Summary
➡ The speaker discusses their struggle with faith and bitterness, particularly towards a loved one who has made poor decisions and continues to walk a dark path despite claiming to have found faith. The speaker also talks about their own feelings of abandonment by God, especially during difficult times. They mention the importance of not letting doubt and compromise creep in, and the need to constantly renew faith. The speaker ends by discussing the topic of unbelief, using examples from the Bible to illustrate how doubt can lead to disobedience and a lack of faith.
➡ This text is about a group of people who gather regularly to pray, support each other, and share their faith. They express gratitude for each other’s presence and encourage each other to stay strong in their beliefs. They also plan for future meetings and invite new members to join them. The group communicates both in person and through online platforms like YouTube and Zoom.
➡ This text talks about the importance of faith and belief in God, even when things seem impossible. It warns against letting doubt and logic get in the way of our trust in God’s plan. It also discusses how the devil can use our thoughts to create unbelief and how we should guard against this. Lastly, it emphasizes that we should not let worldly ways influence our faith and that we should always trust in God’s promises.
➡ This text encourages us to respond to hardships with joy and faith, as the Bible instructs, rather than reacting as the world does. It suggests that struggles can help us grow and that we should always look for the lesson in difficult situations. The text also emphasizes the importance of self-reflection and treating others with kindness, even when they wrong us. Lastly, it urges us to encourage each other with biblical teachings, rather than comforting each other in worldly ways.
➡ The speaker shares a personal story about his strained relationship with his brother, Billy, who was often in the hospital. Despite their past fights and his own reluctance, the speaker visited Billy in the hospital during his last hours, encouraged by his wife. He was able to reconcile with Billy, who apologized and accepted Jesus Christ as his savior before passing away. The speaker emphasizes the importance of forgiveness and not letting resentment prevent us from showing love and support to others.
➡ The speaker shares his experiences of overcoming personal trauma and learning to trust again, even in a church setting. He talks about the importance of not letting past hurts affect our present and future, and how he learned to open up and heal from his wounds. He also emphasizes the power of God’s word in helping him through his struggles, and how he was able to use his experiences to help others. He encourages everyone to be open to God’s will and to embrace the opportunity to grow and make a positive impact on others.
➡ The speaker shares a personal story about dealing with a family member’s drug use and the struggle to maintain compassion and patience. Despite the challenges, the speaker continues to pray and offer support, believing in the power of love and faith. The speaker also discusses the importance of learning from these difficult situations and growing in compassion, as well as the need to protect other family members and maintain wisdom in dealing with such situations. The speaker ends by encouraging others to always seek the lessons in their experiences.
➡ This is a conversation in a supportive community group. They talk about their personal experiences, struggles, and faith. They also discuss the importance of remembering their roots, extending grace, and not losing hope. The group offers free support and resources, like Bible study groups. They encourage each other, share their stories, and discuss the power of forgiveness and truth.
➡ The text discusses the importance of respecting and obeying parents, relating it to the biblical commandment to honor one’s father and mother. It suggests that if one can’t obey their parents, they may struggle to obey God. The text also encourages self-reflection and repentance, urging readers to ask God what they need to improve in their lives. Finally, it offers comfort and encouragement to those who are struggling, reminding them that God is always there to help.
➡ This text is about a group prayer session where people are praying for each other’s needs and challenges. They’re asking for help with things like health issues, faith struggles, and family problems. They believe that by praying together, they can support each other and find strength in their faith. They also express gratitude for improvements and blessings in their lives.
Transcript
God bless you, YouTube. God bless you. Hope everybody’s doing, hopefully everybody’s doing great, right? We’re here on another live stream, and it’s a blessing to be with all of you here on our end, we’re on Zoom. So if you feel like joining the zoom on the top right corner of the stream, there’s a link. You can just click on that and join us on Zoom. So we’re on Zoom as well, and we just come together as brothers and sisters in the Lord and just talk a little bit.
And hopefully we can edify each other and grow with each other and continue to do everything we can to spread the gospel. Right? As we go on about this live stream, we’re going to be talking about the spirit of unbelief, whether it be because you’re here today, because you have wounds that have been caused by either cults, right, or bad church leaders, or you simply have unbelief because of something else that has happened.
Whatever it is, we want to deal with that today. But for for us to be able to deal with that, we have to have open hearts, right? And we have to be willing to submit ourselves to the heavenly father when he convicts us, right? So I pray that today this broadcast edifies you, right, that this broadcast finds you in a place where. Where you want change in your life, right, that the most high can provide for you, all right? So another thing is, is that we have to have grace with each other in the chat, okay? So if at any point in time, we see that we’re not having grace with each other in the chat, let’s just take a time to pause for a moment, right, and just say, hey, you know, let’s look out for each other.
Our brother, mad guns, he’s our moderator. He’s here. He’s going to do an awesome job, and he’s here to protect all of you for the most part, because you don’t know the crazy stuff that happens behind the scenes that he’s always there to help us out with. So thank you, mad guns. And thanks to all of you that are here. All right, and I’m going to start with a little sermon jam real quick.
It’s just five minutes just to allow the room to get filled and pay attention to what he’s saying. Because quite often in life, we don’t notice the changes in our lives until it’s a little bit too late, right? The devil has a way of making us compromise in ways that you don’t know that you’re compromising just yet. You know, you take little steps here, you take little steps there, and by the time you realize where you’re at, you’re in a spot that you don’t want to be at.
Okay? So listen to this for a moment, and we’re going to get started. All right? If you guys can thumb up the video and share it, that would be awesome. And we’ll begin shortly. Tell me now, how many churches have you visited recently? How many churches do you know when you walk in, the Holy Ghost is so strong that every one of your sins are brought up before your face in the loving grace of God? How many churches have you been lately? Where you hear a word comes forth that so burns in your soul? You know it comes from heaven.
You know it comes from the heart of God. I hope you hear it here. The truth of the matter is, in all honesty, there are numbers among us that are changing, and they don’t know it. You’ve lost your fight. You see, when you read the book of Joshua, it’s almost a book of failure. Because they lost their heart. They lost a fight. You see, when spiritual blindness comes, very few recognize it.
It’s the last recognized thing that happens to a child of God. If I, as a pastor knew you personally and I was watching your life, and as one of the pastors church, I come to you and say, I love you, but I have to tell you the truth. You’re changing. You know what you were. Something in the world has got in your heart. I don’t know if it’s television.
I don’t know what it is. And it has your heart, but I see changes in you. I don’t see the brokenness. I don’t see the compassion you had once for your family. I don’t see concern for your unsafe loved ones. You’re changing. Little by little, something’s happening to you. Would it bring you to your knees when the ruin that you are not even aware of is suddenly brought before your eyes? Did you just let that go in one ear, out the other? When a pastor tells you right now, hey, and I don’t know who you are, but the Holy Ghost is speaking through me.
You’re changing. Little by little, you’re losing the love of God, the love of Christ. Little by little. These things are making inroads, folks. Why do you think your pastors cry out against television? Do you think we get any pleasure out of the flesh? There’s no pleasure in somebody coming. Say, I heard your message and I threw away my television. That doesn’t give me any pleasure doesn’t give any pastor pleasure.
We have given account because we watch for your soul. Does it really matter to you that your unsaved loved ones are dying and we’re getting closer and closer to the end of the. Does it really concern you they could die and go to hell even though you’re a lover of Christ? Where’s the mourning? Where’s the fasting? I’m talking about the body of Jesus Christ in general. You’re changing.
Where’s the getting up in the middle of the night? Where’s the confessing? I’m tired of hearing about people in the church who say they want their unsaved loved ones saved. I’m tired of hearing people say, I’m concerned about my troubled marriage. We just talk for we obey, not his voice. Away with all of our how to conferences because they accomplish nothing. How to cope, how to build a bigger church, how to reach the lost, how to improve your people’s skills and how to impact the world in this computer time.
Bless. You’re changing. If you are expecting somebody else to be an instrument to win your family or to do this work, you’re mistaken. You’re changing. You either walk away and go back to your passivity and say, I’m just going to be an ordinary Christian and there’s no such thing. Or you begin to seek his face. You allow him to melt and break. You, you go down deep in the soul and say, oh, God, I can’t do this on my own, but I’m not going to let my kids go to hell.
I’m not going to let my husband, my wife, oh, God, I’m not going to live in this death. I’m not going to live in this lukewarmness and this coldness anymore. God, change me. And when you get desperate before God, you set your heart to seek him. You allow God to lead you into this place beyond fleeting emotion. You say, God, I’m going to set my heart. Oh, God, this is my burden.
Now, if, before we get started, I just want to ask Ivan, you know, what did, what did that video do for you in the moment? Really quick, just for a minute or two. Do you, have you ever been at that point in your life where you’ve realized that you’re changing? Yeah, without a doubt, man. You know, frankly, I feel like I’m coming out of it. But, you know, I want to say that as humbly as I can, you know, to not necessarily say that I’m, you know, that I’m somehow more, more sanctified or anything like that.
You know, I have a loved one. You know, I’ll keep it kind of vague and random just in case on the off chance she ever sees this. But, you know, when she was very young, you know, I look at her like a daughter, and, you know, she had such a thirst for the Lord. You know, she’d come from a pretty, pretty broken family, pretty much mess. And, you know, I remember my wife and I both really having a heart for her and her siblings.
