Hey this is pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA church in Houston texas thank you for listening to the message today i hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with god bless you Praise the Lord.

God is good.

Amen.

All the time.

God has been good.

God has been faithful.

Welcome.

Welcome to church this morning.

Amen.

It's always good to be in the house of God.

And I just before we begin, before we get into it, I do want to just echo what Pastor Brandon said about our project vision.

You know, we're in March.

And how many of you know that when you get to March, that's when everybody plateaus?

So, like, if you were starting strong with the gym, you're probably not going anymore.

Amen?

Your diet's already gone.

And so that's true all around.

And that's kind of where we're at with our project vision.

We haven't had really an increase in that giving fund and pledges.

And just a reminder of some of the things that we want to do.

We want to redo our fellowship hall.

We want to put a new ceiling.

We want to put new flooring.

We want to make it a safer space for our kids because our kids are over there.

We want to we need a new fence back back here where the gate is like slides and it it's all rusted and it breaks every time you pull it.

And it's it's yeah.

Yeah.

You pull your back when you open, close it.

We want a new parking.

We want to we want to cement the parking lot.

So all of these things are very much needed and we can't do it without the collective help of the church.

Amen.

We're believing for some amazing things.

And I never really liked to talk about giving, you know, because as the pastor, you're talking about giving everybody kind of that's not always the best look. and I think some pastors might not do it the best way, but I do believe in what God is doing here.

And if I believe in it, I have to speak it and I have to cast that vision that God has shared with me.

We're believing one day for a whole new building across the street here because we need it.

I'm believing for that parking garage.

There's this abandoned funeral home.

I don't know why they want 1.5 million for it, but I want it.

I want it because I believe that God is doing something here and we need to make space for it.

Amen.

So if you have the means and if you haven't given yet, please do.

There'll be some information out in the foyer about Project Vision.

Amen.

Income tax.

Yes.

For those for those of you that get money back.

Praise the Lord.

I want to I want to turn.

I want you to turn with me to Romans chapter 5.

Romans chapter 5.

And before we stand, let me just kind of set this up.

What's going on here?

Up until this point, Paul has been arguing for the importance of faith in Christ.

How many of you know that faith in Christ is essential as a Christian?

And it's essential because it's faith in Christ that justifies the sinner.

We know that there is power in our confession that Jesus is Lord.

We know that there is power in us believing that he is Lord.

Every week you hear me quoting that scripture in Romans 10, 9 and 10, that if you believe in your heart, you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved.

There's power in that.

And with that same faith, you know, faith has a way of of drawing us closer to God by making us depend more on God.

Right. faith moves us away from everything that makes us feel safe and secure and and confident faith will make you let go of money as your security it'll make you let go of your health as your certainty and anything else that we place our peace in this world faith in God shows us that he is our source of peace and so chapter four Paul talks about Abraham and how Abraham was justified in his faith even before the law was given because why?

Abraham believed God in the midst of a situation where most people would not believe God.

Abraham was told that he was going to have he was going to have a child in his 90s that his wife in her 90s was going to give birth to a son.

That is a hard word to believe.

I think most of us would have probably laughed like Sarah did if a prophet came and told a 90 year old woman that you are about to conceive and give birth to a son we probably all would laugh a little bit but i love what uh romans 4 18 says about abraham it says in hope he believed against hope the new living translation says even when there was no reason for hope he kept hoping that he should become the father of many nations and it goes on to say that he did not weaken in his faith, though his body was as good as dead and his wife was barren.

So because of the faith that Abraham had in God and in his word, righteousness was counted to him.

So he was justified.

So that's the context that we're stepping into.

Now I'm going to ask that you stand with me as we read Romans 5, 1 through 5.

It says, therefore, Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into the grace in which we stand.

And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings.

Knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character. and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Amen.

Holy Spirit, we thank you, my God.

I thank you for this word that you've spoken over your servant, Lord.

