PASTOR STEVE ABRAHAM // ENCOURAGE ME JESUS!

[Music] cool revelation chapter three grab your bible there and meet me in revelation chapter three how's this section doing over here you guys you guys seem a little mellow a little mellow but it's cool we'll give you some time to get into the service revelation chapter three how about um let's go verse seven that sounds good revelation chapter three verse seven if you don't know where revelation is you're a newbie it's okay that's the last book of the bible okay revelation 3 stand your feet for the reading of the word of god revelation chapter 3. por favor who clapped over there thank you man love you brother how many want to hear me preach in spanish no you don't no you don't i'll preach in tongues though verse seven to the angel the church in philadelphia these are the words of him who is it's under it's actually circled in my belt holy it means he's different he's set apart he's unique and first peter 3 15 says that he is holy and he's called you and i to be holy god is holy and he is true in a world filled with with a bunch of liars especially on social media everybody has an opinion everybody lies politicians lie the preachers lie everybody lies but god is true he's holy and he's true the bible says it's impossible for god to lie and so he tells the truth all the time the bible says he is truth john 17 17 sanctify them by your truth your word is truth and so how many we're holding on our hand the very truth of the word of god who holds the key of david what he opens so no one can shut and what he shuts no one can open how many are grateful for that i know your deeds i have placed before you an open door that no one can shut i know you have little strength yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name i will make those who are of the synagogue of satan who claim to be jews though they are not but are liars i will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that i have loved you since you have kept my command to endure patiently i will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth i am coming i don't know how you can look at world events right now with the advance in technology and communication and i mean just the inventions of the last 50 years we didn't have microwave like growing i'm like what you get to cook a whole meal in like two minutes and that and who would have thought like holding a a full computer in your hand you can i could just go on amazon order anything i want and it's at my house like the next day it's crazy and we can control a whole in life without just a little phone who would have ever thought and uh and i really believe that jesus is coming soon i'm not here to give you a date put the calendars away uh we don't know jesus doesn't even know what he's coming but soon so you better get ready because jesus is coming soon remember that song like three people [Music] hold on to what you have no one will take your crown the one who's victorious i'll make a pillar in the temple my god never again will they leave it i will write on the them the name of my god in the name of the city my god the new jerusalem which is coming down out of heaven from my god and i will also write on them my new name whoever has ears let them hear what the spirit says to the churches lord thank you for the word of god thank you for the privilege the opportunity just to preach the word of god to some amazing people both here in person and those watching the service online and we pray that the holy spirit would be here to correct us and teach us and exhort us and god we would hear your voice we're not here to listen to a man preach we're here to hear the holy spirit speak out of the words of your book and so holy spirit preach and teach and we want to do our part open up our ears and we want to apply the word of god thank you for the phoenix suns that looks like they're going to defeat the clippers and might win their first ever national championship in jesus name amen you may be seated amen i'm not even a sons fan i just think it'd be cool if they they want it i don't know why i just think it'd be cool um hey turn to your neighbor there just say you're going to be encouraged by this message you're going to be encouraged you're going to come on turn your other neighbor your second choice tell them you're going to be encouraged it's going to be an encouraging encouraging sermon everybody look up here por favor um i i read a study this week on um workplace productivity how many work in the workplace you have a job that's a great thing to have a job and uh they did a study and they discovered the number one quality to have in the workplace uh to enhance productivity they said by far it's not even closer number two is not even close but the number one quality uh in a workplace to enhance productivity drum roll please here's the answer ready the answer is encouragement they said if a boss a supervisor a manager a pastor if he can bring encouragement to the workplace then they discovered that there would actually be 31 percent more productivity than a workplace that didn't have a lot of encouragement let me know encouragement is important affirmation does it do you know that encouragement is actually a spiritual gift mentioned in romans chapter 12 verse 8 and the title of my message is encourage me jesus come on say it out loud in encourage me so 31 more productivity in the workplace if we will to spend some time encouraging our employees how many know marriage would work a lot better if we stop picking on the things that bug us can i share one thing that just kind of bugs me a little bit about my wife she has a list of like 10. she's in the back so i got to be really careful but when one we we have pillows all over the place we have like how many pillows do you need on one bed we have like 10 pillows and and we've got she has this rule not me but i get up typically earlier than she does like i don't know 5 30 most mornings and um and so i want to be really quiet and stuff and so well i've got four pillows on my side she has five or six on her side and and i'm ready to i'm ready to