Crossing family, I have great news.
One of our favorite preachers is back.
That's right. Josh Howard is with us this
weekend to bring a word that I believe will be a blessing to
every single one of you. He has the same heart that we
do. He wants to make disciples.
You make disciples so that everybody can find an intimate,
personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
He wants to make wherever he's planted the hardest place on
planet earth to get the hell from.
So would you put a warm crossing welcome together for our
preacher this weekend, Josh Howard.
Good morning, crossing family. How is everybody?
Awesome. It is such an honor and a
privilege to be back here this morning.
Listen, God is moving in in your church through your people in
such tremendous ways that this is literally my favorite place
to come and preach. And yeah, for real it is.
And I'm I, I, I don't, I promise I don't say that to every church
that I preach at. Wink, wink.
OK, no, I, I, I really, I really do.
This really is my favorite. You guys have such an incredible
team and an incredible pastor Clayton is a dear friends.
Let's let's give him a hand really quick, by the way.
OK. Hey, listen, I do want to give
you a quick updates, but last time I was here, I told you
about a family member of ours who was in prison named Vijay.
And I am happy to report that a month ago he was released from
prison. And so let's just worship Jesus
for that. Thank.
Thank you guys for your prayers. But I do have another prayer
request. So my father in
I want to bring good news, and here's the reality.
In spite of all the persecution and difficulty, God is moving in
tremendous ways, I mean unprecedented ways.
In the nation of India. Just a few weeks ago, we got our
annual report for what God did last year in 2025.
And it blew me away to see what God did through ordinary,
everyday people who committed to making disciples.
And here it is. Last year we saw over 84,000
people come to Christ in 2025. Isn't that crazy?
And and not only that, but those people then planted over 11,500
house churches just last year. Isn't that crazy?
Praise God. And so thank you guys for your
prayers. Please continue to pray that
this year is an even greater year for the Kingdom and that we
continue to see the nation of India and the surrounding
countries saturated with the gospel.
Listen today guys, here's here's what I want to do.
You guys are in a series on basically unpacking the names of
God in the Old Testament and, and showing that God is the same
yesterday, today and forever. And, and he's still that type of
God today. So last week you guys heard
Clayton give an incredible message on how the Lord is my
shepherd and how, you know, he guides us and leads us whether
we're coming into a valley or in a valley or out of a valley,
Jesus and, and, and the Father God is with us today.
We are going to be unpacking another name of God called
Jehovah Nisi. And now what that means is the
Lord is my banner, which I will explain what that even means.
But but here's the big idea that we just need to prepare for and
get ready for is, is basically what that name means is this,
that that God fights battles on our behalf, which is why we were
even singing the songs we did this morning.
And it's so if you've come here today with a battle that you're
facing or a difficulty, whether it's financial, emotional,
spiritual, whatever it might be, I want you to know that today,
right here, right now, I want you to have an encounter with
Jehovah Nisi, the God who fights the battle on your behalf, so
that we can put our trust and faith in him knowing that he's
with us through those battles. You with me.
OK, I want to remind you, you guys remember my favorite phrase
that I talked to you? Pizza.
This kid.
No shoes. Thanks.
No shoes, no shirt, no service. That's what they say.
No. Come on, somebody.
You remember. Come on, somebody.
OK, If you hear something that's good, I want you to yell it out.
If I don't hear any of them, I'll get the hint.
OK. All right, guys, let's, let's
pray. Let's ask Jesus to come and
speak, and then we're going to jump into the message together.
OK? So let's just ask God to speak
to us as we get into this. Jesus, we invite you here, We
invite you to stand on this stage and to be the one to
proclaim your word. Jesus, we love you, we worship
you and Holy Spirit, we invite you here to come and to open our
ears and to open our hearts and to empower us with your spirit.
You are Jehovah Nisi, You are our banner, You are our
identity, You were the one who fights our battles.
And so we thank you and God this morning.
There are many of us that are facing some really tough
challenges. And so I ask God that you will
raise the banner over us and that you would fight on our
behalf and that we would see where you're working.
Lord, we love you, we worship you, and we just ask that you to
unclog our ears, open our hearts, and help us to hear your
word. Today.
We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
All right, guys, if you have
your Bibles, I want you to open up to Exodus chapter 17.
