Storm Ready | Rodrigo Vargas

On this Pentecost Sunday, Lord, we thank you for your presence. It's all around us, it's here to minister to us. For those that are tired, it'll bring rest. For those that are in pain, it will bring healing. For those of us that have been carrying heaviness, you come to lighten our load. We thank you for the cross, but most important, we thank you that we have the spirit of God in us. A spirit that the people of the ancient world, the Jewish people of the ancient world waited all their lives, that we don't have to come into this place and sacrifice, that we don't have to come into this place and burn offerings. We can just come in here and lift high the name of Jesus. And it's in that moment that we're filled and are stirred inside of us. So Holy Spirit on this Pentecost Sunday, I ask you to walk in this place, permeate this place, saturate this place. We are your people and we desire, we crave, we yearn to hear from you, Holy Spirit. Minister to us as we lead into this moment that has been divinely appointed in your name, we pray in the people of God's name, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. What is good, Houston, Texas? My goodness. You know, I don't know if you guys missed it, but on Friday, we had a worship night and I believe that I'm still riding high from what happened on that Friday night, amen? We introduced Spanish worship to the church and it just so happened that the Spirit of God moved most heavily. I mean, Sister Elsie fell out in worship here. She was laid out for about three songs, had to keep singing the ven, ven, ven song because Sister Elsie couldn't get up from the heaviness that she had, you know? It's been a great weekend. If this is your first time with us, we want to welcome you. We want to tell you that we love you and that you're not just an honored guest here, but you're an answered prayer.

You see, we exist as a church to connect people to God and I believe there's some people in here today that are looking for a community. They're looking for God. They're looking for that connection. And I want to tell you that we say that because we believe that we connect people to God with the life-giving message of the gospel of Jesus and that gospel says it doesn't matter what your past looks like. It doesn't matter what present troubles may be, what doubts may be weighing in your heart. Jesus loves you right where you are. That's why he died on that cross because he loves you. The verse says that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. But he also loves you too much to leave you where you are. And I tell you that because when I begin to preach, sometimes the word of God is offensive. Sometimes the word of God hurts us. Sometimes the word of God reminds us that we're wrong and that he is the only thing that's right. And so that's his way of loving you because he doesn't want you to remain where you are. That's for someone today. And that includes every person that is incarcerated and watching right now through the Pando app. I'm here in Houston. Can you help me welcome our Union Prison Campus? Man, I tell you every week, I can't see you, but man, we love you. You're never out of our hearts and we can't wait for the day that you walk in through those doors. I am still going through the stack of letters that we've received recently from the prison and know that each one is read, each one is prayed over, and we love you. And we've been in a series called Rooted. It's all about being established in a relationship with Jesus so that we can become more like Jesus, to be biblically rooted, grounded, and established in a relationship with him. Now, last week, I decided to split a sermon into two weeks because there is so much packed

in these four verses at the end of the Sermon of the Mount. So I began last week. I made a decision. hey you got to slow down this is a lot to chew on there's a lot of information and some of it is very irrelevant for the times we're living in so last week i just focused on building on the rock and i introduced that that that the beginning of that teaching today we're finishing that sermon building on the rock so that we can be storm ready because storms will come and the strength of your foundation the strength of your faith determines whether you stand or fall so today i'm going to be talking to you from the title storm ready stormy some of us are are presently in a storm can i get an amen some are stepping into one right and others life is good but can i tell you there is a storm already brewing on the horizon because that's life and as your pastor and as the preacher of the word of god i want to make sure that everyone that can hear my voice that can see my face i want to make sure that you are storm ready so let's read again the passage that we read last week but this week i'm going to read out of the amplified version just to give you a little bit more clarity so matthew chapter 7 verse 24 and would you stand with me as we honor the reading of the word of god jesus says so everyone who hears these words of mine remember this is at the end of the sermon of the mount everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them obeying them will be like a sensible prudent practical wise man who built his house upon the rock and the rain fell not if the rain falls but when the rain falls and the floods come and the winds blow and beat against the house yet it did not fall because it had founded itself on rock and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a stupid and foolish man who built his house upon the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and a great and complete was the fall of it so father god we thank you today jesus we lift high your name we honor you in this place we honor your words and we ask you in your name to send us holy spirit come i pray just like the people of the jesus people movement of the 70s and the vineyard church and john wimber for the holy spirit to come lord to come into this place and light a fire of evangelism of a disciple making culture for us to be able to see the scriptures and build on solid foundation lord come into this place and equip us edify us strengthen us for we your church need it we need it for the times we're

