Convergence Church - Pastor Greg Simas 04.18.2021

the rain of darkness now has ended [Music] [Music] you're the king of my [Music] [Music] over life universe just to give us new life [Music] jesus there is [Music] [Music] is you rained above it all you sent the darkness running out of an empty grave [Music] seated alone in glory enthroned on the highest [Music] in place enthroned on the highest place you set the darkness [Music] darkness is [Music] good morning happy sunday wow we're already excited all right we're gonna enter into a time of worship everyone who's online we're happy that you're still able to join us online if i can just welcome all of us [Music] my holy spirit we're believing that you're in this room this morning that you're eager to meet with us father thank you that you are always eager to meet with us that once we arrive you're there father we just posture our hearts and worship this morning god that we're not only here to receive what you have for us god but to give you back the glory and the honor that you are due we love you we love you god and so we lay down all the things that distract us from that love we'll lay down all the worries and the anxiety lord we lay down all the stressors of everyday life and we just come to worship you to meet you to see you face to face all the other voices will be silenced this morning that our our focus and our gaze would just be on you that you would be all that we see that we were we're not looking to the right we're not looking to the left but that our gaze is solely focused upwards at you we're looking straight at you and we're believing in expectation that you're going to move god that you've come to come this morning to heal broken hearts that you've come this morning to heal sickness in our bodies did you come this morning to speak truth and promise and purpose and a future [Music] anything else that tells us otherwise this morning be silenced you are a good good father [Music] i just want that to sink in this morning you're a good good father [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're a good good father [Music] and we love you right now you're a good father [Music] yes [Music] you're a good father [Music] [Applause] [Music] so i surrender i surrender i'm here for you i'm right here for you you're a good good father i believe [Applause] [Music] i [Music] you're a good father yes you are a good good father we believe that this morning [Applause] [Music] you're a [Music] cause we believe that you are good [Music] you'll never let us [Music] you're good when you are everything changes [Music] darkness every heart starts burning and nothing about us [Music] is changes darkness every heart starts burning and nothing bad is more than just [Applause] [Music] and we love you [Music] we'll never stop we can't live without you [Music] in jesus all this is for you jesus [Music] sickness lost every hopelessness ceases to exist when you walk into the room [Music] [Applause] [Music] sickness starts to finish every hopeless situation come on [Music] [Music] without you jesus [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] come [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] where i am [Music] jesus we love you is [Applause] jesus [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is jesus [Music] jesus every chain must break as we sing his name oh jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus jesus jesus come on sing it out jesus if you're feeling heavy this morning if you're feeling weary if you're feeling discouraged just sing out the name of jesus and everything must pray every single chain must fall there is power in the name of jesus the name that is above every other name jesus [Music] oh jesus [Music] jesus [Music] jesus yeah jesus come on oh jesus [Music] jesus jesus jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] see [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] foreign there is a healing power it's wonder working power we have full access full access [Music] [Applause] [Music] all this power in the name of jesus [Music] power [Music] power [Applause] [Music] power power [Applause] when there is no way [Music] [Music] power [Music] [Applause] [Music] power we believe when you're working out it breaks depression oh oh oh [Applause] [Music] up [Music] we can't get [Music] for enough jesus [Music] jesus we love you i love thank you for your wonder working power thank you jesus [Music] [Music] jesus please [Music] oh [Music] is the last try [Music] and oh how [Music] and in the midst of my darkest storm i know the blood is still and i was just like mary i was laid by shame and they called me is is is is ever working power miracle working power in the blood in the blood of jesus [Music] is [Music] me [Music] is [Music] [Applause] me [Applause] me is is me [Music] i'm still dripping i'm still dripping with the blood of the lamb it covers it covers [Music] his blood will give you victory this blood can break every bondage it can give you a sound mind it can give you a sound mind [Music] still dripping with the blood [Music] this week i was i was praying about what the lord wanted to do during this song and i'm just gonna testify of how he's been encountering me while singing and practicing and giving this song back to him sometimes we have circumstances that we don't see there's if there's a way out or if there's a better way but i i had to stand firm on the promises of just the very blood of jesus and so i just really feel that that could relate to some of you today whether it be a diagnosis whether it be a family circumstance whether it be a financial issue whether it be just just life sometimes you just need to just cry out for the blood of jesus let it speak a better word for every circumstance and situation so we're just gonna go back and tell it washes [Music] oh [Music] me [Music] [Applause] is [Music] is [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] so [Music] precious [Music] still hmm [Music] so [Music] [Music] and we thank you um [Music] [Music] thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus for the sacrifice of the cross thank you that there is no other name like yours there's power in the name of jesus every time we declare there is power the storm surrounding me let [Music] every way jesus you make the darkness jesus [Music] [Music] call and these [Music] [Music] jesus jesus you make the darkness tremble jesus jesus jesus you make the darkness trouble jesus jesus your sirens fear sing jesus jesus jesus you make the darkness