Rooted in Faith: The Power of Integrity and Miracles

I thought I was finished with PL puted and planted I was going to do a new um start a new miniseries just before Easter and man the Holy Spirit wouldn't leave me with this um theme so this week and next week I'm going to continue on the same theme because I think we're speaking about what it takes for all of us to be mature Christians um often times we give our hearts to the Lord or we come and visit church or we might be in the habit of being religious or even knowing Jesus and pray at the meals and we're kind of average Christians but I think God's calling us I know he's calling us to into a deeper relationship with him where we are planted and not potted so what does it mean to be potted a potted Christian still has roots and it's got the leaves and it's beautiful but it will never reach its potential because the pot will limit the growth of this um this plant and what's easy about a potted Christian is you can move I mean if I don't like what's happening in my community I don't have to change it I just move to a different Community if I don't like what's happening at the church pastor's preaching is really not that good maybe the joke was a little offensive because of a pain in the side or whatever it is I can always go to another church because it's a consumer relationship for me it's not a place that I'm planted to uproot a tree that is planted man it's takes sacrifice and it takes digging I don't know who's ever tried to uproot a big tree and replant it and hoping that it will grow again has anybody done that before well I've tried to do it several times even with a with a backo or with a with a tlb and and and you're you're at risk of losing that plant often times when you replant a big tree because it was already rooted and it was bearing fruit in the pl place that it was planted and I think and I believe that God wants us to to Really Bloom where we are planted he wants us to bear fruit where he's placed us in our communities now I know that you didn't choose each other and many of you are sitting next to people today that you might not even know or maybe that you've never even met but what brings us together is the fact that Jesus is the center point of our gathering today and he has called all of us together as as part of his body so that we would be a planted Forest a place in this community that will make a big difference I used in the series the the the analogy of a big tree when you sometimes see people who has died maybe an older person in the community that was a real um a person that was everybody was looking up to they'll say today a big tree fell in our community have you ever heard that saying it's because that person person was known and they were planted in that community and they and everybody knew that tree provided shade it provided nesting for the birds other people were able to enjoy the presence of that person in that Community now imagine God having his church be a planted forest wherever we are wherever he placed us regardless of the politics of the land regardless of what happens around us regardless of people's opinions we are planted and even if Winds of Change come even if the political scene scene changes around us even if there's an issue with um unemployment or whatever you want to call the issues of our day we are planted because we are not dependent on this world because we're planted of the Lord so what does it look like in a normal society to live that life that's different than the average person who who is so affected by everything around them because a big tree even though a storm would come it might lose some leaves but very rarely if at all ever a storm would uproot that tree because it's planted on the other hand if you're not planted and you don't have Deep Roots all the atmospheric things around you will affect you drought especially um when you think about the winds and the and and the the high and everything around us so today I want to continue around what it really means for us to be mature Christians planted in the Lord in mapani and we're going to use mapani as an example here today what does it mean for me as Jo from bumel God's planted Us in this community and I am supposed to bear fruit and be somebody in this community that when others look around they see the goodness of God so that they also would be drawn to the same God that I follow you see I believe that if we want to be mature Christians we have to understand the realm of the Holy Spirit and what do you mean by that J I'm going to take you through this this is a little bit of a it's not a a milk message so I want you to stay with me I've really had to struggle with this this week to be able to to even communicate this and I'm hoping I can do a good job so maybe in this moment of just weakness before before the Lord let's just ask him to help guide us holy spirit we thank you that you are present in this place we thank you that um Lord I pray that you would help me um explain this even you say in your word that your word is so so amazing that children can understand this and today I ask you to help me not to make this complex but to in a simple way encourage and inspire all of us to make good decisions to live for you to decide to function from the spirit into the natural rather than from the natural hoping to be able to touch the spiritual I pray that you would help us to put a priority in our lives that we would seek you holy spirit so now we ask that you speak to us in Jesus name amen have you ever thought about after you've given your heart to the Lord why life is difficult I mean I've had lots of people come to me in counseling sessions and they'll say ja why is it that it's so hard