(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

This message has been like a fire in my belly for like the last three weeks.

And the way I got the message is kind of crazy.

I know, I don't know if y'all even think about it.

Do people think about it?

How do pastors get messages?

And it's not like we're sitting in the morning, having our coffee and reading our Bible and the angel just shows up like, oh, this is what I want you to speak to the people.

My angels always sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Like in my head, say this to the people.

But it's funny though.

My son, he has an after-school thing.

He goes here to Valorous Academy.

We've got an amazing school right next door.

And there's a SOAR program, it's like a gifted program.

That's a low brag.

My kid's gifted.

But he stays after.

And so I finished up at council and I took him home and I dropped him off and I live about six minutes from here.

Well, as I'm pulling out of my driveway, God hits me with this download.

And it's like drinking from a fire hose.

So I fly the six minutes back.

I literally run into my office and I start writing.

And I get about four pages in like 10 minutes.

And since then, it's been like a fire in my belly, but it's a heavy message.

And if you would, I know this is a little different for me.

If y'all would pray with me and pray for me before we get into it, I'd really, really appreciate it.

You all mine?

Amen.

All right, Father, thank you so much for today.

God, thank you for the opportunity that we get to glorify you, God, to worship you together.

Thank you that we live in a country where men and women have given their lives for us to have this right.

God, I ask you to be with our troops.

God, I ask that you would be with us today.

God, I know that you wanna do something incredible in and through this body, God, and all the other churches across this country.

God, I ask that you would hide me behind the cross.

Lord, I come to you today fully submitted, surrendered to your word.

God, I have no agenda except to glorify your name, to magnify your name to a people.

God, I ask that you would open our ears and open our hearts, Lord.

Give us ears to hear and hearts to receive.

Soften the hard hearts in here, Lord, that they might receive your word, God, that you might be glorified.

God, let us leave here changed.

We came in one way, let us leave a different way.

God, if there's one here today that doesn't know that you are the Lord of their life, let today be the day that they surrender to your love.

God, we love you, we praise you, and all God's children say it.

Amen.

All right.

Today, I wanna talk to the people on the struggle bus.

Anybody in here on the struggle bus?

Today, you ain't gotta raise your hand.

But who are struggling with something in their lives, those that are still working out their salvation with fear and trembling.

If you're here today and your life is just peachy and everything is good, this message isn't for you, and you should probably work on your honesty, or you should start following Jesus.

If you want an easy life, don't follow Jesus.

But over the next 30 minutes, I'm probably gonna hurt somebody's feelings.

It's not my intention.

It's not my job to convict you.

That's the work of the Holy Spirit.

That is far above my pay grade.

It is my job to maintain an intimate and direct relationship with the God of the universe, so that from his word, he speaks to me, and then I give you the raw, unadulterated, filler-free message that he gave me.

Everybody with me?

Okay, so we'll get real.

The Western church as a whole, and the church today, I think that God wants to wake it up.

I've never been one of those people that's like, oh, the end is near, you know, you better get right with God, turn or burn.

Never been one of those guys, because I think it's silly.

And Revelation isn't some theological Rubik's cube for you to unpack and figure out what the date is.

That's stupid.

Jesus literally said, don't even try to figure it out.

If someone comes to you and says, the Lord has returned, don't believe them, because when I come back, there won't be a question.

Like the lightning strikes from the east to the west, you will know that I have returned.

And I'm not saying that he's coming back in two weeks, but I'm saying that it seems to be that more of the things, the little predictions that he did give us are happening now than ever before.

And for whatever reason, I don't think that the church today is the same church that your mom and your daddy went to.

I don't think that church people are the same people that they were 40, 50 years ago.

I believe that God is raising an army.

I don't think that it's the same feel good, cuddly messages, all of that stuff.

What I'm seeing more and more are other pastors that are kind of like me, that are an alarm bell.

Wake up now.

This is your opportunity.

And if you were here today and you were just exploring the claims of Christ, I want you to understand that there is a Lord that loves you ridiculously, loves you insurmountably.

He loves you scandalously.

He will chase you down with love.

And you have an opportunity today to give your life to him and begin to live a life on mission.

And if you don't, it will be you that misses out.

I'm not saying anything more than he loves you and he's offering you an opportunity.

He calls to your heart.

The word says that deep calls to deep.

He calls to our hearts.

But we as the church, we've got to wake up.

But I believe we're living in a different time.

And I think that the time for light fluffy messages is over.

We live in an age where everyone has a cell phone and everyone is a philosopher and an expert.

Everybody knows everything there is to know about everything.

If all the people that knew how the American government should work ran for office, it might work out.

If all of the couch potato football coaches actually coached the team, everybody would win the Super Bowl.

But everybody's got an opinion.

But what that does to us is that before you've had the last sip of your first cup of coffee, you've had 30 opinions pounded into your head by people that don't know what they're talking about.

And so this begins to start to stir something up in my head and begins to make me feel some kind of way.

And it gets me focused on the wrong thing.

Listen to me for a second.

It gets you focused on the wrong thing because Fox, those people lie.

CNN, those people lie.

All of the media, the media is designed to continually stir you up and keep you rage baited so that you're just angry all the time.

