Encore - Scott Thomas - (Full Experience)

Before the world ever saw a sunrise, there was darkness. And in that darkness, the Spirit of God hovered. Not absent, not distant, but hovering, working, preparing. Some of us are carrying things we can't quite name. Stress that sits in the chest. Weariness that doesn't leave. Hunger for more, but not knowing how to reach it. And the Spirit of God is not absent. He is not distant. He is hovering right in the middle of what feels formless, heavy, and undone. He is hovering. He is working. He is preparing. And God is going to speak those four powerful words into your life again and again. Let there be light. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Break me, build me, mold me, fill me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Fall fresh on me. Fellowship church, are you ready to worship the Lord in this place today? Come on, put your hands together. We serve our God in every season. He is faithful. He is there. He is with us. He fights our battles. Sing this out with us. Come on. He shames every idol. He reigns without rival.

He goes by the name of Jehovah, Jehovah. He speaks into nothing. And darkness goes running. He goes by the name of Jehovah, Jehovah. Come on, let's call His name. Call the name. Call the name. Call the name, Jehovah. All our praise. All our praise. All our praise belongs to Him. That's it, come on. All the glory and honor and praise belongs to the Lord Jesus. Come on. His foes will be silenced. He's fighting for Zion. There's no other God like Jehovah, Jehovah. His arm never tires. He is strong in battle. His eyes are like fire. There's no other God like Jehovah, Jehovah. Everybody sing. ♪ All our praise, give all our praise ♪ ♪ All our praise belongs to Him ♪ We give you our praise. We give you our worship today. Come on, let's sing this together. ♪ Jehovah Nisi fights your battles ♪ ♪ Jehovah Nisi fights your battles ♪ That's it, come on.

♪ Jehovah Nisi fights your battles, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Jehovah Nisi fights your battles, everything you need ♪ ♪ Jehovah Nisi fights your battles, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Jehovah Jireh meets your need, He will meet your need today ♪ ♪ Jehovah Rapha heal your body ♪ ♪ Jehovah Shalom be your peace ♪ Come on, put your hands together and sing. ♪ Jehovah Nisi fights your battles, let's go, come on ♪ ♪ Jehovah Jireh meets your need, hey, hey, hey ♪ ♪ Jehovah Rapha heal your body, that's it, come on ♪ ♪ Jehovah Shalom be your peace, Jehovah Nisi ♪ ♪ Jehovah Nisi fights your battles, everyone's coming home ♪ ♪ Jehovah Jireh meets your need, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Jehovah Rapha heal your body, Jehovah Shalom be your peace ♪ Now call the name. ♪ Call the name, call the name, call the name Jehovah ♪ ♪ All our praise, all our praise, all our praise belongs to Him, say ♪ ♪ All our praise belongs to Him, say ♪ ♪ Call the name, call the name, call the name Jehovah ♪ ♪ All our praise, all our praise, all our praise belongs to Him, say ♪ ♪ Jehovah Nisi fights your battles, Jehovah Jireh meets your need, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ ♪ Jehovah Rapha heal your body, Jehovah Shalom be your peace, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ One more time, we say. ♪ Jehovah Nisi fights your battles, Jehovah Jireh meets your need, hey hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ ♪ Jehovah Rapha heal your body, Jehovah Shalom be your peace, yeah, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ Come on, is anybody thankful we can call on the name of Jehovah? He meets our every need. He meets us right where we're at. Jesus, we praise you. You alone are worthy.

We lift this up to you. ♪ I could sing your name for all my life ♪ ♪ And still find more to love each time ♪ ♪ Jesus be the name ever on my lips ♪ ♪ It's sweeter every time that I call on it ♪ ♪ There's just something about your name ♪ ♪ There's just something about your name ♪ ♪ There's just something about your name that makes me cry holy ♪ ♪ There is no other name, there is no other name ♪ ♪ Oh there is no other name, Jesus you're worthy ♪ ♪ Yes you're worthy ♪ ♪ You have been the friend who never left ♪ ♪ I won't forget your faithfulness ♪ ♪ Jesus be the name ever on my lips ♪ ♪ It's so much sweeter, it's sweeter every time I call on it ♪ Every time That I call on you There's just something about your name There's just something about your name There's just something about your name That makes me cry wholly There is no other name There is no other name There is no other name Jesus, you're worthy There's just something about your name There's just something about your name There's just something about your name That makes me cry wholly There's no one There is no other name

