All Things Are Possible

Dr. Bernie Miller: You know you watch the bottom line. You know you don't write a check if you don't have the money in the bank. Well, if you watch the bottom line in your bank, why don't you watch the bottom line in your spiritual life? You ought to be ready for Christ's coming. That ought to be just as important to you as the bottom line in your bank.

Guest (Male): New Covenant Fellowship Church. In-person worship Sunday mornings at 10:30. 1326 North Moore Road in Chattanooga. New Covenant Fellowship Church, a place for every race.

Now from New Covenant Fellowship Church, all things are possible. At New Covenant, we show and grow people in Christ and glorify God. It's what we believe. To say it another way, if you're looking to worship in a place without having to worry about what to wear or a plate being passed for money, come to New Covenant. Every Sunday morning at 10:30, you'll enjoy great music and solid teaching from the Bible. You'll find us on North Moore Road in Chattanooga with directions right to our door at NCF.church. New Covenant Fellowship Church, we are a place for every race. And here is Pastor Bernie Miller.

Dr. Bernie Miller: I love the idea of faith, but I've learned "I can do this" is a desire and "I got this" is a liar. Whenever I say "I got this," God makes me a liar. He says, "No, you don't got this, I got this." Let me ask you this. Have you ever tried to carry too many plastic grocery bags in the house? Just raise your hand if you did it.

I'm a one-trip guy. One trip, that's it. Madeline pulls in the garage. She has the garage, I park outside because the garage is only big enough for one. Every now and then, she'll say, "Do you want to park in?" and I say, "No, I want you to park in there. That's yours." I'll park outside, I'm fine.

But before, I used to go out and help her on Mondays. She would come back, she would go walking on Mondays and her girlfriend and her would go walking. Then between going back and taking her home, she would go out and shop everywhere imaginable for the week. So she'd come in and I'd say, "Hon, you got any bags?" She says, "Yes, in the front and some in the back." I said, "Oh Lord."

Then as soon as I start picking things up, I'm going, "Oh my goodness, who put this in here? She did." And I'm thinking, "Oh no, we can't have this." So what I do is now when she is coming in, I'm listening for her. So I'll run out and I get all of the bags in these two hands because I'm a one-trip believer. I don't go two trips, I'm just going to knock it all out because that's what we do.

It don't sound real smart, but that's what we do. My hand circulation in my fingers, I don't feel anything because the plastic strap is taking all the circulation out my hand. I'm going, "Just let it go." And I won't let it go because I'm a one-tripper. And I'm going to show my wife I got this.

And one time, a carton of eggs right at the top tumbled over. Twenty-dollar carton of eggs. Eggs rolling down the sidewalk. But I'm a one-tripper. I'm saying to myself, "I got this. Don't ask for help. After all, you are a one-tripper." Then the bag containing the twenty-dollar eggs cracked.

Then I whisper to myself, "God will never put more on you than you can bear." And I realized that was a lie because my hands were still numb from trying to take all of those things on the inside and I just said to myself, "I'm not doing this again." So now I've become a two-tripper.

Some of you came in here today burdened excessively, not by groceries but by the pressures of life. Carrying grief, anxiety, stress, financial strain, conflicts in relationships. Worse than any plastic handle cutting off your circulation in your fingers. When we don't trust God, it cuts off the circulation of our prayers of faith.

Before your life cracks like eggs falling onto the ground, be honest with God today. Here's what I want you to admit to yourself, and you can say it out loud or you can say it to yourself. God, I can't. You never said I could. But you can and you always said you would. So I trust you. So let's try that together. Ready?

Dr. Bernie Miller & Congregation: God, I can't. You never said I could. But you can and you always said you would. So I trust you.

Dr. Bernie Miller: Folks, if you don't know anything else about the message, you know this: You can trust God with whatever it is that troubles you today. Paul is going to show us three kinds of people whose lack of trust was cutting off the circulation to their faith. He's going to show us three kinds of people: they are overwhelmed leaders, they are overwhelmed sufferers, and they are overwhelmed witnesses. And you're going to be in one of these three categories, I guarantee you.

Let's look at first the overwhelmed leaders. Second Corinthians chapter one and verse eight: "We do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively." Wait a minute. These are men of God. They're on a mission from God. They were burdened excessively. Then he says, "beyond our strength."

And then the purpose clause. Why were they burdened beyond their strength? Why were they distressed? "So that we despaired even of life. Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that," here it is, "so that we would not trust in ourselves." Not be a one-tripper, but in God who raises the dead.