I mean I'll have people that has been struggling with addiction and um they'll come and say there are certain trigger points that causes me to go back to drugs and I said well what are those and they'll say this happened to me and this happened to me and this happened to me and this happened and I look at some of the people's stories especially some of the children that we ministered to and sometimes just to be honest with you in my own weakness I would say Lord how are we going to how are we going to change this how are we going to help this person because they've been through so much and there's been so much hurt in their lives how are we going to ever assist them in in where they are because I feel such a um a sense of responsibility when God has entrusted us with someone and in the middle of those moments I think sometimes what we do is we lose lose the perspective that God is busy maturing us and he's busy building into us something that is going to be so great that will bring honor to his name when things around us seem impossible it is the perfect environment for God to do a miracle have you ever been in a place where you feel you're cornered and you cannot um get out of that corner I believe that in those moments it's where the Lord actually is positioning us for a great miracle but often times what happens in those moments when God wants to do something great in our lives we find natural ways to escape instead of tapping into what God wants to do in that moment and we never experience the miraculous works of the Lord in our lives because it's just we we're kind of stuck in that moment where we're trying to make a plan who knows this they say AB Mar a plan who has heard that that saying before yeah we we we like to say that because I mean when you're in a difficult situation and honestly farming sometimes is one of those difficult places um it is true that we can make plans but then there is something about understanding as a Christian that there's responsibility that I have to look to the Lord and if I do that and I'm consistent with my relationship with him even even if I'm in a corner it's not up to me to fix the situation but he's going to do it and that's called faith that place that I'm speaking about you know studies show I'm going to read this to you sh studies show that a significant portion of family's wealth is often lost by the second or third generation with some reports citing that around 70% of wealthy families lose their wealth by the second generation and 90% by the Third you see maturity if it's not imparted to our children and we don't teach our own children how to suffer and go through difficult things they will not be able to stand in the second and third generation so when you have a wealthy family and they have a lot of wealth have you ever seen that sometimes they spoil their children and they don't let them work so um one of the things we wanted toach teach our children from a young age was that we value work we value hard work and um so the ministry purchased in the year I think it was um in I was about 33 years old when we purchased um sharu Lodge the farm outside it belongs to the ministry but we were managing it at the time um as part of the ministry assets and so my children came to me one day and they said to me Papa who's the boss of sharu and we said it's tan rulin because she was our lodge manager and they said okay but who's Tanny rin's boss and we said well you know tan rolin actually works for the ministry because the ministry owns this and they said okay but who's the boss of the ministry and I said to them well mommy and I started the ministry so we're probably responsible for the ministry and I said to them would you like to be a boss and they saides and we said okay start with the dishes and they said what do you mean I said well the Bible says if you want to be great you be the servant so you start serving and so what we did with our children from a young agees we said to them in your holidays there's going to be one week that you're going to work for free for the ministry um so roline's children would come and want to try and visit when our children were busy and we would have them them paint fences and I mean do all kinds of things and so rolen's children would come and say can they come and play we say no they have work to do because this is the week's work and they said if we help them can they then come play we said yes so then we had double the labor for free so why did we do that with our children why did we not let them just have fun and and enjoy everything and I mean we want them to enjoy things but we also wanted to teach them a sense of responsibility and growth you see as any good father you're more concerned with the character of your children than you are concerned with what they have if you don't care about it it shows up later in life and there's a big Trend in the world right now where very wealthy families like billionaires are struggling to hand over their wealth to the Next Generation because they don't care the same Val carry the same values there was a a law suit with the Murdoch family they own Fox News and he's a billionaire where he was suing his children for changing some of the the bylaws that they had within their trust so that they would give to Liberal causes out of their trust so the the the the owner father sued his children for trying to change that and he lost in court now imagine that I mean a dad who's handing his resources over to his children and then he has to to try and fight when they're old to change the values of those children it's very difficult and it's real today because when we raise our children we sometimes forget the value of suffering the value of struggle