And, you know, we, for our part, you know, did what we could to kind of be there for them. And, you know, I remember specifically one day, and this was, gosh, 20 years ago almost, but praying for her and her siblings, you know, sort of, you know, a moment in which they all kind of wanted to surrender their life to Christ. And, you know, that was a pretty, pretty impactful memory.
As a matter of fact, she recently brought it up to me and, you know, in the midst of. Of, you know, forgive the term, I’ll just say it, in the midst of the hell that my family had been going through the past, you know, six years with, you know, my daughter’s mental illness and, you know, all the drama that came with that, you know, I certainly found myself becoming really embittered.
You know, I think I mentioned to you before, as well, sort of prior to all of that, my. My thirst for knowledge, you know, that I felt that God was. Was, you know, truly kind to bestow upon me. But in my. In my arrogance and shallowness and pridefulness, I took that knowledge and sort of usurped him in my life with it. And, you know, no question the people that.
The people that I previously would have had a bleeding heart for, I became very embittered towards. And, you know, the reason I brought up the loved one is because recently that individual had gotten baptized. And, you know, this individual was coming out of, again, it’s very broken life, very broken past. So it’s not at all a surprise that they’ve kind of wandered down a very dark road, made a lot of, you know, poor, poor decisions and, you know, bad coping mechanisms.
And so, you know, recently, they asked me to once again pray for them. And I was sort of taken aback, to be honest with you, because, you know, and this is all, man, this is all. This is all God, bro. Like, even. Even the topic of today’s talk because, you know, struggling with that unbelief, that’s a battle that’s no doubt. It’s been something that I’ve grappled with for quite some time in the midst of everything, I was listening to Sister Tracy’s podcast from this past Saturday or Friday.
I believe it was, you know, about delay, rather delaying, not being a denial and recognizing that I’ve only cried out to God in that darkness in desperation, but not necessarily in faith. And so, you know, I don’t want to bunny trail too much, but basically, you know, this individual, this loved one of mine, you know, the talk is there, the, you know, oh, I’ve gotten baptized. Oh, I’m rededicating my life.
But there’s no true repentance. The dark path that was being walked is still being walked. And I’ve really wrestled with that. You know, again, I recognize that. I do need to weep for that. I do need to pray for that. But I’ve wrestled again. This is fairly recent, you know, I’ve wrestled with that. You know, like, you know what? That’s what you want, you know, then I’m not going to waste my time.
I’m not going to, you know what I’m saying? And so, again, I can’t necessarily say, like, logically, I can tell you I’ve got ground to stand on with that. Logically, I do, you know, but we all know that God doesn’t operate in logic. You know, he operates outside of that, bro. He does. And so, you know, you had to let go of that, right? You mentioned in bitterness, right? You mentioned, yeah, absolutely.
Again, going back to, you know, my daughter with, you know, her sicknesses and the, the suicide attempts, and, you know, me just constantly shouting to the heavens, saying, like, I know you can, why aren’t you? I know you can, why don’t you? And so, you know, it. It certainly brought me to a point where it’s like, you know, in the past, like, even I’m telling you, like, even if I stubbed my toe in the past, I’d be like, oh, like, I would bleep myself out.
It would never slip out. It would never slip out. And suddenly, you know, the harsher times were getting, the more I was sort of feeling abandoned from God. Suddenly I’m like, oh, man, that actually came out my mouth. Like, that actually slipped. Even my wife would look at me like, double take. Like, hey, like, you really just said that. You know what I’m saying? And so, no question, there’s compromise, you know, and I think that, you know what the word says about Satan being like a roaring lion, just prowling, looking to just take any one of us out at any time.
And, you know, I really feel like you know, the compromise granted, you know what ephesians says about this flesh. Like, we have to take it off every day. Every day we got to renew this because every day it’s being corrupted. You know, I think that, again, just speaking for myself, but I. But I would imagine there are some, some out there that could relate. You know, in those times, in those moments where the enemy sows them seeds of doubt, because we are not getting what we are wanting, even desperately wanting.
No doubt the compromise does start to creep in and then it adds up. It does. You know what? I’m not going to call homie today. You know what? I’m not going to go fellowship today. I’ll go to church next week. You know what I’ll do? And it just, it starts to snowball, man. It does. It just starts to snowball. That’s awesome that you shared that, you know, and, and this is good because we’re going to have some conversations about this today.
Ivan, I’m going to share something on the screen real quick as we get going. And welcome to everyone that’s here. Michelle, Myra, Tony and Mary. Chase, katerina, Crystal, Psalm, tiana, Kizzy, Raquel, Stevon, Sarita, Deborah, christina, shannon, Chris and Heidi. I’m sure I. Hopefully I didn’t miss anyone. And on YouTube. Welcome. Thank you for being here. You know, this past week, I, you know, I’ve been dealing with a particular topic.
Let me share my screen. I don’t know if you guys can see my screen. Can you guys see it? Overcoming unbelief? Awesome. Okay. And also on our community tab. And I’ll also post the Google Drive link after this is done so you can download it as well. We have a Bible study guide as well. This way you can also take this and. And do some Bible studies with your family.
Right. The point. The point of many of these live gatherings is to encourage you to have church at home with your family, you know, overcoming unbelief. I just have a few quick notes. This past week, we dealt with, um, I’ve been speaking to a lot of people that have been hurt by the church. They’ve been hurt because of cults or they’ve been hurt for many other reasons. And, um, as I’ve been talking to them, the topic of unbelief just kept on resonating with me.
And as I dove deep into the word of God as much as I possibly could, because one of the most important things you have to do is make sure that you’re living what you’re preaching, right. And that you’re trying to make sure that you. You go deep into it as much as you can. Glory to Jesus. And when you look at Genesis one through six, I want to look at three aspects, and certainly these are not the only three that.
These are not the only three ways that the devil’s going to attack you. These are just three examples. Okay? In Genesis three, one six, we’re just going to go ahead and read one as an example. Now, the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yeah. Has God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Okay.
This is a very big way that the devil loves to cause unbelief. I even just talked about logical stuff. You know, the devil tries to throw different types of logics, right? To get you to convince yourself through your thought process, to disobey the most high, to disobey the living God. And in this case, a simple question that the serpent made towards Eve was done in the attempts of causing unbelief.
Right? She made a mistake of talking with the serpent, and it’s a mistake that we do all the time as well. You know, the word of God tells us, casting down imaginations, right? To what? To the authority of the most high. The authority of the heavenly Father. Why? Because when you take it to the heavenly Father, you’re no longer there going tit for tat with the devil about your thought life.
No. Now you’re taking it to the book. Now you’re taking it to his scriptures. Now you’re taking it to the spirit, right. To the Holy Spirit. But when you start going tit for tat with the devil, the devil will present to some of you questions to cause doubt, questions to make you compromise. We’re talking about the spirit of unbelief. That’s one example. I don’t know if any of you have been at a point where you’re frustrated because something is simply not working out as you thought it was going to work out.
You had a plan for the blessing and how the blessing was going to come. Especially in American Christianity, we have this situation where everything is prosperity, prosperity, prosperity, right? Name it, decree it, decree it, declare it, all of these things, right? And people have this plan of how things are going to work out for everything that they think is going to work out. And when it doesn’t work out, they get really upset.
Right. The spirit of unbelief. And we’re going to talk about that today. What about numbers 2012 and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, because ye believed me not. Let’s pause there for a moment. Because ye believed me not. To sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore, ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. Talking about Moses, you know, I’ve been that, that point.
And I’ve often wondered how many promised lands I’ve missed out on because of my disobedience and unbelief. Have you ever asked yourself that question, how many awesome things the heavenly Father had for you? And because you thought you can manipulate your way towards it versus just letting the spirit of God do what he do and you just be obedient, you think that by if I just interject a little bit more on this, maybe now it will happen because you believed me not.
That’s scary, that’s intimidating, that’s Moses. What about John 1139 through 40? Right, where we think that problem is so big, we think that circumstances too much. We think that that situation is just. It’s not going to happen. For Ivan, it was his daughter as an example, right? Jesus said, take ye away. The stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said unto him, lord, by this time he stinketh.
Now, I want you to think of this for just a moment here, all right? The devil loves to interject common everyday sense and logic, as Ivan mentioned, to get you to compromise on your belief in the heavenly Father. In other words, God. I understand exactly what you’re saying. I totally get what you’re saying here, but hear me out here. You know, the reality is. I know you’re telling me to believe, but the reality is, is that by this time his body stinketh.
And how many times has he not called some of you in this room today? In the zoom room, right? Right. Whether it be Sister Candace, Katharina, Crystal, Michelle, Shannon, right? Christina, Ivan, Sarita, right? You’re on YouTube, right? Sophia, your husband, Nancy, all of you, he’s called you for something, right? You have belief that he called you for something. But the devil will put things in your mind to try to make it.
Make it logical for you to doubt what he said he is going to do. It’s happened to me. It’s happened to me. But you have to remember that we’re talking about the spirit of unbelief, Lord, by this time he stinketh, man, for he has been dead four days. So the belief that you have to have in the heavenly Father is going to transcend human logic, is going to transcend the abilities that any doctor can do is going to transcend the abilities that any financial expert can achieve.
