Facing the Fire

[Music] [Music] [Music] so well praise the lord everybody i'm pastor jeffrey a johnson senior here at eastern star church in indianapolis and fishers indiana and even as you're streaming with us and worshiping with us on today this is going to be a part of a special series that we're doing our church we're celebrating 100 years as a ministry so for 100 years we've been blessing uh locally and nationally and internationally god has just used us as a ministry for a long time to be a blessing and to help advance the kingdom of god it's going to be some throwback sermons some vintage sermons from when i was a much younger minister with a little more energy uh but we're going to celebrate god and and i've chosen some messages that i know are going to be a blessing to you and your family and community so you want to make sure uh that you're telling your family and friends about these messages and making sure that they're streaming and getting connected and still open your hearts and your minds and your souls to be receptive to uh what god will have you to hear even with these messages from the past but still the principles of god steal the power of god and still have the ability to help you to deal with the realities of life so i hope these are going to be a blessing to you and i hope you get a little smile out of them uh as well so go ahead and worship god in spirit and in truth and again i thank god for your worshipping with us [Music] wow [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] um [Music] uh [Music] so [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] up [Music] so [Music] uh [Music] let the church say man come on help us out this morning how many come to phrases holy [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] here [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] uh [Music] [Music] hmm [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] he's [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] wow [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] wow [Music] ah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] ah [Music] is [Music] [Applause] hey [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah and every time i think i pray [Music] oh every time i look back i cry [Music] remember when the doctor said [Music] he said he couldn't help [Music] [Music] remember [Music] oh [Music] i shouldn't be here today [Music] [Music] me [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] me [Music] [Applause] daniel chapter 3. daniel chapter 3 is a very familiar passage of scripture to those of us who are frequent bible readers but i'm going to ask um that your familiarity will not get in the way of the value of the text in other words don't act like you've already heard everything god wants to say on daniel chapter 3. god may want to share some new revelation in terms of new to you daniel chapter 3 when you're on private time with god read the entire chapter it makes up the context of what we're going to share but i'm going to begin with verse 15. daniel chapter 3 beginning with the 15th verse now when you hear the sound of the horn flute zither liar heart pipe and all kinds of music if you are ready to fall down and worship the image i made very good but if you do not worship it you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand shadrach meshach and abednego replied to him king nebuchadnezzar we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter if the god we serve is able to deliver us then he will deliver us from the blazing furnace and from your majesty's hand but even if he does not we want you to know your majesty that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up i want to preach about facing the fire look at your neighbor and tell them you're going to have to face the fire a crust of bread a corner to sleep in a minute to smile an hour to weep in a pint of joy to a peck of trouble and never to laugh or the moans come double paul lawrence dunbar helps us to understand that life can be difficult that life can be hard and i don't care how holy you are how sanctified you are i don't care how filled with the spirit you are and what tongue you speak in life can be difficult for saint and sinner for holy and hellish life can be hard and all of us are going to have to face difficult times all of us are going to have to face heated situation and fiery predicaments even jesus the only begotten son of god even jesus had to go through difficulty he was lied on he was falsely accused he was spit on he was betrayed by friends his hands were nailed his feet were spiked and then jesus said now if they'll do this to a green tree what do you think they're going to do to an old dried up wither tree you shall have tribulation when you give your life to jesus christ it doesn't mean that trouble will not come you shall have tribulation and since i know that fiery situations are inevitable since i know that no matter what goes on in life i'm going to have to deal with difficulty then the question for me is not whether or not i'm gonna have to face it the question for me is how will i face it i know it's coming i know it's going to happen i know situations and predicaments are going to arise in my life and in my situation so then i must make up in my mind how will i face the fire when it comes to me the passage of scripture i read to you was in the book of daniel chapter three and