Full Service
Sermon Transcription:
The word that the Lord has given me for your journey is this: You're going to make it. You're going to make it. Lord, I pray that by Your Holy Spirit, You would minister to every single one of our hearts. Father, I pray that today would not be a spectacle or an impressive journey as if You pick strong people that are able to do something in Your Kingdom. Lord, You have chosen the weak to confound the strong. You have chosen the broken to demonstrate Your ability to heal. You have chosen sinners to demonstrate Your ability to grant forgiveness and, by the washing of the blood of Jesus Christ, sanctify us.
Lord, You choose differently, and I thank You, Lord God, that because You choose differently, I too have a small part in Your Kingdom. I pray, Lord God, for every person here and online as they are in their journey. Lord, I pray that You would break things off of them today—Lord God, off of their minds, shackles off of their arms, blindness off of their hearts, and heaviness off of their lives. Lord God, may they be excited, fervent, and strengthened in their journey once again. Lord God, there are so many people who have had great moments with You, but somewhere along the journey—between the highlights—they quit. They slowed down. They stepped off to the sidelines. So many do not arrive at the next highlight; so many perish in the journey in between. Lord, it doesn’t make much sense to pay the high price of laying down our lives when we’re just on a journey.
I pray that whoever has lost some of that direction would receive it all back today, Lord God. Whoever has had a hard time committing their whole life to Your plan and how they should be spent in this generation, I pray, Lord God, that it be redeemed today. Lord Jesus, I ask that every single one of us may look back after four years and say: I can explain exactly what God has built in my life and through my life in the last four years. He has picked it up. He’s taken it from highlight to highlight. I stuck it out during the journey, and God is glorifying His name.
He is making me a witness unto the name of Jesus Christ. He is pouring His power into my life, and He is spending that power on His glory and the salvation of many. Lord God, You’ve called every single one of us to the same call: to be spent on Your purposes under the governing of Your power and Your plan. Lord, every single one of us has a part to play in seeing the lost—who we once were—become saved by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. Your Word says that You desire for all men to be saved, and You’ve sent us out into the world to be ambassadors. Paul says we are to implore men to be reconciled to God. Lord, You’ve given us a mandate, and I pray, Lord God, that You would do miracles in our hearts and in our lives today. May we be fully free, released, Lord God, to walk that journey once again.
Amen. Amen.
You’re going to make it. You’re going to make it. Church, we are on a journey, and you personally are on a journey. For many of you, your personal journey is intertwined with the journey of Safe House Church, as you heard a little about it today from Inna. But you are also on a personal journey. The Lord Jesus, who saved you, paid for your sins, and called you by a new name—He calls you out of darkness into His marvelous light. He calls you forgiven. He calls you to become fruitful. He calls you to be the firstborn among many brethren, that many may become saved through your life. You are on a journey. The highlights are great and usually pleasant testimonies to share, but it is the journey in between that really matters. It’s not just the big moments that are important.
I’m reminded of the testimony we have together as a church, where the Lord saved me out of a life of sexual sin. Then He began to redeem that in a way only God can. He has allowed me—and us as a church—to work with the authorities in this country. And we've already been able and allowed to be a part of seeing 16 sexual predators being put into prison and preventing sexual sin from coming into young people’s lives. Only God does something like that. Only God saves you from the very sin you were in and then uses that area of weakness as your strong point. Where he starts to show the empire of darkness—the kingdom of darkness—that God chooses the weak to destroy the areas where Satan thinks he’s strong.
Where Satan thinks he can bring sexual sin into the lives of young ones, God says, "Well, let me pick someone really weak, and I'll pour my strength on that life. I'll set something up just to put it in the enemy's face. Enemy, you lost this ground in Stan's life, and now I'm going to use Stan in a small way to make you lose more and more ground in this area of more and more people, especially the weak." Only God does those kinds of things. Those are the highlights. You know, it's one of my trophies. There are many times in the Word where something happened, or someone received a letter, and they placed it before the Lord. Sometimes it was a threat, and they put it before the Lord because the threat came as a result of being with God. Other times, it was a dedication to the Lord because they had nothing to do with it—this was all God.
There's a commendation letter from the chief of police in my office. It's one of those highlights that I place before the Lord, saying, "God, only You could have done something like this. Thank You so much that I get to be a small part of this." It makes me feel like I'm part of a movie. It makes me feel like I'm a really cool dad. But, also, "Lord, only You could set something like this up and allow me to be a part of something like this." But that is the highlight.
