Testimony

with Pastor Micheal Oxentenko

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, let's bow our heads and let's get into the
Word of God. Give me a little grace to give
my whole message to you. Is that fair? And I'll
try to there's a zero hand. Lord, when there's holy
spirit life, we don't want to run it down. So
we've gone a little longer with you today. But we
need your spirit to understand the Word of God. We

(00:21):
are in the Book of Acts. It is deep stuff.
And Father, this one person I want to remember right
now in my prayer Joe Weaver, our CPA in Tennessee, Laura.
Laura's dad died this morning. Father, May you be with
our dear friends who have helped us over twenty five
years to be stable at reaching hearts and Father, there

(00:43):
are others that I don't want to miss any person,
but I think of Sonny's wife who passed away. Bless her,
the entire family and the Lord. Just help us to
remember everyone in our personal prayers. Thank you for the
prayer chain in Jesus' name. Amen. The title of the
message this morning is testimony. Have you ever given testimony

(01:03):
about God means in your life? Okay? Stephen's name in
Greek means corona. His Greek name literally means to surround
with the idea of light all around, like a crown
of glory. The Greek word stephanos for a crown of
victory or wreath. The victory comes from the name Stephen,

(01:27):
the root word for his name. When Stephen was dragged
before the Jewish Council of the Sanhedrin, Luke records that
his face was like an angel. This morning, I'd like
to focus on the testimony of Stephen what it means
for us today in our calling to shine for God
with our testimony, which the Bible says, is how we

(01:47):
overcome Satan in our life. Acts seven to two, and
Stephen said, brethren and fathers. He begins by appealing to
his murderers as brethren and respectfully. He says, hear me,
the God of Glory appeared to our father Abraham when
he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Heron. Here
Stephen calls God the God of glory. Say that with me,

(02:10):
the God of glory. Literally, in the Greek Stephen calls
God the God of the glory. That's the original language.
The statement of the Greek is a direct quote of
the septuagen Greek Old Testament of the second third century BC.
That is found only in our Bible, in Psalms twenty
eight three. It's one chapter off in the Septuagin. Actually,

(02:33):
Psalms twenty nine three. In our Bible, I gave you
the Septuagin. Stephen intended to point these Jewish leaders back
to the only place in the Greek Old Testament where
this exact wording was found. The God of the Glory,
the only place in the Greek Old Testament. Let's look
at it in our English Bible, Psalms twenty nine to three.

(02:54):
The voice of the Lord is upon the waters, the
God of Glory. In the Greek Old Testament, the God
of the Glory thunders the Lord upon many waters. It
was well understood that the waters of the sea. When
the rabbis looked at this, they knew what it meant Biblically.
They knew that the sea represents the nations and peoples
of the world. God is enthroned of the waters of

(03:16):
the sea, representing the sea of nations, the peoples of
planet Earth. God is the glorious Light of the world,
enthroned above the waters. Stephen begins his testimony before the
Sanhedrin with this affirmation from God's word that God is
the glorious God of all people, and of all races
and of all the nations in the world. Sister, you

(03:38):
did our the sign song where there you are. Thank you,
What a beautiful, beautiful gift to our church today. Thank
you for coming here today and sharing that with us.
God is the God of all people. And so we
celebrate today that God is not a racist. Did you
hear me? We don't worship of racist God. In fact,

(04:01):
in the second Angel's message, he says to come out
of Babylon. Babylon is the is the center where racism
was born. With the tier of Babel, Pentecoster reverses that
because God brings people together in Jesus in truth, in clarity,
not confusion. Stephen begins his testimony before the Sanhedrin affirming

(04:23):
that God is the God of all people. John identified
Jesus as the glory of God that came to earth
to reveal the character of the unseen eternal God to
the whole world. Friends, we worship but God, who is
the light of the world. Christ is God, or he
couldn't be the light that came from God. John one
point fourteen and the word became flesh and dwelt among

(04:44):
us full of grace and truth. I mean, the truth
about God could have been an awful truth, but the
truth about God was a good truth. God is merciful
and gracious, and John says, we have beheld his glory
in Jesus. We saw the Chakaina glory of the eternal God.
Glory is of the only son from the Father, dear heart.

