Help! My Faith Feels Hindered | Jabin Chavez | City Light Church

Hey, what's up, family? We are about to jump into God's Word, and I'm so excited about it. Hey, just wanted to take a moment real quick to tell you to like and to subscribe and to hit the notification bell, all the things that help us get this Word and this message out to a greater audience. If today's Word is a blessing to you, even if you wanna like throw it in your Instagram story, things like that, if you're still on Twitter or X or threads or one of those and share the Word with a friend, all of those things help us. And so if this ministry is a blessing to you, help us spread the Word. Also wanna tell you, man, we've got some really great praise and worship that is coming out of this house. We recently released Let the Redeemed. As you're watching this right now, we're just releasing a brand new kind of spontaneous moment called Joy. And we've got lots of incredible music with City Light Worship. So that's on Spotify, that's on YouTube, that's on Apple Music, all the places that you listen to music. And now hope all of that is a blessing to you. And right before we go to God's Word, if City Light is a blessing to you,

if this ministry has been impacting to you, would you prayerfully consider partnering with us financially? They tell us that Las Vegas is the most unchurched city in the most unchurched state, Nevada, in America. And we are doing everything we can to win people for Jesus and make a massive impact in this city. And if that stirs your heart, man, we need your help. And we need your partnership. And if you kind of consider City Light to be a part of your spiritual formation, if you consider my ministry to be a blessing, no gift is too small, no gift is too large as we continue to reach this region with the gospel. Let's jump into God's Word and let's receive from the Lord. Doing 2 Corinthians 13, verse five. Test yourselves to make sure you're solid in the faith. Don't drift along. Everybody say, don't drift. Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. I love that. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay. In other words, Paul's saying, don't live off the faith of everybody else. You need your own faith. Amen.

You know, you can be in a worship service and not worship. You can come to church and not have church. You can come to a moment like this and never encounter God because you're kind of living off the volume of everybody else. Paul said, you need your own evidence. You need your own walk with the Lord, not just hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. Now, here's the good news. If you fail the test, you can do something about it. And I wanna help you do something about it today. And so I'm gonna teach you how to kind of test yourself and how to grow in your faith. And I've got this little thought for you today. Help my faith feels hindered. What do I do when my faith feels hindered? I think God's gonna help you today. Father, I thank you that you're gonna help us. And I thank you that you're gonna strengthen our faith today. And I declare in Jesus' name, we will pass the test. Amen. Amen. And amen. Are you ready for the word? I know it's like 700 degrees outside, but will you give me an amen every once in a while? Will you throw me an amen if you... Okay, all right.

If you don't like it, just stay quiet. But if you like it, help a preacher out. So the apostle Paul says, I'm worried about you that you're drifting, drifting. Has anyone ever been in the ocean before? Who's been in the ocean? Anyone ever floated around in the ocean? Pretty amazing. You've probably experienced this where you walk out into the water and there's your family and there's your kids, there's your wife, there's your husband, whatever, girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever it is, they're out there. And you're right in front of them and then you just kind of start floating, right? And before you know it, you look back up on shore and you're 500 yards away from your family, from your friends. What happened? You drifted. You drifted. The Bible doesn't say that we live a drift of faith, but a life of faith. We don't drift our way to God. We have a walk with God. That if you drift, you never drift towards better. You'll never drift into health. You'll never drift into a better marriage. You'll never drift into better relationships.

You'll never float along into prosperity. You'll never float along into radicalism. No, this is a walk of faith and it is intentional. And if you don't have an intentional walk with Jesus, Paul says, you will drift. And I wanna help with the drift today. And what Paul says is, he says, you have to test yourself. Oh man, I'm in a test right now, Pastor. I feel like the devil's testing me. Well, let me tell you how to get to a point where the devil never tests you. You give yourself, what the scripture said, are regular checkups. What my doctor tells me is he said, early detection is the key to longevity. That if you can find something early and fix it early, you got a better chance of getting the victory. And so what I wanna help you with is, I've been walking with the Lord for 27 years. I've been walking with the Lord a long time. I've been in full-time ministry for 22 years. In that time, I felt like I've had to go through moments of resistance, moments through walls, moments through trials and tribulations, moments where attention, moments where my faith feels weak, where I feel under attack, where I feel like, man, this just isn't working. Well, what do I do in those challenging seasons? I'm gonna help you today. And here's what I do.