jesus jesus jesus you make the darkness [Music] jesus can't deny your name is [Applause] is jesus jesus jesus silence with jesus jesus jesus you'll make silencer jesus jesus you make the darkness tremble jesus [Music] jesus jesus jesus you make the darkness tremble jesus jesus your silence fear oh jesus jesus you make the darkness tremble jesus jesus the silence fear jesus jesus you make the darkness jesus [Music] that jesus shadows can't deny your name cannot be overcome your name is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is your name [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] you make the darkness true [Music] silencer there is no other name like yours how i love the name of jesus how i love the name of jesus jesus so beautiful so wonderful so powerful there is no other name there is no other name there is no other name no one great no one high there is no other name all we have to do is sing your name in darkness please all we have to do is sing your name in darkness fleece [Music] so we did this a little earlier but i just feel like we just need to sing his name this morning we don't need any other words that we don't need any other songs we just need his name and the power of his name [Music] so i'm just gonna invite us however you want in whatever melody you want in whatever language you want we're just gonna sing his name this morning and i just wanted to like i just wanted to build and get loud i just want this room to shake with the name of jesus this morning and whatever breakthrough you're looking for i think it's gonna happen this morning actually no i don't think i know what's gonna happen this morning i believe it's gonna happen this morning so we're just gonna sing his name i don't know what it's gonna look like i don't know what it's gonna sound like but i believe for the breakthrough i believe that there's power in his name so we sing jesus oh jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus oh jesus [Applause] oh jesus [Applause] jesus jesus jesus foreign hey [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yes [Music] yes yes yes come on can we just say jesus really really loud for 30 seconds let's just give him some praise jesus we love you jesus we love you come on come on i know you guys can get louder than that come on jesus the alpha and the omega the beginning and the end [Applause] who reigns and rules for thousands of generations oh god you are enthroned on the praises of your people come on come on come on press in press in press in it's all about you jesus it's all about you some of you guys need to get a little wild this morning you need a jump you need a shower you need to get out of your chair i just want to invite you to come up get wild this morning father we love you come on church come on hmm [Music] come on come on look this is what we're gonna do this is what we're gonna do i just feel so much joy and expectation for what god's gonna do this morning we're not done yet i don't think you guys heard me the first time well i came from a hispanic church man when the pastor gets up there and starts freaking the whole journey goes wild man i think it's just because of of what god did for them what god did for you just the remembrance of what he brought you out of i think david danced wild and crazy because he remembered of what god did with him and through him and i just want to get wild this morning man this is just my heart i just want the explosion of worship just god to be lifted high not because i want to see some physical movement or whatever i just i just feel so much joy and expectation for god to explode this morning there's gonna be healings there's gonna be signs and wonders i believe even through your dance your shout you're clapping god's gonna release salvation and breakthrough so we're gonna go for 30 more seconds we're gonna get wild all right i want everybody on the count of three the show ready one two three jesus [Music] [Music] oh is is is is he breaks the chains is yes yes thank you jesus thank you jesus father we love you this morning you are exalted you are exalted over fremont you are exalted over the bay you will be lifted high there is no other god yeah jesus we love you come on let's give jesus a shout [Music] [Applause] thank you worship team we love you guys online family we love you [Music] some of you never jumped so hard or yelled that much hey all of eternity all of eternity that's what we're going to be doing surrounded around his throne looking at one man saying holy that's what they're doing right now fresh revelation of his holy saying holy holy holy oh jesus we love you amen amen amen come on just give another clap to the worship team we love you guys amen amen you guys may be seated wow you turn on the lights alleluia come on yes yes yes hey first time visitors we love you we welcome you welcome to convergence church welcome to convergence church okay all right i was waiting for that hey guys we love you guys so much thank you so much for uh giving us the opportunity to uh worship and and really just go after the presence of god together uh we this is just we really prioritize this this spec like specific moment of just going after the presence of god together and just seeing his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven amen amen if you are a first time visitor there's a little uh fill card fill out card right in front of your chair fill that out we would love to connect with you guys um on online family where's the camera is that is that it online family we love you guys everyone say what's up online family so good so good well we love you guys man and i just wanted to say uh thank you so much for just coming through this morning and you know god obviously showed up and he's gonna continue to show up and we're going to transition a little bit into tithes and offerings everyone's like oh my gosh no it's a joyful thing it's a joyful thing and so i just um we're gonna we're gonna get started if we could all just stand sit down and i'm just kidding we're all gonna stand those are watching our lunch stand no i'm scared it's gonna be good we're gonna read our declaration everyone said declaration everyone say declaration yes come on we're gonna read it together in the count of three you ready one two three as we receive today's tithes and offerings we are believing the lord for jobs and better jobs raises and bonuses benefits and sales and commissions favorable settlements estates and inheritance interest and income rebates and returns checks in the mill gifts