And you start to look at your neighbor and you start to think that they're the problem and those people over there are the problem.

We've got a five-year-old son.

We read him Dr. Seuss and the Bible.

Usually there's like 99% Psalm and the Bible.

I'm not saying that because I'm a pastor.

I'm saying that because it makes my heart so happy because that's what he wants.

At nighttime he's like, I think we need some Jesus.

If everybody got it the way my five-year-old got it, the world would be a different place.

Everybody needs some Jesus.

But you remember the Dr. Seuss story about the star belly snitches and the ones who had none upon thars?

None of y'all read Dr. Seuss.

Call your mama right now and ask her why you didn't read.

I'm just kidding.

But that's where we are.

We're so focused on all this other stuff and it ain't the work of the media, it's the work of the enemy.

The enemy trying to rock his church to sleep.

You know what though?

He's winning.

He's been winning, especially in the American church today.

He's winning.

He's rocking you and lulling you to sleep and you have no idea because we're expecting the devil to show up as the devil.

But the devil don't show up as the devil.

He knows you push him away.

The Bible says that he prays as an angel of light.

He says, oh, shh, it's uncomfortable.

If you think that Christianity and comfort have anything in common, you have lost your mind.

There is nothing more uncomfortable.

But the comfort that I do have is the knowledge that one day the King of Kings is coming back for me.

One day it won't be like this anymore.

One day all the darkness will be cast into the abyss.

But this has led more people than ever to seek the truth.

I'm gonna give you some cool statistics.

Gen Z, I am not part of Gen Z, just so we're clear.

Millennials, I'm a millennial, okay?

We're in our late 30s, we pay taxes, we have jobs, we own homes.

We have never once eaten a Tide Pod.

Okay, that's Gen Z. I'm joking.

But Gen Z, you know what Gen Z also does?

They are the most likely generation to go to church in the last four generations.

And for the first time since the empty tomb till today, the men are twice as likely as the women.

Let that get into your thinking.

The men twice as likely.

And if the church were to miss that wave, Lord, you'd be silly.

We'd miss a whole lot.

You know, it's a strange time and all the opinions that we have.

And, you know, we didn't ever believe that masculinity could ever be toxic.

You know, like I grew up with like cowboys and stuff.

And like, they were the manliest men of all time, you know?

And now the pendulum's kind of swung the other way, which is equally dangerous.

Where it's like, oh, I'm a man.

But I want to tell you, because I figured this out.

What is the most masculine thing you can do?

Men, if you'd listen to me for a second.

The most masculine thing you can do, it ain't about having big muscles, they help.

Ain't about having a big cool house, that's nice.

Ain't about having a nice Chevrolet, that really helps.

The most manly and masculine thing you can do in your life is lead your wife and your children to Christ.

The most manly thing that you can do is reflect God's love to your family and become the high priest of your home.

Listen to me for a second.

Your wife was not called to be the high priest of your home.

You were called to be the high priest of your home.

Wives, when you have a high priest in your home, let him be that.

Not because you're lesser, but because God ordained this.

Anytime that we begin to get out of step with the way God designed things, you will swim against a current that you can't handle.

You understand?

So in this, men though, that means...

And listen, we have a men's ministry that's incredible.

It's starting at the end of the month.

There's the women's ministry tonight, Unshakeable Women.

If you are a female in here, in here with an XX chromosome, I should see you this evening at four o'clock.

Some incredible things are gonna happen.

This is all about discipleship.

This isn't another women's meeting where everybody sits around and talks about how their toes hurt.

It's to take you deeper in the word because we know that we know in our knower that God is raising an army.

And if we can impact the women and we can impact the men to be the best man and the most godly of a man that you can be and the most godly woman that you can be, then the home begins to be impacted.

And you know who benefits the most?

The kids.

And so then the next generation, hell can't stop it.

Hell never got a hold on it.

Hell never could hook into it because mama and daddy went before him.

Daddy was a high priest in his house.

Daddy was a servant king.

Daddy led, daddy served.

Mama loved, mama served.

Mama was a fortress.

And that's what we wanna create here about our church.

But the Western church is asleep and tepid.

You have half the preachers on TV talking about some life of comfort, preaching some kind of a prosperity gospel.

You have the other half just using buzzwords so they can get more views.

And that's reality.

I'm not saying there's not a lot of great pastors out there.

Don't hear something I'm not saying.

I'm saying that you are incredibly blessed to sit under the pastorship of Clay Neesmith.

And I'm not saying this to butter his bread or fluff his pillow, but I'll tell you what, he don't pull any punches.

He keeps it real and he will not let you stand still.

I know because I work here.

He will find stuff for you to do.

But what's crazy is all the things that he finds for you to do, they'll grow you.

They'll make you more than you were when you walked in the building that day.

And he's challenged me and he's shown me in many ways what a real man looks like because what he is in this house more than anything is a servant.

He serves us, whether his back hurts, whether his head hurts, whether it's whatever hurts, he serves.

I woke up this morning with a shoulder injury because I slept.

You know what I'm saying?

Dude, getting old is crazy.

I used to get hurt for good reasons.

