Well, well, well. Good morning, church. Uh, come on. We can do better than that.
Good morning, Champion Center. How many of you glad to be in church today?
I just want to remind all of you who are new here, maybe you came for the first time on Easter, maybe somebody brought you recently to our church, uh, to not
miss out on that church essentials. I know we already uh we already mentioned it, but the Bible says those who are
planted in the house of the Lord will flourish.
They will flourish. And it says in old age, they’ll still be fat and flourishing.
That doesn’t mean physically fat. That means you will be spiritually wellfed, nurtured, taken care of. So, if you’re a
believer today, God’s plan is for you to get planted in the house of God. Amen.
Today is uh a a a great day. It’s a great weekend. It’s a great Sunday, but
it’s also the beginning of best summer ever.
And there’s a lot of great things that are going to happen here throughout the summer. and turn and tell your neighbor right now. Say, “Get ready.”
Tell your neighbor, “Don’t miss out.” Say, “It’s on the way.” I always like to talk about this, as you
know, because I I do realize that people wait for sunshine to get out on the boats and to take a little getaway. And
uh that’s all good. That’s fine. I’m not trying to stop you from that. But when you’re not out of town, be in church.
Let’s stay strong. Let’s stay fired up.
Let’s have a great summer. Not just on the water, but in the house of God. Amen.
Okay.
Say with me, “My heart’s open.” My heart’s open. My mind’s ready. My mind’s ready. Make me better, God. Make me better.
By your word. I receive it. I believe it.
I won’t be the same again. in Jesus name. Shout out to everybody in Yakamal today.
The new building is on the way.
You’re going to I they’re screaming right now in Yakama. They’re hollering like it’s on the way. Like it won’t be long now.
Hello to everybody in Dupont. Hello to everybody in Belleview today. Hello at all of our locations. uh I’m sorry
online location today and hello to everybody of course right here in Tacoma.
I want to talk to you today u uh just out of my heart this week just some things that I felt like the Lord was
saying to me to say to you and I want to just begin with a question and ask you today. Is there anything significant in
your life that has been lost or stolen?
Anything that is meaningful.
I’m talking about something beyond a set of keys or a pair of sunglasses that you lost along the way.
Have you had a job loss, a financial loss? Have you had a relationship loss, a loss of credibility, a loss of time?
I know I have.
In fact, I’m I’m trying to help another pastor right now who at no fault of his own has seen his church become divided.
And the strife has been so real that there was nothing that he could do.
And you might say, “Well, he must have done something wrong.” No, you don’t have to do anything wrong to experience loss.
You can live in a good neighborhood, your house be locked, and still get robbed.
Scripture says that the thief, Jesus says in John 10:10 that the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
You might be thinking right now about your own life. And when I ask you that question, you might have had something pop in your head head immediately.
And maybe it’s on the forefront of your mind or maybe it’s been on the back of your mind. But as I talk about it today, I’m
just asking you to allow the Holy Spirit to talk to you. I believe God’s got a word for you today.
And we’re going to begin in 1st Samuel chapter 30, which is one of the most amazing stories
of restoration in the whole Bible.
Let me give you a little background to it before I start reading the verses.
David was living in a fortress in a place called Ziglag. You want to say that? Ziglag.
Ziglag sounds like a little country town or something in Arkansas.
I don’t know. But it was an outpost. It wasn’t really even a a city. And I won’t get into all the dynamics there, but he
was definitely uh having to hide out and another king other than his own king had
allowed him to have this outpost where he and his family and some of those who were close to him could be. So he’s in Ziglag.
He and his men were away when enemy soldiers attacked Ziglag.
setting it on fire. And also they took the men and the women and the children captive.
Took the the wives of the soldiers who were with David.
Took the wives, took their children, their babies, took their livestock.
And here’s how it reads in 1st Samuel 30:3. It says, “When David and his men
returned to Ziglag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken
captive.” So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep.
These were not just some 12-year-old girls who had their heart broken. These are grown men who were warriors.
And the Bible says they wept until they had no strength left
to weep. Verse six says, “David was greatly distressed
because the men were talking of stoning him.”
Each one was bitter in his spirit because he had lost his family. They had
lost their families. They lost their sons and their daughters.
But it says David found strength in the Lord his God.
There was no way to put a positive spin on what had happened in Ziglag that day.
Just no way to make something good in the moment.
