The Gun Is Loaded

Lord is made. We shall rejoice and be glad in it. It's indeed a tremendous honor for me to be here today to celebrate the Lord with you on this beautiful Sunday morning, and it is a beautiful Sunday morning because it's raining outside, but it's still beautiful because this is the day that the Lord has made, and we have a choice whether we're going to rejoice and be glad in it.

I give honor to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to your pastor in his absence. I thank God for Pastor Jeff. I've known him now for several years, and we've become good friends. He's the kind of brother that I will put my hand in the fire for, so I celebrate him and I thank God for him. The vision that God has given to this church is not only unique, but I think that you are also very unique people as well. We have enjoyed the partnership and the fellowship, the times that we have served together, and the times that we have worshiped together. It has truly been a blessing.

Being here with you on this Sunday morning is a little different for me because I'm normally at my home church ministering. Jeff asked me if I would speak, and he initially asked for May, and then he slid it up till today. Sounds just like Jeff. But anyway, it is a blessing to be here today, and I thank God for you. Thank you, Elder James—God bless you. I love your spirit and your spirit of hospitality.

Also, to the praise team, let's give them another hand. Didn't they do an awesome job? A really good praise team really helps the preacher minister the word of God. If you get a sorry praise team, boy, it's like you got a hard piece of ground to break through. But if your praise team has been saturated, so that when the plowing actually begins, then it's a lot easier. But if your praise team stinks, then your ground is unbroken and you're going to break a plow in the process of trying to get it done. So thank you, Danny, and to all of the praise team—you guys did a marvelous job. I enjoyed hearing and singing the praises of the Lord with you.

Today, I want to speak to you out of John, the fifteenth chapter, verses six through eight. I'm reading from the King James Version of the Bible, and I also want to acknowledge my wife who is sitting here beside me, Vicky Walker. Thank God for her. She is also a co-pastor, my co-pastor in the ministry. And also to those of you that came from Mount Pleasant—it's about four of our deacons here—I want to say thank you for coming and being a part of the service.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples. — John 15:6-8

The Gun Is Loaded

The thought today is a little bit strange, but give me a few minutes. It will make sense before you leave today. The thought today is: the gun is loaded.

Now, I spoke this word over a month ago at the CTK Leadership Retreat at Camp Caraway, and Jeff called me a little bit later on. He said, "Will you come on a Sunday morning and minister the word again?" And I told him, "Certainly, I was honored to do so." So those of you that were at the leadership retreat—I'm not riding an old pony. You know what an old pony is? It's when the person has not spent the adequate time preparing for a sermon, so you grab an old one and you ride the old one because that congregation has not heard it before. So I'm not riding an old pony. I'm just following the instructions of your pastor.

The gun is loaded. I got those words from a movie that's called The Book of Eli. I don't know if you've ever seen that movie before. If you watch R-rated movies with a lot of gratuitous violence in it, then you are on the page with me. It has just the right amount of gratuitous violence, but in The Book of Eli, there's a central character by the name of Eli, and as I said, it is an R-rated movie. I'm not necessarily recommending it, but the central character named Eli is carrying around a Bible, and everywhere he goes, he's carrying this Bible with him. We're not really sure when he started carrying the Bible. All we know is that some apocalyptic event took place—it was a nuclear war—and he's carrying this Bible, and he has been doing so for many years.

Now, Eli is a special ops soldier, I guess, because everybody he encounters, he has all of these specialized skills. He carries two swords that are razor sharp. He has guns in his pocket and on his leg, and he also has a bow and arrow. He's carrying this Bible around, and he is protecting his Bible at all cost. As I said, we're not really sure where he is going.

As the movie continues on, he goes into this shanty of a town and he meets a guy by the name of Carnegie who wants a Bible at all cost. He has sent out these despicable characters searching the Earth, trying to find a Bible and they've come up short after many excursions into this apocalyptic landscape. But now, Eli walks into this shanty of a town and he has a Bible, and Carnegie wants the Bible and he does everything he can to butter up Eli. He gives him a nice place to stay and food and everything else because he really wants to get that book from him.

But the next day, somehow, Eli is walking out of the town and he has not given the Bible to Carnegie. And Carnegie stops him on the way out and he says, "You know, I gotta have that Bible." He asks him the question, "Why do you want it?" He said, "You know, that book had power and after the apocalypse, after the nuclear war took place, they took Bibles from everybody and he said, I want that Bible because it has so much power." He says, "You know exactly why I want the Bible because this book is able to control people. So, therefore, I want to have this book to control the people in this town and not only the people in this town but I have a vision that's much greater than the people in this town. I want to control people in other towns as well. So, therefore, I need that book."

