(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Catch the Fire Church podcast. We're so glad you're joining us and we hope you're encouraged by this message. - What I wanna do today is a little bit different. I've shared this a number of times in recent months, but I had this experience in December, the first week of December, 2020. And I hesitate sometimes to share personal experiences 'cause it makes it sound like you have these all the time. And I wish that were the case, but it's not true. I've had the Lord awaken me twice with his voice in 72 years. So it's not a common thing, but it has happened. I've had him awaken me in many different ways. But what happened in the first week of December, I don't remember ever having this experience before. I was awakened by a thought. It wasn't a word coming to me, it was something exploding within me. And I don't know, I don't know any way to describe it. I'm not even sure if it's important to describe it. That's just kind of bringing you into a personal journey and experience. I was awakened with the thought. And the thought was a walled city without gates is not entirely safe. And it woke me up having the thought. I don't know how you do that. I don't know how you think about stuff while you're sleeping, but it was happening. And I woke up and I just began to think. I swore, actually, not in a bad way, but just wondering what on earth just happened to me. And what is he trying to say to me? So I just started to process a walled city without gates, is not entirely safe. And I started, I remember early on in Maya walk with the Lord, I took on the book of Nehemiah and I read it constantly for months and months and months. I think it was my primary diet for like six months or so, where I just studied that. And I remembered the building of the walls around the city of Jerusalem and what an extraordinary event that was. They had Israel, I tried to rebuild the walls of this city for I think it was 72 years. And Nehemiah came and his name means Comforter. So it's a wonderful picture of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit came, when Nehemiah came, they built it in 52 days. What they couldn't do in a lifetime, they could do in a season. When the Holy Spirit was in charge. And so he directed and led them into the rebuilding, Jack Caford had just the best teaching ever on this subject. He would talk about the walls representing character and the moral values of a person's life and how God rebuilds certain things in our lives. And one of the things that Nehemiah did in the construction of this wall is there would be gaps in the wall. Of course, if there's gaps in the wall, that's the only way we can do it. Of course, if there's gaps in the wall, that's where the enemy has access to come kill, steal, destroy. And so he would put soldiers in the gaps. So it's not just a wall, it's an angry wall, you know. And those soldiers would protect the city. So there's this whole beautiful process. So I'm laying there thinking a walled city without gates is not entirely safe. And I remember the passage, I've had two, the two most significant encounters I've had with the Lord in my life. The first one was in May of 1979. It was on a Thursday afternoon. And I was in the back of the church where we pastored in Weberville, California. And I was walking and praying and reading. And he just, it wasn't an encounter where you shake and fall and tremble. And see visions and those kinds of things. It was cognitive, it was more, it was more like I was in this moment where he gave me understanding. And he opened up Isaiah chapter 60 to me. And I can honestly say it's affected every day of my life since then. So since May of '79, he opened up Isaiah 60. It's the passage, "Arise, shine for your light has come." The glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Darkness covers the earth, deep darkness, the peoples, but his light will appear upon you, his glory will arise upon you. And it goes on from there. So I'm just trying to take you through my journey. Imagine I'm laying there in bed. It's the middle of the night. It's a Saturday night. I'm gonna get up and speak in the morning. And I've got my mind just racing with this thought. A walled city without gates is not entirely safe. And so I remembered this passage out of Isaiah 60. And it was in verse 18, it's the last half of the verse. It says, "You will call your walls of salvation "and your gates praise." You will call your walls, salvation, and your gates praise. Walls and gates. Walls, salvation is what he does for us. Praise is what we do to him. There's a unique combination, once again, of co-laboring with the Lord. If you can go back to Genesis 1, the whole plan from the very beginning was to raise up those maid in his image who worshiped him by choice. And in that posture, in that position, were part of a co-laboring team that would bring transformation to the