and surprises finding money debts paid off expenses decreased god's blessing and increases thank you lord for meeting all of my financial needs so that i may have more than enough to give into the kingdom of god and promote the gospel of jesus christ hallelujah yes god we thank you this morning we love you father we just asked god that you would just that we would reap a hundredfold from what we sow this morning god i just thank you that this week we would see fruit other salvations healings and breakthroughs father we ask father for favor we ask for influence father we thank you for your word we thank you for your truth in jesus name and the body says amen hey you can either give through a push ba push pay our church center app our buckets are going out and um we're going to have a little bit of moment we're going to have a moment of connect time for about three minutes is that cool what's that yes the buckets are connecting after the buckets are passed [Laughter] we're going to connect um and it's going to be a blast amen where's my online family at online family we love you guys can't wait to see you guys in person can't wait to see you guys in person amen yeah pg's like yes amen amen awesome awesome awesome all right everyone we can stand one more time for me look around your neighbor someone point across the room so we're gonna connect all right in the count of three one two and three let's connect for three minutes online family we love you guys so much uh we are going to have you guys walk around the room try something out different this sunday [Music] [Music] amen [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] i wanna love you like you love me [Music] oh [Music] me [Music] god [Music] yes [Music] [Music] i'm [Applause] [Music] [Music] heart amen amen amen thank you jesus you guys may be seated you guys can connect again after service for coffee for coffee awesome [Music] we love you guys so much amen amen amen we're gonna jump in right into announcements and then we're gonna have pastor gray come up amen hey man come on yo what's up guys it's pastor job and i'm so excited to bring today's announcements and let's get into it hey guys we are so excited to have bobby connor with us i know it's my first time and it's gonna be a lot of your guys's first time experiencing uh just kind of what he brings to our community and our culture so be sure to block out may 1st and may 2nd we're so stoked to have a weekend with bobby connor it's going to be epic [Music] just a quick reminder for those who have already signed up prophetic ministry zoom sessions this month that are happening saturday april 24th and then for those that haven't registered those that are don't even know what this is this is our prophetic ministry moment where you come receive get filled and and i just want to encourage you to come and sign up on may 22nd register now [Music] guys weekly prayer night i know i said this last sunday but every single tuesday from five to nine pm and every single thursday from 5 to 9 30 p.m we're seeking and going after the presence of god as one body and as one heart and one voice contending believing worshiping and declaring that god will have his reign and his rule in the bay area i just want to encourage you guys to come to that this is probably one of the most powerful and critical things that we can do as a body is just be and priests before the presence of god so if you have not come or you're thinking about coming this is for you we'll see you there tuesday remember five to nine tuesdays and thursdays five to nine thirty we'll see you guys there [Music] hey guys we're so excited that we're celebrating converges 25 years this summer and we want to just go after the presence of god together and seek his face and this is going to be something that's going to be so critical to our body so again let's build some wild anticipation some wild expectation for god to come and to have a lot of fun we can't wait to see you there those are all the announcements that i got for you guys this week now let's stand up welcome pg as he preaches and swear this morning good to see you guys good seeing you guys and uh everything's wild when job's up everything's wild we're gonna have a wild time we're gonna have a wild you know so someone needs to develop a really cool acronym for that w-i-l-d so don't work on it now though all right uh well good to see you guys in the house of the lord good seeing you oop good seeing you in the house of the lord my voice is changing all right so here's what i want to do there's a there's a lot of ground i want to cover i don't have a lot of time because we always make room for the presence of god first and the worship was off the hook loved it loved it i know i said off the hook i don't know if that's you know that could be an old thing off the chain off the i don't know you know like it changes all the time so but you guys got my my my drift on that that's a little bit but uh i felt the presence of the lord so strongly today and uh it was not only is the band like amazing but also they carry the anointing which is far greater to me is tasting and see that the lord is good and so that's our top priority that's what we do that's what we that's why we have we'll have an hour of worship and you might as well get used to it because all eternity so if you can only if you can't even take an hour in the presence of the lord i don't know how you're gonna anyway you guys follow my drift on that so so remember and i said it before like in in you know the today we gather around a sermon in the old testament they gathered around the presence and we have to get back to the the fire and the cloud by night fire and the presence of the lord where we gather around and so that's what the corporate anointing is all about that's why we come on sunday morning so that we could actually enjoy the presence of the lord together um one quick prayer point my uh my mother-in-law darlene uh johnson wendy's mom uh bill johnson anyway we she's up in reading and uh she had a fall yesterday uh she's 92. and uh she she couldn't get up andrew and hannah were there because the twins the twin boys when i say the twins you know i'm saying the little ones had their birthday party in reading uh and so they were all at the house she fell she fractured her hip uh and they have to do a i don't know if it's a partial hip replacement or full hip replacement she's 92. she was on she was on some blood thinners before the fall and but they really can't do surgery until i don't even know what