Vision Sunday
Pastor David T. Elms Preached on 1/5/2025
Loading…
0:00
51:45
Summary
Pastor David T. Elms introduces the 2025 theme 'Bless City,' challenging the congregation to move beyond self-interest and use their spiritual authority to exalt South Florida through words of blessing and acts of faith.
Key points
- •The theme for 2025 is 'Bless City,' based on the scriptural principle that the blessing of the upright exalts a city.
- •The call of Abraham in Genesis 12 highlights that God's purpose for a family is always to be a blessing to 'all families of the earth,' not just their own kin.
- •The church is called to have an outward disposition, specifically reaching out to the marginalized and the diverse population of South Florida.
- •The 'upright' have a spiritual authority to speak life over their environment, contrasting with the 'mouth of the wicked' which brings destruction.
- •Maintaining a spirit of blessing requires intentionality, especially when facing personal storms, financial lack, or negative city statistics.
Scripture
Vision Sunday
Blessing
City Outreach
Faith
Spiritual Warfare
Life application
Identify one person or area in your neighborhood or workplace that feels 'cursed' or problematic, and commit to speaking words of blessing and praying for their exaltation every day this week.
Reflection questions
- In what ways have you been 'ingrown' by focusing only on the needs of your own family rather than being a blessing to the city?
- How does the dream of the serpent and the glass barrier encourage you to trust God's protection even when you face unexpected attacks?
- What are the specific 'demons' or challenges facing your city that God is calling you to counter with a spirit of joy and hope?
- Is your mouth currently exalting your city or tearing it down with the same complaints as the world?
Have a question about this sermon?
Ask our AI and get an answer with citations.
Full transcript
0:00new year, the first Sunday of
0:02every year we take place. A
0:08moment of reflection to look back and then look forward
0:14and to dedicate a for the year 2024. The theme
0:19was thy kingdom come in many ways and through many
0:25measures by sacrificial giving sacrificial crying and tears sacrificial loving
0:31and through faithful consistency. We sought to bring his kingdom
0:36to Earth. Genesis 12 is one of the most signature portions
0:42of your Bible. For all of you that understand the heights and depths of
0:48moments scripturally, I don't think there is a more clarion call in all the
0:53Bible than what you'll find in Genesis 12, verses 1 through 3. It is
0:59the moment that is so significant to the Father of us all. we sang
1:05growing up in church father abraham had many sons many sons had father abraham i
1:10am one of them and so are you so let's just praise the lord and
1:16then every little boy finally got excited because i wasn't all that concerned with the
1:22words but when he said right hand i knew it was time to work and
1:27then all of a sudden i wanted to demonstrate to everybody else in the room
1:33i knew about the left And see, some of y'all
1:38aren't this deep, but I'm showing you the depth and the breadth
1:44of living for God. Then you go, Father Abraham had many sons,
1:50right hand, left hand, right foot. And then I know Eric's requesting
1:55me to sing, but I'm ignoring him. I'm fighting it off. And
2:01then every boy in the room didn't care about the word so
2:07much. But when he said, right foot, left foot, to show complete
2:12skill, nod your head. And if you were of
2:18the deeper kind of faithfulness, there's the turnaround.
2:23Sit down. The essence for all the Abrahamic
2:29songs, promises, giftings, callings is couched in Genesis
2:3412, verses 1 through 3. It is so
2:40significant because there is where the call of
2:45God comes to Abraham and lets him know
2:50what he is to do by this answer
2:56from the divine. God tells Abraham, I will make of
3:01you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great
3:07so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those that bless
3:13you. And the one who curses you, I will curse. And then you
3:19all everybody say all. all the families not the
3:24nations not the counties not the states not the jurisdictions
3:30made by king or lord of men god's highest jurisdiction
3:36is that of family and through you shall all the
3:41families of the earth be blessed abraham's journey is an
3:47encounter with other peoples though Because God immediately marks
3:53a significant differentiation between this man, Abraham, and everyone
3:59else. He shows that you are not to be
4:05ingrown, but you're to be outreaching. That it isn't
4:10about you for and no more. It's not about
4:16you just saving your family. See, I have been around
4:22churches that had people in it that said, oh, all I got to do is
4:27reach my family, and that's all I'm concerned about. So we'll go to church, and
4:33if my family needs prayer, I'll work in that altar. But if it's not my
4:38family, y'all be good now, you hear? See, that spirit will never, ever be welcome
4:43at the Cathedral of Pentecost. Ever, never. Because it's not biblical. Through you and your
4:48seed. shall all families of the earth be blessed. It is
4:54an outward disposition that is pressed on anybody who wants the
5:00priorities of God to guide them. And this first initial statement
5:05is about understanding that through you will flow blessing. It's an
5:11illustration of the mission of living after God in a secularized,
5:16untoward generation. Will speak to you said God will bless the world.