living in we need it for the storms we're in and we need it for the days to come holy spirit speak truth but be gentle convict us but don't condemn us and most importantly clarify us don't confuse us in these times that can be so deceiving holy spirit help me deliver these words with the very anointing of heaven i need you to deliver such message at a time like this and i pray this in jesus mighty name and the people of god said amen amen amen you may be seated how many of y'all remember hurricane harvey huh hurricane harvey good old hurricane harvey come on now you know what i learned from hurricane harvey that it doesn't matter how much houstonians know how to get ready for hurricane season right absolutely nothing could have prepared us for harvey that's what i learned we we went out and bought every piece of lumber i'm telling you lowes and home depot stock shop through the roof just on houston alone because y'all bought every piece of lumber you can get your hands on okay we went out and hoarded all the emergency supplies i think pastor sarah over here she got herself one of these crank radios with the led light you could hear the radio and like emergency supplies we we went we went out and we shopped all the food you can get your hands on right and if you're honest and don't lie in church you all bought mostly junk food and you were out of it before the second day And for some reason, I don't ask me why, okay, Houston, y'all got a problem, not a single drop of water had come and y'all had bought every piece of toilet paper at Walmart, H-E-B and Kroger. I just want to know what y'all wanted to do with that toilet paper. We thought, here's the point, we thought we had a plan, didn't we? But we were, here's the truth, we were not storm ready. Not ready for a storm that wouldn't stop. A storm that would park itself over Houston for 24 hours and dump 27 trillion gallons of water on us. We weren't ready for a failing infrastructure where the reservoirs had to be released so that the dams wouldn't break and thousands of people's lives were ruined as it flooded the streets and the houses in Houston. In the grand scheme of all these things, can I tell you what we learned? All the preparation and all the supplies was useless against a storm of that magnitude.

I like to say it this way, we love to have information on preparedness, but information about being prepared for a storm is useless when it can't stand against things that are out of our control. Now I wonder if that resonates with you. I wonder if you've ever been there. I wonder if you've ever been in a situation where you thought you had all the information, you know, you know the scriptures, you know where to find the scriptures, you know how to pray, you know how to get, you are prepared. You have a, how many of y'all have a rainy day savings account? You know? Yeah. Hispanic people don't really do that. I learned that from my wife. We need a rainy day savings account. I'm like, that's a good idea. Where'd y'all come up with that? You can learn a lot from other people, you know? But even though we have all these things and we have all equipped, but when the storm hits our lives, we feel utterly ill-equipped. We might be coasting through life. Life is good. You know, you and the wife ain't beefing, faith is strong, right? You know, you, like, you're at Tuesday night prayer, you're at Timothy sessions, you're in your connect group, you're doing all the stuff, family's good, everything's gucci. Bam! You got a storm that hits you. And all of a sudden you're submerged into this spiritual place of darkness, confusion, pain, and despair. You ever been there? All the preparation in the world can't get you out for that.

All the information you had counts for nothing. Now what do you do? I love the great prophet Mike Tyson, how he says it, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. And you know what happens? Sometimes when real storms come into our lives, they smack us in the mouth. See, that's what happens though. I just explained to you what happens when we build our lives on truth, power, and false security the world offers. The world tells you to prepare for these things in such a way, right? The storms wash us out like sand. And can I tell you, the crazy thing about sand is, you go to the beach and you look at the sand and it's smooth, it looks like pavement until the water hits it and then it washes out. That's what happens with us. We look at the world and how we prepare for storms of life, having all this information, putting all our faith into earthly, the apostle Paul calls it, worldly conforming to the world. And when the storm hits us, we wash out like sand. To be storm ready, you have to build on something that is immovable and that is the rock that Jesus is describing. You got to build on something immovable, put your hopes and dreams on something immovable, put your purpose in life on something immovable, put your peace, get your peace, draw your peace and your joy from something that does not shift like shadows. Last week I gave you the first of three anchors that makes the rock. Today I'm going to finish those, but I want to show you also what happens on how you react or respond, I should say, when the storm finally arrives. Now let's recap for those of you that weren't here last week, because I don't want you to be lost, but the first anchor I shared. last week and I spent most of my time preaching to you about is the Word of God. That is the first anchor that holds it all together. The authority over our lives is found in the Word of God.

