Kento Mori - Unfinished Wells | Church ONLINE

[Music] [Music] me [Music] uh [Music] why do we begin to stand up put our hands up and begin to clap our hands to the lord thank you cheers [Music] [Music] hallelujah is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] he has already i every last one [Music] forever [Music] oh [Music] is our god has overcome in jesus has name forever oh [Music] thank you jesus we thank you jesus because we know lord that when you walk into the room jesus everything changes lord we love you jesus we need you god and we honor who you are lord thank you [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] everything changes and [Music] you darkness into the room and every heart starts burning and nothing matters more than just [Music] [Music] is the room [Music] oh yes [Music] [Music] love you is is is oh you will never die foreign is is i love you is [Music] is we love you we love you [Music] is [Music] [Music] and all is is for you all this is for jesus thank you jesus thank you lord we honor you jesus let me give it all back to you lord thank you jesus in psalm 139 and verse 14. the bible says that you are fearfully and wonderfully made and in jeremiah 1 and 5 the bible says this is god speaking he calls you and he calls you by name to be a prophet unto all the nations before you were even born it's different to hear what the word of the lord has to say about you versus what the enemy says isn't it but i'm here to remind you today that no matter your failures no matter your mistakes no matter your past god is here today and he never changes he's the same yesterday today and forevermore and i'm here to declare to you today that your past is over the lord is here and he is proclaiming these words to you today so all across this room why don't we begin to lift up our hands and declare the word of the lord of our life oh jesus thank you god i know jesus no matter what happens god i know jesus that i'm in your hands lord there is a promise [Music] silence [Music] in the making [Music] is [Music] i know your purpose is unchanging the kingdom will not be shaken [Music] is is is is you jesus is is is [Music] me [Music] [Music] you're my peace it's your love it never lets me go you have spoken and i know cause you have spoken your word and i know that it is the lord ever spoken something to you has he ever given you a promise we got a whole book full of promises in fact i was talking with pastor mike and pastor hoffman in our halftime room i said what in the world can you trust these days you can't trust the news you can't trust social media you can't trust what you're getting told the only thing that is concrete the only thing that is absolute that is immovable that is unwavering is the word of god for jesus taught in matthew heaven and earth will pass away but my words shall never pass away so find comfort in knowing that the word of god says he'll never leave you he'll never forsake you that you can do all things through christ which strengthens you that you are more than conquerors that the prayer of faith shall save the sick that by his stripes you are healed that's the word of the lord and it never changes so with that in mind one of our values here at first church is prayer is our anchor and so we want to go before the god of that word because he said he is the word so let's go to him and and call out the word of god in faith that he will meet and touch every situation god today we are so thankful for the word lord god that is absolute in our life lord there are people lord on the screen behind me and represented in front of me i don't know every situation i don't know every need god i don't know what keeps them up at night but lord you know all things god you are strong when we are weak so mighty god lord i stand against every illness i stand against in the name of jesus every disease every ounce of pain every bit of depression or stress or anxiety god that would plague your people that would plague our area dear jesus i pray for every relationship god i pray over that that it would get mended and restored lord in the name of jesus that your love would be felt right now god that your peace would be felt right now dear god you are calling to somebody right now so lord jesus for every situation i'm asking you to intervene i'm asking you humbly god to move and to act god for only you can do these things if we could do it ourselves we'd have done it by now that's why we come to you we enjoin our faith to the word of god knowing that faith is the connecting rod between your ability and your provision dear jesus we believe it in faith today as we celebrate your word in jesus name hallelujah oh what an honor it is what an honor it is to pray to the almighty god oh as you make your way back to your seats if you are a guest with us today we want to go ahead and put our hands together real loud for you thank you so much for being with us and for all of our members and guests joining us online thank you so much for being with us and uh we have something here at first church we call a connect card and if you're a guest with us here in the house today uh our connect card is found in our lobby if you are a guest with us online you can find our connect card on our website first church sterling heights dot com we want to connect with you and if you have a question or maybe you have something you'd like us to pray over whatever the case may be you want to get involved find out more about who we are as a church you can do that through our connect card just fill that out and and somebody from our staff will reach out to you this coming week uh how's everybody's life semester life group semester going it's going good it's going good we do life groups here at first church which is just our our what we call our small groups all over through this community we believe in living life together that church shouldn't just be where you go church is who you are and we live life together and we strengthen one another so you'll you'll sign up for a life group you'll build