5:22You're not waiting on saying that now God has spoken to me I got
5:28my Box checked I'm done today No, it's about understanding God will speak to
5:34you But you have not completed your task until you have blessed others not
5:40of your family I love blessing my family family is first institution. It is
5:46the primary institution. It is your first cause But if all you
5:51can see is your blood and kin, then this church has got work to
5:57do on you because it's not just about you and your family. It's about
6:03through you shall others be blessed. And so Abraham was told by God, I
6:09love your family. I love your stuff, but you better get up and leave
6:15your country. Your country, your home country is not the city that I
6:21want you to find. Egypt is not the city I want you to find.
6:27Beulah land is not the city I want you to find. Jerusalem on this
6:33earth is not the city I want you to find. Here, the book
6:39of Hebrews tells us in the 11th chapter, we have no continuing city. It
6:44tells us that Abraham left all that he left seeking a city whose builder
6:50and maker was God. Everybody say the maker is God. Genesis is a book
6:55about a family who becomes a nation. It was, but it is never about
7:01a family and a nation if you read it with the proper understanding. It
7:07was never about the family of Abraham, nor was it ever about the
7:13nation of Israel. The book of Genesis is about the whole world. It
7:19was always about all the Americans and all the Europeans and all the
7:25Africans and all the Australians and all the people of every continent and
7:31island on the earth. The Bible was about everybody. And Abraham had
7:37a wife named Sarah. The notable characteristic about this Sarah, which is spoken of in
7:42Genesis 11 verse 30 when it tells us about her, it's interesting, it states, she
7:48was barren, she had no child. It's not often that necessarily repeating itself that there's
7:54a redundancy in Scripture unless when you find a redundancy, it's not there haphazardly because
7:59they had a word count to get into their professor in college.
8:06When you see it in the Bible, it's because the Lord's making a double emphasis.
8:12It's like a double exclamation point. He wants you to understand something. This woman is
8:17old. Abraham is old. God has told them to go and through you shall all
8:22the earth be blessed. So it seems as if if you're reading with a thinking
8:28mind that this is the end of the story. Maybe he'll say something and we'll
8:33all put it on billboards around the world. This will be it because this woman
8:38is bearing and has no child. It must be that maybe through the manipulation of
8:44creeds formulas are man's calculations that there will be a blessing comes the promise though
8:49by god makes it clear that this promise is not going to come by way
8:54of a concubine this promise is not going to come by way of a baby
9:00mama this conference this comp this blessing is not going to come by the wives
9:05of separate institutions but this covenant is going to come by one woman the wife
9:10of sacred covenant but she's barren and has no child One bride will be the
9:16answer to the blessing of the world, not multiple brides. We get to the New
9:22Testament, understand that the significant symbolism of the scripture is that God will not have
9:27many wives. He's not going to have one that baptizes one way and one that
9:33baptizes another way. He's not going to have a bride for Russia and a bride
9:38for China and a bride for Africa and a bride for North America. Styles may
9:44be distinctive in India that are separate from those in Australia. But God's bride, he
9:50said, is going to be one and she will be clean and she will be
9:56pure. She will be holy. She will be righteous. She will have made her garment
10:02white and spotless and she will fought and pressed to keep it without wrinkle.
10:07In other words, the disposition of this bride would be continually assessing herself and
10:13the appearance whereby she comes. One bride. And of course, we know biblically that
10:19bride in the New Testament is the church. The bride we thought in the
10:25Old Testament was Israel. It was supposed to be Israel. Through her should all
10:31the world be blessed. But Abraham, his family expanded after Calvary. Genesis 12
10:36starts with the Lord said unto Abraham. It's a surprising sentence. But God says, go
10:42forth from your land. Be a pilgrim. Leave where you're at. Wherever you think you
10:48are to be comfortable, I want you to leave that comfort zone. I want you
10:53to leave. And he instructs him three specific things that he was to leave. You
10:59are to leave your land. You are to leave.
