It's going to be a little different tone today. I won't be shouting and spitting quite as much as I usually do because. This sermon Is for those in his church. and are watching online. They're going through it.
You're hurting. You're suffering. You're in pain right now. It could be a job loss. It could be a kid that's gone off the rails.
It could be a cancer diagnosis. Could be a divorce. I'm speaking to those of you who are hurting today. Secondly, I'm also speaking to those of you who want to minister to somebody in your life that's hurting. I'm going to share some things with you, but...
The things I share with you, you're going to need to get the Holy Spirit's wisdom on the timing of sharing this, okay? You don't just go up to somebody who's hurting and say, God is good all the time, let's sing to Jesus. You need to get God's timing on this. In fact, I love this one paraphrase of Proverbs 25:20. Quote, singing light-hearted songs to the heavy-hearted is like pouring salt into their wounds.
I will say to those of you who Have been through suffering. who have been through hurts. Or going through it right now. And Christians. Said some well-meaning But ill-advised things to you.
I know sometimes we say stupid things, but give us. a little bit of grace. A lot of us, we just don't know what to say. And sometimes when we don't know what to say, we may say the wrong thing.
So let's just have grace. What do I say to people? Who are hurting? And suffering. You know, I've been studying this past week some experts in In crisis, counseling people who are going through crisis, counseling people who are going through hurting.
And it's amazing. They say, here are some principles, here's some things that expert counselors say to people who are going through crisis. What amazes me Is some of these things that modern-day experts say that we ought to be saying to people going through crisis and who are hurting? Peter says the exact same thing in 1 Peter 1:6 through 9. Isn't it great when modern counseling or modern medicine or modern science finally catches up with the Bible?
Peter said these same things 2,000 years ago. Hallelujah. And keep in mind This is written in the early 60s A.D. And here are the circumstances around what I'm about to read to you. Nero is a crazy man.
He's just burnt down half the city of Rome because he wants to rebuild the city. People are pointing fingers at him, and he says, it wasn't me, it was the Christians that did it. And so now everybody's turning their guns on the Christians. And Peter is writing this letter to a group of Christians living in modern-day Turkey because the persecution started in Rome, but now it's spreading to modern-day Turkey. And here's what Peter says to these Christians.
You think you're going through a tough time?
Some of them have lost their job because they're Christians.
Some of them have gone to prison because they're Christians.
Some of them We'll be tortured. And die because they follow Jesus Christ. And Peter says to them in 1 Peter 1:6, in this. You greatly rejoice. They're now for a little while, if need be.
You have been grieved by various trials. That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Whom having not seen you love. But now you do not see him. Yet believing You rejoice.
With joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end or the goal or the purpose of your faith, which is the salvation of your souls. I want to give five words. to those today who are suffering and hurting. Five words. I told the other two services.
I wanted to alliterate these things. I always think it's cool when I can alliterate or rhyme. I can't alliterate, I can't rhyme, so I'm gonna give you five words, okay? Here's the first word to those of you who are suffering, or you want to minister. To somebody who's suffering, the first word is this, validation.
Simply put, the experts who deal with people, and then again, one guy I read, he does like seminars on helping people who are hurting. Here's what they say. Fundamentally, what people need when they are hurting and they're going through it, they just need somebody to validate, to affirm, yeah, you're hurting. I understand, you're hurting. I recognize your suffering.
We need somebody to say, I don't understand all the ins and outs. I don't even know all that you're feeling, but I affirm, yeah, you are hurting. In the book of Job, y'all read that book before? He lost. Ten kids in one day.
Lost everything in one day. And he has a bunch of friends come alongside of him and say, Well, maybe they're sinning your life. What did you do? They're doing all these empty platitudes. And Job did not need any of that.
All he needed is somebody to come by and say. I cannot believe what you're going through. You're suffering, and I'm sorry. That's all he needed. If you want to minister to somebody who's suffering, the first thing you have to do is validate their suffering.
