Word Up, Gird Up

With a song like that, as we declare the mighty name of Jesus, whether you are in this room or you are watching online, we are a community. We want to revere the name of Jesus. We want to revere his word. We want to revere his people. If it is your first time here or you're watching online, welcome. My name is Bianca, and I want to let you know you have a seat here in the house. With a moment like that and a declaration of yes, Lord, in a place like this where we are worshiping and we're excited and you got in your car and you showered and you got dressed and you came here, at least I hope you showered and you came here, it's easy to say yes, Lord. What's going to be the challenge for us is when we walk out of these doors, we log out of YouTube, and it's the now what? Now what? I could say yes, Lord, here, but what happens when life begins to hit hard? You obeyed God and you started the business. You obeyed God and you married the girl. You obeyed God and you took that job, and all of a sudden, you're feeling opposition. I want to speak to that part because we've been in a series on spiritual warfare, and this is the last week as we wrap up, and this is the now what component. With hearts full of faith and with a mind that's open, I'm going to invite the presence of God to speak to us in a way that only the presence of God can, only the spirit of God can because we can come in here, and I'm just a vessel, I'm just a voice, but the spirit of God can speak to what you need. So today, I'm going to ask you to do me a favor, will you grab your hand, will you put your hand on your heart? I want you to ask yourself, what do I need? And as you think about that, I don't want this to be a waste of time, a waste of space, I want us to come in and gather to open up God's word, but for God to meet you with what you need, you have to identify what do you need. So today, whether in this room or online, I'm inviting you to search your heart and

your mind and your soul, and let the spirit of God tell you right now what it is that he's trying to speak to you about. Spirit of living God, thank you, that we just get to have a moment to pause and say, it is for your glory. So speak to us right now as we open up your word, I pray that it is a mirror to reveal areas and places and spaces in our life where we need only you to come in and speak to us. And so move in this place, transform us. Today, I'm declaring that our faith will be built in Jesus' name. And the church says, amen, amen. Do me a favor. Those watching online, put in the chat box where you're tuning in from, if you're in this room, turn to your neighbor and introduce yourself, say your name, say hello, and go ahead and grab a seat. I'm excited that we get to dive into the word of God. I'm so excited that you have joined us here as we comb through God's word and we leave with our hearts full of not just inspiration, but I declare revelation as we go through God's word. Today, as we wrap up this series, I was wrestling through how do we want to land the series. And the last couple weeks has been very didactic, meaning we talk about an element of the armor of God, which by the way, if you're new or you've missed a couple weeks, we are talking about the armor of God, and we've been talking about an element of the armor of God and how to apply it to our life. Today, I want to take all the elements and really think through the lens of faith. How do I move forward when God has called me to do what he's called me to do? Whether it's leading your family, whether it's starting a business. I want us to know what to do when we face opposition. So I'm going to lead with a story that I'm going to be weaving in through scripture to see how putting on the full armor of God prepares us for the God call on our life. Does that make sense? Great.

Several years ago, I worked for an anti-human trafficking organization. I was there for six years. It was my job. I got paid. I had a boss. I had accountability. And yet, I started to have this feeling, yes, a feeling. I started to have a feeling that the Lord was calling me to meet the needs of the incarcerated and inmates. But it didn't make sense because I don't know anyone who was incarcerated. It doesn't ring true in my family. No one has been incarcerated at that point that I knew. And so it all felt very foreign. But I sat with that feeling and I realized that sometimes we think that when God speaks, it's like this big booming voice, thus saith the Lord. Do this. And as much as I would want that, that's kind of scary, I want the burning bush, okay? I want God to be very clear when he speaks to me. And yet, for me, it starts off with a feeling. Call it a holy hunch where it's just it's the thing that kind of keeps you up at night and wakes you up in the Morning, it's a thing that all of a sudden you have a burden for that You've never once had a burden for if you're beginning to experience some of those pangs Trust that it's the Spirit of God speaking to you So I had this feeling and I'd be a turn to somebody that I trusted and loved and I said, hey um, I Feel like I'm supposed to do something in in prisons Now this is weird because I don't have I'm not licensed. I'm not credentialed I'm not certified to go into prisons again. I had no Financial means to go into prisons and yet I just had this holy hunch and a word that I believed I'll get to that in a second a word that I believe God gave me as a green light

