Harold Hoffman - Blessed When I Am Blessing | Church ONLINE

[Music] so [Music] jesus we're so grateful that we're able to come into the house can't get older my name is [Music] [Music] to is forever this is my testimony from dead to life cause grace rewrote my story my jesus christ the righteous i'm justified this is my testimony this is my testimony [Music] our god will finish [Music] jesus [Music] this is [Music] these today things [Music] greater things this is my testimony from dead to life cause grace rewrote my story by jesus this is my testimony from dead to life this is my testimony [Music] [Music] thank you jesus [Music] we believe in you jesus [Music] there is a promise that points beyond my failure there is a still voice to silence [Music] miracles in the making [Music] i am here with one [Music] in [Music] it is your purpose is unchanging in every moment you're working for my [Music] your kingdom will not be shaken [Music] i am here is [Applause] and i know [Music] [Music] yes is [Music] forever is [Music] here [Music] [Applause] foreign me [Applause] thank you jesus by your strides i am healed with one touch i can be made whole cause you have spoken and i know that it you is in the storm you are peace and your love it won't let me go cause you have spoken and i know that it is [Music] [Music] with one touch you can be made whole one touch your testimony as i began to think about the words to these songs even last night and this morning [Music] at first i thought i had some direction and just to pray and as i was sitting there this morning worshiping i looked over this platform and esmeralda i'd like you to come up here with me and i begin to look at what was going on up here and here i see esmeraldan there's her boy on the drums and outside in those front doors was her husband and the rest of her family on our serve team greeting welcoming people in you look at that story maybe you don't know but there was a two-year drought for her where she kept praying for her marriage should have ended up in divorce it was an ugly situation but in the storm there was peace in the middle of it all god had given her a word and it was two years until we begin to see the repair of this marriage and you look at this family and what god has done all too often we read of the stories in scripture and we can't identify because we might not think we have enough faith like in the old testament the new testament but i'm here to let you know in the storm he is your anchor it's in the middle of all of the confusion that he is there with you in the bow of the boat and here at first church we believe that prayer is our anchor and we want to take the needs that we have here and lift them up to him there are knees behind me needs in your life right now why don't you let the faith that is risen in this room right now and carry your needs up to him and say lord i have a testimony lord there is faith there god i am in the middle of the storm but your word has spoken and it is so lord we come behind on a broken city a broken nation global pandemic personal pandemic there is so much that is going on god it becomes so difficult sometimes to see my tomorrow but lord you're already working in my tomorrow right now god and so lord i'm asking you under the authority of your word in faith that the needs that are here whether it's relational disruption or it's a marriage that seems to be broken finances that have fallen apart a body that is decaying and is in need of repair of a healing from you lord we lift those needs up to you because we know it's not anything in us that could come to pass the lord it's only through your word it's only through a relationship of you understanding who you are and how frail i am we lift those needs to you under the authority and the power of your name jesus we declare it as if it was so right now in the name of jesus let's thank him all across this room and believe that he is already orchestrating your miracle he is already fighting on your behalf he has already working it out in jesus name in jesus name what an incredible morning already to those that are online with us we love you we're grateful that you are here with us and to every guest that is in this room thank you for making today special we're so honored that you would choose this morning to be with us as you make your way back to your seats you may be seated i just wanted to kind of give you a little update as to what is going on here at first church we are mid-stride in our life groups and uh they have just been awesome i am excited about life groups i do believe that we believe that change happens in the context of relationships and you were not ma i mean right now every probably every male here knows that the finals in the nba are going on right now and i promise you it's not one on none there's a team out there nobody plays ping pong by themselves no it's teamwork and it takes all of us together um to help each other and be accountable to each other so please uh join a life group if you have not done so yet first church sterlingheights.com there are still some that are going on online as well as some that are in person and uh don't think that it's too late for you to join uh there's always time to just hop right in they're easy to catch up on and just uh plug right in so uh we just believe it's a place where you can grow spiritually and relationally it is scripture the bible says that the new the new testament church went house to house so what we're doing is biblical this is how the church was designed to operate was every day not just your sunday experience but it's very important what happens monday through saturday that gives us uh the big push here on sunday but uh so it's an incredible time and and if you're here and you're a guest and you're wondering a little bit more about first church and maybe how you could plug in or if this is your home you'd like to make this your home well we have something called growth check that's just a place see we really believe scripture around here when it says you're fearfully and wonderfully made you're wonderfully made you're super important to the kingdom of god and to first church in sterling heights and so we encourage you uh it's just the first two sundays of the month it happens right during the message portion of our service where you can go to my right your left there's a sinuses growth track and it's just a 40 minute class and basically tell you where what we're all about here and how you can plug in so if you have not gone through growth track you can just hop right in and uh it's always great and maybe you've been here a long time and you're just wanting to plug in you have not gone through a growth track then i would ask for you to take advantage of that because there is room for you at first church and we absolutely love to see everyone involved because it is a ton of fun and it is our directive from christ that we go out and and teach and reach and so that's what we're trying