Faith, Community, and God's Transformative Peace

"The song says, oh, Lord, we praise you. Is there anybody in the house that come to lift up the name of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ? Is he worthy of all the honor? Is he worthy of all the praise from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same? My Bible, your Bible says he is worthy be praised. Now, I don't want that testimony just coming from the Bible. That ought to be two or three of y 'all that can look back over your life. Matter of fact, you ain't got to go that far. You just can look back last week and recognize how good God has been. Today, you are determined to bring him worship, to give him glory, to lift up the name of Jesus Christ. You ought to lift up your voice this morning. He's just been too good." [00:33:38]

"Grab your navel on your right and your left Squeeze that hand tight It provides you an evidence That you are touching a miracle come through the trials all week long And yet they're here. And today I don't want you to pray for yourself Pray for your navel on your right and your left Thank God for them being here this morning Be a source of encouragement for your neighbor Because you never know we can be dressed up But going through hell And need somebody to be praying for us Father in the name of Jesus God I pray that you would touch our navel on our right and on our left Everyone in front of us and behind us God whatever they stand in need of on today Would you provide it for them Would you give them peace that surpasses all understanding Would you renew their mind and their spirit Oh God to know that they're in the right place For the right reason Because Father we need to hear a right word from you Now God as we go higher in your service." [00:36:19]

"Church it was and will forever be the greatest human event in history I'm talking about that early Sunday morning when the only reflection of light was the moon that was shining in the sky when a woman by the name of Mary Magdalene discovered that the tomb of her Lord was empty her emotions which actually was seen in her panic and her actions that led her to run fast as she could to go tell Peter that somebody had taken away the body of Jesus Christ Peter after hearing that communication broke out into an Olympic sprint but then he was passed up by John which suggests that Peter got tired because John passed him up and when John gets to the tomb he has his forensic analysis his forensic observations he noticed that the linen wrappings were folded nice and neat he noticed that the faith face cloth which was around Jesus head was rolled up and placed at a distance from the linen wrappings in other words it looked like there was no sign that these grave clothes had ever been used the Bible says that after John's observation that he had faith to believe you must understand that the disciples did not have this complete faith cognitions of understanding the scriptures regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ and therefore instead of spreading the news they went back home to their house in the meantime Mary standing outside of the tomb weeping and wondering what has happened to her Lord the scripture reveals that she had an encounter with her with the resurrected Jesus Christ and church once she recognized his voice when he calls out her name she ran and began clinging to Jesus her excitement was to hug him and Jesus in his deity helps us to understand that that that he had not cling or gone to his father yet so she needed to stop clinging to his father yet so she needed to stop clinging to her to him the experience the experience lets us know that this was not a hollywood hoax this was not a figment of her imagination this was not a magic trick we're talking about the physical resurrected body of Jesus Christ that was glorified he instructed her to go and share her testimony to his followers and this is and then later on that evening the disciples are in a room because they are fearing the persecution from the Jews as they are hanging out something supernatural happened Jesus disappeared and he opened up his mouth and says peace be unto you that phrase that he gives his disciples disciples because he already knew of their fear but let me pause here parenthetically because Jesus spoke to them and provided them what they need because of their." [00:50:02]

"Is that not what he does for us today if you're listening closely and if you're reading God's word God will give you peace that surpasses even your own understanding because it is God's purpose to calm your fears that supernatural calmness despite our experiences of life because God will provide peace and not change your situation but you would have peace in the midst of your situation and church maybe that's something that you and I need to look for today because when things are out of our control what God wants you and I to have is peace God provides a supernatural power a supernatural peace that surpasses all our understanding I'm talking about when God bless you and I'm talking about when God bless you and I'm talking about when." [00:54:20]