Eli says, "You know, I want to give this book to someone in a very special place but this is not it. I gotta keep looking." So, as he is walking away from Carnegie, he has a pistol in his hand and Carnegie asks him the question, "Is that thing loaded?" And then he says, "Probably not. They never are."

The Gun Is Loaded

And that is the purpose of what I'm saying here today. Is that thing loaded? Probably not. They never are. But I want to use it in the context of the scripture being loaded within our hearts. That when it comes to conflict, when it comes to war, when it comes to the issues of life, is that thing loaded? In many instances when you look at Christians today, the answer will be probably not. They never really are. But we must have a Bible that's within us that's fully loaded.

The Bible says:

Whereby is given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. — 2 Peter 1:4

You see, God has given us all these special promises. There are over eight thousand promises in the word of God and God has given us all of these precious promises so that we can live life on his terms, so that we can be transformative in the world that is around us. So that when we experience the issues of life, there's a promise that is associated with that issue. God gives us his promises so that we can see a release of himself in our practical experiences.

The promises of God is the inheritance of the believer. It is our inheritance in time and it's also our inheritance in eternity. God has given us his promises and when I think of what Jesus did here in John chapter 15, really when you read John chapter 14 through 17, it's the dialogue of Christ that he has with his disciples. He's telling them something very special and when you think about it, Christ was getting ready to go to the cross and die.

So, anytime a person is facing an end of life situation, it is very important to listen to what it is that they have to say because in those moments, more likely, they're going to say something that is really important, that is something deep, that is something probably that is profound. In those moments, they're going to speak of victory. They're going to speak of defeat. They're going to speak of the things that they want to have happened in their life and maybe some things that they have missed.

But in my life as a pastor, I've sat by the bedside of many people that have passed away. I can guarantee you one thing: there are not too many people that died that said, "I wish I had worked a whole lot harder on a dead end job." There are not a lot of people that say, "You know what? I wish I could've worked a lot harder to have stuff in my house." I have not heard one person yet say, "I wish I had worked a whole lot harder so that I can have a bigger car."

But what they really talk about is relationship. "I wish I could've had a better relationship with my son, a better relationship with my daughter. I wish I could've had a better relationship with my husband." So, the thing that is most important when a person comes to the end of life is not the stuff that sometimes we pursue to try to make ourselves more important, to feel better about ourselves or to affirm ourselves, but the most important thing in that moment is relationship.

And this is what Jesus was saying to his disciples at that time. He said, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you."

Now, when I look at this scripture, for many years it somewhat baffled me because it just didn't seem to be true in my life. I'm doing my best to abide in you, and I'm asking you in prayer for these things, and it doesn't look like I'm getting an answer. Sometimes I'm asking for great big things, or sometimes even the smallest thing. "Lord, I need you just to heal me of this cold," but the cold runs its natural course. I need you to do something specific in my life, and Lord, I'm standing on your word, but I'm not seeing the answer. So the scripture irritated me for a long time because I'm praying and I'm believing, but I'm not receiving and seeing the fulfilling of the promise that God is saying in his word.

God had to take me to the scripture. I was in Alaska, and my wife and I were there on a cruise for about a week or so, and I got this Russian doll. I also got another artifact that was really near and dear to my heart—it was a gassy bear. When you squeeze it, it sounded like it had gas. My wife thought it was funny at first, but after a while it wasn't funny anymore. But most of the guys still think it's funny. Later on, the gassy bear had a balloon and it got cut, so the bear is not talking anymore.

But this doll—God began to speak to me regarding this doll. Sometimes God will take things that are very benign and he gives us deep revelation on it. He took me back to the scripture that has stunned me and bothered me for a long time.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, then you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.

Now, this is a nested doll. It has a doll within a doll within a doll within a doll—about four or five dolls inside of this doll. And God began to speak to me. He said that if you abide in Christ—well, this is you and I am in Christ. If you abide in Christ, when I say, "Lord, forgive me for my sins," and I establish a relationship with him, I receive Christ. I am now in Christ. That means that everything that he is—the tremendous possibilities—are now reflected in my life because I am what? In Christ.

