Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.
We hope today's message is encouraging to you.
I believe this season is a special season when we see
everybody going back to the stores, return the gifts and
it's wonderful. Giant lines.
Isn't it wonderful? Friday, my wonderful wife, she
said to me, oh, let's go to, you know, Betty Bath, Betty body and
beyond. You know, this thing, we went
there. I could not see the bath, the
bath, then the beyond. I just see 3000 bodies there,
you know, wow, lines, lines, lines.
So yes, it's a season when we go when return, but it's also a
season when we reveal things, when things come to our mind.
How was this year? What happened?
Good things, frustrations, not good things.
Maybe goals that we didn't accomplish conquers losses.
Maybe divorce or almost divorced.
Maybe health issues or lost a lovely, lovely family member or
lost a friend or relationship broken.
So this season we review a lot of things and most of the time
frustrations come and we see what we experienced during 2025.
And I want to share with you today a message about healed, to
start receiving the healing, to start receiving the healing, to
enter in 2026 with all the healing that God wants to
provide for me and for you. And first of all, it's so
important to know that in every situation, God is always
available. God is always available.
Whatever you think or whatever you remember about 2025, God is
always available. And I want to invite you to open
your Bible in Psalm 145. You should, and it's going to be
amazing. We will read the Bible.
When we read the Bible, something is going to happen.
So I just want to invite you to be excited because we will read
the Bible now Psalm 145. If you don't have the Bible,
just raise your hand. One Bible will show up in your
hand. It's a miracle.
Yes, for the ushers will help you.
We have one hand over there, yes.
So Psalm 145, yes, over there. Good, good.
Keep, keep your hand close to heaven.
They will see one Bible is going to the floor now.
OK, so Psalm 145, verse 18145, verse 18.
I love the Bible. I love to read the Bible and I
know God's always working when we start reading and listening
his voice. So Psalm 145 verse 18, good.
So the Lord is near. God is always available.
This is what we are talking about.
The Lord is near to all who call on him.
Look at this, the Lord is near to all who call on him, to all
who call on him. In truth, Isaiah 4110 says do
not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your
God. I will strengthen you and help
you. I will uphold you with my
righteous right hand. Look at this, I will uphold you
with my righteous right hand. This is the Lord talking with me
and you. So when we think about
everything that happened 2025 and we see some frustrations,
just take this true for you. God is always available.
And I remember I was like 6 years old, so many years ago. 20
No, OK, so I was six years old and we were at this season,
Christmas season. And you know, I was looking and
asking something for my parents, like as a gift.
And my dad, he had the flashlight, you know, that flash
like they, they turn it on and you can see the clouds, the
sound of the like, you know, and my dad had one of these and wow,
I need a flash like my like my dad.
And I just asked my dad and my mom, Hey, I saw and I store
close to my house in Brazil. There was a flash, a Miki
flashlight in Brazil. Miki was in Brazil that time, so
I saw that that flashlight and as a mom and I was sure I can't,
I can't show you the flashlight here.
Look at this. I was sure my life will change
when I receive this. This is all I need in my life.
So I said to my parents, please make a flashlight.
And you know, when when the kid wants to receive something and
flashlight, then my mom was coming with coffee flashlight.
My mom was driving me to the school flashlight.
I come back to the school flashlight, you know, so the
flashlight was my life. So I was like, oh, I need this
flashlight. When I received these, my life's
going to change. And I was sure about this.
I don't know why you were laughing then I asked that to my
to my dad. I just have one sister and
Christmas Day my parents went to our bedroom and woke us up and
they said the gift you asked me and my sister is hidden in the
living room. You need to find it, you know.
You know, I was in my bedroom 2nd floor when my dad wasn't.
You need to fuck. No, fuck.
I was, you know, running to the stairs.
I will find my Mickey flashlight.
My life's going to change. And I was running to the stairs
and I was not just waiting to go to the floor.
You know, when I was close to the floor, I will jump and I'll
try. And there was like a giant
pillow, you know, the pillow that they put the feet.
Someone told me the name is Otoman.
I don't know why this thing is a man, but it's Otoman.
OK then I was the stairs and I jump on this Otoman you know I
will find. And when I jump, I just hear.
And I was praying for that noise come to my from my sister's
gift. No, I'm Christian, so I was
praying, you know, trust in the Lord.
