The Final Say | Pastor John Gray

[Applause] good morning relentless church [Applause] how're you all doing today [Applause] [Music] I was glad when they said unto me [Applause] let us go into the house of the Lord I [Applause] feel the presence of the Holy Spirit I am a child of God [Music] so Lord Jesus speak in this moment and get all the glory and may every devil be under our feet by the time this sermon is over I just want you to know God that relentless church belongs to you and so we trust you with destiny and we thank you for all that you've done and all that you're going to do we give you glory honor praise and we give it to you loudly right now in Jesus [Music] will somebody be a surrogate for me that lets Hendon know that we know who we are we [Music] [Music] first of all next week 9:30 everybody say vision 2020 be here on time do not be late y'all aren't gonna be late cause y'all normally get here on time anyway next week one service I don't know how we're gonna get everybody in here 9:30 we're going to share the vision of what God's going to do for this church and through this church and through you in the year 2020 also everybody say New Year's Eve we have two services two services because we're not gonna have enough room in either one 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. 10 p.m. for some of us Baptist folk we know that's watched night you watched the night 7 and 10 p.m. and we're gonna bring the new year in in prayer and Thanksgiving for what God is going to do for each of our families and for our church collectively 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. [Applause] maybe y'all been watching the news but I'd like to say a couple of things about some of the things that you have heard first of all - what what I believe is one of the most critical elements I have heard that we were being evicted anyone who has ever been evicted know that that is a public record we are not being evicted hold on we're not being evicted because we've paid the bills I want this to be very clear that there has been from the beginning of this transition when Pastor ron handed me the keys a very complicated process and many of the processes and procedures and the intermarriage of the two churches has a lot of legal components and in that process we've been quietly working behind the scenes and it is unfortunate that something has been shared with outlets outside of the body of Christ my point in making you aware is this from our clear understanding of where we are in this process I want to make it clear that we have paid all these payments on all these buildings and to clarify and one of the statements has said all bills are paid well we have accounts payable so it's never all bills are paid before I got here all bills weren't paid okay so we we pay as we go so there are bills I want to make that clear but these buildings have been paid according to our agreement I also want to say this I did not come here as a lease person I did not that's not what I came here for and so we are working to get resolution and I am NOT going to adjudicate this in the public I'm not going to dishonor God by mudslinging we may have some fundamental differences of our understanding of where we are but no one is to disrespect trash dishonor Redemption relentless me my wife pastor Ron pastor hope or anybody in between we are the body of Christ and all of this is a distraction because the enemy wants us to fight each other instead of fighting him it is my hope and we are working the past around and I and the churches can come to an amicable understanding as we move forward but I thank God for the global church and I want to make this clear I'm not fighting and I will never be a part of a church split we're not going to dishonor God and we're gonna love each other we're gonna love Christ and if people want to talk about me bless them they can say what they want but we're not being evicted and we're going to continue to work and figure out an amicable solution but until then imma preach Jesus and it's time for the world go ahead and be seated at some point you're gonna have to stand and make a decision on what you're going to do with your life at the convergence of discipline development and decision is the place called destiny I'll say it again at the convergence of discipline development and decision is a place called destiny you did not arrive here by accident you did not get here by chance and regardless of the circumstances around your birth you were spoken by God and because you are a word you cannot be erased by any attack that comes your way you cannot be erased by bad parenting you cannot be erased by abusive stepparents you cannot be erased because someone dropped you in the process of your development the enemy would love to erase you and if he can't erase you he wants to disable you and if he can't disable you he wants to mute you and if he can't mute you then he wants to kill you but because he didn't make you he can't unmake you and because he didn't bring you life he cannot cause death you cannot die before you finish your purpose I am prophesying I am declaring and I am speaking that you will live and not die to fulfill the entirety of your call there is a scripture in Luke 23 and I'd like you to go there there were two thieves on a cross and there was a man in between these two thieves does anybody know who was between the two thieves who was between the two feet Jesus is between the two thieves one of them was rowdy desperate angry and was