Episode Transcript
00:00: Welcome to the World Changers Church Gold Coast Podcast.
00:03: Join us as we listen to today's message.
00:07: Father, we just thank you this morning for another opportunity to celebrate your goodness.
00:16: Monday through Saturday, Lord God, we've lived with you.
00:19: We've lived for you.
00:22: And Lord, we just thank you this morning for
00:25: That as we come together in this opportunity of worship, this opportunity of praise, this opportunity to prepare our hearts for what you have for us, let us be reminded that we didn't survive this week.
00:38: No, no, no.
00:39: We thrived through the week.
00:42: And Lord, no matter how we felt towards the end, we overcame things that we didn't think we could.
00:48: We climbed things that nobody else would.
00:50: We did things that, Lord, that only you could do through us.
00:55: So Lord, we celebrate you this morning and your goodness and your grace.
01:00: It's in Jesus' name we pray and we all say amen.
01:05: Come on, somebody give the Lord a hand clap of praise.
01:07: I got one up there already.
01:10: Come on, give the Lord a hand clap of praise, amen.
01:16: You know, God is so good, and I'm just so excited this morning.
01:21: We're going to try a new service rundown today, and it's going to be led by the Holy Spirit.
01:28: We're going to do something unique today.
01:29: We're going to go ahead and continue our opportunity.
01:34: to worship, the first thing we're going to do is we're going to take communion together.
01:39: So if you don't have a communion element, can you just lift your hand and the ushers will get one to you.
01:48: Everybody got one?
01:50: Amen.
01:52: Amen.
01:53: God is good.
01:55: God is good.
01:56: All right, if you want to go ahead and peel that top portion.
02:00: One of the things we're going to be doing through the coming month is doing communion each Sunday.
02:08: We're going to see how the Lord leads, and we're going to just see if we continue that through the year.
02:14: But the Lord is...
02:16: really started to preface that we need to do communion with him and we need to be reminded what communion is.
02:22: Communion is not a ritual.
02:25: The Bible clearly says that we do this often in remembrance of him.
02:30: And a lot of people get that confused with Passover.
02:33: And well, it is linked directly to Passover because it was done during Passover.
02:38: But it continued in the New Testament as a way of breaking bread and remembrance as much as it was for Passover.
02:46: And so when we break the bread, it symbolizes the bread of life.
02:51: the body that was broken on the cross for us so that we may have healing.
02:58: And sometimes we take that so lightly, but his body was broken so that we could be whole, both in body and spirit, amen, and mind and soul.
03:09: Hallelujah.
03:09: So today we can celebrate that we are whole in Jesus.
03:15: that we prepare our mind and our body, that we are whole in Jesus.
03:19: And whatever element that we face today, we are whole in Jesus.
03:25: Whatever symptom we are overcoming with our faith, we are whole in Jesus.
03:29: Amen?
03:31: So you may take the bread and you may eat.
03:38: Now, this grape juice symbolizes the blood that was shed for our sins.
03:47: And when Jesus spoke to 72 disciples, he said, unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
03:54: And I think half of them left, if not three quarters of them left, said, this guy's crazy.
04:00: We're not drinking blood today.
04:02: What we're doing is remembering that blood was shed so that an offering for our sins was made eternally.
04:09: And so that we could live free from sin and that we don't have to sit there and go, the devil made me do it.
04:15: We don't have to sit there and say, you know, I just can't get over this sin.
04:19: You are free from the dominion of sin.
04:22: So when you take and drink this cup, you're reminding yourself that no matter what sin is trying to tell you you're trapped in, you're no longer trapped in that.
04:31: Amen.
04:32: You're not trapped in porn addiction.
04:33: You're not trapped in alcohol.
04:36: You're not trapped.
04:37: This is God poured his blood out so that you could be whole and free from sin.
04:42: This is what this means.
04:44: Amen.
04:46: So for you today, maybe you need to celebrate, I'm free from what I've been struggling with.
04:52: I'm free from what's been holding me back, amen?
04:56: So you may take and you may drink in remembrance of him.
05:02: Hallelujah, Father, we thank you.
05:05: As the ushers are gonna come around in just a moment and take that from you, we thank you for the offering that you gave us
05:17: so that we could be made free.
05:20: Amen.
05:21: We thank you for the offering that was given to us so that we could be made whole.
05:26: But today we get the opportunity to give back.
05:30: We get the opportunity to give to you.
05:32: We get the opportunity to continue in worship as we've celebrated what you gave.
05:38: We now have the opportunity to give to you.
05:39: So as we take this offering today, we get the opportunity to
05:45: To give and say, Jesus, we thank you.
05:49: Not only with our mouths and our hearts, but with the work of our hands.
05:54: And maybe your offering today is volunteering in our back to school event.
05:58: Maybe your offering today is monetary.
06:00: Whatever your offering is, this is your opportunity to give back.
06:04: Amen.
06:05: So as I'm giving the ushers just a time to collect all your rubbish, this is also the time that if you would like to give today, you can give at the Antposs machine after service.
06:15: That's the connect desk.
