From Crisis to Provision- Jon Melandar

Good morning men and women. Thank you so much for watching the Life Fellowship. I know that you have over 100 churches you could choose from and for you to click on us, man, we're honored and it's a blessing for us to be able to speak into your life from McKinney, Texas onto the tablet in whatever facility that you're at. I'm just so grateful for God behind bars and Pando and just the ability to do that. It's made such a difference in so many people's lives to be able to have that, to have that life speaking videos that they can just go to in their downtime. My name is Logan Williams. My TDC number is 1490218. I got four numbers after that, was incarcerated in Texas. I know many of you are watching from Texas, but you're watching from all over the country. And it's, it's so awesome. We're so honored that you would, that you would watch and, and, and be edified and choose God, choose Jesus, choose a new path, choose a different thing. You know? I know from my own experience that God can do anything. Nothing is impossible with him. And I just want to speak into the lives of the people who are, who are discouraged, who are full of anxiety and fear and doubt. And maybe you're in a horrible place. Maybe you're got crazy people around you. Man, just cry out to God. He can turn all of that for the good if we let him. And, but he's a gentleman and we need to invite him in. Speaking of inviting, you can invite your friends and family to download the same Pando app on their phone. They can watch the same messages, videos, teachings that you watch. You can actually attend church together because you can watch the same things. And when you see each other, you can talk about it. What did the Holy Spirit speak to you in that message, in that teaching, in that thing? And so invite them to do that. The Chosen is on there. The Bible Recap is on there. There's a ton of books on there. And some really, really, really good speakers from all across America are on there. It's really an honor and a privilege just to be on there. And so we're so grateful for Life Fellowship and the resources that they've put into all of this, allowing us to be on there and speaking to your life. You are part of our church family and we want you to know that. We want you to know that you can come here, whether you live here or not, if you're anywhere near McKinney, Texas, Dallas, Texas on a Sunday, we want to meet you. We want to get you a coffee, pray with you, introduce you to all the pastors and all the people because they love meeting people that they've been praying for for months and years. And they love to finally meet those people. And

so you're kind of treated like a celebrity if you do come. I'm just going to say, just look for me. I'm here at all four services. It's such a blessing, man. God is so good. And I know there are some of you that are hearing me say that and you're like, yes, yes, he is. God is good. And then there's others that hear that and it's like, man, I don't know. I don't know if he's good. Because you're going through something. You're going through stuff. I just want to tell you, man, we all go through stuff. I was just talking to somebody earlier and they had a family member die. And it's like, how could you do this, God? Guys, everybody dies. It's not that God is doing this to you. It's just life on planet Earth. We're all going to be in the valley. We're all going to wonder at times, is he good? Are you still good even in the midst of this? But guys, I'm telling you, if you just keep your eyes focused on him, fixed on him and just keep walking, that's how you get out of a valley and you just keep walking. And the next thing you know, you're on you're on the mountaintop again. And so this morning, I want to speak to those of you who are kind of on the fence. Maybe you're you haven't gotten all the way in. Maybe you go to church. Maybe you were like me when I was locked up. I would go to all the church. I would check those boxes. I would go to the prayer call when they would do it in the dorm. I would get baptized if they offered it. I would do the Kairos if they offered it. I'd do the bridges to life if they offered it. Whatever they had, I would do it. But it would just be checking the box, hoping that God would see my effort and he would change me. But the thing is, I didn't change anything in here. I kept living exactly. how I wanted to live, I didn't wage war against my sin, I didn't try to live a righteous life, I just went to church and then just kept living the same way that I was living. And that's the thing that it doesn't work. Not only does it not work, but it causes people that look at you to say, see man, look at those hypocrites, look at those people over in church. But be encouraged, like many people do that. That's why the scripture says there's a wide road

that leads to destruction and many find that road. That's, and that road runs right through the middle of the American church, okay? This is people that come to church, people that are saved, people that would call themselves Christians. There's a wide road that leads to destruction and then he talks about a narrow road that many search for but few find that leads to life. And so it's pretty common to see people just checking boxes and continuing to live however they wanna live. In my experience, that didn't work for me. I'd get out, I'd get deceived, back on drugs, back doing crime, living in hotels, doing all the life and then I'd get locked up again. And this just happened over and over and over and over. And it's quite frustrating to the point where I wanted to give up on him. I had a radical experience with Christ in a hotel room in August of 2021 in Irving, Texas. The Holy Spirit hit me so hard in the midst of the darkest dark, man. And he simply said to me, hey man, if you wanna stop, just get up and leave this room and I got you. But don't do it if you don't want to. But if you want to, if you wanna stop, if you wanna not go back to prison again, if you wanna have a different life, just get up and leave this room. And it took me a few days because I'm high,

I haven't slept, I'm wondering, is this even real? Is this even God? But he just kept on, kept on, kept on knocking on the door of my heart. You know, there's a scripture that says, I stand at the door and knock. I had to meet him though. I had to get up and I had to leave that room. And I remember when I gave all those drugs away and just walked out of that room, something changed. Something changed. But the thing that I wanna tell you is, he was true to his word when he said, I've got you. And he has had me ever since August 11th of 2021. He's opened door after door, after door, after door. I wound up in an Oxford house, a transitional living, sober living type place and started coming back to Life Fellowship, started serving, started, went on a retreat, had a radical experience on a retreat just a few weeks later. And I just showed up anytime the doors were open. I came to the men's group, started answering letters on the prison ministry team. Took me a while to get approved to be, to go into the prisons. But when I finally did, they were looking to hire someone here to help the prison ministry pastor. And that was almost three years ago. And now, now it's, now I get to lead this. It's such an honor and a privilege.

Guys, God will, God has you, man, but he wants your yes. He wants you to get all in, not just straddle the fence, not just give him some of these things. Yeah, I'll give you this, but I still wanna do this stuff. Over here, we have to wage war against ourselves. We have to lay it all down. Now, does that mean we're gonna be perfect? No, we're humans. We're not gonna be perfect. But what do we do when we do stumble? That's what's important. Do we run to him or do we run away from him? Do we confess our sins to one another and pray for one another so that we can be healed? That's the number one tool, number one weapon in this walk for me this time, since August of 2021 is that, confessing to one another. Get people around you, man, like-minded people. Seek them out. Ask them, hey man, can we have this accountability partnership thing as we do this walk? It's, if you can figure out how to do it in there, you'll be miles ahead when you get out because it's easier out here. There's a whole church full of people here that'll do that with you. There's not that many people in some of the places that you're at that will do that. But if you pray and ask God to bring that person into your life, he will.

