Remaining Unshaken | Enduring Until The End | Abundant Life Church | Evangelist Nate Pimental
Remaining Unshaken | Enduring Until The End | Abundant Life Church | Evangelist Nate Pimental
Transcript
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Hey, everyone. Pastor Sean here, and I wanna thank you for subscribing to our podcast. I'm excited to get into today's message. And remember this, God is a good God. He loves you, and he wants to bless
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ask you to turn real quickly to Matthew's gospel chapter 24, and we're gonna read through verses one through 13.
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If I were to title this morning's message, I would title it enduring till the end, how to remain unshaken in the last days.
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How many people would agree with me that we are living in the last days? As you're turning there this morning, Matthew chapter 24 verse one through 13, let me just say that it's safe to say I believe, especially in the times that we are living in, that we're living in some pretty interesting times.
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And in the midst of these times, it could be easy for us as people to allow fear to control every area of our life and to cause us to live with a sense of uncertainty about the future.
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But this morning, I didn't come to bring a woe is me message to you. This morning, I came to encourage you that number one, God has not given us a spirit of fear. That is the spirit that this world operates and lives by.
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But as children of God, God has given us the spirit of power, love, and of a sound mind. In understanding that we operate through the spirit of power, love, and a sound mind, in the midst of all that we see happening in this present world, I want to encourage you this morning that when the world is being shaken by the powers of darkness, as God's children, we can remain unshaken in a shaken world. Can somebody say amen to that? And so with that said, I just wanna read to you a few scriptures. Matthew 24 verses one through 13. I'll be reading out of the New Living Translation.
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And this is what the word of the Lord says. As Jesus was leaving the temple grounds, his disciples pointed out to him the various temple buildings.
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But he responded, do you see all these buildings?
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I tell you the truth, they will be completely demolished.
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Not one stone will be left on top of another. Now, let me pause here real quickly just to say what Jesus says here in the first two verses of our text is very significant.
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Because to the people of that time, what Jesus was saying about the future of these buildings was to the people of that time an unthinkable and unimaginable event.
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There was no way that the people could see these buildings being toppled over and completely destroyed.
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It's kinda like what people thought about the Titanic, the ship. How many are familiar with that story?
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People refer to the Titanic as the unsinkable ship.
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People were getting onto that ship as they were getting ready to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and they said these very words.
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The Titanic was a ship so big that even God himself could not sink the ship.
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In their eyes, the sinking of the Titanic was an impossibility just like it was an impossibility to the people of Jesus' time to see these buildings destroyed.
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But the truth is because of historical records, we see that everything that Jesus predicted came not only to pass, but it came to pass exactly how he said it would happen.
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And that is why these first two verses in Matthew 24 matter to the Christian faith. Because if Jesus could predict this event and be spot on with what he predicted, then we can believe this morning that he is right about what's coming next in verses three through 13.
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In verse three, the Bible says Jesus sat on the Mount Of Olives and his disciples came to him privately and said, tell us when will all these things happen?
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What sign will signal your return in the end of the world?
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Jesus told them, don't let anyone mislead you.
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For many will come in my name claiming I am the Messiah.
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They will deceive many.
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You will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don't panic.
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Yes. These things must take place, but the end won't follow immediately.
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Nation will go to war against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
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There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world.
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But all this is only the first of birth pains with more to come.
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Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed.
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You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers. Listen, the Bible doesn't say that as believers that we would be tolerated, but the Bible says as believers, many of us will be arrested.
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Many of us will be persecuted.
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Many of us will be killed.
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We will be hated all over the world. Why? Because we are followers of the one true God. I oftentimes tell people this. They say, well, Christianity is a crutch for the weak. My friend, Christianity is not a crutch for the weak because it takes a real man and it takes a real woman, especially in 2026, to be completely all in for the kingdom of God. Can somebody say amen to that? And I hope today that I'm looking at real men and real women of the Lord. Maybe if you've never made this decision in your life, I'm hoping that by the end of this service that you will tie your bootstraps and that you will square your shoulders.
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And today will be the day where you will say, I'm going to be a real man, and I'm going to be a real woman, and I'm going to surrender my life to the lordship of Jesus Christ this morning in Jesus' name.
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Verse 10, and many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other.
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And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people.
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Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But I love verse 13.
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But the one who endures till the end shall be saved.
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My desire, my prayer for every person within the sound of my voice is that you would be the one found faithful in the end, that you have endured till the end in Jesus' mighty name. You know, growing up, I always heard the phrase, it's not how you start, but it's how you finish.
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And I'll be very honest with you this morning. As strong as I started my walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to be able to finish even stronger.
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There's a lot of people in the body of Christ who began their walk with God strong, full of excitement, and with zeal.
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And as great as that may be this morning, what I have noticed over the last twenty three years of ministry is that as time goes by, there are many people who will grow comfortable in their walk with the Lord, or the excitement that they once had for God begins to dim in the midst of adversity.
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Why? And the very simple answer to that is this. The Bible prophetically reveals to us today that in the last days, there will be a great falling away that will take place, and that we are living in a day where the bible says that everything that can be shaken will be shaken.
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So the question I have for you this morning is this. It's not if things will get worse, but the question for you this morning is this, will your faith survive what's coming? At the end of it all, will you find yourself before a holy God, one who has been faithful until the end? Now the truth is, I know probably this is probably not the best way to start off a message.
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But I believe it's fitting for the times that we are in right now. And I believe that it needs to be said.
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Because many people have a misunderstanding of when it comes to the last days.