disrespectful the other one in Luke 23 starting at the 40th verse said these words but the other answering rebuked the thief that was saying crazy things saying do you not even fear God strange that people don't even fear God seeing you are under the same condemnation and we indeed justly what he was saying is I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be for we receive the due reward of our deeds but this man capital M has done nothing wrong then he said to Jesus Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom and Jesus said to him assuredly I say to you today you will be with me in paradise that's the first Scripture now I want you to go all the way to the first book of the Bible Genesis 32 Genesis 32 and I'm at the 24th verse Genesis 32 and the 24th verse then Jacob was left alone there's nothing harder than being left alone I don't know about you but there have been moments when I feel totally alone by myself is one thing alone is something different when it doesn't feel like anyone understands when it doesn't feel like anyone sees what you're going through I wonder if there's anyone other than me that has ever felt like in times past I I feel like I'm going through this by myself and it is in that moment where we need the Holy Ghost to show up and say you are not alone you are not by yourself you were never by yourself but I needed to get you by yourself in order to show you yourself I was trying to teach but it ain't on me is to preach that's on me so I might as well go then Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day it's about to break I said it and I meant it it's about to break there are principalities over this region that don't like that I'm here and they gonna hate that I'm here and I'm gonna be here and I want to make that real clear that we're gonna be here and I'm grateful for all that God has taught us in this 18 months but we're gonna be in Greenfield and then we're gonna worship God and we're going to be the relentless church for as long as the Lord Jesus says so and he's saying so for years to come I want that to be clear because some of you are saying well pastor I need some answers next week I'm sharing vision be here but I can at least let that cat out of the bag we're gonna be serving Jesus together in this here city we won't be closed to on Sunday a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day now when he saw that he did not prevail against him he touched the socket of his hip and Jacob's socket was out of joint and he wrestled with him and he said let me go for the day breaks but he said I will not let you go unless you bless me so he said to him what is your name he said Jacob and he said your name shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed I want to give you two statements from both of these scriptures and then I want to preach what the Holy Ghost gave me in Luke 23 we find a thief on a cross and he is at the end of his life and he is about to die and Jesus happens to be next to him on a cross and Jesus stops dying and says today and he says assuredly that's an insurance policy assuredly for show today you gonna be with me in paradise today this is not figurative this is literal today you're gonna be with me in paradise he was judged tried convicted and then Jesus came in and said today you gonna be with me in paradise on this side we got Jacob been running for a hundred years running his whole life because you run when you don't know who you are [Applause] thief I'm back over here Jacob had been running his whole life had everything a person could one he didn't have one wife he had one wife he had two had two of them and eleven maid servants and he had all of these kids and all of this stuff but he was still empty on the inside because no matter how much stuff you have if you don't know who you are you're not gonna be able to have peace am I talking to anybody in here I'd rather have peace than stuff all day he's wrestling and all of a sudden the man he's wrestling with says let me go the day is breaking he said now I'm not gonna let you go until you bless me instead of blessing him he asked him a question what's your name and he said Jacob and in that moment the transaction could go forward because all God was waiting on was for Jacob to say what his true condition was not running anymore this is exactly who I am the good and the bad I'm tired of playing games I'm tired of running it's time to face me and the man said that's not your name that's the name you've been operating under but I'm gonna give you your destiny and your identity in one moment you are Israel for you have contended with God and with man and have prevailed pastor where are you going with this two men at two different moments of destiny collide with the Living God and they both got a word that was different from their journey different from their understanding different from what they thought was their identity which means the title of my message is what happened to them and it doesn't matter what you've walked where you've been what you've done God has the final say the title of this message is the final say tell somebody God has the final say I understand the emotions that come with many of the things that we are walking through and have heard and I am not ignorant to it but I am NOT going to make a display of it because that would lift the devil up more than God I'm going to lift Jesus up because he is the head of the church and as I shared at the beginning of this message there are three things that