GOD Given Gifts

♪ It's hard for me to believe ♪ ♪ That I've got nothing to prove ♪ ♪ I thought this dirt on my hands ♪ ♪ Was gonna keep me from you ♪ ♪ I fall as much as I rise ♪ ♪ Feels like my walk is a crime ♪ ♪ Where I'm alone in the night ♪ ♪ Won't you leave the light on ♪ ♪ 'Cause I've been reckless with my heart now ♪ ♪ I'm falling apart ♪ ♪ I don't wanna be the same ♪ ♪ I need you to be the change I serve ♪ ♪ And I know I am right ♪ ♪ Know I made mistakes ♪ ♪ But the past will walk away ♪ ♪ I'll do whatever it takes ♪ ♪ Thought I was never enough ♪ ♪ Heard how's the way of this song ♪ ♪ But I can lift up my eyes ♪ ♪ And know that you're in control ♪ ♪ Sometimes I won't get me right ♪ ♪ I'm gonna stumble and fall ♪ ♪ Where I'm alone in the night ♪ ♪ I know you'll leave the light on ♪ ♪ 'Cause I've been reckless with my heart now ♪ ♪ I'm falling apart ♪ ♪ I don't wanna be the same ♪ ♪ I need you to be the change I serve ♪ ♪ And I know I am right ♪ ♪ Know I made mistakes ♪

♪ But the past will walk away ♪ ♪ I'll do whatever it takes ♪ ♪ Thought I was never enough ♪ ♪ Thought I was never enough ♪ (upbeat music) (audience cheering) (upbeat music) ♪ I've been reckless with my heart now ♪ ♪ I'm falling apart ♪ ♪ I don't wanna be the same ♪ ♪ I need you to be the change I serve ♪ ♪ And I know I am right ♪ ♪ Know I made mistakes ♪ ♪ But the past will walk away ♪ ♪ I'll do whatever it takes ♪ (audience applauding) - All right, Church, let's give up and praise. (upbeat music) (audience applauding) ♪ You tell me the day you made ♪ ♪ So how are you joys in the plan ♪ ♪ Joys in the plan ♪ ♪ This is where I believe ♪ ♪ That you are more than you ♪ ♪ More than you ♪ ♪ You are faithful to your promise ♪ ♪ You are strong when I am free ♪ ♪ And I'm standing in your presence ♪ ♪ I have everything I need ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord ♪

♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Oh my soul bless his name ♪ ♪ All that is within me say ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is past it ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ You are worthy of all, worthy of all my praise ♪ ♪ You are faithful to your promise ♪ ♪ You are strong when I'm new ♪ ♪ When I'm standing in your presence ♪ ♪ I have everything I need ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my true ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my true ♪ ♪ Oh my soul, the blessing in fame ♪ ♪ Oh man, it's within me today ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my true ♪ ♪ And you're under like the river ♪ ♪ Overflowing holy spirit ♪ ♪ Let it pour out with no limit ♪ ♪ Overflowing holy spirit ♪ ♪ Let it rise up like a river ♪ ♪ Overflowing holy spirit ♪ ♪ Let it rise up like a river ♪ Holy Spirit, let it pour out with no limit. Overflowing, Holy Spirit. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Come on, Church, come on. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Joy of the Lord. Joy of the Lord is my strength. Joy of the Lord. Joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, my soul, bless His name. Oh, that is within His name. Oh, my soul, bless His name. Oh, that is within His name. Oh, my soul, bless His name. Oh, that is within His name. Oh, joy of the Lord. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength.

Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength.

Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, joy of the Lord is my strength. Will not fail me now Do not fail me now in the way The same God has ever made Working all things out Is working all things out Yes, I will bet you high In the lonely valley Yes, I will let your day Oh, yes, I will sing for joy When my heart is heavy Oh, my days Oh, yes, I will For all my days Oh, yes, I will Not just to pray To glorify To glorify the name of all day Nothing can stand again Not you to pray To glorify To glorify the name of all day Nothing can stand again I'll choose to pray To glorify To glorify the name of all day Nothing can stand again Not you to pray

To glorify To glorify the name of all day Nothing can stand again Yes, I will get you high In the lonely valley Yes, I will let your day Oh, yes, I will For joy When my heart is heavy Oh, my days Oh, yes, I will For all my days Oh, yes, I will For all my days Oh, yes, I will For joy I am holding on to faith 'Cause I know you make a way And I don't always understand And I don't always get to see But I will believe in 'Cause I will believe in You may have some truth You may try and fall You use songs to praise To shake risen walls And I will speak to my fear I will preach to my thought You are faithful And you will be faithful now

