It's so good to be home. That's how it feels
when I come here. Lord, we just pray for your
presence to be near, so near. Lord, that my words
wouldn't be mine, but they would be your words
to your people. Encourage hearts tonight, Father.
Refresh hearts. Speak to your people. We just
invite you to linger, Holy Spirit. We don't want
to be in a hurry when we're in your presence.
Would you stay and linger with us? Linger with
us, Lord. I'm just curious. How many of y 'all
were here last year when we were here? Okay.
Okay. I want to have a little confession to make.
The Lord began to stir my heart. Coming to Illinois
was one of the first ministry trips I took with
dad or otherwise last year. And he began to stir
my heart when I was here about altars and wells.
Half the time, I don't remember what I've said,
so I don't expect you all to remember, but there
was this word that the Lord gave about re -digging
wells. I think someone made a t -shirt. Cammie
messaged me after I left, and one of the interns
had made a t -shirt of, dig another well, dig
another well. And the Lord has not let me go,
has not let that go since last year. And I don't
want to be redundant or try and, you know, there's
a saying about in Texas, everything's about horses
in Texas. But, you know, we don't want to run
that horse too far. But when I tell you the Lord
hasn't relented all year, speaking to me about
altars and wells and altars and wells. And there
have been the coolest testimonies and signs that
have come. I was speaking at a church in Cleburne,
Texas, back in November. And I was speaking,
but the Lord gave me this word for the pastor
and his wife. And all of a sudden, I looked down
from the pulpit. I began to prophesy from that
same word about Rehoboth when Isaac is redigging
the wells of his father. And they keep being
contentious, and he has to dig another well,
and he has to dig another well. And I looked
at him and I said, and there's going to be a
broad place and it's time to dig another well.
And the pastor's just looking at me. And I'm
thinking, okay, you know, the Holy Spirit's touching
him or something. But he just looked like, and
he looks at his wife and he says something and
he looks back at me. And I'm like, what's happening?
We had lunch after. He said, you don't understand.
We just came into this property. We just came
to this building. And we're on well water. And
we share a well with our neighbors. And legally,
the well is ours. But our neighbors came this
past week angry and contentious with us, angry
about the water in the well. And legally, it's
ours. And I was thinking of fighting them over
the well. And as you were prophesying, I leaned
to my wife and I said, honey, we're just going
to dig our own well. And so they're now literally
digging a well. I had no clue what was going
on. So I tell you, like, the Lord has not let
this thing go. And we were also in Nebraska a
couple months after we were here. And I won't
go into all the details, but there has just been
these redemptive wells, particularly across the
Midwest, that I feel the burning and burden of
the Lord to redig. There are revival wells hidden
in the plains that the Lord is redigging. And
there are altars of sacrifice and worship that
the Lord is rebuilding. I'm going to go through
several scriptures, but y 'all thought y 'all
finished the reading through the Bible today.
You didn't know it was just practice for me tonight.
I have a few messages, but I mean a few scriptures
to get through. But I want you to hear this message.
not just as an expository on the word, but as
a prophetic message to your church, to the Church
of Lincoln, to the Church of Illinois, that the
Lord is looking throughout the earth. He's seeking
those that will stand in the gap. He's seeking
those who will rebuild the ancient altars and
re -dig the ancient wells. It's a time of rebuilding
and redigging, rebuilding and redigging, rebuilding
and redigging. So hear it in your spirit tonight.
The word does not return void, but hear this
as a prophetic commission, if you will. If I
had to title this message, it would be Altars
and Wells, How Do We Steward Heavenly Encounters?
I want to go first to... Elijah in Mount Carmel.
So I'm going to go. Lord bless Nick. We just
bless Nick. I have my falling apart binder with
scribbled notes, and he was very gracious to
try and put them up here in a second. But in
1 Kings 18 and 30, when I tell you, let me just.
Let me just preface what I'm about to read. I
looked for a good week. And when I tell you I
love a good bunny trail, rabbit hole, whatever
you want to call it, sometimes you follow them
and sometimes you fall in them. I have friends
in this room who can vouch for that fact. I was
like a dog with a bone, as they say. I wanted
to find out. Did I hit something? What am I doing?
