Sunday Evening Worship

If you would allow me, I'm going to spare any further stories uh in regards to our mission field here before I begin to preach because I in place of telling you now am going to tell them to you as I preach. And so I'm going to preach the stories of our people and our church in Rosarto, Mexico. If you would turn in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah, chapter number 53, beginning in verse number one. I don't know what your uh culture is. Not sure what your Sunday nights look like. This is my first time to preach before you, but I'm just going to preach like I'm at home if that is okay with you. >> I feel very comfortable here tonight. Give honor to the musicians and the singers. Made me feel right at home. >> Isaiah 53 verse number one. Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Everybody say, revealed. >> Revealed. >> For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. I want to take special attention to a root out of dry ground. Jesus is a root out of dry ground. He doesn't need perfect conditions to move, >> but he brings the perfection with him. And >> so, it doesn't matter what you've come with here tonight, but I want to preach to encourage your faith that God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or even think. if you would put your hands in the air and pray with me. God, I ask that you would increase our faith in this place tonight. I pray that you would speak to each and every individual that is in this house. I pray God that your divine touch would be with us. That you would speak to each and every person. I pray that you would touch needs in this place, every sickness, every disease. I pray that we would hear from your word and we would understand that nothing is impossible in this place. Would you put your hands together as a declaration of your faith in this place tonight? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. For a few moments here this evening, I want to preach from to you from this topic. Things my parents taught me but different. Things that my parents taught me but different. If you haven't already been seated, you can be seated. I'm glad that you availed yourself to that. The message of the Messiah is one that demands faith. It is not a report or a message that appeals to the natural eye. When you read about the story of Jesus Christ, it is not a message that you and I would feel uh as if it is a an attractive story because everything to the natural eye tells us that it is not something that we should desire. The Bible says that he would come with no form or comeliness. Christ would come in such a way that it did not match human expectation. It did not come riding on a white horse wielding some sort of political power. And he even addresses this with his disciples in Acts chapter number one and verses 5-8 as he begins to discuss and tell them about a promise that is going to be in Jerusalem. The disciples are distracted and they begin to ask him, "When are you going to restore the nation unto Israel?" Jesus essentially rebukes them and tells them, "It is none of your business. It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And he says that you are going to be a witness unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Jesus would come riding on a donkey. He would come as a tender plant from Nazareth wherein nothing good ever came. This is the kind of story that Jesus had. Faith becomes the lens therefore that we are able to see his true glory. Faith is able to see what flesh overlooks and it hears and believes even when the outward evidence looks unpromising. >> When you look at a situation, it may look as if there is no possibility that God is able to move. But faith is able to declare amongst that situation in the middle of that situation that God is able to do that which we cannot see. That's right. >> Because with man it may seem impossible. >> But I declare to you here today that with God all things are possible. It does not matter what you have come with to service tonight. God is able to touch you by the end of this service and you can leave a changed individual. You don't have to leave the same way that you came, but God is able to give you something on the way home. >> So he speaks unto us in Isaiah 53 and verse number one and he says, "Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" want to tell you here tonight that faith is important. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things not seen. Scripture tells us that we do not walk by our sight, >> but we walk by faith. >> And he's asking a very interesting question. Who is going to believe this report? >> And who is going to see the revealed arm of the Lord? If I can put it this way, the report is the good news preached about Jesus Christ. >> The report is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That report is Acts chapter 2 and verse number 38. And when that report is believed, the arm of the Lord or God's power is revealed in your life. Do you remember when you were baptized in the name of Jesus and when you were filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost? There was a report that was given maybe from this very pulpit and you believed that report and because you believed that report, God was able to transform your life. That is the revealed arm of the Lord. You once were dead in sin. You once were in a deep dark miry clay, but God was able to pick you up out of where you are and put you upon a firm foundation. That is the revealed arm of the Lord. >> It is the arm of the Lord that we are able to see. The report is the seed, if I may put it that way. And your belief is the soil with which that seed is planted. And the arm of the Lord is the sprout that comes forth out of that ground. You don't wait to see the arm before you believe. Scripture tells us that you must believe before you see the arm of the Lord. We cannot simply see the results before we believe. But we must believe in order for us to see the results. You must believe the report to see the power of God