friendships you'll grow spiritually together and uh you'll find out that you have a whole lot of close friends coming out of your life group and uh it broad brings us all together and when we get closer together we become more unified and when we become more unified that's when we become more powerful and so join up for a life group you can do that also on our website if you're interested in serving around here you can go ahead and join a serve team such a powerful thing that we do here at first church that we have something we call growth track growth track is just our classes that we do to get involved around here because we believe that everybody has a god-given purpose and a god-given gifting to use for the kingdom of god so if you want to get connected and join up on a serve team you could do that through growth track happens on the first and the second sundays of every month so make sure you graduate growth track we'll get you connected to whatever serve team you want to be on it'll be incredible you'll be a part of what we're doing here at first church in sterling heights uh what do i say about monday night prayer it's just incredible it's not that i don't really know what to say but it's i said it last week i'm running out of things adjectives to describe it it's powerful it's an incredible thing that we gather together corporately every monday night you know we know that god is no respecter of persons but he honors commitment he honors faithfulness and he honors character and so we've been at this thing on monday nights for years and years and years and something has broke and we're never going to let it get put back together the way it was so tomorrow night special announcement we have with us through online brother jeff arnold will be speaking to us they they must not know jeff arnold man oh man brother jeff arnold is an incredible incredible anointed man of god i promise you he will have something so incredibly powerful to say to us so make sure that you come here tomorrow monday night seven o'clock it'll be incredible incredible night of prayer i also need to make mention um just a note that we are going to be having a business meeting for any of the tithe paying members of the church uh that would be february eighth at six o'clock so if you're interested in coming to that uh pastor's always been an open book regarding finances and what gets spent when it gets spent where it gets spent and uh we're thankful and i'm blessed to have that type of transparency and pastor hoffman but if you're a tithe paying member feel free to join that meeting and uh you can figure out anything that you may have questions for and again that is february 8th at 6 00 pm and so now i just like to go ahead and set an expectation hasn't this service been incredible already it's just been incredible and so with that being said the expectation uh pastor kento who is our youth pastor and his wife sister bianca he is speaking today he's got an incredible message an incredible message for us all so uh look forward to that but before that happens we're gonna go ahead and return a tithing and an offering unto the lord one of our values is that we live modestly to give radically i love that word radically when i think a radical i think the book of acts disciples i think of the apostle paul just radical and and so that's our that's our vision and that's our goal is to to impact our community in a radical way and so just know that you do that and this leadership team under pastor hoffman everything gets spent wisely and it gets spent reinvested into the kingdom of god and so give with confidence today also there will be a time of of prayer around the altar at the end of this service we're asking that you just come with your masks up and your hearts open expecting god he'll meet you down here i will guarantee and promise you if you come expecting to have an encounter with god he will meet you here and he can change your life in a moment in a moment so be open to that at the end of the service i'm going to go ahead and pray over our offering and at the conclusion of that there will be a three-minute time of connection on the screen behind me so just if you're comfortable get out of your pews get out of your seat try to find somebody you may not know just maintaining social distance and contact but keep your mass on and greet somebody that you may not know lord was so grateful what an honor to be in your presence lord to be among your people lord jesus to be taught your word how did we get so fortunate lord to be able to to feast in such an atmosphere as this we are grateful today mighty god to return unto you what you said belong to you god we do it now joyfully we do it freely no one's forcing us into this god we choose this and we choose you all over again today i ask that you put your favor upon it i ask that you would multiply it let it grow let it thrive and reach and impact the soul god that one day i will meet around your throne realm dear god we trust in you in jesus name [Music] amen [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] on behalf of our family thank you for all of the help that you have provided with this transition with my mother and my dad and uh you are incredible people and uh boy we got a lot of work done in a very short amount of time and you made that possible and i know my wife is grateful and i know my mom is a very very grateful [Music] 1981 renee and i were privileged to go to okinawa and it changed our lives and the very first convert when we were there was a tiny little japanese girl named mina okudada and her testimony is epic and i don't have time to even begin to tell you how amazing it was nina didn't speak in english or japanese for three days she just it was an amazing baptism [Music] 1991 10 years later renee and i met a japanese boy who was teaching sunday school in a korean methodist church they bought our old building they asked me to speak at their dedication afterward was a dinner i was sitting by this guy and i said you're not korean you're japanese