So when I shared this feeling with someone close to me The first thing that they did is they went to the logical and which I get logic is very important So the question that they asked is well, were you gonna get the money to do this? I'll be honest with you. I didn't know I didn't have a giving platform. I didn't I didn't have like some financial planning Investment strategy to build donors to fund a ministry. I just remember what my daddy said where God guides he provides If it's his will it's his bill. Hallelujah. All right I just gotta say yes, and then if it's God he makes a way and I didn't want to get all churchy But the faith girl in me the fate the spirit of faith that rose up in me is like well as God provided man I'm in the desert for the Israelites as God provided a ram in the thicket for a sacrifice for Jacob as God provided water in The desert guess what he would provide for me if this is his will Now I'm also not dumb because I did build out a financial plan I wasn't just gonna be all willy-nilly and be like I have a feeling I I sat down and I allocated how much Would building out a program like this cost I believe the Word of God can transform lives And so I wanted to resource the inmates with the Bible and not a cheap Bible a good Bible red letter Bible I believe that also resources were important. So I mean I have books I have curriculum I reach out to a couple friends like hey, could I buy your books at cost to resource transformation in prison? I just started praying that if God wanted me to go that he would open doors and he would provide the finances Stay with me. We're gonna come back to that story If You have a God call upon your life and you sense you dream You know, you feel you see that God is calling you to step out into something Let me let you know that when you step out into darkness opposition will come That when you obey God Spiritual forces will come against you when you honor your commitment to stay loyal to your wife to rear your parents to be a good Employee to make that investment to eat right? Whatever you feel like God is calling you to do. There will be resistance from the enemy But resistance always isn't bad. Like let's think about the gym you build muscle by what? Resistance, so if you're feeling resistance, guess what baby you are getting stronger Okay, that's not the excuse to quit or to leave or that you didn't hear from God

It's the invitation rock with me and let me show you what I could do through you during That time of embarking on prisons. I I knew that I was going to step out on my own again I didn't have lots of cash flow, but I decided that from my business I was gonna take a portion for my business and invest it to pay for prison I'm like, hey if the Lord is with us he's gonna provide the resources and then I will be able to take any sort of overflow from my business to reinvest it and And My prayer was Lord if this is you what I provide will be enough But see that's in those moments of kind of like the big question mark. That's where doubt creeps in did I really hear from God and then and then Selfishness kicks in because they're like, oh wait I'm gonna take my money my hard-earned money and like reinvest for this and then if doubt and Selfishness isn't enough then perhaps you might be at the point where insecurity kicks in and Before, you know it between the doubt and the skepticism and insecurity and the fear You're not sure you even want to do what God's call you to do anymore and so for me if I'm honest with you it was in those moments that I began to Justify and rationalize why I shouldn't go into prisons and I know I'm not the only one See in a room of this size There are people who have heard from God or have felt from God or have seen a vision of what the Lord is gonna do in Their life, but you've opted out you got off the off-ramp you quit you gave up because you felt resistance And you felt that that was your excuse to say I didn't hear from God as I was praying for our community I said God I want to take what we've applied or we learned in the last six weeks and I want to apply it to our lives today And as I was praying and I said Lord give a give us a voice into the temperature of this church culture in this church Community I began to pray and I realized is that there are people in here who have a God call that they're afraid to step into.

As I was praying, I believe that there's people that feel called to foster children and you've rationalized and justified why you are not the right person to do it. Do you know that if every church in Orange County, every church in the County of Orange were to foster two children, we would obliterate the foster care system in Orange County. And yet, maybe you have let fear creep in and you think, well, my marital status precludes me from it or I'm not sure I could afford it or fill in the gap. And you've talked yourself out of why you aren't supposed to foster when the spirit of God has been whispering to you to step into that. Maybe you've decided to take yourself seriously and you decided I am gonna be debt free. But then you all of a sudden feel overwhelmed by your debt and then you realize that you have to change your lifestyle. Gone are your J's, you're not getting your Jordans anymore. Gone are your fake eyelashes and your gel X nails. All that is gone. And you were like, I'm not sure that's for me. So you have gotten comfortable with living like a slave to debt rather than walking around free as the Lord has called you to. Or maybe, maybe you made the conscious decision to take your life back and to get your health back. But then you realize that the cost of organic vegetables