The ten years that came before that highlight were filled with decisions, dedications, and limitations I had to place on my life—and our life—that, to a lot of people, made no sense. A lot of you saw that journey. There were many people, even those who loved us, who tried to talk us out of that journey because they saw that we could have more in this world if we would abandon the path we were on. We were always living as if we were walking in the fullness of our call. This is a principle you'll see in the Word time and time again. When God reveals to your heart that you are called—for example, to be a worship leader—you receive an invitation from that moment to live according to that call. Paul says to "walk worthy of the call" to live according to the call, whether you have the position or not.
That is the journey. The Lord says, "I am a worship leader," so I will live as one. I will consecrate myself as one. I will prepare myself every day as one. I will be in the Word like one—or how I imagine one would be in the Word. Or how I would imagine a worship leader would worship at home. I will learn to live by the name Jesus calls me. We always lived according to what God called us, never according to the position we held, the life we had, or what was given to us. Never, and those closest to us know that we always lived according to what God was calling us. Most people didn’t see it—not to the degree that we were able to understand it. So, the journey we were on didn’t make a lot of sense.
I remember Christians blowing up in anger in our faces. I won’t name names, when I would be visiting in my country when we had just had our second child—though Inna is better with the timeline. One of our kids had recently been born, and I was sitting at a table, ready to just tell people about how willing Jesus is to forgive anyone. The conversation took an unexpected turn. I could tell the person I was speaking with was getting red, passionate, and clearly bothered. This begins to raise their voice and virtually yell at me, and say, "Stan, you can’t just trust God for your provision. You have kids now! It doesn’t work like that." This person loves Jesus—I truly believe that. But they just started going off. All I was trying to do was tell them how good the Lord is and what He was showing me in the morning when I spent time with Him. Something in their heart said, "Your journey is offensive to me."
If God isn’t doing any big things in your life right now—just like He isn’t doing any big things in my life—and I'm a wonderful Christian, then you shouldn’t live so extreme, so dedicated. You shouldn’t expect God to actually be who He says He is. You shouldn’t expect Him to be a provider, to make a way, or to fight for you because you're not that much different from me. That was at the heart of it. And that’s just one example of many, many moments that both Inna and I have had—sometimes together, sometimes individually. The enemy knows how to set it up and single you out. Amen? So many times, reasonable worldly wisdom—something that sounds good in the moment—was poured into our lives or suggested into our situation. To make us go, "You know what? we taking this all a little too seriously. Lets back down a little."
At this point in the journey, those voices have quieted down, and that is incredibly significant. None of these people were demon-possessed or our enemy in any way, shape, or form. But some of them were definitely not inspired by the Holy Spirit that day. The reason those voices have quieted down now is that we’ve gotten over a certain obstacle. But a lot of people haven’t gotten over that obstacle yet. Many have stopped before reaching it. Because they waited three years and nothing happened, they became whatever people call a "normal Christian." I don’t know what that is. I always tell people I don’t know how to be saved any other way. I got saved, I was like this, and I just never tried to change. Whatever God changed, God changed. I stopped trying to change myself because He called me a finished work.
Amen? Amen.
We’ve always sought to do what God told us to do and to be who God called us to be—not because of position, opportunity, or anything else, but because God said so. What I need you to understand for your journey is this: It’s not the big moments that are important. It’s the journey in between that matters. It’s because people abort that journey that they don’t arrive at their next big moment with the Lord. Sometimes even come to a place where they stop seeing testimony be a part of their life. They don't say, "Okay, when I think of my last four years, I can tell you exactly how many people got saved from their journey to hell, now have the Spirit of the Living God dwelling in their hearts, have a personal relationship with Jesus, and whose lives have been changed." Four years—a long time—the Holy Spirit, poured out into earthen vessels, is not limited by your abilities. He is just as willing to work through you as He was willing to work through Christ, who walked in the fullness of the Spirit. Just as He is willing to work through me in small ways, He is willing to work through you in small ways.
We have to evaluate, and that is one of the reasons we always have an anniversary. We have to look back and say, "Okay, am I walking by the Spirit, or am I walking by the flesh? What are the fruits of my last four years in the Spirit? What has happened? How many people?" What did Jesus come to do? He came to seek and save the lost. He came to declare the words of the Kingdom. He came to set at liberty the oppressed. If that is what Jesus was doing once the Spirit filled Him, how much of that, in four years, have I seen God do through my life since He also filled me with the Spirit? Or have I slowed down in that journey? Or have I, maybe, quit that journey a little bit?
