1/5/2025
Pastor Rod Palmer
The BIBLE - our sure -FOUNDATION
Coastal Family Church Podcast
A Time To Build - the Bible
[MUSIC] Thank you for choosing to listen to this message. At Coastal, we believe in changing and enriching lives through the power of the word. We pray that this message would be a blessing to you. [MUSIC] >> 5, 25 years since that millennial thing that happened at 2000. And everybody was, well, the computers haven't blown up and we're still here and all the prophets need to be stoned about that time anyway. We're still here, but joy and blessings for 2025 church. I really want us to lean into it and five comes up in this year. And 25 is five times five and five has a significance in the Jewish language. It's called, hey, hey, I come from South Africa. And when you say, hey, it's quite rude, it's rude, I have to now change. Because hey is actually quite good because hey means favor and grace and so grace and favor. So Mike, he used to say, hey, Rod. And eventually I said, you mustn't say hey, just say hi, Rod, okay. But now I've got to reverse that before the whole congregation and say please send as many hays as you want because I want the grace and the favor of the Lord Jesus upon me. So hey is okay now. We're moving with the times as you may notice, we have to move at the times as we go forward with you. And so the wonderful thing is five times five is grace upon grace. And then there's one John 1 16, it tells us that from his abundance, we have all received one gracious blessing after another. The translations talk about grace upon grace. And so we want to lean into that as a church in our field, God's grace upon us to build is in a special way 2025. And it's here. And so God wants us to be aware of it. It's a chyros time, chyros is a word that's used and it's not a quantitative time like months, years and that it is a quality amount of time. And so there is a quality time upon our lives as a church, as believers in this region that God wants us to lean into. He wants us to walk towards it and build and advance the kingdom of God in it. Ecclesiastes chapter three verse one, it says there is an appointed time for everything and there is a time for every event under heaven. And I strongly believe that God is saying this is our time to step up and step in. There is a time for birth, there is a time to plant, there's a time to heal, a time to laugh, time to dance, time to gather, time to embrace, but there is a time to build. And God is saying it's a time to build church. God has opened the heavens for us to be graced to build. I'm not only talking about one thing at all, I'm talking about it is a time where Holy Spirit is spurring us to build and advance the kingdom in our personal lives. There is areas that need God's kingdom to take its rule and its reign. And he's been wrestling quite a bit with you in these areas and he's saying now it's time. Let's build in these areas. Let's build personally, let's build in our family. Let's build in as a church, let's build as a community, let's build in your career. Your career will take you and be the carrier of kingdom into that area. So we need to be constructive in building that. Matthew 724 says, "Anyone who listens to my teachings and follows is wise like a person who builds a house on solid rock." Now we sang songs today talking about how the house will stand, how the house can handle storms and stuff. And I don't know, Jason wasn't around to see what is in my notes, but this is kind of a coherent thing that Holy Spirit is saying to us that he wants us not only to be here as of God's Word today, because if hearing about the promised land doesn't get you to the promised land, it's requiring you to be a doer, to be the one who would walk towards it. And so God is saying, "Would you walk?" He requires us to walk. What am I talking about? I'm talking about building up, building up into Christ. It's the time to build up in faith and intimacy and prayer and in worship with our God. We need to work at it. We need to stretch our 10 pegs in that area. We need to build in. So we're building up, but we're also building in, in ourselves to start with. We're always continually stretching ourselves, expanding our understanding and expanding the gifting that's in us and the growth in us. And I would have never guessed in a million years that Rod Palmer would preach the gospel in front of crowds because I wouldn't even do a speech at school. And here he is. It is so humorous, really. So we're not talking about God up as well, but we're talking about growth and building here, and then our building out as well. So we're building up, we're building in, and we're building out, building out into the community, building bridges of our relationship. We're building into our community, and it's our commission. It's not a suggestion. It's our commission by the king that we need to advance that way and we need to build. So it's a time to build, but we need, we need blueprints if you want to build. From foundations to completion, you need, you need blueprints. You need a plan. And if you're just a young Christian, you're needing a foundation, you need to build. If you've been around a while, like Jerry and Ian and all those guys, you're up