You might feel the pull to go deeper, but comfort often keeps you from answering the call. Today is the moment to stop waiting for a sign and simply say yes to the Spirit's leading. Take that step of obedience now, knowing God is ready to meet you where you stand.
So I have the joy and honor of getting to introduce someone to you. How many of know in the church, as a part of the church, if we're the thumb, you know, there are people that we don't get to talk with all the time every day that might be the knee or the foot or, you know, something. And every now and then, we get to connect with them. But we're connected not by blood, by spirit. The same Holy Spirit that is in you is in the believers of Jesus, followers of him all around the world.
And spirit is thicker than blood. You meet a believer that's all in "running the race" that you're running from Thailand, or from Africa, from Europe, never taught with them before, sit down for lunch with them, and you'll feel more connected with them because they're "family in Christ" and part of the same body you're a part of. The thumb's more connected to the foot than some other person. You'll feel more connected with them than you do some of your own blood family that's not following Jesus. Because spirit is thicker than blood.
Amen? So with that being said, we have a family member, a part of the body here with us. He is a *missionary* in Zambia. A pioneer like hardcore, lay his life down, not love his life on to death, go into the bush of Zambia with nothing and no 1 and and just the king of kings and lord of lords living in him. And his commission to build a base and a mission and a ministry and change the nation.
And he's done it and doing it. And people are being transformed, healed, and delivered. His wife was here. You guys remember the barefoot barefoot lady that's just like super free and super anointed? That's his wife.
So Brad, will you come up, brother? Would you guys give a big old hand clap? Honor. Yes. You can yeah, go ahead.
Go around. We're honoring the Jesus in him. What Jesus has done in a part of the body of Christ that matters. Thank you, Jesus, for this mighty man of God. Did you turn on your belt pack?
I think I did. No. You did not. I got you, brother.
Alright.
Test it out. Testing. Testing.
Cool. Thank you. Thank you guys so much. You can please please please have a seat. I feel so humbled by that.
It's so good to be with you this morning. I can't wait to tell Kelly that pastor David referenced her as the barefoot lady. That's like my favorite thing ever. Man, it's so good to be here this morning. We just drove this morning from Jacksonville, Florida.
We were just finishing up a missions conference that our organization does every year, and it was 3 days from 8AM until 11PM, just basically constant, only breaking to eat, and just so filling and so uplifting, and it's so nice to come to a church immediately after that, that feels like I never left. And so, just wanna say, thank you so much Real Church for for passionately worshipping the Lord. It's it's a rare thing to find, and so Pastor David, you guys are doing an awesome thing here. As he was saying, my name is Bradley. I serve as a missionary with Obadiah Missions in Zambia, Africa currently.
I have a guest as well that I would like to introduce to you. I have a really good friend of mine, who I've known for about 8 years now. He was 1 of the first people I met when I arrived in our location in Zambia. His name is Given Mashiku, if we can give him a round of applause. You know, God brings people into your life, and I'm sure many of us have similar testimonies of this, that you you you did nothing to earn that, you did nothing to like, there was no genius of your own that found this person, it's not like you had some great recruiting tactics that like found a great person, they just got plopped in your lap, and that's what given is to us in our location.
He's been such a godsend to us, and we we joke at our team, we say he has a Daniel spirit, because it feels like everything that he does goes well. And so, we give him as much as we can, because we want everything to go well. So, give him Feel free, man. Greet the people. Share what's on your heart.
Just, yeah. Say hello.
I would like to say, hey guys. Hey. Yeah. Thank you so much to have this opportunity. I'm very very excited.
You know, it's not easy. It's not easy. Like, I would like to share just some testimony like I'm not educated, I'm from a poor family from the village as well. I thank God, what God has did is a lot to me like this is my leader. When we started like doing our ministry, we were just 4 of us like discipling us.
From there, we started our ministry which the ministry has grown like the numbers every time, every week we are having people giving their lives to Jesus. We are able to go in the villages like to share the gospel, the good news to people who are still in darkness and looking on that as I've said that I'm not educated, having the opportunity me to be here in the state, I thank God, it's the plan of God himself. I was telling Vlad to say that when I have this passport, the "door is open" for me. Even my plans have changed like April I will be in Angola to share the gospel. Doesn't mean that this passport is just for America, no, they open this door for me to go and share the gospel in other countries, in other nations.