earth, be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth. In other words, take this place of perfect beauty, this garden of Eden, this place of absolute bliss, and extend the boundaries of that until the entire earth is covered. And so there was a commission, it was a co-laboring. God can do all of that on his own, but he's chosen for whatever reason that he'd rather do these things through those maid in his image. It's never been about a conflict between God and the devil. It wouldn't be a contest. (audience laughs) You don't see this war in the heavenlies between the devil and God. It's a laughable idea that is projected often times. It's not a contest. The Lord would all he would have to do is just will the disappearance of all the powers of darkness, and they would be gone forever. (audience applauds) But what the Lord wanted is he wanted the powers of darkness that rose up in rebellion. He wanted them defeated by those made in his image. Why would the Holy Spirit lead Jesus, the Son of Man, is the eternal Son of God, but as the Son of Man, why would the Holy Spirit look forward lead Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil? He only leads you into places you're prepared to win. (audience applauds) It's the enforcement of the triumph of God through human vessel to see the powers of darkness humiliated and openly exposed as foolish. He works to make an open display of the powers of darkness, of absolute foolishness. It's not because of our insight, it's not because of our brilliance or giftedness, it's because of him, but he works in and through and surrendered people. This whole idea that God creates with purpose fascinates me. For example, you would think that something is significant as the announcement that this virgin is going to give birth to the Son of God. You'd think that that was a big enough event that God himself would give the news. (audience laughs) It may qualify up there as high enough priority that God says, I got this one, Gable, just step aside. And he shows up and gives the news. He doesn't, he won't violate the purpose for which he has created something. When he raises up a Gabriel as a messenger angel, God will not violate his role in all of creation. And neither will he violate yours. Neither will he violate mine. He can preach the gospel better than we can. He can put on marvelous displays. Everything that we attempt to do, he can do a Julian times better than all of us combined. But he has chosen not to interrupt the flow. Instead, he has chosen to partner with us. See, if I own a house here in Raleigh, and if, yeah, don't run with that at last night. That's not a prophetic statement at all here. Some people, they don't need any encouragement to be prophetic. They just, you know, a mosquito flies by. They've got an interpretation of it. So if I were to own a home here, and you were renting that home from me, I would not have the right to come in at home any time. I wanted, even though I own it. I only have the right at your invitation. The earth is the Lord, but he's given it to the delegated authority, the supervision of mankind. And he comes at invitation. He comes in partnership. And so we have this amazing part of the story. Your walls will be called salvation. That's what God does for us. But your gates are praise. Psalms 24 says, "Lift up your head, O ye gates, "that the King of glory may enter in." So the whole issue about gates is about presence. We find a very strange metaphor or analogy given in Psalms. I forget which one I think it's 84, somewhere in the 80s. Read them all, it's all highly recommended. Yeah. (congregation laughs) He says, "The Lord loves the dwelling places." He loves, excuse me, he loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jerusalem, of Israel. Think about this, he loves the gates. That's a weird thing that you'd live in a gate. But that's the analogy. He loves the gates of Zion, the worshiping community, more than all the other dwelling places. So we know that he inhabits praise. So there's this prophetic picture of presence and gates. So a walled city without gates is not entirely safe. So as I'm laying there once again in the middle of the night and I'm just pondering, you know, sometimes the Lord gives you the answer, sometimes he invites you into a journey of discovery. That was actually a real good point, Bill. (congregation laughs) It was just, you know, don't get discouraged, don't quit. Just keep trying. Sometimes he invites us into this relational journey with him to discover stuff. That's why, what is it, Proverbs 25? Two says, "It's the glory of God, the concealer matter." It's the glory of kings to search out a matter. God's glorified by hiding stuff for you, not from you. And then invites us in the journey of discovery. He doesn't hide things so they can't be found. He hides them so that they can be found. And you have the delight of discovery. Thank you. (congregation applauds) You guys are probably more spiritual than