Their Faith | Joel Sims | City Light Church

so do hmm so hmm do so you me oh uh so he's done it before and you're no match for him i've seen him do the impossible so every giant you have to fall you can make me doubt him would have never made it this far without him you can't make me doubt him would have never made it this far without cause him know him way too well promises yes and amen are standing on every word he says so wind and waves you must be still he's never lost no and he never will see i've seen would have never made it this far without him you can't make me doubt and he has never let me down by the grace of god you can't take me you can make me down he has never let me down cause i know him you need no invitation this all belongs to you we're full of we're gonna see you move where two or more gathered there's power in the room you're all our hearts are after there's nothing you can't do to is opens up the door so we lift our voices louder faith is in the raised up a holy sound oh oh so we fill this room with praise is come on church sing us let everything with raise up a holy to oh oh hallelujah amen hallelujah who's excited to be here today this beautiful morning 10 15. did everybody have their coffee have their breakfast good for you guys i haven't yet but you know we're getting there oh hello guys my name is mimi i'm part of our youth ministry here at city light and we are so excited that you decided to join us this morning um before we go back into service we wanted to take a little moment to say hello to a very special guest of ours and it's our first time guest so we give it up for our first time guest thank you so much for deciding to be with us this sunday morning uh before uh not before we have before before uh you leave today we have an info card right in front of you where you can just write a little bit of your information we're not gonna do anything crazy with it we're just gonna call you in a few days maybe and just be like hey what's up come to city light this is cool and you'll get something free who likes free stuff i know i do you'll get a cup and a little i don't know friend on the side let's go let's give it up for our first second guest one more time and if you've been coming here for a few weeks and you've been checking out all our areas and you're like you know what this place feels like home you know what your next step is it's next steps let's go it's our online course here at city light where you can get to know our heart in seoul and you can own each and every one of our areas here and you get to decide where you want to be planted and after you take the course you'll get a call from one of our staff members here where we can know your story your heart and just get you plugged in amen amen so can i pray for you guys before we go back to worship amen lord we thank you so much for this morning we know and each and every one of us here are not here by accident i ask you for us to open up our ears to hear your word or open up our hearts lord because we're ready for this word today and open up our eyes to see your holy spirit lord i ask you in this moment lord that the word that you have given us lord it's it's not here by accident this word is going to transform us may we the way that we came here today lord may we not leave the same i ask you jesus name we pray amen so this is a house of worship this is a place of praise where every demon trembles where we proclaim your name this is a house of healing our hearts are full of faith you have the final say we bring everything to the feet of jesus everything in the name of jesus this is the house there's is your blood runs through our faces over in the name of jesus come alive in the name of jesus we bring everything in the name of jesus this is this is receive your fish god i receive your in the name of jesus come alive in the name of jesus this is oh let's see it one more time come on oh come on somebody lift up praise your god come on he's worthy hallelujah hallelujah come on somebody shout hallelujah praise the lord good morning good morning good morning good morning everybody happy everybody happy oh i'm so glad you're here this morning i believe you're in the right place at the right time i believe god has a word for you today this is the house of miracles that's what david said in psalm 122 i was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the lord he knew that amazing things happened when we gathered together amen and i'm believing for that in your life today answer to prayer breakthroughs wisdom ideas i just believe god's gonna speak he's gonna he's gonna talk right to your situation today online around the world wherever you're watching in the room god's gonna speak to us today in jesus name can i get a good amen amen amen all right before you're seated can you say hello to somebody around you come on smile real big welcome them to church welcome online everybody so glad you're watching we love you throw it in the chat let me know where you're watching from hey can i tell you some good news this morning not only are we in the room not only are we online not only are we streaming to the pando app to correctional facilities all around america but right now live we are streaming to the nevada department of corrections right now we love you guys oh come on city light make some noise let them know i just want to tell you uh my name is javen i love you you got a friend and uh i know that you know that john ponder loves you i want you to know that god loves you i want you to know city light church loves you that your greatest days are in front of you that god still has a plan for your