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When we read the word of God, number one, we need to understand that two thirds of God's word is bible prophecy.
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And let me just say this about bible prophecy. Bible prophecy was never given to us to scare us about the future, but it was given to prepare us for what's to come in the future.
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Bible prophecy reveals to us this morning that as we approach the last days, we are stepping into a season in which we have never seen or will ever see the likes of ever again.
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And this isn't speaking negatively, because if I could be honest with you, let me remind you of a biblical truth that cannot be altered.
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What the Bible says will happen in the last days will happen.
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Regardless of how positive your confession is, regardless of how much you pray, no amount of prayer can stop bible prophecy from coming to pass. You know, I was reading something the other day, and I they said many well named scholars will tell you that every prophetic event that needed to take place before the rapture of the, church occurred has been fulfilled and completed by the mid nineteen eighties.
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So with that said this morning, I am a firm believer that the next prophetic event on God's timetable is the rapture of the church.
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In acts chapter one verse 11, we read the account where Jesus is speaking to his disciples one final time before he ascends back to heaven to sit at the right hand of the father. And as he begins to ascend back into heaven, his disciples are watching this take place right before their very eyes. Now, I often tell people that if that situation happened during 2026, the disciples at that time, they their jaws were hitting the ground and they were just staring in unbelief into the sky witnessing this thing that was happening right before their eyes. If that event took place in 2026, I often tell people the first thing that everyone would do is they would take out their iPhones or their Android phones, and they'd begin to take a selfie with Jesus ascending in the background. And they would post it to Instagram and to Facebook so that they can get hundreds and thousands and millions of likes. And hopefully, this is the video that goes viral and takes my social media to a different level. But that's not what the that's not what the disciples that's not even the thought that came across their mind. When they witnessed this event taking place right before their eyes, the bible says immediately two angels appeared to the disciples and they brought a prophetic word. And listen to the first prophetic word that they gave when Jesus ascended back to the father. They said, men of Galilee, why are you standing here or standing here staring into heaven?
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Jesus has been taken from you into heaven.
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But someday, he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go. Now let me pause here and say this. When Jesus came the first time, the Bible does a very good job at explaining.
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He came as the sacrificial lamb to take away the sins of the world.
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But let me just say this.
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When Jesus comes back a second time, And make no mistake about this, my friend. Jesus is coming back a second time. As believers, we don't wish for his return.
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We don't hope for his return, but we are certain of his return.
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It's not if he comes back, but it's when he comes back. And when he comes back, I've got some good gospel news for you this morning. He's not coming back a second time as the sacrificial lamb to take away the sins of the world. But when Jesus comes back, he's gonna split the eastern sky, and he's coming back as the lion of the tribe of Judah.
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He's coming back as the king of kings and the lord of lords. He's coming back to establish a kingdom that will know no end. Can somebody say amen to that?
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Amen. Remember when I was younger growing up in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and don't get me wrong, I love the modern songs that we sing in the church today. But as a little boy, I often go I take myself back to that time at 215 Sawyer Street at Pentecostal Assembly, and we used to sing those little choruses.
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Soon and very soon, we are going to see the king. Can somebody say amen to that? But until then, we're still on the earth. We still have a job to accomplish.
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Where according to bible prophecy, we are stepping into a season that the bible says perilous and difficult times will come upon the world. Famines, pestilence, natural disasters. How many of you heard about the earthquakes that took place in Venezuela?
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Probably a month ago. But what a lot of people don't didn't realize is those weren't the only two earthquakes that took place. Within a twenty four hour time span at that time, there were 10 other earthquakes that were happening all over the world. And as we get further into the last days, the Bible shows us these things are not gonna slow up. But according to Bible prophecy, they're gonna pick up how in two ways. They're gonna pick up in frequency, and they're gonna pick up in intensity.
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It's like a woman I've been told, I don't know, I don't have the experience, but it's like a woman who's getting ready to birth a baby. The closer she gets, the labor pains what? They pick up in frequency, and they pick up in intensity.
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And in the same way, when we begin to see the beginning of famines, pestilence, and natural disasters, the Bible refers to these things as what? The beginning of birth pains that are setting the stage for the end times. And as these things begin to unfold in a greater measure, whether you are a believer or not, everyone in some way or another will feel or see the effects of it, of this thing in this world. Now, I wanna share with you an unpopular truth, especially around a lot of my charismatic friends and charismatic circles.
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Being a Christian does not exempt you from opposition.
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If anything, being a Christian puts an even greater bull's eye on your back for greater opposition.
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Jesus told his followers that they would encounter trials.
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They would encounter tribulations.
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Now, let me pause here and say this. Many of you will say, well, that's the reason why I'm suffering through this sickness, and I'm suffering through this disease. Make no mistake about this. Sickness and disease is not a trial or a tribulation.
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Sickness and disease is a curse, and Paul has told us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that we have been redeemed from the curse of the law. Can somebody say amen to that? When I talk about trials and tribulations, I'm talking about attacks against your life because of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Jesus said we would encounter trials and tribulations, but the difference between the children of God and those of this world is that when opposition comes our way, we are not alone.
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For the Bible tells us God is with us. Deuteronomy chapter 20 verse four says that God goes with you, God fights for you, and God gives you the victory.
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And so let me encourage you before we get into into the word. When the world is being shaken by the powers of darkness, and trust me, according to the Bible, there is a shaking coming upon this world. Because the Bible says everything that can be shaken will be shaken. But the good news of the gospel this morning is that in the middle of a worldwide shaking, the church, which is you, who is under the mighty hand of God's protection can remain unshaken.