That's where we first see this whole idea of Jehovah Nisi.
It's where we see him called this for the first time.
But what I'm going to do leading up to that, I just want to show
you what led to him revealing himself as the God who fights
our battles, the God of victory, the God of, you know, the the
God who is our banner over us, as they say.
And so let's just start out with the story.
Any in Exodus chapter 17. We're going to start in verse 8
and then we'll go on from there. But here's what it says.
The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rafidum.
Now, I want you to know, I want to give you the background of
what's happening here. OK?
So we jump right in where there's a battle taking place.
But I want you to know what happened before this battle, OK?
The the Israelites were just saved out of Egypt.
This is the first battle that we see them encountering.
And it happened right after the greatest miracle of salvation
that the Israelites had ever experienced.
And so they literally saw the plagues come down on Egypt.
They saw Moses lift the staff and the Red Sea parted so that
they could escape. They saw Moses take that same
staff and strike a rock in the middle of the desert because
they were dying of thirst and water burst out of the rock and,
and literally gave water to all of the Israelite people.
So they had been used to God showing up in power, salvation
and miracles. And what I want to tell you at
the very beginning of this guys, is this.
Sometimes your greatest battles will come on the heels of your
greatest spiritual breakthroughs.
Let me say that again. Sometimes your greatest battles
are going to come right after your greatest spiritual
breakthroughs. Let let me remind you what I
what I mean by that. Have you ever been to like some
mountaintop experience spiritual retreat or a church camp or a
CIY or you go to a men's conference or an uncommon and
God does something really special in that or, or a women's
conference where you hear God just speak to you directly and
you have this encounter with him and then you go back home and
all of a sudden stuff feels harder like it's because you
have a target on your back. We are in a real spiritual war.
We are in a real spiritual battle.
And when you have encounters with God, the enemy wants you to
turn your back on God and to continue in the ways that you
were before. And so your greatest spiritual
battles at times are going to come right after you encounter
God in beautiful ways. And that's what happens right
here with the Israelites. We'll continue verse 9.
Moses said to Joshua, to some of our men and go out to fight the
Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of
the hill with the staff of God in my hands.
And so I want you to see this guys.
This is what's happening. There are two battles taking
place in this story. Joshua is fighting the physical
battle. Like Moses says, I want you to
go out, grab your men, grab the swords, and you're going to
fight. But me and Aaron and her are
going to go up on the mountain and we are going to pray and
worship there. So there's a physical battle and
a spiritual battle taking place at the same time.
And so often guys in our lives, we are tempted to only fight the
battle without taking into consideration the spiritual
battle that may be taking place. And so these men knew that there
had to be 2 battles that were happening.
We have to sometimes do real things, take real steps of
action. We have to get out there and
knock on doors or or talk to doctors or have counseling
sessions or go to rehab or whatever it might be.
There are real physical things we got to do.
But there is a very real spiritual battle that we cannot
forget about. And sometimes we lose the
physical battle because we forget about the spiritual
battle taking place. You with me.
Come on. Come on, somebody.
There you go. Thank you for the three of you
that clapped. That was great.
I appreciate it. OK, man.
OK, let's let's keep going together.
OK. Verse 10.
So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered.
And Moses, Aaron and her went to the top of the hill as watch
this, As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were
winning. But whenever he lowered his
hands, the Amalekites were winning.
Do you see the connection between the spiritual battle and
the physical? What was happening when Moses
was lifting, worshipping, praying, fighting spiritually?
What was happening in the physical?
They were winning the battle, and when he began to drop his
hands, they were losing. God was trying to teach the
Israelites a very important lesson that when the battle gets
the fiercest, you keep your eyes on me.
You keep your worship on me. Praise is a weapon.
Prayer is not just something we throw up before meals.
It's something that actually makes real things happen in the
physical world. You with me.
And so he was trying to teach the Israelites listen, you see
the physical, but there is something completely different
happening in the spiritual. And when you are praising my
name, lifting me high, worshipping me, keeping your
eyes on me, real physical things happen because praise is a
weapon in our hands. And so when your back's against
the wall, where do you go first? Do you go to ChatGPT?
That's me. You know what I mean?
