worship him oh hallelujah holy glory glory glory glory glory healing healing deliverance set your people free baptize them with the holy ghost filled filled with the holy spirit deliver with your body power in the name of jesus come on sing it some more jesus change everything oh i killed it i'm sorry i didn't mean to kill you let me say when you're in this atmosphere before we leave this atmosphere one more time what is he saying to you i want you to do it but i know just like that song we sang about how much we love him i'm guaranteeing you that he wants to pour out of his spirit upon you he wants to show you his glory you just spent another moment worshipping him lord right now we just come on get in the spirit right now the lord's day lord we just begin to praise you lord we love you lord fill us with the holy ghost [Applause] pour out the holy spirit pour out the holy spirit pour out the holy spirit pour out the hope hold on hold on pull out pour out pull right out pull out the holy oh my god oh jesus change everything lord heal everyone lord deliver everyone lord oh hallelujah hallelujah jesus changed come on break into that one more time if you would say [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] oh [Music] jesus you'll change everything [Music] amen give him your praise one more time lord we praise you [Music] hallelujah we praise you today [Music] by your stripes we are healed thank you lord praise his name amen thank you lord for your glory today he's coming after us and we're coming after him amen before you're seated wave to somebody give them a high five tell somebody god loves you before you're seated god bless you today god bless you today god bless you today jesus should change everything [Music] hallelujah praise god amen [Music] uh praise god amen i know that uh different people are coming back to church they receive vaccinations and i understand jerry and elizabeth ashcraft are here for the first time right there you are amen welcome back [Laughter] hallelujah amen praise god you have your phones if you want to take them out and fill out the press the connect tab and then your check-in tab and please let us know your praise report your prayer request we want to stay connected online at home as well as in the house the slide of the guy with me at the ymca you know uh go to the ymca i'm the guy on the right with the big muscles that's me uh anyway you know joe williams is a friend of mine and his daughter's eight years old and she has a heart for god and he tells me sometimes she even prays for the devil to get saved because she doesn't want anybody to be lost isn't that sweet so he asked me i was doing i told him about delta and so he went home and told his year old josie about it and josie made sewed with her own hands a pillow and that's what he's holding is a pillow with a little drawing she drew on the front of her singing get well soon to my wife and i thought it was so amazing that this little girl had a heart of love she never met us never seen us but how much of an impact that made and when you and i do the same thing and reach out and touch somebody in love what a difference it makes isn't that awesome so we thank god for her also put jojo's picture again we could monitor joe joe we were some of us were there at city hall jojo was recognized as one of 20 that were honored for black history month here in the land and she's been with her foundation on the community work that she does her radio program we just give honor to her it was a great time to be with her down there so we give honor to her if you put up the 220 slide you know in these days we're leading up to easter we're saying a few things about why are we doing renovations uh why are we attempting to do renovations and uh first of all 2020 taught us a few things let's put that up please on the slide first of all it accelerated the innovation you know we had to get innovative when we uh you know couldn't meet in the building we had to do a lot of things to get online and we get monitored to uh mark omran and the media team and and to james pastor james and the and the worship team for helping us go online we had to preach the cameras and nobody was in the building it was it was tough but we learned to innovate right i think all of us learned to do that and then also 220 taught us i'm getting some ring up here if we uh resistance to change actually this is really a good this is good that this is happening so you see why we need a new sound system right praise the lord let's come back jackie sing again if you would please i just lost it uh resistance of change crumbled guess what we all had to change didn't we we were forced into change and so uh we are in a change mode focus on giving not on focus on giving rather not getting we learn to reach out and help each other our families and friends and neighbors around us and that was a good change too that we focused on helping all of us and then a hard reset on healthier habits how many of you know that it was good to be uh cloistered with your family it was good to once again parents to connect with their kids it was maybe not good for parents to help with their homework though right can i get an admit on that nobody did that here okay anyway it was good to have some healthy reset some people didn't work as many hours and some people connect with their family and those are some good things and then also people begin to value community even more than before you know not being able to come to church as was evidenced by the ashcrafts here uh it's not the same when you aren't connected with people you can't sometimes be among the people of god i like to worship today fantastic so why are we modeling now next slide please now because 48 of people are online 48 of people who are going to church every week half of them are online watching and waving to all of our online folks today so we should make their experience the best that it can be we thank god that we get to be here but we need to make that experience best that it can be 25 are not sure when or if they're coming back so that means that we have to provide for our church family the best that we can provide and then on-demand access will eclipse live uh experiences that is that people today aren't watching even church during church times they're watching at different times maybe they work maybe they've got different challenges but on demand when they have time available is when we need to make it available for them and so again this is something that technology will help us do and then our mission will be our focus not our familiar methods our mission is to reach people our mission is to nurture people grow people right and so our method used to be pretty much in-house now we need to reach out even more by putting the kind of sound lighting and stage backgrounds in that can make it a better experience and then finally we need to think daily not just weekly how many of you know if you've ever listened to podcasts webinars you you've seen things that come over