revealed. >> This is why faith alone and belief alone is not sufficient. But you must have belief and you must be able to act upon that belief to see the revealed arm of the Lord. >> Scripture tells us as I already mentioned that we walk by faith and we walk not by sight. Your faith is what reveals or stops the flow of the revealed arm of the Lord. Your faith is what keeps you during the storm. But your faith is also what can hinder you while walking in the storm. If you have unbelief that is riddled throughout your life, it will be very hard during the storm to stand firm upon the foundation that God has planted you on. But faith is what is able to see through the storm. Even though I may not be even though I may not have everything together at this present moment, I have faith to believe that God is able to pull me out onto the other side. I don't see it right now, but I know that God is able. I don't see the miracle at this very present moment, but I know that God is able to provide me with the miracle. You may have come tonight and you've come worried, questioning about what in the world is going to happen tomorrow. But faith is what is able to bring you to the house of God where you're able to find peace and where you're able to find safety. You may feel like you're at your wit's end, but faith brought you into this place tonight and faith is what is able to keep you through the storm. I'm so thankful that I am amongst a group of people that know about the power of faith. But this question in Isaiah chapter number 53 implies that not everybody will see, not everybody will understand. >> But that it requires faith to perceive. It requires faith to have revelation. >> We have songs about this faith. Faith. Faith. Faith. Just a little bit of faith. >> You don't need a whole lot. Just use what you got. Faith, faith, faith. Just a little bit of faith. I think that's that song is unbiblical. If you sing it, I do apologize. We don't sing it in Mexico because it doesn't exist in Spanish. But Bible, the Bible never says little faith. The Bible says that you are to have faith as the grain of a mustard seed. It does not say that you are to have faith the size of the mustard seed, but it says that you should have faith like the grain of a mustard seed that when it is rooted in the ground, it becomes a great tree. That kind of faith is able to speak to the mountains and say, "Remove hence, and it shall be removed." don't just have a little bit of faith tonight, but I wonder if you had some kind of faith that is able to move mountains in this place tonight that says, "Giant, get thee behind me. I am not going to allow your words to determine the way that I live my life, but get thee behind me, Satan, and watch as God is able to do the miraculous." Would you put your hands together as a declaration of your faith in this place tonight? I want to give you an example of this kind of faith. There was a lady in our church that we met in a market. We were walking through a market in Rosarto. My sister was in town and my my grandmother was with her and they wanted to see some of the trinkets. They wanted to buy some goods so that they had something to take home to remember their trip. And as we're walking through the market, there was a lady that was at the end of the aisle and she caught my wife's attention. I didn't see her at the first moment, but she caught my wife's attention. And my wife felt drawn to walk in her direction and to her store. She had things just like everybody else in this particular market, blankets, therapes, all sorts of things that you would be able to purchase. And it was in this moment and in a conversation before we ever arrive to her uh place where she is selling her goods, she was already crying. She had tears in her eyes. And it put me off initially because I didn't really understand. You walk up to a stranger and they're crying in your presence. That's a little awkward. So we began to talk to her and she began to tell us a very interesting story. She said, "I was going to close my store today, but I really needed the money and I couldn't afford to close the store." But she said she came to work on this particular day and everybody around her was closed and she was beginning to feel very discouraged that she had made the wrong choice. She said, 'The reason that I'm crying in your presence here today is because when I saw your wife as she was walking down the aisle on her way toward me, there was something in the spirit that told me that you are the reason that I stayed open on this particular day. We began to talk to her and we began to uh tell her about the power of the name of Jesus Christ. And it was on a Tuesday, this particular day. and she came to service that Tuesday night and she was able to be in service with us. And over the next couple of weeks, she didn't miss a service and she was in Bible study and began to talk to us about her wanting to profess her faith and declare her faith. And so we told her that you need to be baptized in the name of Jesus and you need to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. And she said, "I want that." And so on that next Sunday, we baptized her in the name of Jesus Christ and she came up out of the water, speaking in other tongues as the spirit gave the utterance and she began to be faithful. She was baptized. She had not yet been delivered. What I mean by that is she attended one of our Bible studies and it was a very fascinating Bible study because we did not know the moment but uh it was very clear to some of the people in our church that she was manifesting some sort of spirit in their own words and they called me. I was not at the Bible study but they called me. She was in one of our small groups and I got a call from Sister Anna and she said, "There's a lady here and she seems to be manifesting something." I said, "What? Manifesting what?" Like good energy, bad energy. She said, "She seems to be possessing something." I said, "Okay, possessing like what?" She said, "Pos some possessing some sort of of spirit." I