Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/dojc/sermons/79033/the-king-has-another-move/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] It's good to be in Houston. I don't know, is it pronounced Houston or Houston, Houston, California. I'd never heard of Houston, California before. I know that surprised you, but I never heard of it.

[0:12] But it doesn't mean that God hadn't heard of Houston, right? I mean, sometimes we think that, you know, no one's ever heard of this place. It's not on the map, but I'm telling you, it's always been on the map for God.

[0:25] God knew exactly where we would be, at what time He knew who would be in this house. And I believe that God wants to do something in this place today. I really do, and I'm so thankful to be in the house here with Brother Eccles and his family.

[0:39] I'm so thankful for the presence of God. I feel Him in this house today. You know why I know I feel Him? Because the Word of God says that He inhabits the praises of His people.

[0:50] As we started praying and as we started worshiping, as we started sending up a hallelujah, guess who showed up? God started to show up. Let's have you be seated just for a few moments today.

[1:02] As Pastor said, my family and I, we actually have been missionaries, started this missionary journey in 2020. There's better times to start missions than in 2020.

[1:14] There's probably a better time to start a church than in 2020. But, you know, there's a lot of things that could happen in that time period, but, you know, it didn't scare us off. We were actually in Africa at that time, and we felt the call even more after we got back home.

[1:29] We were just trying to figure out how to get back overseas. We worked our public jobs. My wife is a pediatric nurse practitioner, and she has been for over, I think, nearly 13 years. And I worked in construction.

[1:41] I worked in oil and gas, and then I ran my own construction company, and God had blessed us. But God started dealing with our hearts about going overseas. And I thought it was too big.

[1:52] I thought I was just a normal guy. Maybe some of you are here, say, I'm too normal. You know, I'm just too, you know, I'm just a regular person. I like to laugh. I don't know if God can use people that can laugh, you know.

[2:03] But I'll tell you, God does have a sense of humor. And He does. And if He didn't, then I don't think He would have created me. But I'm thankful that God doesn't ask for permission on who He wants to use in these last days.

[2:17] Some of you guys will discredit and say, oh, I don't know if God could ever use me. No. He's here to make us all disciples. I believe that's why it's disciples of Jesus Christ. We want to be disciples of Him, but guess what?

[2:29] But disciples doesn't mean just following Jesus Christ because after the time that you're out by yourself and Jesus is gone from you from that very moment per se, you're supposed to be able to reach others and do a multiplication.

[2:42] I believe that that can happen even here in Houston. I really do. I don't think God cares about where we're at. He's looking for vessels. The harvest is ready and ready to be filled.

[2:53] And I think that we need to go out and look and pray and see who God can put upon our hearts so maybe we can invite the church next week or maybe they won't come into a normal church setting.

[3:03] Maybe you can have them over for dinner and just share the love of God. You don't even have to start teaching a Bible study. But all of us have Bible. We all have testimonies.

[3:14] Every one of us, God has done something in our life that we can be able to share. And the Word of God would say, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. So my wife and I, we're sharing our testimonies as we go and travel.

[3:28] But, you know, I share it with those when we go overseas. And we're going to share it in French Polynesia. The French Polynesia, the group of the islands there, there's 121 to 117 islands, a pendant of what you call an island.

[3:42] But there's only 311,000 people that live there. Over 75 different islands. And if you put all those islands over a map of Europe, it would stretch from France all the way to Russia.

[3:54] Just little pepper flakes in the middle of the ocean. But you know what? I know the islands there may be beautiful. I know Tahiti sounds luxurious and sounds like everyone wants to go there.

[4:06] But you know what? Just because everyone wants to go there doesn't mean someone shouldn't go there. You know, you can feel guilty about where you're going. You can feel like, oh, God, I don't know. This sounds too good to be true.

[4:17] You know what? Funny thing is I'm not a big fish guy. I like to fish, but I don't want to eat the fish. And, you know, that's just me. And I'm jealous that you guys are going on a fishing trip. And my son is sure would be jealous.

[4:28] It's true. We've been talking about rainbow trout the other day. And we would love to be going fishing. But we are called to be fishers of men. And that's what we're going to do in French Polynesia. We're going to share the gospel.

[4:39] Because in Revelation chapter 7 verse 9, it said that there I looked before me. There was a great multitude that no one could count. From every nation, tribe, people, language standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

[4:52] And in order for us to see people from every nation, tribe, and tongue in heaven, we've got to reach them. And some of you guys have a different talent pool or different people group that you could reach that I can't reach.

[5:04] And I like what I look at in this church today. We're not all look the same. We have some people from different backgrounds. And we have people that don't look or maybe even speak different languages than I speak.

[5:15] And you know what? That's great. Because that's just a little bit of taste of heaven. Because that's what heaven's going to be. You're going to hear an uproarious shout of hallelujahs. And you're going to hear, holy, holy, holy, Lord, God Almighty who was and is and is to come.

[5:28] But we feel that God needs to reach these people we believe. And we're traveling from church to church. We've traveled over 50,000 miles in the last 13 months.

