Winter Season Part 3 // Nick Serban III

Winter Season Pt. 3 __ Nick Serban III

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

god, lord, prayer, day, people, today, moment, elijah, pray, eyes, fasting, part, speak, vision, seasons, word, scripture, place, winter season, man

You may be seated. We had a this past weekend, many were able to attend. It was kind of last last minute it was different time of the year. Thank you. For those who were able to make we went to a men's conference we had about 2020 Plus guys attend on Friday and Saturday evening with our Tennessee ministry network. On Friday night. Matt Rogers actually spoke and did a phenomenal job. You've been so proud of him. Secondly, on day two, Dr. Sam Huddleston from Northern Cal spoke and it was just a powerful day, as we gathered together and I just see God doing amazing things with the men here at full life. And so just one of the one of the share that also wanted to share as we navigate into the next couple months, we've got a couple of guest speakers planned. Matt Rogers being one on Super Bowl Sunday, that's going to be Jersey Sunday, by the way. And so we expect you to wear the winning jersey, we're the winning team for the Super Bowl, and so we'll see what kind of predictions you have and how insightful you are to the Lord. And, and all that if you're here the first time and just I'm really kidding. Kinda, but anyway, so we've been in a series called Winter season, and we have this beautiful picture of I think it's Franklin, Franklin. And I just gorgeous. And again, apologies for the last couple of weeks and kind of work on those prayers, we may get a couple more snow days, but just just so you know. I'm really teasing. But who knows, I did pray. And so we've been in the season, winter season, and this is gonna be our conclusion. If you've been on the fast, we asked for you to consider a 21 days of prayer and fasting we started on the seventh that would mean that that officially yesterday would have been the last date that means today, unfortunately, Chick fil A is not open. And so if you're looking for chicken, you have to go somewhere else. But thank you for your faithfulness. Talking with my dad and talking with many of you just really sense. Some high level commitment amongst the congregation, not only with gathering coming together, but just with fasting, almost almost as if I've been part of this here at the church for 22 years praying and fasting and this past year. And I know we we do fasting in secret and we you know you're not supposed to tell somebody you lose the blessing or whatever. But it was very encouraging to me as pastor for many who said, You know what I'm going to, I'm going to be part of this, I'm going to I'm going to work towards this, I'm going to be purposeful in my heart in this and I just believe God's gonna, God's gonna continue to show up. He's gonna continue to show off, he's gonna He's gonna continue to lead us and guide us and he again, this is for somebody here today. He hasn't brought you this far to abandon you just want you to know, he hasn't brought you this far to abandon you in process. So keep going. Even today, in our winter season we talked about, we ran out of we started with Ecclesiastes, that everything has a time a place, every matter under heaven, to be born to die, to plant the pluck. We try to break down to build up to weep. And then we've shared that in the book of Daniel how there's a scripture in Jena chapter 20, it talks about how God actually speeds up time and speeds up seasons. And so whatever season you may find yourself in, whether it's winter season, because it's winter season, or whether it's spring season, you can actually be in spring season and it gives you fall all depending on where you are in life. But at the end of the day, when it comes down to it seasons are seasons and seasons always change. Now uniquely, sometimes seasons are longer than we expect. They have to sink. What are they? What's the groundhog today? Right? If he sees a shadow, the groundhog season shadow? You got it? Yes, yes. All right. And so sometimes it's like, Oh, we got four more weeks of winter, whatever it is, hey, the end of the day is rejoice if you're in winter season. Rejoice severe in the summer season or the spring season. Just rejoice where you're at and watch what God will do. We talked about core corporate prayer we talked about prayer encourages it's a part of discipleship as part of a habit of prayer helps us in need a confession before the Lord. It brings unity to the body and advances evangelism as well. And for the last two weeks, we talked about asking prayers. We share that prayer makes a difference I quoted from Mark Patterson he said this when you pray to God regularly, irregular things happen on a regular basis. When you pray regularly, irregular things happen on a regular basis permits a difference between letting things happen and making things happen. Prayer is a difference between you Fighting for God and God fighting for you, and prayers a difference between the best you can do and the best God can do. And this morning, I want to just focus on miracle working