He's got you. And he not only wants to change and transform you and set you free, he wants to use you right now in the place that you're at. He wants to use you to have God conversations. He wants to use you to have divine appointments, to speak life into people, to pray for people, to be salt and light in a tasteless and dark place. And he will. but he's looking for your yes. He wants us to meet him there. You know, in the prodigal son in Luke 15, the son was in the pig pen, and it says he came to himself. And he's like, man, I don't know, even my father's servants have more than enough food. I know I'll arise, I'll go to my father, I'll tell him, father, I've sinned against you and against God, and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, but just let me come back as one of your hired servants. And after he got up and he took a few steps, says the father ran to him. He's just looking for you to take a few steps, man. Like you don't have to be Billy Graham and have the Bible memorized. You just have to be willing to lay it all down. God, what do you have for me? God, search me out. What is it that grieves your heart?

What is it that's in me that you don't like? What is it that's in me that's driving my actions? What are some belief systems that are not of you that I need to come against, that I need to wage war against? This is what I'm talking about. We all inherently know if we're engaging in something that God doesn't like. If we're, maybe it's real subtle. Maybe it's not just a blatant sin, but maybe it's just something that we like. Maybe, like I know when I was in there, I would watch sports, man. If it was football season, bro, I was posted up, had my spot, I had the USA Today, I had all the point spreads. I'm gambling on all the games. And I would spend 10, 12 hours, man, watching sports with all these bets. And when we had to rack up for count time, man, I've got my radio, I'm listening to them. That was an idol in my life. Like I couldn't take 10 minutes to pray, but I would take 12 hours and do this. Is there anything inherently wrong with sports? No, but when it becomes ultimate in our life, then it's an idol. And this is what I'm talking about, these little subtle things, these little subtle things. But that doesn't mean you have to cut out

all of that at once and now pray for 12 hours a day, but we just have to take steps towards that. Man, maybe can I not watch all day? Maybe can I take an hour in the morning and read the word and pray? You know, which is way more than I did yesterday. We just have to take steps, guys. We just have to be willing. Take a few steps out of that pig pen and he'll run to you and embrace you and put a ring on your finger and shoes on your feet. Guys, he loves you. I just got a real life revelation of God's love for me. I don't know if I've shared this with you guys or not, but my wife and I, we've been married three years. We're old, right? We're not having kids, but I have a pit bull, and so we had puppies. We had little pit bull puppies, had seven of them. We bred my dog, and it's one of those things that sounds good, hey, let's have puppies, until that day comes and she spits out seven little babies. It's like, oh my gosh, what have we done? But it's been really cool. It's been a joy to have them. We're only keeping one, though, babe. And she picks a blue female and wants to keep the blue female. Okay, cool, we'll keep her. But man, there was this other little dog

that was the rut of the litter, and he would get pushed off the milk and they would bully him. He was smaller and he was weaker, and man, I just felt bad for him. And so I'd scoop up that little guy. We named him Bruce, and I would take little Bruce. I'd get him his own little milk bowl and mix him up some milk and let him eat it, and he would sit right here and breathe on me. I mean, I just fell in love with this little runt dog. You know, I just did. And to the point where when it was time to give the dogs away, I had to tell my wife, babe, we're gonna have to keep Bruce, too, because I love him, and I just love him. I have him on my phone as my screen. Can't see it, but I just like looking, when I see him, I just love him. He has this really worried, sad look on his face all the time. It's funny, but when I see him, I just love him. Now, Bruce is a mess. He poops on my floor, he chews up my shoes. I was feeding him turkey at Thanksgiving and giving them to the dogs, you know, and he jumps up and he gets a hold of my finger, and it was pretty bad, like to the bone. He cut me, almost bit my finger off, you know, but it doesn't matter, I just love him.

I just look at him and I love him. And to be honest, little Bruce, he likes me. He likes my wife better than he likes me, honestly. He'll run to her before he runs to me. And I'm like, dang, dude, I'm the one that saved you. We weren't even gonna keep you until I, you know, picked you, but, you know, it doesn't matter. I still love Bruce. And occasionally he'll choose to look my way. He'll choose to come crawl up in my lap. And when he does, man, I'm just so happy. I'm just so grateful that he's there because I love him. I don't sit there and tell him, well, you know, sorry, Bruce, you chewed up my shoes, you pooped on my floor, you haven't, you've been ignoring me. No, I just love him. And so doesn't that sound like us with God? We just run around the world that he created, making messes, ignoring him, but God still loves us. Just like I love that little dog. I don't care what he does. I just love him. And when he does choose to come up and sit in my lap, man, I don't sit there and hold all that against him. I don't say, hey, buddy, what about the mess you made last week? Hey, buddy, what about my shoes that you chewed up? Hey, man, you've been ignoring me for three days, why? No, I'm just so happy that he chose to come sit in my lap. And that just gave me this picture of God's love for us,

that if we can love, if I can love a dog like that, man, how much more does he love us? Like he's not holding anything against us. He's not disappointed in us. He's not just tolerating us. Man, he's just hoping that we look his way. He's just hoping that we'll choose to come crawl up in his lap. And he's so happy when we do. And so guys, I want you to know that God loves you and he wants a relationship with you so bad. So let me pray for you guys. Father, I just thank you for all the men and women that you've brought to the tablets. God, we thank you for the tablets. We thank you that men and women can fill their lives now with positivity and life and your word and teachings and such a blessing, God. We just give you praise for that. We just give you praise, glory, honor. We just exalt your name, God, just for all that you have done in the prison system. God, we are so grateful. And God, I just pray that you would meet these men and women right where they're at. Let them know how much you love them. Let them know that, man, you just want them to look your way. You're just waiting. You're on the edge of your seat.

