[0:00] Thank you.
[0:30] Amen. Praise God. Amen. I want to say to everybody here today, the more that we engage in doing what we just did in the last few minutes, the greater the amount of lives that are going to be touched and that are going to be transformed, that are going to be changed.
[1:01] The Christian walk, and I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself, is not purely a practical exercise. It is a spiritual exercise as well, which means that we have to engage with the move of the Spirit, and that is very, very important.
[1:20] I do want to thank those of you that are here today. You know, they say that big things come in small packages, and I feel like that's what we are right now.
[1:34] We might be a small package right now, but good things are happening. Big things are about to happen in people's lives. Amen. Amen. And so, you know, sometimes really what we need is sometimes we just need good old-fashioned Holy Ghost Church.
[1:51] And where people fall out talking tongues and get a little unorthodox, but that's okay. Amen.
[2:02] We just, the Holy Ghost wants to move in our lives. Praise God. I do have a few things that I want to say. First of all, thank you for your giving and your offerings, and I want to remind you to keep that going.
[2:18] And just, we need all the financial support that we can get, and I'm going to say a few things about that a little bit later on. But I want to get into something that is really, really important to me.
[2:34] I wish my wife didn't have to leave early today, but she had to leave a little early. She has a job that she does sometimes on Sundays, and so they asked her to come in earlier.
[2:47] But I do want to read a couple of passages. If you have your Bible, I'd like to go to the book of Ephesians, chapter 6, verse number 12.
[3:01] And then also, put your finger on 2 Corinthians, chapter 10. Ephesians 6, verse number 12.
[3:11] The Lord gave me a dream last night, and I'm not going to share the particulars of that dream, but it got me up.
[3:35] I went downstairs to pray, and it's not often that that happens. I wish I could be one of those people that say, yeah, the Lord woke me up, and He got me up to pray.
[3:48] If I wake up, I want to go right back to sleep. I'm not that spiritual, trust me. But I felt like the Lord spoke to me in a dream last night.
[4:02] And again, it doesn't happen all the time. But it helps to prompt what I'm going to say today, because there are things that I have been praying for over the last year or so, and things that I've been asking God to kind of put in place.
[4:22] And so today happens to be kind of the culmination of some of those prayers. I believe that there's going to be more to come. And I just want to say today that God is faithful, and God, I think, I don't think, God I know is with this church.
[4:43] And He is with every one of you, because you are the church. So He's not just with us collectively. He's also with us individually.
[4:55] Ephesians chapter 6, verse number 12. Thank you, Cash. I always prayed that we'd have a piano player like that.
[5:06] And we do. But it wasn't me, and I'm actually glad about that. Ephesians chapter 6, verse number 12.
[5:19] Some of you know this verse. It's very familiar to some of you, and you could probably quote it. Paul says here to the church, he says, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places.
[5:42] That's a very important verse of scripture, because it reminds us that there is a spiritual world. And that spiritual world is something that we cannot see with our physical eyes.
[5:57] So it's hard to know how to get to it, or how to get at it, or how to engage in it. And when Paul says that there are powers, that there are rulers of darkness, that there's spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies, in the heavenly realms.
[6:19] Again, that's something that we don't experience on a day in and day out basis. We don't really think about it. But it's true that there is a spiritual realm that we engage with.
[6:39] And on the side of godliness, we engage with it in the form of angelic beings sometimes. But then there's also the dark side of it, and that is where we engage with the hosts that are opposed to the will of God, and opposed to the spirit of God.
[7:02] And I would be remiss if I did not tell you that sometimes your life ends up being under attack. Sometimes your life ends up being under attack in your spirit or your spiritual walk.
[7:21] Sometimes it has to do with your financial life. Sometimes it has to do with your body. Sometimes it has to do with your family. Now, we all know when we've heard it, I've said it, I've heard Brother Matt say it, that sometimes things happen because it's something that we have sown and we are reaping.