the number is called but is is supposed to be down she's uh when she was admitted her blood thickness i could as the only way i could say it um was 1.8 they can't perform surgery uh unless it's 1.2 so uh they're giving her stuff to uh to bring it down and i was notified she just you know wendy's up there that's where she's at she's in the hospital room with her mom they could only allow one person in the hospital the entire time so that means that her sister can't go there any other family can't go so she's she's with her mom now so pray for wendy the lord would give her wisdom and she's the one who's talking with the doctors and and uh so they can't perform surgery the surgery will probably take an hour and a half or so but she's 92 they can't do it unless her blood thickens and so she asked me to have our church family pray so let's do that can we do that okay let's all stand together because i want that blood to flow in you and i just want you to know that your prayers matter that your prayers are significant and just simple prayers like lord bring that number down she's at she's currently at 1.4 so that's a praise she started at 1.8 so we're praying that surgery can happen tomorrow morning so father we just thank you that we can pray and we can believe and we could declare and lord we just declare that darlene's blood thickness if i could say that the right words uh would go from 1.4 to 1.2 we make that declaration in the name of jesus 1.4 to 1.2 we declare 1.4 to 1.2 let's say it together we declare 1.4 to 1.2 lord i pray that you would be with the doctors the nurses those that are attending to her god i pray that you give them wisdom and revelation i pray for divine supernatural strength for darlene lord god as she goes under for this surgery there'll be no complications lord guys there'll be a successful surgery and she'll be with us a lot lot longer and we thank you for it lord thank you for her faithfulness to love you through the many many years her many many years in ministry 50 60 years in full-time ministry thank you for all that lord and i just pray that you would give her a peace that goes beyond all understanding in the name of jesus in the name of jesus and lord it be great if he just healed her that would be that would be like amazing so we just want to agree with that that you're going to heal her and touch our body in the name of jesus amen thank you so much you guys really appreciate it you could be seated whoa whoa well welcome i didn't welcome the convergence family are you right over there all right so i never know where the where the cameras are at so welcome you guys glad you guys are with us thanks for praying with us continue to pray for darlene and keep her in prayer also a couple quick announcements first of all jared and gabs are newly married and they're back with us so [Applause] so if you don't if you don't know uh jared because like who's jared jared is a new visitor uh they actually met in our supernatural school of ministry school and uh and he was over at church of the cross in hayward and now he's here and jared is is aaron's twin brother so aaron are you our children's pastor so they're they're identical twins even though aaron's a little taller yes but they look the same and they talk the same it's like even when he said yes that's that's all aaron talk so anyway hey glad you guys are back glad you guys are with us and uh and they are they have smiling faces that's all okay uh bobby connor nick's you guys block it off on your calendar seriously saturday night we haven't had a saturday night service in a long time saturday night at 6 30 p.m we'll have bobby for saturday night and sunday morning and so i would love to make this a regional thing on saturday night that's going to be coming on us like really quick like we're almost done with april i mean that's nuts right so um so lock that in and then may 2nd on sunday morning just invite someone to come with you all right and uh i think that's gonna be amazing i think he has a uh i never know what to expect with bobby connor all right how many of you guys sat under his ministry before put your hand up all right half of you haven't i'm telling you like you're not gonna want to miss this this guy you he's a prophet and uh he's been with our in our house for six or seven years i don't know he just wants to keep coming here and so we are delighted with that and uh he'll be showing up and he'll be filled with joy and he might be doing some well he might play the drums he might play a keyboard you just never know what he's going to do all right and he will not be here he'll be all over the place so that'll be on saturday night may 1st at 6 30 and sunday morning at 10 30 a.m all right and the last thing i want to just encourage you guys with is that uh i i just saw last week i think it was maybe last tuesday or so that uh the friday prior to that we had a victory in the supreme court uh the u.s supreme court that um that the location i'm going to read i'm going to read it for verbatim so i don't it's not long trust me that location and capacity limits on places of worship are not mandatory so [Applause] and i don't have time to dive into to all of that because i i barely know all that um but i i do know that that was a core case and i know that harvest rock church our friends down in pasadena area were really the forerunners in that and so that means that the churches are fully open and no no capacity limits and so we are encouraged by what god is doing and what god has done say amen all right ah so much to say take your bibles turn to nehemiah chapter four that's where i kind of bring us to and i feel like the lord is in today's is more like what i sense what the lord's doing um and i have i have notes but i i always try and prepare notes but i usually never look at them and uh so that could be a good thing and or a bad thing i pray it's a good thing um so it's important for us as we're moving through this season and we praise god that i get this sense that you know we're moving in a recovery mode you know it says in psalm 23 that he will not keep us in the valley but he'll take us through the valley that's the promise so for this in the seasons that we feel like we're in a valley the valley experience remember that only certain things will grow in the valley certain things will grow on a mountaintop and so the valley experience can if we if we harness and treat the valley experience correctly that we can actually benefit and grow through that valley the there are the amens were deafening but