Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Experience the life-changing messages from the Church of God’s annual Winterfest youth gathering. These are the sermons, moments, and voices that have shaped generations of young believers — now available anytime, anywhere.
But I want to go ahead and just jump in today.
The text I'm going to be in today is in 2 Timothy chapter 4, and I'm going to read verses 1 through 5.
And it says this,
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom,
preach the word as an official messenger.
Be ready when the time is right and even when it's not.
Keep your sense of urgency.
Whether the opportunity seems favorable or unfavorable,
whether convenient or inconvenient, whether welcome or unwelcome,
correct those who err in doctrine or behavior,
warn those who sin,
Exhort and encourage with inexhaustible patience and faithful teaching.
Listen.
For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction that challenges them with God's truth.
But wanting to have their ears tickled with something pleasing.
They will accumulate for themselves many teachers, one after another, chosen to satisfy their own desires and to support the errors that they hold.
And they'll turn their ears away from the truth and wander off into myths, into fairy tales, and man-made fictions, and will accept the unacceptable.
But as for you.
But as for you, he says, I know it's going to be hard.
I know that everything that the Lord deposited in you this weekend,
there is an enemy that is waiting out of the shadows right now,
wanting to try to rob you of every good word that has been placed inside of you this weekend.
But as for you, you will stand firm on the truth.
But as for you, I know it's going to be hard when you go back to school on Monday.
I know it's hard to live in this dark world.
But as for you, speak the truth.
Preach the word.
Be clear-headed in every situation.
Be sober-minded.
Do the work of an evangelist.
Endure the suffering and fulfill your ministry.
Fulfill your purpose.
Fulfill your mission.
When I was growing up, there was a book that I had, and it was a fairy tale.
Some of you may know it.
Some of you may not.
But it was The Emperor's New Clothes.
So the main character, the emperor, he's what we would call today a narcissist.
Anybody know that word?
He was full of himself.
He was obsessed with his outer appearance.
Instead of leading the people, they would find him in his closet changing clothes all the time, putting on a new outfit.
He was obsessed with himself.
He did not lead the people.
He just looked in the mirror all the time.
And so there was two men who came into the city where this emperor was leading,
and they were deceivers.
And they had heard about the emperor and his obsession with his appearance.
So they pretended that they were weavers,
and they were going to make him the most amazing clothes
with this magic material.
And so they set up shop to do this.
And so the emperor was so excited and hired them and said,
yes, please, have these two weavers make me another beautiful outfit.
And so what the weaver said is that this was going to be a magic outfit
and that it would cause people to, it would show the truth of people,
whether or not they were fit to do their jobs.
So these two deceivers, they ordered fine silk and they ordered gold thread
and they set up these looms to weave this outfit for the emperor.
And actually they were just deceiving.
So they pocketed the gold and they pocketed the silk
and they sat at the loom and they pretended like they were weaving.
And they said the only people that can see it are people that are smart, people that are wise.
And so they're doing all this.
It's all make-believe.
Well, the emperor is in his closet looking at himself, but he sends his officers and he sends his ministers to go check out and see how they're coming along on these outfits.
Now, mind you, these weavers, these deceivers had said that only people that are wise can see the material.
So the first officer goes in, and of course he goes in, and he sees them cutting and weaving and doing all this stuff,
but there's nothing there, and so the guy's thinking to himself, oh my gosh, I must not be wise.
I must not be fit to run my office, but I can't admit this because then I'm going to get fired from my job.
So he goes back to report to the emperor.
The emperor's like, so how did it look?
Oh, it looked amazing.
It's going to fit you great.
So then the emperor sends his minister in to look and see how the progress is.
and the minister goes in and again he doesn't see anything but he doesn't want to you know be
labeled as he's not wise and he's not fit for his job so he goes back to the emperor reports oh it's
going to look perfect on you oh it's amazing well then comes the time that the emperor's got to go
look for himself well know how people you know we can't keep secrets so this is all spread through
the community. So the whole town has been talking about it, and they can't wait to see this magic
outfit that these weavers have made. Well, so the emperor goes himself, and of course he walks in.
He sees them cutting nothing. He sees them weaving, and there's nothing there. And so he has, he's like,
oh my gosh, if I say I don't see anything, then they're going to think I'm not fit to do this job,
that I'm not wise. So he's like, oh, it's just amazing. So they've decided then to have a
procession, have a parade where he's going to parade his new outfit through the crowd,
through the town, through the streets. And so the weavers, the deceivers have said, I'm going to,
we're going to need more gold thread. We're going to need more. So they're pocketing this money
and they're still pretending to make this outfit.
