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 who are. that you share it with.

God bless you.

We're gonna get into the word now.

Uh you can turn with me to 2 Chronicles as you stand 2 Chronicles 32 And we're only reading one verse this morning Well to begin and then we'll we'll kind of hop around a little bit but 2 Chronicles 32 verse 1 And if you have it, say I have it.

Amen.

I need y'all not to be quiet today.

Y'all too quiet from Pentecostal church.

Amen.

Come on.

There's some Pentecostals.

We got like four or five.

Praise the Lord for y'all.

Amen.

2 Chronicles 32, 1.

It says this.

It says, after these things and these acts of faithfulness.

Sennachereb, king of Assyria, came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for this word that you've given over your servant, Father God.

I pray, Lord, as I've received it, your people would receive it, Father.

I pray that you open up our hearts, our minds, and our spirits to receive your word today, my God, and do whatever you want to do, Father.

I pray that you would be on my lips, my God, that I would be sensitive to what you want to do, what you want to say this morning, Father.

We love you.

We thank you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You can take your seat.

I want to speak today using the title, The Effects of Faithfulness The effects of faithfulness.

I've often believed, I've often said that one of the true marks of a spiritual mature person How many spiritually mature people we got in the room?

Amen.

The marks of a spiritually mature person is anybody who has the ability to practice the fruit of the Spirit in the midst of adversity or opposition.

That makes sense?

So a spiritually mature person is one who can operate and produce the fruit of the spirit when it's not natural to produce those fruit.

So you can have peace while you're in the storm.

You can you can be patient when there's no time left.

You can be kind when everybody is provoking you.

How many of you can be kind when everybody's provoking you?

Amen.

At least we got some honest peep people here.

That's if you can do those things, those are those are evident signs. of fruit and spiritual maturity because anybody can be patient when it's peaceful.

I'm sorry, anybody can be patient when you got time left.

Anybody can be peaceful when they're when when there's reason to be peaceful when it's quiet, right?

Anybody can be kind when the world is kind, but it's when opposition meets you, that's when the test of your character Is revealed.

And faithfulness is an important fruit for us because faithfulness connotes trustworthiness.

We we want people in our lives who we can trust.

We want faithful spouses.

We want faithful friends.

We want faithful leaders, faithful pastors, and we as well should aim to be faithful people.

Faithful, the word faithful in Greek is very closely related to the word faith.

Faith is pistis and faithful is pistos.

Very closely related.

So to be a faithful person means that you are the recipient of somebody else's faith.

Somebody is putting their faith in you.

My wife is a faithful wife.

Always been faithful.

She's earned my faith in her devotion to me as her husband.

I trust her.

And faithfulness is not just not cheating on your spouse.

I trust she won't cheat on me, but I also trust that she's gonna be with me if I go broke.

And we've had plenty of opportunities to test that.

She stayed by my side.

She's gonna be with me if I get sick, if I lose a limb.

She's gonna be with me if I lose my hair.

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

Get yourself a good wife like that.

Proverbs 31, woman She's gonna be with me if I mess up gravely.

I don't know if you've ever played those like games with your spouse like If I killed somebody, would you still love me?

If I go to jail forever, would you still and it's always like it depends, but um I know that even on my worst days and my worst seasons, my wife is gonna be by my side She has earned my faith in her as a wife.

And so one of the markers of a faithful person is how well the people in your circle can trust you.

Right?

Now there's some some people have some trust issues, and that's a different sermon, but generally speaking, you're a faithful person if the people closest to you can trust you.

But even more than that.

Is the question of how much does God trust you?

How much does God trust you?

And I really think that that is what the fruit of faithfulness is: it's the ability to stay faithful. to the Lord.

So can God trust that you're gonna stay with Him when everything in your life falls apart?

Can God trust that you're gonna exercise wisdom when you want to operate in some foolishness?

Can God trust that you're gonna be a good steward of the resources that He's given you?

Are you gonna be a good spouse?

Are you gonna be a good friend?

Are you gonna be a good servant Because we know that the more faithful you are, the more we'll be trusted to you with.

This is evident in the parable of the talents.