I pray, my God, that as I have received it, your people would receive it this morning.

Holy Spirit, be on my lips.

Let it be nothing that I say, my God, because I've got nothing good to say on my own, Lord, but by the power of your word and your gospel, my God.

I preach with authority and power this morning, my God, and I pray in Jesus' name that it would be received by every single person here.

Soften any hardened hearts this morning because I believe that you want to speak in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

You can be seated.

Amen.

I want to, first of all, I want your attention this morning.

That's an obvious one.

I want your attention every Sunday morning.

But really today, because I do believe that God, you know, this sermon was really inspired by this week.

You know, sometimes as a pastor, your week preaches to you.

And every week as a pastor, you know, I take a lot of phone calls.

I take a lot of prayer requests.

I do a lot of counseling sessions, conversations and the occasional hospital visits throughout the week. there was a lot of that this week a lot and first of all I want to say that I'm so grateful for a church full of leaders and pastors who help me pastor I'm so grateful for a church that doesn't need a title or position to be the church when they're not at church I love that about PNEUMA man because it happens so often that by the time I get to someone somebody's hands have already been there.

I went to visit Brother Jay in the hospital this week.

And you know what?

He just got out this morning and he came to church.

I got a text from his dad.

He said, Pastor, he's out.

He's coming to church this morning.

And, you know, I visited him early this week and, and in our conversation, it came up that the pastor Larry, I don't know if pastor Larry went, but he said, pastor Larry called me yesterday and we were talking on the phone and, and that kind of brought a little tear to my eye because I just see the workings of the Holy spirit in his church out in the field.

I love that.

I love when I'm talking to somebody on the phone and I'm giving them godly wisdom and they say, you know what, Pastor?

Brother David told me the same thing on the phone yesterday.

Or when I can't make it on time or I can't make it at all because I'm only one person.

I know Pastor Danny can make it.

Pastor Brandon can make it.

I love that about our church when my wife can't take another phone call during the day because she does take a lot of them.

Somebody else can. and I just praise God for that because one of the concerns that I was giving to God, I was saying, Lord, thank you for the growth that has been happening at PNEUMA.

Thank you for that.

I'm grateful for that.

But I wanna be connected with everybody.

I wanna know everybody's name and I'm sorry sometimes I don't know your name and you probably already told it to me once.

I'm sorry, but I'm that guy that wants to know everybody and I told God, Lord, how am I going to make five hospital visits in a week?

How am I going to take five phone calls in a day, one hour long phone calls?

How am I going to do all of these things and have lunch with all of these men and still have time for the other duties of a pastor?

And it's like the Holy Spirit has shown me that as the church grows, the church grows.

Like with more demand, God brings the supply.

And he's been doing it.

He's been doing it every one of our ministries through our discipleship.

And I love it.

And I just thank God for you.

Thank God for the church.

Amen.

I just wanted to say that.

But anyways, this week was a week of heaviness.

And I might not be able to meet with every single person all the time, one-on-one.

But if there's one thing I can do is I can preach to all of you at the same time and pray and hope that you receive this word.

So that's why I ask for your undivided attention with this word this morning.

And if I start to get a little long and boring I know I got plenty of people in my life who will let me know hey that sermon was a little boring Exhibit A my wife she let me know man But I entitled the sermon today, Stuck in the Suffering.

Stuck in the, I don't know how many people that title alone resonates with.

Like, I don't even have to preach anymore.

Because you're like, amen, pastor.

I feel stuck in that place that I've been trying to get out of, and it's painful.

But you don't know where to go from here.

Because let's be honest, you can be stuck for years in your life in the same place and church doesn't solve it.

Prayer hasn't solved it.

Counseling hasn't done much and you feel stuck in the place and it's been taking your joy and it's been taking your peace.

That's some real talk this morning.

And I know there's a lot of people that feel stuck in the suffering.