It was it was nothing but a huge setback
that seemed very hopeless kind of thing that you you’re like how
how can this happen? How can this be happening? You go into shock. That’s what it was like that day. And I want to
say to you today that you can’t change what’s already happened.
I want you to hear me. You can’t change what’s already happened. I said you
can’t change what’s already happened. No amount of
positivity, no amount of cheerful words for them. And Ziglag, there’s nothing
that they could do to change what was done. They couldn’t rewind the clock.
They couldn’t undo what was done.
And I think that all of us today can relate to that.
You know, wishing that you could have a doover. Amateur golf, we call it a mulligan.
If you could just whoop, that’s that never happened.
And hit the ball again. Same score. That nothing really happened.
the financial loss, the marriage loss, the family loss, the loss of credibility, the loss of a job, the loss of a home that we wanted to live in.
Maybe we caused it.
Maybe we didn’t. You know, the men were blaming David that day.
May maybe it was our fault. Maybe it was your fault. But maybe it wasn’t.
Either way, our life was impacted. Your life was impacted. That’s right.
And the grief and the pain is real.
You can’t change what’s already happened, but you can choose how you respond.
I read it to you. It says they all wept.
They mourned the loss. But then some of the men responded to the loss by blaming David. It’s David’s fault.
David’s the reason this happened to us.
And can I just tell you that blaming someone, it it’s very common for people to do that in the time of
loss or crisis, but blaming someone might make you feel better, but it doesn’t make anything better.
And there’s a lot of victim mindset.
It’s very popular today. People don’t call it out in one another. They just let it go. may not even recognize it in
your own life. Playing the victim might make you feel like there’s nothing you can do. But I
want to tell you today, let’s get honest. There’s always something you can do.
We don’t choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we respond to it. You’re never helpless.
I said you’re never helpless. I said, “You’re never helpless.
You’ve always got the next move.” And playing the victim means staying the victim.
Now, can I just tell somebody today? You need to hear this. You’ll never get your power back if you play the victim.
If you don’t know what victim mindset sounds like, like leave here saying, “I’m going to go find out what Pastor
Kevin was talking about.” Like, if you don’t know what it sounds like, you might need to look it up. Figure it out.
Listen to yourself talk. Listen to the people around you talk. because we don’t really call it out much in life unless
you’re really really close to somebody and you get to say, “Wait a minute, you’re playing the victim.” It’s just common. People play the victim and when we play the victim, we stay the victim.
Nothing positive happens when we play the blame game or the victim game.
Nothing positive happens.
But there’s one bright part of this story that we can learn from and that is that the scripture says that David strengthened himself in the Lord.
And the King James version says it like this. It says David encouraged himself in the Lord.
David encourage himself in the Lord.
Now, the only way that you can encourage yourself is to tell yourself encouraging things.
That’s the only way you can. It’s not a brain twister.
It’s just simple truth.
Some of y’all like, “Wait, wait. I I got to think about that.
The only way you can encourage yourself is to tell yourself. So that means David talked to himself in an encouraging way.
While we don’t really know exactly what he said that day, we can remember that David is the psalmist.
So by reading the Psalms and knowing the Psalms, we get an idea.
of how he would have talked to himself just by looking at his writings in the Psalms
and and I’ve got a few of them on the screen. I want to just this gives us an idea of what he did when he encouraged himself. He wrote in Psalms 91, “I will
save the Lord. He is my refuge, my fortress, my God. In him will I trust. I
will say of the Lord. I will say of the Lord.
They want to they want to get rid of me right now. They want to blame me right now. I’ve lost everything. Part of me wants just to die right now
and say it’s all over. But I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge. He is my fortress. He is my strength.
Or another psalm would be for by you, oh Lord, I can run against a troop and by my God I can leap over a wall.
It’s God who arms me with Can you see him just I don’t know if he’s pacing? I don’t know. Tears have flowed down into his beard.
And on that day, he’s at he’s trying to cope with the reality of this traumatic experience he’s just had. And he’s
saying that it’s God who arms me with strength in moments like this. He makes
my way perfect, makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He sets me on high
places. He teaches my hands to make war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. Your right hand has held me up.
Your gentleness has made me great.
I am not the scum of the earth right now. I am not just a piece of trash right now. Piece of garbage right now.
Your gentleness has made me great. I am great in the Lord my God.
Come on. Are we learning today? This is what it sounds like to encourage yourself in the Lord.
Another Psalm, Psalm 71, you’ve allowed me, this speaks right to that moment.