So the emperor goes in.
He lets them, they tell him to take his clothes off
and he lets them dress him in his new outfit.
And guess what?
He doesn't have anything on.
But no one's going to tell him.
No one's going to admit it.
So he goes through this procession
and because this has spread through the town,
All these people are standing on the streets.
All these people are standing at their windows.
And he's going, oh, look at those beautiful colors.
Oh, look how well that fits him.
And the whole town is going along with it.
Until this one kid is standing there looking around.
And he's listening to what all of these adults are saying.
And the kid steps up and he says, but he's naked.
he doesn't have anything on when the kid said he didn't have anything on then the kid's father
said you know what he's right he doesn't have anything on and then one by one people started
whispering and started then saying but he doesn't have any clothes on the question is where are the
truth tellers. Because this fairy tale that I just described to you, that is the culture that we're
living in right now. Just because everybody else is saying it. Just because everybody else is doing it.
Just because everyone else is going along with it. Pastor Daniel mentioned last night this whole
identity issue. I mean, we are supporting people identifying as animals, identifying
with the wrong sex to the point that we're actually paying for little children to ruin
their lives by believing a lie. And we just go along with it.
Social media, although can be a blessing, does not help.
Because, I don't know if you know this or not, but the majority of it isn't true.
We put on our best face.
We show our biggest victories.
When so many of us were just, the minute before we posted it, just had a meltdown ourselves.
We act like we're on top of the world and we get just the right angle and we get just the right this in a service or at an event at school just to give the best optics.
And it's all a false reality.
And it's not just in the world.
it's not just your generation there's pressure all around to look this way to act this way
to speak this way we have people in the church y'all
we have people of all ages going along with the crowd we live in a culture where people are
deceived by their own false realities. So the question again, where are the truth tellers?
We have, believe it or not, you may not have ever encountered it. I sure have. We have preachers
preaching messages that have nothing to do with Jesus. We have churches where the presence of Jesus
is nowhere to be found.
We have churches that are more concerned
with getting people in the pews
than getting people to the feet of Jesus.
And I believe I'm looking at a generation
that you see through the smoke and mirrors.
You're not going to just take it
for my word for it.
You're truth seekers.
We have people who are very literate on all forms of social media,
but completely illiterate when it comes to the Word of God.
We have people that talk about other people without ceasing,
but refuse to pray without ceasing.
We're not taught to take up our cross and live a life fully surrendered to Jesus.
But I believe that this generation is one who wants the truth,
that can handle the truth,
and that sees through the false realities of the world and the ones in the church.
Notice in the fairy tale that it was the adults that just kept going along with it.
It took a child to stand up for the truth.
But look what happened.
One person, one young person stood up and said, wait a minute.
Wait just a minute.
That's not the truth.
What is the truth?
Let me tell you something.
The truth is Jesus.
And if there is anything that doesn't bring you right back to Jesus, then you need to run from it.
It's Jesus.
This is the season of the truth tellers.
So Paul says, I charge you to preach the word, to speak the truth, to be ready in season and out of season.
When it's fun and when it's not fun.
When it's favorable, when it's unfavorable.
Correct those.
You know what?
We need you.
This generation needs you to call us out.
listen my kids grew up with swinging from the chandeliers some of it real some of it not
and they could see right through it
and they weren't willing to accept just because i said it they needed to find the truth for themselves
they are truth tellers
for the time's going to come when people are not going to tolerate sound doctrine
they want to have their ears tickled with something pleasing
and they will accumulate for themselves many teachers
that will satisfy their own desires
and they'll turn their ears away from the truth
and they'll wander off into myths
But as for you, be clear-headed.
So the context is we've got Paul and Timothy.
Timothy is like you guys.
He's young, and he's doing ministry.
But he's doing it in an impossible environment because it's false teaching.
There's immorality, and it's in the world, and it's in the church.
But Timothy has a spiritual father, the apostle Paul,
and he writes this letter to his spiritual son Timothy while Paul was in prison.
And he writes to him, he says, listen, even if every single person around you, Timothy, is acting crazy,
even if everybody around you is going along with the crowd,
even if everyone around you is doing it,
even if your family and your friends are pretending that the emperor has clothes on,
You be that kid, Timothy.
You be that truth teller.
Even if people in your church decide to lose their soul to gain the world
because they think it will make them bigger and better,
you be that kid.
But as for you, Timothy.