to do is follow scripture tomorrow night at seven o'clock is prayer prayer is our anchor look at that it is incred i'm telling you monday night prayer has been phenomenal we've just experienced some awesome moves of the spirit you could feel it uh it's just uh it's a great place to be in such a chaotic time prayer it sets the tone for your week so please if you have not been here yet i know tomorrow's a holiday i get it but listen jesus don't take holidays off we give you a few during the year so we're not giving you tomorrow night off we want to pray so please be with us tomorrow night seven o'clock it's an hour seven to eight please be on time uh it's just just a great time so we expect to see everyone here that's possible and it'll set the tone for your week but if you're a guest here we want to kind of set the expectation a little bit of what the rest of the service looks like we have one more worship song that will uh that will sing together and then we'll uh pastor will come up and and he'll give us an incredible word our 9 15 service was awesome it's just it'll challenge you it'll inspire you and so uh just be ready to hear what god has through our pastor and then after that we'll have a bit of time where we'll all come up and we'll pray together and it'll be a time for you to exercise your faith and if you need something then i believe that's something that that god can connect with you right there but this is the part of our our worship service that we return our tithes and offerings if you're a guest we're not asking anything the only thing that we ask you is that when you came through the doors right there on our guest services desk there is a uh connect card that you can fill out just your name or email whatever you're comfortable with and maybe like a bible study or know a little bit more about life groups or or different ways you can partner with us prayer you're going to fill that card drop it right in that box and somebody from our staff will reach out to you this coming week and we'll be able to give you what your next step looks like but this portion of our service it's where i want you know first church is a global church well how is that possible i'm i'm only i'm here in sterling heights well because of you partnering with us and being faithful first church really is in so many different countries across the globe and we've been able to do bible schools build bible schools put paddles on planes in the amazon there's so much that you have done because you have partnered with us financially and the kingdom of god is growing because first church is global we believe in reaching everyone every tribe every nation so thank you for your faithfulness and what you do week in and out at first church it is an honor to partner with you all and to see the kingdom grow and so we're going to pray and as we pray uh there'll be a three minute timer behind me and it'll give different ways that you can partner with us if you're comfortable we have a couple boxes here that you can do it in person if not we do have a kiosk out in the library in the lobby or you can also text to give do it online different platforms that'll be there there'll be a three three-minute timer at that point uh while we're returning our tithing and offering find something that you haven't seen in a long time i'm so excited i know you're not supposed to do this publicly but the curtiss are here i absolutely love i have been yes listen i've been in several life groups with brother and sister curtis and they're awesome people so i'm gonna go air high-five them again i already did it so find somebody that you haven't seen a long time let them know that you're excited that they're here and just air high five just let them know that you're uh just happy to be in the room with them lord what an exciting day this has already been and so i am trusting as we have one more song we're going to sing to you you're going to connect with us in such a supernatural way as your word is being brought forth and so god i am excited what the rest of this service looks like and i'm excited what you're going to do financially through the faithfulness of your people and where it's going to go and how your kingdom is literally growing every time we stretch ourselves financially and i'm so grateful for a global god not a personal god it's a global god and we love you in the name of jesus we pray amen [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh you're moving in this place [Music] you are here you're moving in our midst i worship you our worship you you are here you're working in this [Music] is [Music] how worship [Music] light in the darkness my god that is [Music] light in the darkness my god that is [Music] [Music] i [Music] is [Music] [Music] is who you [Music] is are you are [Music] my god [Music] [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] is is [Music] you never [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] you know there's a bible verse that says i looked to the right he wasn't there i looked behind me i couldn't find him he said but he knows the way that i take and i guess if i've got to make a choice i'd rather god knows where i am all the time than me know where he is all the time and it's so good to be with you today thank you so much for coming and we've already had a great day and it's been such an interesting week and wonderful things have happened and i'm really looking forward to praying with you tomorrow so it's just been a good time let me read a verse to you it's in job 42 and verse 10. and the lord turned the captivity of job when he prayed for his friends also the lord gave job twice as much as he had before so i want to teach you something called blessed while i am blessing okay god bless you you may be seated every one of the gospel writers mentions the very serious uh jesus talked about he's going to go away talked about the things that were going to happen and then the signs that would be there that would show his return every one of them did it matthew 28 mark 13 luke 21 john really starts at verse 14 where chapter 14 he said let not your heart be troubled you believe in god believe also in me and in my father's house are many mansions and i'm going to prepare a place for you and pretty much that john does more of it than anyone else and there's there's there's a verse i could i've got a lot of verses here but it's in the book of luke 21 and it says one of the things that is going to be such a billboard and a marquee to us about the coming of the lord is he said men's hearts are going to fail them for fear and uh heart disease is the number one killer in the united states and uh but this is this is not talking about plaque on your arteries this is fear killed people and uh that's uh i'm not telling you how to vote i wouldn't do that um i uh i say it doesn't matter it does matter but i i don't care who wins this presidential election some of this stuff is not going to go away we are living