life a plan for your family a plan for your future and we're so honored we're so honored that we get to bring city light church to you right where you're at and uh we're believing that god's gonna speak to you we believe there's no distance in god that what's happening in this room can happen right there where you're at as well we love you so much one more time come on church make some noise small groups are beginning small groups are beginning this week such a big week they're happening for our young people they're happening for there's groups for men there's groups for women there's groups online there's groups in person there's groups and houses there's groups in coffee shops there's groups okay there's groups happening all over we are a church of small groups we're not a church with small groups we're a church of small groups uh the expression of our church is that not only would we meet on a sunday and this is amazing but that we would also meet in groups together uh connecting in that way uh it's small groups are very if you're if you're new you're going what the heck is a small group it's a small group it's a smaller group of people that get together and we talk about the message from sunday uh we discuss how it spoke to our lives but even more importantly we get to meet people we eat together we laugh together we pray together we talk to together and i want to encourage you get out of your comfort zone and find a small group this semester here's how you do it you can text city light to 97 000. you can hit that little uh that little barcode on the seat back in front of you or behind you or if all that's too high tech for you just go out to the tent come say hi and we'll get you hooked up i know mimi welcomed you but i just want to say again if you're a guest i'm so honored that you're here please go out to the tent after we have a gift for you and we want to say hello to you we want to welcome you personally uh to god's house and welcome you to city light church and um glad you're here glad you're here anybody glad to be here anybody ready for the word of god this morning can i can i hear from you thank you team well we're going to be so blessed the 9 a.m was spectacular and i'm very fired up about this 10 15 and what god's going to do i have a dear friend with me today who's going to bring the word of god to you and i thought by the way last week i just want to honor pastor jared neiman i thought last week's word was so incredible praise god can we also thank god 99 people gave their life to jesus last week at city light church in the room it doesn't include online does it include children doesn't include throughout the week if people have streamed it and more people have gotten saved but 99 people in the room last week got born again and to god be the glory um today we have a dear friend uh with us he's a dear friend to me last year he actually preached here via video back in november and he preached on forgiveness it was so powerful that we had to turn it into a series and we ended up doing a series through november called let go because it was just such an on-time word and we we knew that we needed to continue the conversation and uh today pastor joel sims is back with us and he has got a word from heaven i want to tell you this too before just before he comes up tonight he'll preach a different message so come back tonight and um just be open to what god has for us tonight sunday nights are so unique we just kind of believe for the holy spirit to move in a unique way we're not rushed and tonight's going to be a miracle night so i do hope that you'll come back tonight to the 6 pm and be a part of what god is doing and come bring a praise and an offering for the raiders win on monday night amen come thank god for it praise the lord and so uh but anyway um he's a dear friend he's built an incredible church that i've been honored to visit in mississippi in the jackson area of mississippi and word of life church is just one of the greatest churches in america such an incredible preacher such a dear friend and i just asked him to come in the month of september i said you just speak to us i want to be here uh you know you have friends that you just they're godly they're excellent they're they're geniuses they're just god puts them in your life and they just absolutely bless your life and that's what joel is to me he's just a dear friend that has spoken into my life personally i'm so excited that he gets this speak into city light today so i want you to open your heart i want you to lean into god's word and i want you to believe that god's gonna speak to you in a supernatural way y'all ready for it come on jump up on your feet let's give a huge welcome to pastor joel sims as he comes to bring the word hey good morning church well we're so honored to be here with you you can be seated today uh you know i consider myself an unofficial member of city light and i i pray that this is the weekend that changes everything i might go to the to get my visitor gift whole nine yards uh and sign up because i listened to you guys every week and i was telling the first service uh that i feel bad because um i'm actually experiencing something i've never quite experienced before because in listening to city light every week i'm always if i'm honest just a little disappointed when pastor jabin's not preaching uh you know i don't know if you've ever felt that way before but i'm like yeah yeah i want to hear bastard javen like how many do you know you are blessed with one of the greatest voices of our generation your pastors here gosh uh so you know i was thinking this week actually this