I am standing on your word Going heaven down to earth And you will fight my enemies And it's willing to victory And I will believe in Yes, I will believe in 'Cause you may now turn to me You may try and fall You use songs to praise To shake risen walls And I will speak to my fear And I will preach to my thought You are faithful And you will be faithful now You are faithful And you will be faithful now 'Cause I know, I know You never did Yes, I know, I know ♪ I know, where I know ♪ ♪ In your prayer ♪ ♪ I know, where I know ♪ ♪ In everywhere ♪ ♪ You may have been true ♪ ♪ You may try and call ♪ ♪ Through your songs of praise ♪ ♪ To shake prayers and walls ♪ ♪ And I will speak to my fear ♪ ♪ I will preach to my God ♪ ♪ You were grateful and ♪

♪ You will be faithful now ♪ ♪ You may have been true ♪ ♪ You may try and call ♪ ♪ Through your songs of praise ♪ ♪ To shake prayers and walls ♪ ♪ And I will speak to my fear ♪ ♪ I will preach to my God ♪ ♪ You were faithful then ♪ ♪ You'll be faithful now ♪ ♪ Oh, you were faithful then ♪ ♪ You'll be faithful now ♪ (gentle music) - God, we just thank you for your faithfulness, Lord. In every circumstance, in every situation, you're faithful every time. God help us to trust you in every circumstance, Lord, to know that no matter what we're going through, no matter the situation, you're walking right there with us. God help us to praise you in every situation. Help us to praise you in everything's good. Help us to praise you and we're in the waiting when we don't know, we don't have answers. 'Cause you're faithful through everything, Lord. And we thank you for that. We thank you for the privilege to be here today, to praise you and worship you freely. What a blessing that is. God, we just worship you. - In Jesus' name, amen.

- Woo, come on, somebody! All right, let's give it up for the praise of worship team one more time. Now let's give it up for the real reason we're here. Let's give it up for Jesus! (congregation cheering) Amen, amen, welcome to our line. Campus out there, all the guys in the jails and the prisons, we wanna thank you guys for tuning in tonight and we know you guys, our family can't wait to see you one day and maybe see you right here at the house, that'd be awesome. Sorry, guys, I've been a little bit under the weather, trying to get this right. Tonight, we're gonna be talking about God giving gifts, unburying what God has given us. None of us was born or ordained from God from the beginning to have addiction issues, to have sickness or disease or illnesses. God didn't create us for that. God, when we were born, he already said, "I got plans for you." And then plans, when we were born into this world, the sad part is that we were born early to curse 'cause Adam and Eve, what happened in the garden and the enemy come to destroy the very thing that God created us to do, right from the beginning. He started to call us things that we're not supposed to, like nobody here, when you were eight years old, raise your hand in class and said that you wanted

to be an addict. Nobody in eight, when they were eight years old, raised their hand and said, "Hey, I wanna go to prison." Right now, alcoholic. So what we have to do is start unburying those things that the world has stacked upon us and get down to the core, to the heart of God and who he created us to be, amen. And that's what we're gonna talk about tonight. And we're gonna find it in Matthew chapter 25 verses 14 through 30. It's the parable of the talents. And it says, "For it's just like a man "about to go on their journey who called his own slaves "and entrusted his possessions to them." So one, he gave five talents. Does anybody know how many, what five talents was back then, it was like $100,000 today. Each talent was $20,000, okay? Another, to another, he gave two talents and to another, he gave one a talent. thank you very much, and he went on his journey. Immediately, the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them and gained five more talents. I like that, traded with them. Sounds like he was in the stocks and bonds, doesn't it? (laughing) All right, in the same manner, the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the other one talent went away

and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. Not long or not after a long time, now, after a long time, the master of those ladies came back and settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents. That's a total of 10 talents. That's a lot of money. Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents. As Master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful, slave." You were faithful for it with a few things I will put you in charge of many things. Interned to the joy of your master. Also, the one who had received the two talents came up and said, "Master, you entrusted two talents to me." See, I have gained two more talents. As Master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful, slave." You were faithful with a few things I will put you in charge of many things. Interned to the joy of your master. And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, "Master, I knew you to be a hard man, "reaping where you did not sow and gathering "where you scattered and no seed." And I was afraid. And I went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have, what is yours? But as Master answered and said to him, "You wicked, lazy slave.