And I'm going to say this: generally speaking, if you put the word but in what you're about to say to them, you're probably not validating their hurt. Hey, I'm sorry about your miscarriage, but... You're young and you can always have more kids. Hey, I'm sorry about your divorce, but. There's always other fish in the sea, and you got to learn to get back on the cattle, you know, the horse, you got to do all this kind of thing.
But You don't do that. Another way that we try to um We negate affirming people's hurt. We negate validating their hurt as we try to explain what they're going through. Hey, I'm sorry that you're suffering. With this colon cancer diagnosis.
But did you eat a lot of processed meats when you were younger? Hey, I'm sorry that your son is strung out on drugs and he's gone off the rails, but you know, he was adopted. You think there might be some generational curses here?
Okay, yeah, maybe, but right now my world's torn apart. Can you at least acknowledge that? And the Apostle Peter is very interesting. He starts this off by validating. He says in verse 6: You have been grieved by various trials.
He could have said, you're going through suffering, but let me explain what's going on. See, the Roman government is demon-possessed, and Satan hates Christians, and so Satan is using the Roman government to come against you. He could try to explain that. He didn't do that. He says in verse 6, you are suffering and you are grieved.
And the Bible actually talks about this concept. Romans 12, 15 says, look, let me make it clear. Rejoice with those who are rejoicing, and weep with those who are weeping. It's not that complicated. Y'all know who Chuck Swindahl is, great preacher.
Chuck Swindahl said, I was talking to a man who lost his daughter in a horrible automobile accident. This guy said, When I was in the emergency room, I just got the news. I'm sitting there. And he said, Person after person sat down beside me and tried to comfort me. I just found out my daughter's dead.
Somebody comes by me and says, Well, you know, sometimes when God is making a bouquet in heaven, He picks the most beautiful flowers. Never say that to anybody. What you've just said is God killed your kid to make a flower arrangement in heaven.
Somebody else came and said, Well, you know, I'm sorry, but you know, the Bible says rejoice in all things. He said people kept coming and they kept trying And nothing resonated with me. He said, The one thing I remember from that night, the one thing that helped me, was a Christian brother who sat beside me in that emergency room when I just found out my daughter had died and put his arm around me. And all he did for 15 minutes was sob. He didn't say a thing.
And so Peter Says to these people You're suffering. That's validation. Second word, jot this down, is temporary. Temporary.
Now, here's what I mean by that. All right, so in college, I told the first service, I majored in religion and I minored in psychology. And then I realized, wait a second, actually, I double-majored. I don't know what degree I got. I thought I double-majored in religion and psychology.
And I'm not saying this to bash the psychology industry, but I remember nothing about counseling, psychology. I'm not into that stuff. But we've got a lot of good Christian counselors who go to this church.
So I'm not bashing your industry. You guys are doing a great job. Because every last one of them, tithe. And so I love you guys. Y'all are doing a great job.
That's just not my calling. When people ask me, Pastor Chad, can you counsel me? I always say the same thing. I love you too much to let me counsel you. We got good counselors here, okay?
But I remember taking one class called Crisis Intervention Counseling. And what do you do with people who are going through crisis? And I don't know why this one thing stuck out with me. But in this class, we were taught: when people go through a crisis, when people are hurting, there's something about the human brain that tells them. It's always going to be like this.
You're going to feel this pain for the rest of your life. And what we learned in this class was either a pastor Or a counselor or a friend, somewhere when the time is right in the journey, has got to tell them. This is temporary. It's not always going to be like this.
Now, it's temporary in one of two ways. Either, number one, it's temporary, the situation itself may be temporary. All right, God may intervene and bring a miracle. It's a temporary situation. God may heal you tomorrow, and the temporary situation is over with.
God may bring that kid back home. It's temporary, it's over with. You may die and go to heaven, so it's temporary. All right, the situation itself may be temporary. Or The pain may be temporary.
In other words, The situation may be with you for the rest of your life, but the pain you're feeling now, this intense hurt, that is temporary. I remember a a man. I was talking to a a fella that lost a little child. He said something very interesting. He said, I lost a child as well.
