It's Time to Start Moving Again | Seth Bumpus | Purpose House Church

I'm Jason McInnis, the pastor here at Purpose House Church. I want to thank you for joining our broadcast on the Pando app. We love you and we're praying for you. Amen, amen, amen. Can you guys hear me in the house today? Amen. Let me get my notes up here. Praise God. On behalf of Pastor Jason and Pastor Melissa McInnis, I want to welcome you to Purpose House Church. How many of you guys feel the spirit in here today? Amen. He is good and he is faithful. It's an honor to be able to speak to you all today. And today I want to start off by saying something. I can very much signify the weight and the call of God on his people. You know, when I pray for my sons, one in particular, Brogan, I talk about the glory of God and how God comes and his glory is in us and upon us. And there's the weightiness of God. It's the Kabod glory is what they call it. And I would put my hands on their shoulders and I said, there's actually a good heaviness that we can have. Not a spirit of heaviness, but a heaviness of the call of God on our lives. And I want to tell you that I might come in

a little bit heavy today, but this message is a message of redemption, a message of reconciliation. And Pastor Michael's word was absolute confirmation of what I believe the Lord is speaking to his people today. All I want to be is a faithful conduit. Here was my prayer coming up here. Holy Spirit, I believe in you. Holy Spirit, you were real. Holy Spirit flow through your servant. That's all I want. And so today, as we begin to buckle up and begin to move, in fact, one of the things that's harder for me to do is get the heading of the message. I really don't do that kind of stuff, but from pastor's message that he's been having his series of move, the title of my message is it's time to start to move again. And some of us have been faced with some major roadblocks. Some of us have been faced with some major disappointments in our lives. But the thing that I wanna do is merge word and spirit. And I wanna merge faith even through trials, faith even through suffering. We don't like talking about that in the Western church. Faith through uncertainty, faith through unmet expectations. That is some of the biggest roadblocks

that we have come up against. And before I even get into the message today, pastor said it last Sunday and my good buddy Logan Wilburn reminded me, the most powerful message we could ever preach is our testimony. Is it okay if I share a little bit of my testimony with you today? I want to encourage the body of Christ. We are in the last days. And in this last days, the Lord says, I'm coming back for a bride, a spotless bride. I'm coming back. He died as a lamb, but he's coming back as the line of the tribe of Judah. He is coming in victory. Friends, we won and we fight from victory in Jesus. The reason why I wanna set this up is because a message like this can come in heavy. I'm not coming against anything of the Lord. I want to reaffirm and reestablish that even when things don't go our way, you stay in total faith, not in a thought, not in a feeling, but in Jesus. Faith that won't be rocked by circumstances, faith that won't be rocked by circumstances. One of the biggest things, and listen, whenever I got this message, I realized I bit off more than I could chew.

I'm gonna tell you that right now. I told Brandy, today's gonna be like taking 20 pounds of flour, putting it in a 10 pound bag. Jesus. Because there is a division that sometimes takes place when things don't go our way. When we have received a word from the Lord and we have bought in and we have said yes, and we thought it was gonna be a certain way, but as time played out, it wasn't at all what we thought. It wasn't at all what we had envisioned was gonna happen. And what happens, and what happens to me, and maybe you're here too, we begin to walk in disillusionment. And so I feel that the spirit of God wants to break down walls like the walls of Jericho, that it's time to burst something new, and it's time to walk out of pain and into purpose. Why are we here? I'm setting this up. Why are we here? here, the Lord wants to strengthen his body. The most beautiful realization that I want us to have is this, what you do and what you say and who you are matters to the body of Christ. I'm here to tell you for too long, we've been armchair quarterbacking and pointing to the church and just the church is this, the church is that, the church is missing. You know what?

How about we get up and we be the difference? How about we get up and begin to move in the giftings and the callings that God has called us to because we can sit on the sidelines all day long, but I'm telling you, the Lord is in formation mode. The Spirit of God is calling and drawing you. You know what? Yes, we can blame the enemy. Yes, we can blame the devil. He has a part to play, but sometimes the biggest obstacle is you. Let's look at ourselves. Let's look at ourselves and say, God, what is it that is holding me back from being all in? What is it that's holding me back from really engaging in what you've called me to? A life of purpose, not of video games, not of alcohol, not of drugs, not of sex. Oh yeah, that feels good. It will never satisfy. It will never satisfy. I haven't got to my message and I've got a long time to preach, praise God. Disillusionment is this. I'm gonna kind of condense this. It was really wordy, but basically it's this. Disillusionment is what happens when your experience, my experience with God, does not meet your expectations of God. It did not play out the way that I thought that it would.