yes i said ar you're methodist he said no i'm not a christian i said so what are you what are you doing here he said i teach sunday school here i said okay so we're in a korean methodist church you're japanese and you're not a christian but you're teaching sunday school he said yes i live in the apartment next to their church they knocked on my door and said we need teachers for our young people would you teach sunday school class and he said i'm not christian and they said well you can read the book can't you and he said yes so he was teaching sunday school and i said would you like to learn some more about the bible so you could be a better sunday school teacher and he said yes and that's where it started and renee and i taught maquito for a couple months and then bob and brenda thankfully took him off of our hands because boy could he eat wow and he just about cleaned bob and brenda out for 10 months i think but and then they fell in love and have blessed this church i could have never ever imagined that when i dedicated that little boy all those years ago he would be where he is now it is with the deepest of gratitude and the highest of respect for his family and now for quinto i want to bring to you the youth pastor of this wonderful church brother kento [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] mori i want to thank everybody for coming today is going to be an amazing amazing day it already has been but i believe god has even better in store for us and so before we get any further along i just want to thank everybody who's watching online thank you guys so much for coming i know uh some couldn't make it out because of the weather but we're just so happy that you're watching us and before i get any further i think it's only appropriate for us to put our hands together for all the students that made this sunday possible [Music] [Applause] oh yeah [Music] in case you don't know uh we have our young people running the fit team the the guests the uh the production the halftime room the in-between stuff the music the band everything and so if you if you run across somebody rocking their fcy shirt make sure you tell them good job because they're doing awesome i'd like to give honor to my to my wife of course who deals with me on a day-to-day basis my pastor my parents and i want to shout out to our youth team that makes everything that we do as a youth program possible in and out every single week just serving serving serving underneath the radar but there's a lot of people that make what we do possible and to get started i'm going to read from genesis 26 and 18 if you could stand with me just to honor the bible here honor the word of god and it says and isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of abraham his father which the philistines had stopped after the death of abraham and he gave them the same names that his father had given them thank you for standing you can take a seat nice and quick uh when bianca and i first took over i wanted to kind of understand the mind of a young person and so one of the first studies that i really did and i didn't go super super deep because i got everything i needed in a moment i wanted to know the attention span of a teenager and uh a study showed that in the year 2000 this is 20 years ago the attention stan attention span of a young person is 12 seconds and so i wanted to know what's happening today and so today in 2020 the attention span of a young person has dropped down to eight seconds and uh you know little fun fact for everybody that's one second less than a goldfish so hey we're gonna make it through and since i've already taken up about a minute i think that's what i'm yeah it's about to be over [Laughter] so if i go quickly it's just because i'm used to running youth services and stuff like that and before i get further let's just pray for a moment okay in the name of jesus i thank you god for this moment and i thank you in jesus name for what this moment means in eternity's sake i'm asking you god to open up our hearts and open up our minds and let us receive everything that you have intended for us and god i pray that in this moment your name be glorified your church edified and the devil absolutely terrified in jesus name amen amen i was telling the 915 service that about a year and a half to two years ago when we did our very first youth run sunday i was in way over my head i remember i was so focused on making sure the greeters were all set the music production and i was also speaking for the first time in front of this in front of my church and i was just nervous as all get out and i remember i did everything right except for one thing and i came up here to speak just like this and my throat starts to dry up and i know that it's because of nerves and lighting and i reach down to the glass of water to take a sip and all i see is i see someone's trying to play a joke on me all i see is this big hairy fly just floating around the top just like this one right there as dead as that one and i knew that it's been marinating that water for the past seven days and i had about a quarter of a second to decide whether i'm just gonna pull it and hey we're all good man we're here we're here there it is protein you see as i as i look at my life and where my walk with god actually began and i try to see these patterns and these things that i'm going through noticed personally for me is that i see myself praying the same exact prayers you see i don't know about you but i know for me i'm fighting the same battles or at least similar battles that i fought from the very get-go trying to climb higher and higher fighting the same internal and external spiritual battles and it's like it's not going as quickly as i wanted to go i'm not moving forward as quickly as i want to move and i'm not talking about praying without action you see i believe that far too many christians pray and ask god to build him a table as they sit underneath the tree that he grew for them in the first place god gives you the tools and the opportunities