in the book of daniel chapter 3 the setting for this passage of scripture is during the babylonian captivity of the israelite people god allowed king nebuchadnezzar and the babylonian army to march over into israel destroy jerusalem and destroyed the temple and tear down the walls and they went through this war-torn situation and nebuchadnezzar took certain ones of the israelites physically back into bondage in babylon what many of us don't understand is he didn't take all the israelites he didn't take everybody back into bondage he only took certain ones king nebuchadnezzar picked the israelites that he thought were the brightest and the best the smartest the most intelligent ones the ones full of potential and possibility from his perspective and he took them back where he would train them in babylon to help him with his administrative abilities and duties that he needed done as the king of babylon of the most intelligent of the smartest of the best and the brightest with the most potential and possibility of those who were selected to go back into bondage was a three young man by the name of hananiah michelle and azariah scholars and theologians suggest that they were in their late teens they were 17 18 19 years old and now they've been taken into bondage in babylon where they be will be trained to help king nebuchadnezzar with his administrative duties and responsibilities hananiah michel and azariah the reason why many of us don't know who i'm talking about is because we're more familiar with them when we call them shadrach meshach and abednego but those were not their given names their parents did not name them shadrach meshach and abednego their parents named them hananiah michelle and azariah when they got to babylon the babylonians and nebuchadnezzar change their names because their parents named them names that would honor god jehovah the only true and living god nebuchadnezzar changed their names to give honor to pagan gods lowercase g small g gods so their real names were hananiah hananiah means favored by god changed his name to shadrach mitchell who whose name means who is like god is changed his name to meshach azariah whose name means help by god they changed his name to appendigo in order to give honor to pagan gods but even though they changed what they called them on the outside it did not change their character on the inside even though it changed the label they gave to them in terms of a name on the outside it did not change their nature in their lifestyle based on what they had with god on the inside the lesson we learned from that is it doesn't matter what other folk call me you can call me what you want to call me it doesn't change me because i know who i am underneath the skin stop tripping when somebody calls you outside your name you know you're a child of god you know who you are in jesus christ so whatever they call you it doesn't change your christian character do i have a witness in here and this was evident in hananiah michelle and azariah that their character and their nature in god did not change because king nebuchadnezzar comes up with this new law in the land that whenever music played everybody was supposed to bow down and worship him in the old testament many of the kings when they became kings of these different nations they would try to set themselves up as deity they would try new king gets in office would try to set themselves up as a god small g god and expected the people in his kingdom to worship him and nebuchadnezzar made it a law he says that whenever you hear the music played you supposed to bow down to the image that has been set up in honor of king nebuchadnezzar and it is interesting to me that nebuchadnezzar included music in trying to get the people to bow he put together a live band and he said whenever you hear this man play you got to bow down and worship me it's interesting he used music in order to get people to bow to things outside the will of god even back then nebuchadnezzar understood how influential music could be so he would try to mess with people's minds so that every time they heard music they would bow to that which is outside of god's y'all do know that the enemy still uses music to try to influence our thought process to get us to behave in a way that displeases god not all the music but some music in the 21st century not all but some music in the 21st century promotes and rationalizes and justifies drug use abuse of alcohol call our beautiful women and god's daughters the b word call everybody else the n word and promotes violence and greed okay y'all trying to act like music is not influential and doesn't try to mess with our minds that's why i tell you stop listening to all that junk all week is helping to shape your thought process y'all and and it's not just in a negative way but music can be used in a positive way to influence people's minds that's why i mean when we start worship i could just come in here and preach from the beginning but we use music to try to get you to hear about the love of god being sung and about what god would do in your life so that now your mind and your heart is more open to receive the message that god wants to send it's it's the influence of music god did it even in the old testament he told joshua march around the wall seven times and then when you hear the trumpet sign when you hear the music start shouting he does it in the new testament he says