I thought about it. I said God allows overloads in our lives to break our self-reliance. He's not trying to build our independence; he's really trying to build our dependence on him. They despaired even of life and were crushed. I thought about that visually. Can you imagine that? Some of us have testimonies that prove God has put more on you than you can bear. Admit it. I mean you know he has.

And if he did not, then why did you pray? If he didn't put more on you, "Oh no, God won't put more on me than I can bear." Then why did you pray? Might as well not pray if you can handle it. Why do you drink coffee strong enough to raise Lazarus from the dead if you got it?

As a leader, God gives more than I can bear when he wants me to trust him. I learned that early on. This year, as most of you know, will be our 30th anniversary. We're working on something for our anniversary. It's a well-known choir that's wanting to come and we want them to come. I ain't telling you yet. I want you to think about it and I want you to be praying about it.

But as a leader, God has shown me some times when he has put more on me than I could bear and I've had to trust him with it. Can you imagine telling somebody God told you that you're going to get some land that he has prepared for you and that you need to trust him that he's going to give it to you? Don't know how, but he's got land prepared. And you keep waiting and then all of a sudden you realize, okay, this is real.

And it's out of Exodus 23 where God gave me all those promises. And then on top of it, when you get the land, you don't have enough money to pay off the fifty thousand dollars that you had to borrow in order to get it started. And nobody wants to give you money because you already owe somebody else something.

So we had to pay off the fifty, which we didn't have, and then we had to put down another fifty, which we didn't have. Well, I'm the leader. It's all on me because I said, "Yeah, God's going to give us the land." Pastor, when are we going to move in? They're still working on it.

God will lovingly let us hit the end of ourselves so that we can find the beginning of his trust. You don't know that you can trust him until you come to the end of yourself. As a leader, God does give me more than I can bear. I look at the bottom line every month, and then at the end of the year, I look at what we did the previous year and what we did the year ending.

And I look at it and I see where some things need to be cut. So I talk to my staff and I say, "Look, we need to cut some things here." As soon as I start to cut, guess what happens? God says, "Are you worried about that? Let me show you what I got."

So my chief financial officer said, "Pastor?" I said, "Yeah?" It's like eight o'clock at night. I'm thinking why is she calling me? Is everything all right? "Yes, Pastor, we got an online gift and just wanted you to know that I had to call the people that clear all that, I had to give them the approval to accept it because it's much more than we normally get."

And I said, "What?" I said, "Well, did you call them?" She says, "Yeah, I called them." I said, "Well, good for you because if you didn't, I would." But then that's when God was trying to show me, "Look, who said that?" He said, "I got it."

He'll never put more on—yes, he will, because he wants you to trust him. And so here I am worried about the bottom line and never once did I say, "God, you know we kind of lacking in this area." I was just taking it all on my shoulders. And God says, "I'm giving you more than you can bear so you can take it off your shoulders and put it on mine. You're supposed to roll all of your cares over onto me because I care for you."

And so God lovingly does that. The word affliction means pressure, it means crushing trouble. Burden excessively means weighed down beyond measure. I can't lift it. Paul is describing an overload beyond our strength and ability, beyond our capacity, and beyond our resources. How many of you at the end of the month found out that you had less than you needed but God came through?

How does that happen? It happens when we decide that we're not going to carry this weight, that we're going to roll it over onto God's shoulders because he said cast all your cares upon me because I care for you. When it's beyond my strength and ability and my capability and my resources, I can't lift it.

It's kind of like a weightlifter with barbells on his shoulders who thinks that they can do it without a spotter. They tell you, don't lift anything over your weight without a spotter. Sometimes don't lift anything according to your weight without a spotter because you never know what you're going to do. You may lose your concentration or whatever the case may be. But we have to think like this.

You ever wonder how am I going to make it through this week, let alone this day? You know how you can make it carrying the weight? God is your spotter. He's the one that's saying, "Hey look, I got you. Let it go. I'm not going to drop it on you. Let it. Give me that. Let me carry that."

And as he lifts it off of your shoulders, you stop and wow, I feel much better. Why? Because you did what the Bible said. You cast all your cares over onto God because he cares for you. The word despair to means to be utterly at a loss, no visible solution in sight. Sentence of death is an internal verdict. It means this is it. I'm going to die. It speaks of danger and finality.