There is no other name There is no other name Jesus, you're worthy Oh Jesus, you're worthy You're worthy of all praise Jesus, that everything we do Everything that we say bring you glory The lives that we live out each and every day That they would bring you glory Jesus, we praise you in this place You and you alone are worthy Come on, will you lift your voice in Jesus, your name Jesus, your name is like the morning light The one the darkness can't deny The resurrection and the life Jesus, Jesus, your name Can save, your name can heal Your name can make the storm be still You never fail, you never will Jesus, Jesus The prayer of life broken for us The wounded and the worthy won The first and last and soon to come Jesus, Jesus He's the king who overwhelmed the grave The Lord who will forever reign The name above all other names Jesus Jesus, be the name

Jesus Jesus, be the name All we lift you up Jesus, be the name You can't stop the glory Jesus, Jesus Jesus, be the name Jesus, Jesus, be the name All we lift you up Jesus, be the name That gives all the glory Jesus, be the name Jesus, be the name Jesus, be the name That gives all the glory Come on, can we give God some praise today? He's worthy We love you, Lord Come on, is anybody excited to be in church this morning? It's gonna be an amazing, amazing day Before you take your seats, we want to celebrate something incredible that happened last week We hosted pastors and leaders from all over To equip them, to help further the kingdom And now we want to celebrate with you all that God did Through C3 Conference You may be seated The first thing we know about God is the fact that God is creating The presence of God accentuates and elevates creativity As I walk, as you walk in the shadow of God How you live is your theology

The Lord is asking Christians to be bold God saved us from something But he also saved us for something The church doesn't need the world or the government The world and the government needs the church of Jesus Christ The difference between excellence and mediocrity is one word Effort And people are attracted to excellence People and it glorifies God. It'll draw people into the kingdom if we do things well The truth is relevant to everyone the seeker the saved the seasoned Jesus came For those who were far away The hill of the Lord Cry out to God is that God I I have blown it. I failed I've sinned but father I Repent I turn from my sin and I turn to you Jesus and right now I Ask you to come into my life So every time you think creatively no matter what station or situation Conversation no matter where you are. It doesn't matter You my friend are thinking like the gospel Welcome everyone to Fellowship Church If you're a gorgeous grapevine, I want to say welcome you're here, you know grapevine is the Christmas capital of Texas Don't ever forget that also beautiful Dallas Fort Worth Frisco a Lasso Ranch our prison campuses. I want to say hi to them in our online Experience. Thank you guys for being here. You know what? I'm I mean, I'm kind of tired We we did this giant marriage conference Last I think it's last week. I think so Then we did the weekend and then we came back for the creative church conference. You just saw that And now we're here again. How great is this? I Know we have many here who are from all walks of life and different stages and ages

you're here for a reason and God has brought you here. We would like to know that you're here And if you would like for us to know that you're here, there's a card called a connect card It's right there in your in the seat in front of you. You see that Well, if this is you just take this connect card and take some time to fill out like the date Mr. This is a room is Occupation address city Are you single? Are you married? This is my first time my second time. Who knows and And Later on we're gonna give you an opportunity to to pray and ask Christ to come into your life And if you make that decision you can check off the box Because when we receive the offering later, you just take this and drop it Kind of like that. That's that's the movement. It's kind of a one Boom, you drop it in the offering bag and we'll process those and get back with you How about that I think we have the friendliest church anywhere I do We have some great people on the front row two of my favorites pastor Andre and Vilma Olivia is that a great name? They're from one of the most dynamic churches in the world Rivers Church Andre, how are you? I'm good. Thank you. I Love that voice I think when we get to heaven, that's probably gonna be kind of the Vilma how are you? I'm very well. Thanks. I've had the opportunity to Attend their church and to speak there. So it's Lisa and our family and I'm telling you it is Amazing and if you missed Andre's message during the creative church conference, it was so so powerful Make sure make sure to pick that up

We also have as our special guest today Two of my favorite people as well Pastors Scott and Cindy Thomas, would you would you stand Scott and Cindy just a second? Now Scott Is Cindy our dear friends and they pastor a phenomenal church in Lakeland, Florida it's got Heaven as we know Cindy, of course, you're Puerto Rican, but heaven is gonna be a place of diversity. I Love the diversity of their church. You did a demographic study and Tell me about that. Yeah, we had 37% Hispanic way We we have be 3% African-American, 28% white folk, and then the rest of Asian and India and several other nationalities. Isn't that amazing? Well, Cindy, how are you doing? I'm doing really great, fabulous. Well, we sure enjoyed your talk during the C3, well, not C3, I'm sorry, during the Creative Marriage Conference. It was just a little dramatic, but I think it was really good. It was. If you missed this, if you're married or thinking about getting married, you watch their talk. I want to show something to you that has gone viral, okay, that happened when they were talking about marriage. I'm serious. It's already viral. And, Scott, explain it. Set the stage.

