A New Testimony For A New Year

Lord, thank you so much. Thank you for this day. Thank you for your love. Thank you for um just the way you pour out into our hearts, Lord.

The way you grow us. [music] Each one of us is on a journey, Lord. And and you know the path you want. You know where we're going.

You know where you want to take us, Lord. as [music] we go into this uh service, a special service, um a special testimony, um I also [music] ask that you just guide us into this year, Lord. Um what to do and how to do. And uh Lord, I just pray that your Holy Spirit just come into this [music] place and if anyone is moved in their heart, um that they just they let go, they release, they let you in, Lord, and just let you [music] have uh your way with them.

It's in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. And amen.

You guys can sit down. I'm not going to be long because um we're going to have a special testimony from uh Stephanie, one of our members. But um I did want to share just a couple things. One, I really um love you guys.

I just really do love everyone here. You guys are just special to me. Um I think we've got a special place. It's It's really neat.

Um, [clears throat] it's neat that, excuse me, it's neat that, uh, you just don't know what's gonna happen, right? You know, Lordis brings soup today. You know, my son brought venison roast on Christmas Eve. I mean, what's going on?

But, um, but it was fun. And, uh, you know, we started this journey about five months ago. You know, God gave me the vision in March, but it took until August before we finally were able to get going and get it started. And um over these last five months, we've gotten, you know, most of the technology stuff worked out.

I say that in our live stream isn't working, but um you know, we're we're it's always a work in progress, man. But um you know, we've had our first communion. We've had our first, you know, uh Christmas Eve service. We've just a lot of firsts.

And as we head into next year, I just want to kind of share a couple things with you. one, I think 2026 is a really important year. Um, I think it's going to be an important year in the overall spiritual perspective. I'm going to share that more next week.

But, um, I challenge you in 2026 to to to really get that relationship with Jesus stronger than it is right now. Okay? Wherever you are in your walk, doesn't matter. It's are you moving forward and growing more?

because there is a time coming and it's and it's coming right soon. Um some things of 2026. We've we me and Kelsey and Gabe met um yesterday and we we've kind of laid out a couple things. The last Sunday of every month, we're going to try to do an outreach, some sort of outreach like we did with the laundromat.

Okay. The first Sunday, not this one, but like the first one in February. The first Sunday of every month, we're going to do a fellowship of some sort like when we went to Chili's. Um it may not always be that.

It may just be stuff here, whatever. But um we're going to try to do a fellowship the first Sunday of every month. So that that stuff's going to be happening hopefully all year long. You know, I'm going to try to do communion at least once a month, too.

So there's going to be some things that we're going to get into a groove with hopefully, you know, that are systematic. Before I introduce Steph, I just want to share with you. Um you know, you can you can trust this book, you know.

Um it's interesting everyone has these beliefs you know well I believe God says this or I believe this or I believe that this is the what is you know if if this person believes one thing and this person believes another what's the what's the truth you know I mean we've got to have some standard where we set is the truth this is the truth okay I can attest after 30 years as a Christian that if you can if there's something some things you can't test like stuff from the old testament may not happen again or whatever.

But the stuff you can test, okay, it it absolutely is true. All right, there's a verse in there, Romans 8:28, that says um that God works all things for good, okay? For those who are loved and according to his purpose. I am telling you, every bad thing that ever happened to me, ever has ultimately turned into good.

Okay? And I think most of you here can look back and say that was a bad time in my life, but man, what change happened and what growth happened and because that's where the growth is is is down there. So, so things like that you can test at the end of the day. You can't avoid bad stuff happening to you.

Stuff's going to happen. You know, we just live in a fallen and sinful world. We just do. And so, you know, but what we can trust on man is that you can have a peace in that in that storm because God's going to work it out.

He's just going to work it out. You know, it's just going to work out. And and if you can get to a place of confidence in in God, confidence in the scripture where you just know that you know that it's going to be okay, you can sail through these ups and downs peacefully. And that's a great place to be because the world is going to go crazy and you can be a voice of calm and you can help guide people to a better thing, you know.

And so I just want to challenge you this year to to um you know, you can put this to the test, but let this be your litmus test, this book, you know, of of what is truth? Because everything else, you know, I don't care if the podcast dude's got a million followers, you know, if what he's saying is his belief is counter to this, then he's wrong. It doesn't matter that he's got a lot of followers. He's just wrong.