said, 'Oh, this this is just got serious. I said, 'Well, you've been baptized in Jesus' name and you have received the gift of the Holy Ghost and you have the power of Jesus' name on the inside of you. And so, if she begins to do it again, you call on the name of Jesus. and she calls me again a little bit later. She said that um not only is she doing the same thing, but her nephew who is on the phone through FaceTime is doing the same thing. And I'm thinking in my mind, this is this was not taught in Bakersfield. I didn't I didn't receive this sort of education. I've never seen a devil jump through a cell phone. And I said, "I I only know what to do based off of what scripture tells me to do." >> And there was a man in our church by the name of Adrian. And he said, "Pastor, I I knew exactly what to do." I said, "What you did?" He said, I said, "How did you know what to do?" He said, "Well, this is the same thing that happened to my wife." I said, "Your wife?" He said, "Oh, yeah." He said, "She started doing this same thing and I called on the name of Jesus and it left her." I said, 'Well, whatever you did to your wife, you need to do to to this lady so that she can get the same thing. And he said, 'I called on the name of Jesus'. And I laid my hand upon her. And he said, the spirit left her and it left her nephew that was on the cell phone. I said, what in the world is going on? But it was in that very moment that everybody that was in that Bible study was able to see that there is power in the name of Jesus. There is power in the name of Jesus. It doesn't matter what kind of disease you have or if you have spirits on the inside of you. If the name of Jesus is applied to your life, every demon has to flee. Every enemy has to leave this place. The name of that lady, her name was Sister Blanca. And I believe that we have a video of Sister Blanca. This is her in the corner very proud with her camera. This is Sister Paulie that's being baptized in the name of Jesus. Since Sister Blanca has been coming to our church, she's invited and 20 more than 20 people have come with her to the house of God. Of those 20, 12 of them have been baptized in the name of Jesus. And eight of them have been filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost. If it can happen for Sister Nadia, it can happen for you tonight. If you would just have faith and believe the report of the Lord. I've come to rebuke every demon in hell that is in Marville to let everybody know that what Maraveville is doing is the right thing and what we have in this place is able to deliver. Put your hands together and give God praise in this place. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. if he's able to do what he did for sister Blanca and if he's able to do what he did for her nephew and if he's able to do the miraculous that he was able to do in Rosarto. I know that he's able to do it in this house tonight. And I've come here this evening to encourage you and to lift up your faith and let you know that God is still on the throne and he still has all power in his hands. John would say, "I saw the Lord high and lifted up." Excuse me. That would be Isaiah. Isaiah in chapter 6 said, "I saw the Lord high and lifted up and his train filled the temple." Revelation, John would say, "I saw one seated upon the throne." >> We understand that it is through faith that we are all in this place here tonight. But also understand that the verse of scripture did not end in verse number one but it continued in verse number two. Bible says that he was a tender plant. Also says that he would be a root out of dry ground. The root suggests some sort of hidden life. Suggests a strength that is invisible and it represents the potential of what can be. But dry ground suggests barrenness. >> It suggests impossibility. >> Dry ground suggests an absence of life. You do not get roots in dry ground. You do not get life that flows out in dry ground. There is a paradox here. The paradox is very clear. The Messiah appears in an environment where growth is not expected. This is why it is imperative that the people of God have faith. Israel is under Roman occupation and a carpenter's son from Nazareth is the one that is to be the Messiah. What seems impossible to man is made possible by God himself. Do not allow your faith here tonight to be diminished because of what you see. What you see will deceive you. >> Do not allow what you've come with here tonight, the spiritual baggage or the argument before church. Don't allow that to determine the type of faith that you have. >> But I've come to encourage you and let you know that he is seated on the throne. And often times Jesus himself would say, "According to your faith, be it unto you." The disciples saw the very same man that everybody else was able to see. But by faith they were able to confess, "Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God." Jesus would respond and say, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it to you, but my father which is in heaven hath revealed it to you." Without faith, Christ looked like he had no form nor comeliness. But with faith, he is the salvation of the world. Without faith, all things look impossible. But with faith, all things are possible. Without faith, your backsliden children can't make it to the house of God, and they will never be saved. But with faith, God is able to bring them back into his presence. Without faith, FAC Maraveville is at the very climax of what it will ever be. But with faith, this building cannot contain the revival that is going to come because there is a potential and a root that is going to come up out of dry ground that is going to provide us with the victory. I wish somebody would extend your faith in this place tonight and believe the report of the Lord. I've come to declare it. Would you believe the declaration of the Lord? I've come to let you know that the greatest days of the apostolic church are not behind us, but they are in front of us. Without faith, it says that there can be no church in Mexico, but