And I have Pastor Chris joining me up here today. But we wanted to take a moment. I wanted to take a moment before
we begin to just love on you moms. You moms do a
lot. And can I also talk to those who are just women that you may not be a
mama, but I have to tell you, you fit in this c category because you are a
lifegiving woman. Every woman was created to give
life and by just just the way God made it. That’s right. I won’t even go there today.
That’s another [Music] message. But every woman is to give life
to that house. You know, you heard the story. You’ve heard the quote. If mama’s not happy, then nobody’s happy.
And that’s why I believe God made us to be life-giving women. And so those times when I don’t feel like
giving life out into my home and be joyful, I recall that that’s what I was
created for. I was created to make a house a home. And that’s what you mamas
and you lifegiving women have done. I know the pain of it is of wanting a
child and not being able to have a child and then God did do the miracle. But I
know there’s some of you that um maybe have never become that mom or maybe you
have lost your mother in the last year or you miss your mom. She’s no longer around. During this day, count it all
joy because God has designed you to still be a lifegiving woman and keep
giving life. And we’re praying for those times when you become low because God is
still with you and he’s still still near you. I love all the mamas. You know
what? We’re in this together, okay? We’re in this together and we’re going to talk about that today along with
Pastor Chris. We have some other guests that are going to come up, but we’ve been talking about a subject. Pastor
Kevin has been talking about teaming. So, yeah. First off, I just want to say one more time, can we give it up for all
the moms in the room? We honor you today. All the
lifegivers, it’s a it’s this is going to be a great day. We’re going to be continuing talking about teeming.
Everybody say teeming. Teaming. Pastor Kevin kicked us off on a series just a couple of weeks ago. And today we’re
going to continue on this series talking about the crucial connection between family and church. The crucial
connection between family and church. And uh before we get into it, I want to welcome all of our locations. They’re
right over there in Yakima and Belleview and Dupont online right here in Tacoma.
Yeah. It’s so great to be with you. And you know, just like every family needs a
home, every family needs a church. That’s it. And that’s why we’re here. We’re going to team together. That’s it.
You know, I I uh before we get into it much further, I I wanted to share just a little bit about my story. Many of you
guys uh see me lead worship often, but I I don’t often share much of my story. I
grew up in a single single mom home, and uh my dad died when I was about a year
old. My mom got remarried two more times. And so just kind of like men in and out of my life. And my mom knew that
she had no chance to raise me on her own. I was a troublemaker. Like I was
into stuff. I was uh Yeah, I’m still a troublemaker. Pastor Kevin said it.
So, you know, I I was a I was a busy kid. That was my son on the screen and
imitating his mom, one one of the boys. And that was like him dialed back. And I was like that boy and just worse. Okay,
I was bad. And and my mom knew she didn’t have a chance to raise me on her
own. And I never heard these words come out of her mouth, but the way that she lived her life meant that she knew she
had to team with the church. And every single time the doors were open, I was there. Even when the church wasn’t open,
somehow I was still there. And it was it was it was through that
proximity of being around the body of Christ that God sent not a single father
figure. I wouldn’t say there was one man that became a father figure, but God
sent an army of men who together filled the role that a father should have
filled. [Applause]
You know, I I say this uh so many of my friends have fond memories of like mom’s home cooking. My mom worked three jobs.
I didn’t see her for long stretches of times. She wasn’t a cook, guys. I’m just telling you, I have no fond memories of
mom’s cooking. But mom but but God sent mom’s through the church, an army of moms in the church. And my best friend’s
mom’s cooking. That on the other hand was incredible. Amazing homemade Mexican
food. And uh yeah. Hey, still to this day, when I show up in town, she’ll find out where I’m staying. If it’s a hotel,
if it’s at somebody’s house, she will make me homemade tortillas and whatever else and deliver it to my house where
And I love her so much. Annie, if you’re watching this, I love you. And it was through the church. It was teeming
through the church that God filled in all those gaps. I just have to say this. When you said that other mama, we just
had oxygen, which thank you for all the volunteers and the heroes. It was an
amazing time. But Pastor Tracy King talked about we got to have some mothers
of the church, some church mamas, and that’s what she was. She was a church
mama in the house of God. I love that. That’s it. So, we’re going to continue just to share a couple more stories. Uh
mine is just one example. We’ve got a few more. Would you help me welcome our guests to the stage?