(05:06):
God is in the business of calling men and women
out of the world into a direct relationship with himself
as the God of the Glory. Do you hear me?
Say it with me, the God of the Glory. At
this point, Stephen recalls the history of Abraham, whom God
called out of Er from the land of the Chaldeans.

(05:27):
Er in the Hebrew language means light thachi or or
you can hear it in Genesis and the Hebrew it
also means the same in the ancient Akkadian language of
er Er meant light. God called Abraham out of the
land of Earth, the land of false light, to follow

(05:48):
the God of the Glory to a new land that
will exist in the future at the end of the
age as the Kingdom of God. He was calling him
back to the place where Eden was, where the new
Eden will be, the Promised Land Act seven three. And
he said to him, Stephen is here, saying, depart from
your land and from your kindred, and go into the

(06:09):
land which I will show you. God is speaking the
Old Testament. Then he departed from the land of the
Chaldeans and lived in Heron, And after his father died,
God removed him from there into this land in which
you are now living. Yet he gave him no inheritance
in it, not even a foot slength, but he promised
to give it to him in possession and to his

(06:29):
posterity after him, though he had no child. Friend, God
calls us out of false light, just like he called
Abraham out of error, to leave the world, to leave
an error behind, to follow the truth far behind, to
follow God, to come to know God, to have clarity,
to know the God of the glory and the mercy

(06:51):
and truth of God in Christ faith. And this is interesting.
I texted this to a friend who sends me every
morning an encouragement statement. Some people send me discouraging statements
every day. Text is me. You ever get virtue signaling
on your phone? Now you need to fess up and
quit sinning. I have someone who does that every day
for me, and I don't block him. You know why,

(07:14):
because I'm open to my parishioners. He's not here and
I love him. Okay, but it's really awful. The virtue
signal like that every day, but this one doesn't. He
sends an encouraging statement to me every day, and I
actually wrote this back to him. Faith is an eye
without light because faith sees and the night. You got

(07:38):
that faith is an eye without light because faith sees
in the night. Stephen records that Abraham followed God even
though Abraham had no child from God as of yet.
The ancients could not conceive of eternal life without the
gift of children. They felt, we can only live on
in this world in the lives of our children who
survive us. They thought, But if you have no children

(08:01):
in the world, you have no future. You are dead
for the future. So to survive you must have children.
They got part of it right with this ide, Dib,
but not all of it. It is true that life
is really about legacy, am I correct? And children rightly
trained our divine legacy that lives on for the good
of God and us and our lives live on through

(08:23):
them in that way. So God promised to give Abraham
a children, Abraham's children of future. Even though the old
man he called out of er had no children. His
wife wasn't able to have children to Beard, actually she didn't,
but he followed the God of the Glory into the future,
even though he couldn't see how God would pull that off.

(08:45):
The Bible teaches us that if we have faith in Jesus, friends,
we are all the children of Abraham. Raise your hand,
you have faith in Jesus, Raise your hand, hi, you
are a child of Abraham. Rizecreanth the promise Jesus is
the light of the world. And when we follow Jesus,
we walk in the light of the God of the Glory.
Faith is an eye without light, because faith sees in

(09:09):
the night. Apostle John tells us that faith is the
victory that overcomes the world. The children read it here
one John five four. For whatever is born of God
overcomes the world. Now, how many of you became a
Christian to be a loser? Keep your hands down? How
many of you became a Christian to be an overcomer?
Raise them high? And he says, and this is the

