The Master Architect: No Mistakes in the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly | Steven Khoury

Hey, Pastor Alex and everyone at Battle Creek Church. I just wanted to take a moment to personally say thank you for your amazing partnership. God has used your recent one day offering and your generosity to empower a global movement of compassion, which is delivering help and hope every single day. Together with you over the past 12 months, we've trained 49,000 farmers in sustainable best practices, empowered and equipped over 78,000 women and girls. We fed 677,000 children every school day in 40 different countries and responded to more than 92 disasters or humanitarian crises worldwide. And together last year, just in the US, we saw 7,649 people make a decision to follow Jesus. Together, we're bringing light to dark places and delivering hope to people who need it the most. So on behalf of everyone at Convoy of Hope, every farmer trained, every woman and girl empowered, every disaster survivor and every child fed, thank you. Glory to God. Half a million dollars that you gave on one day, on Easter Sunday to make happen some of what just happened. And I just wanna tell you thank you for being a part of the kingdom and believing in the kingdom and believing that it's bigger than what happens in the four walls that we call our local church.

And today is gonna be no exception to that. In January, between Christmas and us bombing Iran, we made a trip into Israel. And I don't remember how many of us, but a busload of us went into Israel. And while I was preparing right after Christmas for all the devotions and all of the messages that I would teach while we were there, I came across a reel about a thing called the Nativity Encounter in Bethlehem, where there was a ministry teaching the local Arab families, mainly women and children, to tour and hear the real story of the birth of Jesus in the place that Jesus was born. And the little reel was talking about the fact that these people live in Bethlehem, but had no idea it was the birthplace of Jesus Christ, and that they were educating these small children and these women and men as they walked through and toured this. And I was so intrigued by it that I forwarded that reel to Tony in Egypt and said, I think this is a really good idea in the Middle East. Didn't think anything else about it. We went into Bethlehem and we were touring Bethlehem. We stopped to eat lunch in an Arab restaurant and had a party. You were there, were you there? Yeah. And we had what's called a Galileo party that day

in that restaurant where you put on the traditional Arab deal and I belly danced for all the people. And it was amazing. People got saved, lives were changed. And, but at that lunch, while we were sitting there, I talked to a lady, a local guide from Bethlehem. And I said, hey, have you ever heard of this nativity encounter? She said, yeah, I've heard of it. I've been to it. I serve at it. And I said, well, tell me about it. She said, well, your guide, Samer, who was here praying over you a few weeks ago, not only is participating, but he's scholarshiping women and children and taking them to this encounter and then taking them to the mall and buying these children clothes. And I already knew Samer was the real deal, but in that moment, I really knew he's the real deal. And so when he came back to the table, I said, Samer, tell me about this. And he got bashful and shy. He didn't wanna talk about what he was doing to help these families. And I said, no, tell me about this ministry. And he said, well, I'm actually friends with the pastor who put this thing on.

Would you like to meet that pastor? I've been going to Israel, taking groups to Israel for 26 years and had never met really a local minister in the whole country. God was waiting until this moment. I said, I'd like to meet that pastor. He called him on the phone, handed me the phone. We introduced ourselves to one another. I said, why don't you come to Jerusalem and meet with our group and just teach our group one day in the hotel. He agreed to do that, drove all the way into Jerusalem, taught our group one day, and our hearts were instantly connected. And I began to talk to him about the Middle East. We shared some passion about the Middle East. I picked up his passion, he picked up my passion. And I don't have a lot of gifts, but one of them is hanging out with people. And I can preach and hang out. That's like it, that's the gifts I have. And as we hung out, our hearts were connected. And I knew that there would be some partnership that we would be a part of. in the future. The night before I'd had dinner with a Christian businessman in Bethlehem, and as he wept over dinner, he said, Pastor Alex, would you please use whatever influence you have with the White House, with the government, with the leaders, to help the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. And these Arab Christians are being treated like terrorists, and we need to help them. And I promised him over dinner that I would use whatever opportunity and