and through your walls. But if you were with Fred and Lucius and them, and they've been around 100 years, well the building's still not completed. I don't think we've completed until we face Jesus one day, so we're always on the build. And so God is drawing us to a place where we need to press forward. The blueprint to building is the Bible, is the Word of God. And we got to stop shying away from it, walking away from it, and minimizing it. We have to have the Word of God as the rock foundation for us to build our faith on. You cannot build otherwise. We need to build up and in and out with the Word of God, we're going to build from the blueprint because the blueprint, you will know God. From the blueprint, you understand his character, his nature, his goodness. You will see that in the Word of God. It will come off the pages as you read it. The Bible is the blueprint for his life, his calling, his plan for our lives. Yeah, we're trying to plan our way, plan it, do it our way. We fall short from the complete plan that God has for us. He said while you were still in your mother's womb, before you even conceived I had plans for you, I had all this mapped out. And so God has this, and so when we get into the blueprint, the Word of God, we start getting in step with what God has for our lives, and the Bible is the plan and the purpose for all of life. The Bible, to build outside of the Bible is wasting your time because when you face the Father one day, He says you built incorrectly. You didn't do what I called you to do. I want these words well done, you're good and faithful servant. That's what I want to hear over my life. God is going to take me abiding by the Word of God, abiding with the Word that we see on these pages. Yet many people don't value or believe the importance of the Bible. They don't invest in the Word of God. This is a great investment. Everybody's talking about different investments, but you want to return on your investment. Well there's a return on this. Isaiah 55, 11 says the Word shall not return void but accomplish all that it's sent out to do. There is always a return. We've been walking in this for 48 years as a believer, and I've watched the return of God's Word. Hebrews 4, verse 12, it says here, "For the Word of God is a living and actor sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joint and of merit and of discerning the thoughts and the intent, intentions of the heart." I mean this Word of God will locate you. This Word of God will get into your innermost thoughts, and you can't fool God. This Word will jump off the page and get you for the good. We all have access to the Bible, but few of us will want to build our lives on the truth of the Bible. We kind of flirt with it, and I really want to encourage us in 2025 that we would press in and start building in such a way that we'll see the benefits. So I talked about today the Bible, our sure foundation. The Bible is our sure foundation, not Google, not AI, not other authors, none of that, the digital world. I mean everybody, there's certain things that has got addicted to stuff that does not bear much fruit in our lives, and the end is loss. In 2 Timothy 2, 15 it says, "Study and do your best to present yourself to God an approved workman who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the Word of truth." We got to understand what the Word of God is. If we are people that call these believers, then we better know what we believe. We need to be able to communicate what we believe. We need to be able to live what we believe. You say, "Well, I'm not a teacher like Adam or George or Dr. Dave Cape." No, no, you are teaching. The way you're living as parents, your children are watching you, you're teaching them. When you're walking, people are watching you, they read you, not their Bible. They're watching you. You are teaching on behavior and communications and attitudes, all these things. We are the billboard for Jesus Christ. So, yeah, the lights on us, hallelujah. Many believe and many believers don't diligently read and study the Word of God. We understand that the devil will cause you distractions and discouragements and you won't press in, but I'm telling you today, church, we need to press in. Many believers don't understand how to study the Bible, and that's where everybody falls short, and I hope today I can give you news you can use to help you start building the Bible into our lives. And so, I want to caution you that it's not if the storms will come, it's when the storms will come. It's not if hurricanes will come to Florida, it's when hurricanes will come to Florida, and when tornadoes will hit Tulsa, and when earthquakes will hit California, or blizzards that are happening up north shame on them and the cold. It's just not if it's when, and we need to be able to show that we understand that those songs we sang that through the wind and through the rain and through the floods, the house will not collapse while because we've built upon the rock. I want to just tell you that Val and I going through 2024 is the worst year of our lives, and if it hadn't been for knowing the fingerprints of our God and know the heartbeat of our God and know the love of our God because we lived it, we