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Why? Because Paul tells us that we belong to a kingdom. Hebrews twelve twenty eight, we belong to a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And so I've come to tell somebody this morning, in the midst of a shaken world, you can remain unshaken.
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And so with that said, I wanna give you five simple reasons or points on how to remain unshaken in the last days.
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Number one, we can remain unshaken in the last days. How?
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By trusting in the goodness of God. Verse 13.
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Psalms 27 verse 13.
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David said, yet I am confident.
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I will see the Lord's goodness while I'm in the land of the living. It doesn't matter how bad things look.
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It doesn't matter how difficult things may get in your life or in this world. There is a principle in the word of God in a biblical truth that I have learned that does not change based upon my experience.
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And this biblical truth is this, God is still a good God.
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A lot of people have this misconception that God is the author of every bad and evil work in their life.
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But God is not the author of our misfortunes this morning.
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Jesus said, I have come that you may have life and have that more abundantly.
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It's the enemy that comes to steal, to kill, and destroy.
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James tells us that every good imperfect gift comes from the father above.
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And I've come to encourage you today that if you will remain faithful in your walk with the Lord, regardless of your present circumstances, in the midst of all the shaking and trouble in this world, what was meant to take you out, I believe that God in his goodness and through the power of the Holy Spirit will make every attack against your life fail in Jesus' name. In these last days, you can be confident in the goodness of God. David said, surely goodness and mercy shall follow what what did he say? Sometimes? He said, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. I don't get up. I didn't wake up this morning expecting to rehearse last year's problems, last week's problems, last night's problems. But when I woke up this morning, I woke up with the same expectation that David had, that surely goodness and mercy is gonna follow me today. When I wake up tomorrow and I head on my way back home to Bangor, Maine, I'm gonna get on that airplane with the expectation that surely goodness and mercy is following me all the way to Main. David never said sometimes.
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He didn't say sporadically.
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He didn't say periodically.
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But David boldly and confidently said, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
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Meaning that, yes, God's mercy is there in the good times, but his goodness and mercy is also there when times seem tough. You may be here this morning and you feel like God's goodness is far from you, but I've come to encourage you. If you will stop and turn around, you will see God's goodness and mercy right behind you. God's goodness and mercy, my friend, has never stopped pursuing you. But the key to experiencing the goodness and the mercy of God over your life is you need to surrender your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. The problem with many people who once came to the Lord, they were on fire for God. And I see it throughout my ministry, and I see it throughout the world. People get on fire for God, and then they walk away from the things of God. You know why? Because all they ever did or all they ever made was a decision for the Lord. And don't get me wrong. Decisions need to be made. Everything begins with a decision.
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But God's not looking for people who will just make a decision.
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God's looking for people who will surrender themselves to the lordship of Jesus Christ. God's looking for people that say, God, I'm not in this thing to play church.
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I'm not in this thing to play games with you, but I'm in this thing because whatever you tell me to do, I'll do. Wherever you tell me to go, I'll go. And whatever you tell me to say, I'll say. God's looking for people who will surrender themselves to the kingdom of God, and they'll be all in for God's God's kingdom. Can somebody say amen to that? It is only when you surrender yourself to God can you see the goodness of God unfold over your life. Number one, in the last days, we can remain unshaken by trusting in God's goodness. Number two, in the last days, we can remain unshaken by trusting in God's protection.
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Throughout the Bible, we read that God is described as what? As our shield.
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He's our fortress.
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He's our hiding place. He's our stronghold. He's our rock.
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The Psalm has said the Lord is my fortress protecting me from danger.
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Why should I tremble? The Psalm has said the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and they are safe. Isaiah the prophet says, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. Can somebody say amen to that? Amen. When trouble comes your way, I like to say it like this. We have a passing through anointing that will take us on over to the other side.
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In Luke chapter four, the crowd becomes very angry with Jesus.
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So what does the bible say? The bible says that the angry crowd or the mob the mob, they formed they formed a mob around Jesus and they were intending to kill him out by pushing him over the cliff.
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But here's what I want you to see this morning.
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The bible says their efforts failed.
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And Jesus passed right through the crowd and he went on his way.
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And I've come to tell somebody today, hell may be against you.
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Hell may have unleashed everything that it has against you to destroy you, to bring you down.
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But if God is for you, hell's plan will never prevail against you. Why? Because when the hand of the Lord is on you, you cannot be taken out before your time. A few years ago, my wife and I got an invitation to go to Grand Rapids, Michigan to go and preach. So, my wife and I, we got on an airplane.
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My kids stayed home. They're still young at that point. Couldn't stay home alone. So my my in laws, they came down from New Brunswick, Canada, to take care of our children. And so my wife and I got on an airplane, and we were flying all the way first to JFK. We had a layover there. And then from JFK, we were gonna fly to Grand Rapids, Michigan. And then we had to drive an hour or so, from the airport.
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As we take off and we get into the skies, we're in there. We're in the skies for about, I don't know, forty five minutes getting ready to land.
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When all of a sudden, this airline stewardess, she comes down the aisle and she grabs the the little phone on the PA system. And she said, ladies and gentlemen, sorry for the inconvenience inconveniencing you today.
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But we're gonna have to land at a different airport, and we're gonna reroute this aircraft, to land at Dulles International Airport in Washington. Now I fly a lot. I've never experienced having to reroute us to a different airport.
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And and but I didn't think anything of it. The only concern that I had was my connecting flight is not in Washington.