06:16: That's there available for you for those people that no longer carry cash.
06:21: You can text give to plus 61439006275 or go online at worldchangers.life.
06:31: So at this time, I'd like to give the ushers an opportunity to pass the bucket.
06:35: If you'd like to give today.
06:37: And we thank you for those that are going to give later and those that will give online.
06:42: Amen.
06:43: Can we pray?
06:45: Father, we thank you for the offering that you gave.
06:48: We thank you for the opportunity that we've been given to give.
06:52: And Lord, we thank you that today we celebrate your presence.
06:57: As we go into this time of message.
07:00: Lord, as we've given our two fish and five loaves of bread, Lord, we celebrate the coins.
07:07: We celebrate whatever was given.
07:09: We celebrate the prayer.
07:11: And we thank you, Lord, for our New Testament givers.
07:14: We thank you, Lord, for those that give so that we may do more in Jesus' name.
07:20: If you can, just give a hand clap of praise to Lord Jesus, and we're going to get into the message.
07:27: Amen.
07:28: Did you enjoy communion today?
07:31: That was good, eh?
07:33: I got a little bit excited there during the communion.
07:37: And so you should.
07:37: Amen.
07:40: One of the things that's happening at World Changers is God is calling us first as leaders into a fast.
07:49: And so the leaders for the month of January have been in a fast to prepare what we would receive for you for the year.
07:59: And
08:00: We're gonna be releasing a date soon where we're gonna start our corporate fast together.
08:05: Now, before I get into the message, I wanna explain some important things about fasting and why fast, because this is a soft announcement for what's coming, amen?
08:15: We do a corporate fast to positions ourself to receive from God.
08:20: and not think about ourselves, but to prepare for the year to serve him.
08:24: Amen.
08:25: So that's the first thing.
08:26: If you don't understand fasting, we're going to be releasing some things to you throughout the next couple of weeks that you can watch on your phone to learn what fasting is, because I think fasting is still relevant today.
08:39: Amen.
08:40: Well, what is fasting?
08:42: And we'll talk about that in one of the videos if you don't know.
08:45: And if you want to know today and you just got to know if you're one of those people, go talk to Jeremy and he'll tell you everything you need to know.
08:52: Amen.
08:52: See how I just passed that off sloped shoulders.
08:55: But today we're going to talk about a message that came across my thought process.
09:03: Maybe, I don't know, it went from, what was it, Patty?
09:07: Resilient?
09:09: resilience to relentless, I think to reckless, and then back to relentless.
09:18: And God's really been leading me through some personal stories in my life to help you where you are today.
09:25: So this is not a series.
09:26: This is a once-off message.
09:27: So if you want to hear this again, you're going to have to go to Spotify this week to hear it.
09:34: So relentless, let's look at what the word means.
09:37: Relentless.
09:38: Relentless describes someone or something that is persistent and unyielding.
09:45: Persistent and unyielding.
09:47: Continuing without easing or slacking.
09:52: It implies a strong determination to keep going regardless of the obstacles or challenges.
10:01: Amen.
10:02: So relentless, when I talk about relentless today, I hope that as we discuss it today, that you become or strive to achieve a relentless nature, amen?
10:14: And amen says, it just means so be it.
10:16: So when you say amen back, that means let it be so.
10:19: Does that make sense?
10:20: So the more you say amen, the more you're saying I agree with what you're saying.
10:25: Does that make sense?
10:26: All right.
10:27: So I want you to imagine for a moment
10:31: a marathon runner, a young marathon runner.
10:33: And I want you to imagine that they wake up before every sunrise, every day, and they tie their shoes.
10:40: That's the first thing they do.
10:41: I hope that's what they do or they're gonna trip up anyway.
10:44: And they hit the pavement, rain or shine.
10:46: They go out running kilometer after kilometer, which doesn't sound like fun already, right?
10:53: But doesn't it sound like life?
10:55: We get up every day and we put on our shoes and we go out to do something that may be a mile or two, maybe a kilometer or two.
11:04: It may take a stretch to get through it.
11:06: Amen.
11:06: Anybody ever feel like that going to work?
11:10: Hallelujah.
11:12: Anybody ever feel like that just getting out of bed?
11:16: Okay, I'm the only one.
11:17: It's okay.
11:17: Y'all pray for me.
11:19: So they're running kilometer after kilometer, and they are driven by the vision of crossing the finish line.
11:26: But one day they stumble, they get exhausted, and they begin to set in with doubt.
11:32: And I've learned as a marathon runner that that usually happens about the eighth mile.
11:36: I don't know what that is in kilometers.
11:38: If y'all want to look that up for me, that's fine.
11:40: But long about the eighth mile of running,
11:44: the body begins to start to shut down and say, what are you doing?
11:49: We can't do this.
11:50: The body and the mind are competing with one another and saying, this is not working anymore.
11:57: And then there's a coach or a mentor or a friend running along beside you that says, man, keep going.
12:04: That's just your body telling you you can't, but if you believe you can, you will overcome your body and go another eight miles.
12:14: That makes sense.