just grab my cup of water and walk down and she's like make your side of the bed and it's like 5 30 in the morning i'm like i'm trying to be courteous i don't want to wake you up and if i'm pulling over covers and putting pillows it just kind of bugs me and irritates me and she has honestly a list of 25 things that bug me and irritate me but that's just one thing but you know what as as a couple i think if we spend a lot less time focusing on what bugs us and irritates us about the other person how about this if we would thank one another for what they are doing and what they are providing and all the men said and all the women said encouragement don't you love to be around encouraging people that just build you up uh i read another statistic true in a gymnasium like weight lifters they did i don't i'm not qualified to preach on this but i'm just this is what the study said the study said that uh somebody will be able to lift five percent more weight if the person spotting them or the coach or the trainer just says you can do it you can do it come on a little you know what i'm saying five percent more weight and if they're loud when you're lifting weight eight percent more weight how many are kind of that loud person and kurt let me see your hand yeah i need to bring you to the gym with me next time because 180 pounds isn't cutting it i need to get to like 100 or something you notice but encouragement it's so important it's important in families kids respond best to encouragement and there's got to be sometimes you got to be tough and difficult you should be affirming and encouraging your kids on the workplace encouragement in church encouragement it's easy to go around and be a referee and i don't like this and i don't like that and the coffee was called how about blessing and encouraging all the volunteers we have at the church it's so important and honestly this series has been kind of the word i'm thinking about is like intense it's like every week it's like repent repent i'm like okay we got it this is the only church philadelphia that isn't they're getting they're not getting criticized or corrected in any way jesus just wants to tell them hey you guys are killing it and i just want to preach a very encouraging message to you in fact encouragement's so important here's what paul says to the church at thessalonia thessalonica he says therefore what encourage each other let's encourage one another at church and thank the people of the cafe thank the ushers thank the greeters thank the children's ministry workers thank the worship team thank all the volunteers the people that that prayed before the service the production just i thank you for what you're doing thank you thank you that's what we've got to encourage one another and build each other up that's why i like cheerleaders you could be down by 82 points with 30 seconds to go you can do it you can do it i'm like no we can't do it we're going to lose but i appreciate the affirmation you know what i'm saying and that's what we need more cheerleaders in the body of christ and and encouragement is important and affirmation is important if you agree with that give me a loud amen in the house amen amen i feel it too when i'm preaching like i i i like that i like this i like people standing come on yeah i feel like it fires me up but when people just like scroll on in the internet arms crossed when are we gonna get out of here i'm like oh you're gonna hate heaven but people that like clap and man it just it gets how many know it's conte isn't it affirmation and encourage it's contagious and we need more of it and and our worship leaders need people to be engaged yeah because it fires them up as well and i want to talk about encouragement right out of the text i'm going to share four things with you uh only if you're interested ready for encouraging truth please write these down number one this is going to encourage you number one my security comes from the lord okay my security comes from the lord he assures me he secures me i'm confident not because of who i am i'm confident because god is in me i don't know if you know that do you know that i played basketball in high school i know i'm kind of short but i played uh three years of varsity at west side high school i played at moore park college for a couple years and um and so i i got out of moore park probably 22 years old but let me say that probably even five six seven maybe even eight years after i got out of college i felt like if i went to any gym in the county of ventura i felt pretty confident pretty secure that i can hang and still play ball with even the 17 18 year old kids five six years after college but when i was 42 my call my after i went to moorpark college i played at a college called life pacific in san dimas and they called me to come back to play in an alumni alumni game i was 42 years old so i hadn't really played in like 10 or 15 years but i'm like i can do this and i went down 42 i was on the alumni team the alumni players were like 25 26 27 and then there was me 42 years old and i remember playing in the game because my mind was telling me to do one thing my body was like we ain't going there because when i when i was at moore park and i i was a really good dribbler and i was super fast and i used to love i don't know if you know basketball but teams would put on a full court press and i'm just like give me the ball and i'll dribble through the whole team and that was my game i just loved to pass and i was fast and quick but in the alumni game i'd be trying to dribble around again and he's like already there cut me off i'm like oh 20 years ago i was able to go around you i'd go in for a lip and no no and then i would go dribble this way and the guy would stop there and i'm like and the opposite he would come down and i would slide over to take a charge and he would already be by me and i'm like what in the world is going on and again my mind is saying steve you're 18 years old my body's saying no you ain't you're 42 years old and at 42 i was no longer confident i was no longer secure now i'm secure sitting in the stands