The master says, because you've been faithful in a little, I will now reward you with a much, I will give you more So it should be the desire of every Christian to have God trust them.

I want God to trust me.

I should strive to produce the fruit of faithfulness, even in climates that would not normally produce faithfulness.

Now let me ask you an honest question.

You don't have to raise your hand, but you can if you want to.

How many of us have walked faithfully with the Lord and have wondered if it was still worth it?

Amen.

Like you you looked at your faithfulness and you looked at all that you've been doing, all the hard work that you've put in.

All the energy that you've expended, all of the all the time you've given to the Lord and to the church, and it hasn't really produced a better life.

Like you've seen no reward.

You've heard no appreciation.

You feel like your your life hasn't gotten better since you said yes to Jesus.

Since you repented of that sin that was crippling you for years, you thought that freedom was going to feel joyous, but there wasn't even a celebration for you.

And you feel like as soon as you said yes to Jesus and started coming to church, more drama was added to your life than when you were in the world.

You've been faithful to God, but what have been the effects of your faithfulness?

So my my sermon today is really for anybody who's going through a season right now that might seem unfair.

It seems unfair and it's and it's putting pressure on you to to stop being faithful.

Listen, I've been there before.

I've been there plenty of times.

I know plenty of mature Christians who have been there before.

And maybe you're there right now.

Life has been lifing you.

It's been one thing after another.

I've I I feel like I've had like five or six conversations this week with people that are just going through it.

Every single day there's another thing and it feels like you can't catch a break and it's just this b big weight of a burden upon your shoulders.

And yet you're still here, you're still devoted to the Lord.

You're still in church.

You're still reading your word.

You're still listening to sermons every single day.

You're praying to God that He would take this Away, but if you're honest with yourself, you're actually asking yourself if this level of faithfulness is still worth it Faithfulness grows, listen, I want you to write this down or embed this in your brain somehow.

Faithfulness grows in seasons that seem unfair.

That's where faithfulness grows in seasons that seem unfair.

That's the opposition factor right there.

That's the adversity factor to faithfulness.

See the fruit of the Spirit Will always grow in unpleasant climates because it's only the Spirit who can grow that fruit.

You know what I mean?

So if you're if you're working hard to be faithful to God Know that the testing of that fruit is gonna be when life seems unfair.

I'm gonna give you an example in the context of marriage, and some of y'all ain't gonna like this.

But speaking of fidelity, I've I've and I this is this is real life.

I've talked to people who react this way.

A husband cheats on his wife, the wife thinks she's got to go out and do the same thing.

Because he did it to me.

Her level of faithfulness decreases.

Because you did it to me.

I gotta get you back.

Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, because we had this understanding that that I was gonna be faithful and you were gonna be faithful, but you violated my trust So now I get to go off and do whatever I want with whomever I want because you did it first.

Because why?

That seems fair.

But the way that the Holy Spirit would have you do it would be to stay faithful.

Because Paul says, Paul, when when Paul is talking about the fruit of the Spirit, he says, when you keep in step with the Spirit.

When you keep in step with the Spirit, when you keep the Spirit close, whenever you're going somewhere, the Holy Spirit is there.

That's what it means to keep in step with the Spirit.

You are a spirit-filled believer.

When you are a spirit-filled believer abiding in the spirit, not the flesh, you realize that your faithfulness doesn't belong first to your husband.

It belongs first to the Lord.

So even if it's unfair, even if it even if he betrayed you, even if he dropped his faithfulness, the way that the Spirit would have you do it is to remain faithful.

Some of y'all like, nah, Pastor, I ain't even saying amen to that one.

Some of y'all like, if my husband cheats on me, you don't have to worry about me cheating on me, he's gonna be dead.

I'm gonna kill him Faithfulness grows in seasons that seem unfair.

So if you're going through an un unfair season right now.

You can you can pout and you can kick your feet and you can throw a tantrum, but that's where faithfulness grows.

And I want you to hold on to that because Maybe, maybe life is great for you right now, but it's not always going to be great.

You're going to go through situations that seem unfair.

It's going to feel like an injustice to you.

And and it's not always gonna be people that you have an issue with.

