The Real Pathway To Power | Pastor Carter Conlon

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Springs Church Podcast. We are so glad you joined us. Our mission is to reach the lost by raising up fully trained disciples that are empowered by God to impact their world. We pray that you are challenged and encouraged as you listen to this week's message.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Thank you so much. My life is filled with TSCs. So Times Square Church is uh was uh my home church for years. I attend now most Sundays the The Summit Church, which is TSC. Uh this is TSC as well, and I buy my pony supplies at Tractor Supply Company. So thank you for being kind to this old man. I don't have to remember anything anymore. It's just it's so God makes life simpler as you get older. I love this church. I love the presence of God here. The Holy Spirit is here. You know, I I I said it this morning and I'll say it again. If we had to move to Jacksonville, that I would attend this church because I would want to be where the presence of God is. And I had an opportunity to meet with all of the leadership, Pastor Owen Sarah and all of the other leaders here. And uh, you have a leadership that is uh engaged seeking God and cares for you and is concerned about the honor and glory of God. You can't ask for anything more in the church. Thank God for that. That's all I can say. Thank God for his presence here. I also want to thank the worship team. You really do. You're not song singers, you're worship leaders. There's a big difference. I've preached in a lot of conferences around uh different places, and sometimes the band is just a song, they're just song singers, they're not really worshipers, but you guys are worshipers. Um I hope you appreciate what you have here. It was about a month ago that it I had a burden in my heart. I am one of the overseers of this church, and I had a burden in my heart to come here. Initially, it was going to be on June the 7th, and Pastor Owen called and said, Do you think you could make it the 14th instead? And so we settled on on this day, and God gave me a word. This is almost a month ago. This is not an old message I preach somewhere else. It was for you. And uh I now understand why He gave me this message. I want to talk to you about the pathway to spiritual authority. Uh spiritual authority is when we've we've grown into maturity. You know, a lot of times when a church comes together, there's uh there's a youthfulness about it. We're we're learning to worship together, we're we have to go through some things together. But then there's a point where the focus is now off of ourselves and onto others. And when that happens, a spiritual authority comes into our speech. And God begins to do something through us that only He can do. And there's a pathway to spiritual authority. I wish it was easy, but it's not. You know, I said this morning people ask me, I said, How are you feeling? I said, Um scripturally, I'm pressed down, shaken together, and run over. Um it's not an easy pathway. But if we are willing to take it, and the focus shifts from ourselves to others, which is really where maturity comes into a church body, where it's not about me anymore. I'm not coming to church to see what I can get and what's God going to speak to me, and it's not about where I will live and what will I wear and all the rest of that. We move beyond the shallowness of a self-focused congregation into a place where we're just now it's about others. And we begin to see people. But not only do we see people, we see the heart of God for people. We begin to understand why we're even in the kingdom of God. Why didn't God just save us and take us all home? Right? Why did He leave us here? Remember, Jesus said, as the Father has sent me, now I'm sending you. This is about bringing the redemption of God to a generation that desperately needs to know that they are loved and can be redeemed and can have an eternity in heaven with God. It's not about living for ourselves, but as we teach at our Bible school, genuine Christianity finds its expression in living for the benefit of others. And by the grace of God, we all get there. It takes some of us a little longer than others. Where it's no longer even for the preacher, it's no longer, do you love me now and how am I doing? And it's not about us any longer, it's about the people of God. More concerned that people understand the truth and find the freedom of God than about self and looking good. The pathway to power. Father, I thank you, Lord, for God, the touch of heaven in this wonderful church. I thank you for the great privilege of even being associated with it, even though in a small measure, but still being associated with this congregation. I thank you, Lord, that you have chosen to abide here. Lord, there's there's no other no other recommendation needs to be given than your presence among your people. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for all that you're going to do in the days ahead. We thank you for yesterday, but God, we don't live there anymore. We're heading into tomorrow. And we thank you, Lord, that you're going to do something powerful through this congregation, not just in the pulpit, not just on the stage, but in every life, every person, every voice, every home. Thank you, Lord, for taking us to that place, Lord, where our speech carries the weight of God in it. