The Fight, The Faith, The Healing - Sam Kelly, Dylan Mandell (Full Experience)

Good morning, Fellowship Church, how we doing? Let's stand to our feet. Come on, today is the day that the Lord has made. We're gonna rejoice, we're gonna be gladdened. Let's put our hands together. ♪♪♪ Let's sing. ♪ I'm shaking off the heaviness ♪ ♪ I'm dancing out all my regrets ♪ ♪ I'm throwing caution to the wind ♪ ♪ No, I am not ashamed to praise like this ♪ ♪ Some will say it's foolishness ♪ ♪ But I say it's worth the risk ♪ ♪ I can't forget what Jesus did ♪ Come on. ♪ No, I am not ashamed to praise like this ♪ ♪ Where are those chains that once held me? ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ My sin is gone, how can it be? ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ And look at what the Lord has done ♪ ♪ I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ I'll sing, I'll dance, cause I believe ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, thank God I'm free ♪ ♪ I thank God for freedom, yeah ♪ ♪ I found a friend that never quits ♪ ♪ No one loves as good as this ♪ ♪ But I don't care what anyone said ♪ ♪ I'll never be ashamed to praise like this ♪ Come on.

♪ Where are those chains that once held me? ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ My sin is gone, how can it be? ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ And look at what the Lord has done ♪ ♪ I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ I'll sing, I'll dance, cause I believe ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, thank God I'm free ♪ ♪ You took the cross and you broke your body, come on ♪ ♪ You shed your blood, now the sinner can sing ♪ ♪ My debt is paid and my record is clean ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it but you did it for me ♪ ♪ You took the cross and you broke your body, come on ♪ ♪ You shed your blood, now the sinner can sing ♪ ♪ My debt is paid and my record is clean ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it but you did it for me, come on ♪ ♪ You took the cross and you broke your body, come on ♪ ♪ You shed your blood, now the sinner can sing ♪ ♪ My debt is paid, now my record is clean ♪ Come on! ♪ I couldn't do it but you did it for me, come on ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it but you did it for me, come on ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it but you did it for me, come on ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it but you did it for me, come on ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it but you did it for me, come on ♪ ♪ Where are those chains that once held me? ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, my sin is gone ♪ ♪ How can it be? I'm free, I'm free, thank God I'm free ♪ ♪ And look at what the Lord has done ♪ ♪ I'm never going back to the way I was ♪

♪ I'll sing, I'll dance, there's nothing in me ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, thank God I'm free ♪ ♪ And look at what the Lord has done ♪ ♪ I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ And look at what the Lord has done ♪ ♪ I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ Look at what the Lord has done ♪ ♪ Look at what the Lord has done ♪ ♪ I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ And look at what the Lord has done ♪ ♪ I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ Come on, anybody thankful for freedom in this place today? In His presence, there's fullness of joy. And in His presence, every wall comes down. So we're praying for miracles today. We're praying for the Lord to do something great in this place. Come on, let's sing this out together. Sing, I feel something changing. I feel something changing in this room. Things of the past are being made new. ♪ So come with an open heart ♪ ♪ Believing in what He's gonna do ♪ Come on, let's sing that out again. Feel something changing. ♪ I feel something changing in this room ♪ ♪ Things of the past are being made new ♪ ♪ So come with an open heart ♪ ♪ Believing in what He's gonna do ♪ We believe, Lord.

We sing. We wanna see salvation come. Come on. We wanna see Your glory. We're praying miracles be done. We're praying rescue stories. Jesus, come and wake our faith and break through every doubt. We sing it. We'll see glory as the walls come crashing down. Yeah. As the walls come crashing down. Come on, every voice, I feel something changing. I feel something changing in this room. Dry bones awake. Dry bones awake and start to move. The things that we thought were dead are coming alive to worship You. Come on, every voice, we wanna sing. We wanna see salvation come. We wanna see Your glory. We're praying miracles be done. We're praying rescue stories. Jesus, come and wake our faith and break through every doubt. And we'll see glory as the walls come crashing down. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh, we welcome You, King of kings. We wanna see Your glory. We give You the glory. We thank You, Jesus. Mm. Oh. To the Prince of peace. To the King of kings. To the great I am. To the lion and the lamb. To the Holy One. To the cornerstone. To the sacrifice. To the way, the truth, the life. To the Prince of peace. To the King of kings. To the great I am. To the lion and the lamb. To the Holy One. To the cornerstone. To the cornerstone. To the sacrifice. To the way, the truth, the life. Come on over this room today. Let's call on the God of miracles and sing it out. We wanna see salvation come. We wanna see Your glory. We're praying miracles be done.