11:06It was like he went from big to little to make sure that Abraham
11:12got a clue what this leaving was all about. You're supposed to leave those
11:18things that have made you comfortable and depart from your prototypical certainties. Depart from
11:24the realm of your normal routine. Depart from your jurisdiction of certainties and go
11:30to a precarious road without a certain destination. You're to go looking for
11:35a city whose builder and maker is God. And the Lord said, go
11:41look for this land that I will show you. In other words, It's
11:47a place, a place that I will give you. And in that place, you
11:53will find fullness of joy. Hebrews 11 brings it to our concentrated mind. And
11:58it says he sought a city whose builder and maker was God. Cities. We
12:04live in one. Quite an amazing city. I know we all got country in
12:10us. All I got to do is say back in the country, it went
12:16like this. Now listen, I've never lived in the country my entire life.
12:22the smallest place I've ever lived and I only lived there
12:27for Bible college was Jackson Mississippi which is the most populous
12:33city in the entire state of Mississippi that's the smallest town
12:39I've ever lived in so I am the epitome of a
12:44city slicker deal with it but because the family has country
12:50all through us I mean country I've saddled horses. I know a bunch
12:56of you city slickers do that too, okay? All right, so you don't have to
13:01be country to know how to saddle a horse. But I've saddled horses. I figured
13:06out how to get that horse to take a bit. Y'all don't even know what
13:11I'm talking about. I lost 95% of this church right then. How to get them
13:16to take a bit. You don't know that. You haven't negotiated. Listen, it's full-on negotiation.
13:21Depends on the hard head you're dealing with. Some are hammerheads. All right, those
13:27are not just sharks. There's some hammerhead horses out there
13:33too. I know how to drink out of a 10
13:38cup water pool from a Texas windmill. I've gone and
13:44my wife, I'm married to a country girl. Now she
13:49might really be country. She was born in Monroe, Louisiana.
13:55Listen, what's the population of Monroe? You see that button
14:01I just pushed? Enough. I mean, it's so uptown. They
14:06got one mall. The mall, the name of
14:12the mall is prestigious, really. Pecan Land. Listen, you are up when you're
14:17shopping at Pecan Land Mall. And you're rich if you're able to eat
14:23at them restaurants in the parking lot of Pecan Land Mall. What is
14:29it? Copeland's? Where did your grandma work? Where did your Mamaw Mary work?
14:34You're supposed to know these things. Country girl's supposed to survive. Oh, it's
14:40the ownerships change in these country places. Listen, it used to be Uncle
14:46Willie's. Now it's aunt Susie's Crazy Sam is negotiating to buy it
14:51right now and he's gonna buy it with the corner of a piece of
14:57land and two horses We live in a city. It's a big boy place
15:03some of you from New York City And you know that kind of those
15:09kind of monsters live down here Chicago some of you have been from Chicago,
15:15you know, this is that kind of place and I grew up in San
15:21Diego, which is a junior to Los Angeles, but it's almost like an extension of
15:26Los Angeles. That's where I was born and was raised. And I'm telling you what,
15:31the city living is a different kind of living. And our city and most cities
15:36face demons. Our city faces dual demons, too little infrastructure, too much poverty. We're drowning
15:41in traffic and starving for affordable housing. Youths are jobless Seniors are helpless. We
15:47have high crime and low employment. This is most Cities in America
15:53yet. We're here planted by God and we have joy in the
15:58middle of the city We got joy. There's some unemployed people you
16:04wouldn't know it by the way they praise because they don't walk
16:10around with the face from here down to there and We got
16:16some folks that are not living in a lot of blessing and they have a
16:20crowded situation where that they're at. But when they walk in here, it's as if
16:25they own the whole world and they magnify the Lord. Because in the middle of
16:30the city, there is joy. There's hope in the middle of the city. There's peace
16:34in the middle of the city. There's righteousness in the middle of the city.
16:40We have high crime and low employment, yet the gospel introduces
16:45joy, which transforms cosmopolitan chaos. turns it into joy God loves people
16:51and since God loves people where there's people piled on top of people you're
16:57gonna find a whole lot of God in a place like that South Florida
17:03is teeming with people and more and more are moving down where they gonna
17:09live I don't know how they gonna afford it I don't know. I drive around
17:14and look at the price of houses and say, how in the world do people
17:20live here? And yet left and right, they're piling down here from all over the
17:25world, coming from north, south, east and west. They can't get enough in here. And
17:31I'm not saying stop it because God loves people. He didn't come to save pine
17:37trees. He didn't come to save palm trees. He didn't come to save grass leaves.
