Power Up // Matt Rogers

Power Up __ Matt Rogers

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

god, jesus, life, power, love, people, eagle, give, kids, pray, years, pastors, heaven, healed, preaching, walk, depressed, terry, chicken coop, boys

Hey, can we give it up for our pastor Nick Serban IV love you. Mama Kim in the front row, the First Lady, thank you so much. Ooh, I just got to check in my spirit. My grandma would reach down from heaven and smack me if I preach with a hat on. Sorry. Do we have awesome pastors, I love you guys. We've been here, I always like to make the joke. God delivered us from California eight years ago. We're one of the good Californians, we practice common sense and worship Jesus in my house. So I always like to say God delivered us from California. And they were one of the some of the first people we met. Big Papa servant in the back in the red shirt. When you walked in, he probably shook your hand or gave you a hug. If you told him your name, he will remember it next time that you're here. He's an unbelievable man, one of the first people I met when I was here, which is why we kept coming back. I just I've known y'all for eight years now. And I just think there's something really, really cool about pastors, that all they want to do is do stuff for you. And they don't want anything from you. And that is the Serbian family. And I just love you guys. Thank you. You've done nothing for Terry and I accept help us in everything. And I love you guys. So can we give a round of applause again, for our pastors like for real? Like, that means a lot. And I got some friends in the house. I'm so pumped y'all like I'm holding excitement inside of me. And if you guys know me, like, I'm a pretty excited guy. But like, I look around at just how God has blessed my family and I in eight years, spoiler alert, I'm probably gonna cry, because I'm just, I'm a freaking baby, like, dude, this makes me happy. Like, looking at my son with his boys and my wife's friends are here and like my boys are here. Like, this is really, really freaking cool to me that, and there's some people here that are really dedicated to their church, and they don't like leaving their church to come to other churches. We have different denominations in here. I know that there's some Catholics in here. There's some Baptists in here. I'm not gonna point anyone out. There's a couple. There's a couple friends of mine that came here that don't even believe in God, but they like their friend. So they just showed up to support their friend. And I think that is awesome. So I love you guys. Like I'm so pumped that you guys are here we round applause for our friends, our new guests. Like that fires me up. I think there's something really cool when you show up even when you don't want to. And you show up even if you don't agree with some, but you just go to support someone, and maybe God has something for you. I promise he does. A couple of my friends be like, so like you go to a Pentecostal church, right? Like, what does that mean? Like? Is someone going to smack me on the head and say be healed? That would be pastor Nick, the answer is yes. So if you get by No, I'm just kidding. But like he said, like, being an announcer, like one day, one day, I'm gonna stand in front of him. Like, I don't know when it is, but someday I'm going to stand in front of the creator, the one that made me and I don't want him to ask me, why did you get louder for King Henry instead of King Jesus? Like, I don't want to get I mean, I love what I do. Like I love life, those of you have been around me like I'm, I love it. Like, this isn't a show. Like I'm not trying to be a good Christian. I'm not trying to love my wife better. I'm not trying to be a better father, like, I've just already been set free. So I just am. Like, I'm just free. Like, I stopped worrying about what people cared about me so long ago, like, I used to think other people were the problem. And then if God would just tweak you a little bit, then life would be better. And then I actually read the first prerequisite for following Jesus is denying yourself. So when I got over me, the only thing left to do was to love you. So I just walk around and try to bring heaven everywhere I go. And when he talks about money is tight, like do Christians people get weird when churches ask for money? Like, God doesn't need your money. This church doesn't need your money. But when you give and you only ask for 10% When you give it I'll put it this way. When you open up what's in your hand, God will open up what's in his hand and I want what's in his hand. Because and I'll talk about it today, like we've been like the Roger's family. We've been there like I know what it's like to be broke, desperate, depressed, all that stuff. So if you're wondering what it's like to be in a Pentecostal church, this is it. We're just excited. Like the only difference between this place is like, we just believe that we're still operating under an open heaven. We just believe that all things really are possible if you believe. We just believe that if you came in here and anxious, depressed, sad, confused, sick in your body, we actually don't believe that that's God's will for your life, but that you actually can walk out of here completely changed, which is why I'm excited. So, I am going to ask you to stand one more time just for the reading of the Word of God, we could put it on the stage in true, Matt Rogers fashion, I sent him this about 20 minutes before I got here. So I don't know if they got it in time. But I want to read from Ephesians 314 through 21. It says, For this reason, first of all, the reason I like what I'm about to preach today is it doesn't matter if you don't believe at all right now. Or if you've been so stuck in a religion for 30 years is the way you do everything. What we're about to talk about right now, it's not my opinion, I'm just going to recite the Word of God. And it's up to you whether you want to receive it or not. And the good news is, this message is for everybody. And I'm preaching to myself before I'm preaching to y'all. So for this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named every family on Earth, and Heaven, his name from the Father, you were God's idea, before you were even created. There was none of you before you got here. He didn't like that. That's why he made you very powerful. That according to the riches of his glory, someone say his glory, according to His glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power someone say power. Let's go. He's gonna grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit and your inner being. That's why I am the way that I am. Because I actually believe that there's power in my life through the divine creator. Oh, it gets better. Let's go. The Bible ain't freakin boring baby. Like this empowers me, Cha verse 17. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love. This is where it gets good, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. When you know the love of Christ, it surpasses what you think about him. There's a difference. Like, dude, everyone knows about Jesus. But the Bible says this is eternal life that you may know him, not know about him. There's a difference between knowing about Jesus and actually knowing Jesus. So a lot of you might know about me based off of what you see on Facebook, Instagram, or what people have said, behind your back. But there's a handful of people that actually know Terry and I, because they've spent time with us. They know my wife's heart. They know what she likes, they know what I like, well, like they know us because we spent time together. It's the same thing with him. When you know the love of Christ, you get everything that I'm talking about. knowing Christ surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness, someone say all with all the fullness of God, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. He wants you to be filled with everything that he has. He's the only God not Allah, not Confucius, not Buddha, not Jonathan Smith, not whoever none of these gods said, I want all of me to be inside of all of you. That's why he's so awesome. Everything that he is he puts in us so that we can release to other people to show him how great he is like that's the whole message. So if you walked in here, depressed, anxious, confused, fear, I guarantee you at least a third of the crowd today is afraid of something. There's something in your life right now is going on that you are petrified of. God wants you to be filled with His fullness so that that stuff doesn't even exist in your life. One of the things that make me so passionate, I'm almost done, we could sit down. One of the things that makes me so passionate in a feisty way, is when Christians, believers, even pastors and preachers settle for depression, anxiety, sickness, as well as just God's will. You just got to bear this a little bit longer and ultimately God knows what he's doing. Like, you know, you're just gonna have to bear this little longer and ultimately, God's gonna get the glory when you get to Heaven one day, dude, that's not what this says. He wants you to be filled with all of his fullness right here. And right now, is God depressed? Is God sick? Is God confused? Is God schizophrenic? No. Why do we walk around depressed, confused, fearful when we actually have a creator that wants to put all this fullness inside of us? First 20. Now to Him, who is able to do far more abundantly that we can even ask or think, according Oh, that's where it gets Pentecostal pastor, they might freak out a little bit. They might think I'm a heretic, but I'm just reciting the Bible that all that we can ask or think, or imagine, according to the power that works within who us according to the power that works within us. And this is where secessionist get freaked out. And why they say, well, you're preaching a very humanistic gospel. And it's not all about you. It ain't about me, because look at the next verse. Because when you have the power working within you, to Him be the glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus, throughout all the generations forever and ever a min, God wants to give you all of his fullness to have an inside of you so that you can have power to release it to everyone else and give Him the glory. I just want to stand up here and brag about Jesus. Like the intro was cool, tighten stuffs, cool American Idol, all that stuff is cool. But what y'all don't know is I had such a bad stutter at five years old, and I had no gifts and no talents, that that resume is an absolute miracle. Like if you see Matt Rogers 40 years ago, he like, couldn't even talk. But thank God, I had a mom that spoke the word of God over me instead of what doctors said over me. So with that, I'm gonna pray and you can sit down. Let's pray, Lord, you're awesome. Amen. You can be seated. Let's go. I don't have to play, pray long, elaborate prayers to impress anyone. It's cool. But if you see me like in my prayer closet or at home, you could ask my wife and kids. I'm kind of a weird guy when I'm by myself with Jesus. So when I come out here, I could just be free. Like God, you're awesome already showed you already. Show me what you're going to do today. I just need to get what's in here, out there to y'all. And you do that? By raising faith in the room. And faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of. So my job is easy. All I need to do is preach the Word of God, you need to hear it and faith gets raised. I want to read you a really cool quick story from this book. Changed my life. You should get it for those you note takers write this down. It's called awake to righteousness by Mark Greenwood. This one. This one's the real deal. You guys like this one. If I was going to title my sermon you seen in the back. I titled it power up because most people have already been given a promise and a power. Here's the catch with all of this. Everything that I'm saying today. You don't have to do a bunch of stuff to get it. You don't have to like go say for Hail Marys three our fathers and do this 75 times and go talk to 17 priests to get what I'm about to say. All you have to do is just say I receive. He's so good. All you have to do is receive and by receiving first you have to believe I want to read you a quick story. Because this is powerful. It's from this book. It says once upon a time there was a chicken named Will Will was pecking around the chicken coop one day and he found an old letter. Will had never seen this letter before and he read it excitedly. As he did his heart jumped because it explained that it was possible for a chicken to be supernaturally transformed into an eagle. There had always been a desire in wills heart to be an eagle, but he never thought it would be possible in his life. Well that night we'll prayed and our will prayed to God and he believed that it was possible for him to be born again into an eagle. As well prayed a bolt of lightning struck him and immediately he was a full fledged Eagle. The crazy thing was Will was so used to his experience of being a chicken that he didn't realize that he had actually become an eagle. Even though the old letter had promised him that he would. From then on he walked around the coop acting and Packing