[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] bring you through if he is with you and it doesn't matter what you're going through because of the one that's next to you the one of the one that's inside of you that's helping and assisting you so don't be afraid right now it's temporary and God is faithful to see you through let's go ahead and praise the Lord never done something for you faithful to you [Music] [Music] not as so big it can't be anything but faithful it's who he is and I just honored God today sometimes we have a hard time understanding what God loves us so much we think it's based on what we've done or what we haven't done but it's it's unconditional he can't not love you there's nothing you've done that separates you from them and I honor God today here at first church we believe that prayer is our anchor and we're learning more and more about what that means with every Monday night prayer service that we come to but we like to take a small portion of our time to go before God and faith that God's gonna act that God's gonna do something we don't just believe God some person that's far away that we're gonna meet one day we believe that we've already met him and that he wants to do something all the time in your life otherwise what's this whole thing about God wants to do something today and so we have some miracle opportunities on the screen behind me and we're gonna go ahead and pray cuz I believe God will act and move in restore and repair and heal just as he said he would do god it's such a great treat to be able to offer my voice to you God to lift up my hands oh great God in your presence O Lord today God we come boldly before the throne of grace knowing that all power is yours knowing that there's nothing too hard for you God or the needs oh great God in the situations on this stream Lord they might seem great they might we look through the lens of the all-powerful God there's nothing that intimidates you there's nothing too great for you nothing God that you can't restore repair God there's no boundary to you there's no limitation oh great God so God we turn to you now you're the solution answer god you're the provision oh Jesus I pray that the prayers of these people would be a sweet savour or break today Oh God do something incredible we're after oh Jesus would put our hands together we honor you today you've been so wonderful so loving oh and generous we love you today [Music] amen I love being in church I love being in the presence of God the Bible says that's where there's fullness of joy and I've lived to prove that faithful that verse is very very real and you can find joy in the presence of God and so we have a time here at First Church we just call it connect time but before we go ahead and we get to greet each other we want to make sure that we spaced special attention to a few of our guests here today if you are a first time second time third time guests we're going to go ahead and put our hands together say thank you very much for coming we are certainly certainly glad that you are here and we also have a few non guests with us today but they have been gone for a while we have brother edy Pacheco and his wife sandy back in church today it's very good to see you and we have our pastor's parents brother and sister - it's incredible to see you and so when we greet each other make sure you stop by these these people and all of our guests we got five minutes and we'll gather back to here together in five minutes [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] as you make your way back to your seats we do have quite a few announcements that we'd like to get through there's been a special time in this church and you know a few years ago we were blessed with this couple and recently they have celebrated 50 years of marriage so to brother and sister Roberts we are grateful that you are here we are celebrating with you such an amazing accomplishment they have 50 years of marriage in a society and in a world where that is becoming more and more rare we are certainly grateful to have you here this past week this last Thursday was actually a great day in the history of our church last Thursday celebrated the 32nd year that our pastor and his precious wife have been here [Music] so the pastor is this othman we would like to say thank you for leading us for 32 years it's been an amazing journey and we are certainly looking forward to what God has in store for us amen today is growth track 201 so what that means is growth track is our vehicle that gets people connected and plugged in into serving here at the house of God there's so many different areas where you can serve and plug in and and be a part of building the kingdom of God here at First Church so if that sounds like something you'd like to jump into or learn more about we encourage you to go to growth track it happens on the first and the second Sundays of every month and that way takes place in room 8 which is to my right there's a big sign you won't miss it and you'll be dismissed today for 201 after the last worship song growth track 201 will start after the last worship song have you enjoyed life groups life groups we've had an incredible time in my house on Thursday nights it's hard to believe that we have one week left of life groups and it's been an incredible semester and but we are looking forward to this light this week here coming up is our last week of life groups for the current semester so on I believe it's March 18th Wednesday March 18th will be pastors Bible study here at the church 7 o'clock on