influence I have to help them. The next day, I met Pastor Steve Curry and invited him to come on this Sunday to teach the Word of God. Would you do this? Let me just say this to you. Coming to a new place to preach for the very first time is not always easy. At Battle Creek, we want to welcome, and today I'm not hosting him. We have thousands of hosts welcoming one pastor today. Would you stand on your feet and put your hands together and welcome Pastor Steve Curry to this stage today. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you so much. Please be seated. Praise the Lord. Thank you for having me. I'm so humbled, so excited to be here. It's a beautiful time to be alive in history because we have been challenged to rise above the circumstances, and we've been challenged to be the light in the dark world. I'd like to pray before we start to share. Today, my desire is that we learn from each other, and we learn through each other's experiences. Amen. Would you bow your heads with me? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you. Thank you for being our Lord and our Savior. Thank you, Lord, for being our God. Thank you, Lord, for being our Redeemer. Lord, I ask you this second to release your angels around us. Command your angels to stand guard around everything we say and do and think throughout this process as we hear a message and hear your word. Forgive us our sins. Help us, Lord, to draw closer to your name, draw closer to your glory. We thank you and we love you for what you're about to do. In Yeshua's name we pray. Amen. By the way, after the service, feel free to go out to the table. My kids are out there. My daughter and my son. Say hello to them. One is born in Springfield, Missouri, out of all places. The other is born in Jerusalem, out of all cool places. All right. If we haven't met yet, my name is Stephen Curry. If you're sitting there wondering, who is this guy? Well, let me tell you exactly who I am. The pastor introduced me and talked about how we met, how we came together. I am just your brother who grew up right in the backyard of the spot where Jesus was born and in the middle of where our Christianity started. I didn't learn about faith from a safe textbook in a comfortable classroom. I had to learn about faith from a safe textbook. I had to learn it from the pavement and bleeding and under attack. I'll share a little bit of my story, finding out what it actually means to look up when everything around you tells you to give up. If you know me personally, you know I love Jesus. I crave revival and salvation for both people, the Arab and the Jewish people. I'm a Bible-believing, spirit-filled, Arab evangelical pastor living in the Holy Land. I am Arab. Please don't run. I come in peace.

All right? But my trust in his sovereign wisdom called my family and myself. He called us into a walk of intense, difficult times and trials. We all hit these seasons, don't we? We all go through difficult times, the good, bad, and the ugly. We all go through difficult experiences in life. It's called the human nature. We all go through it. And you're in a situation right now, or you might be in a situation right now, or you have been, or you're about to be, in a place where there's absolute pressure on your life. The trial keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger, month after month, and you're crying out, Lord, I'm done. I can't take another hit. Get me out of this pit. But God looks at you and says, no, not yet. There is still too much of you left. He allows a difficult season to stay until our pride is completely broken down, until our self-reliance is completely stripped away. And the only thing left standing is the raw, unshakable power of Jesus Christ in your life. Look, I'm not talking to you from a place of theory. I was born in Jerusalem, as I mentioned earlier, and I grew up in the birth city of Christ, the city of Bethlehem, all my life. Seen a lot of wars, a lot of turmoil, a lot of bloodshed, a lot of brokenness, a lot of division, a lot of hate. a lot of animosity, just a lot of bloodshed over the years. In fact, as I go back in my recollection of growing up in the land of Israel, there hasn't been a single day of my life experiencing world peace. There's always been some kind of division, or brokenness, or hurt, or hatred, or division, or animosity in the life that I grew up in. That was just a part of our reality growing up there. That teaches you something. To me, what it taught me is life is short, so I challenge people everywhere I go to live life to the fullest, honoring God first, and honoring those whom you love next, because you can be here one moment, and you can be gone the next. That's the reality of life that we live today. Our church in Bethlehem, the church my father started 46 years ago, if we were in Bethlehem right now, it would be maybe a sanctuary half the size of this room. People come in the back doors, Molotov bombs in their hands, and they throw Molotov bombs at the church pews.