You know, like I wrecked a snowboard.

Now it's, I woke up this way.

Had a sunburn yesterday.

We went to the beach and Tasha's like the UV is one.

We don't need to leave.

You don't need sunscreen.

Moral of that story is don't listen to your wife.

That's it, I'm joking, I'm playing, I'm playing.

But listen, the first thing that I wrote down is if we're gonna wake up, if we're gonna open our ears to the living God, we're gonna have to start living a life on mission.

And I wanna break down what that means.

So write that down, a life on mission.

That's what every single one of you is called to.

Every single person that is breathing air in your lungs right now, I don't care if you're called to be a pastor, you're called to be anything, you are called to live a life of mission.

And every single one of us has the same mission.

See, a lot of times we think that serving at the church is living a life on mission, that's part.

But the church doesn't have a mission as much as the mission has a church.

Does that make sense?

Because all of us were given the same mission, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all of Jesus's commands.

Did you see the part there where he's like, bring, invite people over, all that stuff is good.

You should invite people to church.

And over the next few weeks, if you don't invite people to church, then you're just mean.

Easter's coming, and more people are gonna give their lives to Jesus than any other time this year.

We are gonna have fuller churches than we will any other time this year.

And it would be crazy if we did not capitalize on that.

But I hear so many people say, man, my faith is something that's really important to me.

My faith is a very important part of my life.

You follow Jesus, and your faith is an important part of your life?

Your faith is your life.

That is what it all is.

Everything hangs on this simple truth.

Jesus died on a cross for my sins.

He gave me life.

He was put in a grave, and on the third day, he got up and walked out, and that's the only thing I'm living on, because if you live this life on mission, there will be days and lots of them where that's the only thing you have to hold on to is that Jesus loves me, because the world won't.

You're gonna have to be uncomfortable.

But if you have your Bibles with you, I want you to turn to the book of Acts at the end of the chapter, the chapter 28.

This is after Paul's last recorded missionary journey.

He's been accused by the Jews of crimes he didn't commit.

He's been in prison for too long for crimes he didn't commit.

He's made his appeal to Caesar and has been placed on house arrest.

Chained to a Roman guard for 24 hours a day.

Write that down, that's gonna be important in a minute.

After a long and rough boat ride, we arrive in Rome in Acts 28, verse 16.

When we entered Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with the soldier who guarded him.

And as soon as he gets there, he calls the Roman Jews and he gives them an account of why he is in chains, explaining to him.

Then he spends an entire day, listen, Paul has been boat wrecked, ship wrecked, he's talked to some tribal people and been bit by a snake, all these crazy things have happened.

And then he gets to Rome, he's in chains, guarded to this dude, and day one, he's living on mission.

Day one, he spends the entire day trying to persuade them about Jesus from the law of Moses to the prophets.

Now I wanna pause here for a second because there's a lot of stuff on me and I want you to understand a simple biblical truth.

Prophets, sometimes we have a skewed view on what prophecy and prophets are.

There are two types of prophets in the Bible.

There are the Old Testament prophets, I call them capital P prophets.

Then there are New Testament, people who operate in prophecy.

Be very leery if anyone ever tells you that they are the prophet or a prophet.

I want you to understand, this is a tough teaching, but I want you to get this.

I can spend probably an hour talking to you about it, but here's one part that's this simple.

The prophets of the Old Testament were oracles of God.

Okay, they gave a message that was to all people and for all times.

That's why they're in the Bible.

Prophets of the New Testament, people who work in the gift of prophecy, those are people who have a specific message to a specific people, typically, or a specific person.

One has more authority than the other.

Both have the authority from the same place.

Does that make sense?

Y'all with me so far?

One's for all people for all times.

One's for specific place.

And now, prophecy isn't just seeing into the future.

Okay, all of us who have the living spirit of God indwelling us should be able to see around some corners, maybe see through a wall here and there, okay?

But prophecy is speaking truth from God.

That's what it means.

Sometimes that includes, hey, I can see that this might happen to you.

Sometimes it might show up as a word of knowledge.

Somebody tells you something about yourself, there's no way they could know.

Okay, all of these gifts, this is an incredible gift.

Paul even says, I speak in more tongues than all of you, but I wish that all of you had the gift of prophecy.

Because one word of prophecy edifies the entire body.

So when preachers stand up and God has given them a message, that is operating in the gift of prophecy.

This will make sense to you more in just a second.

And I want you to understand before we get into this.

So he's trying to persuade them.

And Acts 28, 24 through 27 says, some were persuaded by what he said, but others did not believe.

Disagreeing among themselves, they began to leave.

That sounds familiar.

After Paul made one statement, the Holy Spirit was right in saying to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah, when he said, go to these people and say, you will always be listening, but never understanding.

You will always be looking, but never perceiving.

For the hearts of these people have grown callous.

Everybody say callous.

Their ears are hard of hearing and they have shut their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their heart and turn and I would heal them.

Now we read this and we think, man, these Jews are dumb.

Jesus is here, or Paul's here giving them the good news of Jesus.

And they're just walking away from it.

But what if I told you that this wasn't just a message from Isaiah 6, 9, that was given to the people of Israel in 700 BC.