So God is good all the time. I would like to encourage the church to say that this 2026 please let us save for Jesus. Let us have vision for Jesus. Those are the words that I would like to share to the church. Thank you so much.
Amen. Thank you. Appreciate your name. Love you. Love you.
Love you. Beautiful. Put this over here. It is such a privilege to be able to share with you guys this morning. I know, you know, we're used to Africa time.
So, Africa time and Overland time. So, we're used to very long meetings, so I know we're on a little bit of a time schedule today, and I'm so honored to be able to share my heart with you this morning. It's probably a little bit of a different flow, I don't have a bunch of notes up for you guys to share. I will be sharing some scripture and some stuff from my heart. I want to briefly just give you a little bit of a picture of who I am, who my wife is, what we've kind of done, not because I really don't want this to be a time to share about our ministry, I'm just trying to set the precedent, so you have some reference point for me as a human, as I share my heart with you.
And so, I don't come from a church background, I don't come from a pastor's home, I grew up, I was actually an atheist for like several years of my life, coming out of my teens into my early twenties. And, I lived crazy and wild, and did a lot of things I shouldn't have done, and by the grace of God, he reached into my situation and pulled me out. And and, it I wish I could say, you know, it was like from that moment, I never made another mistake, and I can't I can't honestly sit here and say it to you today. But, what he did do is he started me on this radical journey of pursuing him. And and I 15 years into this journey or so, and man, I'm I'm as energized and excited about growing in Jesus and learning more about him than I ever have been before.
And, you know, I get asked a lot being a missionary, how did you get called to Africa? Like like, tell me about that call that you got. And, for me, honestly, I I don't really understand the question on on on several levels. 1, I just read in his word, it said go. So, it said it, so then I did it.
That was all. That was my call. But then but then the specific question really people are asking is why Zambia. Right? Because you can go to some of the places you mentioned locally around Clearwater.
Like, going doesn't mean you got to go to Africa. Right? I actually love the understanding of that scripture not being go, but as you go. Right. Because it's actually about just being someone.
You know, we're called human beings, not human doings. You're called to be someone, not do something. But, when you are who you are meant to be, and you're living out your purpose, you will do things. And, that's the whole point. It says, seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added unto you.
If you know who you are, and you operate according to the purpose that God has put in your life, and that's really settled, and it's a word that we use in a conference we just left is a vital truth for you. It's a truth that no matter what happens, you'll go back to it, then things will happen around you. It'll be the natural outcome. And so, reason I ended up in Zambia was simply because a door opened and a relationship was established that took me to Zambia. That's literally it.
I didn't get this I didn't wake up in a dream, and the Lord had like shown me a picture of Zambia, and given his face was, you know, it wasn't like this thing where it was like I had to go. It was literally just he said go, a door opened, I went. And, I just want to make I want to make serving God very practical. Very very just disciplined and principled, yes Lord. Not always this super spiritual ethereal experience where we're we're, you know, you're you're on the floor weeping and and the nations are being opened before you.
It doesn't have to be that. It's simply just, here I am Lord. Send me. And so, maybe you're sitting here going like, okay, I want that. You just had someone open a door for you.
Walk out, go out that door. That's the first door you got to go down. Hallelujah. So, so so, 2017, 2016, sorry, I I get I get a chance to go to Africa with Overland Missions, a ministry based out of Cocoa Beach here in The US. And, they invited me to do a 3 month training program, which I did.
And, for me, the training program was more so just, are these safe people? And, if they're safe people, I'm in. And, got there and realized, Pastor David obviously knows leadership in our organization very well. And they're top tier, amazing, just humble, radical servants of the Lord, and so it was an easy yes for me. And so, I joined in with Overland, and my first year in the field, I was serving under the director of operations, kind of like an assistant role, there wasn't really a title for it, I was just kind of running around with the guy.