with faith, the Bible says that it is possible. We may not be able to see the results, but I believe. >> My question to you tonight is whether or not you believe. He is a root out of dry ground. He does not need any perfect conditions >> because God brings the perfect conditions with him. Dry ground is not the limit of God. Dry ground is the stage with which he works. Many times we try to take soil samples. We want to see whether or not it's actually going to work. Well, if I just wait for somebody else to step out, maybe I'll step out. I don't I'm I'm going to wait for them to sing a particular song because the soil's not quite right. If we would stop taking soil samples and sew the seed, begin to believe what God is able to give unto us, he will supply the water. >> He's the one that will supply the growth. There was a statement that Charles Spurgeon said, "The drier the ground, the clearer the miracle when life appears." reason you may be going through a dry season is because God may be showing you some things and he may be working on you. But don't lose your faith during the trial. Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. That's not temptation saying that you fell into sin, but temptations as in proof when God is proving you through a season. Count it all joy. >> A root out of dry ground carries its own life. And likewise, the word of God carries its own power. It does not borrow vitality from the local environment. When he is planted, he is able to provide power. >> When he is preached, he does not need any sort of extra opinions added to him. But when the word of God is preached, there is a dynamic power that is able to go forth. And from that dynamic preached word of God, there are people in this place tonight that can testify of the power of the preached word of God. There was an individual that preached unto you. And because they preached unto you, you're here in this place tonight. >> So, at the conclusion of this message, I want to tell you a few things that my parents taught me. Things that my parents taught me, but I've experienced them a little bit differently. The music can come as I'm almost finished. The Bible tells us very clearly to not forsake the assembling of ourselves. >> My parents taught me that it is imperative that we go to the house of the Lord. >> It is absolutely imperative that we stand in his presence and we gather together. When I moved to Mexico, my church didn't look like this. In many places that I preached the word of God didn't have a pullpit and I didn't have people that sat on pews. Our very first service, I didn't have a pullpit. I preached on a table and unfortunately the table only went to about my knees. And if you know anything about me, my handwriting is is very very small. And I had handwritten notes on that particular Sunday. And so I was trying to read notes from way down low. It wasn't a pretty sight. It wasn't something that I would have really wanted to participate in. But my parents told me that it was it was imperative that we assemble in the house of the Lord. >> And so there are many places that we have preached that didn't have a floor. They only had dirt floors. And there are places that we have preached that didn't have a roof, just like Sister Nadia's house. There's another video that we have to show you one of the environments wherein we have preached. And in Nadia's house, there is no floor and there is no roof. And many times as you stand in her house, there are dogs that are barking and there are places. This is her house. This is Sister Nadia reading the word of God. If you could put that up again for us. That is Sister Nadia reading. And as she's reading, there are dogs that are barking. There's ice cream trucks that are going by. There are big telephone things that are that are yelling out, "Come to the market. Come to the market." It's very loud and annoying. >> Be quite frank. >> But in this, you can hear it. Play that one more time. We want to hear the the ice cream truck. That's the kind of environment that we have church that even when there's no floor and even when there's no roof and even when the dogs are barking and even when the ice cream truck is going by, we still preach the unadulterated word of God. And there are people that have been baptized and that have received the gift of the Holy Ghost in that very same house because he is a root out of dry ground. The environment doesn't add to him. But when you preach the word of God, he brings it all with him. And I've come to preach to you today, the greatest miracle that you will ever see. And the greatest revivals that you will ever see may not come from this place, but they'll come from the places wherein you begin to preach the word of God. And you don't have a pullpit. You may not have a Bible, but God lays somebody on your heart and you speak to them. Those are the places where God begins to do the most miraculous works. Acts chapter number two wasn't in the synagogue. It wasn't in the temple. But the Bible says, "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting." The places that you minister and the places where you invite people to the house of God very well may be the best places for you to find somebody in need. My parents taught me not to forsake the assembling of ourselves. But I found it to be a little bit different in Mexico because I don't always have access. I don't always have access to this place. But when I'm out with my Bible walking around in the markets, there's people that are hungry and I don't have the ability to go get my pullpit and I don't have the ability to go to go grab my iPad. But if I just open up the word of God and preach, he's a root out of dry grounds. And if there's a person that will just believe the report of the Lord, they can see the revealed arm of the Lord. That's what happened for Sister Blanca. That's what happened for Sister Nadia. God was able to do the miraculous. My parents taught me that you had to be baptized in the name of Jesus >> for the repentance or the remission of your sins. Want