watching other people play but i used to be again 25 i was confident and secure in my ability to play and no longer i lost my confidence i lost my security praise god that our security comes from jesus christ huh now check out check out this verse seven verse seven the bible says in verse seven revelation three seven says these are the words of him who is holy and true who holds the key of david see they're confused too let me just say that i'm going to read it and you're going to go huh who holds the key of david huh you're so late i'm going to read who holds the key of david your part is to say huh who holds the key of david yeah i read i'm like what does that mean who holds the key of david i hope that you're you understand i'm just like you sometimes i'll read stuff in the bible i'm like what what does that mean who holds the key of david so i don't know what you were doing this week but i did a little research to find out what the key of david thing is so you're probably at work doing your thing i did a little homework for you do you appreciate that the key of david goes back to isaiah 22 22 there was a guy in the book of isaiah 22 22 his name was eliakim and he was like the ceo the steward of the palace and eliakim actually got the keys to the palace david was the king at the time and so he had he had a key he had access to the kingdom that david oversaw he had access keyword is access or authority not everybody had the key he was like only the one guy that had a key to david the king and to the kingdom it's like in my pocket i have a i have a church key pastor philip would have a church it looks exactly like the same color same design the only thing is um pastor phillips key can get in every single door in the building except one door my door and and my key looks exactly like his key and you wouldn't even tell if you looked at both of the keys but my key doesn't not only get every single door in the building it also gets the door over to my private office over there in other words i have access and authority that even people on my staff don't have let me ask you a question who has the key see jesus said i build my church and i've given you have the keys of the kingdom plural but he has the singular key into gives you and i access into heaven to have a relationship with god how many are grateful that god opened the door for you and i have access with the father and he holds the key he holds the key check out verse 7b it says what he opens no one can shut and what he shuts no one can huh isn't that great see here you got to understand this that god holds the key god gives you access and authority have you ever have you ever wanted to have uh like an important conversation with an important person you say i gotta talk to the superintendent i gotta talk to the principal i gotta talk to the coach if i can just get access to the president of company or the athletic director at the school to talk about my kid or how many you know i got to get in i remember when we were building this building they basically told us you will not have a church here because this is a commercial area and they said well there's too much truck trucks in and out and manufacturing taking place and it was going to be too dangerous that wasn't the real story the real story is that we're a non-profit organization so we don't provide any tax money for the city and so what we had to do is put together a whole powerpoint and i'm like we i got to talk to the city council they're like no no no no we're like this is an amazing building and we saw the potential we saw the vision and they said no you can't be in a commercial area and so we're like we got to talk to the city council we got to get access and we put together a whole powerpoint we had a real estate agent and i i showed up at the city council meeting on a tuesday night and uh i presented the vision of our church and here's what we want to do we want to reach out and feed the poor and it was scary it was it was a nail biter and they voted four to three in our favor i mean like what listen one vote we would like but check this out the one that gave us access wasn't the city council or the mayor god is the one that opened the door for us to have the church so you got it you got to know that even on your job check it out even on your job your boss is not the one that has the key it's god who has the key and the bible says he will open every door that he wants to open and he'll close shut the ones he doesn't want that's so good my security is found in the lord so god has the key to eternal life god has key to an access to the heavenly father but if you're to ask a lot of people hey how you getting to heaven they're just like my own plan what's your plan i'm just gonna be generous i think long as i'm sincere god will get me in let's go to church i mean your plan proverbs 14 2. there is a plan that seems right to a man but it ends in death you ask other people hey how are you getting to heaven how are you gonna have god open the door well my religion i've been like a scientologist for 20 years i've been a buddhist i've been a mormon i've been a jehovah's witness i knock on doors i share my faith and then jesus is like oh let me remind you of this that i am the way the truth of life so you you don't have access to the heavenly father you don't have access to heaven and well i think maybe it's not my own plan i don't maybe i think it's religion i just think i'll i'll just work really hard i'll give a lot of money i'll volunteer all all right now better yet here's what i'm going to do i've always i've never been a really planner when i get to some place i just kind of figure it out and it always works out for me so when i when i get when i stand before g i'll just i'll figure something out and i'll just get favor with god i always end up working things out it just always goes well no but hebrews 9 27 says it's appointed for man to die one time and it's gonna be too late then the only the only one that has access to heaven is jesus who holds the keys huh and he see verse 8 says and i've placed before you an open door that no one can shut