Sometimes it's gonna be God because you're gonna look at your life and you're gonna look at your faith and you're gonna say, I have served you.

All of these days.

I've served you all of these years.

I've been good to you.

I've been a I've been a servant of yours.

Anything that you told me to do, I would do it.

And now I'm going through a season that is so unfair The verse says, after these things and these acts of faithfulness, the enemy came to invade Judah.

It's these things for me, man.

When I read that verse, I had to go back a few chapters to see exactly what were the things that had been done to lead to this moment where the enemy wanted to attack Judah.

So this all takes place during the reign of Hezekiah.

King Hezekiah, he was a righteous king.

He's described in the Bible as a faithful king.

Unlike his father, Ahaz, Hezekiah was faithful to the Lord and everything that he did.

Ahaz is described as unfaithful Ahaz raised up these altars of pagan worship.

He sacrificed his own sons, his burnt offerings.

He was not a good guy.

And during his reign, the Lord became very angry with Ahaz and Judah because they turned their back to Yahweh.

And so when Ahaz dies, Hezekiah comes in, it immediately brings this religious reform, unlike any other king has ever brought before.

Very radical and necessary changes.

He reopens and purifies the temple.

He puts back the Levites into position of worship.

He uh reinstitutes uh the the the celebration of Passover, he removes all of the high places of pagan worship, he goes back to the heart of God.

2 Chronicles 29, verse 3, it says, In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.

He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east and said to them, Hear me, Levites, now consecrate yourselves and and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out this filth.

From the holy place.

For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

They have forsaken him and turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs.

For the next two chapters, these are the things that Hezekiah is set out to do.

Hezekiah is serious about the Lord's business.

He is bringing back reverence to the temple.

He's bringing back honor to the name of God.

He's bringing back the assembly of the people to begin to worship God again.

He's bringing back fear of the Lord.

And these are the acts of faithfulness.

That chapter 32 was speaking about when it says, after these things, the enemy invaded Judah.

Now, I I I look at I know my church, many of you are Hezekiah.

We got some Hezekiahs in the room.

How many of you, just by show of hands, are are first generation Christian?

Praise God.

First generation Christian You're the first generation of believers in your family.

Praise the Lord.

How many of you are prodigals?

Like your your parents were Christian, but you grew up and you did some things on your own and then you came to the Lord.

Amen.

We got some prodigals.

We've got some you guys are Hezekiahs.

We got Hezekiah in this place.

We've got people in this room who have torn down altars at generations before you constructed.

Altars of worldliness, altars of lust, altars of pride, altars of greed, anything that is unholy, altars of idolatry.

You broke down those altars and you said that's for me and my house.

We're gonna serve the Lord.

You brought your chains to the feet of Jesus, all shackled up, and you say, I don't want these anymore.

And you put an end of every generational curse that came before you you're a hezekiah you brought reform you cleaned the temple You reinstituted godliness in your home and you got your family in order because everything was a mess.

Before you came to God and you said, You know what?

We need to start going to church.

We need to start worshiping.

We need to start reading our Bible.

We need to start getting serious.

We need to start uh putting our fear in God because the way that we're going is not good You brought reform.

And I honor you, man of God.

I honor you, woman of God, for doing that.

Praise the Lord.

But then you look at your life And you're like, man, after all of this faithfulness, the enemy is still after me.

The enemy is still attacking me.

And you resonate with this verse after these things, after I repented, after I said yes to Jesus, after I got baptized, after I stepped into ministry, after I became obedient.

After all of this, the enemy is still allowed to torment me.

And this is where you have to decide if this level of faithfulness is still worth it.

I I I get tired of it, man.

I ain't gonna lie.

I get tired of talking to people or like Pastor, I don't know if I can do this anymore.

I get tired of it, man.

And I and I have to take a big breath because I I speak with compassion, but I don't know.

I feel like I lose my patience sometimes.

And and and maybe may some of you are thinking of giving up ministry.

Thinking about min is ministry even worth it?

Because you know how hard it is and you know how hard-headed people are.

And you know that it comes with problems and stress and and you're always giving yourself and your time and you're thinking about quitting, even though you know that your assignment isn't over.

Some of you didn't even want to come to church today.