[7:44] And that is true as well. So we have to understand, though, that there are spirits that are opposed to us.
[7:56] They're against us. And they come in many different ways and in many different forms. So if you feel sometimes that there's resistance when you decide that you want to dig deeper into your walk with God, well, that's not surprising because the enemy is going to resist you.
[8:16] He would rather that you had a Christian walk that was powerless, that was prayerless, that did not fast, that didn't really know the word, but was just plain old mediocre.
[8:32] He doesn't care that people go to church. He does not care at all. It does not bother him. But when somebody decides, you know what, I want to experience what the word really talks about, I want to know what it is to be like a book of Acts apostolic Christian.
[8:53] That's what I want to know. Then you're going to experience some resistance. It will come in the form of friends. It will come in the form of family. It will come in the form of finances.
[9:04] Because Jesus was very clear that the cares of life will choke out certain things in your life. And so sometimes the enemy is opposed to you in those ways.
[9:18] And you just have to recognize it. Your weapon against that is what we're going to talk about next. 2 Corinthians chapter number 10.
[9:29] In verse number 4 or verse number 3.
[9:43] So here's what Paul says to the church in Corinth. He says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.
[9:55] So you cannot weaponize against these rulers of darkness according to human means.
[10:08] You can't take a gun. You can't shoot them. Be nice, but you can't. You can't take a sword. You can't take anything that you would normally use to ward off a physical intruder against these spiritual entities.
[10:27] Paul says, we do not wage war as the world does. He says, verse 4, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
[10:43] Strongholds need to come down in people's lives. These strongholds that oppose you need to come down. Notice where he goes next.
[10:58] Casting down imaginations. Imaginations live only in one place. They live in the mind. Those have to be cast down is what Paul is saying.
[11:14] And every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, which is human wisdom. Human wisdom wants to compete with the knowledge of God.
[11:32] In fact, they told Paul, they said, much learning has made you mad. And they accused him of being lowbrow because he believed in spiritual things.
[11:49] It wasn't intellectual. Intellectualism can be the opposite of spirituality. So, every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
[12:10] And this is beautiful. This is the beautiful part because what it means is that we reign in our thoughts to the obedience of Jesus Christ.
[12:21] In other words, every thought is subject to him. Every piece of knowledge, all wisdom is subject to him. And that is what is really beautiful.
[12:34] Paul told the church in Corinth, he said, my speech and my preaching to you was not with the enticing words of men's wisdom.
[12:47] I didn't come to you acting smart. I was an intellectual before you. Paul was a very learned man. He was an intellectual. Paul had much knowledge.
[13:00] But he did not use that to try to convey the gospel. He said, my speech and my preaching to you was not with the enticing words of men's wisdom, but in the power and in the demonstration of the spirit.
[13:17] In other words, Paul was saying there might be people that are talking about it, but we're demonstrating it. They're talking about how good it might be, but I'm showing you how good it is.
[13:33] People were healed. People were raised from the dead. People were filled with the spirit. People were baptized. And it was happening over and over and over again.
[13:44] And everywhere that Paul went, he was turning that whole community upside down. Not because he was smart, but because Paul prayed.
[13:55] Because Paul preached the word. Because Paul suffered. Because he rejoiced in his sufferings. And so he just simply said, I'm going to get in this with both feet.
[14:08] And I'm not going to let go until I'm done. And so Paul understood what he was saying. So he said this. You have to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
[14:25] Now, spiritual warfare is something that people talk about. Now, I've never been one of those guys that has said, okay, yeah, we're going to go after the devil.
[14:44] I think that's, truthfully, I think that's kind of foolish. I don't think anybody's ever succeeded at that. To my knowledge, I think he's still around. Okay. So nobody's ever really bound him.
[14:56] I know it sounds good. It sounds good on, you know, YouTube. But nobody's really ever bound the devil. Nobody's ever really bound the spiritual world.
[15:09] We are given opportunity with the baptism of the spirit to affect the world that is around us. And there are times, there are times that we can use that spiritual authority to bind certain things.