I ask myself three questions. And these three questions help me with my focus and help me with my spiritual growth and help me keeping my faith moving forward. And I'm gonna give them to you today. So here's the first question that you need to ask when you're feeling resistance, when you're feeling hindrance. Here's the first thing I ask. Have I forgiven? Oh boy. Here we go, good morning. Why am I mad at everybody? Why am I frustrated with it? Why don't I wanna go to church? Why don't I wanna see nobody? Why do I not wanna pick up the phone? Why do I hate everybody? If you hate everybody, you probably need to forgive somebody. Preach it, come on. When you're mad at everybody, you're not really mad at everybody. Hebrews called it a root of bitterness. I have no grace for anybody because I probably need to forgive somebody. See, your life is a cross. Jesus said, pick up your cross and follow me. That is not something you wear around your neck. I'm not saying you can't.

I'm just saying that's not what he was talking about. He wasn't talking about a piece of jewelry. And it's not even something that you wear over your shoulder. To carry your cross is to get on your cross. This is what your life should look like. There should be vertical faith, but that vertical faith must go horizontal. Most people want peace with God, but not reconciliation with people. They've got their own walk with God. But if that walk with God doesn't show up in relational health, you're deceived. That's strong language, but I'm gonna prove it to you in a second. Look at Matthew chapter six, verse 12. Here's the grid of prayer. Forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who've sinned against us. What is Jesus trying to teach us? He's trying to teach us that as you connect to God, it better show up in your life. It better show up in how you connect to people. I can't just have a walk with God. My walk with God can't end at God. It must manifest into how I treat others and love others and walk with others. I'm gonna show you one of the most absolutely toxic phrases in our culture.

And it's all over your social media and it's all over for the boomers. It's all over your Facebook. And for the young kids, it's all over your TikTok and all over your Snapchat, but it's everywhere you look. And here it is, only God can judge me. That's the heart cry of an isolated person. And an isolated person is in danger. Imagine you go to court and you look at that judge and go, only God can judge me. See, it's not Jabin and Jesus against the world. That's not, that is isolation. That's deception. Let's go further. It's getting quiet in here, but I feel comfortable. The air conditioning is working. First John chapter four, verse 20. If someone says, I love God, but hates a fellow believer, that person's a liar. I didn't say it, I didn't say it. Watch, watch, watch. Here's what we hear all over social media. You know, I love Jesus, but I hate the church. You don't love Jesus. You know, people don't have a problem with Jesus. They have a problem with Christians. It's not true, they killed Jesus. You know, Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world.

Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people will die this year. because of the faith, not because those people hate Christians, they hate Christ. And because they hate Christ, they hate the Christ in the Christian. You know, people don't have a problem with Jesus, they just have a problem with the church. Read the Bible. For three and a half years, people tried to kill Jesus. And then he finally said, all right, now's my time, I'll let you kill me. Just let that settle for a second. For if we don't love God, excuse me, if we don't love people who we can't see, how can we love God who we cannot see? And if he has given us this command, look at this, those who love God, verse 21, those who love God must also love their fellow. Now watch this, believers. Not just neighbor, not just person, other Christians. You know, I love Jesus, but I don't like Christians. But you are a Christian? Well, yeah, but I'm the exception. No, you're deceived. You're not the exception, you are deception. I can't hate you and say I love God. I can't say I've gone vertical, but I haven't gone horizontal.

