Kiss The Fire

Well, guys, you ready for some church today? Oh, I like the sound of that. So your pastor, you may know this about him, he has a sort of a Jedi mind power. And pray for him because I'm praying that he'll continue to use it for good and not for evil, but he uses it over me nonstop. I can't tell you how many things I own, how many places I've been, and how many things I've done, because your pastor goes, you will. And I go, I will never do that. And he goes, yes, you will. And I go, okay, I will. We're in New York together on a trip and he texts me at 6 a.m. He's like, what are you doing? I said, trying to sleep, we're on vacation. He goes, let's go see the Brooklyn Bridge. I go, no, I'm sleeping. He goes, come on, man. I go, okay, fine. He goes, get your running shoes. I said, what? He said, we're running the Brooklyn Bridge. I said, bro, we're not running on vacation. He said, you will run. I said, okay. And you know, your pastor, he loves history. So not only did we run across the Brooklyn Bridge, but he gave me a history lesson while we did it.

I say all that to say that sometimes I feel like your pastor believes in me more than I believe in myself. And he is one of the reasons why I wrote this book. He helped me title it, helped me subtitle it. And so Pastor Levi, I just wanna say thank you. I love you, brother. Thank you so much. Well, Fresh Life, in case you're watching from a hike, a bike, a trail, and if you're in a room, you're kind of stuck with me, but if you're watching on a device right now and you just realized this is not Pastor Levi, just in case you decide to shut the laptop or turn off the TV in the next 60 seconds, I'm gonna tell you what this whole thing's about before you do. If I had to describe today's talk, the book, in 90 seconds, I would say one thing and I'd read one verse. And the one verse I would read is this, Galatians 6, nine. Let us not become weary in doing good. For at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. And that verse has never been more important than it is to me right now. I'd read that one verse and then I would tell you this, Fresh Life, I believe God sent me here this week just to tell somebody, God says, I see you.

I know what you've been through. I know what you're going through. Don't you dare give up. Don't you dare give up on your faith. Don't you stop coming to church. Don't stop praying and pursuing and praising. God is with you. God is working when you can't see it. He's with you when you can't feel it. He's got a plan when you don't even understand it. And his promise is, if you'll hold on, if you'll refuse to give up, he says, at the proper time, you'll reap a harvest, which means you'll get down the road. And Fresh Life, this is my prayer for some of you today, that you're gonna get down the road and you're gonna go back in 2026. We were going through some stuff. The finances, man, that was rough. The relationship, our marriage, we didn't know if we were gonna make it. This thing with our children, the mental health issues, the anxiety, the depression, the diagnosis, whatever it is, my prayer is that you're gonna look back on this season, whatever this season looks like, and go, in 2026, we were in the middle of some stuff, but thank God we didn't give up because look what God has done. And now I stand up here and I got a testimony. That's what I want for you, church.

So that verse has never meant more to me, though. Excuse me, I drink a lot of water, so just ignore it. That verse has never meant more to me than it has over the past few years. In fact, Levi and Jenny, I don't think I've even told you this, but on one of my last visits here, I was leaving this stage and I had told a story about hurting my arm doing some jujitsu training because I was like, hey, you gotta stay in shape. You can't let these 20-year-old staff members sneak up on us, you know what I mean? And I got off the stage and Pastor Jenny, you said, I could tell that your left arm was bothering you. What she didn't know is, because I didn't say it in the message, I had actually hurt my right arm. And so I was going, why is my left arm bothering me? And so I did what we're supposed to do. I called the doctor, made an appointment, and then I Googled it, right? Come on, anybody by a show of hands, you ever Googled your own stuff? You gotta be careful with the Google, right? Because you have like a common cold and you go down the wrong thread and it's like, I have two days to live, you know what I mean? And I don't know if you guys are using chat, are you guys chatting, putting your thing?