It's not just the big moments that are important. God has told you, "I’m ordering your steps; I’m with you to deliver you." So if you struggle with the idea of giving up or slowing down in certain areas of God's Kingdom—because not only does God save you so He can have a personal relationship with you—if that were the only reason He saved you, He’d take you up to heaven right then and there so He could be near to you in an experience on our side the same as His.
The Word tells us, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am known." If God saved you just to have you close, He would rapture you the moment He saved you and changed your eternal destination. Clearly, He is willing to wait longer for the fullness of that to take place. Surely, He has a purpose for that. Amen?
He promises you that He’s ordering your steps and willing to deliver you. So if you are struggling with slowing down in some of your participation in the Kingdom, I’ll tell you this: Your participation in God’s Kingdom will always grow and never diminish if it is up to the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life. Your participation in the Kingdom—I didn’t say "church"—your participation in the Kingdom will always grow and never diminish. When you are struggling with the idea of giving up or slowing down in certain areas of God’s Kingdom—God’s business of saving souls in a world that is slipping into hell—here is the word of the Lord to you.
Let me read to you Hebrews 10:14: "For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." For by one offering, He has forever perfected those who are being sanctified.
You did not start on the wrong journey. God did not have you start on the wrong journey as if, now somehow, you realize, "God, this is a bit too much, a bit too deep, a bit too extreme, a bit too costly. Now I realize, God, You were wrong. So I am allowed to quit, or I’m allowed to slow down because God was wrong." There was a time when you knew God was asking you to be all in. You knew God was asking you to lay certain things down—things that may not even be sin—and you knew God was asking you to lay them down because they weighed too much.
You were called to run a race in this world under the leading of God’s Spirit, and you wanted to lay aside the extra weight. You wanted to cut off some of the distractions—not because they were sin or because they were so wrong, but because you understood, God has a plan.
"I believe what He says about me. I believe He’s going to do something through my life. I believe He’s calling me to something, and I’m cutting those things off." And then the journey gets a little heavy and boring, and we go, "I guess maybe God was wrong. He didn’t really mean that. Maybe I just misunderstood Him, and I’m going to have to slow down a bit here. I don’t think I have the grace for this."
As we were sharing highlights of the timeline that really led to this meeting here today—people love our journey. People love that we’ve never been a dollar in debt. People love that, for seven years, we never had an income—not a church supported us. They love those stories. They’d really love to have the same story. They love that the building was just gifted to us. They love that we have these crazy provisional testimonies of walking into an airport and being picked out of an incredibly long line—I believe it was Christmas Eve or Christmas Day—and someone comes out of the back office, pulls us all the way to a different booth, and checks us in for free.
That stuff happened all the time. God made ways. God provided all the time. He’d just tell us where to go. We’d go—with money, without money, with kids, without kids. Every single time God told us to go, we just went, and God always made a way. People love those aspects of the story—those highlights. But the journey in between is what is necessary. It is during the journey between the great highlight with God—which may just be your salvation—that if we walk that journey of faith and trust, we will come into the next highlight moment with God, where God again does something. But there was a journey of testing. There was a journey of faithfulness. There was a journey of teachability. There was a journey of repentance and faith that is supposed to bridge the time between the next great highlight that God seeks to give.
But it is during this journey—this journey is always boring, hard, painful, costly, and lonely. Spiritually speaking, the Kingdom journey—that’s what it is like. There’s a season where it’s boring. It’s harder than it should be. The rewards, the outcome, or the fruit you see just doesn’t line up with how much it’s costing you: how much time you’re pouring in, how hard it is, how costly it is, how lonely it is. Nobody else is doing this. Why do I need to do it? Just that small conviction in my heart—it becomes questionable whether or not that is enough. Sometimes, you're on that journey, and paying the price for it all just stops making sense. It’s always during the journey that we want to give up. It’s never in the middle of a highlight moment with God that we say, “You know what? I’ve kind of had enough of this.” It’s always during the journey, in between those two moments, that we want to give up or pass some responsibility on to the next person.