prayer, mountain moving prayer. What seems impossible type of prayer. And I asked Jonathan to just pause for a moment, and stay up here because I was wondering, I want us to sing this one song, just as we prepare our hearts. That uniquely, something always happens when I when I sing this song, and we're gonna sing it together, I'll probably lead here. But um, it's very simple. It's very focused. And we'll sing a couple times through if you don't know it the first time, you'll know by the second time, and it goes like this. And so, in your eyes, upon je sus, low hook fall in his wonderful face and the things of earth, and nothing's of earth will grow strangely to him. In light of His glory, hand, Grace, he got it single with me now here we go. Enter, Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Lou hook for holding his wand for face increase, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in light of His glory. And grey, please, to Father, these next few moments as we jump into your Word, I pray God, that you would refine us, Lord, that You would refresh us, that you would require us, Lord, to believe for miracles, to see the unseen, to see further than we've ever seen before. We thank you for these moments. We thank You for Your Holy Spirit. Meet us here in Jesus name. Amen. And amen. Thank you. Thank you, Jonathan. In the book is Second Kings. I'm gonna read a passage in a moment, if you have your Bible, it'll be on the screen. And actually, this first part won't be on the screen. But the second part will, let me give you a quick background Elijah traps on the blinded Arameans. And in this in this time, in this moment, there's a there's a moment where Elijah actually hears and sees what's going on with the attack. That's that's going to take place. And he tells the Israelites, he says, Hey, listen, this is going to happen. And certain up Israelites were able to position themselves that they were not be conquered during this time of war. And so the king of Aram summons all of his officers, and he demands tell me which one of you is, you know, sharing with the Israelites, our next moves, what's going on? And I think is unique. It's, there's one soldier that stands that steps up and says, he says, None of us, my lord, says officers, and again, these aren't believers, these aren't God fearing people. They said this. Elijah, the prophet, who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel, every word, you speak in your bedroom, every word you speak in your bedroom. And so here, here in this moment, here, this time, he's in this place of saying, I've seen a there's a man of God, who's not even a believer, but I don't know if he's trying to save his own life. But here's what Scripture says. He says, he's believed, and he knows that there's a man who understands and hears from God, the very moments, the very direction, the very place that is leading the enemy. And he speaks in these moments to through through the prophet to the people, and here we are in 2024, how many here would maybe just with a little extra faith, you could believe that God, whether it's through His Word, through a dream, through a vision, through a prophetic word, through a moment that God could speak to protect, God could move, God can move you to the left, he can move you to the right, that you could be in a place as a man of God as a woman of God as a person following the Lord. As a fan. Only How many would believe that God could and would and can go before you. Because if he did it, then the same God yesterday, today and forever, he can do it today. So then the story goes on a little a little further than that. Elijah is at a place where he's with his servant. And sure enough, the plans kind of come on foiled, there are moments and we've, we've shared this scripture before here as a body. But it's sort of remind you, here they are in a place. In verse 14, Second Kings, chapter six, you can have your Bible your device, it says, Then he sent horses and chariots and strong forces there. They went by night and surrounded the city because they were just ticked off at this Elijah guy, they're just done with them. They're gonna take care of them. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out the next morning, so there was a servant, there was a someone, a companion that was traveling with Elijah, the next morning and army, with horses and chariots had surrounded the city Oh, my Lord, what shall we do? The servant asked, don't be afraid, the Prophet answered, those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elijah prayed, I want you to, I want you to get this. We're, we're ending our 21 days of prayer and fasting, and I encourage you to implement it in your life, do something next month, do something next week. But Elijah prayed this prayer. And it's a prayer that I want to encourage every one of us to pray. If you're, if you want to pray it over your spouse, you want to pray it over yourself, open his eyes, open my eyes, Lord, so that he may see. Then the Lord opened the servants eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Do we have a picture? I think of the Yeah. Now this, it took