For many Sundays during the 80s and 90s, you come to our sanctuary, you'd see buckets of water in the sanctuary. You were wondering, because you don't see any water leakage from the ceiling, why is there buckets of water? Well, the buckets of water were there because we'd have deacons sitting in the front, and they'd get up, get the buckets of water, turn off the fire, and get back to worshiping the Lord. Nothing ever happened. That was an average Sunday for us for many Sundays. Then the next Sunday, you'd see the same thing. You'd come in, you'd see buckets of water, and they'd come in, they'd throw Molotov bombs, we'd turn off the fire, get back to worship the Lord. Nothing ever happened. That was an average Sunday for us for many, many, many Sundays. There were Sundays that our church members would walk out the church doors, and rocks and stones would come flying on people's heads. Look, I'm not going to sell you a piece of cake here, because many Christians got scared and didn't come back until months later or a year or two later, because it's scary to go through those experiences. But those that stuck to it understood that following Christ comes at a price. You have to be willing to pay a price when you follow Jesus. Listen, come as you are, when you're asked to come to the front altar at some point of your life, in your walk or journey. Come as you are does not mean stay as you are. When you come as you are, you come understanding that you're leaving your old self at the altar, or you're leaving your old self behind and telling the Lord, I'm going to follow you regardless of what happens. We're all going to fail. We're all going to fall into some kind of stupid mistake, we're human beings. The most important thing is, the most important thing in your life as a daughter and a child

of the King is when you do a stupid mistake, is you get on your knees and you repent. You dust yourself off and you identify what you did wrong, why you were wrong, what caused you to do what you did, what stupid thing that you went through. You identify it. You put your fingers on it so that you don't go back to where you were. We are our own worst enemies as human beings, Satan's not our worst enemy, he is our enemy, he's God's enemy. But your worst enemy is yourself. Is the state of mind that you get stuck in every day, and usually it's the old self. Where Christ wants you to come to renew yourself to his spirit, to renew yourself every day by the renewing of the mind. How? By being transfigured and transformed to the blood of the Lamb. By spending time with him every single day, and I spoke earlier about, we've made Christ and Christianity into a product. You pick up Jesus on Sunday and at the end of the day, right before you go back to your Monday schedule, you put Jesus back on the shelf. And this is to all of us, this is not just you, this is globally, the church globally. We make Christ and Christianity into a product. We pick it up and we do what we do on Sunday and we put it back on the shelf. Rather than Christianity and Christ as a product, it's a process. It's not a product, it's a process. You process your relationship with Jesus. You'll make mistakes. You'll get caught in positions where you might not know the word, you might not know the scriptures, you might not have said the right thing to somebody at that moment. But that's the process. Every day you draw closer to Christ. Today the premise of the sermon, or the time together, the premise of it is, God's the greatest architect on earth.

The good, bad, and the ugly in your life, God's allowed it to happen, and he's allowing it to happen through the choices that you make, and sometimes it's just the reality that you live in. The good, bad, and the ugly, it's all a part of God's architect plan to make you the person he wants you to be. So you are all right now in a stage in your life, in your marriage, in your home, in your business. You're going through a time where you are being shaped and formed into a being, into a person that God wants you to be. The question is, who is your molder? Who is shaping you? Who is making you to become what you need to be? Henceforth, God's the greatest architect, and we are his masterpiece today, and God's working and shaping our marriage, our home, our family. If you're not married, then you as a person, as a young person, God's got a great plan for your life. And there's only two camps in this world, only two camps. God's camp or the world's camp. Which camp you're in. You make that choice today, right now. Because when you walk out those doors, reality will hit. Trials and temptations, and difficult times, and you don't know what's ahead, you don't know what's coming. But God does. He's the greatest architect. He's got a whole massive plan for your life. I remember growing up in Israel all my life, at age 16, 16 and a half, I had the privilege to spend time with a young Muslim who just had a lot of questions about Jesus. After two weeks, plus or minus, see I speak Arabic, I read Arabic, I read Hebrew, this was in Arabic, because he's a Muslim. After two weeks he disappeared, this young man, man. I was 16 plus and I thought I had passion to Lord Jesus, he was eating up the Bible, literally eating it up. His mother found his Arabic Bible. She gave it to his uncles.

