In spite of what you're seeing happening with your natural eyes, declare, "God, I believe that."
I believe in spite of what you feel, declare it: "God, I believe."
I believe, God, you're still healer. I believe, God, you're still the one who delivers. I believe, God, you're still the one who restores. I believe, God, you're still the one that defends. I believe, God, you're still the one that vindicates.
In the same spirit that's here, just begin to make those requests known to God. Those things that you're praying for, perhaps things that you had given up praying about, things that you saw take place and you were just like, "Well, I guess this is just a lot I have in life," or "This is just the way it is."
Begin to pray again, declaring, "God, I believe that you make a way. God, I believe that you open the seas and I will cross it on dry land. God, I believe that this mountain will be moved. God, I believe because you are the same yesterday, today, and forever.
And so, God, I choose to believe. God, I choose to trust. I choose to trust. Yes, God. All around this, in every sanctuary, in every home that is streaming this morning, right there, lay hands on yourself, pray over yourself.
Pray over your mind and the thoughts that come into your mind that the enemy tries to attack you with. Thoughts of unworthiness. Thoughts that you're not worth God's love. Thoughts that you were a mistake or thoughts that this is going to be the end. No. God cares for you. God has a purpose for you. God has a plan in your life.
So right there, submit your request to Him. In prayer with thanksgiving, begin to thank God. Thank God for the miracle in your womb.
This morning, if it's a husband and wife that's praying for a miracle, thank God for the miracle in the womb. Perhaps a parent praying for a son or a daughter or a grandchild. Pray right now once again for a miracle.
Pray for a family member that has walked away. Pray right now, "God, I believe that you will reach them. That the word will not return void."
Pray for a family member that has walked away. Praying perhaps for a parent or praying for a sibling. Declaring that they will surrender their life to God, dealing with situations and relationships that have been broken and fractured, declaring restoration in Jesus' name.
Come on, in this 2025, we're anchored. We're anchored. We're tied. We thank you for you will never let us down. For great is your faithfulness.
And, Father, whether the seas are calm or turbulent, you hold the steady in place because you're the anchor.
My spirit, the word regret. There's some of you that right now, even in this time, the enemy has been trying to get you to focus on the past and things that you could have done differently. Things that you should have done differently some years ago, perhaps in your marriage or with your children or in your workplace.
Things you should have done differently. And as you've been thinking on that, regret has filled you. But God says, "I am faithful to take what was broken and make it new."
And so, Father, right now, in the name of Jesus, we come against regret. And we thank you, God, for the year that our house built on you and you alone will not fall.
I pray specifically for children, our children, our grandchildren, even our grown adults that you are praying for. There's some folks in here that you're older already and you've got children that are adults and they're not walking with God or they walked away from God.
And right now, in the name of Jesus, we declare, "God, in your faithfulness, you encounter them." That's our prayer to God this morning. You'll do what you said you'll do. You will come through.
Church, if you believe that, give Him a shout of amen. Give Him a hand of praise in this sanctuary, wherever you're streaming from this morning. It is yes and amen. I believe God is who He says He is and He's already made a way. Amen.
Praise God. Praise God. We thank God that today it's a little warmer than these last few days, wasn't it?
My name is David. I want to welcome you this morning. I'm the lead pastor here at 3W Church.
And our vision, our vision, our why, we say it this way: we exist to get people to a place where they will acknowledge, trust, and lean on God daily.
We need God every single day. Time in worship, time in the word, time in fellowship, in community, and it is an intentional thing that we do. We intentionally set aside time to spend it with Him.
All of you this morning, most likely, intentionally set aside. For the most part, I would even venture to say that most of you in here this morning, you said, "Tomorrow morning when I wake up, I'm going to get ready and I'm going to go to church," and it's why you're here. You intentionally said it.
And so I challenge you, even today, when you get ready, what you have tomorrow, intentionally, when you go put that alarm clock, intentionally set it a few minutes before.
Say, "I'm going to spend some time with God before I get ready to leave the house." Be intentional. If you're not intentional, it doesn't happen.
And so I encourage you, be intentional in spending time with God. If you're not, it doesn't happen. In the same way that, hey, if you don't start planning a vacation, you don't take it, right?
If you're not intentional, if you're not intentional about planning a date with your wife, it doesn't happen.
We got to be intentional in our relationship with God, because with God, it's not about religion.
Perhaps you walked in this morning, which maybe is the first time, or you haven't been here in some time, or maybe it's the first time you found 3W on YouTube, and your sharing was like, "Man, what is this going on?" or whatever the case might be?
And it's like, hey, this is not a religious experience. We do not believe in religion or religious practice. It's about a relationship with God.
And when you have a relationship, not everything is the same. When you have a relationship, you don't do the same thing all the time. You do different things in your relationship.
You even do things that please one person and things that sometimes please the other person. So what is it that God is pleased with? And we do it.
And then there's times that there's things that please us, and God will open that door for us to be able to receive it, because He wants us to enjoy.
So religion's about all these rules and regulations, and you got to do this, and you got to do that. And we do that. And we do that. And we do this, this, and this, and this. And it's almost military style.
But it's about relationship. And God wants to have a relationship with us.
And the most amazing thing is that we can encounter God corporately, like we're doing right now, but we can also encounter God individually, in our home, in our car, with our spouse, with our children. We can pray. We can worship. And God shows up.
And so I'm going to tell you again, our vision, our why, we exist to get people to a place where they will acknowledge, trust, and lean on God daily.
So I challenge you, encounter God every day. Amen.
Today is day six of the fast that we've been on. As a church, we've been on a seven-day fast. It started this past Tuesday.
