Churches in Olive Branch

“``As was said earlier, you know, we we are a spirit filled, faith filled church. But, guys, when things fall apart, faith doesn't pretend that the pain isn't real. Okay. Okay? There's some of you you may have come from a background where if you even said the word, if you came to somebody and and said, I just got a diagnosis that I have that that I I I've got cancer in my body. Somebody will tell some people correct you. Don't say that word. Don't you say it. Don't you say it. No. What's the reality? Then the reality in the flesh is there's cancer in the body. Right? There is. We don't pretend that it's not real. We don't. Faith doesn't operate from a place of denial. Right. But at the same time, faith refuses to let fear write our story. Okay. And faith and it's by faith that we stand on God's promises.”

“they actually start a prayer wall. So they got this empty house. It's like a one wall in the house, and they got index cards. And they started writing their prayer needs on there, and they would tack them up on this wall. And everybody in the family walked by there, and they would pray over each of those prayer needs every single day. And as they did so, things began to change. And so I encourage you guys along with this. I encourage you to if you don't have some sort of prayer journal, start a prayer journal. Maybe you need a prayer wall in your house. I know some of y'all have a a prayer wall where you you you put up your your your prayer needs and different things, things you're believing for, and, invite a family member. Invite a friend to to to be a part of that and to stand together with you. Write down real needs and pray together and and and do it out loud and and watch what God will do when you stand in agreement with somebody else. Amen? Let's hit number three. Last one. Number three, trust that God is working all things for your good.”

“There may be some of you here today in your life, you are staring at closed doors. Maybe doors that seem to have been slammed shut in front of you right now. The opportunity that you wanted, maybe even opportunity that you had been praying for didn't happen. The timing feels wrong. Everything seems off. The plan that you had for your life, the plan that you had for your children seems to have fallen apart. Guys, it's easy to conclude that you missed it or that god has forgotten about you. Guys, the Bible tells us something different. What looks like failure can actually be divine positioning for something far greater than what you ever dreamed of or hoped for.”

“I was thinking, how many of you would agree that our culture is full of fear? culture is full of anxiety. Our full our culture is full of despair, especially when things seem like they're falling apart. This is many times our default human fleshly response. Fear, anxiety, despair. It could be job loss. It could be financial pressure. It could be an unexpected diagnosis. It could be, a move or a change that we didn't expect. It could be a season where it feels like everything has been taken from us. Everything has been stripped away. Again, how many of you have been there before? These things try to separate us from hope, and they try to separate us from each other. But how many of you know the church of Jesus Christ is called to be different?”

“And so with this point, I wanna challenge you guys this week. I wanna challenge you to model what we see, the apostle Paul wrote, what what we saw in Joseph, what we saw in this mother in Helen in the story. When fear rises, I encourage you to to consciously take a moment and be intentional, stop, and reframe this moment with faith. And say out loud, say, this is not my end. This is not the end of the story. This is the setup for what God is gonna do with my life. Guys, those are words of faith. Speak them. This is not my end. Everybody say, this is not my end. This is not my end. This is a setup. This is a setup. God's writing my story. God's writing my story. Tell yourself every day. Guys, you don't have to all have all the answers. You just have to choose trust over fear. Amen.”

“And I think that there's probably many of us here that are trying to white knuckle it through life. How many of you can tend to try to white knuckle it through life? You your fists are clenched as tight as can possibly be because you're carrying the financial pressure, and you're carrying the family tension, and you're carrying the health struggles, and you're carrying the emotional baggage, and you're trying to carry all these things on your own in your family, and you're white knuckling it. Guys, god never intended he never designed us to do such a thing. He invites us to gather with others, your spouse, your kids, your small group, your church, whatever it may be, a trusted godly friend, gather and pray. And in the movie,”

“You know, there are there's special the Bible's clear. There's a special presence. There's a special power when God's people pray together. And the early church understood this. And is that right? In the book of Acts, when Peter is thrown in prison, y'all remember this? What did all the other believers do? They sent him a little text message and be like, hey. I'll be praying for you, bro. No. It says they called the prayer meeting. They were gathered up in somebody's home, and they prayed and they prayed and they prayed. And what happened? An angel shows up and delivers Peter from prison. When God's people pray, there is power.”

“Why can we do that? Because his purposes are greater than our disappointments. And this is the one we've really gotta grasp today because our disappointments we we can drown in our disappointments because we become so focused on them, but his purposes are so much greater than our disappointments. And so back to the film for a moment. After a long period of closed doors, the Smallbone family look. They have been they have been they started a little cleaning business. They're they're they're cleaning people's homes. They're mowing people's lawns to try to pay the bill to stay in the house. And they're wondering if anything any door will ever open up, and all of a sudden, we come to the the the point the scene where you have this turning point. Right?”

“It's a declaration that we all need to make with our life. It reminds us, guys, that faith isn't necessarily the absence of fear. How many of you have ever been nervous because of uncertainty before? How many of you know you could stand in the middle of that uncertainty and that nervousness with faith. It's not the absence of fear, but it's decision to trust god while you're still nervous. Maybe even when you're scared in a moment, you still trust him. And so David writes these words while he's on the road and he's in constant danger.”

“again, when we pray, that same principle I mean, we we see it all through we see it all through the Old Testament. When when the children of Israel are are facing overwhelming enemies, I I remember you remember the moment when king Jehoshaphat, he called the entire nation to pray and fast. You remember that? And what happened? God responded by fighting their battles for them. Prayer was never meant to just be an individual solo activity. It was meant to be a corporate kingdom event as well.”