Full Transcript
Wanna share something about this vision with you? In haa chapter two verse two, it says, and the Lord answered me. It’s what it says, the Lord answered me, and he said this, write the vision and make it plain on tablets. Write it, make it plain on tablets. So though he that read it may run.
And so God is calling us as a church of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the soldier in church, not, listen, we have all these churches on the heel. I, you can’t swing a stick without hitting a church here in the Carrollton area. There’s churches everywhere. Is that true? We, and we pray for those churches.
We prayed for ’em this morning in pre-service prayer. We prayed for Prestonwood. We prayed for living. And Stacy over here at Bench Street, we prayed for Freedom Life Assembly. We prayed for Parkway Hills Baptist and and we prayed for Create Church Freedom on Ron Binkley. They celebrating nine years as a church today.
And and so we pray for them, but we can’t. . Everybody else, we have to be who God’s called us to be. Amen. Amen. What is God [00:01:00] called sojourn church to be? How? How is he called us? How are we distinct and different? Not trying to be different for different sake because some people do that. We gotta be different because our product is better than your product and we’re trying to sell this and we have this and we have that.
Listen, I’m not caught up in all of that. I know that J Paul said I came and I preached Jesus and him cruc. We preach the power of the gospel message of Jesus Christ. That’s what God’s called us to do. We can’t be with everybody else, but we applaud them. We applaud them. I’m, I’ve talked to them, I’ve talked to all the church, these pastors, but what has God called sojourned to be?
What is he called sojourned to do? That’s what’s important. We can’t, and I’m just saying, and one of our apostles said, listen, if you’re gonna be like everybody else, if you’re gonna try to be like everybody else, you might as well close your doors and go join. That’s right. We’re not trying to just be different, but God’s called up we’re unique and some things that we do, and that’s what we have to stay close to.
That’s what God’s called us to do. And so before I [00:02:00] jump into the vision for the house, I’m gonna give you a fresh vision that I believe God is saying for you as a person, as a family. And this is what I’m saying, here’s a vision for you and I want you to hear. I believe that God is wanting you to cultivate your garden around you.
That’s people that you want to see coming to the kingdom in 2023. Amen. Amen. There’s some people in your life that you wanna see coming to the kingdom of God. There’s some people that you know, maybe it’s a family member, coworker, neighbor, or somebody that you’ve come in contact with that’s just on your heart, that you wanna see them come out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
And so for that, I want you to close your eyes just for a minute. Don’t peek in, show me. I’ll be doing that. When I say close your eyes, be looking around close. Close your eyes, and as you’re closing your eyes, and when you see some people that are close. You, I want you to ma in your mind’s eye picture those that are close to you.
Somebody that you know needs an encounter with the Lord, and also needs to come into the kingdom of God. This is a vision [00:03:00] for you before I hump into the vi up into the vision for the church. And after you get that person in your mind’s eye and in your vision, I want you to lift your hand.
Just lift it. I got, I know somebody. I know somebody needs an encounter with the Lord. Somebody I have somebody. I’ve been praying for somebody that I know that man, they gotta come into the kingdom of God. They need Jesus. They need them. They need an encounter. It could be even kids, it could be whoever, whatever.
It’s Raise your hand. Just raise now. Let’s pray for ’em right now, Lord, right now when Jesus name, we just pray and I want you to just silent. You don’t have to yell it out, . We’re just trying to just say their name. Just say, Lord, I’m, I wanna see ’em come. Just pray with me. I wanna see ’em coming to the.
I wanna see them saved. I want them to see them have an encounter. I wanna see a transformation Lord, right now in Jesus’s name. Now just pray with me, Lord, just outta your mind. Pray me. Lord, I’m praying that there will be an encounter, that there will be a change, that there will be something that would happen, Lord, that they would come into the kingdom of God for such a time as this, that you would bring them Lord to the bleeding side of Calvary, that they would cross over into, not only, not just existing, but they would [00:04:00] be a beacon, a light that you would set ’em on fire with your purpose and with your passion.
Lord, right now. And the name of Jesus. Some of you I’m looking at right now, you’re passionate about this. You’ve been praying for a long time. For some of you, the Lord just said that some of it is that you need to encounter with the Lord. So Lord, we just say yes to that encounter. See them coming into the kingdom of God for such a time as this, and we thank you Lord for that.
In Jesus’ name, amen. I wanna encourage you to keep praying for him. I want you to keep praying for. And push pray until something happens, can keep praying for ’em on a regular basis that they haven’t encountered with the Lord. Because that flows in that personal vision, that family vision, that individual vision flows into the vision of the church.
And here’s our vision from the first time that we, that Pastor Terry set foot to set forward to have a church in his home. And before I get started, I want every. We are, we’re 36 years old this month. Aren’t you excited about We just turned 36 years old celebrating [00:05:00] as a church. You might remember what they were doing at 36.