Paul is talking about here in this passage he's talking about two opposite things on the one hand he's talking about hope and the other hand he's talking about suffering most people don't like to talk about hope when they're suffering some people don't like to hear it's going to be okay without the assurance that is going to be okay and I speak that from experience because that was me for a long time and my mom has always been a woman of immense faith and you know a lot of times her faith would kind of seem silly to me because she would speak with so much confidence on things that she could not be sure of and i would say how do you know that if you've ever tried to encourage somebody with with your faith if they don't have the same level of faith that you do they're not going to take well to what you're saying because witnessing higher levels of faith it will either inspire you or it will intimidate you and make you feel uncomfortable especially when you're the one suffering.

You don't want to hear about hope when you're suffering.

Talk to me about facts.

Talk to me about something that I can do, something practical today.

I don't want to talk about hopes and dreams and wishes.

I need something real.

And so the last, the thing that we have to look out for when we suffer, church, is that our faith would not get clouded.

Because in our suffering, That's exactly what happens.

Your faith takes a hit.

It gets clouded and it makes you doubt and it makes you fear and it makes you hopeless because you can't see a way out of the thing that you're stuck in.

Remember, the very essence of faith is believing in something that we hope for, something that we cannot see.

So if I walk into the hospital room and you're lying there on the hospital bed and everything around me tells me you're not going to make it.

Everybody tells me you're not going to make it.

All the doctors are saying, hey, he's only got a few days left to live.

And I stand on your would be deathbed and proclaim and declare in faith Jesus is going to heal you.

I understand the danger that that can cause to the other people in the room.

I get it.

And we have to be totally discerning of that.

I get it because we can kind of create a false hope in other people.

But you also have to know that my faith isn't for you.

My faith is for me.

I don't need to be asked, but pastor, how do you know he's going to be okay?

Because I don't know.

I don't need to be told you really shouldn't say that because if you're not sure, you wouldn't say it.

You know what?

Hebrews tells me that faith is the assurance of things that you hope for.

I am sure I want this person to be made well in Jesus' name.

It is the conviction of things not see.

I don't see it.

I can't see it.

What I do see right now is somebody on the brink of death.

I am hoping for the thing that I cannot see.

That is what faith is.

If I knew it, wouldn't be faith, would it?

if I could see it it wouldn't be faith would it if I could feel it if I could smell it if I could touch it if I could walk into it it wouldn't be faith who do we think we are we we riding the rules of faith that we've got to know things and call it faith no no no faith is the assurance of the thing that you hope for and it's the conviction of things that you don't see how do you know dummy speaking to myself how do you know mom how can you speak like that I don't know mijo that's what faith is there was a there was a man a beautiful beautiful sister that we had attending our church for many years one of my mom's best friends very close to our family, many of us who knew her here.

Sister Chris.

Yeah, no, Sister Chris, if you know, you know.

And she was amazing.

And she was diagnosed in 2019 with stage four cancer.

I don't know if it was pancreatic or stomach, it doesn't matter.

It was stage four cancer.

It was a terminal illness.

And I remember her grabbing the mic one Sunday to testify.

If you were here, you remember and she declared a healing over her body she said my body is healed and I think everybody in the room just kind of chose to believe that with her and support her faith and a few months later January of 2020 she passed away and I still remember having conversations with some people about what she said that Sunday because she was so sure that she was going to be healed.

Why wasn't she healed?

Have you asked yourself that question before?

When you are so, when you see somebody's faith, it almost convinces you.

And the thing that they put their faith in didn't happen.

You have some questions.

Was it false faith?

Was it misplaced?

I think it even affected some people but I didn't realize it till some years later that her faith wasn't for anybody else in that room her faith was for her and she held on to it to the day that God called her home and I understand that we have to be careful of what we say and how we say we should never put words in the mouth of God and she didn't do that she didn't say uh thus says the Lord I will be healed she just chose to declare in faith the healing over her body and that's what scripture commands us to do.