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My connecting flight is at JFK. So I didn't think anything of it. So ten minutes goes by, and the stewardess is at the back of the plane when all of a sudden, she starts running down the aisle to the front of the plane. And she picks up that phone, and she says, ladies and gentlemen, sit down, strap your seats seat belts around your waist as tight as you can, and brace yourselves to the seat in front of you with your forearms.
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She says, the pilot of the aircraft has lost control of the airplane.
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Yeah. That was everybody's, response on the airplane. My wife immediately grabbed my hand, and she began to speak in tongues out loud in front of all those people.
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Now the truth is if you're filled with the Holy Ghost, that's the perfect time to start praying in the Holy Ghost. And I'm gonna be very honest with you. I'm not gonna stand up here and act like a tough guy and say that it didn't bother me, and I had no concern in the world. Oh, I had a concern in the world. I grabbed my wife's hand.
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I said I said, God, I said, you we're on assignment for you.
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Number one, my in laws are taking care of my kids right now.
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If we die, that means my kids are gonna have to be raised by my in laws, and they're gonna have to move to Canada.
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Please don't do that to my children. Don't move them to Canada. Keep them in the red, white, and blue. Can all the patriots say amen to that?
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God, don't allow my children to be raised by my in laws or be raised in the country of Canada. And then I grabbed my wife's hand, and I said, father, in the name of Jesus, so we don't have much time to pray, but I lose your angels around this this aircraft.
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And father, I pray that you would guide us safely to the tarmac, not one person injured on this aircraft. And so we pray, and we looked out the window. And as we looked out the window, we see the firefighters.
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We see the ambulance.
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We see the police.
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They had a worst case scenario expectation, but they forgot that they or they didn't realize that there was a man and a woman on assignment from the kingdom of God. And I made up my mind, God, you didn't put us on this airplane so that we could crash halfway to our final destination.
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I like it how Bishop Rick Thomas says it. You can't kill a man with vision, and he can't be taken off the earth before his time. And I knew that wasn't my time. And as I looked out the window, this airplane got lower and lower and lower till we hit the tarmac, and within twenty five seconds, we came to a complete stop. I wasn't injured. Nobody else on the plane was injured. Somebody said, well, that was just coincidence.
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Well, you can choose to believe it was coincidence, but I choose to stand on the believing side that God heard my prayer and he answered it in Jesus' mighty name. Can somebody say amen to that? You can remain unshaken by trusting in the protection of God.
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Number three, in the last days, you can remain unshaken by cultivating a God perspective.
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In other words, I refuse to see what the world shows me.
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I choose to see what God sees.
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Well, didn't you see what Fox News was reporting, CNN was reporting? I choose to see what the NLT says.
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It's not that I don't see what's happening in this world.
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It's not that I don't hear the report of the media.
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I just choose to believe the report of the Lord. The problem with many people in the body of Christ is they're looking at what the world is showing them. They're looking at the chaos.
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They're looking at the fear. They're looking at the lack. But as people of God, we look to the promises of God's word. When the world says fear, we choose faith. Now, is not not denying the chaos, the fear, and the lack we see operating in this world.
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But faith actually sees a higher reality.
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Faith chooses not to participate in what hell has everyone else panicking in this world. When we begin to see things from God's perspective, I don't panic, but I praise. I don't worry, but I rejoice. When the world sees defeat, faith sees the victory. And if we are going to walk in victory this morning, we have to start seeing things from God's perspective.
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And when you see things from God's perspective, you don't see a teeny you don't see a powerful devil in a teeny tiny God. But when you start seeing things from God's perspective, you see a powerful God in a teeny tiny little devil. Let me remind you today, because I I see this everywhere that I go. The devil and Jesus are not at the same level. They're not. Ephesians chapter one verse nineteen and twenty tells us Jesus is at the right hand of the father, far above every power, far above every principality.
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The devil he's not just above.
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He's far above.
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Then they're not at the same level.
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The devil is not even at the same level as a child of God. Ephesians chapter two verse six tells us that we have been seated in heavenly places with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I began to think about that. Listen, if I'm seated in heavenly places with the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's at the right hand of the father, far above every power and far above every principality, then that leads me to believe if he's far above it, I'm far above it in Jesus name. Whatever comes under his feet now comes under my feet in the mighty name of Jesus.
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I'm not battling against a powerful devil.
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I am battling against a teeny tiny little powerless defeated devil.
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The bible tells us in the book of Isaiah that when we see the devil for who he is, we're gonna say, this is the guy that caused chaos in the world. This is the guy that made me go to cry to myself to sleep every night. When we see the devil for who he is, we are going to realize that he is a teeny, tiny, little, defeated devil and that he does not have the victory, but victory already belongs to us because of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus has already defeated the devil. The battle has already been won. Jesus is at the right hand of the father, and he's given you the keys of the kingdom to tread upon all the power of the enemy in Jesus' mighty name. We can remain unshaken when we trust the word of God, and we see things through God's eyes. Can somebody say amen to that? Number four, we can remain unshaken in the last days from this economy by being a giver to the kingdom of God. How many people go shopping in here?
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Two people. Praise the Lord.
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Two people go
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My son and I walked into a Walmart. My son's not here with me today, but he's been on the road with me all year. He's 15 years old.
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Six two, six three. I'm only two hundred pounds. He's two hundred and sixty five pounds. I will put him up against any guy in this house.
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And but he's my bodyguard.
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And he travels with me. It's so it's funny because when I'm walking, he's literally like white on rice on me. I'm like, Matthew, get away from me. He's like, dad, I'm just protecting you. I'm protecting you. I'm like, yeah, you don't have to be on me like that though. And and so but him and I went into Walmart and we bought four things. Four things.