it's primarily talking about salvation listen listen what if somebody tries to shut the door pastor steve that's the good news listen nobody can keep you out of heaven nobody can keep me out of him there's not one person that can shut the door because he opened the door the only person to keep me out of heaven is me walking away from him but he's like no no i'm opening up the door to eternal life and no man can shut it shut it that's the good news he and listen i don't know what's gonna happen this week to you or next month or a year from now or five years but listen if you're a christian i know how it ends for you you are having a door opened on your behalf i know how it ends come on say it out loud i know how it ends one more time by faith i know how it ends i might go through hell or high water but you know what there's an open door for me so i want to take you to seminary class i went to bible college for four years in cemetery for one year it's like a cemetery ready to go to seminary i want to talk about two doors and pardon my writing i'm like awful and you you people over here won't be able to see it but hopefully you can get it on the screen i want to talk about this is still under point number one door of salvation ready come on are you taking notes i worked really hard at this so here's when we talk about the door of salvation we're talking about four things some would say election ephesians chapter 1 verse 4. the bible says that god ready for this god chose you before the foundations of the earth that's election god chose you which begs the question hold it hold it hold it pastor steve if god chose me does that mean that other people didn't get chosen huh it's predestination right so hold it if god chose me that means that he didn't choose no no no no i don't know how many people are here let's just say there's 500 people in here what if i before you got in here today i bought 500 diet cokes and i just line up on the stage right here 500 all the way across 500 there's 500 people at 500 diet cokes how many like diet coke it's god's drink you better raise your hand right now i love diet coke it's my favorite diet coke so i bought i paid for it 500 diet cokes i line them up on the stage after the service is over everybody come up i provided one diet coke for every person come get it unless like 250 you're like diet co i hate diet coke just not into it so you're like i'm out of here i don't like diet coke did i provide diet coke for all 500. yeah but you chose not to drink and another 100 people said diet coke i'm going to the cafe to get some coffee i'm not diet too early for diet coke and another 100 people walked out said i'm not in the mood for diet coke and there was 150 of you came up and got the diet coke everybody was chosen to participate but not everybody received it that's that's election god chose everyone free gift of salvation you can take it you can take it but some people reject it so when we talk about the door salvation we talk about election second word you better give me grace too it's hard to preach write and talk at the same time and spell justification justification um romans 5 1. therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with god we just sang the song testimony justified just as if i've never sinned i don't get into heaven because i'm a perfect person no i i take the the righteousness of jesus christ and it's been accredited to my account that's justification third thing big word here sanctification someone say sanctification sanctification john so bad 17 19 john 17 19. jesus said i sanctified myself so that they could be sanctified what is sanctification ready it's the process of becoming more like jesus so when you got saved whatever year that was shout out what year you got saved okay 2015 say you got saved you you were chosen and actually before 2015. in 2015 you were justified but how many know this takes a an entire lifetime so sanctification is the process of becoming more like christ so this doesn't end till you get to heaven you're constantly on the pro the road of sanctification i want to be more like jesus i want to be more forgiving more loving more kind more generous that's sanctification the last thing is this good yeah good the last thing is um oh glorification glorification glorification is uh first john 3 2. when we see him we will be like him so that that's glorification so how many know when god says i've opened up the door he's primarily talking about the door of salvation no no no man can shut here's a very this is really important second door it's what i want to call the door of destiny i kind of feel like i'm in bible college here but it's fun door of destiny someone said the door of destiny ready ready for this so when i was at moore park college i was 18 years old and i had a girlfriend and we were dating and then we graduated high school and she went to cal state chico and at cal state chico probably she left in august probably two months later she called me on the phone and said i've met another guy and i was i could tell you i went to school the next day at moore park college i was sitting on a bench i never got dumped in my life i just remember like i was so lonely i was so depressed and so she she dumped me i hope she's watching the sermon right now so i this is supposed to look like a book i went to bible college at life bible college and i met hold it let's make it i better make her look kind of pretty i met a girl named tammy parker i had a little more hair back then we were and the real story she chased me around bible college for a couple years like i need you i need you in my life i'm like all right how many that was just the opposite um so then we we got married and we um moved to ventura and we went on staff at south coast fellowship we had three kids riley's the tallest one how did that happen she's 6'1 i'm 5 10 anyhow so we had three kids we were there for eight years and we decided to start a church in oxnard in 1997. so i married her out of my life and you sir are a big loser but here here i was sitting there on the bed my life's over and i thought she closed