(09:31):
victory that overcomes the world our faith see faith matters.
Abraham left the world he knew far behind, and the
divine call to follow the God of the Glory. That
is exactly what we are called to do as true
believers in Jesus Christ. We are called to leave the
world with all its false light far behind, and to
follow the God of the Glory into the dark with

(09:53):
faith to find the future of God that is bright,
That is the light. God is the light in the journey.
When you cannot see the future, you can still see
God in the journey. If God appears to you in
your life, did to Abraham, you have the future already
secured in life. Because if God is with you, the

(10:14):
future is alive. Jesus spoke of the future resurrection. He says, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob are alive to God in the future. It's
better to have a relationship with God than to have
the gifts of God. To be secure without God in
your life, better to have God be poor. Why Because
God is the light that makes life worthwhile and full

(10:35):
of meaning in the journey in God's future. For you
with God, what good is heaven? What good is eternal life?
If God isn't in it. If his character is not
truth and mercy. If the light is darkness in God,
then who wants to live forever with God. Sometimes we
think that when we follow God out of the land
of false light, and yes, there's false light in the world.

(10:57):
Don't think that every church is a church that has light.
God has a people at the end of time identified
it as the remnant Church. While every church, and even
the remnant church has the challenges like ancient Israel had,
it possesses the core of the Covenant. It keeps the
commandments and has the testimony of Jesus Christ and so

(11:19):
important that we seek truth in our life. Sometimes we
think that when we follow God out of the land
of false light, everything will go great and good right away.
How many of you were baptized and felt but I
have a great week after baptism. My next year is
gonna be super because I was baptized. I thought that,
you know, the first when I was baptized, the God
into a fight. Right after my baptism. Someone cursed my

(11:40):
mama and I just lost it. I still had the
nature and I don't want to go into it, but
I had to do some repenting. But I was baptized
into Christ. Did God kick me out of the kingdom
because of that? No, He worked with me. This is
not the king Sometimes we thank the when we follow
God out of the land of false light. Everything great
not true. This is not the case with Bible faith

(12:03):
and definitely not the case with the God of the Glory.
Faith in God is always tested, so will stand tall
as faith that endures to the end. Faith under fire
and trial, for the God of the Glory is real faith.
It's the victory that overcomes the world. No one will
slip into heaven easy. Do you hear that no one

(12:27):
is given an eternal crown at the end of the
race because they were born with us with a spiritual
silver spoon in their mouth. That's right for some of you.
You need to hear that no one will gain eternal
life without giving up the worthless life of the world
with all its false promises of light and glory. We

(12:47):
say no to the world, Yes to God. They needed
to hear the testimony from Stephen, a man of God,
that we must leave the world far behind, like Abraham did,
defind God to follow the God of the Glory. It's
possibly be in the church su possibly leave the church
like the Sanhedrin was, and to be worldly. I ask

(13:08):
you this morning the question that Stephen drove home hard
into the minds of those learned worldly men whoft, who
felt they were so privileged that God would give them
anything what they asked for. I ask you the question,
have you left the world far behind? Or are you
still clinging to the world in your life? Now? Don't

(13:29):
answer it publicly, but ask yourself the question. I'm not
asking if you're perfect. I'm asking if you have surrendered
to the Lord to be able to say I do
not want the world controlling me in my life. Do
you expect God to give you a handout with no trials,
with no endurance, with really no victory in your life

(13:52):
over sin? Is that the Christian walk you want in
your life? Cheap grace, friend, is not grace at all.
God offers us costly grace that cost him everything that
bids a man or woman come and die so they
can live for the God of the glory. Dear heart,
let's get it straight and write with God. No pain,

(14:15):
no gain in the Christian life, no strain, no gain either,
no trials, no crown to attain, no ill treatment, no
vindication from God, no persecution, no vindication. The life that
is never tested is a life that has never lived
for God. Stephen drove that point home hard to those