We kicked it off with our prayer service. And we talked, even since the first Sunday in January, we let you know God put in our heart this year, we're going to remain anchored. It's the word of God.
We're going to remain anchored. We're going to remain anchored. And there was going to be three seven-day fasts. This first one now in January, there's going to be one in May, and there's going to be another one in September.
We're going to have a monthly night of prayer, as well as our weekly 6 a.m. prayer. And these six days have been a blessing. I've heard testimonies already, and there's a huge number of people that have registered to fast along with us.
And there's some of you that perhaps you didn't register, and that's okay. You got the paper to know what we're fasting about, and you've been fasting. Or perhaps you are in a fast, or you didn't participate.
You can join it and say, "Hey, you know what? I'm going to fast tomorrow, along with the group that's fasting, corporately."
Okay? And so we've been fasting for different things. We started off on Tuesday fasting for a clean heart. Throughout this week, we fasted for a clean heart. We fasted for intimacy with God. We fasted for clear vision. We fasted for our children of the next generation.
I'm drawing a blank on day four. Salvation of the lost. Thank you.
Today, we're fasting specifically for 3W Church, for our local body, for our leadership, for the parishioners, for the congregation, to be able to steward what God has called us to do, and be able to steward what He's put in our hands.
And tomorrow, we're going to be fasting for revival, awakening. So I encourage you, fast. Join the Zoom.
We've had a morning Zoom at 7 a.m. every day, a Spanish one at 7:30 p.m., and another one in English, again, at 8:30 p.m. If tomorrow or tonight, again, there's one at 7:30 in Spanish, one at 8:30. We had one at 7 this morning. There was a bunch of you that were in there with us just praying together.
The Zoom link is on the email when you registered. We also send out a flock note like five minutes before saying, "Hey, here's the link if you want to join in."
If you speak Spanish, feel free. Jump in at the 7:30 p.m. one. If that's the time that works or the 8:30 p.m., we've got that again tonight, and then tomorrow, we've got again that 7 a.m. That 7:30 p.m. in Spanish, then the 8:30 p.m. in English, and then we break the fast on Tuesday.
And I'm sure that there's a lot of you. I got somebody in our fantasy football chat the other day put, "I can't wait for Tuesday. I'm getting a bowl of lentil soup."
And so my retort or my reply was, "Are you paying for it with your birthright?"
And some of you got that. Some of you didn't. Go read Genesis chapter 25, and then you'll get that pastoral, pastoral, corny joke, all right?
But praise God. We are excited about what God is doing and what God has done in your life throughout this fast and what He's going to continue to do, and I know that He is strengthening all of us that are fasting to get through this, and God is so good.
Come on. Can you give God one more hand of praise?
2025, we just declared it a minute ago. We declared it's the year the word is anchored, tied to the anchor which is God.
God is the anchor which we need to be tied to, and there's a whole lot of different anchors out there, right? People that are anchored to their career. They're anchored to their children. They're anchored to their marriage. They're anchored by their profession or their money or their house or their car, their status or their followers or whatever.
They're anchored by all these different things and they're getting tossed to and fro because the only anchor that can truly hold us steady in place, whether the storm is brewing and the ocean is moving or it's calm and we're at rest, the only anchor that'll hold us firmly in place is God. He is our anchor.
An anchor holds you securely in place. But an anchor is only good if it's tied to the ship.
If you get an anchor and you toss it into the water and you do not have a chain that is tying the anchor to your boat, you can tell that anchor, "Bye-bye." It's going to the depth, and if you were in a deep area, you totally said bye-bye. If you were in a shallow area, maybe you can jump in and grab it.
And so throughout these last few weeks, we've been talking about the different links that make up the chain or that keep us tied to God.
And I want to be very, very clear. These different things we've been talking about, they're not in a specific order saying this is the most important link. And it's not an exhaustive, exhaustive list. It's not going to be like when we go through the series, these are all the links to the chain.
These are just some that God put in our heart to really hammer in and talk about. We know the expression, if you can help me finish it out, if you're on YouTube, you can put it in the comment box. What do people say? You're only as strong as your weakest link.
That is a saying out there. That's not a scriptural saying, but that's a saying that's out there. And the reality is that if you have a link that breaks, the chain is no good.
And so we started this series talking about Sabbath, and then we talked about fasting. Sabbath and fasting are links in this chain. It's two of the links.
Sabbath is resting, taking one day a week where I do not do whatever is my work in order to spend that time with God, commune with God, and also get refilled and refreshed.
And so what does it look like for you might be different than what it looks like for me in a couple of areas, right? So if you're a teacher, what you Sabbath is not necessarily the same thing that a guy that's in construction, let's say.
Or if you are a pastor, it might not be the same thing. Our Sabbaths look differently. What we do on our Sabbath may look differently. The things that refill you may be different.
I gave that example. I like water. I like being on the water. I like being on the water. I like being on the water. I like being on the water. I like being under the water.
And so I enjoy paddleboarding on Sabbath and spending time with God. Some of y'all, if you don't know how to swim, that is a horror story. If I tell you, it's your Sabbath, here's the paddleboard, get in the water, you'll be like, "No, right? Like, I'm going to drown."
And so it may look differently. What should look the same is we spend some extra time with God that day to refresh with Him, to refill with Him, to refill with Him, to refill with Him, to refill with Him, to refill with Him, to refill with Him.
We talked about fasting. And the fact that fasting is sacrificial. It is a sacrifice.
Listen, this guy up here, he likes to eat. So when I feel in my heart to fast, it takes intentionality. I sacrifice.