[5:39] I believe my wife's last count was 33 states or provinces that we've gone to. And as much fun as that sounds, it's not as fun as it sounds. It sounds great.

[5:50] I packed on some weight. And my wife will tell you she's probably packed on maybe one or two pounds. And she's trying to lose some now. And she's trying to probably help me to lose some. But you know what?

[6:01] Some things we don't know why it takes as long as it takes. Sometimes we don't even know why we're in certain places at certain times and certain places. I'll be honest with you. Up until I think this week, me and Brother Echols, we just connected this week.

[6:15] And God opened the door to allow us to be here today. But I don't think it's by accident. I think God already knew. He already knows the end from the beginning. He knows who was going to be here in this service.

[6:26] He knew that Brother Oscar, there's some family members that had to go work tonight. And you know what? He knew it. But it doesn't mean that you can't go home and share what you hear in the message tonight and say, hey, you should have been there.

[6:40] And you should have heard the Word of God. And I believe just because it's raised my level of faith, I want to share what God is going to do. And you can pray for someone. It doesn't always have to be the man of God.

[6:53] There's going to be sometimes pastors not going to be there. And someone's going to say, will you pray with me? And I'm like, ah, sure. You know, when we were overseas, I was a Bible school teacher. And I tried to help teach people.

[7:06] And I was in a class in Africa. And I was in this class. And God, I always started out with prayer, just like we do in church. It's a great thing to start everything out with prayer.

[7:18] If you get an opportunity every morning, you should start with praying. Because, you know, you start praying for protection and guidance and direction first thing in the morning. That's so much better to do it that way than have to wait at the end of the day and start repenting for everything that you wish God would have kept you from.

[7:33] But so we started out prayer. And I started feeling boldness. And I started asking for prayer requests. There's a man that had, he said, I'm getting a sickness over my body.

[7:44] He said, I think I'm getting malaria. He said, I need someone to pray with me. I said, okay, we can pray for that. And then someone else raises their hand. We only had like six people in this class, on this night class. And another guy raises his hand.

[7:55] Hey, I need to feel a touch from God. I want to feel his presence like I've never felt before. And I said, oh, we definitely can pray for that. And then I got an old man sitting on the front row.

[8:07] And he's like, oh, I need someone to pray for my equipment. I have a business. And they said that all my equipment has been lost in a terrible semi-truck accident. And it's not going to be here.

[8:18] And I'm not going to be able to use it. And I'm like, oh, I don't know how to pray for that. I never prayed for machinery or equipment. But you know what? I said, okay, God, I want to pray that everything's okay. But if it's not okay, give him a return on investment to the dollar or cents so close that you could show him that this is the hand of God.

[8:37] And, you know, we prayed and we had a great move of the Holy Ghost in the class. We didn't even teach class. Thank God. They didn't have to hear me teach. And you know what? We left the class. We felt great.

[8:47] And everyone walked out. I didn't know what was going to happen. I showed up to class the next class. And people started coming in. And I saw the guy that said he felt like he was sick with malaria.

[9:00] But I didn't even recognize who he was. I said, who was that guy that said that he was getting malaria? Is he here? Because I was just the new teacher. And I didn't know all my students yet. And he's like, oh, pastor, that was me.

[9:13] I mean, I'm telling you. He's like, I don't have malaria. I went home that night. I went to bed. I had the best sleep of my life. And I woke up. I've never felt this good in my life. I said, oh, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.

[9:24] Then the guy that walks in saying he wanted a touch from God, he came in there. He had a Holy Ghost glow about him. He had a smile from ear to ear. He's like, oh, thank you, pastor. I went to church on Sunday.

[9:34] And I felt God all over me. And he's touching me. He's moving me. And he's opening up doors for me. And he just was so good. Now, the old man came in. You know, I was nervous.

[9:46] I was like, God. The enemy's like, oh, yeah, you ask him what happened for him. I'm like, oh, I don't know. But for some reason, I just went ahead and asked him. I said, hey, bro, so what's going on with your equipment? He said, oh, pastor, you won't believe it.

[9:59] He said, I got a word that the equipment came in. So I came and looked at the equipment. And everything worked perfectly. There was no damage, no destruction. I don't know what report they had.

[10:09] But everything came in just as it was supposed to. I didn't lose anything. And I'm telling you, I give God the glory. I'm telling you, it sounds crazy on some of the requests for God to do some things in your life.

[10:19] But I'm telling you, if you believe today, if we can believe in Mark 9, verse 23, it says, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to those who believe.

[10:34] If you can believe for it, I'm telling you, God can do it. Even so much, even more than that, it goes on in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 20, that he's able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above anything that you could think or ask.

[10:50] If you can think it. How many can think of some crazy things? I'm telling you, I think of some crazy things out there. I can think of some huge things. God can do that.

[11:01] But not only that, exceedingly, abundantly, above, according to the power that worketh in us. If we have the Holy Ghost, we have the power to see those things happen and come to fruition. Don't limit God by your thinking today.

[11:15] I want to encourage someone, don't limit God for what you understand or what you've seen has happened already. Okay? Because then you only can put it in a box and you say, okay, I believe for this much.