12:16: You ever done that before?
12:17: Anybody ever dared to do that before?
12:19: Amen.
12:20: So it's like you have that person that appears reminding that you can, that there is a prize waiting for you at the end and the run is worth it.
12:28: And somehow with renewed determination, those runners fix their eyes on the goal and keep running.
12:35: That's life.
12:37: That's how life is.
12:39: And if you want to be relentless, sometimes you've got to attack life with an uneasing, non-slacking determination.
12:47: And I can tell you right now that it takes faith to do that.
12:51: And faith is hope.
12:53: Faith is trust and leaning on Jesus.
12:55: Does that make sense?
12:57: And the Bible has all these different instances about running your race, about finishing your course, about going on your journey.
13:07: Right?
13:07: But anybody ever felt like quitting?
13:09: Anything?
13:11: You know?
13:12: I remember my dad, when I was a kid, I wanted to quit football, gridiron, I guess that's what you guys call it here.
13:18: I wanted to quit football because I was the smallest on the team, and I was, you know, I was like Mighty Mouse.
13:23: Anybody know who Mighty Mouse is?
13:24: Well, anyway, if you don't, yeah, you might know Mighty Mouse.
13:27: It's this little superhero that was a mouse, and he would fly like, dun-dun-dun-dun.
13:31: I felt like Mighty Mouse, but in reverse.
13:33: I'd get hit, and it was like, dun-dun-dun-dun.
13:35: You know, I'd get knocked back every time.
13:37: I was like, I wanna quit, and my dad told me,
13:39: If you start quitting now, you'll quit for the rest of your life.
13:44: And I said, and that stuck with me.
13:47: No matter how hard I got hit, no matter, and he said, you're gonna grow one day.
13:52: You're gonna grow and you're gonna hit back.
13:53: You're gonna get through this.
13:55: No matter how hard I got hit, no matter what I went through, keep going.
13:59: Because if you start quitting now, you'll quit for the rest of your life.
14:02: So personally, I've faced quitting, exhaustion, and pushing my body and mind past a certain place more often than I'd like to admit.
14:13: The opportunity to quit feels so easy.
14:16: Amen?
14:18: Doesn't it feel easy?
14:19: Like, you know, it's just...
14:21: You almost justify quitting, right?
14:24: You know what I'm talking about?
14:26: Like you're calling people, you know, if I quit, I could do this, I could have more time to do that.
14:30: You know, if I just, if I did, and you start bartering, and all you want is permission to quit.
14:36: But you know who you're giving permission to quit to?
14:38: Yourself.
14:40: Does that make sense?
14:42: And quitting is so much easier.
14:44: It feels easier than moving forward.
14:46: Man, when you face something hard in your life and you gotta overcome some challenges, you gotta have a confronting conversation or you gotta do things that just don't make sense.
14:58: Quitting is easier than moving forward.
15:00: Does that make sense?
15:02: Yeah, everybody with me?
15:04: And it takes faith in those moments when discouragement becomes heavy.
15:11: Nobody ever felt like that?
15:12: Anybody ever felt like that this week?
15:16: Hallelujah.
15:18: Ten toes and five fingers up in the air.
15:20: Yes, pastor.
15:22: That's me.
15:23: Amen.
15:25: The week can get overwhelming.
15:27: Life can get hard.
15:28: And no matter how hard you try, dang if you do, dang if you don't.
15:32: Just no matter what you do, it's not working out.
15:36: But I can tell you something, what you're going through right now will end and God is good on the other side of your problem.
15:42: Amen?
15:44: And that's the reality.
15:46: So I was reminded this week of the strength that grace provides.
15:51: God's favor.
15:53: See, grace means unearned, unmerited favor.
15:58: It came through the person Jesus.
16:00: Everybody with me?
16:02: And so,
16:03: Favor means that God's attention is on me.
16:07: Yeah?
16:08: So grace provides strength in times like these.
16:13: That means that I'm not alone.
16:16: I'm not running alone.
16:17: I'm not in it alone.
16:19: And there is always somebody for me.
16:22: Make sense?
16:23: So no matter how hard it gets, choosing to keep going isn't always a feeling of grace.
16:30: feeling strong, like I can do this, or being confident, it's about trusting Jesus.
16:37: The one who carries us when we can't take another step on our own.
16:42: And if we was to be honest for a moment, all of us has faced those times where we thought life was over.
16:48: By now, if you've lived enough life, you've thought, this is it.
16:52: Can't recover from this one.
16:54: Man, I've rebooted life four times.
16:57: Zeroed the account four times.
16:59: Almost went bankrupt a hundred times.
17:01: Amen.
17:03: Borrowed clothes, borrowed money, borrowed everything.
17:05: But you know what?
17:06: I'm still standing because I chose to have faith to keep going with Jesus.
17:14: It doesn't make me better.
17:16: It just means I decided to trust him.
17:20: There's people that meet the same avenues that I did that just decided to give up because quitting was easy.
17:24: Does that make sense?
17:27: Going to the gym, hmm, that conversation alone, Gary, hallelujah.