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for all that you will do today, Lord. I'm asking you, God, to overpower and overshadow the frailty of this human body and speak through me to every heart. If my words are insufficient, then change them before they hit the hearer's ears. Lord, let every man, every woman, every young person be encouraged, be strengthened, be challenged, God Almighty, and be given a fresh ISAV anointing of why we still here, we're still here on this earth. Lord Jesus Christ, we're asking you, Lord, to use us for your glory and vanquish darkness. As we heard already today, when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against it. God, thank you for, thank you, Lord, that you don't call us because we have it all together. Quite often you call us when we have very little or nothing together. That's your pattern in Scripture. And God, we just yield our bodies to you as a living sacrifice, which you tell us is reasonable. So, Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty, we ask, Lord, that great fruit would be born through this church in the days ahead. Oh, God, we ask that you bring people in here, oh Lord, that can find you a Savior and find the strength and the purpose for life that you have for everyone that you choose to redeem and indwell. God, thank you. God, thank you, God, thank you, God, thank you. Open your word to our hearts today and help us to embrace it. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. First Corinthians in chapter 4, verse 18. Paul says, Now some are puffed up as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you shortly if the Lord wills, and I will know. Not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. I think in America today there's just too much talk in the house of God and too little power. And I don't know about you, but I'm very, very weary of it all. Jesus Christ, he told us in the book of Luke, he stood in the pulpit of his day, and he said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. In other words, there's a message, there's an authority with the message that tells every man, every woman, every young person who feels like they don't have the resource to become anything in life. No, there's there's something of God, there's there's an anointing of God that just unravels that lie around the human heart and lets men and women know, and children know that God has a divine purpose, not just to save you, but to indwell you and to empower you and to enable you and to make you into what you could never be in yourself and give you what you could never possess and take you where you could never go. I know this because I have lived this. By the grace of God, I love the fact that most everywhere I go, I'm not qualified to be, which is an awesome way to live your Christian life. I've stood and preached to governments, spoken to governments. I've been in places of civil war and seen God bring uh peace to areas of war. I've been invited by a president of another nation to see if we're on national television and radio we could avert another genocide in that nation. I've just seen God do what only God can do. I've been in places where the Spirit of God came down and did something that only God could do. And I love the fact that it's not by might, it's not by power, it's by the Spirit of God. It's when you and I, we learn to cooperate with God. We're not trying to produce something in our own strength. We're just simply saying, Lord, here I am, I'm available for you to use me to make a difference in somebody's life. And when that starts to happen in the body of Christ, then suddenly words of knowledge begin to come, words of wisdom. You begin speaking to somebody in a restaurant or in a store, and when you leave, you say, that wasn't me speaking. That was God speaking through me. I didn't have those thoughts. I I couldn't put those, those, uh, I couldn't tie those thoughts together the way the Lord just did. How could I know what was going on in that person's heart? You see, God knew. God, God heard the cry. God knows what that person's been sighing about in the streets, and suddenly he gives a word of knowledge. He gives a gifting of the Holy Spirit, he gives us ability. I'm talking about spiritual authority. I'm talking about we're not just out there blabbing some scripture to somebody that that might be true, but it's not relevant to their situation. No, God gives us a word. God gives us a word. I remember one time I was leaving Starbucks and I was crossing the street to Times Square Church, and there's a young guy about 18 years of age, and he's standing there with a cop and he's begging on the street. And I walked right up to him, he's a big kid too, and I walked right up to him. The guy who was with me was a little scared. And I looked him right in the eye and said, What are you doing out here? What are you doing out here? And he looked at me and I said, You have a praying mother, you have a praying grandmother, and here you are, a beggar on the street. I said, Around the corner tonight, seven o'clock, you go to church because there you're the son of the king. Out here, the devil's made you a beggar. In there, in there, you're the son of a king. And as I began to speak to him, the tears started coming down his face. And I said, You make sure you're there. And he said, Yes, sir, yes, sir, I'll be there. And I said, You have a praying mother and grandmother. He said, Yes, sir, I really do. I said, Do you get to church, son? You get to church. See, that's spiritual authority. That's just the willingness to just step out of the box. God puts a thought in your heart, you go with the thought. Will you always be right on? No. If you're a baseball player, sometimes you strike out, but it doesn't mean you don't get back up to bat again, right? The next time around. No, you won't always get it right. But if you don't try, you'll never get anything right. There was a famous hockey player that once said, You missed 100% of the shots that you don't take. He's anointed me to preach to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty or freedom to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, people who can't see a way forward. They can't see a way out of their dilemma. They can't see a way into a future. They have no idea what God wants to do in their lives. And to set free those who are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Now, Paul was telling the Corinthian church that some people talk a good game, but you don't know if they can play or not until you see them on the field. There's a lot of people talk a real good game