Here’s the thing. The obstacles that you have in your life are so difficult to mankind because when they come true or when God does what he does, there can only be one that gets the glory. That’s the heavenly Father. You see, because if these obstacles were easy, then you know what? You can get the glory. He can get the glory. But some of these obstacles that I’ve faced in my life, the only way that I can sit here and tell you, man, it was God, man, I couldn’t have done it.
I’m like, you’re asking me how this happened. I don’t know how this happened. It’s those I don’t know moments that can only happen when you decide to say, God, I will trust you. God, I believe you. And God, I have faith in you. Jesus said unto her, say it I, not unto thee. That if thou would believe, thou shall see the glory of God. You know, the devil has a way to maneuver himself into our thought life.
If you’re on YouTube and you’re on the chat, I want you to think about your own life. Think about your current everyday life. How via your thought life, the devil is causing unbelief. And why is this important to talk about? It’s very important for me to talk about because when you look at revelation 21 eight as an example, unbelief doesn’t just start out huge. You know, they’re christians.
When I say christians, I mean true followers of Christ. Because in the western christian church, everyone just calls themselves a Christian. You know, a musician wins a music award for a big booty song. And those I want to thank the Lord Jesus Christ for my big booty song, you know. No, I’m talking about real followers of Jesus Christ. What starts off, it’s a small compromise. Begins bigger and bigger and bigger.
And look at revelation 21 eight. But the fearful. Right, I’m going to skip the next part because I want you to. I want you to capture what it’s comparing this to. Okay, but the fearful. I’m going to skip this part here. The abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
You know what else it says there? The unbelieving. The unbelieving. I can tell you how many people start out on this path seeking the heavenly Father. But for one reason or another, they begin to go into crazy, wild doctrines, man. They begin to fall for crazy cults out there. They begin to get hurt, wounded. It drives unforgiveness, it drives unbelief, it drives all sorts of things. And if you don’t guard your heart and take all of these thoughts to the heavenly Father so that he can renew your mind and your spirit, you got to be careful.
There’s one more aspect that I want to talk about before we continue here. There are also those that have unbelief because of one reason or another, something that’s happened to them. We want to talk about that as well as we get in here. And I’m talking about necessarily those like in Jeremiah 23, one through six, right will be unto those. Woe be unto the pastures that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, says the Lord.
Right. Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel, against the pastors that feed my people. Ye have scattered my flock. Right. And driven them away, have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doing, says the Lord, and will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their fold, and they shall be fruitful in increase.
And I will set up shepherds over them, which shall feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall I be lacking, saith the Lord. My brother, my sister and the Lord, I don’t know about you, but even when I read this in my, my growth in the faith, right as I’ve been growing, I would read the first part and be like, see, God is warning about these pastors.
But then I had to check myself because I truly didn’t believe that God would set up shepherds to feed me. I truly didn’t believe that. I didn’t have to fear anymore. Neither would I be dismayed, neither would I be without lacking. You know, the devil has so many different ways to cause this unbelief to grow. And if we don’t check ourselves, it’s going to be a situation that will cause a little bit of difficulty, and that little bit of difficulty is going to grow more and more and more and more.
Brother Esteban, we’re going to get to the, to the discussion very shortly. Don’t think that I’m ignoring you. Okay, brother? Brother Chris, are you there? Yes, I’m here, brother. Yes, brother. We talked a little bit about this earlier today. And what are some thoughts that you have, brother? You know, when you had, I think it was a couple days ago, you first mentioned that the thought kept coming back to you, unbelief and hurt, and how the two of them tied together.
And so I just was seeking the Lord and trying to understand. You know, it seems like the Lord does a pretty good job at keeping you and I in one accord. And I guess this time I was just a little slow on the uptake. But God is faithful and through the day today he just made it clear in my heart why what you stated has such great value and needs to be talked about.
And it’s amazing, you know, and I got this. Somebody think about this question, and if you feel like answering it later, you can answer it. We know most of us have permitted the societal norm of how we react to situations instead of how the word instructs us. This seems to be quite evident, particularly in the area of being offended and hurt by others. We as christians need to separate ourselves from the way the world responds.
Unfortunately, we’ve allowed ourselves not only to operate as the world does, but have endorsed it, embraced it, and promoted it. On the surface, these statements may seem bold and uncaring. However, after a deeper look into scripture, it becomes clear that we have collectively missed the mark and continue to promote the poor me attitude, which often locks people into unforgiveness and bitterness. Having the destructive mindset deteriorates who we are to be in Christ and keeps us in an attitude that is not pleasing to our beloved father.
The enemy continues to steal our joy, and we allow him to do so, which continually keeps us in despair. Many people respond like this. If you only knew what I went through, you would understand this is common in the world. But we are not of the world. Our response needs to be biblical, not worldly. So here’s Romans five, three, and four in the amplified classic. Moreover, let us always, always, or let us also be full of joy.
Now let us exalt and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure, affliction and hardship produces patience, unswerving endurance, endurance, fortitude develops maturity of character, approved faith, and tried integrity. The character of this sort produces the habit of joyful and confident hope, of eternal salvation. I look at read through this and I think how many times I missed the mark. I’m not responding in this situation the way I should respond it.
I mean that last few words there. The character of this sort produces the habit of joyful and confident hope, of eternal salvation. First, Thessalonians 516, rejoice, always pray without ceasing. Give thanks in everything, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. So I was going through and reading these, it’s like, oh, my goodness, Lord, you’ve got it about as plain and simple as it can be right there.
Why we need to handle things in our personal lives and how we interact with struggles that we’re facing, because it acts as a supernatural barrier from the enemy messing with us, because he does not want to be around anybody. That’s constantly praising the Lord, that’s constantly giving them glory, that’s constantly thankful in their heart. We’re just creating this barrier after barrier after barrier against the wickedness of the enemy.
And I was just so thankful that tally brought up the topic. He did. And then it led me. I had no clue it was going to lead me this way. And then when I started reading these things, the Lord’s like this. This is the reason why I tell you guys to always rejoice. This is why I don’t want you to be caught in the captive, in the closet of despair or on this hamster wheel that just will give you no opportunity to take a breath.
That’s not what I want for you. That’s not what I intended for you. But we react in these situations many times the way the world reacts. We’ve all been brainwashed to it our entire lives. It’s very, very hard to break away from that. It’s very hard. But I can promise you the word of God can be trusted. And when we make a decision, we are not going to be whipped around by the enemy’s tactics anymore.
We’re going to rely on the word of God and we are going to rejoice and we’re going to keep rejoicing no matter if we don’t feel like we’re sincere about it, until the Lord does a work in us so mighty that we can have the crappiest thing happen to us and we can say, lord, I’m rejoicing in you and you’ve shown me how to do it. That’s what lies ahead of us.
He’s, he’s made it simple. I love you, brother. I love your heart, Chris. I love your heart, man. Keep going. Keep going, man. Um. Matthew 611 and twelve. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven when they persecute the prophets who were before you.
Can you imagine being able to say that was a blessing, that that person just chewed me out and Lord, it’s got a smile on my face because this happened to you, too. And now you’re just letting me experience a little bit of what you experienced. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for loving me that much that you let me experience that. Luke 622 23. Blessed are you when men hate you and when they exclude you and revile you, cast you, cast out your name as evil for the son of man’s sake.
Rejoice in that day and leap. Leap for joy. When’s the last time any of you leaped for joy? Maybe we want to try that tonight, tally before we get office. See, we can all leap for joy in Jesus, for indeed your reward is great in heaven. For in like manner their fathers did do, did do to the prophets. So then I’m not going to read this one because it is a bit lengthy, but it’s first Peter 412 to 16.
If you get a chance, you want to read through that. So just a closing thought or two and then a couple of questions. These scriptures make it quite clear how we are to process and navigate our way through tough situations when we have been treated unfairly. Why is it that we revert to the standard that the world has put forth and not to what the Lord has? The enemy knows that if he keeps us in the wrong mindset, he can cripple us from being useful for the Lord.
One of the most difficult things for us to do is to be a log inspector when we feel as though somebody has wronged us. How many times in any of your lives, and I’m talking to myself, too, when somebody’s really wronged you, is the first thing you’ve been said. Lord, where did I fall short in this situation? Where did I fall short in this situation? And, you know, when we can train ourselves before the Lord to go there first, always, oh, my goodness.
Our compassion for others, our emotions tied to a situation. Because when we really just put it out before the Lord, Lord, I don’t even want to think about that person until you reveal in me what I’ve done wrong and think about that and think about the scripture that we’re supposed to esteem others more high other than ourselves. I think this is one of those kinds of situations when we can do that.
Lord, I’m not going to point my finger at them until I point it at me. Me first. Show me what I’ve done wrong. Show me where I’ve had an error. Show me how I can do better in the future. And so I think if we always keep that in the front of our minds, you know, the other thing it does for us, brothers and sisters, is so important.