I thought if I only thought and had enough faith that this would happen, okay? Y'all tracking with me? A lot of this is about facing trials. No one wants to talk about this. Suffering, no one wants to talk about that, especially in the Western church, and unmet expectations. I'm here to tell you what drives me in a fire that's up in my crawl is that we could bring word and spirit together. We don't pin them against one another, but we would not be a people that despise the word or despise the spirit, but we would learn to move and walk in the spirit. And I'm here to tell you, pastors' messages have been amazing about calling people out into the gifts, into what God has called them to. It's essential. It's not everything, but it's part of what God has for his people. And that calls us to action. And action is where we get nervous. You think I was a little nervous coming up here today? Just a smidge. But the reality is it's not about me. It's about the word of the Lord. When I came to Jesus, I accepted Jesus Christ in my heart when I was younger. I'm gonna try to keep this brief.

And I knew of Jesus, but never really followed him. But my real encounter with Jesus happened when I was at a high school, 18 or 19 years old. And we went to a service. My dad, Gene Bumpus is back there. Gene, raise your hand. That's my dad right there. An amazing man of God. My sister, Sarah. Amazing, amazing man of God. He had a dream about a church we're supposed to go to. And I was not anywhere near understanding how God speaks to people. And dad says, hey, I think we need to go to this church. Why don't you come check it out with me? I said, okay. My main goal was to see if there's any free ladies around there. And here's the most funny part. At that church, I found the most beautiful lady right down here, my beautiful wife, Lindsay. It's amazing. My mom and dad had radically encountered God when I was around five years old. I won't share his testimony, it's powerful. But him and my mom encountered the Holy Spirit. Essentially, we're told to leave the Baptist church. I love my Baptist brothers. Keep on preaching the word, keep on.

I love you guys, but there's more. The Holy Spirit has not ceased. I'll fight you tooth and nail on it. No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. He's still moving today. And so mom and dad had encounters. So they knew about the things of the Lord. And so I had a football injury. I played football and I'm a wee little guy, but I enjoyed it. And I had a lot of fun, played for Mount Vernon High School. And I had a neck injury. And the reason why I'm telling you this is because one of my first encounters with God, where I knew God had touched me, as an adult was right here at this moment. A man had a word of knowledge from the stage. And he said, hey, if there's someone here that has a hurt neck, I feel like God is really wanting to heal that right now. He stopped the whole service. And I didn't, I was like, nah, not me. And then he went on and he stopped it again. And then he said, hey, this is a young man. And my dad's like, I think, you know, I'm like, nah. And then he stopped a third time. And so by that time I'm like. Well, he's not gonna stop until I walk up there. And so I walked up and listen, I had zero grid for this. Very embarrassing, I'll just tell you how I felt.

I was like, this is really weird coming to the front of the church. But he had a word of knowledge and he prayed for me. I used to not be able to, even back in high school, sleep real well because I had stingers, I had nerve damage, I had a lot of issues with my neck. And after he prayed for me, I can't explain this to you, but my neck got like 80% better, 70 to 80% better. I used to drive, my arms would go numb. They quit going numb all the time. And I had breakthrough, I could sleep at night. And so that was my first encounter. What I'm trying to say is it was a supernatural encounter. And just as when you begin walking with the Lord, it seems like he begins to show himself so real and you're on this upward trajectory. You're like, man, God's awesome. He's real, I've given my life. And now I'm encountering him in supernatural ways. Like he's not dead, he's alive. And his word works today just as more powerful or as powerful as it did back then. And he still does miracles. And I'm beginning to have this upward trajectory. And I'm like, man, God is good. It was like everything I prayed was happening. My family getting saved, my cousin getting saved. I just shared my testimony, what God was doing to my cousin.

And we go out to my car and I begin to put on worship music and God encounters him right there. I'm like, is it this easy? Like, is this all you have to do? And God began to show himself. And I was like, man, God, the supernatural stuff's awesome. I've sat in a lot of messages, but I haven't ever experienced it. But what I didn't realize at that time is that I was almost beginning to despise the word and begin to elevate the signs, wonders and miracles. So I don't have time to go through all of it, but upward trajectory. And then I went through a season of my life where it stalled. And then we had me and my wife, Lindsay, we had a moment where we were getting ready to have our son Landon. And this is when everything changed because it's a joyous time. So we get to have our son Landon and in our sphere of friends at the place where we were at, we began to have a lot of division. A lot of things began to come, a lot of hurts, a lot of pains that kind of set up for a season of what I would call testing for myself and a type of suffering.