[15:24] But it's in a measured way. But there are some things that have, that people here have experienced even lately that is a part of this spiritual darkness and is a part of beings spiritually attacked.
[15:52] And it comes, as I said, in different forms. And some of you might relate to something that has happened in your own life recently and personally that is a part of that.
[16:05] And if that's the case, then what I want you to do is I want you to recognize that there is opposition to your desire to serve God and your desire to grow deeper with God.
[16:17] And it will come, as I said, in different forms. Now, we're going to do something here in just a moment.
[16:28] We've prayed for people, and I really felt like we just had to do that. But there are a couple of people here today that we are especially going to pray for because I truly believe that their family has come under a certain amount of spiritual attack.
[16:49] And I've prayed about this, and I've been asking the Lord for direction and guidance on this. But I would like the Choppa family to come up, please. Thank you. This family serves here in this church, and I'm going to say a few more things about their serving here.
[17:12] But I would like them to come up, and we're all going to pray for them. And we're going to pray that God would touch their lives and put a hedge about them and protect them because they have experienced some things lately in their life and in the life of their family.
[17:38] And what I'm saying here doesn't have anything to do right now with my being related to them. I just happen to have the knowledge. But they have experienced some things, and the enemy is trying to undermine them and is trying to undermine their family.
[17:56] And what we know is that God is able to put a hedge about them. Listen to what I'm going to say.
[18:09] The devil had to ask God for permission to touch Job's life. And he rightly said, you've put a hedge about them so that I can't get to them.
[18:21] And the Lord did not deny that. But that's exactly what we need for God to do, is to put a hedge about them in their spiritual life. They serve week in and week out here.
[18:35] They are here when nobody else is here. They are working hard to try to make this church a better church. And so I would like all of us to stand.
[18:58] We're going to pray. We're going to pray for them. And we're going to pray that God puts a hedge about them.
[19:10] And then after we're done praying, I've got a few more things that I'm going to say while they're standing here. But first, we're going to pray. All right? Stretch your hands towards them and ask God to touch their lives.
[19:25] God, in the name of Jesus, Lord, we pray that you would put a hedge about this family, Lord. They minister here, Lord. They minister, Lord, week in and week out.
[19:39] God, they are devoted to you. They are dedicated to you, Lord. This man, this woman, their family, oh God, they minister, Lord, and help every one of us to draw closer to you.
[19:57] And God, I pray right now, Lord. I pray right now, Lord. I pray right now, oh God, in the name of Jesus, that you would touch each and every one of them, Lord.
[20:09] Put a hedge about their family, oh God. Put a hedge about their family, oh God. Put a hedge about their family, oh Lord.
[20:20] Put a hedge about them, oh Lord. Put a hedge about them, Lord. Give them an anointing. Give them an anointing, Lord.
[20:32] And help them, oh God, to serve you in your kingdom, oh God. Help them, Lord, to serve you in your kingdom.
[20:44] Touch their lives, oh God. Touch their lives, oh Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.
[20:55] Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Now, let me say something, and I want to be as quick as I can because I don't want them to stand up here the entire time.
[21:15] But I want to be as fast as I can with this. My wife and I have pastored this church for a number of years. And my wife has probably never deserved, gotten all the credit that she really deserves.
[21:34] She has done so many things behind the scenes that nobody has ever seen. But we have endeavored to be faithful. And the Lord has shown me that, you know, everybody has a shelf life.
[21:54] And we have a shelf life as well. But this family right here, I believe God is raising them up to lead this church.
[22:06] And my heart's desire is to begin to take a certain amount of steps back and be an overseer and help guide this church through its new season.
[22:22] And I started to say in January, if you listened to anything that I said, but several times I said, this church is going to enter into a new season. And this is the new season that we're going to enter into.
[22:35] Matt and Deanna minister every week here. And there are some days that we have really entered into the Spirit because of their leadership, because they have been sensitive to the leading of the Spirit.