His punishment was he woke up and his uncles were standing over his bed. They unwinded a metal hanger. Have you ever seen this, a metal hanger, when it hits the skin, the metal hanger splits the skin open. For three days, they would beat him and lash him with a metal hanger. For three days. Every 67 hours they would come into his bedroom and beat him. Their one request, deny your love for Jesus. Their one request, deny your love for Christ. The irony is, this guy hadn't yet gone through discipleship 101. He couldn't intellectually, theologically, philosophically answer or differentiate between Revelations and John and Genesis. He just fell in love with Jesus. And he, with his knowledge of Christ for those short two weeks, allowed him to be physically beaten without denying Christ for three, for three days being beaten, not denying Christ once. That's the kind of love and passion I want to have for Jesus, amen. And he didn't know much about Jesus, philosophically, theologically. He just knew that Christ loved him for who he was. And Christ saw him for who he could be. And if we can learn to love people that way, we can transform the world. Love people for who they are. And see them for who they can be. And in that reality alone, you can make such a big impact in your life, in your home, amongst your family, to see people for who they could be, rather than who they are at that moment. It changes everything. While that was going on, I was walking down a church street towards our church in Bethlehem. It's called the Mother Church, we call it, because that's where my father started 46 years ago. And out of it, we birthed many other ministries. I'm walking towards our church. And somebody comes up to me in Arabic and says, Are you Stephen?

They were related to this guy, to this young man, who was being, under house arrest, being beaten. I said, Yes, I am. And when I said, Yes, I felt something burning in the back of my head. When I said, Yes, I turned around, I went like this here. And I'm talking to these guys. It was a distraction. And when I felt something burning, I went like this and scratched my hair. And I felt something, there was blood on the palm of my hand. And that's when I realized somebody had hit me from the back. I turned around. About five or six guys with metal chains and thick wooden sticks in their hands. They began to beat me over and over and over again. 30, 40, 50 seconds, however long that beating was, it was painful. Being beaten to the ground viciously. Remember, I shouted and said, Lord, get me. That's all I could say, Lord, get me through this beating. I could scream, Lord, get me through this, Lord, get me through this. Why I'm being beaten to the ground. I tell people I literally felt a white blanket drape over my body at that moment I understood. Because I was conscious. I can see their faces. I can see them laugh and smile while I'm being beaten to the ground. I literally felt a white blanket, just saw a white blanket drape over my body. And in the middle of that beating, I was at probably the most peaceful time in my life at a 16-year-old young man. And I felt closer to God than ever before. I understood that we have a covenant, God. We have a God that says what He means, He means what He says. There are no mistakes in your life, in my life. Yes, the good, bad, and the ugly. There are no mistakes.

God allows you to go through it, through whether a choice that you make or through circumstances around you. He allows you to go through it because He's molding and shaping you to become the person He wants you to be. And if you miss that, it's never too late to make an exit ramp to come back to where you belong. And that's to be, you belong in the presence of God. To take an off-ramp to come back to Him to say, God, I'm yours. And in the middle of that beating, that drew me closer to God than ever before. And I've had the privilege to share my story on TV and all over the world and United Nations. And almost every opportunity, I say thank you. To those five or six guys that physically, viciously beat me. Because my faith and my love for God, for Jesus, would not be the level it is today, wasn't for that physical attack I received. It wouldn't be. They set the bar for my faith so much higher that it made me the man I am today. Why? Because I submitted to the fact that I'm a masterpiece in the blueprint that God has for my life. And that everything he allows me to go through, he's allowed it to make me, to shape me, to form me, to the person that he wants me to be. Yes, that includes the good, bad, and the ugly. I've had people be killed around me who loved Jesus martyred. Had people being taken from me. The good, bad, and the ugly. Our God allows us to experience and see it and go through it because he's shaping us, preparing us for what's to come. He's preparing us for the good, bad, and the ugly.

Does that make sense? And that's why today as we continue to maneuver through the sermon, it is about the greatest architect on earth and the cosmos. Our creator, our God, our architect makes absolutely zero mistakes when he allows the good, bad, and the ugly into our reality. If he allowed them to beat me, if he allowed our church building to be firebombed, if he allowed my own flesh and blood, Uncle George to be martyred, it's in my book in one of the chapters, I talk about the great story of Uncle George and you can grab it from my book on the table, it's a beautiful story about the good, bad, and the ugly, by the way. It's because the grand architect uses our deepest pain to frame a destiny that ease and comfort could never produce. You were never created for a safe, complacent life. I wanna say that one more time. You were never created to be in a safe and comfortable life. You were created to be a person that changes the world. You're created to be a person that changes the reality that you live in. You're created as a person to be a person that chooses God's camp and by choosing God's camp, you become a light to the dark world. And by choosing to become a light to the dark world, you sometimes ask for it. You ask for difficult times to come your way.