the value of risk we don't let our children risk we become helicopter parents we just want to make sure that everything they do is good and we even will go and fight with the teachers why has my child not done better in school excuse me whose responsibility is it to raise our children it's ours you see as as the body of Christ we are we have become spoiled children because we have a promise of an eternity of heaven and we say I'm going to inherit that because God has promised it and is it true yes we're going to be in heaven one day as a place keeper until we come back to Earth when the new Earth and Heaven is created by God yes I believe in all of that but along the way God has much more planned for us than us just sitting here as spoiled children waiting for a reward he wants us to engage in his kingdom and he wants us to grow and he wants to be proud of us when he looks at us because we have endured things that sometimes even seemed especially seems impossible you see God doesn't want a spoiled household he wants sons and and daughters who shares his values and God could not be more proud of us when we go through suffering and difficulties but we stand he even says it in Scripture it says rejoice when you go through all kinds of troubles and tribulations because that produces endurance that's exactly a Father's Heart and I tell you I feel the same about my children when I look today whenever they've done an internship of they visited a place or something one thing that they would always say about our children is man your kids work hard we had them as an internship in reaching a generation and um and I remember during this internship um they were working um specifically there was um Nicole was working with annal I think both of our children worked with anal is an in the room she's not here this morning probably second service and um and I would sometimes I would sit at home and it will be 10:00 at night and I would call the office and say Nicole where are you and she says I'm just finishing something nobody expected it she just works but that didn't start when Nicole was 19 or 20 or 21 it started because every holiday our children gave one week for free and worked for the ministry now he say y That's I mean they were small that's cruel no that's a dad because we realize the value of development so that one day when they're older they will not depart from those values many many of these wealthy families can give anything to their children and they do and their children have never realized what it is to actually work for something that is in their lives now you might be in a place where you're able to give more to your children than you were able to be given and that's a blessing hear me I'm not saying with all things from your children but never at the cost of values you see we find these values in the word of God values like loving God and loving people I mean I remember jacqu when he was young I'm sharing about our family please forgive me but that's my reference I remember Jo we would go and visit sometimes we would be in in extremely poor areas like you've not even seen seen in this community and that little boy just loves I just don't understand like he does not care I mean he'll hug the snot out of somebody it's amazing I mean there's dirt and whatever else and you know and he just head on Dives in there because it's something that was that God's instilled in his life he's his principal is here Miss Angie I think you could confirm that you see the the the thing is that when we lay those values down in our children's lives when they grow up there's one stage that we can't control what our children do anymore and it's revealed we see what we've sown and sometimes we've sown bad things and I've done the same I mean I was very rigid and I could see how some of that hurt my children when they grew older and then I had to learn the difference between heart mistakes and head mistakes and that's a whole another conversation but I did some things right and did some things right and we can see some of that fruit now holy spirit is with us when we give our hearts to Jesus he's inside of us and the Bible says that he wants to guide us so that we don't become spoiled children so he's interested in What Becomes of me and how I handle different situations like being put before somebody when I can get a contract if I bribe or if I don't get the contract if I don't bribe what do I do in that moment the values that I have will certainly show in that moment and if I have those values set in my heart certainly that will come up in that moment if it's not I will question and sometimes I will do the things I shouldn't so let me go on when our God sees us he always wants to engage with us father God does not want us not to engage with him you know when my when when our kids were were naughty some sometimes they'll they'll hide away they'll try and we won't see them and we know something's wrong who knows when things are quiet you don't see your kids and you know whoa I I would sometimes Lizzy we would be visiting with people and I'll say to Lizzy Holy Spirit would just tell me there's something going on here I'll say to Lizzie hold on I just got to go see something and she says what's wrong I said no no no I just I just got to go and would you know it was needed that I was going to be there and you see we do that as children too from God the Father we don't want God the Father to see us when we have done something wrong or we're in difficult times it's like Adam and Eve the first thing they did after they sinned was they hid we do that but God the father is not like us he wants us to be able to engage with him every day and I believe that that's what God wants to do