Anybody, you, somebody put your hand out. Some of y’all ashamed of it, some of y’all don’t. No, but I’m excited about what God had. And for that, I wanna take some time to acknowledge and honor my spiritual parents, the founding pastors of this church, pastor Terry, Susan, who said yes over in 1982. Yeah, absolutely.
Let’s celebrate God’s goodness. And his unfailing love, I wanna say to you guys in front of everybody in this house, yes, come on, let’s celebrate them because they love that , enjoy that, they love that. But as thank you I just wanna say thank you guys for saying yes. Over in 19, 19 82, but also saying yes to having people in your home and for just for opening the word and praying for people.
And that is a result of soldier and Church. We’re 36 years old today, and I believe we have many more years to go because you guys said yes. Open up your home, praying for people, and sharing the [00:06:00] word. And guess what? 36 years later, guess what we’re doing? Worship, opening the word and praying for. So the vision is what has it changed?
The vision from the beginning of Soldier and Church has been to make disciples who make a difference. That’s what God’s called us to do. We will make us make disciples who make a difference. Now, the elders would always say that’s a redundant vision. Like, why? Why is that redundant? And they would say, because if they are a disciple of Jesus Christ, they are going to make a difference.
We gonna keep on saying that because we wanna remind them that they’re gonna make a difference after they become disciples. So dec, so soldier and Church, our vision is to make disciples who make make a difference. To make disciples of sojourn no. To make disciples of Pastor Terry. Disciples of Chris.
Nope. Disciples of Jesus Christ. We wanna make disciples of Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate vision. He is the one that we’re following after. He’s the one that went to the His disciples and said, drop what you have and take up. Take up your cross [00:07:00] and follow me. And that’s what we’re saying. We our vision, our goal we can put up on the screen guys, is this, to reach as many.
To reach as many people, and here’s what that looks like. From all walks of life, from every place, from all different, I don’t care what ethnic group you are, don’t care what background. Don’t care where you’ve come from. I don’t care where you’ve been. Somebody say I’ve been at this church, I’ve been at that church.
It doesn’t matter. We want to reach as many people as we can with the gospel message of the kingdom. That kingdom message that I’ve been preaching about, the kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of God is at. Our job is to repent and believe in the gospel. We wanna reach as many people. So here’s what I wanna say.
Some people have said to me, are you a black church? Are you a predominantly white church? It don’t matter. We wanna be the church of Jesus Christ and we are be. Don’t care what color you are, don’t care where you come from. We are the church of Jesus Christ. It should look like a smorgasborg of just a bunch of different people.
Amen. Black, white doesn’t. [00:08:00] Red and yellow. Black and white. We all precious in this sight. We believe that God is bringing all people together. Amen. Amen. So let me just tell you something. Maybe let me make you a public service announcement. If you don’t like the people that are in this room and how they look, you gonna have a hard time in heaven.
You gonna have some issues in heaven. And I hope that I stay next to you in heaven and that I won’t be crazy. I’m gonna knock on your door and I’m gonna be the one that’s a menace. So if you don’t like black people, white people, no matter what it is, you gonna have a problem in heaven. I’m gonna sit there.
I’m gonna sit next to you at the marriage supper of the lamb. I’m gonna eat off your plate. I not only am I gonna eat off your plate, I’m gonna use your napkin to wipe my face after we be eating pork chops at the Barrett Supper of the lamb. I just imagine there gonna be pork chops in heaven. You know what I’m saying?
And fried chicken
that we eat. Slow . I’m looking at you, Marsha. I just wanna make sure you saw that, that we eat slow. We’re going, we going, we gonna do is slow. . I don’t know. In heaven. In heaven we gonna have [00:09:00] them Heaven bodies. You know what I’m. I was telling the Wednesday night crew and somebody asked me, they asked me is your stomach flat?
And I said, yes, but the L is silent. . Some of you guys will get that later on. We’ll get that later on in a minute. Some of y just like f l Anyway, here’s the truth. You gonna have a trouble at the Marin Shepherd the lamb? Because this is what this look. Yeah, the church should be filled with people from all different backgrounds and walks of life, all coming with one purpose and one design to meet with the creator, the one who created them and gave them vision and purpose.
And we are, that’s our job. So that’s our vision to, to reach as many people as we can from all walks of life with the gospel message of the kingdom, and help those. To disciple those people so that they can become Christlike and look like Jesus. That’s what God called us to do. That’s our vision.
But isn’t that oppression was vision? I don’t know what their vision is. Isn’t that? I don’t know what their vision is. All I know is the vi vision for Sojourn. [00:10:00] Amen. Amen. That’s what God’s called us to do. And so that’s what he called us to do. And in Acts chapter one, verse eight, it says, but you shall receive power by say power.