(14:36):
arrogant and self sufficient religious leaders who would not pay
the price of self sacrifice to have God's leadership truly
in their heart and lives. Stephen continues with his testimony
verse six, Acts seven. And God spoke to this effect
that his posterity be aliens in the land belonging to
others who would enslave them, and He'll treat them four

(14:56):
hundred years. But I will judge the nation which they serve,
and said God. And after that they will shall come
out and worship me in this place. My wife's Diana,
My wife's My wife Diana has a grandfather who's passed away.
He was the first Seventh day Adventist in Iraq. If
I'm not mistaken. He came in through the Voice of Prophecy,

(15:20):
that global radio broadcast and Bible study network, and he
came to the light of the Three Angels messages as
he was seeking truth Revelation fourteen the last messages for
this world. And he lived in the land of the
Chaldeans in modern Iraq, and like Abraham Basher, Hasso became

(15:44):
a very wealthy man, but he invested his resources in
his family. He built our work in the Middle East
early on leban and other places. He funneled money through
his family and associates and himself to make the message
go in the Middle East. And he left a legacy
of faith for his family and others until the day

(16:05):
he died, and still lives on in my children. He
built much of what we appreciate now in that those
areas of the world are in trouble. But Shehir Hosso suffered.
His life was threatened at times by the Baphist party
under Saddam Hussein in Iraq, but he didn't sell his
faith in Jesus, the Sabbath, the Gospel for gain or

(16:25):
to be political with power. Diana's dad, John Green Dad
I call him Dad, married Bashir Hasso's daughter Epi, which
is Diana's mom. Dad was and is a lot like
Bashir Hasso. He was smart enough that he could have
become a wealthy businessman like his father in law had.

(16:48):
I mean he gets on the computer, he he understands
computer models of investing. He's amazing, but instead instead of
doing that, he became a minister of the Gospel to
serve in the mission field. Diana's dad is the visionary
who founded Reaching Hearts International. Many of you don't know
that he is. When I couldn't see five minutes into

(17:10):
the future after Sligo, Dad envisioned Reaching Hearts International, worked
with Elder Milos Martin, one of the great Seventh Day
Adventists of our time who helped to desegregate our church
in the sixties, believe it or not. And Elder Charles Cheatham,
the president of Alleghany's Conference who became like a father
to me. With doctor John Butler, some of you here

(17:33):
a core group of visionaries that in vision, radio, evangelism,
collegiate outreach, church planting, which you've done around the world.
Dad was kidnapped at gunpoint by the PLO terrorist group
when he was a missionary, but God helped him escape
in a mon Jordan. A sniper's bullet almost hit him
in Lebanon, and he survived. He got up just in time.

(17:57):
Diana had to learn to read under a bed with
bullets flying overhead and bombs landing nearby. That's why my
wife can take anything, and she makes me stand up
to stuff I wouldn't normally stand up to. But Sheer
Hasso and John Green left a legacy of faith because
they endured suffering in their lives for others. Most people
here don't know it, but Diana's dad had a premature

(18:20):
illness that has really hurt him in the last ten
years because of the stress and strain of making sure
that we at Reaching Hearts International made it through our
legal fight, our challenges when crazy things happened to us
to secure our church's future. Good hunk of his retirement
money went here, not for retirement. Satan attacked him personally

(18:44):
as he stood for us. He's never stood in the
pulpit to beg for affirmation. But I'm his son in law.
I'm praising God for what he did. I remember the
darkest night of the struggle for me when we lost
an important vote in the county council for water and
sewer approval over twenty years ago. We needed to build
a church, and that they said no. Power from worthy

(19:06):
men and Prince George's and that council said no. But
God had said yes to our church. I was driving
home in the rain and pain, crying on the phone
with Diana's dad on the other side. Dad, I can't
believe it. We lost. I'm broken, I feel like giving up,
and I was just shedding tears as a young minister.
Doctor John Green her dad. I call him doctor Green.

