The Furnace | Raymond Woodword

Good morning, everybody. Praise the Lord. FAC. >> Isn't God good to us? >> Thank you, Pastor Zach, for such a wonderful kind introduction. Um, he messes me up just about every time he introduces me. He's my friend. Um, let me tell you why I'm not here, especially if you're visiting with us this morning. Here's why I'm not here. I am not here. Because this pastoral team needs any help with preaching. You've got some preachers in this church. and uh what a powerful ministry you were exposed to every single week. I'm so happy for you and we enjoy uh connecting with FAC at home in New Brunswick, Canada. I heard all of your pastors speak this week at the movement and every one of them ministered deeply and lifted people and encouraged people and directed people. And I'm thankful for your pastors, aren't you? Aren't they amazing? These wonderful families. Um, I have a word from the Lord for you this morning. And, uh, I believe God's going to help some people in this service. I believe God's going to do some wonderful and miraculous things as we're gathered together today. So, in anticipation of that, one more time before you're seated, would you lift up everything you've got to the Lord and give him great praise. I worship you, Jesus. Amen. You may be seated this morning. It is one of the most difficult things to understand about the Christian life and yet it is right there in scripture in your Bible just as plain as day. Becoming a disciple of Jesus does not make us immune to life's trials. It does not make us immune to problems or circumstances. In fact, Jesus deals with this very issue in his most famous sermon that we've nicknamed the sermon on the mount. Matthew 5:45. That ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven. For he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good. And he sends rain on the just and on the unjust. So there it is right there in the words of Jesus. Bad people sometimes have very sunny days and good people sometimes have very stormy nights. It's amazing to me the Bible often uses weather metaphors to talk about us talk to us about our trials. Uh we read in the Bible about the rain, the wind, the waves and the flood. We read about the storm and the clouds. We read about the drought and the heat and the dark. It's really quite amazing all through the scripture. When you think about it, if you think about it even for a moment, you'll remember and you'll realize that every great Bible character spent some time at least in some very unpleasant places. Abraham had that mountain. Joseph had the pit and Moses had the desert. David had the wilderness. Elijah had the cave. Ezekiel had the valley. Paul had the prison. Daniel had the den of lions. And the Hebrew boys, they had the fiery furnace. And these are the seasons in our lives when even those of us that have served Jesus for quite a long time, sometimes we wonder, "What in the world is God trying to do in my life right now?" If you've ever felt that you're just normal, you're just human. You're just like everybody here and you're just like everybody in the Bible. The Choir Room was founded by a Grammy and Dove Award winner named Dwan Hill and some of his friends back in May of 2022. The choir room. Dwan grew up singing in church choirs. My goodness, he would love this place. Um he grew up singing with choirs but as music had changed um he missed the joy of singing with people in a large group instead of what he had been doing for several years which was just singing to people from a stage. So he simply just put out an invitation on social media and said would anybody like to just kind of get together for a choir practice and we're just going to sing some choir songs. and he put out the invitation and the response was almost immediately overwhelming. And so they've been doing that since May of 2022 here in the USA. Each event includes a seasoned band. These are people that know how to play together, but there's no real rehearsal and they don't ever know who's going to show up for singers. And so the attendees, they're not an audience. They come and everybody is part of the choir. And that leads to a lot of very magical and and musical moments. Uh Dwan, he would say every person has a voice and every person has a part to play. So this year in 2025, it's their third anniversary and for the first time ever, they went kind of on tour to six cities here in America with the choir room. And again, they just put out an invitation and people show up uh because they have a heart to sing and and worship the Lord. It's kind of a very neat thing. And uh it happened uh about four months ago. They had a a choir room in Atlanta. It was May the 3 uh 2025 this year. And uh they were just warming up that night. Nobody turned on any cameras to record anything. A few people had their cell phones. You know, we've always got cameras. My goodness, there's more cameras in this room than people. We've always got cameras, but nobody turned on any video cameras or anything like that. And they're just warming up and they were singing together uh this old song that I remember singing when I was a kid in church. It just goes, "I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice." You remember that one? to worship you. Oh my soul, rejoicing, take joy, my king in what you hear. Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear. And they'd say, "Okay, all you bases and sopranos and teners and altos, you help us." And let's sing. I love you, Lord. Sing. And I lift my voice to worship you, oh my soul, rejoice. Sing it out. Take joy, my king, in what you hear. Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear. So, as they're doing that on May the 3 this year in Atlanta at the choir room, uh Dwan, he just happens to look down and he notices this lady in the front and she's down there and she is singing with them and they're just singing that song just like we just did. I love you Lord and I lift my voice. And this lady whose name is Dala, she's sitting there in the front. And uh music had always been a huge part of her life. She had led church choirs and she had led kids choirs and she just loved music. And she had come that night to the choir room because she just loved to sing. But the unfortunate thing for Dala is that um she had a a tragic medical situation and she went into the hospital and she had to be intubated during that stay. Her trachea was damaged to such an extent that when she came out of the surgeries, she could no longer breathe normally. So she totally lost her ability to speak and to sing and she almost lost her life during that hospital stay. So now Da she has to breathe through a tracheosttomy tube in her throat and she has to speak through an electrolarn. She has to hold a little box to the side of her neck to catch vibrations so you can even understand her. So her worship doesn't sound at all like it used to sound. And her worship doesn't sound at all like it would if you sang or I sang. But her worship is still beautiful to God. Because when people lift up their hands and their voice, whatever it sounds like, if it's sincere worship to God, God's pleased with that kind of worship. So Dwan Hill is up there in the the group that is assembled at the choir room on May the 3 in Atlanta. They're just singing, "I love you, Lord." And I lift my voice and he looks down and he sees Da in the front row and she's doing her thing. Maybe you've seen this clip on social media. If you're a church person or a music person, this may have come across your feed. Take a look. I know it won't sound like everybody else, but I do want to hear this. >> I love you, Lord, >> and I lift my voice. >> Two words. I'm gonna try that one again. I know it won't sound like everybody else, but I do want to hear this. >> Imagine that lady with a little box held up to her neck and she's just singing. If we can't get it, guys, we'll move on. It's okay. She's just singing with a little tiny box trying it won't sound like everybody else, but I do want to hear this. >> I love you, Lord. >> And I lift my voice. Two words sh Oh my soul bring joy my >> watching you. Let it be a sweet sweet sound in your feet. >> If she can worship God, we got a lot to worship God about. If she can lift up that little mechanical voice to God, oh my goodness, if you've got health and strength in your body to be in the house of God this morning, you can lift up a praise to the Lord. God's been good to us, folks. We got breath in our body. We've got health and strength to walk into the house of God. We've got a voice we can lift. And she said afterwards, she said, "The devil took my voice, but he couldn't take my praise." That's how I feel this morning. That's how I feel today. The devil may be hassling you all week long, but listen to me. You managed to get to the house of God. You managed to get among God's people. You managed to get smack dab in the middle of his presence. So, I don't care what you're going through this week. I don't care what you're going through today. You've got strength. You've got health enough. You can lift up a praise to the Lord. >> Oh my. >> Just cuz you can, why don't you do that all over again? Lift up a praise to the Lord. The devil may have been on my trail from Monday till now, but I got to the house of God today. And when I walked in the door, I just said, "I'm going to worship God no matter what happened. funerals and hospitals and setbacks and job losses and frustrations and family situations. But I'm here and I'm going to lift up the name of the Lord. I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice. You can be seated. A month ago, my sweet 90-year-old father-in-law walked into the funeral of his oldest son, my wife's brother, and he came into the little family room before the funeral, a very sudden sickness and a very sudden passing. And he had tears in his eyes when he walked in the room. And here are the first words that Jerry Flowers said. There's always something good to thank God for. Or as Job said in the midst of his trial, "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Or as Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 8:28, "And we know, no matter what happens in life, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." I've