When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, he comes upon us. The spirit of God comes upon us. And so I heard Bill Johnson say this, he comes upon us for others, but he’s in us for us, so that we can change and be transformed. By his power and his spirit. When we do free indeed, pastor Terry and I do, free indeed, we talk about the Holy Spirit and it’s just I’m so glad that we have the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Amen. Aren’t you glad that we had the Holy Spirit? Aren’t you glad about that? Somebody, y’all like, I don’t know. I’m telling you, you need to be glad and experience the spirit of God. Somebody asked me, do you need the Holy Spirit to go to heaven? I need the Holy Spirit to go to Walmart. I need the Holy Spirit to go to the mailbox.
I need the presence of God because there’s people. And we need to be able to make, y’all know what I’m talking about? There’s people out there and they need the power of the Holy Spirit, but they need the spirit of God that’s in you. Yeah, and [00:11:00] so that’s what God, the spirit of God comes upon you and you will be my witnesses.
Same witnesses. You be a witness and no witnesses. You know what a witness is? A witness is somebody who is telling about what they have seen and what they have heard and what they have experienced. Is that true? You should be the spirit of God. He says, listen, you received the Holy Spirit. He’ll come up on you and you’ll be my witnesses, and you’ll be able to stand up and tell everybody what you have seen, what you have heard, and what you have experienced.
What have you experienced? I, this is what I’ve experienced. I was this way. I was lost and I was destitute. I didn’t have life, but all of a sudden I came into contact with Jesus and because of that, I am changed. Did you see that? I saw it. Experience it, and I. And so people would be like what must I do?
Let me tell you, you need Jesus. Amen. Paul the apostle that Meredith was talking about this morning, and he had an encounter with the Lord, and this is what I love about Paul. If you ever go back and read his account of the scriptures of how he found [00:12:00] Jesus, this is what it said. Paul goes back and he says, I saw a bright light.
And then later on in the scriptures he says, I saw a bright light, and so later on when he accounts what happened to him on the road, it says, I saw a light that was brighter than the noonday son. Each time he goes back and talks about his encounter, it gets greater and greater. That’s what it should be about us by When we witness be witnesses of Jesus, every time we talk about Jesus and we’re a witness to him, it should be greater and greater.
Why is that? Because every. With Jesus is sweeter than the day before. He takes us from glory to glory. And he calls us to go from mountaintop to mountaintop. They don’t talk about the dips in the Villa Nevada. But anyway, we go from the mountaintop to mountaintops. But the truth is that every time we talk about Jesus, we should be excited about it and share about what God has done for us.
It starts in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Now, here’s what I wanna say to you. How many of you have looked [00:13:00] around and see that we need we, we have new people coming, all that are in this? How many of you know that we’re new people in this church right now? I’m not trying to embarrass you, but if you come to the church, let’s try to come to the church.
Less than six months, just six months. I just want you to just lift your hand, just lift your hand, which just about six months, I want you to look around. In the past year, raise your hand if it’s been in the past year. Go ahead and lift your hand. Keep your other hands. Let’s give a hand to these guys that are just here.
Just God’s bringing new people. He’s bringing new people. The Bible says this that the Lord added to the church daily, those that are being saved, he’s bringing new people. Why? Because Sojo and has something to be excited about. Why? But we got a message to tell and we got somebody to talk about, and his name is Jesus.
He’s the best thing going. You can’t, talking about the economy, you can’t talk about, oh, you can talk about it, but it ain’t good news. You can’t talk about things going on in the White House unless you wanna go in your garage and find documents that are found everywhere. You wanna go in your garage and find documents.
They’re documents. I got some documents. I got some bills that they can pay too. Anyway, I got stuff that’s going on in my house. You can find out. You can talk about all the things [00:14:00] that are going on in the race war, and all these different things, and Memphis and all that stuff is all bad news.
But I wanna tell you, there is a news that’s coming from heaven, that’s coming from this church that exclaims the gospel of the Memphis of Jesus Christ. And it says that Jesus Christ is still the answer for the world today. Above him, there’s no other. Jesus Christ is still the way to the Father, and there’s no other way other than through him.
Amen. That’s good news. They call me narrow minded, but I’ll just shimmy on in there because that is the truth that God has. I’m gonna shimmy in that way because broad is a way that leads to destruction and narrow is a way that needs the Christ. So I’ll shimmy all up in there all the way. All the way, because I’m going the narrow way and this church is gonna preach.
What they call a narrow gospel. Jesus is the only way that’s right. And that’s why I believe new people are coming to this church. New people are coming. I wanna tell you some of the things that have happened here 72,000 we’re up of growth on our Instagram. 700% of people that are [00:15:00] checking out those things on Instagram.
130% growth on Facebook is growing all the time. Remember now, don’t forget about the vision. The vision is to reach as many people as we. Many people as we can. I don’t care where they’re, if they’re watching Facebook, Instagram, Insta, pop, whatever it is that their people are watching, we want to try to reach ’em.