This is right. And so I just want to challenge you to do that. Um Stephanie, okay. And Donna, Miss Donna, um came to us from uh actually Donna saw the church interview that that that the TV interview that I did, okay, on on WATC or whatever it's called.

And um and it's on the website now. You It's still up there. But uh she saw it and then she told Stephanie about it. And Stephanie went online to our website and started looking at the my sermons and stuff to see if I was doctrally sound.

Okay, which I like. You know, the Bible says test everything. Okay, you should test stuff. If you hear something you don't agree with here, go to scripture, man, and and see if what I'm saying is is matching what what I'm what I'm saying.

You know, hold me accountable. That's absolutely good, biblical, and right, okay, for you guys to do. And um and I'm humble enough to know that I don't know everything, right? I'm learning and growing in this thing as well.

There's things that I've read this week that I read 20 years ago and I think differently about them today than I did 20 years ago. Why I've grown, you know, and you see things on different levels. This book has layers to it that you're never going to really exhaust. I don't care who you are.

And so it's beautiful. Well, Stephanie looked up, decided doctrally I was sound, and uh and then they came and visited, and they've become a a a core part of our church now. Okay? And um they've had a an experience, and I'm not going to talk on that.

She's going to share that, but um I want you to give a a warm um welcome to Stephanie. Um she's a beautiful, beautiful person. You got it. All right.

I'm off, right? Maybe I'm >> on. Is it on? We're good.

Okay. So, I didn't think I'd be giving this testimony this soon. Um, but you know, God's timing is not our timing. So, we were going to be obedient and just share what happened to us.

So, for those of you that don't know, um, my dad died in September, and this time last year, death was not on our radar. We had no idea what we were getting ready to face. We had no idea what was going to happen, and no idea of how it was going to end, but God did. And so, Psalms 37:23 says, "The steps of a righteous man are ordered by God."

But what if your world is in chaos with sickness, death, loss? Everything looks like it's in ruins and destroyed. Is God ordering my steps into this and through it? And so, as the year progressed, I would seek the Lord and ask him to give us some kind of idea of what was happening because it just came out of nowhere.

We weren't prepared for it. We didn't know what was going to happen. And so as I begin to seek the Lord um he began to show me certain things. So when we are saved we are sealed by the Holy Spirit.

We are marked as his. And after that the Lord showed me that we have his fingerprints on us. So there used to be a poem back in the 80s and 90s and most of you know it's footprints in the sand that God walked beside you. There's two sets of footprints and when times got tough there was only one set and you question God and he says because I carried you.

Well, and that's a great poem, but the Lord began to show me a different view in the form of a fingerprint. Me, if you've ever cleaned glass on a or cleaned a mirror and someone comes along and and touches it, there's a residue or a mark on it. And so God showed me that this let us know that someone was there and something happened with that residue. Just like a fingerprint from God, he was there and something happened.

It wasn't coincidence. These fingerprints can be miracles, provision strength courage peace anything that God wants to use to get my attention and let me know that he is present and on the scene. And we know that five fingerprints equals a hand. So when I was trying to decide what to say, the Lord gave me five things to show that he did through us and for us during this past year.

The first fingerprint is the power of testimony. In Psalms 19:14, "May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my rock and my redeemer." My dad and I were in and out of the hospital a lot. Um, we had multiple procedures and this one day we were, it was June and he and I were at the hospital and he was having a procedure done and I got to stay in the room with him.

So he began to get very drowsy and um almost in a a semi unconscious state. And so um his heart rate started at 65 and then it went to 50, then it went to 55, then it went to 40, then it went to 33. And the nurse who was there, her name was Rose. And she looked at me when it hit 33 and she said, "Do you see this?"

I said, "What do you want me to do? You're the nurse. I I don't know what to do. And so um so I had been sitting beside his bed and so I got up and I began to whisper to him and I asked him, "Dad, are you okay?

How you feeling? Your heart rate's getting a little low. You know what's going on?" And he began to stir and he began to to tell that he was not afraid.