Here's what he said. You'll never get over losing that child. This pain you're feeling now, over time, you'll learn to deal with it, and this pain won't be as intense, but you'll never get over losing that child. Y'all know who Jacob is in the Bible? In Genesis Jacob has a wrestling match with God.
And that wrestling match lasts For several hours. Until God touches him in the side and he puts his hip out of joint. And at that point, the wrestling match was over.
However, Jacob walked with a limp for the rest of his life.
Some of y'all are going through a season now when you're wrestling with God. I'm going to tell you something. That wrestling match is going to end, but you may walk with a limp for the rest of your life. That's what I mean by this is temporary. And Peter says this in verse 6.
He says, In this you greatly rejoice. Though now, look what he says, for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. Do you know what Peter's saying to this audience? This is temporary. It's not always going to be like this.
You've got to hold on to that. In fact, I was reading about a doctor, he's in Vietnam, American doctor in Vietnam, captured by the Vietnamese and taken to a North Vietnamese POW camp. And he said, in this camp, there was a young Marine, good looking, strong, great shape.
Well, they take us to this North Korean POW camp. And the cafters tell this young guy, said, Look, we want a. Re-education group started here. Do you mean by a re-education group? We're going to brainwash all these Americans.
We're going to start a re-education group. We want you to lead that group. If you lead this group. We will eventually release you. We're going to let you go.
And so that young Marine said, absolutely, I'll do it. The Marine took care of himself, he ate right, he exercised, he religiously, faithfully led this re-educational group, you know, with other POWs, just like his captors told him to, because they said, you do it, we're going to let you go. And then over time It dawned on this young man. My captors lied to me. They had no intention on letting me go.
And when it finally dawned on him that they were not going to release him, everything changed. He stopped taking care of himself. He stopped eating. He curled up on his bunk and sucked his thumb for a couple weeks until he died. And this doctor said, what happened?
What happened was he lost hope. He thought it was going to be like this forever. And when you lose hope, you lose everything. And I'm telling those of you who are suffering right now, I'm sorry about what you're going through, but it's not always going to be like this. Either God is going to step in and intervene, or the pain that you're feeling now is going to get more manageable in time, but this is temporary.
Does that make sense? Y'all with me on that? All right.
So fresh word. is validation. We got to validate you're hurting. Number two, temporary. We've got to make sure we understand this is not going to last forever.
And then, number three, here's the third word I want to give you. Ready? Third word is this. Jot this down. Purpose.
To get through suffering. You've got to find purpose in your suffering.
Now look, Christians and non-Christians are going to suffer. Followers of Jesus and nihilists are going to suffer. Difference between the nihilist who suffers and the Christian who suffers is this: if you're a nihilist, listening to me, and you're suffering, you have no meaning behind your suffering. If you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible makes it very clear: here's what God is doing through your suffering: there is purpose in your suffering. And what Victor Frankl, I love this.
Victor Frankl said that despair Despair? Despair is simply suffering without meaning. Everybody goes through pain. Christianity attaches purpose to that pain and that suffering. All right, now watch.
This is why you and I cannot be advocates of euthanasia. Euthanasia is wrong for several reasons. Number one, it's murder. Number two, I told y'all a few years ago, because some of y'all were advocating, well, in these extreme situations, maybe we ought to put somebody down. I said, look, it's a slippery slope.
You start putting people down for this reason, the day is going to come. We'll kill them just because they're depressed. And we are now at that day in Europe and in Canada. You're depressed, you are now a prime candidate for euthanasia. I told you that was going to happen.
But another reason why we can't support euthanasia is this: as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, your book teaches you that God does something through suffering, God attaches purpose to suffering. And there are several things the Bible says God does through suffering, but Peter chooses to hone in on one in particular in verse 7. Peter in verse 7 attaches purpose to suffering. Here's what he says: that the genuineness of your faith. Being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Here's what Peter's saying. When you say I love Jesus And you go through suffering. And you go through hurt, and you keep your eyes on Jesus, and you keep loving Jesus. Here's what happens. It purifies your faith.