Amen. Amen. We’ll try to reach ’em. You guys looking for, just for a second. I’m a fisherman. I love to fish. I enjoy it. Spring is coming. spring is coming for you guys that don’t fish, lemme tell you what that means. People that, that I know are fish, that fish know what that means.
My friends that are back there looking at me smiling cuz they know I like to fish and you gonna take me , Mr. Talent, you and Jack gonna take me fishing. But here’s what I know. When the water starts, When the water starts to warm, some of the bass, some of the big boys, they start coming to the top and they start using their mouth to dig for worms.
And then I show up out of the blue and I am, I’m a fisherman. I’m casting on the water just like I’m doing this morning. I’m [00:16:00] casting vision for you and I’m casting vision for you to be able to see, and the fish gonna see that lure. I love the tequila sunrise worm because I realize that when they hit that, And they fight me.
I got ’em hooked, and I’m ready to bring them to the shore. Here’s what I wanna tell you about the water that flows from the throne of God. God is stirring the waters in the earth. Amen. He’s stirring the waters in the earth. The temperature is rising in the waters, in the earth. And so some of y’all are saying, I don’t have anybody to put me down in the water.
Listen, the water is good, the water is warm. Here’s step into the water. Some of you are ankle deep. Go waist deep. Some of you that are waist deep get all the way. Some of you that can’t swim, get somebody to push you in because God is doing something to those that will walk without fear and get into the water and see what God is doing.
And I wanna say this and make this another public announcement. Come on in the water. The water is fine. It’s good to be in the water that flows from the throne of God. That brings healing and life to [00:17:00] everything that it touches. So we’re trying to reach as many people as we can. Z That’s right. That’s the sound of it,
And we made some changes to be able to do that. So I’m gonna tell you about some things that we’ve done in this church in the last, in this past year that have made us to be able to, I believe God is setting us up for a continuation of a revival. So we’ve added some two staff members, and some of you guys know that Lisa and John Hendrickson, you gotta stand up so everybody can see them.
We’ve added them as our operations director of Operat. Been here and doing a great job. Pastor Jennifer, will you and Travis stand up? How many of you love our worship’s, your pastor and what you do? Turn around to everybody. I want new people here that don’t know. She does a great job. She does an amazing job.
And I believe that God’s gonna continue. I know God brought her here and we love her. And Vanessa and I are just amazed at the worship. How many of you, you enjoyed the worship? How many of you love the fact that we Yes, we she does a great job also. Ryan, where’s Ryan Blackburn? Yeah, Ryan.
Ryan has done a great job in helping us connect and he’s helping us [00:18:00] connect with our, have our connection groups because, My great parents pastor Terry and Susan and even Rona are helping us with discipleship with our next steps. How many of you have been the next. Okay, put your hand down. That means the rest of you gonna go to next steps.
your next step is to go to next steps. , how about that? I, that’s not even in the notes. That just came to me just now, . And so you need to go to next step. It’s great because you need to know the vision. You cannot share the vision if you don’t have the vision. You can’t. You can’t tell people about what’s going on if you don’t know.
So that’s the reason why we have these things in discipleship. And also Inky and Teresa Garza. Would you guys stand? These are our. Directors, outreach directors who are accompanied us outreach and they do a great job. And I love the fact , that they are helping us with our outreach because we are to go out and be the church to the unchurch.
That’s what God’s called us to do. I am thankful this next thing I’m about to tell you is amazing. I am thankful for my wife and what she’s doing with the ladies group. With the ladies gathering place. Honey, you’re doing [00:19:00] a great job. And the only person I know can look good doing it. I’m telling you what, she looks great doing it.
I enjoyed listening to her the other night when I was tuning in for the Gathering place. She’s got a great testimony and so the women’s ministry has taken off. Now, here’s what I wanna say about the women’s ministry and the men’s ministry. Why is it that the women’s ministry is more better attendant than the men’s ministry?
So yeah, some of y’all, let’s start singing Wade in the water cuz I don’t know what’s going on. Anyway, our men’s ministry has taken off too. We’ve done a great job. Pastor Meredith. Stan, I want you guys, you doing a great job with our men’s ministry boots on the ground. You’ve done a great job with boots on the ground.
I need you to lace those boots and kick a couple of men in here so they can get in the seed. I’m just kidding. Guys, show up to our boots on the ground. Dudley’s gonna be speaking and everybody loves our next gen pastor who is not in here, is getting ready for something, but how many you love and enjoy Pastor Vernon, that’s Vernon who does a great job.
He’s does an amazing. And he asked, he’s not only doing youth, but he’s the one that came to us, didn’t even pastor Kevin and said, I want to help [00:20:00] him start our young adult ministry. And he’s done a great job. It’s growing. How many of you young adults are excited to have our young adult ministry going?
How many of you, young adults? I hear it from y’all this morning. And also we have our, some of you guys don’t know this cuz I listen, lemme just tell you guys, I want you to listen to this. I want you to listen to Pastor Chris this morning. A lot of you guys come to me sometimes and I get this a. and you go, pastor Chris, I didn’t know this was going on.