from Whole Foods is a way more expensive than Mickey D's, all right? McDonald's, you can get a whole lot more for a whole lot less. In those moments when you face resistance or you're faced with questions, how do you guard your mind and your heart? How do you move forward when you feel like you are being attacked in the spiritual? The word of God. Someone say Word Up. Yeah, you gotta get the word of God so up in you that when opposition comes, the word of God comes out of you. I used to read Word Up magazines. See, I am flipping to hip hop lyrics and I wanna redeem what was done in sin and say glory to God. Somebody say Word Up. That is the title of today's message. So note takers, go ahead and jot that down. When you are facing temptation, speak the word of God. Somebody say, speak the word of God. Turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter six. We have been in this chapter. We have spent six weeks on four verses and no one could accuse Revere Church of not taking the word of God seriously. Okay, Paul, for those that have been missing, Paul wrote to his friends in a city called Ephesus

and he's writing up this letter. Now chapters one, two, and three are all very theologically heavy about the goodness of God, the love of God, how we are an elect generation that God has chosen and purposed for good things. Then in chapter four and five, he talks about Christian living. Husbands, love your wives. Wives, respect your husbands. Children, obey your parents. Obey government. Like he's telling us and teaching us what our life should look like if we claim to be followers of Christ. And then as he winds up the letter, we find ourselves in chapter six where he's ending with a power pack punch. If I had a visual to communicate what I would want for the people of God while I sit in my prison cell, this is Paul the apostle, I am going to want to encourage them that they have strengthened the Lord and I'm gonna tell them to gird up or in the name of our series, suit up, to put on the full armor of God. We have been in verses 14 through 17, but I wanna move this up a couple of verses for a little bit of context. Join me in verse 10, Ephesians six, verse 10.

Finally, he's wrapping it up. Every good preacher knows how to wake up a crowd. You say, finally. Say he's making sure there's attention. He said, finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. If you came in here today and you feel a little emotionally thin, you feel like I wanna obey God, but loving my wife is killing me. You feel like I have this big dream and yet I have felt so much resistance and opposition. I don't know if this is from God. You don't have to be strong in your strength today. You are strong in the Lord's mighty strength. You might feel weak, but in that weakness, let his power come through. Verse 11, put on the full armor of God so that you can take a stand against the devil's schemes. The devil is a schemer. He wants to hit you every which way. Open your eyes, there is darkness at play. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Paul is writing this book centuries ago, but what I am coming to say is we need to open up our eyes because there is darkness at play.

Oh, Bianca, not everything's so spiritual. Really? Because there's a whole trend on TikTok about good witches. Between astrology, between crystals, between reading the stars, between horoscopes, between black magic, white magic, brujeria, all of it. Listen, listen, I'm like, get behind me, Satan. There's no such thing as a good witch. Get behind me, Glenda, uh-uh, uh-uh. No. I was a child of God, a spirit of the spirit of God. I spilled, filled with the spirit of God. You guys, I don't know what's happening today. I am tongue tied and twisted, all right? Spiritual warfare, no, just kidding, okay. Verse 13, therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, because it will, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything, to stand. This is where we pick up the series. Verse 14, stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith that you can, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Now we're in verse 17. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit,

which is the word of God. Now, verse 17 lists not one but two elements. The helmet of salvation is wildly important. Why? Because the enemy wants to attack our mind. So what Paul is saying is guard your mind. Like think about what you're thinking about. Get rid of stinking thinking. The enemy wants to mess with your mind. Now I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time here. Why? Because I knew, well, I sensed that we had to end this series now because in two weeks, we're gonna be starting a mental health series. I'm gonna spend a lot of time on the mind. And next week, one of my favorite pastors is gonna be here to preach, and I'm encouraging you, invite a loved one, invite a friend. You're not gonna wanna miss out. I didn't wanna interrupt the series. Does that make sense? So we're gonna talk about our heads. So today, I'm very excited because we have been on the D, we have been in the defense for six weeks. Now we get to take up a piece of armory that is actually for offense. I said that wrong, offense. It's the wrong syllable, the wrong emphasis. I'm a mess today, you guys, I'm a mess. Offense, thank you.