Okay. why the altars were torn down in the first
place. We all know the story. I'm probably going
to read it somewhat quickly, but I believe we're
all familiar with the story. I don't want to
take that for granted necessarily, but knowing
many of you in the room, I'm confident. So turn
with me to 1 Kings 18. And, you know, we've got
Jezebel and Ahab. It's not a good season in Israel's
history. They're worshiping Baal. They're worshiping
idols. They've torn down the altars of the Lord.
And Elijah challenges Ahab. He says, bring your
prophets. Bring the prophets of Baal. Bring all
these to Mount Carmel. Meet me there. And bring
all the assembly of Israel. Call everyone, all
the nation, all the people. Bring them. And we're
going to see who's God, the God of Israel or
Baal. And we're going to put it to a test, right?
We're familiar with the story. And I love the,
how can I say this? I love the feisty confidence
of Elijah. He is literally teasing the prophets
of Baal. Oh! Maybe your God's napping. Maybe
he's gone on a journey because they're crying
out. They're doing all the things. Again, we
know the story. Baal does not answer. He's not
a living God. We serve the living God. Amen?
Amen. So I'm just giving a brief review of that
for us to bring us back into the context of the
story. But I want to start in verse 30. So after
Baal has failed to answer, Elijah's taunted the
prophet, says, then Elijah said to all the people,
come near to me. Again, hear this in the spirit.
So all the people came near to him, and he repaired
the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And
Elijah took 12 stones for each tribe, excuse
me, of Israel, and he rebuilt the altar of the
Lord. I spent more than a week trying to find
out when and why was this altar torn down? Lord,
how did these things happen? And I don't know
why I was so fixated on it. I was Googling. I
was asking biblical scholar friends with 40 -plus
years in the Word and MDiv. And I'm just, what
is it? And the Lord, all of a sudden, it was
like he just came up to me in my quiet time and
he said, I'm more worried about the rebuilding.
than why they were torn down. And I suddenly
had this moment of realizing how often do we,
I can speak for myself, but I feel like in America,
in the church, we We're watching the news, and
we're trying to analyze. I see parents, they're
so worried about their kids and trying to figure
out, what happened to my kids? How did they walk
away from the Lord? What should I do? How can
I fix them? Why has America turned from the Lord?
Why is this happening? And there's wars and rumors
of war, and we get so caught up in, Lord, what
has happened to our nation? We were built on
biblical principles, and we get so caught up
in... Why was the altar torn down? What's happened
to our society? What's happened? And I had felt
that in my spirit all week. I'm like, I want
to find out. If I'm going to preach on rebuilding,
what happened in the first place? And it was
like the Lord was like, honey, that's not the
point. It's the rebuilding. So again, I want
to challenge us to look up, to look forward,
to look onward. There's a rebuilding taking place.
And he rebuilds the altar and the Lord answers
with fire. I think we get immune to some of these
stories if we've grown up in the church. The
Lord answers with fire. And I just want to say
he's still the God who answers with fire. My
God, our God, the living God is still a God who
answers with fire. And I've seen him do it. And
you can't convince me otherwise. He's a God who
answers with fire. Now, I want to point one thing
out before I move to the next scripture. When
we're fixated on the problem, we want to lay
blame and we want to do all the things and we
want to find our own solutions and we'll look
later at how that does not work. But it does
say that Elijah called the people. There's something
to be said about the people in our sphere of
influence that witness our lives. We don't just
contend for breakthrough closeted away. Yes,
we pray in the secret place, and he who hears
in the secret place will himself reward you openly.
I'm not contradicting that point, but there is
a place of holy moment, of holy boldness that
comes in moments of history on the body of Christ,
and I believe we're on the threshold, and there's
this call of the Lord and the Spirit for us to
be bold once again and say, no, come watch what
my God can do. It's not a time to hide away in
the caves. It's not a time to tuck tail and run.