We were using a wedding cake as an illustration on how to build a marriage, various layers, and then in the end, we were talking about if you get the foundation upside down, then it just wrecks the entire cake. So we were using regular layers, and then we pulled out an already finished cake that was beautiful, put together, and I took it upside down and smashed it, but when I did so, the baker had the wooden dowel that holds all of the cake layers. Like a big one. Yes, and it went through my hand whenever I... Like five inches out. I think we have a video of it, or did we show it? There it is. Oh! Ow! Let's show that again. I want you to watch the quickness of Scott. Oh! So, Cindy, how in the world did you recover from that? Well, I just want to point out something that hasn't gone viral, that I kept it together. Now, my face was screaming, I know, but my mouth was shut. So that was evidence of the fruit of the spirit of self-control. Exactly! Well, Cindy, it's just great to see you guys, as always, and Scott, let me walk you up here. Scott is gonna do our message today. He is a phenomenal speaker.

Scott is... Scott's like a world-class bow hunter. He took out a bear with a bow. Now, if you guys have any problem with that, next Sunday, Scott, I'm speaking on the commandment, thou shalt not kill. And God was not talking about that. But anyway, Scott, we love you. Lisa and I love you and your family. It's such a privilege and honor to have you here. Free Life Chapel is his church in Lakeland, Florida. So I think we need to stand and give him a crazy welcome, Pastor Scott Thomas. Thank you so much. Before you're seated, look at someone beside you and tell them, you look marvelous today. You look marvelous. They worked on that outfit. The Botox settled great, all that. So whatever you did, it is such an honor. In fact, those words are an understatement to be here in this house today. Pastors Ed and Lisa are mine and Cindy's pastors, have been for quite some time, many, many years now, have radically impacted our church, our family, our ministry, our community. They've radically impacted our church, our family, our ministry. And there's no way for me to properly describe who they are to us.

It's frustrating to try to describe that. It's like the picture when you go to visit the Grand Canyon and then you take that picture and you take it back and try to show it and go, no, but it looks better than that. It just didn't come out right. That's the frustration in trying to express your hearts about your pastors. And so please know how much we love you, your family. Thank you for all that you continue to be to us. We're so grateful. And let me just say this, to all of the staff at Fellowship Church and the volunteers, what you have done over the past two weeks in this place has touched the entire nation. I served as a staff member for 19 years. I can appreciate what it means to open doors, serve a cup of coffee, work in the parking area. Your smiles, your class, your joy, your excellence, your energy were outstanding. And according to what statistics tell us today, 1,700 pastors a week are quitting the ministry. Let me tell you the impact you did. The pastors that were here this week are speaking stronger in their churches today than they did the week before because you ministered to their hearts. And I want to say thank you for that from the bottom of my heart. We love you and we honor you for all.

Love that today, we certainly do. And Cindy, it's good to see you too. I love you too. Way pop. Hey, I wanna talk to you just real, Pastor Andre, Pastor Vilma, your message, I just gotta say this, that you spoke, that will be in our leadership library and our entire staff will be watching that. The impact was phenomenal. Thank you for delivering your heart and making us better. I mean that. It was just so very good, so very good. Yeah, you can, yes, that's good right there as well. Hey, I just wanna talk to you for a few minutes on the faithfulness of God and your ability to access God. Is anybody glad that you can access God on your own? Like you can just go and talk to Him. You can be an In-N-Out burger and talk to God, you understand that? You can be in your car, you can be in, or like me, your truck, like wherever you are, you can talk to Him on the 114. Like I know you talk to Him a lot on the 114. Like wherever you are, you can talk to God. And I wanna talk to you about your access to Him today. A few years ago, Cindy and myself, we took our team to a concert. And I know, I don't know if you're music people or not,

but, and you would expect, well, if the pastor's taking the church staff to a concert, it would be something that, you know, just somebody who just won the Dove Awards, somebody who won this big Christian. No, we went to Earth, Wind, and Fire in Chicago. That's who we went to see. Like we went to get, I'm a big Earth, Wind, and Fire fan, y'all. You can call it old school. I'm just here to tell you, it's still school. You can learn something from them. It's still the classic, timeless stuff, right? Just the best. They get up there on the stage, and they were going crazy. Phillip Bailey was just breaking it down, singing up in the rafters, singing reasons. Y'all know these songs. Don't act like you're so safe. Take your halo off and set it aside for a minute. Let me just talk to you real quick. Boogie Wonderland, some of y'all were getting dressed this morning for church, to Boogie Wonderland. I don't know, Let's Groove Tonight. Come on, I mean, some of the classics. They get up, and they're singing these songs, and man, there was 10,000 plus in this outdoor amphitheater. We were all just singing and going crazy. It was just so good.