with you he does not want you to hide don't worry about the babies it's going to be okay it's going to be like that in heaven amen so I want to read you John 6 now leading up to John 6 Jesus just gave his first sermon of his ministry and that was The Sermon on the Mount it was this amazing sermon that he gave and he had all these people there and then in John 6 verse 30 63 he says the spirit gives life the flesh counts for nothing the words I have spoken to you they are full of spirit and life now bear with me these are sometimes difficult scriptures to understand understand let's go to Romans 1417 is on the screen as well for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking or physical things but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit what is what is God wanting to say to us through his word he says the kingdom of God is not in the realm of the Earth but it's in the realm of the spirit so how did God create the world he started with words he started from the spirit and from the spirit out of nothing God created the universe now if you're an evolutionist um I'm not um I don't believe that there are any evidence I think it takes more faith to be an evolutionist than what it takes to be a creationist what's the difference J the one is that God created out of nothing and his word created us and out of that he created us according to the species that we are he created humans he created animals um evolutionist says that we started as Apes actually it started from a little explosion and then eventually we become apes and then out of the Apes we so I remember there was a a story where a mom was teaching her child Evolution and the dad was teaching about creation and they had a conflict and um finally the dad said okay your mom comes her family comes from the Apes but we are created from God you see see we there's a lot of a lot of evidence missing because if there was people between the Apes and God and if a if a giraffe was created from something else that stretched its neck where are the evidence in bones or archaeological findings there's nothing there's this Gap and they just want us to believe that you see there there's a Creator behind the universe and that's our God and how did he create it he started off spiritually and he spoke it into being and and then he said he's going to create us to be like him and so we become creators as well and let me tell you a secret today your will today your circumstances where you are you probably spoke into being over the last 10 15 years if you don't like what you're seeing change the way you speak because you're creating every day through the words because we as people of God understand that everything starts from the spirit and eventually has an effect on the physical around us that's what makes this so miraculous that we can be part of a family that can actually change the world without it even being logical you see John 663 says we've just read it the spirit gives life the flesh counts for nothing the words I've spoken to you they are full of spirit and life you see sensitivity to the holy spirit is key to declaring what God wants to do in that moment if we do not listen to Holy Spirit but we listen to other voices then in that moment we sometimes miss the miraculous that God wants to do we try and find find our own ways of escaping our difficulty instead of trusting God with a spiritfood faith filled moment that we're in I'll give you an example we've been believing the Lord for that land that's 10 hectors that we want to develop this Christian University with by the way Celebration Church is an example of something that was just spoken we I remember I said to the Lord I never want to start a church Lord because we were in in a Ministry that was doing work with Children and Youth and very successful and the Lord had given us great favor and um I didn't have 400 of my closest friends living in the same town as I'm living now and um and so so I was saying to the Lord I don't feel called to be a pastor and so one day the Lord said to me I want you to start a church in mapani and he said it so clear I was at a conference there was other people and and they had this prophetic team that would actually just prophesy over you they don't know you I was in Texas and as I was walking into the room they asked if they could actually ministered to me and they had been given my name to this team without any background they didn't do any history or search so I'm sitting in this room and this one lady speaks up and she says I see God's going to let you start a church and I know he spoke to me about it and I haven't said much to anybody about it so I called Lizzy my best friend and I told her okay this is it now I mean we I mean and then the other person said something else and the other one and then they told us about the college we were going to start and so I could see these things that God spoke to me about and I realized okay this is the road so we came back and we had to start celebration say how do you start a church when you've never done that before you learn from other people who've done it right so I was kind of trying to find out and I'm almost 50 years old how do already start a church at 50 years old that's this is when some fastor should almost retire right and so the Lord just told us okay do this start speaking this so we started saying it what does words do they create we had 22 people in our back room or in our backyard we started with the first meeting of those 22 maybe seven has left Hallelujah but it started growing and before you knew it we were able to lease this land and before you know it now we're building a Family Life Center in Jesus name and now we're going to be buying this land