Like no matter what's going on, chat, how much Tylenol can I
take in three hours? You know what I mean?
Whatever it is like we go to Chad GBT, we go to counseling,
we go to sermons, we go to podcast.
But God was trying to teach Israelite something.
When you have a battle to fight, you go to him first because he
has the power to take care of the battle on your behalf if we
trust him with it. And so if you're facing a battle
today, friends, is are your hands lifted high or is your eye
or are your eyes on the ground before you?
Are you so worried and filled with fear and anxiety that
you're not able to keep your eyes on the King of Kings and
Lord of Lords who holds the battle in his hands?
We need to keep our eyes there, no matter how bad the battle may
get. Amen.
Come on, somebody. Hey, this.
Wow. OK, 10 of you.
That's better than three. OK, We're getting better.
I, I, I believe by the end of this message, we may have like
100 people clapping. That would be something else.
OK, here we go, verse 12, when Moses's hands grew tired because
he was getting weak and tired up there.
Listen, I, I want to tell you something.
The Israelites were used to microwave miracles.
OK, think about that. Moses raises the staff waters
part. Moses hits the rock.
Water comes out like immediate miracles.
And sometimes we expect God to move immediately.
But this took all day long for this battle to be won.
Do you hear me? It's not always immediate
success. It's not always immediate
miracle. It's not always microwave
miracles. Sometimes we got to be slow
cooked into what God has for us and we need to be prepared to
stay in the heat so that His work can be accomplished over
the long period of time. How do you how, how many of you
know that Mama's slow cooked meal is way better than a
microwave 32nd meal? Have you with me more of you
clapped about slow cooked meals. I'm I'm going to let you deal
with that on your own, OK? Like you like your food.
Yes, you do. All right, here we go.
So when Moses's hands grew tired, they took a stone.
This is verse 12. They took a stone and put it
under him and he sat on it. Aaron and her held his hands up
so he had help to continue to praise God.
Are you fighting the battle alone or do you have some
friends that are helping you? You need to be honest when
you're in a battle. Aaron and her were there to lift
Moses's hands when he was weak. Do you have some people in your
corner who can lift your hands when you're weak?
Do you have people that will help you?
Listen, this church is filled with people that would love to
come alongside of you. If you're in a battle, don't
keep it to yourself. Talk to somebody and there will
be your errand and her next to you helping lift your hands.
Come on somebody. I heard one that was great.
Verse 13, well before his hands remain steady until sunset.
Verse 13, So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
They had victory. And then verse 14, listen to
this. Then the Lord said to Moses,
write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and
make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot
out the name of Amalek from under heaven.
And here comes our name of God right here.
Moses built an altar and called it.
The Lord is my banner, Jehovah Nisi.
That's what it means in Hebrew. Jehovah Nisi, the Lord is my
banner, He said, because hands were lifted up against the
throne of the Lord, and the Lord will be at war against the
Amalekites from generation to generation.
This is what Moses was saying. We are going to call him Jehovah
Nisi. The Lord is my banner because he
will fight on our behalf. The banner is not a nation.
The banner is not a, you know, a, a, a, a, a adjective
explaining the people of Israel. The the banner was not a earthly
king. The banner was God over us and
he will fight the battle on our behalf.
And so here's what you need to know, friends, OK?
The battle over you and me when we are laying our lives down at
the feet of Jesus is God the Father, Jehovah Nisi, the one
that the God of War, who will literally wage war against the
battles in your life, and he will fight them on your behalf
if you keep your eyes towards him.
And so, friends, when you are in a battle, do not do it alone.
Do not forget who's with you. Now, here's what we're going to
do now that we've set the stage for Jehovah Nisi.
Here's what I want to do. I want to Sprint as fast as we
can to the New Testaments because here's the cool thing
about Jesus. The Bible says that Jesus was
the fullness of God in flesh, meaning that he became Jehovah
Nisi to show us what it looks like when God fights our
battles. How cool is that?
So for the next 13 minutes and 50 seconds, we are going to
spread as fast as we can through one day in the life of Jesus.
Hear me out. This is 124 hour period in the
life of Jesus. And here's the big idea that I
want you to see. If God can do all of this in one
day and Jesus can do all of this in one day, what can he do in
your life today? And what battle could he fight
for you today? You with me?