I didn’t know that y’all had this. One of the things that we are trying to get better at is communication. Everybody say communication. Communication. There’s somebody clapping about that. We’re trying to get better at it. We are trying to do the best job we can to communicate, so that’s why we have the various things where it’s.
To get information. We have announcements. We have a little bulletin you can do, you own the back of the chairs. We have different things. We’re working on it. I’ve done everything I know to do. Even I thought about doing a little airplane with the little thing in the back of the deal, in the back of the flying to get people to know that we have service and stuff.
We’re trying to do everything we can to communicate. But you guys need to know about these [00:21:00] things. Here’s something that you may not know about on Wednesday night. We have Wednesday night Live. Remember, say Wednesday night Live. Wednesday Night Live. Do you know what that is? Wednesday night Live is a Bible study that Pastor Terry and I do on Wednesday nights where we dive deep into the word and it’s only.
One hour from seven to eight, we go, we try. We try to shut it down. I know I’m long-winded, but we try to shut it down. That’s why Pastor Terry pre teaches most of it, because I’m long-winded and for Wednesday night and we dive into the word and we have ministry time, and so it’s a great place for you to connect because we have something for the youth.
We have something for Children’s, in the children’s ministry and for adults, and we want it to connect all. You don’t have relationships. You don’t know. People come on Wednesday nights, some of you are coming and dropping your kids off in the youth group, and then you drive and go home. And I’m like, you gotta come drive back and get ’em.
So why don’t you stay and do a Bible study with us for an hour and then you can go, there’s relationships here. We have different groups that are going on. Pastor Meredith has a bible study that he does called the User’s Guide to the Galaxy. No, to the [00:22:00] Bible. I’m just kidding. Use Guide to the Bible.
And I tell, he goes, pastor Christ, what do you want in that Bible study? I want you to teach him how to tear the cellophane. All the way to Revelations. I want you to teach ’em how to dive into the word, just same thing that we do, because we want you to be connected. It’s not enough. Listen to me, it’s not enough.
As your pastor, I’m telling you, it’s not enough for you to just come to church and say, I went to church this week. It’s not enough. Here’s a question. Are you engaged and connected? And only you can answer that. Only you can answer that yeah, but I’m I got things going on. We got things going on, pastor, cuz you, you don’t understand.
I need to understand. I do understand. We were in that life too. We got things going on. One of the things that’s harp, Vanessa and I in school and we got things that are going, here’s what I’m gonna tell you. What are your priorities? , you make time for the things that you want to, you wanna make time for.
Is that true? Yes. I know it got quiet in here. All of a sudden y’all laugh. Y’all ha. Oh Lord. . I’m telling the truth though. am telling you I’m Pastor Terry, try to help me with this . I like to say, I wanna challenge you, but I, he says, Chris, say, [00:23:00] I would like to invite you. To join in . That’s a father for you, isn’t it?
He goes, Trian, don’t challenge him. He goes, won’t you invite them? I’m in challenging you,
I’m in challenging you to be involved and be connected. Everybody say connected. Connected Wednesday night live, seven to eight. It’s only an hour. And we’ve also brought back our encounter service that we have. We’re having encounter service tonight. You need to be here, pastor.
Pastor Jen. We gonna have a great time tonight. We gonna get after it tonight. I’m telling you, it’s an encounter service. Why do you have an encounter service? I’m glad you. It’s in the name. We want you to have an encounter with the Lord. Our desire is that you come in here, we’re not gonna worry about necessary the clock.
We’re not gonna worry about what’s next. We are going to encounter the Lord. You throw your hands up in the air, you can worship, you can dance, you can do whatever. But we want you to have an encounter with the living God. And not just one time, but a daily encounter. But we gonna kick it [00:24:00] off the year right by worshiping the Lord.
So tonight, come tonight. What time? Six, six o’clock. Yes. knew that. I just wanna make sure you guys knew that. I don’t wanna make sure that you guys, I’m just kidding. I know it’s six o’clock and we’re gonna worship the Lord and we’re gonna do it extravagantly. And we brought back our encounter service because we want you to do the same.
Amen. Amen. Be here tonight for that all of a sudden. Not only did we bring that back, and those are things that are going on. But remember, one of the things that I’ve said as a pastor of this church is that one of our least attended meetings is our prayer meetings. We want to get back to a place because he said, my house shall be called a house of prayer.
A house of prayer. Why is it the least attended meeting that we have? I enjoy you having being on a Sunday morning, but look for the prior meetings that we have. Also, we have Ms. Linda, Nicholas want you stand, Linda, so everybody can see you. Rose. Rose stand, rose, so everybody can. And all the one, all the ladies are involved in ladies prayer and healing prayer.