Yes, we love you, Jesus. Let me tell you what's really hard when you fast, when you got children and you got to cook for them.
I took a picture this week. I thought about putting it online, but I was like, "No, let me not do that." But I took a picture for myself. I got it out there and I took a picture of my face as I was standing in front of the stove, with my hexclad pans and chicken breasts cooking on the pan and said, "I love you, Jesus, but my kids got to eat dinner."
We were at Pinecrest Gardens yesterday with our girls and it was time for lunch and goodness to God, that pizza smelled so good that I even asked Patty at one point, "So if I open the slice of pizza and I go like this so that the oil drips off and I let the oil drip into my tongue, is that liquid like..."
Oh, if you haven't, if you're thinking that far, then probably not, right? I'm telling you, this is real. It's hard to fast. It's a sacrifice.
But man, it gets you closer to God. And today I want to talk about another link. Again, this is not an exhaustive list and it's not about this one is priority over this one or the other one. They're all important.
Today I want us to talk about obedience. See, because obedience is a link in that chain that keeps us tied to God. And obedience is hard.
It's hard. If I put a plate of food in front of you of something you like and I say, "Here, eat," it might be pretty easy. If you're in a fast, oh, it's hard.
All right, watch. I told you yesterday the pizza story, right? So Abigail and Alexander and Samantha had pizza and Alexandra had probably the greatest looking steak sandwich I have seen in the history of the world.
And it's a pizza sandwich. It's a pizza sandwich. It's a pizza in my life. And we bought them their food and we found a spot and we prayed for their food and they prayed and they started eating, and Patty and I said, "We're going to stand over here while we watch you eat," and we're not going to be next to this.
It's because I had to obey. But if you're not fasting, and I put a plate of food that you like in front of you, it's not difficult to obey and eat it.
But if I put something in front of you that you don't like, maybe I put a salad in front of you, I say, "Here, eat," and you're like, "No, no, no, green."
Green. Obedience costs. The definition of obedience is to comply. The definition of obedience is to submit to the authority of someone else.
When we look at that word, it says this: compliance with an order or law. Submission to another's authority. Compliance.
I don't know if you've heard of compliance. I don't know if you've heard of compliance. I don't know if you know about this, about me. I like speed.
I like things that go fast. One of my favorite things that I enjoyed watching throughout high school and college was car racing. I was a big fan of NASCAR, a big fan of Jeff Gordon.
I have, if you walk into my office, I got over 40 cars on my wall here in my office. I enjoyed it. I was a collector of the things.
If you've seen me throughout this week, because I can only wear it when it's cold, I was wearing my racing jacket. I like, so I like to go fast.
But how many of you know that when you're on the turnpike, there's a sign that says a speed limit and I comply to it, even though I want to go faster.
And if I get off the turnpike right here, maybe you've used the turnpike on your way to church today and you got off here on 120th street, the sign changed to a lower speed limit.
But I was going 70 on the turnpike and now I shifted to 40 and I got to make the choice to comply, even though I want to go faster.
And if I passed here, the area where the church is, there's a school on your left-hand side, and it's got a different sign that says 15 miles an hour on Monday through Fridays from this time to that time.
And if I drive by there right now, I don't got to go 15. But if I drive by there tomorrow morning at that time, I must comply to its obedience.
Because I might not like what I'm being asked to do. I might want to do something different. I might want to accelerate.
Are we submitted to God? And obedience is a sign of submission.
My children are submitted to me. They obey what I tell them to do. It's a sign of submission. "Hey, go clean your room." I may not want to, but they go do it. Because there was a sign of submission.
And with God, obedience to Him, obedience to God, it's a sign of submission to God saying, "God, I am coming under your authority."
Not necessarily what I want to be done. I am coming under your authority.
Watch. Go with me to the book of Romans. Romans chapter six. Romans chapter six.
If you've got your Bible, as you did, if you had your Bible, can you wave it real quick? I love looking at Bibles. Let me see. Bibles, Bibles. Ooh, yeah, I love them.
If you've got a physical Bible, I encourage you, bring it with you to church. If you can't read it, either get new glasses or a new one with bigger font.
Romans chapter six. Romans chapter six. Look what it says in verse 15.
What then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law, but under grace? Certainly not.
Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves, slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey?
Whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. But God be thanked that you are not under the law, but under grace.
The first thing we want to understand from the first verse is that God didn't take that way when He said that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart, that form of doctrine to which you were delivered and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
There's a whole lot of things that we used to do before we came to Jesus that God then says, "That does not please me," and then in obedience to God and submission to God, we stopped doing it.
We stopped doing it. I'm going to stop doing it. Submit to God. This doesn't please God.
It's one of the reasons that we tell you the importance of reading scripture because, you know, on Sunday mornings, we don't cover every single thing.
Daily, as you read the Lord, as you spend time with the Lord and you read scripture and His word, there's different things that perhaps we haven't talked about in three months, four months, five months, and you're reading that verse and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit gives you a nudge, boom, boom, and you're like, "Ooh," and God shows you that doesn't please me, and then we make the choice to comply to God, to submit to God, or say, "No, I'm going to do it anyways. This is what I feel like doing."
So obedience is difficult. Obedience is not necessarily an easy thing, and obedience to God, it shows us submission to God.
It shows submission to God. It shows us submission to God. It shows us submission to God.
A couple of weeks ago, my girls and I were in the front of the house taking down Christmas decorations, and we had the bin out, we unplugged the inflatable, you know, we do all this stuff, right?