And in that process, the door into this area opened up, where we had a miraculous interaction with a senior chief, and he invited us to their area to come and figure out whether or not the Lord was calling us there. And so, in 2017, we went on a trip to figure out whether or not God was calling us to that location, and we very much strongly felt in our spirit that God was calling us there. The funny part is, is when we felt like God was calling there, it wasn't like I was going, yes, I'm going there. I was sitting with the leadership team going like, yeah, Overland should be there. Who's gonna go?
You know? And then then Phil and and Jake sit me down and they go, hey, like, what what do you think, man? Like, do you feel like this is something that you could step into? And I said, yeah. Let me pray about it.
And it wasn't like a, yeah, let me pray about it. It was like a, let me just make sure there's no no's. That's For me, I don't need to hear a clear do this, I just have to not hear no. As long as I don't hear no, I'm going. You know, if he says no, I won't go, but if he doesn't say no, I'm going.
And so, if he wants to correct me later, he could do that, but I'm just I'm not waiting to like hear this perfect crystal clear description of what I'm supposed to do. I'm just gonna go unless he says don't go. And and to be very clear, I'll I'll I'll I my heart is so enamored by the American church because it is such, it is so positioned as a power player in the kingdom around the world. But, at the same time, it breaks because we miss it so many times. And, I I I want the the the American church to understand that you may not be a missionary to Africa, but you are called to "lay everything down".
And, what I can tell you 15 years into my faith journey, and about 8 years into my missionary journey, what pastor David shared during worship of when you give, can never out give God. I have found that to be true, day in and day out. And, that doesn't mean it's been easy. I don't want I don't want you guys to be misunderstood that it was easy. When we launched to this location in 2018, after doing that trip in 2017, we launched to virgin land.
Nothing there, no running water, no electricity, no roads cut. I mean, obviously, there were roads cut for the village, but like the land that we had been given, it was just raw land. Me and my wife are newly married, I think we were only 6 or 8 months married at this point, and we launch out there, and we are For the first almost 2 years, we are bathing in a bucket, using a hole in the ground as a toilet, fetching water from a river, and cooking every single meal over an open fire. That is not easy. I will just tell you, my wife did that 6 months pregnant.
She's an absolute psycho in the best way possible. And, that's why I love that he said she's the barefoot lady, this is what she's referred to. I I share that to say that when I say that God you can never out give God, what I don't mean is that there won't be moments of challenge or struggle because of the sacrifice that you're making for Jesus. What I'm saying is that, if you are willing to look for his supply, you'll find it over and abundantly more than you could ever think or imagine.
That's right.
The bible says that anyone who leaves house, or father, or mother, or child, for my sake, will will inherit in this life. Not so many people think when we talk about inheriting from the Lord, when we when we sacrifice and lay down, we think it's inheriting only in eternity. That is in that scripture. It says, who will in this life and in the age to come, eternal life. But, says, you will you will reap more.
So, for me, before I went to Africa, and I'm I'm sharing this some of this stuff as a way to let you in on who we are, but then also, I hope it's an encouragement and you can latch on to parts of these stories to walk in your own context. I left my family, I left everything I had behind. And then, I'll tell you, my family in Africa is so much bigger. My family in overland. Over Oh, my gosh.
I know it sounds cultish to be so bragging about your organization. I love my organization that I'm in. I mean, they are just great people. They're not all so perfectly amazing, but man, the collective unit is like, I would have never had that had I not said yes and laid everything else down. You will never receive less from the Lord.
Our entire life is is we are gonna experience this life based on the framework of our thinking. So, how you think your life will play out to be because you are interpreting everything that happens through how you understand the world. So, if how you understand the world is Jesus is enough for me, he died for me, he made me new, he will never leave me nor forsake me, he has promised me good things. Then, when the storm hits, you rest there. You rest right there.
But, if that's not your worldview, if that's just something you're trying to attach to your worldview, if your worldview is, yeah, maybe. Yeah, I say I pray the prayer, I sing the songs in church, but then when when, you know, the sanitized When crap hits the fan, something else comes out, we got to really we really got to be a people of repentance and go back and say, do I really have that worldview, or am I just playing patty cake right now? Like, am I really believing the gospel? Am I really understanding that *Jesus* died for me? He was brutally murdered for me.