us, but we still like to hide Easter eggs for the kids. And what eggs and Easter and bunnies have to do with Easter, there's no common sense. (congregation laughs) But it's still fun for the kids. I think we've got, my wife would make sure that we had the plastic kind that had cash in them. And so we have one grandson. He just picks up eggs, shake 'em, if there's cash. They put it in a basket, if there's eggs, he throws them back down the ground. (congregation laughs) He's a pure cash society person. (congregation laughs) And we tell the grandkids, 'cause we got 'em from really small up to really big. And we say, "Listen, if you see an egg on the step outside, that's not yours." That's the two-year-old that thinks he just found the secret to life, and so then we just turn 'em loose and they're full on trying to find stuff and discover stuff. You know, we don't go in the backyard, dig a three-foot hole, put eggs in the bottom, fill it with cement, and say, "You think you're so smart, find those eggs." (congregation laughs) We don't do that. We invite them in the journey. And what do we do as parents and grandparents? We watch. We watch 'em, and we don't go in the house and say, "You know, good luck, tell us when you're done." We're there, you know, you're getting warmer, you're getting warmer, and we're part of that. We have as much fun as they do, if not more. It's the glory of God, the concealer matter. It's the glory of kings to search out our matter. It's the Lord brings us in this journey where we get to discover, what an amazing privilege to collab with God. He doesn't need me, but he wants me. Yeah, he doesn't need me at all. I hear people say, "Well, God really needs..." No, no, he does not. (congregation laughs) He does not. You're not that good. (congregation laughs) But he really likes us. And to be a part of this journey with him is significant. So anyway, once again, I'm laying there in the middle of the night and trying to process what it is that we're saying. And I'm getting pieces of it now that the fact that praise is a significant part of this wall of safety. And then I come in my memory. I come to a revelation, chapter 21, in verse 21. And it says the 12 gates were 12 pearls. Each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. Now, I don't know about you. That's got to be the weirdest picture of a gate ever. It's this ginormous pearl is a gate. I mean, you just work with it 'cause God said it. You know, so it's obviously true. It's just hard to picture, you know. So here's this pearl that is a gate and there's 12 of them around this city. It's an amazing thing 'cause it says this new Jerusalem comes down out of the sky like a bride. And it's 1500 by 1500 by 1500. So, you know, all I do is read and go, yep. It's like the Lord when he asks the prophet, can these bones live? You know, it's just the best thing to do is just agree with God, yep, got it, got it. So here's this new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven like a bride and it's perfect structure, which tells me perfect structure comes out of romance. (audience laughing) The treasure is not the lion's skin, it's the lion. Everything we build is only to accommodate the treasure. And the structures he gives us has got to come out of this romance, this absolute adoration. And so I'm thinking about this, the gate being pearls. Pearls are formed, huh? Through irritation, yep. They're formed through irritation. My family's, as long as since I was a small child, my dad always involved a lot in sports and love watching from the Super Bowl to the NBA championships, to the World Series, to all the things, I don't watch hockey, I'm sorry for those of you Canadians. Don't be bitter, just deal with it, just deal with it. But anyway, sports is always a big deal. We played sports all through school and it's just a huge part of our life. And it's always, it's so significant to see the locker room and have the interviews with the victors, the winners of whatever sport it might be. And the amount of believers that are in these realms of influence is increasing so dramatically. I remember a baseball is always my sport growing up. And I remember, I grew up in California and the San Francisco Giants were always my team. And I remember the day I found out as a young man that there was a player on the team that was a Christian. And it was like, I had permission to have this guy as my hero, and there was one player that I knew of and I heard there might be a few others in professional baseball. And I remember Felipe Lulu was his name. I remember going to hear him speak at some kind of a men's breakfast or something. But I have a friend who was a quarterback in the NFL and he says now, he says, up to 70% of all NFL players are born again. 