And they came to the end of the concert, and they thanked everybody, and they walked off, and the singers walked off, and then the band walked off, and the lights went down, and 10,000 of us, we're sitting there going, we want more. We want more, and it began to grow, and began to grow, began to grow, and do you know what happened? The lights came back on. Do you know what else happened? The band walked back out on the stage. Do you know what happened? Here came Earth, Wind, and Fire, took back out on the stage again, and they hit the stage one more time. The crowd was going crazy because the concert was great, but their best had not hit the stage yet, and this is what they had to sing. ♪ I'm burning, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Surrounded by, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ I thought I'd have 50 people dancing with me right there. I just knew. That right there, that's gold, y'all. That will be in Heaven. That will be sung in Heaven. I'm just convinced of that. We were going crazy. It worked. They came back out on the stage. We were not leaving until we heard the best.

We enjoyed everything, but we knew there was more there. Can I just declare over your life today, what you've seen in your life, God's goodness has been good, but the best is yet to come. Anybody believe that God has more and He can do even greater in your life? The word encore, I wanna talk to you about that a little bit. This encore, earth, wind, and fire came back out for this encore. Encore's a French word, much like where you go shopping at Target. Encore is a French word that literally means again. It's just again. We wanted an encore. We were demanding more. Come back out again and do what you do. When the encore hits, it's not a pity performance. No, it's actually planned. They were there. It's a response to the call because somebody was calling and encore is when the band responds to the demand. The band is not looking to return to an empty room. When they walked off the first time, if we left the place, they would not have come back out, but because we refused to leave

and we were declaring we want more, the same band came back out and actually played their best. I want you to understand today where you're living right now and whatever it is that you're facing, as good as it's been, God has more, but you and I have got to stay locked and loaded and believe that the best is yet to come in my life and I'm decreeing that I'm gonna live in the goodness of God. 558 BC. If you wanna know when that was, that's a long time ago. 558 B.C., the Babylonians laid siege around Israel, around Jerusalem, and while they were in this, on the brink of destruction, there's this guy, the Old Testament, his name is Jeremiah. He's really cool, they wrote a book after him. Jeremiah, he receives this message of hope, and he starts promising that God will restore the land, and God is going to heal the people. Things look bad, and it's hard right now, but God's not finished yet. In other words, there's gonna be an encore. God is gonna come back around and do something that you can't tell from your circumstances, your situation, the way that it looks right now is bad, but he's gonna turn this thing around,

and it's in this setting that he gives us Jeremiah 33, verse three. If you're looking for a new tattoo, I highly recommend this one. This is a good one. Here's what it says. Read the first three words with me. Ready, one, two, three. Call to me, and I will answer you, and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Call to me. God is not ghosting you. Call to me. You got something going on? Talk to me. Ablame. Talk to me, reach out to me. Things are good, talk to me. Things are in a difficult place, talk to me. Driving down the road, talk to me. Sitting in your house, washing dishes, talk to me. He says, if you will talk to me, I want you to ask me some crazy stuff that you can't ask from anybody else. I want you to believe me and believe that I'm actually God in your life. I'm actually able to do exceeding, abundantly, above all you could ever ask or think. Talk to me, and I will tell you great and unsearchable things.

In other words, there's some stuff about your life that you're never gonna know until you talk with him. And he has the ability to show you around the corner. He'll show you what's coming, and you just, you've got a feeling that I need to make this decision, whether it's in your finances, in your relationships. If you're raising a teenager, you better be talking to God. Amen. If you're sucking air in America right now, you better be talking to God. He wants to show you things you can't know unless you're accessing it through him. God will never give you anything that will replace your need for him in your life. He's always going to bless you, but then hold something back, so I've gotta go to him to make sure the relationship is strong between me and my God. You've gotta talk to him, but when you do, he will show you some stuff. In other words, there's some things I don't know, and that's not good, because my Bible tells me you and I are destroyed for a lack of knowledge, and he holds it. Would you turn to someone and tell them, I'm concerned about your ignorance today. Just tell them, I'm concerned. I know, they just said that because I told them. They don't mean that, they don't mean that.