me took me a long time to go back there and somebody took a took a picture of this time. But there it is. It's not. But can you imagine? Can you imagine a moment like this? Nobody, nobody can. Can you imagine a moment where you're in the most desperate of situations. And somehow, someway, you get a glimpse of heaven, somehow, someway, you get a glimpse of God working on your behalf. Somehow, someway, there's a moment, there's a time. And for the next few moments this morning, I want to I want to speak to our vision, I want to speak to what we see the servant didn't see. And oftentimes we as believers, we choose not to see, we choose to maybe lean on the on the difficult or the negative or the difficult moments. I think it's amazing what we see in 2003. And I know there's some people in the room that maybe weren't even born at that point. But in 2003, we found ourselves involved with a church called full life here in Franklin, Tennessee. And at that point, we were meeting in a bridal gallery. And for those of you that enjoy the, the moments of a building we may not have we have street ministry, we may not have a parking lot, but here we are. We had no building, we were set up and tear down every Sunday morning. And we had a 16 by seven Hercules trailer that we would we would haul everything. On a Sunday morning, I drugged my four boys out of bed every Sunday morning. That's how they learned how to run sound, run lights, play instruments, the whole nine yards. And we would set up we had some adults also help in that time. But if they didn't show up, those boys still came and we had to get it done. I had to bring a change of clothes to change into a non sweated outfit. On Sunday morning after that time, and for about a year and a half. We set up and tear down not knowing what the next step was. But in my heart, a new transition was taking place and there was a transition in leadership. My dad was going to officially retire and I had to decide whether I felt God's called us to stay here or to move on and the long in the end of it on a on a Halloween of 22,004. We were voted on as pastors who were 29 people in the in for the vote, there were 28 yeses and there was one no. And on that day, we stepped out in faith. But prior to that time, we knew that we needed a place we knew that you know showing up at a brothel gallery on a Sunday morning and part of our rent even though it was high rent. We had to clean up the reception from the night before because they had they would marry people and then have wedding receptions there and so we're cleaning up bottles and and stuff in the parking lot in the place. Some days are bigger parties and others if you can Follow me in that. And I just knew that we needed a building that was I that's kind of crazy. You know, we have a Lord, we only need a building, I just knew we needed a building somehow, some way and. And so pretty much as soon as we said yes to the call in 2004, to be lead pastors here, God began to destroy our hearts. And we began to look for a building. Now I, I kind of looked, you know, it'd be nice to have a building, you know, type of deal. You know, we're we're gonna go, this is good enough for now. Again, we had 29 people. So it wasn't like we were bursting from the, from the, of the seams. And so we drove around, I had a few people, we didn't really engage a realtor, because we really weren't quite sure we were actually personally looking for a house, ourselves. We had been running up to that point. And within a few weeks, we had looked for a year, we looked at 100 houses, Kim and I were driving around we had we lost money on some contracts, contracts. And it was just, it was just crazy. And finally, after, right after we said, yes, in October, we ended up moving into our new home not having a home when we said yes, in December, just just 30 days later, ridiculous. And it was the one of the first houses we looked at, we actually didn't go in, we did look through the windows, and we said, we could never afford this. And a year goes by and the economy drops out. And sure enough, God provided something for us. Now, we went back a year earlier, and we're looking at the houses kind of like this would be amazing. Dream moment, like, wow, this could be incredible. And God blessed us to get in, get into the home. So now we have a house personally, physically. Now we needed a house for the house. And so driving around looking and finally got a call from somebody who said, Hey, ever check out this, Franklin powers for place. And for the life of me, I couldn't I'm like, I don't know where it is. I'm not sure if maps Mapquest and all that was as big as it was. today. I don't think I could, you know, I needed an atlas at that point, you know, where is it? Where is this place? And lo and behold, I realize, Oh, I knew where that place is. Because for the last two, three years, I happened to go to this place called the post office like right across the street. Like I drive out, I drive and drive out and I could not place where this place was. Here's a big so finally I drive here and there's a big sign had been up there for almost a year, you know, for sale. And