Wednesdays so we'll be doing that for 7 weeks before our next life group semester starts so you want to make sure that you're here for Wednesday nights at 7 now pastor will lead us in Bible study on those Wednesday nights and you won't want to miss any of that everybody say March 15 March 15 starts our blessed life series the blessed life series it's just a three week series that we do we're gonna be our second time doing it just figuring out what what's the Bible have to say regarding finances what does the Bible have to say about being blessed financially and what does God actually say about it because whatever God says we want to make sure that we're leading and and following in his instruction so the blessed life series starts March 15th it's an incredible incredible series that our pastor will be leading on the 15th of that April 2nd there is a date night with brother and sister Mitchell here at the church so child care is provided for $10 per child and they're going to be doing a marriage couples kind of a retreat but we're not really retreating anywhere we're having it here for brother and sister Mitchell incredible incredible ministers of God so you want to make sure that you're here for that all the women in this house once you so go ahead and scream at me for a little while there is a ladies conference April 3rd and 4th and if you know anything about sister Hoffman and the team that she has everything has done first-class top-notch incredible speakers and most importantly the presence and the power of God is here so if you're a lady in this in this room you want to make sure that you're here for the the ladies conference April 3rd and April 4th it's going to be a powerful magnificent time and don't miss that mission sunday is April 5th so coming off of our ladies conference we will have our mission Sunday conference this is a fantastic time here at First Church where we get we get give a take up an offering or return an offering to the Lord and it's what pastor has done for years we're trying not to you know text the people every week but we do an offering on this missions offering and it goes everywhere it helps locally it helps nationally it helps globally this is where you know we launched a church over oil over that came from the missions offering we've we've built the Bible School in Bangladesh that came for the missions offering so it's an exciting time to see what God wants to do with that but that will be Sunday April 5th for our mission Sunday have you been enjoying Monday night prayer I know I mentioned it earlier it's been incredible we've been averaging about ninety to a hundred people and God's just been meeting this year in a special way in a powerful way so this coming Monday night for none' Monday night prayer sister Hoffman will actually be teaching the ladies in the fellowship hall and having a time of prayer and the fellowship hall pastor will be in the sanctuary with the men giving us some instruction and then entering into a time of Prayer and Duane and Debbie Campbell will be with the children in the super church room so it's going to be a family prayer and you know we're each going to learn a little bit and then have a great time of Prayer for Monday night so if you can tomorrow night 7 o'clock make sure you're here I know we got a lot going on here at first Church but busy people tend to be happy people amen if you get too stale and you don't have a whole lot going on a lot of times that's where you can get stagnant we want we don't ever want to get stagnant around here so at this time we're gonna go ahead and return to the Lord an offering and a tithe and before I pray over this all offering I just want to mention we've got one more worship set and I know sometimes when I we have a lot of announcements it can kind of interrupt a little bit about what we're what we're doing and the presence of God we've got one more worship set so after I pray over this offering the Bible says enter into his gates with Thanksgiving and enter into his courts with praise and so much we want to focus on Thanksgiving and praise but we forget the phrase where it says enter in that's a choice that's a choice and so we have a choice in this praise in this worship set that we're doing you can choose to enter into that and make that conscious aware decision and so I encourage everyone here today if you haven't done that interact with the Lord watch what he'll do in your life and so when they begin to sing make that decision enter into his presence God we love you today we're so grateful mighty Lord for the high honor to be able to be a part of your church Lord this this group of people God in Sterling Heights that you want to do something incredible with though we pray now God that you would receive this tithing receive this offering god that that you had taken god and put your blessing upon it that you would put your favor and your anointing upon a god that it would you would bless it to help it to find somebody God for the gospel and the growth of the kingdom my god let it please you well today in Jesus name we pray amen [Music] it feels good in this place today this this next song is a new song and I'm gonna explain to you what it's about so that you don't have to focus on what it's saying oh my goodness I've never heard this before because I want you to really be able to understand the power that I feel is gonna come with when we're singing this song so it's called famous for and it talks about how God is famous for you know shutting the mouths of lions and he's making way through the waters