Yeah, okay. Me and chat are still, Pastor Levi, we got a rocky relationship right now. I asked her the other night, and mine's a her, I don't know how that worked out, but I asked her the other night, I said, what time does the Colorado Avalanche play? And she goes, they don't have a game tonight. And I said, you are a liar, I know they have a game tonight. And she literally goes, good catch, Sean, they play at six. I'm like, I don't know if I can trust, so rocky relationship. shit between me and chat, so I'm still throwing some things into Google. I Googled the issue, and it made sense. I have a pinched nerve. I'd actually hurt my neck years ago working out, and I'd gotten some injections, and before I did, it had started to affect my left arm. And so I knew Google backed up my opinion, so I went to the doctor, and they said, all right, let's do some scans of your head and neck, and I said, you can, and I know you went to school for a lot of years, but I Googled this deal, so, but they still wanted to do the scans, so we did the scans. Jill and I come back. I had a day off. We're gonna go back to the doctor.

We're actually gonna go on a day date after this appointment, and we're sitting in the appointment, and the doctor looks at me, and he goes, he goes, hey, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this. You don't have a pinched nerve. You have an incurable brain disease, and your life's about to change, and fresh life, as you can imagine. I felt like something in my soul just got crushed. I couldn't figure out if I was mad, sad, scared. I was trying to articulate it the other day, and I told someone, I felt like, like if you go down to the basement, and you've got your furnace, and it's got that little pilot light, I felt like when he gave me this diagnosis, he just went, and that little light for me went numb. It went off, and I went home, and I just started to isolate. I did a lot of crying. I sat down with my wife after the appointment, and said, babe, I'm so sorry. I said, you don't deserve this, because in the appointment, I had asked the doctor. I said, well, what's like worst case scenario? And he goes, well, we don't know how fast it will progress, but we know where it ends, and it ends with your wife feeding you, and changing you,

and so I'm now in the car, and crying to my wife, and I'm like, babe, you don't deserve this, and I don't know what this means for us. I don't know what this means for the boys, and it was just, as you can imagine, just a hard, hard day, okay, so I go home, and I just just kind of hide away from the world. I won't take phone calls. I won't take text messages. I don't want to go to church. I don't want anybody sending me a Bible verse. I don't want to talk to God, and in fact, the only times I did talk to God, I said some things that Pastor Levi won't let me say on this stage. You know, it's okay to hurt, and to go to God, and be honest about it, you know what I'm saying, and like any good relationship, sometimes I go back to God, and I say, you know what? I shouldn't have spoke to you that way, and I'm sorry, but I'm glad you love me anyways, so I'm just completely isolating, and all of a sudden, my phone rings. The guy who's calling is one of my best friends. I call him Coach. He coaches, he's a professional UFC coach. He coaches MMA fighters, and he is a bad man, all right?

Like he doesn't coach his team like, let me tell you how to choke someone out. No, he gets in the octagon and shows them. He doesn't go, let me tell you how to elbow them in the throat. He gets in there and shows them. He's a bad man, okay, and so I answer his call, because I'm scared of him, and he said, what's up? My wife had sent a message to a couple of the wives to pray, and because I wasn't talking to anybody, and I told him the whole day, I wasn't talking to anybody, and I told him the whole diagnosis thing, and I told him everything that I was going through, and how I was feeling, and I'm starting to cry, and I'm like, Coach, I just, I feel like I just want to be done. Like why would God let this happen to me? I've dedicated my life to telling people how good he is, and now I don't know if I can play ball with my boys? And he said something I'll never forget, Fresh Life. He said, I'll tell you what, Sean. He said, we're gonna kiss this fire, and we're gonna walk away whistling. I said, Coach, that sounds really good, but I don't know what that means. And he goes, I'm not saying it's not gonna be hot.

I'm not saying there won't be hard days. I'm not saying it won't burn from time to time. I'm saying we're not gonna run from this. I'm saying that this thing doesn't get to steal your joy. It doesn't get to steal your peace. It doesn't get to change your calling. He said, we're not running from this fire. We're going through this thing. He said, I'll be with you every single step of the way. And he said it again, we're gonna kiss this fire and walk away whistling, and Fresh Life, I don't know what you're going through today, but God does, and I want you to know that there will be a temptation in your mind that says blame God, run from God, stay away from the church, but I'm telling you, if you'll plug in here like you never have before, the people of this church will lock arms with you, and they'll go through the fire with you every single step of the way. If you have a Bible, flip open to Daniel chapter three. As you're doing so, I'll tell you about an interesting conversation I had with my assistant recently. Out of the blue, she said, I said, what are you doing this weekend? And she said, I'm running a marathon. I was like, I didn't even know you ran. I'm like, how do I talk to you every day and I don't know you run marathons?