And so Are you ready? That's you're getting better,
Hannibal. I hear you.
I know you cheered louder than this group here.
OK, I just made that up. I can't hear you, Hannibal.
OK, listen, it's going to start. If you want to follow along,
we're going to start at the end of Mark chapter 4 and go through
Mark chapter 5. I don't have time to read any of
it, but I'm going to tell you the stories.
But if you want to Fact Check me later, you can because I'll
probably make some stuff up. OK, All right, as long as we're
on the same page, that's fine. Here's where it starts.
OK, Jesus gets in a boat in the middle of the night with his
disciples at the end of Mark chapter 4.
And Jesus is so tired after a day of ministry that he wants to
take a little nap. He wants to sleep.
So he gets in the boat, falls asleep.
Around that time, a massive storm comes across the lake and
the the disciples are scared to death, man.
And I want you to know these are professional dislike fisherman,
pro fisherman. So if they're scared, they grew
up on the lake, man, they grew up on the water.
If they're scared that they're going to die, this must have
been the worst storm they've ever seen.
They're scared, they're afraid, they're they're ready to give
up. They don't know what to do.
So they run and they wake Jesus up and they say, Jesus, we're
going to die, right? You ever been there?
Like how big does the storm have to be when you're like, I'm
going to die, I'm done. Like, I know some of you moms
out there, when your kids are a mess, you're like, listen, I'm
done, OK, dad, I'm leaving. I'm getting a spa day.
Like you come in and take care of this, right?
And these disciples, man, they just thought life was over.
It was a huge storm. They wake Jesus up and Jehovah
Nisi, the Lord is my banner, the one that fights our battles,
steps out in the flesh on that boat.
And this is what happens. He speaks out over the storm
with just words from his mouth. This is the God who fights our
battles, friends, this is Jehovah Nisi.
This is how much he loves and protects and guides.
He says listen, wind, waves, storm, shut up and be quiet.
And immediately the storm listens to what Jesus says.
The waves calm down, the storm ceases and there is peace.
I want you to know peace isn't a feeling.
Peace is a person. You hear me pieces and a feeling
pieces of person. And when we are in crazy battles
and when storms are raging around us, you need to remember
who is in your boats with you. Amen.
Because you have Jehovah Nisi in your boat, you have the God who
fights your battles in your boat.
You have the storm calming authority God in your boats.
And so we can't forget who is riding in those waves with us.
You are never alone. You're never forgotten.
And no matter how big the storm is, no matter how bad the
doctor's call is, no matter how bad the the the news is, no
matter how bad your financial situation may be, no matter how
bad your marriage may be or relation.
Friendships may be no matter how big the storm is.
I heard a guy say once, listen, quit telling God how big your
storm is and start telling your storm how big your God is.
Because we serve a God that calms storms.
We serve a God that fights our battles.
So in the midst of the storm, you call out his name.
Amen. And he can calm any storm with
one word of his mouth. Listen, friends, we need to be
reminded that just because you follow Jesus does not mean
you're never going to face battles.
It doesn't mean you're never going to be in a storm.
It is a lie from the pit of hell that if you just follow Jesus,
everything's going to be peachy and comfortable the rest of your
life. We are in a real war and a real
battle, and we need to be reminded of it.
Jesus doesn't save you from going into a storm or into a
battle. Jehovah Nisi meets you in the
battle and protects you from it and helps you through it.
God did not protect the Israelites from being attacked.
He fought the battle beside them while they were being attacked.
He didn't save Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from going
into the fire. He saved them in the midst of
the fire. He didn't save Daniel from going
to the lion's den. He shut the mouths of those
lions and protected him from being eaten.
He didn't save Peter, James, and John from going to prison.
He saved them out of prison. Do you understand what I'm
saying? Like you will go through
battles, but you need to remember Jehovah Nisi is 1
Callaway and King Jesus will calm the storm and fight the
battle with you. You were never alone.
You're never lost. And we've not even had breakfast
yet and Jesus is already calming storms, OK?
Right away after they calm the storm, Jesus gets onto the the
other side of the water and a crazy naked demon possessed guy
comes and meets him there, OK? I mean, picture well, don't
picture that, OK? Listen, I, I, I know you
pictured it. I know you did.