in a time of fear uh lots of fears uh it's something that i call the teenager 19 kovid 19 teenager a lot of people terrified of this virus as a pastor we're doing our best to not be frightened but not be foolish either so we're doing the best we know how and there's a fear of markets crashing jobs disappearing not coming back there are fears that people fears of change and fear of loneliness and rejection and getting hurt fear of not being adequate and fear of being judged and how about this with the fear of the loss of freedom by now you are aware that there was a plot to kidnap our governor take her to an obscure place in the wisconsin woods and put her on trial because there were some fellas that were convinced she was taking away our freedoms and uh i was in a large sporting goods store two weeks ago i was doing a men's conference out by claire and there's a large place jays it's called michigan thing but it's big and uh it stunned me because they have these display cases and i took pictures of it case after case after case they're empty no guns they don't have any guns for sale these these these display cases are 20 feet long have three shelves in them you 20 25 guns per per rack no guns and even if you can get the gun good luck trying to find the ammunition and uh it's just they're afraid they're afraid and i i've heard it and i've been guilty of repeating it this is the ugliest election ever that's not accurate because you know george washington was voted in unanimously that'll never happen again but uh um john adams of course was number two jefferson was number three adams and jefferson were good friends for a long time when they were in paris together they were very very good friends but um they had a massive falling out and um it was politics and uh it's a great story about jefferson and adams 50 days to the day 50 days to the day july the 4th adams and jefferson died on the same night and of course no internet no facebook the the riders the horse riders carrying the had to cross one another somewhere between new england and virginia and uh jefferson's or adam's last words apparently were well at least thomas jefferson still alive and uh they uh they were friends they uh fought they made up when they got out of office but uh jefferson always had a young black man with him his name was tom hennings and her bob brother bob hemmings and adams had this sneaking suspicion it was jefferson's son and and of course dna has proved that it was his son jefferson's wife died when he was quite young and she wasn't she made him swear on her deathbed that he would never marry anybody else so he didn't but that doesn't mean he didn't uh find a uh comfort in several other places but uh you should read what they said what jefferson and adams said about one another back in the 1800s it's it's just as crazy as what's going on right now so this is not the worst it's ever been and uh but it's ugly it's ugly i uh i saw this first debate and i i'm thinking what do other world leaders think about these two men that we've got to choose one of these people to be our next president and i'm going it just looked like two kids up there fighting and it was it was disappointing to me and uh it's where we are and uh but regardless of who becomes president a lot of this rage and this anger it's not going to go away and and and uh um i i i think the greatest danger i want you to god help me to get this across to you today the greatest danger we face is not fear the the greatest danger that we face is uh ambivalence it's just uh not even willing to consider the opportunity to fail or succeed that's worse than being afraid and when you get to the point where yeah you're you're either wondering or even dead set against even trying whatever it is that that's that's bad when we get to a place where we're not willing to engage our hands to do something or even live our faith that's a worse place than fear and it's it is not possible to have strength without resistance some things we resist some things re resist us but the word is very clear we are commanded to resist satan we're commanded to do that it's in james chapter four and uh um resisting fear is is is what we do when when fear tells us you can't do that because in almost every endeavor strength is built incrementally it's built over time not just one session and what what we may not do in a day we can accomplish with time and uh not because there's no fear but but in the face of fear through faith to resist and overcome what what you realize is a lie that thing that says you can't do it you can't do it you can't do it and then you do it and you go i haven't been to washington dc since my girls were little i i really enjoy going there and it's known as the city of monuments and um you've got washington spire you've got jefferson's uh domed tribute and lincoln's temple and the vietnam memorial if you've ever go there the vietnam memorial is the only memorial in washington dc where there are no steps a lot of those fellas wheelchairs they made it it's called the wall that heals and um if you've never been and you get a chance to go go but as you drive around that circle in washington dc there is something that every one of those monuments and memorials have in common nobody nobody builds a tribute to someone who said i don't think we can do that every one of those things someone said we could do that when you read about them signing the declaration of independence years ago franklin said something powerful he said we better hang together fellas because if we don't hang together we will hang separately and uh have you ever overcome a fear in your life it's it's it's it's a liberating experience and uh near as i can tell children uh have two fears when they're born fear of loud noises and fear of being dropped and a lot of the fears that are in people are uh things that we've imposed in their lives and uh i i i'm so proud of you and the way you interact in this church and all of the different nationalities and cultures that we have here we're going to have a a a day soon we celebrate all of that again all you got to do is go back in that nursery and watch on them kids interact with one another none of those prejudices are there it's all taught it's all downloaded into them kids and and if i well the greatest fear that i ever had was drowning and i i guess when i critique myself it has a lot to do with the way my dad taught me how to swim uh we had a place where we lived and in west virginia and there was a big rock and there was a very vast stream very deep a lot of current as near as i could tell i was eight i think i was eight possibly nine my dad said do you know how to swim and i said no he said well there's no better time than right now and he just grabbed me by the seat of my pants and threw me in the water and uh and i just still remember just going down and uh i made it but uh harry out of you know he's not the most subtle of teachers and uh it was it was tough and