would have never, I would have crashed and burnt in 2024 because the head wound was so hard and so horrible. I'm just telling you this is so important that we get the word of God in us, the Bible, the blueprints. And so, it's funny that many approached the study of the Bible, getting into the word of God in different ways, and one of the ways is they jump into Genesis on January 1, and here we are, we're going to read through the Bible and it's so exciting how God created everything, and then suddenly you see everything goes pear-shaped and Noah and the flood and all those things, and then you get into Exodus and it's great, and then suddenly you hit Leviticus, and then it's gravel, it's dry toast, it is not, and if you can, and if you can get through Leviticus, you hit numbers, God have, oh, forthcoming attractions, hey? By March, you're grounded, you're grounded, oh, I've seen people do this and say, okay, let's do a lucky dip and flip the Bible open and put your finger there, and it says, sell all you have, give it to the poor and follow me, no, no, no, that's not quite the right scripture today, and Judas hung himself, next finger, do likewise, I don't know how that's working out for you, but I just want to just say there's a better way, and I'm hoping to give you something that would help you as you go forward there, there is a better way, it's important because our eternal destiny is reliant on, our life purpose right here on earth is reliant on it, God's word will change you from the inside out, I want to just now, as you start going, and as you faithfully start, start eating on God's word, you all realize that it'll start working from the inside out, I want to say this, and if this is the most important thing I say today, is that I'm not looking to get you to have a whole lot of knowledge and that you can win it every trivia game, I don't want you to have that, I don't want you to have information, I need you to have transformation, because that's what God wants, he wants to transform you, transfer me into his image, into his likeness, be a billboard for him, that's what he really wants us to do, so if he's here anything today, why I'm asking you to get this word into your lives is because of that, and so I'm begging you to press into it as we go forward, and a reminder that the Word of God is living, active, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, as I can always say, I've read this scriptures many times, and sometimes even John 360, jumps off the page, and I call it a zum-zum word, it jumps off the page like I've never read it before, and I'm thinking what is that, that's what happens because the book is alive, it will jump off the page and get you and dial you in wherever you are right at that moment, God's Word will speak to you, guide you, empower you and protect you, God's Word will also God us against temptation, renew our minds and build our faith, God's Word will show us who are riches in Christ, and also that the truth in God's Word will set us free, that's if there is anything I'm trying to promote, man, I'm a good salesman today, I'm trying to get you to read God's Word, invest in God's Word, so five thoughts I want to just leave with you before we leave today, it's hard to build the Bible into our life, I want us to build the Bible into our lives, so every way we cut ourselves we bleed Bible, which is going to be God's Word, which is going to be a reflection and a resemblance of God, that's what it is, and so here these are the five I'm going to list and then we'll unpack it and pack it and then go home, it says you firstly choose a translation you understand, kind of important, if you want to dig into God's Word, let's choose a translation that we can understand, secondly choose a time, a place and a plan, need to have a time and a place and a plan, understand the context when you're reading it, understand the context, fourthly read and understand the context is number three, hallelujah, read slowly and ask questions, fourth, read slowly and ask questions, are you telling me to read slower, okay sure, pray for God to speak to you, number five, you can screenshot it, so now let's elaborate on these five thoughts and I've taken the shortest book in the Bible, the book, a personal letter, and it's from Paul, it's the book of Philae Minion, Philemon, it's only one chapter, so we can get through it before lunch, okay, and I want to start by reading together and I've asked Valerie to help us from verse seven, I want us to read it, so Valerie when you can cue us you can read it, I was going to ask Jerry to do it, I think it would be much more fun, Jerry doing it, okay so if you can read this along with me please, for we have great joy and consolation in thy love because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee brother, wherefore though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoy thee that which is convenient, so you understand that you can clearly move on and have that transform your life, guys on a good day I can't handle English on a good day, but that kind of English leaves me cold, so first thing, choose a translation you understand church please, you got to understand the Bible, it's the original manuscripts were a