(19:29):
You know, I wrote him before I proposed to her,
and I called him John Green. Ever after, I called
him doctor John Green. Bad move. He's beginning ready to propose,
you know, Dad. Doctor John Green stopped me dead in
my tracks as I was nurturing this attitude of the
victim and the soup of self pity. You ever been there?

(19:52):
He said, Mike, listen to me, Mike, and nature the
weak die you cannot afford to be. Then he stared
at me. Then he shared with me. He says, Mike,
listen to me. You can't go there. It's better to
die trying than to quit trying. Then he shared one

(20:12):
of my favorite verses, for I know the plans I
have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and
not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
I decided right then and there that I would not
give up for the fight for this church, no matter what.
I stood alongside some of you here today who also
made that decision in your life, and some who have

(20:35):
passed who made the decision to die to give us
this church. If that's what it took, and that's why
reaching Hearts internationals here. Others quit and moved on because
they were not willing to pay the price for victory
to have this church. We've gone through times we lost
half our church because then want to pay the price,
do the right thing to move through stressful times. I

(20:57):
confess to you today that I have feelings like anybody else.
Do you have feelings? Okay, let's just say we all
have feelings. And I felt like giving up many times
and just moving on in the last twenty five years. Yeah,
I did. I lost a lot of worldly things in

(21:19):
our common fight for this beautiful church God has given us.
I want to just share them with you here a
little bit, because I've never done this before. I lost
the chance for a PhD sponsored by Southern Avenue University
and University. To stay here, I turned down calls to
the ministry and other places with positions that were very
much coveted. I was called to consider the Village Church

(21:39):
in Bury in Springs, Michigan. That Jay Gallumer called me
and they had extended the call. I turned around came home.
The Battle Creek Church, also in Michigan, was extended to
me to come and interview for that, and they would
have brought me there. I turned down a request to
join the Eye Missouri conference. In the fight for the church,

(21:59):
I lost my retirement with the denomination because denominational employees
pastors are not allowed to fight legal battles in court,
so I had to not be an employee to carry
the legal victory through to the end. I lost my
reputation many corners at the hands of some denominational leaders,
not all, but some who chose to demonize our struggle

(22:23):
for a church was reaching arts in court fighting for
a church. These few self righteous men tried to frame
me as a man who just wanted to fight in
court to make money. I didn't get any money from that.
I lost a lot of money. They tried to frame
our struggle as an unrighteous cause instead of a stand
for justice and for freedom. Look, we live in America

(22:44):
where a Christian constitution stands for liberty and freedom, and
so we must fight for freedom if God puts us
into the fight. They did this until God won the
victory for us in court, and then they wrote it
up in a publication as their victory. And I said,
praise God, because I'm part of a world church, and
if they want to claim the victory, it's God's victory,

(23:06):
it's our world Church's victory. God be praised for our church.
A heavy rain pummeled on my windshield that night as
Diana's dad talked sound, good, wise, spiritual sense into my
victim minded, ignorant, youthful head. That night I listened to
a man of God, Dad, who himself had suffered and

(23:30):
almost died, was almost murdered to serve Christ in the
mission field. Diana's father loved me enough to tell me
the truth that I had a fatal flaw in my
character that was a mortal weakness. If left unaddressed, it
would destroy me. I was. I was too willing to
give up. Dad said, when God had led us into

(23:52):
the wilderness for a fight for faith, that was as
calling to a victory. But you cannot see it all.
If you can't see the victory, don't doubt God. Leading.
With tears flowing down my face and my voice cracked
with grief, I decided right then and there that I
would fight for this church with every ounce of energy
God would give me, even if He killed me, and

(24:13):
even if I failed. Hav many like that word failure fail.
I would fight for the future and faith. And a
lot of you made the same decision here. I have
all my life been afraid of personal failure. Up to
that time. I grew up in poverty. I overachieved. I