Like, is that really something we're holding onto, or is it just like this cute little placard we're talking about? Like, he was brutally murdered for us so we could live a new life. That's gotta mean something. And, I wanna challenge us as a church, and I I was driving over here from conference, and knowing it's pastor David's first, I felt a lot more freedom. I'll be honest with you guys.
So, I hope that blesses you, and if you you know, if anything I say offends you, blame him. But, in in in a conference of missionaries, we we can we can talk differently about sacrifice and surrender because you're in a group of people who have really done it, like really, really done it. And, that's not to say that you haven't done it. I'm sure many of you have really, really done it. But, it's a little bit different, and sometimes you can't share the same things in a church setting because people just aren't ready to hear it.
They're still trying to get through some really basic things, which is if that's where you are, I want you to understand, I'm not I'm not trying to belittle that. That's a very natural place to be, and the Lord is gonna bring you through that so radically. And, if that's where you are, it's okay. Plug in, get connected to pastor, get connected to other leaders in the church. They will help you and lead you through scripture to get past the stuff that you're going through, so you could walk in a new place.
But, we we have to be a people who understand that this is a real thing we're talking about. This isn't just playing church. This is a God who came in the flesh so that we could have new life. It was a God who said, he who knew no sin became sin, so that we could become the righteousness of God. We I had this thought the other day, and it was so touched my heart, and and I hadn't thought this specific thing in my whole 15 years of faith.
You know, we talk about how God came, Jesus came to die for the sins of the world, and and for me, and maybe this is you, it's always like lumped into like the sins of the world. So, we think about how bad Jesus' crucifixion and the beatings he had to suffer and all the pain and everything he went through to accomplish the work that he was called to was because the sins were so many. They're so it's a whole world. He died for the whole world. And, God just gave me this 1 revelation.
He just said, Brad, if if you only sinned 1 time, and it was only your sin in the whole world, *Jesus* would have had have gone through the same exact thing. So we got to get out of this place of thinking that Jesus went through what he went through for everyone. You got to understand that if everyone wasn't there and it was just you, he would have went through the same thing. It has to become personal to you. He is making a way for you.
He does not want you to live your old life. He wants you to live a new life full of the spirit. We're we're in worship this more this morning, and pastor David was sharing about, you know, the posture of worship. And, and I love I love being able to come and share perspective with people. Because, this is why it's fun to have the body because, like the toenails experience is inside of a shoe.
That's a much different experience than you know, the nose. You know what I mean? Like, it's a much different view of existence. If you ask the toenail to describe the world, he's gonna give you a much different description. You know what I mean?
We're we're we're talking about worship in this posture and like, if if if we're in a place where we don't want to take our hands out of our pockets because we don't like the style of worship, how are we gonna do anything for God? Do you think it was Noah's preference to build the ark? Do you think that was what he wanted? Do you think that was what he like? So, he's over here building an ark, and we can't pull our hands out of our pockets.
And listen, I'm not saying that as a condemnation or like a judgment. I'm saying it to bring clarity and perspective. So that we can then process our worldview and how we think to figure out whether God needs to adjust it. So we could walk in what he's calling us to. There's just got to be a perspective shift.
He was talking about giving, and we were talking about tithes and offerings, and I know in the church, there's whole different views on tithes, and whether you should or you shouldn't, and should you give to the church, and is it worth it, and all these different things. I always kind of just laugh and go, imagine, imagine, you entrusted someone with money, and then and then when it came time to give some of it back, they said, I'm only giving you 10%. I'm keeping the rest. Like we like we have this crazy perspective that it's our money. It's so wild to me, and I hope I'm not like offending anybody.
Like obviously, we work hard and we partner with the Lord to to put this body that he gave us to use and the mind that he gave us to use to be able to have the ability to earn funds. But, don't pretend like you did that separate from him. Like like, it's all his. And, I'm not saying that means just give it all every single time. What I'm saying is like, it should just reshape the way we process when it comes time to be generous with what we have.
Because we realize it was never ours in the first place. It was his and he gave it to us to entrust to us to be good stewards of what he entrusted us with. And, I I look at the Western church, I look at the American church, and I'm like, you guys have no idea. This man sitting here from Zambia understands how much impact you have the chance to make globally, and I want to know if you understand that. And, impact you can make globally is so many different ways.
