Victory Over Discouragement

I'm excited to be here. For those of you who may not know who I am, my name is Prabhu. I serve as the kids pastor here at the Refuge. It's an honor for me to do so. Right.

That's how I feel on the inside as well. I also am part of the executive team here, more of the executive pastors here at the Refuge as well. And anytime I get to come in here and preach, I'm like, oh, man, it's a little scary because it's not my usual audience, you know, but can I. Come on. Can I tell you today that Jesus, there's no junior Holy Spirit, there's no different Jesus that I'm preaching and preaching to or preaching for.

And so today I believe the Lord is going to move in this house. I believe he gave me a word today for this room. I know if you are here, you're not here by accident. Amen. Do you believe that today?

So good, so good. So good to see you guys. I. I listened to last last several weeks of our Wednesday nights and the teachings before I started prepping for tonight. And it looks like we've been in the book of Jeremiah. Well, the Lord led me also to the book, to the book of Jeremiah.

And we're going to be camping out a little bit there. And man, last week Pastor Terry did an incredible job, don't you think, as she talked about the word of the Lord that Jeremiah hung onto. And I want to start there for us, if you got your Bibles, we're going to actually pick up right where we left off In Jeremiah, chapter 1, verses 4 through 10. Jeremiah, chapter 1, verses 4 Through 10. And it says, the Lord gave me this message.

Jeremiah, I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb, before you were a nation. I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations. O sovereign Lord, I said, I can't speak for you. I'm too young. The Lord replied, don't say I'm too young, for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you.

And don't be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and I will protect you. I, the Lord, for I, the Lord, have spoken. Then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth and he said, look, I have put my words in your mouth. Today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Some you must uproot and tear down, some destroy and overthrow, and others you must build up and plant.

This was the word that Jeremiah gave. Sorry, the Lord gave to Jeremiah and Jeremiah hung on to the word of the Lord. And he is what we today, we refer to him as a lamenting prophet or somebody who had a powerful word from the Lord and spoke his word. Amen. How many of you have heard the Lord speak before?

I know it can be an interesting can of worms to open because, like, you know, when I talk to kids, they're like, yeah, like, does. Does Jesus talk to me? Pastor Paul Vu? Like, is that. Is that.

Is that a thing that everybody just. Just says? And I don't know, I've never heard Jesus speak to me. But can I tell you, today the voice of the Lord is real. He's real.

He speaks to you. He confirms things with you. And we just need ears to hear him, and we need to be able to submit to listen for him. So Jeremiah has his word. And we know that when the Lord speaks, his words don't return void.

Amen. When he's a promise keeper, he doesn't lie. He's not a man who would ever lie to us. And so Jeremiah has his word from the Lord and he takes this word on as he goes. And so today, for today's word, here's where the Lord has me in Jeremiah, chapter 20.

So it's a little bit of scripture jumping around a little bit, but if you can bear with me, it's all gonna come together in a second. Amen. So Jeremiah 20, verse verses 1 through 11, it says now Peshur, son of Emir, the priest in charge of the temple of the Lord, heard what Jeremiah was prophesying, so he arrested Jeremiah. Remember, this is 20 chapters in time has gone by. So he arrested Jeremiah the prophet and had him whipped and put him in stocks at the Benjamin gate of the Lord's temple.

If you don't know what stocks are there, your. You may have seen them in cartoons and stuff where they kind of put people in the little. The wood contraption. So it kind of contorts your body and you kind of stay there for a certain amount of time. Very painful.

The next day, when Peshur finally released him, Jeremiah said, peshur, the Lord has changed your name. From now on, you are to be called the man who lives in terror. For this is what the Lord says. I will send terror upon you and all your friends, and you will watch as they are slaughtered by the swords of the enemy. Great word, Jeremiah.

Very encouraging. I will hand the people of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will take them captive to Babylon or run them through with the sword. And I will Let your enemies plunder Jerusalem. All the famed treasures of the city, the precious jewels and the gold and the silver of your kings will be carried off to Babylon.