You have their picture as the wallpaper on your phone, just like I have the little dog on my phone. God, I love that you're like that, man. And I pray, man, that these, all of these inmates in the various facilities that they're at, man, that they could get that revelation in their heart, that it wouldn't just be information in their head, but a revelation in their heart that they can, that would change them, that would make them run to you and not away from you, that would cause them to want to crawl up in your lap, to take some moments throughout the day and acknowledge you and talk to you and pray with you. God, I pray that for these men and women. God, let's hear our cries today, God, that they would know that you just want them a relationship with them so bad, so bad. So God, we thank you for all you're doing, God. I pray that this message that they're about to watch just lands on fertile soil, God, that you would bring the increase in their lives, that they would take root and grow, God. We love you so much. And we give you all the praise and glory in Jesus' name. Amen. In whose house? God's house. Let's give him some praise. Thank you.

Good morning, Life Fellowship Church, God bless you, come on, let's stand to our feet as we give God the best praise, amen. Hey! Let's go on a time, it's for the life, it's ever grown. I've got a fire, and it's always lit. It won't go out, it's always burned. Giving me joy is a speakable joy Undeniable, unexplainable, I've got the joy of the Lord Come on y'all, if you know it, say I've got a river that's flowing in blood It's full of life It's ever-growing I've got a fire It's always lit It won't go out It's always hot I've got a river that's flowing in blood It's full of life It's ever-growing I've got a fire It's always lit It won't go out It's always hot Giving me joy is a speakable joy Undeniable, unexplainable, I've got the joy of the Lord Deep down, deep in my soul Deep down in my soul Deep down in my soul Deep down in my soul I can see the Lord

He's untamable I've got the joy of the Lord Oh Lord I've got joy on the inside It's like fire can keep it in I've been praising in the midnight The joy of the Lord is my strength Come on, if you know it, say I've got joy on the inside It's like fire can keep it in I've been praising in the midnight The joy of the Lord is my strength Come on, we can be a little louder than that, say I've got joy on the inside It's like fire can keep it in I've been praising in the midnight The joy of the Lord is my strength One more time, one more time I've got joy on the inside It's like fire can keep it in I've been praising in the midnight The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord is my strength I've got the joy It's unspeakable Undeniable Unexplainable I've got the joy of the Lord

Deep down in my heart Deep down in my soul Uncontainable Uncontainable I've got joy on the inside It's like fire can keep it in I've been praising in the midnight The joy of the Lord is my strength I've got joy on the inside It's like fire can keep it in I've been praising in the midnight The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength Oh shout! Thank you Jesus for your joy Lift up the name of Jesus in this house today Father God you reign over it all You reign forevermore and forever your name will be exalted For there is power in the mighty name of Jesus I breathe into the atmosphere Spirit of God you're here You have all authority I pray over my heart and my soul I am healed by your stripes. Your blood declares that I am free. In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray, calling on the power of heaven. I proclaim, every weapon formed against me, it must break.

In the mighty name of Jesus. So I draw a permanent boundary line. The enemy has no rights to come near my family. No escape could ever run to God's plans, no matter the circumstance. The cross has sealed my destiny. Come on, can we declare that again? I draw a permanent boundary line. The enemy has no rights to come near my family. No escape could ever run to God's plans, no matter the circumstance. The cross has sealed my destiny. In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray, calling on the power of heaven. I proclaim, that every weapon formed against me, it must break. In the mighty name of Jesus. In the mighty name of Jesus. I know, all the power of fear and darkness, it must go. Cause every key to every victory, I hold. In the mighty name of Jesus. Come on, he has given us all authority. So begin to declare that name, Jesus. Begin to declare the name, Jesus. That dimension of that name changes. Break, darkness has to go. There is no enemy in hell that can stand against that name, Jesus. Fear must bow at the name of Jesus. So I will not fear, I will not fear, when the enemy comes near. Only to the break of my heart, is the blood of Jesus Christ. I will not fear, I will not fear, there's an army of angels here. I'm protected on my side, by the blood of Jesus Christ. And I will not fear, I will not fear, when the enemy comes near. Only to the break of my heart, is the blood of Jesus Christ. I will not fear, I will not fear, there's an army of angels here. I'm protected on my side, by the blood of Jesus Christ. And I will not fear, I will not fear, when the enemy comes near. Only to the break of my heart, is the blood of Jesus Christ. I will not fear, I will not fear, there's an army of angels here. I'm protected on my side, by the blood of Jesus Christ. In the mighty name of Jesus. Yes, I pray, calling on the power of heaven. I proclaim, that every man born again, must pray, in the mighty name of Jesus. In the mighty name of Jesus. I know, all the power of fear and darkness. It must go, to set me free to every victory. I hope, in the mighty name of Jesus. of Jesus. And I will not fear, I will not fear, when the enemy comes to me. On the door frame of my heart, there's the blood of Jesus Christ. And I will not fear, I will not fear, there's an army of angels here to save me. I'm protected by the blood of Jesus. And I will not fear, I will not fear, when the enemy comes to me. On the door frame of my heart, there's the blood of Jesus Christ. And I will not fear, I will not fear, there's an army of angels here. I'm protected by the blood of Jesus Christ. In the mighty name of Jesus. In the mighty name of Jesus. I know that the power of fear and darkness, it must go. Cause every, every victory, I hold in the mighty name of Jesus. In the mighty name of Jesus. In the mighty name of Jesus. Oh Jesus. Oh Jesus. Nothing can stand against the name of Jesus. Nothing can stand against the name of Jesus. Oh Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. The name that's above every other name. The only name that has power. The only name that has authority is Jesus. Jesus, Jesus. Every knee will bow. Every tongue confess the name Jesus. Oh Jesus. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. The sweetest name I know is Jesus. Oh yeah. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. You're so holy. Holy is who you are. You're so holy. We've come to join the song of the elders as they cast their crowns. We've come to join the song of the angels as they cry. We've come to join the song of the creatures as they bow down. We've come to join the song of the saints. Come on, everybody. We've come to join the song of the elders as they cast their crowns. We've come to join the song of the angels as they cry.