uh so i always had this fear of drowning and we ended up in japan and i saw this ad said would you like to learn how to scuba dive say yeah i'd like to do that but all the time that i dove every time especially at the beginning when i hadn't been there for a while when i jumped in that water it was just like i cut my finger off years ago with a saw and to this day every time i turn on a saw i have this thing that goes up my spine you know so uh i'm very careful with sauce and uh jump in that water and but i remember the day i was somewhere about 90 feet i was in mexico and i looked at my gauge and i didn't have a lot of air left and i knew it was time to go back and this sense of peace just came over me and i realized i had a lot more time than i thought i did and i lost my fear of drowning and it just it was gone and i i unless you've experienced overcoming some kind of fear it's hard to verbalize just how liberating that is to overcome something that just terrified you for years and if if you read it closely david became a a national hero when all he was really doing was checking up on his brothers his two brothers were in the army his dad wanted to know how they were doing so it says samuel carry these cheeses so uh david's dad basically gave him a bunch of cheese sandwiches and said here take it to the troops and he goes to check on his brothers and and their their their castigating said what are you doing here you're supposed to be with them few sheep what are you doing here and all of a sudden he hears this loud mouth saying send me a man to fight and david saw that the terror in his brothers and and and and and and just the horrible fear that that that the depression that was on that army and he made that famous statement is there not a cause and i can't find anywhere in the bible where anybody ever asked david to fight goliath he just volunteered and and david could have simply said what i hear way too much of right now it's not my problem you know not my problem the bible is filled with examples of people that the lord challenged to come out of their comfort zone and to see beyond themselves and i one of the best stories to illustrate this is gideon gideon is one of the judges and and the bible calls him the greatest of the judges even though our first introduction to him is he's hiding behind this machine that that squeezed juices out of grapes and the angel said you're a mighty man of valor and he says and yeah you because there's these thugs by the name of the midianites who had a nasty habit of showing up every time it was ready to harvest the corn and the wheat and they swipe all the stuff in the field and he's hiding behind this press trying to just get a little bit of grape juice out and and and and and god chose him and he recruits 32 000 guys to join his cause and god says i don't think so and whittles them down to 300. so 30 start out with 32 000 you end up with that's less than one percent uh that that's that's um but those 301 men shouted and shined and god used them to bring a miracle there's a story where they he one of the guys sneaks up to the tent of the midianites and two of them are talking and this one said dude i had i had a wild dream really what was it he said i saw a big loaf of bread roll down the hill and just mowed us all down man and he said let's get in and i'm going how do you get gideon out of loaf of wonder bread how do you do that but they were just it was amazing and he realized he god's going to help us and and i can tell you story after story but i don't have time but the truth is that if you want a victory in your life there it's often going to be wrapped up in being a part of somebody else's deliverance that if you want to be blessed you're going to have to start blessing that's where the blessing is while i bless he'll take care of me and uh you know we were told in the word to resist satan you can't resist anybody if you don't have strength so the question is if i'm going to resist satan you know i've heard people say uh i'm i'm at the devil and i i don't mean to be derogatory but i'll see see the spirit of the lord is omnipresent everywhere but satan is not an omnipresent spirit okay so i hate to disappoint you but neither you nor i have ever met satan now we might have met a sergeant we might have met a lieutenant someone in the higher echelon of his army you haven't met satan and neither have i when you deal in that level of the spirit you're dealing with big stuff like life and death not girlfriends you know got to get this car i i i've seen lots of stuff called the will of god over the years and and and it's just if you're gonna but but this says resist satan so if you're gonna do that you you're gonna have to get some strength you know what fascinates me about samson there's not one verse in the bible that talks about his muscles i mean he could have been a you know had a 26 inch waist and bony arms i don't know just when the anointing came on him dude could do anything i'm not convinced sampson looked like schwarzenegger i i i think he could have just been just a regular slub like the rest of us i just it's just that anointing ever abuse though the anointing will break the yoke that's not what it says it says the anointing will destroy the yoke so when that one gets destroyed he said now take my yoke upon you if you've ever seen yokes they're never single they're doubles and that's what's so cool about it you and i are in the harness with him see he's doing all the heavy lifting take my yoke upon you because my burden's light why because i'm carrying all your stuff you're just going along for the trip and it's it's not that we're working for him we're working with him see they went for them preached everywhere the lord working with them and confirming the word signs following and it's just an honor to be in the harness with jesus because you can run in hell with a squirt gun if you've got jesus with you you know he he's a majority it's a and so so i i i'm trying to wrap my mind around this where do you get strength to fight satan and and the answer is in nehemiah and you got it you gotta do a little history they they solomon built this amazing church house and um i've even read books they said you probably couldn't even afford to build solomon's temple today kabillions of dollars and so they go into captivity and solomon's temple's destroyed and they're in captivity for 70 years i wish i could talk there's so much history but i i can't chase rabbits right now okay it's just uh um so um the prophecy was you're going to be in captivity for 70 years so they get out and they build a church called zerubbabel's temple it's in nehemiah now it doesn't look anything like solomon's temple but we're not talking just young people you've got people 70 years old all they ever knew was captivity so they've never had a church so when they see this temple cerebral stem they're ecstatic we can finally publicly worship jehovah without anybody you know doing