like a chicken. But all the while he was an eagle, it became difficult for will to still act like a chicken. Because he was no longer designed for that life. He no longer enjoyed pecking around for food and scraps, like he used to. He became more and more dissatisfied with his condition. But he could not put his claw on the issue. He continued to ask God, God make me like an eagle. But he never changed. And he lost hope. This went on for some time, until one day, a majestic eagle flew over Will's chicken coop. And he saw the funny side of an eagle acting like a chicken. The eagle swooped down and perched on the tree next to the coop and he yelled out to Willie, he said, What are you doing down there? And that chicken coop acting like a chicken? What do you mean will replied, I am a chicken. The eagle laughed at will and said Come spread your wings and fly with me. You are an eagle just like me. Will didn't have time to think as the eagle flew away. He spread what he thought were his chicken wings. And all of a sudden he saw two broad eagle wings with three strong flaps. Some faith and courage will flew high above the chicken coop and he's sword as Eagles do the moral of the story of the chicken and the eagle expresses the heart of so many people that I meet on a daily basis. I love that I'm got my ministers license, and I'm licensed and I'm about to be ordained and all that like I love preaching in church. But I'll tell you what I really love doing is just living like Jesus out there. Because there's a lot of chickens. Or I should say there's a lot of eagles that act like chickens. And I like to sweep around their little chicken coop and say no, no, no, come up here and fly with me. Let me show you what a life of Jesus looks like. A life of Jesus is not broke, depressed, shameful, barely getting by gritting your teeth trying to be a Christian. It's a life of victory. It's a life of power. Yes, you have struggles. And we're going to talk about that. By the way, spoiler alert, I'm going to end in about 25 minutes. So you don't have to worry that it's going to be your typical for our church service. But when you truly walk with Him, and in His presence, it's a life of power. It's a life of victory. It's not a life of a bunch of rules and regulations. walking a tightrope of Christianity hoping you don't screw up. And if and when you do well God doesn't love me anymore. It ain't that. Too many of us are stuck in a chicken coop of guilt, shame, condemnation, and unfulfilled dreams of greatness. And this creates an identity crisis that keeps us behaving like the chickens. We think we are somebody say I'm not a chicken. Someone say I'm an eagle. Why do we have you say that stuff out loud because the power of life and death is in your tongue. There's something very powerful of you speaking declarations overview over yourself, I'm gonna preach like this, whether you guys talk back to me or not, I'm doing it because I want you to feel, I want you to see what it feels like to tell yourself that you're awesome. Because a lot of people look in the mirror and they don't like what they see. And a lot of people believe in the same Jesus I'm preaching about and they see the same thing as the person that doesn't even know God. And it ought not be that way. He paid such a high price for us. Somebody say power up, come on, we got power Genesis 126. Then God said, Let us make man in our image and let them rule over the fish of the sea over the birds in the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth. You were created to rule you are not created to survive. You're created in the image of God I like to say it this way I say this to the kids all the time in our youth group. 8 billion people on the planet and none of them have your fingerprints. You're born in original don't die a copy. One thing I try to tell my boys who are sitting here like don't freak and be like everybody else. Don't blend in when you were created to shine. Like a billion people on the planet none of them have your fingerprints like you're a big deal you're God's idea you're creating in his image. We should act like it walk like it believe like it succeed like it. When you start talking about prosperity man Christians get weird. Well, you can't have too much because then it's like Dude, if you have a problem with prosperity, heaven is gonna be a strange place because he uses gold for concrete. Like God wants Let's meet a win. Because he knows the more that Terry and I win, the more we're just gonna give away. Someone's got to win it might as well be the believer. And there's room enough for all of us to win. If someone looks at your life and they don't want, they're not seeing the Jesus that you have, why would they want your life or your Jesus? That makes sense? Like if I'm preaching Jesus, but I'm walking in such a weak, anxious, confused life, why would anyone want what we have, we have the ultimate cheat code to every single problem. Like we have it. It's already been given to us, Psalm 115 16. The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth he has given to men. And ladies, that's not talking about males that's talking about humans. It's both of us. So a lot of times, ladies, I learned this when I got to the south man is different down here. Like, it ain't men, women, He created us in His image, like, where he were equal. So don't ever Ladies, don't ever read the word men in the Bible and think he's just talking about your husband or your dad. He's talking about you. He's talking about human. That's good word. I can't believe not one woman said Amen. That is weird. Someone say power, you have power. Number one, you should have power over your mind. Second Timothy one seven, says For God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. Powerful people are walking through life powerless, because they don't understand who they are. Or they don't believe what they have. Through the finished work of Christ. I'm gonna say that again. Powerful people in here are walking around power lists. Because they don't understand who they are. And they don't understand what they have through the finished work of Christ. He is so much more than a ticket to get to heaven. He is so much more than fire insurance brother. He's so much more than a Get Out of Jail Free card. He's my model for life. He's everything that he is he is given to us so that we can go and shine. That's a good I'm preaching way better than y'all are shouting back at me. But that's okay. Going back to what I already said that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him, he was able to do far more abundantly than we can ask or think or imagine