[11:29] It's easy for you to believe for the things you have seen, but it's harder to believe for things that you haven't seen or things you haven't heard. Now, maybe I've increased your faith that you believe that God can heal today, that someone can be healed of malaria.

[11:41] Maybe. And because you heard it, you've seen it. But whatever comes your way, when you have situations in your life that you're facing today, you need to believe that God can do the impossible.

[11:52] I'm telling you, God could use someone in this house today to start a mighty revival here in Houston. I really believe it. I was a Bible school teacher in Fiji as well. And when I was there, I was there for nearly two years, and I had a ragtag group of men.

[12:07] I had a guy that was in a psychiatric hospital. I had a guy that was in prison. These are former in my Bible school now. I have a guy that was a drug dealer, a guy that had a kava farm. I had a couple drunks and people that are physically and emotionally abused.

[12:20] And those are my students. And God said, hey, I can see all that, and I can use those people. God doesn't need our permission on who we can use. Now, we might look nice today.

[12:31] We might have our ties tied straight, and we might have our jackets on, and we might look good. But the Bible says, and such were some of us. Some of us had some hiccups and giddy-ups and some problems in our lives.

[12:42] But God can turn our life around. God can take what we were going to one direction, and he could turn us to another direction toward him. And he said, I can use that. If he's willing, if he believes, I can use that.

[12:53] Well, there's a guy that was in Bible school that was a drunk. And on a Sunday morning, he was stumbling around drunk, walking by a bus stop. And an old man that used to go to one of our churches no longer went to a church at all.

[13:07] He sees the state of this young man being drunk. He said, you need to find the way to this church up the road. And young Noah, he finds the way to church, and he repents of his sins, and he gets baptized in Jesus' name.

[13:21] And he was filled with the Holy Ghost, and he felt a call to go to Bible school. He said, and then he starts learning. He said, I can't just keep this stuff for myself. I've got to share what I've been learning and what my pastor's been teaching and what the school professors have been teaching me.

[13:37] I've got to share the good news with someone else. He was at home, and he started doing a Bible study. And maybe he felt nervous. He might have been scared. How many of us are scared sometimes when we have to teach a Bible study?

[13:49] I'll be honest. Because sometimes we don't have all the answers, right? You know, if you don't have all the answers, you're in good company. Because that's me. I don't know all the answers.

[14:00] But guess what you can say? Hey, I don't have an answer for you on that subject today, and we'll probably get to it later on. But let me pray about it, and we'll get back. And let me do some research, and I'll get back with you for the next class.

[14:12] But for now, we're going to move the Bible study on. Don't be intimidated. The enemy would like to lock our hands and keep us in the same spot where we always have been, and say, oh, you can't do that.

[14:23] And we sometimes believe the lie of the devil. But what if we would say, hey, God, unlock the handcuffs on me. I know that I don't know everything. And you can even share that with them before you start the Bible study.

[14:34] But let me share with you what I do know. Well, Brother Noah, he started teaching that Bible study. And lo and behold, word got about how big the Bible study started growing. In a short period of time, he's seen over 30 people in that home Bible study, repent of their sins, be baptized in the only saving name of Jesus Christ, and filled with the Holy Ghost.

[14:54] I'm telling somebody today, if he can use a Noah in a little island called Viti Labu, Fiji, he can use any one of us in this house today. I'm telling you, he's no respecter of persons.

[15:06] He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And I'm telling you, if he did it before, he can do it again. I believe that today. I really do.

[15:18] Sometimes you're living for the God. And we're all trying to live for God or we wouldn't be here today. And we could have been somewhere else today. It doesn't mean that there's not going to be problems or situations that come in our way.

[15:31] My little girl, Nora, she's faced some problems. One of which, a few years ago, we were on the other side of the island and ministering in the Nandy area. And she got her hand caught behind a solid wood door.

[15:44] It snipped off the whole knuckle on her fourth digit. And only the fingerprint side of her finger was holding on. And it was dangling there. And my wife, the nurse practitioner, that's spoken on five different continents, that's written a book, comes running to me and said, we need to go to the hospital.

[16:01] I said, what? As the baby's screaming and everything's going crazy, he says, we need to go to the hospital. And I'm thinking, you are the hospital. We're in a third world country. You know everything that there's to know.

[16:13] I don't know anything. And now you're coming to me and telling me you need to go to a hospital. In Fiji, let me just enlighten you today. Fiji, you don't go to the hospital to get better. People don't.

[16:25] You go to the hospital to die. It's unfortunate, but we've heard of people that had asthma attacks. And they get through the asthma attack and they sleep there overnight. And they pass away in the morning because there was another asthma attack that no one found.

[16:38] They don't have monitors. They don't have things to be able to take care of you and check with you. It's very, very sad. And if you miss on some things, we ask people, why did they die? Well, we don't know.

[16:49] They just died. It's crazy. But we're going to that place for our child. Lord, the first hospital, my wife showed up. They said, we have no doctors. And then she had to go to another hospital.