And it wasn't just for these Jews in 60 AD, it's a message for the church today.

We love to hear sermons.

Some of us listen to podcasts in our car.

We listen to sermon after sermon, nothing wrong with that.

That's great.

That's good stuff.

Put good things in you.

Okay, that matters.

What you have in front of your eyes and what you have in your ears, it matters.

But I would rather you shut me off or shut some other pastor off and open your Bible and read it.

I would rather you develop a hunger that was insatiable for the word of God.

I would rather you spend time in your word every single day.

Here's a stunning statistic.

In the United States of America, 87% of the homes have at least one Bible in them.

That's incredible, right?

Fires you up.

Here's the part that's not.

Less than 11% of the people who own those Bibles have read the whole thing.

Now, some of you might be in here today and you're like, you know what?

I've been a Christian for 20 years, I ain't read the whole thing either.

Numbers sounds boring.

Deuteronomy, I'm not even really sure what's happening in Leviticus.

I get it, I get it.

But read it.

Listen, the word is a living word.

This is not a cerebral book that I'll read with my mind and I interpret.

The Bible is not now, nor has it ever been open to any interpretation.

And then people say, well, it's been translated hundreds of times, all of that.

So how do I know that I'm really reading the word of God?

Because we still have the transcripts.

They didn't just disappear when we translated it, we've translated into languages that we understand better.

Because none of you guys speak Aramaic.

If you do, raise your hand.

None of you guys are fluent in Greek.

If you are, raise your hand.

But all of you are fluent in Southern.

That's why we have the NIV, okay?

Yeah, I'm waiting for the message to have the y'alls in it, you know?

And maybe throwing a little NASCAR somewhere, I'm just saying it'd be cool.

But these translations and reading your Bible, I would much rather us be a well-read people.

I would rather you test every spirit like the Bible tells you to do.

If you read the whole thing, you'd know it tells you to test every spirit.

I would, I'd love for you to challenge what I'm saying, Sunday after Sunday, and go home and say, you know what, I'm gonna read it.

I'm gonna read the chapter before the chapter.

I'm just gonna read the whole book and make sure that that dumb country boy wasn't messing with my head, okay?

I wanna see what the Word says.

And if I were to ever say something wrong, something that wasn't biblically correct, I'd love for you to raise your hand and say, nope, that's not what my Bible says.

When we can debate it, we can break it down.

I would love for us to be that well-read of a people.

And if you're sitting here like, man, I don't understand what I'm reading, there are so many tools.

There are more tools today to help you to understand the word of God than there have ever been in the history of the world.

This church and acts that changed the world, they didn't even have a Bible.

They had Paul, they had Apollos, they had Titus, they had Timothy, and they had faith.

We love to hear sermons.

And sometimes our comfort is what's crippling us.

We can get together and pray for foreign nations, but we have a hard time walking across the street to help our neighbor.

We have a hard time because we go out here in Myrtle Beach and there's homeless people, and we just don't even make eye contact.

Instead of stopping, you're a Christian.

You're supposed to reflect the love of God.

You can't stop over here by this person who might not smell the greatest, put a hand on them and pray God's very best over their life, then don't call yourself a Christian.

If you won't live on mission, if you're not actually gonna act out what the Bible tells us to do, because that's what the Bible says, my whole life should reflect Him.

Everything I do, the way I talk, the way I walk, the way I treat people, it should reflect Him.

And I know, listen, not everybody is called to stand on a stage and preach.

Not everybody is called, I'm not telling you to go down on the corner with a megaphone and tell people to turn or burn.

That's not what I'm saying, but I am saying that you have power that apparently sometimes we don't know about.

The living God, the God that lives inside of me is not less than the God outside of me.

The Holy Spirit is my God, and He chose for whatever reason, and just because of scandalous love to take up residence inside of my heart.

And so because of that, because of what Jesus has done for me, now I can come boldly into God's throne room.

I don't have to make an appointment.

I can just walk in and say, Father, I don't know what this person is going through, but God, I need you to help them.

God, I'm praying that you would move in their life.

And what if a hundred people did it?

What if a hundred people touched a hundred people?

What if a hundred people, each one of them said, you know what, I don't know what I can do, but this week I'll probably touch three people.

I'll pray over three people.

I bet you start to see chains break instead of complaining about the world because the moment that we as Christians begin to look at the world, like we have something that they don't and they're broken and we're angry with them and gosh, I just can't believe they would be like that.

You are in a dangerous place in your gospel.

You're not living it.

You're thinking about it.

You're talking about it.

And sometimes we get so caught up in minutia that isn't really living on mission.

Listen, the Bible, the devil don't care if you read your Bible.

The devil doesn't care if you go to Bible studies.

The devil cares if you start to live what you're reading.

The devil cares if you begin to take what God has spoken to you in your secret place, and you begin to exhibit that light outside of your home and inside of your home first.

Here, that part really is important.

Here, do it inside of your home first.

That means you love your husband before you love your kids.

You love your wife before you love your kids.

You love your kids before you love the neighbor, before you love anybody outside of here.

I keep things in order because that's what God said.