"You are catching hell your world is turned upside down but god provides you his peace god provides you the internal stability within your heart and your situation may not change but you will find yourself changing even in the midst of your situation the reason you and i could have this piece is demonstrated in the evidence of jesus resurrection which really shows his power over death and power over sin and power over everything we think that has power it helps us to understand that when they look at this jesus and they notice something about his body the bible lets us know that they he shows them his hands he shows them his side he shows them the sacrifice that he makes on their and you and i behalf i'm talking about the scars in a world where we try to cover our scars god was showing his scars because he got those scars because of you and i he died in our place so that you and i can live he died because of our sin and because of our miscues and because of our brokenness he died for your gossip he died for your lying he died for your drunkenness he died for you having sex outside of marriage he died because you got insecurities that you're listening to the world and he's told you through his word that you are uniquely and wonderfully made why would you allow yourself to be defined by the standards of the world baby god took his time to make you and to shape you and to bring you into the fullness of who he is i am somebody because he has made me somebody and my mind ought to be the glory be the god in the midst of the pain that i may be experiencing the bible says that he shows them his scars and he does this to help us to understand the cost of redemption the cost of here it is forgiveness can i hang out there just for a moment because there's some stuff that we have thought about that we need forgiveness i'm not even talking about the stuff that came out of our mouth not even talking about the stuff that we have actually done but jesus has the power and the ability to forgive the very thoughts that are unlike him and i'm so grateful that there are moments in time that jesus forgives me and catches my thoughts before it comes out of my mouth." [00:55:20]

"Thomas miss the party don't know where he was text doesn't say but he we do know he missed the party and because he missed the party he missed all of the spiritual activities he missed all of the supernatural encounter with the resurrection of Jesus Christ he missed all of the peace he missed all of the Commission to go and preach the message of the resurrection of Jesus and to make disciples and when they told him he refused to believe it which leads to our first point that there's the blessing and believing but here's what we have to understand our lack of personal faith experience should not keep us from believing our lack of personal faith experiences should not keep us from believing Church can I tell the truth and shame the devil many of us in our own human experiences are often initiated or prompted by the experiences of others oftentimes we repeat things that we may not have experienced ourselves but we tell it as if we had experience." [01:01:14]

"Because doubt comes in our lives when things are out of our control and we don't see no way out when they diagnose you and you don't see your way out when the marriage is over and you don't see it coming back together when that child has left and there's no reins to pull him or her back in you and I begin to doubt we doubt ourselves we doubt the power of God we doubt the promises of God but what the Holy Spirit want you and I to understand today is don't allow your subjective experience or the lack thereof keep you from believing that God is able." [01:06:04]

"Don't let because they're throwing around their God, I'm talking about M -O -N -E -Y, that you think that our God ain't able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think. You got to remind yourself that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and all that dwell within. You got to remind yourself that it's God that holds up the sun just in the right place so you and I don't burn up and then allow the moon to come just in the right place so that we also don't freeze all at the same time. It is God that's holding the oceans back because you know the last time he told lightning and rain to show up, this whole place flooded. But thank God for his promises. Thank God for his presence. Thank God for his power. You and I got to believe that God is able to take care of every one of your needs." [01:07:16]

"God's word says that he is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in the time of trouble. God's word says that he is our light and our salvation. Whom shall we fear? And so therefore, don't allow your lack of experience with God to cause you to do something in a specific area of your life that you do not believe that God will show up. God will show up if you trust him. He'll do what he's going to do. So that you and I can't get the credit. He will get all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise." [01:10:38]

"God has given us peace when our world was chaotic. He's given us joy. He's given us comfort. He's given us the ability to forgive. Some of us still need to be shouting on the grace that God has given us. But it wasn't until you went through that you got to experience elements of who God is. And out of that experience, we learned that if God don't do it, it just won't get done. Out of that experience. Out of that experience. Out of that experience. We learn that God creates an atmosphere of intimacy and church. Our lack of personal faith experience should not keep us from believing. You can look at somebody else's life and know that if he did it for them, he can do it for us as well." [01:12:18]

"Church, that's a word for us today. You don't have to see the manifestation of the promises of God in your life for you to start to believe. If you go ahead, believe it's going to come to pass. Then when they showed up, you'll have to say, as the psalmist says, If it had not been for the Lord on my side. God will honor his word. God will honor his actions. And his word and his actions should eliminate our doubting to believe that God is able to do exactly what he's going to do. Because God will always keep his promises to us." [01:14:09]

"And once you and I believe, once we believe individually and collectively, then the scripture is true that eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, all that has entered into the heart of the Lord, that the Lord wants to provide for us. As a church, we got to believe. And when we believe, there's nothing that's going to stop us. Because we've seen too many times in this church of what God is able to do when we believe. So yes, things may be out of our control. But we serve a God that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we could ever ask or think. The blessing in believing. Father, we say thank you for the encouragement to remind us that even like doubting Thomas, that we may have doubted before, but God, from this day forward, we're going to believe you're going to bring things to pass." [01:22:08]