We talked about how being established in the Word means not just hearing the Word, but Jesus taught us to obey those words. The difference between the wise man and the foolish man wasn't what they heard, it was what they did with what they heard. That was the difference. So today I want to finish that thought that I thought that I left open. You see, how you view the Bible changes everything about how you read the Bible. And I want you to know that the Bible tells us what I'm about to tell you. The Word of God is not a book. The Word of God wasn't a scroll. The Word of God isn't just documents collected over history that have archaeological evidence that they did in fact exist and are eyewitnesses of accounts of people telling us prophecy fulfillment. The Word of God is Jesus. And this should change how you see the Word of God. This should change how you read your Bible. That when you're reading the Bible, you are reading Jesus. John 1 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then John in verse 13 goes on to say, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus fulfilled every word ever spoken in the Old Testament by God the Father. This is an important note. Important note so that later on in the sermon you don't take things out of context. Jesus fulfilled everything God the Father spoke in the Old Testament. Matthew 5.17 tells us that He came not to abolish the law and the prophets. Actually, He says, I came to fulfill them. Jesus is the fulfillment. Listen to me. He is the living embodiment of everything God has ever said. The Bible tells us that the Word is active and alive. It divides. It discerns. It judges. Listen. It judges your attitudes of and your heart. And we need that. We need... Listen. When you read this Word, you need to be offended because Jesus says that our hearts are filled with evil. It's full of wickedness. And it needs to offend me. It needs to judge me. I don't need anybody to judge me. Only God can judge me. The Word of God needs to judge you. The Word of God needs to remind me, Oh, what a wretched man I am. Oh, how much I'm filled with selfish ambition and vanity and lust and greed. The Word of God needs to remind you that that is gossip, church hen. The Word of God needs to remind us that we are self-seeking and self-serving, not selfless. This is what it does. This is what Hebrews 4.12 is telling us, that it should judge you, not just make you feel good. And the Word of God will make you feel good. It'll remind you that you're more than a conqueror, that you're an ambassador of Christ, that He chose you, that He loves you. And all those things are true. But along with that comes part of being part of the responsibility of being part of His family is He needs to judge you so that you can be holy and

pure. And holiness is the goal. As a believer, as a disciple of Christ, our goal is holiness. This is our power. This is our authority. The Word of God, it says, is truth. John 17.17. The Word of God is truth. I would like to add that I think what Jesus is saying in John 17.17 is that the Word of God is the measurement of truth. That if it doesn't align, listen to me, if it doesn't align with scripture, it is not truth. It is opinion. It is deception. It is confusion. It is not the words of God. The Word of God is a lamp unto my feet. It will direct my steps in a time of confusion. Psalms 119.105. Word of God is living and powerful. The Word of God is a seed, Luke 8, 11. The Word of God is spirit and life, John 6, 63. The Word of God is God breathed to Timothy 3, 16. The Word of God is the bread of life. The Word of God rescues, restores, and redeems. The Word of God will never fail, will never come back empty, will never leave you, nor forsake you. That's the Word of God. The Word of God is not a document, it's a person, and his name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen. And that word loves you so deeply. It's alive right now. The Word of God is not just information, it's transformation when it's applied. It doesn't just speak to your mind, it resurrects your soul. Jesus himself said the following, my teaching is not my own, it comes from the one who sent me. He didn't just share his opinions,

he shared what the Father told him. Even the Son of God was submitted completely and fully to the Word of the Father. Now, if Jesus, the Word made flesh, is submitted fully to the Word of God, what does that say about our willingness to negotiate with it, to edit it, to obey only the parts that are convenient or comfortable to us? Because this is what we do. We, oh, I don't like that Bible verse, so we skip it. And so your Bible looks more redacted than the Epstein files. I need it all, I need the challenges, I need it to cut me, I need it to prove me, I need it to inspect my spirit, I need it. The Word alone, without the Spirit, is religion. You can't, listen, if you're gonna rely on just, I'm gonna memorize this Word of God, I'm gonna know it, I'm gonna go to Bible school, I'm gonna get my seminary degree, I'm gonna become a scholar in the Bible, I'm gonna become a pastor, I'm gonna become a pastor, I'm gonna become a scholar in the Bible, that's all wonderful, there's nothing wrong with that. But if you ain't got the Holy Ghost, you're just engaged in religion. You know why? I can prove it to you.