We want our putty to always be so, our clay to always be soft. And the minute we start getting offended or getting an attitude or getting this or that, oh, I’m going to tell them this, or if they say this, I’m saying that we become rigid and we’re in the hands of the Lord. He’s like, are you going to move? Are you going to listen to anything I’m saying right now? Or do we just want to be nice and pliable and be able to be shown a possibility of resolving this situation that we never even thought about? If we get all rigid and think we got it figured out, it just.
And I failed at all this, though. Okay, guys. But I can say with a sincere heart, Talia and I know that when we talk about these things, we only are permitted to talk about this with the absence of hypocrisy. Both of us know that we cannot talk about these things unless the Lord has shown us and we have lived it and he has shown us how to overcome the crappy part of our humanity in our flesh.
And so when we say these things and we are falling a little bit short, we’re going to tell you, I still haven’t got this part of it figured out, but I’m beginning to see the path the Lord is laying before me. But I know that the log thing, the Lord, he’s been pushing that on me for years, ever since I was saying that two years back, wasn’t I tell you? Here’s the questions.
And if anybody wants to answer or feels the presence of the Holy Spirit on them, please. When someone has clearly done something wrong against you, do you first scrutinize yourself before the Lord? Do you rejoice in all situations because the Lord has given you an opportunity to grow? We always got to look for what the lesson is. It’s always about the lesson. It’s always about the lesson. You always need to be searching for what that lesson is.
Are you able to take your thoughts captive and not allow the enemy to interfere with the lesson the Lord is trying to teach you? We are instructed to treat those who oppose us with love and kindness. Are you able to do this? Are you willing to commit to the Lord to stop responding the way the world does? Take up your cross, respond the way our savior would. We must be careful as sincere believers to encourage one another in sound biblical doctrine.
If we coddle one another because of situations people have endured, are we obedient to scripture shouldn’t the things that we say and do lead someone to be able to rejoice and be glad in difficulties they experience? How many great learning opportunities have been missed because we are not processing and dealing with situations that would result in our ability to rejoice? That’s awesome, Chris. And for those that were on the live stream and it cut off for like five minutes, I apologize.
I lost power. I have a battery backup on my router and that allowed it to stay on, but I lost power for a moment. So I apologize. But it’s awesome to hear the word and what God is doing. You know, brother Chris, I can tell you that I showed you with you a little bit of the story of my brother, right, with my brother Billy. You know, I almost didn’t make it to the last time we encountered each other in intensive care, because that was the day where I almost, almost, almost, man, if it wasn’t for Jesus Christ, I wouldn’t have.
I would have given in. That was the day, Chris, that the temptation was the most for me to say, man, I’m done. I forget it’s a lie, you know? You know, I’m done. How many times am I going to be called to the hospital to say that he’s in intensive care, and I show up there and he just picks a fight, and then he wants to fight with me, you know, how many times am I going to go, you know what I mean? It’s the logic that the devil tries to put in your heart, you know what I mean? How many times? And I was like, you know, my sister called me.
She’s like, he’s in intensive care. You know, we’re hours away. Can you go? I was like, last time I went, we almost started fist fighting, you know, I’m not trying to do that. He’s lying. He’s not true, you know, because I was letting my heart become very, very, very hard. And Chris, you know, very, very hard. And, man, God convicted me. My wife, she was like, you gotta go.
You’re acting fleshly. You’re not acting the right way. You’re not acting like a man of God, right? You need to repent. You need to go. And, you know, if he’s not in intensive care, we’ll be happy that he’s not, right, but we’re not gonna go there with an attitude. And I remember still going to the hospital, Chris, and showing up, and I still had this, see, because a lot of my trauma came from child.
Like, the reason I like boxing is because I’ve been boxing since I was like ten, fighting my brother, who’s six foot three, you know, so, you know, I’ll grab a shovel. I’ll grab anything to fight him. So anytime I saw him, it was, it was on site, you know what I mean? It was all right, I got it. I got to find a brick. I got to find something to defend myself.
So I allowed that to build in me, Chris, and even as a Christian, even as a Christian, Chris, you know, and I remember going to the hospital, Chris, and I get in there and I’m already, you know, as a Christian, I’m like, man, I’m going to pray, you know, but as, as a brother, I’m like, man, whatever, you know, because I was young. I was still younger back then, you know, I didn’t know any, I was still growing in the faith.
And Chris, if I would have listened to the devil and not gone, I would have never had an opportunity to preach to my brother. It was his last few hours, and he was actually, yes, this time in intensive care, and he was actually dying, you know, and I was so convinced to me that it was a lie because it was a lie so many other times before, and my heart was so humble there, and I had to go to the restroom and just cry before the Lord and repent, you know, and ask the Lord to give me strength so that I can go now and repent before my brother because I had allowed anger to come in the midst of it, you know? Let me play, I pulled up a little.
Let me play you. 45 seconds. This is an, this is a video from, like, 15, very old, okay. This is my dad coming from Puerto Rico to see my brother. And I just want you to see what if I would have listened to the devil, right? And glory to Jesus Christ, I didn’t, I would not have been able to preach to this man. And glory to Jesus Christ.
God saved him. Check this out for just one moment, just so you can see 30 seconds of what me, my hardened heart, would have allowed to happen. 1 second. And I’m not proud to say this stuff, you know, I always like to put myself in a vulnerable position, so, and you’ll my dad, when he’s coming up, he’s like, he already knows how I am. He’s like, did you talk to Billy? You know, they said, yeah, I already handled, I already squashed it, you know, because he knows the, it was not easy, man.
It was so hard. One sec. I’m pausing it because there, when my dad says, before we leave the airport, I have to talk with you because he wanted to. He knew that. He knew the past, you know what I mean? And he knew that my heart was, Chris. My heart was. I might have been preaching the gospel in 2010, 2011, but I had wounds, Chris, that I had not given up yet, you know? So my dad wanted to talk to him, to me.
But my dad also didn’t know my brother was dying. He didn’t know he was that bad. My dad was on, like, he was medicated to fly over because he thought he was sick. He didn’t know that he had hours to live. By the time my dad shows up to the hospital, me and my brother had already made peace. And my brother had repented. And I have repented. And God did awesome things.
But check this out. Only a few more seconds, because it’s just applicable to my own life, of how I. I myself almost allowed that to happen. JP. I love you. JP. No. Yeah, that’s Polo. Mero Papisa Mok. Accept our senior. Amen. Wow, Mr. Cardo, another impossible paracrito. Amen. Available. Okay, papa. Thank you. That right there. The reason I wanted to show that is because if it happened to me, right here, I am preaching the gospel, trying to teach people the word and trying to do everything.
This is like, so many years ago. It could happen to all of us. We can have that built resentment in our heart. You know, that testimony with my brother was awesome because my brother, um, his boyfriend, at that point in time, my brother was inside of me, and, um, his boyfriend was cussing at me, yelling at me, doing a whole bunch of stuff. And, uh, I kept on preaching to my brother.
And they told him that they had to remove his machines. You know, like when they remove your machines to let you go, because he had sepsis, his everything was gone, right? And his boyfriend had the power of control, you know, the power of attorney or whatever you want to call it. So he didn’t want me in the room, right? So I just kept on telling my brother, Billy, listen, repent, okay? Jesus is coming, all right? Right now, it’s not the time for you to have any, man.
I don’t care if you say you love him, whatever. You identify as something you need to believe in Jesus Christ. You know, how God, how poppy raised you. All right, all right. You need to repent, all right? I know that you’re listening to me because he was not his head, you know, dude, when they unplugged him, unplugged him from everything, he actually lasted 12 hours. Twelve to 16 hours awake.
Like, you and I are talking, and he said, tally, I apologize for all I’ve done to you. I repent as well, and thank you for asking for forgiveness as well. I want to accept Jesus Christ as my lord and savior. And he told Edwin, Edwin, listen, you know. You know that I’ve made a lot of changes because up to that point in time, we had talked a couple of weeks ago, Chris, of the changes that my brother had made, you know.
You know, I know that you’re mad at tally because you think that it was him who caused that, but it was Jesus, and I have to give my life over to the Lord. And he said, I heard everything that you were saying when they were disconnecting me when the doctors were here, I heard everything. And if Chris, if I was at a point that I wasn’t going to show up, I wasn’t going to show up, Chris, I was convinced that I was right in not showing up.
I was convinced, thank God for my wife, that she didn’t let me do it. And I was convinced. So if any of you today, you’re wounded, right? This was me in the church, man, as a preacher, you know what I mean? Even most of us in this room, we wouldn’t dare step a foot in the church, you know, but we’re here on Zoom because we feel protected, because you’re on Zoom and everyone can be guarded, you know what I mean? But, man, it’s like me, if like me, your heart was becoming hard and you justified it, man.
And I would have missed out on being able to see my brother and be able to talk with him, you know? What do you think about that, Chris? It was. It was about your questions, you know? Well, I think that the question I have for you now, brother, is what have you learned through those experiences? What have you learned about not being offended? And what have you learned about battling against the enemy? Those are the kinds of things that everybody here can be edified by hearing your answers in those areas, brother, I had to learn psalm 80 411.
You know, the word of God says that God withholds no good thing from us, and sometimes we make ourselves even more of a victim because of things that have happened. You know what I mean? But no matter what you’ve gone through, man, you know what I mean? God withholds no good thing from us, you know, and I’ve learned that through that, that I also had to open up and heal from a lot of church wounds myself, brother.