isn't it amazing? Oftentimes, when we look at things we don't see the hand of God or we don't see the provision of God and we I had looked at this place almost every day coming getting nails church mailbox, you know, set up there and here it was right in front of me right in front of us. And it's morning I just want to stretch your sight today. I want to I want to help you maybe remove the whatever you call them in our eyes the glazed glazed look the times when we have things in our eyes that you know we're not quite seen this way and begin to as Elijah servant to see things how God is and if it this takes a prayer we're going to pray the prayer before we leave today. God helped me to see how many see this marriage how many see this business helped me to see this future how many see how you see this person and not how I see them. But helped me to be who you've called me. Called me to be I actually there were a couple of the pictures there's there's a stone can you throw the stone up there? You probably see it you see that stone to see what it says every see what it says on there. Who does who doesn't see what it says it says in there straight in front of you come on Come on church has written for you. These days it may be close when I open another eye what it says on there the stones will cry out ever see you know once you see it cannot see kind of the stones will cry out. If you can't see it. I'll send it to you later and you can finagle it Lord give them site right now Father, no. I thought that was the move on to the next one. Okay, I saw this this week. A acquaintance actually actually spoke about this you know, we'd use FedEx all of our all of our I mean, we've sent things you know UPS FedEx. Do you know until this person pointed it out, I never realized on the x part. There's an out Whether you see that error work with me this morning. Sure. Sorry. Work with me Hurry, go to the next one. On this one. I mean, we got football coming up today, a couple of weeks and on our on our chip night I'm sure somebody's got to bring a hint of lime flavored triangles. So Steelers. But it never dawned on me. It never dawned on me before that there are two people that are in the middle of tuxedos, taking a chip and dipping into salsa. You see that? They're double dipping? Yeah. We don't do that. By the way, on the our small group night, there is no double dipping, just so you know. That is not allowed. That is not allowed here. And then I think I have another one. How many flavors of Baskin Robbins have. But did you know that before I pointed it out. I mean, I didn't see that. I saw the be in ER, and there's a 31 right in the middle of it. I don't think I have any more pictures as it was. It doesn't take a whole lot of energy to see the visible. The server knew what he saw that was visible. He saw the armies of Syria, he saw looking through his visible eyesight is 2020. It doesn't take a whole lot of vision or a whole lot of faith to see what's kind of right before us. And this morning as we as we end our 21 days, as we conclude our series of winter seasons. I think if I had to change over again, I would have spelt seasons with S E. Because what do you see today? Even in a winter season, we know there are buds on the tree, we know that they're gonna they're gonna they're gonna blossom. But do we do focus on the cold and the ice? Or do we focus on the fact that it's still alive, and something's happening in the soil, and something's happening in the roots. Surrendering to despair is man's favorite pastime, God offers a better plan, but it takes effort to grab it, and faith to claim it. Chuck Swindoll let's face it, I'll be the first person to admit it, I often see the negative to say, often often focus on the negative. I had a doctor's appointment few weeks ago. And I gotta I gotta report back and, and I mean everything, you know, 99% of us, okay, and you already know that. But we're that 1% That one moment, I'm just like, you gotta be kidding me. I mean, forget that, you know, the cholesterol is good, the blood pressure is good. But there's one area it's kind of like, I'm gonna die. You know, here's, here's the one moment and you know, today that's not just me. You get a bad report, you get a bad phone call, you get a bad letter, you get a bad look, you somebody somebody doesn't check you out the right way. I heard her funny joke. The other day somebody, somebody called Walmart up and was looking for the W two. And they're like what department you from? They're like, you know, from the cashier, and they started going through it. And the funny part of the story was, he says, You know, I go through the self checkout thing, I want to be paid for doing that. And so it was a joke. Have you ever heard the expression, seeing the invisible, seeing the invisible I may expect the non believer to always see the glass half full, but doesn't want to challenge us today as we launch. And we have worked catapult folding into 2024 that we would see things with God's eyes that we would believe for the best turn the person next to you and say I'm gonna believe for the best. We are Christians and we are here to make a difference. We