that jesus is coming back again he's going to rapture his church to go home with him and he says that the angels shall sound the trumpet and when the angel plays the music the dead in christ will rise okay y'all acting like music is not influential okay somebody in here you 17 18 years old had it not been for luther vandross come on now setting the environment setting the atmosphere and the music that was played that led to some production okay i see some babies in the congregation i checked them out over in the nursery and these little babies that are here had it not been for usher writing love songs y'all ain't helping me preach this some of these babies would not even exist today and somebody say i don't know about usher i don't know about luther okay the only reason that some people in my generation are here is because of smokey robinson if smokey robinson hadn't played the music he played i wouldn't even be preaching here today music is influential and the enemy was trying to use it to mess with their minds to get them to bow down and worship him the enemy went as far as to say if you don't bow you're going to be punished for that this is what the enemy is saying that you need to step outside of god's will to keep from facing the fires you're going to have to face anyway because he messes with us on the inside he starts messing with our mindsets um i saw this this fly on a spider web and i saw that he was stuck on the spider web and i was wondering why would this fly at least not try to escape at least try to get away because if the spider shows up and you stuck on that spider web you're really not gonna make it so i wonder why is that fly just sitting there man try to get out try to move he just sat there i didn't know that the spider had already been there and the spider had already stuck his tentacles inside the fly and it already sucked everything out all the substance that was inside the fly had been sucked out that wasn't even a real flat that was just the shell of what the fly used to be because what nothing left inside that's why i wasn't doing anything have you ever wondered why people don't do anything in the kingdom of god and people get stuck in relationships at least try to get out y'all ain't helping me preach and get stuck in drugs and at least duke puts forth some effort to do you know what that ain't even really them y'all that's just a shell of what they used to be because the enemy has already come in and messed with them on the inside and ain't nothing left they are not whole and nebuchadnezzar says when you hear the music play bow down and worship me and then he gets word that hannah and i and misha and ezra is not bowed and when the music gets played he brings them in and he says hannah and i misha and ezra y'all have a lot of potential and possibility i like you so i'm gonna give you another chance i'm gonna have this i'm gonna have this band play and when they play if you bow down to me we cool everything is straight but if they play and you don't bow i'ma throw you into the blazing furnace and watch what watch what hannah and i and michelle nazariah said you don't have to play that music again you don't have to play that song cause we don't have to give them a defense in this matter we are through with this discussion we are not bowing to you king because we've already bowed to the king of kings and when you've already bowed to the king of kings you can stand against any other thing that's going to come in your situation and the king said well here's what's going gonna happen i'm gonna throw you into the burning fiery furnace i'm gonna throw you into the blazing furnace if you don't bow to me watch what the king said and then who will be able to rescue you from the burning fiery furnace here's what here's what i get out of this passage of scripture since i'm going to have to face the fire hannah and misha and zariah teach me that you might as well face it with faith you're going to have to go through difficulties hard time you're gonna have some trouble in your marriage you're gonna have issues on your job something is gonna go down with the company something's gonna go bad in your relationship you're gonna go through a financial situation sickness is going to come in your home now when it does y'all what that means is since i know it's coming it's inevitable it's going to happen i got to make up in my mind i'm going to face the fire with faith now where is the faith the king said i'm gonna throw you in the fire who will be able to deliver you watch the faith king our god is able to deliver us watch this but even if he does not deliver we still won't bow to you i love this faith act in this situation here's what's going on hananiah misha and azariah are giving us some biblical truths some spiritual truths about the ableness of god versus the willingness of god some of us don't understand ableness versus willingness some of us think because god has not brought me out that god has not delivered me that i'm still in a heated situation i'm still in a jam sickness is still in my home i'm still unemployed things are not happening the way i and we think somehow because god hasn't delivered me he's not able no the issue is not that he's not able they say god is a the issue is at this moment he's not willing because had he been willing right now to bring you out you would be out because whatever god will so he has the power to make it