We're praying rescue stories. Jesus, come and wake our faith. And break through every doubt. Yeah. And we'll sing glory. As the walls come crashing down. Yeah. As the walls come crashing down. We believe it. We receive it. As the walls come crashing down. Come on, do you believe that this morning? That any wall that you may face in your life, because of Jesus, that wall can come crashing down. It doesn't matter the situation. It doesn't matter the circumstance. It doesn't matter what you're going through through Jesus through him alone through his power through his strength Not because of what you can do not because of what I can do But what he can do those walls will come crashing down. Let's give him praise one more time Fellowship Church Thank you, Jesus Well, good morning It's so great to have you in church today before you find a seat turn around high-five your neighbors say you made a great decision By coming to church this morning You go ahead and find your seat well, welcome to Fellowship Church this morning. My name is Dave Clark I serve as one of the pastors on staff here and on behalf of our pastors Ed and Lisa Young want to welcome you and thank You so much for joining us this morning And if you're a guest visiting us for the first time want to say a special welcome to you Can we show our appreciation to all of our first-time guests? You know We believe that church is not just something that you show up to but church is a family church is a community

and our hearts desire is for you to get plugged into and connected to that community an easy way that you can do that is In the seat back in front of you'll find one of these blue connect cards looks like this and on the back You'll see an area there for just some brief information. This is just a way that we can get in touch with you We have so many incredible things that you can be a part of here at Fellowship Church, whether it's our sports ministries Whether it's men's groups women's groups connect groups a Bible study classes serving teams There are so many ways for you to get connected to community here at Fellowship Church and that is our hearts desire is for you not to just show up but to be a part of the family here at Fellowship Church and one of the things that I would love to highlight to you is every Tuesday in the first of the month We have a men's Bible study that takes place for breakfast 7 a.m. Men come together sharpen one another so it's happening this Tuesday That's right for you guys clapping for that guys. You should be there show up It's an incredible time to sharpen one another and encourage one another on in the Lord So encourage you to come and be a part of that this Tuesday morning. We also have our newcomers luncheon It's happening immediately following this experience if you're looking for okay, Dave, that sounds great. But how do I really do that? How do I get plugged in? How do I get connected come to newcomers? It's happening right after this service this morning. If you have kids will take care of your kids. We're serving a meal This is where you can find out all about Fellowship Church how to join how to get involved and get connected and we would love To have you just follow the signs out in the atrium and join us for newcomers right after this experience right now We're gonna move into a time of generosity where we have an opportunity To continue in worship by bringing our tithes and offerings here. If you're a guest sit back relax There's no pressure on you to participate. But for those of us who call Fellowship Church home, this is our opportunity You know, the Bible tells us that we're blessed to be a blessing So we know that God has blessed us with certain things in our life And we have an opportunity just to return a portion to him to be a blessing to other people and I want to thank you Church, so many of you have stepped up and been faithful through your generosity We're able to take the good news of Jesus to so many people not just here locally But literally around the world through relief efforts. I think about our prison campuses. I think about the work that we're doing Internationally in so many feeding programs and things that we're a part of here at Fellowship Church Because of your faithfulness and I want to thank so many of you who are a part of the anchor project You may say what is the anchor project? The anchor project is a two-year campaign that we've been on here at Fellowship Church

We've been raising funds about 30 million dollars to build a facility that is dedicated towards being a light for the next generation Towards kids and students and this this center is going to be an incredible place for teaching for ministry And we're so excited this summer. We're going to break ground. That's right We're just weeks away weeks away from breaking ground and building that incredible project So thank you for those of you who have made commitments be faithful with those commitments and be in prayer We know God is going to do something extraordinary Through that project. Well, we're gonna have an amazing service this morning We've got Dylan Mandel with us. He's gonna be sharing a powerful story. I know it's gonna bless you I know it's going to encourage you and a little later on in our service. We're gonna have a time of prayer Maybe you're here today and you're coming and you're carrying weight. You're carrying burdens. Maybe you're you're facing a medical crisis Maybe there's a family crisis something you're going through that you need God to show up in a real way We're gonna have a time with some of our leaders and our prayer team to pray over you and to pray with you and so but man, we're anticipating God to do great things. Are you expecting for what God can do in your life today? Come on, are you? That's right, we should be people of anticipation and expectance of what Christ wants to do in our hearts and in our lives today. And Fellowship Church is all about standing in the gap with people, no matter what they're going through. We have support and recovery groups that help people who are dealing with addiction, help people dealing with depression, anxiety. We have groups that visit people in the hospital. We have a prayer team. We have a group that helps women who have lost children. Incredible areas of ministry that are happening each and every day here at Fellowship Church. And so I wanna encourage you, no matter what you're facing, no matter what you're going through, lean into the church.

I wanna take a moment just to pray over all of us right now that God would soften our hearts for what he wants to do in and through us today. Would you bow your heads? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity that we have to come together to worship you today. And God, we come to you carrying all types of things. God, you know what's happening in our families, what's happening in our marriages, what's happening in our homes. You know what's happening in our workplaces. You know the burdens that we are carrying. God, the physical ailments. God, the physical needs in our lives. God, none of those are surprising to you. But God, we come and we lay them at your feet this morning. We surrender them to you. We know that you are the way maker, that in the midst of the chaos, in the midst of the storm, you can come and you can bring peace, peace that passes all understanding. And we pray that peace would be upon us all right now. God, we lay all of our needs, all of our wants, and all of our desires at your feet this morning. We surrender them to you and we submit them to you. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name, amen. Let's remain seated as the offering passes. Let's continue praying, continue worshiping. ♪ Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪

♪ Oh you're the God of miracles ♪ ♪ We believe, we believe you're the one ♪ ♪ I've heard stories of the one, all the wonders he has done ♪ ♪ The man of miracles ♪ ♪ Turning water into wine, power to raise the dead to life ♪ ♪ The man of miracles ♪ ♪ The man of miracles ♪ ♪ The man of miracles is here, there is no limit to his power ♪ ♪ Your faith moves hearts, when I see you in the crowd ♪ ♪ Maybe it's waiting on my head, maybe he'll answer you right now ♪ ♪ Through a miracle is this, the man of miracles is here among us now ♪ ♪ Yes he is, we can feel you Jesus ♪ ♪ Who could heal that woman's blood, or give away her back her son? ♪ ♪ The man of miracles ♪ ♪ Who would hold a leper's hand, raise himself up from the dead? ♪ ♪ The man of miracles ♪ ♪ Jesus the man of miracles ♪ ♪ The man of miracles ♪ ♪ The man of miracles is here, there is no limit to his power ♪ ♪ Your faith moves hearts, when I see you in the crowd ♪ ♪ Maybe it's waiting on my head, maybe he'll answer you right now ♪ ♪ The real miracle is this, the man of miracles is here among us now ♪ Come on, how many of you have seen the miracle working guy working in your life? There's nothing he can't do, there's no mountain he can't move Power over sickness, power over darkness ♪ Oh, look now, here He comes ♪ ♪ Power that is able ♪ ♪ Power that is faithful ♪ ♪ Oh, look now, here He comes ♪ ♪ Look now, here He comes ♪

♪ Power over sickness ♪ ♪ Power over darkness ♪ ♪ Look now, here He comes ♪ Sing it out. ♪ Look now, here He comes ♪ ♪ Power that is able ♪ ♪ Power that is faithful ♪ ♪ Oh, look now, here He comes ♪ ♪ Look now, here He comes ♪ ♪ Look at the miracles He's done ♪ ♪ There is no limit to His power ♪ ♪ There is no limit to His power ♪ ♪ Yes, and the moon is high ♪ ♪ We see You in the crowd ♪ ♪ And He's waiting on the day ♪ ♪ Maybe He'll answer you right now ♪ ♪ The real miracle is this ♪ ♪ The many miracles He's done for us ♪ ♪ Power over sickness ♪ ♪ Power over darkness ♪ ♪ Look now, here He comes ♪ ♪ Look now, here He comes ♪ ♪ Power that is stable ♪ ♪ Power that is faithful ♪ ♪ Look now, here He comes ♪ ♪ Look now, here He comes ♪ Come on, give Him glory and praise for what He can do. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! Fellowship Church, is anyone excited to be in the House of God today? Yeah! I'm gonna try it again, is anyone excited to be in the House of God this morning? Wanna welcome all of our locations, Dallas, Fort Worth, Frisco, Elliso Ranch, we are so excited you are here, you came on a great Sunday. We have a very, very special guest in the house today. He's a 22-year-old Christian influencer and motivator, but I'm here to tell you his story, his story is going to encourage you, challenge you, strengthen your faith and trust in the person of Jesus Christ, at all of our locations, can we make some crazy noise for Dylan Mandell, who's in the house today. Come on, can we really make some noise for him? Thank you. I love it. You can find your seats this morning. And I just have to start by saying, this baggy sweater that I'm wearing is very intentional, because I have never felt more self-conscious about my bicep size. So thank you Dylan for encouraging me to work out right after these services this morning. Excited to have you here, man. I'd love to maybe just start off with maybe some people in the room who aren't familiar with your story.

And at the age of 18, you heard three words that no human being wants to hear, let alone a teenager wanting to hear, and that is that you have cancer. And so I'd love to hear maybe the lead up of life up into that moment, what that moment was like, the feelings, the emotions of that moment, and then off the heels of that, kind of what has happened and transpired in your life since that moment, because I know it wasn't the only diagnosis that you've dealt with. So can you just maybe just share your story to us this morning? Yeah, I just want to set the tone by saying that this is a Jesus story. That it's not a cancer story, it's not a pain story, it's not a suffering story, it's a Jesus story. And I pray that everything that I would say would give glory to the Father, that how bad does the enemy want to make this all about a disease? That we're gonna stand up here and testify that Jesus Christ is real, He is God, He is risen. And I just pray that our eyes would not be on anything today but Jesus.

Jesus is the story, He's the message, He's the only one worth talking about. So my story is four diagnoses of cancer in four years, which is actually insane to say that out loud. And I think the first truth, before I even get into the story, is just too many of us are praying for clarity, but God in His goodness is not showing you the full picture. Because if you told me at 18 years old that you'd have to go through this the first time, and then you have three more after that, what a dangerous prayer would be to pray for clarity if God would have showed me the full thing. So I think in His goodness, He kind of shields us from the unknown. It's like He's omnipresent and we're not. And that's amazing. for a reason. And so, I was just taking it day by day and I got first diagnosed when I was 18 years old, I was a senior in high school and in a matter of weeks, my whole life just got flipped upside down. And it's a weird feeling that I was entirely unrecognizable to myself. And my first understanding of who God was, just getting pumped full of chemo, feeling sick and lonely and broken and weak,

was that he's a good father. That was just my first taste. And I grew up in the church, I grew up with faith and I had a faith foundation, but we know it's the testing of your faith that produces steadfastness. And if you've never been tested in your faith, you might have fragile faith. And so, I'd never been tested like this ever in my life to that point. And so, I was kind of walking with very, just baby beginner childhood faith that I didn't understand who our God was. And so, I just found in that first diagnosis that he's a good father who's not just so distant in the clouds. He's not on a throne, super far away, out of reach, out of sight, but he's rather, he's so big, so powerful, yet he's so close. He's so near. Like, he sent his spirit to dwell on the inside of you. Like, how powerful is that? And so, I really found so much comfort that even though I was so durationally sick and I got caught in this cycle of, like, treatments and then trying to recover, then the next moment, just put you back down and get caught in this loop, the Lord was there.