I want you to grab that God is trying to get out of you as this year comes to a close discipline development and decision everybody say a discipline development and decision as a disciple of Christ there must be fruit that accompanies my confession as a disciple of Christ there must be fruit that lines up with my confession I don't get to just say I love Jesus but my life doesn't look like you I don't get to say I love Jesus but you find me gossiping I can't say that I'm a disciple of Jesus and I find myself reacting violently when things don't go my way and when things are being said in fact when Jesus was being spoken against he didn't say one word and that was they marveled at him because most people are ready to fight and ready to defend and trust me I'm a man and I love God and I want to say a lot of things but I will not give the devil room to get me out of position I have to understand that God has the the final say discipline says I must embrace the parts of the Bible that I don't personally like what do you mean love your enemies bless those who curse you pray for those who spitefully use you that's exactly what Jesus meant it's real quiet 70 y'all said amen but the moment you embrace the necessary disciplines you will find yourself having another level of power that you've always wanted and didn't know was available to you discipline we are not just followers of Christ we are to be disciples of Christ to embrace the disciplines that means daily study of the word that means committed consistent prayer time that is set aside not just haphazard you got a work schedule have a prayer schedule your kids have an extracurricular schedule have a word schedule where you and God are gonna meet in the word and you spend time in the word and you talk to God my mother is 77 years old and when she comes to visit me there are times when I'll knock on the door and she'll say come in and I will find her with a pillow on the floor with her elbows on the bed and her knees on the pillow and that was the posture that I saw her at when I was a little boy the first time I walked in her room that I can remember as a little boy she was on her knees with a pillow with her elbows on the floor and I remember looking because she has sensitive skin her knees would have calluses and those calluses may be unsightly but those calluses are a mark of a woman that spends time in prayer I wish somebody had the mark of Prayer on their is there anybody that's walking with Jesus see this is not a time for visiting our not with the level of attack that's been happening all help me Holy Ghost no you can't visit God's you got to live there you got to move in you gotta sit there God where are you I'm not moving where are you going I'm going where you go I don't want to move if you don't move I'll stay if you stay I'll go if you go but wherever you are that's where I have to be I cannot be without the Living God there is a discipline that you and I must embrace if you've been in church for any measure of time you must determine and and this is what I've had to learn that it's not always going to be fun to open your Bible we're so used to entertainment that we miss the fact that the Bible is not a show it is not here to impress you it's not big with the flashing lights there is a discipline that we must embrace as those who say we love Jesus because the Bible says in 1st Peter 5 that we must be sober minded and vigilant because we have an adversary who's walking about like a roaring lion let them walk they look like lions they are not lions [Applause] everybody say the final say I was wondering when I looked over the entirety of my life that my wife and I yes to this region did not seem like an immediate fit but I don't get to ask God a well what's where we what are you doing what's in your mind I can ask and he'll just look at you anybody ever ask God what he was doing let's just talk for a minute man let's just break the atmosphere all right cuz I'm like God for real I was chillin in the cut I was at my house and all of a sudden you like go to grill and I'm like cool I'm going it's gonna be great cuz I'm my friends they got great churches and everything's good and it's easy and it's cool and it's wonderful and then I come here and and now all the sudden you breaking me and and you're doing all of this stuff and it hurts and and why are you breaking me I was fine and he said you were too wild you wouldn't you wouldn't study and you wouldn't read like you needed to because you thought your gift gave you permission not to get in my presence my gift tricked me do you know your gift can trick you because gifts and callings are given without repentance you can function in your gift and God be nowhere near you and God said I had to get you to Greenville to help you to understand that who you thought you were you weren't and without me you're not even that see right now I'm talking about me I'm not talking about anybody else because when you come under attack don't look at the enemy just take a look at yourself and say God what are you teaching me what do you want me to know how can I grow how can the I'm mature how can I learn what is the lesson for me because when this is over I know I'm not gonna die because if you wanted me to die would have already been dead so this has not come to kill me it has come to release me [Applause] [Music] I need five seconds for you to give God a final say praise [Applause] [Music] when you have a gift people kind of get excited about the gift you can kind of do