17:42He didn't come to save cattle. He didn't come to save wheat. He came to
17:47save people. One man was touched by
17:53God from his blindness and the Bible said he saw men as trees walking
17:58and everybody Assessed him that the miracle wasn't finished because if you think that
18:04men equate with trees You're still blind you need the second touch because then
18:10when you get the second touch You'll start seeing that God's here for people
18:15all people tall people short people heavy people light people Skinny people,
18:21big people, muscular people. God loves people.
18:26South Florida is full of people, dreams,
18:32vibrant ambitions. Over 1,200 times in the Bible, the Lord speaks of cities.
18:38The cities in that era were not as plenteous as the cities in this
18:44hour. But there are a speaking of shared lives and diverse cultures and a
18:50gathered heartbeat, footsteps and the sound of many voices, people colliding and inspiring. into
18:55a dynamic force that shakes and shapes a very region. Florida is the
19:01only state where the sun rises over one sea and sets over another. South
19:07Florida is landlocked between the Atlantic and the Everglades. This is the only
19:13place in the entire world where alligators and crocodiles coexist. I heard a
19:19joke the other day about a guy, had a guy in Florida, and
19:25he said to him, he said, go jump in that pond. There's no
19:30crocodiles in there. I'm glad y'all are finally catching up. This is that
19:36neighbor that lets his dog do stuff in your yard. Go jump in
19:42that pond. There are no crocodiles in there. This is the only place in the
19:47world that has both of those. This only place in the world, nowhere in the
19:53world is there anything like the Everglades River of Grass. Nowhere in the world there
19:58are deltas, there are floodplains, there are wetlands, but nothing compares to the Everglades. And
20:03we don't think much of it. We just see it as a river of grass.
20:08And we are the largest urban area that is built at sea
20:14level. We are the church of the living God that has been
20:20situated In South Florida if you logistically with your engineering mind look at where this
20:26property sits We are perfectly at the epicenter of the people mass that is labeled
20:32the Gold Coast You can go as many miles south as you can north and
20:38you can go as many miles east as you can west our church is the
20:44epicenter our property is in the middle why because God said in
20:50a place that people call a hell hole I'm gonna put my
20:56people and they're gonna show up with joy they're gonna show up
21:02with hallelujahs they're gonna show up with hope they're gonna show up
21:07with blessing and planted they will say we are here to bless
21:13City the church is likened to the bride of Christ And
21:19the Lord said in the book of Genesis that part of the curse of
21:25the fall out of the garden was that I will put enmity between the
21:31woman and the serpent. There would always be some kind of an innate response
21:36to the servant, the serpent, I should say. And I can tell you as
21:42a man, I got it too, okay? I don't like snakes, okay?
21:48I literally, I'll never forget, Brother Sean, you might remember when Kyle helped me
21:54do a home team and I asked him to bring me his ball python.
22:00And the whole time I taught, I had that ball python in my hand
22:05and it was just staring me down. Listen, I don't think, I think I
22:11could have not combed my hair on that home team and nobody would have
22:17ever noticed. Because everybody's eye was on that ball python
22:22as it was just curled and moving around my hand. And
22:28I taught the whole lesson like, there's a serpent close to
22:34you. Maybe I ought to try that again. No. Y'all want
22:40to go to home teams now, don't you? Let's see the
22:45pastor have a python. I will put enmity between you and
22:51the serpent. It's a subliminal aversion, an invisible cringe. A
22:57hidden recoil that's in all of us to snakes and snake spirits. In 1992 when
23:03my wife and I came here to South Florida, it was a God thing. Some
23:09of you were around. You know how God sized it was. You know what I
23:15came to and you know what I was leaving. You don't really know what I
23:21was leaving because you weren't traveling with us. But I was leaving something very substantial.
23:27But it was all about being in the will of God. It was never about
23:32calculating how the numbers worked out at the end of the day. Because my best
23:38numbers can't touch God's numbers. So it's not always a business decision you make. Some
23:43decisions don't bring in a calculator. Sometimes you get up from your prayer and you
23:48say, God spoke. And if you take it to your CPA, they're going to look
23:54at you like you're crazy. But you know all the money in all the
23:59world can't buy your soul. It can't own the rapture machine. It can't get you
24:05out of here. What kind of house are you going to live in when you
24:11die? You might like your apartment you're renting right now, but what kind of house
24:17are you going to live in when you die? Some of you, I don't know
24:22which one of you is here that lives on the intercoastal. Don't raise your hand.