And see, Paul had already warned Timothy in an earlier letter.
He had said in chapter 3 of 2 Timothy, he says,
But understand this, Timothy,
That in the last days, dangerous times of great stress and trouble will come.
Difficult days that will be hard to bear.
For people will be lovers of self.
Narcissistic, self-focused, lovers of money, impelled by greed, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, and profane.
And they will be unloving, devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane, irreconcilable, malicious gossips,
devoid of self-control, brutal, haters of good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of sensual pleasure rather than lovers of God,
holding to a form of godliness.
although they have denied its power because their behavior nullifies their claim of faith.
For among them are those who worm their way into homes
and captivate morally weak and spiritually dwarfed people
weighed down by the burden of their sins,
easily swayed by various impulses,
always learning and always listening to anybody who will teach them,
but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
So Paul said that in the last days there would be difficulty because people will be lovers of self.
He said words like boastful and proud, narcissistic, reckless.
He said people are going to be arrogant in the last days.
People are going to be puffed up with pride in the last days.
People are going to be unholy in the last days.
So you've got the holier than thou and yet so unholy.
All of these are reactions to people being lovers of self,
which is an inordinate, self-centered, narcissistic kind of preoccupation with ourselves.
And again, it sounds like Paul is talking about the world,
but he says, Timothy, in the last days, it's going to be very difficult to be a Christian
for people will love only themselves.
Listen, he says, they will go to church.
Yes.
but they won't believe anything that they hear, for people will only love themselves.
So when he's talking about these people who love themselves more than God,
and he's talking about people who also have a form of godliness,
a form is like a shape with nothing on the inside.
He's not in this text, he's not talking about people in the world,
he's actually talking about people in the church.
So that would indicate that there are some among us, people in our friend groups, people
in our Sunday school classes, people in our families, people in our churches, people in
the pulpit, people who talk like Christians, people who walk like Christians, people who
look like Christians, but their godliness is a form of godliness. They will be lovers of themselves,
but denying the power of godliness. So it's an outward appearance with no inward change.
It's a public appearance with no inner reality. So can you be someone who has a form of godliness
and also be a follower of Jesus.
I don't know.
It says in 2 Timothy, it says,
In the last days, dangerous times of great stress and trouble will come,
for people will be lovers of self, holding to this outward appearance,
although they have denied the power of godliness
because their behavior nullifies their claim of faith.
And Paul goes so far as to give these instructions.
He says, avoid these people.
they may talk the talk they may look the look they may come to wednesday night youth group
they may come to prayer meeting and they may come to church on sunday they may even teach a class
or preach a revival but these people are still in the kingdom of darkness
These people are still slaves to sin, but they have a form of godliness.
These are people who profess to be following God or who make an outward show of godly behavior,
but they actually don't know Jesus.
There might be a form of godliness in their words, but they deny its power by their actions.
So based on that, that would mean that's false.
They claim Jesus in name only, but their hearts are far from them.
And let's be clear.
Romans 3, 23 says,
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
But 1 John 1, 9 says,
If we confess, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And like we talked about last night, part of what we get when we say yes to Jesus
is that we receive the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.
And part of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives is enabling us to say no to sin
and say no to the lies.
Another part of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives is living a life of repentance.
There's conviction, living a life of surrender with Jesus at the center.
Did you know that you can't be self-centered and Jesus-centered at the same time?
Lovers of self are more interested in their own glory than God's glory.
They're more interested in building their kingdom than they are building God's kingdom.
And that is the opposite of a surrendered life.
Romans 8, 7 says, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it doesn't submit to God.
Indeed, it cannot.
So what's really problematic in this, it's bad enough if we are lovers of self, which means we are not truth tellers.
That means we're not surrendered to Jesus.
But what makes it really problematic is that when we attempt to teach other people to do the same thing.
So when you have people raising up the next generation to be more concerned about the size of the church, the size of the ministry, how many butts are in the pews, that we outdid the one on the corner church down the road.
Our youth group is bigger, badder, better.
When we put that out there, when it's more about the worship team and the parents on the stage,
that it is about Jesus, that's problematic.
But then when we raise up a generation to do the same thing,
then what we're doing is we've got a crippled bride raising up a crippled bride.
And the beat goes on.
Generation to the next generation, to the next generation.
And I believe it's time to draw a line in that sand.
And so we are going to walk in the truth.
It's not about the size of my ministry.
It's not about the size of my church.
It's not about the biggest and the best worship team.
It's about, is Jesus there?
Is Jesus there?