what you want and God says uh-uh I need to use you but I can't use you until you're broken I'm getting ready to help somebody we're getting out of church early today too I just needed to dance for a second to get my joy back I've been under attack all week so just let me get my joy for a second I just need to go ahead and wind it up a little bit I just need to do a little something just to get that devil off for me okay I keep wondering why the devil keep messing with me does he think I'm gonna run does he think I'm gonna quit that's because this is spiritual I need everybody to hear me when I say devil I mean Devils I mean spiritual I'm not talking about people don't don't confuse the two there are spiritual forces of wickedness in high places and I gotta wonder I was like why does the devil want me out of here so bad why does he want our church out of this region so bad why does the devil keep messing with us because we must be threatening something in the atmosphere feel caught in the sanctuary [Music] see here's what I believe I believe when the man of God went to the west coast it was like tag-team anybody ever wrestled they'd rather everybody got like y'all marry you yeah we wrestle y'all nasty what I'm saying is have you ever watched wrestling anybody ever watched tag-team wrestling see what was what was supposed to happen was a clear transition easy transition he tagged me in as he goes to the next assignment the enemy knew that if I show up I'm coming with a different oil not a better oil a different oil but with two is better than one in a three-fold cord is not easily broken and so I believe that the strategy of the enemy is oh he done tagged in the next person with the next level of what God wants to do in the region we gotta shut this down before it gets out of control but it's too late devil because the oil is out the fragrance is out we in here we in the building we're in the region and this devil that's over to sweet Jezebel spirit will that religious peanut will bow down we don't serve the world and gods don't get the and we go honor God and we will speak life to Pastor run and catch the hope and redemption and no temple that wants us to go to war three we gonna serve God because [Music] of an army that's the sound of victory [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's the sound Wow go away [Applause] [Music] [Music] pass the final speck not the devil not people the press [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] giddyup y'all stay right where y'all are I want to tell you all something well I feel the freedom of God in here I want to tell you something I may not be everybody's pastor but I'm somebody's past hold on hold on for the music cuz I wanted to hear this pastor Kenny in just a second I'm gonna need y'all to act a fool but I need to get this out I only want the people assigned to my life [Music] and I want to do God's will the Bible says pursue peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord which means every plot and plan that doesn't line up with that it's gonna fall you can talk you can strategize you can plot but you need to know that nothing you do is outside of God's vision if I couldn't get away nobody can get away I got whooped and I should have because my gift made me think that I could put the name of God in jeopardy and I said Laura why did you whip me let everybody else go he said you belong to me I got tired elder Laurie pastor Darius has been very hurtful if I may be honest I don't want to paint a picture that I'm some bastion of strength I'm I've been popped up by the prayers of my momma and my mother-in-law I've been propped up by the prayers of my wife and my friends pastors of this church elders of this church and I said God why it seems like I can't even hardly catch my breath he said you're in training [Applause] I said but hello what are you doing he said I was wrestling with Jacob he said I wasn't trying to make a man out of him I was trying to make a nation did you hear what I said God says I don't wrestle with you if I'm just trying to make you a man or a woman I'm trying to make you a nation when I put my hand on your head I'm telling you you belong to me when I change your name I'm changing you from a man to a nation I [Applause] said Lord why are you why is this training so hard he said Jeremiah 12 five if you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you then how can you contend with horses and if in the land of peace in which you trusted they wearied you then how will you do on the flood plain of the Jordan for even your brothers the house of your father even they have dealt treacherously with you yes they have called a multitude after you do not believe them even though they speak speak smooth words to you he said I'm not trying to have you operate in manpower I'm trying to get you to operate in horsepower I need somebody to get on your horse I need our church to understand that God is training us to be a church of discipline development and decision so that we can operate and move towards our destiny we're leaving the place of afraid and going to awake we're leaving weak and we're heading into warrior and for those like me who have lost a little bit of sleep we're going from Restless to relentless [Music] we got to see what I just did what did I do revelation three seven and eight these things says he who is holy he who is true he who has the key of David he who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens I know your work see