We're putting it away. And all of a sudden, a car turned onto, you know, from 137th Avenue, it turned onto the street, and it got to the stop sign, and then it made the left turn onto our block, and it came onto our easement, right into the grass right in front of our house, and I didn't know whose car it was.
I couldn't see the person because there was tints on the windows, and it was starting to get darker, and I don't know what, so I immediately said, "Girls, get over here," and one of them came right away, the other one came, and one of them was still picking something up.
I was like, "Hey, come over here." Right? Why? I didn't know who was pulling up, but they heard my voice, and because I'm their dad, and they are submitted to me as their dad, they came and obeyed.
They didn't stop and ask, "But why?" It's the thing we do sometimes. "But why, God? Why do you want me to stand behind you? Why?"
But that obedience is a sign of submission to His authority over our life. God, I submit to you. I will obey you.
And you alone. It shows submission.
I'm reminded of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. You remember the story? Jesus, who, by the way, had told His disciples multiple times, "I got to go to Jerusalem. I'm going to get arrested. I'm going to get beat. And I'm going to be killed. But I will rise again on the third day."
He says this multiple times to His disciples. He knew what was coming. And before being betrayed and arrested, He goes to pray with His disciples at the Garden of Gethsemane.
He tells three of them to come closer with Him. He tells them all to pray. And then He gets three of them and says, "You guys come a little deeper into the woods. Come a little deeper up the mountain with me."
And He says, "You all stay here and pray. Pray with me." And Jesus goes a little further away. If you remember, three times He prays this.
And His disciples, they snored and fell asleep. And Jesus was like, "Y'all, can you pray with me? I'm telling you, I need you."
And Jesus' prayer was this: "Father, if there's any other way, pass this cup from me." Why? Jesus knew what was coming. He knew betrayal was coming.
But, bro, He still loved on Judas. He knew abandonment was coming, that His disciples would flee. They all ran away. He knew that pain was coming. He knew that death. Death was coming.
Church, He knew resurrection was coming, too. But the flesh didn't want to go through.
So He prayed, "If there's any other way, pass this cup from me." But what was the rest of the prayer? "But not my will be done, but your will be done."
This is what Jesus was teaching us there. It may be tough, but you choose to obey. You choose to obey. You choose to obey.
Obedience. It brings and shows submission.
Watch, I want to read, I want to quote two things that Jesus said. In Matthew 9, verse 13, it's going to come up right before me.
"Go and learn what this means: I desire your mercy and not sacrifice." Right?
"I did not come to call righteous, but sinners to repentance." And three chapters later, in chapter 12, verse 7, Jesus says, "If you had known what this means, I desire your mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless."
Twice, Jesus quotes something here. If you knew that God desired mercy, not sacrifice, perhaps you're saying, "Well, that says mercy, not obedience."
Well, let's go to where Jesus is quoting, which is in 1 Samuel 15. In 1 Samuel 15, starting in verse 22, Samuel says, "Has the Lord as great delight," underline that word delight if you've got it in your Bible, "in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord.
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice." Go ahead and leave that screen up there for a minute.
What's happening in this story? This is where Saul, King Saul, first king of Israel, Saul begins to count day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six, day seven.
And at day seven, he looks around. Samuel hasn't gotten here yet. We don't know if he did that as soon as he woke up and it was day seven. Samuel's not here yet.
If he waited another hour, Samuel's not here yet. Samuel didn't give him a specific time. He says, "I'm coming at the end of seven days. I'm coming."
So what did Saul do? Saul heard the voice of the people. He saw what was going on. He knew God desired sacrifices.
And so he did what he wasn't supposed to do, what he wasn't called to do, what wasn't in his authority to do. And he started doing the sacrifice.
And as he does it, Samuel shows up. And Samuel's like, "Bro, what are you doing?"
"The people, the people." And this is the word that then God deposits into Samuel to confront Saul with: "Has the Lord as great delight in the burnt offerings and in the sacrifice as He has in obedience?"
That's what Jesus then tells these Pharisees and these Sadducees when they're talking about the Sabbath and they're talking about these different things.
And it's like, "Hey, I'm going to do this." "Hey, don't you understand what He desires? Obedience more than sacrifices."
And God may be telling you to do one thing. And He told someone else to do something different, which is why we're going to do it.
We need to seek God because what God might be telling me to do is different than what God told you to do.
What God told me to fast might be different than what He told you to fast. What He told me to stop doing because it was a god to me or an idol to me might be different for you.
Practical, practical. I love practical stuff. Maybe God told you, "Stop watching football."
And you get to church and God told me, "Stop watching football." And you start telling all the people, "Hey, stop watching football. God told me, stop watching football."
Maybe because you were the type of person that when football games started on Thursday night until they were done on Sunday night or Monday night, that's all you did. Sat on the couch and watched football. You didn't talk to your spouse. You didn't talk to your kids. You did nothing.
And God said, "That idol in your life, football, let it go." But that's not an idol for me.
So if I want to sit down and watch a game for a few minutes, that's not sinful. That's what I'm talking about in the sense of when it's not something sinful.
We're all supposed to obey God in stopping the sinful things. But sometimes as we're pursuing God, God puts things in our heart and He's like, "Hey, let go of that because I want obedience."
And the question is then do we choose to obey it, right? So I wrote this thought that I'd love for you to write down.
God desires. Our obedience. Better said, you could even say God requires our obedience. He requires it.
Look what the verse continues to say. Oh, I'm not. Again, verse 22. "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams."
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. So we're going to pause there for a second.
Some people think, "Oh, I've never been involved in witchcraft. I've never involved in Santeria and Changbo and all these different. I was never involved in any of that."