And the devil’s cheering you on. He’s cheering. He’s cheering you on to become submissive to the sentence that has been placed in your mind: It’s too much. I can’t do it. I want to stop.
The devil wants you to become submissive to that. Right now, in this season of my life, that would be too much: For me to be ever-growing in my involvement in the Kingdom? I’ve got to be raising kids, right now it’s too much for me to give all of my life for the Kingdom. I can’t do it; I’ve got a business to run right now. It’s too much for me to fully invest in God’s Kingdom. I don’t know what the future holds. I’ve got to be financially responsible. It’s too much. I can’t do it. I want to stop. There was a time you didn’t care what tomorrow would bring. You were a Biblical Christian. You didn’t worry about tomorrow—tomorrow would care for its own evil. You knew it in your heart, though you couldn’t explain it. Everybody thought you were crazy, but you were walking. The Word was in you, and the Word was with you.
When you’d get around somebody, it stirred them a little bit. Sometimes, it rubbed them the wrong way if they didn’t like the Word of God. But if there was any readiness for the Word of God to be sown into their heart, when you got around them, you didn’t even have the right words—but you were living the Word of God. It was producing something. It was causing curiosity and desire in the people around you. But when the enemy tries to get you to submit to that thought—It’s too much. I can’t do it. I want to stop. I want to rest. I want to slow down a bit—the Lord has a word for you: You’re going to make it.
Let me read to you 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, one of those verses we talk about sometimes and that has been misquoted more than it’s been quoted: "But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’" Almost every time I hear this scripture quoted, that’s where people stop.
Let’s read verse 10: "But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." There was a time when the very things that God has prepared for those who love Him were a mystery. The prophets would see glimpses and rejoice, but the people of God generally couldn’t see it or understand it.
Here, Paul makes this powerful statement: "But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." In other words, the things of God—the things God has prepared—are no longer hidden from you. He’s revealing them to you.
The word that caught my eye is that word prepared. It’s a word that requires work, planning, and preparation. It allows me to be passive—God prepared something, so I don’t have to. God prepared something that I probably could not. Then, He gave me His Son. Then, He gave me the Spirit of His Son so I could actually see and look into what He prepared for me. It would no longer be a secret, and I’m going to need it on my journey.
I’ve needed it at every single turn, and I know you need it. I’ve known many people that were on a journey, slowed down, or quit, and now stand on the sidelines. I know people that love to stand on the sidelines more than they love to be involved in God’s Kingdom. They’ve been convinced of something that was never written in this Word. There’s a false peace. There’s a peace of Heaven, and there’s a peace of Hell. There’s a deceptive peace. The Bible calls it a covering peace, a distractive peace, a lying peace. It’s the kind of lying peace that allowed one of the kings to say, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” He wasn’t worried.
He was peaceful, but it wasn’t a peace from God. Balaam, hired to curse the people of God, got his money and had total peace. He went out to do it. He couldn’t—but he wasn’t stirred. He didn’t have the peace of God; he had the peace of the enemy. Judas, at the very moment he went to betray Jesus, had full confidence. Imagine the confidence you’d need to get up from that table while still having the meal—the peace and confidence to sit there with Christ and the other disciples after everything you’d been through over the last three years. Imagine the confidence to get up and go execute the plan the devil placed in your heart, with no fear of what anyone might think, say, or do. That is a deceptive peace, a covering peace.
The world walks in this deceptive peace: “Nothing’s wrong. We’re living our way. I’m not the worst person around. God will understand.” Many people have a measure of peace, but it’s not from God. It’s a covering—it’s deceptive. That is what the enemy seeks to bring upon the lives of those filled with the Spirit of God. We talked about it a couple of weeks ago: the sword of the Spirit is the Word. The enemy wants to get the Word out of you and you out of the Word so that the Spirit of God in your life has no weapon. Without the Word, the Spirit of God in your life is no threat to the enemy or his kingdom. But hear this: you’re going to make it. Let me take you to the story of Elijah, that the Lord broke my heart over this week.
Let me read to you 1 Kings 19:1-7: "And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. Here we have Elijah. He’d been used mightily by the Lord. He’d had direction from God and a highlight moment with Him. All the prophets of Baal had been gathered on the mountain. Elijah challenged them, mocked them, and even made fun of their supposed god. He built an altar, poured water on it, and watched as fire from heaven. In that moment, Elijah knew who he was called to be. He was established in his position and authority for a moment. He dealt with idolatry and brought the nation just a degree closer to serving the one true God, away from the deception of Baal’s priests and the corruption of the king and queen.
Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, ‘So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.’ And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, ‘It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!’ Then, as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Arise and eat.’ Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time and touched him, and said, ‘Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.’”
This journey was impossible for Elijah without God’s provision. Verse 8: "So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God." You see, God wants you to take in what He’s prepared. He wants you to derive strength from it. He wants you to run on what Heaven has provided. Your journey is not wrong. God says: “This journey is too great for you.” That’s true. This journey will kill you—that’s true. It’s too much to lay it all down. It’s too much to surrender it all. It is financial suicide. It is impossible on every level. But this is the journey God has called you on. When He saved you, He called you to an impossible journey—a journey too great for you.
But you shouldn’t adjust the journey. You shouldn’t slow down in the journey. The journey is not wrong. What you need is the strength of God. Only then can you become a conqueror in the midst of a journey that seems impossible. God wants you to run on what Heaven has provided and accomplished for you. That cake mentioned here wasn’t what we think of as cake. It was round bread—a Heavenly provision. A messenger from God came to Elijah in the middle of his despair. Elijah thought he needed rest. He thought he needed to slow down. But God sent a messenger to wake him up, as if to say: “You don’t need to rest right now. You don't need to take a step back. You don't need to slow down. I know what you need, and I’m trying to wake you up because you don’t need rest—you need to eat." The messenger comes because Elijah falls asleep again, even after eating. The messenger wakes him up a second time, saying, “No, no, no, no—you need to eat. The journey you are on is too great for you. If you rest, you’ll abort the journey. What you need is strength. You need to eat.” A heavenly messenger comes to offer heavenly-prepared bread. Let me read to you what Jesus says in John 6:51:"I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
Jesus says that every time bread came from heaven throughout the Old Testament—in a symbolic way—it pointed forward to what He is meant to be in your life. It pointed to what heaven has prepared for you and brought to you. Don’t lay down and rest. Digest. Eat. Take in what heaven has prepared for your life. The Word says, “And he went in the strength of that food.” God had said, “The journey you are on is too great for you.” Elijah made it—not because he switched the journey, but because he switched the strength. He received strength from heaven to walk a journey that he could not walk on his own. What Does Scripture Tell Us About This Bread? Hebrews 10:14 says:"For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified."
The word sanctified means to make holy, purify, consecrate, or venerate—to make like God. These are ongoing processes. It’s a journey. When you were saved, the journey began. Some changes happened quickly—your behavior, your thinking. But other changes? Not so much. Yet there is a process. Conviction arises. You keep praying. You keep taking it to Jesus. Sanctification happens over time. The word sanctified comes from a root meaning “sacred, morally blameless, or pure.” That is the end goal. That is where the journey leads. But along the way, as sanctification takes place, everything—your difficulties, challenges, pain, and even the moments when the journey feels too great—works together for your good.
God says: “I have a plan. Come, eat. Dwell on what heaven has prepared for you.” By one offering, Jesus has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Sanctification is a difficult, painful, and slow process. It never moves at the speed we want. It’s frustrating. It rarely turns out the way we imagine. Sometimes, when we think we’ve made progress, God reveals something new. You might think, “I’m the worst person ever. How did I miss that? How did He find that?” The journey between the highlights with God is where sanctification happens, and it often feels heavy. In the highlight moments, all you can see is what God is doing. In the journey moments, all you can see is what you’re not yet. You see what sanctification still needs to do. You feel like you’re messing up, like you’ve put the car in reverse and are further away than before. What Does the Word Say? By one offering, He has forever perfected those who are being sanctified. Forever perfected. This is a complete word. It’s not ongoing work. It’s done. Through Jesus, God has already perfected you. As far as the Father is concerned, nothing needs to change. Because of the blood of Jesus, you are perfected.
This is what heaven has prepared for you.
When the journey gets rough, this is exactly what you lose sight of. You become so focused on the journey that you want to rest from it, instead of feeding on what God has prepared. But the strength to walk a supernatural journey comes from feeding on what heaven has provided—not from resting. Here lies the challenge: we’re tempted to lay down the things God has called us to. We think, “This is too much. I need to rest. I need to quit.” But God says: “No, no, no, no. I called you to a journey too great for you. I called you to do the impossible. I called you to believe for what no one else can see. I called you. You’re not alone—I’m with you. But I have something you need to feed on.”