(24:34):
assumed the cum Laudie at the seminary because I did
not want to be the second best person in my class.
I confess to you that that was a weakness and
a failing in my life. I confess that the fight
for this church did almost kill me. But God had
to lead me through something to break me and to

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teach me to rely on him. It looked dark most
of the time, as most people thought we would fail,
and they begin to talk about as a failure church.
There are many prophets of doom who would come through
the doors, who would talk to our people out there,
that tried to convince me and some of you and
others that we would just not make it. They tried
to frame us as a group that was illegitimate and

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unworthy of God's grace to have a church. Dear heart.
God sent godly men from outside of our church, pastors
who are not advent us, to our church in the
Salem network, to shepherd us, to encourage us to protect us.

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Don't tell me that we're the only people that has
truth from God. When you have truth in your heart,
you have some truth to share. And God sent doctor
David Ruhlmann, who was head of WAVA, and Tom Moyer
into our lives and their families and others to encourage
us to stand tall and true with faith in Jesus.

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And I never compromised the Bible teachings for one minute
to have that relationship, and they didn't ask me to.
I blew a disc in my lore back the day
after I signed the contract for the property for this
church we worship in today, it hurt. It's pain, off
the charts, in pain. I had to learn to walk again.

(26:20):
We started the journey twenty five years ago to build
a church. The day after the property signed it boom,
I'm paralyzed right leg. I was on steroids to save
the nerve function my right leg. That's why I favored
my right leg. I used to lay on my back
and cry before I would write my sermon because of
the pain was so bad I didn't know if I'd
get in the pulpit and even share it. I learned

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to live with chronic pain and crying a lot in
the night in my fight for faith. For many weeks,
I dragged my leg into church. I mean remember me
dragging my leg in the church twenty five years ago
when I had that Kathy does a few of you
Most of you don't know that to preach a sermon
at Chi with pain off the charts in the nerve

(27:02):
area of L four L five in my lower back.
They gave me a lamin ectomy surgery to remove the
disk to save my leg so I could walk. Pain
kept on for a few months. I still have paralysis
my right leg from the blowout of that disk that
happened twenty five years ago, and part of the muscle,
the tibias interior is paralyzed. I had two major surgeries

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during the fight for this church, and most of you
don't even know it that most I also had two
blood clots during this journey that hospitalized me and threatened
my life. Diana told me to quit studying so hard.
I would sit for twelve hours and study, and I
got blood clot. I suffered the last blood clot and
we broke ground to build the church. I don't even

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remember me walking around with my leg up like that.
I almost died of sepsis one week, but most of
you didn't even know I was sick. I was preaching
one Sabbath of the Cedar Ridge in the old place,
so over ten years ago in Spencerville, and I was
dying the next day in set dick shock. Anybody here
have sepsis, It's awful. The infection my blood raised my

(28:07):
temperature to one oh eight and I was hospitalized on antibiotics. Literally,
I was melting away in church. They cultured the bacterium
and they saved my life at Howard County. I mean,
some of you visited me thought I was just in
the hospital for something simple. A well meaning leader in
the church who worked in the Sabbath School department of

(28:28):
the General Conference, who have great affection for visits me
in the hospital for that. I'm very grateful. But he
tried to convince me that it was all in my head.
It was not in my head. It was eating me
a lie. It was in my blood and I was
dying from sepsis. God was able to help those doctors
find it. The antibotic worked. I got out Friday. I

(28:50):
showed up in church the next Sabbath. After I was
released the Friday before, thirty five forty pounds a light.
Everyone said, Pastor Mike, you've been working out. I did
it to make an appearance to give everyone calm in
the church because of the fight. Because I thought the
pastor was dying. People give up and go away. I
showed up to make the flock feel confident. But I
was not well at all. I had lost thirty five

(29:13):
pounds that week, and it was awful. The infection ripped
me up inside. I was on the strong antibotic Zipro
for months to prevent a return of the infection. It
caused me to blow out attendant in my right leg,
which led to the blood cloth, the second blood cloth
I have to I had to have reconstructive surgery on