Now, when I talk about this type of suffering, I don't want you to look at it as that God had done this. Jesus Christ comes to heal, save and deliver, right? And he comes to give us a life, a life more abundantly. Satan is the one who comes to steal, kill and destroy. So you hear that coming from my mouth? But if we don't learn how to follow God in suffering, we're not gonna make it. There are seeds that are planted that never will grow in you if you do not allow the process of the Holy Spirit to take you through things you don't understand. You have to walk through those things. We abort mission, we miss the birthing room. When we abort, because it wasn't what I thought and I don't feel good. I'm doing the call of God. And can I be frank with you? It sucks. My life is terrible. Lord, where are you? We're gonna get to this point. So then we have this time where my son is born and immediately it's in 2012 and there's a huge hurricane in October. It was Hurricane Sandy. I'm a lineman, I work on power lines. I shared that last time. But I get sent off for over almost like a month,

like 21 days. I get sent off to go work on this hurricane. My wife is the most strongest, most amazing woman I've ever met. If you have ever had your first born kid, you number one, don't know what you're in for. It's amazing. You're not gonna sleep most of the time. And she was by herself. Here I am away working. So without going into the boohoo mode, it was very tough, strenuous on our relationship. So then I'm gone, I get back, my own son doesn't even know me. I feel like he thinks a family member is his dad. That's kind of hurtful, right? Because you're not there during your son's first part of his life there, super important, right? And so then not only does that happen, but as soon as I get back, I get shipped off away from the house and I'm gone all during the week working five hours from the house. Can't come home, can't be a part of what I wanna be a part of. To boot on that, I come into the greatest persecution that I had ever had with a person in my life. This person was treating me like I was the devil. Whenever I came, I did nothing to this person. person, I could not understand why he had such hatred

towards me, but he even threw bolts at me at work. Like it was to a degree, like I was like, this man is possessed, like this is uncalled for. And so I have tension at home, I have longings at home, we have friendships severed, I have confusion, and what do I start doing? I start hitting my knees praying, you should pray, right? But here's what happened, as I began to pray, here was my prayer, God, get me out of this. Would you pray that? Huh? Well, of course you would. Lord, get me out of this, and just like before, in that prior season, it seemed like everything I prayed happened, but you know what happened? Nothing changed, nothing changed. And I began to pray, and began to pray, and my situations, guess what? It got worse. On that job with that particular gentleman, I had an accident on my job, and I came into contact with 7,200 volts, and was sent to the hospital, and I lived. I know God's got a plan for me, no doubt about it. I still got little jerks here and there. I'm not trying to outdo anybody. We all go through different levels of suffering, okay? I'm just telling you my story. And so, I'm at a very low place, and the Holy Spirit, when I have prayed,

I'm crying out, I said, Father, I don't understand this. I don't understand why you've taken me away, I don't understand all this kind of stuff, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I need you to get me out of this. And the Holy Spirit, ever so amazingly, said, Seth, it's not about you getting out of the situation, it's about walking through it with me. And I had no context for that. And I'm not here to come and slam any kind of thought process, but I do wanna challenge it. A lot of times in a charismatic movement, we only wanna hear the good stuff. And I've heard it said, if it's not good, it's not God, and I understand what they're saying. And I believe that there's always a redemptive purpose. You hear what I'm saying? I'm not coming against the things of God, but we have very little context of when things don't go our way, when the breakthrough doesn't come in the timing and the fashion and the way that we thought, and when the freedom from suffering may not be in our timeline. Because I'm here to tell you, Philippians 3 has changed my life. Because he says, I wanna know Christ, know him as life, death, and his resurrection. And listen to this, and I talked on this last time,

listen, and even in his sufferings. And that's konaniah fellowship. That's what we want with the Lord and the Holy Spirit, that konaniah, that closeness. But he's saying, there's a place in me. There are seeds to be planted and brought to life that can only be harvested in that place. Okay? I pray that we get a grid and not oppose faith and suffering, but we learn that God is going to redeem us even in the middle of our suffering. Amen? Amen. All right. Well, this has not gone anywhere like I thought it was going to, and that's okay. Stepping out of delusionment, words that never seem to come to pass unmet expectations, putting too much stock in people and a person instead of Jesus. We must watch out for this, okay? It's okay to have your favorite TV preachers and those that we look to, but none can take the place of King Jesus. And I want to tell you something too. I want to challenge you because COVID really changed things up. I want to encourage you to be a part of a local body, just like you are here.

If you're listening, I want to challenge you because you can't get everything from the front room of your house. It can only be caught and taught in the fellowship of the believers. Amen? Amen. We have unmet expectations. We have these things in our life, we've been discouraged by trying to get through it. We've been discouraged by putting too much stock in people and a person instead of Jesus. And a big thing is we've got to let go of previous moves of God and not holding him hostages to those moves. I just want to resonate what pastor's been talking about, we can hold God hostage because he's not moving the way that he did before. I've also walked through this. There was a season where it was on Saturday nights. We'd walk into the prayer room at New Life Church of God and we'd pray for three hours, the Holy Spirit would show up, can't explain it to you. All we would do is show up and we would have amazing time in prayer. It seemed like it was an hour and we look up, it's like three hours. I can't explain it to you. Some of us can't pray for 10 or 15 minutes. I couldn't, I fell asleep.

