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service and a great week for jesus number one god bless [Music] good evening church welcome to this mid-week service amen if you're here or you're watching online we want to encourage you guys just to worship with us a man to praise with us um i don't know about you but i'm excited to be here to to worship his holy name amen he's worthy of it all uh he deserves all our praise amen so if we can let's just shout hallelujah come [Applause] on church the bible tells us that where the holy spirit is there is liberty right and i believe that he's here today he's there at your house [Music] [Music] step out of the way [Music] just like the way [Music] is [Music] come on [Music] let them [Music] [Music] my mom [Music] come down to the stores [Music] is [Music] there is freedom [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] let them be free [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] jesus christ [Music] where the spirit of [Music] there is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] freedom [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] my church keeping praise amen [Music] all things are possible when we believe no change is unbreakable when we receive your way you keep promises if you said it we believe it you said it hey if you said it we believe if you say we believe [Music] all things are possible when we believe our chains are breakable when we receive your aware you keep your prompt messages [Music] [Music] if believe [Music] [Music] got [Music] god you [Music] come on [Music] cause you're a [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] we know that our god is faithful amen he's a god who promises a god of his word amen the bible tells us that this world is going to fade away but his word will never create awaiting man come on church give him praise hallelujah [Music] and if you said it we believe it [Music] if you said it we believe it we believe [Music] it we believe of your word [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you believe i am who you say i am i am who you say i am i am who you are [Music] [Music] you say i is [Music] [Applause] [Music] it cause you're saying is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] this is [Music] rest on us [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] when [Applause] i'm here [Music] would you do it again [Music] would you do it again open up [Music] [Applause] you're here and i know you are moving i'm here [Music] [Music] you're all we want [Music] is [Applause] love this fear [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] you're here and i know you are moving i'm here [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] oh yes spirit moves cause when you have your way something has to break tear down every light said the wrong thing right cause when you have your way something has to break but something has to break [Music] something has to be how many believe that [Music] tonight holy something has to thing break cause when you have your way something has to break something has to break something has to break [Music] something has to break [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i give myself away so you can use me i give myself away [Music] i give myself away so you can use me i give myself away i give myself away so you can use me i give myself away in [Music] you'll get myself too i believe that you will do it right now [Applause] i believe that you will do it right now something has to break [Music] right now [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] come on church you gotta continue to present amen as we were singing that song god was reminding me of paul and silas how they were thrown in jail right and didn't let the circumstances that that they were going through affect the fact that they were going to worship their god they're going to worship our god amen and maybe you're there and you're you don't know what's going to happen you're going through a circumstance something and and you need a breakthrough amen and i truly believe that in worship and praise your breakthrough will come amen chains are going to be broken amen maybe you're there and you're you're addicted and and you're you're fighting it and you're you're trying your hardest and i truly believe i truly believe that i should press through i should worship god as you praise him and man those chains are gonna be broken amen we gotta believe church we gotta believe we have we gotta have the faith of a monster amen maybe some of our family members are not saved and we're like man i don't know god i don't know about that person well i tell you what god can do it we just got to believe the faith of a master amen can move mountains i didn't say that it was jesus amen it was jesus he's the one that said it so i'ma believe it come on [Music] [Music] they say this mountain can't be moved they say these chains will never break but they don't know you like we do there is power in your name we've heard that there is no way through we've heard [Music] they haven't seen what you can do there is power in your name so much [Music] [Applause] [Music] symbol [Music] that we believe [Music] [Applause] [Music] we know that hope is never [Music] god we believe no matter [Applause] so much [Music] [Music] how do we that we [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] we're trusting you [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] that we believe that we [Music] that we [Music] that we [Music] [Music] hallelujah come on let's give