In Christ

So being in Christ means my salvation experience. There are many things that happen to us when we are in Christ. Just because we are in Christ does not mean that stuff is not going to happen to us. Just because we are in Christ doesn't mean that we won't get sick. Because we're in Christ doesn't mean that we may not get cancer. Because we're in Christ does not mean that we may not lose our job. Because we are in Christ does not mean that things that are bad happening in the world around us will not happen to us as well. It means that you are in Christ, but those things that are going to come are going to come to you in Christ.

Beloved, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall reappear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. — John

So many times we are in Christ and we wonder, "Lord, why me? Why is this happening to me? Why did this happen to my father? Why did this happen to my mother, my wife, my child?" Because I am in Christ, it looks like some of those things I should have bypassed. But Paul tells us:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Should tribulation or distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword. As it is written, "For thy sake, we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter." Nay, in all these things. — Romans 8:35-37

If I'm in Christ, that means that he's not necessarily moving those things away because he wants me to understand how to survive and how to be more than a conqueror in Christ. That's why he says, "Nay, in all these things." He's letting us know that sometimes, like the Hebrew men when they were in the fiery furnace, he doesn't get us out of it. He comes into the furnace and he closes the door behind us and he teaches us how to walk in the flames.

So Christ has raised us up and calls us to sit together in these heavenly places. I am in Christ. That means that this is my position. This is the authority that God has given to me. I am in Christ. I've been seated in the heavenly place with Christ, and so therefore I have the authority of Christ operational in my life. As I said, things will come to us in Christ, but then the Bible says "through Christ." That means that although things may come to me in Christ, when I'm going back out, that is through Christ. So if I am operating through Christ, I can say like Paul:

I can do all things through him that strengthens me.

Being saved means that there's an inflow of the Holy Spirit within me, but being filled with the spirit means that there's an outflow of the spirit from me. So, therefore, in Christ, I have his authority. I have his power. I have the greatness of who he is, but through Christ going the other way, that's how I'm able to get it done.

I am in Christ, but when I'm coming out this way, I am going through Christ. I have the position in place, but I also have the authority. So, I see the scripture now beginning to make more sense to me that if I'm abiding in Christ—and of course, I abide by relationship and by obedience—that if I'm in Christ, he has given me the authority so that as I'm doing through him what it is he said I can do, then the power of Christ is being released through me.

But then he asks the question, or what he says:

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, then you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. — John 15:7

Which simply means I have the word of God and God has given me his word. But really, is that loaded within me? Seriously, is that loaded within me? Because a lot of us, we can have the Bible. We can have it memorized. We can have it on our CDs, on our podcasts, and all of these places, and it's there, but the reality is, is that thing really loaded on the inside of you? It's like having a big gun with no bullets on the inside.

The Danger of Power Without Relationship

Jesus said, ask for what you will and it shall be done unto you. My breakdown some years ago was simply this: I'm in Christ, but then I asked God to do something for me. But I'm here and I'm trying to ask God to do something for me, but I'm in a whole other zone. I'm not on the same page with him.

See, power without relationship is a very dangerous thing. So what God tells us is that when I say, "ask what you will," it's not getting outside of Christ to do something and ask him to move—because this is where we get disillusioned. We're saying that I'm in Christ, and now in my own flesh I'm asking him to do something, and because he does not do it, now I got a problem. What's going on? Why doesn't the scripture work? Why aren't things flowing?

And then we get back in Christ on Sunday morning, so to speak, and we get back reconnected and we even say, "Well, God didn't answer that prayer and I don't understand why God did not move." Jesus still says, ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. And I had to understand that if I'm in Christ and I'm asking, then really, the context of my asking must be from the context of being in Christ.

God has truly given to us many great and precious promises whereby he said:

We're able to escape the corruption of this world through lust. — 2 Peter 1:4

Rhema: God's Fresh Word

What are you saying in the scripture when you go back and look at it from the Greek? He said, if you abide in me and my word—that word is Rhema. If my Rhema abide in you.

See, this Bible has black letters, red letters, on white pages, but God has to speak his word afresh to us from this Bible. So when you're listening to the sermon today, when Pastor Jeff is preaching on Sunday morning, when you're listening to your favorite speaker other than Pastor Jeff during the week—what is God saying in the midst of that speaking? What is God saying to you specifically in your relationship with him in the problem that you're going through right now? What is God saying to me? What promise is he giving to me right now?