morning i'm like this week i have the the privilege of being my own disappointment because uh when i go back and look through the podcast i'll be like oh yeah there i am um so but we're honored to be here and uh truly sincerely humbled and you know i've pastured for about 20 years now which is hard to imagine my father passed away when i was 17. i took over the church that he started at 18 years old became the full-time pastor at 19. i don't know how it worked but it did and here we are and we are very thankful that god's grace is stained assert how many of you know god's grace can sustain you through anything uh no matter what tragedy may have happened in your life with satan meant for evil god can change it and turn it around for your good and before i get into the message i just want to echo what your your pastors and your church are saying in this season get in a group i and i know i when we started groups in our church i wasn't a believer you know i kind of did it because it just seemed like that's what you just do and like what you should be doing get people in community but i lived life alone for many years i didn't live life around wrong company i just live life with no company and was fine with it like me and my wife started a family at a very young age and we were great and we had many acquaintances but not many friends and so out of that you know lots of fines how many of you have lots of finds in your life why are you doing i'm fine uh but it's a lie you're not really fine but you just don't want to get intimate and transparent with somebody uh and so lots of acquaintances very few friends and i was reading the book of genesis one day and we were having life groups in the church and all those kinds of things and you know i talked about it but i was reading the book of genesis one day and i saw that the first thing that god said was not good like everything up to this point in scripture is like it's good and he's looking at chris good good good and then he gets to man and he watches him alone and it's the first not good in the history of scripture the first not good was not adam and eve for eating the forbidden fruit the first not good in scripture was god seeing that his son was alone you need community when judas fell he fell alone when peter fell he fell in a group that the only difference between judas and peter was one fell alone by himself look look throughout scripture uh when samson lost accountability when saul thrusts out every other person in his life the people who made it well david paul incredibly connected david had jonathan's and abigails and samuels and uh paul had you know multiple people he could call on timothy and you know john mark and like all of these other people he would write to aquila and priscilla and you name them incredibly connected and i want to ask you do you have those types of connections in your life and somebody said well i tried a group before and it just wasn't me well have you tried a restaurant before and it wasn't you did you give up on all restaurants like no you didn't give up on all restaurants uh so you you find uh you keep going to groups until you find your group but you need your group you need your tribe you need your people uh and it will require getting out of your comfort zone but that's where the best things of life always are you should never get out of your strength zone you should always get out of your comfort zone uh make yourself available open yourself up become a life group leader a connect group leader whatever it is that you call them uh here at city light like get in a group lead a group uh if you're you're playing basketball yeah i tell my and here's what the lord helped me with it's it's not about adding something new it's about adding something to so what i mean by that is find a group that you just naturally do that you have coffee go have coffee with a group and talk about service like add something to your life that's there but you need community we need each other how many of you know one can put a thousand a flight but two can put ten thousand whoa one to anybody who falls alone come on right like we need each other and i know it can be a little scary or maybe a little inconvenient but get in a group and at least try to find the right one and if you do i promise you you'll be glad you did and me and my wife are extraordinarily glad that we did we have friends all over the world now but even in our church men that i have just become very connected with and amazed at the quality of life it brings in fact just yesterday one of them texted me and said i need prayer i'm going through a really hard time and just wrestling with some depression and wrestling with some anxiety he's a president and his organization but he's got a friend that he can open up with and get prayer and get counsel and what if we had that how many of you know if all you do with the balloon is keep putting pressure in it but you never let any out of it eventually there'll be a tightness and then a pop and if you're sensitive to the tightness you'll uh avoid the consequence of the pop but if you are feeling the the tightness but you are not adjusting the pressure to get something out of you and not paint paying attention to the tension the tension is there but you're not paying attention to the tension you are numbing the tension instead of nourishing it oh come on somebody this is not even the message but we might just keep going in this direction uh how many of you know there's a difference between numbing and nourishment uh that netflix can numb you uh but then you you wake up from it and you don't feel better than when you started