Yeah. Why don’t you jump up to your feet? Help me welcome our guests. [Music]
I I think he wore the pink in honor of his mother. That’s it. That’s only real men can wear pink%.
Uh you may be seated. So So our our goal today is to is to
talk about teameming. Our goal today is to is to find some different uh some different angles, some different
perspectives on what it looks like for the family to team with the church. And
so I want to start off with uh with Pinky over here. Uh Pink Top. Amen.
Chris, uh Chris, you grew up in the church. Why don’t you tell us just a little bit about a little bit about your
story? Absolutely. Um my name is Christopher Yayen. I am 32
years old. I was born and raised in this church with my entire family being on staff. When I mean entire family, I’m
talking aunts, uncles, cousins, you name it, they’ve been on staff here. If the
doors were open, my family was here. My life was full growing up, built on the
church and the importance of faith. When I was old enough, I jumped on a team and began to serve with my best buds and
haven’t stopped since. It wasn’t until I was 18 my life got flipped upside down. Around 18, I
confronted the fact that I was sexually abused since I was uh since the age of 10 by someone who we had essentially
adopted into our family. For the next nine years, I was in limbo, treating this place as business as usual. I lived
a double life, serving on the weekends, even going to Bible college here, then running to whatever I could to fill a
void of insecurity and anger. Broken relationships, women, alcohol, marijuana, pornography. I could never be
alone. I was trying my hardest to run from everything I had been feeling and fill it with anything but love Jesus. I
was angry at God, asking, “Why would you allow this to happen to me after all I’ve done for you?” Up until this time,
I really never made God the Lord of my life. I treated him more of like a
checkbox. After years of running, I hit rock bottom and was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I knew God in the
church was the only thing that could heal my brokenness. I started doing the hard work to get the help. I checked
into mental health therapy, started attending Celebrate Recovery, recommitted my life, got rebaptized on
April
7th. Got baptized on April 7th, 2023, and haven’t stopped daily renewing my
mind from the lies I believed about myself.
Yes. Knowing that God is my only source of constant in my life. Looking back, I can
say with confidence, I would have never been able to walk through my stuff and be who I am today if it wasn’t for the
cross, the church, and two God-fearing parents and a brother that didn’t allow what they were seeing in my life to
deter me from believing in Jesus’s grace and praying that I would find my way back into the right community.
Now, now I faithfully serve at Celebrate Recovery, active in the community and
life of the church. I became an owner of this house and I am excited to marry the
girl of my dreams, which I met
which which I met here in community. Uh we are getting Where did you meet her
at? Oh, here. Yeah, here. I no, I met her here, but it wasn’t until I was healthy. Let me tell you that. Let me
preface. Um, on May 30th of this year, we’re going to be married. Let me tell you, God truly uses it all for his
glory. [Applause]
First of all, I want to say thank you for sharing your story. Yes, I’m very
passionate about people sharing their story because your story is going to help somebody else out here that we
don’t know yet and it’s going to turn their life around and it takes a lot of boldness to do that. Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you.
Let’s keep it going. Uh Misha from our Belleview campus. Belle, make some noise. Hey Belle, I miss you guys. I
wasn’t going to share my age, but I guess we’re doing that. So, my name is Miesa. I’m 39. Woo.
The Lord restored my my youth. Uh I was born in Oregon to a fifth
generation pastor. I and I grew up in Nebraska. I’m a twin and the youngest of three. My parents divorced when I was
11. I struggled with identity and self-worth issues as a girl, and around my parents’ divorce is when I came out
as gay. Throughout middle school and high school, because of feeling different, I struggled with self harm
all over my body, suicidal ideiation, feelings of abandonment, and unworthiness of love. I would fill voids
with relationships because of it. I lived the LGBT lifestyle for 21 years, performing in gay clubs, partying, etc.,
and I found my worth and what the world thought of me. Although I was raised in the church and was in my dad’s for 17
years, I didn’t truly know God or have a personal relationship with him. I left
church for 10 years after high school. I even gave up my softball scholarship because I was chasing the wrong
relationships to fill voids of love. It wasn’t until I found Champion Center in 2015 that I attended church again. I was
baptized in 2018 and God was doing the work within me. But I wasn’t fully in the clear. I went backwards chasing the
wrong path and I walked away from church again. Champion Center had already placed mentors and strong women in my
life that picked me up during this season. A season where I was ready to give up on life and they brought me back to church. It helped create a place for
God to shift my heart and my mind completely. I found the ministry of Celebrate Recovery in 2020 where I
started working on the best sober Christ centered version of myself. My
mom with God’s with God’s help of course. Champion Center has created an environment for me to know God for
myself, to know his love, and that I’m worthy of his love. Although my lifestyle at the
Although my lifestyle and the people I hung around with were very different when I started coming here 10 years ago, I never felt unwelcomed, unloved, or
that I didn’t belong here. Because of this environment, I now have a community, a church family, and a
forever family. Come on.