You know, there was a point in time that even if a brother would say, hey, let’s just hold hands and pray with each other. I’d be like, I’m praying with you at all. You can pray in that corner, and I’ll be over here. You in touch? You know what I mean? Because you go to church and everybody’s like, oh, you know what I mean? It’s like, bro, like, what are you doing? Leave me alone.
You know what I mean? There was a time where I even. This right here, you know, this right here, you know, opening up and talking with all of y’all and being with everybody here and trusting again. And even in ministry support, you know, even in ministry support, you know, there have been people that would be like, hey, can we help out with this? Whatever. No, it’s okay. I’m good.
No, it’s okay. I’m good. Why? Because of wounds, you know? But that experience, Chris, it allowed me to really recognize and understand that the devil can affect our thought life in a way that we probably cannot even imagine. He used my trauma and he even used scripture. He would say, you don’t cast pearls before swine as an example. I’d be like, yeah, that’s right. Amen. Hallelujah. But God was like, howie, repent.
You got to go over there. Don’t try to justify it. You know what I mean? But, man, I honestly, that led Chris to me being able to preach in a funeral home full of homosexuals. They all loved me anyways because they knew me from when I was little. You know what I mean? So there was a lot of them that were abused when they were little. They repented as well.
They accepted Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior. The trickle down effect in that story, Chris, was a positive one. But imagine the trickle down effect, the negative one, that we live every day. It’s a trick. It’s a domino effect, Chris. Oh, if I wouldn’t have. If I wouldn’t have said, you know what, Chris? Okay, let’s start doing these gatherings. I would have postponed it for another year.
You know what I mean? I had to open up myself to say, okay, let’s start. Let’s start doing this. Let’s start. And look, now, I’ve met so many of you that you’ve edified me every single week, you know, seeing the awesomeness of how God is moving, you know? So I know I’ve rambled a lot, man. I’m sorry, but I just felt like sharing that aspect. Chris, I just want to say something real quick to encourage all of you, you know, Heidi or Heidi and I.
Heidi, too. And Tally and I have talked about and mentioned to you guys that we believe part of our role is preparing everybody to do the same thing that we’re doing. To go make disciples, to go lead groups, to have little gatherings. And this is the proof that we know this is true. I’m not going to, because I don’t want to embarrass anybody, but I can name several people that have grown a lot in these past several months and that are being prepared for these kinds of things.
So don’t resist it. Just embrace it and say, lord, I’m an open vessel. You do what you want with me. I really believe this is his will. So that’s all. Ivan, you had your hand up. Yeah, brother, first off, I do want to thank you for sharing that, man, that was very moving, because I think it resonates with me a lot. I have another daughter. I’ve got my wife and I, we got five kids.
What can I say, man? We were late to buy tvs. But, you know, it’s funny, because you mentioned how a lot of your trauma came from your past, came from your childhood, and no doubt I’ve got, you know, a good amount that came from my past. But, man, I think I used to believe it was really the fatherhood trauma, because raising kids is hard, brother, let me tell you, it’s hard, especially when you’re trying to do it on purpose.
With purpose. But a lot of mine came from being a dad. And granted, I think it was probably the boulders that broke the camel’s back, but still, there was. In any case, I’ve got an oldest daughter. And what you said about, you know, the. The scripture, do not cast pearls before swine. I had a therapist tell me that, but it really pertained to my oldest daughter. So I’m a grandfather.
Yeah, I’m actually a grandfather. I’ve got a, you know, awesome two year old grandbaby boy and another one on the way. You know, they unfortunately were not, you know, conceived under the best circumstances. You know, in so many ways. Like, just from an honor point of view, just from family. And as a father, my daughter essentially, like, you know, as parents, we say, well, you didn’t listen to me.
Um, no, she listened. It’s just that absolutely everything we said not to do, she purposely did the opposite. Um, and, you know, as a dad, especially when they’re older, all you can do is just kind of sit back, especially when they’re living out the house, and just pray and cry and just, you know, just hope that they get it. That’s it because, you know, we were that age, too, I guess.
I would like your thoughts. Well, first off, just to kind of share a little bit about where my heart is with her and also kind of, you know, whatever thoughts you’d like to bounce back on that or anybody else for that matter. My daughter has. She moved out in October, late October, over a five year time span. She left the house four times. Every time she came back, she was in worse condition as far as, you know, legal things, you know, drugs, being pregnant, you know, being taken advantage of by her, you know, baby daddy and all that stuff.
And, you know, each time my wife and I, you know, we’re like, hey, you know, just listen to, you know, look at what has happened. Even his own mama told you he’s not good news. And, you know, but everything, just that pridefulness, you know, and again, I’m recognizing where that came from. I mean, the apple don’t fall far from the tree in that regard. Right. But I got to a point, bro, where I really had to draw the line in the sand with her.
And, you know, and I think this also fed a lot of my struggles with my belief because, you know, just like with my other daughter, this one I’m praying for as well. This one I’m really trying to, like, lord, you know, like, I. It got to a point where the enemy was really making me question, you know, just really beat up on myself, you know, and, like, you raised them like, look, it’s you.
It’s you. Everything you did wrong. And while I’m not, I’m not at all, you know, negating or even marginalizing a lot of the errors I made as a young dad. I mean, I was 17, you know, I was 16 when my son was born, 17 when she was born, you know, so, you know, no, that growing up without a dad, no training, you make stupid decisions. But I got to a point with her, man, like, where it was really becoming, I know it’s an overutilized word these days, but toxic.
And I had a counselor that I’m seeing, she’s a Christian. And even she pulled that verse to me saying, well, even the word says do not cast pearls before swine. And obviously, in that context, I don’t believe it’s Jesus necessarily calling these people swine or dogs more than it is. If you’re trying to help somebody and they don’t want to be helped, stop, you know? And of course, that doesn’t mean not pray for them because I continuously prayed for her.
But we got to a point where what we had initially set as a goal date for her to move out, it turned into a hard deadline because, again, like, you know, we was finding weed and, you know, just all sorts of things. It’s like, yo, man, like, you’re a mom now. Come on, you know, think of Tamako. Like, you gotta, you gotta, you got to think better, you know? And, you know, just, long story short, it was just, it got to a point where, you know, where she had to go and, you know, it was, it was all ultimatum, you know, it’s like, you’re still welcome to stay, but, you know, you got to abide by this.
You got to do this and ultimately try and let us help you. So, you know, she recently moved down with my in laws down in south Texas, and this past weekend actually was the first time I saw her. And, you know, in a while, I should say, since. Since November. And, you know, it’s just, I think it was healing. I do believe that God ordained whatever words I was saying to her because it was really uplifting.
It was really encouraging. But, man, bro, I totally get where you were coming from. Where I was like, man, I don’t want to talk to her because every time I do, it’s like, what’s the point? I’m talking to a brick wall, like, you know what I’m saying? And then I get really irritated when people cause, like, if they knowingly cause a problem, especially when everybody and their mama says, don’t do this, and then you do it, and then you complain about the consequence, that’s difficult for me.
You know what I’m saying? It’s like that grace only goes so far right there. So in any case, you know, I’m glad to say, you know, I hugged my daughter. I told her I missed her. I told her I love her. I’m still praying for her. I’m still praying for my, my grandbaby and the other one still in the oven. You know, there’s a lot of heartache going on in her right now, and, you know, but I think she’s where she needs to be.
My in laws are loving godly people, so, you know, but I didn’t. But I’d love your thought on that, bro, because, you know, I I’ve wrestled with that, you know, again, it’s, it’s, you know, don’t waste your time. It’s, you know, you’re casting pearls before swine, but, like, she’s still my daughter, you know, I’m saying, and it’s hard. So let’s go to Chris on that one, because Chris.
Chris is older than me, and he has a lot more experience with that. What do you think? You know, it kind of goes back to the. Looking for the log in our own eye. And when the Lord makes me realize the things that I’ve done over time, it gives me more compassion. And when I feel like giving up on somebody, the Lord reminds me. Do you think you were easy, Chris? Do you think the amount of time I spent trying to get you to see all your heirs and your wicked ways, you weren’t easy.
So I prepared you to be able to deal with situations that are difficult. You should rejoice in it. I dealt with you. Now you deal with someone else. And I think the answer to all of it, for all of us, some of you are gifted with compassion. I wasn’t. I had a very loving mother. You would think that the upbringing I had, she had 26 foster kids, plus six of her own kids.
This woman loved children. Loved children. There was always different children around the table. We would eat, and she was just gushing with it. But for me, it wasn’t until the lord put it in me, and he put it in me dealing with someone that had spent 17 years in prison. He was 34 years old when he got out of prison, and so he went in very young, had all kinds of horrific things happen to him in prison.
But this guy was really difficult to be around. And, you know, he was. Had tattooed on his back Satan’s disciples. He ran with about three different gangs. And I walked up on him before I go to this guy’s house several times, and there would be drugs and weapons and things, and they were freaking out, or they were thinking, like, what are you doing, old man, walking up on us with these guns and things.
I said, listen, my day to go is not up to you guys. It’s up to him. And, you know, the Lord just put that strength in me. But the reason I’m even telling you that about this guy is that the Lord put compassion in me to love him no matter what. He threatened Heidi and I. He said he was going to send his boys over to take care of us and stuff, and it didn’t matter what he said, you know, he didn’t put a pistol to my head, but he did everything.