God says, call to me, and I will respond with more than you expected. I love that. You see, here's what we're doing. We're calling God back out on the stage of our life. What are you facing right now? Because you see, as we stood in the concert that night, we were looking at an empty stage. We were looking at a dark stage. The lights were off, done, over, gone, but we were still calling for more. And some of you today may be standing looking at a situation that is dark, and I don't see any way for doors to open, and I don't think there's anything else there, and I feel like I'm, it seems foolish, but I'm just calling for more. God, if you're there, God, if you're listening, God, if you're able, God, if you care, and I want you to know something. Here's the key, that whenever we were standing in that room calling, earth, wind, and fire left the stage, but they did not leave the building. They fully had planned to come back out. They just wanted to know, do you really want more or not? And I want you to understand today, fellowship, God knows where you are. He has not left the building. The situation might not look good. It might look dark, it might look empty,

but he's waiting right behind the curtain. If they'll call on me, I'm gonna show up and do things that only I can get the credit for. God is expecting you and I to call on him, call on me, and I'll show you some amazing things. God's hearing you when you pray. You might not be able to see him, but he's listening to you. Your whisper matters, your good morning, God. Thanks for another amazing day. You see, here's what I've learned. I've grown up in the church all my life. I'm more churchy than Noah was archy. Do you understand? Like I've been doing this a long time. I'm a preacher's kid. I'm recovering, but I'm a preacher's kid and I'm coming through this. Those great things, it's all good. And I want you to know, here's what I've learned. When we begin to serve Jesus for a long time, if you and I are not careful as believers, we start to just begin to walk this out and forget to continue to call on him. I just, I quote a scripture and I just walk it out. We have to continue to be reminded that he's God and he's good and he's able to do all of that. And here's what we are. Every stage in life is gonna be another demand we have to place on God.

There's some things that I can do, quite honestly, I've wasted some prayers because I've asked God to do stuff that I could actually do myself. And God is saying, Scott, you take care of your part. And when you reach the end of you, that's the beginning of me. Then I will step in. I need you to pray prayers bigger than your capacity. Pray prayers bigger than your ability. And trust that I'm hearing you and I'm going to respond. There will be an encore in your life. Could anybody in the room use God doing something supernatural in your life, in your family? Of course you could. Me too, me too. I got good news today. The same God who brought you through 2020, 2023, 2025, is the same God who's gonna bless and carry you throughout 2026. He's gonna be faithful and lead you in that. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 13, verse eight, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same God who answered Elijah's 63-word prayer is the same one listening to your 3 a.m. cry. The same God. The same God who walked the three Hebrew boys through the fiery furnace is the same one who's gonna walk you through the diagnosis that you just got. God's gonna be faithful.

He's by your side. The same God who turned a Happy Meal into a buffet is the same one who's gonna get you through this famine that you're walking through in your business. He sees, he knows, he's able. He's just saying, would you please call on me and invite me back out on the stage of your life? See, there's nothing about your struggle that shocks or worries God. He's got you, boo. Everything is gonna be good. In other words, God is not Googling your situation to figure out what to do. He doesn't need artificial intelligence because he's the author of intelligence. Do you understand? Yeah, yeah, yeah. In other words, the I am doesn't need the AI. God has you. God knows what he's doing and he's got your life in the palm of his hand. Same problems, just a new generation. I've got a book at my house that my mom wrote to me. She gave one to me and one to my sister. It's a little journal and it's the Thomas Family Diary of God's blessings in our life. That the testimony is what God did privately, personally for my mom, for my dad, from when she gave her life to Christ at 14 years old all the way through and I flip through those pages

and I see a legacy of God moving and working in my family. And I'm reminded so many times, if God did it for my Pentecostal mama, he can also do it for her son. God is good and he's faithful. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So understand this, same problems, new generation. If you saw God do it before, he can do it again. God parted the Red Sea for Moses and 40 years later, he did it again for Joshua. God multiplied oil for a widow with Elijah, but he did it again 25 laters with Elisha. Manna fell in the exodus to feed Israel through the wilderness, but then Jesus fed 5,000. But with Jesus, there was leftovers more than what they needed in the end, why? Because the encore is always greater than the first act. It always gets better. God's hand in your life is gonna keep elevating you. The best is yet to come. Here's the point I want you to understand. God knows what you need and he knows when you need it. Scott, you just sound like you're just trying to get my hopes up today. Well, thank God you heard the message. You better believe I'm trying to get your hopes up. Well, I didn't say hype you up, I said to hope you up. Hope, hype is empty. Hope is built on the promises of our God. The Bible, yeah, yeah, yeah,