This is exactly who those Pharisees were. They knew the Torah back and forth, they knew all the prophets, they knew how to interpret it, they knew how to teach it, they knew what it meant, they knew everything about it, they had degrees of their time, they had to go through the schools that they have, the interpretation and teaching and so forth, the rabbinical system, but they had no Holy Spirit. And what they had was a form of religion that Jesus says only weighed and burdened the people. But the Word with the Holy Spirit is based on a relationship that we have built on a rock called Jesus. Which brings us to my second anchor, which is you got to be filled, you must be baptized in the Holy Spirit. You may come from a background in which you were told, well, you know, the Holy Spirit, people speak in tongues and prophesy and healings, it's all spout nonsense, just straight up. Like I just, that's not, it's not biblical. As a matter of fact, in Acts 19, Paul goes to a people that have believed in the name of Jesus, have been water baptized by the disciples in the name of Jesus, the Father, the Holy Spirit, but had not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And you know what Paul does? He says, no, no, no, no, no, you need it. Bring everybody in, lay hands on them,

they got to receive the Holy Ghost. We're no different. We're no different. We need the same exact thing. To be storm ready, you got to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You must be immersed, drenched in this Holy Spirit. Now, I want to give you a word today that I believe is going to change how you see him, the Holy Spirit. He's not weird, he's God. But Jesus says a word, and that word is paracletos. Now, this word paracletos, it's not a biblical term. It's not like something that Daniel said or Isaiah said, you know, this is not like, you know, we love spiritual language, y'all know that? Oh, and he got anointing. We can't even say anointing. If you say anointing, it's got more. You know what I'm saying? It's got more. We can't say, oh, that song got oil. that's only oh because if you say it got oh you know it's more spiritual right we say oh holy spirit but when we're in a spiritual moment we say holy ghost you see this is this is not paracletos paracletos is literally a roman governmental legal term now jesus says that the holy spirit is the paracletos which is kind of strange because here he is he's describing but jesus is trying to make a point to a people that understood what a paracletos did in john 14 16 he promised to send the holy spirit paracletos and he says one called alongside to help you one just like him he says and what paracletos means it means a defender an advocate and a defense attorney in other words the same word used if you got in trouble and you had to go before the magistrates

you brought your paracletos with you and they spoke to the court for you if you needed an advocate because you had a dispute of lands and you know your cousin stole your goats from you and you needed to go get your goats back you needed to go see a judge you brought yourself a paracletos are you with me jesus described the holy spirit this way someone like him but someone said to stand with you to defend you so when the enemy comes to accuse you of being a doubter of not having a faith of being a sinner of being whatever it is you uh you let him accuse you of he stands there to define you and he says no he's a child of the most high god he's a defender he intercedes from you for you so that when you don't know how to pray and this fuse that you just got has just completely wrecked your heart you can just pray with bones and groaning paul says which is literally tongues and he will intercede for you and he will stand against the enemies of your soul i want you to think about what that means when that storm comes you think we need the holy spirit because when the enemy is building a case against you and i'm gonna tell you something we we we let the enemy get to us we go out mess around and we get involved in smoking weed and fornicating and masturbating and we go out and and take pills and get drunk and then and then and then the next day we feel shame i'm telling you the devil's right there because you broke covenant with god because you broke the law because you are living in a way that is unholy yeah the devil's got access to your ears like you got shame you dirty sinful hypocrite but when we got a relationship with the holy ghost and we slip up we can call on the paracletas to come stand next to us and he says you better shut your mouth and get out of here that's the problem he will stand against every enemy that comes to condemn you to put fear into your life to confuse you to shame you you have a defense attorney that doesn't charge you doesn't sleep and in your darkest moment he's going to be pleading on your behalf to get you out of that mess that is who the holy spirit is that is who the the word of god says that the holy spirit he is your helper john 14 6 14 16 he says that he's not a resource you just tap on when you've run out of options and you're like oh here let me just tap on my security no he is a constant ever-present companion who's there for you for you the the word of god says that he is the spirit of truth john 14 17 that in a world absolutely drowning in deception and confusion he is the only one who will always lead you to truth now this is really important as i'm laying down some some tracks for you for us to travel a little bit further down this sermon he will confirm what is right