Like, I'm sorry, I'm a terrible person. And I go, I didn't know you were that good at running. And she goes, I'm not. And I go, then you picked the wrong sport cause she goes, no, she goes, I'm not really that strong. And I'm not, I'm not really that fast. She goes, I'm just really good at not quitting. And I said, that's what I want from my life. That's what I want for my boys. That's what I want for this church. That's what I want for every one of you watching. I want you to get really good at not quitting so that you can take God up on that offer. If I do not give up at the proper time, I'll reap a harvest, which means if you can decide today, no matter what this life throws at me, no matter how Satan tries to steal, kill and destroy the destiny God has on my life, I'm not letting go of my faith. And there will be a day when I'll testify about what he did because I decided to get back up and not to give up. All right, so let's, so the reason I wanted to go to this passage is, and some of you know this story and some of you won't, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they were, they were Israeli boys, who, who, I got to look at my notes, Babylon. Babylon came, came in and conquered Israel and they took a whole bunch of people off into slavery,

into exile. So, so Babylon comes in and they are, they're, they're ripping families apart. People are being murdered, abused, ripped from their homes, taken to foreign countries. These three boys, that was their story. Like everything that could go wrong, went wrong for them. They're ripped from their home, ripped from their dreams, ripped from their family, taken as slaves to another country. They changed their names, like everything's gone. If anybody had a right to go, I'm just going to be mad at God and I'm going to let go of my faith. You'd think it'd be these three, but they don't. These three, they're really, really good at not quitting. And, and I want to tell you, I want to give you a little spoiler because I want you to know why we're looking at their story. They don't know it yet, but because they refuse to give up on their faith, because they refuse to give up on their God, they're going to experience the miraculous power of God before this whole deal is over, okay? But they don't know that, right? They hadn't read Daniel three yet. You know what I mean? King Nebuchadnezzar builds a statue to himself. He thinks of himself kind of like a God. And he says, everybody will bow down and worship this statue and me like a God.

And everybody does except for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, because they're not giving up on their God, right? The king is not happy. Watch what happens. Verse 15. If you're ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. These guys are facing an actual fire. Then what God will be able to rescue from my hand? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to him. Listen to the confidence that these boys have. We do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from your majesty's hand. But even if he does not, I'm telling you, church, if we could grab onto some even if faith today, Satan, it doesn't matter what you throw at me. It doesn't matter if the circumstances change. It doesn't matter that the dream hasn't happened. It doesn't matter that I'm at this, facing this at this stage of life, because I trust my God even if. Even if I don't understand. These guys had some even if faith.

We want you to know your majesty that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up. And I wanna look at this today for just a few minutes and go, okay, what did they do that we can do? Because what I learned about my own situation is I got this diagnosis, and yes, there was part of me that was like, I'm out. I quit. I'm done with God. I don't wanna be a pastor. I don't wanna be around church people. I wanted to quit. I wanted to give up on my calling. But, and you'll know this, if you've ever been through anything tough, which let's be honest, that's all of us, there's also something else going on that I think is more real and more even deeper in our mind. And it's this thought that says, I really don't wanna give up. I just don't know what to do. And it hurts. And I'm scared. And I'm mad. And I'm sad. And so I'm gonna say I wanna give up, because the truth is, I don't know what to do with the thought that says, what if I didn't?