according to the power that works within us. I make a point and those of y'all that hung out with me, you know, my wife knows my wife is awesome. It don't matter. If I'm with the Titans which I got two of the best DJs in Tennessee right here the Tennessee Titans my boy DJ hash DJ, our DJ, Josh, DJ reo, a give our DJs around applause, let's go. Like, there was some of the biggest celebrities and athletes on the planet. And then they'll wake up on Sunday to come to church with me, I love you guys. Let's go. But they know me and people like when we show up. We try to change the atmosphere. And I don't show up and they'll do it. Like we've all hung out together. Like did I don't show up? Hey, Brother, are you saved? Are you going like I don't do that. I just walk. I just walk in with the same power and authority and I try to change the environment. What happens is people start to take notice like, they live different. What do they have? And it's not like sometimes God chooses. And sometimes God choose that like, no, it's what you believe it's awakening to the power that we have. In 2008 2009. You can visit the Rogers house is not good. Our second son was born doctor said he would only live to be certain long it was a rare disease. And they said, you know, most kids by the time they reach 14 is not going to make it and this is going to happen. And what they didn't know is that when I was born, I was born with a rare disease. And I'll never forget, pastors heard the story a ton of times when I'm five years old, and I'm butt naked, standing on a doctor's table and I got like 20 white coats looking at me. And they said your son will never play sports. He'll never play football and never play basketball because if he gets his heart rate above 100 He'll have a heart attack and he'll die. Thank God I had a mother that knew the power of Jesus because she looked right back at the doctor's and I remember that she goes, Oh, I don't matter what you say My Jesus is going to heal him. So that intro that he gave me is an absolute miracle. So fast forward Were to 20 something years later, when the doctors are telling my wife and I, he'll never do this, we'll never be able to do that. Terry and I had to get on the same page and make a decision that it don't matter what they say, are Jesus is going to heal them. And he don't like when I put them on blast and his boys are so I'm not going to do it. I could just say, Man, that boy, right there is the biggest miracle you'll ever see in your life. He's never done a breathing treatment in three years. And he's an absolute miracle. And it's not because oh, well, just God chose to do that for him. But there's no you have to believe different. All things are possible to those that believe. But the truth is, Terry, and I went through hell. There came a point I was going on my third season of Discovery Channel. And you don't make a lot of money in the first two years. But when you get picked up for your third season, they start paying you some good money. And I'm about to leave. And Terry and I we've had a great relationship. So like when I travel and stuff, and I'm away like she is a freaking beast like my wife is the biggest unsung hero, and she never gets credit for what she does. So I'm gonna take one second and brag about the beast that Terry is because she holds it together, she makes it happen. And she allows me to go out and flourish. Like when the Titans job became available. She's the one that sent me a text message of it. And she said, the Titans are looking for a new PA announcer This is yours, babe, go get it. Like, dude, when your wife has your back, it makes you feel like I'll freakin bust through a wall right now. But you come visit us in 2008. When we got a sick son, my wife goes into a deep depression for nine months didn't go out of the house maybe two times. We know what it's like to be depressed. And I had to walk away from that lucrative Discovery Channel job. And I took a job as an Internet car salesman that would sell leads to card general managers. And I was making $40,000 a year, I was completely broke. I was depressed, our house got foreclosed upon, was embarrassing, but it's real. We would Shut the garage to our house because the repo man was coming to get our car and I just needed it for three more days. And then they finally got the car. We lost the house. We lost everything. I know what it's like to be so broke that you write yourself a $300 check, put it in the ATM knowing it's going to bounce, but you take the $300 cash out and just say I'm gonna figure it out later because I needed 300 bucks this week. I've been broke, I've been depressed. I know what depression is like, right now. 20% of Americans 40 million people are battling anxiety and depression 330 million people world wide, which means about 20% of the people. It doesn't say Christians. It doesn't say non Christians. It says people. And that hurts because it ought not be this way. The enemy always tries to attack you in your mind. He has no power. He's been defeated. stuff still happens. But when he when you go through stuff, he tries to get you right here. And the Holy Spirit speaks to you right here. And what's in the middle between your mind and your spirit is your heart. They're both fighting to get a hold of this. Because whatever has this controls you. So we know what it's like to be depressed, to be broke, to have sick family to have a diagnosis. But that's when you have to stand on the word because when you realize who you are and what you're capable of, you start looking a lot more like Jesus. And I'm not just talking about healing bodies and miracles and signs and wonders. Like all that sounds great. That's easy for Jesus. But how about walking into a room being around a bunch of people that don't like you, and you're not even offended by him and you can just go love them anyway. I love doing that. Like that's walking like Jesus, miracles, all that stuff at school. But how about walking into a place when your circumstances are hell, but nobody knows about it. Like one thing Terry and I made a point of when we were going through that is we surrounded ourselves. We built our own bubble of people who were praying and agreeing with the way we were. And we had to dismiss some people from our life at the time, because they didn't line up with the vision of what we were going through. We weren't mad at them. We didn't know like, Stop Don't say anything bad about everything. They just weren't allowed in our circle. Because just because someone is in your circle, doesn't mean they're in your corner. We wanted people that believed that she wasn't going to happen. be depressed, believed