Is the presence of Jesus there?
Let me tell you, growing up, I grew up in a Pentecostal holiness church, and my grandfather was the pastor.
I grew up Wednesday night, Saturday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night, all the time.
Saw all kinds of things.
And I am so thankful for that heritage.
But I will tell you, it wasn't until I was a broken adult that I ever met the real Jesus.
And the reason for that is all I ever heard, what I heard up here, I couldn't relate.
It seemed like I could never get to that Jesus.
Because I didn't hear anything about the pastor's struggle, what the Lord had brought him through.
I didn't hear his testimony.
So all I could think is I'll never be good enough.
You don't know what I think in my head.
You don't know the mistakes that I've made.
It wasn't until I was a broken adult that I heard a pastor get up and tell about,
just like the woman at the well, that he told me everything that I ever did.
And it was like something lit up in me.
It was like for the first time I actually heard truth.
of who Jesus is and who I am to him.
So it's very problematic when we raise up a generation
that just keeps following that same pattern
rather than let's just get to Jesus.
You know, we talk about our calling all the time.
Let me tell you what your calling is.
If you're here trying to figure out what your calling is,
your calling is to love God with all of your heart.
That's your calling.
You can leave this place tonight, today, and say, the Lord showed me my calling.
Your only calling is to love the Lord God with all of your heart, all of your mind, and all of your soul.
Now, with that, when you get to the feet of Jesus, completely surrendered to Jesus, everything emptied out to Jesus,
when you get to that place where that's all you've got is Jesus,
then you will get assignments.
My assignment right now is to be here with you on February the 9th, 2025,
in Branson, Missouri at Ozark Winterfest.
That's my assignment.
That's not my calling.
My calling is to be at the feet of Jesus,
to stay at the feet of Jesus,
to be able to go to Jesus and say,
Lord, I'm so sorry.
I let you down.
You know what I've done.
Every single time.
You know, repentance is not a one-time deal.
I live a life of repentance.
I had to repent this morning.
I've had to repent throughout the weekend.
It's about the presence of Jesus.
Matthew 7, 15 says,
Beware of false prophets.
who come to you in sheep's clothing but are inwardly ravenous wolves.
All you have to do is look in the charismatic world right now.
It's an epidemic of wolves in sheep's clothing.
We live in a culture of celebrity ministry.
Celebrity pastors with no accountability
it's just like the world there's no difference except i think the world is kinder sometimes
because church people can be mean
oops
they have a form of godliness it makes them look like they belong with the sheep they will speak
whatever the people want to hear, which will give not God glory, but them glory. To build the biggest
following, to grow the biggest church, to make the most money, to sell the most books, and there's that
the show must go on mentality. The show, that's right. The problem is, in that culture, besides me
asking where are the truth tellers?
My other question is
where are the shepherds?
Because while
you're building your kingdom
and competing
with the guy down the street
your
sheep have been mauled.
Some of your sheep, and I'm looking
at them right here, some of them are
laying there with their insides
hanging out.
They're dying.
but there's no time to shepherd them because we're too busy building the church.
But as for you, young man,
but as for you, young woman,
we draw the line right here.
Truth tellers.
Truth tellers.
I heard a preacher say, even devils make disciples.
Always learning, but can never arrive at an understanding of the truth.
We must come to the knowledge of truth.
We must know God's word.
We've got to get to the real Jesus.
So Paul says to Timothy, I commission you, I charge you in the presence of God and of Jesus to preach the word, to speak the truth.
Again, what is the truth?
The truth is Jesus.
Speak Jesus.
Notice he says speak the word.
Paul does not say preach a word.
as if Timothy had options.
Because you can give me a word.
Your word is not going to transform my life.
Your word is not going to help me when I am so depressed I can't get out of the bed.
Your word is not going to help me when I have been betrayed by someone that I love.
Your word is not going to help me in a situation of divorce or bankruptcy.
I want the word.
So if it is not the word, then you need to just get out and keep your mouth shut.
It needs to be the word, the spirit-breathed word, not necessarily the feel-good word.
If you don't know your Bible, if you don't know the scriptures, then you're setting yourself up to be deceived.
If you're valuing the word of a prophet over the word of God, how are you going to know when the prophet is lying?
Why do you think Eve was deceived?
Because she did not know what God said.
As long as you stay on TikTok loving the word of a prophet more than the word of God, you're going to be deceived.
Instead of reading another blog, how about go to Romans?
How about get in the Psalms?
How about get in Proverbs?