You don't have to raise your hand, but I'm they're here every Sunday because they come they come to me after church.

Man, Pastor, I wasn't gonna come to church today.

I told God I ain't gonna come to church today.

You're here, I know you're here You don't want to come to church today because of the week that you had.

You're letting life own you.

And you almost didn't come because it's been so hard.

Hey man, Pastor, but you don't get it.

It's been so hard.

And I was fired up at first.

You couldn't stop me from coming to church.

I came to church all the time.

I wanted to be wherever the Lord was.

I was fired up.

I wanted to be where the community was.

But but it seems like I've been carrying this weight. for too long and and i i was even carrying the weight when i said yes to jesus but i thought you know what he's gonna take it away eventually and he hasn't And it's affecting your ability to stay consistent and devoted and faithful to the Lord And everything feels unfair.

Why is life so unfair to good and faithful people?

God, why did you tell the devil, have you considered my most faithful servant Job?

Why would you do that?

Why not put why why why throw the most faithful person to the dogs I know you've had some conversations like that with God, because I have.

And it feels like we're we're we're we're being punished for doing good.

Can I can I give you something practical?

You're allowed 24 hours to throw a fit.

Your pastor is giving your pastors giving you 24 hours to complain And cry and throw a tantrum and feel all the stress that you need to feel.

Shoot, sometimes I take that 24 hours But then you gotta get up and keep walking.

Because if you allow yourself to stay there, you're gonna remain there and you're never gonna get back up and you're always gonna live your life defeated Take your time.

Take take take take take a little temper tantrum.

Cry.

Do what you gotta do.

Binge watch Netflix and just eat all the junk food.

Whatever you gotta do.

But after that, get up.

Put your shoes on.

Put your little that song is so cheesy to me, man.

Put the little backpack on.

And keep walking.

You know what I mean?

I'm I'm there.

I can't even sing it because I'm like God it feels so weird for me to say put on my backpack.

But if you love the song man, praise the Lord, praise the Lord Your listen, your fruit of faithfulness, your fruit of faithfulness grows in seasons that seem unfair.

You gotta get that.

You gotta get it.

You gotta get it.

Because it's not really a test of faithfulness when when you feel like you know everything is great and everything is fair.

You know, it's it It's a mutual agreement.

It's when you feel like somebody is dropping the ball.

It's when you feel like something, an injustice is being done to you that now you get to fold as well.

That's a toxic mindset.

Your fruit of faithfulness is grown in unfair seasons.

And this is that moment of testing.

And you know what?

The only way to get through this, the only way to get through this, it's not a motivational speech, it's not a feel-good sermon.

Watch this.

Hezekiah tells the people in verse 7, very powerful stuff right here.

He says, be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the hordes that is with him, for there are more with us than with him With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and fight our battles.

And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah.

That's great.

But that happens every Sunday.

You come in here, we hear a powerful word, we leave Puffed up and filled up, and we leave with that confidence in the words of whoever was speaking This was like better than any you know football coach speech movie I ever heard.

This is good stuff.

This will rile people up This is how you inspire them.

But in just a few verses, the enemy comes back and he tries to discredit everything that Hezekiah just told them.

See, I can preach to you, church.

Listen, I can preach to you, and I will preach to you messages that I believe instill hope and inspiration.

But it'll last just for a week.

But spiritual fruit can only grow with the Holy Spirit Spiritual fruit can only grow with the Holy Spirit.

I know that sounds so simple and so vague and so impractical.

You're looking for something tangible to get you through this moment.

Look, I I I love the practical, but sometimes there's nothing that you can practically do.

It's only spiritual.

Sometimes there's nothing practical to be done.

It's only spiritual.

And truly, the only way to stay faithful to the Lord is by abiding in his spirit.

And so when you're going through a really hard moment in your life, you can call your pastors, you can call your friends, you can call your mentors, that's great, but it's only supplemental.

You can't lean on that.

Alleviating stress.

I I like to go to the gym when I'm stressed out, but it only takes care of me for about an hour It's not reading a self-help book.

It's not listening to a podcast.

It's not even listening to a sermon.

It's getting seriously in your room.