As for you, for sure, you and your household will go as captives to Babylon. There you will die and be buried. You and all your friends to whom you prophesied that everything will be all right. I just want to tell you. Today, Jeremiah, when he was beaten and put in the stocks and treated a certain way.

My man doesn't. There's no love lost between him and Peshur. He. He's upset. He.

He. Remember when we read In Jeremiah chapter 20, he believes that the Lord said, hey, I will protect you. I've given you my word. You have my word by your side. You're gonna go take on the bull by the horns.

It was a harsh word that he had for his people. And so all of a sudden, when he makes people angry and when he. And he ruffles feathers, Peshur, somebody who was appointed and is an official, he has Jeremiah through some torture, right? He gives him. He whips him, beats him, has him beaten him.

Beaten. Putting in the. In the. In the stocks. And Jeremiah is not happy about this.

So here's what he says to the Lord. Jeremiah has this. Has this whole word out with the Lord, right? He says, oh, Lord, you misled me. Oh, man, if I had a dime.

And I'm not going to ask you to raise hands like I did. If I had a dime for every time I may have had that conversation with the Lord. Lord, you misled me. And I allowed myself to be misled. Some versions say, lord, you deceived me.

You are stronger than I am, and you overpowered me. Now, God, I am mocked every day. Everyone laughs at me when I speak. The words burst out violence and destruction. I shout, so.

These messages from the Lord have made me a household joke. But if I say so, I'll never mention the Lord or speak in his name. For his word. I need you to catch this church. His word burns in my heart like a fire.

It's like a fire in my bones. I'm worn out trying to hold it in, but I can't do it. I've heard that many rumors about me. They call me the man who lives in terror. They threaten me.

If you say anything, we'll report it. Even my friends are watching me, waiting for a fatal slip. He will trap himself, they say, and then we will get our revenge on him. But the Lord stands beside me like a great warrior. Before him, my persecutors will stumble.

They cannot defeat me. They will fail and be thoroughly humiliated. Their dishonor will never be forgotten. O Lord of heaven's armies, you test those who are righteous and you examine the deepest thoughts and secrets. Let me see your vengeance against them, for I have committed my cause to you.

Sing to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. For though I was poor and needy, he rescued me from awe of my oppressors. The title I want of the teaching today, I want to talk through is victory through discouragement. And listen, I understand who I'm speaking to today in our room.

We have staff of this awesome church. We have leadership, we have deacons, elders, you know, leaders in the marketplace. We have all kinds of people in here, but none of us are immune to discouragement. Amen. This is, this is a walk that the Lord has me on right now.

I'm. I'm. Be honest with you guys. I'm speaking from a place that I need ministry today. I am, as I speak to you today, I'm very discouraged.

And it's something that's so simple. But sometimes we want to train ourselves and say, oh, is everything's going to be okay? Everything's going to be okay. And we start like kind of pushing it down, pushing it down. Anybody been there before?

You know, you'd kind of say, no, it's gonna be okay. God's got this. But can I tell you today, discouragement is a real thing. It's weariness of your soul. It's a wound in your soul.

And sometimes like you feel the emotion, like you try to push it down, you try to push it down. I'm gonna be a certain way. And then you get in front of the Lord and it all comes out right. And then you find yourself going in circles. So I wanna tell you the kind of the source of where I'm speaking from today.

My wife and I, we actually have an incredible opportunity right now. We're looking for a house. We actually found a beautiful house that we were wanting to move into. And if you asked me at the beginning of the year and said, prabhu, did you know you were going to be moving, I would have told you. No, I had no idea.

A couple, couple weeks into the month of January, we stumbled into an awesome, awesome situation. Friends of ours were moving and we found this house comes with a good bit of acres and space for my parents because they, God knows they come forever and stay with me all in love. They're not here this time. They're not here. They were here last time.

And I couldn't say anything, you know, and it came with like a mother in law suite. I mean, it was perfect for what we were looking for and space for the kids to run and play. And it was in a neighborhood that we loved. And we were so excited. We were so, so, so excited.