Come on, sing, we've come to join. We've come to join the song of the creatures as they bow down. Oh, we've come to join. We've come to join the song of the saints as they cry, holy. Come on, church. Can we love on Jesus today? Holy. We join with heaven as they sing, holy. You're so holy. Holy. Oh, you're so holy, Jesus. You're so worthy, Jesus. We join with heaven as they bow down at your feet as they cry, holy are you, Lord. Holy are you, Lord. Holy are you, Lord. They see the fire in your eyes. They see your majesty and glory. They see the love that you brought out. Holy, holy, holy. They hear the power of your voice. They hear the sound of many waters. They hear the earth begin to join. Holy, holy, holy. They see the fire in your eyes. They see your majesty and glory. They see the love that you brought out. Holy, holy, holy. They hear the power of your voice. They hear the sound of many waters. They hear the earth begin to join.

Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy. You're so holy. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy. Come on church, begin to release your worship to our holy God. To the God that deserves our best worship. To the God that sits high in your glory. You are a mighty God. You are a holy God. You are a worthy God. Mighty is who you are. Awesome is who you are. Magnificent is who you are. Worthy is who you are. You are high and lifted up. You are high and lifted up. You are high and lifted up. Jesus. You are high and lifted up. Holy. You are high and lifted up. You are high and lifted up. Awesome. You are high and lifted up. You are high and lifted up. Awesome. You are high and lifted up. Awesome.

home. You are Jesus was so holy. What an honour and a privilege to worship a mighty and a worthy God. God, we thank you for your presence being in this room today. Thank you that you took time and you showed up here. God, we don't take it for granted. And we thank you for what you're going to continue to do through this service. In Jesus' name we pray that everyone say amen. Come on, let's give it up for Jesus. Hallelujah. Amen. Hey, welcome to Life Fellowship. Who loves to worship Jesus? Come on. Come on. Does anyone love to worship Jesus? Yeah, it's such a privilege to be here this morning. I just want to say a big welcome if it's your first time. We'd love to get connected with you. We'd love to shake your hand, grab a coffee, learn your name. And so if you would text new to 51010, that just lets us know so we can get connected with you. I want to share with you about a class that we have every first and second Sunday of each month called Growth Track. Maybe you're new here.

Maybe you've been coming for a while and you've been wondering how can I get involved? How can I start serving? How can I meet new people? How can I learn more about the church? Well, this is the perfect place for you. I'd love for you to join us. You can learn more about what we believe and where you belong. And so the ways to get connected are going to be on the screen there. And we're going to move into a moment of giving and continuing our worship, not just with our lips, but with our lives. Right? Amen, someone? Come on. And so I want to remind you of a scripture, Matthew chapter 6, verse 19 through 21. This is Jesus talking. He says, don't store up for yourself treasures on earth, where the moth and the rust can destroy it, where the thief can steal it. But he says, store up your treasure in heaven, where it cannot be destroyed. It cannot be stolen. And then the next verse, verse 21, very famous, says for where your treasure is, your heart is also. I'm sure maybe you've heard that before. I want to share a story with you from my personal life. I remember I was around 14 or 15. And my dad taught me about investing. And it was such a foreign concept to me.

But he was like, Nash, you can make money investing. And I was like, wow, that's really cool. And so I remember learning. I remember making my first investment. And the day after I made that investment, I pulled out my phone and I was checking it. And I was like, dad, it's going down. I'm losing money. He's like, Nash, just wait. Give it some time. Just wait. And I tell you that story because that's what the scripture is telling us in Matthew 6, verse 21, that where your treasure is, your heart is also. is also my finances my treasure was in that stock and so my heart was there as well i was checking it i was i was seeing is it going up is it going down what's happening and it's the same way with our finances it's the same way with our life and i come to remind you today that there is an internal investment that will be the the best roi you'll you'll ever encounter it's the best return on investment you can find and that's jesus that's his kingdom that's the seeds that you're planting the lives that are being transformed and change and so our ways to give are going to be on the screens i want to pray just a blessing over you and then we'll continue on in the service today so father we come before you father with with our lives lord with our finances with our actions lord and we lay ourselves before you and we surrender father um we surrender everything before you and we ask for your blessing we ask for your favor upon our lives in jesus name come on everyone amen amen well thank you please check out this video so hello everyone and i'm so excited to be here with y'all today for some of you that don't know me i am from i'm the pastor of our north campus pastor chris is actually out there preaching today and he's loving on them and leading from the front so i get the honor of coming out here you guys get the short end of the stick this weekend

but so it it's amazing we get to i get to open up week number one of a new series we're calling said and done and the title of this is going to be from crisis to provision so i want to start off before we dive into this by just praying and so lord i want to lift you up in this place lord i just pray that hearts eyes ears lord are open to hear your word to feel your presence to see you today lord that lives are going to be transformed in your name today lord i pray that any words that are of me lord would fall to the ground and be null and void but anything that is of you would take root in people's hearts lord that it would spur a restoration it would spur them to transformation lord and in jesus mighty name we pray amen all right so i am married to my beautiful wife jen who's running around here some of you guys have have met her or you get emails from her all the time uh out there she's the sweetest person on earth she is uh she keeps me rounded off i am very sharp and to the point a lot of times and you send me an email or something like that it's a yes response or a no response or a thumbs up my daughter calls me a dry texter because i don't even know that existed she said yeah all you do is thumbs up stuff and i said well i'm responding to you ain't i so i'm not a i'm not a writer i just want to if if it's longer than a sentence i want to pick up the phone i want to have a conversation i don't want to be typing and so married to my beautiful wife jen um we've got four kids uh total and uh one little grandbaby who turned six months old this uh this week and so that is he's my little pride and joy i tell you what i've earned the title of doctor uh in theology i've done i've been pastor sergeant in the military all sorts of titles but none of them mean more to me than i think papa i think that one right there just it grips my heart i love so he's he's my my pride and joy so if some of you know my story which i was in the military for about 10 years got out of the military and i started running down kind of a rough jagged past if you want to learn more about my transformation you can go back and watch some of my previous sermons but i want to start off today talking about when i got saved and the lord showed up and i was dropped to my knees and i had not been somebody who knew anything about jesus i was not raised as a christian i didn't understand how everything works i'd just knew that people put their hands on the annoying me with oil and all of some of the power of the holy spirit overcame me i dropped my knees sort of ball my eyes are dying crimes i was ten years old it felt like something was grabbed my tongue i couldn't even speak