So was not my flashlight, Mickey Flashlight was 127 pieces, you
know, I was destroyed. I went to the couch, you know, I
start crying. My mom came with some cake.
My mom is like this, you know, if you eat, everything's going
to be OK. I love my mom and I'm still
eating. OK, look, my mom came and said
no, don't worry. I really look at, you know, one,
one piece of Miss Mikke had was walking and I was at the couch
like crying destroyed. And my dad came with all these
pieces and he said, no, we will restore this.
We rebuild it. And I was thinking about, Can
you imagine Milky rebuilt like no way, There's no way.
And my dad, no, we will do this. And he starts like gluing all
the 4000 pieces of the, the flashlight.
And he started gluing this and he did everything and he, he
stored the flashlight. I was like, I don't know if it's
good or not, but he rebuilt the flashlight.
And I, I need to tell you that frustration was not wonderful.
And maybe during 2025, your flashlight was broken and maybe
you were guilt, maybe you were not.
But my flesh, I, I was thinking why I jumped over that pillow.
Why? So a lot of things, I was like 6
years old and that couch, think about how I did that.
And maybe during 2025, these things came to your life and
some flashlights were destroyed and you're feeling guilt.
I was feeling guilt. And I believe today is a time to
allow God, our dead, to come and rebuild dreams, rebuild our
flashlight, rebuild emotions, rebuild goals, rebuild trust.
We need that to enter 2026 in a different way.
So the prophet Isaiah, he shared God's desire for his people in
Isaiah 61, one to four. I want to read for us Isaiah 61
one to four. This is God's desire for his
people and says this way, the spirit of the sovereign Lord is
on me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good
news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the
broken heart, to proclaim freedom for the captives and
release from darkness for the prisoners.
To proclaim the ear of the Lord's favor and the day of
vengeance of our God. To comfort all who mourn and
provide for those who grieve in Zion.
To best on them a crowd of beauty instead of ashes, the oil
of joy instead of mourning and garment.
A garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the
Lord for the display of his splendor.
Look at this. They will be called oaks of
righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his
splendor. They will rebuild the ancient
ruins and restore the place long devastated.
They will renew the room cities that have been devastating for
generations. Can you imagine that this is the
plan. So here's the plan for today.
God healing us to start with him 2026.
Can we go together? God healing us to start 2026.
So how to receive the healing? How to receive the healing?
So first we need to face the flashlight destroyed.
First we need to face the flashlight destroyed.
So it will be worse if we minimize it.
You know, it will be worse if we say, oh, nothing happened, it's
nothing, or ignore what happened.
OK, some days the good thing is going to happen, you know, this
kind of thing. We it will be worse if we
ignore, if we minimize it. I remember a couple came for
marriage counseling and they were asking for me and Celia,
maybe for Celia because she's wonderful, you know.
Then the couple came and the husband, the husband was there
at the couch and the husband said, my wife pester, she's, you
know, blue. You understand what blue means?
He was saying a lot of not wonderful things and she was
there and I and I was like, wow. Then I did the question for her
like, oh, and how do you feel when your horse your your
husband? When how do you feel when your
husband say that things to you? And I was just asking her,
please do these, you know, I was like, I'm a pastor, you know,
just Jesus loves you see him, you know, kind of minister, you
know, then I asked her for how do you feel when your husband
say that things about you waiting that she will destroy
him. He's like, yes, you know, I was
like, let's fight. I was Christian at that time.
But you know what she said? Our pastor, it's OK, it's OK.
Our pastor, it's OK. I was like, it's not OK.
This is not good. Emotions were coming and being
destroyed and you were minimizing it.
It's OK. So we need to see what it's not
OK and face it, face it. So the first thing to receive
healing is face it. So it will be worse if we
minimize, also will become worse if we look for isolation.
You know, no talk with people. Start being just you, do not
talk with anybody, no friends, no nothing.
So isolation, isolation will not lead you to healing and also
distractions. You know like try to find
something to lead you to. Do not think about the issue, do
not think about the things that happened 2025.
So I know we prefer to do not see it.
We prefer to be far from the pain.
We don't like pain. We don't like even the idea of
pain. You know, Saturday, Friday or
Saturday. Gabriela, my daughter, she came
close to me and she said, dad, what happened?