so but my faith has to trust in his will i don't just trust in his ability to bring me out i trust in his will to know when to bring me out because the best place to be y'all is in the will of god now see i i know we don't like this kind of preaching we don't like this we like preaching where we say well if you know jesus and you got a personal relationship with god and you feel the spirit you're not gonna go through any trouble we like that preacher but you're not gonna have to face any issues in any trial you're not gonna have to go through anything we like that i can't preach that cause that ain't the truth and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free the truth is when you get right with god it doesn't mean that you're not going to deal with the furnace it means now you got the power to deal with the furnace my faith is in his will that yes god has the ability to do it but i gotta trust god knows when to do it i just want to be in his will okay y'all acting like y'all don't know god it's able i don't care how small your bank account god is able i don't care how bleak your outlook god is able i don't care how big your problems god is able i don't care how mean your haters god is able i don't care how dark your situation god is able i don't care how big your obstacles god is able i don't care how confuse your children god is i don't care how high your mountains how wide your valleys how low your valleys are wide how many you know god is able do i have a witness in here here's the faith and king even if he does not do it i'm still not sinning even if he doesn't do it i still ain't turning my back on him even if he doesn't bring me out even if it doesn't work out even if my marriage falls apart even if i can't pay my bills i ain't walking out on christ i ain't leaving the church i ain't bowing to nothing else because y'all we got to understand we face the fire with faith and when you do that that's when you can endure it watch what they teach us that i gotta face it anyway so i'm gonna face it with my faith in god that he knows what to do when to do and got the power to do it but then i know i can endure whatever i go through god is never going to put more on me than i can handle so when i'm in a heated situation when i'm going through difficulties and pains and problems and all that kind of stuff all i got to do is hang on in there be steadfast because if i persevere god preserves if if i persevere god he keeps me you know how i know he keeps because when when nebuchadnezzar saw that they were not gonna bow he had the furnace turned up seven times hotter wait wait wait hotter after i've taken a stand for god things get hotter i wish y'all had read your bibles isn't it interesting when you make up your mind you're going to do right be right and trust god things get harder issues in the home issues on the job issues with your money people start talking crazy folk come up against you and you think i just put my faith in god i thought it was going to get easier no it got harder and then watch this they threw them in the fiery furnace but the bible says when they threw them in the fire didn't burn their hair it didn't burn their skin and it didn't burn their clothes why because god is a keeper i persevere in my predicament god preserves me until he brings me out all i got to do is hold on because god is a keeper i know in whom i believe and i am persuaded that he's able to keep that which i've committed to him against that day he that keep of israel neither sleeps nor slumbers all day and all night angels keep a watch over me anybody know god is a keeper all you got to do is just trust him even in your predicament watch this because somebody wants to know well why would god allow this to happen to me i mean if i'm standing for him if i'm trusting in him i got my faith in him why would he allow me to go through the fiery situation that's because god is always up to something yo god is not just sitting up in heaven letting you do whatever happens and whatever goes on no no he's up to something there's always purpose even in your pain god is a work in some situation well pastor then help me understand why would god allow me to go through this heated situation the difficulty i'm facing now okay here it is hananiah and misha and azariah knew god was able god knew god was able but the king he didn't know the babylonian community they didn't know god was able so god decides in his will that i am going to use my children who stand for me to show the king and the community that i am able and i'm in control and that's what i love about the text it indicates no matter what i'm facing in my life that god is still in control sometimes it looks like my supervisor nebuchadnezzar is in control but he's not in control god is in control now pastor how does that prove that god is able by demonstrating his control in the situation well i told you they turned the furnace up seven times hotter it got so hot nebuchadnezzar called for his strongest soldiers all of this is in chapter three of daniel he called for his strongest soldiers to take hananiah michelle and azariah they bound their hands and bound their feet and then they threw them in the fl in the fire it was so hot that the men who threw them in got burned and died i wish i had hours to preach this the ones who threw them in to destroy them got destroyed by what they were using against god's people i'm trying