24:28There's crazy people here in this church. They'll TP your house before the morning.
24:35Y'all don't even know what TP in a house is, do you? I'm telling you,
24:40I'm so old. Did y'all spoon a house yard? You know, you put forks all
24:45through their yard. Y'all need to pray through. Well, it doesn't matter where you live.
24:51Where are you going to live after you die? You say, well, I got a
24:56concrete vault and a steel casket on order. I got a special place already. I
25:01don't like down in the ground, so I've got one up in the wall at
25:06the Great Pyramid on 595. I don't care where you got it. I don't care
25:12what you think you know in one moment this life which is so fragile can
25:18be taken from us and you might fly first class but what you're going to
25:23do on that day because there's coming a day that you can't configure how things
25:29are going to work out with bank numbers with friends with lawyers with judges with
25:34doctors with all kinds of political power no there's only one that controls tomorrow and
25:40his name is Jesus when I came and my wife in 1992
25:45I had a dream on a Sunday night, I mean a Saturday night about
25:51a coiled snake and I was walking down this path and I saw this
25:57coiled snake. I think it was a rattlesnake. It was venomous that could strike
26:02you a viper of some sort and it struck at me and when it
26:08struck me, I thought I was dead meat. I mean, I thought I'm bit
26:14but as it got right to my leg, It hit, lost its strength
26:20and fell to the ground and it went back and coiled again and came at
26:26me again and fell back. And what I didn't realize in that dream was that
26:32there was like a pain of thick glass that could not break, that I could
26:37not see that was between me and that serpent. And I don't know if you've
26:43been around snakes very much, but they can, when you put a little, little food
26:49in there that moves on legs, they Those snakes will strike and sometimes
26:55they strike the glass. Okay, if you haven't seen it, you're lost. It's
27:01an amazing thing when that thing hits and it loses its strength. And
27:06I woke up half of a cold sweat Sunday morning. I already had
27:12my sermon ready. It wasn't time to preach it. But that Sunday night
27:18I preach about that dream. The next morning, Monday morning, the top giver
27:23of our church. A very intelligent person, pleasant, both in presentation,
27:29pleasant. The kind of people you want to have in your church. Had written a
27:34letter on Saturday that was in the mail, and she knew it would be dropped
27:40in my mailbox on Monday. And in that letter, she wrote about how my wife
27:45didn't know how to be a pastor's wife, and I didn't know how to be
27:50a pastor. And one of these days, we might learn, but today wasn't that day,
27:56and that she was taking all of her gold away, her good looks and she
28:01was transitioning to another place ladies and gentlemen back in those days we didn't have
28:07any extra you want the intel of the details on that just talked about the
28:13Greg Lennon Leonard the bass player he was the budget keeper he was the manager
28:19he was the plant operations director he was the man that was the complete board
28:24he was the CFO the CEO the CIO and
28:30Chief information officer, promotional director. He was the social media coordinator. Listen, he
28:36had a typewriter. Don't mess with him. He had a typewriter. We couldn't
28:42afford to lose that. I was already not living on the tithes. Everything
28:48coming into the church was going to pay the lease. And that was
28:54still short. That was with Kathy and Loretta giving extra. Back then, Kathy
28:59really did own a pool company. Now she just thinks she does.
29:07and back then loretto was an executive at american express now she's just living on
29:12that american express pension but that wasn't enough and i remember getting that letter and
29:18thinking i determined when i was younger i watched my dad try to carry all
29:23the burdens of the church by himself and he wouldn't share it with anybody and
29:29listen my dad's better man than i am he's a greater man than i am
29:34i love you daddy but i'm not going to carry my burdens all by myself
29:40I'm not going to keep your business private from everybody. I'm going to tell your
29:45junk to the board, okay? Because I'm not going to carry your junk all by
29:50myself. Doesn't mean I'm going to be out of order, okay? My wife wants to
29:55make sure about that. We'll keep it appropriate. Confidential is confidential. I watched my dad
30:00try to carry all of it. And I said, I'm not going to do that.
