Pastor Dustin…
Thank you for joining us for Friday morning prayer. My name is Dustin Sherry. I’m the Next Gen Pastor here at Living Word. Our senior pastors are Pastors Mac and Lynne Hammond.
Teaching out of Hebrews 10…
I want to begin by reading something out of Hebrews 10:32. The author of Hebrews is writing to Jewish people who converted to Christianity. And these people were experiencing super intense persecution. They’re not being tortured, they’re not being killed, but economically they’re being wiped out. And so these people are under such intense persecution financially because they’ve been cut off by their families who are Jewish. They’re cut off by the Romans. And they’re under such intense persecution financially that they’re leaving the faith. They’re going apostate. They’re going back to Judaism. Some of them are because they don’t want to deal with it anymore.
People think the apostle Paul wrote Hebrews, but we don’t know for sure. But we’ll say it’s the apostle Paul. The apostle Paul is writing to them, saying “You can’t give up. You can’t quit because things are a little bit more challenging than you thought they would be.”
Something else to keep in mind is these people thought Jesus was coming back like right then… like any minute. And when it took longer than they thought it would, they were super disheartened and they were giving up. And so this is kind of the framework of the letter that he wrote.
Hebrews 10:32…
In Hebrews 10:32, it says, “But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly, by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners, and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one.”
In other words, you were able to go through difficult things because you knew that there was more to life than what you could experience with your natural senses.
Verse 35
“Therefore, do not throw away your confidence which has a great reward for you have need of endurance.” You need to have endurance. He’s talking to a group of believers who aren’t spiritually mature, and he’s saying, “Listen, you need to endure. You need to learn how to endure.” Why? So that when you have done the will of God, after you’ve done what you’re called to do, you may receive what is promised. You need to endure so that after you do the right thing, you will receive what God has promised. Don’t give up prematurely. Don’t quit easily. Endure.
Hebrews 11:1…
“Now faith is the assurance of things we hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things that are not visible. This natural temporal world that we live in was created by things that are not seen.”
So there’s a higher level of truth to be experienced than what you experienced with your natural senses. And then he gives a couple of examples and he says in verse four, “By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain through which he was commended as righteous. God commending him by accepting his gifts and through his faith, though he died he still speaks. Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death. And he was not found because God had taken him up. Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God, must” Number one, “believe that God exists.” And number two, “that he rewards those who seek Him.”
And then he goes on and he talks about Noah and he talks about Abraham. He talks about the heroes of the faith. He talks about Moses, Rahab, all of these people who received a promise from God and endured till the end and saw the breakthrough or the manifestation of the promise come to pass in their life.
Hebrews 12…
And then in chapter 12, he points us to the one who did it perfectly: Jesus. And he says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus.”
So taking our eyes off of everything else, taking our eyes off of the price of gas, off of everything else that would try to distract us, “looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of God.”
The header in my Bible above verse three, says, “do not grow weary.” In verse three, it says, “consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted.” He goes on to verse four and says, “in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” He’s saying, listen, you think that it’s bad, but you’re not even being martyred yet. So, take it easy. The apostle Paul bringing them down to reality.
But also, Jesus, you remember in the garden of Gethsemane and what we’re talking about here in the garden of sweating drops of blood. Resisting the urge to give up and to quit.
So this morning, I want to start by just praying for strength for everybody in here and then we’ll flow with the Spirit of God and we’ll do whatever it is He directs us to do.
Prayed…
Father, I thank you for every person in this room, every person watching online, the members of Living Word Christian Center, their families, we pray Father that you would strengthen and reinforce them with mighty power in their inner most being in Jesus’ name … that they would be filled right now… with strength, filled with hope, filled with peace … filled with joy…
Father, I pray their joy would be full… a supernatural joy… bubbling up on the inside of them, that doesn’t come from things… that doesn’t come from the approval of people …
Father, we thank you for the victory that we have in Christ.
Prayer about a greater revelation of glory…
I pray that you would give us revelation, a greater revelation of the glory that is before us… no eye has seen, no ear has heard, neither has entered the heart of man all that God has made, all that He has prepared…
I thank you, Lord, that you are revealing it …I believe that you are revealing it to us by and through your Spirit right now.
We thank you that we don’t have to take a care. We don’t have to take a worry.
Pastor Dustin shared…
Father, we thank you that you have provided for us all of these years. Let’s get a spirit of thankfulness this morning. Father, we thank you for all that you’ve done, all that you’ve provided, all that you’ve made available to us, all of the favor that we’ve experienced.