that I wasn't going to stay broke, believed that my kid wasn't going to stay sick, because that's what the Word of God said. And I even had Christian family members come up to me and write me letters when we were going through that, that said stuff like, Hey, brother, God knows what he's doing. And he's allowing this to happen to you, because ultimately, he will get his glory. And Mason will ultimately get his healing when he gets to heaven. What am I supposed to do with that, as a dad, go back to my son and say, Don't worry, son, God loves you, you're just gonna have to be sick a little bit longer. Because one day you're gonna get to heaven and you won't be sick anymore. Isn't that great news. That's not even in the Bible. But we say that thing and it comes from, from a soft place, we mean, well, because we're trying to accommodate our circumstances. And what we do is, we lower the Word of God to our circumstances, instead of believe the Word of God until our circumstances start to match the truth. Because your circumstances don't set you free. Truth sets you free. So anything in your life right now that doesn't line up with the truth about what he says, don't settle as God's will in your life. Keep pressing all the more in surround yourself with a group of believers and keep pressing in until your circumstances match his word. Those of you didn't notice. I mean, look at we press forward, we have more kids. More challenges. A year and a half ago, our newborn baby was in the hospital. And it sucked. So there's just no other way around it. It was terrible. But when you have pastors and people show up at your house, to not pray, God, if it's your will get this baby out of the hospital? No, I need men of God to show up at my doorstep, and surround me and say, Come here, we are going to cancel this assignment from the enemy and your baby will get out of the hospital. And two weeks later, she's out of the hospital and she's never been back since. How is nobody clapping? for that? Like, who you surround yourself with matters? power over your mind. It changes everything. Now I want to talk about power over your body. People love to talk about salvation in church. But when you talk about money or healing, Christians get weird man they do. I tell my boy, I tell people this way. When you believe in Jesus, you'll get persecuted by the world. When you believe like Jesus, you'll get persecuted by religious people. Religious people don't really like Jesus's mindset. They love Jesus. But the way that he talks the way that he believes the way that he rolls, what makes you think you can be like Jesus, this the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives inside of me, it either does, or it doesn't. power over your body. People only believe what they experience. But the Bible says believe so you can experience Mark 923 All things are possible to those that are not those that preach, not those that go to church, not those that are pastors, not those that are priests, not those that don't sin, not those that dedicate their life to worshiping the Lord, not those. All things are possible to those that believe the believer. That's everybody what you believe matters, John 1412 Very true. This is Jesus. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I've been doing. And they will do even greater things than these. Romans 811 This is one of my favorites. These are the things these are the verses that I stand on when I'm going through hell in a hospital room. For my close friends to know two years ago, when Brooklyn was in the hospital was Fourth of July. Y'all know I am the biggest Pyro in Tennessee and I love blowing things up. And fourth of July is my favorite day of the year. And my boy, my boy, Brandon knows what I'm talking about. By the way, if you ever need fireworks see me and the other gorgeous bald guy in the back of the room. We got you taken care of okay. Don't buy him from the tents. You come see us. We'll tell you we'll get you taken care of. But two years ago I had to sit and watch fireworks from a hospital bed by myself. And it was the absolute worst because I love people, and fireworks and summer and swimming, and Fourth of July. But when I'm there by myself because all of us are there, just because you accept Jesus in your heart doesn't mean your life gets easier. You just live from a different perspective when you go through stuff. So when I'm going through the same thing that everyone else goes through, I stand on words like these Romans 811. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead, will also give life to your mortal bodies, through His Spirit that dwells in you. I'm gonna say that again. So in case you missed it, but the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, I had to say this to myself over and over and over again, as I gave my daughter breathing treatments that she was losing weight. As she looked sick, they would show me X rays with pneumonia. Also, I would have to I looked at that it was very real, but I'd have to go back to what the Word says. And it made me believe different and maybe pray different God, I don't understand this. I know I'm going through this, but I know that this is not your sentence or your will over my daughter's life. So I thank you for the day I get back with my friends and family. And blob. This guy's a tendency because you said I will. You said she'll be healed. Like I pray simple prayers. I told y'all before like, I would have cheated off my wife in college to get through. She's really smart. I'm not. I don't pray deep, elaborate prayers. I just play I believe you. But at the same spirit erase him from the dead dwells in you. He who raised Christ from the dead, will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwells in you. Power Play. Number two, I would say believe different. So you'll do different. How you do faith is how you do your life. If you believe little, you'll live little. If you believe God wants you to struggle, you'll struggle. If you believe God wants you to prosper, you'll believe prosperity over your struggle. When we were going through that hill, we never settled for God's will in our life. We just settled for its life. But we have a promise. You start pressing towards the promise. When you believe different, you will do different I told you about my mom. How she said it no matter what you say, My Jesus is going to heal them. told you about my son. Got some kids from our youth group here. Awesome. started four years ago, my oldest son brains like dad, a couple of my boys have Bible questions. They see posts about Jesus, can I bring them over? But yeah, we had like four or five kids