The word trust means to place confidence in someone. Paul contrasts self-trust versus God-trust. God raises the dead. That's resurrection power. If God can raise the dead, then he can handle what kills our strength. So whatever it is that's dead in your life, God can resurrect it if he wants it to be raised again.

Some things have died in your life you don't need to raise. You just need to put more dirt on top of it and let it stay dead. Don't try to resurrect it because it's dead for a reason. But the word trust means to place confidence in something. If God can raise the dead, whatever is dead in your life that needs raising that God wants to raise, he can raise it if he wants to. A job? What? Dead? Gone? What? God can raise a new one.

I know what God can do. When I was looking for another job after I got fired from the radio station because I was reading the Bible, I did what God told me to do. So I figured since I did what God told me to do, God's going to take care of me. And I had read out of Daniel where they told Daniel he couldn't pray. God said, Daniel, you better pray. Daniel not only prayed, he opened a window so that everybody out there could see him praying. And then they went back and snitched on him.

But Daniel still had confidence that God told him to do what he did. And so God told me, take your Bible in today. I took it in, was on a Saturday. They told me don't bring it in during the week because people come in taking care of business and they don't want anybody think that they were a religious station at the time. They were kind of pseudo-Christian, whatever the case may be.

But I brought my Bible in and wouldn't you know, the boss walks in. Never comes in on a Saturday. But he comes in on this Saturday and what do I have? I've got this Bible. And I can't hide it nowhere because he's already seen it. As soon as he walked in the door, he saw me down there reading it and I looked up and I thought, oh, I'm busted.

But you know what God did? They fired me on that day. That Monday they called me after my shift and they said, "You're fired." That's okay. That night they called me and said, "Can you come in and work tomorrow?" You see, that's when the ugly wants to come out.

If I was really in the flesh, which I was at the time when they asked me because I was about ready to say something, and God says, "Be quick to hear and slow to speak." And so I called my best friend. I had six fellows that were my supporters, my financial advisors, they were elders at the old church that I was a member of. One of them owned a business, and so I called him up because he's a business-minded person and I said, "Harold, this is what happened."

And I told him I'd call him back. "What are you going to do?" I said, "I ain't going in." He said, "Brother Bernie, go in." I said, "Why?" He said, "Because when you go in, you show them the God in you is bigger than the God they thought was in you. It could be a test."

So I went in. You know what God did because I obeyed him? I went into the meeting, I saw some paperwork on the table in front of the boss and I'm thinking, "What's going to happen here?" Well, the boss said, "You know, we feel kind of bad the way we handled things." I said, "Really?" "Yeah. So what we're going to do is we're going to give you a ninety-day severance."

Now I've only worked there six months, but they're going to give me a ninety-day severance. I said, "Where do I sign?" But see, what God wanted me to know was if I do it according to the word of God and if I obey the word that he gave me, he will take care of me and anything that concerns me.

And I said, "You know what?" And that was when I really understood how powerful God is. And I had a wonderful time there with them. But then God said, "I want you to be a pastor." And I had to leave there because we had a son and God wanted me—Madeline was handling the school that we had at the time, New Covenant Fellowship Christian Academy, and she was in charge of that. So someone had to stay home with Zack.

So I resigned and gave my notice and I said, "I gotta stay with my son and I need to build the church and get started and all that." And so God worked it all out. That's what I want to tell you. And if you got anything that you're trying to lift that's heavy, too heavy, look, God is your spotter. Give it to him, God's got it.

Psalm 46 says, "God is our refuge and strength in times of trouble." He's not a trouble-preventer. He is a refuge and strength in times of trouble. And I looked at that and "times" is plural. So it's not just today. I may get some trouble as soon as this trouble is done. I may get some more trouble. I may walk outside and trouble is waiting for me out there.

Y'all watch for me. Because you know Bernard will come out. I really don't want that to happen. But everything will be fine. God lets life get heavier than we can handle so we'll stop thinking we can be our own savior.

Second Corinthians chapter one, verse ten: "He who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, and on whom we have set our hope." Note: deliver us, deliver us, deliver us. And he will deliver us. Paul describes three-part deliverance: past, he delivered; future, he will deliver; present, he will continuously deliver. Why? Because of our hope and because of our trust.

The word hope means confident expectation that whatever God says will come true. And so it's an ongoing posture. My hope is an ongoing posture that I take and that's my confident expectation that whatever God promises me in this word will come true. It's based on a present and continuous trust.