I wanna tell you, God's got a plan for you. I know you hear it over and over and over again. But coming from Israel, one of my favorite things to talk about is the end times, the end times prophecy. One of my favorite things to teach on and I had the privilege to teach it with Dr. David Jeremiah and other global leaders to teach on the subject. But we're living closer than ever to the coming of Jesus. The question I have for you is are you ready? As a young person, are you ready for the return of Christ? Are you ready to face Jesus face to face? I'm gonna ask you a question and when we come to the conclusion, I wanna ask you a question which I wanna put you face to face with that one question with Christ, which Christ will ask you. But before we do that, I wanna talk about the good, bad and the ugly as a God being the greatest architect and he's got a plan for your life. I wanna bring you into something, you might have never heard it being brought in this manner from scriptures. And it comes out of Luke chapter one. We're gonna read together from verses 18. But before we go, I wanna set the stage for you what's going on. So Zechariah, he's a priest.

He's also the father of John the Baptist, the husband of Elizabeth, also the relative cousin of Jesus and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Now, Zechariah, he's a high priest. A very, very high position from the name high priest. He's a very high position in the temple. And there's a lot of rules and regulations for a temple priest, high priest. We think we have a lot of regulations for us as pastors and leaders from pulpits and there are a lot of expectation, a lot of rules and regulations for us as pastors and leaders today to be able to be God's mantle on earth, amen? To be God's representatives. But for a high priest, that's like what people expect of us times 100. A lot of rules, a lot of regulations, a lot of ins and outs and so forth. The interesting thing about this is, as a high priest, if there's certain things that happen to you, then you are stripped away from your high position. And this is found in Luke 21, sorry, in Leviticus 21. Leviticus 21, it's an Old Testament chapter. We're not gonna read it. Leviticus 21 goes through a lot of rules and regulations to what is expected out of a high priest and if certain things happen to a high priest,

then this high priest is removed from his high position. So we see that in Leviticus 21. Now, as a high priest, Zechariah is just praying. There's a prayer out of Malachi. It gets prayed every single day, sometimes five times a day, by priests, specific high priests back in the days. They pray this prayer out of Malachi. I'm gonna summarize to you this prayer. This prayer, basically the summary, the synopsis of this prayer is, God, save the nation of Israel. Save your people. Bring in your Redeemer. in your salvation, and this prayer is basically about the Messiah. And this is prayed out of Malachi. And this is being prayed by every single high priest. Zechariah had a private selfish prayer, I mean, I call it selfish, it's not really a selfish prayer, but it's a prayer, a personal prayer, as a high priest. Besides his Malachi prayer, his personal non-textual prayer was, God, would you give Elizabeth and I a child? That's his prayer, God, give us a child. And while Zechariah is praying this prayer throughout his years as being a high priest, we see in Luke chapter 1, God decides to answer his prayers. And he responds. And this is the conversation between, so the angel comes to Zechariah and tells Zechariah, look, I've laid out the plan, I was in the presence of God, and God is telling you, your wife's pregnant.

Get ready, celebrate. And we see Zechariah do a foolish human thing. And what does he do? He doubts. Oh, we're good at that as human beings. We doubt everything in front of us. We doubt the good, the bad, and the ugly. We're great at that. Even high priests, it just shows you that nobody is better than anybody. We're all human beings, whether you're a high priest, or pastor, or priest, or bishop, whatever your position is, or just a lay person sitting in a pew, learning, and listening, and growing with Christ. So we're going to read it together. The scripture, and start from verses 18, I set the premise for you guys. Verse 17. He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming Lord. He will turn the heart of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the ungodly. This is the angel telling Zechariah of the coming child. Zechariah then tells the angel, how can I be sure, in verses 18, how can I be sure this will happen? I am an old man now, and my wife is also well along her years. And the angel said, I am Gabriel. I said, tell me, you fool.