I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it for you have a little strength have kept my word and not denied my name I don't have a hundred percent strength but what I have is enough [Applause] the thief was on the cross Jordan and before Jesus said something to you I don't know about you but if I'm about to die the first thing I'm gonna do is go back in my mind and be like how did I get here can I just be honest I'm like Lord am I being punished how did I get here and God said gone and look over your life look at all the places where it could have ended and I was right there with you see if you want to get encouraged in a moment like this you just need to go back and look at God you know they trying to evict you know we we paid our lease payments well you know what you know y'all gonna have to leave Oh No what we gonna do God says you remember that time you saw some dirt and Nashville Tennessee and you bend your knee on the ground and lifted your hands and thank God for a house that wasn't there and I said God I thank you for a four-bedroom house for two wraparound porches I'm gonna bring my family to this house I had no money no credit and no job I was an itinerant evangelist I didn't even have the money for the down payment but I took my mail from my previous house on this trip I just happened to be in the city and I opened it and there was a gift from one of my friends who I prophesied to and it was a seed for two thousand dollars and I laid down on this ground in front of the construction workers and I thank God for land that I couldn't afford for a house that had not been built and then I went up to the to the office where they sell the houses and I said that's my house what do I need they said well you need to do what is it called a deposit or an earnest money deposit I said how much is it $2,000 and I watched God and I watched God build a house with no money no credit and no hope and I walked my wife into that house I had that house built in Oh fine then I watch God again when we move when I moved to Atlanta he blessed me again showed up at the last minute through a supernatural series of miracles and then when I got married me and my wife were walking down the street and we we knew that we were going to have a child and we needed more room than the condo we were in and we were walking on the street called faith Avenue and I and I said I said if there's a house on this street with a door crap I'm going up to it that's gonna be our house and as we walked we walked past the house and I said wait a minute that door is cracked and we walked up and it was white folk in there so you know that had to be God cuz you know you don't just walk up on people's porches today and I knocked and the little girl said hi and I said it's your mommy or daddy home she said yes and the mother walked to the door she said hi how can I help you I said I want to buy your house how much money do we have in the account pot forty seven dollars and I remember she took us on a tour of the house and when it was over I said well right now I don't have the ability to just buy it outright we'd like to do at least purchase for a year she was like sure I didn't knock the door was open [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] here's the lesson I know what's happening right now but I'm not knocking there's an open door and we're gonna walk through the open door and we're gonna do so with honor as we go if the convergence of disciplined development and decision is the place called destiny and when it comes to your life your purpose your calling and the things that God has designed for you God has the final say I know that the thief on the cross looked over his life and said I don't know how I got here but everything in his life led him to Jesus no one ever talks about that they say he was a thief he went from walking with thieves to sitting with King my prayer for relentless church is that we will continue to do the great work of the kingdom that we will do so with honor and with integrity and with respect and if by chance people bring unnecessary things to you that you lovingly redirect them to the cross and let them know that we will not participate in anything that dishonours the church I am grateful and my wife is grateful for all the love and the kindness we do not need anyone to defend us or speak unkind things that's not our heart I am believing that when this is over and I believe very quickly oh yes I'm prophesying that we will be able to speak words of truth in a healing that will bring reconciliation and more than that those who are on the sidelines waiting to see how this turns out will be greatly disappointed when God gets the glory and for any non-believers who hear and see they will say you know what maybe I will stop by that church [Music] our concern must be for the souls of those who will come into the kingdom and that is where I in this message because I could have a ton of words but I am convinced that God has the final snow [Applause] the doors at the church Oh [Applause] did you hear what I said the doors of the church are open if you were here this morning and you would like to give your life to Jesus or you want to rededicate or you want to be a member of relentless church would you meet me at the front of this altar the doors of the church are open [Music]

Channel: Relentless Church

Views: 55,484

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Id: kiYNxSxMM78

Length: 42min 54sec (2574 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 11 2019