the door because actually god closed the door and check it out you got you you got to get this because every time a door closed you're like listen you would be married to some person right now you would be in full-time therapy if you would have married that person i don't know where i would be if i would have married her right now i can tell you i would not be a pastor of a church for sure and although i was sad and i was mad now i am glad because although this door closed right here this door open right there interpretation god knows what he's doing so there's a door salvation but he also says there's a door of destiny or direction in your life and he opens doors that he knows what's best for us listen the father knows best the father knows fast and i'm so glad that this was at the time it didn't feel good at the time it didn't feel god but he closed that door and he opened up this door and the rest is history and this hasn't been like perfect all the time but way better than this would have ever been god knows what he's doing and my security is founded in number two number two my struggle is known to the lord my struggle is known to the lord check that out verse eight he says i know that you have little strength look at me he says to the church of philadelphia i don't know if i mentioned this in this service sometimes i forget if i have or have but it was it was the smallest of all seven churches it was insignificant and weak it wasn't a church of hundreds or thousands it was maybe 40 or 50 people and the reason why the church of philadelphia they lived on a a fault line and there was two or three earthquakes that just dismantled the city they built it back up and it would dismantle again and people were like i'm not living there so he says i know that you're weak he says i know someone say i know look at me look at me god wants you to know he knows what you're going through he knows that you're lonely he knows that you're scared he knows that you're depressed he knows that you're discouraged he knows that you don't have a job he knows that you want to get married he knows that you're lonely he knows that you're depressed he knows about your bills pile on it god knows everything and he does not only just does he know he cares he cares so he's telling the church in philadelphia hey i know what you're going i know that you feel insignificant i know that you feel weak i know that you feel lost i know that you feel all these things but you know what i care about you check it out my struggle is known to the lord he says you have a little strength it's not talking about physical strength it's talking about their status their status was they're small and insignificant and weak by the way i want to say this we have never been in competition with any other church in the county as long as every church in the county is preaching the gospel worshiping jesus how many know not every church is meant to be our size and we're never to be judgmental of any other church that's different or smaller than us for god's sake we're all on the same team trying to do the same thing and you listen you see it on social media big churches attacking small churches small churches attack like what what i don't care if you want to meet with eight people out at the park or you want to go to the beach and have a little small group awesome awesome long as you're reaching the lost and making disciples we're bet we're not better than anybody in fact since day one we've been trying to be a church to resort you don't even know how many calls we get all the time from other churches hey what do you do about it how about your production how about your led screen we just offer free advice we'll give free stuff the conference we've invited probably 20 pastors and we're paying for them to come for free i'm not in competition we're not competing with anybody lance ralston's one of my best friends praise god if calvary chapels grows bigger than us praise god we're going to heaven we're going to have we're on the same team and i want to celebrate because we're on the same team i mean could you come up can you imagine like clayton kershaw's pitching today and he just he gives up like 13 runs in the first inning and the guy like his own teammates in the bullpen are going to also i can't stand what kind of teammate would you be to boost somebody on your own or celebrate their weakness no we're four churches that are preaching the gospel where four churches are trying to reach the lost and so he says to philadelphia hey i know that you feel weak and insignificant but listen your struggle is known by me and he says notice this he says you've kept my word and you have not denied my name i want our church to be known for a church that has kept the name of jesus that has preached the name of jesus that has studied the bible that we we we're not going to we're not going to step back we're just going to be bold in our commitment to jesus christ but i'm telling there is no good church out there that doesn't preach the gospel says he says you've kept my word and you have not denied my name let me just let me get real carnal right now does anybody have like some just pet peeves that you have i gotta get some pet peeves just things that bug me i'm just gonna be really honest with you and don't judge me pray for me a couple things that really bugged me is just i don't even know how to describe it except i would just say like clueless people just like they're i was at subway a couple months ago and a lady walks in and she just looked it looked like it was their first time out of the house in like 10 years that was the first thing but i'm like don't you dress up before you come out and and there's a lot there's like seven of us behind her there's nobody in front of her and she's just like and she's like looking at all the vegetables it's like i'm like don't there's a line behind you pick up the clue phone right and she she literally stands out there and she's like oh um then she looks at me and she's all what am i supposed to do and i'm like it literally says step one choose your bread here's another thing that