and he will expose what is false without him it's going to be really hard i want to introduce you to what discernment means and discernment comes only the holy by the holy spirit discernment is looking at two things that look very similarly and knowing which one is right and which one is wrong the holy spirit he gives us words in a moment of need matthew 10 20 jesus promised that that when you're brought before the course, before your enemies, that he will put words when you don't know what to say, he will put words in your mouth. When you are facing a moment that is bigger than you, he will give you faith and strength. When you are confronting the giants of your life, he will hand you the stone you need to use. He provides through his words. The word of God says that it is power from on high, that he is a powerful deity from on high, Luke 24, 49. Power that overcomes how? In prayer. Power that the very gates of hell cannot prevail them. This is power, the same power that raises Lazarus, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is every power that is available to every surrendered believer in Jesus. He is the living water, John 7, 37 and 39. And in John four, he says, "'I will spring up wells of living water.'" This is refreshment for your soul. The soul desperately needs in times of darkness, confusion and pain, a refreshing spirit of peace. And when you're dried out, when the storms have drained you of everything,

he is the spring that will never run dry. Isaiah 40 says that he makes rivers in the wilderness. He is a comforter, he is a God, he is a friend, he is a teacher, he is the regenerative power. We are talking about the Holy Spirit and we need him. We need to live lives that are spirit-filled and spirit-led. He convicts us when we're wrong, but he confirms us when we're right. He discerns when things look confusing or deliberately in these days, deceiving. How many times have you ran into an AI video or an AI image and you fell for it and you do, you thought, you probably even posted that sucker online and you were like, all right, someone else, some brainiac had to tell you, that's AI. Sometimes what the Holy Spirit says to you, hey, that is false. When we believe something about ourselves. I wanna be direct with you. We need the Holy Spirit. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit more than ever before. We are living in end times. I'm not here fear-mongering. I'm not here firing brimstone. Look, I'm not Ted Hagee, what's that his name? He's like the end times guy, you know? John LeHay, remember the John LeHay books, you know? What was that called? Left Behind?

I'm not talking about that. I want in all seriousness, I want you to understand because I love you, we are living in end times. The sands of time are running out. This is the hour. We are living in the hour Jesus told us about. We are living in a season that Jesus described in a parable of the 10 virgins. We are in what I've been calling and telling you since Friday, we are in a season of the 10 virgins. And you know what happens in that parable? He asked a very simple question. He was asking us this very simple question of, do you have oil in your life? Do you have oil? Five of them had oil in their lamps and five did not. Five thought there was still time. And some of us are living life like those five. We think we still have time for a little bit more grace. Let me go over here and let me go to the club and act like I don't know Jesus because I still got a little bit of time. I'm here to tell you, you do not have that much time. We think, oh, nobody will know. I just log on a Pornhub and I watch it because it's been a really stressful week and I deserve it. I deserve it for myself because I'm a good person. I'm telling you, you don't have much time.

You need to be putting oil in your life. This is what Jesus was saying. We think we could just foolishly run around and sleep around and fornicate and all this other stuff. And we think we have more time, but I'm telling you right now, we are living in a time in which any minute trumpets will blow. Now, Jesus told us he only knows the time of the day. So I don't really worry about the time of the day. I'm gonna tell you right now, and you shouldn't either, but he did tell us to watch for signs. And so you need to be watching for signs. You know what he was really saying is you need to be ready. Are you ready? Do you have oil? I mean, look at the world around us. Wars of apocalypses. elliptic, proportion and significance. This, like, this is the kind of stuff that I run into, not because I'm searching for it, but because I'm in tune to what God is saying and what the Spirit is telling me, revealing to me. Listen, the United Nations is pushing for a one world religion initiative. It's called Act Alliance. It's right there on the screen. I'm not making it up. I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I went and got your receipts.