I can't say I love the head of the church, but I hate the body of the church. I can't say that. Now, you're here, so relax. Some of you are like, oh my God. No, you're here, so I'm assuming. Amen? But what I am saying is when the grace is running low, when my faith feels hindered, I start asking myself, man, have I forgiven people? See, God cares so much about how you treat people that he's actually married it to your ability to connect with him. Watch this verse, 1 Peter chapter three, verse, I'm just giving you the Bible, it's just the Bible. Husbands, likewise, submit by living with your wife in ways that honor her, knowing that she is the weaker partner. By weaker partner, he's not talking about emotionally, mentally, spiritually, he's talking about physically. In other words, don't bully your wife. Don't physically lord over your wife. Now watch this, honor her all the more. All the ladies, I'll take an amen right there if you wanna give me an amen. As she is also a co-heir of the gracious care of life. In other words, she's just as much made in the image of God, loved by God, and a part of the kingdom of God as you are. She's equal. Do this, watch this, y'all, watch this,

because this is for husbands and wives. Do this so that your prayers won't be hindered. God goes, if you dishonor your wife, I won't listen to you, pray. And by the way, wives, if you dishonor your husband, God won't listen to you, pray. I can't dishonor the person God gave me and then think I'm gonna connect to the Lord. Now, God is so confident of his grace and his mercy and his work in your life that he can tell you, don't even pray to me, because here's what he knows. He knows that if you don't make it right with your spouse and if you don't live a life of honor with your spouse, you won't pray to him anyway. So he says, go fix it and then come back and talk to me. Jesus actually said that too in the book of Matthew. He said, if you go down to the altar to give an offering to the Lord and you remember you've got a problem with someone, he said, leave the gift, don't worry about it, forget that and go make it right and then come back. Because he knows that if there is relational hostility that is undealt with, it will eventually ruin your faith anyway. Yeah. So I've gotta forgive, I've gotta stay honoring, I've gotta keep open hands, open heart, forward focus. Because forgiving does not change my past, it changes my future. Forgiveness does not justify what the person did

to you or to me. Forgiveness takes their authority away from them to impact your story. When I forgive you, I take the pen out of your hand and I take the authority away from you writing my story and I write my own story. Now when I first forgive, I feel out of control because I want justice. Oh, can I get an honest saint in the house? Somebody say amen. So when you forgive, you let go and you feel out of control. Yeah. But in doing so, you're actually taking back control of your life. My God, forgive. It's not worth it. Have I forgiven? Maybe my faith is hindered today. Maybe your walk with the Lord, your connection to God is hindered today. because there is not forgiveness flowing in your life. Who do you need to forgive? Let me just ask, who do you need to forgive? How do I know who I need to forgive? You're thinking about them right now. Come on, somebody. The moment I say it, they're just right here. They're like, hey, how are you? And you might have to forgive people in your life. You might have to forgive people

who are already out of your life. You may have to forgive people who have died. But the Holy Spirit will give you the grace and the power, if you're willing, to forgive. Forgive. Anything in my heart, for whatever reason, you look at somebody, think about somebody, and man, your joy leaves, and your peace leaves, and you go, I don't even really know why, but I just ask God. And just out loud, from your heart, pray to God and say, Lord, I forgive them. Whatever's going on in my heart towards them, I forgive them. Whatever's going on in my heart towards them, I forgive. And watch God bless that. If I forgive, and number two, am I under attack? Because we do believe in spiritual attacks. See, not everything is the devil, but at the same time, we don't deny that there is a devil. I think there's a part of the church that thinks everything is Satan. Right, everything's a demon. The devil made me do it. But then there's another part of the church that denies that Satan is even real. I think there should be a balance, and the balance is not everything's the devil, but some things can be the devil. You know, this is what Ephesians 6 talks about.