But because what you're saying is that rebellion to God is as witchcraft.
It continues to say stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry. Why? You are putting in front and at the forefront your submitting to that which God said no.
It became. And what God requires of us is obedience in every area.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you. This is where Saul now is stripped of the anointing as king.
Church, I wrote this thought down. I'd love for you to jot it down. Disobedience to God creates a break in the chain.
Disobedience to God creates a break in the chain. I'm not sure which one of my girls this happened to the other day because it happens multiple times, right?
It comes and it's like, "Dad, my bracelet broke." And I grab the bracelet and I look at it. And what happened? One of the links slightly opened.
It wasn't a big open. It didn't rupture. Just one of the links slightly opened and it caused the next link to pop out.
And so I look at it and I get there. And I take my glasses off to look closely. Those over 40 got that.
And I tighten it to close it again. And so even though disobedience can break the chain, it opens. It opens the link.
The minute you begin to obey God in that, it closes it again.
Watch. Look at the tale of these two kings. Saul lost the kingdom for offering sacrifice to God. A good thing, if you would.
What God desired of sacrifice was home instead of in the battlefield, looked outside and saw Bathsheba across, I don't know how the house, whatever it was, sees Bathsheba.
She tells him, "I'm pregnant." Her husband, Uriah, he was where David was supposed to be. He was in the battlefield.
So David then concocts a plan. "Bring me Uriah." Uriah comes back from war. "Give you a day off. Go home, be with your wife."
But Uriah, because of his integrity and what he was supposed to be, he said no. So he slept in the footsteps, in the steps of the palace.
Somebody tells him, "Hey, Uriah didn't go home." Just brings Uriah to dinner. He liquors him up. He has more integrity.
"I'm supposed to be in war with my kid." I don't know, like he's drunk and stays and doesn't go.
And David gets his letterhead and he writes a memo from the desk of the king: "Put Uriah in the front line of the most vicious battle and then retreat."
So that he's killed. Going back, by the way, Uriah is in the list of mighty men of David. He was like one of the Navy SEAL type guys.
Like he was a battle guy. You read in the story of David who were his people that fought. Uriah is mentioned in there as one of his fighters.
Uriah gets back to the thing and goes to his CO and gives him the letter. CO reads it and the next day puts Uriah in the front lines.
They lose that battle and they come and they tell the CO, "We lost the battle. We've got to tell David because he's back home where he wasn't supposed to be, but we've got to tell him."
But he's going to be furious. So the king, I'm sorry, the CO, he writes a letter or he sends the messenger and he says, "When you go and you tell him we lost the battle and you see him starting to get angry, let him know his servant Uriah is dead."
So they come and they tell David, "David, we had a fierce battle and we lost. We lost x amount of soldiers."
And David's probably, I don't know if he's getting red-faced. I don't know if he's getting sweaty. I don't know what's happening, right?
But he's getting angry. And then he says, "But your servant Uriah is one of the casualties." And David says, "We win some, we lose some."
Watch. Adulterer. Got somebody drunk and sent him to his murder, to his death.
But the Bible says that he is a man after God's own heart.
Who what he did was offer sacrifice at the very moment that he thought was the seventh day because the priest hadn't showed up, loses the kingdom.
Doesn't make sense in the natural, see? But the difference is the response to the rebuke or confrontation from the prophet Samuel confronts Saul.
And Saul says, "A man in your kingdom who had access to a huge cattle field, all amounts of cattle, of sheep and all kinds of things. And there's another guy in your kingdom. He had one little ewe lamb, E-W-E, ewe, female lamb."
David, he gets angry. He says, "Who is this man that I may..." and he's getting it out of his mouth.
And Nathan stands up with boldness. David's response wasn't, "I did it." Because David's response was, "God, do not remove your spirit from me."
His response was Psalm 51: "Create in me a clean heart, God. Do not remove your spirit from me."
And because his response was, "Remove your spirit from me," rid me of this already in time and in two, David says, and Paul says, "You know, it was just a... not an evil spirit, but a leper."
You know, you saw him very well, David. Yes, here we go. The ate, you know, he was very confident that he knew that David was moving a little bit, right?
Not a lot of spit. I am excusing my mess up. That's what Saul tried.
Man after God's own heart because when he repented and began to obey, it closed the chain.
It closed the link. Church, if you're taking notes, write this down. Obedience to God shows trust in God.
It shows trust in God. Can we be authentic for a moment? Everybody in here, you vow we're going to be authentic for a moment, okay?
Have you ever been told the same exact thing by two different people? Have you ever been told the same exact thing by two different people?
Have you ever been told the same exact thing by two different people, but you believed one of them and not the other?
Come on, come on, let's be honest. Has anybody ever, two people, maybe three people, they told you the same exact thing, and you chose, "Oh, I believe this guy."
Why do you believe him saying it and not this guy saying it? Well, because I trust him, because I have a relationship with this one.
When we trust God, Proverbs chapter three, "Trust the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him. He will make your path straight. He will direct your path."
When you are trusting God, you submit to what He says.
Quickly and rapidly, you obey. Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse 26. Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse number 26.
It is hot in this place. I see you all cold. I see people shivering in here. I am sweating profusely.
Verse 26, Deuteronomy chapter 11: "I set before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing, if you obey the commandment of the Lord your God, which I command you today. The curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today to go after other gods which you have not known."
Now it shall be when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
Are they not on the other side of the Jordan toward the setting sun in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal beside the terebinth trees of Moreh?
For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you and you will possess it and dwell in it and you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I have given you, which I set before you today.