"You know that I reap where I did not sow "and gather where I scattered no seed. "Then you ought to have put my money in the bank "and on my arrival I would receive my money back with interest. "Therefore, take away the talent from him "and give it to the one who has the 10 talents. "Lord, thank you for the night for your word "and I thank you, Father God, for just pouring out "your words, not letting not be me, "help me to get out the way and let you speak "through me tonight, Lord Father. "For I thank you that the people have ears to hear "and eyes to see what it is you're doing here tonight "in Jesus' name, amen." But that's in Lord, we need a lot of blessings. Hear that right, surprise me. - Can you guys talk with me? - What's that? - That's right. - Thank you. - All right, so well, man. - I'm just gonna read something to you. Many of us walked and celebrated recovery carrying a list of losses. Relationships, damage, trust, broken opportunities, and years we wished we could have lived differently. Our hurts, habits, and hang-ups can come, become so familiar that we begin describing ourselves entirely by what went wrong. Then we hear Jesus tell a story about three servants

entrusted with something valuable. One received five talents, another two, and another one. A talent in this passage was a large, monetary amount, commonly estimated in approximately 20 years of labor's wages. The servants received the equivalent of roughly 100 years, 40 years, and 20 years of wages. Even the servant who received the least held something tremendously valuable. And the talents in Jesus' story were money, but the stewardship principle helps us examine how we handle the gifts, abilities, opportunities, and responsibilities God entrust to us. First Peter 14 calls believers to use their gifts to serve one another as faithful stewards of God's grace. Some of us struggle to believe we have anything worth offering, other recognizing the ability but have withdrawn because of fear, shame, or disappointment. Tonight we can bring those struggles honestly to Jesus as we surrender to Him and continue our recovery. We can learn to receive help, develop what He has given us and serve others in love. What have you buried and what fateful step can you take today? Number one, this is for y'all taking notes. Point number one is recognize what is still in your hands. And I love the Scriptures Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. For grace you have been by grace you have been saved and through faith. And not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast

for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. And why were we created for good works? Which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them. And guys, a little bit of a word study real quick, kind of going down the rabbit trail. The word we're His workmanship and the Greek, it actually means poem. It means poem. That means God, Father God, already before you were even born, He already had a plan for you. He wrote a poem about you. He spoke things over you, spoke life over you. And the enemy has come to steal, kill, and destroy that. And now it's our opportunity now to be able to receive And we're going to show a step here to do that, we've got to recognize what is still in your hands. Now, you guys might think that the guy who received one, well, maybe God was kind of looking at him and saying he wasn't worthy or trustworthy enough, but that wasn't what God is doing. God said He gives according to His riches and glory. His riches and glory is wisdom and knowledge. He had the wisdom and knowledge to know that Stephen Dees did not need a million dollars when He graduated from True Purpose Ministries. Right? I poked. The guy's like, "No!" Because if I had that money, when I graduated True Purpose Ministries, you had to have been delivered from drugs and alcohol, yes. I was delivered from nicotine, I was delivered from pornography. I was delivered from all these things, and I was living a pretty clean life. But yet, I had a good heart, and if I had all the money that I wanted, I'd end up building an orphanage somewhere in Haiti or something because I love children and I want to see children get the best they can get because I've seen the enemy come in and do that to children because I lived in the orphanage in group homes

and places the detention centers, and I've watched what happens to those children that come up like that, and I just have a heart for that. But if I'd have done that, I'd have been not in God's perfect will for my life. I'm not saying it wouldn't have been as acceptable or good will or that he wouldn't have blessed it, but I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now. So that's his wisdom and knowledge. That's his riches and glory. He knows what we need when we need it. So he would have been a bad father or a father that was irresponsible, would have put something on a son that he couldn't handle, that would have broke him. Does that make sense? He's a good loving father, and he just said he gives us his according to his wisdom and knowledge. What he knows about us, what we can handle. So I thank God for that. So that God that went and hid that, why do you think he hid that talent? He had fear, that's right. He was operating in fear. He was operating in fear of how he viewed Father God. He was a horrid man. He gathered where he didn't sow. He reaped, and he harvested where he didn't reap. Or he reaped where, how's he go? You reap what you sow, but he harvested and he reaped in places that he didn't sow. So he looked at Father God as somebody who was horrid, and he was scared, and he didn't want to be out of fear. He went and hid those talents that God has given him. All right. In recovery, we can make similar comparisons, right? We can look at other people and we can say, well, their gifts are better than ours. You can say things like, they know the Bible better than I do. They've been in recovery longer than I have.