and he's basically preparing a way for you to come out of your circumstance with faith and so when we're singing this song I feel like this faith rising up in us today and and I just want to encourage you today that no matter what your situation is yes God is famous for healing he's famous for you know providing every need but one thing that he's famous for the most is for being God and no matter what your situation is today I want you to invite him into your situation and say god I know that you're famous for healing I know that you're famous for for delivering but you're famous for being God in my life and that's the most important thing because even if the healing doesn't come God is still there when nobody else is there God is still there and so I just want us to be encouraged today that God is famous for being God and we can be still and know that He is God the Son Jesus we were [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Lord you little man [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a bridge for famous forces god of exceedingly [Music] [Music] [Music] so much bigger two actions [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] No [Music] I see [Music] [Music] [Music] what a great day what a great day thank you so much for being here we are delighted to have the privilege to be together David said I was glad that's glad somebody said let's go to church I don't ever want anybody to leave here and go I am so disappointed I ever wasted my time to go to that church service every time people walk out of here I want him to say I'm glad I was there glad I was there so thank all of you for your faithfulness 2020 just the time when you see right so we want to be a full-service Church we're doing our best make sure that our vision in the spirit is right if your visit nationally means fixed you go see dr. Monica and Andrew at a place called focus three one three and they'll get you some new specs trust me they got beautiful glasses so we'll fix you physically and spiritually and be able to see good amen I'm gonna read to you from Deuteronomy 7 I want to thank all of you for your love and and for for Steve and Tiffany we had a great day yesterday and I want to thank all of you that came and those that went to their reception and that was just it's just a good day it's a fun day and I was raised in West Virginia they talk about shotgun weddings in West Virginia trust me it's not a fun day when you gotta have a shotgun wedding it's yesterday was just a good day and so we're grateful and this is coming to the end of our life group season four now I want to thank all of you that have participated we've this has been our best session of life groups to date we had more guests more visitors we've had more people visit the church as a result of that and it's just been a great success great success so I thank you for that deuteronomy 7 verse 21 thou shalt not be afraid it at them for the lord thy god is among you o mighty god and terrible terrible and the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little now may us not consume them at once lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee but the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction until they be destroyed so I take my subject from the text little by little shake hands with someone say something really nice to them before you sit down say something they'll remember say something that'll encourage them I'm not exactly sure how this is going to go today this is an experiment on my part and I'm going to try to answer a personal question of mine and possibly I'm hoping that by answering a question that I've had for some time it I'm hoping it's possibly a question that you've entertained as well aye-aye-aye I want to deal with the the dismal speed of I guess what you would call apostolic success why don't things go faster than they do is there anyone here besides me who gets very frustrated at times with the pace of your personal journey and and with how things go on a larger format in the church why aren't we further down the road than we are why why are things going much slower than I want them to go is there anyone here along with me who gets confused with what I guess you would call the pace of your progress it has nothing to do with our inability I'll put you up against any Church in this city and in this country I believe in you and when I see the quality and the character of the people that call this church home I am always impressed and last Monday we were having a session Mike Nadeau is doing such a great job getting people up to speed preparing for going to to services when penico we were going to do it at Easter but we'll do it on Pentecost Sunday Easter is not the best day to try and something like that so we're going to push it off for two months but they're working hard and when I I just looked around that room and that room was full of people and every one of them I was just proud to be honest with you I was I was just made me smile at the quality of the team that meets here every week and worked so hard to put a good product out and I am convinced that it's not going as fast as I want it to go and I don't think it's going as fast as you want it to go but I am convinced that this has nothing to do with your or my inability and I don't think it's because of the superiority of the enemy that we are fighting so I want I want you to quit beating yourself up about possibly thinking you're not good enough or how huge and how intimidating Satan is we there this this this is a success driven culture there