to show you god is in control of this thing y'all do know people still reap what they saw you ain't got to do nothing but keep trusting in god and the stuff they try to bring against you god will make it come back on them they throw them in and the bible says the fire burned up the men that threw them in watch this it burned up the ropes that bound their hand it burned up the ropes that bound their feet because god is trying to show us he's in control because fire does burn but it only burns what god tells it to burn so even when i'm going through my heated situation i know everything is going to be all right it does get hot fire does burn but it only burns what god it burned the men that threw them in it burned the ropes that had them bound but it did not burn their hair did not burn their skin it did not burn their clothes how many of you know that god is keeping you in the midst of the heated situation that you are facing god will not let you down he's in control of this wait a minute pastor if the king didn't know if the community didn't know why does god throw his children in the fire why doesn't god throw the king in the fire you know we get so arrogant the longer many of us become christians and we're in the faith and all that we start getting conceited in our christianity like we got it together and that's why when we go through somebody right now you've been saying all week god why me because you feel like you know what i stood for god i'm right i'm i got myself together like everything is straight in your life now come on be real with me and we try to act like everything's straight we're not fooling god god knows everything ain't straight so not only is he doing something with folk looking at you going through the fire but he's doing something with the ones that went in the fire because i don't know why it would have why would god do that no the question is not why would it happen to you the question is why not you the question is not god why me but god what are you trying to teach me what are you trying to do with me what are you trying to show me in the midst of okay here it is let me show it to you like this they threw them in bound hands bound feet bound when they threw them in they fell in the fire because they bound and the bible says the fire burned off what had him bound maybe god is making you go through what you go through because there's some stuff that's got you bound and he's trying to give you some freedom and the only way to give you the freedom is to send you through the fire because god knows how to burn off line he knows how to burn off cheating he knows how to burn off back biting and backstabbing he knows how to burn off fornication and adultery he knows how to burn off homosexuality he knows how to burn off gossip and rumors he knows how to burn off a drug addiction and alcoholism i don't know what has you bound but i do know god knows how to burn it off wait it ain't just about the freedom it's about now the fellowship they have with jesus himself sometimes god allows me to go through the fire to help me in my walk with the lord pastor where are you getting that from out of daniel chapter three i thought jesus was in the new testament yo jesus is in the old testament too and sometimes god allows me to go through the fire to help my walk with him because watch this they throw him in burn off the stuff off of him right and nebuchadnezzar looks in the furnace and says didn't i tell y'all to throw in three but i see loose and walking and the fourth one looks like y'all he kidnapped here is nebuchadnezzar with no relationship with god but when he sees what's happening in this situation he says i see four and the fourth one looks like the son of god because y'all jesus always looks like the son of god it shows that he will get in my fire with me watch this i went inbound the text says they fell in they were falling before they went in the fire but after they get in the fire now they walking with jesus you know what since i've been through all that hell i don't fall as much as i used to do i have a witness in here my walk is better because of the heated situations i've had to face and i love this text because jesus always shows up in fiery situations somebody always been asking where is jesus where is jesus he's in the fire with you there's purpose y'all god's always up to some people get so mad at god there's purpose in the pain if you listen to what he's trying to tell you he's keeping you because he's working on you i i always always try to spend time trying to get pictures and uh trying to get illustrations to help show you and and to give you a picture of what's happening and understand so i wanted to try to come up with a picture to show you what it means to go through fire and god uses the fire in a positive way rather than always thinking when i'm in a heated situation there's always something bad and to tell you truth i couldn't think of anything new so i got to use one already used and uh when my sister uh was much younger and i only have one sister mama used to take a chair put it in the kitchen and take tonette and put my only sister in the chair and then she would put a towel around tonight's neck and pin it in the back and mama would take a hot comb and put it on the stove and and while the fire is messing with the comb part the handle is not on the fire but the comb the hot comb part is is on the fire mama would