that's a good place to thank God. The Bible says in Hebrews that faith is the substance. It's built on things that are first hoped for. If you don't hope, then you don't have anything to put your faith in. I have a hope. Hope sees beyond where I am right now. I'm in a dark place, a difficult place, struggling in the home, but I've seen the promises of God and what God says this can be, and I believe it. he can turn this around. Hope sees faith steps. Faith doesn't even know where to step until hope steps in and gives you a vision for where you're going. I need hope. That's why it's important that you're in church on Sundays. Hope, hope, hope, hope. Rebuilding, showing you again that the promises of God are yes and amen. You can build a marriage on it. You can raise kids on it. You can run a business on it. Do it God's way. You'll get God's results. Hope is what we stand on. But in that hope, then I step with faith. And when hope and faith get together, they have a baby called expectation. And man, now I'm expecting stuff. And I've got a party going on before the party even starts because I know God is faithful. And if God promised a thing, he can do a thing. I'm not putting my hope in the White House. I'm putting my hope in God's house. Do you understand? There's a whole nother level we live our lives at. Job chapter 5 verse 9 says this. He, speaking of God, he's famous for great and unexpected acts. There's no end to his surprises. He's famous for this. I don't see a way out, Scott. Oh, you're a prime candidate for God to get involved right now. Oh, go ahead. It's the pre-party. Y'all know what the pre-party is, right? It's when you're throwing a party at your house and before everyone shows up, you've already got the music going and you're tasting everything you got going on. You're partying before the people even get there. You need to go ahead and throw a

pre-party. Not a pity party, a pre-party. Get the pre-party going knowing that this is about to get good in my life. But let me talk for just a couple of minutes here on those who might be in the room who don't think you qualify for the encore of God. I've been there. I've made a royal mess of things. You see, you and I know us like nobody knows us. Thank God that social media has filters because we love our filters, don't we? We're going to paint it up and make it look a whole lot better than it really is. We take like 75 pictures to find that one that I finally approve of and then we post that. It's all these highlights, but the truth is we live with a lot of lowlights. And these things that I know what it is to look myself in the mirror and just go, just get frustrated. Come on, Scott. You know better than that. But we struggle. We struggle with us in these moments. And I just want to talk to you about God's season can handle this as well. There was a guy in the Bible named Samson. He was a he-man with a she-weakness. Read that for yourself later on. That's a whole different story. But Samson, he was in rebellion. He was a mess and full of pride and bondage. And the Bible describes where he is blinded. He's been mocked. He's been enslaved. He's at the lowest point of his entire life. And he prays a prayer in Judges chapter 16 verse 28. Look at this. God, give me strength just one more time. God, I need an encore. I need you to come back out on this stage again. I need you to do something in my life. God, you're not stepping on the stage to play. You show up to show off in my life. I need you to do something for me that I can't do for myself. I need you to fix this home. I need you to give me wisdom. Show me stuff I can't see from where I am. I need you, God. And that's what I'm talking to you about today. He's not just the God of a second chance, a third chance. He's just the God of another chance. How many wore out the fifth chance a long time ago? The twelfth chance a long time ago? I wore 17 out before I got to church this morning. Do you understand? We all have our... But he's the God of another chance. Do you understand? He's the God of one more time. That is exactly who God is and what grace does for our lives. Call on me. He didn't say get yourself together first. You know you're really in a real

pickle. You're really praying serious when you hit the place where you're no longer praying in King James. Dear Lord. Have you ever heard somebody change their voice when they pray? Dear God, we want to thank you who sits high in the sky. And that ain't you. Who is that right there? When you really have some hell hit your life, oh you ain't praying King James. No, you praying the message version. You praying New Living Translation. I hit the ground. I slide it to my bed. Oh God, I need you now. He just wants you to call on him. But keep it real. Would you turn to someone and tell them just keep it real. Keep it real. Keep it real. God can handle your talk. Keep it real. Call on him. There's a guy that I think really epitomizes and give us a picture of this in real time. I know today in the in the sports world, MMA. I'll watch some MMA, mixed martial arts. That's all cool. But back in the real day when real fighters were there, we had this thing called boxing. Where they put these big fluffy pillows on each other's hands, right? And they pounded the snot out of each other. and we all screamed and yelled for them. So my guy, my favorite guy, his name was George Foreman. Now, George Foreman was my guy back in the day. He was just this big old boy, and when he came on the scene, he was rocking the world. And in 1974, he had this big show with this young upstart named Muhammad Ali, and they had a fight called the Rumble in the Jungle. And George Foreman and Ali were in the ring, and Foreman wasn't aware that Ali was the best at what he called a rope-a-dope. Ali would lay up against the ropes, and you would think he was about to go down on the to-come-back blasting. And what happened that night rocked George Foreman's world because in the eighth round, George Foreman was knocked down.