Come on. I love uh I love 2 Corinthians 5:17. It says that this means that anyone who
belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone and the new life has begun.
Yeah. I um I now have five years of victory through Celebrate Recovery. I’m
a leader at Celebrate Recovery and I Yes. And I Amen. Misha is the praise and
worship leader. Is that what you call her? there in Celebrate Recovery. And
she brings people from Belleview. I mean, it’s it’s a two-hour drive uh on a
on a Tuesday night. If you’re going to go to work and then come to Celebrate Recovery, it’s it’s a long drive, but
you have made it to be the leader. You brought people, you have built your
team, but because you remember the day that it changed your life, and you’re
willing to bring other people along to see their life changed. What a beautiful testimony. Thank you for being so
bold. Sharing your story. So be I can’t I can’t wait to
dive in a little bit deeper on these stories. But let’s get one more story. Luke, born and raised right here in
Tacoma. Let’s give it up for Luke. [Applause]
My name is Luke. Uh, I’m 22 years old. I’ve been attending Champion Center for
as long as I can remember. Church was always a priority in my life. I grew up with my mom, dad, and an older brother
in what seemed like a typical home. Though, I didn’t realize its flaws until much later. When I was 12, my dad left after
another affair and everything changed. I was confused. I was angry. And I was
full of questions for God, for family, honestly, for everyone. This anger I carried,
especially toward my dad, became a driving force behind many of the struggles I would face later on. During my teen years, I juggled
church, school, a job, sports, family responsibilities, appearing to hand it
all with ease. But beneath the surface, I was already fighting internal battles, often wishing I hadn’t woken up at all.
Beginning to get really good at shutting people out from my life and keeping people at arms length. In high school, I
was a decent wrestler, and this earned me a opportunity to wrestle division one in college. Unwanted
attention led me to a string of relationships, unable to open up emotionally, and I carried pain through
each one, digging myself deeper into a hole. High school and college became a balancing act of seeking approval from
coaches, girlfriends, and friends, often at the cost of my morals. I drank to fit in, show up to practice hung over, chase
validation while hiding the truth from those closest to me. And for eight years, I lived a double life, distant
from God and even further from who I truly
was. By October 2023, the emptiness I’d been carrying finally overwhelmed me,
and I attempted to take my own life. I survived and in that moment of brokenness, God revealed himself to me
in a way I couldn’t ignore. It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t loud, but it was real. Still, I didn’t immediately torn
towards him. And that school year, I did just about anything I could distract myself from the emptiness I desperately wanted to escape. I was the furthest
from God I had ever been. Yet somehow, he kept sending people into my life. When the next fall came, I made a
decision that changed everything. I left school. I came back home. And I want to say it was a bold step of faith, but it
wasn’t. It was honestly my motives were selfish and confused. I just knew I couldn’t keep pretending. I went back
and forth trying to figure out things on my own, trying to fix myself. But the harder I tried, the more I realized I
couldn’t do it alone. In November of 2024, I walked through the doors of Celebrate Recovery,
where my life would forever change. I had an encounter with God for the first time in almost 10 years. And over the
last, I guess, eight months now, God has restored my life beyond measure. I’ve
been freed of crippling depression and anxiety I face daily. In this, there has
been restoration within my heart. Friendships I thought were
gone. Friendships I thought were gone have been restored. And the opportunities to serve
God have been presented back to me in ways I could never imagine. I now get to serve on the youth media team as a
leader, getting to lead the next generation.
All right. So, I got a question I want to ask I want to ask all three of you guys the same question here. But, uh,
all three of you guys did grow up in church and I heard a bit of a theme in your stories. And so what can you think
of one thing that your family did? I mean, it could be a couple of things, but can you can you think of something that your family did
uh that maybe at the time you weren’t super excited about, you didn’t like, you didn’t appreciate, maybe you just
didn’t understand it at the time. And uh and now as you guys are adults kind of
moving into your own paths that you look back on with nothing but nothing but gratitude, thankful for the foundation
that it planted. Does anything come to mind? Uh, church was a non-negotiable.