take tone and tone had good hair it could fight against any situation she had good hair and mama would try to get this hair straight and she would try to make it look good because here's the thing this is my mother's child and and you know when the child looks bad it's a bad reflection on the parent and so mother understood i got to make you look good because tonight when you look good then i look good but the only way i'm going to be able to do that is to use some fire in your situation and mama would take that comb and she would begin to press a little at a time but tonight starts moving and mama would say girl be still you see i'm trying to straighten this mess out come here let me help you understand why you going through your heated situation god is not trying to burn you he's trying to better you because when you look jacked up your father looks jacked up but when we look good how many of you know our god looks good be still and know he is god he's up to something here's the last thing and i'm finished with y'all today i'm going to have to face the fire so i'm going to face it in faith and i'm going to endure i'ma hang on in there because god is a keeper can you imagine if if if hannah and i and misha and ezra had committed suicide in the fire if they had slit their wrists or turned to a drug overdose they would have missed out on the miracles god was doing in their situation they had to under they had to learn this that suicide is a permanent solution to temporary problems because whatever you're going through right now it took a change to get you in your situation it'll take a change to get you out so you got to do like job all the days are my appointed time i'm going to wait till my change comes and you endure because by the time we get to verse 26 now they're coming out of the fire wait a minute god sent me through the fire yeah just long enough to loose me free me long enough to get me a walk with jesus properly and then in verse 26 nebuchadnezzar sees what's going on in the fire didn't i tell y'all to throw in three i see four fourth one looks like the son of god and then nab said this shadrach meshach and abednego come out of the fire and the text says in verse 27 shadrach meshach and abednego came out of the fire which helps me to understand that this is not my permanent dwelling place see it's hot now but it ain't going to always be hot god is just doing something now in order to bring me out later and watch this as they come out later verse 30 says then the king promoted them wait wait wait the king promotes them after they come out of the fire that's because tribulation is a setup for promotion man y'all missing this thing i'm preaching and y'all don't even know it that when i go through the tribulation i gotta go through it is simply god giving me the experience to have the promotion when i come out because if i cannot handle the fire on the level i'm on i certainly cannot handle the fire at the next level because at every new level there's a new devil so i got to handle my situation here and when i do that god brings me out and up okay y'all boy y'all making me labor today i'm trying to help somebody to understand the difficulties you're going through the hard times you're facing it's really god setting you up to go to another level psalm 23 5 psalm 23 verse 5 says he anoints my head with all my cup runs see y'all know that because we love that verse psalm 23 5 god anointing me god pouring so many blessings in my cup that my container can't hold it that's why folk like to be around me because i can't hold all my blessings and they think if i just stay close enough and stuff is running over in his life maybe some of that stuff will fall my way i love verse five where god anoints me pour so many blessings my container can't hold it all everybody love verse 5. psalm 23 but you can't start in verse 5 y'all in order to get to verse 5 you got to go through verse 4. see we like verse 1 2 and three of psalm 23 then we want to skip to verse five just skip right over verse four jump into my anointing and my cup overflow are we like the lord is my shepherd i shall not want he makes me to lie down in green pasture he leads me beside steel waters he leads me in the path of righteousness for his name sake he restores my soul and then we want to skip he anoints my head with no after i come with him in right relationship i already know he restores my soul i got it now yeah though i walk through and remember i'm walking through this i ain't staying in this i walk through the valley of the shadows of death i will fear no evil i got to deal with death and evil but after i finish dealing with dead situations and evil situations how many you know i'm getting ready to get my anointing get ready to get my blessing on y'all god allows you to go through what you're going through because he's getting ready to give you a promotion that's how i always know when i'm getting ready to get promoted i always know when god's getting ready to take me to another level because all hell breaks loose nebuchadnezzars start rising up he this situation start coming y'all i don't get mad at god anything god well i just get ready for my promotion god's getting ready to raise me to another level that's what i'm telling somebody learn everything you can in the furnace cause when god brings you out he's getting ready to take you up look at somebody tell them i'm getting ready to get