combination of Hebrew, Arabic, and Greek, and so the scholars had to select words to translate to explain the original text and it is not as easy as it sounds, for example I was reminded of the Shonna tribe that I grew up around and there used to be labourers that worked with my brother-in-law on the farm and stuff, and obviously we got to understand the language and communicate, and so when you come to a language you expect every language to have a word for green, the colour green, and so when I asked them the Shonna people what is the colour green, they say colour the Mashija, that is the colour of a leaf, that's how they say it, they do not have a word for green that says the colour of a leaf, and living in the tropics generally the leaves are green, and so hence that's how they translated it, and so colour the Mashija, it's green, and so if you speak into them and they say colour the Mashija you know they just said green, and so you understand that, with language changing over time as we may know in our short little life that we've had here, language has changed, the King James book was written in 1611, I think the language has changed a whole bunch since then, and I don't have a cooking clue what you guys just read to me anyway, just now, it has really no sense to me, so we had to understand that, and so just as the English words change on a daily basis, I mean the understanding coming from Africa do you hear, there is a book that says that divided by the same language, and there's 4,000 words that are said each day that are different from the British to the American, that's just English, we're not talking about other languages, so when I talk to you about an ablution block or a latrine, or a W.C., or a bathroom, or a toilet, or a restroom, they're all the same, you understand that, W.C., a water closet, okay, so ablution, you say ablution to any American, look at you think what are you smoking, hallelujah, but King James, the text, the emotional boughs of the saints, what did you say today? Emotional hot, that's basic, you understand that, I mean how how translating incorrectly is that, it's not, I mean so people, I mean anyway, I'll move right along, so it's important that we get the version of the language and understand it, there's only 3,000 different choices that we have today, so I'm sure there's something that will suit you, and as a scholar, I will, as a non-scholar, let me put it that way because I don't want to hold a lot of emails, okay, and I don't, everybody has their own little hobby horse, but I'm going to name some translations to suggest to you what works, there's the NIV, the new international version, there's the new living translation, there's the new King James, there is the English standard version and there is the new American standard version, kind of suggest that if you're new, lean into those, okay, the new NIV and the NLT, they are accurate and they're more current in language, the other three, the new King James, the ESV and the NASV, they are more accurate in translation but not more current in language, so that's kind of the little variances, do not email me and tell me your version is right, I let you have your preference, okay, you do you, okay, get the right translation, how about choosing a time and a place and a plan, we're trying to get the Word of God in us, we can't be flirting with it, you've got to be intentional in 2025 if you want to be able to have it at deposit, it's got, you've got to have a constant time and a place, church we got to get disciplined, we cannot be wishy, washy soldiers of the Almighty God, we've got to get ourselves disciplined, when and where needs to be consistent to establish the Bible into our lives, the Word of God, into our lives, there needs to be a consistency, otherwise the Word of God really, it's a struggling thing to allow to grow in you, Susan Wesley had 19 children and she would sit in the kitchen and place an apron over her head and God have mercy if any one of those 19 kids disturbed her because that was her time and her place and she would read and that's where she would pray and that's where Charles Wesleyan and John Wesley all came from and it's important, that's what she did and then the discipline was there, what's the best time? I know that everybody has their reasons why I'm not my best in the morning but I do suggest the morning is great because you align your heart, you renew your mind and you direct your steps right early in the day which is quite nice, you don't want to get into the day, fall into the ditch and then you've got to get yourself out of the ditch where if you were praying and hearing God he would have told you don't go that way because you're going to fall in the ditch, okay? So it's just kind of some practical stuff to kind of help you, place where do you do this, some people have war rooms, some have man caves, some have ladies' dens, some have lazy boys, some have kitchen counters, some do it on commutes on the train or wherever you're going and when you work it's okay but just be consistent at it. What about method? Well some people love the feel of paper, they love the paperback bibles and they love the paper, why? Because they can write in it and they can unline it and