It's not a time to simply survive. It's a time
to call the people and say, oh no, I am so confident
God is going to come. I am so confident he is
going to answer. Come watch him do it. Won't
he do it? Won't he do it? I want to say one other
thing. Elijah, in this instance, he did this,
but he got a little bit in his head after. Sometimes
we have these bold moments, and then all of a
sudden, we realize, what did I just say? What
did I just do? Jezebel's pursuing, he's going
to die. And he gets a little in his head, and
he goes and he's hiding. And he's convinced he's
the only one left. And the strategy of the enemy,
when God wants to pour out breakthrough, one
of the strategies is always to try to isolate
us. And if there's ever a time for unity in the
body of Christ, it's now. We have to model that
for the world. Where else are they going to see
it but in us? And when we try to isolate ourselves,
when he was hiding and being fed by ravens, and
the Lord comes and speaks to him, and it wasn't
in the fire, it wasn't in the wind, it was the
still, small voice. We know the story. He said,
Elijah, what are you doing? He said, well, I've
been zealous for your name. I've been zealous.
The people, they tore down the altars and they've
killed the prophets and I alone am left and they
seek my life. The enemy can get us so trapped
in our thinking that we literally think we're
alone. God does not call us alone. He sets us
the orphan in families. So if anywhere in your
life, I just, I feel this in the spirit. I don't
know who this is for, but I think there's a few
people in the room that need to hear this. This
was not in my notes. Well, some of it, but not
this part. You're not alone. I feel the Lord
wanting to break isolation off people tonight.
You're not alone. Because when we get in that
place, it renders us in hiding, fearful, and
is often accompanied by a self -righteous, escapist
mentality. If we were to have a list of the churches,
I could say in America or the globe, and you
wanted to put a checkbox by how many that described,
I believe it grieves the heart of God. We are
not meant to survive and hide away in isolation.
We are not called to walk this life of faith
alone. So I encourage you, plug into community,
plug in, reject the lie that you're alone. Okay.
I gotta keep moving, because yes. The other thing,
is though that when we build altars, it affects
nations and generations. It doesn't say that
the people that he called to watch helped him
build it. He obeyed the Lord and he built it.
Though none go with me, still I will follow.
But they saw it and it drew an entire nation
back to the Lord. The simplest, smallest acts
of obedience are always met with a heavenly response
and an outcome beyond what we could ever expect.
It's not about us. It's about God working through
us. And when we walk in obedience, great things
can happen, and it affects nations and generations.
All right. I want to look in also in Genesis
chapter 26. Now, I know I shared part of this
scripture passage last year, but I want to revisit
it again. In Genesis 26, I'm going to start in
verse 15. You guys still with me? It's too quiet
in here for me. See, I'm from the South. We like
interactive preaching. So if I get an amen, sister,
I will feel right at home, okay? All right, there
we go. Okay. All right. The Philistines had stopped
up all the wells which his father's servants,
so this is Isaac. He's going to be re -digging
the wells that Abraham dug. Again, this is multi
-generational, altars and wells. It affects generations.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now the
Philistines had stopped up all the wells which
his father's servants had dug in the days of
Abraham his father, and they had filled them
with earth. And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away
from us, for you are much mightier than we. Then
Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent
in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there. And Isaac
dug again the wells of water, which they had
dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the
Philistines had stopped them up after the death
of Abraham. He called them by the names which
his father had called them. I want to pause.
I grew up traveling all across the Midwest with
my family. I have personally seen miracles in
this state. I have personally watched more miracles
and salvations and deliverances than I literally
have. If we took the rest of tonight and tomorrow,
there are more than I could convey to you. And
I have seen it. I have touched it. I have witnessed
it from my earliest years. I think I was about
five years old when we started coming to Illinois,
and I am now 36. So 30 years of miracles I've
witnessed in your state. And the enemy would
love nothing more than to fill those up with
the things of this world, with the earth. And
the wells and the rain and the water and the
river that Pastor Darren was singing about earlier,
the move of the Spirit of God all throughout
Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, we see
water used as analogy, if you will, by God of
a moving of his Spirit and of his presence. And
the enemy would love nothing more than to stop
at the wells. In my own soul, spring up, oh well,
David says. We each have a well of living water
inside of us. I don't care if that sounds crazy
and Pentecostal or whatever to you. It is in
scripture, so you cannot argue with me tonight.