Paul says to Timothy, preach the word, speak the truth.
Why does he say that?
He says, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching.
But having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.
And they will turn away from listening to the truth.
He tells him to preach the word.
Because people are not going to listen to it.
It's coming soon.
We're there.
And I want you to know there's a difference between a storyteller and a truth teller.
And I'm going to tell you that a storyteller and a truth teller don't have the same warfare.
So here's the warning.
In the commissioning, in the charge that Paul gives to preach the word,
part of what he's saying is you've got to endure the suffering.
We don't suffer well.
We keep trying to run from the suffering.
Sometimes we need to sit in the suffering because that's where the Lord does his best work.
people who are truth tellers have different warfare the devil isn't fighting them in the same way
the cost is different the pain is different the betrayal is different the discipline is different
the sacrifice is different it's not easy
your choice is to go along with everybody else and be a storyteller
or you can be a truth teller.
Your refusal to trust your entire self to Jesus,
you're going to have to wait till you're face to face with Jesus
to ever know who you really are.
And this is why verse 5 is so important.
Paul says to Timothy, but as for you, he says,
Timothy, I get it.
It's hard.
I get it, Timothy.
Listen, the devil's been trying to kill me my whole life.
my biological mother tried to kill me multiple times in the womb
I grew up with no sense of identity had no idea who Jesus was I grew up in the church and had no
idea who Jesus was, tried to fill that missing, that void that was inside me with everything
and anything and anybody that I could.
I was so lost.
When I found out that my biological father is actually a Satanist, my biological father
worships the devil.
He is considered a prophet for Satan.
So add that to my already messed up identity.
And I'll never forget when I found that out, I felt like I'd already been told I was a mistake.
I was already told that I wasn't supposed to be here, that I was an inconvenience, that I ruined multiple people's lives.
I'd been told that I was unworthy, unlovable.
I even had a couple of people in the church give me a word, and the word was that I was an unclean woman.
So take that and then add the fact that my biological father is a Satanist.
My biological mother is an atheist.
I was born from a drug-induced relationship.
My father had multiple women pregnant at the same time.
One of those was born in a sex cult because he is a member of a sex cult.
And when I found that out, I was actually doing what I do now.
I'd already grown up, and I was about to go and preach at a camp meeting
when I found this part out about my life.
And all I could think was all those lies I'd believed all that time were true.
I am a mistake.
I wasn't supposed to be here.
I mean, I'm literally getting ready to go preach.
And I remember asking God, does that make me a spawn of Satan?
For real.
The blood that's, I mean, I wanted to go and like cut myself and let myself bleed out.
These are the thoughts.
Let me tell you something.
When you get away from the feet of Jesus and you get your eyes off of him and you start listening to other voices beside Jesus, these are the kind of thoughts that you will have.
I wanted to bleed out.
And I'll never forget the Lord kind of jerked me up gently.
And he said, baby girl, that's what he calls me because I'm his favorite.
He said, the moment that you gave your life to me, when you came and surrendered everything.
And by the way, Jesus doesn't add to you.
It's not Christi plus Jesus.
it's got to just be Jesus
so when you gave me everything Christy we made an exchange
and I said to you if you will use everything
if you allow me to use everything from your past
however I want
there will be thousands countless people that will come to me
and he said the minute that you did that
the bloodline was drawn it is the my blood that runs through your veins
you are royal daughter of the most high king
and i would have never in a million years thought i would ever speak that publicly and this gets me
back and i'm getting ready to close to truth telling had it somebody along the way
ever just given me their testimony of what the Lord had brought them through.
I don't know what course my life would have taken.
But I mean, I have tried to kill myself before.
I have been assaulted before.
I have made every mistake because I had no sense of identity growing up.
And things that I would never think that I would speak publicly about.
And I never thought I would share about coming from a place of witchcraft and devil worship.
But the Lord says, remember the deal we made?
That you will speak the truth.
You will speak what he's done for you.
And as I was praying for you today, here's what came to my mind.
Here's what I felt in my spirit.
I believe there are countless people everywhere but in this place that have either dabbled in witchcraft, have been sexually abused.
That's the one that has hung heavy over me this weekend.
And here's the thing about well-meaning Christians sometimes growing up in the church is we use the expression cover and love.
but oftentimes that's just code for cover up
and so part of
I feel so grieved at the possibility
that anybody would leave here
without letting the Lord heal you
but that comes from speaking truth
and they're not being a cover up
so the Lord
he said if you will speak it
people will be healed
every time that I've brought that up
and it's something that should have brought me shame
inevitably in the altar
there will be someone
that has been part of some sort of witchcraft
or experienced
really bad devil
I mean, baby sacrifices, animal sacrifices, things you would never think of.