the lord a big hand amen how many are excited to be in the house of the lord tonight amen let's just lift our hands and give them some praise amen let's tell them how grateful we are amen let's just ask him to do what he needs to do in our life come on we can do better than that lord we thank you lord we praise you lord we give you all the glory we give you all the honor take full control right now my god we love you we love you lord hallelujah hallelujah look at your neighbor and tell them you're in for a surprise tonight amen then you can go ahead and take your seeds amen we just want to welcome everyone amen tonight those watching on our live stream on behalf of our senior pastor pastor reuben reina amen and we know we have going to have a great time tonight but before we get into our message we're going to get ready to pick up our tithes and our offering so if you need a tithing envelope by the lifting up of your hands lift your hands up high one of our ushers our usherettes will be more than glad to get one to you amen and sometimes when it comes to the area of giving people feel pressure by the offering amen some people sometimes they even come late after the offering because they they don't want to give amen and i just want to clarify something that it's not our intent to force you to give amen that's not what we're up here for amen we're not up here to strong-arm you to tell you put money in the basket when the basket goes by amen god has provided a way for us to be blessed and so into his ministry amen and what we're doing is we're extending that opportunity to you to give and be blessed also amen and so that's why we make this important i want to read a portion of scripture in second corinthians chapter nine verse 6 and 7 it says but this i say he who so sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully so let each one give as he purposes in his heart not grudgingly or or of necessity for god loves a cheerful giver smile amen i know i know some of you wearing your mask we can't see but your eyebrows go up when you smile amen we want to be happy when we give and there's four ways of giving you can use our titley app you download the app amen and search lwcc or you can use our website and go to we are lw.com and it will give you the page there just click on the link or you can use your mobile phone and when you use your mobile phone you text the word give to 833-940-1404 or you can just use the envelope put the money in there you say i got money you're paying with the credit card just fill out everything correctly and where we can read it that way we can give you the proper credit once we give you the proper credit we destroy that little paper there so you can have all the confidence amen that that's not going to get out anywhere and in this portion of scripture the apostle paul he's saying to the church in corinth he's telling them to give as he purposes in their heart in other words whatever you purpose in your heart that means when you come to church you got to come set like lord i'm going to give this back to you and then he goes he says if you sow sparingly you'll reap sparingly meaning if you only give a little you're going to get a little amen if you want a financial breakthrough sometimes you got to sow a seed of faith how many can say amen you got to sow something that you don't have amen that way god can see that you're stepping out in faith or even maybe you're here and you say well i want to raise then start tithing the amount that you want the race for and see how god will meet that need i know my wife did that she started tithe in a certain amount she was like need a raise so she started tithing that amount and four months later she got the raise that she was tithing out of because how many know god's kingdom principles they work for us amen because god wants to bless us and and so paul says if you sow sparingly you'll reap sparingly then he says if you sow bountifully you'll reap bountifully in other words if you give a lot if you sow a lot you're going to get back a lot he also says not to give grudgingly or out of necessity necessity is oh i have to give i'm in leadership or they're looking at me and if i don't give the i'm going to get it that's out of necessity that's not what we do we want to give because we love the lord amen when we were in the world a lot of you gave to different things you gave to sports you bought jerseys you bought tickets you gave to the club you paid you danced all night because that's what you loved how much more that god has given us purpose and god's given us a destiny that we say god i'm giving back to you and then god says god will bless us no matter what you give because he says whether you give a little bit or whether you give a lot i'm still going to bless you but i'm going to bless you according to what you give so so he's saying here i'm going to bless you no matter what you give but your harvest is dependent on the amount of the seed in other words you're going to get back whatever seed you plant amen so that's good news for us i mean that we're able to know that whatever i give god is going to give back to me so if you want to say man god i i need to go to a whole other level of my giving learn to give above your tithes give offering amen and when you give offering you're going to see how god continues to open the door and meet our needs so we're going to go ahead and pray tonight amen and we're going to ask god to continue to grow our faith those that have been tithing faithfully we thank you for your faithfulness those that have been