to make a very controversial statement here tonight. We don't baptize in Jesus name. We baptize in the name of Jesus but in Spanish. The Spanish version. You should have been there when I prayed through. The church was on fire >> and the Holy Ghost too. From the top of my head to the soles of my feet, I felt the spirit moving all over me. The water was cold and it chilled my body, but it didn't chill my soul. That's the kind of testimony in the people of our church. if you'll show the last video that we have. Our people don't always have access to a proper baptistry. But when they want to be baptized in the name of Jesus, we take them to the water and we baptize them. Why? Because he is a root out of dry ground. And if I just preach the word of God, it doesn't matter what kind of conditions I'm in, I can still baptize. I bought a baptistry, bought a horse trough about a year ago, and I thought I didn't have to go to the ocean anymore because quite frankly, the Pacific Ocean is a little too cold to enter. I don't like cold water. We had a Bible study with a lady by the name of Monica. She said, "Pastor, I'm really concerned because I know I have to get baptized, but I'm worried. I don't know that I'll fit in the baptistry." She's not a large lady, but she's not a small lady. She said, "Pastor, I want to be baptized in the ocean." I said, "Okay." I thought I was done with these baptisms in the ocean, but if you're ready, let's do it. We showed up at the particular beach that we were going to baptize her in and she brought both of her daughters and she brought a friend. We baptized four in the name of Jesus at the at the ocean. And lastly, my parents taught me that God is able to heal an impossible diagnosis. In 2010, my dad was installed as pastor in Bakersfield, California. I was 10 years old when he was installed. It was somewhere around November of 2010. For those of you that are familiar, he had just finished his second round of P90X, which then was a big deal. He was in the best health of his life. He was diagnosed with stage three non-hodkkins lymphoma. And he had radiation. He had chemotherapy, but he never missed a church service. And I remember him preaching, standing before the congregation as a new pastor with a drainage tube coming out of his right armpit going down into a bulb that was collecting the blood from the recent surgery that he had just had. And as he would begin to preach, that drainage tube would become jostled. when he would take off his jacket when we would get home, the whole inside of his jacket would be covered with blood because of how hard he had preached on that Sunday morning. He taught me that God is able to move an impossible diagnosis because he's been cancer-free for over 13 years. And God has been so great unto us. There are many of you maybe in this place, maybe you have a diagnosis that you're facing. Maybe you're even facing a cancer diagnosis. And we're going to pray for you at the end of this service. But I want to answer something really quick. It's really easy to pray that God is able to heal cancer because it's a big word and there are a lot of people that face it. It's a disease that everybody would agree that it's a terrible disease. Nobody ever wants cancer. My parents taught me that he could heal of cancer. But the things that I've experienced in Mexico are a little bit different cuz we had a lady by the name of Norma came to our church. She didn't have cancer. She was battling a 4-day bout of depression and anxiety. She hadn't been asleep in four nights. She came to church on Sunday morning wideeyed and trembling because she wasn't able to sleep. and she was so anxious about what was going to happen. But as we began to pray on that Sunday morning, we laid hands on Sister Norma and she was delivered and healed of her anxiety and her depression and she was able to go home in her right mind. And so I want to declare to you here today that you may have a cancer diagnosis and we're going to pray for you. But I also want to declare that every demon in hell, of anxiety, of depression, God is able to deliver you and able to give you peace. Every addiction to prescription medication, God is able to help you. He's able to strengthen you because I know he's a root out of dry ground. I've seen it with my own eyes and I can declare the report of the Lord. But I want to know will you will you believe the declared report of the Lord so that you are able to see the revealed arm of his power. I invite you to this altar in this place. I don't know what you've come facing but I've come boldly to declare unto you that if you step out in faith and you declare it in your prayer that God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or even think. These are just a few of the things that my parents taught me. But I've come to tell you, your experience can be different than your parents' experience. What my parents taught me was truth. But it's very possible that what you've come in today is is a life wherein your parents didn't put truth into you. I've come to be the beacon of hope and let you know that there is a hope for you. There is a root out of dry ground that is as a tender plant and he's available to each and every person in this place. Would you lift up your hands with me and would you just begin to call upon the name of Jesus? Would you just begin to call upon the name of Jesus, the name that is above every name. Oh Jesus, neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. We call upon your name in this place, God. For we know that you are able to do what we cannot see. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Somebody just begin to lift up your voice. If he's done it for you before, God is able to do it again. Hallelujah. Reach around to somebody and put your arm around them and begin to pray with them. Hallelujah. Pray with them. Pray in the Holy Ghost. Call upon the name of Jesus. The devils also believe that there is one God and they tremble. We call upon the name of Jesus. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.