And so we started the process of getting rid of the. Getting rid of. We started packing up our things. We got a real estate agent and in conversations we said, okay, we're gonna pack up this house. We're gonna pack up the things that we know is causing clutter to the house, right?

So the first thing that had to go were the kids McDonald toys. We threw all them in a trash bag. We got rid of the playroom stuff, all of our kids toys, extra clothes and things like that. And anything that caused clutter in the house, we packed them up, put it in our garage. We got a whole pod packed a 16 foot pod with all of our stuff, Our stuff moved out.

But we're looking for this house. And I said, you know, my house that I currently live in is about five years old. I was like, there's no way this house doesn't sell by the end of the week. Because it's what I'm used to, right? Well, one week went by, two weeks went by, three weeks went by, and all of a sudden you start going through the cycle in your mind, right?

Of is it something that I did? Is it something like what's going on here? And as time goes and week after week after week, you start going through the stages of you're really excited to I'm confused, to I'm concerned to I'm angry and all of a sudden to I'm hopeless, you know what I mean? Like, and can I tell you this? It has nothing to do.

Like it's a house. Like, I don't need this house for survival. I don't need this. Like, you know, I live in a house right now, everything's fine. There are things that I've come through, the Lord has brought me through.

There are far more crazier, but like, but it's not circumstantial is what I guess what I'm trying to say. If the enemy were to take his tool bag and dump out all the tools that he has that he uses against God's people, and there are all these different tools and he has a value on each and every one of these tools, man, I'll tell you, the discouragement one is gonna be the most worn out used tool because everybody, like that's one tool that he can use to get to anybody and everybody. It can be a house that you're hoping for. It could be a health scare. It could be.

It could be your marriage, it could be your finances. It could be your kids. It can be anything. The enemy can use anything and use that weapon of discouragement to kind of get to your soul. And if we're not careful with it, all of a sudden, now you're partnering with anxiety.

You're partnering with all kinds of things that we as God's people cannot afford to partner with. Are you with me? You need to hear me. God's design for us is not to partner with anxiety. He has a future for us.

We don't need to be concerned about what is going to happen. God's got our back. But no matter how many times we sit in service, we sit Wednesday night after Wednesday night, Sunday after Sunday, talk to the people. And Lord knows, I've got a couple friends that they're done hearing me talk to them about this house, right? And I'm just gonna tell you, no matter how many times we do it, we do it to ourselves.

We can't keep. Just go. Keep going in that circle, in that cycle of. Lord, I'm discouraged. I don't see a way out.

I don't see a way out. You cannot tell me. You can't tell me today. It's a weapon. Discouragement is circumstantial.

Jeremiah finds himself in this spot.

Jeremiah finds himself in this spot, and he's questioning the Lord. He says, lord, I feel like you misled me. God, I feel like you set me up. I feel like you set me up because you said you would protect me. You touched my mouth and said your words were in me.

And, God, where are you right now? Because I'm the laughingstock of the town. God, where are you right now? Because I'm getting beaten up right now. God, where are you right now?

Because my body feels like it can't take it just from being in these stocks. Where are you? You promised.

I know it's heavy, but all of us go through it. I think we need to hear it today before we even start talking about this. I just want to tell you the Lord is for you in every way. The Lord is for you today. He sees you, he hears you, he weeps with you.

But can I tell you, discouragement is the opposite of encouragement, right? To encourage somebody is to give them confidence, is to give them courage to do something. Discouragement is when you're convinced that I can't stand up for anything. Like, it's not worth me standing up. Like, as a soccer coach, in the past, if my team had a losing season, we lost nine out of 10 games.

The 10th game, everybody's like, we're going to lose again. Why even try, right? And if we lose enough times, according to your measure, if you think you keep losing, then why try? That's what discouragement does to us. Discouragement comes most often when you do the right things but experience poor results over and over.