And that was just my first picture of who God was. And it was just a very basic understanding of that he's good. I love that. I remember we were talking earlier this week and you were just kind of walking through each diagnosis and kind of the stages that you found yourself in your faith. I remember you describing kind of that first one was like, like you just described, it's this fragile faith. And then the second one, I think you were saying, like, you kind of went in this, like, secular overcomer mindset. Like, I'm just gonna muster up my own strength and kind of fight through. Could you just speak through kind of maybe the seasons that you found yourself in through each diagnosis in the midst of those four diagnoses in four years? And so, it's like, I got progressively stronger, but I just wanna note that my strength was increasing in correlation to my awareness of the strength in Jesus, that it was not my own strength, but it was rather just a direct correlation to how aware I was of the strength of God. And so, yeah, I found myself, when I got diagnosed for a second time, I'd already kind of was building myself physically, was finding a lot more motivation in like secular discipline, you know, like grit your teeth. And I remember when I was 19 years old,

got diagnosed for a second time and they put a surgery on my horizon, which was gonna be in four weeks. And they said, you know, Dylan, you got four weeks, it's gonna be a 23-hour surgery, it's gonna be head and neck, legs, complex nerve tissues, like so many moving pieces. And they're like, you gotta come surgery day, like in the best physical condition you can be in to give yourself the best chance. And so, I felt like it was like a bring it on mentality. And I think a lot of like the fitness stuff that I walk in today was birthed in that season, but it wasn't really healthy motivation. I feel like the weight of the success of that procedure was on my shoulders. That I was waking up at four in the morning, I was working out for hours to exhaustion because I deep down felt like the success or failure was on me. And that's not a healthy way to live your life. That's a huge difference between discipline and devotion. Like, can we distinct the two? Discipline is honestly rooted in fear and devotion is rooted on surrenderance. And I walked into that surgery prep in fearful discipline, thinking that the outcome was gonna be on my own shoulders. And I showed up on surgery date and I woke up that next morning after a 23-hour procedure and I woke up

in a condition that was indescribable. I'm in a pain state that is more pain than I've ever felt in my life. Like pain on pain on pain. And it broke me to the point where I knew that I couldn't do it alone. And I wanna keep saying this the whole time is that God is good. And it's in the goodness of God that he enabled or allowed, it wasn't his doing, but he allowed it, me to experience the most pain I'd ever felt in my life to make me aware that I needed him. Because I felt what I felt and I saw what I saw. I was sitting in blood, tubes everywhere. And I deep down said, God, I have nothing and I need you with everything. And I meant that for the first time in my life. I meant it. And it's one thing to say it, it's another thing to mean it with everything. And what the Lord did for me when I woke up from that procedure after preparing for it, thinking that the weight of it was on my shoulders, that it was gonna be, I was the one who was gonna be the X factor, I was gonna be the one that was gonna make or break it, I was gonna be the one that was gonna will myself to success. How often are we trying to will ourselves to success? And so what God did for me when I woke up

was he broke me of self-reliance. And too many of us are walking in this self-reliance, this belief that we can live apart from the one who calls himself the life. And so that was what I learned is that he wanted to break self-reliance. True dependency is rooted in humility and self-sufficiency is rooted in pride. And sometimes in his goodness, he might allow a painful season, a painful event to actually shatter your flesh, shatter your delusion that thinks that I can do this on my own strength. Because you might be able to do some things on your own strength who strengthens you, but you can only do all things by Christ who strengthens you, amen? Amen, you can only do all things through him. You guys are tough people, I know, so you guys can do some things, but you can only do all things in Christ. And what if he's allowing you to go through a situation right now, so significant, so severe, that it is forcing you, putting you in a position where you have to become dependent? And that is the goodness of God, if you've ever asked me. Unreal, it reminds me of a quote that I believe is from Charles Spurgeon, where he says, I've learned to kiss the waves

that hurl me upon the rock of ages. It's another thought that says, the weaker I have become, the stronger I find Christ to be. And I certainly think that correlates with your story. Maybe walk us to diagnosis number three, I believe it is, and the doctors essentially say, hey, there's no hope, so go find a beach and go enjoy the rest of the short life that you have remaining. Yeah, so that was an interesting season because I just learned what true dependency meant. And then when I got diagnosed for a third time, it almost put that dependency to the full max test. You know, it's one thing to depend on God, it's another thing to depend on God when your whole life is in his hands. And they said, Dylan, we want you to go find a beach, go live out your days. And I was gearing up, truthfully, for another season of pain, and it turned out to be a season of silence. And I ended up back in California where my parents lived, just sitting in the backyard, laying on the grass, and on a hospital bed. And what a difference. I never could have expected myself to be in that position. And so my life became day in and day out, just communing with the Lord. I would just sit with him for hours. I mean, 10, 12, 15 hours a day, day in and day out.