But God was birthing something in that season, in that time. And I long for that. Time, again, maybe you can put your own story and that's what I want you to do, where you're at and you're longing for that time and you come here, it doesn't look the same, it doesn't feel the same, the people aren't the same. That's by design, it's by design. We can't stay in that place forever. It was a stepping stone, it was a place to elevate and to bring us up into a higher maturity in the Lord. Whenever I came here, I'm telling you, I'm telling on myself, I won't tell myself. I thought the bigger the church, the more shallow it was. That's just how I thought, terrible, terrible mindset. I came here guarded. Looking around, it didn't take too long for me to realize and be humbled that that's not the case at all. And sometimes we look down on bigger numbers, that's where I was, that's not the case at all. God is moving in deep, deep, powerful ways here. So there's my first step coming out of delusion and the Lord had to walk me through a process. And then here was the biggest one that I had to walk through. We came here on a Sunday, I believe it was a Sunday or maybe it was a prayer night, I can't remember, Sunday or Sunday night. You guys have seen the picture, remember whenever a pastor put it up on the wall and it was of the United States

and there was a wheel inside the wheel and then they were shooting off. And as soon as I saw that, I about got PTSD. I had come from a season from where I was previously. And when I say this, I understand it's recorded. I mean, no ill about this, okay? There were words that were given. I'm gonna be very, very intimate to me and to this house that when they were given, I was convinced hook, line and sinker, this is what God's gonna do in this place. I forsook a lot of things because I was going after that. And if you believe it's the word of the Lord, aren't you gonna go after it? Hello? Yes, of course you are. And I gave years and years. And what I thought were some of the best years because I'm approaching 40, things are starting to hurt a little bit, things are changing a little bit. Jason Whitaker is getting me a line, thank you brother. Jason and Bob, you guys are amazing. He's helped me out, still with my neck. And I was in a place of disillusionment. I said, Father, you gave this word, where is it? What happened here? What happened? And without going into the word, whenever I saw that, it was a very similar word.

Not exactly, it was a similar word. And so here's what I said. I said, Father, I can't do this again. I can't be let down again. I can't, I'm hurt right now. I gave everything and it feels like it was wasted. It wasn't. But I'm telling you, I felt that way. And I could not get with, so to speak, the program. I could not get with what God was doing because I was holding back, because I was in disillusionment, because God didn't perform the word the way that I thought he should have in the season and time I thought he should have. I'm getting passionate about this because some of us are locked up. We are holding back because of what did not happen. I'm here to tell you, you can question why your whole life. There's a lot of whys that happen in unmet expectations, a lot of whys that happen in suffering, but listen to me, it's not the end. It was not wasted. Your time there was not wasted. And it took my sister, Lee, a phone call to her because I was struggling big time. And the spirit of Lord spoke through her and she says, I don't think it happened the way that you thought it was gonna happen and that's okay.

But she says, I believe that the spirit of God is saying that your best days are ahead of you. And that that was just a place of growth and change. And you know what? I understand if you're in the prophetic and you're in the prophetic words, I understand we must partner with the promises of God. We must partner with those words. There are some things that God says, I'm here to tell you, you can't change. Is he coming back? You can't change it. You can't change what he's written. It's gonna happen, but we still, even though he's a sovereign God, we partner with him and we work with him. And that's what I was not realizing as he was taking me into places and putting things in me, I could not get anywhere else. The word still works. The word was not void, it was from the Lord. It just didn't come to fruition the way that I thought that it would. I hope I'm not going too high here on these things, but I pray, I pray that we would not hold God hostage in those areas in our life. I'm gonna talk about a few people who face delusion. I wanna look at man Job. Job, the book of Job used to really bother me, right? Because in the word of faith and in this faith camp,

we believe that God always heals. Does he heal? Yes. Did he take stripes on his back for our healing? Yes. Did pastor preach the word about the gifts of God and the gifts of healing? Yes. What I found out is that sometimes it's not automatic. Sometimes we walk through it with the spirit of God. And sometimes you need to get some inner healing. Sometimes the demon needs to come out and sometimes you just need straight up discipleship. Huh? Come on now. Come on. Job, he was a blameless man. He was wealthy, powerful and respected in his region. In Job one, I'm gonna kind of skim through here. It says that there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. I'd say this is a pretty outstanding man, wouldn't you? There were born to him seven sons and three daughters and he possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500 female donkeys and many servants. He was blessed. He had abundance. He was wealthy. And so this man was the greatest

of all the people in the East. Job was known in his region. He was one of the greatest in the East. They recognized him. He was a man of wisdom and of counsel and they recognized that he was blessed by the Lord. And you guys know how the story goes. Satan came before the Lord twice. Listen, I cannot, this is where I bit off more than I could chew here. I cannot explain to you exactly how this all worked but I'm gonna read the word of God to you. It says that Satan came before the Lord. Where you been to and fro on the earth? And then the Lord poses a question. This still bothers me but I gotta wrestle with it. Have you considered my servant Job? Whoa. Have you considered my servant Job? And then he says, nah, the only reason he serves you is because you bless him, because your hand's upon him. That's the only reason. But you take that away, he's gonna curse you. He says, okay, all right, let's see what happens. And so Job goes through loss of his property and he goes through loss of his children. The second time Satan comes and he says, where you been, Satan? This is what Jesus says, walking to and fro. He says, have you considered my servant Job?