promoted i'm getting ready to go up i love this i love this because the promotion came in the same place that i experienced the heat in the province of babylon hananiah misha and israel didn't have to go back to jerusalem to get a promotion they got promoted in the same place where the fire was wait wait not just same place same person same crazy supervisor that wanted to be worshipped found out how great their god was say y'all ain't got to worship me keep worshiping your god matter of fact i'm getting ready sometimes god will use a fool to give you your promotion i'm preaching and y'all don't even know it [Applause] getting ready to raise you up getting ready to take you to another level if you can endure what you're going through uh i think they got this new basketball out and this new ball is called uh never flat that's what they call it never flat i think spalding put it out and because basketballs will go flat on you i own literally the same balls that the nba has they use those things will go flat on you i mean you you get enough beating in them and they they air start sleeping now go flat on let them lay around long enough you try to go get it aired and came out and and y'all you cannot use flat balls effectively you try to bounce them when you throw it down it stays down can't shoot it and follow through can't pass it because it cannot live up to its purpose because it doesn't have any air in any pneuma any ruach it doesn't have any spirit in it and so you throw it down it stays down but now spalding has come up with what they call never flat it says they say that they have special molecules that they have put inside the ball in order to keep it from deflating so no matter how much you beat it and bang it no matter what you do with it leave it and go back and get it they said when you pick it up again it's still going to have some air in it it's never flat and that's what we got to understand as christians yo that some of us have lost our bounds i'm not saying you're not a child of god i'm not saying you're not a christian but you don't have the bounce you used to have i mean used to be filled with god's holy spirit and and when somebody did something to you you bounce back now every time somebody say something hurts your feelings can't show up for church can't do what you're supposed to do in life and ministry of family why because they heard about they said they said that to me what happened to the days when you were filled now we don't got flat in this okay y'all man y'all making me labor here help me out robert throw me that ball for me please this is not a never flat but it is a ball this feel and because it's filled every time i throw it down watch what happens it comes back up it doesn't matter every time in every situation every time i throw it down you know what it does it bounces back you know why it bounces back because it's got some ruach in it it's got some pneuma in it it's got some wind in it it's got some spirit in it so every time i throw it down i can stand up here all day and keep throwing it down and every time i do this thing is going to bounce back up that's what happens when you become a child of god it doesn't mean folk won't throw you down but it means okay throw me down i'm bouncing back dog me i'm coming back allowing me i'm anybody know you got bounce back ability they crucified jesus on friday sunday morning he bounced back do i have a witness in here in the same spirit that raised jesus from the dead is in you so when you go on your job tomorrow when you go back to your heated house situation when they try to throw you down just bounce back do i have a witness and when you are filled the harder they throw you down the higher you go up do i have a witness i'm on my way up i'm on my way up i'm on my way up do i have a witness somebody shout yes i'm through i'm finished here it is i'm finished i'm through with this but when they came out of the fight watch this nebuchadnezzar said praise be to the god of shadrach meshach and abednego because cain no other god do what their god did i love this and it was after the praise that's when they got the promotion what's been standing in the way of your promotion it's the fact you won't get your praise on cause any time god has brought you through the fire anytime god has walked with you and talked with you anytime god has rescued you you need to get your praise hey hey praise comes before promotion when you praise him won't he raise you yes yeah y'all excuse me but he brought me through the fire can't nobody do me like jesus can't nobody do me like the lord he's worthy i wish i had somebody to know god is worthy he's worthy somebody ought to praise him somebody ought to say thank you gene somebody ought to say hallelujah yes yes y'all excuse me but he's worthy to be praised i've been holding this praise all day now i gotta praise i gotta praise i gotta praise and i gotta get it out i gotta praise yes yes yeah do i have a witness somebody get your praise oh yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes hallelujah wait a minute i i got a praise i got a praise and i gotta get it out i gotta praise i got a praise i got a praise and i gotta get it out i gotta praise yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes [Music] hallelujah hallelujah has they been good to you has they been good to you then i need about 15 people to get in the house and get your dance home