Um, I remember growing up there’d be days where I’d wake up tired and exhausted and I’d be like, “Man, I have to go to church.” And my dad would look
at me and he says, “No, no, no, no, no. You better fix that. You don’t have to go to church. You get to go to church.”
So, I think I think it was more of just like a he wanted me to own it and say,
“No, it’s a privilege coming here. Like, you need to own this and it’s an opportunity to serve God.” So I think
that was like a very basic thing but it I mean it is played out in so many areas of my life to where I get to come here
and serve and be a part. So very good. Luke, how about you? Uh for me it was
always like prayer. My mom my mom was always like pray on that. Take it to God
you know like oh you should probably pray about that. And you know, when I was younger, that always seemed really silly, but now I find myself praying
like almost all the time, all day, like, man, God, like that’s I don’t like how I feel right now. Can you just take that
away from me? And honestly, just that little switch works so well in my life
now. So, I’m really appreciative for her instilling that in my life at a young age. Very good. Uh my my mom and dad
would often read scriptures to me that I didn’t always agree with. I’m sure you guys can guess which ones, but I never
actually and the crazy thing is is I never actually read the Bible or what it said about a lot of things until I
became an adult and walk through the doors of CR. Um, but now I read the Bible every day. I start my day there. I
listen and I just I understand now why scripture is so important. It was so important to my parents because it’s the
foundation of our life. And my my dad used to always say, “It’s basic instructions before leaving earth.” And
I think that’s very true. So love it. Love
it. And when I while I was listening to their to their stories, I was I was
reminded about the story of Moses. And the story of Moses is that there was a
decree for all the uh Hebrew boys to be killed. And Moses’ mom saves him by
putting him in a basket and shipping him down the river. I mean, I don’t know if she knew something that everybody else
didn’t. Maybe she just planned knew that God was going to protect, but that sounds pretty scary in and of itself. Just put your baby, you know, scholars
kind of debate it, but let’s just say they most of them believe about 2 years old that that happens. Ship him down in
the river and God protects and God puts Moses in the hands of Pharaoh’s
daughter. And Pharaoh’s daughter has this brilliant idea which is planted
from God that a Hebrew woman needs to come and help with this baby. And no one
else but Moses mom is the one who was chosen to come and raise. There’s no
there there’s no ID. There’s no birth certificate. This is an act of God to protect this child. And so she begins to
nurse him and take care of him. Again, scholars think maybe the age of seven or
so where he would be fully weaned and now she’s no longer necessary and so
probably out of his life at that point. But a decade later, two decades later,
something something flipped in his brain and that a spiritual DNA had been deposited in him by the age of seven
that when the time came, this this DNA was activated to lead the children of
Israel out of Egypt. There’s something incredibly powerful about these early years. And we see it in this story of
that they might have gone astray. They might have been in Egypt, so to speak, but the DNA that their parents planted
at such a young age is the thing that now they look back on and it’s the foundation that they can build their
future. And I think if you’re taking notes, the number one thing is plant early. And don’t underestimate the
significance of planting seeds at a young age. That’s right. Even when they
don’t want you to hear, they don’t want to hear I don’t want to pray about it. I I don’t want to hear that prayer. You’re
planting the seeds into them. I have to go to church. No, you get to go to
church. That’s it. And read your Bible. I don’t want to read the Bible. And now
she’s reading the Bible. Plant the seed early. And even when they complain about
it, you keep planting that seed. And look at the harvest you see here. That’s it. That’s it. Yeah,
there was a uh there was a Bara study done that really supports this uh that roughly by the age of 7 maybe 9 years
old that that spiritual foundations are formed and then from the age of about 10
to 13 10 to 15 years old is actually all about the child either reinforcing or
rejecting whatever that worldview might have been to that point. And so I want to encourage you if you’ve got some
church kids that are in that middle age and maybe you didn’t plant seeds early,
it’s not too late. You still have an opportunity to reinforce or reject.