Don't trust him to the—you know, you see on your money "In God we trust" and then you worry about how you're going to pay your bills. I'm trying to figure out how can you see that on your money and not trust God? Some of you walked in smiling on the outside but you're crying on the inside because you got unpaid bills, anxiety about the test results you've been waiting on, and you've been walking the floor.

And to top it all off, you got a prodigal child and you're trying to provide as a parent and you're trying to serve and fix everybody else on one trip. God's goal isn't that we never break. His goal is for us to know and trust that he is able to heal the brokenhearted. Those who are spiritually broken, he's able to heal.

Moses was overwhelmed emotionally, physically, and also spiritually by the weight of his leadership. Let me show you that in Exodus 17. It says then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, "Choose men for us and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand."

Joshua did as Moses told him, fought against Amalek, and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. So it came about when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. That reminds me of y'all raising your hands in worship. You walked in here with a smile on your face but a frown on the inside because of some troubles. But you don't realize that when you raise your hands in worship, something is happening for you.

So when Moses raised up his hands, that's when Israel prevailed. And when he let his hands down, Amalek prevailed. Man, I'm going to raise my hands. There's time when we ought to just raise our hands because that's when God moves mightily. We're saying, "God, I praise you anyway."

But Moses' hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it and Aaron and Hur supported his hands. One on one side and one on the other side, thus his hands were steady until the sun set. What are you dealing with? Let me go to Numbers.

Now Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, each man at the doorway of his tent, and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly and Moses was displeased. So Moses said to the Lord, "Why have you been so hard on your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight that you have laid the burden of all this people on me? Was it I who conceived all these knuckleheads? Was it I who brought them forth that you should say to me, carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing infant to the land which you swore to their fathers?"

See, he's trying to carry that barbell. Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? Same place you got water when they needed something to drink. For they weep before me saying, "Give us meat that we may eat. I alone am not able to carry all this people because it is too burdensome for me." Yeah, he knows that.

"So if you are going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once if I have found favor in your sight and do not let me see my wretchedness." Because he realizes something about himself is not right and God is going to help him out. You know what God does? He meets their need.

When Moses brought the load to God, he received help from the shared leadership of Aaron and Hur. Leaders are always burdened. We're burdened for people and what they're going through. A lot of folks, you have no idea how connected I am to each one of you even if I don't know your last name. I know your spirit and I know your faces and there are times that I pray and your face will come and God says pray for that person because that's my responsibility.

But I'm not doing this by myself. I have someone else that's holding up my hands. I have elders and deacons and others who volunteer here. I mean you guys make my job a lot easier because you lead in areas where I'm not needed to lead. All you need is for me to point you in the right direction and give you the resources that you need to have in order to accomplish the mission and that's basically what I do.

I try to pray for you and try to find out what it is that you need. Leaders are always burdened, we're always overwhelmed. We're concerned about each one of you. And we've had death in the families. A couple members' family members have died. Archie, his dad passed away, we said goodbye to him yesterday. Of course you know Sheldon and he went on to be with the Lord. And Towana, she's such a wonderful person, both of them in the kids' class. They taught the middle schoolers.

But leaders are always sufferers. They suffer, they get overwhelmed by the pain. Let me show you something in Second Corinthians 11. Paul says, "Five times I received from the Jews, my own brothers, thirty-nine lashes. Forty would kill you. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once is enough for me. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have spent in the deep.

"I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from countrymen, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city. You see the many—all those dangers. Dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren. I ain't saying nothing. Y'all just leave me alone. Stop reading my mind.

"I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches." I'm just concerned about this one, but Paul was concerned about all of the churches that he had to visit and he couldn't see all of them because it was just the way it was.

Second Corinthians chapter 12: "Boasting is necessary though it is not profitable, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago, whether in the body I do not know or out of the body I do not know, God knows, such a man was caught up to the third heaven. I don't know what kind of experience that was, but it must have been pretty powerful.

"And I know how such a man, whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows. He's not even telling them that it was him. He was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak. Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me."

Leave me alone, Sam. To keep me from exalting myself. I mean what else can happen to me today? "Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me and he has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'"

Most gladly therefore, I would rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with my weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. Are you weak or are you strong?

Three times Paul begged God to remove the thorn, and God's response was, "My grace is sufficient." Notice what God didn't say. He didn't say I'll take it away, nor did he say you're stronger than you think, nor did he say you can handle this. God said, "My power is made perfect in your weakness."

Jesus invites us to bring our burdens to him. Peter said we're to cast all of our anxiety on Christ because he's the one who cares for us. With God, we can handle more than we can bear. But without God, we can't handle nothing. God doesn't always remove the thorn, but he does supply the grace that's sufficient for us to handle it.