Short of that. I still love the guy. I’m like, this ain’t me. I would have kicked this dude to the curb the first few days of meeting him. And this went on for six months. And so all I can say is that if you feel like, you need extra compassion to deal with the situation, because just like with tally, you never know when you’re the last hope set before this person for the Lord.
And, man, we don’t want to find that out before the throne of Jesus, you know? So I think you still have to use wisdom. You have other family members, you have situations you have to protect, and so you have to use wisdom in those. But, you know, he didn’t give up on us. He didn’t give up on me. He should have. He didn’t. I’m glad he didn’t. And, you know, even this guy, I still pray for him, and I.
And I still believe maybe at some point there’ll be something that he’ll be able to receive from the Lord. You know, he was so close, but the enemy was just tormenting this guy horrendously. You can imagine wearing a tattoo that says Satan’s disciples, what was going in and out of this guy all the time with something. But through that situation, the Lord filled me with compassion. And the interesting thing about it, it stayed.
I mean, this has been going on a year ago now. When I last interacted with this guy, and I meet other people that I don’t know and stuff, and there’s this. There’s my son, there’s my daughter, and I just. I’m able to look past what my eyes may tell me, how they may look or whatever, that, you know, I want to look into their heart. I want to know what the Lord’s telling me, what the Holy Spirit’s telling me.
So, you know, at minimum, you will learn how to be more compassionate, because when you’re dealing with situations that are really tough, you know that his compassion working in you is what makes it tolerable and actually easy. And you can feel the camaraderie with the Holy Spirit saying, you know what? I’m having you go through this because you know what’s coming. It’s going to be tougher. And that’s where we always have to look.
That’s why you guys hear me say so much. What is the lesson? That’s what we always want to be asking. What is the lesson? Because the next one that’s coming is meant to fit on top of the one we’re supposed to be learning right now, and we don’t learn this one right now. There’s a good possibility the next 1 may not come or it may be really delayed.
So, yeah. Amen. Amen. It’s always good advice, you know, and, you know, it’s awesome that we’ve been able to talk about these things, you know, and all of these things we’ve talked about. Cause unbelief, you know, and it’s important for us to guard our hearts and make sure that we. We’ve always talked about this. Be our own log inspectors. You know, what could I have done better? You know, how could I have improved? For me, it was very humbling with my brother.
Very, very humbling. It really. It was very healing, actually. Very, very healing for him and for me. So, yeah, God is so, so awesome. I do see some faces here that are. Haven’t seen before or maybe I have missed, but Raquel Thomas, thank you for being here. Raquel, are you there? I don’t want to put you on the spot. How you doing? I listen to you. I listen to your.
To your sermons all the time. Ah, glory to God. That’s awesome. Yeah, I needed this tonight. I was going to go on another Bible study tonight, but this had popped up on my feed right before I was getting ready to go in. I was like, I needed this because I’m going through with two sons with mental illness, a daughter that’s on drugs. And sometimes it is hard to love.
It is. Oh, my God. And I even say love. Show compassion. And one thing, Mister Chris said that you gotta remember where you came from. And I know I have done some things in my life and look where I am today. So I have to extend that grace. But it’s so hard. Oh, my God, it’s hard. You know, I’m proud of you, though. I’m proud of you. And, you know, we’re always here for you.
And, you know, we’re here every Wednesday. And we also have women’s Bible study groups as well. If you’re on YouTube and you want to join on that, I’ll go ahead and put the emails on there so you can email Sister Heidi so you can sign up for those. Or, brother Chris. All of these things are free. Just free support groups that we have for you. And. And coming in May, we’re going to have a lot of awesome stuff.
So thank you for taking the time, Raquelle, and we’ll be praying for you. Okay? You’re not alone. All right, thank you. And thanks for sharing. That clip with your brother right there. Encouraged me that I believe my son gonna come out of this. This life of homosexuality. He is. He will. He will. And everything you’ve preached to him, he knows. I want you to know that. Okay. Cuz my brother, when he was in his deathbed, he sung all of the corridors that you can think of.
In Puerto Rico, we sing corridos. You know, we don’t. It’s. It’s. It’s diff. It’s. It’s very pentecostal ish type of thing. But he knew them all. He sung them all for, like, all the hours he was up. So everything you say they know, they remember. So don’t lose. Don’t lose that hope. Okay? I’m not. All right. You’re awesome. All right. We love you, Sister Raquel. Whatever you need, please let us know.
Okay. All right. Thank you. Love y’all, too. All right, Esteban, we’re gonna go with you in a moment. Go ahead and get ready. I see Rosalind. Rosalind. How you doing, Rosalynn? I’m doing awesome. And you? Good. What are you doing? Are you like a nurse? Yes, I am. Talk to me. What’s going on? That’s awesome. Actually, today is the first time I’ve seen your face. Oh, that’s funny.
You know, I’ve watched your videos over the years and I’m like, lord, someday I’m going to be this man. Somewhere, somehow. I don’t know. But I love all your teachings and everything. I’ve been in America for 20 years, and I must say you are one of the few people I’ve seen and listen on YouTube that really speak with the Holy Spirit backing, like, inspired by the Holy Spirit.
And I have the Holy Spirit. So when someone is lying through their teeth and whatever they are saying is for the views and for the money and for everything, the Holy Spirit gets spitted out that this person is this or that. And you are one of the few that the spirit of God told me that you are genuine. So I’ve been following you. Yeah. And then, I don’t know, suddenly YouTube didn’t show your videos again.
So I’m like, I don’t know whether you stop preaching or doing the work of God or. I don’t know what happened. Glory to Jesus. Mister Rosslyn, what happened is, is that when the jab, you know, the COVID thing happened, I got banned a couple of times. So I’ve had a lot of strikes on my channel. So when you’re. When you have strikes, it doesn’t really. They, you know, because of the algorithm, they have to pop out sometimes, you know, like, to punish you.
So a lot of people don’t see this stuff, but, you know, I’m glad you’re here, Rosalind. Glory to Jesus Christ and all things. I was so excited when I saw your life. I’m like, oh, yeah, it’s an honor that you’re here, and please know that we’re here for you. And on the screen, there’s an email if you want to sign up for the women’s group or men’s group.
It’s a blessing, you know, it’s always good to see that there are brothers and sisters in the Lord. And I saw you, I was like, oh, I haven’t seen her. Here, let me say hi. You know, it’s a. It’s a. It’s a. It’s. It’s. This. This fuels me. You know, this is. I was talking to someone earlier today that I would rather us be like. This is why I’m making the thumbnails, how I’m making them for these live streams.
Very bland, very easy, very. Because I would rather it just be ten people, and we’re actually wanting to be here and get edified, you know, that it’d be a lot of people, and we’re not really focused on the right thing, you know? So I just love you guys so much and always hold me accountable. Hold us all accountable, because without Jesus, we’re in so much trouble, you know, Stefan, you had your hand raised.
You still there, my brother? I don’t know if you hear me. I don’t want you to think that I want to hit you up. Hey, sorry. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Definitely appreciate what you guys are saying. Four things. Well, first of all, I remember, actually, when you first aired that video with your brother and your dad. I remember when you first aired that video was touching then, and it’s still touching now because I still am working through a process of forgiving, you know, some family members of mine, namely my mom and my dad.
And so, you know, it definitely is a process. But, you know, and what’s funny is that we. You know, I just had a blow up with her literally, on Easter Sunday that literally had nothing to do with her or anything. And she just kind of went off on me and, you know, but I wanted to say four things, because you had said way back when you had first started speaking about how the enemy uses logic and unbelief.
And while I’m not going to disagree with you, I’m going to say that he uses confusion and lies, but mainly confusion, which leads to unbelief, because if you remember, because you mentioned, because you had first went to Genesis, you know, did God really say that’s confusion? Because that confused Eve, because that got her thinking, you know. Well, did he technically you know, did he? It’s just always confusion.
You know, when Jesus was going to raise Lazarus, his sister didn’t not believe because she even says in John, what was that? John eleven, I believe you quoted. Her sister believed because she said, john 1139. Yeah, yeah. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. So it’s not that she had a lack of belief, she just had a confusion.
You know, Jesus told her, I am the resurrection and the life. And so again, remember one thing, the enemy believes in Jesus. The issue is not belief. The issue is truth versus lies. And I think when you get confused, you believe the lies. That’s why he’s the father of lies. See, he masked his lies in confusion and deception. And, I mean, you go from there to. There was another example you used.
I forget which one. But, you know, especially in this day and age, I think confusion, which is really. Deception, is going to be a big issue as a. Because people will believe lies. Confusion happens when you hear the truth and you hear lies even though you know one’s true and you know one’s a lie and you get confused. And so. But our God is not a God of confusion.
And so, yeah, I just think that, you know, it’s just, what do you know to be true? And that’s the main thing. What do you know to be true? Because if you know in your heart what to be true, you won’t be confused and you won’t believe the lies. Now, that’s easier said and done because we’re human beings. And of course, the enemy, while he can’t read our minds, he can definitely put thoughts in our minds because he studies us.