Because that is a Rhema. That is the power of what it is that God is saying: that because you're in me, because you are able to do through me great things. If you don't have that Rhema working inside of you, if you don't have that relationship, then guess what? I cannot begin to speak the promises of God, because I'm just grabbing something out of context and then saying it. But that's not really what God has said to me.

I think about my wife last night. I think it was last night, and this is funny—I'm going to tell on you. When we got married and we've been married now for forty-three years, forty-four years in July, she didn't necessarily like sports. She was not a sports enthusiast like she is today. But I guess she found out because I love sports so much and she's going to spend time with me, especially on Sunday afternoon or whatever. You gotta get into football, basketball, and a few other things. So over the years, she's really gotten quite good at watching football games with me.

Now we debate pass interference calls. She'll say, "He was all over him," and I'll say, "No, he wasn't." Or I'll say, "It was pass interference," and she'll say, "No, it wasn't. He didn't have his arm around the waist. He's gotta have his arm around the neck in order for the pass interference."

She's also gotten into basketball. And many times when I'm looking at sports, I get really excited. I get really angry. Sometimes I feel like throwing the remote at the television. Steph Curry and the Warriors were playing a really bad game the other night.

And she started talking. She said, "Pooh, why you keep dribbling the ball? Throw the ball. Why don't you pass the ball? What's this razzle dazzle that you're doing?" And the sinners up under the go, stuff the ball. Stop trying to bank it in. Show em who you are. And I was laying at the foot of the bed and I was laughing. I was like, yeah. And then she looked at me and said, "You know, I sound kind of like you, don't I?" I was laughing the whole time because that's exactly what I was thinking. You sound like me.

But that's what the scripture is saying also to us. When you're around somebody a lot, you begin to talk like them. You begin to think like them. You begin to say the same words that they are saying. And that's what Jesus is saying:

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, then you begin to say the things that I say. — John 15

You begin to think the way that I'm thinking. You begin to say the things that I say. In other words, you're going to take that relational word that I've spoken to you. It's going to be the bullet in your gun, and that's the thing that you're going to say, and that's what's going to be so powerful.

SMART Goals vs. MUTT Goals

See, many times we ask God for small things, and God tells us, "I want you to ask me for great big things." But our prayers many times are just an endorsement of what we're able to do, and we ask God to do through us that which we're able to do. And God is saying, "I don't want to do through you just what you're able to do. I didn't call you to show you what you could do. I called you to show you what I can do. I didn't call you to impress me, but in the process of what I'm going to do through you is going to impress you."

Many times we say, "Lord, I have goals and I have a SMART goal." We know what a SMART goal is. It's specific, it's measurable, it's achievable, it's realistic, and it's time bound. These are the things we normally ask for. These are the goals we normally set. But what was the last SMART goal that you had? Can you even remember it? Many of us had a SMART goal at the beginning of the year. I'm going to lose weight. I'm going to get in shape. I'm going to exercise more. How is that SMART goal coming along?

See, nothing wrong with SMART goals, but most SMART goals are pretty quickly forgotten because we set those SMART goals, but they are boring. And I'm not saying that they're not necessary. I'm just saying that God is asking us to do something more than SMART. He's asking us to do something that I call a MUTT goal.

That is: measurable, unattainable, but it's time sensitive. What God says is, "I want you to do a MUTT goal. I want you to trust me so that when I put my promise within you, that's what you're going to stand on." See, a SMART goal is something that I got to get up. I gotta review it. I gotta try to remember it. But God is saying, "I want to put a MUTT goal in you. Something that's measurable, it's unattainable, it's time sensitive, but that's what I'm going to do through you."

That's the kind of thing that God is saying to us when he says, "I want to give you a promise." And a lot of times we say, "Okay, Lord, I believe your word. I trust your word, but I only can believe you for the small thing or I act outside of you that I'm really trusting you for." And now I get disappointed because really life gets very boring, and reading the word of God is kind of boring, and so therefore I'm really not with it.

And God is saying, "I want to give you a MUTT goal. I want to put a goal in you that only I can do, but you can say every day, 'This is what I believe God for. This is what I'm standing on.'"

How many of us have goals right now that are so crazy, so farfetched, so unbelievable that you haven't even told anybody about it? But you know that God said, "This is what he wants to do through you." And when God has spoken and when God said it, you said, "Who me? Am I the one to do this? At my age, I'm too young. I'm too old." But God is saying, "That's what I want to do through you. That's how I want to operate. That's how I want to move through you."