of just who i was overwhelmed so much by the presence of the lord and i knew right then and there this is real of a run that happens to the opposite way my whole entire life and more of all years now and so when i got up me and my wife were attending a different church at the time and while we weren't married at that time because i told her that we will never get married and that i would never step into a church i made declarations and god was just sitting there back there laughing but when i gave my life to the lord i got up me and her signed a celibacy pact and we went to premarital and we got married and we said alright we're going to do this the right way if we do this and so we dove in but i went to this this church once i gave my my life to the lord and i said i don't know scripture i don't know how to pray i can't speak well i don't know where any gifting is i definitely don't want to be in kids ministry i can't handle that i can barely handle my own let alone being back there too god bless the kids ministry

they are anointed they are amazing people and they have way more treasures in heaven than the rest of us have but i don't know where i fit in so i just showed up and i said you know what i'll stack chairs for you i'll take out the trash i'll paint walls just use me in some way so that the people that are in the church who do know how to speak who do know how to preach who do know how to pray so that they don't have to worry about this minute stuff i said just use me lord and let me hop in there so that's what i started doing every single week i would show up at the church and wednesday nights was we had to set the trash out for thursday and so wednesday night i would show up and i had a roll of trash bags for me and i'd just go through and empty all the trash bags throw them in the dumpsters get them ready for to go out stack chairs get them ready for services weekend services week uh... weekday services just wherever i could and then all of a sudden this opportunity presented itself to become a prison chaplain and to start learning how to step into the prison system and start ministering and so i said yeah i think and i started praying about it and the lord was like yeah this is the route that you're going to take

i can fit in with those guys and so i started going through the chaplaincy program i finished the chaplaincy program and i started stepping into different prisons all throughout here in the dallas area and as i'm doing that life fellowship is kicking up their prison ministry and we end up crossing paths and they say well why don't you come over to life fellowship and let's do this together and so i come over to life fellowship and i'm serving at first and then i get the honor of actually spearheading the prison ministry out here and so i'm loving it we built up about seven services and we had a couple hundred inmates at the time and then all of a sudden crisis hits and i get notified from the state that because of my past i am no longer allowed to go into the prison systems anymore and so i want to show you a picture of my past so when i was out of the military i joined one of the world's largest one percent motorcycle clubs and started pushing meth up and down the east coast and i was running with them for a while and running hard and because of that past i was flagged

as a gang member or a gang member's associate and so i was no longer allowed federally to step into any prisons or do any ministry whatsoever and i was crushed and i just spent so much time diving in and loving on people and learning and i was like god you clearly told me prison ministry is where i'm going you clearly told me that i need to show these guys the same type of love that i've been shown and i just felt them saying wait pump the brakes and relax and six months go by and i'm getting to the point where i'm like alright i'm about done clearly he doesn't want me in prison ministry he wants me to do something else all i'm doing is sitting behind a desk now scheduling volunteers and outlining programs for the prison and so pastor chris comes and he grabs a few pastors here from the church and he takes us all up to amarillo texas to where there's a pastor's conference going on there's about two hundred fifty pastors at this church up in amarillo texas and i just happen to be sitting across the table from this guy named larry miles Larry Miles, amazing man of God, highly anointed, and we're sitting there talking, he loves riding motorcycles, that's what I did, so we're just chatting back and forth, all of a sudden one of the volunteers, or one of our other pastors comes running up, and he says, John, you know who you're talking to?

And I said, yeah, Larry. He said, no, he is one of the few members of the Texas Board of Corrections. There's like literally nine people that sit on that board, and he's one of them, and he controls the whole Department of Corrections. And I said, oh, really? He said, well, maybe you can help me with something. I said, I'm not allowed in the prison anymore because of my past. And I told him the whole entire story, and he said, send me your paperwork, and I'll see what I can do. And most people, they'll say that, and then it's like, okay, yeah, we don't know if they'll actually do anything or not. But by Friday of the very next week, I get a phone call from Huntsville, Texas, and it's the director of TDCJ, and she says, you have been approved to go into any facility you want in the state of Texas, and not only that, but we want life fellowship services in all of our state correctional facilities. What I thought was a crisis, God was using to provide. We went from seven services and a couple hundred inmates to over 105 services and 30,000 inmates in literally a week because of what was going on. God showed up. And when I was about ready to cash it in, he said, let me show you what I've been doing behind the scenes. See, there are moments in life when circumstances, they creep in and they hurt us. We deal with deaths in the family. We deal with debt. We deal with anger, deception. And we look up to God and we said, where am I going now, what am I going to do? You know, that is the atmosphere of 2 Kings chapter 4, and that's where I want to preach out of today. And so if you've got your physical Bibles, I would love for you to open up your Bibles to chapter 4 of 2 Kings.

And I would highly recommend that everybody go get a paper copy of the Bible. I know when I pull out my software, where I do a lot of research on, I'm a, my doctorate is in theology, but it's a focus on historical and cultural background. So I search a lot of history and I have a lot of non-Christian historians that I research that kind of line stuff up. So I'm bouncing all over. But when I'm trying to research or trying to dive into scripture, that's how I always get these little notifications popping up left and right. It tries to take you off course and there's always an email or a text message that needs. And so when I shut all my phone off and I just pull open my physical Bible, this is me and God, I can get the download from him and I don't have to worry about all the other notifications that are popping up. So I'd highly encourage, go get yourself a Bible. So in this chapter, God reveals his power through four unfolding scenes. The problem, the person, the pouring and the promise, and each teaches us how the Lord works in desperate circumstances. So first I want to start with the problem and this is where God meets us in desperation. Verse one, chapter four says, one day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elijah and cried out, my husband who served you is dead and you know he feared the Lord, but now a creditor has come threatening to take my two sons as slaves. What a sentence, heavy with grief. She's pouring out, her husband is dead, they've got a ton of debt that's piled up. Now their sons are being threatened to take away. I mean that's the culture, that's the economic system back then, is when you took out debt, if you weren't able to pay it back, you became a willing slave for a certain amount of time until that debt was taken care of. And if you pass away, now your sons are required to pay that debt as well. So she's worried, he must have had a ton of debt, and he's like I'm never going to see my sons again. They're going away forever to be slaves, to pay for this.