[17:02] And as she arrives to this next hospital, she sees a big old man that sits down in a chair. And you had to bring your kid to them barefoot. No shoes, no socks, no problem.

[17:13] And that's for the doctor that you went to their hospital to go see him. And I think my wife got a little nervous and she started figuring out what can I do. She was probably thinking about catching a flight to New Zealand or Australia.

[17:26] But she called her old hospital where she worked at and talked to the on-call people and asked them to talk to the pediatric hand surgeon that was on call that day. And they started talking to her.

[17:37] She said, I'm in Fiji. She says, where? She says, I'm in Fiji. I know this is not the proper use of this line, but I need help. You're going to do some crazy things when you need help. You're going to push the boundaries on some rules and some situations that say, hey, I'm in a dire situation.

[17:53] I need help today. And that's what she did. And lo and behold, the doctor starts talking to her and telling her what to do. And as that process is going on, the doctor said, I want to reassure you that over 90% of these will heal miraculously on their own.

[18:09] And my wife invoked the name of Jesus and said, in Jesus' name. Now, this doctor wasn't a believer. She probably thought my wife was half crazy when she said, in Jesus' name. But I'm telling you, when someone speaks a positive word that lines up with the word of God and speaks the word of truth, you just go ahead and say, in Jesus' name.

[18:27] There's power in the name of Jesus. I'm telling you, he's as close as the mention of that name today. So when she spoke the name, she started bringing faith into that situation.

[18:39] They wrapped that hand up. It was like a mitten. And you couldn't see what was going on. And they put a popsicle stick, hold it, secured it. We had to check to make sure that there was blood flow in that finger that night.

[18:50] And then we could not see it for two weeks. Man, the enemy will attack your mind in the middle of your storm, in the middle of your valley. You're like, man, God, what is going on?

[19:01] The enemy's saying, hey, I thought you were called of God to be here. Well, why would God allow that to happen to you, your family? Oh, what is your mom going to say? What is your father-in-law going to say? He starts putting all these negative thoughts in your mind.

[19:13] And you're like, oh, my goodness, you're overwhelming you. And I didn't know which way to turn left or to right. And I'm like, man, God, I need a word from you. It's all right to need a word from God sometimes.

[19:24] It's all right to go to a prayer and say, God, I need to know that I am doing what you want me to do. I need to know that you are for me and that you are with me. And I just need a word, a confirmation.

[19:35] And there's a story in the book of Ezekiel. It talks about a valley of dry bones and how God put the bones all back together, made a mighty army. And God told me, if I can put the bones back together at the valley of dry bones, then I can put a little fingertip back on a little girl's hand.

[19:52] And I said, okay, God, I have no reason to doubt you. If he's already done the greater, he can do the lesser. If he's already given you a job, guess what? He can give you a pay raise on that job.

[20:03] If he's already provided something even better than that, he can do the easier. If you've seen him work a miracle in your life, guess what? He can do the easier. It's very simple for God.

[20:16] And you know what's interesting? So I go and I had to preach. And as I said, God is funny. He has a sense of humor. And he wanted me to preach on faith on the Sunday before we unwrapped the hand.

[20:29] If you know what faith is, faith is a substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen. I couldn't see through the bandages. We hadn't unwrapped it. And I didn't know what was going on.

[20:40] But I was believing that God was going to heal her hand. And I started preaching that day. And I started claiming that God was healing her body. And God was going to work out the impossible situation.

[20:51] And lo and behold, that finger reattached when we unwrapped it. And God healed it miraculously. And the scar that used to be at the knuckle was working its way off of her finger. I'm telling you, God cares about the little things in your life today.

[21:05] You may say it's insignificant. Oh, you could live without a little bit of a knuckle on a finger on your hand. And it would be totally gone. But I'm telling you, God cares for the little needs that you think that no one is big enough situation.

[21:17] And I'm telling you, there may be some situations in your life that you may not ask for help. But you do a disservice. Because is it any harder for God to meet that situation or that need than Him to do some great things?

[21:35] I would challenge you today. I got so many testimonies. And I apologize. But God has done so much for me. I think about a time just over a year ago. I didn't have a car. I didn't have a car.

[21:46] And I didn't know what to do. I've always had everything taken care of. I grew up in a poor home. And I made up in my mind that I'm going to be better than that.

[21:57] And I'm always going to work hard. I'm always going to have. And even when I had the down times in my life, I usually always could figure it out. But now I needed a car. And I didn't know what to do. I sold both my cars.

[22:07] I came back home. And I'm like, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. So I started working it out my own self. Now, sometimes when we start trying to work it out our own self, though, we mess it up.

[22:19] You know? You know, sometimes it's like when there's a certain instructions on the way you're supposed to make something. And you start throwing all the ingredients in. So sometimes you have to put ingredients in in a certain way.

[22:31] And sometimes when we put our hands into it, we mess it all up. And that's, I started to. I started finding out some guy. I said, hey, bro, what are you going to do with your car? He said, I got to give it back to the person that gave it to me for my deputation.