because it numbed the pain it didn't heal it though uh and so out of that um we we have to find uh these ways of paying attention to the tension noticing when we are in pain i'm so thankful of the awareness that now a generation is paying attention to emotional intelligence and emotional health i think previous generations and a lot of what my father wrestled with honestly he wouldn't have had to wrestle with that if he would have wrestled with it in the context of community and how many of you know a joy shared is doubled uh it's like if you it's one thing to go to disney world by yourself like you're only going to experience so much joy but you take a good friend or a child joy shared is doubled a pain shared is halved um and and so out of that we need we need people in our lives so that we can share our joys but we need people in our lives who can haves our pains uh and and out of that you need it um and anything that you need you have to fight for anything that's bad for you comes easily right you know if it's bad for you it comes easily to you anything that truly heals you or nourishes you you have to be like the woman with the issue of blood who number one knows she has an issue number two will press through anything to get to healing and number three when she gets there will stretch forth her hand so you've got to come to a place where you know i've got an issue and it's not getting better in fact it's getting worse and i'm going to pay attention to the tension and i'm getting out of my house oh come on somebody i'm getting out of my house i need to get into community uh and so i will exit my house if need be and i will press through some things and maybe in this season you're gonna have to press through uh some things maybe there's some relationships that did hurt you um uh maybe there were some friends who did betray you maybe you've tried it before and it didn't work and you have to press through that discouragement press through those thoughts and press through those fears press through those insecurities maybe you'll have to press through all those things but press through it and then you're going to have to make a decision to stretch forth your hand actually attend the group and when you get in there i have a group outside the group where you begin to even begin to dive in deeper into a community jesus had a group of 12 and out of that group of 12 he found three that he went further with the bible says he went a little farther with them and he showed a part of himself to them that the twelve did not see you remember the transfiguration he comes up to a mountain and he shows a part of himself that he didn't show to everybody else and so it may start off with a group and then out of that you find a connection and then out of that you show a part of yourself that you're not showing everyone else because it's safe and then all of a sudden life begins to heal and life begins to be free and life begins to to be beautiful god designed life to be beautiful he designed romance and laughter and friendship and joy and out of that we have taught so long on avoiding bad company that we have a whole lot of people with no company and i'm telling you nobody is just as bad as the wrong body because everybody needs got somebody make up your mind uh to get in the context of community we all need it i need it you need it and i want to encourage you find a group extend yourself and i know at this church because i like i said i listen every week we come a little early we stay a little late we get involved uh and that's a wonderful thing but even outside of that if you are only feeding your spirit uh one snack a a week and one meal a week and feeding your body three times a day um i i would wonder how strong of a spirit that would be and and we need more uh we need more we need church but we need the community that can be found in church the disciplines that are found in church and i really just want to echo that and say get in a group like sign up today scan the barcode go to the tent and find your people um you know i i find this very interesting and like i said this is honestly not the message but how many of you know sometimes what's not the message is the message uh and um you know we need a strong your faith um like your faith has made you whole was a common phrase that jesus used your faith you needed your faith you need to know how what david did to encourage yourself with the lord when no one else is there in fact everyone else wants to stone you like you need a a moment of your faith that is big enough to be like you know what i don't even need the worship team today i'm going to encourage myself and the lord like you need your faith where you stand up and you have strong conviction but not only do you need your faith you need a their faith there was a man in scripture who wrestled with an issue for 38 years he could not move his legs and the worst thing about this man's condition was this he could sense the stirring of the waters he knew there was a miracle but he could never get in it so i don't know what's worse to have an issue for 38 years and it go unfixed or to have the issue for 38 years but to have the hope that it could be and so you're not only dealing with the pain of a broken leg and a broken body but you're dealing with the pain of a broken heart and jesus came up to this man he asked him a very interesting question you remember the question they asked him you remember what he asked him do you want to get well now that's a question and do you really want to get well uh and the man i preached a message on this at my church called lame excuses uh because he was