Not because I'm smart.

I'm not even smart enough to put this stuff together.

It's how I can be confident that it's God.

But Paul is in chains and God does more in Paul's struggle.

Write this down.

God does more in your struggle than he does in your comfort.

But we want comfort.

Like, we don't wanna be rich.

We just wanna live comfortably until we live comfortably.

Sometimes our treasure is in the wrong place.

We were called because of Christ to suffer for his name.

Now, I'm not saying go out and look for ways to suffer, but I am saying that your life should be a little uncomfortable because you're swimming against a current that is the world.

And the Bible says that the world will hate you.

If you have your Bibles, turn to 1 Peter 2.21.

Just so you know I'm telling you the truth.

Peter, after talking about suffering for Christ, says, to this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you would follow in his steps.

We're all looking for a blessing, but blessing comes after suffering.

And if we're honest, most of us want a blessing in the same place, right in our bank account.

Put my blessings there.

We are consumers of light, but we're not called to be consumers of light.

We're called to be reflectors of light.

Like this thing here on Sunday, it don't just happen.

I just want you to know, I'm just gonna kind of give you a look into the backstage.

This production that we call Valorous Church, which is not just a production, this is about 10 to 12 people who spend 40 or 60 hours in a work week putting something together, practicing transitions, practicing the instrumentals for this music, not so that we can put on some show, but so that when they get up here, they are free.

They're not thinking about their parts.

They're not thinking about their chords.

They are free to truly worship their God.

And so that way they can invite you into that worship and you just might experience the living God yourself.

All of this stuff.

And on the weekend, it takes about 50 volunteers.

And that's what we know that it takes because that's the bare minimum.

And a lot of times that's what we operate in is just kind of, we have a lot of amazing volunteers, but man, it would sure help us if we had more, if we were all living on mission together.

Does that make sense?

So it doesn't just happen, but the worship isn't an accident either.

But we're so culturally backwards sometimes that we look at all this and we believe what other people say, like, you know what, I don't like them big churches.

Big churches, not for me.

Those mega churches, man, that's just way too big over there.

And I'm not saying there's nothing wrong with a small, humble country church.

I come from a small, humble country church.

But if your church remains small and the population isn't small, something is wrong with your church.

I don't know which Bible you've been reading, but in the book of Acts, it said thousands were added to their number every day.

This ain't about numbers mattering, it's about a gospel going out into the world and life change taking place so much that people start believing something.

People's lives begin to change.

Chains begin to break.

Demons begin to fail.

I wanna see dents in the enemy's camp.

I want the enemy to shudder when the people of valorous leave this place.

Because that's the whole reason that we're valorous.

Valorous means to go into the face of danger, to do the uncomfortable things.

You know the difference between a coward and a hero?

Nothing.

On the inside, they're the exact same dude.

Both of them are terrified of dying or getting hurt.

The only difference between the hero and the coward is what they choose to do.

The hero says, you know what, I am afraid, but I'm not gonna let fear rule me.

I'm not gonna sit in this place of fear.

I'm gonna step out in faith and whatever happens, happens.

But if I go down, I'm going down, I ain't going down without a fight.

That's the way that we're called to be.

That's why we come into an arena week after week after week to strengthen, to sharpen, so that when we, the tip of the spear, leaves this property, every demon in hell ought to shut her.

We look at the big churches and all the pretty things and all the intentionality.

We're so intentional here, and I'll run our front end, and we try to appeal to all five senses.

We try to remove anything that might distract you from having an experience with God, down to the smell.

When you walk in, I want you to smell bacon, because that's a great smell, okay?

I want you to eat something good so that you're not sitting here with your belly growling, getting hangry, you know?

I want you, I want the tea to actually be sweet.

This is not New York, okay?

Pat, it's fine.

But sometimes we look at all that stuff and think, well, man, you know, and it's funny that we look at churches and think that the niceness must mean that they have something wrong.

But think about it like this.

Let's pretend for a minute that we're all multimillionaires.

It's a nice thought.

And you're looking for where you're gonna place your millions, and so you go to this place and it's a shoddy, run-down building, and nobody there is operating in excellence, and they're only there for a couple hours out of the week, and you're like, hey, okay, well, where's the vault?

And they're like, well, we have a room back here, we have shoe boxes, make sure people's money don't get mixed up together.

They're like, well, how do you protect it?

I'm like, well, we have a deadbolt on the door, and we got this old, fat lab over here.

You putting your money in there?

Would you trust them with your millions?

Would you trust it with your soul?

That's what you're entrusting when you come in here, that you'll receive a teaching that is the truth from the word of God, that you'll be around a body of like-minded people who are believing in the true word of God.

But my papa used to say that if you wanna know what's important to people, look at two things.

Where do they spend their time?

Where do they spend their money?

Less than 10% of the church tithes.

I'm not talking about $5 an offering.

Let's talk about money for a second.

I'll make you uncomfortable.

But it's the truth because it's from the word of God.

Less than 10% of the church globally tithes.

I'm not talking about $5 an offering plate.

I'm talking about a 10th, a 10th of your income.

That means if my paycheck is $1,500, $150 of that, I don't even think about that's God's money because God has requested it of me.