[22:46] I was like, what? God has a dealership out here. And he's throwing out car keys to people. He's like, you get a car. And you get a car. I never got that dealership. I never found the place where he went and got the car from.

[22:59] But I figured out that I could go to a place in prayer. That I could ask for God for something. So I just prayed. It's a simple prayer. I said, God, if you can give my brother a car, you can give me a car.

[23:11] And I don't know. I don't know if I was feisty that day or didn't get enough sleep. But I told him, I said, if you can give me a car, why don't you just show off and give me a brand new car?

[23:22] What's harder for God to give you a car or a brand new car? It's all the same to him. So I might as well be specific in my request. The Bible says, make your petitions known unto God.

[23:34] So that means to ask him for what you have need of. And he already knows what you have need of, but he still wants us to put into action on what we have need of. He wants us to ask him.

[23:46] That's what the word of God said. So I asked. A couple weeks go by. I've been borrowing a car from my father-in-law. He said, I need it back. So I found myself at the used car dealership.

[23:58] That's where you find all the new cars. If you didn't know that, it's a cheat code for you today. You go to the used car dealership because I was there. I was getting ready to buy almost the same exact car as the guy that was trying to buy his car last time from someone else.

[24:13] And it was very similar in the make and the model. And it had low miles. I thought it was the perfect car for me. And I go to this dealer.

[24:23] And he's like, okay, let me clean it up. And I'll get you to sign the paperwork. I thought me just being approved for the loan wasn't going to be a miracle enough.

[24:33] I never even told my wife about the prayer that I asked for a brand new car. And I'm just trying to work it out myself and trying to go out however we can. And lo and behold, I'm sitting there getting ready to sign my life away on thousands of dollars in debt.

[24:47] I get a telephone call from an unknown number. A friend of mine, since I was overseas, he had his number changed. And he called me from an unknown number. But I answered it.

[24:58] Thank God I answered that call. And I answered it. And it was a buddy. And he said, hey, man, what are you doing? I said, bro, I'm up on the north side of town buying a car. Walk away.

[25:09] I said, what are you talking about, the hangout? Yeah, just walk away. You haven't signed the paperwork. I said, but this is a great car. And, you know, sometimes we list all the exemptions on why, God, I need this.

[25:23] But it's low miles. Oh, it can hold my whole family. And it's the best value in 300-plus mile radius. This is the car that I need. He said, dude, just walk away.

[25:36] I said, bro, I don't understand what you're talking about. I've already done the hard credit check. I mean, I keep on. He's like, walk away. I said, bro, you're going to have to speak more clearly to me. He said, I've already spoke to my wife.

[25:47] And we want to buy you a brand new car. Don't tell me God can't hear your prayers today. Don't tell me that God can't do exceedingly abundantly above anything that you can ask or think today.

[26:00] I'm here to tell you today he knows what you have need of. But he's wanting to know if you believe that he can do it. And if you have so much faith to even ask him for you and your situation today.

[26:12] I want to speak just for a few moments on just because I want to speak on the king has another move. Sometimes we look at different situations in our life and be like, there's no hope.

[26:26] There's no way out. I can see everything and it doesn't seem like it's going to work out. And, you know, I tell my wife I work in the pathetic because it's pathetic on how many times it comes to pass.

[26:38] But, you know, sometimes we think we can have it all figured out. Well, guess what? Sometimes we have that list all made out of how we want God to work it out this way, this way, this way. He laughs, throws it away and said, hey, I got something better for you.

[26:52] God can see with an uncanny eye. There's a story that I'd like to share with you just for a few moments. Well, we'll just turn to Isaiah. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Isaiah chapter 43, verses 16 through 19.

[27:05] Isaiah 43, 16 through 19. It starts talking about an impossible situation. In Isaiah 43, 16 through 19, it says, Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters, which bringeth forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the power.

[27:34] They shall lie down together, and they shall not rise. They are extinct. They are as quenched as toe. Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

[27:45] Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth. Shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

[28:00] He can make a way. He can make a move where there seems to be no moves. They're in an impossible situation. They had their backs against the wall.

[28:11] And some of us might look at the situation and say, God, you could just go and wipe them all out. He could do anything, but he will work out a thing greater than what we can understand.

[28:23] He sees different outcomes in different situations. There's a story of a man who was touring the Louvre in Paris. And he went to this painting.

[28:36] It's called Checkmate. Well, this man touring the Louvre, he was a master chess player. And there was a video about this man. I thought it was so interesting, so I wrote it down.

[28:48] I want to share it with you today. As he's touring this museum, he sees this painting called Checkmate. It looks like a man playing for his life against the devil in a game of chess.

[29:05] And it looked like the enemy or the devil was smiling and laughing because he had this guy pinned up against the wall with no way of escape.

[29:16] And in chess, I don't know if you know anything about chess, but when the king has no more moves left, they call it Checkmate. And as this master chess player is staring at this little picture that's all been painted and looks so fantastic, and it's been probably walked by by millions and millions of people, this guy is intrigued and staring at this picture.