I'm not saying it's giving. That's a part of it. That's 1 component of the global impact. And to be clear, when I say global impact, I'm not thinking past Clearwater. Clearwater is a part of the globe.
It is included in the global movement. Right? But the but the the global impact of the Western church is so large because of our ability to generate finance, because of how in we are we are a very, like, hardworking, for the most part, people. Like, as given, he is shocked by the development, by how much hard work, how much attention to detail we give. These are traits that when used for the kingdom of God can make a huge impact.
And, there are so many people all around the world who have no context for that kind of thinking. And, my argument is that that is kingdom thinking. That is a kingdom reality that the West has appropriated and is now trying to detach as if it wasn't from the Lord. That is all straight from heaven. It is so straight from heaven.
And, we need to give glory back to the 1 who gave it to us. That's right. My my heart for everybody in this room is that you don't just come to church on Sunday. And, if this is your first first time to a church on Sunday ever, or in a long time, or whatever, welcome. Yeah.
Welcome home. Welcome back. God is so happy that you're here. And, I want you to know that today is a day of visitation. You're not here by mistake.
You're not here by chance, whoever you are. You're here for a purpose. I It blows my mind. God says in his word, who is man that you are mindful of him? Like, you think about this for a second.
Science science gives so much glory to God, it's not even funny. Like, God made every single, like, neuron and particle and subatomic particle, and then he made these massive suns in the universe that are like 1000000 times bigger than our sun. And then, he knows us by name and sent his son to die for us. Like, the God who created all of that is like intentionally paying attention to your heart posture. This kind of stuff keeps me up at night, you guys.
This is wild thoughts. Like, these are just crazy things that God is calling us into to partake of. So that we could actually have something that is attractive to the world. That's why sin runs rampant, is because we're not showing people the the the full glory of the kingdom of God, which is represented in the fullness of Jesus Christ who came to die for us. Far be it for for someone to die for the ungodly.
And yet, Christ showed his love for us. That while we were still sinners. When we had no power or or any reason to show attraction to God, in that moment is when he said, I will meet you right here. I just I just want you guys to understand God sees you according to your potential. God sees you according to what you can do.
And the thing 1 of the things that is crushing the American church is that we assess ourselves according to our own abilities. If I were to say to you, hey, next Sunday, you're preaching. How many of you in that moment, just now when I said that, you had to think about that for half a second. How many of you were like, alright, I'm in? Probably not many.
There are definitely some of you. I know there are some of you for sure. But, a lot of you are like, nope. Why? Because in that moment, the first thing you went to was yourself.
The first thing you went to was, I don't know the Bible well enough. I haven't been a Christian long enough. I'm not a great speaker. I can't quote scripture like that guy. We we immediately look to ourselves for our supply to decide what we can do for the Lord.
Immediately. And then we wonder. This is what I'm talking about, guys, when we say our worldview shapes how we respond to everything. That's if that was your response, that's your worldview. And, there's no condemnation in Christ.
I'm not here to judge you, make you feel better, but I'm just saying, if that's your worldview, submit it to the Lord. You know what I mean? He'll give you a new thought. This is why the Bible says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your Wise. He wants to give us a new thought.
Let me just lay out, and I'm sure pastor David's laid this out plenty of times, so this probably won't be new for a lot of people. When you come to Jesus, and you give your life, you surrender your life to Him, there is something that happens supernaturally in the spirit in an instant. The Bible calls it the new creation. Jesus referred to it as being born again. He came to Nicodemus, and Nicodemus, actually, Nicodemus came to him.
And, but, he told Nicodemus, you no 1 can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. *2 Corinthians-5* says that, Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old has passed away, and behold, the new has come. In in an instant, that happens in the spirit. In an instant.
In an instant, you are perfectly everything you need for life and godliness. Because the Bible says the spirit of God comes to live on the inside of you. That Jesus himself, the spirit the same spirit that rose Christ from the dead now lives inside of you. That, you can't change. That, you can't add to.
You can't adjust it, modify it, improve it. It is perfectly done to the fullness, the moment you believe. But now, we have the rest of our life to figure out how to get our flesh, which is governed by our mind, to come into alignment with what God did in the spirit. And so that's the whole process of what we call sanctification. And this is why so many Christians get into these conversations and these languages around how we understand that process.
