Churches in Royal Oaks

“When you pray through and you're going through difficult situations and you choose to run to the Lord instead of choosing to run to the vice of this world or just sometimes we just maybe wanna run away. Right? We just wanna run away, put, like, ostrich, put our head in the ground, And they really do that. We've had ostrich farms in Texas, and we're like, what in the world is going on? You see this big animal with a little head in the ground, and you're just it's the weirdest sight. But that's not gonna save that ostrich from being eaten by a mountain lion. Right? It's not gonna save him from being eaten by a wolf. But we are called not to be like an ostrich. We're called to go to the Lord, and we can be confident. We can grow in our faith. What is faith? It's the confidence of things hoped for. What we hope for in God, salvation. That in the end, he wins it all. Right? That in the end, whether the cancer's healed here on earth or up in heaven, we get the victory right with Jesus because he's already paid the price.”

“Could God have overcome Jacob? Absolutely. But what did Jacob do? He wouldn't let go. He wouldn't let go. Sometimes, just don't let go. Don't let go. I was telling Al that I'm so sad to see some people nowadays are just giving up so easy on the dream that God's given them or on school or on life. We've had family members just end it all because they were in a discouraging situation. Youth, there is always hope. Keep going. Keep holding on to the dream that God has given you. Okay? God will be faithful, and there'll be twists and turns.”

“In the end, Jesus loves that family member more than we love that family member. We have a precious missionary family that their son's just dealing with uncontrolled epilepsy, and they had to come home. And I told Alvin we prayed, Glory was in the room, Alvin was there. We just prayed for Nolan this morning because he keeps having seizures, and he's in a children's hospital. We're like, Lord, we don't understand. This is an awesome family who loves you. But God loves that young man, Nolan, more than we love him, more than his family knows him. We know he he will work things good for Nolan. We know that at the end, someday, Nolan's gonna go be with Jesus. We hope that's not now. But we can have hope. We can have assurance about what we cannot see. We know that Jesus is with us, but we grow in that when we hold on to the Lord.”

“``And during that time, I asked why? Why, Lord? And the first thing the Holy Spirit said is because I wanted you to grow in me. So when we are unwavering in prayer, when we do not stop, when we refuse to stop, even if we don't see the answers, even if maybe things aren't going our way, even if we can't hear the Lord or see him at work, especially in that circumstance, grow in God. So the first thing, the reason why the Lord wants you to be unwavering is so that you can grow in him. It's not a punishment.”

“Now prayer doesn't always fix the problem right away. Okay? And when I call the altar call, if you have a prayer need, come up. We're gonna pray for it. But don't go home and think, like, oh, my prayer was that my neighbor moves away. Don't think you go home and you find that your neighbor's all packed up and ready to leave. Okay? First, that might be the wrong prayer. Instead, if I pray, God, I hope my neighbor gets to know you more, and use me so that he gets to know you. Okay? But prayer doesn't always change our situation immediately, but prayer does change our perspective. It's the way you see the situation you're in. Prayer can change that. When you pray to God, God will begin to change your mind. Spending time with God reshapes our priorities.”

“Prayer produces peace before it produces answers. You have a worry? You have anger? You have doubt? Pray. And God's gonna give you peace before he even answers the worry, the anger, and the doubt. He'll give you peace about it first. God prepares us for the blessings before he provides it. You know, maybe you're not ready right now for the blessing that you want, but he's preparing you for the moment that you get the blessing. The greatest miracle of prayer is it always change circumstances. Here's the greatest miracle of prayer. Right? It's not just because your sir your circumstance changes. The greatest miracle in prayer is that your heart changes. Amen. Amen. When you pray, your heart begins to change.”

“A lot of times we treat prayer like an emergency button. I'm in trouble. Let me hit the prayer button. Okay. Father God, I need you right now. Right? Prayer was not meant as a lapse opt last option for us. Prayer was always meant as the first stop, the first invitation to get to know who Jesus is. Every worry is an invitation to pray. You have a worry today? Guess what? Pray. You know what, God? I'm worried about this. God, I got a bill due next week. I'm worried about that bill, God. Take this worry from me. And as I say, God, I'm gonna give the bill to you. And then let God deal with it. Let him deal with it while he's also dealing with you. But prayer is always the first invitation. It's not an emergency button.”

“``Sometimes we spend so much time asking God to change our circumstances that we miss, how he's changing us through that whole time. Prayer is not informing God. You know, God, let me check-in with you today just in case you don't know. This is what I'm going through. It's not informing God because he already knows. Instead, prayer is inviting God into the situation. God, I'm going through this. Step into it for me. Invite him into your worries. Invite him into your your decisions. Right? Before you jump in and make a choice, invite God into it.”

“But Paul begins with these words. Be strong in the Lord and his mighty power. Notice. He doesn't say be strong in yourself. Okay? He doesn't say, okay. Now go lift weights and be strong in yourself, and you're gonna be able to beat everything. He doesn't say be strong in your experience. God's not waiting for you to have all the biblical experience in the world so that now you're ready. He doesn't say be strong in your talents. He's not waiting for you like, okay. Me fine tune all my talents, and now I'm ready. He's saying be strong in the Lord. You where your strength comes from? Your strength comes from God. Now I'm not saying don't exercise. Alright? I'm not saying don't don't, go fine tune your talents. I'm not saying don't go and practice your spiritual gifts. Do those things, but your strength comes from God. And then you go and you can fine tune the rest of it, but you always have to realize your experience will not get you anywhere. Your talents won't get you anywhere. But if you're strong in the Lord, that will get you everywhere.”

“Never leave home without your helmet. Never leave home without the breastplate of righteousness. Right? Never leave home without the sword of truth. Okay. Never leave home. You need all these pieces to be protected, and the kids learn this. Your children don't need stronger opinions. Now we live in a culture where you teach your kids, you have to have a strong opinion. Whatever somebody tells you, have a a better opinion than them. Your kids don't need that. When they go to school, they need the armor of god. They don't need stronger opinions. The world's full of opinions. And your opinion doesn't matter too much to another person that's out in the world. You have to understand this. Why? Because demons love opinions.”