Even in the Dark | Pastor Sarah Jakes Roberts | Hillsong East Coast

[Music] three times [Music] our god is and he shall reign [Music] forever and he shall reign [Music] forever he shall reign [Music] yes he will yes he will and he shall reign [Music] forever [Music] [Music] thank [Music] upon the throne [Music] forevermore upon their [Music] forevermore [Music] oh yeah [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] our praise will fill my soul [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] forever [Music] forever and he and he shall reign [Music] forever [Music] hillsong east coast youtube family love you so much glad you're here for church again i hope you've had an amazing week and that all is well in your world um huge shout out to everybody that calls our church home i i've met a bunch of people this week just out and about um you know in our amazing city and it's always cool especially at these times when we're not together to run into people um that you know from church i know that's cool normally but it feels like now anytime that happens it's like extra special when you see somebody from church it's almost like you're not allowed like oh my gosh i know you uh but i can't wait you know until we continue to see how god's gonna you know expand our territory especially with church and um next week i'm looking forward to preaching i'm looking forward to giving you a little bit more clarity on some stuff we are going to do to begin that process of gathering again uh which we've talked about uh before and we're kind of at a place now where we're looking forward to it um what this new chapter looks like it's going to be fun but next week i'm going to preach a message i've had on my heart for a while and give some details about what these little gatherings that are going to lead to bigger ones probably down the road are going to look like but a big hello also to everybody who's new from all over the world really welcome to our church family this church is for you you can get involved you can ask for prayer you can give by the way a huge shout out to everybody who is faithfully stepping up week in and week out all the giving details are available everywhere but you're here today because you love jesus and you need more of god's presence in your life and as i prayed for our church this week and just thought about the well-being of people's souls i thought about this scripture in john 14 verse 1. i won't turn to it because it's easy and it was jesus talking to the people that he hung out with the most and they were anxious about what was next where he was going and he says to them he says do not let your heart be troubled you believe in god believe also in me and it stuck out to me because you know how you can read bible verses a million times and maybe sometimes they go in one ear out the other other times it jumps out at you when i read those words jesus saying do not let your hearts be troubled it challenged me because i think sometimes we're under the impression that you know our soul is just in trouble you know something is is weighing on our hearts and just gotta happen but the way jesus set that up he said don't let your hearts be troubled which to me meant maybe there's something i can do to protect it and i wonder if you have let your heart be troubled this week and there's a lot of things that can trouble our hearts the news um our health fear of the unknown whatever it is i wonder what's troubling your heart today because my prayer is that you will do a couple of things what's the opposite of having a troubled heart i think it would be um a heart that's being ministered to literally that's the opposite trouble would be anxious would be panicky would be worried you've ever met somebody who has a troubled heart you can just tell it's on their face it's on their countenance but the opposite is a heart that is being ministered to by the power of god i believe that can happen and it happens through things like this the fact that you showed up for church today it means you are allowing the holy spirit to remove that trouble with a little bit of peace so before i introduce introduced you who's about to come preach the word i wonder um what's troubling the most right now your heart what's the most troubling thing on your mind and my challenge would be for you to bring that out this week and you keep giving it to god until it troubles you no more so tomorrow morning you wake up and you confront it face to face lord this this future of my family is troubling me and i lay it at your feet lord i'm troubled with the state of affairs in our country i lay it at your feet maybe slowly but surely we can stop allowing things that we have the power to reject to take root in our soul so that's my hope for you as you listen to this message and i know it's going to be a powerful one a special one but even as you worship even at the end of this message we're going to leave a little bit of time for you to just allow god to do what he needs to do just remember you don't have to let your heart be troubled this week it's my challenge i thought i'd share it with you until i can you know come back next week and i'm really going to challenge i can't wait to preach but i have loved this month dr darius daniels my brother from another mother uh robert madue last week earl mcclellan i heard tons of uh encouraging reports about what people felt about what he preached and what it did for them and i've loved all three and today we really wanted to shore up this month of august going into fall um with guest voices that i felt really mattered and just so you know this is actually harder to do in virtual church than it is in real church um because for any guest to do this they have to film it in their studio they have to get their team together they got to transfer the files we got to somehow make it work on our end with our amazing team so it's not as easy as it might look and for each guest i feel like the