He knows our weaknesses and all of that. And like brother Chris said about, you know, rejoicing. Rejoicing in hardship, he’s. He’s right. Rejoicing closes that door to any kind of confusion. And, Stefan, if I may ask you, your mom, how are you guys cool right now? How’d y’all end up, you and your mom? I mean, you know, I sent her a text message. Matter of fact, tomorrow is her and my dad’s anniversary.
Okay. And, you know, I sent the text message saying, you know, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen. Because, look, I’ll be the first to admit I’ve not been the best son. Even though they made a lot of mistakes as parents. Yeah, I’ve not been the best son. And that’s putting it mildly. Gotcha. I got you, um, and. And forgiveness. Is hard, which yet, you know, um, but we’re commanded to do it.
And I just wanted to point out to, um, I just wanted to, you know, I was listening to Brother Ivan, and I couldn’t help but think about, you know, what he was talking about, what he went through with his, with his child, his daughter. And I couldn’t help but go to Deuteronomy 20 118, and it talks about a rebellious son. And it says, if a man has a rebellious and stubborn son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, though they discipline him and will not listen to him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him, bring him out to the elders of his city.
At the gate of the place where he lives. They shall say to the elders of this city, this is, our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard. Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. You shall purge evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear and fear. Now, not suggesting or not suggesting that anybody should stone their children, I would be, I want to be clear about that.
You’re an Old Testament style. Stevon’s like, let’s go stone him. Not suggesting that. But the, but, but two things that I’m trying to make a point is that, you know, if you remember in the ten Commandments, the Lord said, honor your father and mother, that your days may be long. He took that serious because your father and mother really, not that they’re God. They’re not, obviously, but they are the first form or line of authority in a person’s life.
Because if you can’t be obedient, if you can’t obey and be obedient to your parents, you’re certainly going to have a hard time being obedient to your heavenly father. There is some correlation. People may disagree with that. That’s fine. But I personally believe there is some correlation because it literally said that the days may be. And literally, I just read, if you’re not, you’re to be stoned to death.
Again, not suggesting that we should do that. Now I got you. So this is what I would, this is what I would say. Step on because we got to go to, we’re going to be praying for everybody right now. Sure, I get what you’re saying. I think that let’s apply that to the like right now with your mom, what you’re going through. We’re talking about honoring our parents and our mothers, right? So and I’m certainly trapped.
Exactly. So now what we want to do is we want to go ahead. And one of the things Chris and I talked about was, before we leave, we wanted to make sure that as we talked about the things that we’ve talked about today, that we leave here and we apply them to ourselves. And that aside from that, that you’re ready and prepared. Because nine times out of ten, after we talk about a topic on here, Esteban, everyone on here, you may be attacked on these very same issues this week.
You know, you may now start going through all of these moments that, that, um. That you’re going through. Chris, you can eloquently say a little bit better than I am. Right. Can you share that, Chris, real quick? Well, certainly we know for a fact that when the Lord reveals new revelations to us and the enemy hates what was revealed to us, he’s going to do everything he can to steal it.
Just like, you know, when the seeds are spread out and he’s going to come and pluck them right out of us if we can. So we have the opportunity to either be obedient to God’s word and what comes before us and gain an upper hand on the enemy, or we can let him manipulate us and cause us to stay in the same situation we are without learning the understanding that the Lord’s trying to get us to learn.
Amen. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And it’s been an awesome night. We’ve talked a lot about the attitude that we can have when we have unbelief. We’ve talked about the testimony with my brother. We talked about so many other examples that we’ve all used here. Ivan, Chris, every single one of us. Um, we’re going to head to prayer in just a moment. We talked about Esteban with his situation with his mother.
Right. God bless my brother Esteban. And I’m praying for their relationship as well. Um, we’re going to head to prayer for all the prayer requests that we have on YouTube and even some that were posted here on the page. As we go into prayer briefly, I want to. I want to pray for all of us, if we can, before we go to that prayer, just so that if you add a point in your life that, like me, you find yourself, that you’re that guy, like tally that almost said no to go preach to his brother and it was his last moment.
Right? Or you have something in your heart that you know that it shouldn’t be there. We started the video with David Wilkerson where he said, you’re changing, right? You’re changing in the exterior, man. I had hallelujahs, glory to gods. I had all the right speeches, all the right phrases. But there was something in the heart that was changing. It was either. And you don’t. We don’t know what it is in your life, right? It could be bitterness towards your husband, bitterness towards a friend, bitterness towards a son, bitterness towards your mom, bitterness towards a father.
I don’t know what it is. Right? Maybe God’s called you to be a preacher, a teacher, a pastor, whatever, and things aren’t going your way, you know, and it could be frustrating and unbelief is starting to creep in, right? All right. Like Moses. Moses. What happened to Moses? We read it earlier when Moses in numbers 2012. Right. He missed out on that promised land. I want us to pray real quick so that we can all just make sure that as we leave here today, you know that you may get tested on some of the things that we’ve actually been talking about.
Okay? And if you at any you point in time today feel that any of this message was applicable to you, that you can turn it over to Jesus Christ, okay? And keep on posting your prayer request on YouTube because we’re going to pray for them in just a moment. Okay? But right there in your house, let’s go ahead and pray. Okay. All right. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for your dear son, Jesus Christ.
Heavenly Father, you have brothers and sisters watching either the replay or some are watching it live. Others are here in the zoom room. Heavenly Father, you know our hearts better than. Than anybody else. Even before we speak, you know every little detail. You’re just kind enough to be such an awesome dad that you still ask us what’s wrong. Tally, what’s wrong? Michelle, what’s wrong? Sarita? What’s wrong? Candace, what’s wrong? What’s going on? Talk to me, Chris.
Right? Because he’s that awesome that the God that controls the waves and tells the waves, okay, you can only come up to here, right? And it obeys that the God that tells the sun, the moon, to say, hey, okay, you got it. You got to come up here. You got to go down there. But yet he still takes that time as a father to probe and ask you the questions and say, how are you doing, Ivan? He knows how you’re doing, but he still takes the time, right? Don’t take that for granted.
Don’t take for granted the fact that the heavenly Father is probing you today and convicting you today. He’s asking you to live a holy life for him. He’s asking you to follow his instructions. He’s asking you to forgive. He’s asking you to move past it. Just being lip service and now actually proceeding with it now being part of your walk. I don’t know what it is for you, but I can tell you that for me, even as a brother that was in the church, my heart was being hardened.
And I might have fooled people, but I wasn’t fooling the heavenly Father. There’s nothing more beautiful than repentance. And if today you need that right there where you’re at, right there you’re at. We don’t have to do no altar call or nothing like that and knock you out and put a blankie on you. No, no. But right there where you’re at, the Holy Spirit. Spirit, ask him, what do I need to fix in my life? And he will answer.
And we’re going to submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee. Because no temptation has overtaken you except that which is common to man. But with the temptation, he provides a way out. I know some of you are hurt, and I know some of you are wounded. I know some of you are feeling like giving up. And I know others of you feel like this is just too much for you.
Hang in there. Hang in there. God’s not done yet. He’s just getting started. Hang in there. Hang in there. Hang in there. All right. In Jesus mighty name, amen. All right. And if you need something, email us@brothernatalia. com. Underscore we also have a couple of emails on there for a men’s group and women’s group. Okay. If you need something, Chris tfgservemail. com. Heidi dot tfgservemail. com. If you need to talk to a sister, do it.
It’s free. It doesn’t cost you anything. All right? Just know that we’re there for you. If you need something, email me@brothernipitalia. com. Also there for you as well. All right. And we’re going to go ahead and pray for all the prayer requests. Heidi, are you going to be doing this? Or Shannon, who’s going to be doing this today? I have the privilege of doing it tonight. Awesome, awesome, awesome.
Father God, we give you thanks for bringing each soul here tonight. Lord, whether it was through the YouTube or those that may be listening at later times, Lord, we believe that you brought them here for a reason, for a purpose, so that they could draw close to you. And Lord, we love your promise that says without faith, it’s impossible to please you, God, but because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Lord, thank you for that. It’s about relationship with you. There is no other God to go to. You are the only true living God. That is why we were drawn here and drawn many times. When you have prompted our heart to do what is right, you’ve prompted our heart to seek after you. Lord, thank you for your holy spirit. We ask to be melted and broken so that our hearts would be seeking after you for eternal life.
Lord, we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by your word. Thank you for the word that’s been spoken. Thank you, Lord God, that we can just be still and know that you are God. Oftentimes the enemy wants us to be rushed into making decisions. And, Lord, we know that you are a slow to anger God. And Lord, may we be ever so mindful that the same measure of mercy that we show to others, that same measure gets shown to us.
Lord, I believe as your word says, that when your word goes out, it doesn’t return void. I’m believing tonight as we proclaim your word to each other and to those that are lost in this world and to family members, Lord, that you would aid us through your holy spirit to speak your truth in loving kindness. Lord, believing that it will be heard. Lord God, we ask that the enemy would be able to remove your word.