Where you seek the Lord the most and saying, Holy Spirit, I need you right now.

Holy Spirit, I need some endurance for this moment that I'm in.

I really need some fruit to sprout out in this season of dryness because where nothing seems to grow naturally, we need the Holy Spirit to grow it supernaturally.

So you gotta go to the Spirit of God and say, Lord, I need you.

I need you to fill me.

I know it sounds again vague.

Just run to the Holy Spirit.

Literally, run to the Holy Spirit.

We have we don't have enough people running to the Holy Spirit.

We have way more people running to their pastors than running to the Holy Spirit.

Way more, way more running, running to a church service, running to a worship song, running to a few psalms instead of running to the Holy Spirit and getting intimate with him, telling him everything that you're going through in that moment.

Run, run to the Holy Spirit.

You can't grow spiritual fruit without him You can't do it.

Because spiritual fruit only grows in climates that are unnatural.

We need the supernatural.

The enemy is after your faithfulness, man.

He wants you to fail God.

He wants you to throw in the towel.

Some some of you are there And so when you're when you're being faithful to God, do you think the enemy is going to leave you alone?

Some of y'all have been going through some really hard stuff.

I know you, I know you by name, and I won't say your name, but I I know what you've gone through.

Like it seems like the moment like You inspire me, man.

Because the moment you said yes to Jesus and you said yes to going deeper In the presence of the Lord, it's like it's been one thing after another.

It's like you haven't been able to catch a break.

And the enemy is after your faithfulness.

He's going to apply pressure so that you leave your post, you drop your cross, and you say, forget it, I'm done.

And you abandon your faithfulness to the Lord.

Look what the enemy You still with me?

Y'all a little bit quiet today, but it's okay.

The enemy king, he says this to Hezekiah.

This is uh verse 13.

He says, Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the other lands?

Were the gods of the nations of those lands at all able to deliver their lands out of my hand?

Whom among all the gods of those nations that my father's devoted to destruction was able to deliver his people from my hand?

That your God should be able to deliver you from my hand.

Now, therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you in this fashion, and do not believe him.

For no God of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my father's, how much less will your God deliver you out of my man, does that not piss you off And I shouldn't say that word.

But man, I hate I hate a lying devil man who tries to discredit What my powerful Almighty God can do.

I hate that lying devil and I hate that so many of us believe him.

We believe him.

And this is how he operates.

This is how he speaks.

To the sheep of God, to the people of God.

He says, remember what I did to your dad.

Remember how he couldn't pull himself out of addiction?

You think you're gonna be any better than that?

Remember his pornography addiction?

You think you're gonna be able to to to to withstand that You think God cares about you?

You're always gonna be broke.

You're always gonna be sick.

You're always gonna be uh insecure.

You're always gonna be stuck And then you said, stop letting your pastor lie to you.

Stop letting the people in your circle, stop letting the people in your church fill you with this nonsense.

It's just feel-good stuff.

It's how the devil works.

Verse 17, he keeps going.

He says, like the gods of the nations of the lands who have not delivered their people from my hand.

So the God of Hezekiah will not deliver his people from my hand.

And they shouted, listen to this.

And they shouted it with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem, who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them in order that they might take The city.

See, the devil is taunting God's people from within the very walls He's outside the church taunting us.

He's got no shame.

And it says that they shouted it with a loud voice in the language.

Of Judah.

I want you to get that.

I want you to get that.

I need you to lock in, lock in real quick.

The enemy is using The language of the nation of Judah to taunt the nation of Judah.

See the enemy knows what bothers you He knows what triggers you.

He knows what makes you react in the flesh.

He knows what you fear because he hears you say these things out loud.

He sees how you react in certain situations.

So, so when he wants to intimidate you, listen, when the devil wants to intimidate you, all he has to do is regurgitate the language that he hears you say.

All he has to do is is show you everything that he knows triggers you.

He's using your own language, he's using your own situation, your own life.

Against you.

The devil's not creating anything new.

He's not a creator.

He was created He ain't a creator.

Can I be honest with somebody?