I am Gabriel. I stand in the very presence of God. It was he who sent me to bring you this good news. But now, since you did not believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born. For my words will certainly be fulfilled at the proper time. Meanwhile, verses 21. Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah to come out of the sanctuary, wondering why he was taking so long. When he finally did come out, he couldn't speak to them. Then they realized from his gestures, his silence, that he must have seen a vision in the sanctuary. I'm gonna stop here before we get back to verses 23. So I'm gonna give you guys again just a backdrop of what's going on. He doubts the message, even though he's been praying that for years. He doubts it. And the angel tells John, tells Zechariah, I am the one who stood in the presence of God and got this message. You're doubting me? Here's what's gonna happen. God's gonna take away your voice. He's gonna take away your hearing. He's gonna, you're gonna go silent. A lot of times in our life, our homes, our families, our marriages,

things go, things go silent. Relationships go silent. Our relationship with God sometimes goes silent because we go through a difficult time. We just go internally. We become introverts and we go silent. Becomes an internal volcano, battles, internal battles, and we feel we're all alone. Zechariah here goes into an internal crisis mode where he's just battling with God because he doubted. Now why does he go silent? And why does he, he loses his ears, hearing, and he loses his speaking, speech, why? Well, come over here for a second, Leviticus 21. Some of the requirements, or some of the things, the prerequisites. If you're a high priest and you lose X, Y, and Z, one of those two things, if you lose your speech or you have physical disabilities, then you can no longer be in your position of priesthood. So in the life of over here, in the life of Zechariah, not only is he, to the culture, he's cursed. To the culture, he's bad luck. Even though we don't believe in luck, but he's bad luck in the cultural world. In the cultural world now, he's been stripped away from everything he has because he became mute. He can no longer speak, can no longer hear. So that means you get stripped away from everything you own,

everything you have, even your position, a high mantel, a high priest, that gets taken from you. You lose everything. You don't talk about somebody losing everything. He's like, he was on the top of the mountain. Now he's like minus 100 under the mountain. That's him. You might be sitting there thinking, well, why would God do that to him? If we're gonna trust God's the greatest architect, we're gonna. Trust that God's got a plan for it. Somebody sitting in the back, all the way to the front here. If we're gonna trust that God is the greatest architect, then we have to trust that God has a plan for Zechariah to him to be stripped away and lose everything he's got a plan. And Zechariah is no better than you and I. If God has a plan for Zechariah, you have to trust that God's got a plan for your life. Even though I don't have an answer for you, your pastor may not have an answer, your counselor, your guidance coach, your life coach, even those close to you that might not have an answer for you right now. But you know who has an answer for you? God. God said, I know the plans I have for you. Plans to bless you, to prosper you, and not to curse you. That's the architect.

He's got a plan for your life. And here's what happened. On this side here, go back to Zechariah. He's destroyed, he's broken on this side of the fence. You had King Herod. You know what he's doing? He's his spies. His spies are out looking for this king called who? Jesus, who's about to be born. King Herod, he's got his spies. They're out there searching. The spies are searching to see where this baby is, who is he, what's his name, where's he gonna be born at, because he wanted to kill him. Just imagine if Zechariah could speak. If he could speak, I don't think he could have held it in. Hey, Christ the Messiah is gonna be born very soon. He couldn't. He would have handed Jesus on a golden platter to who? To King Herod. And Christ may have been one of the umpteen kids, the babies, sorry, that were killed under the age of two. Do you guys know the story where hundreds of babies were killed under the age of two because King Herod was looking to kill who? To kill Jesus. If Zechariah could speak, there's no way as a priest who talks a lot, there's no way he could have held it in that hey, baby Jesus, the Savior, the Messiah,