God was in control. And he told me that what he would pray as a child, what his mother taught him to pray, [snorts] and what he prayed every day. And as he began to testify to me and Rose, his heart rate jumped from 33 to 70 and it didn't drop again. And her name is important because his mother's name was Vivian Rose.

And so watch, you'll see that this is going to come up again. But that was God showing us there is um you know there is power in your testimony. Thanks. There is power in your testimony.

Thank you. I have some in my pocket too. [snorts] I came prepared. Um that's one thing that nobody can take from you is your testimony.

You can or you know you can order and argue theology and different things, but you can't take away what God did for you personally and how he he came down and intervened in your life. So I want to encourage you to look for ways that you can share what God's done for you. The second fingerprint was strength. Psalms 28:7, "The Lord is my strength and my shield.

My heart trusts in him and he helps me." When my dad first got sick, I told the Lord that we would proclaim his goodness and what he was doing for us to anybody that crossed our path. We would not waste what God was doing because we were upset and scared and there was a lot of scared. Um, so every time we would go to the ER, the hospital, a treatment, wherever we were going, a lot of times it was just me and my dad because of the logistics of things.

My mom couldn't always come. And in the car, we would pray and we would ask the Lord to go before us, make the path straight, open doors we couldn't open, handpicked people that were supposed to be there with us. And then what would happen is we would get there and the ER would be completely empty. We would be the next person.

And so we would go in and and then a little bit later as we were being moved around, I would walk past that ER and it was standing room only. So God made a way for us not to have to wait for hours and hours. And so as my dad is sitting in a hospital bed, he is anybody that's working on him, a nurse, a tech, a doctor, whoever, he told them that we prayed and we asked God to handpick who worked for us, who worked on us, and God chose them.

That takes a lot of strength to sit in a hospital bed with things that can't be cured. and tell someone that we prayed for you and God sent you. And there was only one or two people that actually acknowledged that they, you know, believed in that. The others just kind of looked so shocked that um God would handpick them for something.

And that was a testimony, too. Um and we did that everywhere we went. [snorts] The third fingerprint was peace. John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you.

My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Two weeks before my dad died, I had a dream about him.

It was me and my mom and my dad in the hospital room. And he at that point he wasn't mobile. And he jumps out of the bed and he runs around the room. And I tell my mom, "Look, it's a miracle."

And he's young and he he looks like he did when we were kids. He was handsome and young and just, you know, thriving. What I didn't know was that God was preparing us because at the time we were still believing in a physical healing, which God can do. But God was preparing us for him to go home.

And he let me see him in his heavenly body. And I know this is true because the day that my dad died, that morning he began to tell me that he felt like he was 15 years old and he could just get up and run around the room. And that was God confirming the dream that I had had. And so he was giving us that peace and showing us what he was going to look like in heaven.

The fourth fingerprint is comfort. In John 16:33, I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world.

We got to a point where there was nothing that they would do for us. And so my dad wanted to come home. And so we moved heaven and earth to get him home. And as we as the transport pulled into the driveway, he died.

Sorry. [snorts] He died [snorts] and the events surrounding those last eight days of his life and that day were absolutely horrific. Um, we can't really go into details, but it was it was very traumatic. And um, we we found ourselves just with a three- ring circus.

We had fire department, police, ambulance, we had neighbors, we had everything just kind of blowing up at once. Again, chaos. [snorts] about 11 o'clock at night. We're still sitting there in the driveway with my dad's body in an ambulance waiting on the funeral home to come and get it.

And we're sitting there with two neighbors, Rose and Rosie or her or her two neighbors. [snorts] And God began to show us this as a source of comfort. One, because my dad loves sitting in the driveway. He did it every day.

Every day he'd say he had to get his fresh air and he would sit in the driveway and he would talk to neighbor kids and he would wave at the garbage man and he would watch the birds and he would that was his place to be in the driveway. And then his mother's middle name was Rose. And there we are with two neighbors, Rose and Rosie, sitting with us in the driveway for hours. Now I don't believe that my grandmother was there with us.

I believe that God was using that name as a way to say he was there with us. That's what we know that he was there. And so the Lord used those circumstances to comfort us. And it wasn't coincidence.

Was it hard? Yeah. But it wasn't coincidence. The fifth fingerprint [snorts] was a new beginning.

Isaiah 43:18. Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing.