Help me, Jesus. Okay, great. All the other weaponry that we see Paul list out is to defend us. So Paul ends his visual, his descriptive of a soldier, and for the first time in discussing spiritual warfare, he talks about offense. The belt, the breastplate, the shoes, the shield, those are defensive elements. But when it is time to take ground, when it is time to move forward, when it's time to push back, what do we do? We pick up the sword of the spirit, which Paul says is the word of God. Don't turn there, don't turn there, it's on the screen. But Hebrews 4 tells us that the word of God, scriptures, holy writ, the word of God is active and alive, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. The Bible is amazing because it is a book that is active and alive. So it's not just that you read the book, the book reads you. That you could read the same verse that you have read multiple times, and yet on this particular Tuesday at 11 o'clock, as you're reading God's word, it hits you upside the head, where all of a sudden you feel convicted,

and you thought that you were right, but in light of the word of God, you might have to go apologize to someone. You might have to repent. You might have to get your head checked. All I'm saying is that the word of God is weapon against the enemy's warfare against us. And so when you are called to do what God has called you to do, let me be ever so clear again. There will be resistance and opposition, but you don't fight with the flesh. Paul says to fight with the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Now, where did Paul get this notion from? Why does he say that the word of God actually matters? Why does the word of God matter? Well, Jesus modeled it. If you brought your Bible, turn with me to Matthew chapter four. This is important for me because as we are going to discuss today, the word of God is a sword. If you don't know how to wield your sword, then you're gonna be taken at the fight. You know what I'm saying? So I'm gonna encourage you, please bring your Bibles. We have lights now that we could read our Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, there's a free one for you. The word of God is active

and I believe changes our life when we read it. So in Matthew chapter four, it says this, then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be what church? To be tempted by the devil. If Jesus was tempted, what makes you think you won't be tempted? The beautiful thing that's noted here is that Jesus doesn't fight by throwing blows and putting on brass knuckles and Vaseline on his knuckles. Jesus fights with words. Now, as somebody whose natural reaction is to fight, it is to jump in, this is humbling to learn. And if I'm honest with you, this is an area that I want to grow in. Or I want to think before I fight and I'm going to think before I speak So let's elevate the conversation not just to be about jesus or not just telling on myself. I'm gonna actually turn this to you Have you been tempted? Oh, so it's real quiet up in this first presbyterian frozen church, oh Y'all are so holy. So i'm gonna be the only one that puts myself on blast Have you ever Had your eyes linger a little too long on a woman who's beautiful walking by wearing nothing more than like a ball of yarn Have you ever been tempted by a man Whose seductive words have invited you to a hotel room and nobody will know and there's no guilt no harm No foul if nobody knows Have you decided that you're going to take your life back and you have your? At home pre-made lunch where you calorie counted and your macros are good and then you go into the office and you're tempted by pizza Have you ever looked at a car? So beautifully while you are shopping for a car that is outside of your budget and you want to feel bad and bougie So you would rather be a slave to debt

So that you could feel better about yourself. Have you ever been tempted? Have you ever had a rage? Well up inside of you that the one thing you want to do is have a five-minute flesh flash where you forget that you are Safe sanctified child of god. Have you ever been tempted? For the one person back there that feels me I just want to say god bless you Listen, listen This is orange county where everything is nipped and tucked and frozen But one thing that we will not do is come with our fake selves to church If there is a place to be real, it's in the house of god Don't come to a hospital acting all cute If you got things to work out let the word of god work on you And here's what I want to tell you. Let's look at jesus who dealt with temptation and and and And and taught us how to fight in the spirit now my hesitation and my My resignation and hesitation by telling you hey, let's follow jesus is that you might think well, that's not fair It's jesus. He walked on water. He turned water into wine. He's the son of god And yet scripture includes that he was just like you and me and he felt tempted the way that we do Don't turn there. It's on the screen. Look at hebrews 4 15 For we don't have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses But we have one who's been tempted in every way just as we are yet did not sin i'm not saying Here's the beautiful thing god made beautiful things and beautiful people and beautiful creatures It's not looking that is a sin. It is thinking about it and doing something upon it That's a sin like I want to be very careful this judgment that we have in this very christian culture It's like we have to pretend that we're blind and we don't see anything. No, no, no No, it's normal to feel a desire It becomes a sin when we linger on that desire and act upon that desire So if it is true that jesus himself dealt with temptations Let's see how he fought Jesus fought by speaking the word You should be in matthew

Go down to verse 4 Now a little bit of context in matthew 4 jesus went to the desert and had been fasting for 40 days He's hungry and look at look at how the enemy comes when he's most weakest side note The enemy will tempt you when you are most weakest and look at how jesus fights matthew 4 4 Jesus said it is written. Somebody say written Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of god When the enemy tried testing jesus, so the first one is he tempted him with food and then he's now he's going to tempt him to prove himself Oh you say that Prove it And jesus said in matthew 4 7 it is also written do not Do not test the lord your god do not what is it? Do not put the lord your god to the test Do not put the lord your god to the test and if that isn't enough the enemy tries tempting him again the third time The first one was food. The second was to prove himself and the third one that we see here is with power And what does jesus do when that temptation comes? He said Away from me satan for it is what? It is written worship the lord your god and serve him only so over the last five weeks We have discussed very honestly and openly there's a spiritual battle at play now if it is your first time here Welcome to the crazy. We don't want you to feel left out Please go back on youtube and and watch the other sermons because this message might feel a little intense, but it's just scriptural When we move forward in what god has calling has called us to do there is a temptation To stop doing or stop living out what christ has called you to do So let me use The story of stepping into prisons