[22:57] And it's time for me and it's time for my wife to begin to take a little bit of a step back and let them cast their vision.
[23:13] Because they love this church. They love you. And they're here to serve you. And we belong to an organization wherein we are licensed as ministers.
[23:30] And there's a licensing process that Brother Matt's going to have to go through. But once that's done, and he already has a license, but once that's done, once he takes that next step, we're going to make this official.
[23:47] And we're going to have our presbyter come. And we're going to have a service where they officially become the pastor of this church. Not just him, but both of them.
[24:00] They're like the pastor. And God is going to use them. God is going to grow them.
[24:10] And they have to grow in grace. And they have to grow in the knowledge of the Lord. And so, my wife and I aren't going anywhere. We're going to be here.
[24:22] But they're going to become the leaders of this church. They are already becoming the leaders of the church in many different ways. Many different ways. But I want all of us to support them and to help them.
[24:37] And God is going to get all of the glory. Amen. Amen. So, again, we're just going to pray one more time. And we're going to pray that the anointing of God rests on their lives.
[24:54] Their children who also minister. And what a blessing it is to have a family that is able to do these things.
[25:05] Amen. It really is a blessing. But let's pray that God would rest, let his anointing rest on them to help them. God, in the name of Jesus, we thank you right now, Lord.
[25:17] And we pray, oh God, that from this day forward, Lord, we can begin this transition. We pray, oh God, that from this day forward, Lord, we can begin, oh God, Lord, to take these steps forward.
[25:32] God, that from this day forward, Lord, we can begin, oh God, this process where leadership, oh God, begins to be handed to the next generation, Lord.
[25:45] Where we, oh Lord, are able, oh God, to keep our hands on them, Lord. God, to hold them up in prayer, to trust them as leaders, oh God, and begin to shape and form their lives, Lord.
[26:02] In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, we pray. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
[26:14] Praise God. Let's all raise our hands and give glory to God this morning. Lord, we love you today. We thank you today. We honor you today, oh God.
[26:26] And we magnify your name, oh Lord. For you are the one that is holy and you are the one, oh God, that is good. And you are the one today, oh Lord, that is going to help us.
[26:40] You're going to help us, oh God. Hallelujah. Praise God. Praise God. You can be seated. Thank you so much. The one thing that every church needs is every church needs people who decide that they're going to be faithful and decide that they're going to be committed.
[27:09] No body of believers survives without that. Every body of believers, every ecclesia, the Greek word for the gathering, every body needs those who are faithful.
[27:29] Not only faithful in being at every activity that happens, but faithful in giving, faithful in lending their support, prayerfully, financially, every church needs that.
[27:46] And it's really important that people get to the point to where they can own their church. They own it. Some of you have been with this church for a number of years, and I cannot express to you how grateful I am that you have been a part of this church.
[28:09] You've seen some tough times. You've seen some good times. Amen. And you've seen everything in between. Brother Zeke, he's been right there for a number of years.
[28:24] Olga, Sheila, they've been through just a lot with this church. And they have stayed faithful.
[28:36] And every church needs people like that. When I first got saved, when I first got saved, I was a young buck, but my buddy told me, he said, every time those church doors are open, you be there.
[28:54] And that's back in the day when we had church four times a week. We were there on Wednesday, Friday, Sunday morning, and Sunday night. That's just how it was.
[29:09] And so I was there. I was there every time those doors were open. And I just learned early on, you stay faithful no matter what. Family had it going on over there.
[29:20] I'll be there after church. Or can't make it, got church tonight. Sorry. I'll have to do another time. That's just how it was. Oftentimes, if I was sick, I'm not recommending this.
[29:35] If I was sick, I'd still show up and spread my germs. So, that's just how it was with me. So, that's how I learned. And so, it's always been, always been a part of my own life.
[29:49] But that's what helps to build churches, is when people take on that attitude. And that requires a certain level of spiritual maturity. It does.