to build the things that you can build yourself i'm talking about prayers that only god can answer doors only god can open and battles only god can fight on my behalf and you see it's easy for me to get exhausted in these moments praying the same prayers fighting the same battles and i begin to feel like paul in second corinthians when he's pleading with god to take this thorn out of his side pleading praying praying praying and finally god answers him and says no and the hardest part about that scripture is how paul responds immediately he says and i rejoice because of it i'm glad because of it because it's keeping me grounded it's keeping me in a place of humility and brokenness before god you see when bianca and i first took over this youth we quickly learned that we're no longer in youth ministry we're actually in family ministry now you see a young person can impact a household in incredible ways as the household can also impact a young person i've had so many conversations so many conversations with parents grandparents young people students talking about their siblings grandparents talking about their grandkids parents talking about their children in deep concern for their salvation i would have them come up to me and ask me hey can you just pray with me i need you to pray for my grandson i need you to pray for my son my daughter you know that they're not doing well i need you to pray with me in this moment and when we talk about these things there is such a deep rooted pain behind it and i can feel it because i know i have stories of my own i have prayers of my own that i'm still fighting through i still have people that i'm praying for right now and that'll never stop and as a youth pastor to watch a young person who used to beat me to the altars challenge me to the prayer rooms and worship harder than i ever have watching that young person walk away watching people like that leave the only thing that ever sustained them is one of the hardest things to watch but it happens and it happens we went through the retention rates here at first church because i wanted to know how many and why i wanted to know why a young person would leave the church leave a relationship with god so for the last 10 years i wrote down every single name of every single person that graduated over the last 10 years and i put down every possible reason why were they hurt by the church were they offended by somebody were they baptized filled with the spirit what were the reasons why would somebody walk away from this great thing that i found and the most common similarity the strongest correlation i found for why a young person would stay or go is whether their parents stay or go you see if you're a parent hear me you have a direct and powerful impact on your children's walk with god the way you walk they also walk they'll start where you finish they'll follow in your footsteps now i know personally i grew up you see i grew up in a household of prayer my parents prayed i i i would come home and i'd hear my mom praying i know what that sounds like and i know what it feels like to live in that kind of house and yet i still walked away from the presence of god so i know it's on the individual to decide whether this is for them or not but to say that there are no external influences that's a foolish statement to make you know i did another study on on youth workers and and a young person and who actually has influence on a young person's life the top two people mother and father this guy the youth pastor i'm down at number seven so i know exactly how empower how powerful it is and trust me i'm not bitter at all okay i'm good we're good and one of the strongest correlations i find between a parent and a child father and son as i walk through the scripture is this relationship between abraham and his son isaac when you walk through genesis and you watch the life of abraham and then you follow up and watch isaac you begin to see that step by step moment by moment both abraham and isaac are dealing with the same things just in two different times abraham and isaac both face the hardship of famine the wondering on how i'm going to feed my children in my household they both prayed for their barren wives who god had to reach down and miraculously touch they both lied about their wives being their sisters to a king named abimelech in a land called gerar in fact my assumption is that the abemelet king that abraham lied to is actually the father of the abimelech that his son isaac also lied to and finally the last similarity that i could find between these two is that they both dug wells as i was praying about this message and i was trying to come up with the title and all that fun stuff i was really close on calling this prayers of the prodigal you see i don't know many other churches this is the only church i've ever been raised in this is the only church i truly know but i'm sure many other places go through the same pain i remember as a child i would come to church prayer nights i would come to church on sundays and i would hear these parents crying out for their kids i remember overhearing conversations between adults asking one another pray for my child he's walking away pray for my daughter she's leaving this thing and i remember overhearing these things over and over and over but i just want to make sure that there is no doubt in anybody's mind here today that a person a son a daughter or mother father whoever it is who's not walking with god absolutely knows how to pray because when push comes to shove and i'm not saying that these prodigals are waking up every morning glorifying god with their words i'm not saying that they're interceding on someone's behalf what i'm saying is when they when that when a rock meets a hard place and when push comes to shove when desperation meets hopelessness every single person knows how to pray it's instinctual for the creation to cry out to the creator when there's nothing left to do we all know how to pray jesus name you see when there's somebody who is born and