They have a testimony people want to hear. I have made too many mistakes. Those thoughts can keep us from recognizing the opportunities available for us today. Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, establishes the right foundation. We are saved by grace through faith, and we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. For good works. Does anybody here know the definition of good? No. The opposite of bad. Bad definition. What's that? Somebody said it. Functional. Good is functional. Bad is dysfunctional. If you want to put a word to it. So God gave us gifts, created us in the beginning to do functional things. And for me, most of my life, I've lived dysfunctionally. Another word for dysfunctional is what? Bad. The works that I did were not good. And in order for me to start living the life that God has for me, I have to start operating in the gifts that He's given me. And the gifts that He's given me is to do things that are functional. That's good, right? Come on, somebody. Somebody got a revelation tonight. You don't get saved and not, ain't you? I'm playing.

So we've got to work with what we have in our hands. Some of you guys work in factories. Some of you guys are construction workers. Some of you guys work in restaurants. Some of you all are mechanics. God's given you something that's inside of you and He placed something in your hand. And He wants you to use it to be functional in this world. What does that look like? That looks like doing something for somebody else outside of yourself. Let's look at Moses. Moses couldn't speak. And God said, hey, I want you to go and deliver my people from Egypt. And he said, but God, I can barely speak. I got a stuttering problem. God said, well, I'll send somebody with you. You won't let him get out of it. But more importantly, God places staff in his hand. He placed a staff, just a staff, just a walking stick. That's what people think. But if you read the story, you'll find out that he placed the power of himself in that stick. And where he walked, he had power because of that stick. What is God placed in your hand? What is God placed in your hand? The power of God rests inside of you, but he's also given you something in this world so that you can be effective and useful in the kingdom of God. What does he put in your hand? What practical skills have you learned? What needs do you see that needs to be noticed?

What strengths have trustworthy people recognized in you? What responsibility could you begin carrying with guidance? Do anybody here have an accountability partner? Now, I'm not being mean, but do you really have an accountability partner? Or do you have a yes, man? Big difference, man, big difference. I go to somebody like Dave or Ken Hawk, and they're my accountability partners. I promise you one thing, they ain't coming in agreement with my dysfunction. They're going to be able to rip the mask off to tell me something about myself so that I can grow and become the man that God created me to be. But many of us get that backwards. We look for somebody to come in agreement with our dysfunction because we don't want to grow. We want to be comfortable and complacent where we're at. That's not being a good steward over the talents that God's given you. And let me tell you something about the hawks, OK? I want to tell you something about the hawks and caddies and Gayleene, Katie Hawkes, Mother, and her stepfather. I want to tell you something about them. They didn't live the life that most of us lived in this world. I don't even understand how it is. They come in here and they walk in the love that they do. But you know what they say about us? They see more gifts and talents in us than they do than they see in people in the world.

When somebody comes out of recovery and they're on fire for God, you light up the room when you walk in. Most of you all got tests. The Lord is going to preach the word better than most preachers on TV. And you guys love. And when you love, you love with everything that you got because he has been forgiven much, love it much. And that's what they speak over you guys. That's what they speak over me. (audience murmurs) They help me see the talents that are inside of me. And sometimes it's painful because I've been living so long doing these things over and over and over again. I've become complacent, became my identity. Anger was a big one. Anger was a big became a part of who I am. Man, I'm just angry. I'm just upset all the time. And that's how I deal with things. If I'm lonely, I'm angry. If I'm sad, I'm angry. Right? And so I wore that for so long. And the more I hung around these people that were willing to help me take the mask off to become better, I realized not as not who I am. I am not angry.

I am gentle. I am kind. I am loving. And I'm still working on it. (laughing) That's called honesty. I know where I am. I know where I stand. And God's doing to work, but He's giving me so many gifts and talents. And there to be used to help other people come, man, there's so much talent in this room that if 12 men, disciples of Jesus, turn the whole world upside down, what could a room of disciples like this do? Right here, right now. (audience cheering) There wouldn't be no more overdoses, guys. There wouldn't be jails full of people that for drug charges. There wouldn't be hospitals full of old people on live support because they're ODin. There's a whole room full of world changers right here, right now. But you've got to realize and look at yourself the way that Jesus sees you and ask yourself the question, lower, what did you put in my hand? All right. You know, recognizing what you have was point one, point two is bring what you have buried into the light. This is called transparency. Transparency is