[29:42] And he's staring there. Well, the tour that he was on had left him. And they finally are almost to the end of the tour, and they finally realize this master chess player is no longer with us.

[29:53] We've got to find him. So the tour director goes back and finds this man still staring at the painting called Checkmate. Lo and behold, he said, hey, what's wrong?

[30:04] He said, well, there's a situation with this painting. And the guy said, what's wrong with the painting? He said, well, either you're going to have to change the name of the painting or you're going to have to repaint the picture because I can see things that you may not be able to see.

[30:23] And I can see that the king, he still has another move. I'm telling you today, you may not see the outcome that you want to see. You may not be facing a situation that you have no way out, but I'm telling you, the king sees that.

[30:36] He has another move in your life today. He can make a way where there seems to be no way. He can part waters. He don't have to work by the thoughts of men, but he can think higher thoughts than us.

[30:49] And he knows there's a way out of that situation today. I think about my life. And a few years ago, I had a hernia. And they're not fun.

[30:59] And I go, and they say, yeah, you need that repaired. And I go in for the surgery. I go for the surgery. They said, yes, we're going to get it patched up. And I walk out. And I start getting some redness around my incision a few days later.

[31:14] I go to my nurse practitioner wife. And I say, hey, honey, I got this redness. What should I do? And she said, you probably should see a doctor. I'm like, you're the nurse practitioner.

[31:24] Hello? And so I have to go to the doctor. They prescribe me some medicines. They do a CT scan over my body. And they want to make sure that everything's all right. And so they're doing that scan.

[31:36] And they said, yeah, the infection looks good. He said, but take these medicine. And then we'll call you if we have anything else. And as I talked to them, my wife, I hang up the phone. She's been looking at my chart on my phone.

[31:49] And she said, hey, did they say anything about your inferior vena cava? I said, no. Are you sure? I said, that's a lot of words. I think I would realize if they said any one of those three words.

[32:02] She's like, are you sure? Can we call the doctor back right now? I'm like, wait, what are you talking about? I'll call him back tomorrow. She's not really worried about my health. She thinks I'm a hypochondriac.

[32:13] Sometimes I think I'm sick. And she's like, well, you're over-exaggerating everything. You know, being married to the nurse, it's not always the most pleasant. There's a peace of mind behind it, but it's not always she's going to take care of everything.

[32:25] She'll just tell you to suck it up, buttercup, and then sometimes I have to do that. And you don't have no way out, but she's getting worried. Now I'm getting worried that she's worried. And she's like, well, you need to call him back there.

[32:37] No, I'm going to call him. And I would call him up. And they start talking about my inferior vena cava. And they were like, yeah, we probably should schedule him with a heart surgeon. I went in for hernia surgery.

[32:48] I didn't go for heart surgery, but they found something on that CT scan that my inferior vena cava, the main vein that brings all the blood from my waist down back to my heart, was 100% blocked.

[33:03] That I should have been dead. And so I go to the heart surgeon. I'm talking to the surgeon, and he's like, well, let me look at that again. He said, I don't understand it.

[33:13] I don't know when it happened in your life, but somehow your body had made little veins all around that situation. Where you used to travel up 99, a main highway. Now you're going down dirt roads and side streets and backways and byways.

[33:27] And I'm telling you today, God, he made a way where there seemed to be no way. God said, I can move around that situation. I can make the impossible possible. Nothing is too hard for me today.

[33:39] I'm here to tell someone you may be facing a life and death situation, but God can make a move in your life today. How many times have we been faced with situations that we didn't even know about, but God worked things out?

[33:54] I would have never known the miracle in my own life of what God did if I didn't accidentally get a scan that went a little higher than it was supposed to. How many times did God protect us that we didn't know it from a car accident?

[34:06] Maybe it was a delay in our own timing. We didn't understand why I had to go and rechange my shirt. It wasn't clean or whatever. I come back and there's a terrible accident. Or how many times when we were sick and we went to church that day and we were prayed for and God healed us.

[34:21] Or maybe sometimes that we don't even know the situations of what we needed. But God intervened. I'm telling you, God can make a way where there seems to be no way.

[34:32] He's that way maker. He's that promise keeper. He's that light in the darkness. He can make anything happen in your life today. He works in the impossible.

[34:45] In the impossible. It's only impossible because God hasn't showed up yet. It really is. I think about the story that we were talking about.

[34:57] It's found in Exodus and you can look up. But it's a story about the Israelites leaving Egypt. And they were there under good circumstances at one moment.

[35:10] But there rose up a Pharaoh that knew not. Joseph. That knew not the person that was second in command. And now they went from being second in command and highly favored to slaves.

[35:25] And the position that they were there for far too long. And lo and behold, God rose up on Moses and sent some plagues down there. And finally, Pharaoh said, let my people go.

[35:39] And he starts to set them free. He said, get out of here. You've caused too many problems. And all these things are happening to us. And killing the firstborn children. And you're just causing too much situation.

[35:51] Just leave. But there was a change of heart in Pharaoh. Sometimes we walk out, we feel good. But then, Monday happens.