[29:59] Because it's about disciplining yourself enough to when you don't feel like doing something, you do it because it's the right thing to do. And all of us have been to the point to where we can all say at certain times, I don't feel like it.
[30:16] But we just do it anyway. Because that's what, when you were raising young children, you didn't always feel like changing the diaper. Or giving them a bath.
[30:28] But you did it anyway, because it had to be done. Serving in the kingdom of God, it's not really that much different. You don't always feel spiritual.
[30:39] You don't always feel good. You don't always feel happy. But you do it. Because it's, you're creating a longer term goal. Let me say just a couple more things.
[30:50] And I'm going to be done. We have not been called into the kingdom to support other public causes.
[31:04] causes, although that may be a good thing to do. We have not been called into the kingdom to pledge our allegiance to states or to countries or to various organizations.
[31:17] We have been called into the kingdom because God is trying to get us from here to there. And that's got to be our number one goal. So, you have to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling so that you can make sure that you make it from here to there.
[31:37] Amen? That has to be done. And then the next reason we're called into the kingdom is to find other people that need to get from there to there.
[31:49] And that is the job of the church. There's really only a few things that we do. We fast, we pray, and we have to evangelize. That's about it. There's not much more.
[32:01] You can say, well, we can have good church. Yeah, let's have great church. Let's do that. But let's fast, let's pray, let's evangelize. Let's bring people into the kingdom because that's what we are called to do.
[32:15] And it does not matter who they are, where they're from. It doesn't matter their background. None of that matters. What matters is that the lost are being saved because that's still an issue today.
[32:28] People need to be saved. Amen? They do. So people might be good people, but they still need Jesus. They might be wonderful people, but they might have great families, they still need Jesus.
[32:41] And so that's the issue. So let's do what God has called us to do. Amen? Let's stand this morning. Hallelujah.
[32:54] Cash, come to the piano, play us some music. I want you to recognize that the enemy is going to try to, he's going to try to destroy your walk with God.
[33:16] He is. Don't let him. You're the only one that can allow him to do that. Don't allow him to do that.
[33:28] Don't allow him to let you get discouraged. Don't allow any of that. Amanda, I don't mean to embarrass you. She received the baptism of the Holy Ghost last week.
[33:43] She's going to get, we're going to, we're going to baptize, we're going to baptize her in Jesus' name very, very shortly, not today, but in the coming Sunday, we're going to baptize her in Jesus' name.
[33:54] And, and can I tell you something? Yeah, it was without, nobody coerced her, nobody forced her, nobody did any of that, just the Lord.
[34:07] It was just the Lord. And that's how it ought to be. That's exactly how it ought to be. But God is wanting to work in people's lives, in all of our lives.
[34:19] And so let's let it happen. And let's find somebody else that it can happen to. Because you'll run across people all day long that need the Lord Jesus.
[34:31] So let's be mindful of that. Pray for the Chapa family. Keep them in your prayers. Pray that God would anoint them to begin to truly lead in this church in a way that they haven't up to this point.
[34:46] Amen. But that, and then pray for my wife and I that God would help us to enter into this season of our lives so that the church can flourish and everybody can be blessed.
[35:02] Amen. Let's lift our hands to the Lord one more time. And let's thank Him. Lord Jesus, we love you. We thank you today, O God. We praise you, O God, for what you have done.
[35:16] And we magnify your name, Lord, for the touch of God that we feel. We thank you, Lord, for all that you do. We thank you, Lord, for all that you are, Lord.
[35:29] We thank you today, O God, for everything, Lord Jesus, that you begin in our lives. Lord, we love you.
[35:40] We magnify your name, Lord. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
[35:57] Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. Amen. Hallelujah. I just want to remind us, when we gather in this place, let's just have good church.
[36:07] Can we do that? Let's bring good church with us. Amen. Let's feel the power of God and feel the spirit of God. Amen. And let's just, as some people say, let's just throw down and have good church.
[36:23] Amen. God bless every one of you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.