17:33: You know, putting on the shoes, putting on the workout gear.
17:37: You've done all the work.
17:39: I mean, that was exhausting, finding the clothes to go to the gym, and now you gotta actually get there.
17:44: Does that make sense?
17:46: but relentless determination.
17:48: I talked to a guy in a gym, and I promise you, I'm gonna get some scriptures in a moment, I promise.
17:52: I talked to a guy in a gym one time, he's a big old boy, Bella.
17:55: I'm talking about big, you know what I'm saying?
17:57: Like big, you know, like big.
18:01: You know what I'm saying?
18:02: Big.
18:02: I went up to him, I think Alex was working out with me at the time, and he was a nice guy, thank God.
18:06: I went up to him, I said, man, how do we get as big as you?
18:09: He looked at me and said, consistency.
18:13: I said, it ain't your meal plan, or maybe something else.
18:18: To be honest with me, brother, you pretty big.
18:21: Joking around with him, he said, no.
18:23: I come in here every day at the same time, I eat this, I feed my body what it needs to grow, and I'm consistent in these things.
18:32: We expect God to turn us, our life around when we ain't been consistently praying.
18:38: We ain't been consistently reading.
18:41: We ain't been consistently doing nothing.
18:43: And we're coming in with baby food thinking we gonna eat a big meal with Jesus.
18:48: Amen?
18:50: If you haven't been feeding yourself what it needs to have faith, when faith is required, you ain't got none.
18:57: Amen?
18:58: You gotta be consistent, relentless with your faith.
19:02: You know, you understand what I'm saying?
19:05: Come on, somebody.
19:06: Amen.
19:09: So let's look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse one and two.
19:13: Therefore, we are also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
19:31: looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the Father.
19:43: Let's go back to verse one.
19:46: And let's just leave that there for a second.
19:49: The passage begins by reminding us that we are surrounded by heroes of faith.
19:57: People that have gone through things before us and have gone through things like us and God didn't leave them alone.
20:06: Abraham, Rahab, Moses, countless others ran a race with faith and perseverance, with relentless faith to say, you know what?
20:16: If Abraham did it, I can do it.
20:19: If Moses did it, I can do it.
20:21: If Rahab did it, I can do it.
20:23: If David did it, I can do it.
20:25: If Samson did it, I can do it.
20:28: Whoever did it, I can do it.
20:29: And if Jesus did it because he did it, I know I can.
20:33: Amen?
20:33: Does that make sense?
20:37: Thank you, pastor.
20:38: Anyway, man, I'm so fired up.
20:41: I don't even know if you, I'm just like preaching to myself.
20:43: I'm preaching in my right pocket saying, come on, Kyle, you need to get this.
20:49: Amen.
20:49: Because it's hard, man.
20:53: Come on, let's be honest.
20:54: Life ain't easy all the time.
20:56: And people with that fake phony faith and life is good, like 57 flavors of favor, Jesus loves me.
21:03: Listen, tell me you got mad.
21:05: Tell me you're sad.
21:06: Tell me you had a bad thought.
21:08: Tell me you woke up in a bad mood, but at the end of it all, you turned to Jesus, and I'm gonna believe you a whole lot more, amen?
21:16: Don't sit there and give me this fake and phony faith.
21:18: Tell me I'm getting through because Jesus is helping me.
21:21: Tell me I'm getting through because the Holy Ghost has empowered me.
21:24: Quit giving me some fake, fluffy faith, because it ain't working for nobody.
21:30: It's making other people think they ain't got no faith because you lying through your teeth about your faith.
21:37: Oh, God.
21:39: Let me take some water.
21:40: That hit me too.
21:45: Coming in here.
21:45: How you doing?
21:46: I'm fine dying on the inside.
21:48: Ask us for some help.
21:50: We're here.
21:51: Because I'm going to tell you something.
21:53: When I need something, I'm going to ask for anything and everything.
21:56: Amen.
21:56: I'm broke.
21:56: Can I have a dollar?
21:57: Amen.
21:59: I ain't ashamed.
22:01: You hear me?
22:01: You're my family.
22:02: Amen.
22:04: We ain't got to be ashamed for asking for help.
22:08: We need to be ashamed when we don't ask for help.
22:14: Praise the Lord Jesus.
22:18: Amen.
22:20: So the passage begins by reminding us that other people have been through it.
22:24: These are heroes of faith.
22:26: Abraham needed Sarah.
22:33: The two spies in the land needed Rahab to learn how to get in and get out.
22:40: Moses needed his brother and sister.
22:46: Relentless faith doesn't mean you're strong alone.
22:48: Relentless faith means you're strong together.
22:52: Amen?
22:53: You're learning how to lean on Jesus and you're learning how to lean on as a group.
22:56: Think about it.
22:57: We're not running alone.
23:00: Amen?
23:01: These witnesses have faced trials, endured sufferings, and remained faithful.
23:05: Their stories remind us that the same God who empowered them empowers us today.
23:11: So who inspires your faith?
23:13: Well, first and foremost, I know you super saints are gonna be like Jesus.