starting to to tithe we want to encourage you keep going and see how god is going to meet every need that you have according to his riches in heaven amen so pray with me tonight amen father we thank you lord for everything you're doing here in our church here as individuals my god continue to challenge us in the area of our tithes and in the area of our offering lord multiply it for the furtherance of your gospel bless those that do not have seed to give that they would have seed to give lord in the next time we come to this and father we're so careful to give you all the glory the honor and the praise and everyone said amen and amen god bless you as you give [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] hey [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we will [Music] he has overcome [Applause] i will [Music] in me and i am free in jesus name oh [Music] [Music] i will not die [Music] [Applause] i will not die and i am here in jesus name [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] in the name of jesus that cannot be shaken in the name of jesus and we will shout it out chop it up god is fighting for us i will not die the resurrection power of christ the life is [Applause] [Music] god is for us pushing back the darkness that cannot be shaken in the name of jesus [Music] that cannot be shaken in the name of jesus is [Music] [Music] come on let's give the lord some praise tonight hallelujah come on if you got it in you i want to hear you shout out give the lord a good shot of praise amen glory to god thank you to the worship team amen ain't that amazing amazing job amen go ahead and have a seat in the presence of the lord tonight glory to god i have a the privilege of ministering tonight if you've been following the series on fighting pastor reuben on saturday dealt with the soldier and the characteristics of a show of a soldier in the army of god prior to that pastor danny dealt with address to impress amen and then uh what i talked about before pastor danny i spoke on the the prospect from uh from an individual who is taking uh you know who's raw in form and and and god starts to to develop that that individual in in in the boxing sense where that that uh prospect is taken he's he's being taught the in my scripture was psalms 144 where god prepares your hands for battling your fingers for war and tonight i want to continue on we're going to continue on on that series and tonight i titled this message fit to fight fit to fight amen everyone knows amen um i'm a huge i'm a huge fight fan i love i love a good fight i'm not so much an mma fan you know i know you've got a lot of mma fans here but i i i just love the the science of boxing amen and everyone here can agree you all love a good street fight amen of you were very good amen some of you women could really throw amen you were ready i mean you you took your earrings off amen you put your teeth in your pocket man and you were you were ready you were ready but tonight i want to i want to take i want to speak about what it takes for an individual to be fit to fight see we've all been called to the to the battle everyone here has been called to the battle but determines of whether you are going to withstand is based on the fact if you are fit to fight and i want to bring out uh turn with me to the book of jude chapter 1 verse 3. only one chapter but i was looking and reading and under trying to figure out and understand on on because sometimes people say well you know why is there only one one book one chapter why was there you know he had nothing else to add but this book is important jude he's writing to the church and he starts it off by this he says beloved well i was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation i found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith well once for all delivered to the saints pray with me this evening heavenly father i thank you lord father for this evening father i pray lord that hearts are receptive father god that those that are viewing us tonight on life stream father that your hearts that you are preparing their hearts lord to receive father god as the body of christ lord god that you are encouraging us enlighting us lord god quickening in our minds father god to prepare us for what is ahead i pray this lord in your son's glorious name giving you the glory the honor and all the praise amen fit to fight fit to fight see at the last spoke about being the prospect and the one who shows the promise and the training that they endure and all the hard work that puts them it's all this hard work that elevates them to the next step and that is to be a contender that is the goal of anyone who is a serious any athlete who has a serious passion to fulfill their dreams and their goals of becoming a champion of to becoming the greatest it it all evolves around the fact that if they are fit fit not only spiritually but mentally and physically mind body and soul see the contender's status is that judah's speaking of here is to contend in the faith to be a fighter in the faith and when you read this chapter with judas speaking of he says there are some that have come into the church there are some who have come into the church and they're spreading deceit they're spreading falseness and so he's preparing them and encouraging me says look i wanted to write to you and share with you on the common faith that we share but i found it necessary to encourage you to fight for the faith there's a few areas tonight that i want to bring out the first one it's going to be fit mentally mentally tough