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Back in the day, those four things would have cost me like $27.
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Few weeks ago when he was with me, it cost me like a $115.
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So it's no secret that things are getting more expensive in this world.
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Even you buy a ketchup bottle. Ketchup bottle's a lot more money. Right? But it's also the quantity is a lot smaller. So it's no secret things are getting expensive in this world.
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But can I just say this? This world is not our source.
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The Federal Reserve is not our source. The New York Stock Exchange, not our source.
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And I understand that some people may need assistance and they may need this in their life, but food stamps, they are not our source.
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Our employers, they're not our source.
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Our paychecks, our businesses, our ministries are not our source. Now, they may be the delivery system that God uses to get things towards us, but those things are not our source. God is our source.
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The danger of making the delivery system our source is that the delivery system, those resources, they can dry up. But the resources of heaven, they will never dry up.
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Two years ago, you're gonna see some pictures at the end here. But two years ago,
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I had the opportunity to go do a crusade in in Ghana.
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And I remember I had raised up all the funds that I needed for this crusade.
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When we do these international crusades, we pay for everything ourselves.
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We pay for the travel, pay for the stage, pay for everything. The buses to bring the people to life. I'm telling you everything. Everything means what? Everything. So we pay for everything. So, like, I prayed and busted my tail to raise the funds for this crusade.
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And so finally, we raised the money for the crusade.
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And I raised it, real early, which I was very happy for that. Didn't have to wait till last minute. So I raised it real early.
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So I'm in my house and I'm listening to a friend of mine who's an evangelist.
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And he's buying a ministry building and he wants to buy it debt free.
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As I'm listening to this, I get a phone call from the pastor in Ghana who's doing who's putting everything together for us.
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And he says, evangelist, he's all like, listen, we're looking forward to the crusade. He's like, we just got a little problem here. He said, you know, with inflation going up all over America, it's also going up here in United State here in Ghana.
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And so we we're gonna need a little bit more money. And I said, well, how much more money are you talking about? And he said, we're gonna need $10,000.
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And I'll be honest with you, at that time, I didn't have $10,000 in my pocket. I didn't to just give.
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And I was like, so I didn't react like that. I said, 10,000. No. I didn't. I said, okay. No problem. Deal. We'll do it. And I just set it out out of my spirit.
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And at the same time, I have a friend that's asking for money to buy a ministry building, and my wife comes walking into the room. I'm on the phone, guys talking on the computer, and my wife's talking to me. Got three things happening at once. My wife, all she can hear is that conversation.
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And so she's like, are you gonna give him anything?
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You gonna give him anything? I said, yeah yeah yeah. You gotta say, yeah. Yeah. Just so you can get them from stop talking. You know? My dad's very good at that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
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So she she's like, how Portuguese people were were good like that. How much money are gonna give them? I didn't even pray about it. You know, I I just said the first thing that came to my mind. I said, write a check out for $500.
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500 just write a check for $500.
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And I'm talking on the phone.
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She said, 500?
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Is that all you're gonna give him? Oh, you got a better idea?
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She's all like, how much I said, I just got a phone call. I need to give this guy $10,000 by the end of the week.
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I said, I don't know where I'm gonna get to $10,000.
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I she said, how much do you have left over? You said you had some left over from all the funds that you I said, I got $2,000.
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She said, wouldn't you agree with me that the same God that can get you $8,000, can he get you to $10,000?
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I said, yeah. Of course, he can. She's like, 10,000, 8,000, that's nothing to God. Right? I'm like, yeah. She's like, the 2,000 that you have extra, what she said, that's not enough. I said, no. I said, and I need another $8,000. You're very good at math, Mary Anne. And she's all like so she's like, wouldn't you agree with me that the 2,000 is not enough? I'm like, yeah. She's like and then she said this to me, bishop. She said, then why don't you put your money where your mouth is and take the full $2,000 and sow it into his ministry?
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I said, you mean to give him everything I have right now?
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I said, but Mary Anne, you don't under She said, I don't wanna hear you don't understand.
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Your wife sometimes act as the second holy ghost.
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She's all like, you preach it, now live it.
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Sow the $2,000 into his ministry.
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I said, alright. So I bore witness with my spirit, and I sewed it. And I wanted to sleep on my bed that night, so I sewed it.
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So I said, God, I got I got five days to raise the funds for this. I'm gonna go to Pennsylvania, and I'm gonna believe for the $10,000 to get to get there.
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And so I I go to Pennsylvania, and I'm gonna be very honest with you right now.
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Faith is not believing in what you see. Faith is just believing the promise of the word of God. But if I went by what I seen in the natural, ain't no $10,000 coming in in that congregation.
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There was 15 people there, and they were all over the age of 75 years old.
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In my mind, I'm like, there is no way $10,000 is coming here.
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Like, to the point where I feel ashamed of even saying this, I didn't even take an offering that Sunday morning. I'm like, I'm just gonna take it Sunday night, Monday night. It ain't coming in. So I didn't even take the offering that morning.
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Sunday night, this lady comes up to me.
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She's like, pastor, can I ask you a question? I said, sure. She's like, can I give you an offering?
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I said, give me an offering? Yeah. I was like, yeah. They're take an offering at the end all week. I said, you can just put it in there. She's like, no. Can I give it to you? I said, you wanna give it to me? She said, I wanna hand it to you. Can I do that? I said, how old are you? She said, I'm 78.