lame and he made excuses i was so out of this uh he said this is interesting to me and i never really thought about it in this context until now but he said this he said i have no man who can put me in i have nobody in my life who can pick me up and put me in i can sense a miracle i know it's there i know there's freedom i know life doesn't have to be this way i feel a stirring i sense it can change i believe it can be there but i have no man and every time i try to do this by myself i miss my miracle every time every time i try to do this myself i miss the miracle every time and year after year i still sense the stirring i'm still in the service where they're talking about the stirring i still sense in my heart an abundance of rain like i'm praying and i sense god can do something i know he can i'm just not seeing it in my life because i have no man to put me in there's another guy in scripture with the exact same condition you remember this guy sick of palsy just like this other guy was difference in this guy's life is he had four friends same issue for friends and when they heard of jesus they picked him up and said we will not allow you to stay in this condition we will not just allow you to sense a miracle hear about a miracle know that god's a god of miracles we will not stop until you see a miracle and healing come in your life and they picked him up because how many of you know sometimes you need somebody who can pick you up and not just an uber ride like your soul is downcast and out of this you know you need a breath of fresh air and you need some people in your life who've been like no and you're not fine like how are you fine like stop lying you're not fine you're not okay like if we don't admit these things and and bring truth to them we're still bound uh 95 truth with five percent lie is still bondage and this is why we don't have freedom because we're too afraid to tell the truth we're still like adam in the garden wanting to hide our nakedness before god and before others he didn't want eve to see him and he didn't want god to see him so he walked around covering himself not really not letting anybody see his issues anybody to see his shame anyone to fill his insecurities and he lived this way because as satan knew that this was what god wanted as god wanted man to not be alone that him being alone was not good and so satan sought to attack the very thing that god wanted to give adam and that was a relationship with him and a relationship with someone else so after sin without anyone telling him he was naked you remember god asked him he said who told you that he said no one no one told him that it was the own shame in him that made him see now there's a part of me i need to hide from eve and there's a part of me that i need to have hide from god anybody ever watch shirak any shrek fans in the house i saw a rugrats shirt uh on the drummer i'm like that blessed me a child of the 90s uh so shrek you remember in shrek uh the onion he's like people are like onions we have layers yeah some of you have watched right they have layers and did you know that that's true that there's a part of me uh that you only see you see my sunday morning me ah and that's true you do and i i try to make it uh decent uh you know and that kind of thing and honestly there's a measure of pride in me that always wants to be um good i don't if you've ever faced that as a communicator there's that measure of wanting to be impressive uh and so we we try to look our best and act our best and prepare our best and then god makes us incredibly insecure by taking us entirely away from our notes um there is a part of us so there's a part of us that you know you will see and then there's that next level that i have some acquaintances people who know me a little bit better so like pastor jabin will know me a little bit more than maybe some of you in here we've shared a little bit more conversations and that type of thing and there's that next layer that pastor jabin doesn't see but then like i might have some other people who know me a little bit more and then there's a layer that my mom has seen and we won't talk about that and then a layer that my wife and my children have seen and then there's a layer of me that only the lord has seen oh come on somebody uh anybody else in the room have a layer um but what happens is is we we deal with still trying to put on this robe to hide our wounds and we make everyone else the scapegoat uh and these types of things uh it's very interesting after adam tried to hide himself the lord came and said you did okay with that covering but we need to actually take that off and i need to see you and so does eve and then i need to make a sacrifice a scapegoat someone who can die for your faults and failures and instead of you being covered by something you concocted in your own mind and with your own hands let me cover you with something that died for you and ever since then mans try to look for a scapegoat i'm someone else who will pay the price for their sins so it wasn't me it was them if i didn't have that in my childhood if i didn't have that happen to me if they didn't walk out on me like that because we always seek it's in our nature to find a scapegoat and we begin blaming a lot of times people and places and events and placing the blame of our sin on them and letting them pay the price for our sins and we push these things because you know the scapegoat would die and then they would throw the the sin lamb out of the camp and when that lamb would leave in the old testament he would leave with the sin and so often times we try to put the blame of all of our sins on