and we're going to see this beautiful Church evolved that's going to change the community and we're going to have a Christian University and the farm and everything else is going I see this picture I just know it but it started with words believing what God Said and speaking it sometimes we're afraid to speak those things because we say if I say it it has to happen and then we think it's up to us to make it happen it's not because when we move from the spirit to the flesh how in the world can you even provide yourself for this Vision that is so great that God has to do so John 5:36 says I have testimony weightier than that of John so he's saying Jesus saying the works that I've done is greater than the works that John did who's this John it's John the Baptist now it was never recorded in the Bible that John did any miraculous works but he basically just spoke but Jesus said he was is one of the greatest men that ever lived and then he says his testimony is greater than Jesus says for the works that the father has given me to finish the very works that I'm doing testify that the father has sent me what is that word Works mean in the Bible it means the miraculous so what Jesus is saying is the works that I've been called to do is not works that are normal physical things that happen in this normal physical world but they are Supernatural H and then he says this he says that promised us and he said you will do Greater Works than I've done same word you will see more miraculous things happen in your life as my followers than I have done you see it's easy for us to be bold about Jesus and what he's going to do when it's already happened when we have the Christian University there and we have a wonderful new big church building and this becomes a a campus for our students and we are training Educators and we're training nurses and we're training um pastors and missionaries and and when all of that is happening it's great to be bold and say w look at what God has done but what it actually takes us now to say look at what God has done and what he's doing he say different place I I'll give you a practical example I was in school and I gave my heart to the Lord when I was 13 the teacher led me to Jesus and right after that I'm learning about this Faith thing because I've always known religion but I've never known what it was to have a relationship with Jesus personal relationship so I'm sitting in this school and there's a guy that's 2 years old of me and his name is Leon and he's also a Christian and he's been a Christian longer than I have he's the guy who baptized me when I overheard them about baptism we got on the bicycle the next day and went to the river and they baptized me and we came back and by the way if you're not baptized it's not a feeling it's not waiting for the right moment it's obedience you will never grow spiritually to the levels that God wants you if you're not b baptized it's spiritual it's something that you have to do but it's a decision so if you've not been baptized sign up if you want to do it today I mean we have staff and people that you can talk to or if you want to go and sign up and learn about it and then come and be baptized no problem make sure that you do that but any guys so Leon in the school terrain we have a thousand boys in the school and Leon starts this argument this guy argues with him about faith in in the break time and suddenly there's a crowd that comes around him now in our school when that happens it's a fight and we all would shout fight these are boys it's testosterone and all these kind of things and in those days it was a little rough sometimes it was a technical high school so they would shout fight fight fight and then you would run and you would go and see what this fight was about so I'm in grade nine just giving my heart to the Lord and I see this guy gathering this crowd around him and I'm thinking who you know what is this and as I walk closer I'm standing on the outside of the circle and I'm hearing him declare the word of the Lord and he's starting to speak to this other boy and everybody is interested about what he's saying and he's got this large crowd around him and I'll be honest with you today I was standing on the outside there and I felt embarrassed for him because I thought I would never be able to do such a thing I was a believer but I didn't have the boldness I looked at him and I thought wow but I'm almost ashamed I didn't want to be Associated I wanted to be on the outside a little bit I was okay in a Christian crowd to say yeah yeah yeah we love Jesus but on the outside I was like it's a little radical for me maybe you're there it's great to say we love Jesus we declare he's good this church is great and God's going to do this and we're all in the same Circle but out there that's where it matters see if you want to see miracles happen it always takes a bold declaration before the miracle happens before it actually manifests if you wonder why God doesn't do great things in your life maybe you should look at your words maybe you should look at where you're standing on these things maybe you should look at are you giving up in the middle of the fight or are you really standing when it matters you see I had had to learn to declare things even before they happen as if they will happen when I know I've heard from the Lord and sometimes I was wondering a little bit was it really him but it's in line with his word and because his word was identified inside of me and I I witnessed what the Holy Spirit was saying it became easier for me to declare because I started putting his word in my heart John 5 says I have testimony of we tier than that of John for the works that the father has given me to F