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I said, you're 78 years old. You can do whatever you wanna do with your offer.
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You can give it to me. You can put it in the yard. You can do whatever you wanna do. And she's like, I wanna give it to you. She's like, but do you make it possible to give by credit card?
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And I looked at her and I said, ma'am, what evangelist do you know doesn't make giving possible through credit card?
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I said, of course.
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Do I have to go online? I said, well, as a matter of fact, I got a machine with me that you can give directly if you I would much rather do that. She said, can I give you half credit card and half on check? And I said, absolutely. I said, how much would you like to give? She said and she said the words 5,000.
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Now, I'm Portuguese. I'm not dumb.
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I know half of 5,000 is 2,500.
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So I took that credit card machine and I put 2500 on it. And when I wrote that because I I'm thinking, man, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel right now. When I put that $2,500 into that credit card machine, she was peeking over my shoulder and she said, no.
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You're wrong.
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And I said, I am so sorry.
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I said, ma'am. I said, I think I just got way too excited and I heard $5,000 and I said, I'm sorry. So I know like half of 5,000 is 2,500. I said, I'm sorry. So what was it? She said, no, you heard me right.
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She said, I did say 5,000.
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I said, so what's the problem? She said, the half I wanted to give you wasn't half of 5,000 on the credit card. The half I wanted to give you on the credit card was $5,000.
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I said, you mean to tell me the other half is gonna be a $5,000 check? She said, yeah. I said, you mean to tell me you're gonna give me $10,000 today? She says, is that okay with you? I said, absolutely.
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I receive it in the name of Jesus.
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Thank God the Lord wasn't working on my faith, he was working on my wife's faith back in Bangalore, Maine.
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But we went back to Ghana at the beginning of this year.
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And I knew I was short some money.
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And this lady heard the knew that I was short some money. She called me up.
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She said, hey, preacher.
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She said, I heard you're short some money. How much money do you need? And I told her what I needed. It was a lot. And she's like, I'm gonna write you a check and I'm gonna send it to you.
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Then she said this. She said, but She said, this is the last big check that I'm gonna write you.
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She's all because I'm not gonna be able to write any more checks after this for this for this amount. And I'm gonna be very honest with you. When she told me that, it kinda disappointed me.
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Because I'm like, how am I gonna fund these crusades?
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And that's when the Lord reminded me. He said, this woman is not your source.
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She was the delivery system I used for that time.
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And so I asked the Lord. And I said, Lord, why does the delivery system always change? And God put certain resources in front of me. One was from brother Oral Roberts.
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The miracle of seed faith. Where I finally learned the difference between the source and the delivery system. And this is what I read in that book. He says, the reason the delivery system changes is so that our faith will never be on the delivery system, but that our faith will always be on the God who is our source. And as long as God is our source, we will always have food on the table. We'll always have clothes on our back, and we will always have a roof over our head. Can somebody say amen to that? And let me just add this before I go to my final point.
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Not only should we be confident in the provision of God, we should also be confident in the provision of God that he wants to bless us so that we can bless others during difficult times in their life. So that we can be a blessing to those who are less fortunate. Can somebody say amen to that? I had a young man sit in my dinner at my kitchen table a few, about a year and a half ago, and he's from the nation of India. And you're gonna see these pictures, but he's from the nation of India and he was raised, in an orphanage from six to 12 years old. His parents didn't make enough money to give him food, and to give him a bed, and to give him, water to take a shower. And so, they put him in an orphanage because they knew that him being in an orphanage, he would have a bed. He would have food three times a day. And so, he was telling me that after he left the orphanage and he went back to his father's home, his father was so blessed, because of what the orphanage did for his children that he decided to build an orphanage himself.
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And the young man was telling me that the orphanage that his father has, they don't have they don't have clean water. They have a water well there, but all the water comes up dirty. And so what they have to do is they have to take the dirty water, put it into this big container, and then they gotta ship it all the way to a company. They gotta clean that water, put it in a clean container, and then ship it back to the orphanage, and then they can use that water to eat, to cook, to take shots. How many of you this morning had to do that? You had to like ship water away so you can drink it before it came out of your faucet. Exactly. None of you. We can it may not be the best tasting water, but we can do it, and we're not gonna get sick. They don't have that option over there. So I said, what what is it gonna take for you to get clean drinking water? And he says, well, we gotta dig a deeper well. And so my western mindset, you know what I said? I said, well, then dig the deeper well. And they said, brother, we can't. I said, why not? He said, it costs a lot of money. And at that moment when he said it costs a lot of money, the Holy Spirit instantly spoke to my wife and I, and he said, I want you to dig and drill and build that well in that orphanage over in in India. So I told her, I said, so if you had the money, it would be no problem. He said, we can have it done within a week. And I said, done. He says, what do you mean done? I said, we're gonna take care of the well. He says, you don't even know how much it costs. I said, I don't need to know how much it costs. God told me to do it. Get me an invoice, and we're gonna send the money over to you. So they got me the invoice. We sent them the money. They drilled that well, and then they have clean drinking water. They opened it up for the entire village of that community. Right? So I thought I was just giving them, water to drink, but drinking water, but God was actually doing something more than that. When that water was instill installed in that village, it's the first clean drinking water well in that village. They opened it up to the entire village, which has 200 families, and they said, listen, you can come get your free clean drinking water here at the orphanage.
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So they've been coming to get their drinking water at the orphanage. The pastor called me up and he said, you're never gonna believe this. Now we need a bigger building. I said, why? Because of that well that you installed, the whole village came to Christ, and they're showing up on a weekly basis and getting discipled.