Okay? You have a well of living water in your
belly. Look at your neighbor and say, you have
a well of living water living in your belly.
Now just look at them and say, spring up. Spring
up a well. Spring up a well. Speak to your city.
I encourage you regularly. Speak it as a declaration
over your schools, over your city, over your
family, over your place of business. Spring up
a well. Spring up a well. There are redemptive
wells that the Lord has in you, but also we know,
again, through Scripture, there are... If the
blood of Abel can cry to him, the blood of innocence,
how much more the redemptive well of the spoken
promises and covenant of God, how much more are
his ears listening and attending that cry of
the things that he has been waiting decades to
break loose in your heart, in your family, in
your state? So he called them by the names which
his father had called them. So see, when we dig
wells, we don't rebrand it and say, oh, renewal
was wonderful. I'm saying nothing against the
things that happened in the past, but we're not
going to just live in an old wine scale, an old
wine skin and slap a new label on it. What does
scripture say about that? Does it work out? Well,
no. He called them by the names his father called
them. We honor the testimony, but the testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Last time
I checked, the prophetic moved forward, not backwards.
Are you hearing me? We are, when we lean into
the testimonies, when we re -dig the wells of
what he's done, we're saying, God, do it again.
We're not going back to relive in the past and
call it the present. So he called them what his
father had called them. Also, Isaac's servants
dug in the valley and found a well of running
water. It's significant. It's living. It's living
what is running water. When water doesn't move,
it becomes filled with disease. Water was meant
to flow. I served under a pastor. And he said
something I'll never forget. He said, you know,
in the more charismatic things, we always like
to talk about the river of the Lord, the river
of the Lord. Most of us are just sitting in jacuzzi.
So we just like it to stir the waters around
us and come and hit. Oh, that's the spot. Oh,
yes, Lord. Just come. Just come move on us. Move
on me, Lord. Oh, move on my friend here that
I like and actually get along with. Oh, and then
come move on me again. And then, oh, that felt
so good. Would you do it again, Lord? and there's
not an outflow. We are meant to be rivers of
living water, not stagnant jacuzzis called churches.
I might not be back next year, so love y 'all.
Okay, good, there's laughter. I might see you
again. Okay, all right. I get a little feisty
sometimes, just a little. It was running water.
But herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac. It's
a good thing I wasn't here this week. I can't
pronounce stuff. Quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen,
saying, the water is ours. I'll never be able
to read this without thinking of Cleburne again.
So he called the name of the well Essek, which
means quarrel, because they quarreled with him.
Then they dug another well, and they quarreled
over that one as well. So he called its name
Sitna. which means enmity. And he moved from
there and dug another well. And this is what
I was hearing the Spirit last year, it's time
to dig another well. It's time to dig another
well. See, when disappointment happens, we dig
another well. When offense comes, and surely
they will come, that's one of the promises of
the word that you don't hear preached very often,
we are warned, we are told, offenses will come.
We dig another well. When church hurt happens,
we dig another well. When we don't, when there's
contention, when the enemy tries to still kill
and destroy, which is his very purpose, do we
get distracted? Do we get discouraged? Do we
stop and just be satisfied? Well, we'll just
survive with what the generations before us.
We'll just settle. We'll survive. There's enough
water. If I just get a little taste of his presence
every two, three months, I'll survive. We're
not meant to survive. He kept digging wells.
Hear me in the spirit. When Isaac came back to
this place, the generations had multiplied. What
was enough for generations past is no longer
enough. If you want more than just you to survive,
if you want the well of God, the move of God
to stop with you, if you are satisfied with that,
then be prepared to watch as the generations
fall. I'm not trying to speak doom and gloom
here. I'm just telling you what is at stake.