You work hard, but you feel like you're not making progress. Discouragement eats a hole in our hearts and makes us want to quit saying things we shouldn't say. Shaking our fists at God. Kids ask me all the time, Pastor Prabhu, is it okay to be angry with God? Well, my response is usually, well, God's given you emotions, right?

So if we have a car, your emotions are an important part of you. It's okay for you to have emotions, for you to be angry, for you to be sad, for you to be upset, for you to be nervous. They just can't be driving the car, right? Like, your emotions are not in charge, but your emotions lets you know that there's something going on inside of me that I need to address, right? And so if you're angry at the Lord, here's the first thing that Jeremiah does.

He's honest with the Lord. He's honest. God doesn't expect you to bat a thousand. God doesn't expect us to say, to suppress everything. He wants us to be honest with him.

And listen, I believe I'm here for somebody today, including myself. Are we honest with God? With who we are? We know who we are. I know who I am.

I know the things that I do that makes the Lord proud. But I know there's so much more that I do that doesn't I know who I am. Are we honest with God. So when Jeremiah has this talk with the Lord, he says, God, I feel like you misled me.

You're way more powerful than me. God, you overwhelmed me. You outmaneuvered me, man.

But I found it. That's often the things that you didn't choose that you didn't want it to go. The way is where the Lord can do the most in your lives. It's often the things that you didn't choose that end up changing you the most. At least for me, that's true.

There were three questions that circle, like, as I was going through this house thing last year, I had a rough year. Health scares, things like that this has been bothering me. I think it's the most annoying thing. Sometimes it just kind of eats at you, you know? And there are three ways this kind of manifested to me.

It said, I always thought, man, this is not the way I saw it happening. Any of you ever partnered with that question go through your mind? This is not the way I saw it going down.

I didn't want it this way. I didn't choose this. Like, I chose to get a house, but I didn't want it to take this long. Goes into, well, I did it for me. And if we're not careful, it gets even deeper than that.

It goes into, well, I didn't deserve this. I don't deserve this. And as we talk through all these things, a lot of it comes down to expectations of who we are and who God is. It's us saying that I can do these things on my own, or do we have trust issues with the Lord, that he's got our backs and he's weaving a better story. I love that Jeremiah, he says, when I speak, the words burst out.

Violence and destruction. I shout. So these messages from the Lord have made me a household joke. But if I say I'll never mention the Lord or speak in his name, His Word burns in my heart like a fire. It's like a fire in my bones.

I'm worn out trying to hold it in. I can't do it, man. I want. People ask me all the time when I'm tired or when you're worn out, when you're discouraged, like, how do you keep going? And I look at Pastor J and Mel, there's a picture.

Then if you guys. I'm going to give you a little insight into my life. Pastor Jay and Mel, when they first interviewed me, they took a chance on me. I was like, man, I want to be with the Lord. I want to serve the Lord for the rest of my life.

I love the Lord. I made a promise with the Lord. But they took a big chance on me when they hired me, you know, because I came when I came to the refuge. Every. Every year I stand out at Christmas, and I'll take a picture with Pastor J out there by the Christmas tree.

And I have eight of these pictures now because I've been here for a while, and usually, you know, when I'm. When I'm sitting there, I look at the picture and I'll post it on my Instagram, whatever. It's a time for me to think through how good the Lord has been in my life. Like Man, I shouldn't be here. But the Lord used people to get me to where I need to go, right?

And as Pastor Jay and Mel, they've encouraged me. They've seen the good in me, and they're like, man, the Lord has anointed you for this. There's something. I'm human. That every time I want to throw in the towel, I get discouraged because I'm not.

I'm human. The thing I can't explain is what Jeremiah explains here, that there's fire in my bones. The word of the Lord is in me. I can't turn away from it. Could I go be making money somewhere else, doing a lot of other things?

Yes. Could I be doing all kinds of different things? Yes. But I can't turn away from the word of the Lord that's burning in my bones. And listen to me.