You know so much could have happened up front here, but how was that going to glorify God if I said something? It would not have settled anything. Mine was already fixed on whatever. So what did he need? Grace. Grace to get out before anything else happened because his grace is always sufficient.

And if you ever need his sufficiency, it means enough for the moment, enough for the mile, and enough for the night. It means enough for any time. Today, tomorrow, a month from now, whatever. Grace is still sufficient. Jesus said, "Why are you worrying about what to eat and what to wear? Don't worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about itself."

Now of all the people that you know of in the Bible, who do you know that suffered greatly? Job. What did he teach us? Let me show you. Job 1:20. After Job hearing that his family, his workers, all that he owned just went up in smoke, he tore his robe, shaved his head—this is a sign that Job was mourning—and he fell to the ground and worshipped.

Why? He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Through all of this Job did not sin nor did he blame God. Who are you blaming?

Job 19:25: "As for me, I know that my redeemer lives and at the last he will take his stand on the earth." So he knows that he has a redeemer, he knows that someone greater than himself is carrying this load. He knows he can't worship God after losing his family without having the knowledge that there's a redeemer that lives that's going to raise whatever has died to life again.

If you believe God will never put more on you than you can bear, pretty soon you're going to be like a cell phone at one percent. Brightness goes down, apps close, no more videos, you stop wasting energy on stuff that doesn't matter because of that one percent. And you start looking for a charger like you're trying to find Jesus.

Anybody got an iPhone charger? What about an Android? I'll convert. Some of our lives are at one percent spiritually and emotionally. If you don't know Jesus, you cannot be charged. Cell phone charger adapters convert AC outlet power to DC for devices. But without Christ, you don't have the power of his spirit and there is no saving mode in Christ Jesus without Jesus.

Now your phone may be on saving mode when it gets to a certain percentage, but you can't have a saving mode in you unless you accept Jesus Christ. But when you receive Jesus Christ, God converts your life so that you'll be able to adapt to his outlet power. It's not AC, it's JC. Jesus Christ is my power.

What is God doing when you're over capacity? He's trying to get you to convert to JC. Our lives function on the Holy Spirit and his power. If you're saved, God is trying to get you to trust his power, not your willpower. You can't willpower life into a dead cell battery and you can't willpower eternal life into a body that's spiritually dead because of sin.

Many of us repeat sayings we heard from our granny, our mama, our auntie, and brother, a sister, cousin, in-law, outlaw so long that we think it's a Bible verse. That's why Jesus said when he was teaching, "You have heard it said, but I say to you." In other words, your granny, your auntie, I know they've told you this but this is what you need to understand.

Listen to me. Jesus left Jerusalem. I'm going to set it up here because I'm going to go into Matthew, but let me just set it up here. Jesus is in Jerusalem. He's having to go from Jerusalem, which is the city of peace, to Gethsemane, which is called the oil press, where they take the olives and press them and make oil.

Now for him to get from Jerusalem to Gethsemane, guess where he has to go through? He has to go through the Kidron Valley. What is the Kidron Valley known for? It's called the valley of decision. So here he is. Leaving peace, knowing that he's thirty-three, his life expectancy is at one percent.

But he's got enough to get down to Gethsemane. But on the way down, he goes through the valley of decision. Why there? Because he had to make a decision before he got to Gethsemane. And some of you right now, you have tried to go by the valley of decision. You can't go past—you got to go through the valley of decision in order for you to be able to handle what's at Gethsemane.

You got peace now, but there's going to be a valley of decision coming for you to have to deal with some issues. So I wanted to set that up first because you have to understand something. We are at one place or the other. We're either in the place of peace, valley of decision, or we're being pressed like olives.

Now that you know that, Jesus made a decision to leave what was comfortable to complete his calling. Matthew 26:36: "Then Jesus came with them, his disciples, to a place called Gethsemane and said to his disciples, 'Sit here while I go over there and pray.'" And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be grieved and distressed. This is Jesus.

You haven't suffered grief to this degree. Then he said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch with me." Of course you know the story, they couldn't keep watch. And he went a little further, went a little beyond them, and fell on his face and he prayed saying, "My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."

So wait a minute, how did he get to his will? How did he get to God's will? He had to stop in the valley of decision. He had peace in Jerusalem, but he knew he couldn't stay there. That wasn't why he came. He's thirty-three years old, he's at the one percent in his life expectancy on earth in the flesh. He's got to give up his life. He realizes that. So he has to go through the valley of decision. He's got to settle his mind before he even gets to Gethsemane.