That's where these guys are at, okay? Let's reread the first thing. And if you're taking notes today, and we all know note takers get into heaven first. Here it is. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied. to him, King Nebuchadnezzar, listen, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it. There was not one moment where one of these boys said, oh, I'm just tough enough to handle this one on my own because I've been following God for a while because I'm a grown man, because I'm mature, because I'm strong. There's nothing heroic about trying to fight through some struggles in life on our own, but somehow we think it is sometimes. And these guys are showing us, no, no, no, there are certain fires in this world that Satan's gonna try to throw at you. There are certain circumstances that we would be crazy to try to tackle on our own, right? These guys understood, Fresh Life, if you wanna get really good at not quitting, lock arms with other believers. That's point number one. I got my diagnosis and I did the opposite. I went and isolated and I didn't wanna talk to anybody

because in my mind, and you guys know what it's like because you've been through things. You think I don't wanna burden them, right? Or I'm just embarrassed that I'm struggling with this. Or man, I've been in church, I've been a Christian a long time, I shouldn't be struggling with this, I can't say that. I lead a small group, I can't say I'm struggling with this. I'm on staff at a church, I'm on the worship team, I can't. So we gotta be careful, right? Because if we're not careful, we'll turn into this guy. This was me, two are better than one, this Ecclesiastes four, because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up, but here's where I was. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Nobody could help me up because nobody knew how hard I had fallen. Nobody could fight with me and fight for me because they didn't understand what kind of fight I was in. And so Fresh Life, here's what I'm gonna say to you. Let's be careful, and I say us, I'm one of you, okay? I'm one of us church people. Let's us church people not get too good at church hugs. You say, what are you talking about? I know it's a weird statement. I know I meant it to be weird because I want you to remember it. Let's not get too good at church hugs.

Because see, if we're not careful, church will become a place where we come to pretend we're a little bit better than we actually are, right? And I gotta remind you, Fresh Life, you know this, but I gotta remind you, this is not a Christian country club. This is a hospital. We don't come here and pretend we don't have any issues or problems. This is where we come and go, this is how I'm hurting. This is how I'm broken. Can I lock arms with some believers until I can see the great physician? We can't get too good at church hugs. Now, I'm gonna make fun of us, but it's us, okay? Because I see, I see it. I watch you girls all the time. And you girls are, I love watching the I'm good hugs with girls at church. Like, oh, hey, I love your boots. Oh, they're so good, so good, come here. Come here, come here, give me, give me, give me, come here, come here. Oh, you're so good, you're so good. You doing good? I'm doing good. You doing, that's so good. I love that, you're so good. Good, good, kids, good, good. Good, good, God bless.

Okay, it's rude, right? Truth, how many times this weekend will some girls hug in a church and say, I'm good. I'm blessed. And the truth is she tried herself to sleep last night because she can't figure out how their family is gonna get through this thing. Guys, guys, we gotta be careful. Our bro hug, it's like, it goes across city lines, state lines, it travels the world. Like, I could go to Europe today and go into a church and it's the same hug that everybody's gonna give every guy and guys, you know our hug, it's a, starts out like this and it's a whop and you gotta get a good pop, right? And if you don't get the good pop, you go, let me do that again. Then you go, and then we're like Neanderthals. We'll be in that lobby going, that was a good one. And then we bring it in and we do a whop and then we do a pop, pop. What up, bro? Pop, pop. Hey, man, you good? Oh, bro, I'm good, dog. Good to see you, you good? I'm good, good, good, good. And the truth is, he might be struggling with so much anxiety and depression, he doesn't even know if he's gonna make it.

And see, I say this and I know I'm having fun, but I'm very serious. About three months ago, on a Saturday night, I was at church and I hugged a guy that I love. We did the bro, pop, pop. I said, you good? He said, I'm good. I said, look me in my eyes, bro. I said, you good? He said, I'm good. And six days later, his wife called me, screaming. She said, Sean, I just got a call. At home, he took his life. Sean, he took his life and the kids don't know yet. Sean, can you come over? And just, please don't struggle with something and walk out of one of these buildings before you tell somebody today, this is not a country club, it's a hospital and we need each other. Ask somebody to pray with you. Find out how to get on a team. Find out how to get in a group. It's time to start locking arms with some other believers because some of the things you're going through, I'm telling you, you're created to pursue the plans of God with the people of God. We gotta lock arms with some believers, church. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