70% is extraordinary, amazing. And you hear the reports, the testimonies. And I love the fact that they'll interview the victor, they're winning quarterback and he'll stop, and he'll just say listen, I owe all the honor and thanks to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I love hearing that. So I don't ever want to discount that. But let's be honest, it's not hard to give God praise when you just won. And I would hope that they would do that. I would hope that they would grab their moment and just give thanks to the Lord for the privilege to get paid to play a game. And what an amazing privilege it is. And God has raised them up in their places of influence. But that's not the hardest time to give him praise. See, gates are formed in irritation. They're formed in laws. I mean, the gates, the places of divine invasion, these parts of our life that invite presence in such a manifested way, these moments are formed in us through irritation. It's what you do with the laws. See, I think the two main cripplers in the body of Christ is disappointment and resentment. I think it takes up, those two things take up more people than maybe every other thing combined. People not knowing what to do in disappointment and loss when things didn't turn out the way they thought they should. What do you do with those moments? If I don't know how to handle disappointment, if I can't navigate these times of disappointment, then I can't really be fully trusted with fulfilled promises and gain like I was designed for. If I can't navigate my heart in laws, then I can't be trusted with the measure of increase I was designed for. If I can't navigate my heart in the midst of criticism, I can't be trusted with praise. If I can't navigate my heart in the midst of betrayal, I can't be trusted with the level of loyal friends that God designed for me. See, all of these things are training points. They're times of pruning. God rewards all growth with pruning. He refines us, he reduces us to our place of strength so he can build. And all the add on stuff just starts getting trimmed back, not as punishment because, but as a sign, I'm about to build something more significant greater than you've known, greater than you've seen. And these kinds of seasons, these kinds of moments in our life are so significant because we oftentimes think, what did I do wrong when God is basically saying it's here because you did something right. And I'm trying to prepare you for a promotion, for an increase. I'm trying to prepare you for something far greater than you could ever ask for. You know, his intentions for us are greater than our greatest prayer on our greatest day of faith, our greatest imagination, the far greater than anything we could conceive of ourselves. And so we've got this issue of gates being formed and if I can go back to the original statement, a walled city without gates is not entirely safe. The Lord is inviting us in this particular season. You know, you don't have to be prophetic to realize it's a very intense hour to be a lie. And from the foundations of the earth, we were chosen to be the ones to live in this hour. Not because of our gifting, just because of an assignment. And he said he'd never leave us. And so here we are being immersed because in part, because of this incredible movement that started 30 years ago that all of us have been a part of in one measure or another. And we are inundated with this person called Holy Spirit who is just, he just changes everything. He just changes everything. He changes everything. And so this one wants to inhabit my offering of praise. Praise is not just, I praise you, I praise you, I praise you, praise you, is acknowledging aspects of his nature and his character. And we want to bring attention to it. We love him with all of our mind, which means we think and consider what he's like. And we use that as an offering. And he says, I like it and I'll come in on the dwell there. He likes the gates of Zion. The praise of Zion more than every other dwelling place and the entire nation of the people of God. And so here we've been invited into this journey. But the times where I am to give him praise are oftentimes the most painful parts of my life. It's not a mind over matter thing. It's just giving him praise and loss. It's the most logical thing in the world to do if you see the big picture. If you see the big picture, it's the only reasonable response. If you're caught up with yourself, it's not. That was actually another good point though. [APPLAUSE] That's two now. That's two. On the 16th of this month, it was the 20th anniversary of my dad's home going. He died 20 years ago. And it was wonderful to think back. And I remember learning some things. In that time of loss, we stood as a family around his bed when he took his last breath. And we made a covenant together. He was such a worshiper that I encouraged all the family. I said, listen, the mantle on his life for worship was so big that there's not one of us that can carry it. We have to all say yes to it. And we made a covenant as a family. You know, what you do in your moments of loss-- I remember