30:05I'm not going to walk by myself carrying all of this stuff in this supposed
30:10clause of safety. So me and my wife got in
30:16our car and went to Sister Loretta's house that night. Brother Eddie
30:21was sitting there. Greg had come home from his printing job, and
30:27Mike was unemployed. Mike was living on unemployment checks, fishing. Was he
30:32in high school? No, I don't think he was in high school.
30:38Was he in high school, Loretta? No, he was already an irresponsible.
30:44My wife's always trying to defend all y'all. Better be glad I'm
30:49married to her, okay? I finally told Sister Loretta and all of
30:55them, I said, I can't believe what came in today this
31:01letter and I mean I'm real and you know you know
31:07what you go through maybe you don't you're real and sister
31:13Loretta who's always been like a spiritual rock in this church
31:19she's over there cooking in the kitchen thinking nothing and it
31:24was no big deal to her she said well that's what
31:30that dream was about I forgot about the dream Have
31:36you ever had a storm so strong that when God speaks to you,
31:42you can't even remember what God said? God gave you a sure word,
31:47but if you don't write it down and get some people in your
31:53life that are spiritual, you might forget that God already told you. Already
31:58told you, but your storm has knocked the stuffing out of you and
32:04you can't even keep your balance. Like it was normal.
32:11Brother, that's what you preached about last night. So I'm supposed to act like, oh,
32:16I knew it was coming. That's exactly why God gave me that dream. I knew
32:21I was just waiting on you to see that. No, I didn't remember any of
32:26that till she said it. And all of a sudden, like a cold water that
32:31started at the top of my head and went down my entire body, I realized
32:37that God will make a way for you. And God will keep you. And God
32:42will bless you. And God will make a way for you.
32:48Well, if you've lived in South Florida very long at all, you know there is
32:53an atmosphere of let's move away. Everybody's got it. Well, maybe not everybody because there's
32:58more people. I stirred something up over here. You know, but it's like I can't
33:03wait till I retire. I'm out of here. And I mean, I listened to that
33:08at church for a while and I just thought, you know, y'all are trying to
33:13go where I just left to come to you crazy folk. What in the world
33:19am I doing down here if all y'all trying to go where I came from?
33:24Am I the ignorant one here? I mean, hasta la vista, baby. I got
33:29all kinds of money sitting for me up there where you're
33:35wanting me to come from. I don't have any down here.
33:41What am I saying? When God places you somewhere, God makes
33:47a way because he's got a plan. And I know some
33:53people may want to curse South Florida, but the theme of
33:59our year for 2025 is Bless City. There's devils here, but
34:05bless this city. There's trouble here, but bless this
34:11city. There's storms coming, but bless this city.
34:16There's sickness, bless this city. I just want
34:21you to look at the text. I'm not
34:27preaching any longer. Sister Elms, come, let me
34:32remember I'm not preaching any longer. Proverbs 11,
34:3711. You don't know how to remember that?
34:43One, one, one, one way to God. One,
34:48one, one, one way to God. One,
34:53one, one, one way to God.
34:59Baptized in Jesus' name. Proverbs 11,
35:0511. There are two voices. I
35:11bit my tongue just now. Andrew,
35:16you're getting way too much joy
35:22out of this. Madison, will you
35:28straighten your husband up? Who voices?
35:33By the blessing of the upright,
35:39the city is exalted, but it
35:45is overthrown by the mouth of
35:51the wicked. Distinctives that you must
35:56see. It's not the words of the
36:02upright. It's not the mouth of the upright because the upright people can
36:08say a lot of good things that are not in the category of
36:14blessing. Upright will speak truth. The upright will speak facts. The upright will
36:20speak a lot of things, but there's a distinctive, a prerequisite on what's
36:26got to come out of a category of people. It's not everybody. It's
36:32the upright. If you're not upright, you don't qualify for this verse.
36:38If you're not upright, you're playing both sides of the token. Get upright.