This is not a pastoral calling. This is a conversation that we have with the Lord. What has the Lord spoken over you that's burning in your bones that keeps you from walking away? When the laughing comes, when the mis. When you're misunderstood, what is it that keeps you from running away?

And I can't explain it. I've had plenty of conversations with my own family who say, dude, you should have been a doctor. Classic Indian move, right? Like, you should have been a doctor. Again, my mom and dad not here.

We're gonna have some fun. You should have been a doctor, you know, and. No, I got. I got this fire in my bones that I can't walk away from. There's something that the Lord has put inside of me that I cannot walk away from, no matter how discouraged I get.

And it's real. There's something inside of me that I can't walk away. It came from that encounter when I first met Jesus. What is that fire? What is that fire that you have that you can't walk away from?

Come on. That has the power to supersede discouragement. What is that fire in your bones? I can't explain it. I don't understand.

Like, it makes no logical sense. My mom. My mom and dad are like, you know, like. Or people in my family. Oh, man.

I just said who, didn't I? Yep. No, man, you could be doing all kinds of things. No, but there's fire in my bones. Come on.

Can you get in touch with that fire in your bones today? Because I'm telling you, the church today, when we sing worship songs to Jesus, when we pray, it is quickly becoming. Let me go do my Sunday thing. And it's superseding. A personal relationship with the Lord.

That fire in our bones needs to translate to corporate fire, which is revival that we all need. The Lord needs to come and burn up the things that are dead inside of us.

So come on. Can I tell you today, that fire that you carry on the inside of you, you need to get in touch with it is vital. It is crucial. It's held. But here, saying God over here, like he's been through a lot, but for some reason, he's over here saying, God, you misled me in this moment, but it's a fire in my bones that I can't walk away from.

There's something about the cross, there's something about your name. There's something about you giving me that word that I cannot walk away from. This is not. Listen to me. It is not a pastoral calling.

It is not a platform calling. This is a relationship calling. Why do you follow Jesus? Because discouragement is real. Galatians 5, 7.

Paul writes, you are running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? Who cut in on you?

It certainly isn't God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. So when we're running this race, you've encountered the Lord. What other factors have you allowed into your life? Is it discouragement? Is it anxiety?

Is it worry? What have you partnered with that has kept you from running this race? Well, what's keeping you? I'm just gonna go for it. What's keeping you from raising your hands and dancing?

Because the Lord has given us everything during worship. What's keeping us from spending a little extra time in the presence of the Lord? What's keeping us from praying with our children? What's keeping. Are you.

Are you guys with me today? Listen to me. What's keeping us from running this race? Well, what have we partnered with that we forgot the fire in our bones, that we don't recognize that the word of the Lord is burning inside of us? God is a consuming fire.

Listen, God doesn't shape you through what you prefer or what you want. He shapes you through what you can endure.

So today, as you run this race, my encouragement to you is endure. Because God's got your back. The discouragement is real. The feelings are real. But God is not a man who would ever lie.

Run. God's got your back. Run. And it's hard for me to say this because my house is still not sold. It's still sitting there.

But I know God's got our back, whether it sells or not. That fire in My bones I ain't walking away from.

Listen. Finally, my favorite thing about this. And this is where it gets positive. I promise. Jeremiah says, keep your eyes on Jesus.

But the Lord stands beside me like a great warrior. Some versions say, a violent warrior. The Lord can fight any battle for you. Come on. Cancer is not too big for him.

Health crisis is not too big for him. A house, I promise. Your finances doesn't scare him. Your past doesn't scare him. Jesus has a plan for you, and he is a warrior who can face anything.

The Lord stands beside me, Jeremiah says, like a warrior. Before him, my persecutors will stumble. They cannot defeat me. They will fail and be thoroughly humiliate. You test those who are honored, will never be forgotten.

O Lord of Heaven's armies. You test those who are righteous. You examine the deepest thoughts and secrets. Let me see your vengeance against them. For I have committed my cause to you.