got that kind of confidence in my God. Why would a good and loving God allow his children to go through sickness and death and hardship and loss and worry and fear and sadness and grief and dark days and hospital stays? If he really loved us and he's all powerful, wouldn't he take all these bad things away from us? If we're truly his children and he truly has all power, doesn't that mean that our lives should now be easy and comfortable? But folks, that's not the way it works. In fact, scripture indicates exactly the opposite. But the good news is that in the midst of our suffering, God is working out his divine purpose in our lives, even through our pain. So through our trials we can trust my God is working everything for my good and for his glory. The biblical term for this process is chastening or discipline. And those words that are translated into English they literally mean this affliction in love. And we can understand this best if we think about it from a parenting perspective. >> Because chastening our children is not about tormenting. It's about teaching. It's not about punishment. It's about purpose. It's not about destruction. It's about discipline. It's not about frustration. It's about future fruitfulness. And it's certainly not about being forsaken. It's about being fathered. Let me tell you, you need to erase from your vocabulary this idea that I'm going through a real rough time and I feel forsaken by God. You've never been forsaken. You never will be forsaken and you are not forsaken today. He's a good good father. He hasn't left you alone. Psalm 94:12, "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and you teach him out of your law." You see, the Bible would tell us that actually it's quite the reverse of what we instinctively think. We are blessed when we endure difficult trials because it's in those trials that we discover something. When God is all you have, God is all you need and you're going to get through to the other side. >> So, we're blessed actually when we walk through deep valleys because we emerge from those valleys loving God more than ever. We are blessed even when we encounter dark days and dreary nights and then we look back down the road where we've been walking and we say, "God has been faithful to me and I've come out of that trial that I didn't even like and I don't ever want to go through again, but I never felt any closer to the Lord than I do right now." We are actually blessed when our impossible circumstances make us lean hard on the Lord. We pray more. We're more faithful. We're more committed. We're more worshipful. And when you find your trial making you lean heavy on the Lord, that's not a curse in your life. That's a blessing in your life. I'm learning to lean on Jesus. And you might not like this, but we are even blessed when we have unbearable burdens. and the pain just won't go away and the loss is unbearable and the grief and the emotions are terrible. But if it causes you to long for a land that is fairer than day, if it causes you to long for a place that is better and greater and longer than here, you're not cursed. You're actually blessed cuz you're getting ready to live with Jesus forever and ever in a place where there is no more night, no more tears, no more suffering, no more pain. So if your trial makes you focus up there, you're actually blessed by that. And can I tell us all, we're especially blessed. And all of us here, we've been through this. When the weight of our sin and the weight of our guilt and the weight of our shame fills us with a desire for something more. That's how many of us, probably most of us, got here. Our old life wasn't going all that great. It wasn't so wonderful. We put on a good front. We smiled at everybody. We pretended. We We had a good mask that we wore all the time. But when the weight of our sin and shame, when the burdens in our lives, when the pressures in our minds, and when the fractures and the fissures and the frustrations in our families, when that all caught up with us, do you know why most of us came here? It wasn't because we were kind of looking through the newspaper and thought one day, you know what? I think I'd like to be Pentecostal. That's not why we're here. We're here because the weight of our sin, it overwhelmed us and we thought, I got to get to church. Some of us, we happened on this by accident and we are so glad we found Jesus because today our lives are totally turned around. Today we've got joy in place of sorrow and we've got a peace instead of all that worry and frustration. So it was actually a blessing that we went through that. And maybe that's you today and you h happened into this wonderful church where they love people so deeply and you happened in here this morning and you're just kind of here by accident or you would say just by choice or by chance. I'd like to just kind of put this in your mind. You're not here by chance. >> You're here because God will that you would be here. And today can be your day when he steps into your life. And even though you may have some pain, God can put some purpose behind what you're going