God is in relentless pursuit of people. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost. He comes looking for us. Jesus comes looking for you.
When we come into the kingdom of God, we live counterintuitively to the world because normally it's our normal nature to hold on, to keep stuff. But when we come into the kingdom of God, we just give. It's just the nature of God because God's a giver. He gave his son. He gives the best. Every day he loads us. We benefit.
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It's just really exciting to see just the church, the global church, the body of Christ. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. Sixty-five churches in the Bay Area participated in Alpha. That's a lot. And then, yeah, amen. Thirty-five in the rest. Fantastic.
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You're not just standing there holding a sign. You are a minister. And I want to give you some keys of how we minister. So when you're standing there, I'm not just a post, standing there, looking around. So here's what they're doing. You're just doing that. So here's you're doing that. And so you're driving by and you're seeing a friendly face. And you see this sign.
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Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm because God is able to keep his promises. We can trust him, okay? Think of ways to motivate one another, okay? With love and encouragement to be in the house of God. As it says, do not neglect meeting together. In other words, come to church, be in church. Something that helps you even if you feel lousy and miserable and defeated. You're coming in all mad, show up because there's a victory in that every, you sometimes just walking in the door is a victory because the enemy wants to keep you out.
[00:36:28]
Laying hold of the promises of God. It's important that we just say, God, I'm serious. I need to get, I believe God's calling us and challenging us. I've been feeling it in my life and I'm feeling God's calling us even as a church to step up. There's a new shift, a new area that God is taking us into.
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There's something that happens when you get desperate. When you get desperate. God, I'm not going to let you go unless you bless me. I'm going to keep. I'm going to keep asking you, asking you until you bless me. And I don't know if you've ever been that way before. If you've ever prayed that way before. God, I need an answer. I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. I need something from you.
[00:38:10]
There's a passion. There's something that God wants to put in our hearts. There's a zeal that we have an excitement, a passion for God. I cry out to God when we're praying. There's a point even when we're praying corporately. We pray individually. We travail in prayers. That means we labor like women who are in birth. They're travailing in birth. They're travailing. They're travailing. God, we're crying out to you like that song we sang. Oh, God of revival, pour it out, pour out.
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And what you're doing, each of us, is we gather in this place and we go out to the places. You're a minister everywhere you go. Your neighbors, your school, your work. You are a huge influencer. We talked about that last week. Who are you talking to? Who's the biggest influencer? You are an influencer. Powerful.
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Judgment begins in the house of God because it's us. We hear the, we hear the word of God. We feel his presence. So God starts with us. We get ourselves right. We get ourselves on fire. We get ourselves. Okay. Line me up, God. Line me up. And sometimes, boy, I was convicted when I heard this. Sometimes we've got to get over ourself.
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There's a sense of urgency. We see that in a scripture. There's a holy urgency that God wants to put in our heart. And Paul had this in Philippians chapter 3, verse 12. It says this. He says, Not that I've already obtained all this or I've already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that which Christ took hold of for me. Christ took hold of me. We want to lay hold of the promises of what God has for us.
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But the Bible calls us all to be living epistles. We're to be living books read by all men because people read our life, whether we know it or not, because we're the most Bible that most people will see because a lot of people, they're not believers and they have strange ideas, wrong ideas about God. They've heard this, they've heard that, they've had bad encounters, and so they have false images of God. So we can bring them a real example of Christ with our confidence, our joy, our peace.
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As believers, we should be the most grateful, thankful, joyful, generous people. Yeah, right? Yeah? You ever been around stingy people? No, but joyful. There's something in that, that joy is like a magnet. Like, what you got? You know, like, hey, I want that. Amen.
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God spoke, before you were formed in your mother's womb, I knew you, saith the Lord. All the days ordained for you were written in his books before one of them came to be. He took you out of eternity. He got this man and woman together. He got them through here, and here you are. Here you are. So all the days ordained for you, in other words, all the days that you're going to live, were picked out before your mom and dad ever came through. You know, he has a plan for you. Again, not just a sketch, a plan, architect plan, detail plan, a destiny for you. And he has it. So your story is amazing and powerful.
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Don't let the devil lie to you and tell you that you don't have power. Oh, I can't witness to people. My testimony doesn't count. I don't have this great thing. Hey, you are powerful. You never know what you're going to do.