I hate it when I hear Christians say, well, we're all sinners, brother, saved by grace. Speak for yourself. I'm not saying I don't have the capacity to sin, and I'm not saying since the day I believed I haven't sinned. What I'm saying is, that's not who I am anymore. I am not a sinner saved by grace.
I am a son called by the most high, who happens to sometimes forget his identity and walk in things he shouldn't walk in. You know what I mean? That is finished. So now, when that is my vital truth and that's my resting place, when things happen, I don't move from that place. I stay there.
So let's say I make a mistake. I slip up. I do something I'm not supposed to do. It can be real easy to let the devil come in and start to say things like, well, see, you're not really any different. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. It's you seem you you want to make it seem like you're different, but you're not really any different. But, if that's your vital truth is, I was made new, then you begin to say, no, get behind me, Satan. I was born in his image.
The devil literally comes to us as believers. Let me explain this to you. When we you have a tendency I'm just gonna be really honest and real. And, I got 7 minutes. I'm gonna do it really quick.
We have a sin nature prior to Jesus. It it you are a slave to it. There's nothing you could do about it. And and the sin nature is simply just selfishness. And this is why people are like, no, children are innocent.
I'm like, no. I have 2 kids. They are the most I love them to death. They are beautiful, amazing. Love my little girls.
I want to snuggle up those things, but man, are they selfish. Literally think about it, a baby comes out of the womb crying only for itself. Does it have any other thoughts besides for itself? No. It is completely selfish.
Am I am I am I saying that in a bad way? No. I'm just saying it We are born into sin literally because we can only think about ourself. Now, we we get to this point in our development where we come to a place where we can recognize the sacrifice of Christ, and we can accept that into our life. We can choose to say, I now identify with that reality.
So, now the old has gone, and the new has come. From that point on, you no longer have a sin nature possessing you and forcing you. Now, you still have a pattern of life that you've created that has consequences. So, those things still have the ability to influence you, but they don't have the ability to force you any longer. *Jesus* came to give you a new authority.
I love that pastor David said, in the kingdom, everything's about honor, and and honor is really connected to authority. And and, when you really dive that down into your spirit, what that's actually authority from the inside. Sin had authority over you. It no longer has authority over you. You can choose to let it run its course upon your life, but that doesn't mean it has authority over you anymore.
So then what happens is we're that's the place we now live in. Sin no longer has authority. Jesus took authority back on our behalf by dying for us, so that's settled in us. But now we have old ways of thinking. Maybe we were watching things we shouldn't have watched, engaging things we shouldn't have engaged with, doing things we know we shouldn't have done.
Those memories are still in our brain. There's still science is revealing to us that there are pathways created in the brain that, like, connect information. So now and I love it because science just reaffirms everything that the spirit tells us. Transform your mind. Create new mental pathways.
So then the devil does this. So let's say let's say let's just say, and I know this is none of you in the room, but let's just say you struggle with lust. Before Jesus, you had no way to control it. You would try your best. Nothing you can do.
*Jesus* comes, gives you a new life. Man, you feel so much freedom. And probably for a while, whatever time, could be 24 hours, could have been 3 years, some chunk of time, you are living so free, and like, no, it has no hold over you anymore. You have no less. You're like walking in such purity of mind.
And then, something comes along that triggers something, and you have a thought. Now, a lot of Christians are gonna say, look, that thought means there's still sin on the inside of you. They're gonna interpret that to say that thought came from inside of you out. So now, you still have a you still have to get something out of you because there's still something inside wrong with you. I I call that dead in Jesus because that means now we're dealing with things that he already dealt with.
The way we the way I would encourage you to understand that reality is the devil comes knowing what you were involved in, stands on your left side, and says, hey, look at that girl over there and what she's wearing. That makes you have a thought. Then, comes on to your right side and says, yeah, you're no different. As if the thought originated with you. But, if you were born again and you were given a new identity, that thought does not originate with you.