You’ve allowed me to suffer much hardship,
but you’ll restore me to life again, and you’ll lift me up from the depths of the earth.
You’ll restore me.
You’ll restore me even to greater honor.
and you will comfort me. I know you will.
It doesn’t feel like it right now, but I know you will. What are you saying, Pastor Kevin? I’m telling you today, I’m just reminding you today, you can’t
change what’s already happened. But you can choose to change the self-t talk, the selfdefeating
internal dialogue that has lingered far too long in your own heart and mind.
that dialogue from that bad experience, that that day when you lost something really significant, some something very
meaningful got got stolen from you and you’ve never had it again. You’ve never you you’ve never you you’ve never been
able to feel the same way again. You you’ve never you’ve never really recovered from it. And so all of your internal dialogue and some of you are
right where I’m describing, you are there right now today. And I want to say to you, you won’t experience God’s
restoration power in your life until you start to encourage yourself in the Lord.
Regardless of what losses you’re having right now or losses you’ve already had in your life, I want you to encourage yourself today.
Like, can we do this together? Because we’ve all had losses. Some are fresher, some are more raw.
Some of you right now, you’re really like like you’re you’re at the you’re in the middle of it now. Some of you just know that happened to me and I’ve never
been the same since. And but we all we all can can we just like start today
to encourage oursel? Is that okay? Can Can I Can I like encourage you to
encourage yourself? I’m glad I get to encourage you, but can you encourage yourself when the service is over? Will
you start to encourage yourself? This is the only way you’re going to have restoration in your life. You got to
start with encouraging yourself in the Lord.
Can we start today to like connect our faith to his promises of restoration?
Somebody say, “I can.” I can.
Somebody join me and say, “Let’s do it.” Let’s do it. Let’s say let let let’s make it happen. Let’s make it happen.
Say self be encouraged. Be encouraged. God is with me. God is for me.
God is on my side. I am strong in the Lord. In the power of his might.
No weapon formed against me. Will prosper. I’m going to keep talking like this.
I’m going to keep speaking this way.
My God will restore. My God will restore everything that the enemy has stolen
out of my life in Jesus name. Oh, I feel encouragement like right now in the room.
So, first David encouraged himself in the Lord. But let’s look at let’s look at what he did next. Okay.
It says in verse 8, “And David inquired of the Lord,
shall I pursue this raiding party?” So he’s encouraging himself in the way I’ve just described.
And then he just turns his face toward heaven and he says, “God, should I go after this?
Will I overtake them?
Pursue them.” God answered, “You will certainly overtake them and
succeed in the rescue.” I I don’t know. I doubt that it was an
audible voice, but you know what it’s like to have God talk to you.
And David David got an answer back from heaven
telling him, “Go get it back.” You want to say that with me? Go get it back.
Go get it back.
Let’s say it a couple times. Go get it back. Say it again. Go get it back. Go get it back.
In the middle of this heartbreaking loss, David had a decision to make.
What’s my response to this loss?
Do I do I live with this loss? Do I accept it as fate?
Do I accept that there’s nothing I can do now?
Do I do I stay or do I go? Like the old song like do I stay or do I go?
Scripture teaches us that our enemy, the devil, comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
And he will do that by deception, by sin.
Have you ever watched somebody call a magician, slide of hand, and they made something appear and
disappear and you’re like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That didn’t really just like happen.” Like it’s like your eyes are like you’re you’re you’re you’re deceived. Like you’re fooled.
You’re watching one thing happen and then somehow something else slide a hand. They call it like like you could vow like like no that that was real.
There was no trickery in that. There couldn’t be. I saw both his hands. I saw everything going on. There’s no trick.
That’s like it was there and now it’s gone. There was an apple under that dish and it’s gone now.
You we’ve all seen that, right? Deception is very powerful.
It happens to all of us.
And your enemy will by deception, by sin, through your through anger, emotions
like anger, bad choices, your own bad choice, and other people’s bad choices
steal from us what what God intended for us to have.
Are you hearing me today?
possessions that are yours, people that are yours.
They they they were your friend. They were they were your relative.
They were a person you really trusted.
properties that is ours.
We all have the same opportunity that David had that day to decide, will I stay or will I go?
I’m trying to talk you into going today.
trying to tell some of you, you have sat, you have stayed, and nothing’s changing. You have mourned way too long.
You not only allowed it to be an event in your life that broke your heart, you’ve turned it into the story of your life.
And God told David, “Go get it back.