the very works that I'm doing testify that the father has sent me you see I believe that God wants us to declare even before things happen acts 4 speaks about one of those moments I want to read to you verse 29-32 it's not um on the screen so please forgive us acts 4: 29-32 it says now Lord consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness this was the disciples stretch out your hands to heal and perform signs and wonders to the name of your holy servant Jesus after they prayed the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with the word with God God of God boldly the Believers also then shared um their possession so what happened here is they they were in a place where people were threatening and it was difficult and they started declaring the word and people got healed and started getting saved but it only happened after the Bold confession of the Believers we say God Chang mapani change my business change my workplace change my school it will not happen if you're not willing to be one of those guys who's in the middle of the circle to say I believe I stand for what's right boldly proclaiming what God is going to do even before he has done this John 14 I just quoted that scripture it says whoever believes in me will do the works that I have been doing and they will do even greater than these things I believe that God's called us to great things you can see in the Old Testament before we were saved when we were under the law it says that humans are lost and they're absolutely um it points to one answer and that is only Jesus in the Old Testament it says that when you touched an unclean person like a leper you become unclean in the Old Testament it says when you hang out with Sinners you become like them in the New Testament you sanctify your old household by being a a Sanctified spouse so it changes where we were the people being influenced in the New Testament we're becoming the influencer in the in the New Testament when you touch a leper they become healed in the New Testament it's the power of Christ in us it's the River of Life in us it's the holy spirit in us that makes the difference so we are not living in a world where we are a captive or or where we are um a victim of our environment we change our environment with our bold declaration and standing in Christ you see I believe that it is time for us if we're going to see our community changed as trees who are planted in the Lord to not wait for the right moment when everything around us change and then just follow but to start leading in those different Industries if you're in business if you're in in in education if you are involved in Ministry if you're involved in um Health sector if you're in public service through the municipality wherever you are he's waiting for his children to declare boldly and then the miraculous will happen you see the Old Testament is full of this Faith starts where logic fails say that with me Faith starts where logic fails in judges 7even Gideon defeated an army that they couldn't even count with 300 soldiers that's just impossible in Exodus 14 the Israelites were standing at the ocean and they were going to be annihilated as a nation and within a day God opens the ocean and he destroys their enemy in a day it's impossible in Matthew 14 people spend the whole day with Jesus and there were 5,000 men not counting the wom and children and out of Five Loaves and two fish he feeds everybody it's impossible how does that even happen if you wonder why we don't have more miracles in our lives I believe it's because we have stopped declaring and believing that God's going to do things and we're waiting for somebody to change the environment and then we go ra ra isn't that a song like that but that's probably got nothing to do with it and then when God does something like that and we are mature Christians we know to give him the glory but if we don't give him the glory we then actually take that and God will not continue to bless and do these miraculous works I want to read a interesting scripture to you Leviticus 10 verse 1 to3 and then I want to explain bribery to you today and you say Jo you're always about bribery I know isn't that terrible Holy Spirit just wouldn't let me go with this stuff because I think it's so embedded in our society that bribery has become a form of governance and so I just mentioned bribery and then I say don't bribe don't bribe and the Holy Spirit said to me today okay explain it so let me would you let me explain bribery just are you with me say we are with you Pastor okay great you sound excited okay I want you to read this this is fascinating verse 1 through3 Exodus 10 we don't have it on there sorry Aaron's sons naab and abiu took their s sensors put fire in them and added incense and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord contrary to his command so God said don't use fire that didn't come from the alter that I started don't take fire from the outside and bring it in and present it to me as if I am the one who did it Lord I'm believing you for that land if you will pay a bribe jar we'll give it to you for 2 and a half million God God just moved people he gave us the land I'm going to give them 50,000 and God's going to give us this land for 2.5 million don't take unauthorized fire that I didn't sanction and bring it before me as if I am the one who's done it in your world so fire came out of the presence of the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord Moses then said to Aaron this is what the Lord spoke when he said amongst those who approach me I will be provoke approved holy in the sight of all the people I will be honored Aaron the dad of those two children just remained quiet see that's