And, we have to be able to separate the 2 and call what was old dead, so we could call what's alive in Jesus to be real. And, the thing I just want to close with is 1 of the most convicting scriptures. Well, there's a bunch of them, obviously, but 1 that's on my mind and my heart right now is Jesus says, he goes to eat with some **religious leaders**, and you guys probably know the story. Right? A woman comes in and just weeping over his feet and "rubbing his her hair" on his feet.
Right? It's just this lavish, kind of chaotic. I mean, let's just be honest. Let's just say for half a second, Pastor David's sitting here, and he's got testimony He's not Jesus, obviously. He's got Jesus in him, and he's doing great things.
But, let's just say somebody in the community was so moved by what he did. They came in here, and they were like rubbing their hair all over his feet. We'd all be like, what the fuck? We'd be like, "security? Security?"
Right? Mean, tell me I'm wrong. Okay. Does anybody anybody tell me I'm wrong? Right?
Like, his wife would be like, security, get this money out. Just joking. I'm just joking. But, there's this crazy story, and the pharisees and the religious leaders are looking at this situation and they're saying, they're surprised by it, that Jesus would let this happen, and why did she break the perfume, and it could have been all these different ideas. And, Jesus says this crazy, convicting, beautiful thing.
He says, he tells us a parable, and he says, there was a man I'm actually gonna butcher it a little bit, but basically the story was he had compared 2 examples of somebody who was forgiven debt. 1 was forgiven very little debt, 1 was forgiven a lot of debt. And, and he asked the religious leaders, who do you think loved the person who forgave their debts more? And, the religious leaders, obviously, like all of us go, the 1 who forgave the 1 who had more debt relief is obviously going be more thankful. And, what he's trying to get us to understand is not that the Pharisees had more sin than she did.
They didn't have an understanding of how much sin he would free them from. She understood how much sin He was gonna remove from her. And, because He understood it, He would because she understood it, she was able to give appropriate worship. He who loves little has been forgiven little. So, to tie all this back in to end, to close, when it comes to worship, tithing, the way we give ourselves to the Lord, the way we read our bibles.
I I personally have a conviction that if we aren't having extravagant displays for the Lord, it's because we have a lack of an understanding of the depth of how much He saved us from. And, the real thing that we need get a revelation of is the personal the amount of personal stuff he saved us from. If we're not careful, we're gonna be like the the Pharisees and Sadducees mix. That's terrible. Sadducees.
Wow. Alright. Just so you know, people that live with me, they have a a encyclopedia of all the funny things I've said over the years in my preaching. We we just need to be really careful is is what I'm trying to close with. That that we don't we don't assume that we have less sin than the person next to us.
And at the last story, Pharisee standing at the temple of God *worshiping* saying, thank you, Lord, that I don't I give a tithes. I I I go to the I go to church. I I don't have I don't have I don't beat my wife. I don't I don't sleep around. Thank you that you didn't make me like this sinner over here.
And, there's a sinner over here who's on his knees beating his chest saying, Lord, forgive me a sinner. Have mercy on me. And, Jesus says, that 1 went away justified. Not the Pharisee who stood and said, thank you for making me not so bad. Because the reality is, going back to what I said, 1 sin in your life alone with no 1 else's sin accounted for was enough to have Jesus brutally beaten and hung on a cross to die.
And we need to be able You don't you don't have to do this. You're free to leave without grabbing this revelation, and your walk with Jesus will bear the fruit of that. I'm sharing this with you not because I want to force you to have a thought. I want to open you up to this extravagant love relationship with Jesus. Where we recognize how much he did for us, and continues to do for us.
So then, what we respond to God, and what we give to God is not out of I must, or I'm obligated, but out of "I will do nothing else". Like pastor David said, I love this church. I would do nothing else. Yeah. I would do If you could take me back 8 years, and tell me to go back to living in a tent, pooping in a hole in the ground, bathing in a bucket.
I would do it a 100 times over and 50 times over on Sunday. I would do it again and again and again and again and again because I have seen the hand of God upon my life. And that was I did not do that because somebody told me to. I did that because there was nothing else I could do. *Jesus* says, if if these don't cry out, the "stones will cry out".
We wanna be a people who just cry out because we realize everything he's done for us. Hallelujah. Pastor, can I invite you up? Yeah. Can everybody just stand up?