And she pointed to my leg and something was like black here
and she's dad what happened? And she came and touched once
she touched, I feel the pain cause nothing that's dirt.
But you know, just to think about, oh, we don't want this.
We don't want to feel pain. We don't want that.
We don't want to go back and feel pain again.
We don't want to reveal things that didn't go well.
Are you understand what I'm trying to say?
So minimize it will not help you.
Isolation will not lead you to healing and distractions will
not lead you to healing as well. So minimizing distractions, we
need to work on this. And I know it's comfortable, but
when we don't go there and face the flashlight, destroy it, the
pain will be with us, true to 2026, the same limits, the same
emotions, hurt, will go with us to 2026.
And this is not God's plan. What wants to heal us, to lead
us to 2026 and some signs that we can find when we are not
facing the issues. Complain more, No complain more
all the time everything complain more.
The second thing is decrease deeper relationships.
So maybe having friends, but not deep relationship.
Can you imagine how many people are looking for?
They want to have deeper relationship, deeper friends,
having community that the meaning that has a meaning for
them, but they don't have it. Maybe because of the pain,
because they're don't, they're not facing the pain, they're not
facing the issues. We need to face the flashlight
destroyed. Are you understand flashlight
destroyed. So we need to face it.
So some signs are complain more, decrease deeper relationship,
also increase family issues. Those are signs that we are not
facing the frustration. So if you see these around your
life, there is a giant invitation for me and you.
To face the flashlight destroying and how to face the
frustration, how to face it? How can we face it?
So the first thing is ask for wisdom, ask for wisdom.
When we ask for wisdom, we will see with God's eyes and ask for
wisdom means we have one perspective, but we need God's
perspective about this. We need to see what God was
seeing through that situation. So James chapter one verse 5
says if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God.
Easy, ask God. Ask God.
If you need wisdom, ask God. The Bible is amazing.
If you need wisdom, ask God who gives generals to all without
finding fault and it will be given to you.
If you need wisdom, ask God. So how to ask God?
And I remember when I was in the kids ministry in Brazil and they
were teaching about the King Solomon and God came to Solomon
and said you can ask whatever you want.
And Can you imagine a kid when I, when the teacher was teaching
this, wow, Salomon, Salomon, he could ask 5 Nikki flashlights.
Can you imagine? You can ask whatever you want.
And these kids, wow. Then Salomon, he asked wisdom,
and with wisdom he received everything.
And I was like, I will every time my dad was asking me
something. I want wisdom, dad, so you can
give me everything you know. But the correct thing is to
understand that God's wisdom is a treasure.
When we have this and you know what it means, discernment,
wisdom, we will see with God eyes, but we cannot see this
just waiting. The Bible says ask for if you
need ask for, ask for means pray.
We need to pray. We need to talk with God.
Do you know about the deep relationship?
We need to have deep relationship with God.
So when we go and we pray for wisdom, we receive.
The Bible says we will receive wisdom, we receive discernment.
And Can you imagine me and you 2026 like doing a New Year's
resolution pray 365 days at least once a day to pray and
talk with God increasing developing a deep relationship
with God. So why not to pray and to
receive and to walk with God. The second thing to face the
frustration is memorize verse. I don't know if you love to
memorize. I cannot see like the energy
here. You know, memorize verse and you
know it's wonderful when you read the Bible it with something
connect with your frustration. I encourage you to look at the
Bible and if you are going through some issues in your
family, try to read this. Try to read like David, the King
David, he had issues with his son.
He had some issues in the fact how he went through this.
So reading the Bible receive the discernment and you know
memorize it. I love this in my I love the
Bible. Do you love the Bible?
You need to love, you need to respect, you need to read like
wow, something's going to happen now.
Are you excited? Yes.
So you know, in my last D group, we were and, and the group's a
discipleship group and I encourage you to get in.
But in our D group, we were reading passage connect with the
things that we were going through.
And it's amazing because we were reading, we were memorizing it,
and we were helping each other to memorize.
And I need to tell you, when we read the Bible, when we memorize
and when we make it personal, we personalize it.
Is it English? So we read the Bible, we
memorize and we personalize. Make it personal.