there are three gods in this culture and when I say gods I I mean with a little G one of them is sports sports is a is a God in this country and another one is sex it's such a sexually driven so many times that's used to promote and sell things but the third god of this world is success I want to remind you that there's only one time in the Bible that the word success is used it's in the book of Joshua chapter one and verse eight and it says this book of the law shall not depart out of our mouth but thou shalt meditate therein both day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in that book then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success it's the only time in the Bible the word success is used however there's another word that I think is very pertinent for my lesson here today and that's the word faithful though term faithful is used many many many times in the Bible and when you combine faithful and faithfulness it's hundreds of times in the Bible listen to me very carefully God has not called you and me to be successful I didn't say that the Lord doesn't want you to be successful what I said was he didn't call you to be successful listen to this verse revelation 17 John prophetically saw Jesus Christ returning to the earth and it said and they that are with him are cold chosen faithful when you meet the Lord and everyone in this room will meet him there's almost what is there's over seven billion people on this planet right now I've learned through the years of pastoring everybody wants to go to heaven not a lot of people are interested in going right now but everybody especially in funerals nobody's lost anymore I for my share of funerals and I attend my share of funerals it doesn't matter where I go every preacher that I've heard puts the dead safely in heaven I guess that's true to a point everybody does get to go it's just everybody doesn't get to stay because there will be a judgement and some get to stay and some don't get to stay and you will meet him one day and it says in the book of Matthew 25 Jesus himself taught this that you're going to hear him say something to you but it goes like this well done good and faithful servant you see I do not believe the Lord has called us to be successful he's called us to be faithful and if you are faithful in his eyes you are a success [Applause] God's ability to do stuff in our lives is not in question nor is his willingness to help us in question I never tailed Raylan what I'm going to preach I don't have to every time he hooks up with me in the spirit and it happened again today ladies and gentlemen according to this word dream whatever you want in the Lord and he can exceed it unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above everything that you talk about or think about but it's dependent on the power that works in us which tells me it's up to me to set the bar whatever I think about and whatever I talk about he will exceed that so if oh you talk about our small schools a small group a small harvest a few miracles here and there he'll he'll do more than that so I'm saying what do you got to lose let's talk about great things and let's think great things because whatever you talk about and whatever you think about he will exceed that so I want to raise the bar as far as I can get it because he's gonna do more than I ask or think if I'll let faith operate in my life so believe God for phenomenal things because there is not one thing that you can present to God that he can't accomplish except lie guess he can't do that hi there's a verse in the book of Matthew chapter 8 it's a it always amazed me he goes to this city Co Capernaum and this man comes to him and says I need you to come home with me my my my my my child is in trouble and Jesus said now I'm not coming home with you go thy way thy son liveth he went home got home the next day boy was healed and it's specific at the seventh hour one o'clock in the afternoon I'm convinced the reason that time is in there is because that was the moment when he heard the word of the Lord obeyed it and and like the lepers as he went his son was healed three weeks later he comes back to the same city a Roman soldier comes up to him and says master my servant is dying Jesus does the exact opposite he said well I'll come home with you and he said no no no you don't need to do that I know what you did three weeks ago just speak the word and my servant will be healed and in the book of Matthew this is what it says he marveled I I want to pray and say things that make Jesus go WOW not not because he's intimidated by what we're asking but that he is so impressed that we really believe he can do that he can do it it's just not everybody that believes it but when you and I pray prayers and see things that make the Lord go from a boy down there do you hear what my girl just said I could do I want us to pray those kind of prayers and say those kind of things because there's he's never going to be intimidated he's never going to second-guess himself he's just impressed that we would believe he could do something that great and he said there were lots of lepers in Israel but naman who was a Syrian was the one that got healed this guy here he started you he's a Roman he said you you figured it out and all that all the Israelites haven't got ahold of it yet but you did see Calvary paid for a greater harvest than you and I can ever wrap our brain around it's not his will that any should perish he wants the whole bunch to be saved and that's what Calvary is all about I found this verse this week