To kind of bring the through line what I want to do today is teach you that when God puts a call on your life And you take daring steps. There's gonna be a faith that's needed to step into a spiritual battle So when I sense that the Lord was calling me in to resource the incarcerated I again I had no access to jails. I had no access to prison and no access to detention centers and When someone close to me in my life asked me how I would get in I said I have I have no clue and all of a sudden that's when discouragement came into play and Discouragement can make you quit early Discouragement will make you feel like you didn't hear from God and discouragement will let the voices and the lies that ricochet in your mind Give you permission to walk away but the difference is That the feeling of going into a prison didn't stop with just a feeling I went to my community I went to my church community. I went to my closest friends and I said hey I have a sense that God's calling me to step into prisons and it doesn't make sense But given what you know about me and what I'm called to do you think I can handle it? Do you think I'd be able to communicate effectively to like minister to their hearts? Do you think that the Lord will make a way for me if this is really of him? And they didn't even have to think twice about it. They said we surely believe it. That's something that you can do I mean, we don't know why you want to do it, but good on you Don't ask us to come but we'll pray for you and I'm like great no problem, but it didn't stop there It didn't stop with the feeling it didn't stop with my community I began to ask God to confirm it in his word so that I'm not moving off of emotion or stepping into a battle That's not mine to wage Some people will get an idea or a feeling and then they're like that's it God spoke to me and then they quit their job and like no no, no, that's not wisdom. Let's give it some time If your community if it's a good community of people they're gonna shoot it straight and they're gonna tell you the truth They should tell you the truth like if you come up to me and I know that you Have an issue with looking at blood and you're like I feel called to be a doctor I'm gonna be like bless you probably not your ministry if You hate kids and you feel like they smell like Cheetos and wet nickels and you're like, I want to serve in kids ministry

I'm gonna tell you don't do it If you feel called to like do ministry or pastor and you hate people probably not your calling We need real community. You know what I'm saying? We keep it real We're honest but we have not just our community to shoot it straight and not just a feeling or a holy hunch a Dream that you had or a word that someone spoke over you I'm very cautious that I want to vet everything through the Word of God Because as we read the Word of God is active and alive and sharper than any two-edged sword So I believed that his word would speak to me and as I prayed in my everyday reading I asked that if God was really calling me to step into this that he would confirm it through his word And I didn't I didn't just you know, cherry pick a bible verse. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe that verse No, it was in my everyday reading plan. I was doing the one-year bible and I just happened to come across isaiah 61 Now pause I had read isaiah 61 before And as a 27 year old Going through what I call my quarter-life crisis. I didn't know what I was doing with my life I had finished graduate school and I knew What I wanted to do but now what I wanted to do and what I felt led to do were at war with each other See, I wanted to be a gallery art an art gallery owner in los angeles I had the place that I was going to live on large ma I wanted to do the la life and then you know serve at church and give but but I had my life plan And all of a sudden god put a burden of people on my heart and i'm like you want me to love your people? Like as my job Like what does that even mean? And I asked him to confirm like confirm release me to go be amazing in la and impact the art world And yet he led me to isaiah 61 And as I read this my heart just began to pound in my chest and I can't explain it to you other than I sensed that the lord was speaking to me not in the big it is I god voice But it is still called quiet voice as I read isaiah 61 which says The spirit of the sovereign lord is on me