Don't picture it, OK, But listen, crazy naked demon
possessed guy. This guy was chained up in a
graveyard because of how many demons he had, and he had so
much strength from the demons that he was just breaking
chains. Every day he was cutting himself
hoping to die, but the demons wouldn't let him die.
He was living a miserable life with demons and addictions and
pain and hurt. Listen friends, not every one of
your battles is a storm. Sometimes it's demonic influence
in your life. Sometimes you have chains that
you just can't break. Sometimes you've got demons
fighting you that you just can't get off your back.
You know what I'm saying? And what you need to know is
that Jehovah Nisi is not just a battle winner.
He's not just a storm calmer. He is one that can cast out any
evil from your life and break any chain right here, right now,
today. Jehovah Nisi is a chain breaking
addiction, breaking God and he will fight that battle with you
and deliver you from it because he is the God of War against the
chains and demons in your life. On the cross friends, when Jesus
put his arms out, he took every addiction, every pain, all
shame, all guilt and and nailed it to the cross so that you can
be set free. Jehovah Nisi says you are free
in Christ, and so today do not leave this place with chains or
demons. Today you can be delivered.
And that's what Jesus did. He steps up and with one word of
his mouth, he cast every demon out of that guy.
And the when Jesus speaks, when Jehovah Nisi fights the demons,
they must flee in the presence of the Most high God.
You may not have the power on your own, but I promise you,
King Jesus does. And so if you need deliverance
today, he can deliver you. If you need chains broken today,
he can set you free. Amen.
So he sets this guy free, gets back on the boat.
OK, It's it's barely morning, guys, and Jesus has calmed a
storm and cast out 1000 demons. OK, He goes back to the other
side of the water, and by that time it's afternoon and all of a
sudden this crowd surrounds him. And there's a woman on the
outside of the crowd who had been sick for 12 years.
You know the story. She had been bleeding for 12
years. She literally had a menstrual
cycle every day for 12 years. She was bleeding every day.
And let me tell you what that meant for her in Israel.
It meant that she was ceremonially unclean.
Do you know what that meant? She could not touch another
person without making them spiritually unclean.
She couldn't go to the temple to pray or to offer sacrifices.
Everywhere she went, she had to call out to everyone around her.
I am unclean. Stay away from me, OK?
Do you understand the shame she must have felt?
Do you understand the relational distance?
This was not just a physical sickness, guys.
This was a spiritual reality, an emotional reality in her life.
Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever felt like you just
can't get close to people? Have you ever felt like you
can't trust anybody anymore? Have you ever felt like that?
There's just something in you that is broken and hurts and and
you don't know how to actually open yourself up to other
people. Again, this woman lived that
guys, for 12 years. And then Jehovah Nisi stepped
up. Listen to me.
Jehovah Nisi came into this woman's life, the one that will
fight that battle on her behalf. And this woman was on the
outside of the crowd. She saw Jesus in the flesh, and
she had a decision to make. Was she going to break every
social custom and every Jewish law and touch hundreds of people
to get to Jesus? Or was she going to stay on the
outside and just hope and wish? Maybe one day she'll have an
encounter with him. Listen, sometimes if you want to
get to Jehovah Nisi, you got to get on your knees and crawl to
him. Sometimes you need to call out
his name, even when you don't feel like it.
Sometimes you need to fight through the crowd, fight through
the lies, fight through the difficulties and get on your
knees before King Jesus and just say, God, I am so broken and I
desperately need you. I need you to fight the battle
on my behalf. And this woman crawled through
the crowd. She reached up her hand, grabbed
the hem of Jesus garment. And do you know what happened?
Jovenisi doesn't just fight your battle.
Jehovenisi also can heal the battle immediately.
This one was healed, set free. 12 years of sickness gone in an
instant. Because one touch from
Jehovenisi, one touch from King Jesus can change everything.
Amen. So this woman's healed, set
free, and all of a sudden some people come.
There was a little girl who was sick, 12 years old, and they
wanted Jesus to come heal her, but then she died.
And so they said Jesus. They never seen Jesus raise the
dead before. They thought that was out of his
power. They didn't know Jehovah, nice.