in the Church of Jesus Christ, but on the field they're not much. I'm telling you straight up. You know, I was sharing today that, you know, some people talk about my old gridiron days when I was in college and played football, but you put a football in their hands and they can only throw a wobble ball. You begin to realize, well, if you were there, you were end and guard, right? End of the bench and guard of the water bucket. That's that's what that was your. There's a pathway to excellence in everything we do, and there's a pathway to excellence in God's kingdom and his power being revealed through Jesus Christ in his church. Many, sadly, they want preeminence, but not the pathway that leads to power. They want to stay light, they want to just be like a little flat stone skipping on the ocean. They don't ever want to have to go through what we have to go through to get to the place where God is going to use our lives for his glory. In the book of Acts, when the Apostle Paul was called in Acts chapter 9, verses 15 and 16. The Lord said to him, Go, for he's a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. You see, Paul had spiritual authority. That's why we read his words today 2,000 years plus later, and it still moves our hearts. That's why Paul could say, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, because he had to learn to do all things through Christ who strengthened him. Paul had a perspective that's eternal. Paul had a weight in his speech. Nobody could ignore the speech of this man because he had chosen to take the pathway that leads to spiritual authority. No matter what I have to go through, no matter where I have to be, no matter what it costs me to go into the place where God is calling me to go. Listen to the testimony of the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 11. Are they ministers of Christ? Beginning at verse 23. I speak as a fool. I am more, in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes, minus one. Five times. Most people didn't survive this even once. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I've been in the deep. He doesn't even talk about the snake bite. In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, and perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. And besides the other things, what comes daily upon me, the deep concern, Paul said, for all the churches. This was his testimony. It was a tough road, but it was the pathway that the power of God began to flow through his life and is still flowing today as we read his words. It was the writer of Hebrews tells us, or Romans rather, that we should present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service. God help us. God help us to get out of self-focus. God help us to get out of always coming to the house of God for what's in it for me today. What new thing can I add to my resume? What new thing can I give to myself to have a more enhanced personality, etc.? No, we ought to be coming to the house of God when we come to the a transition into a place of maturity and say, God, give me something today for somebody else. Give me something that I need. Oh, God, give me courage to go into that place and speak to those people. Give me victory in my own life that I can take that victory to others and say, listen, I want to tell you what God's done for me, He can do for you. Lord, it's not about me anymore. See, that's the point of maturity. That's the road that takes us to a place. That's where this church is going. That's what God has been doing in this congregation. Every congregation has to prove its right to exist. And you have come to that place. I believe that. That's why the Lord sent me here. You've come to that place where God's, there's a transition that's going to happen. And it's not about me anymore. It's now about the society that I live in. It's about moms and dads that are crying out for victory. It's about young people. It's about those who need to know there's a savior who loves them. And by the grace of God, I'm not going to be quiet anymore. By the grace of God, I'm not going to be self-focused anymore. By the grace of God, I'm going to go where God leads me and I'm going to speak what God gives me to say when I get there. Jesus said in Matthew 16, 24, if any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now that's that's a fanciful thing just to memorize, but it's a harder thing to walk with. Because when you begin to walk with God the way Christ has called us to walk, with every cross comes a Judas. Do you understand that? With every cross, you will be betrayed. When you go all in for God, there will be a force of hell that comes against you to stop you. You can set your watch by it. You can be sure of it. I always call Judas an unfortunate necessity in our redemption. Without Judas, there would have been no cross, and without the cross, there would have been no redemption. An unfortunate necessity. And when you take up your cross, you will find people turn against you. It's almost as natural as breathing. And you will find, though, in that place the power to forgive. You'll find the heart of the one who said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they do. You'll find the ability to forgive. What you couldn't forgive before, you can forgive because you have chosen to walk this pathway of spiritual authority. The pathway to God's power leads through loneliness. I think about Esther, taken out of a natural family in a sense, and taken into a place that was unfamiliar to her. And when God finally calls her, calls her at a time when the king hasn't even called for her for 30 days. And I remember through Mordecai, her cousin, the calling of God comes to her, and she's it's almost like the type of person says, I used to have such a passionate prayer life. Well, would be that God had called me five years ago. You know, we I mean we were we were like this, Jesus and I were like this, and now I'm not talking to him, he's not talking to me. And here you are. You see, it's