don't see things like everyone else. That means we look at things differently. The world may come and throw a desert and see a granite rock. The world may just see a small child in a manger as he celebrated Jesus in the birth. But what do we see? We see Christ child that one day the government would be on his shoulders we see the change you know other Salah shepherd boy in David. But God saw a king. The world may look at what they see with a criss cross beams. But we see it The Cross, and we see what took place. And we see these things. And it's so important because it's so easy for us just to look at the negative. We're gonna have all those good things that happened. But that one moment, that one difficulty when others see the natural, let us find the supernatural. We are viewing the invisible, the same spirit, Christ. And what are the things that we that we are missing? When we see, sometimes we miss faith, we missed hope. We miss the inevitable. This past Friday, I won't take the wind out of a sale. I'm not sure what he's going to preach. And a few weeks when Matt Rogers comes, I'm gonna tell you what, there was nothing in that moment on Friday night that made me prouder. Then he spoke about the healing power of a savior. He spoke about the miracle working power savior. And he didn't he didn't flinch in the whole thing. He didn't flinch. He said that God's desire is to heal. God's desire is to move God's desire is to turn a situation around. That's who God is. That's his nature. And even if we don't see it, that doesn't mean we give up in the prayer, even though we may not expect it or, you know, I feel like worshiping today, or I feel like giving today or I feel like being a believer today. No, we do it. When we made the choice. We do it. When we say yes to him. I had the opportunity on a Friday night. At the end of the service, men came up for prayer and being the pastor's come up there. And so I was standing there and the gentleman came up to me and said, I said to him, I said, What's your name? He told me his name. His name was Mike. And I said, What can I pray with you about? And he's like, I want to give my heart to the Lord. I wasn't even there wasn't even. That wasn't even one of the choices. I mean, one of the choices was, you know, Freedom rule is deliverance from this, you know, God turn around from this. And he's like, he's like, I'm very analytical. Here's what he said. He's I'm very analytical. And sometimes I just think too much. He's like, I've been brought up Catholic. And that's kind of the fate that the direction I've been following. But I want to give my life to Jesus. He's like, I can't make this up. So he's saying to me, and I'm like, well, all right, you know, and we just, we just did it. I never saw I've never seen somebody so excited. So enthusiastic back later, I saw Matt and I said, Hey, this is Mike. Mike gave his heart to the Lord tonight. Of course, you know, Matt is, you know, crazy. You know, like, hallelujah, you know, I mean, it was like, just simple. You know, you want to know how he got to that place. That somehow he saw. What do people see in you? What did people see in your moments of distress, discouragement, disappointment? Are the possibilities right in front of us? Acts of kindness, words of encouragement. What do you do when the flight is delayed? You see some of these Instagram, Facebook stuff, you know, these people just, you know, laying out the flight to fly, you know, the airline workers. What are you doing with that recurring dream that you have that vision that you have? What are you doing with that, that certain time that you wake up in the middle of night? Now? Again, I'm 55 years old, I actually wake up I was telling the guys the other night, there's a certain time of night I wake up, and it's not because God's waking me up is because I go to the bathroom, and it's horrible. But when, when all comes down to it, what if God woke you up in the middle of night, disturb you to pray, to see because he can trust you? Because you're willing to look past the negative, you're willing to look past the hurdle. You're willing to look past the difficulties. As I searched scripture, I see many supernatural encounters that took place. The second Kings moments, It's Supernatural. It's a moment where we see angels prophecy encounters signs and wonders. Where they notice notice or not, that most times when people show up on a Sunday morning, like yourself, and maybe just know, in the back of my mind and in my heart, and I have to remind myself sometimes it's kind of like, well, you know, you know, I got you for another three hours. No, I'm kidding. But here in moments like this, I know that there's some people in the ministry today. I know that there are people in the room people watching online saying, you know, I need to hear a word from the Lord. I need to change in my life. I need I need I need a moment in my life. I mentioned to our team huddle this morning, you know, we we may be a club, or we're going to be a house of prayer. If we don't show up expecting God to move, we don't show up expecting God to do miracles. If we don't show up expecting