The world had given up on me. I wasn't seeing any doctors. My phone was off, I wasn't social. I was just with the Lord. I found so much peace in the Lord. I found like my desires were just him. And I would show up to him every day, just to sit in his presence. In this, I was coming to him sick, and yes, symptoms were increasing, but I was not begging him for healing. Too many of us are begging God to heal us when we're not just seeking first his face. I wanna remind you, it says, seek first the kingdom and all things will be added. Too many of us in the room are seeking first the things to be added, and not seeking first the Father in the first place. And so I just wanted his presence. Psalm 42 says, when shall I come and appear before the Lord? And I meant that in my heart. And so for four months, every day, I would just show up and just say, God, I just wanna sit with you. I just wanna feel you. And I learned what an intimate relationship meant with God, and that he is so good, he is so real. And then four months of not seeing doctors, not doing treatment, just sitting in the presence of God,

he came out with the biggest answer to the prayer, and cancer went gone. And I'm here to tell you and testify that Jesus Christ is healing bodies today. He is a miracle worker then, he's a miracle worker now. You can't tell me that he's not working miracles today. That we read in a Bible, fill the testimonies of real people like you and me, who encountered the real Jesus, with faith just like you and I have. And this book is not a storybook, but it's a book of testimonies. And so read this and let this build your faith, and not just encourage you without any hope. Like let this be a testimony book, and give you real faith that miracles are possible today. Amen, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Dylan, I'd love to ask you, because you've experienced both sides of the equation here. You've experienced very serious prolonged suffering. You've experienced the miraculous healing of God. And how do you keep that? kind of bold faith and expecting that God is the God of the impossible while continuing to go, God, I trust you with the results regardless, and I'm going to trust you in the waiting.

How do you manage that tension? That's a great question. I think it's in the maturity of your Christian walk is when you begin to realize that God is doing more in you through your suffering than he is in your blessing. And we're gonna give him all the glory for our blessed seasons, and we're gonna be generous in those seasons, but God in his ultimate wisdom is, I want you to reflect on your life. He's done more in your heart, in your valleys than he has in your mountaintops. He's done more in you through your pain than he has in your blessing. And so it's in his goodness, in his wisdom that he might be allowing a waiting season to maybe give you something more than you're praying for. Like we know that God gives exceedingly abundantly more than we could ever ask for. But he might want to demonstrate that by answering your prayer, but letting you wait in a season to work something in your heart to give you the answer to your prayer and maybe give you intimacy. Answer your prayer, but then in the waiting season, break some chains off. Like waiting seasons is when God works in you what you don't have the faith to even pray for. Come on, so good, so good.

Okay, so four diagnoses, four years. Essentially to a certain degree, it's almost as if you've stared death in the face four times and I would imagine that that experience would give you and strip away things that you thought mattered in life and now all of a sudden in the midst of this circumstance don't matter at all. Could you maybe just speak to like, as you've gone through this, what have you learned about life, eternity, like about the things that like, and what really matters and what doesn't really matter? I wanna call you to have urgency in your faith, urgency. Too many of us are living in a false confidence in tomorrow. The only guaranteed moment in your entire life is this moment. Amen. And so we shouldn't be taking that for granted. And to the person who thinks that they can, well, I hear this more for the younger audience is like, oh, I'm just gonna get right with Christ down the road. Oh, I'm just gonna indulge in my sin when it's comfortable. I'm gonna live for myself now and then I'm just gonna go repent later when it's convenient next year, 10 years from now, or whenever. That's just a dangerous road to be on, for tomorrow is not guaranteed.

And Jesus Christ is too bold in his claims for you not to repent now. He is too powerful in what he claims for you to one, live lukewarm, be half in, half out. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. If you believe in those truths, then you should be wanting to surrender everything to him now, have urgency. It took me to see death in my face so early in my life to realize that he is the only one worth living for. And if you live for Christ, you have everything. And if that means you have to sacrifice or surrender some things in your life, but then when the single inevitable thing for every single one of us is that this body does perish at some point and you then see the joy of joys at the end of this life, then what a blessing that is. So have urgency in your faith. I love that, so good, Dylan. Reminds me of the Apostle Paul words in Philippians 1.21, I believe it is, and just this statement that is so stark, so bold, and so filled with courage. He just says, to live is Christ, to die is gain. And if you're living, the purpose of your life is to glorify and exalt Christ in everything you do. And when you understand that reality, you realize that death is a mere graduation to your eternal home in the presence of God Almighty forever, and what a gift and what a privilege that is.

Dylan, maybe one final question that I'd love to ask you is if your life had one message that you could tell the world, what would it be? God is good, and He's not gonna break His goodness for you right now. So your situation is not the outlier. He is good then, He is good today. The next thing is that everything you could ever need was fully covered by the blood. What a truth that is, that it's 0% on you in 100 years. 100% on Him. If it was 1% on us, our human nature and our brokenness would have screwed up. So we can just give Him thanks that He did it all on the cross. It was paid for in full. He said, by His stripes, you are healed. It's all on Him. Everything you could ever need was paid for by the blood. I think the last point, is that nothing is impossible. Like, I want you to believe that. Friends, could we believe in our hearts and not just know it in our minds that nothing is impossible? Like, it's really easy for us to see, no, nothing is impossible, and just know that in our minds, or see that on a social media post, or on a billboard, and just get inspired.