He needed more wells because there was more need.
Nothing in the kingdom of God ever shrinks. Of
the increase of his government and peace, there
shall be no end. If it's not increasing, test
it and see if it's real. If it's not increasing,
is it really God? If it is stagnant and there
is no life in it, if it is stable and survivist,
test it. Test it for life. Check for a pulse.
Is this really God? God is always, he is triune
in nature and he is the God of generations. He
is always so far beyond what we could think or
imagine. He's thinking 10 steps ahead. He's thinking
a thousand years is but a day to him. He sees
the bigger picture. And we have to, if we're
going to partner with him, we have to expand
our hearts and our vision. And he moved from
there and dug another well, and they did not
quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth,
which means a wide or broad place. Because he
said, for now the Lord has made room for us,
and we shall be fruitful in the land. Then he
went up from there to Beersheba. And the Lord
appeared to him on the same night and said, I
am the God of your father Abraham. Do not fear,
for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply
your descendants for my servant Abraham's sake.
So he built an altar there and called on the
name of the Lord. And he pitched his tent there.
And there Isaac's servants dug a well. Surprise.
I'm not through with this passage yet. There's
more. But wait, there's more. So he digs another
well. And then we see through verse, I'm not
going to read it all, but from verse 26 down
through about 30, 31, Abimelech, the king that
had said, get out from here, you're mightier
than us, go out, go out. The same king whose
servants had filled those wells comes and says,
make a covenant with us because you're mightier
than us and we don't want you to destroy us.
The Lord will set a table before us in the presence
of our enemies. But they come and they say, oh,
cut covenant with us because we now fear you've
become a great nation. But here's what I want
you to hear. At the end of verse 25, it says,
and there Isaac's servants dug a well. After
his enemy comes and is like, hey, you're more
powerful. Then they come back. After that, he
finds out. that they say in verse 32, at the
end of verse 32, it says, we have found water.
And so he called it Sheba. Therefore, the name
of the city is Beersheba to this day. The Lord's
already providing more resource before we even
recognize it happens. When our enemies are like
recognizing, wow. God is with you. Don't hurt
us, please. The Lord's already, when he was faithful
to start digging again, the Lord was already
ready with more and more and more wells, waiting
before he even had a chance to see them. Okay?
I'm not going to turn there for time, but I just
want to say, back in Genesis 46, verses 1 and
5, I've been looking at so many scriptures, and
I just want what I feel prophetically to come
across right, so bear with me. But Abraham, when
he first dug those wells, before they had been
stopped up. This is scriptural proof that the
Lord can use dysfunctional families because Abraham
lied about Sarah being his wife and Abimelech.
There was a whole issue of it and he says, you
know, get out from us. And he goes and he digs
wells. And Abimelech again says, You're too great
for us. Hey, cut a covenant with me. And he cuts
a covenant with his enemy. Then Isaac does the
same thing. He goes back and he's there with
Abimelech. He lies about his wife. Gets in trouble.
He gets kicked out again. Okay, so what's my
point? My point is we can pass on generational
sins or we can pass on generational wells and
altars. If we don't, if we cut unrighteous, If
we get friendly with sin and tolerate it and
make friends with it, okay, you don't hurt me,
I won't hurt you, we'll just live in this stalemate,
it's going to come back to the next generation.
And even if we, in our own strength, try and
dig a few wells, if we're not willing to deal
with the things that God wants us to deal with,
they're going to keep coming back and haunt our
children. So Isaac had to work double hard to
re -dig those wells and then dig more because
they had been making friends with the enemy.
Are you hearing me? And an interesting thing,
too. It says Abimelech and the commander of his
army, Philco, came the first time. When they
come back to visit, with Abraham, when they come
back to visit Isaac, they bring another friend.
So what do you want to multiply in your legacy?
Enemies or wells? Again, I'm not trying to be
doom and gloom tonight, but I feel this word
so strong in my spirit because my dad's a gardener.
I grew up doing weeds with him. And every spring,
we have, it's always a surprise and a joy to
see what blooms again. Oh, it lasted the winter.