He comes twice and he says, yes, he says, but the only reason that he serves you is because he's wealthy. And he said, okay, you can do whatever you need to do to him but you can't take his life. And then Job's health is taken from him. Am I telling you the word of God? We have a righteous man who loves God. I understand we're in the Old Testament, I get that. Just bear with me, bear with me here. This is the word of the Lord. He is experiencing immense suffering. Was it at the hands of the Lord or of the enemy? Who? We need to get this right. Who? It was the enemy. Nothing under the sun that happens the Lord does not see. But the Lord was not behind this. It was the enemy coming and taking out Job. Can we keep that in the forefront? That even in our suffering, even in these things, God is still with us. I don't understand how it all went down or why it all went down, still wrestling with that, but it's the word. And here's what happened. Job became disillusioned. It's easy for me to get up here as a younger, healthier man and I feel good, I feel great

and proclaim the word of the Lord. It's another thing when you're going through the biggest hell battle of your life. It's another thing when life is hitting you smack dab in the face as Rocky would say, and you're trying to get back up, it keeps smacking you down, smacking you down. And your wealth is not where you want it to be. Your health is not where you want it to be. And then to add insult to shame, his three friends, which I'm here to tell you, I don't think they were very good friends at all. Zero, not a good friends at all. Their names were Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. I'm kind of skimming through here. Add insult to injury, he's sitting with sores with a piece of clay pottery that was shattered, breaking open the sores just to get some relief, lost everything and here he is. And his buddies sit with him for seven days, no one says a word, that's a good thing. Sometimes you just need to sit with people when they're hurt and pain. And then they begin to speak. Listen, I'm going through this because I don't have time to go through all of it. My time is shortening up very much. They begin to tell Jesus. Job, you are in the wrong. The only reason this is happening to you

is because you have sinned. Was that true? Was it true? No, it wasn't true. And so Job began to come into a place, yes, of suffering, unmet expectations. It was a place of delusionment. And he began to question. Can I tell you something right here? It's okay to have questions for God. He's Lord. We come, he is Lord, but even David came. And he said, Lord, where are you? What is happening? My enemies are surrounding me. What's going on? It's okay to have those things. I don't believe that's doubt. I believe it's okay that we're human than when we wrestle through these things, right? Because it's not always served to us on a platter. And so then we have these friends that are coming against him. You're wrong. And they begin to come down on him. So he's lost everything physically and with his wealth and now mentally and physically. Are you feeling the weight and pressure? It's kind of heavy. I don't like it.

I don't like how it played out. And yet Jesus or God is right in the middle of this. And it said that after all that Job had been through, I want you to, if you want to go back through and read that. He never cursed God, but realized that God's ways are too high and too wonderful for him. He did not understand them and he had to repent. And so Job is in this place of disillusionment. And then after about 40 chapters, then the Lord shows up in a whirlwind and he begins to speak. The very word from God that you thought forsook you is gonna be the very word from God that's gonna bring redemption to your life. It's the same source. It's the Lord. And so then he comes and then he begins to tell Job. He said, hey, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? And where were you when it was determined the measurements and where it was laid? And it goes through the whole discourse of Job. Where were you? You know, we put demands on the Lord and things that we may never understand and never know. You know what I call that? The mystery and the Lord. And there are things that we may never have answered. Job never knew according to scripture

what had happened when Satan came and asked. He never knew that, but he never cursed God. And the word of the Lord came after that suffering and he reestablished Job. And it says that Job was blessed twice as much as he was before and he was restored. And that's the part we like because that's the promise of God. It's the timing that we have issue with. Are y'all with me? Let's look at another man, Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a weeping prophet. When I read his story, my heart sinks. I don't know about you, but when you're younger, you have aspirations of great things. I thought I was gonna be an MLB baseball player. Not even close. But I had dreams and aspirations. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do big things. And then when we become saved and we accept Jesus, we have big aspirations. God's gonna use me in big, big ways. When I read this story and I look at the call of God on Jeremiah's life, it can almost be perplexing because it was a glorious call because it said that he was called before he was formed and before he was born. He was made for this. Friends, I wanna tell you something.

The Lord saw you before you were formed and born and he knew you and he's called you to this place and this time and season, not by accident, but for purpose. And I'm not playing a cliche on our name, although I love the name of this house. I'm talking real, your purpose. Amen? Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. Jeremiah was called by God as a prophet before he was formed and God knew him. And listen, he consecrated him. What does that mean? He set him apart for this very purpose. That's what he said. To call out idolatry and idol worship. During that time, just a brief little history here, Israel, Jerusalem proper had split. They had the Northern kingdom and then they had the Southern kingdom, which was Judah, Northern kingdom, Israel. By this time, the Northern kingdom, part of Israel had already been sieged and taken over by Assyria many, many years before. And so here comes Jeremiah in Judah in the Southern part of the kingdom and he begins to proclaim the same thing. If you do not change, if you do not repent, if you do not get this mixture of idol worship out of here, you're gonna be exiled. That was his message.