It is not a command from God.

It's a request, but it's a request with a caveat.

He says this one thing, test me on it.

Test me on it.

Some of us spend more money on beer and scratchers than we do in the house of God.

God's house is not supposed to be a humble abode.

Listen to me, I don't know what Bible you've been reading.

Have you ever read about the tabernacle?

That mug was covered in gold.

You ever read about Solomon's temple?

The one that God told him to build?

Top to bottom was nothing but the finest.

Jewels and gold, everything laden with not 14 carat, pure gold.

And then they had a bunch of shields that were just made out of gold because they had too much gold.

People kept bringing the gold and they're like, stop, we don't need any more gold.

If you wanna know what's important to people, look where they spend their time and look where they spend their money.

We should be giving to the house of God.

And if you're not, if you don't call valorous church home, I'm not just talking about this.

I don't get a bonus because I said this.

I'm doing this for you because God says, test me on this.

If you wanna see your finances settle down, if you wanna see your finances start to work out, put the whole tithe in the storehouse of the Lord.

He says, if you'll bring the whole tithe in the storehouse of the Lord, I will open the floodgates of heaven.

Other translations say, I will open the windows of heaven.

You will not have room to store the new grain that I give to you.

Now I'll tell you this, I've had times when I've had $2 to put in the offering because $20 is what I made that week.

I've had times when I had 2000 to put in and all of those times, cause I've been broke as a joke and I've had a little bit of money for a short amount of time because blessings aren't supposed to pull up inside of me, they're supposed to flow to me and through me, out.

I don't own any of it.

Every breath I breathe is his, the clothes I'm wearing is his, the wife I lay down next to and wake up, she's his.

The most manly thing I've ever done has helped her to understand the scripture and she's helped me to understand the scripture too.

But if you'll do it, test him on it.

Watch and see if your finances don't work out.

I know you're broke, that's okay.

You wanna be less broke, spend more on God.

Try to out give him, I promise you.

See what happens.

I guarantee if you do it for six months, you won't come back to me and be like, pastor, yep, hadn't been working out.

I've been putting the whole time in there, but it ain't been working out, guarantee.

Second thing I wrote down is growing in the struggle.

A life on mission is hard and trying to live for Jesus is hard.

But if you want a fulfilling life, an eternal one, give your life to him today.

See, the whole world is so mixed up and we're fighting against this world and they're all looking for fulfillment.

They're all looking for what'll make them happy.

And they've got it so backwards and sometimes we have it backwards too.

And they're thinking, well, man, more sex is gonna bring it to me, then I'll be happy.

I'll finally be fulfilled and more money.

And if I get the car and if I get all of this stuff, all this stuff, and I'm gonna tell you that I lived that.

And all of it, I mean, it's not like me or rich people are just like, oh gosh, this yacht is terrible.

They're not all walking around miserable, but it wasn't fulfilling.

Now, several years ago, I got a call from the Lord.

He knocked on my door.

And for the first time in 32 years, I opened the door and he walked into my life.

And then he has asked more of me than I have had since, over and over and over again.

And I make less money now than I've ever made in my entire adult life, but I am richer than I have ever been in my entire life.

They literally, they pay me here to read my Bible.

Like, see how dope that is?

This is like the dream job that I didn't know that I had.

And don't tell them I said this, but I mean, I would do this for free.

They wouldn't have to pay me a thing.

This is awesome, I love it.

I get to experience God.

I get to hear testimony after testimony after testimony.

I get to see God move because in this church, the struggle is what unites us.

And that's what I've seen in the body of Valorous Church in all these years that I've been here.

The struggle unites us.

None of us are perfect.

We're like the land of misfit toys.

All of us are here trying to find something.

It's like a hospital where people are trying to get well.

And what I have seen here is something incredible, but God gave me this word for this church.

The enemy's rocking you to sleep.

You don't realize it.

Because he knows he can't show up as the devil, you'd push him away.

He shows up as comfort.

Guys, when it rains, the numbers will be less than 300.

Will be 300 less sometimes.

Because it rained.

This book, Acts, was written about a people who didn't have a Bible, who had some apostles, and they weren't worried about the rain.

They were hoping that on their way to the house church, they didn't get murdered.

And they were hoping that the house church didn't get busted when they got there, and all of them thrown in prison or murdered.

Revelation, and it is good to have the Bible, so it's good to sit and talk about the philosophical, theological concepts of the Bible, but I would rather see us live half of it.

If we lived a quarter of it and talked less about it.

Because the book of Revelation, it was written to these people.

It's not a theological Rubik's Cube.

They didn't have time to unpack that much.

What they needed was encouragement to continue on in the face of persecution.

And sometimes that persecution is gonna come from you.

But the enemies, they're like, hey, listen, listen.

You had a long day yesterday.

You don't need to go to church today.

Shh, going back to sleep.

It doesn't to my kids too.

In my house, it's non-negotiable.

Unless you are physically dying, your bud is coming to church on Sunday morning, guaranteed.

You can ask my kids.

And I don't make them go to everything.

They're PKs, that means pastor's kids.

And they're here a lot.