they can highlight it and they can have references and they become very attached to it and that's great. That is what you like then that is what you do. Don Norman, a somebody who influenced Val in our lives and led Val to Jesus, he used to read through a Bible every year, used to write his notes and stuff, every Christmas he would request a certain translation for a new Bible and the couple of years before he passed he'd read through the Bible 50 times over 50 years and everybody would beckon to get his Bible at the end of the year because he would then wrap it up and give it as a gift to his spiritual son or daughter or friend or family member, it would be cherished because he had such a richness, he would hand you the Bible and say Rod quote any scripture, preferably in the Old Testament to make it a little bit more challenging and I would quote it and he would give me the address every time and the references to this scripture, why he invested his life, he read the Word of God, memorized the Word of God, anyway the other way you can do it is digitally, in the digital world now you grab this device, plug your ears in, listen, read, you can highlight it with yellow, you can do all those lovely things and so that's important that you can do that. Plans, what kind of plans you have, you can have topical plans, all sorts of topics, you can pick up and follow it through, you can do people in the Bible, follow it all the way through, you've got devotions, hundreds of devotional books out there you can follow, just do something, constantly do it, then you can do reading through the Bible in a year, you can do the recap app, the U version is a powerful tool on these devices that gives you access to all these translations, all these different devotionals, all these things and don't, I know that you want to come and ask me how to but I don't know the whole thing okay but I just know that he's very powerful and very user friendly when you get to understand it and so I encourage you to do that. So choose a translation, choose a time plan time plan in place and then thirdly understand the context, very important. You got to understand when this was written, where it was written, when you're reading something, you know where was King Solomon, you know where was Paul when he was writing, all context of where it was and so just an example of context in the church we were in in South Africa, this lady came up to me after we administered and she was very concerned, she was new there, possibly her first time, maybe her second time, she came up she just wanted me to be aware of something that happened in the service, so I said okay, she says there was this lady sitting with and a guy on each side of her, I said okay, he says and then I saw him, her squeeze in the shoulder of the guy on the right, I said okay, he says and not long after that she started scratching the guy's head on the left, I said my in church, wow, so I said well exactly where was this in the in the because I kind of visualized, I know where you're all sitter, so so they pointed it out and I said oh that's my wife and this is my two boys, she never came back to church, my sons were had one had a migraine, the other one had a shoulder injury from rugby and so they all were sitting with them and but the context, I mean you can go back and communicate and so you know what that is, this church allows, anyway it doesn't allow that okay, it's just context okay, the context, the Bible is not a single book, it's a library church, you got to understand that it's a collection of 66 different books, it's written from three different languages across three continents and over 1500 years, take that for a miracle, it's been written over 1500 years and over 40 different authors, authors like Shefferts, farmers, tent makers, doctors, fishermen, kings and many others, so you got to understand that in context as well, in the collection it's a collection of poems and prophets, prophecies and letters and laws and history and biography and it's written by people inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is a miracle document that we have and so it can't be frivolous about it, we got to understand God's words right here at hand and it has one unified story church, this Bible, it is our it is our need for Jesus and only that it also teaches us how to become like Him, that is the whole thing from cover to cover, that is what the Word of God is there and it's so important that we understand that, so three questions you need to ask yourself for context, who wrote the text, to whom was it written and what was its purpose, kind of holds everything together when we're looking at it and let us have a look at the template of Philemon here, he starts off at first one, it says Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus and if anybody has read any of Paul's writings, you'll find out that he always starts Paul an apostle, but here he has sitting up the stage to what he wants to say to Philemon, he says Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus because there is a certain request he's going to be making on Philemon that we will find out and it goes on and it says in Timothy in our of Christ Jesus and Timothy our brother to Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker, also to app our sister and to arch our fellow soldier, I'm not going to announce some of these words that's just it's a waste of time with me because it's just it's not going to happen and to the church that meets in your in your home and unbelievable that here we have Philemon who is actually current in time that he has a connect group right in his house and so the best way to do is find resources that will tell you the context of where it is and so you find that in in in the front of the study Bible here and just before you get to the book it has a breakdown and this that's why I bought this heavy huge because it's a study Bible and it's not one you just whip up and you run to church you can but it's more like Jim if you do that but it tells you the time a place who wrote it why all these questions and it's important to be informed so you read it in context and you understand it and then Holy Spirit starts unpacking you realize that Philemon was a believer a businessman and he hosted a connect group and he was in Colossae that's where he was that's where you find out the information and Anesimus was was Philemon's slave who stole from him and then ran away and then he ran to Rome I'm just giving you what happens in one chapter because the book is only one chapter he runs to Rome he encounters Paul and if anybody encounters Paul you're all going to get born again so that's what happens he gets born again when people run into you do they encounter Jesus and will they be born again it's just a sad thought out there hallelujah but in context there were 60 million slaves at that time and there was a certain punishment and torture and death that was allowed by means of control because you do not want 60 million slaves to start revolting I don't say slavery is right then I don't say slavery is right today is wrong in every which way but in context that's what was happening and that's what that was what happened here and a runaway slave would be branded on the forehead with the the F meaning fugitive and that would be one of the punishments and Paul was appealing to Philemon to accept Anesimus back not as a slave but a brother in Christ really a big challenge and Paul appeals using extreme grace and tact in this letter requesting it verse four through through verse seven it talks about how Paul he just praises them of of what they're doing in the area and that and I'm not going to read that for time but in verse 10 it goes on I'll appeal to you for my son Anesimus who became my son while I was in chains talking about his salvation and verse 17 so if you consider me a partner welcome him as you would welcome me if he has done you any wrong or owes you anything charge it to me so there is so much content in that heart that Paul's writing you can see Jesus Paul saying be an imitator me as I am of Christ and you start seeing the character and the nature coming out in that so who wrote the text Paul wrote it to whom Philemon what was the purpose for Philemon to forgive and to receive Anesimus back as a brother helps you understand that so we got to choose a translation we would choose a time and place choose context read slowly and ask questions what is God's nature and character like when you're reading the scriptures what is it like what is his nature his character and his heart and what is God saying to me ask those questions while you're reading it you'd be surprised what Holy Spirit starts touching buttons in your life and if you really want to get deeper use the acrostic word spec you can take a screenshot of it when it comes up it says is there a sin to avoid while you're reading is there a promise to claim is there an example to follow is there a command to obey is there is something to know about God hallelujah I like that ending aah fantastic ending and the last point is pray for God to speak to you give ears to hear what God is saying that's what God is wanting there are three characters that we we're looking at in this book of Philemon there is Paul there is Philemon and then it's Anesimus which are we reflecting which one are we relating to yes Paul he is an intercessor he's the in-between Philemon Anesimus and he is mediating between that and are we looking at that and saying are we a mediator between the lost and Jesus are we doing that are we a mediator help in somebody come to Christ are we a good signpost are we that intercessor for that person how about Philemon wants a slave to sin which Paul points out in his teaching once you are slave to sin and now you are free what is it saying to Philemon what am I saying to me and I once was a slave to sin it had me bound buckled and desperate and then Christ came and set be free to be a son and here Anesimus who once was a slave in reality with its markings and its scars and now a son and a brother you have a look at that in its context and here I'm saying God thank you I brings gratitude to my prayer it brings light to that so God as you ask God to speak to you he would speak to you he will and the last thought I want to leave with you with this letter is Anesimus means use for profit useful is his name useful and it's credible how Paul uses that in a verse in the in this book