hard. Transparency, I promise you it is. When I have to go to the people that are my accountability partners and I got to say, "Hey man, I got to argue it with my wife." And you know what, man? I said some things that tore her down. I used some language that wasn't Christian today. Man, I punched the wall or or punched the steering wheel or I punched the dashboard and I have to admit to these things, do you think it feels good on the inside? But it's biblical, what does it say in James chapter 5? It says, "Confess your faults to one another so that you may be what healed?" Because what we hide in darkness will manifest darkness. What you have inside of you, if it's darkness and you hide it, it's gonna manifest in darkness. But when you speak it out and you're honest and you can bring it out and be transparent, you let the light in, what happens? The darkness has to leave. So now it's just about being transparent. Can you look in the mirror and say something to you? Can you say, can you look in the mirror and say, "I'm not the father that I want to be right now. I'm not the husband that I want to be right now." There's areas in my life that I need to work on. Or is it when you look in the mirror, you try to hide the imperfections. Pluck the hair out of the mirror, put the makeup on, hide the imperfections. You know what I'm saying? Some of us don't want to look in the mirror and be raw and be able to admit that, "Man, you know what, man? I'm making some mistakes. I'm doing some things that aren't godly. I'm doing some things that aren't lining up the way that they should because I'm still living in the past." Today's a new day. Today's a new day. Today's a day where you get to stand up and say, "God, in the throne room, and you know what? God, I stuck a needle in her arm and I treated her ungodly ways and I apologize and I ask for your forgiveness today. God, I want to ask you for your forgiveness today for the way that I talk to my wife. I want to ask forgiveness today, the way that I treated my kids. And until you can do that, you're gonna continue in that lifestyle of going around and around and around that mountain. It's when it says the faith, if you have the faith of a muscle seed, you can say to that mountain, "Be thou removed," right? Well, I didn't understand that. I'm gonna speak to these mountains. They in my way, you know what I'm saying? And that's

not what he was talking about. The mountain in my life was drugs, alcohol, women, pornography, ungodly living. But when it was just had the faith of the muscle seed because see on my own strength, I could never quit. For nothing, I was going around that mountain over and over again, in and out of jail, in and out of prison, in and out of the hospital, in and out of addiction. I could never quit until I stood on the word of God one day and said, "You know what? I am who God says I am. Today I can say no to the things of the world and yes to the things of God." And that's when that mountain started to be removed. I didn't see myself going in and out of jail anymore. I didn't see the needle going in and out of my arm anymore. I didn't see those things. I mean, prison is no longer in my future. It's no longer in my present. But it's only because I could stand up in the building, in the throne room of God, and I could exchange those lies that the enemy told me for the truth that he's written about me. That's when things started to change. You already know what I'm apologizing for, don't you? Why? Yeah, there's so much I want to share with you guys, too. There really is, man. Yeah, well, I got a wife and she's over this thing, and humble yourself under the mighty hand of your woman. I mean, yeah, always. So, most of us, if there was a story in the Bible that we can relate to, and we'll land this plane with this one, it's the man in gatherings. It's the man that was full of demons who was living in torment. He would take the rocks and he would scratch himself and he would break the change in the feathers, and he had scars because of his name. How many of it felt tormented like that? God, I don't want to be here doing this no more. I can't understand why I'm 45 minutes in the bathroom trying to stick a needle in my arm and I can't draw no blood. Anybody ever been there? Tormented, right? Angry, upset because I just can't get it right.

I can't, I'm a bad father, I'm a bad husband, and I can't quit this nasty stupid stuff. Man, I was so full of dirt, I was so full of grime, I felt it on the inside and I knew that I'd been tormented by the enemy. I hated myself, but it took one encounter with Jesus, just one encounter with Jesus, one true encounter with Jesus. And I was no longer tormented by those demons. And most of us in this room, we can all associate ourselves with the man in the gatherings. We've been delivered from a lifestyle that we hated. We delivered from a lifestyle where we couldn't even, if we were to write a story about the person that we were, when we were eight years old, most of us would think it was a horror story. Am I lying? Most of us couldn't stand the people that we are, that we were in the world. And if we were to write a story about that person, we were younger, we would never be under recognized that would have been us. That's not how you've seen yourself. So now you've been delivered from those things and God wants to know what you're gonna do with it. He gave you some talents. He placed something inside of you. And now he's peeling away the layers of the past, the layers of the ugliness, and we're getting to the heart of the situation.