he's worthy he's worthy [Music] wait a minute when i think of his goodness what enough for me think of his goodness how he set me free all night when i think of his goodness and what he done for me when i think of his goodness and how he set me free what you know about jesus he's all right what you know about jesus what to know about jesus what you know about jesus like he's all right he's all right he's all right he's all right he's all right he's all right he's all right he's alright when i think about jesus and what he done for me when i think about jesus and he set me free i can dance dance dance [Music] [Music] [Music] hi i got a praise i gotta praise and i gotta get it out i gotta pray hi i got a praise i gotta face and i gotta get it out i gotta pray [Music] and i gotta get [Music] [Music] oh [Music] get it out [Music] hi [Music] [Applause] hallelujah hallelujah listen everybody who can stand stand well praise the lord i hope that that message was a blessing to you i hope it encouraged you and inspired you but i also hope it got you in a mind to receive jesus christ as your personal savior so i want to give you a chance to do that right now to accept jesus as your personal savior the apostle paul says whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved i'm going to lead you in prayer and have you call on the name of the lord and the moment you believe it you become a christian you become a child of god so just follow me in prayer pray it out loud with me father i come right now i know that i'm saying i'm sorry for my sins i believe jesus died on the cross i believe you raised jesus from the dead i receive him by faith please fill me with your holy spirit in jesus name amen praise the lord let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of god you're a child of god now and i praise god and i celebrate with you and your family what god is doing in your life and we want you to email us here at eastern star church and let us know the commitment that you made so email us at membership eastern startchurch.org membership at easternstarchurch.org so we can help you to continue your walk with the lord and those of you who are already saved you're already a christian but you know you you strayed from the church and you strayed from the things of god and now you're ready to recommit your life go ahead and email us at membership at easternstartchurch.org so that we can get you going from faith to faith and glory to glory all right now it's time for us to receive the offering it's time for us to give you guys have been so generous in your giving and i praise god for that i want to say thank you for that and you know it's right for us to give god told us to give we give out of obedience we give out of faith because we trust god and we give because we love god you can give without loving but you can't love without giving and when we're obedient to god there's always a blessing attached to it god said bring the tithe into the storehouse and see that when i open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing you don't have room enough to receive it and so we know there are a lot of needs that are going on things are getting worse in in in terms of economic downturn and when things get worse that means the church has to do more in terms of our making contributions in in the the church for believers in the community in the country and the world so please help us to get that done now if you want to give here's how you're able to do it one way you can give is through our website easternstarchurch.org easternstartchurch.org there's a tab there forgive and you can give like that or you can text to give text 4577 and then esc in the message field 4577 esc and then your amount along with that and then of course you can mail it in at eastern star church 5750 east 30th street in indianapolis indiana 46218 5750 east 30th street indianapolis indiana two one eight so i thank you for your giving but i also want to ask god's blessings on the gifts that we're giving today let us pray lord we bless you and praise you and love you thank you for protecting us and preserving us and providing for us thank you for the resources that we've received now under god we give back to you and we give god because we obey you we trust you and we love you and we pray that you'll take our resources and pull it together with other believers and use it to advance your kingdom and to come alongside the least the lonely and the left out and lord i pray for those who are giving that you'll give back to them good measures pressed down shaken together and running over and i pray you'll do that in jesus name amen praise the lord let me go ahead and offer the benediction for the day may god bless you and keep you may god have his face to smile upon you and be gracious unto you may god turn his countenance towards you and grant you peace and i pray that the favor of god will always be with you and i pray that'll happen today and forevermore in jesus name amen you

Channel: Eastern Star Church

Views: 2,906

Rating: 4.9365077 out of 5

Keywords: eastern star church, pastor jeffrey a johnson sr, indianapolis, indy church, indianapolis church, gospel, god, sermon, faith, hope, inspiration, motivation, jesus, love, christianity, throwback sermon, rewind worship, eastern star throwbacks

Id: 9FRzAPLsax0

Length: 71min 11sec (4271 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 19 2020