the internet on a daily basis we're looking at turning one of these storage closets into a recording studio where again not super high tech just that is sound proofed and has a few pieces of equipment where we can be daily not just weekly where we can do more instead of less so again this is all a part of the why now because 48 of people are online now so we believe that that trend is also going to be something that will go down as the virus gets out but it's still something that an audience that will remain people are going to remain and we can reach more people so keep that in mind as we move toward easter and the main reason is that i just feel like it's time i've been your pastor for nine years and marched into march i haven't asked you for one dime for building project uh in all that nine years because i never felt like i was supposed to do that we've remodeled the gym we've modeled the students there we've modeled the daycare rooms we've done different things but we've done it with good stewardship and with extra giving but now i'm asking i'm asking you because i believe it's the time i believe it's the mission i believe it's the lord's will for us to do something that can help reach more people again we'll have to we're still uh hammering over the budget you know some things we might have to face but at the same time we've got to do something we can't just stay the way we are if you don't start where you are you'll stay where you are and we have to start we have to move into what god has in front of us so let's prepare our hearts for giving today and thank you for your generosity uh again there was a tithe record in january as well so god is blessing your socks off so praise god somebody had a smile for the blessings of god and uh so we thank god for what god's doing in you and for you and we give thanks to your for your love for god and you're giving to him so let me pray a blessing on you today our father i thank you for your people lord these are my friends these are the people i pray for every day the people that i love i serve and i thank you for their love and faith in you and their obedience to god lord bless them as we pursue you as we look for more and more of your glory god may you show more and more of your glory oh hallelujah thank you lord thank you lord be alive in these last days with a group of people who are going after god bless them as they go after you immeasurably press down shake it together running over may you give the blessings of god in jesus name we pray amen god bless you hey good morning city sanctuary family let's take a couple of minutes to make sure you're staying connected this week make plans to come on out to wednesday night growth group classes and our support groups they happen every wednesday night we have ministry for all ages with the wanna kids club for our children ignite student ministries for our teens and then a number of other classes for our adults and next sunday february 28th we're going to have a new set of classes that you can sign up for so those growth groups and those support groups will get kicked off in march so make plans to sign up for those next sunday but come on out wednesday nights at 7 p.m both in person and online this is the last chance to be a part of the me strong 5k city sanctuary team this coming up saturday the 27th at 9 00 a.m we're gonna meet right outside of the gymnasium and do our virtual 5k as a team together you can contact heather this week at the church or show up next saturday at 9 a.m right outside the gym we had an awesome week this week at the city sanctuary our juana's kids clubs did their grand prix soapbox derby races you'll see a recap video of that in just a second and we also had an awesome time at our exo marriage conference this weekend with a number of couples here enriching their marriage take a look at these two quick recap videos to show a little bit what happened this week at the city sanctuary [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] amen 32 there yesterday about half of what we had last year but considering kobed and all the restrictions we were very pleased with those who came to the marriage conference yesterday uh we are trying to look at a marriage group as well as other small groups that will be signing up for next sunday so please come with that in mind some new groups available for you to grow grow grow boy you're excited praise god i love it love it let's look at your impossible really jesus can make your impossible possible john chapter and look at the second and third signs that john records so the father talking about the official that came to jesus to have his son healed who was dying so the father knew that it was at the hour in which jesus said to him your son is alive and he himself believed in his entire household this is again the second sign a sign is something that points you to the nature of god or jesus that jesus performed when he had come from judea into the galilee lord we praise you and we thank you for your glory lord you want to reveal more and more of your glory in us and we praise you for your pursuit we're ready we're coming we're anxious for that please anoint us today to hear what you're saying and may it produce faith that'll change lives i bind a spirit of deafness in the name of jesus i rebuke disobedience to hearing the word of god and i ask you and i in jesus name open the ears and the hearts of your people that we might again walk in faith and in the fullness of god i thank you lord you're awesome in jesus name amen it was in 1999 that harvard university did a inattention blindness test or a selective attention test and in this particular experiment they were to take some viewers and they would ask these viewers to focus on the following be sure you count the number of times you see the people in the white shirts pass the basketball to another person in a white shirt there are different shirts up there but then they threw in a wrinkle they threw in a gorilla in the middle of this experiment where they were passing the ball to one another and going in a circle round and around they inserted a gorilla that came in for nine seconds out of the 60 second video in which these viewers were supposed to count the number of times those in white shirts passed the ball to one another after they concluded this experiment 50 percent of the people who viewed that 60-second video never saw the gorilla and the reason they never saw the gorilla was because their attention was on the people in the white shirts passing the ball to one another is it possible for us to miss the miraculous things that god is doing around us and the miraculous things that he wants to do in us and for us because we are many times focused on the challenges in front of us instead of upon him who is among us so it is that we understand that just by being here we are going somewhere miracles are around us all the time what does that mean well we can understand that today right now as we are sitting here in this auditorium or listening online