anything to us and so they are just having a big old time we got a church house yahoo well there were older guys there that had seen solomon's temple so you're talking about people over 70 you know i don't know how long people live back there but i guess 90 95 that's so they they they they could have possibly been 20 25 and they saw psalms so they're bawling their eyeballs out and they're saying you bunch of dumb hillbillies you call this a church you should have seen a church i used to go to wow this is a corrugated tin shack compared to where i used to go to church and so the old men are bowing her eyeballs out and the young ones are ecstatic and nehemiah gets in the middle of this argument and this is what he said go your way eat the fat drink the sweet send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared for this day is holy unto our lord neither be ye sorry for the joy of the lord is your strength there's a famous chapter in deuteronomy it's called the blessing and the cursing chapter and and it's that one that says you know you'll be the head not the tail you'll be on top never beneath you you're going to be the lender never the borrower and i'll bless your basket and your store and it's great blessings are there but that only is at about a third of the chapter the rest of it is the cursings and there's this terrible cursing in deuteronomy where it says you're going to lose your kids and it's going to be so bad that even the heathen are going to make fun of you because of the way your kids deserted you said you're going to look down the road longing for them to come back and they're never coming back and then it says this for you serve not the lord your god with gladness of heart you you don't want to be a pentecostal that acts like seven mother-in-laws moved in with you last week see if satan could read your mind he'd be god he can't read your mind but he can hear what you say and he can watch what you do so you've got to trick him that's why the bible says therefore with joy shall you draw not drink draw nothing's coming out of the pipe yet you're you're pumping therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the well of salvation and in that day say praise the lord not when it's coming out but i i used to go hunting with my dad a lot and it was just i have great memories of being with my dad in the woods and we would go all day we would leave a daylight saturday and we'd go all day and we didn't come back till dark and and and and there was this farm there was this old abandoned farm that had this well and the well was still good and we always looked forward to it because it was about halfway in all those miles that we would walk and my dad would get that thing and go bomb and you don't need the gifts of the spirit if you can hear you know and you could hear that thing and sooner after a while this beautiful crystal clear water would splash out of that well and it was it was just wonderful very refreshing that's my mental model of what we're dealing with here there i used to call it old number 397b every time it seemed like i'd get close to god satan would go through the file cabinet and go this one always works old number 397b and throw that in my life and i'd just be a disaster did you ever notice that he you start getting close and all of a sudden he gets he gets really upset and and it's just you you got to learn to smile when you might be dying on the inside the bible said strengthen the feeble knees take them hands that are hanging down and hold them up so the bible said you've got to lift up your head lift up your hands lift up your voice why because we have the privilege of lifting him isaiah said he was high and lifted so we we we have the privilege of lifting him with the way our body it says glorify god in your spirit and in your body which are his don't give me all this mumbo jumbo about being spirit filled and you don't know how to do this no no no no that that that's greek for baloney it's it's nuts it's nuts i i see because see satan throws this thing in your life said well get it this one always works and you end up in church with your hands lifted up and he's going shoot that one always works and you might be inside should you ever do you ever have stuff that you still want to do it but you know if you do with all the consequences that's what paul said he said i never got rid of the desire to want to do it evil's always with me i mean i could tell you stories about renee and i i got to be real careful about all that and it just it's it's a marriage thing i think you understand what i'm dealing with here right now it's just there's some stuff i still like to do but if i do not not a good idea and so you got to trick him that's why life and death are in the power of the tongue if you say the wrong stuff he's going to go what's working if he's you it's working so you trick him you you have joy while you draw and in that day praise the lord and him going what gives this always took him down to why watch look at the phrase joy of the lord i i know what brings harold joy you know it's i wish it was fall for four months i mean this is my favorite time of the year i love this time of the year you i had some friend call me from florida last week and he said are you are you freezing to death yet up there and i said man jesus just walked through the woods with the palate you should see we i saw trees pink this path not red pink i remember seeing pink maple trees pink maple trees i don't know if it was the lack or abundance of water in a spring all i know is right now just enjoy being in michigan they don't have this in georgia they got pine trees trust me it's just green whoa you know man there's a lot that's that's variety whoa it's just hickories and ape maples and oaks and ah it's just i just wish it was do you know that these colors that you're seeing that's their real color i didn't know that chlorophyll that green stuff that's what turns everything green well when the weather starts changing that starts going into the roots and it reveals their true colors you know it's why it's called fall because that's what it's going to do right now all them things are going to fall that's why they're called leaves because that's what they're going to do they're going to leave trust me i i i mean when i was a kid i would get the most brilliant red that i could find or yell and whatever and i put them in books and you open it two months later it's just brown you can't capture that so before the colors fade you got to enjoy this right now go get some cider and donuts take a drive around smell that air look at them leaves it's nice man it's nice and i just i i i love this time of the year and and and that brings me joy you know i i went with some of the fellas this week in the woods and and and i had these deer underneath of me and he said why didn't you shoot him i said i just enjoyed sitting up there looking around i've shot lots of stuff in my lifetime i just i just was happy