And it proves you really do belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah, I can sit with a Christian for 30 seconds. And I can tell if that person's been purified through suffering. These Christians, some of y'all who've never had to suffer, everything's been given to you, you have this light-hearted, shallow, Mickey Mouse Christianity, and you use platitudes and all that kind of stuff. But when I sit down with a Christian who's gone through suffering and they've come out the other side, there's a depth, a strength, a steadiness about them.
Peter says that it's just like refining gold. In fact, I read about refining gold this past week. He said, suffering. Refines your faith. like gold is refined.
Refining gold is an ugly process. First of all, you got to mine the gold. It typically takes, listen to this. It typically takes anywhere between two And 91 Tons of rock. to produce one ounce of gold.
Did you hear what I just said? Between 2 and 91, tons of rock. to produce one ounce of gold. And when that rock is mined, It's crushed. It's pulverized until some little flecks of gold start coming out.
And then after that thing has been pulverized and crushed and you start getting some gold, that gold has to be heated up to burn off the impurities. Gold has to be heated to 1947 degrees Fahrenheit. And then sometimes, I don't know if they did this in the old days, but they do it in the new days now.
Sometimes they'll actually use cyanide. To filter out the gold. You know what cyanide is? It's a poison. Crushed.
Fired up. Poisoned to produce this, this beautiful gold. I was just giving you your testimony right there.
Some of y'all have been crushed. You've gone through the fire. You've been pulverized. You've been poisoned, life has been challenging, but in the end, there is a gold standard faith that honors the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah.
I uh Okay. Reading a story this past week of a lady who she visited a Silversmith. They made like silver jewelry. But he, like old school, he says, I like to refine my own silver. And she said, How do you do that?
And he said, Well, I take the raw silver and I heat it, heat it, heat it. And it gets hot, and I have to skim the impurities off the surface. And I heat it some more and skim the impurities off the surface. And she asked the man. Listen what she asked him.
How do you know if the silver has been refined? He said very simple. When I can see my reflection in the silver. And some of you are going through a refining process right now. It hurts, it doesn't feel good, you're suffering.
But in the end, when God looks at you, He's going to see the reflection of His Son, Jesus Christ. He knows what He's doing.
So one of the words I give you who are suffering. Number one, validate. I'm not making you're suffering. Period. No but?
You're suffering. Number two, this is temporary. You're going to get through this thing. Number three, God has a purpose behind this. And the number four, jot this word down, is eternity.
You've got to keep an eternal focus. Look at verse 6. In this you greatly rejoice.
Okay, what is this? To see what this is, you got to look at the preceding verses, which is what we talked about last week. Remember, we talked about heaven, the reality of heaven. When you look at the reality of heaven, And you realize you're only here for a short time. In this, you rejoice because one day you're going to a place where there is no more pain or suffering.
Yo, we be on that? I'm gonna switch.
Okay, I want to keep saying it until somebody gets it. This world is not your home. America is not your home. You're just a legal alien living in America.
Some of y'all are illegal aliens living in America, whatever. You are just here for the time being. This ain't your home, church. There's a better place coming. And then he says in verse 7, look at this.
That the genuineness of your faith. Being much more Precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise. Honor And glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. What does he mean by the revelation of Jesus Christ? Here's what he means: when Jesus Christ comes back and ushers eternity here, he ushers in eternity.
When we finally get to the end times and Jesus comes back and we enter into eternity. We will see Praise. Honor And glory.
Now stop. When I first read that, I thought it was talking about Jesus. He's going to come into eternity. Those of us who have suffered are going to praise, honor, and glorify Jesus. You do a deep dive.
That's not what Peter's talking about. He says, Those of you who have suffered for Jesus, Those of you who've been through the fire, Those of you who have been through the divorce, but you're still going to hold on to the hand of God. You lost that child, and for a short time, you may have had your faith rattled, but you still keep your eyes on Jesus Christ. Those of you who stick with Jesus through the fire, when Jesus Christ comes back and ushers in eternity, there's going to be praise and honor and glory directed at you. That's what it means.