bugs me pray for me bad drivers slash slow drivers come on raise your hand if you don't come raise your hand come on everybody has their hand i'm talking about half of you right now so what i'm talking about and i just told my wife last week i want to know how like who at the dmv passed them to get their driver's license you are so clueless on their own i don't even know how you had to bribe someone like how did you get your driver's license so that really bugs me um you know what really bothers me a lot racism and prejudice i'll i'll punch you and i'll ask for forgiveness later that's that's why i love our church because it's so diverse i'm not just talking about colors i'm talking about ages of people and but it's like the united nations in here but to to be a racist person is the most ridiculous and moronic thing so you're going to judge someone that did you choose to be black white hispanic ain't no no no no god god made you that way so you're going to look on someone else what are you that is so ridiculous that bugs me i'm going to get a couple emails on this already get your pen out i'll tell you who to send the email to right i'm not a big pet guy but if you have a dog or cat i'm cool with that just don't bring them to places they're not supposed to be i e i e there's a lot there's less people over here i'm going to go hang out i.e why are you bringing your puppy to the grocery store i and you know it's a girl's having like in a little thing and a little to what like leave him at home okay he's supposed to be in the backyard or in his crate or something or the airport why are you bringing a duck to iowa you know what i'm talking about i'm allergic to cats a couple years ago i was on a plane a cat got out of the kennel and it came right underneath my seat whoa and i'm sneezing leave your cat at home okay but that really bugs me and people think and half of the church is like the other one's like that's not funny because i'm talking about you right now no just things that bug me pray for me things that think you know what you know what irritates jesus people that don't keep his word and people that deny him they act one way at church on sunday morning and then monday through saturday they're a different person in fact some of your friends and co-workers would be shocked if they even knew you're a christian that bugs him second timothy 2 12 check out this verse says if we disown him he will what disown us so that bugs him when we disown him check it out jesus says you have kept my word and you have not denied my name he says hey philadelphia you're small in the eyes of the world but you're faithful do you know how many faithful people we have at this church it's humbling you don't know this but i did i did the communion right and i stepped off the stage i went behind the stage while you guys were worshiping because i had to put my bible back on the uh pulpit and i listened there's a room over that wedge room there there were people praying like i heard them praying out loud during their the other group of people that come boaster and they pray for god to move in our services you didn't even know that did you and right now in children's ministry i told you i went there a couple weeks ago i walked into the nursery just to thank all the teachers and i was like it's like afghanistan and there's there's like seven kids like not probably 12 kids seven of them were just crash like god bless you i gotta go think about those people are amazing amazing uh diana caskey she's part of our church she's the first person that we ever is diana in the service i don't know if she is she is where's she she's probably in the room praying diane are you here stand up please i'm sorry i'm gonna you're gonna be mad at me when i see you on thursday but everybody look to the back of the room there's diana caskey right here she's the most amazing person all right check this out when we started the church in 1997 she had asked if she could host a prayer meeting at her house so we would gather together at her house every thursday morning at 6 30 and we've been doing that it started at her house and moved to another house and moved to our building on c street it bent every every thursday morning i don't know what you're doing getting ready for work or something her and a bunch of people in our church gather on the other side of that wall right there and ev for 24 years they've been doing this i'm talking like faithful faithful faithful people i want you guys to stand right here genesis and keenan i'm just just standing here right on the up here come on these are the most amazing ladies hold on hold on these two ladies um you guys mad at me um these two ladies like just check that not only are they so gifted and so hump like they're they're amazing but check this out for the last like five years think about covid inbuilt out of the building they not only did they lead every sunday morning they're here every single they've been leading at youth service and sunday morning every year every week for like five years straight and you can ask them how much they're getting paid for that keenan's a nurse genesis you do something at a plumbing job i don't know she does she does like the books and accounting for a couple in our church that owns a big plumbing like like phenomenal phenomenal ladies never complained one time never oh never never i can't do it think of every wednesday night every sunday and multiple times like on thursday night we used to have rehearsal wednesday night thursday night sunday morning they don't get paid a dime i just think we need to honor genesis and keenan for their ongoing faithfulness to leave thank you ladies love you guys i could go on like our our production team just like with kovid we're in here then we had to stop services then we had to record on thursday night then and we go outside then we moved back in then we went back outside and just like they're just like some of them they would get here like 4 35 in the morning to set up service outside for us to have church i'm talking hundreds of faithful people i don't know if you know right when kovit