is being born. King Herod over here could have gotten that. That's just one example of why God silences. Because when God silences us, a lot of us go through a time of brokenness and silence because on this side, he's working a miracle. He's working on your behalf. You might say, Pastor Curry, I hope you're right because I've reached my end. If you're in Zechariah's position right now where in your life, in your home, in your marriage, in your business, in your own, just your own personal life, whether you're 12 or 15 or 25, whatever life, whatever span you're going through, whatever situation you're going through, you might say, Pastor Curry, I hope God's over here also working in my life. I hope he is because I'm tired, I'm broken. I need to know that. Well, I'm gonna show you what happens. In the same way, I might not be able to show you, pinpoint what God's doing in your life, but just know he is and I guarantee you, if you change how you look at things, you'll see God is working in your life too. You just might not see it coming to fruition yet. On this side, while he's silent and broken, praying God's working his miracles here. But when the right time comes, when his heart is ready, when Zechariah's heart was ready and molded and shaped

and ready to be what it is to be, Christ is born. John's born and he comes out of the temple. Now he can speak, he can talk. So not only, in Jewish culture, you guys know in Jewish culture, if you have a curse and you're cursed, but if that curse is removed, then you have seven times the blessings. So in the eyes of those around him, Zechariah now is seen as a high priest with a seven-fold blessing. Why? Because he got stripped away from everything and everything was given back to him. But he stayed faithful and did not give up or give in. And today, if your life is similar to Zechariah, you're going through a difficult time in your life. Understand that if you are a child, if you are a daughter and if you are a son of the king, that God has a plan for your life. God will not leave you abandoned. He will not leave you orphaned. He said, we are not orphans. We're not orphaned spirits, but God is, we've been adopted by the great king. We've been adopted by the God who loves and cares for us, regardless of your skin color, race and nationality. God has a plan for your life. You can never be too rich or too poor for God. You can never be too old or too young for God.

God has a plan and he is not done till he's done. Amen? And I don't want you to give in. I don't want you to give up. I want you to be that person just like Zechariah. You might not understand everything that's going on. To him, he was a distraught, broken down, left alone person. But then over here, God was working. And at one point, he gets to a point where Zechariah was one of the priests who got to hold up Jesus. And they got to bless him and dedicate him at the temple. Just imagine, for being looked at as a cursed, distraught, broken, nobody cares, nobody loves you person. Because he lost everything. To a person where his wife gives birth at an old age. Not only to give birth to Jesus. He gave birth to John the Baptist, I mean THE John the Baptist. Not only that, but he gave birth, his wife gave birth to John the Baptist at a time where the Messiah came. And he was silenced so that God can work his miracle in the background. And when you're going through a tough time, it's not about how much you say. When you're going through a tough time, it's not about what you say. When you're going through a tough time, it's about where your heart is. God wants your heart. He wants your obedience, and he wants you to be faithful to him. If you're a person that struggles with being faithful and trust, it's going to be harder for you, but it's not impossible. As being a high priest like Zechariah, they have trust issues, because they're the ones, they hold everybody's secrets, because they're the guy on top of the hill.

You're no better than Zechariah. You might be better than me, but you're no better than Zechariah. If you have trust issues, all God wants from you is to surrender, to give him your heart. That's what he wants from you, your faithfulness and your obedience. He changed the history of that season, and as we come close to the conclusion, to remind you that God has a big plan for your life. As we come close to the conclusion, in Bethlehem, we've been given the keys to Bethlehem. We went from a ministry that's not liked, because we preach Jesus, we're not ashamed of preaching the gospel. We went from a ministry that we were not even recognized by the government around us, specifically our Bethlehem ministry, to a point where just recently the governance in Bethlehem gave us the keys to Bethlehem. They commissioned us to bring Jesus back to his birth city. We're not perfect. We're not any better than anybody else, but we stayed faithful. In our silence, in our brokenness, in our trials and tribulations, persecutions, the tough times we went through, we kept our eyes, even though distractions come. We're human beings. Remember we talked, we're all human beings. I'm not better than you. You're not better than me. But in the cycle of life, of distractions, and difficult times, and tribulations, we kept pointing our attention to the Creator, to the Architect. If I'm going to believe that God's greatest Architect, he's got a plan for me, he's got a master plan, a blueprint, and I'm a masterpiece of his, I'm going to trust. Even though I don't have an answer for everything. And guess what? You're not going to have an answer for everything you're going through. Sometimes you don't need an answer. Pastor Curry, what are you saying?