And it might change your theology a little bit, but the the devil's not the maker of every bad thing that happens in your life And and I want y'all to hear me because sometimes I say things on a Sunday and then I have a conversation with you during that week and you say the opposite thing, and I'm like, dang, bro, you praying attention?

Listen, listen.

Stop stop giving credit to the enemy for every bad thing that happens in your life.

You're giving him too much power.

And then you wonder why you're afraid.

Because you he he's the boogeyman to you.

He doesn't create anything new.

He's the accuser.

That's what he does.

He uses the situations in your life against God.

I'll give him that.

He's he's a master accuser, master liar.

He's an instigator.

He's always trying to create tension, always trying to create drama between God and his people.

Always trying to put a wedge in there.

And he uses our life to do it.

Can't let the devil play you like that, man.

Can't you can't let you can't let them have that much power in your life, man.

Well it's a good pastor, Pastor, Pastor, Pastor.

My car broke down And I lost my job last week.

And I gotta pick up my kids from school.

And I don't have gas.

And I don't.

Well, your car broke down, so it doesn't matter if you have gas.

I'm not following my own story Your car broke down.

You don't have a job, and you're wondering how you're gonna make ends meet.

And then and then and then you top it off.

Listen, listen, listen, listen.

You top it off.

The enemy's always attacking me.

I'm gonna give you that.

He's attacking you, but he's not attacking your car, sweetie.

He's not attacking attacking your employment.

He's attacking your mind.

He's attacking your spirit.

He's using your situations that seem unfair, and he's attacking your mind to scare you, to intimidate you, to anger you, to frustrate you.

All against God.

He's the accuser.

Life is gonna life.

Don't let the enemy have a say in what happens.

This is why Paul says you got to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Right?

He says you got to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

You got to stop thinking the way that you used to think.

You gotta get yourself out of that victim mentality.

You gotta stop thinking that that the problems always just follow you.

You gotta buckle up and think a little bit higher.

Paul says whatever is true, whatever is pure, whatever is right, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, whatever is praiseworthy, whatever is excellent.

Think about those things.

Because with the weak mind, I'm calling out some weak minds this morning, man.

That only focuses on the terrible and on what's broken and what's not fair. the enemy will suck the life out of your soul.

But when you protect your mind, you protect your heart.

You protect your mind.

You protect your heart.

So when I've got a mind of joy, Anything can come my way.

My heart is protected.

I'm still going.

I'm still going.

That sucks.

That sucks.

But I'm still going.

When when something is out of my control and it feels hopeless to me, I set my eyes upon the hope of Of the name of Jesus and say, Man, that might affect me really hard in this life, but I'm going somewhere.

I've got an eternity attached to me.

I I've got victory in the name of Jesus.

Set your minds on higher things and protect. your heart so that you can keep going faithfully.

God wants to be able to trust you Don't let the enemy lie to you.

Don't let the enemy lie to you.

I want to end with one verse.

I started with one verse.

I want to end with this one verse.

Same chapter, verse 20.

It says this.

So after all of that Says then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, prayed because of this and cried to heaven.

What did they do?

They prayed.

Again, I know sometimes we look for practical solutions for real-world problems when something's hanging over your life.

You just you want to know what you can do.

You want to look for answers, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Exhaust your strength, do your part.

But sometimes, sometimes, you still listening?

Sometimes there's nothing that you can do.

And I'm a solutions guy.

I've told y'all this before.

My wife expresses something that she's going through.

I just I just want to solve it for her And and sometimes when I'm when I'm in a counseling session and I'm talking to somebody and they're they're telling me everything that they're going through, I just I want to solve it for them.

But I can't.

Can't solve everything And so sometimes we say the things that you don't want to hear.

Take it to the Lord.

Pray about it Trust in God.

Keep going.

Ah, Pastor, come on, I don't want to hear that.

And then you go to somebody else.

We're trying to solve practical problems.

I'm sorry, we're trying to solve spiritual problems with practical solutions.

And that's not gonna work.

Sometimes there's not gonna be anything that can practically be done, and that's when we lose hope.

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

Maybe maybe this sermon isn't for you, but it's for somebody who's lost hope.

You're here today and you've lost hope, man.

That's when the enemy, it's in these seasons of adversity that the enemy is trying to attack your mind.