There's going to come a day when you walk into heaven. And the angels of heaven are going to stand. and clap And the saints of God are going to say, way to go. And you're going to hear Jesus say, well done, good and faithful servant. Hallelujah.
A day's coming. Yes. Henry Morrison was a missionary who spent 40 years advancing the gospel. in some of the hardest places of the world. Specifically Africa.
He had given up everything, and he and his wife moved to Africa. And for 40 years, they were not in easy places, they were in very difficult places. After 40 years of being a missionary, He and his wife decide it's time to retire and come off the mission field.
Okay. And so he got in a boat, he and his wife. Went across the ocean. And as they come into New York Harbor, they see a a band playing. There's a big crowd there.
And suddenly his spirits are lifted. And he said to his wife, well, honey, they didn't forget about us after all. And the ship pulls into harbor. He and his wife start walking down the plank to greet the crowd. And a policeman stopped him and said, Step aside.
For you see, it turned out that the former president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, Was on the same ship. after a three-day hunting trip in Africa. The band and the crowd was there for Theodore Roosevelt, not the missionary. There's actually nobody there. to meet Henry Morrison and his wife.
And it rattled him. And they walked several blocks and checked into an old hotel. And when they got into the old hotel, the missionary went to his room. and fell on his knees. Mm-hmm.
and feeling kind of sorry for himself. And a little bitter actually. Said Lord. I don't understand this. I served you for 40 years in Africa.
I gave up my life. I gave it my home. When I finally get back to America, there's nobody here to greet me. President Roosevelt comes home after a hunting trip in Africa, and the bands are playing for him. Why did I not have a crowd to meet me when I came home?
And God spoke to him and said, because you're not home yet. You're not home yet. What Peter is saying in verse 7 is: There's going to come a day when, after I've suffered here on earth, I go to my home and there will be a band, and there will be a crowd, and there will be the chorus of heaven singing glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, and my Savior saying, Welcome home. Welcome. Validate your suffering is real.
Temporary, this ain't gonna last forever. Purpose, God has a purpose in your suffering to make you more like Jesus and refine your faith. Eternity, keep that eternal focus. Can I give you just one more word and we'll close out? Let me give you my fifth word.
My fifth word is this: Jesus. Jesus. Verse 8. Whom having not seen You love. Though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, having not seen you love.
Won't you listen to me? Christian. When you go through pain and suffering, you can do one of two things. You can run toward Jesus. Or you can run away from Jesus.
And I've seen too many people in this church. When the divorce came, they ran away from Jesus. When the job loss came, They ran away from Jesus. I was talking to some friends the other day. This guy is not a member of our church, so don't worry about it.
But we've been praying for the salvation of a man. He finally made a profession of faith, and we were all excited. And then these people talked to me recently and they said, man. Peace. Not walking with Jesus anymore.
He's gone through some really tough times, some legitimately tough times. And he got dissolution. He ain't walking with Jesus anymore. They said, Chad, I really thought he had gotten saved. Explain that to me.
I said, it's really not that complicated. He had a transactional relationship with Jesus. Which said, I'll follow you provided my life goes well. You give me this, you provide that. I'll follow you as long as you do what I want you to do.
But if you don't come through for me the way I think you ought to come through for me, I'm out of here. That's all that happened. Instead of running toward Jesus, he ran away from Jesus. And um Here's what breaks my heart. Through his pain and suffering, he had the opportunity to come to know Jesus like he has never known Jesus before.
Hey, y'all do realize. You will only get to know Jesus so much. Until you go through a time of suffering. Because Jesus knows what you're going through. Hey, these people are about to be persecuted, the people Peter is writing to.
Does Jesus know anything about persecution? Yeah, he's been there, done that.
Well, Jen, my family turned their back on me. Jesus said, Been there, done that. Jerry, my best friend stabbed me in the back, Jesus said. Been there, done that. Chapter, I've been lied about and misrepresented.