We're talking with receipts today. The UN also has a one world government agenda. Oh yeah, a one world economic agenda. It's called Agenda 2030 and it's not conspiracy. It's the proof is right there. I brought you receipts. Believers are arguing about political sides. Believers that voted for a candidate because they believed he would do the better job than the other guy, but now we watch the guy, the guy we voted for, the guy y'all voted for, do absolutely the most ungodly things and we are scared to raise our voices. I don't believe in throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Okay, but I also don't need to co-sign my favorite candidate, superstar, sports star, celebrity. When they're wrong, they're wrong. You were given a voice. You were given authority. Use it. Believers are arguing political sides all based on their guy. Believers arguing about Zionism, about particular the prophecy and the whole time, every day, lost people are losing the battle and perishing. Now I want to give you my biblical spear field position based on the word and the spirit, not what I grew up in church hearing, not what my favorite preacher says,

not based on some study Bible, based on ancient texts, writings of the church fathers and the spirit of God. Yes, God still has promises. Is that clear? And yes, God will still fulfill certain promises. Okay? But I want to remind every believer that says they believe in Jesus, that out of his own mouth, every single promise God made was fulfilled in who? In Jesus, which means both the Jew and the Muslim and every lost person that doesn't bow at Jesus's feet for salvation needs him. Stop arguing and start praying and preaching and prophesying they don't need your opinion. They need the gospel that lives inside of you. They don't need your political framework. They need your powerful prayer. They need Jesus. First John chapter two, verse 22. This is what the church fathers believed. Who is the liar? It is whoever. Come on now. I looked up the Greek word. It means whoever. You with me? It means everyone that denies that Jesus is the Christ.

Everyone that denies Jesus is the Christ is a liar. Such a person is the antichrist denying both the father and the son. I love the word of God. And I'm here to tell you that I don't care who you are. If you're a Jew that denies Jesus is the Christ, you're a liar. If you're a Muslim and you say, well, he's a prophet but he's not the Christ, you're a liar. If your Christ is yoga, crystals, tarot cards, the horoscope, you're a liar. This is the truth. this is the truth the virgins the Saints to all my Catholic Latinos we love to bring in the Virgin the Saints man but listen they're liars the Messiah is the only one that you can pray to the Messiah is the only one that intercedes for you the Messiah is the only one listen I tell you all this because you got to be just trying to rattle you a little bit so that you go to the word in the spirit because the government's about to do what they're calling UAP disclosure they're gonna tell us what I have known for like 30 years that UFOs exist you feel me now when I came to a believer I found them right off the bat they're called Nephilim interdimensional beings you feel me this is where the government is gonna spin their own story on unidentified aerial phenomena okay E.T. phone home but they got they here here's what I want to tell you I want you to know that they're preparing there they're working behind all the elites they're preparing to present something that is already detailed in the Word of God not just a little bit insignificant details principalities powers interdimensional beings cosmic universe all found Genesis 6 Psalms 82 numbers 13 Deuteronomy 2 Deuteronomy 3 Joshua 11 just to name a few or did not Paul say principalities and powers and authorities in the heavenly realms the

Apostle Paul wrote that 2,000 years ago and he didn't have Google the African lady the African prophesied oh you I Google it he didn't have Google the world is going to call it a new discovery the Word of God has already called it with AI watching this AI doc let me tell you something the advancement of AI is ridiculous but when you know the Word of God when you listen when you know this when you live when you eat out of this thing and you got the Spirit of God springing up wells of clarity you know what happens you realize that through AI the statue the idol that is made that is talked about in Daniel it's just prophecy that says they put life into it it became a living being that's gonna happen in our lifetime and by the way that's happening rather quickly can I tell you this is the hour my question to you is not to scare you it's simply to ask you you got oil I know that's a lot and I'm not trying to scare you what I'm trying to do is wake you and prepare you to be storm-ready because when your relationship with the Holy Spirit is tight you know I'm saying like like you know like when you walk in hand-in-hand when you hold nothing back and you hand over every bitterness every pain every unforgiveness every every bit of your past when the storm comes you will not be shaking you will discern and not be deceived you will already know the truth before the lie comes out you will always find hope and freedom because that's what the Spirit does and then the third anchor of all this is you got to be transformed into the person of Jesus so that you respond to your storm the way Jesus responded to the storm do y'all remember what Jesus was doing when the storm came to the boat he was sleeping he knew who was in control we need that kind of faith you see when you build on the Word of God and the Holy Spirit it's gonna lead us into a life of transformation and that transformation is for us to become like Jesus to have his likeness to have his characteristics to walk in his character to be established in the person of Jesus is for us to be formed to look like him not theology about him not your viewpoint on things not your tradition on things not just showing up on Sunday to service and to Tuesday night and