raised in a church like this i'm telling you they not only know what real prayer sounds like they know what it feels like they know what it feels like when the church begins to bind together in a state of worship and the ground begins to shake the spiritual ground begins to shake in this place and you cry and you don't even know why you're crying i'm telling you they know what that feels like you see abraham dug wells and he named them essex sitna reboth isaac re-dug the same wells and he gave them the same names but with his own stories attached to them essec means dispute sitna means opposition and rehab means room you see abraham went through his disputes abraham went through his oppositions and abraham finally came to a place where there's room and just like abraham his dad isaac went through his disputes he went through his oppositions and finally came to a place where he found room both father and son in sync one generation after another you see abraham was a wealthy man he was blessed by god he had money possession he had wealth he had land he had everything that you could possibly want but the greatest inheritance that when he died the greatest inheritance he left for his son isaac was not the money it wasn't the land it wasn't the possession it were these unfinished wells abraham dug wells and he left him to his son isaac you see it's a lifestyle of prayer it's years upon years making it into decades of fighting and pursuing a life after god it's testimonies after testimonies it's showing yourself holy and acceptable in the name of god that is an inheritance worth living for that's an inheritance worth leaving behind and it's when the next generation begins to pick up your shovels and start where you finished that's when it all comes in full circle you see as a youth pastor i get to watch young people i get to have these conversations with people and they would talk to me about these things that they're dealing with both internal extra all these all these battles and the hardest part is when i hear a young person talk to me and tell me that they're going through something i've already been through it's tough man because when they do i immediately feel the same weight that i felt when i was in their shoes i immediately feel that same burden the heaviness and my best solution is just keep praying i'm telling you i know it's hard now but keep praying keep digging these wells i'm telling you that there's water at the bottom of it i remember last week i had a young man text me and say why why am i dealing with this lust that i'm going through why and it was so hard to answer not because i don't have an answer but because i knew exactly what he was going through why because i asked god that same exact question so many times why and when we find ourselves asking why me praying the same prayers fighting the same battles facing the same hardship praying for that same individual years upon years of digging i'm telling you you're digging a testimony that'll help so many more people than you could possibly imagine to anybody in this room who thinks that they're digging in vain you're building a testimony you're building a legacy for somebody else's sake for somebody else to follow up and start digging where you ended i'm telling you it's worth it right now i know that it's hard and i know it feels like it's too heavy and you want to put it down keep that shovel in your hand and keep digging these wells for anybody who knows my family you know the testimonies that we've gone through and and my father in case you don't know hard-working man but lost his job so many times throughout our childhood so many times i remember years and years just fighting for a job a consistent job in it it wasn't his fault is because companies closing downsizing buyouts and everything else and i can't even tell you how many times my parents would sit us around the kitchen table to say hey dad's lost his job again and i know it's gonna be tight but we're going to keep on praying we're going to keep on fasting we're going to keep on we're going to keep on tithing i don't care how difficult it is we're going to make it through and i remember in those moments feeling fear inside of my chest i'm just a little but i don't know anything about money but i'm feeling fearful of what's going to happen next but to watch my father walk through that with a smile on his face without a without a hint of fear in his eyes there's something about that as a young boy i didn't think much of it you see when it was my turn right when it was my turn for the last for over six months out of the last 12 i didn't have a job when it was my turn to walk in my father's footsteps and what i've seen already before i began to convince myself that just like my dad before me there are bigger and better doors out there just like i've seen him do with my father's life he's gonna do it for mine i knew it inside of my chest there is no doubt about it you couldn't tell me god can't do that and you see as a child as a child i didn't understand what my parents were going through in moments like that i didn't understand i felt it now i felt the insecurity i felt the fear try to creep in i felt that hopelessness you see as a parent your children may will not understand what you're going through right now but there will come a time when they do and it's in that moment i try to put on the same exact face my father did as a child it didn't take long sitting around the dinner room table when my parents would start talking about their testimonies my mother started talking about where she came from and what god did for her it didn't take long and in fact it got pretty annoying for me as a kid like i already heard this i don't like we're good i don't want to pray right now i just want to eat you know mom just chill it was tough and i remember very few times but when my father started to talk about his testimony he would talk about where he came from the house that he grew up in was not a god-fearing house he would tell us that as a young man he would drink