at our house. And now it's turned into two two times ago. We had 93 kids in our Clubhouse about two years ago. Terry's like this too many you gotta get him out of my house. Go somewhere else. So now we're, we're in the clubhouse. We were flirting around 35 to 40 people every week, which is great. But the game changer was when this the boys gnomes I'm not gonna say his name. But they know what I'm talking about. When the bad kid he's not in here today. The bad kid. We'll call him Joe. Joe? No, we won't call him Joe because Joe's here. Alright. We'll call him Matthew. The bad kid of the school. Matthew comes in here. And long story short, his mom went out of town. His dad's not in the picture. Mom leaves, he gets drunk, he gets high, steals his mom's car, drives it into something and gets in a really bad wreck leaves the scene and gets in a bunch of trouble. And he's got a gash from here to here. I talked to as his dad who actually ended up being there. And he was just like, the doctor sale never walk the same. He almost lost his leg. He's a complete loser and his dad's just bashing him in front of me. He's a loser. He says, look at this piece of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I stood there and watched it for 20 minutes and then something awesome happened. But that's another time. My point is this. He comes to the youth group. My buddy rec shows up who believes in the supernatural. These kids watched that kid, take off his huge knee, brace crutches, and go from this, to like this to a complete miracle to where a week later homies running up and down the aisles of independence High School and everyone's filming it. The next week, we had like 65 kids, and we're topping like 7080 90 kids and it's growing now because they're having an experience. They're seeing different they're experiencing different. So they're starting to believe different. Two weeks ago and a lot of these boys were in the room. When Rex was there. There was this girl that helps her dad do that. I work on trucks. And she said, I picked up a hot piece of metal something that my dad left out in the sun for eight hours, and it severed all the nerves in my hands. And we prayed for that girl. And it was our first time there and she starts bawling her eyes out. She gets the feeling back in her hands. It was crazy. Last week, I went and spoke at a gym. And because look at man, when you start preaching like this, when you start believing like this, two things happen. One, there's a group of people that shun you because they think you're crazy, which is fine. The other is you get a bunch of people that gravitate towards you because they actually believe like, Okay, well, if he's saying is true, then my situation maybe God will touch me and change my situation. So last week, I'm preaching that a public high school in Lewisburg, that was different. And this kid, he's at the top, have you ever call for salvation? This kid comes from the top of the stairs, stay in the bleachers. And he walks. He's walking like this. And he walks all the way down. And I'm like, Dude, it's awesome. You gave your heart to the Lord, man. It's so great. Give him a hug. It's not. I go, can I pray for you for anything? He goes, Yeah, he goes, Well, you You said I could be healed. I go Yeah, man. I think I think God will heal you. I go, do you believe God, I hear you. I think you really, I just I just want to play sports. I want to play sports my whole life. And my knees are messed up. I can't. And I go well, why don't we just see what God does? That Oh, well, if it doesn't work? Well, if it does? What if it doesn't? What if it does? Get down simple prayer. And no, my friends had asked me Do we smack them on the head and say be healed? No, we don't. Like Jesus prayed simple prayers. Be healed. Get up and walk. Probably good enough. If you believe. Like, I like to pray short, quick prayers. A lot of times people come to me for prayer and they're expecting in the name of Jesus, like, be healed. be made. Well, Your sins are forgiven. Go be free. If you believe lay hands on this boy. He goes like this was so awesome. He gets a big smile on his face. He goes, Man, I feel something. I didn't feel anything. Feel something? Because I use my heart man. He has a feel kind of walking like this. I'm trying to do a good job of showing y'all but he's like this. He goes, I think I think I want to run. I'm like, Oh, crap. Alright, here we go. 400 people in a gym. And I'm like, alright, bro, if you want to run all run with you like let's go. He goes, okay. Y'all Raise your head if you saw Forrest Gump. Y'all know about to say it was a Forrest Gump scene. He starts like this. And he starts doing this. And all the sudden he takes off sprinting, and I'm like, let's go, let's go. And I'm screaming. And I was like, Oh my gosh, he's great. He gets halfway around the gym. And he trips and flies across the air about 10 feet. And the first thing that hit the hardwood floor was his face. Boom, the whole gym. Oh, and the first I was like, that's exactly what I did. I go, Jesus. And I get down and I start praying in my heart. I go, you know, geez, what do I do? Like, what do I do? What do I do like, and God just kept on me. Just encourage him, get him up, encourage him to go. And I go, Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you a true story. His, his pants fell down. And there's his tighty whities everywhere in front of 400 people. It was terrible. It was terrible. It's terrible. But I always tell my boys like, I don't want to live a boring Christian life. Like do I either want to go after this thing? 100% or just don't give me nothing. Like, if this is really true, and we can really have it. I want to go after it. And I'm not gonna go by what I don't see and let it deter me by what's possible. So I look at that boy, I said, Dude, get up, bro. Pull your pants up. You just fell in front of 400 people and you're awesome. You're still doing he goes, Okay, pulls his pants up, runs around the gym. Aaron says napping and he walks out completely normal and healed. I was like let's go let's go shame on me if I get more excited Sunday afternoon for the Titans even though I love them than I do when something like that happens like that boys gonna play sports again or for the first time. Believe difference. So you will do different I would have never done that 10 years ago. I would have never done that. Because circumstances hit me and jacked up my life and I started to believe is different. Some people walk away from God. And some people run towards the same thing that I tried to just give an analogy on, of just religion. People settle for religion in their life. And