through and he can turn your life around. It's amazing. Hebrews 12:6, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. If God loves you, he's going to discipline you and grow you, and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is he whom the father chastineth not? We discipline our children because we want them to grow up and be successful adults. We want them to be godly people. We want them to contribute to society. What kind of a father wouldn't give his son any training? Well, you've got a good father. And so, he lets us go through some things. And when you go through those kinds of things, that's not proven you're not God's child. That's proven you are God's child and he's walking with you. Verse 11. Now, no chastening for the present seems to be joyous. We do not enjoy this. Actually, it seems to be grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, somebody say afterward. Afterward, it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. those that went through it, even though it wasn't good, it wasn't fun, it wasn't easy, when they got out the other side, they had the fruit of righteousness growing in their lives. Now, at the end of that very same chapter, we land on this. Hebrews 12:29, for our God is a consuming fire. And that leads us, brothers and sisters, to one of the most difficult images in the scripture concerning the Lord's dealing with us. God sometimes allows his precious people to walk through the fire of affliction every once in a while. >> And it's so important to realize that he's not doing that because he is rejecting us. He's doing that. He's allowing that because he's refining us. You are not rejected. You are not abandoned. You are not alone. God is not punishing you. God is not displeased with you. God has a higher purpose in what you are walking through. And when you get that confidence down in your spirit, you can walk through just about anything. And you can lift up your voice and you can say, "I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice." Proverbs 17:3, the refining pot is for silver and the furnace is for gold. But the Lord is not just smelting metals. No, the Lord is doing something far more precious and far more powerful. He is refining. He is trying our hearts in the refining process. Metals like gold and silver, they're separated from impurities by applying such intense heat that it melts them. And in the melting process, it burns away any worthless material. And in the very same way, the Bible teaches us as children of God, it is in our intense trials that God tries and purifies our hearts. Now, we often want to blame the devil for all of our difficulties, but sometimes it's not the devil. If if the devil could kill us all, we'd all be dead. There would have been a pileup out here on the Parkway. We'd all been dead this morning. If the devil could kill us, the devil doesn't have control of your life. Stop giving him all that credit. The devil can't hurt you or harm you or kill you. He can't do any of that to you except it passes through the permission of God. God can give the devil permission to hassle us. That can happen. It happened to Job in the book of Job in your Bible. But God doesn't do that vindictively. God doesn't do that viciously. And the devil couldn't do it if he wanted to. Would you stop worrying and having Pentecostal panic attacks about what the devil could do to you? The devil can't do anything to you if you're in the hand of the Lord. And so sometimes we want to blame the devil. He gets a lot of blame he doesn't deserve. He gets a lot of credit he shouldn't deserve. Cuz sometimes it's the Lord doing his refining work in our lives. >> So I I know I I I heard you. But what if it really is the devil? Good. That's okay. Because Genesis 50:20 said, "You meant it for evil, but my God meant it for good." So even if it is the devil attacking your family, even if it is the devil attacking your mind, even if it is the devil trying to mess up your life, God can take everything the enemy meant for evil, he can spin it around 180 degrees and he can use it for your good and for his glory. So I don't care what kind of hell you might have walked through today. We're looking at heaven this morning. We are preparing for a place that we're going to live forever. So trials of this life, we just kind of walk through them >> and we keep our eye on Jesus. >> Isaiah the prophet spoke these words in 54 and 16. Behold, God said, "I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the waster to destroy." God said, "I've created all the great powers that are on this planet. Nothing's here without my knowledge. Nothing's here without my involvement or my permission." And so, I get it. You sometimes get fearful. You're afraid of the waster that could destroy. You're afraid of the intense heat of the fire. But here's God's promise to us in the midst of the fire. Even if the waster and the fire and the furnace and the blast furnace and the coals, even if it's all around you and you say, "I don't know if I can get through this season of life." Here's God's promise from the prophet. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn. So here's God's promise. I don't care how intense the heat is. I don't care how terrible the furnace is. It doesn't matter if the enemy is involved there like a puppet master behind the scenes. It doesn't matter because here's my promise. In the midst of the worst intense fire you will ever encounter. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. I want to get some precious saint in my crosshairs this morning. And I want to tell you, you've cried a lot of tears. But while you're crying your tears, you need to say to yourself, "And no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. You've worried about that backsliding boy or that weward daughter." But I want to tell you this morning, no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. You feel like I've just about lost my mind with the frustration. I want to tell you, no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. I wish you'd lift up your hands and receive that. I receive that into my life. No weapon that is formed against me shall prosper. >> The next verse says, "This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, sayaeth the Lord." Somebody say, "That's mine. That's my promise. That's my heritage. No weapon that is formed against thee >> shall prosper." Now, you don't you no doubt remember the most famous trial by fire in the entire Bible. And you certainly remember the bravery and the declaration of the three Hebrew boys that were tossed in a blazing inferno in the pagan empire of Babylon. They determined in their heart, regardless of what happens to me, regardless of what is unfurled and unleashed in my life, we are going to serve God. Now, here's their declaration. This is amazing. Daniel 3:1 17. If it be so, >> if it be so, >> if you throw us in that fire, if it be so, our God whom we serve, he is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. They say three things. That's the first one. Everybody say, "God is able." >> God is able. >> It doesn't matter what you're walking through. It doesn't matter what situation is in your life. God is able. In this service this morning, before we turn ourselves around and walk back out the doors, before the last song is sung and the last prayer is prayed, here's what I know. My God is able. He can meet you at this altar this morning and he can turn your situation inside out, right side up. He can turn your situation around so that you don't even recognize it when you get home. >> Somebody say, "God's able." So that's the first declaration. Here's the second declaration. And he will deliver us out of thine hand. Okay? That's a different declaration. God's going to deliver us out of your hand whether we go in the furnace or whether we don't. God's going to deliver us out of your hand whether we're burned to a crisp or whether we get to walk out the back door. It doesn't matter how this turns out. One way or the other, God is going to deliver us out of your hand. It doesn't matter whether I get healed down here cuz I know I'm going to be healed on the way up there. It doesn't really matter if I get every prayer answered cuz I can read in the Bible that God answered the prayer of Moses who said, "Show me your glory." God answered that prayer 1,500 years after Moses died. And God said, "Come on back, Moses." And Moses stood on the Mount of Transfiguration and he saw Jesus glorified and his prayer was answered. He got to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, 1500 years after he died. Prayers don't die. Faithful people who pray prayers, their prayers are still bouncing around this campus. They might have prayed them up the road at the other church, but their prayers are still following you and your children and your children's children. So, here's what we know. Oh, king, if we burn to a crisp, we're out of your hand. And if God lets us walk out the door, we're out of your hand. Either way, you don't control the end of the story. I want to serve notice on hell. I want to serve notice on the devil. Either way, you don't control the end of the story. One way or the other, we are out of your hand. Whoa. I was humming it in the hotel room this morning. That old Dawn Johnson song. Somewhere between here and there, there'll be a healing service. >> Now, some of you, you're way too young to know that song. But I remember that song. You might get healed this morning. God might give you a miracle this morning, but if he doesn't this morning or next week or the week after, when the rapture happens, everybody gets their miracle. When the rapture happens, everybody gets delivered. When the rapture happens, every every prayer is answered. Oh my. So, that's the first two declarations. If it be so, our God's able. Everyone say, God's able. and he will deliver us either way. Somebody say either way. >> Either way, >> and here's the third declaration. But if not, >> but if not, >> if he doesn't do what we want, if he doesn't do what we've prayed, if he doesn't do what we've asked for, if he doesn't do what we've believed for, if he doesn't do what we hope for, but if not, let me tell you something, oh king, we will still not