to be in the woods just it's a hillbilly thing i guess going back to being a kid but that smell and those colors and that frost in the morning it does it for me man that recharges me but that's not to joy the lord what brings him joy now here's what fascinates me the bible makes a distinction between joy and gladness it's in psalms 51 the repentant prayer he said make me to hear other translations it says would you please help me to know the difference between joy and happiness see see when i think of the fruit of the spirit you know when i think of an apple i i don't think of a box of apples i think of an apple you know when i think of a a pear you know i i i think of it as an individual but when i think of the fruit of the spirit i think of grapes the cluster of grapes it's a package deal nine fruit of this i've said i've never actually met people say i got four of them fruits i'm working on them other five it doesn't work that way if you got the spirit that's the fruit that's supposed to come because of spirits in our life you know and it's in galatians it says it doesn't say the fruit of the spirit is love grin it doesn't say the fruit of the spirit is love happiness it says the fruit of the spirit is love joy and so we need to understand that because listen to this verse here here's here's what festa it's it's in hebrews it said who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross the shame and the pain it's it's looking under jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was said before i i cannot possibly combine laughing with calvary i i i can't wrap my mind around a jesus hanging on a cross grinning but the bible said he had joy why because joy is not showing how much gum you got above your dentures joy is something else joy is a fruit of the spirit that gives you resolve to get something done what was it that gave him joy what was set before him what's that mean that means the reason jesus was able to despise the the the the shame i mean you're naked in front of everybody and enduring the pain the reason he was able to do that was he knew on the other side of that is you and me on the other side of that he's going to get a cross that he never a church that he never had before the cross and that's what so remember it talks about there's 99 sheep safe in a barn and he's counting you know 97 98 99 okay start all over again you know ninety one nine two nine nine nine he locks the barn door and goes out and finds this one sheep hang a bite's hoofs on the side of a cliff reaches down swipes that little dude out puts him on his shoulder and he said he comes back rejoicing what brings god joy more than anything else is others he's in the saving game so put it together you've got to resist satan you're not going to do that without strength well how do i get stronger you need to get the joy of the lord what's that mean it means you get involved in someone else other than your own carcass it means let me think of it why do we even have the holy ghost today why do we even have the benefit of his blood and his name washing our sins away it wasn't for him everything he did was for someone else there's a famous that's uh isaiah 61 when jesus preached his first sermon in luke chapter 4 he read isaiah 61 and he goes like this spear lord's on me he's anointed me what for preach good tidings unto the poor not me that's him opening of somebody else's prison taking away somebody else's bruise there's seven things mentioned there everything his whole ministry wasn't for him i mean he's been fasted 40 days said turn that rock into a nice big old cinnamon roll and he said no i'm not using my anointing for my own granddaughter or my own satisfaction boy isn't that different do you ever receive that verse that said the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violence take it by force i i'm young preacher man i'm preaching that you know you got to be violent you got to go you got to go for it doesn't mean that at all this is what it says in the original language the kingdom of heaven is suffering because self-centered men are using the kingdom for their own prophet i want to know who's right all these self-styled mercenary prophets on tv that says their whole message is there's a blessing coming your way give me your money that's it every politician's got planks in the platform there's only two planks blessings coming give me the money that's it i wanna know who's telling i mean if you give you're going to get all this stuff you know you get to go shopping in somerset forget lakeside forget northland mall you're going to the higher end district over there dude you're going to you're you're going to sex 5th avenue and you're you're you're you're you're you're going to have the finest you're going to live in the snootiest part of town you're going to have everything you want see my my problem is i believe the gospel ought to be universal i've preached all over the world you can't preach stuff to people in bangladesh it doesn't work they don't have any stuff so i wonder who's telling the truth these guys that say if you serve god you're going to get all this stuff or jesus who said if you get too much stuff it's going to be really hard to get in the kingdom somebody's lying here i'm going to take my chances with jesus you know i was debating a college guy years ago in texas and he said you know every every religion in the world has the story of a man and a boat in a flood i said i don't disagree with that he said well how do you explain it i said jesus said the guy's name was noah and i said if jesus said the guy's name was noah dude's name was noah i don't care what anybody else says that's what the word says i'm debating this guy and i talk i talk about when the lord filled me with his spirit and changed my life and he gets up and he said that's it you're you're expecting me to debate a personal experience he said i got nothing to say i said i know because you can't prove a negative you can only prove a positive you prove something did happen you can't prove something didn't happen don't tell me i didn't get the holy ghost i really did don't tell me my sins can't be washed away they really did and so i would just hate to be in the spot of some of these people defending this this this torn and tattered bible that they've just patchworked together you know jefferson did that it's called the reader's digest bible it still exists jefferson didn't want any mention of hell and i can understand why and he didn't want any mention of judgment or anything like that he took some psalms and he took some of the parables and he made his own bible but at the end of his life he told john adams who was a very devout man he said you were right i was wrong it's just watch folks you you've got to get this lesson let me ask you a question please find me one verse where saul of tarsus ever wanted to change i i'll give you i give you a kabillions i don't have comedians that's how confident i am you ain't gonna