Now it springs up. Do not do you not perceive it. His funeral was on September 27th and then we buried my dad on the 29th. It was the hardest week of our lives.

And then I had to go back to work because I had been out of work the entire month of September. So I had to go back to work. And thank the Lord for my assistant because that woman carried me for a month and and taking care of everything. But when I went back to work, I was completely numb.

And I remember calling my mom on the way home to check on her and I asked her, I said, "Guess what I did today?" And she was always never knew what I was going to do because my schedule was crazy. She said, "What in the world did you do today?" I said, "I have no idea."

I said, "I think I stared at the wall for eight hours." [clears throat] And so we were we were we were numb. But God was still doing something new. Later that week is when my mom saw Pastor Brian on Atlanta live.

And it was right after Yam Kapoor. And I've shared this in small group that God does very weird things. Not weird but unusual things in my life um at Yam Kapore. I don't know why um but he does.

And it's to get my attention. He moves people in and out of my life. He moves me. He things have happened.

Four or five times in my life. Significant things have happened. And so she calls me up. My TV wasn't even on because I was probably staring at the wall.

And she says, "Turn on the TV." and um wanted to know if I knew him because we're in the same industry. And uh and so when it the show was off, she said, you know, do you think we should try this? Because we'd been praying for a new church to go to.

We went through this whole thing without a church because we had been in between looking for a new church home, but then my dad got sick and you can't look for a church when you've got roundthe-clock sickness. And she said, "Do you think we should try?" And I said, "Absolutely not." Um I've told Brian this >> [snorts] >> I said, "God can't possibly be making us go to a new church.

We I think we needed to be invisible. We needed to just kind of sit and h and heal." But that wasn't what God was doing. And he began to work on me for the next three weeks and and just show me how that we needed to take a step.

So on Halloween, I told my mom, I think we should try. And we did that next Sunday. And God knew that we didn't need to be invisible. He knew that we didn't need to just kind of sit to the sidelines.

He knew that we needed to come where people would know us and and begin to love on us. And it's hard to pick up your tent and move when you've gone through so much trauma, but obedience is always better than sacrifice. So, we took a step of faith and we know we're supposed to be here. Um God has confirmed that over and over.

Every sermon was for me. And then Kerianne wrote us the sweetest letters at Christmas that really touched our heart deeply and that was another confirmation. So God began to confirm all of that. And I want to go back to my original question.

Can God order your steps in chaos, death, and destruction? Yes, he can do his best work in the darkest season. And I want to encourage you that if you find yourself in a hard season, look around for the fingerprints of God. They are there.

And if you're not sure, ask God. Pray and ask him to give you that revelation, he will. And you'll start noticing that things that you thought were coincidence, they're not coincidence. Is God moving and shifting?

And you know, our plans are not his plans. Our ways are not his ways. Sometimes we got our plan all the way got this plan and then he starts doing stuff and deconstructing it. And so he'll give you that revelation.

The second thing is give yourself grace in a hard season. Isaiah 43:2, "When you walk through waters, I will be with you. When you walk through rivers, they will not overtake you. When you walk through fire, you will not be burned."

Even though he's giving us the insurance of coming through all this that he'll be with us, you still went through fire. You still were in rivers that were going to overtake you. And you don't always know how to handle those things. Um, it's new territory.

what we went through was new ter. We've never been through this before. We didn't know how to handle it. And God was okay with that.

So, we you got to give yourself grace. Some seasons are so hard that all you can do is hold on to Jesus for dear life. But we know that he will bring beauty from the ashes and then there will be an after this. It won't last forever and there will be after this.

And lastly, and most important, heaven is real. My dad told me things that he saw his last day that only he could see with supernatural eyes. I couldn't see them. He's telling me things that I couldn't see.

And I believe God was giving him, he was starting to transition him into that spiritual realm of heaven. And so if heaven is real, then hell is real. And so my dad gave me his watch before he died and I wore it today because it represents time. Time is short and things are moving really fast.

And so if you have not made Jesus your Lord and Savior and receive the gift of salvation, you can do that today and have that assurance because we're not guaranteed to have tomorrow. Our life changed in a day. forever and yours can too, good and bad. And so I want to end with a quote from David.

I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living again. Thank you. >> [applause]