it says and Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger he went to a place that his dad had never been he saw things his dad had never seen I think in the spirit that's what's going on in the Apostolic Church right now I think we are entering into a place that our elders have never been I think we're going to a place where our parents have never seen this past year 37,000 young people gathered in st. Louis for what I'm told is the largest gathering of young people in America that year this was not a rock concert this was not a smoked out where people were celebrating a little bit of cannabis this was 37,000 Jesus name tongue talking young people that are excited about serving the Lord our parents never saw anything like that this is brand-new if you go back in my office I'm a part of something called the United Pentecostal church sometimes it's not that United but it's a ministers organization and I have a pitcher 1944 before there was what was known as the merger in 1945 two apostolic groups came together to form what was called the United Pentecostal church I have a picture in my office of the whole bunch in 1944 I have the picture of the whole bunch the year after the merger 1946 in st. Louis that gap everybody was there every licensed preacher was there all the superintendent's were there all the presbytery there most of the people that called themselves Pentecostal in America were in that meeting and yet you get it in one picture but right beside of it I have a picture that was taken several years ago in Ethiopia where the crowd is over 600,000 people it's so big the Sun actually blots that you can't see all the people and when the meeting was over there over a hundred and fifty thousand people who claim to have been filled with the spirit and spoke with tongues and people said well that's just a general number no no in Ethiopia they have what are called the books of life and if you claim to have been filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with tongues you've got to put your name in the book not only your name you've got to put your parents name and and and if possible put your wife's parents names they've recorded they had over a hundred and fifty thousand names of people who said for the first time in my life I was filled with the spirit and spoke with tongues there's nothing like that in the Bible the biggest number in the Bible was a time when about five thousand were filled with the spirit after that the count was lost I'm convinced you and I are going to go to a place that would seem strange to our parents and say wow look at that youth group Wow look at that church Wow look at those ministries the question is not can God handle it the question is can we handle it it must always be echoed and repeated that it's not about our prosperity it's about what brings him praise can you get a miracle touch from God on your life and not go stupid can God do an amazing thing for you and you not let it go to your head why don't things go faster I'll tell you why it's not you it's him it's not about my fame or your fame it's about his name listen to this verse and when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord she came to prove him with hard questions the message says when she heard about his connection with the name of the Lord Solomon had convinced his world that the reason I have what I have is because of the name of the God that I serve so it's not about our reputation it's about his praise in our solar system there are billions and billions of stars but in his solar system there's only room for one star I found this about a guy named Isaiah in the Old Testament and Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the hosts shields and Spears and helmets and hammers ons and bows and slings to cast stones and he made in Jerusalem engines invented by cunning men to be on towers and upon the bulwarks of the walls to shoot arrows and great stones withal and his name spread far abroad for he was marvelously helped until he was strong and I think that's you and me I think right now we are being marvelously help I remember the first time I drove a school bus and I remember stomping that thing to the floor and all I could get was 52 miles an hour and that was it I knew it had a big old engine I knew it could go faster but it had what's called a governor on it that wouldn't let me go any faster no matter how much I stepped on that pedal I am convinced that our success has a god placed governor on our lives because there is a difference between growth and swelling I am overjoyed that my dad is here today I love you daddy I love you my dad told me a story about a man that he worked with who had cows and he was too cheap to feed the cows really good grain so he mixed them a lot of salt pellets in the hay and he closed the gate to the pond that was on his farm and several days before market he fed these cows all this grain with salt pellets in it two days before market he opened up the gate to the pond and these cows who were so thirsty just went stood in that pond for a day drinking and the next day he took him to the market they look like big ol fat steers and they got premium prices but when the people bought them cows and took him home it just took a couple days to where you could count their ribs smack them with a spoon they sound like a xylophone that's not growing that's swelling I was going to bring a hammer here today and see if I could get me a volunteer I was going to hit you on the head and while I was preaching there'd be a big old bump on your head you