It says, put on the full armor of God, so that, watch this, when the day of evil comes, when the day of evil comes, not every day's the day of evil, not every day's a fight, not every day's spiritual warfare, not every day's a demonic thing, not every day's the devil's after me, but when, sometimes he does seem to find your address. Sometimes he's not in the Middle East messing things up. Come on, somebody. Sometimes he shows right up in Vegas. Hey, it's like, oh, hey, brother. When the day of evil comes, put on the full armor of God. I wanna show you, to me, maybe the best description of the Christian life, 1 Corinthians 16, nine. There is a wide open door for me to preach and teach. So much is happening. And there are many enemies. And that's happening at the same time. It isn't valley or mountain. It's actually, a lot of good's happening. A lot of people, man, a lot of opportunity. So much is happening, but I got enemies. And it's happening at the same time. It's not just enemies. It's not just the devil. It's not just, I'm under attack. It's not just, woe is me. It's not just, I'm the victim.

But it's also not, everything's perfect. I think a lot of you are waiting on perfect for peace, perfect to praise, perfect to pray, perfect to seek God, perfect to rejoin. You're never gonna get perfect. You're actually gonna have many opportunities, wide open doors, a lot is happening, and the devil is fighting me. And it's happening at the same time. And I actually have to get comfortable in that moment. Great opportunity, great opposition. Big doors, big devils. Much is happening, many enemies, and it's happening at the same time. For some of you, man, you've gotten saved, you're following Jesus, and you're going, man, I don't know what's going on, Pastor. Ever since I gave my life to Christ, I feel like the devil's after me. I feel like I'm under attack. I feel like so much has gone wrong ever since I gave my life to Jesus. What's up? Yeah, of course. Before you got saved, you were on the same team. Amen. You drifted. You just went with the world. You just went with the culture. You just went with temptation.

You just went with the devil. You never fought back on anything. You just went with whatever the enemy wanted to do. Now you're a counterculture. Now you're going upstream. Now you're going up against the enemy of your soul. Don't give up. The fight proves you have genuine faith. Amen. Come on, somebody shout amen in the house. Amen. Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. I want us to all say this verse, because this is one of those verses, I see some of you, you're new to church, you're new to faith. This is one of those verses you gotta memorize. Okay, this is one of the big ones. Romans 8, 37, everyone out loud. Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. That word more there is where we get hyper. The Greek word is hupo. It's where we get hyper. It's more, it's bigger, it's great. In other words, it's more than you need for the victory. Hallelujah. There's a big controversy right now. Was Conor McGregor already injured when he went into the?

Right, that's the big thing, was he already, you know, because he was taking off his shoes and he looked weird when he did it. So the question is, was he, did the other guy already have the advantage because he was already injured but they had to keep, the show had to go on? Let me just tell you something, the devil's already been defeated. You're walking into the octagon, but he's already injured. The Bible said that Jesus would crush his head. Come on, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet. Say amen, somebody. The fight is fixed. You already got, you're more than a conqueror. Not just a conqueror, more than a conqueror. Devil's already hurt, already blew his ACL or whatever happened to Connor. Hallelujah. See, Goliath was a conqueror. Maybe you've heard of this story, David and Goliath. Goliath was a conqueror, David was more than a conqueror. Because David had an advantage that Goliath didn't have. I'm going to show it to you. This is 1 Samuel, chapter 17, verse 26. David says that, this is a crazy language, y'all. Everybody cover your kid's ears right now and send them to kid's church right now. Listen, who is this? Philistine, I can't say it, too holy, too pure.

Why is David talking about Goliath's private parts? Because circumcision was a sign of the covenant. Here's what David is saying. He's saying, we have a covenant and he don't got a covenant. And if we got a covenant with God, we have the advantage. He's bigger than me, but I have a covenant. He's taller than me, but I got a covenant. He's a warrior, I'm a shepherd, but I got a covenant. He's a man of war, I'm a teenager, but I got a covenant. He's more gifted than me, but I got a covenant. He's more talented than me, but I got a covenant. He's better looking than me, but I got a covenant. I don't come from the right family, but I got a covenant. I've been divorced, but I got a covenant. I'm fighting sickness in my body, but I got a covenant. I'm going through a hard season, but I got a covenant. And if I've got a covenant, I will win because I've got a covenant keeping God backing me up. Can I get about 50 people to stand up and shout and celebrate that Jesus cut a covenant with you? And because I have a covenant with God, I can make it past every Goliath because Goliath is bigger than me, but he ain't bigger than God. Hallelujah. I'm trying to preach nice in my linen shirt, but I'm preaching. I didn't want to get so aggressive. Hallelujah. I got a covenant with God.