hit we started a thursday night prayer resume there's like 50 60 people praying every thursday night at 7 14 for the church for the nation it's insane faithful faithful faithful he's like hey philadelphia i know you think you're weak and insignificant i see i see your deeds i'm keeping record you're faithful and all these people that i mentioned would encourage you to do the exact same thing and get involved so you can hear one day well done thou good and faithful servant amen come on more time let's thank god for all of our volunteers i gotta go i got two points and i got like five minutes number three my enemy will be subdued by the lord pastor steve it's just i got to be honest it's really hard to serve the lord and stand for him and be bold and people don't like it and i agree that's why this point is probably my favorite point verse 9 verse 9. i will make those who are of the synagogue of satan who claim to be jews though they're not but are liars in other words there's some people that say they're christians but they're not do you have any haters by the way do you have any you should have some haters you should have some people that don't like you because of your faith don't like you because of your boldness for jesus christ and there's there's christians out there that say they're christians but they're actually not christians they're part of the synagogue they're liars naysayers critics and we all have them right we all have them and uh and sometimes come on it's it's hard to sometimes stand at the workplace or stand for school and really live for jesus christ because we have people that don't like the god that we serve but let me know that one day god's gonna make it right in fact what he says there is i'm gonna make those people that are against you i will make them bow down before you so i'm like i'm like oh my god no god you don't have to do that really you don't seriously you don't but if you want to i'll take like courtside seats for that it's all the people that hated on you all the people that laughed at you for coming to church all the people that mocked you for being a christian there's going to be a day and god will put those people underneath our feet so listen to this has it this is just a real honor sermon has anybody ever wanted to like retaliate i'll put my head up rusty are liars i'm not even saying like i'm just saying like you ever like you're at the like especially during christmas like you're at the collection they're waiting for a spot you you were there first right just waiting for the person to come and they take like two days to put all their packages you're just like i'm sitting there soon then they pull out you're just about to come in and also this guy and there there's been times i just want to go around to the other side and park right next to it and then on the way to the mall just kind of stick out my key like this and like not not not like not like ruining the whole just like a little scratch on the door panel like god forgive me but right don't look at me in that tone of voice you know what time have you ever wanted to um like throw a rock not a big one just like like you're like two in the morning they're just like partying all the time you got to go to church the next day or work the next day and they're just like every every saturday every friday and like don't you know i gotta get up early i gotta preach tomorrow leave me and not a not a big bulldozer just just like a bb gun or just like one pellet just like just a little little little spider not a big i wanted to do that um you ever wanted to respond like in the flesh because of an email you got yeah did you did i think you did you're saying social media little sucker exclamation exchange and you just want to hit send and the holy spirit's like don't do it i've wanted to i've wanted to give people a piece of my mind and praise god thank you for praying i haven't done any of those things but i've wanted to but here's the reason i i don't is because vengeance is his and here it is and the second you and i try to get vengeance on our own that we forfeit the vengeance of god we forfeit the vengeance god's like no no i'll take care of your haters i'll take care of the people that lied about you i'll take care of the gossipers i'll take care of the slanderers hey i'm fighting your fight for you finally number four number four my endurance will be rewarded by the lord he says in verse 10 since you have kept my command to endure patiently you know typically my preaching i i kind of go after the one person that's lost the one person that's on the fence the one person that's lukewarm hey get in the game what are you doing there but today i'm not i'm not going out i'm going after the faithful person the per you just been faithful faithful faithful faithful and you keep listen all hell is broken loose in your life and you keep coming to church i applaud you i thank god for you and you're like does god even care i've been praying and seeking him and trying to grow and reading my bible and giving and listen god sees it all and listen the fact that you are here today at church when all hell is broken loose i applaud you and more importantly god applauds you and i reach out to you with compassion and i say hang in there hang in there if you will endure patiently god will reward you he says i will also keep you from the hour of trial and he says in verse 11 i'm coming soon he's coming soon is that a reference to his second return he's coming soon or is it a specific word for the church of philadelphia that he's coming to help them because they feel we can see i think it's both i think jesus is coming soon i've mentioned that but i also think he's coming soon actually the word i looked it up in the greek it means quickly or suddenly that's a word right there and i just i i keep sending my resume to every place and i keep getting shot down i know god's gonna come through quickly and suddenly and i went to like three or four doctors right now and they keep saying the same thing same diagnosis and god's like no i'm gonna come in quickly and suddenly i'm gonna heal you i'm