How many of you guys would take loans out on cars if that's how the system worked today? Probably not. I think we'd be a little bit smarter with our debt if it was the same situation. But she is worried about this, and she's crying out. And one of the key things that it says in here is, she says, my husband was a member of a group of the prophets. He served the Lord. This was not some pagan household. This was not somebody who was obviously on the opposite side of God. to the end of God and so he was getting smited, right? This is someone who's living as a prophet. In fact, the sons of prophets, what it talks about is that's equivalent to us being seminary students. So there's a bunch of seminary students, they're not monks, so they have families, they have needs, they have households, they're not put up in a little convent, so there's stuff going on right here. So he's racked up a ton of debt and she can't understand how she's in this place when her husband feared the Lord. Historian Josephus actually records that this is the wife of Obadiah and if you read earlier on in 1 Kings, you see Obadiah, he's the one that when Jezebel is running around slaughtering all the prophets of God because she wants to raise up the prophets of Baal, Obadiah grabs all these prophets, he says he takes over a hundred of them and he hides them in a cave and he takes out debt to pay for them, to feed them, to clothe them, to take care of them. Josephus, a historian, he records that this is Obadiah and that Obadiah not only after that, he supports a hundred

prophets, fifty of which he supports in a cave for their family, the other fifty have their own families and their own support but he's still helping ministry wise. So when you put this together, you see that Obadiah, he's not out at the casino wasting his money. He's not in the gas station playing Keno. Right? He's not drinking his money away. He's not smoking his money away. He's not squandering any money, is he? Everything he has got he is pouring into ministry and he cares so much about people that he's willing to go into debt because he has so much faith in the Lord that the Lord is going to make it right. Now his wife on the other hand she might not be right there with him because she's like what the heck, this dude just left me with all this debt, our sons are going to go, but Obadiah is like I know the Lord way too much. He ain't going to leave his family stranded. He ain't going to leave them hanging. See this is important because sometimes faithful people face desperate circumstances. Sometimes godly people they bury loved ones. Sometimes praying people they face bills they cannot pay. Sometimes those who fear the Lord still find themselves at the edge of impossibility. Faith does not exempt us from crisis but faith does give us somewhere to go in crisis. That's exactly where this woman goes. She cries out. She does not remain silent. She does not shut herself away in despair. She does not give up and surrender her boys without protest. She cries out to the man of God. She demonstrates that faith begins when desperation turns into a cry for divine help. Some of you need to hear that today. Your first response to trouble should not be bitterness, should not be pride, should not be denial, or it should be a cry to God. I'm writing I wrote this message for myself because that's my go to. Bitterness and anger. If I can be real with you

I go straight to festering in my head and I start putting scenarios together and I can't believe them. I'm doing this and doing that and I start ramping myself up and getting angry. Jen's got a she comes running in all the time. It's hilarious. I don't know how you can ever be mad at Jen because I'll start getting fostered. She'll take oil and she'll put it on my head and she'll say I'm going to pray for you. I can't even get mad now. I don't even know how to respond to that. Thank you Lord. She's absolutely amazing. She does it to me all the time and it's like okay. I can't. I see where I'm going. I apologize. Thank you Lord and thank you Jen. When life caves in our first thing should be to cry out. When resources run out we should cry out. When answers fail we need to cry out to the Lord because our problems are real but they're not as big as our God. The lesson is simple here. Do not hide your desperation from God. Cry out to God. Crisis should move us to prayer not paralysis. We see now as we move into our second point of the person where the widow has named her problem and now Elisha asks a question that shifts her focus and in verse number two he asks two important questions. what can I do for you what can I do to help you and tell me what do you have in the house that second question is striking what do you have in the house look at the way she answers and this is typical even today nothing at all except a flask of olive oil she replied what do you have in the house nothing I've got nothing anymore everything's gone everything's ruined lost my job I've got nothing nobody loves me we walk around feeling so sorry for ourselves living in our four-bedroom mansions with our cars and a pantry full of food I've got

nothing except right well I guess I have a flask of oil except says that lower except thank God for the except because God can work through the except that's when miracles start to come through is in the except see the small flask of oil it was valuable oil it fueled the light it was used for medicinal purposes it was used for food it was used for all sorts of things so the oil was not insignificant so the principle here is God often begins his work not with what we wish we had but what we do have and that's what we got to get our mind wrapped around I wish I had this because it would make life so much easier what you don't have that what do you have that guy can use see Moses had a walking stick and with that walking stick he was able to split the Red Sea he was able to hit it against a rock and water came flooding out of it so that all of his people were thirsty to get a drink David had a sling where he was able to slay a giant a little boy had five loaves and two fish and Jesus took that and fed over 5,000 this woman has a flask of oil and God can step up and do a mighty miracle for her when what little we have is surrendered in faith God is able to do more with it we could ever imagine Elijah then gives details in verse three and four it says borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you pour olive oil from your flask into the jars set each one aside when it's filled when there's so much right here in this little two little verses of what it breaks down first we must seek humbly she is told to borrow vessels from her neighbors that requires humility she has to publicly go out and display her need no hard that is for people say I'm sucking right now I actually really need help it lines up with James 5 James 5 talks to us and tells us that when we confess our sins to one another we can be healed to many people get healing and forgiveness wrapped up in the same thing God died for our sins he paid for our sins with his blood and his blood covers our sins past present future if it was so easy for us to lose our salvation and I don't think God's blood is worth what it is on paper but I believe that God's death does cover all of our sins see I