But it's when you know it in your heart, that we serve the God of the impossible, and we should expect the God of the impossible to move in impossibilities before otherwise. It's when you believe, and you can actually transfer it from your mind to your heart, because your heart has a bigger capacity than your mind does. You know that, right? Your heart has just a bigger capacity. Because when you believe in your heart that nothing is impossible to Him who raised Christ on the third day, it should move you to pray different, to walk different, to talk different, to be a witness, to testify. If you believe in your heart that nothing is impossible with Him, then you should never walk past someone and need a prayer ever again. Why? Because you believe that the God of the impossible lives in the inside of you. It says our prayers literally move heaven. When we pray today, we're not just laying hands and saying words, but there is actual power in the Holy Spirit

that is transferring through you into that person. We're not saying prayers because it's just something that we're told to do, but there's power in prayer. And so let's believe too that nothing is impossible. And that's the word. Awesome. Come on. It's unreal. Dylan, I think on behalf of all of us, I just wanna say thank you. Thank you for your faith. Thank you for your courage. You're 22 years old, and yet the maturity that you have and you hold is unbelievable. And I wanna get back to certainly what Dylan would say is the most important thing, and that's the urgency of salvation, the greatest healing, the greatest miracle you could ever encounter, putting your faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And if you're in the room today and you've believed that lie, I'mma wait, and I promise tomorrow, all you've got is today. And today, I believe God has divinely orchestrated this moment for you right here, right now, to make the greatest, most important decision

you could ever make in your entire life. And so with every head bowed, every eye closed, if that's you, if you know, God's knocking on the door of your heart, and you're saying, I need to make that decision. I need to put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I want you to pray this prayer after me. You don't have to say it out loud. You can just say it in the confines of your heart. Just say, Jesus, today I admit that I'm a sinner, and I need a savior. And I believe that savior is you. I believe you lived a sinless life, that you died on the cross for my sin. And three days later, you rose again from the grave. And today, I choose to follow you. Lord, I just thank you for every single person under the sound of my voice this morning. I thank you for these words from Dylan. I pray that they would instill faith, trust, hope in the God who is the God of the impossible. We ask all these things in your son's name. Everybody said, one more time, can we thank Dylan Mandel Church for being with us this morning? Come on, can we really thank him? Can we thank him? You can be seated at all of our locations. And in just a few moments, as we said, we are going to pray for people who need healing.

And before we dive into that, I just wanna give us some context to healing and what we're gonna be doing this morning. I'm aware that that word, for some, may be a myriad of different emotions. For some of you, you get really excited because you've seen God move, you've seen God work, you've heard the stories, you believe that God is the God of the impossible. For others of you, that word and idea might bring some pain because you prayed for healing. and it didn't happen the way you expected. You prayed for the marriage to be restored and it didn't. You prayed for the anxiety to dissipate and it didn't. You prayed for the diagnosis to change and it didn't. And so when we talk about healing, we have to talk about it with faith, but we also have to talk about it with tenderness because there's stories attached to it, there's names attached to it, there's funerals attached to it, there's hospital rooms attached to it, there's counseling sessions attached to it, but there is also scripture attached to it. And that's what we're gonna do this morning. We're gonna go to scripture in James 5, 14 and 15. This is what it says. It says, is anyone among you sick? Let him call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. James says this, if you're sick, call the church to pray. And then he mentions anointing with oil. And I know some of us are like, ah, that seems a little spooky. It's not spooky at all. Two concepts that we must understand in regards to oil. Number one, in biblical times, it was often used as medicine and that's a powerful reminder that prayer isn't a replacement for modern medicine or doctors. It's a great supplement. I'm thankful for doctors, I'm thankful for modern medicine, but I'm also thankful for the power of prayer. Secondly, oil is used as a symbol for the Holy Spirit, dependence on God and setting someone apart for the Lord. And so this morning, when we anoint people with oil, we're not saying that there's power in the oil. We're saying that this need, this person, this body, we are bringing them to the Lord, bringing this need to God. And it's important when we talk about healing, we're talking about physical healing, yes, but more than that, Jesus desires to heal the whole person. Talking about physical healing, spiritual healing, emotional healing, relational healing, every kind of healing you can think of, Jesus wants to intercede and intervene.

And what I have found is that most Christians, unfortunately, find themselves on one side of two extremes, both of which are not helpful. I call these two extremes, on one hand, you've got the crazy Christians. We've all run into them. On the other hand, you've got the careful Christians. So the crazy Christians are the ones who say things like this. If you have enough faith, you will always be healed, whenever you want, whenever you want it. That sounds really spiritual. It's not helpful at all. And it falls apart really quickly because the Apostle Paul, the guy who wrote 2 3rds of the New Testament in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, says he prayed for an affliction to be removed three times, and God didn't remove it. And so we're gonna sit here this morning and say, the guy who was shipwrecked for the gospel, the guy who was imprisoned for the gospel, the guy who was beaten for the gospel, the guy who gave his life for the Lord, he just didn't believe enough? No, that's silly. In fact, it's not just silly, it's cruel. Because here's what happens. If you say that kind of stuff, and it can make a lot of money,