Go take back what your enemy stole from you.” Now, I want you to notice God wasn’t going to go get David’s stuff back for him.
He didn’t say, “Okay, hey, wait right here. You prayed and you want it back, so wait right here.
I’ll go get I’ll go get your stuff back for you.” He didn’t say that.
And I think a lot of people need to realize this. God’s a good God.
God will go with us, but he won’t go get your stuff for you.
Oh, but he’s a miracle worker. You’re right. He can part the sea in front of you. He can defeat the armies that are against you.
He can open up doors you can’t open on your own. He’s a great God.
He’s a miracle working God, but we’re always part
of the will of God happening in our life. We’re not a bystander to our own life.
I said we’re not a bystander to our own life.
We partner with God for his will to be done in our life.
So the good news is if you go to verse 18 in this story that I’ve been sharing with you, it says David recovered everything.
Somebody shout everything. Everything.
He recovered everything that the Amalocites had taken, including his two wives. Nothing was
missing, young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken.
David brought everything back.
You see why I’m calling it one of the greatest stories, if not the greatest story of restoration in the Bible?
because he didn’t bring part of it back.
They weren’t going through the the list of children and and little Samuel was missing and and and Katie wasn’t there.
No, Samuel was there and Katie was there. Every every lost child was
recovered. David recovered everything. I just love this. David recovered everything.
Everything. Imagine. Imagine nothing was missing. That’s a miracle.
Talk about being restored.
It doesn’t get any better than that. And let me just tell you something.
According to the American Fund Recovery, this is 2026,
more than $70 billion in unclaimed property is being held nationwide.
This affects about 1 in7 Americans or roughly 33 million people right now.
The American Fund Association with within the context of government and so forth has all of that.
And I believe there’s a lot of there’s not only a lot of unclaimed millions
of property and possessions
and and resources and money. But I also believe that there’s a lot of unclaimed,
stolen, lost blessings
and favor and benefits and property
and people that won’t come back into your life unless you go get it.
Now, here’s I’m going to I’m going to answer questions some of you are having like you’re like, “Well, there’s way too much water under the bread. I can’t go back and get.” Whether it’s something physical, emotional, or spiritual.
It can be your self-worth. It can be your dignity. Are you hearing me?
It can be your purpose in life. It can be your joy. True.
Sometimes we get back exactly what we lost
and sometimes we get back something that replaces what we lost.
But if we go get it back, we always get more than we lost.
That wasn’t a very good clap right there. Somebody Somebody excited about getting it back.
Did you catch that?
It may not be that friend, but it’ll be two other better friends.
It’ll be two that would never do to you what that one did.
It may not be that husband.
Oh, I can feel the temperature rising in the room right now. It may not be that wife. It may not be that person, but God is a restorer.
God brings back into your life.
Everything that the enemy has stolen from you.
And I’m telling you as a pastor, I started by telling you today that I’m helping right now one pastor friend, but I’ve helped many over years of dealing
with loss. And I’m able, thank God, you know, at my at my very young age.
I’m not just beginning down this road of ministry. And pastors have losses, things you pray for, people you love,
people, and then they’re just gone out of your life. And this pastor I’m I’m helping right now, his heart is broken.
He wants to give up. He doesn’t ever want to do ministry again. He never wants to have confidence or faith in people or trust people around him again.
and at no fault of his own, here he is with this the broken elements of his own heart and trust and confidence and
faith. And I’m saying from my own experience to him, I’m telling you, if you if you can just encourage yourself,
I if you can just recognize God’s goodness and blessing and favor in your life, God will give you back not just in
amounts of what you lost. He will give you back more. I said he will give you back more. He will give you back more.
God is a restorer. Come on. God restores.
Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. You feeling this today? Come on. Somebody giving witness in your heart to this today.
You can stand at every location. And just stand with me. The enemy isn’t going to bring something back to you that you haven’t laid claim to.
So maybe you’ve heard a little phrase.
It’s usually used in a critical way, but I I’m going to use it in a positive way. Name it and claim it.
I say that because some people like point fingers at, you know, a a Pentecostal faithfilled pastor or person
who’s like naming it and claiming something, you know, and they’re like, “You can’t just name it and claim it.” Well, sometimes you can.
And when it comes to things that the enemy stole, name it. Like, name it. You ripped me off. You You have taken away
time from me. You have taken away things that were meaningful in my life. And I am going to get it back with the power
of God, the goodness of God. I am not going to sit here. I am not going to sit here. I’m going to name it. I’m going to
claim it. I’m going to hold you accountable, enemy. Not just for you, but for the kingdom.