mentally tough see being strong mentally is one of the keys to staying in the fight you and i i can testify that a large part of the battle that will take place in your spiritual walk is going to be in the mind it's going to be in the mind you know we come to the lord we we we come with a lot of hurt we come with a lot of issues in our life and and we come to god and we find that rest that that we hear so much about and then where we have that moment where you know what god just gives us a moment where he says you know what i i want to settle your spirit i want you to come and i want you to just feel this and experience the love only to prepare you for what's ahead and oftentimes it's at that point where we're either going to fight or we're going to flight we're either going to say you know what god if if this is what's what i have to to look forward to i want you to prepare me and that's where discipleship comes in where we say you know what lord i want to come under someone's leadership so they could teach me they could direct me in in how to fight this fight of faith so we're contenders say contenders not pretenders to be mentally tough we're all familiar with the term uh that that was coined by by kobe bryant the mamba mentality and when they question him he says you know what he says at some point in my career he says i got tired of always coming up short so i pushed myself i strengthened myself i i knew that that part of the huge part of the game was is that i needed to be mentally strong and then he goes on to say this he says if you ever see me in a fight with the bear pray for the bear because he was developing a mental sharpness a mental toughness that was gonna just engulf him and just be be a huge part of his life where he was able to achieve the goals that he said in first peter chapter 1 verse 13 it says so then prepare your hearts and your minds for action it says stay alert and fix your hope firmly on the marvelous grace that is coming to you for when jesus christ is unveiled a greater measure of grace will be released to you i like what the king james bible says it says wherefore gird up the loins of your mind and be sober meaning wash out the old mentality and fill your mind with godliness how many know that before we came to christ a lot of the issues that we had were mentally we were told things as as we as children growing up you would never amount to anything you will never go beyond what this family did this is our destiny man we have we have a whole line of i mean you know there there there's poverty there's there's uh there's drunkenness there's there's drug addictions there's all these things in in as children often times these things set into our mind and we think that's all we have to look forward to that we're going to continue to carry the legacy but how many know that when you come to jesus that curse is broken when you come to jesus god shatters all those things and you're set on a new destiny i love the fact when you look at individuals here and then you come in with your children and your children never knew the lifestyle that you lived all they know is they see grandpa they see grandma they see dad and they say man you know my mom my mom my dad they serve god that's all they see and what a blessing that when you're able as a parent as a grandparent to instill that legacy into your children but he says here to prepare your hearts and your minds for action see living for god it's a fast pace i mean thank god for the moments where you have some rest some of you are just coming out of a battle some of you are ready to go into a battle some of you have yet to face your first battle and this series is i believe is greater than the fact is because it is going to encourage us that have been in the lord for a few years it is going to encourage those who who have yet to step into the faith and it's going to encourage us in in its design so that we're the the word of god can steer us up the word of god can encourage us to say you know what we have a fight ahead of us see no longer like like it's been said several through the several messages no longer is the enemy visual the enemy is on scene the enemy is before us it comes in different forms the assignment of the enemy is to destroy you and to kill you until we get that into our mindset where we say you know what my my enemy is not my neighbor my enemy is not my brother my sister it is not my my relatives my enemy is unseen he is a thief amen how many know thieves thievery so we know what's involved so our minds must be prepared as long as our as well as our hearts see why the heart and the mind why the heart and the mind why that combo proverbs 23 7 says as for he thinks in his heart so is he as he thinks in his heart so see everyone at one point or another will struggle with stinky thinking where you have those with those moments man where you just start convincing yourself how many of here have ever talked yourself out of a blessing it's so true it's happened to me many times and as i walk away i said man that was the lord and i missed it i missed it but we all have those moments where we you know with the thought process because the thought comes to the mind as is as it starts in the heart philippians 4 8 turn there with me how many are with me so far philippians 4 8 you have to say i'm there and it reads this and it says now dear brothers and sisters find things fix your thoughts on what is true honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise see we come from a background where we didn't have that growing up we always saw