23:19: If he ain't the first thing you say, praise God, we need help up in here.
23:24: But there's a second and third, fourth person on the line.
23:27: My second person down the line from Jesus is the Holy Spirit.
23:32: And really above that is God, my Abba Father.
23:36: But my fourth and fifth person is Daniel.
23:39: Because Daniel, you know, Daniel's just like, he had an upright spirit, man.
23:43: Like, he didn't have to prove himself to everybody.
23:46: He was relentless with his faith.
23:48: When they told him he can't pray or we're gonna kill you, he kicked the shutters of his house open and prayed louder.
23:54: When they threw him in the lion's den, he turned his back to the lions and looked to Jesus.
23:58: Man, that joker had some faith.
24:01: And he didn't even have the Holy Ghost.
24:04: I just went to Church of God and said, Holy Ghost.
24:07: The Holy Spirit.
24:09: You know, and then David, man after man, such a sinner.
24:14: Oh my gosh.
24:16: Whenever I feel down and think I've messed up, I go, David, you were worse than me.
24:21: Amen.
24:22: Then when I think I'm too mad and you know, Jesus ain't never going to forgive me.
24:27: I think about Peter, how he was rebuked by Jesus, how he denied Jesus and how he made his way back.
24:33: Amen.
24:34: I got some champions before me that they messed up worse than I ever did, been through more than I ever have, and they still walked out faith.
24:41: So you know what?
24:41: I can keep going too.
24:43: I can be relentless in my faith.
24:46: Amen.
24:47: And it's by reading the Bible and reading these stories that I get that in my heart, not just reading it and say, tell me what to do.
24:54: Take it in.
24:55: It's a living story.
24:59: Let it cast a vision before your eyes.
25:02: Let it become something you see like reading a good book, but can I tell you something, it ain't fiction.
25:08: Hallelujah.
25:10: Second thing you gotta do when looking at this scripture is you gotta be reminded to lay aside every weight.
25:19: You know, really I began to think about this in Hebrews chapter 12, and I began to think about laying aside every weight.
25:25: Does everybody remember Jonah?
25:28: You know who Jonah is and the big, well, they call it the big fish and we call it the big whale.
25:31: Everybody know who Jonah is?
25:34: Well, I'm beginning to think about Jonah and it's like, well, what can you tell us about that story that we haven't heard?
25:39: Well, I'm gonna try to give you a little flip-flop here, okay?
25:44: Jonah, of course, we know that God sent his prophet and Jonah went down low with the fish to come up high.
25:51: We know all those things that have ever been preached, but I go back to the boat.
25:56: Jonah wasn't supposed to be there.
26:00: And I'm changing the perspective from Jonah to the people on the boat that were casting lots.
26:05: You know what I'm saying?
26:08: They had the wrong weight on their boat.
26:13: They had to cast Jonah off.
26:16: And the moment Jonah was off the boat, everything went still.
26:21: Now Jonah went into the fish, but can I tell you something?
26:23: Sometimes maybe you got the wrong person in your boat.
26:29: Maybe you got the wrong thinking in your mind.
26:32: Maybe you've allowed the wrong philosophy into your space.
26:36: Maybe there's something that's not really scripture based that you need to throw out because it's the wrong thing for you.
26:46: Now see Jonah was for Nineveh, but he wasn't for the people on the boat.
26:52: Sometimes you can be in the wrong place and stuck there because you ain't been listening to God tell you what you're supposed to do.
26:59: You gotta be relentlessly listening and you gotta be relentlessly serving and you gotta be relentlessly saying, God, I don't wanna be in the wrong place serving you in the wrong way.
27:12: Am I hitting some cookie jars now?
27:14: Amen?
27:15: Because sometimes you knew you were supposed to go do something,
27:19: And you've been holding on to fear.
27:21: You've been holding on to doubt.
27:23: You've been letting the lies of people around you tell you you ain't got nobody.
27:27: You'll never be able to achieve it alone.
27:29: Let me tell you something, honey, you can do anything.
27:32: Amen.
27:32: You don't need everybody.
27:33: You just need to believe.
27:35: And when you believe, you'll get surrounded by encouragers.
27:39: Amen.
27:40: Lay aside every weight.
27:42: So before you can run effectively with this race of life and with faith, you gotta lay aside every weight.
27:50: Sometimes it's sin.
27:52: that ensnares you.
27:53: Runners don't carry baggage, okay?
27:56: They shed anything that slows them down.
27:59: In our spiritual race, weights can take many forms, anxiety, bitterness, distraction, habits, but they all lead us and pull us away from what God is saying to us.
28:14: There's things in our lives, okay, this isn't me condemning you.
28:18: This is hopefully you saying, yep, you're right.
28:20: There's things in our lives that we need to let go of.
28:24: I'm not talking about people.
28:26: Automatically, y'all started thinking about people.
28:27: I'm gonna delete that friend from Facebook and Instagram and TikTok.
28:31: Listen, I just deleted Instagram.
28:33: That just saved you a whole lot of trouble, amen?