Sing to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. For though I was poor and needy, he rescued me from my oppressors. Listen, if you learn to cling to the cross today, God will use what hurt you to start molding what's already starting to heal inside of you. The things that hurt you, the things that are pain.

I'm not discounting those things. We all have different lives, but God is ready to heal. That Jeremiah relies on praising Jesus. And our praise is so critical. It is so, so, so critical.

Because praise helps you recognize a need for a provider. Your praise helps you recognize that God has a plan. It may not be your plan, but God has a plan. Your praise helps you accept what's happening right now. Your praise releases God's power.

Psalm 22:3 says, yet you are holy God. You are enthroned on the praises of Israel. Come on. In your praises lies God's power.

Listen to me, church. Come on. Can this year be the year where our worship. Our worship. Come on.

Close the roof off this place. Our worship today opens heavens. Because we have nothing to hold back when we praise Jesus, when we say God, you are good. It's not about me. You are good.

God, it's about you. Come on. You recognize that all provision, all grace only comes from one place, and that's from him.

When you say God, I accept what's happening. Because I'm not gonna keep my eyes on myself. I'm gonna choose to keep my eyes on you. I'm gonna choose to keep my eyes and see where you're moving, where your wind is blowing. How you're gonna do this, God?

I'm gonna choose to see you for who you are. And I'm not gonna be taken back by my circumstances. I'm not gonna stand here and say, man, I'm not gonna whine and complain. I'm gonna say, God, I'm gonna accept the present. Cause you're writing a beau.

Your praise today is going to release power. God's power. It's going to welcome his power into the room. I want to end with the story. I have a.

When I was little, my parents were friends with this other couple. I grew up in California, by the way. And yeah, a couple people did this, so that's awesome.

My parents had these friends and they were like, best of friends. And I grew up with their kids. And when I was really young, I ended up moving to India with my parents. But they stayed connected. I mean, every other weekend we were at each other's houses.

And one day, a couple weeks before nine. Eleven, actually.

So she's my godmother, very special person in my life. Her husband came home from playing basketball with the kids. 34 years old, 5 kids. The oldest is a heart attack, dies. They have five kids.

The oldest is nine. The youngest is four months old. And like any Indian marriage is like, usually like the. At the time. So this was like back in 2000, early 2000s, my godmother didn't know how to drive a car, didn't know how to go to the bank to know how to do any of these things.

She's kind of sitting there, I don't know what to do. And she makes a vow to the Lord. She says, God, I can choose to whine about this, I can choose to complain about this, but if you said you needed him back in heaven, then that's great, but you're going to fix this. You are going to go before me. And.

And she just boldly made this vow and just literally just had this conversation with the Lord and said, well, I don't know how I'm going to take care of these kids. You are. Cause you're part of this now, right? Can I tell you, today, my godmother, like, her five kids, all five of them are ministry. All five of them are like, their college is paid.

I don't even know how it happened. They still lived in the same house. They were my godmother's. Never had to work some crazy job. I don't know how this past November, me and my buddy was able to go visit her.

We walked into the room and we started talking through what happened and how she grew up and how the Lord helped her. And she said, I have one story, probably, like, help you understand when I had this. After I had this conversation with the Lord, you know, my. My daughter, she was nine at the time. She.

Every year they would send her to this camp with horses because she loved horses. And the year after her husband passed, she came to mom and said, mom, I'm ready to go to camp with the horses. And she said, honey, I don't know where that's coming from. I have no idea how we're going to do this. And she said, well, but I go every year.

Like, can you make. She was like, well, Dad's not here, so I don't know. And so she says, if Dad's not here, but you know who to ask. You know who your father is. And so she kind of goes away.

And that's. They kind of grew up in. And she says there was a missionary that came over to their house because she was very welcoming to people that came over to the house through the church, and they needed money for something, and she had about. She had $100. And instead of giving.

Giving it to her daughter, she writes a check to the missionary, puts. Puts it in the envelope and sets it on the toaster. And she's talking to the Lord. She's like, lord, I feel embarrassed. I can't help my own daughter.