And you say, "My Lord, I don't understand it." But God is saying, "I put that in you, and you got to begin to learn to speak and say what I say. Because when you're saying what I'm saying and when you are praying what I said, I believe that you give God's honor when we take his promise, especially when he has spoken that word directly to us, and we start praying it back to him."

When we are fasting but we are fasting toward the things that God has said. When we're saying, "Lord, I believe you. I trust you. I'm standing on what it is you said." This is what God said, because there's a lot of promises in this Bible, but it's only one that I'm going to probably stand on—one or two that I'm to stand on at any time.

So what is it today that you're standing on? What is it today that you're saying, "God, I believe you said this to me. It is so unbelievable that only you can make this a reality. It is so unbelievable that only you can do this through me."

That's what the Lord is saying. Ask what you will because I'm going to put inside of you something that is so immeasurable that when people see it, it's going to blow their minds.

A Story of Vision and Faith

Let me close with this. Many years ago, back in 1997, when we had just built the church—we built it in '93—it was a real struggle. We built this facility in the middle of what is called the Hood. There was a lot going on around us. We built this facility on a street called Sawyer Road, and Sawyer Road was historically one of the worst streets, if not the worst street in the city of Raleigh.

We built this church and it was a real struggle for us because of the size of our congregation to be able to construct this building. After building it, we were trying to figure out how to pay for it. I never forget when we were trying to get a loan. Because of our income being relatively small, all the banks were turning us down. One by one, they said no.

So I got to the last bank and I said, "Lord, if we don't get it from them, it's not going to happen." He said, "What is the size of the congregation?" So I said, "You know what? Lord, forgive me, but I gotta put down everybody this time." I put down children. I said, "I hope they don't ask if these are members, but Chelsea and Carmen, they are twins. They're only about six years old, but they're members." I put down everybody's name.

I really got desperate. God forgive me for this, but a couple of folk had died. I put their names down too. There's always a chance they can be resurrected, right? So I put down all the names and we were able to get the loan and build the building. Praise the Lord.

Now we're in this neighborhood with all this violence around us—gang activity, drug dealings, prostitution. All this stuff is going on around us. It was in my heart that I wanted to do some housing, but in my mind I was thinking, just get a couple of houses and use those for transitional housing. That was a really big deal for me. My goal was that one day I'd be really happy if the church is built, and if we can just get two houses and use it for transitional housing, then we've done something special.

But God began to challenge me. God said, "I got something far greater than that for you. You're thinking just two houses." Then the opportunity came. It was an apartment unit across the street, which was the epicenter of violence. All was going wrong in this piece of property. God said, "You can get this property." He sent a senator to us who explained how we can take control over this property and get ownership of it. God did just that. It was a $3,000,000 acquisition through tax credits.

I was thinking two houses and God was thinking a 32-unit apartment complex. Amen.

So I learned from that, sometimes what we want is our little smart goal and God is saying, "I got this great big goal. I got this immeasurable goal. I got something that's attainable, but guess what? It's time sensitive and I'm going to make that a reality."

Over the years, we were able to purchase those two houses. Thank God, you know what we did? We tore them down. Now God has positioned us to be able to build 154 units of affordable housing on that street. When I came in, I was saying, "We're going to take two houses." God said, "I'm giving you the whole street. I'm giving it all to you."

We had our groundbreaking ceremony on Easter. We're having another ceremony on May 9 with the mayor and city council, and that'll probably be on the news as well. In terms of what God has done with this little bitty church called Mount Pleasant on Sawyer Road—the whole street has been transformed by the power of God.

It comes about as a result of us aligning ourselves, my wife and the members aligning ourselves. We're saying, "This is what God is saying. It's not possible for us to do it, but He said if you abide in me relationally, things are going to come to you. But in Christ, you're going to do some amazing things because the gun is loaded."

Yes. How many of us have a loaded gun today?

We can walk around with the Bible upon our arms. We can have it in our head, but do you have what God is saying for that situation? That I have not jumped outside of Christ and I got something else, but I'm abiding in him and I'm saying what God is saying unapologetically, not backing down, but I'm trusting God.

I think about the book of Eli, the movie, one last time. At the end of the movie, something was surprising—blew everybody's mind. When you look at the movie, the guy was blind the whole time. He was doing all of this stuff. He was blind. Amazingly, as he was sitting there, he had lost the Bible and he was injured. He was dying, but he was giving the Bible. He was going to be printed. He was quoting a word from word—from Genesis to Revelation—quoting the scripture word for word. And the guy was writing down the entire Bible. And as we looked at him, blind, he had the word in him. Carnegie was trying to take the Bible from him, but he had the word in him. The gun was loaded.