weren't growing at all you're just swelling the Bible said we plant we water but only God can make it grow the Bible says in Matthew 15 and 13 every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up see God wants everyone to be saved it's not as will that any should perish see not only does the Lord want the loss to be saved he also wants the saved to stay saved and not be lost trying to become a success it's possible according to Corinthians that everything you've done can be burned up and yet you still be saved even so as by fire see the Lord will not sacrifice your salvation for the benefit of his kingdom he doesn't want anyone lost trying to grow his kingdom and boy have I seen my share of those people that worship at an altar called success I'm doing this for the Lord no you're not you want to be a success you want people to look at you and go on it's not the opinion of people that matters it's a lord that will say well done good and faithful servant that's the truth in Psalms 106 this is what it says he some about Israel where they wanted a king it said he gave them their request but sent leaned us into their soul I don't want to get what I want in the kingdom and the trade is my soul is leaner I might have the same mark on the wall it's just it's not this wide anymore it's only this wide it looks like it's as high as it's ever been but you can be 5 miles wide and 1/2 an inch deep that's why it says III i want you to prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers so the gauge is the soul get that one healthy did you ever feel something in the spirit and yet you could never find a verse to validate it I've had this happen to me so many times where I would I would sense something but I couldn't find any biblical validation for what I felt so I wouldn't say anything about it I found a verse that that that describes that experience it's in Acts chapter 1 in verse 2 it says until the day in which he was taken up after that he through the Holy Ghost gave Commandments under the apostles whom he had chosen I'm I've had experiences in the spirit where I feel like I was given something in the Holy Ghost but I didn't have any Bible to back it up but if it is legitimately from the spirit eventually you're going to find it and I found mine see I don't believe God blesses churches I believe God blesses ministries and the church is only blessed to the degree that the leadership and the ministry is blessed I don't talk about you given me money or exotic trips or prizes and presents know what I'm talking about a rising tide lifts all boats and water can never go above its source in other words if that pastor doesn't live in such a way that he has the blessing of God on his life I don't believe the church will be blessed and I'll tell you why I believe that there's a story in the Bible about two champions David and Goliath and this is what it says in 1st Samuel 17 and verse 2 and Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched by the Valley of Elah and set the battle in array against the Philistines in chapter 17 and verse 8 it's obvious not only did saw set the Israelites in array but the Philistines set their army in array if you've ever seen an old movie about them the old battles in the Civil War or when Britain used to take on and they just they put all these guys up there on one Hill and the other army put all their guys and they just start marching towards one another and that's what we're talking about here's Saul got all of his Battaglia all of his soldiers all of his armies and his horses and it's all there here's the Philistines over there they got all their guys and all of a sudden out of the Philistines comes this monster the Arnold Schwarzenegger of his day and this is what Goliath said Goliath said this we're not going to do it today the way it's always done this is what we're going to do I am the champion of this army you choose one man that's a champion for your army and the armies aren't going to fight the champions are going to fight and whoever wins the other army is going to be the servant deal challenge accepted so if you know your Bible it wasn't two armies that met that day it was two men David and Goliath you send out your champion will send out ours my lesson is very simple it really hinges on what happens to the pastor I am convinced in the spirit it's not just about a church against the enemy I am convinced there's got to be a man that steps out of that crowd that's willing to take on their champion and that's why every church needs to pray for their pastor and for his family and then hi I have to preach tonight in another church and I'll probably preach this and I'll preach it much more intense than I am right now this is not an easy thing for me to preach to the church that I'm responsible for but it is a concept that you need to understand because anointing doesn't come on the body it says how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity it's like ointment precious ointment that comes first on the head then it goes down the beard even Aaron's beard who is the priest and then it goes to the skirts of the garments as the dew is on Herman's mountain there I have commanded a blessing forevermore what he's saying is the people have to be together because if the people are together there is an anointing that will come from the head of the church which is the Lord unto the priest which is the pasta and then from that it runs down through the rest of the body and he said just as sure as you can plan on do being on the top of Mount Hermon every day you can plan