You know what's happened? We we learned this at the
church. Here at the church, we create
new neuron. Neuron connections will lead us
to a new understanding, discernment, wisdom that we were
praying. So when we read the Bible, we
memorize and we personalize it. We receive new understanding and
we can see with new eyes. So traumas and frustration will
not lead our life to 2026, but God's vision will lead us in
2026. Isn't it wonderful?
So can you see in another way how to memorize the Bible, how
wonderful it is? So when we decide that, why not
decide to memorize one passage a week with your family, You know
your kids here in the kids ministry.
They are learning the Bible. Help them to memorize.
I praise the Lord I went to to my kids ministry in my church in
Brazil. Was Portuguese a little bit
different from English? But you know, they were teaching
my dad, my mom, they would teach me to memorize.
And you know what happened? We received the understanding.
Your kids will receive the understand God's vision will
come to your kids heart. They will have their
understanding from God and when the world come to teach them
different things. No, no, no, no, no.
I know the correct understanding.
So I encourage you to help your kids to memorize the Bible to
understand, but not just your kids, for us as well.
So memorize. So the traumas will not lead,
but the God's vision will lead us.
So most of the time we have information when when we read
the Bible, when we pray, we have understanding and maybe till now
information from 2025 are coming to your mind.
What we need to receive the healing and face the frustration
is to receive God's understanding.
So we will go to 2026 in a different way.
God's wisdom, God's Word can lead us to understand Psalm 119.
Verse 11 says I have hidden your word in my heart that I might
not sing against you. Can you see that I have hidden
your word, not just I know the word, but it's in my heart.
I feel I feel your word, Lord, I feel when I'm reading them.
I feel your word. I feel that you are talk.
I feel that you are teaching. I feel that you are taking care
of me. Amen.
So I have written your word in my heart.
So the third thing is decide to be around people full of life.
Decide to be around people full of life.
Maybe why not to join a discipleship group here at the
church discipleship group, we get together, we read the Bible,
we memorize the Bible, we memorize the Bible.
We, we pray for each other. We had accountability, you know,
we when, when we have some challenge, we talk and we pray.
And how was this week? Oh, I kicked the dog again, you
know. No, don't kick the dog anymore.
We'll pray for you. We'll cut your feet.
No, we try to help. We, you know, so in AD group you
can have it. But you know, the best thing is
decide to be around people full of life.
Another wonderful thing that's available for you for 2026 is
join a dream team. Drinking here at Illuminate
Church is the place that you serve.
You know, you can serve in different areas, but serve is
not going and do something. Serve drinking means become more
like Jesus. So when you are serving, you're
not just doing something, but you are deciding how would Jesus
do this? Does does do this?
You know what I'm trying to speak with you.
Oh, Jesus would do this. So like if you are a reader, you
know, it's just do this. You open the door.
But with Jesus becoming more like this, your face will change
the door. If if the I need to tell you, if
the wind is not clear at the window, the glass is not
extremely clean, they will not see because your face will shine
much more than the wrong thing. Just because you are trying.
You will open your life to become more like Jesus.
So decide to be around people full of life.
You have opportunities here and I know it sometimes is hard, but
spend time with people. You know, we, we can decide
these, we can put these in our New Year's resolution and not
just physically around, but you know, having like eye pointed,
share things, talk with people open, try to have a
conversation. If you don't know how to do
this, it's easy. You can just say to the person,
hey, is there something that I can pray for you?
They will talk for 45 minutes. You can just be available to
become more like Jesus and to be around and the life will come.
I remember I was in a in a elevator and God told me love
people and talk with people and the elevator open, You know the
elevator open and I was decide I will talk with the person who
went through here. And one lady entered and she was
so faced like like this and she had a cat and I said, hey, how
can I pray for? I didn't know what to say but I
will start with that. How can I pray for you?
Then she said, can you pray for the cat Marilyn?
I don't know the name of the cat.
They said can you pray for the cat the cat seek And I said
yeah, and I pray for the cat Lord in Jesus name, meow meow,
meow the language so the cat could understand me tongs.
But you know what happened? I was talking with her.
I pray for for the cat and you know, and you know, decide to be
around people full of life, decide to be that person full of
life. And I pray for the cat.
I don't know what happened with the cat, but when I finished the
prayer, I finished in Jesus name, Amen.
And she just said, wow, what a peace.