the bad we always saw the the bad outcome the we always saw the after effect but here paul in his letters to the philippians he's telling them look whatever is pure think on that see there's times where you have to encourage yourself you have to wash your mind out with the word of god you have to wash your mind out with the worship and so there are times where you have to speak to yourself how many here have ever been caught speaking to yourself amen it's okay if they think you're crazy they thought you were crazy before you got saved so you speak to yourself man i i i count how many times i got caught speaking to myself and i just look at the person and try to act like you're on the phone you know but i just constantly have to say no anthony man don't no god has no that's not what god says nope that's a lie that's a lie and just just shoot it out of your head shoot it out of your mind the devil will throw darts at you he will he will shoot darts and all these all these wicked things will come to you i say this to people look if you have dreams don't repeat them bad dreams don't give the enemy any glory on how he got into your head rebuke it you wake up in the middle of night rebuke it open up your bible and say you know what my word says this devil you have no authority get out of my house get out of my room get out of my mind get on get out get out you know i hear this often times where people try to share their dreams and to find out whose is more scarier we live in a society that loves horror that loves to be scared scared me some more the devil's no joke the devil will give you dreams and bad dreams and then when you repeat them guess what they come back now you dwell on them now you're thinking on that you know what you just what you need to do is get some anointing oil and anoint your house go around your house and anoint your doorposts anoint your children at night do all these things to set the environment in your house and you say you know what devil we're gonna fight you two nail in this house we're going to serve the lord i'm going to teach my children what to do they're not going to have any fear any doubts and then you instill this into them and into their hearts and into their young mind they're very impressionable last week pastor daniel spoke on being dressed to impress he spoke with the armies of god and the interesting thing about in first samuel is is when saul the general of the army of god and all those that were geared up to fight that day david was given a task by his father he says look take these quesadillas to your brothers go up and feed them he left what he was doing he didn't know he was gonna what he was stepping into he just knew that his brothers now david had six brothers all of them were proven warriors you remember when when the prophet goes before jesse and he says show me your sons he first sees now ilia must have been a very tall warrior looking a fit man i mean he was amazing to the point where when the prophet seen him he said surely this is the man of god that god has anointed and then there was abinadan and there was shaman nathaniel radiyan knows him all these brothers were on the battlefield that day i believe dressed to fight but not one of them took up a sword because they heard goliath they heard goliath shouting out to them getting into their head see the the mentality on the battlefield is that if the enemy could get into your head he could throw you off track if he could get you to think otherwise if he could get you to question god he defeats you and see that's the whole process of being fit for the fight when you see a boxer i was listening to two of them being interviewed and he says 90 of the fight is mental where one fighter is trying to get into the head of the other fighter where he's telling him i'm going to knock you out in the sixth round i mean even predicting what he's going to do i'm going to hurt you i'm going to come at you stronger and stronger and the in the other fighter saying you know what i can't let him get into my head i can't let him change my thought process of what the goal that i have ahead and so here you see the army of god just paralyzed with fear some of you here have been called to do great things and god has says you look at i want you to take that step of faith but the devil has lied to you and you have fallen for it oh you'll never preach how could you even desire to preach when you didn't even finish high school you could barely write your name and you're going to preach and he starts to bring all this to you and you start to believe it and you think you look it i'll just be i'll just sit in the house of god and i'll be silent but as you step out in faith and say you know what god i know i can't read i know i can't do all those things but i'm going to take a step of faith because if you called me you're going to equip me if you called me it's your anointing that i'm going to go under see it's those individuals who are dangerous to the kingdom of darkness people who have a mindset where you say you know what i'm not going to let the devil destroy i'm not going to let the devil come in and cause havoc and cause division within my family i'm going to take a stand it's going to take individuals who want to fight in the spirit see if it was in the flesh you would know how to deal with it am i right if you see if you knew the foe that was before you you would know how to handle it but see that's the thing it doesn't matter if you're six foot five three eighty the enemy don't care how big you are you need to keep your eyes on jesus