Says that he blinds the eyes of the unbelievers. Lord, we ask that that would be removed from those that are lost around us. Lord, our children. We’ve got people with prayer requests for their children. Lord, we want the enemy’s blinders off our children’s eyes. Lord God. And as Zane had mentioned in the chat, Lord, help my unbelief. May we, by faith, all of us bow down, whether we physically bow down or bow down in our hearts and give you the honor that you fully deserve the full attention without distraction, that you fully deserve for people’s souls, our own souls, and for others souls.
Lord, eternity is on the line. Father, we pray for Natasha. She says she’s wounded. Lord. May she, Lord, reject any lies from the enemy that wants to keep her in this state of mind. Lord, of unforgiveness that she may have. Lord, towards her mother and towards her children’s father. Lord, may natasha be able to make steps, Lord, by faith, knowing that you are the healer and that you can heal her so that she can move forward, Lord, and exchange the sorrow of bitterness.
For joy. Lord, we pray for Nancy’s hip, Lord, that this has been a discomfort for her. And we do ask for your healing touch to be upon her. Lord God, as she by faith, Lord, has put it on a request for us to mention tonight. Lord, we pray for Ernest and Amy. They have a concern that they want prayer for. And so, Lord, we lift that up to you, Father, believing that you will guide them and direct them.
And that your favorite lord would be with them as they make decisions concerning an issue that they have. Lord, we pray also for free through Christ, wanting to be strong in faith. Free through Christ. May you read God’s word, knowing that faith does come by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Each and every time you pick up the word. May you ask God to give you understanding.
And may you ask the Holy Spirit to fill you as you read the word. And then knowing that your love for your king of kings and Lord of lords will increase. We do pray, too, that your declining health, free through Christ, would be improving. That it is your life is in your father’s hands. And that each breath you take, that you would use it for his honor and for his glory.
So, Father, we do ask that there would be peace that would come upon free through Christ. That they indeed would be free, entrusting their life in your hands for your glory. We also pray for Myra’s friend, Paige. Paige has been struggling with smoking and also has seizures. Lord, we pray that faith would be able to have strength. In realizing that this is not good for her body, Lord, and we just pray that also Myra would be able to give her encouraging words.
I would just say, because I’ve done this before, that Paige would just have a disdain for the taste of that draw, of the nicotine, Lord. That it would just become repulsive to her. So that it wouldn’t be a comfort, but more of a discomfort to her. So we do pray for good health for Paige. That, Lord, according to your perfect will in her life. That she draws close to you, Lord, in this period of time.
Pray for Jacqueline, for her daughter to walk with Jesus and be in his ways. Lord, what a wonderful thing for a parent to always want to have their children to walk with you. And, Lord, we pray for this young woman. Young child, Lord, that the enemy would not be interfering with this young person. Or with her daughter’s life. And that this daughter’s heart would be softened to you.
Please draw her to you, Lord Jesus, so that she can enjoy the fullness that you have for those who put their trust in you. We pray for Sherry Nesbitt and her son, who’s autistic, Lord, that Matthew would be able to come to his senses, Lord, that through this difficult time with his dad trying to allow witchcraft to be a form of healing, Lord, we hate the sounds of that.
And we just ask that Matthew would be protected from this evil practice that his father is allowing to take place. Lord, we are wanting your shield of protection upon him and that Matthew would be able to be healed, Lord God, so please be with sherry as she’s dealing with this situation, Lord, that the husband would not continue in this anymore, that he wouldn’t be deceived by the father of lies to think that witchcraft is going to do good.
And may he come to his senses realizing that it’s you, Father God, that is the healer and that it’s you, the truth that can help his son. So we pray for sherry, that she can hear your voice, Lord God, through these times and be able to speak when she needs to speak, Lord, through the Holy Spirit and have discernment, Lord, we pray for her protection and Matthew’s protection as well.
You’re also thankful to hear from Heidi. She has praised for improvements for her mother Linda, thankful to hear bypass surgery. Praise God. Thank you. That she has improvements. And we’re also praying for Wes for his cancer treatments, Lord, that are up and coming. That, Lord, they would take well and that this cancer would be removed from his body. So please be with Heidi as she cares for her mother and her stepfather, Lord, that she can be a source of light and encouragement for them as they’re recovering and starting treatments.
We pray for Raquel. We’re thankful she was here for her first time tonight. And we could just sense the love in her heart for her children. So we pray that her children would be drawn to you, Lord God. And the only special way that you can do, Lord, that they would be compelled to exchange the ways of this world for your ways and not be deceived by the enemy any longer.
We pray for Zane’s brother, Amu Moses, who’s being persecuted in Nigeria. Lord, we ask that you would have a shield of protection over Amu and, Lord, that he may be able to continue and stand firm and steadfast in you, Lord, during this time. That as a soldier of truth, that he, Lord Jesus, would pick up his cross daily and he’s most likely experiencing things that we may never experience.
So we pray for this soldier in Christ to be able to withstand all the attacks from the enemy and never, ever forsake your name but proclaim your name in all of the breaths that he takes. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your love. And we also pray for. Oh, yes, we pray for him. Since Amu is a pastor and that there are many people being killed and martyred there in Nigeria.
Lord, we are. We are believing that you will be with us in those times when they approach us, Lord, if that is to be so. So empower us, Lord Jesus, as only you can. May we die to self and live fully in you. And we can only do this through your holy spirit and being filled with your perfectness. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for making a way for us to come to the throne tonight with these requests of hearts full of love for the ones that were being requested and also for our faith that it would be increased evermore.
And this is only can be done by you and our seeking after you daily with hearts full of love in your name, Jesus. Yeshua, we pray. Amen. That was awesome. That was awesome. Thank you, Sister Heidi. It’s a blessing. It’s always a blessing when we can be, be with each other, pray with each other, care for each other. You know there’s nothing greater than that, right? And for those of you that are on YouTube, I want you to know that we’re there for you, okay? Anything that we could ever be of any assistance, let us know.
It would be an honor to be there for you. You know, I really enjoy my time with all of you here every day, every week that we come together and just thank you. Thank you for being there, my brothers, my sisters. Before we go, I do see a gentleman named Lyle Matsuoka came in. How you doing? How you doing, Lyle? Let me unmute you. Let me see. Can you hear me? Let me see.
Let me see. Can you hear me? How you doing, man? How you doing? I’m doing good, thank you. Can you hear me? How you doing, man? How you doing? Okay. I got you. Got you. Well, I just want you to know that I’m grateful that you came by, Lyle. Okay. I saw that you wanted to come in and just didn’t want you to think that I didn’t want to say thank you for being here.
Okay, man. And just didn’t want you to think that I didn’t want to say thanks for being here. Okay, man. So, lal, I’ll tell you, I’m going to mute you. That way we don’t have the echo. So the way it works, every Wednesday we come together around 630 Lyle. And if you hit me up on. On Facebook or whatever, I’ll put the link on there for you, you know, I mean, one of the things that you can do to avoid the echo, bro, is little headset like this.
Just put it on your computer, on your device. That way you don’t have the echo, because I was going through the same thing. And, Lyle, man, you’re welcome. Here every Wednesday, man. Every Wednesday. You’re welcome. We have men’s group to women’s group, and it’s awesome to see you here. Okay. Just want you to know that. All right. Okay. Awesome. Awesome question. I think that for next week, Tiana, Zane, can you guys bring some devotionals? You think? Five, 5% of y’all cool with that? Yeah.
Cool. All right, cool. So five to seven minutes, ten minutes, whatever God leads you. You know what I mean? It’ll be a blessing. And, brother Ivan, you too, man. If you. If you can bring something for, you know, for next week, too, that’ll be awesome. So we can keep on getting developed each other. Okay? This is about us keeping developing each other. And that’s a blessing in that regards.
And we’re about to shut down on YouTube. The YouTube live. But again, as I say, every single week, thank you for taking the time to be here. Make sure that everything that we discussed today, you take it and let it. Soak it into your spirit a little bit and try to see how it could apply to you. And be cautious, because a lot of what we talked about today, you may just encounter a lot of these things this week.
So stay firm. Stay. Keep on casting down all these imaginations to the word of Jesus Christ and stay encouraged. God is awesome. God is awesome. What do you think, Chris? I just want to know if Tiana and Zane were thinking that Tali forgot and he wasn’t gonna actually ask you guys because you both seemed like, oh, man, I almost got through this. Hallelujah. Yeah. I was like, I gotta.
I gotta let him know, so that’s cool. And that’s a blessing. So I’m excited. If you came. If you came on YouTube. Thank you for being here. And every weekend we have our weekend videos and documentaries, so keep on tuning in for those. And for those that came in a little bit late to the Wednesday gathering, I’m sorry that we’re shutting it down, but just know next week we’ll be here a little bit earlier.
And I look forward to seeing you loud there, Raquel, thanks for visiting. Please know we’re here every Wednesday. You know what I mean? Keep on coming. Michelle, thank you for being here, sis. Christina, Myra, thank you for being here. Myra, Rosalind, Esteban, Crystal, Sarita, Tony, Mary, Kizzy, Katharina. All of you. You know, Ivan, Shannon. I know I’m missing names, but thank you for being here. I don’t take any of you for granted, okay? And on YouTube, I don’t take any of you for granted either.
Love you guys very much. All right, so I’m going to shut it down on YouTube, but we’ll still be here on Zoom. And brother Chris will take it over on Zoom. Love you guys. .