what do we see? Do we show up just seeing, you know, it's a building a cool building that we, you know, it was across from the post office that we kind of, you know, we had a vision, put the platform here and not over there in and we tore down walls and we've done all these things. Just know this, we will host the presence of the Lord. That's our hearts. That's our desire. winter seasons, remember, you may see ice, you may see snow, you may get a little chilly. But I believe that testimonies will come out of it when we host his presence, when talking about the idea of Revelation. And it's a word beyond the book of Revelation in the New Testament, but the idea of Revelation, Revelation, not the book of Revelations, is the act of revealing or communicating divine truth, something that is revealed by God to we as human beings, the act of revealing or communicating, okay, so, the servant had a revelation. He had a revelation of chariots of fire from my picture back up there, can we do that? It took me a long, long, long time to find that exact one. Right? All right. He had a revelation that he saw this thing. He saw this moment, Elijah prayed Lord helped him to see just like in in your, in your marriage, relationship, Lord, help my spouse to see this. Lord, help me help my employer to see this. But the act of revealing or communicating divine truth, something that is revealed, by God to us. And here's how it comes revelations, which is committed communication of truth of the Word, the Holy Spirit speaks to you through scriptures. So, get this, if you think you're you know, you can embrace the supernatural or you can embrace this. Just know this, that the Lord can speak to you through the word of God. Now, it's got to be the King James. I'm just kidding. Okay. The King James King Dame is great. I will never argue about someone who thinks the King James is it and all that, I get it, I totally get it. But there's some great translations. There's great commentary. This is a study Bible. I'm sure what version is. But I don't know. But when it when it comes down to it, do you know that God can speak to you through Scripture. That's why we encourage us beyond fasting and praying that we that during that time, we don't just sit there, but we get into his word. And he speaks to us through His Word. So we know, he speaks through the words. Secondly, we can hear His voice, his still small voice, audible. Sometimes this are human messengers as well. Sometimes it Angelics sometimes it's through a prophetic moment. We can feel God's presence. Now this is the this is kind of the difference between different organizations, and we can use the word denominations uniquely, I'm going to stick this record brother legit. We don't consider ourselves to denomination we consider as part of a fellowship. Now the world has kind of come in and says that's this denomination here, or that denomination there. But this is a cooperative fellowship, we choose to be a part. And so it's actually different in the eyes of the law, and all that, but when I look at when all comes down to it, we can we can hear through God's voice, but we can, the presence of the Lord oftentimes kind of moves us. And it's a challenging piece, because there are other organizations, denominations that will say, they don't lean on the feely part. They just lean on the word part. But we worship in spirit and in truth. And so the tough thing about just being led and the tough thing about incorporating feelings is because sometimes guess what, on a gloomy day, like today, you may not have felt like getting up, you're maybe you're hoping for another snow Sabbath. He may not, you may not have felt that. You know, it's like, well, how do I feel? Well, God doesn't work that way, necessarily, but at the same time, he does. Because sometimes you're just gonna feel it. Sometimes you're gonna know, hey, I need to speak to this person over here. I just feel it with all my heart. I just feel it. You know, I sent him leading leading in this direction. And sometimes we feel God's presence during worship. There's a there's a unique song, I can feel the rush of angel's wings. I see glory on each face. And I just wanted to tell you, I probably would have given up a long time ago if I just relied on feelings. Because sometimes I'll just be honest with you look great. This Morning, I Smell Great this morning. But sometimes you don't. Sometimes, like, you know, is anybody happy to be here today? You know? Does anyone have the joy the Lord, your baby's a little bit? Oh, it's down, down down deep in your heart, you know? Or, you know. So we feel God's presence, how many are grateful when you feel the feel the presence of the Lord? I mean, during worship today? Did you not feel the presence of the Lord? I mean, whoa, I mean, sometimes it's got to do with the subwoofers, too, and whatever it is, but when it comes down to it, we can feel the presence of the Lord. How many ever walked into a place it says, God is not here. But there's moments that we sense His presence, and you know what? It's good to sense his presence. And I want to encourage you to Lord opened my eyes, Lord opened my