casually with his mother my grandma around their table he would go to bars with his work colleagues and he he knew nothing about what it meant to chase after a holy and righteous lifestyle but he would tell us that in the moment he decided to follow after jesus is the same moment he let go of everything in his life and just moved forward you see as a young man i was like ah that's that's crazy bro like i wasn't i didn't understand what that fully meant but when it was my turn living in sin shame turning my back towards god dependent on drugs and alcohol i remembered my father's testimony turning away and never looking back and i remember for years years and years of my life dependent on something i didn't want to be dependent on and for years i struggled until the day i remember the day i wrote it down it was august 5th 2015. i remember the moment the last night i came home still high but sober enough to know that i'm sick and tired of being sick and tired and i remember sitting on the edge of my bed and said the most simple prayer i could possibly muster out of my lips now i said god you've done it for my dad if you'll take this out of my heart if you take this desire out of me i'll never look back i knew i could pray that prayer because it's the same one that my father did before me and i knew i could walk in those footsteps because it's the same testimony that my dad laid out in front of me jesus name in jesus name you see there are people in this room right now walking out of sodom walking out of a past life walking out of sin and you already know the weight of those shackles you already know when you're walking out i want to talk about a couple things there's a way to go out and there's a way to be received you see god's very specific on how he'll respond to you and he's also very specific on how you need to come out of these things in the in the parable of the prodigal in luke 15 18-22 i want to read this real quick this is the son as he comes to himself he says i will set out and i'll go back to my father and i'll say to him father i've sinned against heaven and i've sinned against you and i am no longer worthy to be called your son make me like one of your hired servants and so he got up and he went to his father's house but while he was a long way off his father saw him and it was filled with compassion and he ran to his son put his arms around him and kissed him and the son said to his father father i have sinned against heaven and i've sinned against you and i'm no longer worthy to be called your son but but the father said to his servants quick run out grab the best robe put it on him put a ring on his finger sandals on his feet and get the fatted calf you see the second you take a step towards god he'll always meet you halfway he'll come running out to you he'll he'll find you before you can even come back home but what i want to get to is what the what the son intended to say to the father i'm gonna read it one more time it says father i have sinned against heaven and i have sinned against you i am no longer worthy to be called your son make me like one of your hired servants and when he actually went to his father before he could say and make me like one of your hired servants his father said quick grab the robe grab the ring get the fatted calf it's party time the fact is it's so important on our heart our heart what we actually want when we come back home are you willing to serve lower than where you left are you willing to be the servant when you were once the prince but i'm telling you when you have that in your heart when you have the heart of a servant god will always make you a prince he'll always bring you back to the place where you left off i'm telling you it's how you come back in it's important and as you leave this life of sin it's very specific on how you should walk out when it comes to sodom and the angels talking a lot how to leave sodom is specific in genesis 19 and 17 it says as soon as they brought them out one of them said flee for your lives don't look back and don't stop anywhere in the plane fleet of the mountains or you'll be swept away it's not good enough just to stop what you've been doing don't look back and don't stay in the planes you have to start climbing up you have to start building a prayer life you have to start these things because it says it so it says so in 24 and the lord rained down burning sulfur on sodom and gomorrah from the lord out of heavens thus he overthrew the cities and the entire plane go to the mountains it's not good enough just to stop you have to start climbing i'm sure abraham and isaac or i'm sorry abraham and his wife sarah would sit their son isaac around their dinner room table eating lentil soup and bread that's just a little too flat for my liking and i'm sure that they would start talking about their testimonies start talking about where they came from start talking about the things of god that they that they've walked through that they've dealt with that they fought through and i'm i i know it that they that they told isaac week in and week out you are a product of a testimony you're the product of years and years of praying you're a miracle child and i know isaac got annoyed by that like listen chill out mom chill okay and so when you walk through genesis for five chapters after god promised the child then finally isaac came to pass but abraham and isaac were already old by the time they received this promise which means for decades of marriage beforehand they had already been praying for a child so you have abraham and sarah praying years years digging moments praying digging digging digging but when it was isaac's turn the bible is very clear genesis 25 and 21 and as isaac prayed to the lord for his wife because she was barren the lord granted his prayer and rebecca conceived you see what took abraham years to get took isaac a prayer now i don't know exactly why personally i believe that god set abraham up for a testimony so real that he could pass it down to his son for his son's sake there's