having a friend-- an acquaintance that wrote some things that were not very kind. And I remember writing him a note and thanking him for writing those things because what I want is here. And all I'm experiencing is adverse winds coming from the place I want to go to in God. And it is possible to sail a boat against the wind. You've got to use the sail and the rudder correctly. You can do what they call tacking and actually advance against adverse winds. And a lot of what we want in life, a lot of what we cry out for. See, most of what you need in life will be brought to you. But most of what you want, you'll have to go get it. And oftentimes, there's the managing of the attitude of the heart and the confession of your tongue. The rudder and the sail is the managing of those two things you can actually advance against adverse winds. And so I told him, I said, thank you because you're giving me an opportunity to advance in the very area I want to advance in. Without this opportunity, I would have a chance to make advancement in the things that I want. And God, they're available to me sometimes because of opposition. It's a long story the thing turned around. But the point I want to make is what do you do with your moments? Never turned down a chance to die. I'm here to encourage you. I've come just to bless, just to bless you. On July 13, 2022, my wife went home to be with Jesus. Once again, we're there as a family. We do everything in mass. And we were there together, believing to the very end, for the Lord to raise her up. And it didn't happen. She breathed her last. I was given a gift, many, her, 49 years, but then I was given another gift. And the gift was the gift of loss. Yep. It was a gift. If you see it for what it is, it's a gift because it's an opportunity. First response, she breathed her last. Just to raise her hands and to give God honor and praise and thanks, and this may sound strange to you. But to give him honor and praise as always being the healer. See, my experience doesn't redefine him. [APPLAUSE] My lack of experience doesn't redefine him. The word of God defines him. I spend a lifetime trying to raise my standard of living up to the standard of scripture and refuse to lower the standard of scripture to my standard of living. [APPLAUSE] I'm not like you. I'm not in this to feel good about myself. I'm not looking so at the end of the day, I can say, well, I sure did good. My approach early days of the outpouring for us, I remember I'd ask myself a question at the end of the day. Number one, did God show up? Number two, did I do what he said? But I could say yes to those two things. It was a great day. That's all that mattered. Did I do what he said? So my wife, we had the privilege of walking with her to the gate of eternity. And then it was like Jesus said, I'll take it from here. Painful moments, for sure. But there are also gifted moments. You become so aware of eternity. And that doesn't hurt any of us. To be reminded on a regular basis that we are all in practice and in training for eternity. And that is going to be what matters most. And I remember in the pain of that loss. First of all, I cut all my schedule back, all the travel, everything. So I wanted to make sure that I'd come face to face with grief and not try to become busy. So I never had to deal with it. I dialed everything down so that I could go face to face with grief and face to face with the opportunity to draw near. See, you can mourn. Morning is right. Morning is biblical. But there is a morning. Blessed are those who mourn, they should be comforted. There is a morning that takes you to the Holy Spirit. Mark 16, you see a morning that takes you to unbelief. So you've only got two options. Morning will either take you into the place of a divine encounter or it takes you into unbelief, which is partnership with the spirit that wars against God. And the determining factor, what kind of mourning I'm going to do has everything in the world to do with the word hope. If you mourn with hope, you'll be comforted. If you mourn without hope, you will slowly become resistant, jaded, calloused, to what God is saying, to what He's doing. Instead of praying for the next person with the disease you're loved and died of, you want to send them to somebody else. Because it's easy to make it about you. It's all right for a season, but you've got to work through it and realize this is not where I'm going to stand. It's not where I'm going to live. There's no guilt shames just saying, I refuse to live here. This isn't home. This isn't home. And so I realized that in eternity, in heaven, there won't be any losses there. I won't have loss there. I won't have guilt there. I won't go, oh, man, I wish I would have done that different. It's just that doesn't exist there. There's not going to be discouragement or for decisions you make in eternity. There's just none of that stuff. There's no confusion, no guilt, no shame, no none