that our planet is uh is on an access on an axis rather of a thousand miles an hour we are rotating at a thousand miles an hour anybody getting vertigo in the room that just on your laziest day with your home with krispy kreme donuts and your pajamas with coffee and you're enjoying the worship and the service this morning that that you and i will be traveling through space at a speed of 67 108 miles per hour that's faster than a speeding bullet which travels at 1 800 miles per hour it's faster than the speed of sound and in fact on this day alone and every day we will travel over 1 million 599 793 miles don't you feel tired already you see what this illustrates is that when god made everything from creation to making us because first corinthians 15 46 says first the natural then the spiritual if he made the entire world to be a movement that the universe is ever expanding that the earth is always revolving around the sun that the earth is always rotating on its axis then guess what he always made you and me to move acts 17 28 says that it's in him that we live and we move and have our very existence it's romans 1 and 18 that we were supposed to move from faith to faith second corinthians 3 and 18 from glory to glory that we are always supposed to be on the growth and the progress it is proverbs 4 and 18 that the righteous are as the first gleam of day that they grow stronger and stronger until the full strength of the sun in mid-day that we are always supposed to have our light growing the light of revelation within us the light of our faith the light of our love and our light shining in the world around us yet many times we don't recognize the miraculous even going on inside of us they say that your brain is calculating over 10 quadrillion calculations every second 10 quadrillion don't take off your shoes to count that number it's too much for your fingers and your toes and yet in all that it does it on just 10 watts of power if you were to replicate what our brain does on 10 watts of power with a computer to do that it would take a gigawatt of power that it would have to be powered by a nuclear power plant you see you are never not around the miraculous in fact you are a miracle yourself god has put all kinds of miraculous things around us and in us and david said that we are fearfully are wonderfully made that we are miracles just in our very makeup that we are made in the image of god and so when we look at the challenges around us and yet we don't think in the possibilities of what god can do in a miraculous way we miss we miss the guerrilla in the room you see this job who went through tremendous trial that job said in job 9 and 10 job said that you do unfathomable great things that i cannot even begin to recount in fact he said you do wonders that cannot be numbered he says that while he's in the middle of the greatest trial of his life you see job understood god that even though he's in a trial he understood that the miracles of god were greater than the trial that he was in and so he would give praise to god at the beginning of the trial and praise to god in the middle of the trials i quoted that verse and prays to god at the end of that trial because god is always greater than what you face god is praise god for that we look at some people who like thomas jefferson thomas jefferson wants to cut out the miraculous oh thomas jefferson greatly revered god the moral teachings of jesus in fact he's the one that wrote the declaration of independence he said that our creator has endowed us with certain unalienable rights right and he would recognize that god was the giver of life and the giver of our rights and he would have great revere for him but he would go to college at william and mary at 16 years of age as a freshman he'd be introduced to the enlightenment and to reason where logic was lord and he would become a child of the enlightenment and in doing so in 1804 february of that year he would begin to take the scissors out and cut out of his bible the verses that he was going to use for the jefferson bible and he would take 46 octavio pieces of paper and he would cut them out and double space them and that would be his bible he would have the moral teachings of jesus and a miracle if it contained a moral teaching but he cut out all the miraculous that he saw why because he was a child of the enlightenment because he was a person of logic and again it's not natural a miracle is against the natural laws of uh that god put into existence and so he couldn't allow for it oh yeah you'll find in his bible that jesus died but there is no resurrection you'll find that the last verse in that account in his bible is they rolled the stone over the tomb how sad is it to cut out the miraculous the possibilities of what could happen with a god that he says nothing is impossible with me but yet we do the same thing i believe i think we have our favorite verses we have uh those scriptures that we go to but then there may be some verses that we think i'm going to cut that out of my belief that's impossible god can't do that in my life i can't believe for that maybe there's other verses that are radical that oh god's demanding too much for me i i really want to cut that out of my bible as well we may not do it with scissors but we may do it in our heart we may indeed limit the unlimited god from doing what only he can do when he has faith in the people that believe him so it is the challenge of our faith is one of subliminal skepticism and then of of dormant disappointment that sometimes even as believers we live with this under the surface uh skepticism about the promises of god in our life sometimes we don't make the delineation between discernment and skepticism or disbelief discernment is something that happened when i was in that emergency room at 4 00 a.m in the morning with my wife and she was delirious and she was thrashing about and they wanted me to stay in the emergency room with them unless she hurt somebody or hurt herself and so as i'm in that emergency room and it's a very volatile situation i didn't have a spirit of fear oh i was concerned but they came to me and they wanted to do some kind of a spinal tap they feared it might be a bacterial meningitis which means she could have been dead in a couple of hours they asked me to do a spinal tap and i knew that could cause nerve damage and it caused other issues in the spinal column permanently i discerned that that was not the right thing to do and i said no we're not going to do that and he said well then we can do an mri we can see what's going on in her body i said let's do that and so again they ushered me out of the room while they were bringing in the machines to do that and i went immediately to a room that was vacant and went immediately into prayer began to pray in the spirit being not i didn't pray in fear i prayed because i know god and i know god can do the impossible doctors can do a lot medicines do a lot but i know god can do more than that and as i begin to pray and intercede