on anointing being on the pastor if the church will be unified that's why if you are pestered by a man that is full of doubt that has no joy that has no victory in the Holy Ghost you need to go somewhere else because it is imperative in the ministry to have faith power joy Liberty and that's not your job to give that to me that's my job to find it because what happens here is going to happen out there and this is an arrogant statement but I must say it anyway because I'm gonna preach it to pastors till I die the church can only grow as fast as the pastor grows I can never take this church to a place that I have not gone there myself first ahead of you not possible and this is why prayer is so important it's always been important but it's more important now than ever been I proved when we launched the Royal Oak church that I was willing to shell my own personal ambition in order to build other churches but that thing that I was willing to let die is is alive again and I I am absolutely convinced that we'll have another Church in that grass I I've already been there I live there I could never take you there if I've never seen that but I've seen that and that's why watch as this prayer meeting grows it's not mandatory this is a sweet savour offering you're coming because you want to come not because the pastor said be there or else the Bible said that Moses knew his ways but Israel knew his acts it's one thing to be able to be smart enough to realize when God does something it's a whole other thing when you understand how it accomplished see people that don't pray have never made the connection see service is not the battle the battles in prayer and you win the battle in prayer so that when you come to church you're never surprised with what you see happen because you've already seen it you've already won the victory in the Holy Ghost that's why it's so important to pray for your leaders you lift up Bianca and kento how would you like to be over dozens and dozens and dozens of teenagers right now you're just happy to get them out of your house a couple times a week send them to the church with Dreiling and Kelsey and this music team don't ever say anything negative lift them up lift them up lift them up you know why because if they go down the whole thing goes down the toilet Bible said when a tree falls it's the little trees that suffer Bible talks about when big things fight there's a lot of grass that gets stomped I've asked the Lord to take me before I ever the man that preceded me loved many women the man that preceded that man had a performant problem I don't want this church I remember when I'd been here five years because the two men before me had been here for five years and that's all hit the fan the bovine excrement hit the squirrel-cage blower you could say and I remember getting over that five-year hump and saying dear God please if you see in my future or in my present an occasion where I will bring shame and reproach on the church you take me because I'd rather go right now and die then live and do anything that brings any type of embarrassment or shame on this church family because I promise you when the preacher gets in trouble lots of people get in trouble and when other ministries of the church get in trouble I looked at our team a week ago I've got the strongest team I've ever had in my life around me right now I can't thank them enough for the willingness to serve and sacrifice because they literally have this church on their heart and so there have been times in the past of this church that we get over 300 there were a couple of times we closed on on four and then it we never got any further I'm gonna tell you why that happened because of your pastor because your pastor didn't grow as quickly as he was supposed to and the Lord that I serve made a promise I'm not giving you the battle in one whack I'm gonna give it to you little by little I'm gonna give you a victory here a victory there victory here yesterday I was driving alone and I saw one of the biggest deer I've ever seen in my entire life except it wasn't alive McComb County Animal Control was loading it on the back of a truck I'm talking about a moose any whitetail hunter would have been ecstatic to have this deer and I watched those two men load that's over 300 pound carcass on the back of that and then I saw him turn him over and his hip was broken side was all crushed listen to these verses that I read to you the Lord said I'm not going to let you cut the whole forest down you want to know why this deer got killed yesterday I'll tell you why because right there around him they're building three new subdivisions and the last four months they have cut down every tree for as far as you could see and that deers got nowhere to go so what's he do he wrecks your car and could wreck your life and there are times in the Holy Ghost I'll say come on God give us a great mighty harvest come on down and the Lord said not a chance Harold because if I give you everything you want right now the beasts aren't going to have anywhere to go except to attend you and you're not ready to take on those beasts yet so I'm gonna give you the victory a little by little and what I'm asking for you Harold is not to question me but I'm asking you to question your own consecration because I'm not going to give you something that's gonna make your head swell I'm not gonna give you something that's gonna make you think you're really something I'm not gonna give you something that's where you're gonna brag and shoot off your mouth about what happened in first