Again, if they didn’t have that foundation, they can reject it at this stage. And the best way to do that is in
the context of a team. It’s in the context of a team. I have so many peers
and friends that I made in in in high school who came first generation to our
youth group. And I just want to plug youth services on Wednesday night. If you have a teenager and you didn’t plant
those seeds, make it a priority. It’s not too late to start now. So start now. Uh
Misha, I want to go I want to go back to you. uh you shared uh you shared in your in your story about how um the church
gave you space to wrestle and return. Can you talk about the way that the church offered something that um either
your family couldn’t or maybe you just couldn’t hear from your family at that time?
Yeah, the church created a home for me that I felt like I could keep coming
back to. I never felt like I didn’t belong here. Um, I feel like it created
people in my life that would speak honest truth to me and course correct but with love. Uh, that I could truly
hear. Um, whereas my parents at times were just trying to change me. But here
I felt loved and I was always welcome no matter how messy my life was. I felt like I could always come through those
doors. Very good.
Let’s go to let’s go uh let’s go over to Chris. Chris, you had that that strong family
foundation. Uh kind of a similar question. Was there something that the church gave you that you just maybe
couldn’t hear from your family at that time? Accountability. Uh accountability. Um I
think for me it it gave me an opportunity to where even when I didn’t want it, I think there were times to
where people would look at me and see something in my life that I didn’t see myself. And when it’s coming from my
parents, it’d kind of shut me down. Like, I don’t want to hear that. But then when it came from like Pastor Kevin, he looked at me and he goes,
“You’re acting really dumb right now.” Or like, “What are you doing?” Or like someone that was just in the lobby and
they’re like, “Dude, you have such a calling on your life.” Like for me, that was the accountability I needed in that
season to where there was always something drawing me back no matter how far I went. So, yeah. Yeah. I I would
feel I would feel the same way. I I kind of jumped a little bit fast in in my story, but one of the things that stands
out to me now as a husband, father, and and a and an adult is the number of men
that I look back on with positive memories on are not the ones who were necessarily my best friend all the time,
right? But they were the one that kicked me in my butt whenever I needed to be kicked in my butt. They were the one that challenged me, pushed me. Hey,
don’t be lazy. Pick up that garbage. Hey, hey, come on. Work is happening. Let’s get to work. Correct. They I
couldn’t hear that from my mom. I couldn’t hear that from the the other people even in my family. I had an
uncle. I just couldn’t hear it from my family. But the church, God used the church to speak something into me that
my family just I wasn’t able to hear at the time. Correct. Correct. Uh Luke, I want to go to you. Uh when you were when
you were at your furthest from God, uh was there anything that your mom did that helped you realize that you you
still had a home? You still had a place to go back to? Yeah. Shoot. remind me that I was loved and that
um there was people that maybe I thought were maybe angry with me or that I let
down that still cared and asked about me even when I wanted nothing to do with
them. Honestly, [Applause]
you uh while while we were talking earlier this week, you shared well well just now a few moments ago, you shared
that one of the things you look back on now is the prayer, the foundation of prayer that your mom instilled into you.
Well, we were talking about this earlier this week, you shared kind of a maybe a tense moment between you and your mom
about prayer. Do you remember that? Do you remember what you said? I said, “Stop praying for
me.” It it I was so angry at a point in my life where I said, “God’s not going to do anything for me. Stop praying for
me.” And it’s by my mom’s prayers that I’m still here
alive on stage right now cuz she never gave up on me. Don’t
stop praying, moms. Don’t stop praying. Don’t stop believing for your kids. You never know what God’s doing on the other
side. So I think what I hear what I hear in this part of this of their stories is
that it again it takes a team. It takes a team to raise a child. And and it’s
not just about this idea that it takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a team. There’s a difference. There’s a
difference between a team and a village. You know, a village is a is a group of
people. It’s a group. Pastor Kevin talked about this last week. There’s a difference between a team and a group. A village is a group, a team, the body of
Christ, the family of God. That is a team that’s moving in the same direction pointing towards the kingdom
values. Don’t underestimate. Don’t underestimate. So number two is plant together. Just plant together. Come
together. Know that this church is a team for you. And that’s the most
important thing that you don’t do life alone, but do it together. And then we got the third point because we’re
running out of time. We’re having so much fun. I love their stories. It’s
amazing. But go with the third one. One one one question for all of you guys. Luke, you just kind of you just kind of
touched on it, so I’ll come right back to you. But uh was there a clear moment where uh you know, it was clear that God
was doing what only God can do at this point? Like your family, your your your all your church influences are kind of
you pushed them out. your mom’s voice, you said, “Hey, stop praying for me. God’s not going to do anything.” Was there was there maybe like a
supernatural moment that you could point back to and say, “Hey, God did what only God could do.” Yeah. um almost two years
ago when I attempted to take my own life. Um I was home alone uh back at
college and um two of my friends happened to just want to come check on
me and they found me unconscious and were able to
um you know get me back to life and revive me. And honestly, I don’t there’s
there is no no other way that would have happened without God’s hand in my life
because what are the odds, right? They would just stop by. I love that.