of that stuff in heaven. That stuff is what we deal with here. And it becomes the things that flavor my offering to the Lord. So what I have determined to do is since I can't give him a sacrifice in the midst of loss, pain, confusion, guilt, shame, all the stuff we could lift, since I can't give him an offering in eternity with that flavor on it, I can only give it to him here. It's a priceless gift. And I must grab my moment and give him an offering in the middle of pain, in the middle of loss, in the middle of things. I can't explain things. I cannot control. These things are outside of my control. What am I going to do? I have a chance. I have a once-- I've got this moment, only once-- an opportunity to give him an offering that costs me simply. So we stand as a family. We stand as individuals celebrating the goodness of God in the middle of pain, in the middle of loss. And it's not pretend. It's genuine. It's real because he's still good. He's still good. He doesn't live under my control. It's funny people say, you believe in healing. Why do you wear glasses? I say, I wear glasses because I see better. [LAUGHTER] And then I tell him, he's not my servant, I'm his. He doesn't dance to my tune. So what do you do? You've got these things. One of us have them. Our disappointments, our losses, we got stuff that goes on. And even in the midst of mighty outpouring, there's still the challenging stuff that happens. And navigating our heart during those things really helps to-- if I could put it this way, helps to create this safety. I don't want to create an insecurity in the Lord because we're sealed in him. I get that. But there's this profound picture of a strength that is created by what God gives us and by what we give him. And somehow that co-levering thing helps to create some sort of a strength for us that we wouldn't get any other way. And the gate is formed through irritation. It's through the losses. It's through the hard stuff. And grabbing moments, not letting them pass by, but grabbing them as though we took captive something. It says, take your thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. Imagine catching an enemy soldier and retraining them until that soldier became a partner with you for what is righteousness. It's capturing unto the obedience of Christ. It's taking these moments that were set to destroy you and repurposing them so that they strengthen and glorify God. That's the privilege we've been given. We've been given. [APPLAUSE] It's grabbing our moments, not missing the chance to bring in glory. And something is formed in us in these moments. Something is formed in us in these moments where there's a strength. It's crazy, because in the middle of the loss and pain and all those stuff, the last thing you feel is strong. But from heaven's perspective, you maybe have never been stronger. [INAUDIBLE] [APPLAUSE] I met with our teams early on, and I said, listen, I'm not trying to be strong. I'm just trying to be faithful. I've got to be faithful to what the Word says He is like. Faithful to what He has said. Faithful to what He has done. See, I look across the body of Christ, we work with a lot of people, as you guys do. And of course, there are so many for every tragedy of a failure of a great leader. There's a dozen others that nobody talks about that are walking and purity and strength. So thankful. And so we have our alumni. We've got our teams of people all over the world. And we're just so pleased with them. But everyone, so I'll hear another story of a crisis, a tragedy. Somebody throws in the towel. And there's a common denominator, almost every single one that is decided to quote unquote abandon the faith, goes back to they didn't know what to do with disappointment. Almost everyone, almost everyone. They were hurt by this, disappointed by this. They didn't know what to do with disappointment. And it's crazy because all of us were born for this world transforming assignment. But it's like you have this burning coal in your soul that is changes who we are, it changes everything about us. And then you get disappointment piled on top of it. And then you get bad teaching piled on top of that. And it's the combination of those two things. You've got to peel the junk back to find out who you are. You've got to get down to the raw burning ember of this is who I am. I burn for Jesus. I burn for Jesus. That's who I am. And anything that gets piled on top of that is illegitimate, illegitimate, and helping people to grab your moment. Yeah, I'm sorry that happened. None of us wanted that to happen. None of us is expected that. But there's life on the other side of this thing if you'll give him an offer, give him an offer. But this is, I'll wrap this up because we need to end and pray. But a number of years ago, I started trying to learn this thing that David knew so well, says he strengthened himself and the Lord is God. And I don't understand this. I just know it's true