also the aspect and the perspective that isaac had so much more faith when he prayed that prayer because he was the product of that testimony but either way it was up to abraham to dig through those moments you see abraham wasn't the product of his father's testimony in that prayer but isaac was so when it was isaac's turn to pray that same prayer he can say god look at me i am this miracle i am alive and i know you'll do it again for my wife and me jesus name you see for anybody in this room who's getting weary and well doing weary and well digging keep digging those wells i know that you haven't reached the blessed waters at the bottom but if god gave you a promise i guarantee you that there's waters flowing down underneath you just have to keep on digging keep on digging there may be people in this room right now who's looking back at me and saying i don't have people to dig for i don't have anybody that i can leave a testimony behind for let me answer you by saying this look around look around there are people in this room i guarantee there are people in this room waiting for you i remember for three years the first three years of my adult life i was trapped trapped in sin trapped in shame and i sat in these pews but i wasn't here i was gone in my heart i was gone in my mind i wasn't here why because a prodigal son or daughter leaves far before their last church service there are people sitting in here right now gone but i remember every single sunday every single wednesday right back there harry hoffman would find me he'd put his arms around me and that elder would say i'm praying for you i've been praying for you and he would tell me that he believes in me and he says i know you're going to make it out every single sunday every single wednesday you see it wasn't the simple words alone that impacted my life it was the consistency of them you see it's so powerful when you believe in somebody who doesn't believe in themselves there's something really powerful there but the fact is you can't just plant a seed and walk away why because they're living in sin there's the soil is no good you have to keep on planting planting planting planting i don't know if this time is gonna work but i'm gonna come back next week and i hope and i pray that that time is gonna work and i'm gonna keep on telling him because i know that there's no hope there but maybe just maybe these words can breathe something into his life i'm telling you if you don't think that there's nothing to dig for look around there are people waiting for you to speak to them right now waiting waiting jesus name and when we don't dig these wells when we don't pray these prayers when we don't do what we know we should these whales become empty in jeremiah 38 jeremiah was thrown into an empty well your empty wells will become your prisons you will be reminded of the prayers that you should have prayed and the battles that you should have fought it will be a constant reminder until finally you pick up the shovel and you start where you should have started and you keep on digging you see there are prayers in this room right now their praise in this room right now that have been locked up and shoved to the back of the closet there are people in your heart right now that you stopped praying for why because you became burdened it's too heavy i can't keep praying this and not see anything come of it i can't keep saying these names over and over and over and feel that same pain over and over and over when i don't see god moving in their life don't let your heart wax cold to a state of indifference because of a lack of what you see is not moving i'm telling you there are things moving you don't know it i'm telling your prayers will rattle heaven and hell without you knowing it there are things moving you see when an earthquake take place you can't see it on the surface everything that happens is underneath an earthquake is caused when two tectonic plates begin to rub up against each other there's things moving that we don't even know and to say that god my prayers aren't doing anything that's blasphemy you see it was up to isaac to pick up the shovel and to dig where his dad left off but it was up to abraham to start digging in the first place man i wonder how many wells in this room we just stopped digging we stopped fighting you get overwhelmed you get burdened i can't be i've been facing this same issue for decades i'm never gonna get out this is just who i am the lies of the enemy if the music would come i'll close soon you see in the church like this we tend to assume that every single handshake and a smile means that everything's a-okay we send to assume that the ants are good to the question how are you doing is actually accurate we assume that everybody around us because they know how to put a smile on is actually doing okay but let me remind you how many times you came to the church completely broken but we're still able to fake it i'm telling you there are people besides you in front of you behind you dying on the inside waiting for somebody to pray for them waiting for a move of god in their life praying and digging it's up to the church to encourage it's up to the church to say hey let me grab my shovel too i'ma dig with you i'm ready to fight your battles with you you see like i said the prodigal leaves years months weeks long before they actually walk out their last church service which means that there are prodigals in this room still coming to church still wondering is this going to be my last sunday you have no idea i'm here to tell you that there's a church willing to dig with you so when it was my turn living in sin bound by sin shame i remembered i remember the testimony of my father turning back and never looking again i remember the words of an elder planting seeds of hope planting seeds of belief in somebody who never believed in themselves i remember what it sounds like for a mother praying in a prayer closet and those prayers ringing down the hallways and underneath my bedroom door i know what that sounds