just me 4 a.m in the morning in that in that empty room i heard the lord tell me she's going to be all right i'm going to deliver her out of this so you know what you've decided is the right way to go and it was after that they came to get me and they said well you made the right decision we just got the mri back and it shows that she has these kidney stones that impacted and caused an acceptance in her blood and that's the problem that we're battling so you made the right decision you see sometimes though we take discernment and that you know should i or should i not do this or that and and sometimes that discernment turns into a disbelief sometimes it's like well i don't think i should believe god i don't know if i can believe god and discernment of hey what i should do this or that turns into disbelief you see you're in trouble if you get into a place where you don't find that room in the hospital like i did to pray you're in trouble if you don't know there's a higher power than the medical staff that is trying to tell you your wife's in serious trouble you're really in trouble if only you believe in the things of this world and the things that man can do because i'm going to tell you that god can do anything he can do the impossible and certainly he did bring her through all of that but sometimes that subliminal skepticism of they tell you a report and inside your heart you feel like there's no hope that's skepticism where you doubt that god can do something about your situation and it comes from past disappointments it comes from either people you've seen ask god for something they didn't get or you yourself asking god for something that hasn't gone away hasn't changed in some way shape or form let me tell you you cannot throw out the baby with the bath water even though you have had a disappointment even though you've had a letdown somebody died some condition persists you cannot say that god is not god and that he does not have the power to heal and deliver he always is god always will be god he will always have the power and he says so what if some did not believe did their unbelief make faith in god of none effect he said god forbid let god be true and every person liar just because some don't believe doesn't mean that god still isn't real his power and promises are real for today and that he cannot do something about your impossible situation to make it possible you believe that i give them the praise we find in this story this second sign as we look at the end of john chapter 4 verse 46-51 this is the where the official he was jewish but he was in herod's court this official came to jesus because his son was dying he came to jesus and asked him to heal his son and jesus said this in response john 4 48 he said unless you see a sign he said this people because he was a jew but he served in herod's court he was talking about the jewish people remember the jewish people had lived with subliminal skepticism for hundreds of years 400 years before christ came of no prophet speaking into their life 500 years since they saw an angel over 800 years since they saw a biblical miracle that was recorded in scripture so you're talking about a people who are in the show me state show me a sign it is first corinthians 1 and 22 the jews require a sign they demand decide they would not believe unless they saw it with their own eyes but let me tell you you don't need faith if you see it if you see it you don't have to believe because you have it and so they had no faith their faith was on the bottom rung where it was a show me faith you give me a sign so jesus said in his consternation he said this people demands a sign that you have to see something in order to believe it he would lament that in john's gospel chapter 10 verse 34 he talked about that you don't believe my word but you want me to perform a sign he would say that to his own disciples in john 14 11 that would you please believe my word not just my works would you please come to a level of faith where you can believe what i tell you and it's going to take place he would say this to thomas after the resurrection he would say thomas you believe because you've seen but blessed are they that believe even though they have not seen see faith is the substance of things we hope for and our faith is the evidence of things we haven't seen you see we've got to graduate from this show me faith where show me a sign and i believe it or every time we don't get an answered prayer that we're disappointed we give up on praying for that we've got to get beyond that folks into biblical faith the kind of faith that pleases god is faith that believes the word of god that he gives us you see this is what happened to this man because faith without works is dead we see that this man had actually works to prove his faith that is that this man came from capernaum up to cana again that was a 20 mile hike in capernaum was below sea level so it's a six percent grade so you're going uh uphill and again you burn about 100 calories a mile unless you're going uphill at that kind of a grade you're burning 200 calories per mile so he's burning 4 000 calories he's he's huffing it a little bit just to get to jesus and when he gets to jesus jesus said okay go back home your son is healed well this man didn't see it he didn't have a son there he just believed what he said and he hiked another 20 miles back down and on his way back down they met him the next day and said hey your son has been healed and he said what hour was he healed it was about the seventh hour which was one o'clock he said that's the same hour that jesus spoke to me you see you've got to learn to walk by faith when you're walking to your miracle and walk by faith after you pray for your miracle and feel like you got a word from god you got to keep walking by faith because faith that works is dead we got to believe god and keep walking by faith he says believe my word to you this was the kind of faith he was trying to produce and what we see out of this is a faith atmosphere it is john 4 46 where it says jesus again came to cana remember that cana was where he did his first sign he turned the water into wine at cana and now it says he came again to cana and now he does his second sign in cana you see i kind of believe what happened was what happens in church somebody gets a miracle and they begin to tell their testimony about what god did praise god for that microphone somebody else gets faith and then they get a miracle from god and then somebody else gets faith and they get a miracle from god and after a while there's an atmosphere of expectancy in the whole place you see i pray oh lord come again to the city of sanctuary come again and give her the miracle and him the miracle and him the miracle and her the miracle and you the miracle and you the miracle so that after a while oh yeah jesus came again to this sanctuary oh he came again he came again oh god come again come again come again come again and do your mind it works but he the second the third miracle was