but i've been i've been through valleys i think probably every single person in this room if you follow the lord like initially upon conversion it's like there's this amazing encounter where the presence of god is there and it's like and life is actually an adventure it's not boring if our christianity becomes boring it's not god's fault it's probably my fault because i don't think the lord's boring at all and so but there are times when there are seasons where we hit these sticky points these places where sometimes we don't feel the presence of the lord as strongly sometimes things happen around us that we don't quite understand and it's in those moments that we could act it's an opportunity on this side of heaven to draw near to god in a special way a special place of intimacy with the father that can't happen while we're on a mountaintop experience and so what we've what we've faced and are currently facing over the last say year and a half those those things have brought us into a valley like maybe for some like none they've ever experienced before for others there's been there's been tremendous breakthrough i mean there's been amazing things that have happened in in spite of it for some it was it's been a hard season but the promise that we see in psalm 23 is number one that he'll always put a table in the valley that we can feast on the table is his presence that while we're in the valley that the presence of the lord the word of god could be feasted on and actually give us to strengthen the energy to get us through this valley i feel like in in subways we're in we're in a recovery mode on in some places and in other places we're not when we get a when we get a supreme court decision that actually lifts these restrictions off and actually uh invites us back together again i think that's something that that we need to take note of as something that maybe the spirit of god is saying to the church and i understand that there are there are people there are still very difficult policies there's very difficult decisions that people have to make even the fact that you've come here this morning for those that are that are online in our online family which i'm looking at the camera online family um they for some they still can't come even though they want to and because of some of the restrictions that have been placed upon them in their work environment that they actually can't step through the doors but you can still join us online and so i just want to say to our online family we love you and we're so glad you're joining us can you guys just give them a i don't know just let them hear you because they can't see you so in a lot of ways we see this we see a lot of parallels taking place with what's currently happening and what what we see in nehemiah chapter 4. in nehemiah chapter 1 we understand that god lays it upon nehemiah's heart to go back to jerusalem leave babylon go back to jerusalem and actually rebuild the wall as you know that the wall around the city was a place for security defense and keeps keeping the the adversary out of the city the walls actually protected the city i'm not here to talk about that as much to say that god gave nehemiah an assignment now everyone has been given an assignment by the lord so i'm not i'm not here to talk about the wall per se what i'm here to talk about is the assignment that god has given us and that's kind of in direct correlation with the wall so when i talk about the wall i'm talking about ministry i'm talking about the assignment that god has given us so nehemiah goes ahead and in in chapter one gets the assignment and he knows that there's going to be confrontation nehemiah realizes that when he takes up the mantle of what god's called him to that there is going to be resistance is but nehemiah sometimes when the when the burden of the lord is so intense it just moves you to that place regardless in other words sometimes in places of ministry you're not always going to be liked well you're definitely not going to be liked by the enemy that's for sure and the the magnification or the calling that god's placed on us will bring us into levels of confrontation well what are you talking about well let's just look at the life of jesus all right the son of god invades earth he brings the gospel of the kingdom and there was continual confrontation so much so he went to the cross and he died because of the confrontation but thank god on the third day come on he rose again and he rose again victorious and so this is the picture that we see here and there's and there's i think four things i want to leave you with as we close about what i sense the lord's doing in the context of the church you guys ready you guys ready all right i'm gonna be reading i'm gonna i might just go ahead and read all of nehemiah chapter four i'll be reading out of the new king jimmy and so the new king james and uh so if you have your devices you can go to new you know the duke you can switch you know niv new kings j you know whatever all right so we have the context and so but it so happened verse one when sand ballot heard that we were rebuilding the wall that he was furious and very indignant and he mocked the jews so right away they're beginning to rebuild the wall and there's opposition he was furious he was indignant and he mocked them he mocked the jews that were actually building on the wall and he spoke before his brethren and the army of samaria and said what are these feeble jews doing will they fortify themselves will they offer sacrifices will they complete the wall in one day will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish stones that are burned and what stood out to me on that verse is that i really believe that the lord is reviving the stones the lord is reviving the church right now the lord i mean we have been in the furnace and we're going to come out of the furnace better than we were when we went into it stronger one thing about one thing about what's was transpired is actually if we look at it as an opportunity it does refine us the the fire of god we want the fire of god over us and on us but we don't really like the fire of god under us because the fire of god under us is a refining fire and the benefits even though that you know we have the landscape of opinions that are out there is numerous from prophetic words to to whatever we're seeing in different you know news outlets it's it's it's pretty wild what's what's happening in our culture but for the believer it's important that even though we're in we're in the culture