By one offering, God has perfected you—even though you don’t behave like it yet. You need to eat what heaven has prepared for you. You need to take in what Jesus has brought. The Word says: “So he arose and ate and drank, and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.” Elijah didn’t go in his own strength. The journey didn’t get easier. He didn’t abort the journey. He didn’t slow down. He didn’t go back to sleep. The journey wasn’t wrong, even though it was too great for him. He went in the strength of that food. Your Journey with God. Every believer who has given their life to Jesus is on a journey. Sanctification is part of that journey, and it’s ongoing.
This journey includes separating yourself into God’s kingdom—learning to think, live, and love as God does. It’s a process of saying, “God, you can have everything—my life, my finances, my relationships. Whatever it takes, you can have it.” But on this journey, you may feel weighed down. You may feel like the journey will defeat you. You may think you can’t make it. But God’s Word says you don’t need a different journey. You don’t need to quit or slow down. What you need is a different source of strength. This is the journey God chose for you—a journey you could never complete on your own. God is answering your prayers, but He’s saying: “Wake up and eat. You can’t walk out the answer to your own prayer without My strength. It will kill you.”
You can't walk out what I'm answering, what I'm making possible for your life. As the worship leader comes up, church, God has prepared something for you, and you need to eat it. God has prepared something just for you because He saved you out of this world. You're no longer a part of this world; you're no longer destined for hell. He saved you out of this world, but He calls you into a new life. He calls you onto His journey for an earthly life. Unless the heavenly journey is walked with heavenly strength, you'll just run out. At some point, in small steps and sometimes big steps, depending a little on our personality, we just want to step back from things a little bit—step back from my commitment to be a part of a body, step back from my commitment to be submitted under spiritual leadership, step back from my commitment to make my finances available for Jesus, step back from my commitment to give God unlimited time, step back from my commitment that God is allowed to move me to a different country, step back from my commitment that God is allowed to send me on a full-time mission trip even though I already have kids.
It's so easy to say, "I need to rest from that. That was for a season; I'm resting from that now," even though God says the glory of the later temple is greater than the first. In other words, the weaker you get, the more fragile you become, the higher I'm going to take you. The more I'm going to show the enemy what I can do in your weakness. God is willing, and you are called to make it. You are going to make it, but you need to wake up, not rest, because you need to eat something that heaven has prepared. Then He wakes him up again and says, "You cannot rest because the journey ahead of you is God's journey, but you need to eat what heaven has prepared." Some of you, God is trying to wake you up because your journey has been tearing you apart. Your journey is too great for you. It's too heavy, it's too costly. Some of you have already taken a step back from it. Some of you have been holding on because you know you're supposed to, but it's tearing you to pieces. God is seeking to give you supernatural strength for the journey that lies between the big moments, if you will, with God. The journey in between is where the heavenly strength is needed.
I'll read to you again, Hebrews 10:14: "For by one offering He has forever perfected those who are being sanctified." Church, don't get away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't become good at ministry. Don't become good at being a Christian, whatever that means. Don't become well-versed in the Bible, and now you know so much. Keep your focus on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Keep your focus on what heaven prepared and brought to you. When you lose focus on what heaven prepared for you and brought to you, the journey will become tiresome. It will become heavy. You'll be tempted to lay down, retire, and rest—to step back from it just a little. Today, only a little, but you'll end up in a place where God says you need to wake up because rest is not going to fix this journey.
He went in the strength of that food. Church, you're going to make it. What the Word says about the Bread of Heaven that was brought to you is that by one offering, one sacrifice, He has forever perfected. In other words, God has already done it. It's a finished work. It's fulfilled. You are made perfect by Him. This is the Bread of Heaven—the Christ. This is what heaven prepared for you—a finished work, already perfected. My journey is heavy. I make many mistakes. Sanctification, in some areas, seems to be going terribly slow, but this is what I feed on: forever perfected, even though He's working on me, forever made clean. This is what heaven prepared for me. This is what I need to feed on, or else the journey gets too hard, too heavy, too pressing. The responsibilities become too pressing.