I'm saying all that to say that the word says that we are overcomers by the blood of the lamb
and by the word of our testimony.
When you speak the truth, which is Jesus,
but when you speak the truth, all those things that the devil tries to keep in the dark,
When they come out into the light, there's where the healing is.
See, the devil doesn't have anything to hold over my head anymore.
See, when we speak the truth, we literally neuter the devil.
We declaw the devil.
He doesn't have any power over us anymore.
We've got to be a generation of truth tellers.
And we need to raise up the next generation to be the generation of truth tellers.
That's where the freedom is.
That's where the truth is.
So as the worship team comes, I want to pray this way.
I'm going to ask you to stand with me, if you would.
I want to pray first before we close this thing out.
If there's anything left that you haven't laid down, this is the time to do it.
This is it.
If you have struggled, we're just going to stay where we are,
But if you have struggled with addiction, if you have struggled with depression, suicidal thoughts, if you have struggled with maybe what you've heard from adults doesn't match up, doesn't ring true with you.
That you know you need to get to Jesus yourself.
He's here.
He is the truth.
Maybe you've dabbled in some stuff.
Maybe porn still has a grip on you.
Maybe you're questioning your identity.
There are no magic words I can say.
All I know from my own testimony, from my own experience, is that I have to give it all to Jesus.
I have to give it all to Jesus.
There's where the healing is.
There's no prophet or evangelist or pastor or bishop that can pray any stronger or more effective prayer than you can.
And we need to get to Jesus ourselves.
And he is faithful to meet us right there.
and so we're going to lift our hands right now
any of you that are struggling
right now
I want you to throw your hands up in the air
and I'm going to pray over you
if there's been
sexual abuse
everybody close your eyes
verbal abuse, emotional abuse
spiritual abuse
Lord God
right now in the name of Jesus
I lift
every
Boy and girl, man and woman to you right now, God.
And I am praying that on this day, February the 9th, 2025, for their healing.
For the courage and the boldness to confess, to speak the truth.
For there to be no more cover up.
To expose the devil.
To expose the lies of the enemy.
And that they would see what I have seen.
Jesus.
The love of a father.
That wants to heal.
So, Lord, I pray for your healing right now.
I pray for every broken heart, Father.
God, you know what each person is going back into, God.
And I can tell you guys, situations don't always change.
Circumstances don't always change, but we change.
And Jesus walking with us, give me his presence any day.
Give me your presence over any solution, any problem, any day.
Because I can do anything in his presence.
So, Lord, I thank you.
I thank you for your healing.
And then my next question is, where are the truth tellers in this generation?
Do I have any in this house?
Are there any willing
to be the truth tellers?
if that's you raise your hand
are you willing to do the hard things
are you willing to roll up your sleeves
and plow the hard ground
I think I'm looking at some people
that are gritty enough
that are not willing to be blinded by the smoke and mirrors anymore,
that are willing to get into the Word for themselves
and know Jesus for themselves.
Because there are men and women in here that you have been called.
You are being released and launched into your calling, your assignment.
Your calling is to love God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul.
And your assignments will come from that.
So I'm going to, as you raise your hands, I'm going to close with praying Paul's letter over you.
And then I'll hand it off to Bishop.
So here's the commission.
I solemnly charge you, commission you, in the presence of God in Christ Jesus,
who is to judge the living and the dead
and by his appearing in his kingdom.
Preach the word.
Speak the truth.
As an official messenger,
be ready when the time is right
and even when it's not.
Keep your sense of urgency.
Whether the opportunity seems favorable or unfavorable.
Whether convenient or inconvenient.
Whether welcome or unwelcome.
Correct those who err in doctrine or behavior.
Warn those who sin.
Exhort and encourage with inexhaustible patience and faithful teaching.
For the time will come and is here when people will not tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction that challenges them with God's truth.
But wanting to have their ears tickled with something pleasing,
they will accumulate for themselves many teachers to satisfy their own desires.
And they will turn their ears away from the truth and wander off into man-made fictions.
But as for you, Ozark Winterfest, but as for you, but as for you, yes, it may be hard.
Yes, it will be challenging.
But he says, but as for you, be sober-minded.
Be clear-headed in every situation.
Endure every hardship.
Do the work of an evangelist.
Fulfill your ministry.
Amen and amen.