28:36: But I'm not talking about deleting people.
28:39: Delete mindsets.
28:41: strongholds in your mind that you need a breakthrough.
28:45: The way you talk about yourself and the way you're negative about yourself is a stronghold that needs to be broke through with the word of God.
28:54: And you need to relentlessly be reminded of what God says about you.
28:59: Not what your husband or your wife or your friend or your coworker or your mama or your daddy or your ex or your ex or your uncle or this or cousin or even your cat that just meows at you the wrong way, amen?
29:12: That was funny, y'all should have laughed there.
29:16: First dad joke of the day.
29:18: But here's the thing.
29:20: Mindsets are what need to be cast off.
29:23: Philosophies.
29:25: You need to shed anything that will slow you down.
29:27: So a lot of times we start thinking just sin.
29:30: But it's habits.
29:32: It's hurts.
29:34: It's hangups.
29:36: It's trauma.
29:38: things that you need to heal from might be holding you back.
29:46: Come on, somebody.
29:48: I'm right here with you.
29:50: You go and you're, I'm gonna apply for that promotion.
29:53: And you're like, no, no, no, I'm not ready.
29:55: I'm just, you know.
29:58: You go and you're thinking, I'm gonna go out with those friends.
30:00: I don't know what I'm gonna talk about.
30:02: I don't even know what I'm gonna wear.
30:03: You done talked yourself out of going out before you even went out.
30:06: You're not enjoying life because of the way you think about yourself because someone told you lies about you.
30:15: Anxiety, bitterness, distraction, habits, they all lead us away from God.
30:18: So take a moment for just a second.
30:20: Can you reflect in just what's weighing you down?
30:23: How do you talk to yourself when you make a mistake?
30:26: You idiot.
30:28: I can't believe you did that.
30:30: You just keep messing up.
30:32: Those are self-hate words.
30:33: Yeah.
30:34: Amen?
30:36: And you need to stop treating yourself that way.
30:38: When you mess up, you need to tell yourself, you know what, it's just a mistake.
30:42: You didn't mean to, and that's what mistakes are.
30:44: It's just an accident.
30:45: You didn't mean to.
30:46: That's what they are.
30:47: You need to start talking better to yourself because no one else will but Jesus.
30:54: Amen?
30:54: When you make a mistake that affects somebody, they're going to let you know.
31:00: Amen?
31:01: Anybody?
31:03: Especially the narcissist.
31:05: I'm going to get on it for a second.
31:07: Hallelujah.
31:07: I got a sermon coming up.
31:08: It's a little bit narcissistic Christians.
31:11: Those narcissistic people that are in your life.
31:14: Amen.
31:14: That need to feel good about themselves.
31:16: So they're constantly tearing you down.
31:19: Amen.
31:21: Can I tell you something?
31:22: Those are not the voices you need to be listening to.
31:26: Amen.
31:27: Those are not the people you need to be listening to.
31:30: You can work with them, you can love them, but you don't need to let their words get into your heart because anybody that's trying to tear you down is not sent by Jesus because they so tore down, they're trying to build themselves up by tearing you down.
31:44: Amen?
31:45: And that's okay.
31:46: Be strong enough in faith and relentless in faith that their tear down won't tear you down and you start building them up with love.
31:53: Amen?
31:53: You ain't gotta be mean to them back.
31:55: That's just as narcissistic.
31:58: That's just prideful.
32:00: You just knew you were turning back and say, I appreciate what you're trying to say, but that ain't me.
32:04: I don't know who you're talking about or reflecting on, but that ain't me.
32:09: But I love you.
32:10: Amen?
32:11: Am I talking to anybody today?
32:13: Is this good today?
32:15: Is this good today?
32:15: I hope it's helping you because a lot of you are going through some stuff.
32:19: So are there sins or burdens that you're holding on to?
32:23: Jesus invites us to release them.
32:25: Matthew 11 and 28 says,
32:28: Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
32:39: Surrender your burdens to him and experience freedom and run life unhindered.
32:46: Amen.
32:48: Y'all are over here, so I'm gonna pick on y'all.
32:49: Is that all right?
32:51: Is it okay if I come talk to you?
32:52: Okay, thank you, thank you.
32:53: There's a lot of people here.
32:54: Okay.
32:58: You ever go to do something in life and you go to do it and somebody tells you it's too early, you're too young, you shouldn't do that?
33:07: Yeah, how old are you?
33:09: Do you know that there were kings that old that ran empires?
33:15: You know what old people do?
33:16: We try and keep y'all from taking our place.
33:21: Gotta preach.
33:23: We just don't wanna feel irrelevant anymore so we wanna keep y'all down
33:28: until we think you're ready to get up.
33:31: You gotta decide yourself when you're ready.
33:35: Nobody can tell you when you're ready.
33:38: You gotta have enough faith to figure that out for yourself.
33:42: I know 24 year olds and 28 year olds that are millionaires because they stopped listening to the naysayers in their life.
33:49: Man, I'm preaching something today.
33:51: If Jesus would have listened at 12, he would have never preached in the temple.