I want to tell you that religion does not give you power over your environment. Religion gives you tolerance to endure your circumstances. Religion also gives you comfort in the midst of your tribulation. It allows you to accept your environment without the possibility of actually changing it. Well, if God wills, then he'll change it. And you walk around living a weak, broken, confused life, wondering if God's really actually going to show up for you, when he already did. You just have to accept it. I like to think of it as a cop that never pulls out his badge or his gun, like he has all authority. But if you don't use it, it doesn't work. So I want to ask you all and I'll close with this. When did you stop believing that you had power? When we're born, we come out screaming, shouting, like the doctor. If we're not screaming and shouting, the doctor spanks us to make sure we are screaming, shouting, but life beats you down, and circumstances happen. And he said this, and she did that. And that happened to me to where all of a sudden we come out with screaming and shouting. And we settle for just, I'm alright. When we say things like the worst four letter F word on the planet, I'm fine. How you doing today, fine. But God is good brother. But I'm fine. And we settle for this life that Jesus didn't. I don't want to say it that way. I would encourage you to live the life that Jesus paid for your life living was worth him dying. He laid down His life so that you can live an empowered one. So when did you stop believing that you had power? I'll tell you when I stopped believing I had power. I'll probably cry talking about it. It was when I stood there. And I held my mom's hand. And I watched her take her last breath. And I watched the disease. Take her out. And it was the same disease that I watched God use her to heal so many people have. So I watched God use my mom to bring heaven everywhere she went. And the same thing that I saw so many people healed from took her out. And that was in July of oh four. And Terry and I got married and oh five and it was you know, everything was great. I told you a story about you know, our kids and all that. But there was a time in our life where Terry and I, we just you know, we never did anything bad. Like, you know, nothing bad. We just We didn't live a life of power. We showed up to church, we went to church, we gave we check the box. Like church attendance isn't gonna get you to heaven, like my car goes to church. And I lost my power. And I'll never forget. When Mason was little and we got all that bad news and Terry's depressed and I'm broke. I'll never forget. Literally holding him up as a baby crying my eyes out to God, having a real conversation, saying like, why did you say by your stripes were healed, only to have my son sick? Why did you say all things are possible to those that believe only to have my mom die? Like those are real questions, real circumstances. And he said, You're basing my character and nature off of what didn't happen with your mom, instead of what did happen through my son. Get your eyes off of your losses and what didn't happen and set your eye on the victory that has already been paid for you and walk in victory. It changed everything. So my next question to you or I would say my tip powerplay. Number three is we will be driven by our wounds or his word. When we're driven by our wounds, we tend to try to make his word fit in our lives instead of our lives fit his word. Don't let what happened to you speak louder than what he did for you. All of us have been through stuff. We can all lay our cards on To table and see who's got who's dealt the worst hand, and we can compare, that'll get us a zero. Let's talk about what Jesus did for us and we all end up with victory. This is why this is so important. My job is not to memorize this book. My job is to become this book. I love memorizing scriptures. But it don't matter how many scriptures I can quote, If I don't believe it. It don't matter how many times I read David and Goliath, and how David killed Goliath. If I can't kill my Goliath. It serves me no good to know the story of David and Goliath if I can't beat mine. This is what washing your mind and the word will do for you, John 1633, these things I've spoken to you so that in me, you will have peace. In the world you'll have tribulation, but take courage. I've overcome the world, Deuteronomy 24. For the Lord, your God is the one that goes to fight for you, against your enemies to give you victory. I don't have any battles that we're fighting right now. I don't fight the battle of sickness. I don't fight the battle of depression. I don't fight the battle of cystic fibrosis. I don't fight the battle of cancer. I don't fight the battle of anything. I fight the good fight of faith. You're called to fight one fight and it's the good fight of faith. You don't have to fight that thing you're going through. All you got to do is lay it down to him and say, I submit, go fight for me. Go fight for me. This is yours. Ephesians 610. Finally be strong in the Lord and His mighty power. Psalm three, eight, for the Lord comes deliverance. May Your blessing be on your people. First John five, four for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world Romans 831. What shall we say that in response to these things, For if God is for us, who can be against that's proverbs 2131. The horses made ready for the day of battle. But victory rests with the Lord. First Corinthians 1537. But thanks be to God, He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. You can brainwash yourself on victory, because that is your sentence in life. And that's your destiny. You've been sentenced to victory. You've been sentenced to power you've been sentenced to abundance. When you lay it down for him. All he is asking you is to give up what he never created you to be in the first place. And lastly, power over your soul. If you find yourself through any buddy, or anything besides Jesus, you will be deceived. You'll be swayed, you'll be swayed by life circumstances, people your job, your role, what you've done in the past. I want to tell you all right now, because just because we're in church, and there's Christians here, doesn't mean we aren't battling anything. I think that's why people get so hurt by church and church people is they put this stigma on them that they have everything figured out. And when the Christians actually go through some things like we'll see told you, so we all go through the same stuff. But here's the thing, when you submit to God, when you submit it to Jesus, you will never stand before Him and be judged for your past and