There's a blessing and a curse, it said. And obedience releases blessing.
Obedience releases blessing. Now let's talk about, let's break that down for a second.
I'm not saying that if you're going through a rough moment right now or a trial or a tribulation, it is because you are disobedient. Because life happens.
Maybe you're driving on the road and you get in a car and you're like, "Oh, we got rear-ended."
"Oh, was I disobedient? Is that why this is happening to me?" That's not what I'm saying there. Understand me clearly.
Because Jesus said, "In this world you're gonna have tribulation, have peace. I've overcome the world."
But what God is clearly telling us is that there are blessings that happen when you obey Him. Unmerited favor. Unmerited grace. That happens when you obey Him.
When you choose to obey God regardless of everything else. I'm reminded of Joseph.
And if you're doing the Bible reading in a year that we do as a church, we read about Joseph last week. Not Joseph that married Mary. Sorry.
My kids have been watching Journey to Bethlehem a lot. So as soon as I said that, the song, "Mary, you're getting married," came to my head.
If you've never seen Journey to Bethlehem, it's a musical. I think it's on Amazon. It's cute.
Anyways, it's not complete. It's completely scriptural. Just letting you know. They have creative license.
For real. I had somebody come time and time and tell me, they watched episode one of The Chosen and it has the miraculous catch.
And in the series, they show that the miraculous catch, Peter used it to pay off his debt that he has in taxes that Matthew had told him, "If you don't pay, you're going to jail."
So somebody got to church when they said, "Pastor, I didn't know that when Jesus did that, Peter was able to sell the fish and pay off his debt."
I hadn't watched it yet. So I looked at him kind of funny. I was like, "What?"
He's like, "Yeah, I was watching." I was like, "Bro, that was creative license. Could it have happened? Maybe. I don't know. But that's not what the Bible says."
Anyways, getting back to the preaching.
Because he was dad's favorite. And then Joseph has a dream. That all of his brothers, he sees these stars and they bow down and he sees this other thing and they bow down.
He tells his brothers and now they hate him more. So one day, Joseph's dad sends Joseph to spy on his brothers.
So Joseph goes to find them and his brother's like, "Oh, here comes the dreamer. No lo recito. I can't stand them," right?
And they get Joseph and they throw him in a pit. And they say, "We're going to kill him."
Then somebody, one of the brothers who was an entrepreneur, he said, "Let's not kill him. Let's sell him."
Entrepreneurship is in the Bible. And so he gets, he sees the Midianites, the Ishmaelites, they're coming down and they say, "Hey, do you guys want a slave?"
And they pull Joseph out and they sell him. And he's taken away to Egypt and the Ishmaelites, now again, they're merchants. They're entrepreneurs as well.
They sell Joseph. I'm assuming they bought him at a price and they sold him for a higher price to Potiphar.
And Joseph begins to find favor in front of Potiphar. And he finds favor in front of Potiphar and Potiphar makes him in charge of his whole house.
Then Potiphar's wife looks at Joseph and says, "Ooh, he's good looking." And she starts to try to woo Joseph.
Joseph, a little flirt, a little this, a little that, Joseph looks at her and says, "You're my master's wife. I lead everything in this house. The only thing I can't touch is you."
But he doesn't say that's the only reason. He says, "If I do this, it would be sin against my God."
Joseph, who was in a foreign land with nobody around to come, "I'm going to keep him accountable," chose, "I'm going to obey God."
And so he says no. Then she falsely accuses him of trying to sleep with her.
And they get Joseph and they falsely accuse him and imprison him. They put him in jail for a crime he didn't commit.
And they put him in jail. People think that only happens in today's society. It's been happening since scripture.
But what did Joseph choose to do? I'm still going to worship God. I don't know why I'm here. I am far away from my land. I don't even speak the language. I had to learn the language, right?
But he finds favor in front of the jailer. So the jailer puts Joseph in charge of the prison.
You know why there's blessing coming to Joseph? Because he's obeying God, keeping integrity and obedience to God.
Then two people have a dream. You know the story, maybe. They have a dream, and they come to him and they give him the dream, and he interprets the dream.
To the baker, he says, "Bro, your dream means that they're going to hang you in three days."
And to the cupbearer, he says, "You're going to be restored in three days. Don't forget about me."
And you know, of course, even if you've never read the story, you know what's going to happen. The dude forgot about him. He stays in prison.
The Bible says two more years. Then Pharaoh has this dream and can't find anybody to interpret it.
And at that point, the cupbearer goes, "Ah, there's a guy. I got a guy. He's in..."
And he interpreted my dream. So they call him, and he interprets the dream.
And then God gives him the wisdom how to get Egypt through a famine that was coming in seven years.
God continues promoting him because of God and his obedience. You fast forward, okay?
We're like at year nine after Joseph has been leading Egypt. He was 17 years old when he got sold.
And now at 30 years old, 13 years later. So in 13 years, he was in Potiphar's house.
Then he was in the prison for several years. And now he's been commander for Pharaoh for nine.
Seven of good and two of famine. And his brothers show up.
And exactly what God had showed him in a dream happened. They all bowed down to him.
And it goes through the story, right? He gets his brother. He gives him the food. All this different stuff, right?
Let's fast forward a time. They go back. He tells them, "You got to bring me your son, Benjamin."
All these different things, back and forth. We get to the end. Now this is victory time.
Now they've been living in Egypt as one family again for years and years. Because when Jacob shows up, when they bring Jacob, he's 100 years old or so.
So a little bit over 100. And he dies like at 130. So he's been living there now for decades.