and you say you know what lord if you give me the power that your word says you have i can fight these enemies i will take it to prayer see prayer is the greatest weapon that you have prayer is the greatest weapon i don't care if you're four foot nothing if you got the power of prayer in you you could move mountains you could make things happen you could pray people into the kingdom of god these were all proven warriors in the army of israel but on that day on that battlefield goliath got into their head he got into their head see the assignments that the enemy has is to get into your head and to trip you up few things he wants you to question god question god why this why that is it true question your call am i really called there was times in my life man where i just felt like i did i called myself i i'm not called to preach i can't i can't put this together i could do other things that i've been trained to do but i can't do this god it's hard and you question your salvation did you really save me god did i really feel what i felt that day was it me or was it just my emotions did did i was it the song that got to me that that touched me what was it god did did you really save me and the enemy will will just put that on your mind and and it weighs on you and then you come in defeated because there are moments where we don't feel saved how many have ever had that moment where it wasn't so pleasant you did you you you tripped up you you said the wrong thing at the wrong time and you couldn't take it back it's like it's like a bell once it rings it's you you can't stop it it's still wrong the devil tells you man you messed up why you didn't bother how many times you have to fail before you get it stupid that they don't want you and we hear that voice and we we say to ourselves and we question it surely you will not die those were the words that were told to eve and he got her into her mind where he got her to question god in second corinthians chapter 11 verse 3 it says but i am afraid that just as eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning your mind may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to christ see the enemy's slick i mean if you're looking for a horned pitchfork nasty goatee red in the face if you're looking for that individual you ain't going to find him he's going to come to you as the angel of light he's going to come to you in a smooth way so be careful see sin takes place in your mind first as thoughts before we ever carry them out the mind the thoughts and you start to think on it see an individual that's not fit for the fight and they're not in prayer their mind's going to wander it's going to wander and then the thoughts come in and you start to dwell on them thoughts one person said this it says thoughts are forerunners to your beliefs watch your thoughts they become your words watch your words they become your actions watch your actions they become your habits and watch your habits they become your character and watch your character because it will become your destiny see if we're not girding up the loins of our mind if we're not filling our mind with the word of god our mind is open you ever feel that weakness and you feel like you're dragging it's because you're not connected you're losing the fitness you could you you could look good on the outside we we we all know christianity we all know the lingo how you doing brother praise the lord thank you jesus hallelujah we know that but when we are not feeling it and i'm not saying that we go by our feelings but when a person is disconnected it's evident it's evident where we say you know what i i i i i don't need prayer today i'm just i'm so busy i got so many things going on in my day man i got to pick up the kids take them to soccer practice i got to go to costco i got to do all these things and we don't make time for god and then we wonder why we're losing strength see i mean we'll we'll freak out if you're on two cells on your on your phone you'll freak out you ever see people when they forget their phone or they think they lost it that look in their eye they're like like you lost your kid you know your kick will be wandering off on the other side of costco and you don't even care but you don't know where you left your phone so battles are won or lost in the mind which brings me to the physically and the spiritually mind body and soul galatians chapter 5 verse 16 turn with me there please galatians 5 16 reads this it says i say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh see a contender is not content with mediocrity champions they're not they're not content with just the simple they're always looking for ways to get better you're always looking for a way to improve it should be to know what i want to grow it don't matter if you've been saved five years ten years three months it don't matter we should all have the desire to say you know what god i want more of you i want to draw closer to you i want a greater relationship with you i love when i meet an individual who's been serving the lord for many many many years and they still have that zeal and that excitement when god speaks to them i want to share a scripture what god had showed me today and you think to yourself man that person is connected that person has purpose in their heart that i'm going to serve the lord that i'm going to make god a big part of my life see the the problem with a lot of a lot of individuals in this day and ages is where god is an option god is an option church is something you do unless you have something else better to do