He was also the God of resurrection.
And so they said, Jesus, don't worry about it.
She died, you don't have to come anymore.
And he said, no, no, no, no, take me to this little girl.
And so Jesus after calming the storm, casting out demons,
healing the sick, he goes to this little girl that's dead.
Listen, friends, have you ever felt like you are just dead
inside? You don't feel anymore.
Your conscience is gone. You don't feel joy or sadness
anymore. You just don't feel anything.
Or have you ever felt like your marriage is dead or, or
relationship with your kids is dead or just your future is
dead? I want you to know that Jehovah
Nisi also raises the dead. He can bring dead things back to
life, friends. And so whatever you're going
through, whatever you're going through, he can bring it back to
life. That marriage that you think is
over. One touch from Jehovah Nisi can
bring love back into your relationship.
It can bring dead hearts back to life.
So Jesus steps, kneels down by this little girl's bed and just
says, little girl, get up. And for the first time in
Jesus's ministry, people watch as he brings something dead back
to life again. We serve a God of resurrection
power. Jehovah Nisi fights your battle.
And what does that mean? He can calm storms, He can cast
out demons and break addiction. He can fight the battle of your
sickness with you, and one touch from him can heal it.
And he can bring dead parts of you back to life.
Because Jesus on the cross, friends, he defeated sin and
death and then he himself rose from the dead, showing you that
no sin is too big for him, no problem is too big, nor storm is
too big. Nothing is too big for Jehovah
Nisi when he conquers it all on the cross.
That was the final banner. It was the final nail in the
coffin of death. Death no longer has power over
you. We can now have eternity with
Jesus Christ because of the blood that he shed on the cross.
And we have victory because of Jehovah Nisi sacrificing himself
on the cross for you and me. That's how much He loves you,
friends. And so right here, right now
today, listen, if Jesus can do all that in one day, that was
literally 124 hour period in his life, friends, OK, calming
storms, casting out demons, breaking chains, healing the
sick, raising the dead. If He can do all that in one
day, if you call out His name and like Moses, raise your hands
before him and start fighting that spiritual battle, what can
He do in your life today? What chains can he break?
What storms can He calm? What sickness can He heal if we
just raise our hands, keep our eyes on Him, and call out for
Jesus to touch us? Amen.
Friends, listen, the Lord is our banner and He will fight on your
behalf. You just have to hand the battle
to Him. Raise your hands, get on your
knees and just say, Jesus, I need you to touch this, I need
you to fight this. I can't do it on my own.
I need you come and heal, come and deliver, come and set free
and let's see what Jehovah Nisi, what King Jesus can do in your
life. We are now going to move to a
time of decision I. Know there's a lot of people in
this room, there's people online who could probably testify to
the same truth, but this is just my experience.
This is my testimony and everything that Josh was just
talking about. I can I can just claim it that
there is victory in the name of Jesus.
There is life in the name of Jesus.
And if the Lord is is not your banner right now for those of
you in this room, if he's not your identity, if he's not your
your source and, and and you're living without an intimate
personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
I have to just give you some really hard news first and then
I'll, I'll hopefully bring it back to some good news.
But here's the hard news. You're in this battle by
yourself. There's like no tiptoeing around
it. There's no, just like I think
I'm going to ease into it. No, you're, you're fighting with
your own strength and you're up against an enemy that you you
cannot defeat. And I can tell you how this
story ends. It actually gets worse.
It ends in a lot of pain. It it ends with some loss and
ultimately ends in death. It offers no hope.
It offers no future. That is when you are standing on
your own. And I just got to be completely
transparent, completely honest, because there was a time where
that's where I was. There's no victory in that.
That's just the reality that if you were outside a relationship
with Jesus, there's nothing but the good news of the gospel when
you claim this Jehovah Nisi, that the Lord is your banner.
When you claim and you pick that up and you, you start
surrendering your life and you have this relationship with God
that is only possible when you surrender your life to Jesus
Christ. Now you, you start trusting in
him and you start walking with him in your daily life.
When there's a valley, you, you trust him, and you, you invite
him into those valleys. He, he then takes what was
broken and he and he fixes it, and he takes what was, what was
lost. And then he, he, he finds you.