And it's my covenant that gives me the advantage. It's my covenant that gives me the advantage over addiction and advantage over fear. It's my covenant that reminds me that I can make it through any valley and I can make it past any obstacle. I can make it through any valley and I can make it past any giant. It's my covenant with God. And David has to remind himself, I have what that giant doesn't have. I have a covenant with God. And God said in the book of Psalms, a covenant I will not break. I will not break it. And on the cross of Calvary, Jesus cut covenant with us. And we receive that covenant by faith. And now we walk in the covenant promise of God. Am I under attack? Remember the covenant. Am I under attack? Remember that God is with me. Am I under the attack? Remember I'm more than a conqueror. Remember that I have more than I need to get through this. Hallelujah. Number three, number three. Am I covered? Am I covered? And I'm gonna talk about two areas here.

I'm gonna talk about, am I covered by God? Am I covered by God's authority? Am I covered? And I kind of got on something at Nights of Refreshing a few weeks ago that I just wanna keep going because I talked about how the anointing flows down and it just got my spirit stirred and I wanna share a few things. But when I say, am I covered? Am I covered by God? Have I humbled myself under the covering of the Lord? Therefore, he says, God, oh, watch this. Excuse me, James chapter four, verse six. He gives more grace. Everybody say more grace. More grace. Remember we just read more than a conqueror? He gives us hyper grace, hupo grace, more grace than you need. It's so powerful. Not just enough grace, more grace. Therefore, he says, okay, in other words, how do I get more grace? God resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble. I just want you to see this. This is for Christians. New covenant, God will treat you either with grace or with resistance.

That's scary. And the key to that is humility. Why does God give grace to the humble? Because the prideful wouldn't accept it anyway. Humble. Grace is empowerment. Grace is ease. Grace is oil. Grace is favor. Grace is the smile of God on your life. Resistance is when God opposes you and stands up against you. It's when God removes his strength and says, go for it. Do your best. Resistance is when you have to do your best. Grace is when God does his best through you. Paul said it like this. He said, I work harder than any of the other apostles, yet not I, but the grace of God that works in me. In other words, there's this favor, there's this smile, there's this ease, there's this grace. And the key to grace is humility. Okay, let's go further now. Verse seven, therefore, okay, how do I receive it? Submit to God. Resist the devil. Do the opposite of what the devil wants and he will flee from you. In other words, he'll give up on you. You'll go, ah, no, I can't, I can't get him.

I'm done. Isn't that powerful? Okay, number three, draw near to God. Verse eight, draw near to God and he'll draw near to you. So I resist the devil. I stand in opposition of the devil and I draw near to God. And then here's what happens. God draws near to me. May have the keys come. Now, watch this, watch this. This language right here feels very heavy and I think it should feel heavy, but I want you to see how freeing this is. Because he's giving us an invitation. Cleanse your hands. What do you tell your kids when they get home from school? Wash your hands. Because you've been picking up stuff. Yeah. I got off 22 hours of travel to get home. I went straight to the shower. It's like, man, I've been in airplanes and airports and yuck, I just like, cleanse your hands. You picked up stuff you didn't even want. You touch stuff you didn't even wanna touch. You saw stuff you didn't wanna even see. You heard stuff you didn't even wanna hear. You open up your phone, some ridiculous video and you go, ah, man, I didn't want.