if you say that kind of stuff, and they don't get healed, you haven't just left them sick, you've left them ashamed. Because I didn't have faith. And I think about the story in Mark chapter nine, we don't have time to go there, but there's a father who brings his son who needs to be healed to Jesus. And those of you who have kids, you know there's no pain like kid pain. Brings his son to Jesus, and Jesus looks at him and says, essentially, hey, everything can happen for those who to believe. And the dad looks at Jesus and says this is the most honest statement ever. He says, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. And Jesus heals him, heals the son, which shows you and me that even bringing your unbelief to Jesus is a form of faith. Jesus says that faith, the size of a mustard seed, which if I was holding it, you wouldn't even be able to see it, can say to this mountain, move, and it will. So that's one extreme that is not helpful. Then on the other stream, you've got careful Christians. These are the Christians who are essentially like, God seldom or rarely heals. I mean, he can because he's God,

but it's not common. And it's careful, it's cautious, it sounds mature. In some circles, it sounds theologically responsible. But oftentimes, what we call mature is actually just people lowering their expectations of God so they don't get disappointed. Nowhere in scripture does it say to lower your expectations for God to prevent yourself from disappointment, but here's what happens. Yeah, we can clap for it, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Here's what happens. People start praying safe. instead of bold ones, because bold prayers feel too vulnerable. And I'm here to tell you I have yet to find the passage of Scripture in the New Testament that says, hey, because healing doesn't always happen, if you've been praying for a while, just stop. No, it doesn't say that. It says ask, believe, pray, call the elders, anoint with oil, pray the prayer of faith, and God will intervene. Okay, Sam, so what do we do? We don't want to be crazy Christians. We don't want to be careful Christians. We want to be biblical Christians who hold two truths at the same time. Our God is able to heal. There is no sickness stronger than the name of Jesus Christ. Our God, not just is able, our God desires to heal. And the other truth of this tension, our God does not always heal like we expect or in the time frame we want. And maturity doesn't resolve this tension by deleting one of the sides. It holds both of them at the same time and says, I will pray in faith, I

will believe in faith, and I will ultimately trust God with the result. Reminds me of three Hebrew boys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who refused to bow to a golden statue of Nebuchadnezzar because they serve God and God alone. They're brought before the king. It's in Daniel chapter 3. If you have time today, I'd encourage you to read it. The king says, I'm gonna give you one more shot to bow. This is what they say. I think this is such a powerful template for prayer, especially for healing. Our God is able to deliver us from your hand. Our God will deliver us from your hand. But even if he doesn't, we're not bowing. So hear me today. Your God that you serve, my God that I serve, is able to heal. Some of you just need to get there. You serve a God who is able to supernaturally intervene on your behalf. Your God will heal. But even if he doesn't, he's still God and he's still good. Why? Because our faith is not in outcomes. Our faith is in a person, and that person is Jesus Christ, who has defeated death, hell, and the grave. And I'll end with this, and then we're gonna pray. Lazarus, raised from the dead. Dead for four days. Jesus goes in, says, walk out. Dude starts walking out. People are like, what? But guess what? Lazarus still died. The greatest physical healing on this side of eternity is still temporary. What are they? Signposts of a greater day that is coming, where every tear will be wiped away. Sickness will no longer be a part of the story. Cancer does not have the final say in the kingdom of heaven. So today, we are believing and praying for many signposts of healing that will point us all to the greatest day that is coming. The day where we see our Savior face-to-face, healed and whole. And so right now, at our Grapevine location and all of our locations, I'm gonna ask for our prayer team to make your way to the front of the stage. And we are going to anoint those with oil who want prayer for healing. Again, maybe it's physical, maybe it's spiritual, maybe it's emotional. I'm believing for husbands and wives who have been told that they can't have kids, for God to supernaturally intervene on their behalf, that we would see miracle babies. I don't know what it is, but I want to tell you this morning, there's no need too small, there's no need too

great. If you're in the balcony here at Grapevine, we've got a prayer team up there. And church, I'm gonna ask us all to stand to our feet, and I'm gonna pray. And as I say amen, our team is gonna lead us in worship. And we are going to pray bold prayers of faith this morning. If you would, if you feel comfortable, would you open your hands to heaven like this? Jesus, we thank you that you are the God of the impossible, that you are more than able. And so God, we ask for you to supernaturally intervene on our behalf, that we would see incredible signposts today of the day that is to come. Jesus, we ask for your kingdom to come this morning on earth as it is in heaven. We ask all these things in your Son's name, everybody said. Come on, if you want healing, if you want prayer, come forward. We'd be honored to pray with you. When did I start to forget all of the great things you did? When did I throw away faith for the impossible? How did I start to believe that you weren't sufficient for me? Why do I talk myself out of seeing miracles? You are more than able Yes, you are You are more than able You are more than able You are more than able Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? You are more than able Yes, you are You are more than able Yes, you are more than able You are more than able Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? It's easy for you, God It's easy for you You're more than able

You're in this room, God Can you imagine? With all of the faith in the room What the Lord can do What the Lord can do And it's gonna happen Just let the wave make it through He's gonna move He's gonna move Can you imagine? With all of the faith in the room What the Lord can do What the Lord can do And it's gonna happen Just let the wave make it through He's gonna move He's gonna move Can you imagine? With all of the faith in the room What the Lord can do What the Lord can do And it's gonna happen Just let the wave make it through He's gonna move He's gonna move Anything is possible Anything is possible Anything is possible Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Anything is possible