36:44This church is about getting people standing back up because they were all
36:50made to be blessing. In other words, if you want to talk bad
36:56about this city, don't do it around me. You want to talk about
37:02the negative, you'll get it straight from channel seven. It's all there. And
37:08in many other places, all the bad about South Florida. Every time I
37:14do a ride along with the cops, every police officer I know is trying to
37:19get out here. Well, maybe not all of them. Some are making really good money,
37:24so they're going to retire here making good money. They found business. But it's just
37:29like a status among the police officers to always brag about. The Tennessee, oh boy,
37:34I got a place up in Tennessee. I got a place in Ocala. Place in
37:39Ocala. You have seen it. And I got to look at all these things. And
37:44I think, God put me. You know, if you're going to move away, God bless
37:48you. I don't own you. I'm not going to guilt you. I'm not going
37:54to sit here now. If you leave tearing this church down, I got a
38:00boot for you. Okay, if you're going to leave and on your way out,
38:06you're going to take some shots. Pray for my grace on that day. Just
38:12pray for my grace because I'm not always in the spirit. You can't be
38:18a part of it and then cut us when you're leaving. Isn't it awesome
38:23I have my helper in the car. I got my helper in the church.
38:29I mean, look at Mario's smile. He knows he's dangerous spot right now.
38:40So it's the blessing of the upright. It's not the curse
38:46of the wicked. Anything that comes out of the wicked's mouth
38:51tears it down. But it's not anything that comes out of
38:57the upright's mouth that exalts it. So this is going to
39:02be a year where we, this is not natural. So if
39:08you think, well, this isn't natural to me, brother, that's okay.
39:13You're perfectly fine. It's the way flesh is. If
39:19you don't do this for your children, you need to learn this. Your child can
39:24bring home a D. Boy, I'm pastoring right now and I need to close because
39:30I want somebody to pray when I'm done. Will somebody agree you're going to pray
39:35when I'm done? If I'll just pastor for a minute. If your child brings home
39:40a D on their report card, all you kids plug your ears and go, you
39:45can speak curse or you can speak blessing.
39:51You can get in their shoes and realize that you were once in school and
39:57maybe you didn't have all the top of your game going at all times either.
40:03Now I'm not excusing the D because that's just above failing. Now listen, I got
40:09some mama help up in this region over here. She's like glad her children in
40:15a Sunday school. Some of the best people I know, most anointed and most smart
40:21made Fs in school. They flunked Einstein. So let's deal with the real world. Okay.
40:27I'm not here to check every box that the
40:33administration checks. The real world. We're here to build
40:39well-rounded children. We're here to have families that love
40:45each other and take time with each other and
40:51stop and listen to each other. And when storms
40:57and when strong winds blow, when your flesh wants
41:03to speak downward word, you catch it halfway out.
41:09Pull that thing back in and say...
41:16you're a brilliant child you're amazing when i watch you
41:21brush your teeth and smile to show me what you
41:27did you're a genius when i watch you put away
41:33the dishes when i watch you snuggle with your pillow
41:38and hold your teddy bear you're showing me what a
41:44great mother you're gonna be and it's not gonna just
41:50go to your family it's gonna go to this city
41:57There's blessing coming to South Florida that this world cannot even imagine.
42:03There's a revival sitting in this Southland that's filled with glory unspeakable.
42:09Diseases will be conquered both scientifically and spiritually in South Florida. Oh,
42:14you thought I just got carnal when I said scientifically. No, I
42:20did not. I didn't get carnal. This is God. God uses
42:26scientists and doctors and lawyers. God uses brilliant engineers and architects. God
42:31uses block layers and plumbers and AC builders. I feel a spiritual
42:37pause right now. Everybody needs to say thank you for the air
42:43conditioning man. That was a spiritual pause just then. Am I making
42:48any sense on this first Sunday? So I don't know all the
42:54ways you need to learn to bless. I don't know if you
43:00need to start learning how to bless your wife with the words of your mouth
43:05when you come home from work. When all you have are the expectations of a
43:09cold glass of tea and you've not got any blessings for her when you get
43:14out of the car. That you turn that crazy podcast off for 10 minutes from
43:19the last light to your house and you stop and think, what blessing am I
43:24going to walk in my house with about the people that I love? What's the
43:29blessing of And when the turn when the stories start getting negative
43:34and listen, this is gonna be difficult I'm not saying this is
43:40gonna be easy because the conversation will get negative. There's gonna be
43:46some racial wars that happen There's gonna be some political wars that
43:51happen. There's gonna be some police things that are done wrong There's
43:57gonna be some governmental challenges that are gonna happen There's gonna be
44:03a lot of challenges, but I'm saying by the blessing of the
44:08upright brother Suppy Your business is going to boom in 25. It's going to
44:14boom. And if I started listening to all the business owners, please forgive me. We've
44:19got a bunch of them here and we've got more sitting here. You don't even
44:25know it yet. Let me just talk about Brother Subby. The reason I'm bringing this
44:30is he helps me get my vehicles taken care of. And the thought that hit
44:35my mind was when we were putting those caliper covers on my wife's Tesla. You
44:41got that little machine you got and started lifting up that car. If
44:46you don't know, that guy's rock hard, okay? Lisa can tell you.