all these other people and we steadily one by one eliminate them from our lives because if you didn't talk to me that way i wouldn't have talked to you that way and so you're actually the reason for my sin you're the scapegoat let my sin be on you but uh the consequence of this is one we're not walking in true freedom because we're going back to adam's leaves instead of going back to the true measure of god which was being covered by something that died for us and a robe of righteousness but the second consequence of this is we steadily but surely have less and less people who are close to us because there is a measure of truth that there are some people who if they wouldn't have said that done that acted that way or not acted that way not been present which is very interesting i read a book on fatherhood this week what time is it okay i read a book got 11 minutes read a book on fatherhood uh this week and one of the main things that was was very interesting about people who said they had good fathers i was expecting it to talk about more about love and fun and they asked these people did you have a good father and they're like yes they asked other people did you have a good father they said no and then they wanted to go deeper and ask why did you have a good father or why did you not have a good father and the ones who said they had a good father said that their father the the number one characteristic they used for a good father this is interesting was there the second characteristic was teacher had something to do with teaching they taught me how to ride a bike taught me how to swing a baseball bat that type of thing the third characteristic was love but it only got like two of the votes and the last one was fun and it's very interesting to me of like how high we try to raise the standard in our own lives of like you need to be a loving and fun father which is true we need to be loving and fun fathers and we should strive for that uh but did you know uh you know i know so many of us are trying to be something that we never saw and how many of you know we need more grace for each other because it's very hard to be something you've never seen like it's very hard uh to never have seen it and be told to be it um it's easier to imitate wear this strive for this but it's like uh you know here's a style that you've never seen before craft didn't wear it on sunday it's like i don't even know where to start and that's so many with fatherhood that we've taken the bar and we've made it so high and it's you've got to be a fun father and you've got to be a loving father you know and all these things and that's good it should be strong for but did you know that there matters more than anything just showing up i found that with the gym right it's like did you work out today did you have a good workout today i showed up today like that was a victory in and of itself showing up is the win uh so you know out of these things uh a lot of that's with fatherhood but so many of our issues is we really have had people who weren't there and that was their biggest sin and so there is some truth in that that out of that if they had been there we wouldn't be acting this way and so in the natural there does seem like a part of my sin does need to be on them because if they would have been there i wouldn't have acted that way and jesus would come to us and he would just say i think very gently and sweet sweetly is can i be your scapegoat can i be your scapegoat close with this if we can get some keys i think that would help sometimes keys really help uh you know right like you're there and it's like they they start talking and it's like the music plays and it's like ah that helps uh we'll close with this and and go into the the altar call but i think jesus would come to us and say just that could i be your scapegoat today could you stop blaming everyone else for your sin and your actions and your hurts and your pains and your hang ups i've had no man a paralytic said making an excuse for why he hadn't seen freedom i have no man nobody no person not seeing jesus in front of him and the master the healer right in front of him and he's still looking at the people he did not have why are you here no man they weren't there and jesus is like but i'm here and today like i know some of you are wrestling with things not working out the way that you thought they would and people not being the people you thought they would be and some of that betrayal is so heavy on our hearts because like david said if it was an enemy i could have bore it but someone that close to me who hurt me that badly you become like saul where it's like even the people who are in my life who really love me i don't even know why i'm doing it but i'm picking up spears and i'm throwing them at them and it's like why am i sabotaging these relationships like why do i keep going to like all these other churches and trying to find all these other friends and then even when i get in a church why am i living so fake within the context of community that god is providing me and then finding myself being a little judgmental and i think jesus would say i'll show you why it's because the only person who was ever designed to be your scapegoat was not john or joel or jeff or jaben or shannon or stephanie all of these people have feet of play every one of them but you need to take that sin off of them and you need to look before me and and see jesus as the author and the finisher of your faith that i took your sin on myself so that you could walk free from that sin and it's time for healing and you know how you're going to find that healing they will lay