The mission of Jesus. Can we like talk? It was all about restoration.
It’s like the father looked at the son like he’s like, “You got to go get it back.” The serpent, the devil came
and he deceived humankind.
I need you to go get it back.
Jesus came to restore fallen, broken humanity. Do you hear what I’m saying?
Like this is like an incredible part of being a believer today is to not sit there and stay in that place of
heartbreak and brokenness. You don’t have to. Let’s call the earth the Lord’s.
Let’s call it the Lord’s.
That belongs to God. That belongs to God. This belongs to God in Jesus name.
We’re going after this. We’re going after that.
Going after that, those families and those people, everybody who has the name of the Lord on their life. All my children born and unborn in Jesus name.
I lay claim to them in the name of the Lord.
I speak to the north. I speak to the south. I speak to the east. I speak to the west. Surrender the people that
belong to God in Jesus name. I’m coming after you. We’re going to get it back. We’re going to get it back in Deont. We’re going to get it back in Yakamal.
We’re going to get it back in Bel. We’re going to get it back in Tacoma.
Okay. I thought it’d be fun today to do a little throwback. I’m not sure how this is going to go, but let’s have fun
anyway. like it just like an old song that most of you have never probably heard, but boy, it fits my message
really good. Like if you got a little like this in you, like a little bit of that in you, I’ve
asked the team like they’re going to sing this song. Don’t anybody leaves.
Church isn’t over. I just thought I’d cap this off with a little song, a fun one. Like a You got it, Haley? We got it.
You ready to help me out today?
Here we go, girls. Oh, I went to the enemy’s camp and I took back what he
stole from me. Oh yes, I took back what he sto
to what he stole from me. Oh, I went to the enemy’s camp and I I took back what he stole from me. He’s under my feet.
He’s under my feet. He’s under my feet.
He’s under my feet. Oh, Satan is under my feet. Yeah.
Come on. Let’s give him a hand today. Like, that’s last minute. Let’s do it.
I don’t know where you can get that. We could cut a record or something today.
make a little tape and send it home with you. I don’t know. We just we we we got to get inspired. We got to encourage oursel. I don’t want this to just be a
sermon. I want I want it to be your life. I want it to be like ready, set, go. I like that. Like, let’s go.
Pastors, right? God will restore everything.
I’ll get my joy back. Come on. I’ll get my confidence back. I’ll get my strength back.
I’ll get my blessing back.
I feel bad for people who like right now they’re just like, I don’t want to get too hyped up on this. I don’t want to be disappointed. Well, don’t get hyped up.
Be disappointed.
You got to sometimes you just got to fire yourself up. You got to get inspired. You got to encourage yourself in the Lord. You got to quote the word of the Lord. You got to speak it out.
Say it again. Say it again. And go on the mission if you want to have back
what you lost. Go get it. Go get it back. Can we give the Lord a great hand today? Thank the Lord. Amen.
Okay. Every head bowed, every eye closed.
In this moment, I I there are some of you that the enemy has kept you away from God, taken you away from God,
and there’s a big gulf between you and God’s plan and will for your life, and you haven’t taken any steps to cross that.
Or maybe you did and you ended up still being distant over time. I just want to pray for any anybody who wants a new
beginning in your life today and in your relationship with God. Anybody who would say, “I want to be restored
into my relationship with the Lord.” Anybody who would say, “I need God’s salvation for my life.
I want to have hope restored, faith restored, my sins to be forgiven.” If that’s you,
I’m going to ask you to boldly raise your hand at any and all of our locations. Just raise a hand. And this is the way we acknowledge God. I receive this day as my moment, my time. Good.
Hands are going out. God bless you, sir. God bless you, ma’am. God bless you. Keep your hands up just for a moment.
Good. God bless you. Wow. Thank you, Lord, for what you’re doing right now in all of the spaces, pl places. Thank
you, Lord. With your hands held high, church family, let’s just pray with everyone. Let’s say this prayer out
loud. Say, “Lord Jesus, welcome to my world. Forgive me of my sin.
Come into my life. Come into my heart and make me a new person. I receive you
now as the leader and the Lord of my life.
I am God’s property.
I belong to the Lord. I belong to the Lord. I will serve him forever in Jesus’ name. Welcome to the family of
God. Every person who prayed that prayer, God bless you.