find it there's no place in that bible where saul of tarsus ever had any remorse he did we we got this watered-down dumbed-down version of him in pentecost that he hooked people up and and they made bail on monday he said he killed people there's some people believe that was his thorn there was some people believe the guilt that he felt from that he carried all of his life i don't know all i know is this is the guy that that has he's you know stuck a benjamin circumcised the eighth day as concerning the law i was perfect on and on and on you could go and so why i mean why did why did god choose saul or the apostle paul same guy why did he choose him i'm convinced of one reason prayer of stephen they lay all their coats at the feet of saul of tarsus and then they're stoned in this guy to death and i think when they do that it's like jesus goes over to gabriel and he said hey where's the lights and he said what the lights man where's the lights you know them things when i was on a mountain with them guys where's the lights at and the generators oh no boss we'll find them well go get them lights and and get a couple of your palsy go hide behind them rocks on a damascus road and wait for my signal and all of a sudden here's saul of tarsus in acts 9 riding to damascus to put christians in jail and kill him and all of a sudden the lord said hey you ready wham no horse put his rear on the road this is the glory of god that's manifested my question is why did god choose saul because stephen is not wondering about how many units of plasma it's going to take to give him a transfusion how many sutures it's going to take to close up that wound he's praying for somebody else read it it's in the book of revelation john said i saw one sitting on the throne but stephen when he was stoned he said i see jesus standing why you're fixing you're killing one of these young preachers he gets up off of the chair and he's fixing to do something and it's like stephen says sit down boss i got this lord forgive them they don't know what they're doing when that happened it puts something in motion that's why god chose paul do you understand how crazy that sounds i've been taught we're free will agents all of our life that hey what that says that tells me that yours a place in the spirit where you can burglarize somebody's will and god can literally overwhelm them and change their heart boy wouldn't that be a kick in the seat of the past [Applause] i had a lousy week last week i get man i'm the pastor for god's sakes you know i'm a good guy i wake up monday i'm trying to build a house i wake up monday and and some bum in russia stole the money out of my account that i was wanting to finish up the house and i'm going what do i do now so i run down to chase and i meet this amazing lady named sherry and when i walk in and sit in her office she just stares at me and i say i said is is there anything wrong and she said your face is shining i said what she said your face is shining so then renee came in and she went got the same thing she said filled with holy spirit aren't you and i said yep she said i was devout muslim all of my life she said you know what jesus appeared to be in a dream told me islam was wrong that i should start reading the bible and give myself to christianity she said i'm a young christian but she said i saw it on you as soon as you walked in you there's nobody else in this bank like you and your wife i see that on you and i said you do she said i i i said sherry why did you leave islam for christianity she said intimacy she said there's no intimate walk with allah but with jesus he loves me i feel that so so she's all while she's talking she's typing she said are you ready and i said what she said watch she flipped the screen around she went boom bam she said we just stole it all back what do you say [Applause] i i was just i was just blown away and i knew she had other people so i went outside got my truck went down to the flower shop bought beautiful roses and all kinds of stuff brought this bait when i walked into the lobby every woman in a bagel oh and i go over to sherry and i put it on her desk she starts crying she said i've been chased 18 years nobody ever brought me roses i come into your church next sunday and i said fine with me next sunday she'll be here you know what she said to me listen to me brother butcher she'll love this she said there's thousands like me in this city there's thousands just like me trying to get out of islam she said let you and me pray that we'll have great harvest [Applause] [Music] oh jesus oh jesus oh god i'm done listen listen to me listen to me please hear me when i tell you the the the problem's not the virus the problem is what the virus is doing to us self-isolated self-serving self-involved narcissistic neanderthals me mine it doesn't work that way that's the real virus that contains the pandemic that's gripping too many people it's it it it's it's we gotta it's this is destroying if we give into this if we've given this to where i i can't even try or any of the courage even try we're going to destroy the would-be builders and the warriors of men and women and young men and young women if we don't get a hold of this and understand i'm not stopping what i'm doing i'm going to stay involved in ministry i'm going to stay involved in somebody else's life do you get it you're not going to be blessed until you bless somebody else [Applause] i mean we've been singing this song god bless america america you need to bless god we're in trouble folks we're in trouble and it's not just biden or trump this whole thing is changing my spirit you're gonna hear it more and more and more get ready get ready get ready get ready watch and pray watch and pray because in an hour that you think not he's showing up like a thief in the night the games are over it's time to get serious about serving the lord and if you really want strength to fight satan it's not self-help it's self-sacrifice [Music] jesus said you save your life you'll lose it but if you lose your life for my sake you're gonna find it so what are you gonna do you're gonna hide in your bunker i'm not talking about your house i'm talking about a mindset that says i'm scared of everything fear's got torment but perfect love casts out fear i'm not saying you got to throw all your mask away and be stupid what i am saying to you is please you can have a mask on your mouth but don't let it muzzle your witness you talk about friends joe's got three pounds one of them said boy you must have really done the granddaddy of all sins job you did something real you ain't telling us but i know you did something really bad [Music] dude your farm's gone your fortune's gone your wife wants nothing to do with you [Music] this is what the bible said and god turned the captivity of job when he prayed for his friends and doubled everything that he had great band of water tucked a great band of water great that's an amazing revelation about that