love the message version in Romans it says that even while you were still enjoying your sin God forgave you so God has forgiven us it's not a matter of that we've given our lives to him but we want to walk in freedom and we want to walk in healing in order to do that it takes humbleness it takes humility it takes a drive it takes you stepping out of your comfort zone confessing to others going to your neighbors knocking on the door doing what you need to so that you can get rid of that and you can start to receive the healing and walk in the freedom that God calls you so she must seek humbly second she must borrow many Elijah says borrow not a few In other words, do not prepare for a small blessing from a big God. I know if it was me, I'd be going and ripping people's bathtubs out of their house and bringing it under the house. If God says he's going to bless me, I'm going to get in every single container I can possibly get and bringing it into my house. There is going to be absolutely no room for anybody to even stand in there because I'm going to go all out. And so this is what Elijah is saying, God is going to bless you. How are you going to react? Are you going to expect just a little? Are you going to go all out and grab every single vessel you can so you can receive all you can from God? Third, she must shut the door. This miracle is not for show. It's not for performance. It's to be done in private for the glory of God. This is for her and her son's testimony. Scripture tells us our testimonies are going to transform and turn others to God. My testimony has allowed me to speak in the prison system, has allowed to speak to other bikers to turn them and show them a way out. Your testimony is going to give you the ability to step into doors that I can never step into,

to minister to people that I will never get in front of because God has set up your testimony. This miracle is being done behind closed doors to intensify their testimony. They're going to be able to step out and go speak about this to others and show the goodness of God. Fourth, she must work personally. She and her sons must go gather the vessels. The Lord does not say, sit down in your bed, pull the covers over, and don't worry, I'll fill everything up for you. It'll be good. See, in 1 Kings you see Elijah, Elijah's leader who he kind of gleaned from, Elijah does a miracle with a woman and there's no water running in the land and she needs flour and oil so he does a miracle where the flour and the oil, they stay filled no matter what. She can make whatever she wants and it continues to stay filled, but she was active, she was doing that. Elijah, in this example, he's trying to make this known that you need to work and so your whole family must get out, must collect, must start moving forward, must grab as many as you can. How many times do I get a call of someone who's lost a job and they're needing something and I've swung by someone's house and they're sitting there in their pajamas at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, they didn't even brush their teeth, I can't get within five feet of them. How are you expecting to get a job? How are you expecting a blessing when you won't even get off your rear end and start moving? There is no vessel to even be filled right there and this is what God is saying right here, get up, start moving, do something if you expect something. Give me the ability to pour into you. Fifth, she must obey exactly. See this miracle is tied to obedience and there's where the trouble is for a lot of us because we want to shift stuff around, change what we think, he said, what it should look like, but there's a deeper spiritual truth that's right here and that's what he

says, borrow as many empty jars as you can, notice they are empty. God was not looking for full vessels to fill up, he was looking for empty ones to pour his blessing out into. See, if our hearts are crowded with self-sufficiency, pride, sin, distraction, lesser loves, there's little room for the fullness of God. You might as well put the lid right on top of the container. The vessels must be empty. Some people want oil of God without the emptiness that makes room for them, but fullness begins with surrender and grace flows into yielded lives. Let me ask you, what do you have in your house? What has God left in your hand? It may be not much, but if it is given to him in surrender, it is enough to begin. You know sometimes people dismiss what remains in their lives because they are overwhelmed with what's been lost. You see this all the time in families. I do tons of counseling through here and you'll see a loss of a loved one in a family But then the rest of the family Dynamic is getting ruined because all this person can focus on is the loss of a loved one They don't realize the blessing of everybody else that they have around them that they have the capability to love to lift up to edify to do life with People get super fixated on what they lose And can't see what God has sitting right in front of them the except See we have as much of God as where we are willing to receive he does not force his fullness on us On a closed life. He wants to fill us If we are open yielded and ready Now we move to number three and this is the pouring and this is where God fills every empty Vessel, the widow is now borrowed vessels, but she still has only a little bit So now this is where her obedience kicks in verse 5 says So she did as she was told and her sons kept bringing jars to her and she filled one After another did you hear that? That was simple, right? What did she do?

Exactly what she was told to do She didn't go off to the side. She did not argue. She did not revise the instructions. She did not wait for a sign She did exactly what she was supposed to Easy enough and then the miracle began to happen See the room that had begin with emptiness is now full With abundance and we see in verse 6. It's as soon every container was full to the brim Bring me another jar. She said to one of her sons there aren't any more He told her and then the olive oil stopped flowing. Do you understand what just happened? It was the preparedness of the people to go get the jars. However many jars they got the little flask kept pouring And whenever they hit the brim of the last vessel the oil stopped It wasn't a lack of God's blessing that was done right there The blessing was tied to the preparedness of the people If they would have gone and got more more vessels, I guarantee the oil would have still been coming But God's blessing tied exactly to the preparedness of the people The issue is not God's insufficiency the issue is our capacity In fact in James 4 it says you don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it Many of us live with small vessels in our lives and we wonder why we receive so little we bring God our Sunday mornings But not our weekly devotion We bring him emergency prayers when everything's hitting the fan But not ongoing surrender Rebring him surface requests, but not empty deep places But when the soul comes to God with empty vessels of earnest faith He fills and we see that in verse 7 when she told him Man of God He said to her now sell the olive oil and pay your debts and you and your sons can live on what is left over You and your sons can live on what is left over So he provided for her not for just that day He provided

For her future she was able and he gave her a specific request pay the debt Save your sons and live on the rest. He didn't say now go out and squander all your money He didn't say this is an excuse for carelessness To go do whatever you want This was actually a call to stewardship Here you're blessed now, don't be an idiot right if I can just say it bluntly Go and utilize it do what you're supposed to do There's another principle here see God gives himself to those who come to him empty and open The spiritual vessel is not rigid In fact, that's what we see when jesus says that he wants to pour New wine into new wine skin. The old wine skin would break it would bust Go, but jesus says I want new wine and new wine skin because it expands That's the same Same thing here. Our spiritual selves are not rigid. We're not going to explode if we get too much holy spirit We're going to keep expanding and growing. So we need to be prepared for that. We need to plan. We need to humble ourselves to be empty for that. Number four is the promise. And we shift right here from the story of the widow to a story of a lady who has abundance. Because God still sees the silent longings. Verse eight says one day Elijah went to the town of Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there and she urged him to come to her home for a meal. After that whenever he passed that way he would stop there for something to eat. Verse nine and ten she goes on to talk to her husband and says I'm sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. Let's build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed a table a chair and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by. This woman is clearly different. She has money. She has influence. She has ability. But what she's doing she makes a place for the prophet. She physically builds a room because she wants God's presence around her all the time. See it is one thing to admire holy things from a distance. It's another thing to get off your butt and actually do something. To get in to serve to give to love. To be an example. And because of her generosity Elijah moves on in the story and wants to bless her. He's like I'll speak to any authorities for you