Jacob, when he dies, he says, "I hadn't seen Joseph. And now I even got to see. I thought I would never see him again. I got to hold his kids on my lap."
So years and years and years and years pass. Genesis chapter 50. Jacob dies.
They mourn him in Egypt for 70 days. They go take him to bury him in his homeland that Abraham had purchased in the land of Canaan.
Which, by the way, foreshadowing. Abraham bought. In the land of Canaan where God had told him, "I'm going to give you this."
So he's buried in the place that God was promising. Faith, right? It's crazy. Amazing.
On the way back, his brothers say, "Dad's gone. Now he's probably going to exact revenge on us."
So they concoct another plan. And they go to Joseph. And they say, "Joseph, before dad died, last living will and testament, right? Like he told me. He told us to tell you to have mercy on us."
Joseph actually begins to cry. And he says, "Guys, you meant it for evil. But God, He meant it for good. To save our posterity. To save our family."
It was 70 of them that showed up in Egypt. And it was over a million that exited 400 years later.
And they were saved because of a guy that chose to be obedient at 18, 19 years old. When his master's wife said, "Sleep with me."
"I'm going to obey you, God, over this." And it brought forth blessing.
Obedience brings blessing. Again, this doesn't mean that if something bad happened, it's because of disobedience.
It's because of disobedience. Can it be? Absolutely. But it's not always the case.
But I do have this question. What's the last thing that God told us to do? And have we obeyed to do it yet?
I remember years ago when Patty and I were youth pastors. We had somebody come to me. It was a young lady.
And she looks at Patty. And she says, "I'm praying about this decision. I got this. I don't know what to do. But I feel from God that I need to fast this amount of time."
And she gave Patty a detailed thing. She had even like written it out, I believe.
And then months passed by. And she asked to meet again. And she's still in the same exact place.
And then remember, the question was this: "You said you heard God tell you to do this. Have you done it yet?"
She said, "No." I was like, "You can't ask God to show you if you haven't done the last thing He asked you to do."
Watch, watch. I tell my kids, "Go clean your room." They come back an hour later, whatever.
It's like, "Dad, can we go play outside?" "Did you finish cleaning your room?"
You can't do the next thing until you finish the first thing. And some of us, we're living lives like, "I don't understand why I can't hear God. I don't understand why I can't see God's purpose in my life. I don't understand why this is happening."
And this is what I felt from God. Is there an open link? Because I asked you to do something that you have yet to do.
But here's the good thing. Saul. David. If you respond to that by saying, "But God," you're going to stay in the very same place you are.
Perhaps even worse. If you respond by saying, "I did not mess up. You asked me to do this and I didn't."
"God, I repent." And I go work and obey. Closes the link. Blessings flow.
You don't deserve it. And you see God's blessings in all kinds of different things.
I was sharing a testimony with my kids the other day. We're going on vacation later this summer.
And we had bought the airplane tickets on our miles. And if you've ever gotten airplane tickets on miles, you know, like the miles go up in price.
All kinds of different stuff, right? So there's a window where we can go on our trip.
And so I got the best flight for the miles that I could afford, right? That I had mileage for.
But it wasn't a good flight. It was a flight that had multiple stops.
And it was a flight that was getting me to the place that we're going to like at 8:30 at night.
And from where we're landing to where we're driving to, it's over an hour in dark. It's like complete darkness, right?
So we're like, I'm like, "Man, I wouldn't want to do that drive at night."
So I called this week. I called American Airlines. Like, "Hey, guys, is there anything you can do?"
They're like, "I'm sorry, Mr. Perez. You bought the airfare on miles. The only thing you can do is you can cancel your flight. You get your miles back. And you book it again."
Now, again, if you've ever gotten reward flights, usually the closer you get to the date, the more miles it costs.
I'm like, "Well, that's not going to work." Right? God will give me strength.
Then the guy says, "Oh, yeah. I see here that your flight has changed a bunch."
I was like, "I haven't done any changes." He's like, "No, I know. I see. We've changed this. We've changed that. Well, you know what, Mr. Perez? Because we initiated the change, I can, as a one-time courtesy, exchange your flight at no cost to you."
So what time do you want to arrive at your destination? The latest I want to get there is 4 o'clock, 4:30.
Because it's about an hour drive. And that way, at least I can do it in daytime.
He says, "Well, I've got a flight that can get you from here to there. And you land at 12:15. And you can leave Miami at this time."
I was like, "All right. So what's the window of connecting flight?" It was 45 minutes.
I was like, "That's tight. I've got three kids running from one gate to the other."
He's like, "Well, if you leave at this flight, you can do this." Change my flight.
Now we leave a little earlier than we were going to. But we arrive at our destination eight hours. Eight hours earlier.
I don't deserve that. We need to start looking at the blessings in our life as results of obedience to even little things that God has you do.
What did God ask you to? What did God ask you to give up? What did God ask you to let go of?
Again, the idol in your life might be different than the idol in my life. But here is the reality: if God said no, then no.
And we learn His voice and we obey. We learn His voice and we obey. We learn His voice and we obey.
We were at the beach last summer and the girls were playing in the water and Patty and I were sitting on the chairs, right, just watching them.
And all of a sudden from a distance, I saw a fin. And then I didn't see a fin. I don't know, was it a dolphin? Was it a shark? I don't know what it was.
I had anything. So I immediately, all three of them got up. They didn't stop to say, "But why? We're having fun five more minutes."
They heard in my voice, "This is not a drill."
And some of us, we've heard God's voice saying, "Stop this." But we say, "Five... can you show me the whole way?"
No, that's not how obedience and faith works. Because it takes faith to obey too.