spirit. Lord opened my heart, I want to feel I want to see, I want to hear what you have to say. Some of us, he speaks through dreams. We have dreams in light. Scripture tells us old men, young men will have dreams have visions in these last days, so if you're having it, what are we saying? Well, it's part of the last days, and we walk in it, and we receive it. Some have visions, like dreams, but you're awake. So when you have visions, how do you have visions, you have visions, like Elijah servant, this situation over here looks horrible. But somehow, some way, I can see God in it. Somehow, someway, I have a glimpse of this moment, you know, uniquely, over the years, we've had we've had many different conferences here. We've had moments here where people come in. And I've had, I've had people come to me and speak, speak to me and say, Listen, I saw I saw a, I saw a bunch of angels in the room here. Now I'll get I'll get wigged out on that. You know, it's kind of like, you know, how dare you see it? You know, I didn't see him first. I think some people are more sensitive to different things. Some people some people see things. Some people hear things, some people dream in the night. Some people encounter angels happen frequently in the Bible, growth out scripture from Mary. angels appear. And then there's encounters with the Lord, national encounter with Jesus. I believe that man the other night, at the altar, encounter Jesus. When he said, Yes, come into my life. Forgive me my sins. I want to make you Lord of my life. Those are Jesus encounters. Maybe you say God never speaks to me. Alright, here's the here's your takeaway this morning. I still got a couple more minutes. Here's your takeaway. If you may be the place to say God never speaks to me. Here's, here's the what was what did you say this morning about? The secret to life is what it was. Alright, the secret of life too. All right. Here's a Here's. Here's a great way to attract all those areas of Revelation, hearing God's voice experiences, presence, dreams, visions, angels, the Lord. Just at the end of the day, I don't really have a list like, Lord, this is my list. I need to I need to I need a drink tonight and Univision, I just want Jesus, I just want you I want you to get that that's a Go Go for the prayer. But a great way to attract revelation is to obey what you already know. And you don't need to back that up. A great way to experience the vision, the encounter is to do what the Word says. Now follows those 10 suggestions. I mean, the 10 commandments. Follow the the principles, be people have godly character, keep your word. Obedience is a signal to God that says, God, I want to go to the next step. Obedience before the Lord is a signal to God saying, You know what? I want to go the next step. That's why in our prayer and fasting, these last 21 days, I tried to articulate this this morning in our in our huddle, praying and fasting for all of us who are a part of it. One of the greatest things you can do, not only not only in the natural, but in the spiritual. But when all comes down to here's what prayer and fasting is. Now sometimes we interpret the Scripture says, you know, when Jesus says, you know, some of this kind only happens through prayer and fasting. It wasn't that Jesus is saying, hey, leverage your time, you know, hey, get 21 days of prayer and fasting under your belt, and you can just present it to the Father and say, Hey, Listen, I prayed and fasted for 21 days. And so now you have to do this for me. That's not what he's what he's saying. What he's saying is it changes your spirit. It changes your heart. It changes your focus it it changes what's important and what's not important. And it's not necessarily the selfish prayer guiding I need this I need whatever it is, it's not about Listen, God is sovereign God does things well, but we align our spirits with his now when we wonder why you're not hearing from Him, when we wonder why we're stale, when we wonder, well, we're reaching on it winter seasons. But Spring is coming and harvest summer and the fall is coming. And it's harvest time that we would see that we'd recognize him in job 3315 through 16 says he will seal up that instruction in our heart in the night while we sleep. So what do we do we meditate on the word it's why it's important to read His word it's why it's important and the NSA well I you know my my mind goes here listen, I don't want to go run either but it changes my life when I do you say well, you know God God should have put that in my life that I'd like to read or like or whatever guess what, you know what there's it's called audio tapes. You could actually listen to the whole word of God on your almost every one of you have a smartphone here in the house YouVersion check it out. Watch but somehow some way the positive that in your spirit, fresh eyes, fresh perspective. I love this general Fernand foot said this. He in his battle battle journal, he said I'm hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation is excellent. We were gonna get here you're in the middle of a battle of Marnay. He said this, he's he's a reporting back on here, he's