that there are times where God will blind the eyes and deafen the ears of your closest friends to your heart's cry so that you are forced to learn how to strengthen yourself. It's not to breed independence because that's not a long term plan that's worth anything. But taking responsibility for the attitude of my heart, taking responsibility for the confession of my mouth, taking responsibility for the things I think about and dwell on. How many of you have-- you've been awake half the night because you were just worried about some problem. Be honest with me, all right? So we know you know how to meditate. [LAUGHTER] We just need to change the subject matter. We just need to get a whole bunch of people feeding out what God has said and what God has done. So it's taking responsibility for that stuff. It's saying, I'm responsible. I refuse to be the victim of all this stuff. Yes, this shouldn't have happened. Yes, this is not what was promised. But God is still-- why would he give us the scriptures like all things work together for good, to those who love God, called according to his purpose? There's no purpose for that verse unless you're going to experience disappointment. The only reason it's there is because it's not always going to work. Why would he say, rejoice always? Pray without ceasing and everything give thanks. There's no purpose for that verse unless you're going to experience things you didn't expect. It's there as the backstop that catches straight pitches. It's the stuff that-- it says, things stop here. Now this is what I'm going to do. I choose to celebrate and to give joy and to give joy. Give it all to me. These are things that I choose to do. I don't have to feel them to do them. In this world, you eat because you're hungry, but in the kingdom, you get hungry by eating. In this natural world, we rejoice because we have joy. But in the kingdom, you have joy because you rejoice. So we grab our moments and we give them thanks. We give them praise. What I'll do is I get along with the Lord and I'll just say, God, it looks to me like you lied. And I know it's impossible. And it's impossible for you to lie. You've made me a part of your own life, your own person. And you would never deny me. But that's what I'm struggling with, feels like you lied. Feel like you promised this, this happened, this happened. We expected this and the opposite happened. Please forgive me because I've been entertaining something that I know is not true. It's impossible for you to do it. But I need you to heal my heart. I'm going to give it to you as an offering. And out of just obedience, I'm going to honor you for always being good, always being faithful, always being true. And I will do that to the day I die. But I'm asking that you'd help to change my heart, up to shift my perspective so that I don't just see what didn't work. But once again, I can be reminded of your faithfulness. Got to grab your moments. We need safety in the house of God right now. Got a lot of crazy stuff going on. The salvation is secure. But maybe it's time for pearly gates. Let's do it. You know what I do when I'm in trouble? When I'm troubled, is I run to the word. I run to the word. And I read until he talks. I go to the Psalms usually. Just as personal, good Psalms are sometimes Isaiah. I have history of God in those two books where he has spoken to me. And sometimes I'll go back to a place where I met with God in previous seasons where there was a challenging moment, a challenging situation. And I'll open to that. And I'll just begin to read again, reactivate that encounter with the Lord other times. I'll sit down and read 10, 20 or more chapters at a time until I can sense presence, until I can hear voice. Most of us don't need answers. We need the answer. We need the peace that passes understanding. I don't need an explanation. He owes me nothing. He never needs to explain himself to me. I will never credit him with cancer. I'll never credit him with some dreaded disease. No, he's the giver of good gifts. The enemy comes to kill, steal, destroy. I'll never credit God with those things. But I will give him praise and thanks that he can use the worst thing for my benefit. We're going to pray. We're going to pray. Some years ago, I went to what is now my favorite restaurant in the world. It's called the French Laundry. It's in Napa Valley. It's basically heaven on Earth. I remember sitting down to this very, very expensive meal. And it's like nine courses. And then they throw in one or two just for fun. My kind of fun. And I remember the second or third dish they brought out was what they call oysters and pearls. It's actually oysters with caviar in this special sauce. You have to understand. I hated oysters. And I hated caviar. So here's two of the main ingredients in this dish are things I don't like. And they serve it to me. And I turn to my wife and say, hey, I'm spending way too much money on this meal to not at least