You can't bear my burden when I'm hiding my pain and nobody can carry your burden when you're hiding yours. Let's stop playing games, church. Let's not get too good at the church hugs. Let's start locking arms with some believers and starting to fight some battles, amen? You wanna get really good at not quitting. Number one, lock arms with other believers. Number two, turn your pain into purpose. This is something that, I'm not just saying this because I'm here with you guys. When I got the diagnosis, I didn't wanna talk to anybody. One of the first people I actually let in was your pastor, Pastor Levi and he called and we have a relationship where we don't pretend we're okay and I was having a real hard day trying to wrap my mind around what my future could be. And he said something I'll never forget. He said, Sean, God trusts you to steward this diagnosis. I didn't wanna hear that. In fact, I told him, I said, I'd rather not be trusted, Levi. He said, I know. See, in church, if this has been your church for a while, you already know, he's not just telling me to do that. This family has been showing us how to do that for over 13 years. Because I can't fathom what it's like to lose a baby, to lose a child. And for over 13 years, this family said,

we're not gonna do that. I blame God, I'll get bitter, I'll run away. No, they've done the other thing. They said, I'm gonna take this pain and I'm gonna turn it into purpose. I'm gonna use it to help people find healing and find freedom and find Jesus. And that's what your pastor encouraged me to do. And it's why I wrote the book. I'm not a writer. In fact, when I signed, I've written two. When I signed the first one, I told my wife, I said, babe, I signed my first book deal. She goes, and she loves me. And she didn't think I'd ever tell this in a sermon, but she goes, she goes, oh, congratulations. She goes, Levi, she said this, she goes, are you gonna like try to sound smart? Are you gonna write how you talk? God loves to humble us, you know what I mean? I can't tell you how many messages we've gotten, Pastor Levi, of people messaging in saying, I read the book and I'm not gonna give up on my calling. I'm not gonna give up on my marriage. I'm not gonna give up on my life. And what I didn't see coming is all I could see was pain. But when you decide to let God turn it around, it's that Genesis 50, 20 thing. When you decide to let God do what you meant for evil, I'll turn around and I'll use it for good.

And I'll use it for the saving of many lives. When you say, God, you can have my pain and let's go help somebody else find some freedom. Let's help somebody else go get some encouragement. Let's help somebody else go get saved and eternally changed. And church, you don't have to be a pastor or write a book to do that. You just look at what you've been through. You go, here's what I've been through. And it's been really hard. Here's what I'm going through. Here's the pain I've felt. Here's the pain I'm feeling. And then look around and go, God put one person in my path who's dealing with the same thing. And I'll go encourage him. I'll go tell him, hey, don't you dare give up because he's got me this far. He'll get you this far. Let's lock arms and fight for each other and believe together. And so you wanna get really good at not quitting. Lock arms with some other believers. Decide, I'm gonna turn this pain into some purpose. Number three, remember this, your fight, it isn't just about you. This is what your pastor was teaching me. This is what this story is teaching us.

Go read the rest of it for time's sake. You gotta read the rest of this story on your own. Okay, they refuse to bow down and worship. They lock arms with each other. What happens is King gets crazy mad at him, turns the fire up, throws him in the fire. The fire's so hot that the guards who threw him in the fire died, right? So they're in the fire. All of a sudden, King jumps up. He's furious. He's like, what's happening? We put three people in that fire and now it looks like there's four. And he goes, and the fourth one looks like a God. And what we find out is. Jesus himself came down from heaven and got in the middle of that fire with him and said, I'll never leave you or forsake you. If you might walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but I'll be right there with you. No weapon formed against you is gonna prosper. And he walks with him and he walks him out of the fire. The Bible says not a hair on their head is singed. They didn't even smell like smoke. And here's what happens. The king who threw him into the fire because they were praising God, starts praising God. Starts praising the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Then he starts passing laws that says nobody gets to mock their God. And so their decision to stay in the fight and refuse to give up, they could already look back and go, thank God we didn't bow to that statue. Thank God we didn't give up our worship. Thank God we locked arms together and believed our God was able. Thank God we decided to have some even if faith because look what God has done. That's their story. Band, you can come up. I had such a sweet reminder that this is our truth recently. Last October, before the book came out, the publisher was trying to create a resource that we could give to people who were ordering the book as a gift. So they asked if they could film our family and talk about this diagnosis. And I was super nervous, but I asked all the boys to come up. I was super nervous, but I asked all the boys and I think they were nervous, but they said yes. And so a friend flew in from out of town named Ryan. He sat with me, Jill, and our three boys at our kitchen table and it was surrounded by cameras. And they asked the boys, and I'd never had this exact conversation with them, so I didn't have a clue what they were gonna say.