Stand up. I want you guys to see this that are involved in the prayer. Just go ahead and sound and let’s give them a hand. They have been, y’all stand up. [00:25:00] We wanna give attention to that. Our prayer meetings, they pray for us. Healing prayer. Linda, have we not had people come off the street, just come off the street and get prayed for and get healed?
Yes. Have we not had that happen? We stick them flags out there. They be waving them. Come for prayer. Come for. And then people come off the streets and they get healed. I’m telling you what, tell people about it. You know what? Somebody needs to get healed. Tell ’em to come in on the first.
Right here is on the first and third on Saturdays at 2:00 PM Come, so they can be a part of it Also, the, every third Saturday at 9:00 AM we have personal freedom ministries. Pastor, pastor marriage is in charge of that. And do you know anybody in here that does not need freedom? . Exactly. Everybody needs freedom.
So we get involved. We have these things, not just to have ’em, but so that you can be involved. We’ve been some of the meetings that we’ve been able to host in this past year been some of the political meetings. That we’ve had some of you, we’ve lost some members. I’m just gonna say that we’ve lost some members because they’ve said to me, Hey, pastor Chris, we don’t like the fact that you’re political and [00:26:00] that you say political things from the pulpit.
And what have I always said? Too bad. We’re gonna be a church that stands up for what’s right. And what God is saying, and we’re gonna get involved and we’re gonna stand against those things that the world is saying. I can’t back down. I have an obligation to the Lord to be able to preach the truth of God’s word.
And it doesn’t matter what everybody else is saying. Everybody’s be quiet. Somebody even told me one time, he’s you need to wear a mask and all this stuff. Listen, I don’t mind you wearing a mask. What do whatever you need to do, but here’s what I’m saying, I’m going to stand up. We as a church, as a soldier in church, we’re gonna stand up against the tyranny and the, and what the enemy is saying.
We’re gonna speak. I don’t care if it’s the White House, your house, my house. We’re gonna stand up for the. And I’m gonna continue speaking out against these things that don’t line up. That don’t line up with the word of God. Amen. Amen. So that’s important. So we’ve been able to host those a conference we have coming up, parent Connects.
How many of you been blessed? Parents have been blessed by the Parent Connect. Raise your hand. Pastor Vernon done a great job with the Parent Connect meetings. Iran Alive. We’ve been able to host free indeed. Pastor Terry and I, [00:27:00] we have one. That we have we’re gonna host because we believe that everybody needs freedom.
One of the things that I’m excited about, I’m proud of this past year in 2022 the release of my first book shot in the Dark. It’s gone all over the country, literally all over the world, and I’m excited about that. People have somebody told me this morning, I don’t know where he is, Mr.
Bellville. He was, I did a podcast this week for Christian Men’s Network. Some of you guys know about that. Christian’s Men’s Network and I just did a podcast and out of all the podcasts that they’ve had in the last six months, the one on shot in the dark cuz just went off the charts. It just went crazy because I just found out, out this morning.
I didn’t know. So he’s oh, you gotta see it. Everybody’s is, so I’m excited about it and it’s just God is doing some great. Remember the vision is reaching many people as we can from all walks of life with the gospel message of the kingdom. And there’s avenues in ways that we do this.
One of them is our live streaming. We want to make a difference and we are making a difference, ladies and gentlemen. So when you look around, you’re just like, what’s church? Isn’t? That isn’t necessarily that big. [00:28:00] We are the church that God’s called us to do. And the Bible says in acts too that it was God that was adding daily to the church.
Those that were being. Yeah, people are coming. People are coming. Somebody here for the first time this morning and we’re glad that you’re here. We believe God brought you here, but we’re also reaching people that are here online and abroad. That’s what God’s called us to do. We’re reaching as many people as they can.
So here we go. This is the journey that he’s got us on our live streaming congregation. We’ve had 30,000 plus people live viewers on our livestream congregation. Over 1200 new subscribers just in this past year. Just in this last year, in two, in 20, 22 alone, 1200 new subscribers. The average time, they’re not just clicking on it and scrolling.
The average time is about 19 minutes that they’re watching. So they’re actually watching the they’re clicking on it and watching. Now, some of you going, pastor, is I know you preach longer than 19 minutes. be quiet. Anyway, the truth is that’s you like, no, you be quiet. If you be quiet, they would click on it a little bit longer.
Anyway, is. [00:29:00] They’re staying on for 19 minutes and a thousand people are being notified when we go. They’re asking to be notified when we go live so that we can reach ’em. Isn’t that great news? That’s great news. And you guys have been a part of that. Here’s something else. We are in 30 countries in the world.
Oh, wow. 30 countries. You hear that? This church where you sitting right now, you just I’m just standing here watching you, but 30 countries are being impacted by this gospel message of the kingdom, and here are the top five, the United States, because people need the Lord. Everybody knows people need Jesus, South Africa Canada, United Kingdom in Australia, but those are just the top five.