a miracle of a guy who didn't have faith he had superstition the lame man who was there for 38 years he believed in a silly superstition you know we have all kinds of superstitions don't walk under a ladder throw the wedding bouquet i don't know is there anybody any woman here that caught the wedding bouquet who got married the next year probably not don't walk don't let black cats walk in front of you rabbits foot carrying your pocket knock on wood don't break a mirror make a wish cross your fingers find a penny and make a wish friday the 13th stay away from that hang rosary in your car i'm making fun of any catholic practice i'm just trying to say that any religious symbol that you just have is a good luck charm doesn't do you any any anything it is basically the only thing that does you anything is your faith that you have in your heart that's what moves the hand of god this guy had a superstition the lame man believed that when the angel came down and stirred the water that then the first person then got healed there's nothing in the bible about that it's completely superstition it was probably when the gihon spring fed the pool uh there that it had extra you know spring power that made it more ruffled than the ripples than it normally was but there was just plain superstition it's amazing to me that people will believe in superstition you know they say baseball players are the most super superstitious of any athlete i read about some of the major league baseball players you know they they won't shave their beards you know and unless they lose they they will rub a statue of babe ruth you know just to give them good luck you know they will basically wear a certain kind of socks under their uniform every time you know all kinds of superstitions believing that that is going to make something good happen in their life well this guy had two superstitions one he had a superstitious belief that he was in his condition because of the sovereignty of god oh don't under misunderstand me god has suffered but he was basically saying that the reason i'm in this condition is because that when an angel has to come down and stir the water that is i'm just waiting on god when really god may be waiting on us come on somebody and then the second superstition he has other people i have no one to help me get into the pool that is it's not my fault i'm in the condition i'm in it's god's fault and it's other people i'm a victim and not a victor this guy lived by a faith he had faith in that but that faith left him in the same paralyzed condition for nearly four decades oh god forbid that we don't just say oh it's the sovereignty of god oh i'm this way because you know god's put me this way or i i'm this other people they've hurt me they've they've not helped me if i was helped in somebody else then i could have been somewhere else and done something better friend that's a victim mentality if you believe in the sovereignty of god then believe this believe that god wants to bless your socks off amen believe that god wants to heal you believe that god wants to raise you up believe that god wants to bless you if you want to believe in the sovereignty of god why don't you get truthful and believe what he said about you instead of believing what the world tells you about him so again we got this whole idea about superstitions and jesus asked a question 183 questions in in the new testament and here he asks this guy a question he says do you want to get well i mean after all if you go well you have to get a job you have to pay taxes you have to be responsible i mean do you really want to get well i remember wanting to pray for a lady who had been in a car accident and uh she had tremendous back trouble and i said well let's pray for your healing she said oh no don't pray yet he said i want to get my settlement first and then you can pray well freddie you got your faith in your settlement then i guess god you don't need god do you you see what you have to understand about all this is that he asked him do you want to be healed do you want change you see we look at rockefeller university called together the greatest medical minds trying to solve the human health crisis and when they came together they concluded they couldn't do it they said we can't solve it because the the the 80 of the major diseases that come to humans are because of five dysfunctional behaviors of humans one they eat too much and eat the wrong thing they smoke too much they drink too much they have too much stress in life and they don't have enough exercise eighty percent of all illnesses come from these five human dysfunctional behaviors so we can't cure the health crisis without curing humans themselves and helping them to change that's what they found out at john hopkins university when they basically had made an account study of 1.5 million coronary bypass patients and studied them two years after they had coronary bypass and they found that only one out of every ten changed their lifestyle even though they went through a coronary bypass we're told that if they didn't change they could die sooner than they should have only one out of ten that put it dramatically on the screen that nine out of ten would rather die than change he said do you want to be well is it possible that we're not waiting on god is it possible that god's waiting on us is it possible that god is wanting to do some miraculous things but basically we are just in our little box and we are not operating by the word of god jesus asked the man to do something he hadn't done in 38 years he said rise take up your bed and walk now obviously jesus had to give him the strength to do that but that man had to make a decision that he was going to try to get up he had to make a decision that he was going to exercise his faith and try to get off that mat that he'd been living in for 38 years you see there is a time there's a defining moment that changes the rest of your life it is when you let the future in it's when you believe god when you trust god you when you let god in for salvation you change your whole history you change your eternal life right you change your your eternal destiny well every time you believe god you change your life every time you let god in you let a new future in you let a new blessing and you net new power into your life every time you open the door to faith you let in the power of god to change your life so it is that you said rise take up your bed and walk you know i'm amazed at looking at people like bill johnson who's had miracles out in california and that he will sometimes say to people he said if you if you are better at all raise your hand he said if you are 50 better raise your hand if you're 80 better raise your hand you know and then go on to you know how many people 100 better what's he doing he's trying to get people to have faith and recognize what god has done like i said earlier if you don't start where you are you're going to stay where you are you got to start with faith if you're better just believe god