what you've done because Jesus wipes it all away. He makes it all things become new. You'll never stand before God and be judged for your past. So stop letting your past judge you. Who that's a good word. Thank you, Lord. You'll never be judged for your past. So stop letting your past judge you. You'll never stand before Him and answer for what you did wrong when you accept Jesus. So stop letting what you did wrong, keep judging you. Because you'll live a judge and condemn life. We're going through a tough time right now. We're about to bury one of our friends, close, close, close friend. And I was with his wife in him two days ago. And I had the opportunity to lead. Still fresh sorry. I had the opportunity to lead my friend to the Lord on his deathbed with his wife and his two sons in the room. And it was beautiful. Because I've known this guy for eight years and so many people in here know this guy. And we're hurting because it's bad situation. And I remembered, I'm holding his hand and I know he can hear me. And I tell him I said I know you can hear me. I told his family I said whether you meet Jesus in five minutes or in 50 years. We're all going to be in this position someday it might not be in a hospital bed. We love lost a friend two months ago that was riding around in his farm on his on his razor. Gone. Please did son plays football with my kid. We're not promised tomorrow, we're not promised that we're going to be able to watch the Super Bowl today. And I told his family I told his kids, I said, at some point in our life, we're all going to be in this position. And the only thing that matters is Do you know him? Do you know him? More importantly, does he know you? Because he says, If you confess me before man all confess you before my Father. But if you don't, I'm gonna turn away and say I never knew you. It's not a condemning thing. It's an invitation. And I whispered in his ear, I said, I know you can hear me brother. And whether you stand before Him in five minutes or 50 years, I want to make sure he knows you. So I let him in the senators prayer. And I turned I said to his family, I said, if any of you want to know the same Jesus, I'm talking about repeat after me and the wife repeat it out loud. And I just bawled my eyes out. For two reasons. One, it was beautiful. And two, I hate when we have to get to that situation for people to realize how awesome Jesus is when we can just do it right now. And just go live and be free. Who's been walking through a powerless life and wants to start living power? Again? Why don't we just bow our head and close our eyes just for two seconds? Many, I want to ask you a couple questions. Many years from now, when you reach heaven? What do you want people standing in line to thank you for? I'm gonna see my friend again. And when I do I know he's gonna give me a big bear hug. And he's gonna say thank you. I'm here, I made it. I made it. I made it because we actually took a stand. And we did that together. And my wife is here. She made it to thank you. I don't think when I get to heaven, anyone's going to tell me what an awesome announcer I was, or what a great singer I was, or how many cool things I was able to buy for my kids, or how awesome I was at work and how many sales that I made when I was in my 30s and 40s. And how I was a rock star in one every award. I don't think anyone's going to thank me for that when I get to happen. But they're going to thank me for something. What do you want people to thank you for? And more importantly, because on Tuesday, I'm going to be reading my friend's Memorial and there's going to be a lot of people there because he touched a lot of lives. What do you want people to remember you for? How do you want to be remembered? I'm gonna pray and bring pastor Nick up here because Lastly, there is power in prayer. I am a product of who I am today because of the prayers that my mother prayed. 40 years ago, moms don't ever stop praying over your children every single night. Even if they're not following Jesus and making the right decision. Now you keep believing bigger because your prayers will fill the atmosphere of heaven, and it'll come back around to your kids. I'm a standing product of that. If there's anyone in the room with every head bowed and every eye closed, that wants to do it different. And you're tired of doing it your way and what I said today sounds like a life you want to live and you want to give it to Jesus, raise your hand 1234567 Let's go baby. These are my friends. Let's all say this prayer out loud. This is awesome. This is awesome. There's no greater decision anyone will ever make. Mama Kim, the word that you gave me just hit. If you raise your hand, please come let me pray with you come to the front. I like to say it this way. If you're afraid to take a stand in here, it'll be impossible for you to take a stand out there. Please come to the front. One of the best things I like to do is I love to watch. I love knowing my kids are watching me humble myself in front of God, which is why I raised my hand in church, which is why I'm afraid to cry in front of them. There's something really powerful about a parent saying I don't have all the answers but I'm gonna give it to Jesus. Your kids will follow your example Let's go. Why don't we stretch our hands towards the front right now and believe God and let's all say this together. Say Lord, come on louder. Say Jesus. Thank you for coming into my heart. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. Thank you that I'm going to do things different from this point forward. Louder, it doesn't matter what I've been through. The only thing that matters is what you did for me. From this day forward, I lay down everything at your feet. I don't want it anymore. Take it. Take my life. Turn it around, and I will shine for you. In Jesus name. Amen. Can we clap up for the people that made a decision? Pastor Nick, you can come up here. And I want to do this before we leave. If there's anybody that's a believer that you love Jesus, your blood body, you know, he's the king of your life. But you are battling depression, anxiety, sickness, and you need God's super to hit your natural. We have some powerful people in here that want to pray for you and watch that thing change. So as he closes I'm gonna be the last one to leave. We will pray with you. We will pray with you up here. Make a step have some guts come up here and watch things change. Well, what if it doesn't happen? What if it does? I love you guys. Pastor. I love you. Thank you so much for letting me share today. Give a round of applause for everyone that gave their heart to the Lord today. Let's go