But there's something inside of me that you're saying, I need to give this away to this person. And I'm angry. I'm embarrassed. I don't understand this. I don't like this.

I don't want to see my daughter, who's already been through a lot, tears in her eyes. I don't understand. And as she's having this conversation, she sets the check on her toaster. The male guy pulls over from her window. From her kitchen window, she sees the mail van pull up.

The mailman comes out, gives them a check, and it's. It's from somebody. Somebody that they didn't know that said, we want to sponsor your daughter to go to camp with the horses this year. And it just kind of came through. And as she was talking, like, I need you to understand.

Like, it's. If you meet this woman, you'll understand. Like, things happen with the Lord immediately. Sometimes. Like her conversations.

Like, she's, like talking to him. Like, he's, like, standing right here. Like, even when I went to visit, that's just how she is. She's just like, well, the Lord's like, she just.

We have gotten so far away from who God is, who God can be in your life. That discouragement and worry and anxiety and all these different things that the world has set up. You know, we live in a world today that's all about our preference. Like, you don't like the news, you have a certain preference. They've got something for you, right?

You on. You're on Spotify, and you listen to certain kind of music. The algorithm will just give you what you need, right? Like, what that's inevitably doing is making us feel like we're the center of the universe. That's how society wanders around.

Like it's about us. If we don't get our way, then we're just angry about it, we're mad about it. It can't be that way. But can I tell you, today, God wants to be the center of your universe. God wants to be your provider.

God wants to be with you. And discouragement cannot take you far away from the Lord. Anxiety and worry and all these tools from the enemy that's designed to keep you from the Lord, can't keep you from him. Come on. We need to acknowledge him in everything that we do, because the enemy does not have power over you.

Come on. He's not. He does not have you by the foot, right? Like, you have freedom in Jesus. And as Brittany was praying this today, listen, I know this message can feel sobering, and this is something I'm going through right now, and I'm having to deal with.

And, you know, there are lots of thoughts going through my mind. I was like, lord, is this what you want me to speak? So I know there's somebody in the room that needs this today. As Brittany came up and she was leading worship, and she was saying, I see chains falling. I see chains coming down.

I'm like, lord, you are good, because that is somebody today. That is somebody in this room today. Because God wants to encounter you. If you feel your heart beating right now, man, I feel the spirit so strong right now. I'm like, the Lord sees you.

The Lord sees you. The Lord hears you, and he hasn't left you. The Lord wants to be the center of your universe. He wants to have a relationship with you like you've never known. Whose chains are falling tonight.

I believe that in Jesus name. But come on, can you grab onto Jesus today? Say, God, discouragement won't own me today. Can we pray real quick? So, Jesus, we love you.

God, you are good in so many ways. You are faithful. You are consistent.

God, sometimes we do it to ourselves. God, we think that our ways is what matters. That we are the center of the universe. But, God, your ways are higher. Your thoughts are higher than ours.

And God, we want you. God, we don't want a fake version of you. We don't want to rely on our own minds. We don't want to rely on what we know. We don't want to rely on the news.

We don't want to rely on government. God, we rely on you. You are our hope today. God, you are our hope. It's not our charisma, it's not our talents.

God, you so, Jesus, right now, if there's any gap right now, that we have unmet expectations and the pain and the weight of unmet expectations pushes us down, that we are discouraged, that we're walking around with things that we don't need to carry. God, God, remind us that you carry that cross for us. God, that you have overcome. And, God, what a friend we have in Jesus. God, I thank you for your blood that covers us.

God, I thank you that you've touched our mouths. Your word is in us. There's fire burning in our bones today. God, God, I thank you that we have nothing to worry about because you go before us. You are God, a violent warrior.

Got nothing to worry about. Jesus, I pray today that chains would fall as Brittany prayed, saying earlier today. God, I pray today that the enemy would lose. Would lose his grip. Jesus, today I pray that you would be glorified, you'd be lifted up and you'd be sovereign today.

God, thank you for every opportunity that we get to speak about you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.