verse i don't have time to get talk to greg before you leave i never heard anybody say what greg said to me today listen to me keep your mask on but if you would come up here with me you you want a distance i'm cool with that i don't care i'm just just move that's all i'm at don't don't stay in the same spot just just by moving it might just be a couple feet i don't but you're saying something in the spirit i'm not sitting where i was i'm willing to make a change here right now and this is what i want you to do you may have a child in trouble a son or a daughter in trouble i i understand but what i'm going to ask you to do is to look around this room there are people in this room right now that got children i want to see if you're willing to pray for their child like you would pray for your own i want to see if you could intercede for their daughter like it was your girl i want to see and i out of pastor and people shepherded sheep can we get to a point where we understand everybody wants a blessing but nobody wants to get out of their comfort zone the secret to being blessed by god is you'll be blessed while you're blessed would you raise your hand and pray with me right now lord jesus oh god [Music] that boy's in trouble [Music] and i know his mom and dad don't know what to do they've tried every ploy they've done everything they could possibly do to convince the boy that what he's doing is wrong and i know that every prodigal has to have an aha moment has to come to himself i'm praying for their son right now lord wherever that boy is right now i'm asking you god to intervene and interrupt his life right now if you can appear in a dream to sherry you can burglarize saul parson's own dominant attitude there is a place in the holy ghost lord where you can rise above every barrier every boundary every hurdle every enemy i'm asking you god to let that spirit be in this creature and to be in this church but it's not just gonna be about me for the rest of my life but i'm gonna do my best to invest in other people i'm gonna do my best whether it's time whether it's talent whether it's money i don't care lord i'm asking you to direct my steps so that i can be a beacon and people can see you in my life jesus we come against the fear the torment the anxiety all of this stuff it's just binding people terrified to talk to anybody terrified to say anything what are they going to think about me what are they going to say about me oh jesus use us please to be an agent of change in this community and around the world [Music] hallelujah let's thank him together praise god praise god [Music] oh god i wouldn't have your spirit i wouldn't have your name i wouldn't have your blood i wouldn't have your word i wouldn't have the body of christ if you weren't willing to just be invested with someone else other than yourself your whole ministry was others and i'm asking you god let that live in us we have children in this church they don't have a dad or mom that goes to this church do you know that or maybe you don't we got all kinds of hunters in this church and i'm one of them when's the last time you took a kid into the woods whose dad he doesn't even know where he is when's the last time you invited one of these kids to your house for a good meal when's the last time you were willing to put a tank of gas in their rusty old car that they're trying to get an education with i'm asking you to think outside of yourself and look legitimately look for ways that you can be a blessing and if you're really a big boy or a big girl do it anonymously and let's see if god keeps good books and that the lord that sees in secret will reward you openly i believe that lord jesus i thank you for this day for these precious people that call this place home the spirit that lives in this house you've blessed us god with a wonderful church family and i'm so grateful god for all that you've done but i know in light of what we have yet to do before we we haven't scratched it very deeply i'm asking you to help us god i'm asking you lord to mightily anoint the men and the women the young men and the young women that are in this room here right now all those that were here in the early service i'm asking god there's enough you said one puts a thousand of life two puts ten thousand so three's a million and four is ten million and five's a hundred million all we gotta have is a dozen oh we gotta have a dozen and we've got enough potential to overwhelm every demonic thing that that backslidden betrayed and lost their estate jesus it's been an honor to teach you the word of the lord today thank you so much for being here [Music] so as you go go with a bird go with a message go with the ministry and don't let us come back together again next sunday without you having touched somebody i told you last week i was going to ask you this and i'll do it before we go did you pray for anybody this week and if you did tell me what happened huh i got a microphone huh sophie give me give me your microphone come in here yeah tell what happened i prayed for my husband and i spiritual daughter this week and here she is today she beat us here what's your name jasmine well you look like jasmine holy smokes wow thank you for coming you're welcome here we need you in this place okay i just want you to come dwayne where's dwayne west [Applause] so tell them what happened in the park tell them how nasty it was make it sound really bad you guys know how cold it was last week and it was kind of rainy and cold and drizzly and we had some people meeting the part around like 10 12 whatever it was tony man that came to church here received the holy ghost last sunday in the park so you guys keep praying for the part because we got more we got bridgette here we got baptized we got our son her boyfriend matthew here god's doing the work in hazel park so keep praying for us in jesus name [Music] i go up under there some people think i'm crazy and out of my mind but it's only jesus but he has delivered look look what he has done with all the hazel park people and he's still working on people under that red don't don't say i go to brother hoffman's church it's not my church okay it belongs to him we don't want preacher religion in this church you know we want ministry in this church the bible said he gave apostles prophets evangelists pastors teachers why for the edification of the body of christ and for the work of the ministry but every other translation says for the work of their ministry so who's called to the ministry everybody my job is to try and help you find out what it is and let's use it for the glory thank you for coming it's a great day to serve the lord glad to be alive go enjoy the fleas get you some cider and find you somebody that needs a prayer okay god bless you you

Channel: First Church Sterling Heights

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Id: NYzh3KIkcD8

Length: 93min 45sec (5625 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 11 2020