If you stop feeding on that simple truth that only the Spirit can reveal to your heart—not your neighbor, but you—forever perfected, because that's what heaven prepared for you. You couldn't do it. You never helped. It was just brought to you. The Lord goes, "You need to wake up because this journey is too great for you. You need to go in the strength of this food. You need to focus on the Gospel that I brought unto you, my Son whom I gave to you, what He has done for you, what He has accomplished for you. You need to take it in so you can go in the strength of that food." Church, it is such a simple message: God has forever perfected me in Christ Jesus. That's where my strength is going to come from. That's where your strength is going to come from. When you feel weighed down or when your journey has become horrible or heavy or hard, that's where your strength will come from.
That simple, childlike faith that says, "I can't explain it all. I definitely don't live it all, but God has forever perfected me." How? I can only point to the cross. I don't fully understand it yet, but this is what He has done. This is what I feed on. This is where your strength will come from. This is what heaven has prepared for you. And he went in the strength of that food. Church, you're going to make it—not because the journey is doable or you become more skillful. You're going to make it because the strength of God is greater than the impossibilities you are facing.
Amen. He has given you that strength in Christ Jesus. You need to feed on Him. What that means is every day now, you have to focus, and you have to go to the Lord in the morning and throughout the day, how you used to do when you first met Him. After your first highlight moment with God, when the Spirit was poured into your heart, and for the first time in your life, you could see God has washed me out of all people. He's perfected me by the blood of Jesus.
It wasn't hard. You just wanted to pray. You did it several times throughout the day. It wasn't religious; it was a desire. And as you talked to Him, you focused on Him. But He's calling. He's trying to wake you up back to that, back to just feeding on what heaven prepared for you. Not on what other people need—He will do that through you. Not on all of your responsibilities—He'll give you the strength; they'll become easy.
He's just asking, "Wake up and feed again on what I prepared, what I've done just for you. I've forgiven you. I've washed you. I've sent my Spirit to you. I have a future for you. I'm giving you a prayer life. I'm going to teach the Word to you. I'm going to treat you as my own beloved child because I've loved you. I've made a way for you. You're not going to make it because the journey is possible but because the strength of God is greater than the impossible possibilities you face." Feed on Jesus. Would you stand with me for a moment? You know, when you are in your journey, wherever you find yourself today, no doubt you are still fully in the journey of your sanctification. But by the virtue of being in that journey, you're going to see a lot of your own failures. You're going to see a lot of your own shortcomings. You're possibly asking the Lord for a lot of change because you're seeing what's needed. But that too can become a heavy journey—a discouraging journey—where you would maybe just want to rest from this.
"Lord, I'm done." That's what Elijah said. "God, I'm done. I may as well end it right here. I don't want to anymore. The fight has left. I don't like who I'm becoming. I don't see how I'm going to make it. This journey is too great for me." And the Lord goes, "Mm-hmm, this journey is too great for you. This is what I called you on. But I want you to feed on what heaven prepared. I want you to feed on Christ and not worry so much about that journey, not worry so much about what needs to happen next. I want you to feed on Christ, and My strength will come. And when you walk in that supernatural strength, you're going to be able to go places that are impossible. You're going to be able to walk out what cannot be done. Church, heavenly food has the strength to make you into an overcomer, whatever you're facing. Whatever you're facing in your journey, whatever you cannot overcome—you've proven it because you've tried hard."
Whatever you cannot change, don't try to alter the journey. Don't try to rest right now. Don't try to retire from it. God is trying to wake you up. He knows what you need. He knows that you simply need to feed on what heaven has prepared for you. I want to invite you to pray with me as I lead you in prayer—a very simple prayer. This is what the Lord put on my heart for you:
"Lord, would you show me that I don't need to rest from my journey? I need to feed on what you've prepared, that I may go in your strength." You know, this word is not about your pastor. It's not about your neighbor. God wants you to experience what it is like when the strength of heaven fills you to walk out a life that everyone knows is impossible.
Because when they come to ask you for the hope that is in you, now you're able to tell them:
"I don't have that much, but let me tell you about my Jesus. I've been feeding on Him every day. I've been looking into this very simple Gospel that even a child can understand, and God has done everything. His strength has opened doors. His strength has made a way. His strength has kept me going. His strength has changed me. His strength keeps me going when I see sanctification is needed because He has perfected me already. That's what He did. That's what heaven prepared for a man like me. "I know I don't deserve it, but He freely gives it to all who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of Almighty God and that the Father raised Him from the grave. If you believe, then feed on Him, and the strength of heaven will deal."
-Pastor Stan Mons