i'm going to get better yes i'm better praise god if you're better today do you think you might be better tomorrow yes i believe god i can get better tomorrow friend you see this is the thing even when joan hunter was here for a healing service in our church she would ask people she'd pray for them she'd ask people to do something you haven't been able to do before bend over raise your hands whatever it might be do something to exercise your faith jesus said right do something you haven't done before rise up decide to get up decide to believe that you can be healed begin to let the future in do something that you haven't done before this is the hall of faith noah do something you haven't done before build an ark abraham go somewhere you haven't gone before to the promised land it is again by faith that we respond not to culture not to uh some weird thing but we respond to the word of god when god says get up then in the name of jesus i'm gonna get up and i'm gonna praise him all the time even if it takes me a while to get up i'm gonna get up my faith and this is what he did to say he said miracle over atrophy this guy i've been laying there for 38 years if i've ever seen anything with my brother i've seen that in over 70 days in the bed it's amazing how your muscles have atrophy and he's had to work on rehabilitation he's supposed to come home next sunday after church i'm supposed to pick him up but he's been working with rehabilitation all those things you know why because muscles if you don't use them you lose them right this guy had no muscles you know 38 years never standing never walk him think about that the atrophy that he was lame and couldn't walk but yet jesus did a miracle instantly that gave him strength you see what i see and people that uh like this guy that had accidents or illness that causes a tragedy and they feel like they are lame and this is what we find out of isaiah chapter 35 and verse three he talked about isaiah is talking about the times where israel was under this besieging army and they had all this difficulty and he says to those that are lame he says i want you to those that are exhausted to those who have hands hanging down i want you to say that you have strength from the lord i want you to say he's saying exercise your faith i want you to say you have strength this was quoted by hebrews in hebrews chapter 12 the very passage in isaiah he says to those who were weak it says that those that their hands hang down raise them up to those that are lame and weak he says i want you to strengthen your ankles to walk by faith what's he trying to say he's trying to say if you've had a situation happen that seems to make you again knocked you down where you're exhausted you've had a trauma you feel like that you're you can't walk by faith anymore something dramatic has happened to you he says then by faith say that i am strong he says lift up your hands that hang down he says strengthen your ankles so that you can walk by faith friend this is actions of faith whether you're walking or you're raising your hands in praise or you're speaking that i am strong even though you feel weak this is an action of faith we've got to understand what faith is god is looking for people who are not just looking for show me give me a sign and i'll believe no he's looking for people that will believe this he's looking for people that will believe the word he speaks to you in your prayer closet he's looking for people to believe the word you read in your devotions he's looking for a promise of god that a prophet gave to you that you're going to hang on to and not let go that yes i believe it i may not see it yet but i'm going to walk my faith i'm going to raise my hands and praise i'm going to declare that it's coming to pass because this is the faith that brings the miraculous into existence we have got to move into the supernatural by believing the word of god that he speaks to our lives hallelujah you can't let what's wrong define you we've got to move on so again we this man his whole mad existence i have no man to help me this is my existence i'm defined by this being lame and begging you can't let your current situation define who you are you see it was it was naomi who was her name means pleasant that said don't call me pleasant in ruth 1-20 for the almighty has dealt bitterly with me i was full but he uh he he brought me back empty that it's all his fault that i've lost my husband and two sons all that bitterness he said call me mara oh you can't let the temporary situation define the rest of your life how many people do i talk to that are limping that are basically bitter because of what happened to them let me tell you that all of us if jesus learned obedience to the father through the things he suffered if he learned to not lose his faith through the things he suffered if he learned to be obedient to do what the father wanted him to do even though he suffered much in the process of doing that then can you and i expect to not suffer something in this world can we not expect to be tested in our faith let me tell you get over it life he's going to have his challenges jesus is not looking for wimps he's looking for people who trust in him he is god he went through everything that we go through yet he didn't sin he didn't cave and everything he was triumphant he beat the devil face to face and he's the one that says i can give you the victory if you'll just quit being negative and believe my word i will make sure that you come through this with gold i will bring you through the fire i will bring you through the flood i'll bring you through whatever you go through oh father self-fulfilling prophecies so many times we're like the famous pitcher who basically said i can't even think of his name right now i'm playing now he's so famous praise god gaylord perry gaylord perry in 1963 coming up to the play he's a hall of fame pitcher and major league baseball coming up to the plate pitchers aren't known to be good batters come at the plate he said this he muttered the fact and they heard him that uh they'll be they'll put a man on the moon before i ever get a home run so that was in 1963 and do you know that in july 20th 1969 six years later two hours after neil armstrong put his foot on the moon gaylord perry hit a home run how many times have we muttered things like oh i'll never get over this and i'll never be the same and this is never going to change and that person's never going to change and this is never going to get any better than it is and we mutter things that reveal the heart you see out of the heart it shows your belief and so it is in the heart that you believe or you disbelieve and we've got to be people that don't let doubt and negative confessions come into our heart you know jim carrey he is a famous actor you know jim carrey when he was starting that would go to the top of mountain overlooking los angeles and tell himself people are going to like me people are going to put me in movies people are going to going to pay me a lot