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See, God does everything with souls in mind. Can somebody say amen? And there it is. The picture right there. The little boy's drinking the clean drinking water. And then, they have a 156 kids in that, in that orphanage. And so the pastor asked me, I need your help. I said, do you need? Is it possible that you can give one meal a day to these kids, a 156 kids every day to help us feed them? We don't have food. I said, you know what? I can do something even better. He says, what's better than giving one free meal a day to these kids every day? I said, how about we do three free meals a day for these kids every day? So we did the math. Over 14,000 meals a month and over a 160,000 meals a year that we give to that orphanage so those kids can wake up and eat something and go to bed on a full stomach. Can somebody say amen to that? Be confident in God's goodness that He wants to bless you so that you can be a blessing to somebody else.
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And number five, I'm gonna ask my friend Kenny if he can come back up. Here's the fifth. In the last days, we can remain unshaken by being confident in God's pardon.
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P a r d o n.
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Being confident in God's pardon.
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I wanna encourage somebody today.
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But before I do, I really never have any favors that I ask.
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But I am gonna ask one favor.
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From this moment forward, I'm asking if nobody could get up and walk out of the service.
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I tell people all the time, if you wanna get up and walk out, get up and walk out when Nate Pimentel is preaching.
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But when the Holy Spirit begins to move upon the hearts of people, that's an opportunity for us to pray intercede.
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That the same God that transformed our lives is the same God that's getting ready to transform somebody else's life at this very moment.
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I want to encourage somebody here this morning.
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You may say, Nate, you don't understand.
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It's over for me.
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But I've come to tell you, it's not over for you.
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If you have messed up in life, you can start over today.
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The bible says his mercies are new every morning.
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I used to say it like this, he's the God of the second chance.
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He's the God of the third chance.
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He's the God of the fourth chance. But I like how my pastor says it even better. He's the God of another chance.
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First John chapter one verse nine tells us, if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
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Can I encourage somebody today?
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Don't allow the mistakes of your past keep you from God this morning.
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I know people who refuse to come to Christ because of the things that they have done in their past.
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They say God could never save a person like me.
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It reminds me one time back in 2006 when I was living in Burlington, Massachusetts right before I moved up to Maine.
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I walked into a coffee shop.
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To be even more detailed, I walked into a Starbucks coffee shop.
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And there was a group of women.
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I would say they were probably early thirties, mid thirties.
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And the day before that, there was a celebrity. I guess you can call her a celebrity.
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And, she had passed away. She was in the, the adult film industry.
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And she had died the previous day unexpectedly.
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And there was a group of women in that coffee shop.
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I was listening to it's not that I was eavesdropping. You ever been around people, they talk so loud, you can just hear their conversation? Why are listening? Why are you talking so loud? And and they were talking about how this lady had passed away.
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And And they said, I don't I don't like her. Never liked her.
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I don't approve of her lifestyle.
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I could care less about her. I'm glad she's gone.
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The world's a better place without her. They said, I just feel bad that she died and she had a nine month old son.
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And now this nine month old son is not only because the father passed away too, is not only gonna grow up without a dad. Now he's also gonna grow up without a mother.
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And so these four ladies are all talking out loud at this coffee shop and there's a there's a lady probably in in her forties, mid forties. Little tiny lady.
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And you can see she's in the back and all of a sudden she's like, she's getting on the tip tiptoes and she said, excuse me.
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Excuse me.
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And all the ladies kinda looked at her kinda like, who are you? What do you want? Why are you butting into our And she said the most profound thing that I've ever heard and I've never forgot it till this day. She said, you may not approve of her lifestyle.
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You may not like her as a person.
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But she said, everything and everyone is redeemable by the blood of Jesus Christ. You may be here today, and you may say, Nate, it's too late for me.
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But if you're alive, if you're breathing, if you're listening to the sound of my voice this morning, then that means you still have hope.
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Let me encourage you today, my friend. There is nothing that you have ever done that Jesus cannot forgive.
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Every sinful thought, every sinful word, every sinful action can be forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ. The good news of the gospel listen, there's a lot of people that preach this.
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If you die in your sins, you're going to hell. And as true as that is, that is not the good news of the gospel.
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That's actually very bad news.
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If you die in your sins, you're going to a place called hell where there is eternal torment.
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That's not good news. That's bad news.
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The good news is this. Yes. We are all guilty of sin.
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But God, through the blood of Jesus Christ, offers us a pardon this morning.
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And once he pardons you, he closes the case never to be reopened again.
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Listen to my voice this morning. If you have never been forgiven, today, you can be forgiven. Today, you can be forgiven.
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Twenty nine years ago, there was a young man.
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His father had committed a sin.
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This young man hurt.
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My father loved me so much.
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Why did he do this to the family?
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God, if you're a good God, why did you allow this to happen?
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That young man, from that moment forward made a decision.
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I want nothing to do with God.
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I want nothing to do with going to church.
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I'm gonna do my thing, my way, do whatever I wanna do, hang out with whoever I want to hang out with. And for two years, that young man got involved in drugs, got involved with the wrong people, got involved doing the wrong things, the wrong stuff, being at the wrong place, constantly in trouble at school, constantly in trouble, with with with the city, with the law.
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Then one day, his youth group was going to a youth event, and he didn't wanna go. He said, everybody else is going. I'm not going to this youth event. I'm going to my cousin's house. They had a half a day from school. I went to a trade school in New Bedford Vogue Tech.
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And, this young man went to the trade school.