We just make it more of what it's not.

We make faith more of what it's not.

Faith is not an outcome.

Faith is an action.

It is not a result.

It is a thing that you do.

It doesn't matter what I know.

It doesn't matter what I don't know.

It doesn't matter what I can prove.

When it comes to faith, all that matters is that I believe.

If faith can produce the most powerful result in the universe, which is bringing sinners into communion with God again, just by confessing and believing.

Why not have faith in just about anything else if it's important to God?

How do you know for sure?

Pastor Brandon, how do you know for sure Jesus resurrected from the grave?

that's not the answer i was looking for but that's a good answer i don't know for sure i can't prove it to you today i can't prove it to you no nobody can prove it to you we weren't there now there is evidence there are good reasons to believe we don't just choose to believe in this blindly.

But at the end of the day, all of us have a degree of faith that we have to exercise.

And that's true of a lot of things.

And it's this faith that Paul says produces hope.

He says, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we have obtained access by faith into the grace that we stand, and we rejoice in hope.

Somebody say hope.

But he doesn't stop there because we don't just have hope when all is well.

We don't just have hope when we can see a little light at the end of the tunnel or when God throws us a blessing our way to encourage us.

We don't just have hope when we're fired up because we see God moving.

He says not only this, but we rejoice in our suffering.

How many of you rejoice in your suffering?

You're like, should I say yes?

But it's in the suffering.

If we have faith, we still have hope.

If you can hold on to your faith in the suffering, you will always have hope.

Listen, Paul here is talking to a community of faith.

He's talking to believers.

He's talking to Christians who have already been justified by their faith.

And so the assumption in this passage is that when you suffer, you suffer with faith.

Okay?

Now, if you're suffering and you don't have faith, well, then this doesn't apply to you.

But for those of you who do, those of us in the room who have been justified by our faith, listen, you can rejoice in the suffering, knowing that suffering with faith produces endurance.

And endurance with faith produces your character, and character with faith produces hope.

I was I was encouraged this week man but by what I saw I saw faith in in what the world would call hopeless situations I talked to to my brother Jay and his spirits were good and he had faith I talked to people who were stuck in in sickness stuck in financial troubles and stuck in like marriage issues, but still full of hope that God would make the still waters move again.

Because how many of us know that God doesn't need to put his hands on something that is not broken?

But when God sees that something is totally broken and in need of repair, that is when I can expect the glory of God to fall.

We have to become anticipators of a move of God when we're stuck.

We have to expect God to part the seas if he has called us to something and there is no way anymore for us to move.

We have to expect for God to slay every giant if that giant is in the way of what God wants to do But all of that takes faith And when it doesn happen the first time somebody needs to hear me Because you had faith You've declared it before.

But when it doesn't happen the first time, or it doesn't happen the second time, or when it doesn't happen the third time, you stand there and you declare something to happen.

It doesn't happen.

Guess what's happening?

It's only producing endurance in your faith.

And that endurance is shaping your character.

It's making you stronger.

It's making you more resilient and less fragile to the attacks of the enemy.

And all of that produces hope.

This is why a woman of God who has had faith in God her entire life can still rejoice in the suffering, watching her son deplete in his health.

This is why you can go into a hospital room and hear that woman of faith singing hymns.

And you're asking, why are you singing hymns?

Why are you smiling?

Why do you have joy?

If anything, right now, you should have questions.

You should have a little bit of anger.

But it's the woman of God who has had faith all her life, has hope in God.

That's what hope.

That's what faith does.

It produces hope.

You ain't, y'all ain't hearing me today. there's a lot of people that are stuck in the suffering you don't see hope you just see the suffering pastor danny a couple weeks ago preached out of John chapter 5 and a lot of what he said kind of ties into this i want to read it real quick beginning with with verse 2 John 5 verse 2 you're still with me don't let me lose you it says now there is in jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool an aramaic called bethesda which has five roof colonnades and these lay a multitude of invalids blind lame and paralyzed one man was there who had been in an invalid for 38 years when jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there for a long time he said do you want to be healed the sick man answered sir i have no one to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up and while i'm going another steps down before me jesus said to him get up take up your bed and walk and at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walk this is a perfect example of being stuck in the suffering i want you to hear me this morning okay because because there's there's a lot of context here that we don't have.