every football season we go through this i can't be there brother because my team plays at 10 o'clock i can't be there because you know i'm gonna do this we we have all this energy to do all the things that we like to do man if if they say you know there's a party in cucamonga man you're ready you'll pick up people you'll you'll go way out of your way for yourself but when it comes to the things of god we say oh man it's such a drag i don't want to pick up those kids they're always touching my windows you know so a contender is not content with mediocracy they have they they have what i what i spoke about a a while back on being god bent determined remember when we said we broke down the the definition of hal bent which is a person who is determined and i said you know what i'm going to call it god bent that's an individual who says you know what i don't care what happens i don't care what's going on all around me i'm determined in my mind and in my heart that i'm going to serve god i'm going to stand for god at the workplace at school wherever he's i'm not going to be ashamed of the gospel i'm going to i'm going to make that stand it's when you make that stand that the enemy starts to oppose you do nothing he'll leave you alone he'll say man go ahead you're no threat to the kingdom of darkness you're no threat at all but when you start to make that stand when you start to open your mouth and speak the gospel that's when the enemy starts to rise up that's when neighbors start to look at you cross-sided that's when people start to say oh you're one of those yes i'm one of those they did a poll and the percentages of people who believe in god we're in the high 90s percent but when you broke that down it's like i believe in god but i don't have a full understanding i don't i don't know god see there's a there's something very powerful when you establish that relationship with god see before i came to christ i didn't know any of that i knew religion i knew i knew all the all the things to say the prayers to say all the you know all the things to do that i felt i needed to do but when somebody told me a simple message where they said you know what all you got to do is ask jesus into your heart ask him to forgive you and make him the lord of your life it was on that day where god started to open my eyes to things see i came to church for the wrong reason but i left saved when i came to church it was you know back in back in the day you know pastor reuben had a had a uh uh uh everyone you man if you want to find a wife man you got to go to church that's where you you know you ain't gonna find her at the bar or over here at you know friday night swap meet you got to go to church but i went there with with the wrong intentions and man god touched my heart i got saved and i wanted to come back i wanted to find out more about jesus i wanted to find out more about what god had in store for my life so we contend we contend see paul said this in first corinthians chapter 9 verse 26 he says therefore i do not run like someone running aimlessly i do not fight like a boxer beating the air i do not fight like a boxer who is swinging wildly remember how some of you used to fight swing wild just swing you're going to hit something paul says look i'm not going to waste my time like that and the christian when you say look i'm a contender in the faith i'm not going to waste my time you know trying to compromise i'm not going to waste my time trying to serve god on my own terms trying to serve god in the way that i think i could i want to serve god the way he wants me to serve him he says i'm not going to beat the heir he says i'm content i'm going to stay focused and i'm going to stay disciplined see discipline is one of the hardest words to swallow for us because we don't like it we have a bad thought of it you hear the word discipline and what do we think correction how many here come from a background where you needed some discipline you needed correction you needed guidance some of you needed to be spanked a little bit more than other people see we live in a society now that don't want to do that you don't want to hurt hunters feelings you don't want to you don't want to offend them you're going to miss with their with their their uh image or you know all these things so when we look at that we we you know the the church the church is called to preach the truth the church is called to minister to people and reach out to people and we're living in a society where they don't want to say the truth because the truth offends the truth disrupts things the the the truth ruffles your feathers and it causes you to fidget in your chair and you when you hear these things coming across the pulpit god is dealing with you in the holy spirit's telling you to get those things in order if you're a soldier be a soldier if you're a contender be a contender if you're a fighter be a fighter in the kingdom of god but make your decision i'm going to serve god today i'm going to make a stand you have to determine in your mind that i'm no longer the prospect i'm going to contend i'm going to be the contender that god has called me to be see you got someone the greatest of all time in your corner directing you you got the holy spirit that's saying you know it i am going to encourage you look if you're going to go in the fight the the greatest thing that you could have is the direction and instruction of somebody great and who greater than jesus christ who greater than the king of kings in the lord of lords the one who defeated death the one who defeated