He's attacking your spirit.

He's he's instilling fear in you, intimidation in you, spiritual tiredness from you.

And you can't use anything practical to solve that spiritual problem.

See, Hezekiah had been faithful, he had been the voice of encouragement to the people, he had been a good leader, a righteous king, but the enemy still would not relent.

So, what does he do?

He prays.

We cannot underestimate the power of prayer.

As simple as that sounds, as many times in your life as you've heard it, how many of us are really underestimating the power of prayer?

By going first to someone rather than him.

By running to all these different tools and AI and chat GPT and what should I do instead of getting on our knees and saying Lord I need you right now More than before.

I need you, my God, to be my strength.

We cannot underestimate the power of prayer because a church that stops praying stops operating in power.

And when we pray, some of you saying, Pastor, I do pray.

But when we pray, we ask God to fix.

We ask God to fix the physically broken.

We ask God to take us out of the dry seasons.

How many, how many of you are asking God, Lord, take me out of this season right now?

I'm done with this season.

Take me out of this.

But how many of you can honestly say that you have asked the Lord for help for your unbelief?

See, there gets to a point where maybe you have prayed All those prayers of Lord take me out of this.

God, I'm tired of this.

I'm tired of dealing with this.

God, take this affliction from me.

There gets a point.

Where the prayer needs to shift.

Lord, strengthen my spirit.

God, help my faith.

Because it's waning right now, it's getting weaker right now, God.

Help me to stay faithful because I'm looking at everything that is wrong in my life and it's Tiring me and I don't know that I can keep going.

God, remain in me, my God, so that I may produce a fruit that would stay faithful to you, my God.

Pray for the rain in the dry season.

Pray for the provision.

Pray for the job.

Pray for the good health.

Pray for the healing.

Pray for the freedom out of the out of your moment.

But also pray for your faith.

Pray for your soul.

Pray for your spiritual strength that you may keep going.

Because what we need more than bread, what we need more than healing is a spirit of God. surrounding us when the enemy tries to have us.

That's what we need more than anything else.

See the verse says the verse says in the in verse one it says, Sennacherib thought he could win the fortified cities for himself.

The enemy really thinks that every time he attacks you, he's gonna have a victory.

Because he's seen you react before.

He knows what makes you scared.

He knows what intimidates you.

But when you're planted in the Lord, when you're planted on the rock when you are keeping in step with the Spirit of God when you keep going even though life isn't fair the God of heaven goes before you For you, and he feels you and he strengthens you, and not and not even the enemy can knock you down, he can try and he will throw every single blow your way.

But when you are planted on Jesus When you are walking in the spirit, there is nothing that can come your way.

There is nothing that can knock you down because you are a man of God, you are a woman of God, and you are gonna be faithful to God because He's been faithful to you.

Life has been unfair, it's okay.

God is still good all the time.

God is still good.

Keep walking.

Stop, stop, stop stopping.

Stop getting knocked down and staying down.

Keep walking.

Keep walking.

Before you know it, the Lord is going to give you more.

Because to those who can be trusted with the little, more will be given.

Stop wasting this moment.

Listen, listen.

Stop wasting this moment crying.

Stop wasting this moment.

Completely broken.

You know who your God is.

You know who your God is.

Fall in his hands.

Run to the Spirit And be strengthened by the Spirit of God.

Why don't you stand with me Faithfulness grows in seasons that are unfair.

Holy Spirit, I pray right now that you would strengthen your people.

That you would strengthen my God or walk.

Father God, even though we are going through a moment, Lord, that feels so unjust towards us, God.

I pray that we don't throw in the towel.

I pray that we continue forward, my Lord.

I pray that we don't get tired of doing good as your word says.

I pray, Father God. that we continue standing, Father God, and moving towards your heart and your will, Father.

Holy Spirit, we need you.

If that's you this morning, if you say, Holy Spirit, I need some spiritual fruit this morning.

Would you come and have a moment with God?

Just run to the Holy Spirit.

Come on.

These altars are open.

Run to the Holy Spirit in this moment of opposition.

And if you're in need of prayer, Prayer team is here.

We worship you, Jesus.

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.