Like sometimes it feels like we're just visiting home.

But Sunday, it's non-negotiable.

The Bible says, let us not neglect gathering together as some have grown accustomed to.

It's important for us to gather together to be encouraged so iron can sharpen iron so that we can go out and make a difference.

But the enemy, shh, you don't need to go.

You can have church right here.

Listen, listen, I know that the Bible says to respect your husband, okay?

But have you met him?

Shh, going back to sleep.

Listen, I know that you just read and it said to love your wife like Christ loved the church.

But he wasn't talking about your wife.

Shh, going to sleep.

Listen, I know it said bring the whole tithe in, but Lord, you so broke the power bill's overdue.

Shh, going back to sleep now.

Listen, listen, you can't save all of the people.

You can't, people are gonna think you're so weird if you're in public praying over somebody or if you do that mission or something like that.

God's gonna, people are gonna think you're weird.

Shh, go back to sleep.

God, God doesn't do the stuff that he did in the Bible anymore.

You know, like all that stuff like the apostles did when they laid hands on people and they were healed and the dead raised and the blind saw.

And remember that one time that Peter's shadow healed somebody?

Remember that time that Paul cast out a demon in anger because the girl wouldn't shut up?

That was the, oh, no, no, no, that was, that stopped.

That ceased.

Shh, go to sleep, go to sleep.

But here in this place, we saw a guy last week healed of, healed of skin cancer.

I've seen a lady whose back was crooked as a politician straightened right out.

I have seen households that were broken.

I have seen marriages.

I looked at three couples that I've counseled in the last couple of months, in the last service, sitting, holding hands.

They wouldn't even make eye contact.

That ain't because I'm cool.

I'm married 20 years.

I'm trying to figure it out.

Still haven't figured this girl out.

She's crazy.

I mean, she's awesome.

That's Jesus.

Hey, that's not me.

That's just the power of the living God working through us, but we've got to start living on mission for it.

Paul spent two years in chains.

Paul never received what the Western church would refer to as his blessing.

We have this saying, it says, blessed to be a blessing, but I wonder, would you live it?

I challenge you with that thought.

I want you to think about it for a little while.

Would you live it?

If all the blessing you ever got was never for you and always from you, if you were the blessing, but you remained in struggle while you saw others be blessed by your presence, would that be enough for you?

That's what Jesus did.

Nobody blessed him, but he blessed us.

Two years, but sometimes we get it mixed up.

See, while Paul was chained to this Roman guard in those two years, actually, I have it.

Can I have Acts 28, 30?

It says, Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house and he welcomed all who visited him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

For two years, those chains pulled Paul up because he was chained to that Roman guard.

What do you think that Roman guard heard?

24 hours a day, seven days a week, nothing but the love of Jesus.

What do you think that Roman guard went back and told his family?

What do you think that Roman guard went and told the other Roman guards when they had to go be chained to Paul?

Well, I gotta go be chained to Paul this week.

Not just that, during this two years, he writes Ephesians, he writes Philemon, he writes Philippians, and he writes Colossians, four of the seven epistles that have changed the world, Paul writes them while he's in chains, chained to a dude.

Baby, the chains weren't holding Paul down.

God used those chains to pull Paul up.

It gave Paul a voice.

Because he sat in his struggle and he suffered for the name, Paul had a voice that echoed through centuries.

Millennia now.

Sometimes we gotta stop looking at our chains as holding us back.

My chains made me who I am.

They made me something different.

We get this beautiful picture of the how.

In Hebrews 13, if you'll turn your Bibles, verses one through eight, it gives us an example that's clear, simple, and beautiful.

It's a picture of a life on mission.

Let brotherly love continue.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them.

And those who are mistreated, since you are also in the body.

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have.

For he has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.

So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper.

I will not fear what can man do to me.

Awesome place.

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you, the word of God.

Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Understanding the word isn't knowing stuff so that we can brag about how much we know.

It's reading it and understanding.

This is the stuff that changes lives.

We saw on this stage last week, the power of Jesus manifest.

We saw these people, and all they were doing was walking by with some signs.

That was carefully calculated so that it can make an impact.

It wasn't a show.

Every one of those stories was true.

That's just a few of what we've seen in this house.

What if every single one of you, when you left from here, woke up every single morning and said, God, how do you wanna use me today?

God, give me the opportunity to bless somebody today.

When you stop at the grocery store before you go and you say, God, put somebody in my way that I might bless, and we started to impact this community and this community started to impact another one, because faith is contagious.

Faith begins to work through a people and in a people, and it begins to change the landscape of the area that they're in.

But now more than ever, we have to be alert and of sober mind.

It's us that has been chosen to glorify, that God has chosen to glorify himself through, to knock the gates of hell off their hinges.

The church, that's what we're called to.

That's the whole reason that we gather so that we can make an impact.

And if you don't believe me, look at parts of the world that don't have a Christian church and look at the moral dilemma that they're in.

Just as an example, look at Iran.

I don't even understand all the stuff that's going on over there, but I know what their problem is is because they don't have any Jesus.

They have a whole lot of Islam.

Let's get controversial for a second.

They have a whole lot of Islam over there, but they don't have any Jesus.