What is it that God placed inside of you that's more powerful than anything? Can anybody tell me? What did he leave you that's more powerful than anything? Salvation, eternal life, eternal. I want y'all to think about that. Jesus Christ dies on the cross. He's at the right hand of the Father. And if you believe the gospel that Jesus crossed, he left you with salvation. What are you gonna do with that? What if that was the talent that God placed inside of you? How would you utilize that today to help somebody else out? Are you challenging? I wanna challenge you. Are you telling people about your story? Are you telling your family about your story? 'Cause your story is history, his story. And it's life-giving. You say, we overcome by what? The words of our testimony and the blood of the Lamb. And our testimony is who God created us to be. The enemy come to still kill and destroy and God restored us back to the beginning. Because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross. And if you'll use that and you'll utilize, I do not wanna get to heaven and be that guy that said, you know what, Lord, you saved me, but I shouldn't share it with anybody.

I held it on the inside and I know I'm saved and I'm not going to hell, but I did not share it. I was scared, Lord. I was walking in fear. I didn't think I was worthy enough. I didn't think I was good enough and I listened to the fear and I listened to the lies and I held on to that. And I didn't share with others the good news of Jesus Christ. And every one of us has that talent. 'Cause everybody in here saved, right? If you're not saved, if you have not received Jesus Christ as your personal savior, tonight's the night. Tonight's an opportunity for you to come up here and grab a blue chip and also say a prayer with us. Let us lead you to the Lord. Let us explain to you what salvation really is. But if you are saved and you walk out of these doors tonight, I challenge everybody in here that take the gift that God's given you, a talent that he's given you to be able to tell your story to somebody else this week. That's how it changes. See the disciples, it says in Acts chapter two, they were empowered by the Holy Spirit. And with boldness, they proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ. Is everybody in here saved? If you're not, we can fix that. But if you are, then you have the power inside of Ephesians 113, says upon receiving the gospel

if you are saved, you are saved for the power of Jesus. A promise with his power, okay? The power of God lives inside of you. That is one thing that I can reveal to you tonight that God has put inside of your hand. The staff that's inside of your hand is salvation. And it carries the power to save other people. See Jesus left, you see, you'll do greater works to me. What was he talking about? You'll be able to lead people to him. That's our purpose today. That's his plan for us. And I don't know what that looks like some of your, our family members, maybe it's leading your kids. Man, I'll honor Miss Katie Hawk. She's got 11 kids. And not all of them were birth, were given to her by birth. is and to raise them up as godly children. That's powerful. That's a gift and she uses it well, but she understands the power of salvation. It wasn't meant for her. It was meant for other people. See, a cherry tree don't eat cherries, a lemon tree don't eat lemons, an avocado tree don't eat avocados. It pulls from the nutrients of the ground, right? It's dug deep just like us. We should be by water, living water, we should be planted by the living waters. We should draw on our nutrients from the Word of God, and we should be producing fruits of salvation. And that's leading other peoples to Christ.

So I challenge you this week for everybody in this room to be able to go and tell somebody this week about Jesus Christ. Talk to somebody about what Jesus Christ has done in your life. And if you're not saved, I would like an opportunity to pray with you up here. Now who's the one that chips tonight? Okay, what are we closing out with? Okay. Y'all think I got this down pat, right? I don't. Okay. Fly by the seat of my pants. Amen. Amen. All right. So we're going to go ahead. I want to end it though with that everybody in here has a talent. Everybody in here has a gift. And guys, if you couldn't see what God is doing in your life or who He created you to be, we would love to be able to talk with you and pray with you tonight. And tonight, if tonight, if God reveals something inside of you that's not a hymn and you want to grab a blue chip, a blue chip, yeah, we got plenty of them. All right. So come on up here, Cat. Right. I think that's powerful though. To me it's a game changer when we can choose to see ourselves as the way the Lord sees us, right? I tell my girls I don't, at some point I got to stop blaming everybody in my past for the way I am today. Does that make sense?

I don't get to keep saying, well, my mama did it or because of what my daddy did, because as of today, you all have the choice to recover. So what you choose to be today and going forward, that's all on you. So let's use those gifts and talents that the Lord has given us because there are people out there that actually need an amen. All right. So let's go ahead and thank our online community for joining us. We hope you come back next week and then we're going to go ahead and close out. So if everyone would please stand, all right. So together we start with God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking as Jesus did this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it, trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next amen, amen. Y'all welcome to have a seat. Thank you all again, our online community. I don't know if y'all know, but we're now streaming in 945 prisons, y'all. That is doing something and we are so thankful for that. For those of you that are leaving, please, if you'll help us out, if there's any trash, water bottles, even if they're not yours, if you would.