Timothy sessions I'm talking about a life that is genuinely being shaped increasingly and daily by Jesus himself the reason this is at the end of the Sermon of the Mount is because he's taught them everything they need to apply to live a blessed life that looks like him. Now think about Jesus. In John 5 19 he says he was fully surrendered to everything God said in every instance. He never did anything without consulting the Father right? And look at what that surrender produced. He stood for those that couldn't defend themselves. He healed people that were sick. He gave sight to the blind. He gave hearing to those that couldn't hear. He made whole those who were riddled with diseases. He casted out demons of people that have been in captivity to the demons. He fed the hungry. He was sacrificially not just generous. He was sacrificially generous. He touched the untouchable and he gave himself as a ransom, as a sacrifice for all mankind. Even those that will never cry out his name. This is not a list of miracles y'all. This is a lifestyle. Praying for those. We got to be praying for our persecutors. We got to love our enemies. We got to love our neighbors the way we love ourselves and we got to turn the other cheek. These are not suggestions. This is a lifestyle. A life fully established in Christ is sacrificial outwardly, present to the need that's in front of you and unafraid of what it costs even if it means a cross. That's who Jesus was and we got to be like him. I want you to think about his prayer at the Garden of Gethsemane because I'm gonna tell you something. How you live in your worst days reveals whom and what you are built on. What you have been established on. This is, this is the test nobody signs up for. Nobody's gonna raise their hand. Let me go again. Sign me up for that test. But every one of us will eventually face a test like this. It's not how you live when when life is well for you. It's not how generous you are when your bank account is full. It's how kind you are when you're tested. When you're troubled. And what comes out of you will testify to who you really built your life on. It'll testify who's you are, who you are, who's your King. It will testify that you're willing to say, Lord may your will be done not mine. Lord I know they're

attacking me. I know they got problems with me but Father forgive them. I pray for them to be one as you and I are one. This is what it looks like. Now I want to be transparent with you because it's the only way I know how to lead. But a few weeks ago I was preparing for the sermon maybe a month ago or a month and a half ago but a few weeks ago, a few short weeks ago, after I had got the outline of what I wanted to teach, my world got rocked. You know you get a phone call with some extremely difficult and painful news. When you have something to digest that's difficult and painful, it's hard to think. It's hard to discern. Now this is news involving someone I care and I love. Someone that I've invested in deeply. Someone that I know God has something very special for. And as a pastor, as a shepherd of God's people, you know the people that you shepherd when they're in pain, guess what? I'm in pain. And this one hit hard. My mind wasn't in the right place. My mind was like rattled. My soul, the word I had for my soul was anguish. Like you know where you like it's hard to breathe. My spirit disturbed. Like so many questions. Now it just so happens that this happens in a moment in which while I'm sitting with one of my disciples and we're pastoring through some of his own pain, right? And I had to stop him and tell him hey bro, I'm sorry. I just received some really like difficult news and my mind is Rocked right now, like, and my boy said, it's okay pastor, what should we do? What should we do pastor? And instantly out of the depths of my soul, of my foundation with Jesus, I said, human hands can't fix this situation. I can't fix what human hands have created. So we're gonna hand it to God because he only knows best, because he's already in the redemption, because he's already in the testimony, because he's already in the solution.

And then right there in the middle of that moment, we handed it over. Now, something happened though, because when I received the call, I stepped outside and I'm talking on the phone and a 78 year old woman had fallen. Now, this is a coffee shop that have tables outside. And there was two tables full of men having cigarettes, drinking coffee, having a good old time. And there was a girl that was sitting at her table. And I promise you, I'm not making this stuff up, okay? She's sitting on her laptop. She's got her headphones on. She's got a mask. I'm not sure why she had a mask, but the stickers on the laptop let me know that it was more of a political message than it was a safety precaution. Are you with me? And I hear the 70 year old woman say, help, help. And I look and she's on the ground. As I'm talking, I walk over there, grab her two little hands and I pick her up. And when I touched those hands, those bony fingers, she had arthritis. My mom's got arthritis. And I thought to myself, my God, this is like my mother. This is like my wife in 30 years. This is my daughters in 50 years. I picked up her cane.