See, Abraham, when he had... Abraham was comfortable when he lived in his father's house. He had... he was married. He had animals. He just didn't have kids.
But he had everything else. And God said, "Get up, leave it all behind and go to the place I'm going to show you."
Didn't give him the map. Didn't give him the place. But as Abraham obeyed, he got up and he started walking.
God showed him the place. Here we are. Everything else that comes into line all the way to today.
We need to be quick to obey. Quick to obey. Quick to obey. Like children, right?
Like children. Jesus said, "Let the children come to me. Theirs is the kingdom."
Have you seen the faith of children? Come on, can I talk to the grown adults in here sometimes?
And how our kids' faith smacks us to obey God. I had to meet twice this weekend, not once but twice.
Twice. Friday night we had a phenomenal night of prayer and worship. I mean amazing time in the presence of God.
My mom had eye surgery this week and she needed her nighttime drop. And so I've been going to give her drops, whatever.
So we leave here and Alexandra gets in the truck with me. I was like, "We're gonna go to grandma's house. We're gonna put the drops," right?
And so we're driving down 137th Avenue. We are approaching sunset and there is a horrible accident. Pickup truck flipped upside down.
No police yet. No ambulance yet. Fire truck had just got in there. Firefighters jumping out of the car with a saw in his hand.
Alexandra, look at this wreck. I pull out my phone, take a picture to show Patty. You know what she did?
"Father, right now in the name of Jesus, I pray for those people in that car, Lord, that nobody be injured, that nobody lose their life."
It's as if she had gotten a spiritual baseball bat and hit me. Because that would mean when I was her age, um, don't get me wrong, you're not going to get me wrong.
You're not going to kill you at my age. You're not going to, okay? I'd rather sleep well.
I'd rather have an accident if you have to listen. If you guys don't think exactly how many of you people are surprised because I'm a pastor.
My father sat until four months old and I then I get you confided in Jesus Park in law school and we're in a local shine park on the perimeter in there.
You can pop Friedrich, but you need to come to law school to reach out much more toosium if you're walking dog.
You need to go see a nice virtual compartiment in the middle of the road.
All my kids fasted something different, but she was fasting a partial fast.
And she had a tournament yesterday. So I had told her earlier in the week, "Listen, you have a tournament on Saturday, so you got to pray and see what the Lord tells you to adjust with your fast or this, that, or the other."
And you know what she said to me? "But if God told me to fast this and I'm obeying Him, won't He give me the strength for the game?"
Guys, I'm being authentic and honest with you. It's hard to obey sometimes.
And sometimes we allow the stuff that we've gone through to jade our hearts and we stop losing some of that intimacy and some of the purity and some of the things to just simply obey His voice.
And when we obey, I honor you guys for doing this, but when blessings come.
Samantha doesn't stay behind. I just remembered right now. She fasted something and Patty went to serve something for her.
And she said, "Mom, doesn't that have this that I'm fasting?" I forgot.
But that's where obedience as a parent, you train your child in the way. But again, man, this Holy Spirit is tying it all together.
Release the regret from years ago, because if you repent and obey today, it closes the chain.
I know. Acts chapter five, verse nine, if you can just throw it up real quick.
Acts 5:9, 5:29. Peter and the other apostles answer and say, "We ought to obey God rather than men."
Church, when we're talking obedience, we got to understand this. We got to obey God regardless of what the world says.
Regardless of what the world says, it doesn't matter what the world says.
It's why we make statements and say things like, "You can't legislate morality."
Right? I celebrate the fact that the Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade.
Through Planned Parenthood, over a thousand babies are murdered through abortion every day in this country.
And I choose to pray for whoever is in office. We pray right now for President Trump. He's who is in office.
And we pray, "God, that you protect him and we pray, God, that he would encounter you to the fullest extent of encountering you and that he would stand for you in Jesus' name."
And if there's areas of his life that he hasn't surrendered, that he would surrender them to you.
And if he doesn't fully know you, that he would know you. We pray for him.
But if in a few years there's a different person and now they say abortion on demand around everywhere, watch, I still believe what the Bible says that it's murder.
You can't legislate morality. We obey God regardless of what the world says.
The world may say this, but if God said this, right? As far as I know, there is no law in this country against getting drunk.
There's laws against drunk driving. But you know what the Bible says? Don't get drunk.
So even though it's not illegal, I'm going to choose to obey God. And that's the obedience that God is requiring of us.
Obey me regardless of what anybody says, regardless of what the world says.
And so church, as the worship team comes to the altar, I know I went long, but the Holy Spirit is here.
Listen, let's be quick to obey. Let's be quick to obey.
Can you throw 1 Samuel back up, the verse, 1 Samuel verse 20?
Let's be quick to obey. Let's be quick to obey. Let's be quick to obey.
Let's be quick to obey. 1 Samuel 15:22: "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices? Does He delight more if you Sabbath? Does He delight more if you fast than if you obey?"
See, all these things bring delight to God better than sacrifice.
And so today, perhaps you're in a place and you're like, "Man, I have messed up. I disobeyed what God told me to do."
Let's be like David. Let's repent, get right. You know, you never hear a story of David committing adultery again.
Not just repent. Let's repent and say, "I will begin to obey God."
What's the last thing you told me to do? And as well, if you're there at home, don't turn it off yet. Stay, stay in this anointing, in this presence that's even going right through.
Equal to witchcraft, God. Father, today I repent.
And Lord, even as we've been fasting and I've heard your voice, I declare I don't want to just hear it. I will heed your voice.
on Jan 26, 2025