I received some peace. She said the cat didn't say
anything, but she said she said I received a peace, you know,
and she said I need Jesus and she received Jesus.
So I want to, I want to invite you, praise the Lord, I want to
invite you to decide to become more, to become more like Jesus
and be around people full of life.
So God's wisdom, God's understand will come and will
lead our lives and not frustration.
And I need to tell you when my dad finished to restore and
rebuild, make a flashlight, when he finished this and he turned
it on was working and he said I will wait to the night come.
So tonight we will not use my flashlight.
He said we will use yours, my Mickey flashlight.
And I waited to the night come, you know, And when the night
came, my dad turned off the lights off the house, and I came
with my flashlight, you know. And, and I need to tell you, God
wants to do the same with me. And you restore us, equip us,
because when the darkness come in 2026, we will be ready.
You know, I, I could not see the things that was wrong in my
flashlight, but I could see the light coming from my flashlight.
And my dad was teaching me, we are in the Christmas season.
It means delight. Jesus came for us, so you know
God wants to lead our lives on these.
Isaiah 43 verse 2 says when you pass through the waters, God
said I will be with you. When you pass through the
rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.
The flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
So God will be with us. So I just want to invite you to
open your heart for that and finishing this message I want to
share with you. 2025 is not over.
We had three days. In three days, God can do a lot.
He can do a lot. He can restore your flesh life.
Hey man, He can stop in three days.
God creates a lot of things. Separate light from the darkness
in three days. God create the sky hot God did
the separation between earth and water.
You know in three days clarity can come.
Things can go to the correct place in your life in three
days. God did that in three days.
Jonah, he went to the big grave fish and he stands like 3 days,
three nights inside the fish, but the fish led him to the
correct place. Our life in three days can go to
the correct place. Our families in three days can
go to the correct place. Esther, she fast for three days.
She fast to talk with the king. The king could kill her just to
go there and talk with him, but she fast, she prepared, she
prayed, she she was talking about deep relationship with
God. And in three days she went to
talk with the king and the king gave her freedom and freedom for
all Israel in three days. In three days Jesus did
everything and resurrect for me and for you.
So don't give up, don't give up. We have three days.
God can use your life deep relationship with God, Apostle
Paul says in Hebrews 12. He said.
Therefore, since we are surround by such a great cloud of
witness, let us throw off everything that hinders and the
scene that so easily stangles, and let us run with perseverance
the race market out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the
pioneer and perfector of faith. For the joy set before Him, He
endured the cross, scorning its shame, and set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endures such
opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose
heart. God is for you, and I just want
to pray for you to receive. Pray for us to receive the
healing face the frustration to entering 2026.
Let's pray. Lord, thank you.
Thank you for your way to love us.
Thank you for your way to lead us in being available.
We talk about difficult things this morning and Lord with you,
we want to face it. So I pray for each one here to
receive your touch, to receive your love.
He see your help, to face the frustration.
You can do this. We trust in you, Lord, so we ask
you. We want to experience three
wonderful days with you, leading us for a wonderful year with
you. So I pray for each one here to
receive your healing. With your eyes closed, I will
ask you to repeat a prayer receiving Jesus as your Savior.
So repeat loud with me. Jesus, this morning I decide to
invite you to come to my life. I need you.
Jesus, I understand that you are my Savior.
You are my Lord and I receive you today as my Savior in Jesus
name, Amen. With your eyes closed, just make
it personal. We just did a prayer receiving
Jesus as a savior. And if you did that prayer for
the first time today, saying Jesus come to my life for the
very first time, I will count to 3 and I will ask you to raise
your hand if you did that prayer for the first time, if you are
here today or online, you were watching and you, you did that
prayer. I want to encourage you to raise
your hand. I will count to 3 and with
boldness, raise your hand. 123 Amen.
Hallelujah.
Amen, Amen. The ushers will give you
something and instructions to help you in this next journey
and I want to pray for you Lord, thank you for everything you are
doing. Thank you for the salvation.
We love you and we ask you Lord, that you keep loving and
touching and leading our lives because we need you.
We pray in Jesus name, Amen. Thanks for joining us today.
We hope God is speaking to your heart through this message.
If you'd like to connect with us, you can text Connect to 4:07
588-0115 or visit Illuminate dot Church.
Have a great week.