I picked up her keys. And she said, thank you. Now in the middle of all the world falling apart, right? She says to me, my God, you helped me and you're going through all that? And I just smiled at her. I didn't think about it. But sometime later, after I spent some time in prayer, I realized something. First, I had confirmation that God's hand was on me. He moved in such a way that I knew, okay, God's in control. Yes, this is bad. This hurts, but God's with me. And then I'm reminded that the word of God says the following, do not forget to show hospitality to strangers for by so doing, some people have shown hospitality to angels without even knowing it. I don't know who that woman was. I've never seen her before, but I know that God put her there and I know God was watching. What would a normal person do in a situation like that where you're going through your own things and you've built your whole life on worldly things, on self-worship, on self-centeredness. And when your world is falling apart, the last thing you wanna think of is helping someone else. Well, you know what I'm saying? But in that moment, I realized that God was telling me this is what it looks like for you to build on the rock

because normal people that are built on sand, they're self-absorbed, that in darkness, they cannot see the need that is standing right in front of them. I didn't see a stranger. What I saw, I didn't see an old lady. You know what I saw? A child of God crying out for help. That's what being established on Christ looks like. It doesn't make you immune to pain. It does not make you avoid the storm and it doesn't make your storm necessarily smaller. But the way you see the storm becomes smaller. When you're anchored in the Word, in the Spirit, you will love your neighbor the way you love yourself. You will care for the widows, for the orphans. For the person that's in front of you, for the prisoner, even on your worst day, if you build on sand, it will fall, not might fall, it will. Hurricane Harvey proved it, history proves this, maybe your own story proves it, but if you build your life on the rock, then you are assured that Jesus, even in your worst days, is standing next to you. He's lifting you up. Not because you're strong, not because you're smart, not because you've prepared, but because you've built on something that can't be moved, and his name is Jesus, and Jesus is faithful, Jesus is true, Jesus is steady when everything around you is shaking, Jesus will be present even when you feel the most alone. He is the rock, the word made flesh, the one who is, who was, and is to come, and he's the one walking with you alongside you, defending you and interceding for you. He is the anchor that holds everything when everything is moving, and church, I've searched the history of our faith, I've studied it, I've read the testimonies of the saints, I've

stood at enough best sides, grave sides, in crisis moments, to know this one truth, he has never failed once, once, failed to hold up what he was built upon. He will hold you up no matter what, the storm is coming, for some of you, it's already here, the question isn't whether it'll be hard, the question isn't whether you'll feel it, you will feel it, the question is whether at the end of it, will you still stand? Because Jesus is enough, he is more than enough, and he's always been more than enough, the storm is coming, build on the rock, be established in the word of God, the spirit of God, and being transformed like Jesus, because that's what's going to get you storm ready, would you stand with me? I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes for just a moment. Maybe you're in a storm, maybe you're in the first few moments of that storm, or maybe you just want to be proactive and say I want to be storm ready, the first thing I want to tell you is that the first thing you need is you need a relationship with Jesus, you don't need to sign a membership form, you don't need to do anything crazy, you don't need to jump through hoops, you just need to make a decision of your heart, what's that decision? That you believe Jesus is the son of God that lived, suffered, and died for your sins, but that on the third day he rose again, and that gave you new life, and not only that, he sent his spirit to live inside of you, to be your defender, and if you want to be filled, if you want to accept Jesus, you don't need to be just water baptized, you need to be baptized in the spirit of God, if that's you, and you want to accept, you want to be immersed in the spirit of God, can I tell you, this is your moment, if that's you, would you shoot up your hands so I can pray for you, shoot up your hands, thank you Lord, thank you Jesus, thank you Lord Jesus, Father God we thank you, thank you that you come when we call on you, Lord for the hands that were raised, Lord be with them, guide them, move them Lord right now, compel them to move out of their seats and to come up for prayer, and say I want to be baptized in the spirit of God, I want to receive the gift that God has given me, for every person that comes up here for prayer, the prayer