verse 11 and he uses it to unpack something he says formally he Anesimus was useless to you but now he has become useful both to you and to me and it's incredible if you go and look into history you will see Anesimus then she becomes an apostle he then she becomes a bishop I don't know what happened to his his journey and his doctrine but he became a saint and the importance for us to understand why Paul wrote this letter so Philemon would change his posture his attitude and release a man of God to do incredible things had Paul not written this letter maybe Anesimus would never have accomplished what he accomplished for the kingdom so we need to see the context and the power of just as one chapter and the importance of it to be in the canon in scripture it's so important that you see that it's there and so when we pray just don't ask God why God why I could have prayed that till I was blew in the face for the whole of 2024 why why but I encourage you to pray what God what must I see God what must I change God what must I do God what must I learn pray that way and you watch the richness of the wisdom of the word come to you and pull you through Romans 12 to two it says don't copy the behaviors and the customs of this world but let God transform you I'm not asking you to get a whole lot of information by digging into the word of God 2025 but I want you to be transformed into a new person by changing the way you think church the Bible transforms you you just read it and it affects you it infects you it changes your language your outlook your purpose it is so valuable and it's so important poor says something in for in Philemon verse 11 right the very first word is his formerly he was useless that word formally got me and I want to present it to you today as something that in our lives was formerly and I don't want it to the word formally means earlier previously before before this year 2025 was 2024 formally I was in this situation formally before I even stepped into this door into this building that's how close the formally in fact right before I started speaking this very sentence could be your formally and you can walk away from what you formally were God is beckoning us to walk away ask holy spirit you may formally have been angry when you walked in here you could have been unforgiving as you walked in here you could be end of the burden of addiction as you walked in here you could have been depressed as you walked in here you could be broken hearted when you walked in here you could be lost and separated and divorced and lonely and in fear and hurt and disillusioned and it can be formally if you choose to be so because God says I want you to leave it with me and allow me to walk with you out here not having this formally formally God wants it done formally he wants holy spirit to quench that anger with self-control he wants to invite you and release grace so you can forgive he wants the holy spirit to come and strengthen you so you can walk away from your addiction he wants to breathe hope into your help and help depression and disillusionment he wants to walk with you he wants to heal the hurt and the broken hearted he wants to resolve those are the separated divorced and lonely he wants to resolve it and if you're not saved he wants salvation to come to you that's what he wants to touch our lives with today formally it was that condition but right now in this very moment we can call upon the God who's more than enough to come in and flood our souls and meet us exactly where we act because that's the God I serve that word formally is a word you need to stand on say formally I was in the situation but now I'm done and now I'm out and now I'm free and if that's you just let's bow our heads let's make a decision right now and let's leave this behind as we walk into 2025 and let us start building from this point on let us let us let us remove these things that quench us that affect our foundation that affect our faith and our our testimony so Father I thank you we come before you Almighty and Holy God we thank you that the now word is formally that Father you break the chains you set the keptestry you heal my God you set set people in place and in positions so that they can build and build strong in the 2025 and so Father we thank you we bow and we release all these areas to you today in Jesus name in Jesus name in Jesus name now the devil is going to come and tell you don't worry sir he'll be all right and you can now say formally that was useless but now it's useful to go forward in the king of kings and the lord of lords if I can encourage you with that but if you have not received the king of kings and the lord of lords as your lord and savior is the one is in your boat who's helping you row your life or taking the will and helping you drive them I want to invite you today today you can bow your head bow your heart invite Jesus into your life and if that's you church let's pray out loud let's encourage those that are watching online those that are here let's encourage them to pray say Jesus I believe that you're the son of God and that you died in that cross for me that you've paid for my sins I receive the forgiving power of Jesus I give you my life in Jesus name amen amen