He lost the fight, but he didn't just lose the fight that night to Ali, he lost his life in the sense of his boxing world, his purpose, why I'm here, what I do. And he retired from boxing angry, frustrated, lost, didn't know what to do. What's amazing is at the lowest point of George Foreman's life, guess who was waiting on him when he hit the ground? Jesus. Jesus was there. Everybody walked out on Foreman, but Jesus walked in. Said, now that you're down here, George, you wanna talk to me a little bit? And George started talking to Jesus. George said yes to Jesus, turned his life over, surrendered his life to Jesus, and when he did that, all of a sudden, man, joy came back and peace, and he had this million dollar smile. He just, everybody wanted to crawl up in George Foreman's lap until he actually, 10 years later, stepped back in the ring in 1994, stepped in the ring at 45 years old to take on Michael Moorer. And he knocked out Michael Moorer in the 10th round and actually became the oldest living champ in boxing history. That was George Foreman, amazing transition. Here's what I want you to understand. His encore was greater than his start.

In the beginning, he had power, but he had no peace. But in his encore after he met Jesus, after he called on Jesus, power, peace, and then also the grill. Y'all know, how many of you got like three or four of those at your house right now, right? Can I tell you something interesting? George Foreman made more money off the grill than he ever did in his boxing career. Tell me God doesn't know how to bring it all back around. God is good, in fact, he over $200 million off of a grill, and I contributed heavily to his retirement. Yes, I did, yes, I did. Here's what I'm trying to tell you today. The Bible says in Isaiah 43 that God's doing a new thang. Not a new thing, no, a new thang. Because you and I got a little bit all over the place and sometimes gotta get right down to the street with you and say, I'm gonna deal with you right where you are. It's a new thang that I'm doing in your life. Everything is gonna change. I can handle your idiosyncrasies. I can handle your failures. I can handle your ups and your downs. I can handle all that. Just keep calling on me. Stay in relationship with me. Let me whisper things to your heart, your spirit, and direct your life, direct your relationships, direct your business.

Let me help you as a single to live successful as a single. You're not desperate, oh, no, no, no. I will bless your life and have them lined up to interview you. God wants to bless and lead your life. This is what he does and he does it well. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. God has not left the building. No matter what you're going through, he's waiting on you to call him back out on the stage of your life that he can do his best and he can make you leave that place dancing. You just gotta call on him. Despite your Samson situation, despite your George Foreman losses, God has the ability to turn it all around and he'll make the next better than the last. You're not done. It's not over. Your best days are still coming. I'm here to tell you today that this new era, this new joy, this new level of living doesn't happen because the check was actually in the mail because you can have the check in the mail and still can't sleep at night. No, what you and I need is Jesus to step on the stage of our heart and begin to transform everything inside of us out. He wants you to live with your best mind. Peace.

How about some sleep at night? How about some laughter that comes from deep inside your belly? How about laughter filling the hallways of your house where the kids are lined up. They can't wait to get back to church, where the home is serving side by side and God is blessing. Oh, everything else goes with that as well, but it starts with let me just call on him and invite him back into my life. Greater strength, greater wisdom, greater faith. Hope, seize, faith, steps, and I experience all that God has. Would you please stand to your feet in this room? Fellowship Church, I'm so excited for you because you're not done. And I want to encourage you, no matter what level of faith you might be, maybe you haven't yet said yes to Jesus. We're going to talk about that. But maybe you've been serving Jesus for a minute. Don't forget, never fail to keep calling on your God. Call on me, talk to me, and watch what I will do in your life, especially when the lights are out and the stage is dark and you see nothing working. I'm standing backstage waiting on your call. You can change something today because you call on him. I want to pray for you in just a minute. Before I do that, I want to pray for all those who may not know Jesus today as your Lord and Savior. This moment right now, why would I not? Why would I not call him back out and let him play his greatest hit in my life today,

sending his son, Jesus Christ, to take your place, to rebuild you, to forgive you, to give you a brand-new start, trade status with you. His righteousness is put on your life. He takes your sin, and you stand free and clear before a holy God so he can bless and advance your life. Why would I not want that? He's paid the price. So if you're in this room today, would you bow your heads, everybody, and say, Scott, I need Jesus. I want him in my life. I want to just surrender it all. I want to call him out on the stage of my life to just run everything. I need to give all that I am to him. I want all that he is. On the count of three, shoot your hand in the air. One, two, three. Where are you, fellowship? Oh, yeah. I love the honesty in the room. I love the reality. Let's all pray this together. Say, Jesus, I invite you into my life today. Forgive me, change me, rework me. My mind and my heart, I surrender them to you. I believe you died for me. You rose again, and you've made a place for me to spend eternity with you. Come into my home. Come into my heart. Take all that I am, and I take all that you are. I'm yours, and you're mine.