How many of us have a loaded gun today, seriously? How many of us have a loaded gun today? It's one thing to know a lot of scripture, but do you have the promise for the situation? Do you have the promise for your sickness? Do you have the promise for your relational struggle with your wife, your child, that wayward child? Do you have a loaded gun? That's a powerful thing when you think about it.

When you think about Jesus said:

If you abide in me, my word abide in you. — John 15

The word in me as I abide in Christ makes me very powerful. Amen. That makes me very powerful. Do you realize today just how powerful you are? Then, when you are truly aligned with God, Jesus said:

Nothing shall be impossible to him who believes. — Matthew 19:26

As I close—I get two. I said in my place, I'll give you these two. The scripture that he quoted in the book of Eli, he said:

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. — John 1:1

And he said, and the spirit was hovering over the chaos of the earth.

Many of us have chaos in our life, and the spirit seemingly is hovering over the chaos. What is he looking for? What is he waiting for? He's waiting for a word to be spoken in the midst of the chaos so that God goes in operation. He moves by the authority of his word—not our emotions, not our pain—but he moves by the authority and the power of his word to do all things.

So, as the spirit hovers over the chaos of our lives, he's waiting for that word that he's put in you so that you can speak it and the spirit can go in operation, and we can participate in the divine nature with his tremendous promises. Amen.

I'm done for today. But I ask you the question one last time: You got this, but is it loaded? Really? Is it loaded? Is it really loaded? I know you're in Christ. I know that you're in him. And I know that you know how to do things through him. But is it really loaded? For that child that's going away with—is it loaded? What is God saying for this place? What is he saying in this moment, in this hour? Is it loaded?

To me, in my life, the gun truly is loaded. But even in this sermon, I said, "Lord, it reminds me of one thing. Sometimes, I don't have the gun loaded. I'm trying to fight an enemy, and the word said, 'Who is ruthless?' I need a bullet, some bullets in that gun. Even if I got just one, shoot that one time."

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, today because we are in Christ. Your word says:

If you abide in me and my word abide in you, that you shall ask what we will, it shall be done. — John 15:7

Lord, we recognize that we are in Christ. We recognize that you saved us, you set us free. We realize that in Christ, stuff is going to come. Things are going to happen, but it is in those things that we become more than conquerors. Sometimes we want to get out of the situation—"Deliver us, get us out"—and God, you're saying, "I'm not going to get you out of this right now because I want to teach you how to be more than a conqueror."

So, in you, Father, we learn how to do things through you. We learn that out of our belly truly does flow well of living water—that the salvation you worked in us, it really does work.

So, Father, the challenge today is: Thank you for your word. We know your word. We know scripture. We hear preaching. But Lord, what is the Rhema? What is the word? What is the promise that is specific to our situation that creates that moment, that creates that thing that says, "It cannot be done other than with Jesus"?

So, Father, today, I pray that you will look down upon us, and I pray that through the authority and the power of the word, you will speak to us. God, I believe you've already spoken to somebody today—that it is in our preaching, Father, that the Holy Spirit speaks. That is a word you've spoken to somebody today: a word of challenge, a word of healing, a word of deliverance, a word that is transformational and powerful.

So, Father, we pray in Jesus' name that for every person in here, God, we will leave with a loaded gun. We don't want to just hold a Bible under our arms. We don't want to just know Scripture, but God, we want to know the specific promise for this specific thing that we are struggling with, and then we gotta stand on it.

Because God, you allow us to come to these places in our lives, and we don't understand why sometime, but God, you want to show us yourself.

So, Lord, I pray that you administer to every person here today that is not saved, that they will recognize that in Christ, in Christ alone, I can do all things.

God, help us as a church to realize that when we're outgunned, when we're outnumbered, outmaneuvered, when we're outclassed, that's exactly where you want us to be. Because you want to show us the power of vision. You want to show us the greatness of who you are.

So, we thank you, oh Lord, for all things. Strengthen us and we shall be strengthened, healed, and we shall be healed.

Father, help us to participate in your divine nature by understanding the specific Rhema, the specific promise that you have given to us. We glorify you now. We ask it in Jesus' strong name. Amen. Amen.