hands on the sick and the sick shall be made whole they will lay hands is someone close enough to touch you i want healing they will lay hands on the same as someone have you allowed someone and well i guess i should say are you willing to allow someone to be the hands and feet of jesus in your life to overlook their feet of clay and to come into a context of true community this and what we do with with churches for groups it is not uh something that is is cute uh and those things it is it is something that is wonderfully and beautifully necessary that we cannot forsake the assembly of ourselves together this other paralytic had a guy who had four actually four crazy faith friends and you i know you've heard this preach before everybody in their life needs four crazy faith friends uh who will pick you up and take you to jesus but it's true you do and what i love about this man is he had enough conviction in his heart to allow these four men to pick him up and then insecure in his insecurity knowing he cannot walk to be willing to be carried four season you can't get there and i i get emotional because i i preach for burden and i just send so many people like you haven't been able to get there whereas they're happy it's like you have no legs to walk on and for a season you need to be carried don't worry jesus is going to heal your legs but for a season you need to be carried you need some people who can lay their hands on you and give you life and they carried this man to where jesus was in the house it was so thick that they couldn't get in but they would not be denied they're going to get their friend to jesus and so they they drug him up on top of a house i can't imagine how much labor this was to take a full grown man and to lift him without the aid of all the things we have now ladders and whatnot to the top of a house and then they tore the roof off the house and placed the man in front of jesus and the bible says that jesus looked up and it says he saw their faith because i'm telling you today you need a your faith you need a moment where you stand and you worship and you praise and you fight through the tears and you encourage your own self and the lord and good private devotionals and moments where you drag yourself to church and moments where you just make it happen and you pull through you need a your faith because your faith can make you whole but i'm telling you today too you need their faith because they're going to be sometimes you don't have the legs underneath you to run where you need to run to and for a season you need to be carried by some people that you not only need to pray with them you have some people who are praying for you and like genuinely praying for you and where are you going to find that if not here with this tribe with his crew with his family with his church so stretch forth your hand open up your life get some friendships laugh again be transparent again and wait till it's safe wait till it's safe you'll know when it is but let's heal let's nourish and not just numb let's not just sense a stirring when we come into this church but let's actually let it be a house of miracles how they will lay hands on the sick and the sick they will recover you will you will recover let me pray for you father we thank you in the name of jesus that your people they will recover they will mount up with wings as eagles they will walk and they will not grow weary they will run and they will not faint father we thank you in jesus name that they be are being carried on eagle's wings today and father i just thank you for a fresh filling of your holy spirit i i thank you father for a new community and life being formed and developed in their life let people find friends that people walk in the context of community let us not forsake the assembly of ourselves together my head's still bowed and i still closed if you're here and you say pastor joel i want to surrender my life to jesus today this could be for the first time or are there been many times in my life where a message spoke to me or the holy spirit was speaking to me and i knew i needed to take a step towards him with some open sign of surrender and some of you have focused so much on perfection that you have forgotten that that is not what god wants from you he does not want your perfection if you could be perfect you wouldn't need jesus what he wants is your surrender quit trying to be the hero of your story and let jesus be if you're here and you need to let jesus be the hero you need a saving today could be from something could be from hell could be from depression could be from worry and fear but you need a saving today and you want to invite jesus in your life in a fresh and a new way every head is bound every eyes closed if that's you would you lift up your hand all over this place hands going up hey man anybody else hands going up amazing amazing amazing anybody else hands i see them god bless you thank you lord jesus let's all pray this prayer together just repeat it after me say dear heavenly father i thank you in jesus name my past it is behind me and father i thank you a new day is starting right now jesus i lay all of my mistakes all of my sins all of my failures over upon you and father i thank you that you give me peace forgiveness and mercy father my best days are starting right now and i thank you lord for it in jesus name amen and amen let's give it up today for everybody who made a decision oh come on church let's give it up for everybody that made a decision we love you guys thank you so much that's amazing come on let's thank god for that word let's sing pastor joel come on you can do better