[36:03] And the enemy is back on our tail again. Because that's what the Egyptians started to do. Because they figured that if the Israelites are here to work for us, then we as common Egyptians are going to have to do the work.

[36:14] We're not going to be the taskmasters. We're actually going to have to do the work. So they rose up and they told Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said, go get them. He sent 600 chosen chariots.

[36:27] Just like Monday morning, you start getting a bad report. Or you felt good on Sunday. But then Monday and Tuesday started happening. You're like, man, God, I thought you were taking care of this. I'm here to tell somebody.

[36:38] Don't give up hope that God's not working for you. It may not feel like you may get stuck between a rock and a hard place. You may be stuck between the Red Sea and a mighty army. Guess what?

[36:48] When you're a slave, you ain't got guns. You ain't got weapons. You ain't got things to fight off the enemy. You're stuck with nothing. And the enemy has the chosen chariots and the horses and the men and the army.

[37:04] But one thing the enemy has forgotten. You have God walking with you and going before you that he can do with the impossible.

[37:18] He can do anything. Sometimes we magnify our problem. We bring a bigger presence to our problem or situation than it deserves. And we focus on it.

[37:29] And we talk about all the things and all the problems that it's facing. And we bring life to it. We got to make sure that we don't focus on the problem. But we focus on the God of this universe.

[37:45] The God that creates everything. That we realize that he's bigger than our problems and our situations. He's bigger. And he's already done harder things than these already.

[37:56] If we can start to believe that God can do that in our life. It makes me think about the story. Where Moses is getting ready. He's faced with the Red Sea and the army.

[38:10] And he starts to speak to the people of God. It's interesting to me. That Moses never heard from God yet about this situation.

[38:21] God didn't give him direction. Didn't tell him. I'm telling you right now when I started this road down missions. God only gives me the next step. I don't know what's going to happen in the future. But I can say okay God I'm willing.

[38:33] I'm just going to take the next step. And I know pastors it feels the same way. He said hey I know this is my next step. I don't know what you want to do in the future. Or how we're going to do it or how we're going to receive the harvest that you have of souls.

[38:45] But I'm just going to walk this next step. And I'm going to walk in faith. Well guess what? Moses started to speak in faith. Even before God told him. He speaks to the people and says fear ye not.

[39:00] Be not afraid. God didn't bring us all the way from Egypt to right here. Just to see us wiped off the face of the earth. I'm here to tell you God hasn't brought you this far. And your relationship with God just to say hey I give up on you now.

[39:14] But no but he is with us and he's for us today. And then he tells them to stand still. When you've done all that you can do. Stand therefore. Stand and wait upon the Lord.

[39:27] And then he goes on and say and see. Open your eyes. And see what God is about to do. See the salvation of the Lord. Today is the day of salvation.

[39:37] I'm telling you that God is about to work something out in your life. Before he said you want to open your eyes. You're going to want to remember. The day that I did this in your life.

[39:50] You're going to want to be able to tell your children. And their children. And generations and generations. They still talk about this story. About what God is doing in their life.

[40:01] And then he goes on. And says which he will show you today. He didn't say someday. He didn't make a way out of escape and say well in the future.

[40:14] Or you know in a couple months. No but he said he will show us or show you today. Today is the day. You ain't got to walk in your problem or your situation any further.

[40:26] But today is the day. In Fiji we would say Sanganandai. Today is the day. I'm telling you today is your day. And God can work it out for you.

[40:37] For the Egyptians whom you have seen today. You shall see them again. No more forever. The problems that you're facing today. And the situations that you think is too great.

[40:49] Guess what? You're not going to see them. No more forever. God's going to wipe it out. He's going to take care of that situation. It's going to be buried in that red sea.

[41:00] He parts the waters. And they walk upon the dry ground. There's people that aren't believers today. That don't believe every word in the Bible. And they'll try to make up their own stories.

[41:11] And try to make their own excuses about how they were able to cross the red sea. You know some lunatics. I call them lunatics. But they believe that it was only ankle deep water. I call them crazy because it was only ankle deep water.

[41:26] It would be pretty amazing to see horses drowned in ankle deep water. And the Egyptian army to drown in ankle deep water. I think that might be even a greater miracle to see them dry up.

[41:38] But no. God let them walk upon the dry ground. And then he allowed the waters to overtake him. He did the impossible situation. He moved the waters from one side to another.

[41:51] He made a way where there seemed to be no way. God continues to work and move in ways that we don't think. Over and over again, he always has the final say.

[42:04] There's stories in the Bible. You think about Daniel in the lion's den. Guess what? He moved into that lion's den. And whatever and however, he shut the mouths of the lions.

[42:16] That sounds like an impossible situation to me. But he made a way where there seemed to be no way. How about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? They were tossed into a fiery furnace.

[42:26] And guess what? It said there appeared as the fourth. The son of man jumped into that fire. He moved. He said you might think you had the upper hand that you're going to take out these men. But hey, guess what?

[42:37] I'm going to join them right where they're at. I'm going to dance and rejoice in the fire. And then I'm going to bring them out of the fire where they don't have no cinched hair or burnt on their clothes or even the smell of smoke.