It came. Its roots are deep. We've nourished
the soil. It's good. It's come back. There's
fruit that's coming back. There's also weeds.
And when you pluck up weeds, you don't break
off the head, you pull it up from the root. And
there's things that as we dig, the Lord wants
to uproot. Yeah. So, I'm going to come in for
a landing, but a beautiful thing that we see
is So we see Abraham dug the well, Isaac redug,
he dug more. And at the end of Jacob's life,
when Joseph has called his father from Egypt
and he's bringing him home, the Lord speaks to
Jacob, Aga Israel, and says, hey, stop, stop,
he stops at Beersheba. And the Lord begins to
speak to him. It says in a night vision, your
young men will have visions, your old men will
dream dreams. He began to dream a dream, and
the Lord began to speak promises over the generations
after him. So by the time that generation had
come, there was just living water coming out,
and it was a place of life and encountering the
Lord, and where generations past then would be
blessed. Yes. Thank you, Lord. How are we doing?
I meant to bring my phone up here for a time.
All right. So I'm going to blow through just
really fast a couple more. So are y 'all still
with me? We got 10 more minutes? Five more minutes?
Okay. Okay. All right. I told y 'all the whole
reading through the word. It was just practice
for tonight. Really quickly, in Genesis 28, I'm
going to breeze through this one because, again,
I believe we know the story. When Jacob comes
to Bethel. Oh, I just saw it there. Sorry. Thank
you, Nick. Thank you. Because y 'all can't see
this, only I can see my messy notes. He's fleeing
for his life. He's deceived. He's lied. He's
fleeing for his life. This is for someone here
tonight. If you think you need to go to Bible
college and have your life together and then
come, have had the perfect day, your coffee tasted
perfect, everything worked out, no one cut you
off in traffic, and you're going to come and
the Lord's going to meet you. I don't see that
very often in Scripture. Every single one of
the places I've referenced so far. The Lord meets
us at our most desperate. And it's raw and it's
messy and it's counter to our mind. But he meets
us at our worst and our most desperate and he
encounters us with his presence. He's a God of
redemption. He's the God of the but. But God,
nothing of our own merit. We are saved by grace.
He comes and he encounters us with love when
he knows we need it most, before we even know
we need it. So he meets Jacob, later to be called
Israel, there at Bethel. And one of the words
that stuck out to me that Jacob says is, I was
unaware. Surely this is the house of God and
the gate of heaven, and I was unaware. Now, watch
with me how this grows in our walk of faith.
I want you to think about your own walk with
the Lord. I can look back at when the Lord first
encountered me. I can tell you the story of when
I gave my heart to Jesus as a seven -year -old
girl. I can tell you when I got filled with the
Holy Spirit. I can tell you how the Lord encountered
me in water baptism. I could tell you, I could
spend days, we could have a week -long conference,
not have enough time for me to tell you the ways
the Lord has encountered my heart. In deep brokenness,
in deep sorrow, in deep joy and blessing. In
every moment of my life, he is faithful. He's
faithful to encounter us. But he's always moving
forward. And so he said, I was unaware, I was
in awe. And he names the place Bethel, which
in Hebrew means the house of God. And we know
he flees to his uncle Laban. He gets married,
he works. Again, dysfunctional family. He works
14 years, gets married twice. It's a whole thing.
And then the Lord visits him in Genesis 31, and
he says, I am the God of Bethel. Get out of this
land. And the Lord will speak to us. I've had
the Lord speak to me of, hey, remember, remember,
I'm the God who sees you. Remember. Lean back
on that testimony because I want to launch you
from it. Remember. Remember. You love me because
I first loved you. Remember how I first loved
you. Yeah. I just want you to be aware this coming
week. I believe the Lord has encounters waiting
for all of us. For so many of you, I feel specifically
just like it's heavy in the atmosphere. He wants
to encounter you. So just be aware. Be attuned.