investment they've left us has been just out of this world been really special and i made a call to my friend sarah jakes roberts who is you know one of these rising established but rising even further voices in our country as far as being a leader as far as being a preacher her and her husband toray they pastor two churches one in la one in denver and she has a familiar last name she's the daughter of bishop t.d jakes and sarah's special and she's got a gift on her life and i love her voice i love what she brings to the table and i called toure and said can you and sarah be a part of this and we're going to have tourette at some point as well come preach and sarah graciously offered to go to a lot of work to get this ready for us to hear today and i really pray that you listen with an open heart open mind open soul and that god does something in in your mind today that changes your heart and maybe change changes the way you do this week so i'm going to pray for you and then i'm going to hand it over to miss sarah jakes roberts and she's for real y'all she's a mother she is a a wife and she is an incredible preacher of the word pray it's a blessing to you so jesus we love you um i don't know every need that's on the other side of this camera but i know jesus that you can meet every single one i pray for those that need peace that you would bring it for those that need healing in their bodies in the name of jesus we speak miracles today in your church for people who are far from god lord maybe people are watching today and they feel like they don't know you i thank you that as sarah preaches and towards the end of this message there will be people that make that decision to lay down their lives and pick up their cross and accept the grace that only you can give and we love you we pray for our nation today we pray for the church in general lord to continue to rise and shine in the middle of all these clouds and this darkness lord you will have your way and we trust you in jesus mighty name amen amen amen hillsong church east coast boston new jersey connecticut wherever you're watching this we love you god's hands on your life going to have a great week until then enjoy this church and remember don't let this be a message let it be something that changes your actual life hope you enjoy it love you see you soon hillsong east coast family you have no idea how excited i am to be joining you today my family my husband and i pastor terre we just have so much love so much respect for what god is doing through all of hillsong really but specifically at hillsong east coast online today we get to just take a minute and acknowledge our great friends carl and laura we love you guys so much it's such an honor to serve what god is doing through you all i do not take it lightly that you would allow me the opportunity to feed your sheep i know just how much you love them and how much you care for them and so i am so grateful for this opportunity and i cannot wait to get right in the word i've been praying i've been digging and i believe that you are not tuned into this message by coincidence i believe that god has a word that has been custom made specifically to meet your situation and so i'm so excited to dig into it i'm going to be in acts 8 verse 2 is where i'm going to begin now i'm reading from the new king james version and as i was praying i said god what is it specifically that you would like for me to share with the east coast online family god you're always speaking a word you've never run out of things to say and i want to make sure that whatever it is that you would have me to say fits directly to what they need and god gave me this scripture and he's been highlighting it in my mind over the last few days i can't wait to dig into it acts 8 verse 2 and just to set up a little bit of background this is after the apostles have really started to lay the foundation of the church and in the process of doing that they are being persecuted this is not churches we know it today here on the western side of the world this is a different type of church that undergoes persecution and it costs something for them to believe and so when we find them in this text they've just experienced the murder of stephen he was a martyr for the gospel and it begins in verse two it says and devout men carried stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him as for saul he made havoc of the church entering every house and drawing off and dragging off men and women committing them to prison therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word then philip went down to the city of samaria and preached christ to them if you're one of those people who like to take notes i'd like to submit a subject for your consideration and that is even in the dark even in the dark spirit of the living god what i enjoy the most about you was you are omnipresent that means that you are just as much with me right now are as you are with my sister and brother watching no matter where they are and father it is my prayer that your presence would permeate their atmosphere that it would look past maybe their their doubts their excuses their fear their insecurity whatever they're facing their struggles god and that your presence would sit and meet them right where they are father we invite you to take control of our lives to take control over this next 30 to 45 minutes that we still have together and father it is my prayer that as we come together that you would give us clarity that you would give us wisdom that where we felt weak father we would begin to feel strong where we felt blurry father that you would bring in to focus what you're doing in this season and how you would do it through us father i ask that heaven would touch earth as only it can do when you sit in the room so father just breathe in this room as only you can do in jesus name i pray have your way have your way have your way in jesus name amen you know as i was studying and