of money and he would try to psych himself up and then go back down to his meagre existence he one time wrote himself a postdated check for 10 million dollars for for for several years later so that he can pull it out of his wallet and look at it and say one day i'm gonna i'm gonna have major money one day people are gonna pay me major money friend he isn't even a believer to my knowledge but yet i'm here to tell you that even in those practices we see that jesus put forth those things that in second corinthians 4 13 as i believe therefore i speak so do not dismutter i have no man i can't get out of this existence it'll never change in my life no i'm going to tell you you're impossible is possible through jesus christ that yes you can see god do great and mighty things the second order of change is the first order of change is trying to do something different but the second order of change is doing what it is seeing things completely different it was again the the jacksonville uh uh uh jaguars uh excuse me tampa bay buccaneers i i praise god help somebody help me tampa bay buccaneers that that uh this won the super bowl that tom brady who has been now won seven super bowls came to their team they did want to their first super bowl in 2002 2003 actually when they had the game but they hadn't been what has been known as a super bowl franchise tom brady came to them and the week before the super bowl game he texted every single one of them we will win every night the whole week before the game we will win we will win the night before the game why is that tom brady knew what it was like to win he knew it was like to be a winner he knew that you had to believe in that that you could win you would win and so he tried to change the very dynamic thinking process of the team that had not been used to winning that had not been used to being super bowl champions and so every night at 11 o'clock p.m we will win sent to every person on the team to get them in the mindset they need to be in to enter into that contest which they whooped up on the chiefs in that game let me tell you that over and over again you're going to hear the holy spirit not a preacher you're going to hear the holy spirit bringing a word of faith to your heart over and over again you can you can count on it god's going to get you through a song it's going to get you through a devotion he's going to get you through some kind of bible reading or through something you have podcast he's going to sow that word and sow that word so that work and he's trying over and over again to get you to believe and to begin to envision that yes i can win yes i will win yes god can give me the victory yes this can change yes i can see the victory and it's only when we say yes to the word of christ when we say yes to his word it's that's when we see the miraculous take place oh let me tell you god i pray that every one of us would get alone with our prayer closet get a lonely cop and hear your word and every one of us say yes i can believe i will win i will be healed i will be provided for i will be delivered i will see god do this in my family i will see it because jesus christ has spoken it in my heart would you come to tenor please oh praise god praise god see this man george dancing in 1939 studying at university of california berkeley and studying statistics in graduate school came into class late two problems were on the board that the professor had put up on the board and the professor put him on the board because they were unsolvable problems george didn't know that he didn't hear that he thought they were homework so he worked over the weekend came in the next week and said i'm sorry that my assignment is late this is a took me a little more time than i thought it would take but here it is i i have the problems worked out professor looked that up and said you just solved two unsolvable problems he would go on to to work for the department of defense and receive a number of awards but he said this he said i would have never solved those problems if they would have told me they were unsolvable the lord came in the garden and asked adam who told you you were naked you see the enemy will tell you that it can't happen he will tell you that it can't take place this is not self-help this is about hearing the word of christ and believing what he tells you is going to come to pass so let me tell you as i tell myself that there is nothing that is insolvable with the lord what we see in the first miracle the sign was molecular sovereignty he's able to change the water into wine powerful over the subatomic molecules in the world able to do anything second sign that there is no distance of time and space he speaks the word that that person that boy is going to be healed he's 20 miles away he could have been 2 million miles away he wouldn't have mattered and he was healed instantly when he spoke it and this third sign he's showing us that there no matter how long you've been in a problem there is no one that has been in a problem so long that god can't change it and deliver them out of that problem hallelujah nothing unsolvable [Music] it was in 1983 that the canadians hey they won the america's cup boat race and they came to san diego and and unfortunately did that on our own waterways they had been beaten in 1980 by us but their coach did something that was never been done the coach back in 1980 made a tape you remember tapes anybody remember tapes yeah been away back there he made a tape he had it narrated with sound effects of waves like they were racing and he he narrated a race between the canadians and the americans for the race that was coming up in 1983 three years from then and he did a play-by-play and a turn by turn and a length by length kind of description about all the things that he wanted his team to know that they were going to do and how that that that plan was going to end up beating the americans and of course at the end end of the tape and they can in the canadians win the cup the america's cup and he made every sailor of his team listened to it twice a day for three years i'm glad i went on his team how much and in all of that they had heard themselves win that race 2000 190 times before they actually won the race in 1983. so ask about it they said you know yeah you won the race hey we we didn't just win this race today we won this race three years ago and in fact we've been winning this race every single day twice a day for the last three years because we've been listening to ourselves win the race can i tell you can i tell you that jesus has been telling you over and over again and the holy spirit has been speaking to your heart over and over again hasn't he hasn't he come on somebody hasn't he that yes your son's going to come through that amen yes that you're going to be healed yes that you're going to see your relationships restored yes that you're going to see the money that you need the provision the college you want to go to yes you're going to win you're going to win you're going to hear