33:57: He was teaching rabbis something when he was 12 years old.
34:01: Amen.
34:02: Don't let nobody tell you you're too young and don't let nobody tell you you're too old.
34:08: Age ain't going to be a figure in heaven.
34:09: Hallelujah.
34:11: Amen.
34:11: Hallelujah.
34:14: So run your race with endurance.
34:16: It requires determination and discipline.
34:19: The reason you're not ready is because you don't know what to do.
34:23: And you're still waiting.
34:25: Listen, if you wanna do something, you gotta learn.
34:27: You gotta dig in.
34:28: You gotta be mentored.
34:30: You gotta be discipled.
34:32: But you gotta let those things build you so that you can run your race like a marathon, not a sprint.
34:39: Because the reverse side of being too young is like being a young stallion and you just come out the gate.
34:45: And then about a quarter mile in, you're just dead because you went at it too fast.
34:49: You didn't prepare.
34:52: Preparation is,
34:54: keeps you from failing.
34:56: The only thing you're missing as young people, the only thing you're missing as people is preparation.
35:01: We have blind faith happening in the body of Christ.
35:05: It is not relentless faith to just sit there and pray over the same problem every day.
35:09: Ooh, I'm about to say something that might make a few people mad.
35:14: Pray for me.
35:17: Your first step in any problem is prayer.
35:20: But that is not your last step.
35:23: Your second step after prayer is to seek wise counsel.
35:28: Amen?
35:29: And once seeking wise counsel, seek multitudes of wise counsel and then pray again for God to make the wisdom that you have received clear so that you may receive direction from the Holy Spirit.
35:48: But most people skip the second and third step that is go prayer, God fix it.
35:55: Listen, God did fix it when he went to the cross, but it's up to you to ask questions, ask for help, get educated, get discipled, learn, and grow.
36:02: Amen?
36:03: Does that make sense to anybody?
36:06: Amen.
36:08: So it's not a sprint, it's a marathon.
36:10: Endurance means continuing even when it's hard, when you're tired, and when the road ahead seems daunting.
36:17: One of the boys on the job site, he got challenged with something, and he said,
36:22: He said, well, I'm in this trade.
36:24: I'm going to put on my big boy pants because that's what I got to do.
36:27: I was like, man, I'm so proud of you right now.
36:30: But it's more than putting on the big boy pants.
36:32: It's about knowing that that's what you got to do.
36:36: Amen.
36:37: See, as a pastor, I'm going to woe is me.
36:40: Feel sorry for me for a minute.
36:42: Okay.
36:43: As a pastor, I don't have the opportunity to quit.
36:45: I've got all these lives in my mind that I think about when I wanna quit, when I wanna give up, when preaching's just too hard.
36:51: I've got my wife, I've got my kids.
36:53: I don't have a dog, thank God, yet.
36:57: But that would even just add more stress.
37:00: Did we let the dog out this morning?
37:02: You know what I mean?
37:04: And then I got people here that I do feel responsible for you, even though we don't talk all the time, I'm praying for you.
37:12: When life gets hard, nobody's calling me and saying, pastor, are you okay?
37:17: Nobody's calling me and saying, can I help you?
37:21: I gotta show up no matter how I feel.
37:24: Amen?
37:26: And I've learned to be relentless with that feeling to say, you know what?
37:31: All I need is Jesus and if I'm feeling bad, I'm mature enough in faith that I just need to talk to somebody.
37:37: Amen.
37:38: And if I need help, I just need to ask somebody.
37:40: It doesn't make me weak if I ask for help or if I talk about my problems.
37:44: But pride will set in and it is the opposite of being relentless.
37:49: Amen.
37:50: When you're trying to prove to everybody that you believe, am I talking to anybody this morning?
37:55: Amen.
37:56: So it's not about fixing your eyes on the goal.
38:00: It's about running the race with patience and perseverance and fixing your eyes on the author and finish of your faith, which is Jesus.
38:09: Amen?
38:09: So it's not just about having endurance.
38:11: It's not just about, look at this.
38:13: It says in Philippians 3, 13 and 14, brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended.
38:19: Paul,
38:20: Man, come on, the writer of the New Testament.
38:23: Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do know, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
38:35: Back up to verse 13.
38:37: Look at this.
38:39: Brethren, I don't look where I failed, I look ahead to where I'm going.
38:42: I don't look who left me, I look to who I'm walking with now.
38:46: I don't look at how hurt I am, I look at the healing I'm walking in.
38:49: I don't look backwards because I can't plow a field looking backwards or it goes all types of ways.
38:55: I can't drive looking in the rear view because I'm going to crash in front of the person in front of me.
39:00: No, I got to look ahead to Jesus no matter what's happening in my life.
39:04: No matter who's left me, no matter who's hurt me, no matter who's abandoned me, and no matter who tells me they can't help me.
39:11: I got to look to Jesus and where Jesus is, there's help.
39:15: Amen.
39:19: I don't know how long I've been up here, praise the Lord.
39:21: I didn't set my timer.
39:23: Oh, well.