I don't want to assume.

I know I knew how it all went down, but I really don't think that Jesus posed the question to this man as, do you want to be healed?

I think he posed the question more like, do you even want to be healed?

Because this man was one of excuses more than anything else.

In the waters of Bethesda, they had what many believed to be healing properties.

In fact, most Bible translations don't have verse 4 in John chapter 5.

You might notice in your Bibles that it goes from verse 3 to verse 5, unless you have a King James, because King James don't care.

But, yeah.

So verse, just a nerd tip real quick.

Verse 4 wasn't in the original, in the earliest manuscripts, and that's why most modern translations don't have it anymore.

But like I said, King James don't play by those rules.

So King James says, for an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water.

Whatsoever then first after, I'm sorry, whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

So in other words, if the, it was believed by the population that Bethesda had these healing properties.

If you believe that, why would you not do anything in your power to get to the waters?

Right?

Why was this man right there by what he believed to have healing properties saying, yeah, I can't do it.

And you might say, pastor, you need to have some compassion.

The guy couldn't walk.

And I understand he was stuck.

He was at a complete disadvantage.

Life handed him some really terrible cards.

That's what life's going to do sometimes.

You're going to be handed some terrible cards, and you're going to compare yourself to other people, and you say, why didn't he get dealt that hand?

I don't know why, but you did, and that's just a reality of the situation, and I know that sounds harsh, but life is harsh.

He was at a disadvantage.

I don't take that away from him, but what happens a lot of times when we are physically stuck or financially stuck.

We also convince our minds to be stuck with us.

We convince our spirit to be stuck with we invite everything into our being to be stuck with us because where else can I go?

And it begins to affect us as as a person.

It begins to affect our our our mindset.

Well if only if only it were that easy, pastor.

I could come out of this situation.

If only I had the help.

If only I had a better upbringing.

If only I had parents who loved me.

If only I had a dad who said he loved me.

If only this, if only that.

And we talk like people who have no hope, who have no peace, because we have no faith and we remain stuck in the suffering that Jesus is trying to call you out of.

You mean to tell me that for 38 years you couldn't figure something out?

It's a long time.

You couldn't get someone, you couldn't call a friend or a family member, or maybe you didn't have friends or family members.

You couldn't get a stranger just to do you a favor.

Hey man, hey man, when the waters boil, can you throw me in there?

38 years, everybody said no. you mean to tell me that you couldn't, you didn't have enough time in 38 years to scooch your way to the edge of the pool of Bethesda so that any time it boiled up, you just hopped in there.

You mean to tell me, I just did it.

You couldn't do it in 38 years.

Señor.

Señor.

Man.

Man, Jesus.

I'm going to feel it.

I'm already feeling it.

But you know what I'm talking about?

You couldn't do something like that in 38 years.

By these waters that you believe to be healing, you compare his story with the woman of the discharge of blood.

Completely different.

Completely different.

The Bible says she tried everything.

She spent all her money on all the doctors.

She tried everything she could possibly do.

And then she hears that Jesus is coming.

And she's going to try yet another thing.

I'm going to go out there and I'm going to embarrass myself.

And they might call me an outcast and they might throw me in prison because I'm unclean.

But I don't care because I don't want to be stuck anymore.

Even though she was stuck physically, her spirit, her faith was free.

That's completely different. this invalid man he had no faith zero the bible tells us that he didn't even know who jesus was he didn't know it was jesus that was talking to him maybe if he had known that it was jesus this miracle working man this way maker maybe he would have responded differently that's that's what I think is so beautiful about this story, Jesus didn't require the man's faith to do the miracle.