They asked the boys, they said, did it rock your faith when your dad got this diagnosis? And all three of my boys said yes. And that was one of my biggest fears when I got this diagnosis. I was like, I don't want what I'm going through to ever be a stumbling block for my boy's faith. And they said, yeah, every one of them said, yeah. And I was mad at God and I was sad and I didn't understand it and why would God do this to our dad and doesn't seem fair. And then my youngest son, Ashton, he says something that I couldn't believe. He says, I used to be really, really mad at God for letting my dad have this disease. And then he looked at Ryan and he said, he goes, but now I can't think of anyone better to have this disease. And he goes, sorry, dad, no offense. I was like, and he goes, he goes, I just, I couldn't think of anyone better to have this disease. And Ryan goes, why is that? And Ashton goes, because I know that because my dad has this, he'll use it to tell people about Jesus. And it reminded me, I'm not just fighting for me. I'm fighting for my boys. I'm gonna tell you right now, Fresh Life, my boys will know that you can go through something really hard in this world and you could still stand up

and praise God in the middle of it, that you don't have to give up your faith. Somebody's watching you fight. Your fight isn't just for you. Don't you dare give up. Don't give up on that dream he's put in your heart. Don't give up on that thing you know he's called you to do. Don't let this diagnosis scare you out of chasing the plans that you thought he had for you before you heard about it. Don't give up on that marriage unless you know without a shadow of a doubt God's called you. Listen, don't give up on that person. Don't give up. Don't give up on that idea. And don't you give up on your faith. Fresh Life, we can stand up in the middle of some things and we can worship. And that's the last thing that these boys showed us how to do. Let's read this real quick. And then I'm gonna pray for you. Let's reread verse 17. If we're thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it. And he will, he'll deliver us. But even if he doesn't, here it is. We want you to know your majesty that we will not serve your gods

or worship the image of gold you have set up. They said, you can take us out of our house. You can take us out of our city. You can take us out of our country. You can steal away my family. You can change my name, but you can't have my worship. My worship is not for sale. We can worship through some fires, Fresh Life. Would you stand up with me? And I just wanna, again, Revelations 12 says there's two things that defeats the power of Satan in our lives. It's the blood that Jesus shed on the cross and it's the power and the word of our testimony. And can I just testify to you, church? I'm not talking to you from the point of view of somebody who's like, yeah, I went through some tough stuff and now I'm on the other side of the Grand Canyon and I'm looking back going, you oughta do what I did, cause I made it. I'm in it, man. Like I'm in the middle of it. I take medicine five times a day. I go to Mayo Clinic three times a year. I'm in it. But I'm telling you, as someone who's in it, you could stand up. in it and put your hands up in the air and worship your God. And when you do, what you're gonna find is you're gonna find some peace and some joy

and some victory and some rest and some freedom. And those are the things that will keep you from quitting. You figure out what works for you, but here's what I do, okay? Again, I said, I just wanted to testify. When I got this diagnosis, I did not wanna go back to work for a while. It's really hard. It's hard to be mad at God and be a pastor at the same time. I didn't wanna go to the church, but it's my job. I didn't wanna preach, but it's my job. I didn't wanna read the Bible, but if I don't, I don't got nothing to preach about to do my job. So this is true, and I'm not proud of this, but this is true. But you know what I decided in my mind? You know what I don't have to do? I don't have to worship. And I'll be honest with you, Fresh Life, worship was the hardest thing about coming back into the church building after I got this diagnosis. Because I'm thinking, what do I have to worship about? Like my life just changed. Like none of this is fair. And a friend sent me a verse in the middle of a worship service, Jeremiah 17, 14. Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed.