Church don't you ever forget this Harold this is my church not yours if the preacher will grow the body will grow but I'm not going to allow you to have a victory that will destroy you because of your pride because you're not ready yet so it's my imperative right now for the last years of my ministry not to stop and to get in retirement mode and feather my retirement nest but to pray more now than I ever have to give myself to the word more now than I ever have [Applause] little don't be don't get frustrated with what's going on right now just keep your prayer life intact stay in the word I got a I was on vacation and I got a text from a young minister in this church I was stunned at the quality and the the the just the content of this text that he said me and I I sent him back a text quickly and said I have never heard anybody see this before I've been around preachers all my life I've never heard anybody say what you just said and that young minister said I fell in love with the Lord a couple years ago pastor but not too long ago I fell in love with his word and he said it's brought me such joy and all I could do was say had a boy I've been waiting on a long time but if God would have surrounded me with the people that I have now I would say look what I got what's your problem how come you can't get a team like I have how come you don't have a hundred people in prayer on Monday night the day will come when we'll have 500 people in prayer the day is coming when other area churches will allow their people to come to our prayer meeting because we my co and I we've been talking how many I heard me if any man say something a couple years ago and I never forgot it he said I take as much time to prepare to lead a service as I do if I know I'm preaching in that service and when he said that it stunned me and I thought I got it never heard anybody say that cuz if you're not preaching you just get up there's a highway hallelujah Baal feel Holy Ghost here hallelu hallelu you know and we'll take up the offering do Lunarian and here here's Johnny you know you bring out the preacher but Anthony Mangan taught me he said put as much attention in what you're going to say before the words preached as the minister does with his preaching and so a couple weeks ago I was talking with these leaders and I said I don't know anybody that approaches a prayer meeting with as much intensity and preparation as they do a church service let's start preparing for prayer the same way D we do for a church service so where it's not just everybody filler again and on hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah I want this prayer meeting to get to a point where you don't have any idea what's going to happen here I want to bring in sister Mannion and let her Skype to us and talk to us I want to bring in ministries from around this country and around the world to encourage you to pray I want it to be a place where people can bring the sick and we pray for the sick I want it to be a place where people are filled with the Holy Ghost let's say let's go down to that prayer meeting I'm not don't you get it if the only way we increase our number is by having somebody come from another Apostolic Church that's not growth that's swelling we got to grow and the only way you do that is my recently lost clap and come with me clapping come with me I'm asking you to make a covenant with me today under the Lord little by little I'm gonna get better I'm not asking there to be a hundred percent better next year next week I'm asking you to be one percent better somewhere in your life that you are right here right now I'm asking you to get in that word and and and consecrate yourself in prayer because if I ask you to do it and I don't do it myself it's not going to grow God's not asking us to be successful he's asking us to be faithful and if we'll be faithful it'll grow but he's not going to give us something that's going to destroy us because they're a beast out there that are bigger than you and me and they'll bang up your car in your life we need to just cut it down a tree at a time not the whole forest hallelujah we're gonna pray and praise right now Lord Jesus [Music] father I could spend a lot of time asking you to forgive me for the time that's been wasted for the time that's been squandered for words that should have been said that work said for things that could have been done but work done but I don't think that's going to accomplish any babies that make me full of despair and for you to just wring your hands I'm kind of living today I've got to live in tomorrow I can't look over my shoulder anymore so father as a pastor and as a church as a shepherd and a flock we make a corporate consecration under you today then little by little we're gonna get better and we are confident that was so grateful God but you didn't bury us because we would have never been able to handle it we would have become so arrogant we would have become so proud we would have become so self-righteous we would have been holier than you so I am grateful God for the pace at which things are progressing because I realize you're willing and you want to help us but you're not gonna give us something we can handle our life is gonna get deeper our consecration in your word to this city she is going to become more intense than one year from today we're going to be in a place where we are right now and we are not gonna despise the dance [Music] Jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] for the church [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause]