in the middle of the battle. hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. It's impossible to maneuver. And he says this situation is excellent. It all comes down to perspective oftentimes comes down to what you're looking at. Paul writes in Ephesians, one, through 17, verse 17, I keep asking that God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious father. They give him the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you the riches of His glorious inheritance in his holy people, and is in a fairly great power. For us who believe that power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand and heavenly realms far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be the head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him, who feels everything in this way. Verse 18, I pray that the eyes of your hearts may be enlightened, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be open, that you will begin to see with spiritual eyes, you will begin to see past your situation. One of the counseling on counseling technique I've learned over the years. And if we've, if we've ministered to you via counseling, you've probably heard this. But I usually I'll take it, I take a phone or I'll take a I'll take a book. And I'll say, this is your situation that you're looking at right now. And the problem that you may be experiencing is this. It's right here. It's right here. It's all you're dwelling upon. It's all you can see at this moment. You try it you're trying to go through life. And there's all that you see. I often encourage them To take this, move to the side, still there, but put it in the hands of the Lord. Allow allow him to help you navigate through. allow, allow your vision begin to look to him. When he all you do is focus on that negative part. When all you do is focus on that difficult part, hey, listen, we all got difficulties, all the difficulties. There's people in this room right now, that probably have 10 times more difficulties, maybe you're sitting here. But when all you do is take it here and put it here it changes everything. Change, change it change the way you see things. It changes the way you interact with people. It changes the way you make it through. Listen, we're all gonna have mountaintop experiences. We're all gonna have valley experiences. And God is so faithful through them all. The same God yesterday, today forever, he doesn't change, but he still moves. He still moves in our lives. And so as we navigate this new year, God answers prayer. God sees us when we pray. In moments in winter seasons, you may not see the buds, but they're coming on the tree. You may not see what the fruit is gonna look like, but the fruit is coming. It all these determine how you will see it during this time. How will you see your future? How will you see your next job? How will you see your circumstance? Will it be? God left me hanging here. Or I can rejoice? Because I made it another day. When Jesus comes back and says where are the other nine. Not only will you be healed, but you will be whole in these moments. And that's my prayer for us as we navigate this new year 2024 I mean, my gosh, for almost a quarter way through Christmas. I'm not gonna start doing the dates for health. How close Christmas is but but listen. What do you see today? What do you see today? Do you see devastation? Do you see hurt and pain? I'm not going to I'm not going to argue with you and say you may not feel those things. But would you be willing this morning to take that moment? Say you know what, Lord, I'm gonna give it to you. And you know what? I'm going to trust you. In these moments. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. I want to see enlightened my, my vision today. Change it. And just maybe today, here's my prayer is maybe the circumstance You've been in. You could take a step back today. And say, Man, Pastor pointed out there's 31 flavors of Baskin Robbins. I never saw that before. Or I never I never saw the stone, the stone. The stones were cry out. If you need that, by the way, I will text it to you. You can figure it out later. But when it comes down to it, maybe you take a step back today, at the beginning of 2024. God's not come through with me on this in this area of my life. I'm disappointed with this. He didn't do this. He didn't do that. As opposed to saying, Lord, I am so grateful. I'm grateful. I'm grateful before the baby's come. I'm grateful. I'm grateful for the job. I do have that boss. You know what? I'm gonna pray. He's the best boss. But one day if I get in that position, I'm taking notes right now. And it's okay, I'm gonna hold it against them. But you know what, God you're refining me in this process right now. Laura, thank you for the money I do have, Lord, you're going to trust me with 100 because one day you're gonna give me the 1000 Lord, you got to trust me with 1000 because one day you're going to trust me with 100,000 Let them find you faithful now. Obedience is a signal to God. That you know what I want to see. I want to grow. I want to be your hands. Your feet, your mouth. God use us in 2024 Would you stay with me this morning?