Because the lord has appointed me anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners There's this overwhelming sense that I felt like I knew what god was asking me to step into And in the same way that god spoke to me all those years ago I'm on mission to lead this community to let you know God wants to speak to you as clearly as that If you feel lost and you don't know how to love your spouse If you feel confused on what business move to make or what plan to implement if you don't know how you're going to raise your your adhd child because you want to spare the rod and spoil the child. guess what? i believe that the word of god can give you the word that you need in that season. it is a compass meaning it's not going to make life easy but it will give you a direction in which to go. does that make sense? i firmly believe that a word in due season will bring you clarity that you need to chase after what god has for you. so between this holy hunch, between the confirmation of my community, between the clarity of god's word, i knew that god was calling me to step forward when i reread that verse isaiah 61 because i knew it was a life verse for me. and i'm gonna pause for a second. i'm gonna step away from the word of god because there is going to be some youtube theologian that's going to come for me and be like that word was a prophetic word for jesus. you can't appropriate it for your life. listen, if god's word is active and alive it could speak to me. that word was prophesied for jesus but it was given to me to confirm what he's called me to do. so i gotta get saved again. so after being reminded of isaiah 61, on a tuesday i received an email in my inbox from a chaplain in a jail in lubbock texas who said hey i saw you at this conference and i think you would just be you would do so good in jail. and i was like is that a compliment? i said say less i'm totally there. i was so excited and i went to somebody that i love and trust and i was like guess what i just got this invitation to go to jail this is amazing i can't believe it. and then this person was like that's awesome how are you gonna pay for it? i said god's will, god's bill. i listen i don't care if i had to harvest my ovaries i was gonna go to that prison you know what i'm saying? but but in our flesh we're tempted to fix the solutions rather than waiting for the lord. god is good i didn't have to harvest my eggs we're fine. uh on that friday i received a phone call from a pastor in uh st louis missouri who said hey i heard you talking

about prisons and we want to write a check for five thousand dollars so that you can cover the costs of the conference and resource the women. i mean wow. now that's like a happy clappy and they lived happily ever after moment but i also have to proclaim that there have been disappointments there have been challenges there have been frustrations and those moments of discouragement they may give you options to off-ramp to quit or to compromise and that's why it's so important that you get the word of god up in you. somebody say word up. the word of god is powerful that's why paul the apostle wrote to his friends in corinth and he said this in second corinthians 10 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh they have divine power to destroy strongholds. when the enemy comes against your marriage hold on to the word of god. when the enemy comes against your kid hold on to the word of god. when the enemy comes against your health hold on to a god word. when the enemy comes against your business or your academic pursuits hold on to a god word. you need a god word that's going to anchor you when the storms of life come i get it. maybe you're here you're like that sounds awesome what's a god word? again it's not just bible roulette you flip the bible and land on a page and be like that's my life verse. no no no it's getting into the word of god daily as a discipline so that when he illuminates something on this page a verse you've read before a book you've read before all of a sudden there's something new that maybe you chewed on it in that morning you ate the word of god that morning and didn't really make that much of an impact but at 12 o'clock a situation happens and all of a sudden you're reminded of the word that god spoke to you or you meditated on the word of god and you chewed on the word of god and then someone at work had an issue and you were able to give them what you have inside of you when the word of god is up in you when opposition comes the word of god will come out of you now i want to clarify the difference of a word in scripture there's several words for the word word in the word of god that's confusing i know okay let's check out some greek on the screen i don't want to brush through this but clarity is kindness the first word that we see is graphe in greek and that is actually a the written word it would be akin to a physical book so graphe is the bible logos is the spoken message or thought process and that would be the concept of the entirety of the word of god but then there's rhema and rhema is specifically divinely inspired spoken word it is direct it is timely it's a personal message from god that requires a response of faith and action when god speaks you listen and obey and when a verse or truth from the bible

jumps off the page at you. Trust that it's the Lord. Go back to Ephesians six. You were probably in Matthew, go back to Ephesians six. As we wrap this up, Paul encourages us yet again in verse 17, the sword of the spirit to pick up, to take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And there's this relation between the spirit of God speaking through the word of God. The spirit of God speaking through the word of God. The spirit of God empowers us through his word. So get the word of God up in you. You won't win if you ain't got the word of God in you. You wanna win? You wanna advance? You wanna take ground? You wanna bring light to dark places? Get in the word of God. Because I have to ask, what do you hold on to when you're in the middle of war? What do you believe when the lies are loud? We anchor ourself in the truth of God's word. And then we build upon that faith and we step into the next battle knowing that if God was with me then, God will be with me again. So let's follow the storyline of prison as a guide for fighting for what we believe that God has called us to. When we were in this community, right before COVID,