But we’re in 30 countries in the world and they’re listening to. The gospel message of the kingdom and they’re being impacted. Get this is crazy. Along with our YouTube congregation, the unique video viewers, 245,000 plus people are watching what is going on here at Soldier and Church here on a Sunday morning, Wednesday night, and the things that we have going on over [00:30:00] 165,000 views in the US and over 80,000 views outside the.
we’re making an impact. Say that with me. We’re making an impact. Making an impact. Over 1500 views every 24 hours, over 1500 views of people are watching. Can you imagine that even while you’re sleeping, people are watching this message that we’re that we’re releasing. And here’s look at, listen, this social media as a whole, listen at this 4.5 million video, audio and pictures and things that are being released over all over the.
Been able to make an impact over 24 million impressions on YouTube for a lifetime and over 1.5 million hours viewed on. , we are making an impact. Amen. Listen, something you need to know that, and you have contributed to that because you give and you give, and because of that you just think I’m just placing.
Don’t ever think that you’re just placing something in offering. Don’t ever think that you’re just giving just to be this is what I’m supposed to do. You are making an impact in somebody else’s [00:31:00] life. Yeah, people are being transformed and changed simply because you are giving and you see exactly the impact that we need to make.
And so here’s our vision. This is what I’m asking you to do. This is our vision to reach as many people as we can. I believe that God is saying for 2023 for us to expand the H our horizon and expand the vision to reach more people. What do you mean Pastor Christ is what I mean. We wanna make disciples who make a difference so we can reach more people, so we can make disciples so we can reach more people to make disciples to reach more.
Amen. Amen. That’s what God called us to do. We want to expand that. How many of you know that souls are worth investing? Amen. Wait, I’m gonna ask that again. How many of you believe that souls are worth investing in? The reason why you’re in the Kingdom of God today is because somebody invested in you and somebody took the time to preach or speak the message of the kingdom of God to you, and you said yes to it.
God got a hold of your heart. And we believe that right now. If you look at the world hopeless and look at the world, there’s no hope. There’s issues and things that are going on. How are we [00:32:00] going to change this nation by one Discipl? At a time, say it with me by one disciple at a time, and you do that by one soul at a time.
So I can reach this one, I can reach that one. I can reach the one around me. I can invite them to church. How many of you have invited somebody in the church in 2022? How many of you are going to invite people in church in 2023? Yes. How many of you are excited about what God’s doing here, right here at Sojo and Church?
How many? No. God’s doing some great things at Sojo and church. I know I’m gonna be crazy sometimes, but I’m telling you, the power of the Spirit happens here at this church, right? Do you see that? Do you experience that? The power of the Spirit? People walk in woo. They’re not blown away by the smell of stench and death.
They’re blown away by the power of the presence of God. That’s what we want to continue to offer. Yes, we wanna offer that when we go to your church, where we get blast. Will we go to your church? Where you gonna, what’s gonna happen? You’re going to, here’s what’s gonna happen. You’re gonna experience [00:33:00] amazing worship where we go into the throne room.
And that alone may get you even before that though, you may get one of those greeters out there with that million dollar smile, and you may just be changed by that smile when you walk in the door. Not only that, you’re gonna come and experience that, and then during the ministry time, or during the preaching or during anything, the communion or whatever our desire is, that you have a, an encounter with the Lord, that’ll change your.
Remember my job. So don’t try to tell me what my job is. My job is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. Amen. Yes. So that’s what my job is to do. And you’re gonna get that when you come here to this church. So invite people. You know what? Our best communication, not YouTube, it’s not necessarily Instagram, Insta Pop, or whatever it is that they have these days right now is going on.
You know what our best marketing is word. You. Yeah, that’s right. Word of mouth. You speaking from somebody who’s opened HTB and has to spread that. I’m telling you that you have it’s word of mouth. Yes. Give yourselves a hand. You need to tell people about Jesus, but also [00:34:00] invite people to church.
Invite somebody to church. You never know what’s gonna happen. Somebody like I don’t know how to witness in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem. Say, you don’t gotta take ’em to Jerusalem or Judea. Say 40 41 Marsh Lane is a church and they play and they have great things going on there. Would you go with me?
Really? Yes. Come on. How hard was that? You invite people to church. That’s right. But here’s what I wanna ask you. I wanna say this to you, and I’m almost done. When we were, when I was a kid, I used to go with my father. and he would, I would hunt with him. And it was one of the great things, I was just able to go with him this past week to preach at his church.
And I asked him if I could have, he’s got a 30, 30 marlin lever action that I wanted because my grandfather had it. And then I hunted with my dad and he would say to me, he goes, Chris, do you see? Do you see the game? Do you see? And I’d be like, dad, I can’t see it. He goes, can you see it? I go, I don’t see.
He goes, look to the right and then look to the left. And I would look and I still couldn’t see it. So this is what my. , he would step behind me and he would point, he goes, do you see it now? And I’d be like, I can [00:35:00] see it. I can see what you were looking at. So he would step from not beside me, not in front of me, because I was walking behind him.