bribery and it's not just bribery it's whenever we intervene on behalf of God when he wants to do a miracle when things get so difficult that I feel that I need to make a plan have you ever been in those places you pray God would you do something I'm trusting you and you do everything you can out of righteousness I'm not saying we should sit back and say h let God do what he does and that's okay no no now Faith is active we should do what we can but once I've done everything and now the UN righteous opportunity comes the Strange Fire comes and I have a choice if I'm going to accept it or not can I be honest with you we have paid the price of Holiness in our businesses so that we have financial gain we're not a people that represent him when we do things like that and when people look at us from the outside they see nothing different than they see in in the world if we live like that there's no blessing in it not from him and I tell you the word says that um it says even even though the unrighteous shall enjoy sh shortterm pleasure at the end they will choose Stones I would rather have God's blessing and have a little then go through a place where I have to make God's work happen in me and and then declare it was him and it wasn't even him because I know in my heart I crossed the line that I shouldn't have crossed if you want to be a tree in God's Forest that's the price that's the price Holiness you say Jac but I've done that in the past and this is how my business is been repent ask the lord lord how do I Holy Spirit how do I fix this but don't go on there because I tell you your end will not be a joyous end it's just declared in the word if you are a tree planted in his Forest you will last you will be like a tree that bears fruit in and out of season it says there is so many blessings Deuteronomy speaks about I think it's 24th speaks about all of those blessings that God has for his children you have access to all of that when you pursue righteousness what does he say Seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness right standing before him then everything will be added to you it's a hard word because it means I need to start looking at my own life I want to tell you a story of one of my friends her name is Hannah you guys have met annah right I'm not going to let annna stand but everybody knows she's back in the sound booth right so annna drives with me to Joe or from jerg one day we were having a meeting and and actually we were on our way to Kenya and she tells us a story of how she was we were we were talking about speeding tickets and um so I was asking Hannah did you ever get a speeding ticket because she's an American but she she drives here in South Africa and she says yes she has and she tells me the story of how she was driving I think into mopani or somewhere and um she was caught coming in she had been speeding and she got 1,200 Rand speeding ticket so you must know that she really was like Lizzy right and when she was driving into town she got the ticket she went the same day I think or the next day and she went to the offices and Anna if I butcher your story it's done in love um but she went to the offices to go pay it and I asked her at the offices they said um do you want to contest this so that we can give you a lower price and she says no and I'm thinking annah you're just dumb they're going to cut your ticket in half they always do that a little bit at least if you say I'll contest it then they'll say okay we'll give it to you um you don't even have to hire a lawyer here to do it in the US you have to hire a lawyer and Anna says no why would I do that and the woman says well then you'll pay less and she says no because I was guilty man was I convicted what would I have done in that moment I don't know maybe I would have taken the cut maybe I would have said okay thank you I don't want to give anything to this government that they don't deserve whatever it was that I can justify but Hannah decided righteousness you see it's in the little things in our lives it's not only the big contracts and this and that and it's how we live every day that matters and it just doesn't only matter to me it matters to my children because the way that they are raised will of course that generation to hold those values dear as well see when we make these decisions we make generational decisions in our lives and God's calling us to be a mature people of his that will stand even if the world does not you see we need to choose between man's recognition or God's Applause of people is not evil when I got my PhD many people just congratulated and everything else and it's good good it's nice to be able to be congratulated but when we when we are pursuing the Applause of man we lose our faith we just do when I stop being bold in the pulpit and speak about issues in our country that needs to be addressed and in our lives I'm looking for your applause I cannot do that because if I look at that I will lose my faith I we'll start speaking so that people will be pleased and offering will be great and by the way please give so that we can see how great this message was you see we don't win The World by mirroring its culture we model a culture that they long for that's what we're called to when they look at us they must say it's the goodness of God that we're after but if we don't look different than the world what goodness do we show we leave the world to pursue Jesus we don't add Jesus to what we're already doing I don't just go on with my life the normal way because I follow Jesus Everything Changes he becomes my world and my life when we ignore Jesus and we just continue speaking about him we become religious so I believe God's called us to miraculous World