If you don't mind, just stand up. I I'm so I'm so I love finding a vein of faith that is that is that is natural. That is what I what I understand, if that makes sense. What I'm what I what I feel like I was reborn into. And this this place of honor and respect and authority, This is pastor David's church and and God has given him responsibility over this house.
I wanna create an opportunity right now for for anyone. You can stay in your in your in your locations where you're standing, your geolocation. You don't have to come forward. There's not something like spiritual about this part of of this of the stage or of the floor. The reason I always encourage people to come forward is because it becomes what we call an Ebenezer.
It becomes a "point of contact". In life, we are human beings who have physical existence. We are constantly looking for points of contact, both physically and spiritually. And so, this morning, if something that was said by the spirit of God touched you, moved you, shook you, challenged you, encouraged you, moved you to consider when you walk out those 2 doors, making sure something is different in your life. I want to encourage you to come forward.
As a way to say to the Lord, I will not let this moment pass without putting faith to action. Because I don't want to leave saying something's different. Meanwhile, I'm not gonna do anything different. And, I want to say this. If you've never come forward for an altar call for whatever reason, I just want to say the spirit of God right now is calling you specifically.
Because there is just a blessedness. There's that I can just I know there's at least 5 people, probably way more, who are sitting here right now going, I kinda wanna go, but I don't Should I go? Nobody else is going yet. Like, I don't need to go. You're you're literally wrestling with it.
Just come. Just say yes. Remember we said the spirit of God is just a simple obedience. We're not waiting for the the roof to open up and the spirit of God to descend upon the room. We're just feeling the spirit and saying, It's not because there's gonna be some special prayer for you.
It's not because I'm a specially anointed person. It's literally just saying, the spirit of God moved in me, and I want to come forward. I want to say today's a day that I will remember, that will mark me for something. Today is a day where I'll say that the blood of Jesus is gonna change something for me. I've lived my life in any different way, but today's a day of difference.
Father, we thank you. *Spirit, we thank you for your presence*, God. We thank you for your life. God, we ask you to settle and seal what you've done in the hearts of everybody in this room tonight, this this morning. Father we we are so enamored by what you've done.
You have paid everything for us. While we were We had nothing to offer you. You gave everything. Even when we make mistakes and we fall short, you continue to give everything. Your goodness is a goodness we know nothing of, and we want it God.
We want more of it. We want to understand more of it. We want to touch it. We want to see it. We want to feel it.
We want to be able to understand it. We want to communicate it God. This is why the old testament says, to write the scriptures upon your doorposts, write it on your on your clothes, write it on your hands, but you sear it into your brains. Let everything about God be so saturated in our being. We don't care how it looks, God.
I just want to preface it. I'm I'm I'm gonna just for half a minute, I'm gonna I'm gonna pray in tongues, and I know that's a controversial thing. I don't know the feeling in this house about it. I just want you to understand it's not some super spiritual reality. It is something that for me comes out of a groaning on the inside that just has to come out, and I'm just feeling very moved right now to pray by the spirit.
And so, I don't want to be offensive. You don't have to do it. I'm gonna do it because I believe the spirit of God is moving upon me. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
So there's no confusion in the room. I'm speaking not to you right now. I've transitioned out of that. This is now a time for Jesus. We are all entering into a moment with him.
I'm not speaking to you in tongues. I'm I'm speaking to Jesus right now. I encourage you to be speaking to Jesus right now. Thank you, Jesus. You are so good, God.
We're so honored by you, God. *Holy Spirit*.
There are more people in here who have felt the call to deeper levels of *surrender* as he's speaking in the beginning of the message, as he's speaking just about the perception shift. I want you to this step, this is a physical step to come forward that is the marker that you will remember. It is a sign of surrendering what everyone else thinks. I'm all in. And I wanna do another call to come and get on your knees before the Lord if you can.
And if you can't, stand before him at the altar as a signpost saying, that what I felt in my heart. My heart is burning. Some of your hearts are burning right now. It's because the Holy Spirit's moving on you. Respond.
Don't ignore. Fill the altar with, yes, Lord. I'm all in. Whatever it takes, it's not about me anymore. Holy Spirit, have your way.
The areas that I've held control onto, I surrender and open the door. Holy Spirit, fill.