He stepped behind me and he got behind and showed me the vision. Here’s what I’m asking you to do. To get behind the vision. Get behind the vision so that you can see more souls coming into the kingdom for such a time as this. I’m asking you to get behind it in. And I’m also gonna ask you to get behind it financially, cuz there’s some things that we need, there’s some things that’s going on that we need.
Here’s one of ’em, here’s something that we need. I’m gonna, I’m gonna give you, I’m gonna give you guys as you ready for this. Are you all ready? Here’s some things that we need. We need new screens. And let me tell you why these are old projector screens and this is what it looks like right here.
These screens are prejudiced and they don’t like black people. They don’t like black folks. They don’t, we gotta change out these screens and get new L e D screens on the side and in the back because they just prejudice. They don’t like [00:36:00] black people. Pastor Vernon, come up here. Come up here, pastor Vernon, everybody get Pastor Vernon here.
This just, this is what’s going on. We don’t wanna look like that . We need some help. So here’s what I wanna. For a dollar a day, you can help us get some screens from $5 a day or whatever it is you wanna do. You can get us some new L e D screens and so that we can reach more people and we can only not reach more people.
But I want to tell you that I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day. Black people and white people and everybody will be able to walk into the house of God and see us for who we are. I’m asking that you would not judge us by the con, the color of our skin, but the content of our L e D screens.
I’m asking you if you will, I have a dream that those from the back into the front and from the side to side and everybody in the middle. [00:37:00] A piece of the vision so that we can get new screens. Can I get a witness? Can everybody say new screens? New screens? Can you say it like your meaning, say New screens.
Screens. Oh, yes. I’m asking you anyway. I’m done. Okay.
all that to say we need new screens, , all that to say, so they’re expensive. How many, the cost of everything is going up. Anybody know what I’m talking about? Everything is going up. So we need new screens, we need new cameras. These cameras are about 10 years old. All well, eight years old. We need we are not going back to projectors because they project racism.
We’re not going back to, we’re not going back to proj. They projecting. They projecting racism and we don’t wanna do that. Here at this church. And so therefore, we’re not, we need new screen, we need new cameras. We need work done in the parking lot. Our parking lot needs work for more people to be able to come.
Remember all this is about bringing [00:38:00] new people, more people so that we can make disciples so that we can reach more people, so that we can make disciples. That’s what it’s about. We we need some things done in the children’s ministry department. There’s also, there’s always things that we need to do and we really.
For money except for the youth when they get ready to go on the trip. But I believe that God is asking you to get behind this vision. Vanessa and I are praying about what we are going to give, and we’re asking you to pray as well, to get behind the vision and sow seeds into souls because souls are important.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Many of you guys don’t know this, but everything you give to this church, we take 15% and we give it. Oh, we tithe it, we give it away. I tell other people, other churches that, that, and they go, what? Y’all give it away? I go, yeah we tithe off the tithe. They go, why do you do that? Because we wanna be blessed, because we know that God has blessed us.
This building that you’re sitting in has paid off because God is good. He has blessed us. He’s done great things for us. And so I’m asking you to pray about how you’re gonna [00:39:00] invest in the kingdom prayerfully. Physically, financially, how are you going to invest in the kingdom? So to do I’m gonna help you, honey.
You hand me. We’re gonna raffle off some eggs this morning. . Why y’all laughing? We’re gonna raffle off some eggs because eggs. About $8 a garden right now. Right now? Right now. So right now. So here we go. Now we get over for four, five here. 45. And we’re gonna be, oh, sold right back here in the bag.
Jacks out right here, sold $245,000 to Pastor Kevin for eggs right now. Vanessa goes, you should take one egg off. And Vanessa goes, take one egg out and raffle it so that, cuz they’re expensive right now. But these are not just any kind of eggs. These eggs, if you buy these eggs, if you get these eggs right here, you might get salmonella.
So I’m just saying these are just special eggs. Listen, I’m halfway. I know that the price of everything is going up and there’s inflation and there’s all kind of stuff. Then the [00:40:00] economy you’re probably hearing things from the government saying that they, we’ve hit our debt ceiling, which actually we hit it a long time ago, , but they’re just saying we were in trouble.
Oh really? You didn’t see that? Anyway. Hated for a financial, But I’m believing for a land of Goshen wherever’s affecting everybody else, but the ones who continue to stay in God’s economy, that will be blessed as you realize it. It’s not yours anyway. And that you pray about how you’re gonna give. It’s hiss.
It’s all hiss. Amen. Amen. So I’m asking you to financially get behind the vision, investing in souls, and we next week we’ll get back to preaching on the kingdom. But you know what? This is a kingdom message right here. It says, we’re talking about investing in the kingdom. This is a kingdom message.
How many of you guys are willing to get behind the vision and pray about that? How many of you’ll do that? Raise your hand if you’ll do that. You’ll pray about it. Okay. Good.