[00:51:05]
And so your life. It's powerful. You never know a simple statement, how it can change someone's life. So don't let the devil keep your mouth closed. The devil always wants us to be closed when we worship, be quiet, not share our testimony. But, hey, you know, God has something for us. And he wants us to go and make disciples and go and share our faith. Because when we come to church, we need that. But we come and we get blessed and we encourage. But we need to take that and take that out. Glory to God. We have it.
[00:51:50]
But in church, we're not taught really much how to suffer. We're not taught how to sacrifice. We're not taught how to battle. A lot of times we come to church and everything is going to be great and wonderful. But we need to learn that there's a price to pay for victory. There's a sacrifice. There's a battle. And we're going to suffer. That's part of the package. As Christians, we will suffer. We will suffer persecution. We will suffer misunderstanding. We're going to go through difficult times. Yes, that doesn't mean you're a bad person. Doesn't mean you're a bad Christian. It's part of the package.
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Because when God gives us a promise, between the promise and his fulfillment, there's a fight. God says, I'm going to promise you this. And it just doesn't, he's not the vending machine. Oh, I promise you this. You know, here's five bucks. Cha-ching. Here's my result. There's a promise and there's a battle. And then we get the result.
[00:53:31]
So, God, I contend for that. Because we only. A lot of times as believers, we only get half the advancement. We know the half of receiving. But we don't know the other half of the battle and fighting and pressing on and believing for the promises when they're tested.
[00:55:55]
What you need in life will be brought to you. But what you want, you've got to go get. What you need is going to be brought to you and provided. But what you want, you've got to go get it. Thankfully, we have what we need to survive. But, yeah. But what we were born for, our destiny is on the other side of a fight, with a battle.
[00:56:11]
So, there's a place that we can stand with the Lord. Lord, we get these promises. It's a covenantal praying. It goes like this. It's a covenant. It's agreement. Father God, you promised. Your word says, by your stripes, I am healed. So, God, you said in your word. And so, we're praying the word of God. By the stripes that were on your back on the cross, I'm going to be healed. So, I thank you that my lungs are healed. I thank you that my knees are healed. I thank you that my body is healed. That, Father, what this is, I'm praying for this. And so, I thank you for that. And, God, I just declare healing. You just come in agreement. Say, God, you said. God, I believe that.
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We are partners with you, God. And I thank you that, God, you did not desire the death of a sinner but that all men come to repentance and live. Jesus, you came to seek and to save that which is lost. So, Father, we thank you that, God, you're looking for people who are lost. So, God, today as we go out for drive-through prayer, we thank you, God, that, Father, you're going to save us. We're going to send in people who are lost. God, we thank you, God, that, Father, you will send them here, that we can speak to them. We can pray with them. We can connect with them. We thank you, God, for what you're doing. And we trust you with your word of what you're saying.
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When we have limited time here on the earth, you know, because God moves in seasons. You know, I went. The older I get, the faster time goes. You probably heard that tonight. You're experiencing that. It's like, what? It's like, this is what? November 1st is Saturday. It's like, what happened? And I thought it was like, how'd that happen? Okay. But limited time. We have limited time on this earth. And when God's moving, he's moving in seasons. So, like, what's happening here in the Bay Area and even around the nation and around the world? There's pockets of revival. People, there's a hunger for God. There's more Bibles being sold. There's people hungry for God. Just around the nations. People pressing in with prayer. Even in nations where they're shut down, the underground church is moving. And when there's a season, when God's opening up, we need to press in and take advantage of it. We don't want to miss out.
[00:59:24]
The enemy comes. The weapon he uses is distractions. Distractions. You know, like the parable of the sower. Some seed falls on good ground. Some seed falls on the hard soil. He uses Matthew 13, verse 18, says this. Listen to what the parable of the sower means. When someone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart.
[01:00:17]
God's looking for hungry hearts and hold on to one. And God wants that fire in our heart. Glory to God. And so we just say, God, we want more from you. We want more of your power and your presence. And there's something that God's inviting us to is when we, to step up, to press in some more because there's a price that has to be paid. I don't like that because I just want to like, just kind of get through. Just bless me, God. But then say, God, just help me. Hallelujah.
[01:02:08]
And don't give up because perseverance is a key part of everything. So glory to God.
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