Save me, and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. And all of a sudden, in my heart, I just, it made sense to me. I'm gonna ask you to heal me every single day, and I know you can. And I know you've already saved me, and I've never earned it or deserved it. But the last part is a declaration of my faith, even if this doesn't turn out the way I want, when I want, I will praise you. You are the one I praise, and that's it. And so what I do now is, and I'm, as you can tell, I get a little revved up. And when I am in worship and real passionate, like I'm a two-hander, you know what I'm saying? I got both hands up. When I started trying to praise again after my diagnosis, I was real reluctant to raise my left hand because my brain is degenerating, they tell me, on the right side right now, so it affects the left side of my body. And I was worried that if I put my left hand in the air, it might shake a little bit, or it might be stiff, and it might be visible, and someone might see that I'm struggling with something. But then I read that verse, God, He lit that fire again. He turned that pilot light back on in my soul. And I just started to pray,

okay, God, I'm gonna ask you to heal me, and I know you can, and I'm gonna thank you for saving me, and I know you have, but you are the God who I will praise. And so now, fresh life, sometimes what I'll do is I'll only worship with my left hand. I say, God, I just come to you and worship you with my bad arm. And it's my way of reminding myself and God and Satan, my worship's not for sale. I refuse to surrender my worship. And when I worship God with my bad arm, I also give Satan the middle finger at the exact same time, and I love every second of it. Fresh Life Church, I'm here to tell somebody, don't you dare give up. God's got a plan. He's with you when you can't see it. He's working miracles for you. He said, I've already gone before you. You don't have to understand it. Just decide today. This is the day the Lord has made. I can't control some of my circumstances, but I can control my worship. This is the day he made and I'm gonna stand up in it. And if I gotta worship through a fire, I'll worship through a fire. God, I thank you. I thank you for every single person who's tuning into this message right now.

I know, God, that everybody listening and watching, they know what it's like to struggle. They know what it's like to hurt. They know what it's like to be confused. They know what it's like to be mad, sad, scared. Every one of us, because we're broken people in a broken world. And so God, I pray that you would reignite that light in our soul today, that you would remind us that you're with us and you love us and you're working and you have a plan. And that's enough for us to hold on to some even if faith and worship through some stuff until we see a miracle in Jesus' name. With everyone's eyes closed, I wanna ask two questions. The first is this, you or someone you love is going through something really difficult right now. And you just say, you know what? I just, I need God to supernaturally get involved. I'm trying to kiss the fire. I'm trying to hold on, but it's been hard and we need God to get involved. If that's you, raise your hand. We're gonna pray for some miracles today. Amen, hands all over the place. I'm with you. Second question is this. I've been talking about what it's like to hold on to our faith, no matter what life throws at us.

And what has occurred to you is, wait a second, I need to start this process. I need to put my faith in Jesus. Jesus died on a cross and paid the price for our sins so that today we don't have to earn it. We don't have to deserve it. we could just say, God, I want it. Jesus, would you forgive me of my sins? I wanna put my faith in you. And he says, when we do, he forgives us of our sins. His spirit enters our life in the here and now, which allows us to get through things we never could on our own, and then we get heaven forever. And if you're here today and you go, this is my moment, I can feel it, God's calling me, I wanna ask him to forgive me of my sins, I want his spirit in my life, I want heaven forever. If that's you right now, put your hand up, and I'm gonna say a prayer for you. Oh, praise God, praise God, yeah. Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus. God, I pray right now for miracles in the name of Jesus. As we begin to worship you, I pray that chains would fall off I pray that weight would come off our shoulders, that we would sense your presence, feel your peace, experience your joy, have a renewed sense of confidence as we decide ahead of time, I'm not giving up on my faith, I'm not giving up on our God, and I thank you, God, for the testimonies you are building in our lives, in our families, and in our future families,

right now, in Jesus' name. And I thank you, God, for the people who just gave their life to you, the fact that heaven is getting more crowded as we speak. We praise you, we thank you, we give you all the glory, in Jesus' name.