And see, the problem is, is that Allah is not my God.

I understand that part of that Quran is the Torah, but that is not my God.

Allah is a demon.

See, they believe in this prophet that they had that showed up 300 years after Jesus, but where Jesus said, love your enemies, he said, kill the infidel.

Where Jesus said that don't hurt, to love your wife like Christ loved the church, he said to beat her.

And all of that is there.

All that ugliness is there.

But then there's this part, this part that I can't quite get over because their prophet is dead.

And their prophet's been dead for the last couple thousand years, but my God walked into a grave and walked back out on the third day.

He ain't dead.

He's still living.

He's still active.

He's still working through his people.

He is still changing the globe through a place called the local church, but we've just got to get on mission.

And the last thing that I wrote down was that he is, not was, he is the God of revival.

Our hardships, our challenges, our struggles are our witness to his power.

Everybody's undergoing a transformation.

Baby, you ain't got to be ashamed of yours.

Everybody in here has got a past.

You ain't got to be ashamed of yours.

Don't listen to the enemy lie to you and tell you that you're stalemated, that you could never, and you will never, because of your past, if they only knew.

I'm here to tell you, everybody in here knows mine.

God's still working on me.

I'm the work in progress, but man, we ain't what we used to be.

But I want you to look at your chains because your chains won't hold you down if you'll grab a hold of them and start to pull.

Pull for the living God.

The enemy wants to keep you asleep.

Too ashamed to speak, too confused to speak, too jaded to believe that miracles still happen just because some people faked them.

But God's still doing them.

We can let the chains of oppression hold us down, but it's because of my anxiety that I will not stay in fear and hide.

It is because I was an addict that I can help someone find freedom in Christ.

It's not to spite it.

It's because of pain that I can testify the miracle of the touch of God's hand.

It's because of my broken heart that I can testify about His unfading, undying, scandalous love for me.

It's because I was abused that I can say I'm not afraid anymore because I've stood 10 toes down for the God of the universe and it's Him that goes in front of me.

It's Him that's got my back.

He's got the sides and I won't be ashamed because all of my shame will fall on a grave that's still empty to this day.

That empty grave says I never, never have to be ashamed again.

I never have to have guilt in my heart again.

I've been bought and paid for and maybe you're here and you've been walking with Jesus for a while and you're on the struggle bus and you got some stuff and the devil's like you lost it.

The spirit ain't in you anymore.

Jesus knew what he was getting when he bought you and he paid the full price anyway.

Jesus knew what he was getting when he bought you but he paid the full price anyway and he knew that you would struggle.

He knew, so maybe you did.

Maybe you fell away from church.

Maybe you fell away from your faith.

That anointing didn't change, baby.

The oil's still on your head.

Now God's up there and he's like, I'm ready to pour a little bit more on it if you just get right with me.

If you just come here for a second, this ain't about judgment, this is about love.

But one thing is definite, Jesus is coming back and I don't want him to find me with an empty lamp.

I want him to find me with dirty hands.

I want him to find me working hard because he's worth it.

That's the why.

Not because some pastor told me to or because I think that it'll do something good in my life.

He died for me and I wasn't worth that.

He paid the highest price for me and I wasn't worth that.

I was nothing.

All the times that I pushed him away, all the times that I said, don't worry, Jesus, I got this, I don't need your help.

But he stood right there with me and he's standing there today with you.

If you'd give your life, live on mission, grow inside of your struggle.

Well, folks, we might just see a revival if we did that.

We might just see the American church boom.

We might just see people getting saved in the streets of North Myrtle Beach.

We might just see people praying on the beach of North Myrtle Beach.

We might just see it in the marketplace.

We might just see it anywhere.

But hear the name that is above all names.

If we went out and we told these people that, listen, you will worship God one way or another.

He will be your Lord.

He'll either be the Lord of your salvation or be the Lord of your judgment.

I'm just offering you the love side.

Come on with me.

Let me show you what real love looks like, what real church looks like.

Let me show you what being valorous really looks like because it looks like love that just won't quit.

That's what I've experienced here.

Love that just won't quit.

Too stubborn to quit sometimes.

Too ornery to quit sometimes.

But it don't quit.

Let me pray for you.

Father, thank you for today.

God, thank you that you work in and through your people.

Thank you that you wanna glorify yourself through this body, God.

God, I ask that this day, the people that have been on the fence about getting involved with your mission, Lord, that today would be the day that they would step up to the plate and say, you know what, no more of this.

I'm ready to live my life for Jesus.

God, I pray if there's one here today that doesn't know you, that today would be the day they'd stop and talk to a prayer partner.

They'd come down here boldly to one of these crosses and they would just lay all of their burden down and walk out light, Lord.

Light as a feather.

God, I pray that you would move in this place, that our spirits would swell within us.

God, I pray that this vision that you've given this church, that you've given Pastor Clay and Pastor Kim and you've given to all of us, God, I pray that it would come to fruition, but more than we could ask, think, or imagine.

God, I trust you with it.

God, I praise you for it.

I praise you in advance for the lives that will be changed.

God, we love you and we praise you.

And all God's children said.

Okay.