we launched a second campus. And that campus was in a prison, a men's prison in Norco, California. We were so excited. I mean, there's a couple of people I wanna thank personally. I wanna thank Chris Galvez and Carla and Riyach Reese and Sam Tenney and Cesar Delgado and Tani Sesu and so many men and women who would faithfully go every Tuesday to the second campus. And there, at the very least, we'd be ministering to 100 men at most during outreaches or events, 200, maybe 300 men. And I have to let you know, to get technology into the prison and the resources that we need for worship experience, it costs us thousands of dollars. We were so excited. Then COVID happened. And in a day, thousands of dollars were down the drain. Is that that moment where you begin to question, like, did I hear from God? Like, why did we go through all of this? And spiritual warfare can come in the form of not just oppression and demons, but discouragement, disillusionment, depression. And so in those moments, you gotta hold onto your God word. And for me, I had to stay faithful in this community by declaring the spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me

because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. So I hold onto the word that God has placed inside of me and I put on the belt of truth and I attach the breastplate of righteousness, that that righteousness is not my works, but the completed work on the cross at Calvary through Jesus Christ, that I shod my feet with the gospel of peace and that I protect myself with the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation that reminds me it's not by my works that this is happening, it is by the blood of Jesus that I am saved. And I take ground with the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So my exhortation, my encouragement is that you don't back down, that you don't quit and that you continue to believe and move forward. My invitation for you today is to pick up the sword of the spirit and move forward, word up, fill yourself with the truth of God's word daily. You win with the word of God, breathing into your convictions, breathing into your callings, breathing to your purpose

because when the world says that's impossible, it will never happen, you're a person of faith, you're a man of faith, you're a woman of faith. You said, but my God said, it is written, it's what gets me up every morning to believe for you. It's what gets me up every morning to go to the office to prepare for God's word. I got a word in me and there has been a lot of things that have come against my life that would thwart and make me want to quit my God call, but I am fighting with the word of God. Yes, we had to close out that campus, but ironically or sovereignly, other doors have opened from Texas to California and there's been difficulties and there's been trials and there's been challenges, but that's never meant that we don't move forward. It just means that we move forward with the word of God until God says that we're released and done. So two weeks ago, I was invited on behalf of Revere Church to a prison in Jackson, Mississippi and we went not for one, but for two outreaches and I had a laugh. How did we go from spending thousands to launch a campus to us walking in footloose and fancy free for free night and night, I just get to preach the word of God,

I get to bring the message of Revere here and look at my God, Jesus paid it all. Yes, he did. It was beautiful to see over 600 inmates say yes to Jesus and then over 100. got baptized. On the screen there's an image of being at this conference and praying for these inmates. And side note, don't be surprised, I invited them to Revere's, so we might be thugging out when they're released, all right? That's right, we're a loving church, we're a loving church. But at the end of those two outreaches, I was given an opportunity, I was invited by the warden, myself, and a couple other worship leaders, and Michaela, who's over our prison ministry here, to go to a restricted area. Now in all the years I've been doing prison ministry, I've never been able to go to death row. I was able to go to death row, and there I'm looking at people who literally have an expiration date. They are not released once a day, they're released once a week for one hour to shower. They're not touched, they're not reminded about the goodness of God, and as someone who's wrestled with deep isolation and loneliness, the one thing that I wanted to do was just touch them so that they could feel the love of God. And so the warden had told us, you know, be careful, don't touch them. I'm a little naughty, don't judge me. And so I went up and I asked, hey, can I pray for you? Sure. I'm like, hey, can I grab your hands? You could hold hands and we can pray, and every single one of them said yes. But I put my hair back like this, because I ain't dumb, you know what I'm saying? They can grab your hair and boom, you're like in the cell. I'm dumb, I love Jesus, why don't we be like this? And to be able to share the love of God on behalf of this community, that we are praying for inmates, that we're resourcing inmates, that when you give to this community, we're practicing what Hebrews 12 says to remember the incarcerated, to remember the prisoner, because they need the gospel too. It was such a beautiful day, and at the end of that I'm like, Lord, what are you doing in our community? We lost that prison campus, how can we reach inmates?