So when he gets to Gethsemane, he can say this: "Not my will, but thy will be done." Can you say that? When we're in between peace and pressure, you're in the valley of decision. I hope you make the right one because it says here now an angel from heaven appeared to him. When? When he said, "Not my will, but thy will be done."

Folks, when you come to that point in your life when you say, "God, I can't. You never said I could. But God, you can and you always said you would. And so I trust you to do this for me." And then that's when God—the angel that's already been with you before you were born—that's when he shows up and he gives you strength. You can't see him, but he gives you strength. And being in agony, he was praying very fervently and his sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground.

Have you ever prayed like that? This is a powerful prayer. How did he get here? He got there because he went through the valley of decision, made up his mind, knew what he came to do, and the one percent of his life that's left, he's using it for the glory of God. Now I don't know what percentage you are at your life span, but I need to ask you: is it God's will or your will?

Are you a believer in God or are you just a church-goer? You just come here because you need some fellowship? That's good. The best fellowship is with Jesus Christ because you can be in fellowship with him even when you're not here. He'll show up, you'll be reading the Bible and tears start falling, you go, "Oh my goodness, this verse, I didn't know this verse. I needed it, I needed it." And you know when you're connected to JC, you've got the power to do what no one else can do because we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus because of the greater who's in me than he who's in the world.

I don't know where you are in your walk with Christ, but let me tell you something. God does not want to condemn you. He wants to connect you to his son. He doesn't want to shame you; he wants to connect you to the source that gives you the power to say, "Not my will, but thy will be done."

Now let me look at the witnesses, this is my last and I'll finish up here. Hebrews 12: "Therefore since we have so great a cloud of witnesses." The word witness here, the Greek word is martus and martyr from where we get the English word martyr. A cloud of witnesses surrounding us. People have believed that there are people that have died and gone to heaven who are looking down on us. Bible does not say any of that.

So who are these witnesses? Well, it starts with the first word: therefore. See, whenever you see the word "therefore," you ask yourself what is it there for? It's there for because he wants you to connect Chapter 11 to the first verse in Chapter 12. "Therefore since what I said in Chapter 11 is true," all those folks who gave their lives for Christ, they are witnesses. They were martyred to give their testimony and it's written. "Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us."

The life of faith testifies to us today. Their witness proves God is trustworthy. Hebrews 11 is their testimony. Chapter 12 is our response to their testimony. Hebrews doesn't tell us to fix our eyes on the cloud; Hebrews tells us to fix our eyes on Christ. It says fix your eyes on Jesus, he is the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Some of you are at one percent emotionally. You don't need guilt; you need grace. Right now, you're in the valley of decision. What will you decide? Will you decide to consider Jesus so you don't grow weary and quit? To do what God called you to do, you need to decide whether or not you're going to leave your peace and comfort to accomplish his calling.

I had to leave peace and comfort. Most of you know this story. I talk to some people today and I said, "Well, why don't you get a job?" "I don't want to make that kind of money. I want to make at least fifty thousand dollars a year." I said, "Okay, you have any certificates or anything, got any kind of skills?" "No, I want McDonald's to give me fifty thousand a year." I said, "You need a Happy Meal."

Sometimes God allows more than we can bear so we'll discover who can bear more than we can. Jesus suffered as a leader. Jesus knew he was called to die for sins. What you need to know is you were born to be saved. You weren't born just to live this life here. God gave you life for a reason: he wants you to have eternal life with him.

He wants to adopt you today if you don't know him and if you've never been adopted by him. Will you today? This is the valley of decision. If you want peace, you've got to surrender, which means die to yourself and give your life to God. Would you stand where you are.

Guest (Male): All things are possible from New Covenant Fellowship Church. Connect with us anytime at NCF.church/connect or on social media at NCF Chattanooga. Worship with us every Sunday morning at 10:30 in person at 1326 North Moore Road in Chattanooga or online at NCF.church/messages. New Covenant Fellowship Church, a place for every race.

Hate the sin, but don't let the hatred for the sin carry over to the sinner. They can be forgiven of that sin because that's why Jesus came and you just need to look—take care of your own house. New Covenant Fellowship Church. In-person worship Sunday mornings at 10:30. 1326 North Moore Road in Chattanooga. New Covenant Fellowship Church, a place for every race.