we're part of the world we're in the world but we're not of it even though we we have worked through this together is that it's important now that it's been over a year a year and a month i think that there's a there's a refining that the lord wants to do in the body there has been a refining in what the lord has done in the body it's challenged us to send our roots down deeper it's challenged us to understand what we truly believe is challenging us and i believe that that our days our best days are right in front of us i believe that revival is on its way i believe that the lord is going to show forth his i mean the songs that we sang today about the name of jesus being lifted up the name of jesus like there is no fear the name of jesus is being lifted up and i would encourage you to make sure that we're hearing from heaven we're asking the lord to refine our hearts so that all the dross is taken off the top of this thing and that actually gold the purity of the gold where the the refiner actually sees the image of his face on the refined gold is really what he's wanting to do in the body of christ is it easy no has it been hard everyone say yes there been difficulties yes has there been disagreements yes has there been all those things if we if we manage it rightly are there to refine us to make us more like christ to make us look more like christ and i believe that that's what the lord is doing in the body you know sometimes well i won't even go there all right sometimes i won't even go there all right so i do believe there's that the lord is reviving the stones he's reviving his people verse three now tobiah the amorite was beside him and he said whatever they build even if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall in other words the wall is going to be feeble and it's going to be weak the enemy is mocking the assignments and the assignment of the lord and the rebuilding of the wall and then they respond hero hear oh our god for we are despised turn their reproach on their own heads you know these kind of i love these honest prayers you ever felt like praying like that because we're new testament we don't okay but i just i just hear oh our god for we are despised turn their reproach on their own heads and give them as plunder to a land of captivity do not cover their iniquity whoa and do not let their sin be blotted out from before you for they have provoked you to anger before the builders wow you don't want to get the lord you know what i'm saying but that it didn't stop nehemiah so we built the wall the entire wall with the entire wall was joined together up to half of its height for the people had a mind to work now what happened when sam balot and tobiah and the arabs and the ammonites and the ashdod ites and every ite that was around there heard that the walls of jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed that they became very angry verse 2 we see the word revive verse 7 we see the word restore the lord is reviving his work and he's restoring his people verse 8 and all of them conspired together to come and attack jerusalem and create confusion i'm telling you today there's been a massive attempt to create confusion so the work of sam ballad that didn't work he aligned himself with tobiah they were both governors that didn't work so what they did is they brought people around them and they they they amped up the forces to come against those that are building on the wall and they used high levels of confusion to actually create separation and division what's important right now and i've said it for 11 months is that we must stay unified you can have unity in diversity jesus is the foundation of our faith we are all part of the family of god that makes you my brother and you my sister that's the highest priority we might have different views on things on what i call the fringes but we do agree on the main things and we have to keep the plain things the main things in the body of christ though we see things taking place from the outside where there's they're trying to sow division and confusion those that are in the body of christ must resist that and stay connected to the word of god and love for each other while we're having these things happening happening around us we're also seeing things that are happening from within and let me just take oh i could really take more time on this but i'm not going to because i have anyway if we if we hear messaging from the pulpits or from others that are connected where we now refuse to embrace jesus as god where we don't accept the atony work of christ on the cross when we disregard the authority of scripture no matter how you define it and how you dress it up and how compassionate you are it is not the gospel this whole idea of deconstructing your faith is scary listen jesus is going to be lord whether you deconstruct your faith or not there's going to be there's going to be a point where the scripture says every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is lord without truth there can be no justice when you and the ultimate source of truth is the word of god jesus says i am the way the truth and the life but if you could get people to begin questioning the word of god and you be they so doubts about what's written in the word of god the authority of scripture then you actually begin to remove the source of truth and now the truth resides in the person who or the organization that is declaring things other than the word imperfect people cannot create and sustain truth it just changes from generation to generation the foundation of the word of god is under attack the very word of god is under attack but it will not be sustained it can't be sustained so when you begin to hear people who are quote and i don't know if you've heard this who are quote like deconstructing their faith it grieves my heart now listen truth is never afraid of a question if you have a question about the lord if you have a you know we all have questions but if you dig and you work with an open heart not connected to other sources open heart you will find the truth and the scripture says the truth will set you free and i love and i've i don't think there's been ever a time in the last at least 15 20 years where apologetics has been very so very important why is the bible the bible how did we get the bible how do we know it's the word of god these are the things that are actually being uh discussed in a wide and a wide area wide variety all over the internet youtube whatever which is totally fine with me i'm not afraid