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And, after after he finishes the half a day, everybody goes to the youth group, and he goes to his cousin's house.
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From twelve to five, he smoked seven blunts, six joints, smoked out of the pipe four or five times, got inside a car, rolled the windows up, smoked another two blunts while they were in the car. If the blunts didn't get them high, the smoke that was in that car got them high.
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And at 05:00, his youth pastor calls him and says, what are you doing?
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He says, I'm at so and so's house. Youth pastor says, I'm coming to pick you up. You know, it was the drugs talking because why would he tell the youth pastor, I'm coming to pick you up. Youth pastor shows up at the house within ten minutes, didn't ask him to go to church, put him in a headlock and threw them in the back of that vehicle. I believe in that type of evangelism.
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Some people are not gonna listen to you. You gotta be forceful with them.
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Threw them in the back threw them in the back of the of the car. And now this young man had been smoking all these drugs for about six hours. Took about a half hour to get to to the conference. There's no way that highness was completely out of this young man's body. So this young man said, you know what I'm gonna do? This young man said, I'm gonna sit in the back.
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Not in the front, in the back. Because we all know the Holy Ghost can't see the people in the back. Right? So I'm gonna sit in the back. I'm gonna hide from everybody.
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So that young man walks in. There was a door to the left and the door to the right. The door to the left was a gymnasium. So the young man, high out of his mind, walks through that walks through that doorway. And the moment he walks through that doorway, the highness that was in his body instantly, in just one moment left.
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And that young man was like, I'm either so high that I don't realize I'm high anymore or God's gonna do something in my life. And that young man went to the back of that building and he sat there. And there was this red headed evangelist that was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And he gave an invitation for people to receive Christ just like I'm gonna give you here in a few moments. And that young man, 17, 18 at the time, he was broken. He was hurting because of the sin that his father had committed. That evangelist, through the preaching of God's word, got ahold of that young man's heart. And he said, if you're here today, you don't wanna be mad anymore. You don't wanna be angry anymore. You don't wanna be bitter anymore. You know you've got to change. You know that things are not going right in your life. And if you were to die today, you don't know if you're gonna make it into heaven. And as a little boy, that that young man always heard about Jesus is coming back soon. Jesus is coming back soon. But this thing that happened in his life took him away from the things of God. But on that day, that young man with the holy spirit started pulling on the strings of his heart. That young man got up, and he walked down that aisle 400 feet. It was the longest walk he had ever made. That young man got to the end of that aisle, and he got down, and he got on his knees right at that altar. And he said, God, I can't do it anymore.
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I've been faking it.
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Everybody else thinks my life is right, but can't I do it anymore.
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I don't wanna be angry. I don't wanna be hurt. I don't wanna be bitter.
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But God, I need a new life, but I can't do it on my own.
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I don't have the power to do it. I don't have the ability to do it. And the Lord spoke to that young man, said if you will surrender your life to me, if you will do what I tell you to do, if you'll go where I tell you to go, if you'll say what I tell you to say, I will give you the power.
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I will give you the ability.
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Don't wait to fix yourself up before you come to me.
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But he said, come to me.
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Come to me with your baggage.
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Come to me with everything that you're carrying and give it to me.
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I will clean you up.
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I will fix you up.
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I will empower you for the life that I have prepared for you. And on that day, that young man, he gave his life over in faith to Jesus.
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He said, God, I'll do whatever you want me to do. And when he was getting up from that altar, that young man, the Lord spoke to him and said, now I'm gonna take you back to when you were 13 years old, when I called you into the ministry, and I'm calling you back into the ministry because my gift and my calling was never taken away from you. But now that you've surrendered your life, I can use you to your full potential through the power of the Holy Spirit. And that young man went back to his seat. There was an application waiting for him to fill out to go to bible college. And my friend, I'm here to tell you that twenty nine years later, that young man
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stands before you this morning. And I'm here to tell you that if God could do it for me, God could do it for you.
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If he did it for me, he'll do it for you.
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God is not a respecter of persons.
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I've been in this thing long enough to know. I've been in this thing long enough to know. You can come to church every week.
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Because I'll tell you what, when I was away from God, I went to church every week. I had no option.
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I lived under my mother's roof.
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In my house, where I was growing up at 13 years old, you don't want you don't tell your parents what you're gonna do.
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Your parents tell you what you're gonna do. I went to church every week, sang the same songs everybody else sang, clapped, stood, even jumped up and down every once in a while because the music just got my body going. But you know what?
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That wasn't getting me into heaven. Somebody asked me, they're like, Nate, how do you know you're going into heaven?
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Famous question people always ask me.
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And what they wanna hear is, I'm a good person.
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I've done a lot of good stuff.
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Even though good is being part of a Christian, being good is not what gets you into heaven.
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Can I tell you what gets you into heaven? Being right with the Lord Jesus Christ is what gets you into heaven. People say, Nate, how do you know heaven is your home? You know how what I tell people? I said, I know heaven's my home because I can go back to a specific date.
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April 1999, evangelist Tiff Shuttlesworth was preaching on that platform.
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Give the invitation for people to receive Jesus Christ.
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I got up on my feet. I walked that platform.
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I got on my knee, and I said, Jesus, come into my heart. Come into my life. There is a distinct memory in my mind that I can take you back to to say, that's how I know that I'm saved. That's how I know that I'm saved. So let me ask you the question.
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Do you have that today?
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Thanks again for listening to today's podcast. We trust that it has touched your heart and blessed your life. Listen to support the ministry, can go to our website abundantlife.tv.
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And remember, we are better together.