Cleanse your hands. Lord, wash my hands. This language comes straight from Psalm 24 that says, who can ascend the hill of the Lord? Those with clean hands and a pure heart. Who do not lift up their soul to another idol. Now watch this, and purify your heart. Lord, stuff's gotten in me. How do I know stuff's gotten in my heart? I'm double-minded. How do I know I have not cleansed my hands? I keep sinning. I'm not talking about you sin, we all sin. I'm talking about you are in a lifestyle of sin because you have not chosen to clean your hands and purify your heart. And now you're bound to ascend. See, I sin, but I don't willfully sin. There's a difference. I do it, and when I do it, I repent. But I don't, I don't, I don't just, I don't oops my way into a strip club. I don't oops my way into gambling away our life savings. I don't oops my way into smacking my wife. Well, I don't do that kind of stuff. I don't, I'm serious. I'm just letting you know, because some of you are like, hey, we're all sinners. No, no, no, wait a minute. Put the scripture back up.

Relax, I'm not in a hurry. I keep my hands clean. If I'll keep my hands clean and I'll keep my heart pure, I won't do those things. Because those things are probably a hundred steps away from where I am right now. But if I drift, you end up in places you never thought you'd end up. I'm not judging you. I'm telling you there's a way back. Clean your hands. Repent to God. The old preachers would say, make a short account with God. In other words, when something happens, don't push it off for weeks and months. No, no, go right back to God. God, purify my heart. Stay under the authority of God. And to stay under God's authority, meaning God's delegated authority. Now I wanna talk about you needing a pastor real quick. So let me say a phrase real quick. I don't need an amen, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Every Christian. needs a pastor. And you are looking at a pastor who has a pastor. I have a spiritual father, his name is Jensen Franklin. He's my father in the gospel. I preach like him, I think like him,

I minister like him, I worship like him. I'm starting to get his hair. I don't know what I'm doing with my hair right now, but it just kind of, I don't know. It's just, I'm growing it out. I don't know, I don't need any compliments, but if you want to give me one outside, I'll take it because I'm insecure about it. He's my spiritual father. I have a daddy in the gospel. He birthed me, he birthed this ministry. And I have a pastor, his name is Jacob Aranza. Jacob is my four calls a week man of God. I'd do nothing without him. He's 70 years old, he's been in the ministry for 50 years. And he's a pastor to pastors, that's what he does with his life. He pastors, pastors, and he's my pastor. And when he tells me to do something, I don't say, I'll pray about it, I do it. Now, here's why I'm saying that, not to be self-serving, because I want you to know that I obey this scripture in Hebrews 13, 17, obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say. I obey that. I'm not asking you to do that for me. And by the way, I've actually tried that verse in the early days of the church. It was, my ministry was death by coffee because it was coffee after coffee,

after coffee, after coffee with men in our church. And I would give them wisdom and I'd give them insight and I'd tell them what I think they should do. And then they would, they would go, I'll pray about it. And then they would do the opposite, so I gave up. So if you wonder why I don't take meetings, I'm done. That's why, I need to forgive, amen. Come on somebody, how many know pastor, I need to forgive some men in my life. Amen. So funny. Okay, so I'm kind of burnt out on this scripture, but I still obey this scripture with my pastor. Now see, I think when you see this kind of verse, there's two extremes. There's the Orthodox and the Catholic church who everything goes through the church. You get married in the church, buried in the church, baptized in the church, communion in the church, divorced in the church, everything has to go through the church. And I think that's too extreme. But there's the other side, which is kind of the West Coast American Christianity, charismatic Christianity of, you know, not the church. I am the church, right? I am the body of Christ. I don't need a pastor. I have all the spiritual gifts. I am, right?

I mean, you know what I'm talking about out there? That guy made him laugh for the first time. I've been working for you, brother. I've been working to get you to laugh. Okay, I got you finally, right? And it's just like, I am the body. Well, I think that's whack too. I think there's a balance. Yeah, I mean, we have people, it's crazy. We have people who come Saturday night to get fed and then they go to their church on Sunday. Say what? I'm like, homie, just go all, if we're feeding you, if this is your house, jump on in. And then Monday, they listen to Phillip Anthony Mitchell and then Tuesday, they listen to Furtick and then Wednesday, they listen to this guy and then Thursday, they listen to this and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And they're just spiritually amassed because I just think you need a house. Someone who'll marry you, bury you, help you, pray for you, go to the hospital. I was talking to some kids today about a friend and the hospital, I said, we're gonna go this week. We're gonna lay hands this week. We're gonna, okay, I got you, buddy. He's excited for his friend. What was I, because it's your church. Does that make sense?