39:25: Paul's words remind us that the prize of eternal life is with Jesus Christ.
39:30: Endurance is fueled by purpose.
39:32: One of the things I tell people all the time is if you don't have purpose, you don't have a reason to run.
39:39: I run now because I want to lose weight.
39:46: I want to get rid of this dad bod, you know?
39:49: Not because I want to look good with a six pack.
39:50: The only person that should see me with my shirt off is my close family, my close friends, because they came to swim in my pool.
39:56: And I ain't saying I don't go to the beach and take my shirt off.
39:58: I'm not saying that.
39:58: But I take off my shirt for my wife.
40:00: I ain't trying to impress nobody else.
40:02: Amen?
40:03: You understand?
40:04: So I'm not running to look good.
40:06: I'm running to lose weight.
40:08: I go to work not just to make money.
40:11: I go to work to support and provide for my kids.
40:15: for my wife.
40:17: But when you fix your eyes on Jesus, the purpose becomes clear.
40:21: I'm running this race so I can pass the baton to the legacy, the people behind me, because I've been running the race with Jesus, and the person behind me is gonna run the race with Jesus.
40:30: So when I finish my course and my life is over, well done, my good and faithful servant.
40:36: Enter into the kingdom of heaven.
40:37: You have finished your course.
40:38: You have run your race.
40:40: Amen?
40:41: I don't finish
40:44: I just pass it on.
40:46: Amen?
40:49: Some practical ways to fix your eyes on Jesus is to identify your weights, immerse yourself in scripture, surround yourself with encouragers, and keep your eye on Jesus.
41:04: Recently, like I told you, I decided to start running.
41:11: In my head, I was 24.
41:14: You know what I mean?
41:15: I was telling Patty, I'm gonna do like 100 burpees afterwards, you know?
41:19: He's like, well, what you wanna run?
41:21: You wanna run 1K, 2K, 5K?
41:23: I got bold.
41:24: I said, let's do 5K.
41:25: And then I thought about it.
41:26: Hold on, Shorty, you ain't 24 no more.
41:30: I said, let's run 2K.
41:31: That should be easy enough.
41:33: And when I say run, I didn't mean like run.
41:34: I'm talking about we're just trotting along.
41:37: We're trotting along.
41:38: Next thing I know, my lungs are burning.
41:40: My legs are tingling.
41:43: My tips of my fingers are going numb because I ain't breathing right, because I'm focusing on running.
41:48: And I ain't even running, we just trotting.
41:50: I'm talking about like lazy jogging, you know what I'm saying?
41:53: And I'm sitting there going, I'm about to die jogging.
41:57: This is embarrassing.
42:00: And Patty goes, you wanna run down to the next street?
42:02: No, I wanna stop right here, Joker.
42:06: You don't know, I thought I was gonna die.
42:09: And I come back in from that run.
42:10: We get some water.
42:11: I'm feeling pretty discouraged.
42:12: And someone said, I can't remember how the two of them said it, said, just keep running.
42:20: It gets easier each time.
42:22: But then something significant was said.
42:23: But if you stop running, it'll be like starting all over again.
42:28: Relentless faith is just not quitting.
42:35: The mission may change.
42:37: People may come and go.
42:39: But keep coming to church.
42:42: If it ain't this church, I don't care.
42:43: Go to church.
42:45: It ain't about this church.
42:46: We kingdom minded.
42:47: We by Jesus here.
42:48: Amen.
42:49: When I go away for a few weeks, I'm going to be going to church.
42:52: Hallelujah.
42:54: Amen.
42:55: Here's the thing.
42:59: If you stop reading your Bible, it's hard to get back in it.
43:02: You stop praying.
43:04: And the next thing you know, sleepy time comes quick.
43:09: There's been times in my faith where I thought, Jesus, I feel like I'm going to die here, man.
43:14: I can't do nothing.
43:15: He said, because for the last week, you've been focusing on the problem, not the promise.
43:18: And it's harder to come back to the promise than it is to leave the problem.
43:22: Amen.
43:24: If you can focus on the promise at all times, your faith will never fail you.
43:30: The problem will be like a little blip because your faith will never fail you.
43:36: And I just want to release a prayer right now over each and every one of you.
43:40: And simply say this, Father, may you bless them.
43:45: May you keep them.
43:47: May your face shine upon them.
43:49: May your peace be present in every place of their life.
43:53: And Lord, may you send people into their life that are encouragers, strengtheners,
44:00: God-filled, God-willed people that will speak words that uplift, not tear down.
44:08: And Lord, train each one of these people how to open their ears to the right things and close and guard their hearts to things that they just need to forgive people for even thinking they need to say.
44:21: So we say thank you, Jesus, for this message today.
44:24: We say thank you for the people that have attended.
44:27: It's in Jesus' name we pray, and we all say, amen.
44:30: Thank you for tuning in to today's message.
44:33: To connect or find out more, you can reach us online at worldchangers.life.
44:37: Remember to subscribe for more uplifting messages from our pastoral team, and may you continue to walk in faith and transformation until we meet again.