He began to say many, many things to the people about their... dedication to the things that were not of the Lord. And there was a mixture of worship between Yahweh and the false gods. Friends, I'm here to tell you, we are living in that day right now. Different day, same demons. Same idol worship. So once we get past ourself, then we get into real worship of Yahweh. And Jeremiah knew the word of the Lord, and he began to speak the word of the Lord. And here's what is amazing to me, is that the Lord said this. In Jeremiah chapter one, 16 through 19, he said, and I will declare my judgments against them, for all their evil is forsaken me. They have made offerings to other gods and worship the works of their own hands. But you, Jeremiah, but you, dress yourself for work. Arise and say to them everything that I have commanded you. Listen to the words of the Lord. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar and bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. Wow, what is he saying?

They're not gonna listen. But I've called you anyway. Who wants to teach a bunch of kids and get called by God to do that, and then they say they're not gonna listen? I don't know if you've ever been in a classroom like that. That's terrible. You're gonna listen. You're gonna be quiet, blah, blah, blah, right? This is the call of God. Is it the call of God? Yes, it's a glorious call. But he says, I'm calling you for this purpose right here, that you must proclaim my word, that if these people do not change and repent, disaster is coming. I know it's heavy. It's gonna get better, amen? Come on, Jesus. There was a mixture of worship between Yahweh and other idol worship, even child sacrifice. The coming exile of Judah by Babylon was what he was speaking, because Israel had already been taken captive by Assyria 136 years prior, just kind of a little note there. And he preached for Israel to repent and turn back to God. Can you imagine what Jeremiah faced? He faced opposition at every side. The priests that were in the temple in Judah beat him and shackled him for the words that he gave.

All he was doing was being obedient. You think Jeremiah's a little disillusioned? I think he was. In fact, scripture says this. Here's Jeremiah's delusion right here. Jeremiah 20, seven through nine, it says, oh Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived. You are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day, for everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout violence and destruction. For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. Can you hear the cry of Jeremiah? Can you hear the disillusionment of where he's at? But listen to what is said past this. But if I say I will not mention him or speak any more in his name, he was tempted to let go. Listen to what it says. There in my heart, as it were, a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I can not. Friends, I know it's heavy, but the message of the Lord is true, and the message of the Lord, this message right here, came to pass in fruition. Jeremiah gave his life for this. He was called by God. He said, I can't do anything else

but what you've called me to. He cried out in his pain and suffering, but was God still with him and faithful? Yes. Listen, there's always a redemptive purpose, okay? And I know this isn't one where we're gonna be shouting from the rooftops, but this is one where we must look at ourselves, and we must say, I'm living in a blessed nation in the Western world, but if things were to change, and I had persecution like they had in China, in the Congo, and all these places, would I still believe in the Lord? Would I still preach? Would I still speak the word of the Lord? Would I still be with the Lord? That's the kind of faith we need, amen? Jeremiah never lost faith. I promise I'm getting somewhere. Hang on with me. It's gonna get good. Jeremiah wanted to stop, but he could not. In fact, Jeremiah watched the word of the Lord. happened right before his very eyes. He watched Judah get taken off into exile by Babylon. Sometimes in the prophetic, we like to give our word and then go about our merry way, but we really need to follow that word through. And Jeremiah followed it through before he was born, all the way through until Israel.

Judah was in exile. Listen to the hope here, listen to the hope here. Jeremiah 29, 10 through 11, for thus says the Lord, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. Here comes some hope for Israel and God's people. For I know the plan, you guys know this, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope. And even though Jeremiah was proclaiming the word of the Lord, and he went through all that he went through, the hope was this, is that God's word was gonna happen and was going to take place and Israel was gonna be brought back together. And we know that that happened, right? Amen. All right, coming down here to John the Baptist. John the Baptist, he was a cousin of Jesus. He was a forerunner sent before the Lord, preaching repentance, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And he was a prophet in the wilderness, crying out, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

John the Baptist was no stranger to Jesus. Now we're coming into the New Testament. We're coming into when Jesus is coming on the scene and Jesus is getting ready to get inaugurated and Jesus is getting ready to have amazing things happen in his life. And yet John the Baptist was personal with Jesus. He knew Jesus, it was his cousin. And John was sent as a forerunner to go before the Lord and he preached repentance and he baptized. In fact, in Matthew 3, 11 through 12, it says this, I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming, speaking of Jesus, is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. And it says his wintering fork is in his hand and he will clear the threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. In John 1, 29 through 34, John bore witness that Jesus was the Son of God. Here's where John knew Jesus, but now he knows Jesus's real identity. It was confirmed to him. Let's go ahead and read this. I'm gonna start here. John 1, 32 through 34. And it says, and John bore witness.