In Jesus' name, amen, amen. Can you celebrate those who just made that declaration today? Man, what a prayer. And now, Father, over every family, business owner, single student, God, I declare that this year, they will experience the goodness of God in a way they never thought possible. Show off in supernatural fashion as we call on you. You are the only name that we can call on that is faithful and good and true and just. So today, God, bless your people and show up again and provide an encore that they never knew was this good. In Jesus' name, everybody said, amen, amen. God, thank you, brother. Please be seated for just a couple of moments. You know, if you lifted your hand and prayed that prayer, the prayer, the greatest prayer you'll ever pray, in fact, the greatest decision you'll ever make, we have people to my left, to my right. I'm talking about great people that are people that want to engage you, to talk with you, to pray with you about anything. And, you know, if you raise your hand, it's great. It'd be great. I would recommend you walking up to one of them and going, hey, I raised my hand with Scott and that's all you've got to say and we will take it from there. But I just am so thrilled. So many hands today went up, I know here and also at our different locations, as you received Jesus Christ into your life. Isn't that great? Right now, we're going to receive the offering and when it comes to an offering, we're not really giving, we're bringing what we already have and you'll see the different ways to participate and this is between you and God. We don't send anyone bills, we're not going to put any pressure on anyone, this is between you and God, but you can give with the generosity envelopes, they're right in front of you in

the seat back, you can tap your seat using the smartphone, you can go online and give. And I want to call on our CFO right now, Josh Stewart. Josh, tell us a little bit about the offering and why the offering is so important and how we actually roll by the offering that people bring. Absolutely. I would say first, we talk about often your general offering. Our general offering funds everything that we do here in ministry at Fellowship Church. If you've seen the videos of the amazing work that God is doing in our student ministry, practically speaking, we give away t-shirts for first time guests to come. Your general fund. funds, fund those t-shirts. So the ministry that we do day to day, the marriage conference that we did, things like that. We've also been in a capital campaign where we're requesting for those that the Lord has laid on your heart to give above and beyond your general gifts, go to our anchor project. So it's very important that we do both of those things. We use phraseology that basically says your general funds fuel the day-to-day vision. Your anchor commitments are building the future. And at Fellowship Church, God is doing such a move of God here. We could really simply say, obviously it's because of the Holy Spirit, but we could also say it's because of you. So thank you for your generosity. Thank you. We know there are many other things that you could do for your resource, with your resources, but you've asked, as Ed said, God how can you use what you've given me to bless the house? So I challenge you today to think through as you're scanning the QR code, God, am I being generous to a house that has been generous to me? Am I being generous to my God who has been generous to me? So that's just a little practicality of what we do. Also, some of you might want to know this. We take serious how we manage the funds at Fellowship Church. We have a third-party independent auditing firm. Every year that comes in, we open everything up. They look at everything and every year we pass with flying colors. So we steward the resources really well here at Fellowship Church and take that service. Well, Josh, thank you for your work and

your great team of accountants that help us in so many ways. You know, you guys can come forward now and receive the offering. Let's give a round of applause for these hosts and hostesses. While we're talking about this, you know, next week I'm talking about a very, very controversial subject. You know, we're back next week into the series that I've been doing on the Ten Commandments, and next week we're talking about thou shalt not kill, as I said earlier. Now again, most of us think, well, I can skip next week. I mean, finally there's the commandment that does not convict me. Well, as I've been studying it, I think this commandment might be the most convicting that I've studied so far in my own life. Thou shalt not kill. It's gonna be interesting as we really break down what the commandment means and how we connect and relate to it on a day-to-day basis. So I think you'll enjoy next Sunday. Also, we have on the horizon, are you ready for this? Sisterhood. What is sisterhood? Look at this. That's what sisterhood is. Sadie, Lisa, many other amazing ladies. I mean, you can just feel the estrogen, can't you, by watching that video. You might be thinking, well, I want to do that. I want to be a part of that. I'll just kind of wait and wait. No, no. We need you to register for several reasons. Number one, we need to know who all is coming, and we need to prepare for the crowds, because thankfully we have a pretty large building, but it helps us with crowd management if you'll register. Also, number two, you don't want to go, sold out? What? So, I guess number three, too, will change your life. So just take your phone and tap it. Right there. Okay? That's all you gotta do. Now, what else do we have? Well, that's basically it. Was Scott's message incredible? Scott, so great. And make sure to watch Andre's message. It was absolutely brilliant. Say brilliant for me in the right way. Brilliant. That's how you say it. Brilliant. It was indeed brilliant. And Scott, he's backstage. Tell Scott, Cindy, that we love this message. I will tell him. All right. Well, anyway, you guys have a great Sunday, and I'll see you next time.