it's it's not about us. It never was about us, it's about the plan of God. It's about, and quite often he calls us when we feel the least qualified to do what he's calling us to do. Why couldn't it have been 10 years ago? When I was when I was just, I was at every prayer meeting, I was fasting until my ribs stuck out. I was I was given to the things of God, and then I just kind of cooled off. And then finally the call of God comes. Because it's never been about you. I don't want you touching the glory, I don't want you sharing the glory. This is about my calling, my presence in your life. It's not about you, and it's all about the sake of others. This girl was going to be given a pen at one point. She was going to be a co-ruler, co-regent with her husband, which was unheard of in that culture, and she was going to rewrite the law of death into a law of life. It was amazing. God was going to give her spiritual authority, but not when her relationship with the king was at its pinnacle. That was when the king hadn't been calling for her. She hadn't been talking to the king for 30 days. You think about Moses, and he'd known from when he was a youth what his calling was and set it up, set out to make it happen, and fell on his face. And 40 years he's in the wilderness. Not just in the desert, he's in the back side of the desert. Anybody, anybody ever been there? I I could give tours. I've been there a few times. I give actually back side of the desert tours. Pastor Carter, join me. You know? I've been there. I know what that, I know what that feels like. Moses was 40 years feeling like the best days were behind him. He had failed in his mission and his ministry. He called to deliver three million people, and all he'd done is put a one Egyptian in the sand. It's all he's accomplished. And many of us at times in our lives feel like that. But he was on the pathway to spiritual authority. And it's when he seemed to be the weakest, when his natural speaking ability was gone, when he was old and not young, he no longer had a sword in his hand. He no longer had access to political authority in the palace. He didn't have access to wealth and all of the things of this world that had once been at his disposal. He now has a stick in his hand. And only and God sends him to bring three million people out of captivity with a stick in a one-line sermon. And not only that, he's so weak he needs his brother to deliver the sermon. I always feel that the only reason that Pharaoh didn't kill them both right on the spot is because it was so humorous. These two old men come in, you know, let my people go. I think it was just funny. But then you see, Pharaoh got caught in his own arrogance because once the hand of God came into the battle, it now became a contest of power. And if he would have killed him, it would make him look weak. So he actually got trapped by his own arrogance. I love it. I just love the way God works. He doesn't call us into this pathway of spiritual authority when we When we're the best speakers, when we have it all together, when we have this whole legacy of faithfulness, we might have failed. But if we we know the scripture, but can we can we consider the scripture for ourselves that it's not it's not at the pinnacle of success that we're called? It's sometimes at what we consider the pinnacle of failure that God calls us. And you think of David the king, you know, in Psalm 23, David knew the anointing of God as a youth. Can you imagine having Samuel the prophet come in and pour a horn of oil on your head and single you out from your brothers and declare that you're going to be the next king of Israel? Wow. You know, it a lot of us, if we would have known the journey, would we have taken the journey, you know, when God first calls and he just uh, you know, I just it's I I know personally it's been a long haul. It's um it's been difficult at times. It's been uh there have been times I I couldn't understand what God was doing and why he was allowing it to happen. And here's David, he's anointed, he's going to be the next king, and and the and he defeats Goliath, and you think, wow, it's like from here it's to the throne for sure. And he ends up a worship leader, in a sense, uh, at the throne of Saul. And his songs had the power to drive away the devil. Literally, when the evil spirit would come upon Saul, he would just sing and worship, and that spirit would lose its authority and its power. So this this kid had bravery, he had everything. He had a musical ability, and but not long after all of these things, he finds himself fleeing from a jealous and insane leader who just would not allow, he just he just couldn't, Saul couldn't let go. And there's a lot of leaders like that in the body of Christ, unfortunately. That's why there's so much division in the churches. That's why transitions don't happen well quite often, because the former leaders can't let go. They can't let go of the influence and authority, or the whole sense of identity is in the fact that I'm ruling and reigning. And Saul couldn't let go, and so he ends up, he's so insanely jealous of this young man that has the anointing of God, he's now pursuing him and trying to kill him. And poor David, he has to pass through in verse 4 of Psalm 23, it says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you're with me, your rod and your staff, they they comfort me. So David said, One day I'm going to perish by the hand of Saul. And so he ends up like he loses his confidence in God just for a season, and he runs into the in actually into the enemy's camp. But he's it's only a shadow. The devil will try to tell you he's going to defeat you, but it's only a shadow. I love the way Pastor Teresa says it. That the shadow of a dog can't bite you. Death is only a shadow, folks. It's only a shadow. That's all it is. There's no victory in the grave, there's no sting in death anymore. Death was defeated on the cross of Jesus Christ. Thank God. Thank God, thank God. I can tell you one thing for sure in