Sometimes you don't need an answer. It's something you need to believe. In your difficult hours of life, he's here working. You might not feel him and sense him and see him right then and there. If somebody taught you that the Holy Spirit is just an emotional thing that comes on when the piano starts on, then you were taught by the wrong person. The Holy Spirit doesn't work when there's a piano. The Holy Spirit doesn't work only when there's a worship in the background. The Holy Spirit is always working. You just need to submit to the Holy Spirit. When you submit to the Holy Spirit, you don't need an answer. You got the answer. You don't need an answer, an answer. You have the answer, the Holy Spirit. What I've learned growing up in Israel through tough times and trials and tribulations is his greatest architect has an answer for everything. He's got a solution. He's got you. He's working on it. He's got you. God's got you. He just wants your heart. He wants your obedience. He wants you to submit. If you're a young person, you say, Pastor Curry, I'm just young. I'm hanging out. I'm chilling. I'm doing this, Y and Z, and basketball, and sports, and I'm traveling. I'm doing this. Yeah, but all that can be stripped away in a heartbeat.

Your life can turn upside down in one second. Right now, trust in Jesus. Right now, trust in him. Because you're missing out on a lot, guys. When you surrender to him, oh my goodness, your life will change. And I don't talk about surrendering the Sunday thing where Christ and Christianity is just a product. When I say surrender, I mean, you give him everything. You give him your all. You don't breathe. You don't talk. You don't think. Without saying, Lord, what do you want from me today? Lord, what do you want from my life? What do you want from my marriage? What do you want from my kids? What do you want from my business? What do you want from... How do you want me to deal with my boyfriend, girlfriend, friends, or circle of friends, or peer pressure? Lord, just go to him for everything. We have to prepare, guys. We have to prepare for this. the last days, because everything you have could end in a heartbeat. And start right now. Start right now. Prepare yourself. Be in that mentality, that heartbeat, to say, I surrender all, and I trust all. Not when you leave. Not tonight.

But now. I want to pray over you before I turn the pulpit over. I want to pray. I want to pray two prayers for two audiences, one audience, especially those who are watching us and those who are with us, just walking through the sermon together. I want to pray for those who are believers who are struggling with obedience, or if you feel that, hey, Pastor Gary, I mean, I've given my life to Christ, but I'm just far away from Him. I need to take my life and my faith more seriously. And the second prayer would be for those that don't know Jesus. Oh, I invite you in. It's the best decision you'll make. Do you have a Lord? Do you have an architect? And for you to put yourself in a timeline, on a blueprint, in a masterpiece, on a master plan for the greatest architect on earth, I don't know, what are you waiting for? Jump in. Surrender all. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we talked about surrender. We talked about giving you all. We talked about we are a blueprint in your master plan, and we are your masterpiece. We talked to Lord about surrendering everything. We talked about Lord being obedient, being faithful. I ask you, Lord, this second, I speak life over every person that follows you as their personal Savior. I speak joy and peace and grace over them. Satan, you have no control over the lives of those that have been stamped and sealed by the blood of the Lamb today. Satan, you have no control over their lives, their addiction, their weakness, their brokenness,

their confusion, their doubt. You have no control over that. So hands off, Satan. These are daughters and sons of King Jesus. They are saved, anointed by the blood of the Lamb, whom the Son set free. It's free indeed. And Lord, I pray over them, over their lives, those that know you, Lord, those that have been sealed by you, those that have been stamped by you. I pray over them, your holiness, your grace, and your joy and peace and salvation. Lord, I pray for those sitting today or watching us in the sanctuaries throughout the region, throughout the areas, those sitting in the pews and watching right now, I speak over them. Lord, they don't know you yet, and Lord, would you welcome them into your grace? Would you welcome them into your throne? Would you welcome them into the Lamb's book of life? Would you welcome them, Lord? Give them wisdom beyond their understanding to come to you, because we are living in the last days, and we have to redeem the time. For those of you who don't know Jesus, just ask Him into your heart. Go to one of your pastors, one of your leaders, say, I just want to ask Him to my heart, and I want to surrender my life to Jesus right now, because time is running out, and I want to be fully sold out to Him. So, Jesus, thank you. Jesus, thank you for what you're about to do. We surrender all, and we give you all. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.