Let him remind you. and then dig new wells. In
Genesis 31, he encounters him, and he says, I
am the God of Bethel. Get out of this land. And
then he meets him again. He meets him again,
and when he wrestles with God, again fleeing
for his life, worried about Esau coming, he's
meeting his brother again. He's walking back
into the same scenario he was in before, but
he's now a different person. Still a little freaked
out. Still walking in a bit of fear. But he's
moving forward in obedience to the same thing
he ran from before because God has transformed
him. Transformed him. And I promise I do speak
English. And he wrestles with God. See, we need
to never stop wrestling with God. Because as
long as there are things in us that resist, that
need to be melted away, we have to keep wrestling.
He wrestles with God and God changes his name
from Jacob, deceiver, to Isaac. And after he's
changed his name, after he's brought him his
own personal transformation, he brings him back.
In Genesis 35, he comes back to Bethel. And do
you know what the man whose name God changed
does at that place? He changes the name of the
place. from Bethel to El Bethel. And there's
a transformation the Lord continually wants to
do in our hearts from, oh, this is the house
of God to the God of the house of God. El Bethel
literally means the God of the house of God.
He wants to take us from a place of being unaware
of his presence to being aware of his presence.
And he wants to take us from being aware of his
presence to how his presence can transform us
to change our very identity. He wants to change
our identity and then let us walk in obedience
to go where he says to go regardless of circumstances
and whether it was painful the last time and
whether or not we're still fearful. He wants
to call us into obedience. And in that place,
then he wants to fix our eyes on him and say,
it's not about just my presence and coming in
and feeling my good presence and being aware
the Lord is moving. Seek the God of the movement.
As he transforms us, our focus should ever more
be transformed to seek the God of the house of
the Lord. There's continual, continual transformation
on offer. There's more I want to share, but we
have. We have tomorrow. So I'm going to bring
it in because I feel in my spirit that this is
what the Lord wanted to do tonight. To remind
you that you're not alone and that he's the God
that transforms. And it's the God that transforms
hearts. If he can change a single heart, why
not a city? Why not a nation? God, we just want
to say we're open and we're hungry. We want to
rebuild and re -dig, but we don't want to do
it. For ourselves or for survival, we want to
do it. We want to become ever more just captivated
by this God who changes names and changes nations.
Lord, would you shift our eyes off of ourselves
and onto you enough that we could be catalysts
That we would be confident catalysts in a nation
that is so hungry for transformation. God, I
ask that you would speak to each heart here.
Speak identity, God. Speak identity, Father.
Your word says that our lives are hidden in Christ
as we become ever more captivated and in love
with you. Would you tell us more of what our
purpose is here on this earth? Lord, would you
share the secrets of your heart with us and let
us run with the message and proclaim it boldly
in whatever sphere you call us to, whether it's
our next door neighbor. or a nation we don't
even know how to find on the map. There's transformation
on offer tonight. I just, if it's all right,
I just want to say, if you're, if you want to
build an altar tonight afresh, an altar of consecration,
I just want to invite you to deal with God wherever
and however that looks like for you. If you want
to come to the altar, the altar's open. And you're
saying, where do I even start? What do I begin?
What do I do? What David said, who is said to
be a man after God's own heart, he says, I will
not give to the Lord that which cost me nothing.
If you want to know where to start, ask God.
What in me has any value that I can give to you?
What cost me something? If it's my reputation,
you can have it. If it's my trust, you can have
it. If it's my money, you can have it. If it's
my obedience, you can have it. What cost you
something tonight? It might be the widow's might,
but God sees it. Moses had a stuttering lisp
and a staff in his hand. God used it. The widow
had a little oil and a little flour. God used
it. We don't hold anything back tonight, Father.
Papa, we trust you. You're a good father. You
only have your glory and our good in mind. We
don't have anything of value that we could barter
with you, but we just have, what we have is on
offer. It's not that it has any value, but to
you, it's just the sacrifice that matters. The
five loaves, the two fishes, we bring it, Lord,
we bring it freely. God of transformation, would
you meet us at the altar? and transform our simple
sacrifices, the little bit we have to give, and
would you make it something that honors and glorifies
you, Lord?