gonna deliver for you i'm gonna provide for you and check it out the reason why he comes quickly and suddenly is here's the reason ready because when it happens there's no debate on who did the miracle because i've tried everything else but god came through and he did it quickly and suddenly and that good ain't that good verse 12 probably my favorite verse the one who was victorious i will make a pillar in the temple of my god so interesting because didn't we say that the church of philadelphia was weak and insignificant he's saying i know but i'm going to make you a pillar listen to me i know there's people in the room people watching you feel weak lonely insignificant nobody knows me nobody cares because our culture we just we prop up popular people rich people famous people power prestige possession how many instagram followers you have you're like man that's just i've never been popular i've never been well known god's like i know when you get to heaven now i'm going to make you a pillar in the house of god now check this out grab your pen i want you to underline every time you see the word my in verse 12. one was victorious i will make a pill in the temple my god never again will they leave it i will write on them the name of my god by the way does anybody how many have a tattoo let me see your hand you got a tattoo come on show it bravely strongly amen amen i like that sleeve there let's dope some of you can't show tattoos i just leave it there it's okay so so i'm not [Music] my my two kids i don't criticize anybody that has tattoos i i don't think it's for me though it's just me i don't know just me if you have one that's i think it looks awesome on you though i do but you know that we're all gonna get tatted he just said i'm gonna write my name on you that's gonna be awesome we're all gonna have the exact same tattoo my my my which is coming down out of heaven from my god and i will also write on them bye there it is my new i'm getting tatted with his name my my my my church in philadelphia you feel weak and significant i know but you're mine everybody else might look down up but you're mine you might feel weak i know but you're strong because i say that you're strong you might feel like you're you're nothing but you're something because i say that you are you are the apple of his eye you are loved by god you are valued by him you're accepted in the beloved you are his come on thank god today that where is i want everybody to stand up right now we're loved by god we're valued by him we're a son we're his daughter we're a joint heir with jesus christ we're a citizen of heaven or whose encouraging word about the church in philadelphia hey how many would just admit like me that you have some regrets in your life even if you're a strong christian you're gonna look back on your deathbed and you're like man i just wish i was a better father come on my kids are they're all young adults now there's some i think i was a pretty good dad but i could have done some things better we're gonna probably have some regrets about the kind of spouse that we were huh don't leave me up on the stage right now true probably spiritually like man i just i wish i would have read my bible more i wish i would have been more giving i wish i would have been more generous i wish i would have read more of the bible i wish i have studied more of the bible i wish i would have started a small group i wish i would have started a bible study at my job or bible club at my house whatever we're gonna have some regrets all of us something that we wish that we were better at or we would do different man i just some of you thinking maybe i maybe i should have been more disciplined with my kids and they just kind of ran the house or maybe less maybe we should have more fun it was like too intense like arnold schwarzenegger just suck maybe i should have chilled out we should have been more like family vacations or something we're all gonna have regrets we're all gonna wish we would have done something better i i could say this a couple things that i would never do different i would i would never not serve jesus christ i'm glad i made the decision that i made to marry my wife that was the door of destiny and i'm so grateful that we started the church but there's a lot of things that i wish i would have done different or better but you know when we get to heaven one day he wipes all those regrets away so i'm not gonna live in shame yeah for sure we i think every person on the planet could have said i would i could have done that i could but i'm not living in regret i'm not living with shame and guilt because god's going to make it right when i get to heaven i hope you've been encouraged today by the word of god and if you feel small and insignificant and weak and god sees it all knows it all he rewards your faithfulness so lord thank you for the word of god god i thank you for the people of god listening to this sermon god especially those that just continue to serve you so faithfully bless them reward them we know that you're taking notes and keeping track of their faithfulness faithful to pray faithful to serve faithful to give faithful to share the word of god bless them we pray in the name of jesus hey i'm steve abraham the pastor of new life oxnard thank you for watching our youtube channel you can join us live every sunday for a new sermon and live worship also be sure to take a minute to subscribe and turn on your post notifications so you don't miss any of our new videos or live streams and please share with a friend if you would like to partner with us in furthering the gospel please click the link below don't forget to subscribe thanks for watching and god bless you

Channel: New Life Oxnard

Views: 703

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: New Life Oxnard, Pastor Steve Abraham, New Life Worship, Oxnard, Steve Abraham, New Life Community Church, Ventura County, LA County, Los Angeles, Steve abraham, New Life, Jesus, Church, community, Pastor Steve, Worship

Id: tT-qXAq1Z1U

Length: 51min 33sec (3093 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 28 2021