it every day repeat it every day declare it every day as i believe therefore i speak and i speak miracles signs and wonders in the mighty name of jesus into your life into your family into your body into your bank account into your uh prosperity and your emotions in the name of jesus you are blessed you are highly favored of god the lord is with you oh hallelujah hallelujah [Music] we win we always win let's stand together we always win [Music] so jesus makes your impossible possible [Music] hmm prayer workers come if you're here today and you are battling something long-term it could long-term you can be relative it can be a week or it can be months or year or years i want to know if you believe that the lord can change that if you believe the lord can change that raise up your hand i do i believe it i believe it amen this feels good just keep my hand i'll keep my hand raised i believe it jesus [Music] i believe it you're going to have to do something maybe that you haven't done some of you may have already been doing it and just going to keep doing it but maybe you have to do something you haven't done he said to that man rise rise to the other official go home go another 20 miles go ahead and take off before you ever know that your son's healed or not go ahead just walk by faith go ahead and take off again [Laughter] you see what i'm asking you to do right now is to actually engage your faith faith is in your heart you can come forward and do that you can do it where you stand but i'm just going to tell you please get into your get into the spirit and begin to say lord i believe i am going to rise up and i'm going to say in the name of the lord i'm going to get this blessing in the name lord i'm going to receive this thing from god in the name of the lord i'm i believe and i declare that this is going to happen and for some of you you have been lame because something tragic happened to you you hear me today i say this in love but it's time for you to get up and believe again i say this in love jesus is calling you to get up and believe again you've been hurt you've been disappointed maybe somebody died a relationship died or something hasn't been healed but i want to tell you that he's the same yesterday today and forever [Music] if you have something long-term you want to pray about i'm going to ask you to go ahead and come quickly something long-term you want to see change would you come you don't have to have be prayed for anybody just come and stand across here we want to agree together you have something long-term you want to see change that's right pastor foster you need you're one of these guys that god's going to heal thank you lord amen thomas thank you thomas i appreciate your faith thomas you've got great faith thomas hallelujah praise god you've got something that you believe god can change i can't believe for you now i'm walking into miraculous you say oh your wife just went through all that i just told you jesus told me in that four o'clock room in the side it's gonna be okay and guess what she's okay amen praise god she'll be here next sunday amen alicia come on up alicia doesn't mean you won't have battles to fight it just means you get testimonies when you fight them amen hallelujah all right we need to pray for your mom eveless we need to pray for her come forward if we do i believe in god for you we're going to have to we're going to have to just right now activate that faith all right all right first of all if you're here and you've been hurt you've been disappointed with something i want to i feel supposed to pray for you first so you don't have to raise your hand if that's you but know you're on god's heart today will you please know that you're on god's heart today let me pray for you right now i want you to receive this from the lord father what the enemy meant for evil to lame their faith you can turn around for good oh david said unless i had seen affliction i would not have been able to study your law and find out the wondrous things out of it lord thank you for helping us dig a little deeper to know a little bit better to operate a little bit more in the faith and promises that you've given to us oh jesus you changed everything so lord we take away what the enemy meant for evil in the womb that's in somebody's life here this morning and we in the name of jesus call them to rise get up again get up again get up again you're not down for the count get up again in the name of jesus rise up again shake off that mat get rid of that victim mentality in the name of jesus get rid of that skepticism get rid of that doubt and fear in the name of jesus believe again resurrect their faith god let them stand up on their legs of faith and once again say i believe god that it shall happen just as he said unto me god healed their faith oh hallelujah glory glory glory glory oh somebody maybe start walking a little bit by faith amen start walking a little bit by faith right now start walking a little bit by faith god i receive it by faith today [Music] i'm doing spiritual warfare and i'm going to fight for you and for me for our faith final thing today blood we're going to do is right here right now praise god for your faith i know you got faith amen remember one thing we pray see this i'm not hyping this up because this has to be something that can't just be emotion this has got to be something you believe in your heart and you carry away from this house and it doesn't change when you go out the door and go to dustin's and eat all that barbecue you're going to eat come on now somebody [Music] remember that he rebuked the jews because they always had to see a sign or you won't believe you're always going to see something or you won't believe can i encourage you today i know we all want to see a dramatic and i thank god we're going to see god do his work here today but if you don't and that's no lack of faith on my part i guarantee you that and i'm not saying it's lack of faith on your part i'm just trying to tell you that what's going to happen now is that you're going to believe for what god's going to do for you and you're not going to doubt it when you leave hallelujah why because you are going to see it in your spirit and you're going to know it in your heart and lord i believe i believe your word to me i believe your word to me uh brother lahan you here you have up you have your bible come on up here brother i just feel quick and he's got that bible he wants to put on people amen if you want the bible put on your head with the hondas get warmed up hey man somebody somebody get him a heater get him warmed up amen he stays warm come on up brother i'm going to join you with the bible take us take a side finish side anywhere you want to go man of god [Music] and we're going to lay the bible and even though we're up here praying for these today you

Channel: City Sanctuary Deland

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Id: V0-1jjtKIKw

Length: 92min 23sec (5543 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 21 2021