I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, so this was God, gave a word to John. He said, he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptized with the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Jesus. And I have seen and bore witness that this is the Son of God. I wanted to highlight this because John knew Jesus. He had heard the message of the kingdom being preached. He had heard the testimonies of the end breaking of the kingdom of where Jesus was not only preaching, but he was healing. He was doing signs and wonders and miracles, and he was bringing what they thought was a victory. And he was, just not in the way that they thought, that he was bringing the kingdom of God, establishing it here, and that Israel was finally gonna be restored on earth. They looked at Jesus as like a political military type king, but his kingdom is not of this world and his ways are far above ours. We're coming to the end here, bear with me. So John had heard and he had now heard and now has seen the Messiah firsthand with proof. John was in prison not too long later, telling Herod Antipas he was in sin for marrying his brother's sister Herodias.

So he threw them in prison for preaching the truth. So this is where John's at in this context where he begins to really question what he saw and witnessed. So let's look at this. Now, this is Matthew 11, two through six. Now, when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, listen to this question, are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another? John had seen, John baptized Jesus. John was a cousin to Jesus. He had seen the word of the Lord come to pass. cast the spirit on him, but yet he's in a place of disillusionment. He's in a place in prison. Things are not happening the way that he thought they would happen. He thought that Jerusalem and Israel were gonna come together under Jesus in a powerful way, that he was gonna deal with Rome and they were gonna be redeemed and restored. But he says, you're not seeing the eternal picture. And so John's at a place, he's like, hey, are you the one or should we look for another? And now listen to how Jesus answered. And he says, you go and tell John, not only what you hear, but what you see.

So Jesus not only spoke, but he showed John's disciples this. He says this, you go tell him what you hear and see, the blind receive their sight. Come on, somebody. And the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up. And the poor have the good news preached to them. And listen to this, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me. That word offended right there is where we get stumbling block. Don't let disillusionment become a stumbling block to the word of God over your life, amen. And what Jesus did, he responded to John with scripture that he would know. In fact, these verses echo, verse five echoes Isaiah 35, five through six. It says, then the eyes of the blind shall be open and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. You see, when Jesus shows up, things change. When Jesus shows up, breakthrough happens. When Jesus shows up, he calls us out of suffering, out of expectations, out of delusion, and into purpose. Are you catching the drift here? And so he says, not only are you gonna hear this, you're gonna see this. And so we have the gospel of the kingdom

which is being preached and released. Thank you, Jesus. So John himself never got out of that prison, but he was encouraged because he stayed with the call of God on his life, amen. You know, in the book of Hebrews, it talks about men and women of faith. And it goes through the hall of faith as we call it. And then there's a little section there about those who were martyred for Christ. About, it says that the world was not worthy of them. I'm not advocating for you to live in a life of suffering. I'm not advocating for that. But what I am advocating for is this, is that when you find yourself in that place, know that redemption is on the way. The word of the Lord will set you free and God has not called you to live in despair. God has not called you to live in that place, but it's actually a place where our faith can grow and a place where we can see the kingdom of God begin to move in our lives. And it's not gonna derail our faith. That's what I want. That's what I'm trying to get at right here is that our faith would not be derailed. I know it's not an exciting topic. I feel like Jeremiah is like, you all don't like this? I get it because we're not shouting hallelujah because we gotta look inwardly.

We gotta look at me. You gotta look at yourself. Why am I here? Is it for a good time, for good feelings or is it for the Lord? Lord, check me. We doing good? Amen. Let's look at the disciples. Right here, Jesus had already been dead three days. I believe the disciples myself, as I read and understand, were under the same disappointment. And you can almost hear it in scripture that we're gonna dive into here in just a second is that they thought that Jesus was gonna come here on the earth and was going to reestablish here on earth. They did not realize that his kingdom is one in the spirit and his kingdom is one that is more real than where we're at right now. And that his kingdom is already being established. It is established. How many of y'all believe that Jesus is going and preparing a place for us, his room and many mansions? You understand, that's the look here. But the disciples saw Jesus. They heard his words. They saw the amazing things. Listen, I wanna tell you, I'm the biggest advocate for the spirit of God. I don't know if I'm the biggest one, but I want to be.

That was a big statement. I believe in the gifts of the spirit. I believe that Jesus heals. I believe we can tend for healing. What I'm trying to say is when it doesn't happen the way or in the time in that we think, that doesn't mean that God's word is void, okay? I'm here to tell you, I shared about my mother last time, a mighty woman of God, and the Lord taught me this. can have our own thoughts on this. It's okay if you see things differently, I still love you. But here's what I'm trying to say is we believe for healing. My mom believed in healing. She was a prophet of sorts herself, would give words anytime she was around, she would just share the love of God with people. That's who she was, that's what she did. And she came into a place of illness, and you know what, it didn't happen. The healing didn't come the way that I thought it was gonna come. And we have one or two options when those things happen, just like John the Baptist, just like Jeremiah, just like Job, just like all of us. Put yourself in a, we got a couple choices here. What am I gonna do? I'm gonna tell you where my brain went. I said, I can't go back to the way I was. I can't go back to the slop, I've tried. There's nothing there anymore, I know too much.