Anything is possible I believe Anything is possible Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? How's life happening? Is it better here? Are we so on edge? Is it better here? You are more than avinor You are more than able, you are more than able, who am I to deny what the Lord can do? God, it's easy for me, oh, it's easy for me We make a home in this place, yeah Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine He's been my foreman in the fight, time after time Born of His Spirit and washed in His blood And what He did for me on Calvary is more than enough So I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail He will never fail I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail He will never fail I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail He will never fail I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail He will never fail I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered

That's why I trust Him, that's why I trust Him I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered That's why I trust Him, that's why I trust Him I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered That's why I trust Him, that's why I trust Him I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered That's why I trust Him, that's why I trust Him I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail He will never fail I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail He will never fail Come on, are you thankful for what Jesus is doing in this place this morning? Come on, are you thankful for what Jesus is doing in this place this morning? Psalm 136 verse one says, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. Can we say that together? Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. He is good. No matter what we're going through, no matter what we're facing, no matter what may be standing in front of us, no matter what we're going to face this week, this month or this year, God is good. That's right. We can continue to give thanks. The Bible tells us that no matter what we're going through, it says we bring it to him in prayer and petition and in thankfulness. So over and over and over,

we can give thanks to the Lord for he is good. Are you thankful for that this morning? Thank you, Jesus, that you're good. We're gonna take just a moment and we're gonna worship together. And I would encourage you in these last few moments, if you still wanna come for prayer, maybe you were in your seat and the Holy Spirit was stirring in your heart and you said, man, I wish I would've come forward. Come in these last few moments, come forward for prayer. And we have our prayer team is gonna be available even after service. If you wanna talk to someone, we would love the opportunity to pray with you, but don't miss this opportunity. If there's something going on in your family, if there's something going on in your marriage, if there's something going on at work, surrender it to Jesus, lay it at his feet and let him do what only he can do. Let's worship together. So I'll worship through my prayer. And I'll sing blessed be your name. I won't let it steal my praise. I won't let it steal my praise. Cause it's still an empty grave. Oh, I worship. So I'll worship through my prayer. And I'll sing blessed.

I'll sing blessed be your name. I won't let it. I won't let it steal my praise. Come on, with full faith, lift it up. Cause it's still an empty grave. Sing I'll worship. So I'll worship through my prayer. I won't let it steal my praise. I'll sing blessed be your name. I won't let it steal my praise. Cause it's still an empty grave. Praise. Come on, can we give him praise one more time for what he's doing in our lives? Thank you, Jesus. We thank you that there's an empty grave. We thank you, Lord. Well, you guys enjoyed this morning. Isn't it incredible to be in the house of God and to be spurred on in your faith? Man, I hope this morning was inspiring, was empowering. I know we're gonna hear some amazing stories about what Jesus is doing through what happened today. You can go ahead and find your seat for just a few moments as we wrap up our experience today. If you prayed today to receive Jesus as your personal savior for the very first time, I'm telling you, that is the greatest decision that you could ever make. Church, can we celebrate all of those

who gave their lives to Jesus today? Our prayer team is located just at the sides of the room. We'd love to talk with you and we'd love to pray with you. We know you made that decision. We have a Bible we would love to give you, and we want to walk with you as you begin to follow Jesus. Following Jesus is not a solo sport. It's not meant to be done on your own. We need each other. We need the body of Christ to help us walk with him and become more and more like him every day. So we would love to talk with you, love to pray with you, so be sure to stop by those tables before you leave here today. Man, can we make some noise for Dylan one more time and show our appreciation to him? Hey, this Wednesday, this Wednesday, Color Clash is happening at The Mix. Dylan's gonna be back here. Those that are cheering know what I'm talking about, but The Mix student ministry, again, parents, sixth through 12th grade, and we're gonna be cheering for you. If your young person is not here, you are missing it. Make them go to The Mix. I'm telling you, it'll help you. Help me help you. You want your young person to be a part of The Mix. And if you know families with students,

get them here on Wednesday night. It's the largest paint war in DFW. It's crazy, I'm telling you. There's nothing like it. 2,000 plus students going nuts, throwing paint at each other, it's awesome. But you know what's even more awesome? Is they're gonna get to hear the message of Jesus Christ. And the stories we hear about what Jesus does in hearts and lives of young people is absolutely stunning. It's absolutely stunning. So make sure to have your students and invite some friends to be with you this Wednesday night. It's going to be absolutely awesome. Everybody say next Sunday. Hey guys, big tip, next Sunday's Mother's Day. Don't mess it up. So I just gave you a solid right there, so I'm helping you out. So next Sunday's Mother's Day, it's gonna be an incredible weekend here. We got Pastor Lisa Young gonna be sharing a message. Bring your mom, bring your whole family. We've got photo ops, a great experience planned. It's gonna be an awesome time and we can't wait to see you back. But let's stand to our feet and we're gonna wrap up today's experience just declaring the truth of God's word over our lives. We're gonna put it up on screens here

and everybody just say this with me. Say Jesus, thank you that in you I am loved, forgiven, and blessed. For you, I will reach up in worship, reach out to share my faith, and reach in to become more like you. And because of you, I know the best is yet to come. Thank you, Fellowship Church. We'll see you back. God bless. ♪ Where are those chains that once held me down ♪