the enemy [Applause] so you say to yourself i will make the necessary changes that the holy spirit is bringing to my attention see when god brings it to you it's irrefutable if i tell you to do something and you do it and it doesn't work well you told me to do it i didn't want to do it but when the holy spirit tells you to do something it's irrefutable god's dealing with you god's tugging at you guys saying look man get it right get it right you want peace walk upright stop playing games stop stop making excuses making excuses if i could sit here and give you all the excuses on why i failed at something but at the end of the day it's still on me isaiah 26 3 resistance you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you see when we have our mind on jesus when we we're fixed on on the cross and we say you know what devil yeah it's it's a fight it's a fight i'm not gonna lie it's a fight but i'm not giving up i'm not giving up i'm gonna wrap my hands i'm ready i'm ready i'm gonna get on my knees and i'm gonna stay there till i hear from god i'm gonna pray when it's not it's not a good time to prayer the devil will always tell you oh it's too hot it's too cold the floor is too hard there's too much noise all these all these reasons on why to prolong it the lord says look focus get mentally fit physically and spiritually build up that inner man build it up first thessalonians 5 23 it says this and in in the very god of peace sanctify you holy and i pray god your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the lord jesus christ so the question tonight are you fit for the fight are you prepared like i mentioned some of you have come out of the battle some of you are about to enter into a battle and some of you yet to experience that hey stay on cloud nine as long as you could amen it's good it's good but when you land land on your feet land on your feet i like that that that picture someone sent me it was a picture of an individual man praying on his knees actually and he said the devil thought he defeated me until he said until he heard me say in jesus name amen see tonight we're all in this fight soldiers we are dressed for battle you could be mentally struggling you could be swinging at nothing and getting nowhere or maybe you say you know what anthony i just need straight strength to get to the next level i've been a prospect for a while and then god is calling me to be a contender god is calling me to do more things into the kingdom of god tonight maybe you you have yet to make that decision to give your life over to jesus and say you know what i i need to serve the lord his way i come to church with my parents i come to church with my grandmother my husband my wife for whatever reason you come but you've yet to make that full decision to surrender your heart over to god if that's you here tonight i i'm not going to ask you to raise your hand i'm just going to ask you to come forward and pray as we all stand hallelujah hallelujah as people are coming hallelujah maybe you're watching us tonight on the live stream and you say you know what it it's been a battle i'm not going to lie i'm not where i want to be but i i know i need to get stronger in the lord i'm i'm struggling in my mind i'm i'm struggling in my spirit and the first attack the enemy through my way i folded but i feel a strong urge to get stronger in god if that's your i'm going to say a prayer tonight maybe you walked away from god i'm going to say this prayer and if that's you say it in your heart or you could say it right there in your seat say heavenly father i come to you as a sinner i believe that you died on the cross and that you rose from the dead and tonight i make a commitment at this altar before you these people to surrender my heart over to you that you be my lord and my savior in jesus name amen amen hallelujah thank you jesus amen if that's you on watching on facebook on youtube let us know hit that link and let us know that you you made a commitment to christ tonight i want to open up these altars i believe that this series has has stirred up the inner person inside of you and that god throughout these series that god has challenged you to make greater commitments to prayer greater commitment to service if that's you here tonight i want you to step out of your seat as the worship team plays we want to pray with you [Music] victory [Music] [Music] history [Music] the darkness [Music] my god will never [Music] a victory victory [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] three [Music] victory [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] memory [Music] you turn it forward [Music] and you turn it forward and you [Music] foreign victory [Music] history [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] belongs to you [Music] belongs to [Music] we're gonna go ahead and uh [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] [Music] he has [Applause] i will not die [Applause] [Music] in jesus name [Music] oh [Music] jesus here and i will not die jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] god [Applause] [Music] in the name of [Music] shout it jesus and shout it out god is fighting for us pushing back to darkness [Music] [Music] that cannot be [Music] i will not die i that cannot be shaken in the name of jesus jesus and we will shout it out [Music] [Music] in the name of jesus [Music] you

Channel: Living Word Christian Center

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Id: 0Vg8DjpMwjM

Length: 118min 30sec (7110 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 17 2021