of a question i'm not afraid of digging i'm not afraid of any of those kinds of things but it's becoming almost fashionable to deconstruct your faith and my friend that is a scary position to put yourself in in terms of being fashionable dig deep talk to jesus ask questions pursue his heart and you'll get revelation but if you eliminate if you seek to eliminate the foundation of truth then the state becomes the truth truth well i don't know why i'm going here truth is different than my feelings my feelings can't dictate truth and i can recall 10 years ago 15 years ago i might have felt like this and today i feel something different my feel i could be up one day down the next i could believe that i could i could feel strongly about this one day and a week later feel strongly about that feelings can't dictate truth only the word of god is the foundation for truth that's why it's important to be in the word that's why it's important to study the word that's why it's important to go deep in the word that's why we keep you know you'll keep hearing pastors all from east to west it's like get in the word and let the word get into you don't bring your presuppositions into the word let the word speak to you to change you don't bring in try don't try and change the word you won't be successful let the word change you let it be a lamp into your feet and a light into your path so we have things coming from the outside we've been feeling it we're having things coming from the inside and it's important here's my conclusion i'll just say it so i can help myself my conclusion is that we have to continue and maintain focus on what god is saying nehemiah i don't have time again as usual to go through nehemiah chapter four maybe we'll just pick it up next week who knows but turn to nehemiah chapter 6. nehemiah chapter 6 the enemy's intense trying to shut down the ministry trying to shut down what god's doing in there was actually some some real bad stuff happening within the camp where their brothers and sisters were charging huge amounts of money to their brothers and sisters and nehemiah comes in i love that he just shuts it down and he says you can't do that and they comply and then nehemiah chapter 6 they're getting close to finishing the wall and let's just pick it up in verse six now what happened i mean verse one now what happened when sam ballot and tobiah geshem the arab and the rest of the enemies heard that i had rebuilt the wall and that there were no breaks left in it though at the time i had not hung the doors of the gates that sam balot and geshem sent to me saying come let us to let us meet together among the villages and the planned of oh no that's what the enemy that's what the enemy's doing right now oh no the church is waking up oh but they thought to do me harm so i sent messengers to them saying i am doing a great work so that i cannot come down why should the work cease while i leave it and go down to you the enemies get off the wall step away from your assignment right now what we need to do is we need to be hearing from heaven with crystal clear clarity on what he's asking us to do and not come off the wall until it's done what's nehemiah saying my focus is on the assignment god has given me not to negotiate with the enemy they sent that letter to him four times they kept challenging him to come off the wall come off the assignment and the focus that god has clearly given him the assignment god has clearly given him to distract him from the work and to begin the process of negotiating and he knew it was a trap anyway because nehemiah's not he's a smart dude nehemiah says i ain't coming up he didn't say ain't i'm not coming off the wall because i'm doing a great work i'm not doing a small work i'm not doing an unimportant work i'm doing a great work and the work that god has given you is a great work any assignment that god has given you is a great assignment and it would be i was going to say foolish but that's too strong of a word it would not be a good idea i'll just say that it would not be a good idea to leave that assignment and begin to negotiate with the enemy trying to reason with the enemy when god has called you to a great work so let me just leave you with a couple things in conclusion the first thing that we i'm going to leave you with four things i'm going to try to figure out how to wrap this up and i wrote them down and when i look down i get lost it's important right now that we continue and i've said it for months but i feel like i just need to put it keep it in front of us we respond to the father and we do not react to the devil and i've caught myself reacting a lot but it's important that i in my prayer life while i'm driving at my car i'm asking the lord the question what is heaven doing right now what are you doing right now i do not want to react to anything i want to be responding to the lord it's so important because the noise is so loud that listen when you when you position yourself in heavenly places you will walk away encouraged filled with hope and consumed with joy that's why james says count it all joy i was i'm always asking the lord about that verse right when various trials come there's something about being anchored in heaven and responding hearing and responding to the father's voice that actually gives the believer the advantage and the wisdom in every situation nothing can come against me listen i'm not impressed with the devil i'm not impressed with what he's doing i only give him the attention only give him attention if i absolutely have to i'm impressed with the lord i'm impressed with what god's doing i want to stay impressed with what god's doing and the only way i'm going to stay impressed with what god's doing is that i'm actually anchored in another reality and i'm living from that reality into this one regardless of my what it might look like at work regardless of what it might look like in your current situations and circumstances you have to go up it's the invitation revelation chapter four come up here get god's perspective if you have to repent repent if you have to if he's if he's calling something out in our lives then let it be exposed and be and repent from it so that you can get on with what god's called you to do don't hesitate as soon as you begin to reason with the enemy it's over he's smarter that's why jesus responded in the temptation with the word it is written so let's continue to respond to the father the other thing i feel like the lord is doing is he's regathering his people in order for the wall to