try it. I took one bite, and I said, honey, I want a chili bowl full of this stuff. I don't know how the master chef could take what I don't like and turn it into something that I think is the most amazing meal ever. [APPLAUSE] And we all have parts of our lives that we just soon forget about. We just soon have forever a race from our past experience. And the master chef is using all the ingredients to make the absolute greatest meal you've ever had. He's taking all the parts. Just give it to him as an offering. So what I want you to do right now is I want you just to give him thanks, whatever comes to your mind. He's the one who brings stuff to mind. Give him thanks, because he's in the miracle working business of reversing the effect of that loss of that difficulty. I'm going to ask you to do it out loud. I don't want any timid praise right now. I want you to give him offerings of thanks and acknowledge the good things he's done for you. Lift your voices. Lift your voices. Lift your voices. I want to hear you. Give him thanks. Mention very specifically. [INAUDIBLE] Just keep it up. Don't stop yet. At some point, it's important to make the confession, Father, I trust you. Father, I trust you. I trust you. [INAUDIBLE] We trust you, Father. We do. We trust you. Now, I know that there's a group of people here that you have just felt stuck ever since a loss or a disappointment. You've done the best you know how to do to honor the Lord. You're advanced like this, because you're hungry for more. But in your own personal life, you have felt stuck for a long time. And I believe today is the day where you get unstuck. I'm going to ask you to do this. If that's you, I want you to put a hand up right where you are. You just have felt stuck. Now, look around you, because I want you to lay hands. Some of you, just going to have to lay hands on each other, because everybody in your section is a hand up. But honestly, just turn. I want you to lay hands on them and just declare over them. This is the day. This is the hour. We lay down all the offense. We lift up the gate of praise, and we declare from this moment on, you're unstuck. Just pray. Just serve one another with these prayers, these decrees. Today is the day. This is the moment. This is the day. This is the moment. Those of you receiving prayer in some way take a posture where you lay something before him, and you actually give it to him. In some ways, extending your hands confession of your mouth. In some ways, acknowledge what you're giving to him. Some of you just need to renounce the power of disappointment. Unintentionally open the door for the enemy to continue to kill and steal and destroy. And we just close that door now in the name of Jesus. The door that just says we live under the influence of disappointment and laws. We say that ends today. That ends today. That ends today. Some of you need to forgive individuals that were involved, a medical doctor who made the mistake, the misdiagnosis. We just release forgiveness. We declare the forgiveness of the Lord in every single case. Take just a minute longer. Just a minute longer. I want you to prophesy over the person you're praying for. Just decree the favor of the Lord. Release the blessing, the favor of God, over that person. Baba says he sent his word and healed him. So I want you to send the word of the Lord across their soul to bring about a release of deliverance of the affliction of the heart that has plagued them. Thank you, God. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Thank you, Lord. Almost done, almost done, just a moment longer. See, we want this to last. We want the breakthrough that's obtained in this moment to be the breakthrough that defines the rest of their life, the rest of their life. Wonderful Jesus. Wonderful Jesus. Now lift your faces, your voices, your hands, heavenward. Let's give an offering. Let's give him thanks. Let's give him praise. Lift your voices. You're an awesome God, a mighty God, great and glorious God. We give you praise, Lord Jesus. We give you praise. We give you thanks. [APPLAUSE] Thank you, Lord. Put your hand on your own heart. And now just take one minute and pray for the person who really needed that prayer. [LAUGHTER] Right here, Jesus. God, help us to be ministers of hope in every situation. That we would learn more than well. We would learn to rejoice while we learned to walk in, live with great victory, and inspire others to do the same. Thank you, Lord. Thank you so much for joining us. There are so many opportunities to grow, connect, and be encouraged. To learn more, visit TTFRolly.com and follow us on social media. Thank you so much for being part of the family. We are so thankful for you. [MUSIC PLAYING] (upbeat music) (gunshot)
Enjoy this powerful sermon by Pastor Bill Johnson. We believe you will be richly blessed through this message on Grief, Disappointment, and Loss.
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