serve your gods and we will still not worship this golden image that you have set up. It doesn't matter to us. We know God is able to deliver. But if he doesn't deliver in this situation, it doesn't change one thing. We're still going to show up. We're still going to worship God. In fact, we're going to praise him in the midst of the flames of the furnace. That's exactly what they did. And before it was all over, that pagan king walked over to the edge of the furnace and said, "Wait a minute. Something's dead wrong here. I thought we threw in three men that were bound and I see four men walking around. None of them are bound. And the fourth, he looks like a son of God. What's going on? Let me tell you what's going on. God will walk with you in the middle of your furnace. God will walk with you in the middle of your fire. God will walk with you no matter what is going on in your life. I wish somebody would lift up a shout of praise to the Lord this morning for a faithful God. But if not, it doesn't change anything, devil. We're still going to be here worshiping God if we don't get our prayer answered. Oh my. When a silver smith is refining and purifying silver, he has to hold the metal in the very center of that flame, in the very hottest part of the fire. How does the silver smith know when the refining process is complete? How does he know? Well, they tell us it's when he can pull that molten silver just out of the flame a bit and look at it. And when he can see his own reflection in the silver, he knows that the refining process is complete. >> All this time, you thought God was on a coffee break and he was just letting you kind of fight through your little difficulties all by yourself. No, no. He's letting you stay there just long enough for you to be made into the image of Jesus. And when he looks at you, he's not critical of you. He's not judging you. He's not abandoning you. He's forming you. He's shaping you. And when he sees his image, oh my, >> that's what God's doing in you. >> Almost done. Couple more scriptures. Isaiah 48 and verse 10, the prophet spoke. I love this verse. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver. I have chosen thee >> in the furnace of affliction. Some of you precious saints of God, you're walking through some terrible affliction right now. And and and you've prayed and prayed and you've been faithful and you've believed and you've come to the altar and you've done all the things that we know we're supposed to do. And you say, "But I'm still in this furnace of affliction." Well, there's your word this morning. God said, "I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. I am right there walking beside you. I am right there holding your hand. I am right there. I am listening to every prayer. I am seeing every tear that falls. But what you don't understand is I'm looking for my reflection and I'm doing something. I'm accomplishing something in your life." in the New Testament, 1 Peter 1 6 and 7, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth. This is a far greater process, though it be tried with fire, it might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. And some of you, God is doing a work that's going to bring him great glory on that final day when we're all together. And I didn't give this to the media team. I'm sorry. Um I was sitting over there. There's too much anointing on that front pew. And so I got another scripture. So their fault. Um the Bible doesn't just talk about the fire of affliction. There's another fire. And here's what you need, somebody here this morning. Here's what you need to get through your trial by fire. You need the fire of God's spirit in you because that fire, it does something powerful in you. Now, this is Old Testament. This is the prophet Jeremiah. And Jeremiah chapter 20 and verse 9, he had a fire of affliction. They persecuted that guy. At one point, they dumped him in an empty well and he sank down into the mud at the bottom of that uh well. We've written songs about that. God brought me out of the miry clay. Well, the miry clay wasn't very pleasant when Jeremiah was in it. He was in that stinking mud. He couldn't get out. He's down in a deep pit. And finally, somebody took pity on him and lifted him out. They persecuted him. There's a reason Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet because he tried to plead and preach and he tried to pray for those people and nobody would listen to him. and he wept as the people of God, they rebelled and they were destroyed and he wept. He was the weeping prophet. There was a lot to cry about. And so finally Jeremiah just said, "You know what? I'm done with this. This is not helping. And so I'm just going to zip my lip and I'm just going to sit here and endure it all because every time I open my mouth to try to do the will of God and try to give praise to God and try to preach God's name and preach God's will every time something bad happens. So I guess what I'm going to do since the fire is so hot all around me. I'm just going to zip my lip and shut up and sit down. And he did that for a while until Jeremiah 20:9. Then I said, I will not make mention of him nor speak anymore in his name. I'm done. I've done my little bit for king and country. It's over. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones. And so I got weary of being quiet and I couldn't sit still. I could not stay. Here's what happened to Jeremiah. The fire of persecution on the outside, it was overpowered by the fire of God on the inside. There's a greater fire. And if you got the Holy Ghost, when you walk through the fire out here, it's the fire in here that sustains you and guides you and blesses you. I got news for somebody. There's a greater fire. And you need the fire of God's spirit in your life. You need the fire of God's spirit in your family cuz it's the greater fire. Stand with me all over the house. Lift up your hands. Lift up your voice higher than your hands. Lift up a great praise to the Lord. God has a purpose for what you're walking through. God has a purpose for what your family is dealing with. God has a purpose in your life. And this morning, he's either going to give you your miracle or he's going to give you the strength to get through one more day as he does his work of refining. And here it is. Either way, oh devil, you don't control what happens to me. My God is going to deliver me one way or the other. Oh my goodness. There's some spiritfilled people in this room this morning. There's some anointed servants of God in this room this morning. >> And so we're going to pray together. >> And as we pray together, for some of you, this is the morning. It's a holiday weekend. >> Happy Labor Day. God's going to give you a miracle this morning. >> Happy Labor Day. God is going to fill somebody with the Holy Ghost this morning. For some of us, we're going to come pray. And this morning just might be the day when God steps in and we get the miracle we've been praying for for 6 months. >> But for any of the rest of us that we come and pray cuz we know we need to pray and we know we want to be faithful to God and we know we trust God. And for any of the rest of us, here's the deal. One way or the other, God's going to deliver us from the hand of the enemy. My faith is not in this world. My faith is in the Lord. I am not scared of the devil, but I have a reverent re reverential fear of God. He's my heavenly father. He never does anything unjust or unkind. And he's got his hand on somebody this morning. Would you come with your family and your friends to the altar this morning as quickly as this great church can? What a church this is for the altar. They love the altar in this church. This is the place where we encounter God. This is the place where we pray one for another. This is the place where miracles happen. This is the place where people's lives are filled with God's spirit. Look at this. Everybody's welcome. Nobody excluded. Everybody included. Those of you that are already here, if you can tighten up just a little bit, keep coming forward a little bit and just make room for as many people as we can to get in the altar space this morning. Now, because we trust God, we didn't come to moan and groan and whine and cry and complain. No, here's what we came. We came to lift our situation to the Lord. We came to put it in his hands. And we came to say one more time, Jesus, I trust your promise. Jesus, I trust your spirit. Jesus, I trust your leading in my life. I trust you when I don't understand. I trust you when I don't like it. I trust you when it feels like I am right in the middle of the fiery furnace. I still trust you. And so, God, I'm putting it in your hand. One more time. For somebody, it's going to be your day to walk out of the fire. For somebody, it's going to be your day to be filled with God's holy fire. For somebody, it's going to be your day to get strength. I want you to reach over to somebody next to you. Either put your hand on their shoulder or take their hand and lift it up with your hand. Everybody connect with somebody. And now I want you to pray for you and pray for them. Pray for your family and pray for their family. Pray for your situation and pray for their situation. And the Lord is going to touch some lives today. >> Yes. He goes before, defender behind me. I won't fear filled with anointing. My cups overflow. No weapon can hide me. I want you. Hallelujah. I am not alone. He my comfort always falls me. He always joy is refreshing. Joy is refreshing. Stores my soul. Yeah. Mercy and give me a sh Heat. Heat. He is my God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We did this at the movement this week. We're used to praying beside people and with people. I want you to turn around. I know this pushes many of us out of our comfort zone. Me, too. I want you to turn around and I want you to lay your hand on somebody and pray for them. Would you do that everywhere in the altar, back in the seats? I want you to turn around and lay your hand on somebody and I want you to pray for them. Speak the name of Jesus over them. Pray in the Holy Ghost over them. There you go. There you go. It changes something cuz you just stepped into being a vessel that God can pour his spirit through.