Jesus said, Yeah, been there, done that. I love what somebody wrote. Listen to this. The surgery of life. Coach.
It helps me though to know that the surgeon himself, the wounded surgeon, has felt every cut and every stab of pain and every sorrow that I'm going through in my surgery. The Wounded Surgeon. Jesus. Knows what you're going through.
Alright, so look, in light of all this... What do we do? In light of the fact that we, like Peter's audience, might be going through a time of pain, hurt, suffering, what do we do? Peter says, You do two things, and those two things are in verse eight. Number one, he says, You.
Rejoice. Though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice. I don't feel like rejoicing. Yeah, I know you don't feel like it. This isn't a matter of feeling, this is a matter of obedience.
There's something about praising Jesus in the midst of suffering that tends to break that suffering. In fact, Jesus in Matthew 26, 30. He's about to lose everybody. Everybody's about to turn their back on Jesus. Everybody.
He's about to be tortured. He's about to be killed. And according to Matthew 26:30, okay. Do you know what Jesus does before he goes into his season of intense suffering? It said he sang a hymn.
Now, because this is the end of a Jewish Passover, traditionally the hymn that they would sing would be the Halel Psalm, Psalm 118. Can I read to you the song that we think Jesus sang? Before he went into intense suffering. Here's what he sank. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever. You are my God, and I will praise you. You are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.
No matter what you're going through, He is still God, He is still sovereign, He is still on the throne, and He is worthy of all of our worship. You know, last, a couple months ago, when Darl and I took a group to Israel, we did something that we'll never do again. We made a mistake. Um So there are two tunnels that you can walk through. One is Hezekiah's tunnel, long, dark tunnel with water in it.
There's another tunnel that's called the dry tunnel, but it's also a very long tunnel. We had a sweet lady in our group. She's like, look. I'm claustrophobic.
So I'm just begging you, do not make me go into these tunnels. I mean, like certified, diagnosed, claustrophobic. We said, don't worry, there's a place to peel off before you get to the tunnels.
Well, we were just talking and not paying attention, and we finally get to the two entrances to the tunnel. And the lady's like, uh, uh, where do I go? And the guides are like, I'm sorry. Y'all missed your spot. There's no turning back.
And she said Yeah, if I gotta do it, I gotta do it. And a group of us go in that tunnel. And as we're in that tunnel, and it's a long tunnel, it's not a two-minute tunnel, it's a long tunnel.
Somebody said, why don't we just start singing? And in that dark tunnel, We start lifting our voices and we start singing these old Christian hymns and old Christian choruses. And that young lady lifts up her voice. This claustrophobic lady begins to sing praises to the Lord Jesus Christ, and it echoes all throughout that tunnel. And we did not know how long it would take, but we got to the other side of that tunnel.
And some of you right now are in a dark tunnel. You don't know when this pain is going to end. You don't know when this hurt is going to end. I'm sorry, there ain't no turning back. You got to move forward.
But you sing and you lift your voice to Jesus and you praise Him. And somehow, some way, you're going to get through that tunnel.
So Peter says, what do we do if we're suffering? We rejoice, number one. And then we believe. Number two. Though Now you do not see him, yet.
Believing present tense. If you're suffering, you rejoice and you believe. Believe what? Believe he is still on the throne. Believe he is still sovereign.
Believe that he still loves you. Believe that if he is for you and if God be for you, who can be against you? Believe that he actually has the power, if he wants to, to step in and to perform a miracle and bring this mess to a close. Hey, y'all believe God can still do that? Damn it.
You believe that God who healed in the Old Testament and the New Testament, if He wants, He can heal that cancer or Alzheimer's today. You believe that? You believe that you come down front today. And you pray for that kid who's wandered away from Jesus. That strung-out kid in the crack house might be waking up at 12:35 in the morning by the power of the Holy Spirit and come back to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You believe God can still do miracles? See, look, I want us to be a balanced church. What do you mean by balanced?