works but the key to that is Holiness and Holiness starts with righteousness and I think of my own life and I think Lord I've missed it year I'm so sorry I've missed it there Lord I'm so sorry about that and we all have that but when we continue to pursue him and our hearts are broken because we realize we've taken strength fire we've tried to solve our own problems instead of seeking him and making sure that that relationship is most important we're going to start seeing the miraculous happen around us I long for the days that people will just stream in air because or wherever whenever we walk when you walk out that people would just hear of stories of people healed and raised up from the dead and doesn't even have to be me or Lizzy it can be any of please would you go raise the dead we would love that not about us it's about the Jesus in us to stand firm in a culture of bribery what a miraculous works that will be to say no when everybody says yes what a miraculous work that is to see the sick healed what a miraculous world that will be to see people delivered that are bound and addiction and demons and whatever else that what a miraculous world work that will be to be super generous when we see a need what a miraculous world that will be and to forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive even if people don't deserve it what a miraculous work that is in our lives you see the miraculous is not something that's out there it's here it's in my daily life so I want to challenge you if there's something God's convicting you of and he will Holy Spirit just does that go sit this afternoon with him and say Lord I'm so sorry I want to change this I I forgive me for this in my life forgive me for the time that I you know I tried to bribe a policeman one time yeah I did story quick was overtaking a truck it was a white line there was a kilometer of line they were making that white line just for us so that they could catch us and he was sitting under a tree and I just passed this truck and I saw this policeman and I quickly hid behind him and I pulled over when he pulled me over and he said what did you do I said I know sorry and he said I said man what can we do I don't want to pay a big a big fine right now and he says what do you have and I took out 100 Rand I gave it to him and I turned around and I walked away from him and as I did Holy Spirit man he nailed me and I turned around and I walked up to him and and I said you know I'm a Christian and what I did was wrong today and the Lord just told me not to do this please give me that back and give me the fine I'm not saying we should be perfect man I've messed up many times but if we have a heart sincere to the Lord that we want to pursue him when you've done something wrong just the Bible says if we would confess our sins he would be faithful to forgive us start a new say from today on this is who I am I'm going to do the things because I'm a planted tree in his forest and I'm going to do the things the way God wants me to close your eyes for just a minute if you don't mind I want to ask you today you're sitting here maybe you're a visitor with us today and we're so glad that you're here maybe you're hearing about a relationship with Jesus the first time maybe you've always been involved in religion but you never had that personal relationship if that's you today I want to pray with you I want to help you to get to know this Jesus that I'm so in love with that I've given my life to and I've decided that I want to live a miraculous life if you want that as well I want you to quickly slip up your hand and say Jo would you pray for me I want that thank you for that hand thank you thank you thank you for these hands quickly slip it up and put it down again it's okay thank you for those hands in the back thank you thank you thank you so let's pray this together I want you to to repeat this prayer after me as a church let's do this dear Jesus today I give you my life thank you that you died for me on the cross you gave me everything and you to took my broken life and today I ask you to make me whole forgive me of all the things I've done Holy Spirit I welcome you in my heart heart teach me the way I need to live in Jesus name amen I'm so proud of you this was a long message I'm sorry but thank you for engaging I'm praying that the Holy Spirit would make this real for you in your world because I can't do that there for you but if you have any questions if you want to connect with any of our staff we love you we want to disciple you we want to be part of pastoring you so that you would do the great works that God's called you to and um we're here but I want to thank you for coming today because this is important to gather as a family amen who's glad they were in church today it was a hard message but thank you would you please stand with me I'm going to pray a blessing over you remember your appointment with Holy Spirit this afternoon and to deal with those issues and to start over even write it down somewhere and say Lord from this day this is who I am so just raise your hands father in the name of Jesus I thank you that today I can declare your peace of upon us because you've given it to us I thank you that your peace will rest on us and as we leave this place that you will be behind us before us you will be the one who keep evil from us and we thank you for doing that with our families as well Lord I Thank you that you especially today Stood Still in Celebration Church in this Hall you turned your face towards us and you gave us Grace enabling power to bring forth the change so now we bless everyone as we leave this place we honor you in Jesus name amen have a great Sunday everybody thank [00:41:06]