Very good. Chris, how about you? Uh I wouldn’t say just one. I think it was just consecutively throughout my
life of honestly I think I I’ve always had a positive attitude and it’s not
like overly optimistic. I think I’ve just had a joy that surpasses like for me it just surpass like kind of like a
peace that surpasses all understanding. You just like to have fun. Everyone knew me as like having fun and being joyful.
And I think honestly that came from even in the chaos of my life. um that came from God of just instilling that in my
world to where I didn’t let my c my circumstances determine what I was going to do. It was just something that just
flowed out of me even when I wasn’t seeking God. It was just something that flowed out of me that I think I could
only equate it to Jesus at the end of the day and from the like instillment of my parents from the church. So very
good. Very good. Quickly, Misha, did you have a moment like that? Yeah, during
COVID, early COVID, I was heavily intoxicated. I was at rock bottom. And I
hadn’t sang or heard worship in months. And all of a sudden, God just put this song on my on my heart, um, Faithful by
Elevation Worship. And I just kept hearing, “You never left me alone. You never left me alone.” And that same night, a friend from church reached out
to me and told me, “You need to you need to stop playing games. You need to come back to church.” I was too ashamed and embarrassed to come back. But finally, I
I said, you know, I don’t have anything else to lose at this point, so I’m just going to go. I showed up and it was like
I had never left. The enemy tried to steal that moment, but I came back and God God’s given me so much glory from
that. And I just want to I just want to
encourage somebody that that there’s a there comes a point where you’ve done everything that you can and now only God
can do what only God can do. And and you can continue to pray and that is that is
powerful. We’ve heard that already in this story. But there’s this element of us striving of working so hard to try to
save, try to control an outcome. But there comes a point where only God can do what only God can do. So if you find
yourself in that place today, I just want to encourage you. Trust in God. Trust in God. Remember where your
foundation is. He is our strong tower. He’s the source of our strength. And only God can do what only God can do.
There was a there was a a recent study done as well that that 51% of Gen Z is
going to live into the 22nd century. That means that we are making decisions
today that are literally about to impact the next century. That’s a crazy
thought, the 22nd century. So parents, I just want to remind you, you’re planting
good seed today for a reason. And that is because you’re about to impact the next century. And church, I want to
encourage you. You’re about to make an impact on the next century with the decisions that we make today. And it
takes the team. Yes. It takes the team to do this. That’s right. A few years
back, there was a story of 12 boys and a youth soccer coach that decided to go
exploring in a in a local cave system in Thailand. And it was just supposed to be a a day
where they have a team bonding experience. They go and they explore together. They make some memories
together and come back and and everything’s great. But just a little bit, maybe 30,
45 minutes underground and a monsoon hits out of nowhere and the cave system becomes
flooded. They’re completely stuck. They are
completely stuck. They’re over a mile into the earth and they’re
flooded. Floodwaters were rushing in and they were filling all the tunnels trapped them inside
and there was no light. There was no food. There was no way
out. And for days the outside world knew that they were inside but nobody knew if
they were alive. Right. And what started as just a a small local
search became a global, when I say global, like literally a global rescue mission. Some of you might remember this
story. This was just a few years ago. and over 10,000 people from all around
the world, including Navy Seals, British divers, engineers, medics, volunteers
from over 20 different countries, all came together as a team to save these
these boys. People came not just to dive, but
they came to cook meals. They came to be translators, to run cables, to pump water. Each person had a different role
on the team, but make no mistake about it, they were operating as a team. And
one of the first rescuers that eventually made it to the boys, he said this, “I’m the
first, but more are coming. I’m the
first, but more are [Applause]
coming.” And when things were at their worst, more were on the way.