[42:49] He moved in the impossible situation. You could think of even about David and Goliath. Goliath was bigger than me. I know it's hard to believe, but he was bigger than me.

[43:02] And this rudy boy of no training or skill should even be in the battle. He comes out there and he calls upon the Lord. He said you may come against me with a sword and a spear, but I come against you in the name of the Lord.

[43:21] I'm here to tell somebody today God, he works in the impossible. He moves in the situations where we need him today. I'd ask you to rise today.

[43:32] If someone wants to play some music on the piano, they're more than willing to do that tonight. And I want to share one testimony. And I want to let God move in this place and move into our situations today.

[43:47] I had little Nora. She had another situation. We were starting a Bible quizzing program on the western district of Fiji. And as we're starting this, I'm teaching and helping Sunday school directors know about this ministry.

[44:01] And I come back to the hotel. I'm tired and I sit on some lawn chairs waiting for service for the next day. And as I'm sitting there, my wife's sitting next to me.

[44:12] Nora climbs up on my wife's lap. She's an active girl. She likes to be running around and playing. And she's, I think, half Fijian. She likes to take off her shoes and be barefoot.

[44:23] And, you know, she just adapted to the culture. She lived there longer than she's probably almost as long as she's lived in the United States. And little Nora crawls up to mom's lap, which is very rare.

[44:36] So my wife said, is the baby sleeping? I said, I can't see her face. I don't know. She said, well, she was telling me later that she was twitching, thinking she was falling asleep with that twitch.

[44:48] And lo and behold, she asked my daughter, hey, is Nora sleeping? Maddie looks at her and said, mom, no, her eyes are wide open. And she's staring off afar.

[44:59] And all of a sudden, my wife, the nurse practitioner, she picks up that baby, flips the baby over. Her face is white as a sheet. Her lips had turned blue where she had stopped breathing.

[45:10] And my wife just jumps in, can't find her breathing. And she starts giving her rescue breaths. We started getting together.

[45:23] We're calling for help. We started praying. We're asking God to move in a situation. Finally, the baby starts breathing. Very labored breathing.

[45:34] Her heart was racing. No ambulance showed up that day. The hotel where we're staying at, they said, hey, we'll take you by taxi to the hospital.

[45:48] 45 minutes go by. No sound. No response. Just a blank stare on my daughter's face. We started praying.

[45:58] And I started praying as we're driving to the hospital. And I'm saying, God, you've got to move into her life. You've got to touch her. Because if you don't touch her, you're going to have to touch me.

[46:08] Because I don't know if I can do it anymore if you don't help me through it. So if it's all the same to you, why don't you just move in her life right now? Sometimes we don't even know what to pray.

[46:23] We lose the words to say and how to speak the words eloquently. But if you're filled with the Spirit, you can start to pray that heavenly language.

[46:33] You can start to pray. And the Bible says it will make intercession for you. So I started praying. I ran out of words to pray. The Holy Spirit made intercession.

[46:45] We show up to the hospital. Baby still, no sound. No real movement. They get her back straight back. And they start doing her vitals.

[46:56] Blood pressure test. Her temperature test. And all of a sudden, they put that oxygen sensor on her feet. And I didn't know what was going to happen. But I heard a baby start to cry.

[47:12] There's something beautiful when you hear a cry of a baby. And God told me in that moment, I'm healing her. I'm restoring her. I'm bringing her back.

[47:23] The best way I can describe it as a father, when I was in the labor and delivery room, we always wanted to hear the babies crying. To know that they're okay. And that's exactly what God said.

[47:33] Hey, before the doctor comes into the room, before anyone comes and tells you otherwise, I'm stepping in. I'm going to be that miracle worker. I'm moving in her life right now.

[47:46] And lo and behold, the little girl, two hours later, you couldn't even tell that she was not breathing. The next morning, we went to church and she was worshiping God. The lifeless body that she had just hours ago, God restored her and brought life back to her.

[48:02] And she was worshiping God, what she was created in. I'm praying today that God would move into your situation. You may think that all the ways are tapped out.

[48:13] That you may feel like there's a checkmate on your life and you can't turn left or right or backwards. But I just would pray, God, that you would give us wisdom and knowledge and let us know that you will have the final say.

[48:26] I would invite someone to come to an altar today. We'll pray with you and believe with you. We'll pray the prayer of faith and believe that God can make a way where there seems to be no way.

[48:39] It may seem like the world's all caving in on us, but guess what? I want to let you have the final say. Because I believe, Lord God, that you can make a way where there seems to be no way.

[48:50] I may be tossed and turned overnight. And I may be stressed. I may worry about things that I don't even need to worry about. But God, I believe that you can show up and show out and meet me at my very need today.

[49:03] Lord, by the power of the name of Jesus Christ and by the authority of your word, oh God. I pray that you would start to move in the lives of men and women in this house.

[49:14] As we surrender our problems and our situations to you. And as we trust in you, Lord God. And let you know, Lord God, we give you a chance to move in our lives.

[49:24]  Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.