this room. You are all going to die eventually. I can, I can, I can promise you that. Put that in your pocket promise book. We're all barring the rapture of the church. We're all going to die in this room. But then again, we don't. We just shed this shell, and we're going to be in the presence of God forever and ever and ever and ever. We're going to remember these days, and I tell you, there's going to be young people by the millions dancing at an altar in heaven, just like we saw this morning. And we're going to shout glory to God because we cannot be defeated, as the Church of Jesus Christ. Yes, we might have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, as David once did, but I remind you, it's only a shadow. That's all it is. It's only a shadow, it's not permanent. And this when the sun rises, the shadows disappear. By grace, God's grace. David says, You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies, not in the absence of my enemies. In the presence of my enemies. I've had a few in my lifetime. But I thank God for the table of God. You sit down at the table with Christ, and strength is there, and trust is there, and hope is there, and future is there, and our enemies they draw their swords, and all they can do is butter my bread. And I have never seen the righteous forsaken. Never, not in Africa, not an India, not in Asia, not in Central America, not in South America, not inner city New York. I've never seen the righteous forsaken. Not a little one time. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. I've ministered in Sullivan Prison in New York City, locked in with 60 lifers, who will never get out of jail. But most of them have come to Christ as Lord and Savior. And even there, they are not forsaken by the presence of God, the power of God, and the Spirit of God. Oh, hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Glory to the name of Jesus Christ. We live on the victory side. By God's grace, we will not be silent anymore. We will not be silent. Let the redeemed of the Lord stay so in this generation. A God who died for them. A God who will keep them. A God who has an eternal purpose for their lives. And David said, Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Surely goodness and mercy. There are times, there are seasons of difficulty and sorrow, but we begin to realize as we pass through this valley of the shadow of death, as we sit at the table of God's provision and presence, we begin to realize, God, you have followed me all the days of my life. And when I thought I would be overwhelmed, when I thought I would be triumphed over, your goodness and your mercy were following me the whole time. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. This is the message of the church. This is the message of the last days, church. This is the message of the church that will know the presence and power of God in the last season we're now living. This is the message of the people of God that will have spiritual authority. When I say spiritual authority, I mean that I can speak into your life in such a way that it changes your future. It diffuses the powers of darkness that are trying to gain a hold around your heart and mind. Or trying to convince you that there's no purpose for your future. You don't have a reason to live. No, spiritual authority can diffuse that. By the grace of Almighty God. You are making the transition as a church now into spiritual maturity. That's why God sent me here. Even before the events of the last couple of weeks, I knew I needed to be here, and this is the message God gave me. You are making the transition into spiritual authority. You will see people that you didn't see before. You will speak with an authority you didn't have before. God will be glorified in this house. I shared this morning, I said there's not a whole lot of room left, but whatever's here, there's going to be young people hanging off those balconies to hear the word of God in the days ahead. I predict that you're going to have to put screens if you don't already have them out in the lobby for people to hear the gospel here. And it's not going to be just because you have a wonderful worship team and you have a good word, Pastor. It's going to be the people of this church are bringing people to Christ. There's no shortcut to the pathway of spiritual authority. You can't just learn it from a book. It's a journey. But it's also a decision. We sang about it this morning. I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back. I'm not turning back because it gets hard. I'm not turning back because I don't understand what's going on. I'm not turning back because there's nothing to turn back to. I'm called to be a witness for Christ. Jesus Christ said, as the Father has sent me, now I send you. By the grace of Almighty God. I'm 72 now. But I got more fight in me than I've had in a long time. I am not willing to let this generation perish in their sin. I'm tired of the devil beating up on families and homes and minds. I'm tired of the addiction. I'm tired of the godless social media. I'm tired of all of it. I'm tired of all of the foolishness in this nation. I'm tired of the gender confusion. I'm tired of the whole thing. It's coming from the regime to the moment of this nation. Across the nation. And I don't care who says what I don't care who tells me what I can say. I'm gonna say what the Spirit of God tells me to say. I don't care about the rest of it. There is a pathway to spiritual authority. And it comes to the hearts of those who say, I'm not turning back. I'm going with God. I don't have to understand it all. And yes, as the Apostle Paul, I may have to go to jail, I may get beaten, I may be betrayed, and all the rest of it that goes along with this pathway. But I'm not turning back because this is this fight is worth it. God sent his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And Jesus Christ sent me as the Father sent him, he sent me. I'm not gonna back away because things get hard. I'm not gonna back away when I don't understand. I'm not gonna back away when I go into my own Gethsemane. I would rather not do something if it were possible, but nevertheless, let the will of God be done. Not what I want to do, but what God wants done. As long as this body has breath and strength, I'm believing with all my heart that the best days are just ahead of all of us. The best day. Oh, God send spiritual awakening to this nation now. Oh God, fill your house with seekers. Let it be, Pastor, that you have to go online because you can't hold the people here anymore. Praise be to God. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back. And by the grace of Almighty God. There's some fight. You're now graduating as a church. From the early years, and you went through middle years, and now you're graduating. Just like we see a graduation at our Bible school, and people like Zephaniah head out to make a difference in their world. And I heard him described as fearless. He really is. He always has been. But look that that can't be just Zephaniah. That's gotta be you and me too. You got neighbors, you got friends, you got people you meet in a store, you got Oh God. Oh God, give me the eyes to see them. Give me the heart to reach them. Give me the courage. Whether they accept or reject anything I have to say, give me the courage to just reach out to them. We were in a I'll close with a story. We're in a restaurant a little while back. Some people were visiting our Bible school. And we took them out to a nice pastor and his wife, we took them out to a nice restaurant. The waitress there didn't seem to belong there. You know, she just she just didn't see. She was too gruff to be in a it was a nice restaurant. I I I just couldn't picture her being there. And she, you know, she's the kind that would just throw your stuff on the table and and you know, just what do you want? You know, this kind of stuff. Just doesn't belong there. I I was thinking she must be related to somebody who owns this place because nobody would hire this girl. And at the end of the meal, a stirring. I I'm I know that stirring now. And I we stood up and we were about to leave. And she's the kind of waitress, you wouldn't naturally even want to leave her a tip, I'll be honest with you. And I I looked at her and I said, We're Christians. And one of the things we like to do is pray. And is there something we can pray for you for? She burst out crying. She said, My life is a mess. My best friend just died, and she said, I just, I just I've lost heart, I've lost hope. And she starts sobbing, and we just all grabbed her. So we're now there's now a prayer meeting in this restaurant. She didn't care. We grabbed her hands, we began to pray, and there's good there's God touching a life. You know, and and God give us the heart. Give us the heart to be able to see a soul that's crying out, you know. And not get so stuck in the way we think things should be done and who should be there. Just to see the way Jesus sees it. That's where spiritual authority starts coming in. And that's what God's gonna do through you, Pastor, uh, in this congregation. I'm so thankful to be here, and I'm so thankful that I get to be part of what I'm going to live to see here. And what God's about to do through you as a people. This is a good church. This is a good church. By the grace of God. It will be even better in the days ahead. I want to give an altar call this morning. For everybody, for every Esther, every David, every Moses, everybody. I'm not going to be governed any longer by what I think and feel about myself. You have a deeper plan for my life. And I want that plan. And I'm making a choice to go forward. I'm I'm just going with what God has for my future. I don't necessarily know what it is. And whether He whether He takes away my present circumstance or He doesn't, it doesn't matter. It's not about me, it's about other people. And I'm I'm I'm just going. I'm just going where God is leading me to go. And and getting out of your seat is just that first step. I'm not looking to fill an altar, but I'm looking for you to make that first step. That first step forward. That's what this represents. It's it's the first step of a journey. It's the first step of where many are going to go as a church. And the influence that God's going to give you in your own family, your own community, your own family, you know, your uh your neighborhoods. And even beyond that, it's something that God's going to do. It's time for the redeemed to say so. It's time to say, God, put weight in my speech. Put weight in my speech. Speak through me. Touch through it. Walk through it. Give me what I need. So that your name and your heart can be glorified and satisfied in this earth. Let's all stand and if that's you, would you just come? Would you just make your way here? And we're gonna pray together. Just step up, step out of your seat. Come in close and make room. Just come. Young people, please. You come too as well. You've got a future. God wants to do something through your lives way beyond what you can understand. Just make room. Just come in close. Lord, bless this church. Bless this body. Bless this congregation. Bless them with a supernatural life. Bless them with the giftings of the Holy Spirit. Bless them with a newfound boldness that can only come from God Himself. Bless them with words and giftings that can only come from the Holy Spirit. It can't come from anywhere else. Bless them with fruit for your kingdom's sake, God. Give them great strength and spiritual authority for the days ahead. If you would lead us in the song, please. Take time just to pray.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Thanks for listening to the Springs Church podcast. We pray that you were encouraged, uplifted, and challenged by the message today. If you need prayer or want to learn more about the church, we would love to connect with you. Visit the New Here page on TUCjax.com. We pray you have a great week walking in all that God has for you.