The Lord in his faithfulness, in his goodness, I really was weeping over a hundred men, and yet the Lord has opened up an opportunity to resource and to teach over 80,000 inmates through an app called Pando app. Now let me tell you something, these things cost money, and Revere, as I've said this multiple times, you don't give to Revere, you give through Revere. And I was thinking about our finances and our outreach budget, and I'm like, this is something we can get behind, but look at my God. Now this is not an excuse for us to like step back and be like, Jesus paid it all. But the founder of the Pando app reached out and said, hey, it's $18,000 for a year, it gets into over 3,500 prisons, reaching over 80,000 inmates. We want to let you know that we want to give this to you for free for a year. Let me tell you something, I don't want us to squander this opportunity, I want us to believe deeply that when God gives us a God word, we ride it until he says it's done. That we are going to be a community full of faith, that when he asks us to step out into things, we're not fighting in our own flesh, we're not funding this out of our own desires, we're believing God with a God word. So what word are you holding on to as you move forward in life? What word are you believing when the enemy whispers to you in your mind? What word is anchoring you when the storms of life come and hit you every which way? You need a God word. And I know you might feel overwhelmed and thinking, I don't even know how to begin to do that. Number one, just start reading the Word of God. And number two, I'm gonna teach a message, a very practical, very basic message on how to read the Bible. I don't want to give you a basic message, but I just feel like that's not basic, it's foundational. That's gonna be happening in two weeks. But today, I'm gonna pray for two groups of people. The first group of people I want to pray for is those who maybe you were invited by a friend, you're watching online, or you stumbled in from walking off of the street, and you're hearing this message, and there's a sense of freedom that your soul longs for and you cannot explain. And I'm here to tell you that the freedom that you long for is a man named Jesus, who loved you so much. He lived a sinless life and died a horrific death. And with arms stretched out wide, he said, I love you.

It is finished. And no longer does your sin separate you from a good God. It invites you into his presence for closeness. And so in a second, I'm gonna pray for those that want to receive Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, or maybe you were walking with the Lord at one point, but you've turned your back on the Lord. Today's the day to repent, to come back, get a God word, and start moving forward with the sword of the Spirit. I'm gonna invite everyone to bow your head and to close your eyes. I want to create a sacred space for those making a critical decision. And then after that, I'm gonna invite some people to receive a rainbow word from God. If you're here today and you've never said yes to Jesus, one, by raising your hand you are saying, I want Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Two, by raising your hand you are saying that my mistakes and my failures, what the Bible refers to as sin in Scripture, can be forgiven. And three, by raising your hand you are saying, the same Spirit that resurrected Jesus from the grave will live in me. So whether you are online, you're watching midweek, or you're in this room, if that is you and you want to say, I want to A yes to Jesus, one, two, three. receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I want to say, I want to live in you, I want to Will you boldly raise up your hand? God bless you, yes. God bless you. Anyone else, raise it up nice and high. Anyone else before we go? Going once, going twice. Oh, God bless you, yes. We wait, we wait. That's right, the 99 will wait for the one. That's right. To let you know that you are not alone in this decision, us as a community, we're gonna pray with those people that raised their hands.

And if you didn't have the courage to raise your hand, pray this prayer in faith because you're not raising your hand so I could see it. It is your declaration of saying, I am chosen by God and I'm choosing to submit to him and choosing to be a follower. So we repeat these words after me and we say, Jesus, forgive me of my sins. Today I choose you as my Lord and Savior. Cleanse my heart, cleanse my mind, cleanse my body. Fill me with your spirit to do what I cannot do. In Jesus name, amen, amen. And so church, if you're here today and you're listening to this message and you're like, I need a God word. I need an anchoring word in this season. I need a word on how to run my business. I need a word on how to love my spouse. I need a word on what college to go to. I firmly believe that if God loved you so much that he died for you, why wouldn't he love you enough to speak to you? I believe he wants to speak to you through his word. I'm also daring enough to believe that if he spoke through visions and dreams, he could speak through through a vision and dream. If he spoke through a donkey, he could speak through our prayer team. You know what I'm saying? So if you're here today and you were like,

I know I need a God word. God, my ears are open to you. If you need a God word today, I'm gonna invite you to stand to your feet and I wanna pray a prayer of blessing over you. I could pray this for you, but then you have to accept the assignment to go do the work to receive what God is speaking to you. Don't doubt. If you don't feel like lightning struck you as you read your morning devotional, that doesn't mean he's not with you. I'm just saying pound the ground and read God's word. There's a lot of people in here. Praise God that you are hungry for the word of God. Spirit of the living God, I thank you for your sons and your daughters, young and old. Lord, I am praying for a rainbow word, a divinely inspired word that is speaking to the hearts and the lives and the direction of your saints. I thank you, Lord Jesus, that you love us so much that you actually want to speak to us. So in this community, heavenly father, you have open reign. Speak through your word, speak through worship, speak through visions, speak through laying on of hands. God, we're here for it. Will you move in our midst? You are doing something new and let it begin

with a God word for your sons and daughters. To you be the glory in Jesus name. And the church of God says, amen. He's doing something church.