Well, I don't want us to be one of those weirdo churches that say, no, no, no, nobody goes through hurt, nobody goes through pain. If you're going through pain, it's because you don't have enough faith. I don't want to be one of those churches. Pain is real. I also don't want to be one of those churches that say, God doesn't heal today.
He doesn't do miracles today. That's the first century. I don't want to be one of those churches either. Check, why don't you believe in signs, wonders, miracles today? Can I just be honest with you why I believe that one?
Cause I'm just not that smart. I'm not that creative. And if this book says Heal the sick and cast out demons. I said, okay, maybe we should heal the sick and cast out demons. The Bible taught us to do that, right?
So stand with me now. And let's Do the two things. Peter just told us. We're supposed to do that. We're going to start by rejoicing.
No, no, no, we're just gonna praise Jesus. Then after we've done that for a few minutes, We're gonna believe. Is everybody going to be healed today? Mm-hmm. Is every miracle going to happen?
I don't know. I just know what I'm told to do. That's rejoice and believe.
So I'm just going to believe. And I'm going to ask our prayer team, our elders, deacons, pastors, prayer team, and their wives, would y'all come and just stand right now? Y'all don't come forward yet. Let's just let the prayer team come down front. Um And as they're coming down, I think on their badges, don't y'all have like a little orange thing or something on your badge?
So only let these people pray with you.
Okay, we got a system in place. These are the people we want to have pray for you.
Well Chad, why why do you relegate it to these people? Because here at Cross Assembly, we have a lot of well-meaning but deranged people. Who would love to pray with you and put their hands on you, and I don't want them touching you. It's just these people right here, okay? I'm going to state the obvious.
He's here right now. His Spirit is in this room right now. Before we believe or ask anything. Can we just rejoice in him? I don't want y'all to sing this song.
I want you to pray this song. And I did this the other two services. I have to do it this service. Would y'all excuse me if I just kneel in the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of the Lords and worship him for a few moments? Wherever you're at right now.
Start worshiping the Lord. Give me all the glory, Lord. There's something about your name. There's something about the name. There's just something about your name that makes me cry holy.
There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. Jesus, you're worthy. There's just something about your name.
There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name that makes me cry holy. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name.
Jesus, you're worthy. Jesus The presence of the God of the universe is right here right now. The same God who parted the Red Sea. Is in this room right now. The same God who spoke the word of the entire universe came into existence.
He's in this room right now. The same God who raised his son from the dead and ascended him to heaven, where he sits at the right hand of the Father, is in this room right now. The same Jesus who is coming back one day is in this room right now. It's an amazing thought. Wow.
Can you lift your hands and lift your voices right now? Praise the name of Jesus. Just praise the name of Jesus. We praise the name of Jesus Jesus Jesus for our He's not like us. He is separate.
He is set apart. He is, here's how the Bible calls it: holy. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Holy, holy, holy. Sing holy to the Lord.
Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy is the name of Jesus. Oh, we cry, Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy is the name we cry, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy is the name of Jesus, Jesus. Verse 8 says, We rejoice. And we believe.
If you need a supernatural touch from God right now. In your body. in the life of somebody you love. You need a kid to come back home? You need depression broken, anxiety broken, cancer healed, Alzheimer's cleared up.
You believe that God. can still perform a miracle. And you want to join right now. and call out to God, I want you to come right now, wherever you're at. And this team is going to pray for you right now.
If you need a touch from God, you need a miracle. Come right now. Come right now. Jesus Jesus. Thank you, Lord.
Come right now. Yeah. Say it again: Behold, I am God, I changeth not. I am the same yesterday, today, and forever. The God that did it then.
Can do a ride now.
So I'm going to dismiss the rest of y'all. When I say in Jesus' name, amen, y'all can leave. But just be sensitive to what's going on down front here, okay? Raise your hands and receive this blessing.
Now, to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is to work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen and amen. God bless you. Y'all can leave. Y'all stay down front here and let the Spirit of God start doing some miracles right down front.
Yeah.