A testimony of thanksgiving…
I was getting gas last night and you know, it was like $4.70 a gallon. And I filled up my tank and I looked at the total and I got in my car. I don’t know how to explain it. I wasn’t even trying to be in faith. I wasn’t trying to be grateful. But I got in my car and I said, “I thank you, Lord, so much that I could fill up my tank.”
And then I started thinking about it. I thought, “Man, I’m so glad that I don’t have to walk everywhere. I’m so thankful that I have a car. Thank you, Lord, for my car.” And then I thought, “Oh my gosh, I’m driving to this amazing house that you got for me, Lord. Thank you for my house.”
And then I thought, “I have a beautiful, healthy wife. I have beautiful, healthy children. Thank you, Jesus, for my healthy family. Thank you, Lord.” I have a job that’s consistent and stable. Thank you, Father, for my job.”
And it just started bubbling up out of me. And I just noticed there was no fear in the car. There was no anxiousness in the car. There was just gratitude. I was just like, “Lord. Thank you. Thank you for all of these things. Thank you for everything that you’ve done in my life. I’m not going to complain about the price of gas. I’m going to thank you every time I can afford to pay for it.”
All you have to do is wake up and “Yes, Sir.”
I heard brother Keith Moore say, “If you want to walk out the perfect will of God for your life, it’s very simple. All you have to do is wake up every day and just say, “Yes, sir.” That’s all you have to do. Just respond. Just yield. Just do whatever it is He’s telling you to do. And the grace will meet you in that place to do what He’s called you to do.
Trip to Uganda…
I remember I was on a missions trip to Uganda. And I didn’t know it at the time, but I had gotten pneumonia on the way and I felt just horrible. And I had an invitation to go speak at a maximum-security prison, and everybody there were like people that had committed murder, rape, serious offenses. And I was just so excited to go preach at this prison and preach the Gospel to them and give them an opportunity to receive Jesus. And I just felt so sick the whole way to that prison. I couldn’t even pretend to be feeling okay. I was just slumped over in the seat. Pastor Kent said, “Are you sure you’re okay to minister?” And I said, “I know that when I get there, the grace will meet me.” And he said, “Yup, you’re right.”
And I remember, they were praising and worshiping and I just sat there like a lump. I felt so horrible and I walked up and as soon as I started talking, there was this supply of grace that met me. And it was supernatural. And I was preaching stuff I’ve never thought of before. Versus were coming to my heart. The grace carried me in that moment. He helped me do what I couldn’t do in my own strength.
Are you hearing what I’m saying today? The grace… when I got to that point, His strength was perfected in my weakness. I wasn’t doing it out of my ability. I did not have the ability in that moment to stand, but when I stepped into that place, His grace met me. And oh my gosh, I was screaming. I was running. I was sweating. I was preaching. Every single person ran up to receive Jesus at the end of it. They received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. People were weeping and crying. These hardened prisoners were changed in a moment before our eyes. It was the grace. It met me in that place.
There is a place that He’s called you to be. There is a place that He has prepared for you the Bible says. And when you respond to the Spirit of God and you obey His voice, regardless of how it looks, regardless of how it feels, you’re going to find that when you get to that place, everything that you need is right there waiting for you.
Prayed…
Father, we thank you that everywhere our feet touch, we possess the land… that everything we put our hand to prospers…
Prayer about His glory covering the world…
We thank you, Father, that the glory will cover this nation like the waters cover the deep… we believe for an outpouring of your Spirit in our lives, in this church, in this city, in this state, in this nation and all over the world…
Prayer about revival…
We believe for a revival… a move of your Spirit that sweeps across the globe where people are filled with your Spirit, where people receive you, repent of everything that isn’t of you, and they receive your Word and they receive your truth
Prayer about harvest of souls…
We thank you for a great harvest of souls… for people coming in from the north, the south, the east, and the west … visitations from Jesus… laborers going forth… people receiving the assignments and the calls … to go out and to preach your Word…
Prayer about signs and miracles…
We thank you, Father, for the signs that will follow… the miracles that will take place. We believe for unusual miracles. We thank you, Father, for signs and wonders … people with mental illnesses being healed in an instant … Yes, medical conditions that the medical professionals have given up on … we thank you for people being healed in a moment, healed in an instant … we thank you for deliverance…
Prayer about divine protection…
We thank you for divine protection … we thank you that a thousand may fall at our side and 10,000 at our right hand, but nothing, no plague, no evil will come near us. We thank you that we are safe and secure… In you… we hold the blood of Jesus up against any demonic assignment or maneuver formed or fashioned against us… we rebuke it in the name of Jesus Christ… we say cease and desist in your maneuvers… we hold the blood of Jesus up against any demonic thing… that would try to come against this congregation, this church, these families in the name of Jesus. We draw a bloodline around this property, around members of Living Word Christian Center…