preparing for this message i got this crazy vivid memory and this memory is of when my husband and i first started dating my husband and i were long distance for a little bit he lived in los angeles and i lived in dallas texas and you know there's always those moments in a relationship when you're trying to determine like at what point do i let this person know this at what point do i let this person know that and i can remember specifically this moment when we were dating when i had to determine when i would let him know that i do not in fact wake up like this okay bear with me saints this is what happened we were dating i'd had a long day of interviews and meetings i got home i took my makeup off and i forgot that he was coming over now i'm in a predicament because now i'm having to determine whether or not i want to try and put on some makeup or whether or not i just want to give him these pores that god gave me come on somebody it was in that moment that i made a decision by that time we've been dating for a bit and we'd already said that we really felt like god was really bringing us together to spend a lifetime and when we came to that decision i knew that i would have to have these moments where he saw me for who i was and that is without makeup on my way to bed it sounds trivial but this is like a big moment in a relationship when you generally are made up and dolled up most of the time so this is what happened he doesn't say a word i open the door i don't have on any makeup it goes on as if nothing ever happened but it would be later on that i found out that was the moment for him that sealed the fact that i was the real deal he says i knew you were the real deal when you had that night when you came to the door and you could have chosen to be all glammed up and dolled up but you gave me the truth of who you are it's interesting to me that when we consider relationships and and our goals and how we want to connect with people we always think about like the highlight reel we always think about what we want that other person to see but that revealed to me his acceptance of me in that moment revealed to me that relationships aren't really made when the lights are on and everything is going as we would want them to go in the day no this wasn't when we were both in purpose and i was busy and he was busy what sealed the deal for him was who i was in the dark that concept that subject that i told you about even in the dark is something that i want to really begin to dig into in our time together because i think it's important that we recognize the power of moments that seem dark if you're like me over the last few months 2020 has been feeling like it's full of dark moments and in those dark moments i've been asking god who am i supposed to be in the dark how am i supposed to show up in the dark and i hear god telling me over and over again that who you are the real deal version of who you are in me cannot show up unless you are willing to be confronted in the darkness unless you are willing to go into some seasons where people don't always understand unless you're willing to go into some seasons where not everything is adding up on paper there's something about who we become in the dark i know we spend so much time focusing on the highlight reel that everyone will see but i hear god saying that what really makes the highlight real has nothing to do with what people see and everything to do with what we cannot see in the dark those marriages that have been lasting for 50 60 years it's not what we see photographed that help them to stay together throughout the years it's what nobody saw in the middle of the night it's what god had to do in their heart those businesses those ministries that we see thriving and going to the next dimension we see the likes on instagram we see the people applauding we see the promotions and we see the titles what we don't see is the dark that they had to face in order to become what we see i don't know about you but i want to be one of those people who understand the importance of darkness i don't want god to have to do everything the way that i want it to be done in order for me to be faithful i want to be the type of daughter who can stand in the middle of chaos and say god even in the dark i'm going to serve you even in the dark i'm going to lift up a praise even in the dark i'm going to keep producing because i recognize the power of dark moments what makes jesus jesus is not just what he did when he was walking on the earth performing miracles what makes jesus the messiah the anointed one our lord and savior is what happens when that stone is rolled over that tomb and they pushed him into that darkness there was something that took place in three days that put the nail in the coffin or rather yet put the resurrection in our eyes that allowed us to recognize that god is not just god because of who we are in any given moment but what makes god powerful is what he does in dark moments there was supernatural breakthrough that took place in that tomb when jesus faced off with death itself with darkness itself and he came out and he didn't look like what he went through you see you would never know what some people went through because by time they got out of their dark season god had restored them in such a way that they didn't look like they had that addiction and they didn't look like they went through that breakup and they didn't look like they went through that divorce i want you to understand if you're in a dark moment right now that supernatural breakthrough takes place in dark moments i want to prophesy

Channel: Hillsong Church East Coast

Views: 180,211

Rating: 4.9114752 out of 5

Keywords: Hillsong, Hillsong NYC, Carl Lentz, sermons, hillsong worship, Jesus, gospel, church, east coast, christian music, welcome home, Hillsong united, Hillsong East coast

Id: Yz6MNbwgHyE

Length: 23min 27sec (1407 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 06 2020