go up nehemiah had to re-gather the people that were scattered and i believe there's a re-gathering i think that the court has verified that at least the u.s supreme court has verified saying that yes gather now we know what the scripture says in hebrews chapter 12 verse 25 how it talks about not forsaking the assembly of the saints there's something about a corporate anointing there's something about gathering in person there's something about it and that's not to minimize or discourage anybody who's viewing online i understand and our prayers are with you i get it and i just want people i've said from the beginning it's like listen to what the holy spirit is telling you but don't masquerade we can't masquerade our fear as wisdom we have to be able to separate the two and so listen to what the holy spirit is saying we love you but i believe that the lord is regathering not just that convergence but regathering the body to fulfill the assignment i think number three or whatever number i'm i'm not good at numbers i mean i'm good at numbers but not good anyway i think he's re-enlisting the workers i think we have to move from regathering to a place where we re-enlist i know in the military they re-enlist and those are there's been a re there's been this separation though we've been connected and the lord has been done amazing things hasn't he it's been over over a year and we're we're assembled we're together and you guys have done amazing honestly you guys have done amazing the body of christ has been resilient maybe to the surprise of the enemy how resilient the body of christ has been where even though we're separated we're together we learned a lot so i just want to turn to your neighbor next to you and just say man good job you can even say man if you want good man good job all right so we need to get back and get back involved again get back involved again and we're going to be looking at we're going to be giving you guys some opportunities to be involved again just get get you re-enlisted number three or eight or whatever [Music] but we're re-enlisted for a purpose and that is to rebuild the wall now you can call the wall revival you can call it changing history it's like we re-enlist for a reason unto something we just don't re-enlist we re-enlist unto the glory of the lord fill in the earth we enlist to preach in the gospel right now that i gotta move that i can't do that right now and then lastly we have to restore the foundations [Music] i feel like that's what he's doing i feel like we're responding we're re-gathering we're re-enlisting we're rebuilding and god is restoring and i want to i want to speak to you guys in the in the next several weeks like next week i preach but then we have bobby and we who knows what bobby's going to say but but i feel like that's what the lord is saying and i think there's different people at different places and that's how i want to wrap it up today i feel like there are those that are you got you got to get away from reacting to the devil and begin responding to the father there's some people who are a little shy and they need to begin to regather now for some you can't like i completely get it some holy spirit saying don't i understand that for some you might just take that step of faith regather with your brothers and sisters in person like i said before i love zoom i love google hangouts i love that hangout and this hangout but honestly we're not made to live in a digital box we need people we need to connect with people [Music] so and there's there's something transforming about that i think that's what the lord that's why the lord put hebrews 10 25 for such a time as this right and then he's reenlisting his body sign up again serve get involved get engaged get involved in ministry whatever we want to give you guys opportunities for that he's rebuilding and he's restoring i i do believe our our best days are right in front of us are right in front of us if you're discouraged don't be if you're discouraged i i would implore you block one hour to two hours of your time without your cell phone and just be with the father and you'll find your encouragement all right let's stand [Music] you guys doing all right turn your neighbor next to you and say that was a good word [Laughter] i never say that oh my gosh i took a line from our friend chris valatin that was a good word you know i don't quite talk like him but so father i pray for every person in this room first of all they are precious in your sight you designed them you called them you've equipped them i thank you for them lord thank you for the assignment that you've given each and every one of us thank you for the vision you put in our hearts to serve you and to love you and to do the work lord i pray for those that might be distracted by the enemy god that they would continue to put their face toward heaven and hear and see what the father is doing may they be filled with great hope encouragement and joy lord for those that are have not maybe had the opportunity to gather here with us i just pray that you would fill their house their space with the presence of the living god you would encourage hearts god that we as the body would not forsake the gathering of the saints thank you lord for paving the way for that to actually happen and lord i pray for those that just really need to re-enlist lord god the body of christ needs all of us to be serving somewhere and so we thank you for that thank you for what you're doing there and thank you lord that you're rebuilding and you're restoring thank you lord for revival that's breaking out and i just make that declaration our best days are right in front of us lord thank you for refining us thank you lord for taking us through the fire thank you lord that you're answering our questions that as we pursue your heart you're going to give us revelation because you're a good dad and that you are forever in control and you govern it all and we give you praise in the name of jesus amen amen give somebody a high five say amen pastor job's gonna come on up and he's gonna close our service pg that was wild wild that was wild wild thank you pg online family we love you we'll see you next week we have ministry team right here to your rights for about 20 minutes and then the coffee bar will be open for the next 30 minutes amen we love you guys we'll see you next week

Channel: Convergence Church

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Id: WsBCC430vXQ

Length: 128min 5sec (7685 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021