He takes what's what was once dead, and he, he makes you alive
again. Scripture says in Romans chapter
5 that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Now, now we can walk with this hope.
We can pick up this banner and we can walk with confidence.
And for some, it's kind of like we're in this, this war.
It's like we pick up these white flags and we start waving them
like a surrender and just simply say, Jesus, I surrender my life
to you. I, I know I can't do this on my
own. I need you to rescue me.
And for those of you in this room and online, you've never
picked up that white flag. You've never picked up that
banner and claimed that Jesus is your banner.
Maybe that that's what this moment is for you for that's why
you're in this room or you're watching from wherever you're
watching from just so you can finally claim that Jesus Christ
is your Savior. And if you have questions about
what that looks like starting that relationship with Jesus in
just a little bit, the the people all around you is going
to stand. We're going to sing some songs
and over right by the baptistry. There's going to be a couple
people over there if you have questions or you just need
prayer and you're just like, I don't even know what that looks
like. How do I lift up this banner?
How do I trust in his name? I'm going through this.
It feels like I don't see God and let us walk with you help
you figure out what your next steps with Jesus Christ is.
If you're online, you can simply click the link.
I just want to follow Jesus and our chat host would love to help
you. Don't miss this moment.
That's what this invitation time is for.
And for the rest of us in this room, for those of us who are
following Jesus, whether you've been following following him for
a couple years, a couple weeks, a long time, we have a charge
from this message as well. We too are in the middle of a
battle or going to be going into a battle or coming out of a
battle. Christians are not immune to
battles. They're not immune to to
hardship. And So what do we do when when
we're in those things, we, we need to be ready.
We need to be reminded that prayer is not our last resort.
It's not one of our, our last cries when when we're just in
it, it's actually our battle cry.
So when the music starts for us, maybe even before the valley
comes, you just simply get down on your knees and you, you, you
just humble yourself before the Lord and you allow the the Lord
to hear your heart. Lord, prepare me for the battle.
Lord, walk with me in the midst of the battle.
Lord, be with me. Fall to your knees.
Worship is also not a warm up. It's not like we come in here
and it's like, oh, let's just worship.
So that way it carries us through the rest of the week.
No, no, no, no, worship is, is our lifestyle.
It's our response because of what we were saved from.
It reminds us that we don't have the strength to do it on our
own. And so in just a little bit,
when the music starts for for all of us as Christians, can we
just, can we raise our praise a little bit louder?
Can we lift our songs a little bit higher?
Maybe for the first time you put your hands up and just
surrender. For me, when I worship Jesus,
sometimes I just have to close my eyes because it takes all the
distractions off of watching other people worship.
I just want to worship Jesus. I want my eyes to be fixed on
him, not only in this moment, but for my whole week, my every
day, every minute of the day. But I also understand some of
you walked in with some heavy burdens and you're just like, I
don't have the strength, Corey, to, to, to pick myself up to, to
come over here and, and to get down on my knees by myself.
Sometimes you need somebody else to go with you.
And I'm just going to encourage you.
There are some incredible people sitting amongst you.
Maybe you asked a person who brought you or the person
sitting next to you and just say, I, I don't even know how to
pray. I don't know what to say.
Would you just pray on my behalf and I can guarantee you they're
going to say yes and if that person says no, then I guarantee
I will be right up here and I will say yes.
Let me carry the burden with you.
That's what this times about to lift our heavenly Father's
praise that we lift that banner up.
Jehovah Nisi, He is our banner. So let's pray and let's worship
and let's raise that banner high.
Would you stay with me right now in this moment of response,
Jesus, we lift your name up. You are king of kings, you are
Lord of Lords. You are above all things.
So Jesus, you're above anything that we're facing right now.
We're going to be facing right now.
Lord, I pray that you hear our battle cry, you hear our
prayers, you hear our praise, you hear our worship, Lord, you
hear our heart. And Lord, I pray that when we
don't feel like we can lift our hands up, we have we have an
errand into her sitting next to us, lifting our arms up in
victory. Jesus, we love you.
We are honored to be in this place today, honored to serve
you, honored to keep our eyes fixed on you.
And I pray God, that this moment is not missed.
We lift our banner, we lift you up.
Jesus, we pray all this in your mighty name, Amen.