than that amazing none of that was planned he preached a totally different message in the nine that was unbelievable that was incredible i need to start doing that i'm tired of my notes wow all right well you got your words so if you don't join a small group i don't even know what to say i legit don't know what to say wow hey if you just gave your life to christ i heard the tent got moved inside because of the wind so there's somewhere in the lobby area if you're new come say hi to us if you gave your life to christ today we've got a book for you call following jesus and i even know uh for the correctional facility right now john you can help us with that but we'll get following jesus books and bibles and everything we need for all of you guys as well so let us know about that i know people are giving their life to christ not only in the room online and uh and so we're so grateful for that but if you are a guest please go say hi to us after we'd love to say hello to you i just i want to give you the opportunity to give quickly 2nd corinthians chapter 9 verse 7 each of you must give as he has decided in his heart not reluctantly or under compulsion for god loves a cheerful giver and god is able god is able everyone say god is able check this out and god is able to make all grace abound to you now paul gives us a bible promise this is a promise and sometimes when we share a promise around giving people will accuse especially here at city light people get really frustrated with me and say hey it sounds like you're saying we we give to get it sounds like you're saying if we give god's gonna do this and if we give god's gonna bless you well i didn't say anything but the bible says that if you give he will make all grace abound to you now i'm not saying what that is here's what i'm saying though for every person that there is a promise there is a blessing in our generosity and we don't give to get we give to give again we give because it's a blessing to give we give because as we give god does bless us and then we get to even give more but here's here's the promise of god all grace what do you need there's a grace for it what are you believing god for there's a grace for it what do you what are you trusting god for there's a grace for it and the bible says it as we give he'll make all grace abound to us so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times man i would love for us to live right there i've got all things at all times again we're not we're not promising um a certain level of finances but having everything you need at the time that you need it isn't that a great place to live that's where i want to live that you may abandon every good work that means that when there's a need that arises when a good work arises when there's ministry that's available to join into we get to join into it because we have all that we need all the time abounding in every good work so i want you to believe god for blessing i want you to believe god for answering prayer i want you to believe god for all grace as you give and i want to thank you for giving by the grace of god we just in in the month of august the holy spirit just really led us to give uh really generously to a lot of different organizations and uh in the month of august we gave 50 000 away to missions in the month of august isn't that amazing that's now that's not our tithe uh we we give 10 away to missions that's way above our tithe way i wish 50 000 was our tithe that would be amazing praise the lord amen that day will come uh that is way over our tie that we gave away to a lot of different ministries and partners there were so many needs happening through the month of august from hurricane ida to afghanistan to i mean just different things that arose and we were able to give so you you were just over the top and uh and god made sure that we had all things all the time so that we could abound in every good work isn't that amazing that we were able to do that we didn't receive one special offering i'd ever pressured anyone to give but as the as the holy spirit was leading us as a leadership team we were able to sow so thank you for doing that thank you for being a part of that and i'm believing that god's not only going to bless this house for that but he's gonna bless your house amen all right so uh again ten is inside so go meet us at the lobby small groups are happening tonight's gonna be a very special night i hope you'll come back tonight let's just have church and let's see what god will do but let me speak a blessing over he's wanting to jump up on your feet i want to speak this word over you from the book of numbers why don't we all lift our hands together may the lord bless you and keep you may the lord make his face to shine on you may the lord be gracious to you may the lord turn his face toward you and may he give you his peace i declare the blessing of the lord upon you your family and your future father i thank you for open doors i thank you for miracle answers to prayer i thank you for wisdom and insight i thank you for direction and clarity and i thank you lord for community i pray that even this week as we begin to join small groups and get connected that you would just breathe on this and we would we would sense your presence in your favor your direction connecting us to the right people at the right time in jesus mighty name everyone said amen amen love you church hope we'll see tonight so my me okay oh so thank you hmm this me you

Channel: City Light

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Id: bxHsNirhSMY

Length: 32min 43sec (1963 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021