Can you hear me real quick?

He didn't require it.

And I'm not saying that God doesn't want your faith.

That's not the rule.

It's the exception, right?

But that's what's so beautiful about the story.

Jesus didn't need this man to have any faith.

In fact, the passage doesn't mention anything about faith.

The beauty here was that Jesus saw him with compassion and gave him the gift of physical healing.

There's no mention of faith in this passage, which is interesting to me because the Gospel of John is the Gospel that talks about faith and belief the most.

What this story shows us is that this man, Jesus began the process in this man for him to become unstuck.

If you haven't heard me, hear me now.

Because I think that Jesus is trying to push some of us into some unstuckness this morning.

Because maybe you came in here with no faith and God is looking at you with compassion.

The way that he looked at the lost sheep of Israel, this town, this people that have no shepherd, they're lost and he was moved to compassion.

I believe that my compassionate Lord is looking at somebody today and you have no faith.

You are hopeless, but God is looking at you and wanting to give you a push.

That's what Jesus started here in this man.

He says, get up.

Get up.

Take up your mat and walk.

When Jesus did that, it revealed something about Jesus to the man. this is a guy that's got some authority.

How is it that for 38 years, I've been lying on this mat and with one word, he says, get up and I'm up and I'm well.

How is it?

And so a little bit later, a little bit further down the passage, Jesus appeals to his authority.

So he had to show the man he had authority first and then call him to something deeper and more profound.

So he tells the man, look, you are well.

Look what I did to you.

That was me No one else could do that Those little pool waters they couldn do that You couldn do it I did it for you And then he tells them something that is much deeper much more eternal and much more profound He says, sin no more, lest something worse happen to you.

You hearing that?

Jesus was calling for an entire change in this man's life stop living the way you've been living stop thinking the way you've been thinking because now you're not stuck to the mat but you're still stuck mentally Jesus can do all kinds of physical miracles for people but spiritually and mentally they're still lying on that mat and so every single time you come back into the presence of God you're looking for a physical a physical touch from the Lord never healing never getting up from the mat of spirituality and maybe your body isn't dying anymore but your spirit is still decaying because you have chosen to remain stuck in your spirit, not moving to where God wants you to move to.

God is calling you out of something that is trying to cripple you.

I want to say this again.

Jesus can do all kinds of physical miracles for people, but spiritually and mentally, they're still laying on that mat because their faith has not endured the suffering. you haven't built up endurance.

And so the moment you start to suffer, is woe is me.

Why does this always happen to me?

Why does this always happen to us, babe?

Look at them over there.

They're going on another vacation.

How come you never take me on vacation?

Why do these things always happen to us?

Why am I always losing my job?

Why am I always getting sick?

Why does my life suck?

And God might be gracious enough because he's a good and compassionate God to bail you out of the things that you're suffering without you having any faith.

But you cannot expect him to do that every single time.

Because we as a body need to learn how to endure.

We need to mold our character.

We need to learn how to hope in hopeless situations like Abraham who hoped against the hope.

We need to learn how to be stuck in the suffering but completely free in our spirit.

And we've always looked for the reverse.

It might be that God never tells you to get off of that physical mat. it might be.

I believe that I believe that the story would have gone differently had Jesus seen the man on his mat still unable to walk but his mouth was singing praises to God.

I believe that.

Scripture shows us that.

That God is moved by our faith.

I believe that if this man was lying there on his mat I know. and he was singing songs.

I trust in God.

I sought the Lord.

And he heard, and he answered.

I sought the Lord.

And I believe that if he had his hands lifted up and his eyes turned to heaven, that Jesus would have still healed him because of his faith.

But Jesus had to take a different approach.

Jesus was moved by the weakness of this man and said, you know what?

He needs a little push.

I don't know who this message is for today.

Maybe you have been asking God to get you off of your mat.