44:52He's rock hard. You shake his hand, all right? That's all steel
44:58right there. Steel, suppy. But when I was watching him lift, a
45:04battery car is not a light car, okay? He was lifting that
45:09thing and flexing those triceps. I know why you wear those short
45:15sleeves. This is what I see in my spirit. While you bless
45:21this city, I see us lifting it like a little car.
45:27gets lifted into the sky, exalt our city. How
45:32can we do this? And on this point, I
45:38close. The only way we can do it is
45:44if we realize the Lord has our back. He
45:49said, can the same mouth speak blessings and cursing?
45:55They do all the time. That's the reason the
46:01scripture said, these things, what's the next word? All
46:07my Bible people, what's the next word? Ought, I
46:12heard it. These things ought not be.
46:18I got my Bible people. These things aren't. And
46:24so you've got to learn to be nice to
46:30yourself. Some of you need to start blessing yourself.
46:35I am an overcomer. I am a prayer warrior.
46:41I am a strong man and I also am
46:47radical worship. I am a mother but I'm also
46:52a lover of people who do not live in
46:58my house. I am a soul winner. I am
47:04a Sunday school teacher. I am a person
47:09who elevates all those around me. When I walk through the door, all
47:15low things are gonna be made high. Don't say all high things are
47:21gonna be brought low, okay? I've seen some people who think that's the
47:27blessing. I'm gonna tear them down and I'll bless the world. No. When
47:32you don't have all the answers, bless the city. When all your problems
47:38are not solved, bless the city. When the puzzle still has missing pieces,
47:44bless the city. When you don't have enough money to do what
47:50you got to do, bless the city. When you're trying to make some bread,
47:55but you don't have any flour, bless the city. You do it because you
48:01walk in faith. There's coming a city whose builder and maker is God. Shall
48:07we stand? Master, everybody in this house has come on purpose. They've come on
48:13this very first Sunday of the new year. Some of them have not yet
48:19received the Holy Ghost. with the initial sign of speaking in other tongues.
48:25They have some manifest fruit in their life and so they consider themselves a
48:30pretty good Christian. And yet they have this pastor that keeps reminding them that
48:36the whole expectation of Scripture is that they will get the Holy Ghost speaking
48:42in other tongues. That it was normative for the first church. And it is
48:48still the normal way God's church lives today. Let
48:53them start blessing their mind with the expectation. Lord, those that have not
48:59been baptized in your name, let them start blessing their own imagination by
49:05seeing I want to add another name to my soul. I want to
49:11go ahead and take the logistical choices that are demanded to get baptized
49:17because I know it is the only way to get in the church.
49:23Those who are not baptized of the water and of the spirit,
49:28will never be in God's church. They'll be in one of the
49:34many churches that imagine that they're with him, but he only has
49:39one bride. It's not a church of a certain name. It's a
49:45church of a biblical obedience. Not theories and creeds passed down by
49:50men who contemplated hundreds of years after you left. No! A church
49:56that's built on the pure faith undefiled word of God as
50:02it was believed by the apostles and so believed today. So
50:07from this day forward, we pledge when we get heavy, we're
50:13going to become a lifter of others. We pledge that we're
50:19going to seek for ways to bless this city. I want
50:25to bless my neighbors. I want to bless my children. I
50:30want to bless our schools. I want to bless my daughter's
50:36teachers. I want to bless the professors in college. I want to bless
50:42those who are warlocks and wizards. I want to bless those that are drug addicted
50:48and prostitutes. I want to bless every place where they think you are not. Because
50:53there's nowhere you haven't been. There's nowhere you won't go. You went to the very
50:59pit of hell to take the keys of hell and the grave away. And you're
51:05still going where people do not anticipate you. I'm opening this altar right
51:11now if you want to join with us in the pledge of
51:17blessing if you want to make it a part of your mind
51:22I'm saying that you need to come and make an obvious visible
51:28response to your own mind to your own decisions to your own
51:34ways will be a blesser not just living to be blessed I'm
51:39living to bless
51:42Jesus