I know the goodness of God, I know the breakthrough of God, I know the heart of God, I can't go back. But God, you've upset me. Can I talk real with you? I didn't think you did what you said you were gonna do. I read the word, and you said, and we spoke it, and we prayed, it didn't happen the way that I thought. It does not change who God is. It does not change who God is. Suffering does not change who God is in your life. Unmet expectations does not change, because my faith is not in a place, it's not just some kind of higher thought, it's in Jesus. When you have faith in Jesus, that's when you really begin to rock the boat, because it doesn't matter what comes your way, it doesn't matter what you go through, it's real, raw love of Jesus. That's the gospel. Let faith, let the faith of God in God take you to the next level. You don't have to try to conjure it up. This is my beef with the word of faith. I'm sorry I'm calling him out, I just, it's how I see it, I'm not against him. I think we need to declare things, I think we need to speak things, I get that. Life and death's in the power of the tongues, but I'm here to tell you, sometimes you don't get to control everything.

It doesn't work that way. You're not God, I don't know why I'm doing this. You're not God. He is. We must trust in the Lord. And I'm here to tell you, that kind of faith will rock the gates of hell. That kind of faith will rock any circumstance. You catching the drift? The disciples were on the road to Emmaus. Oh, I feel the spirit of God. Would you all stand up with me? We're gonna end on a high note here. They were on the road to Emmaus. They were talking about the events that happened, and their eyes were hidden. Their eyes were blind, and Jesus shows up, and he said he hid himself from them. And he began to say, hey, what are you talking about? And they're like, bro, have you not heard about what happened? Jesus, he was crucified, and he began to tell them all the great things that he did. He goes, no, tell me more about it. They didn't know they were talking to the one. Oh, come on, Jesus. He's gonna surprise some people today. And he was talking and conversing, and they said, we thought he was gonna be this great leader, but he's been dead three days.

But just this morning, we heard from the other disciples that some ladies went to the tomb, and Jesus wasn't there. And then some of the other disciples went, and they bore witness and said the tomb was empty. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Oh, thank you, Jesus. And so they arrive to Emmaus, and he acts like he's gonna go on Jesus. And the disciples say, would you stay and just eat with us? They had no idea who it was. Here's the most beautiful thing. Sorry, I'm getting emotional. I just, I feel the Lord. It wasn't until they broke the bread and drank that their eyes were opened. Friend, the key is communion. In the risen King, the key is communion with the Lord. Psalm 23 is a beautiful representation of being at the table of the Lord, where enemies are all around,

but you don't even notice them. You get to a place where it's not even a deal anymore because you're at the table with the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and you're in communion with the Lord, and you're feasting on the things of the Lord. Enemy is all around, it doesn't matter. And here's the beautiful thing, listen to me. Your cup is overflowing. How can you get to that place? I don't know the exact way, but I know the man, it's Jesus. And it's faith in Jesus. Some of us need to come out of delusion today. We need to begin to birth what God's put in us and have the walls come down today. I wanna see the church come together so badly in my life. And we're beginning to see the formation. It's just in my crawl to see the formation of the soon returning King. And when the son of man returns, here's the question, will he find faith? Friend, don't put your faith in a human being, in a job, a 401k, even in the pastor, you put your faith in Jesus. Put your faith in Jesus. My closing words here, much like Jeremiah, they felt the fire of God. Did our hearts not burn within us? Did our hearts not burn within us when he talked to us on the road

while he opened to us the scriptures? Don't let disillusionment hold you captive anymore, church. Don't allow it to be a stumbling block to your faith. Listen, it's time for a fresh encounter for you and a fresh word from the Lord. Let the Lord heal you. Mind, body, soul, spirit, all of it. It's time to walk out of disillusionment and into purpose. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word today, Father. God, I pray, Lord, every bit of it was from you. Every seed, Lord, that was planted would grow. God, that your church, Lord, we love your church. We love this body, we love what you're doing here, God. I pray, God, that you would ignite a fire inside of us, Father. I pray that this goes beyond feelings. I pray it goes beyond our understanding, but we truly begin to walk by faith, which means we trust you in every season of life. Where disillusionment has come in, God, I pray that it be broke off right now in the name of Jesus. And where there's cloudiness and confusion and resentment and holding back. And friends, even some of you, I felt in the spirit, just like me, are holding back in this house because you know God has called you to this place, but you're holding back because of how you were treated, spiritual abuse at your old place, all those things.

And God says, I'm calling you out. I have a call on your life, and I want you to be a part of what I'm doing here in this region. He has called you. You're not here by accident. God has called you. So, Father, let that fire, that all-consuming fire begin to burn up all of our disappointments, unmet expectations. And, Father, let us walk in the promises and fulfillment of what you've done. In Jesus' mighty name, we all said.