Get me off of this pile of mess that I've been in every day.

It's something.

Why can't I break these chains?

Why can't I break this addiction?

Why can't I break this poverty?

Why can't I break this mindset?

And you just want to get ahead and you want some forward movement in your life.

I don't know who I'm talking to.

I don't know if that's you today.

You're feeling stuck.

And maybe you're saying, God, get me off of this mat.

And God is saying, no, I need you to look a little bit deeper.

Because it's not the mat that is the issue. this should have been an opportunity for 38 years for you to grow in your faith this should have been an opportunity for you to learn how to to increase in your peace this should have been an opportunity to build endurance and mold your character into maturity but anytime something happens you check out and you turn off your notifications from the people at the church because you don't want to hear from pastor.

Tired of them checking in on me.

I'm not coming back on Sunday.

And you stop seeking God and you stop praying and you stop listening to that worship music and you stop opening your word and faith and your faith begins to weaken.

God is saying today, take up that mat that is lying dormant in your spirit and walk.

Walk.

Start to declare some things again.

Start to believe in some things again.

Start to rejoice.

Start to sing.

Start to lift up your hands in every moment of suffering.

Start to hope again.

Because remember, hope has a name and his name is Jesus and hope will not put us to shame.

Stand up to your feet.

Verse, verse five, stay, stay, remain standing.

Paul says this, hope is all about hope.

This is the theme.

Hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts of the Holy Spirit who's been given to us.

Other versions say hope does not disappoint us.

Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen.

I know so many of us hope for things that don't come to pass.

And that hope disappoints us.

But when you put your faith in Jesus, the eternal one, the one who never leaves you, the one who never forsakes you, the one who knew your name before you were even born.

When you put your faith in Jesus Christ, that hope will never disappoint you.

Because Jesus will always come through for those that he loves, for those that are called according to his purpose.

He works all things for the good of those who love him.

Hope will not disappoint you.

And this morning, God is calling some of you to get off of that mat of spiritual dormancy and start to move again because you have been crippled.

Your faith has been crippled and it's affecting so many other aspects of your life.

And you can't have joy and you can't have peace. and you always have anxiety and there's no happiness in your life and you're always having a bad attitude because it's all a mental and spiritual thing.

And Jesus is saying, get up.

Get up.

Get up and walk.

Get up and proclaim.

Get up and profess.

Remember the God that is on your corner.

Remember the God who is on your side.

Remember the God who can clear every disease.

Remember the God who can revive the dead spirit back to life.

Begin to declare in faith.

Every head bowed real quick.

If that's you this morning, if this sermon was for you, and you're saying, man, God, I'm tired.

I'm tired of the same thing.

I'm tired of the same attitude.

I'm tired of getting in this cycle of sometimes I'm on fire and then sometimes I'm cold.

I'm tired of it.

God is saying to you today, get up and walk.

If God is speaking to you, I want you to come to these altars.

I want you to have a moment with God where you lay everything here at the feet of Jesus.

Everything you've been holding on to.

Every addiction.

Every fear.

Every anxiety.

Every way of thinking.

Every negative attitude.

I want you to bring it here.

Because God is calling you out.

He's calling you out.

He's calling you out of the darkness and into the light.

Come on, come on, come on, come on.

Fill the altar.

That's you.

There's no shame.

You need to begin.

You need to begin to hope for things again.

God is saying, I want you to begin to, I want you to begin to declare some things that you've been too afraid.

You've been too afraid to declare.

Because you ask yourself, well, what if it doesn't happen?

You ask yourself, well, how do I know?

God is looking for your faith today I declare healing I declare healing over the incurable I declare restoration for the marriage that has already ended it I declare in Jesus name prodigals to return who've already decided to harden their hearts I declare it in faith because my faith is in you Jesus come on lift up your voice church lift up your voice in faith Come on, let God hear you.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mypneumachurch.org.

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Thanks again and God bless.

Thank you.