And I just want to encourage you wherever you might be, trust that God is sending people into your children’s
lives to protect and to return your lost children. And to the church, I also want
to say more are coming. That’s you. That’s me. That’s us together as the
family of God. I love that. There’s more that are coming. And in this house where
I’m looking at right now, there are more of us that are coming to surround each
other. We’re going to lift each other up like never before. In fact, I I would like for uh all the parents, all the
parents in the room, will you stand to your feet? Mom, Dad, all the parents, stand to your feet, look at
this. I want to pray over you before we close out
here. Pastor and I wrote a book. He actually did the writing. I helped him
raise the child though. But raising champion
children and uh I told him we need to try to figure out how to bring that back because he has a chapter in there and I
meant to bring it down and and hold it up about making that crucial connection
between church and home.
I just want to prophesy today
that we need some Washington Washington politicians that
are God living. Amen. Bible believing.
[Applause] We need some parents raising some godly
teachers to go into our schools. We need some parents, and I prophesy that
they’re coming, that are going to be youth pastors, that are going to be music pastors, that are going to be
children’s pastors. I I believe that they’re in this house right now. Yes.
Pastor Haley who led praise and worship today. She’s a church kid that was dedicated here. And I believe it came
because we prophesied that there were going to be people like her. Amen. But we need more. And I believe you’re
raising them. So that stubborn child that you’re raising, that might be the pastor of the
church. Amen. that stubborn child that you’re you have in your home, you might be leading a
children’s pastor right there. Whatever that stubbornness might be, that’s a leader within that child. And I prophesy
that you’re going to have the right word at the right time. God’s going to give you the wisdom and the patience, yes,
that you need. Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray over every single mom right now.
Give that single mom wisdom at the right time when she’s
weary, when she’s had a long day. I speak that the Holy Spirit come
upon her. Give her that joy of the Lord that she needs to make it through the
night. I speak wisdom over each couple that is represented
right here. Satan, you cannot have their marriages. Yes. I speak against anything
that would come to try to get in the doorway. I speak strong marriages that
they can go together and parenting together strong. Father, the single dads
even give strength and wisdom. May they be that umbrella of
security that will protect their child and give wisdom and direction that comes from
you. Yes, God.
We prophesy that leaders are coming. We speak it and we declare it. Yes.
In Jesus’ name. In Jesus name. Now, if you look around you, I know we have some
young people that they’ll someday also be parents, but there’s some people
around you that you’re going to be teaming together. They might be sitting down,
but they’re going to be part of the team with you. Parents, you’re not in this alone.
Don’t think that you have to carry the burden alone when your daughter or your
son is going through something. Look around and see who you can go to because
we’re in this together. Father, I just speak that all of us in this house that
we don’t judge each other, but we come together and we team together. We help
raise the children. We’re going to prophesy to each other’s children. We’re going to speak what we see in each
other’s children. We’re going to declare that they are a leader and not a
follower. That they’re going to tread pathways that we never treaded. And they’re going to be leaders in this land
in the name of Jesus because we’re coming together in Jesus name. In Jesus
name. Amen. You can be seated. Can we real
quick? We’re wrapping up. Can we thank Chris and Luke and Misha for sharing your stories today? Thank
you. Thank you. Thank you. Before we before we close, we know
that on a day like today that there may be people here that you just sense the presence of God moving on your heart.
And we just don’t want to have any Sunday where we don’t create an opportunity where somebody can give their heart to the Lord. And so if
that’s you, you just you feel the pull of God, you’re wanting to return home, you’re wanting to join the team, you’re
wanting to partner with what God’s doing, or you just want to give your heart to God for the very first time, would you just lift your hand up in the
air? You just want to lift your hand. I see that hand up there. Thank you. I see
that hand across all of our
locations. Church, would you bow your head with me? We’re going to pray together. And would you say this out loud? Say, “Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, welcome to my world. Welcome to my world. I’m a sinner. I’m a s. I’m in
need of a savior. I believe in a I believe you died for me. You died for me. For my sins, my sins, for my
mistakes, and I want a new life. I want a new life. I want to follow you. I want to follow from this day forward. From
this day forward, you are my Lord and Savior. You are my Lord and Savior. I boldly declare I boldly declare that
I’ll never be the same again. that I’ll never be the same in Jesus name. in Jesus name. Amen. Can we just give it up
for everybody that just prayed that prayer? Welcome to the family of