like and i know what it feels like when the hungry church comes together in a moment when i when everybody's on the same page and we're saying we're praying for this we're fighting for this and i don't care what my yesterday looks like i'm willing to believe that tomorrow's greater than that i'd be a fool to believe that everybody in this room is bought and sold on the high calling of jesus christ i'd be a fool to believe everybody's ready and willing to go head first into this thing i'll never be able to force somebody we'll never be able to force somebody to live for god but what we can do is we can dig these wells so when push comes this job when it's time for them to come or we just left off they'll start so much deeper than when word began i'd like to invite everybody to stand up and come to the front what we like to say is masks up and hearts open and in fact i'd like to do something a little bit different if you have family here i'm asking you to to just find them grab somebody and if you don't have family that's all good we're all family grab somebody find somebody i personally believe and i've seen it so many times to say that it's not true or this is just an idea the atmosphere in a church changes when we begin to direct our prayers off of me and not to them why because that's always been the heartbeat of god forget me let me die for them and so this moment we're gonna pray for every single mother and every single father you're gonna pray for your child because i'm telling you they're going through things that you've already gone through and then some and for every single young person pray for your mother pray for your father because they're going through things that you're gonna go through and for everybody else we're gonna bind together as a church and begin to pour out our hearts and say god i'm seeing these wells listen listen listen when you dig these wells you're not just digging for water for somebody else you're also digging to replenish yourself when the seasons when the dry seasons come you need a well that you can look back on you need a well that you can still draw from when the when there's no water in the land you need a well let's pray in the name of jesus and everything that that name represents i pray for these families i pray for the household i pray for the individual dealing with depression i pray for the young man your family your children and your children and their children reappoint is be upon he is with you in the morning he is for you he is for you he is for you is is [Music] please [Music] every time and within you he's with you he's with you in the morning is oh amen we thank you lord jesus generations [Music] [Music] to your family [Music] [Music] oh man [Music] you is [Music] you [Music] you never my god who you you are that is who you [Music] are [Music] what an honor it is to have the lord from glory operate and flow through you to strengthen the body of christ and to pastor kento we're grateful that you've allowed god to do that through you and while he was talking it the testimony of a father in the home around the dinner table the prayers of a mother coming out of a prayer closet in the home we're on something that we started it last week under the message that pastor hoffman preached last week if you haven't heard it go listen to it but we made a commitment as a church family to have a specific time in a specific place that we would regularly meet god in our homes and while he's preaching this all i'm thinking about is what was getting dug in the home what was getting sown in the home if this is all the god you have in your life the celebration that is our sunday service that's not enough that might keep you on life support long enough to get to next sunday but can you imagine feeling this every day after day after day and then we come together having that liberty and that freedom from the week that we've had and celebration on a sunday i challenge each and every person in here if you're a parent share your testimony with your kids they need to hear what god's done for you in your family and if you do not have a specific time and a specific place of prayer find one get one we have a vase out in our lobby that we just wrote down our commitment we made a commitment last monday night to the altar on the altar and i challenge each and every person if you have not done that it will change your life you'll be strengthened in the presence of god every day it will alter the course of your life dear jesus we are so honored god to lift up our voice to lift up our hands to offer you everything that we are the good the bad and the ugly god you want it all so lord today we make a commitment mighty god to dig a well god to stand on the shoulders of every generation that has gone before us mighty god we're going to dig deeper than ever before god because we have to be more impactful than ever before you are calling us in this hour to prayer and to fasting and to consecration because the the weight that you are putting upon the church to reach and impact our world is a weight that has never been put upon the church until now to god we answer the call lord we're going to answer yes we're going to make those commitments we're going to honor them mighty god and then we're going to expect you to operate through us dear jesus in a mighty way dear god we pray today and believe in faith we are humbled and grateful to play a role to have a seat at the table of the almighty so god we honor you today we honor you in jesus name today hallelujah thank you mighty god you're good and kind be with us tomorrow night at seven o'clock pastor jeff arnold will be speaking to us i'm telling you please if you can make your way here to the sanctuary at seven o'clock on monday night it'll be a fantastic time in the lord god bless you all thank you for being with us have a fantastic [Music] week you

Channel: First Church Sterling Heights

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Length: 84min 23sec (5063 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021