everything else and her response to that is no my family takes care of me. I'm good. I don't need it. But Elijah can sense there's something that's there. There's something that that she's missing that she's she's just not leading on to. She's serving other people she's putting on this mask. There's something that's going on. And Gehazi who is Elisha's servant uncovers it. And he says she's barren. She doesn't have a son. And so Elijah goes to her and says by this time next week next year you will have a son. And I want you to see her response. It is unforgettable. She says no my lord. Oh man of God don't deceive me and get my hopes up like that. This is not a voice of rebellion. This is someone who's hurt. This is someone who's been wounded her life. And she's been holding all this in and putting on a mask. She has lived through disappointment after disappointment. And she's like please don't promise me anything else. I can't I can't undergo any more failure. Any more letdowns. Any more false promises. Just please don't promise me anything anymore. I'm fine if you just don't promise me anything. You know in fact she lowers her expectations so low that they go to the floor so she can't trip over them. This is wounds. This is hurt. This is trauma that she's dealing with. And Elijah is trying to show her that no God sees your hurt. He sees what other people don't see. He sees under the mask that you've put on and there's a hurt and there's a desire there that needs to be met. And he is willing to show up in that place. Verse 17 says but sure enough the woman soon became pregnant and at that time the following year she had a son just as Elijah had said. See God did exactly what he promised. He sees the need. One woman needed oil. Another needed a son. But they both needed God. And both discovered that he is enough. Spiritually we must make room for God in our lives. We must empty our vessels out and be ready to pour let the Lord pour his anointing in each and every single vessel. Let's make as much room as possible for him. Because God's people are never asked to pretend that their need is small. The widow's danger was real. The Shunammites aches were real. But our God is way more bigger than any of that. So I want to close out today with finishing back at this prison ministry. So after we are launched in all the prisons down here in Texas and we're moving we're building teams we're growing. experiencing this great growth. This large church from the east coast reaches out and they want to start building a prison ministry as well. So they come and they send a team

down here and I get to take them around to our prisons, show them and help them build ministry. And I'll coach them and work with them for a few months on how everything was going. They launched it, very successful, having a good go at it. But they had a relationship with a group called God Behind Bars. And God Behind Bars is launching this new thing that they want to offer to the inmates. They want to bring these tablets into the prisons and allow us to stream services and faith-based anger management classes and different things into the prisons. Not only that, but they wanted to give the family access to these so that they can watch church with the prisoner, even though they're in different places. And so God Behind Bars reaches out and, hey, we want to spearhead this. We want to try and do this. We're wondering if Life Fellowship will be one of the first couple churches that we take on board and we run this with. And we said, absolutely. So we jumped in, started creating content for them, started moving in that direction until we were able to start streaming. But I want to see you, or show you, the blessing that God had did. And so if you would, put the, this is from Wednesday. 10,516,000 inmates and family members have viewed our services. Over 6,000 salvations. When I was back in that crisis phase, looking at the Lord saying, I need you to fill my vessels. I'm struggling. I don't know where I'm supposed to be. I never imagined this. Never in my wildest dreams could I see what God was doing behind the scenes. How phenomenal He was going to do. And not only that, but He brought an amazing prison pastor who is now taking over that ministry for me so I could go up to the North Campus. And Pastor Logan, man, he is seeing dreams and visions and he is moving and shaking and this is going to be even more phenomenal than we could ever imagine. There are lives getting impacted all over because what we thought was a crisis, God used for provision. And so I would love to pray for all of you all before we exit out of here. So if you would, bow your heads. Close your eyes. And I just want to challenge you today to bring your empty vessels to God. Bring Him your financial fear, your family burdens, your private grief, your spiritual hunger, your disappointment. Because God blesses those who dare to trust in Him. I also want to challenge you, don't leave out of this place without stepping up and getting prayed for. If you have vessels that have been filled with the wrong thing and need to be emptied, come up here and receive prayer. If you have vessels that you need filled, seek prayer at the end of service. Come up and speak with

our prayer team. So Lord, we just pray over every single person under the sound of my voice today, Lord. Thank you for the anointing that you pour on your people. Thank you for the vessels that you fill. And thank you for the abundance, Lord, that you provide for each and every single person, Lord. Let us see the except in life. Let us see your presence around every single corner, your anointing around every single corner, your love, your desire. Let us fill you today, Lord. If you're in this room and maybe you've never had the chance to give your life to the Lord, or maybe you're saying, you know what, I've been running the wrong direction my whole entire life. Or I've been doing it lately and I need to rededicate my life to the Lord. It's okay, you're in the right place. Pray after me. Say, Lord, I'm tired. I'm weary. I can't handle this burden on me anymore. Lord, I need you. I need all of you in all of me right now, God. I confess with my mouth that you are Lord and Savior, King of the universe. And I believe in my heart that you died were raised three days later and that your blood covers all my sins past present and future lord come into my life and have your way fill me from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet right now lord in jesus mighty name and all god's people said amen and amen let's celebrate all those that went from death to life amen amen hey praise god if you prayed that prayer today whether it was a rededication maybe you you for the first time ever made a decision to follow jesus i want to say welcome home welcome to the family we're so glad uh that you're here and and we'd love to to connect with you we'd love to to um help you get discipled and so you can text the word jesus to the number on the screen i want to remind you easter is coming up in just a few weeks and let's pack the house guys let's fill these chairs up let's get people here let's invite unbelievers let's invite our neighbors co-workers let's fill this place amen we want to see jesus transform lives so let's do it together if you would stand your feet our prayer teams are going to be here at the front if you'd like to receive prayer but let me pray a blessing over you if you would bow your heads the lord bless you and keep you and the lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you the lord turn his face towards you and give you peace in jesus name amen you're dismissed thank you