Okay, obey your spiritual leaders. Their work is to watch over your souls. They are accountable to God. Give them a reason to do this with joy and not sorrow. That would certainly not be to your benefit. So I just think everybody needs a church. And here's what I know from my pastor. You don't get what you're around. You get what you are under. You don't get what you're around. You get what you are under. Get what you're under. So here's how to receive from a church. Very simple. You pray for your church. That's how you receive from your church. Serve, give, attend, all that's important. All that's great. I hope everybody does that. But let me tell you how to receive from a house. You pray. Because prayer releases that grace and that oil. If you started praying for me every day, you would walk in every Sunday and you would leave going, I don't know what happened to Jabin. He's the most anointing man of God I've ever heard in my life. And I didn't change. You just started praying. You started praying for this ministry.

Every time the worship would worship, you'd leave and go, oh my God, I don't know what JR's on. I don't know, he must be on a 40-day fast. My God, it's so anointed. What is that? No, no, no, he's not on a fast. It's just you start praying. I don't know what's up with our kids' ministry. My God, my kid's receiving so much. Oh my God, this is the greatest kid's ministry. It didn't get any better. You just started praying and a grace was released. Think about, there's a man in the Bible, we were talking about David earlier, David and Goliath. David had to deal with another giant and it was his king named Saul. Saul wanted to kill him. Saul tried to kill him on many occasions and David wouldn't fight back. What was the key to David not needing to fight back against Saul? Well, we know in 1 Samuel 23, 26 and Psalm 57 that David prayed for Saul. And when David had the opportunity to kill Saul, David said, I won't touch him. That's between him and God. God's gonna have to go deal with him. Look what he said, don't kill him. Who can remain innocent after attacking the Lord?

How could David call a demon-possessed man the Lord's anointed? That's crazy. Now, David stayed away from him. David ran from him. You don't stay under broken demonic covering, amen. But at the same time, he goes, I won't touch him. I'll pray for him. See, an umbrella does not restrict you. It protects you from what you cannot stop. Let that sink in. We're not controlling, we're not restricting. But we can be a covering for you to help protect you through seasons that you cannot stop. That's all we wanna do. We just wanna be an umbrella. And if this is home, let's go, turn up. And by the way, and I didn't ask for this. You know, it's been kind of heartbreaking for me going out to lobby and heartbreaking for me going out to lobby because people, just lines of people, you're my pastor. Pastor, you're my pastor. I just wanna say, oh God, thank you. You know, I didn't, I'm not, I'm not. That wasn't the point of this, amen. The point of this whole ending is to just say, if my faith is feeling, am I undercover? Am I undercover? Am I staying under the hand of God

and the covering of God and the protection of God, the wisdom of God? It's just something I process. I tell my wife this week, I'm in New Zealand, we're on the phone and we had to, we were talking about a situation. I go, I gotta call Jacob. I gotta get off, I gotta call, I gotta call. And I called him. I said, here's what's going on, help me. This is how I, this is how I live. And it's powerful and it keeps me covered. And it keeps us as a house covered and it keeps this ministry covered. It's powerful, amen. I feel the anointing today. I feel God's grace. And if your faith feels hindered today, I just, I've come to help you. Run your life through this little test, these little three questions. Have I, do I need to forgive somebody? Am I, maybe I'm under a spiritual attack today. Maybe I need to, maybe I need to get back under the covering of God, whatever it is. God'll help you. I declare that you will pass the test. Hallelujah, you will pass the test. You won't fail the test, you'll pass the test. Jesus name.