(29:33):
my mouth during that time to stop the infection from
returning because of bad dealal work. Why I went to
a place to get dealing work because I couldn't afford
insurance during that time. Diana and I have lifted out
insurance times during the struggle. I took two weeks off
to recover. After I showed up in church, went down,
just went to bed. I slept for two whole weeks

(29:54):
with Dad in Tennessee. I experienced a church member who
yelled at my face. He's pretty bad. During that time,
I loved that person. I considered it part of the
calling to care for the flock. I have experienced the
pain of people out to wreck my reputation again and
again just to get their way over the years, I've
lost some of the dearest people in my life in

(30:16):
this journey to build this church, and for that I'm
deeply sorry. Doctor John Butler, Grace Butler are gone now.
Some of you don't even know who these giants of
God were. Doctor Butler after Sligo put his arm around
me and says, We're just not going to let you fail.
Mike one of the most godly men I'll ever know

(30:38):
in my life. Abraham and Kathy poor SONI are gone
are former deacons, Podma Foz Gay. His courage has manifested
such that I didn't give up. Melissa is long and noble.
The great cloud of witnesses that have preceded us, and
there are others who died in the struggle to make
this church rise for the honor and glory for the

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God of the glory. As I review my life journey
here with you, I bear testimony to you confidently in Christ,
that I am not a victim. You hear me. I
have been privileged to stand alongside a noble cloud of
witnesses like Steven, men and women of faith who didn't

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ask when they could get out of the church, asked
what they could give to make it happen. I have
stood on the shoulders of spiritual giants here at Reaching
Hearts International, who have affected the world through freedom, through
the victory of that litigation, through the radio, and other means.
I count all these things necessary that I've been through

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and you have been through that my wife and others,
my dad has been through, and all gain worthy of
loss for the privilege of following Jesus Christ in my
life right here in this place. I'm happy for the
journey that led me to a deeper faith than Jesus.

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As I learned more and more that I needed to
leave be high the world in my journey to find God.
I need to give up on life dreams to follow
God's dream for my life. Recently, with Diana's dad, we
retraced the footsteps of my great grandfather, Lander Southern, who
fought in the Civil War on the Confederate side. He

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was still a man of God. There were good people
on both sides whacking it out during that war. He
fought in the Civil War in a major battle from
first bull Run through the Fredericksburg to teet him to Gettysburg.
He should have died, most good honk of the twenty
fourth Virginia Infantry died. Lander was wound in the arm

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with a bullet at the Stone Wall. He was in
Pickett's charge, General Longstreet's division right flank. He got all
the way to the top before he was shot in
the arm. He was willing to die on that hill,
but he didn't die. God made him live. He went
to a prisoner of war camp in New York. He
was there for a year and came home last year.

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Diana's dad put his arm around me on the battlefield
at Gettysburg where that Picket's charge occurred last year or
the year before. He said, Mike, God preserved your ancestor, Leander,
so you could build the church at Reaching Hearts International.
And he was crying because of he was so happy
that our church is here. Dad had tears in his

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eyes as he bore testimony with me of the grace
of God for our church, our history, our family history,
for freedom. And I bear testimony today alongside of Bashir Hasso,
doctor John Green, my wife's father, and my dad, my dad,
and the Lord and many others here I've mentioned them.

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I bear testimony today to you with Steve, and also
in mind that no one gets to heaven without someone
great in their life who suffered for Jesus Christ so
they could make it to the higher ground and stand
on the shoulders of giants. We're not self sufficient Christians
as we overcome. Friend, if you want an easy way
that cost you nothing to be a Christian, if you

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want a self affirming form of Christianity that just makes
you feel good, sinning that leaves you in a world
in love with the world, then don't bother to become
a Christian. Don't ask to be baptized, and don't bother
to become a leader in the church. Either. God can't
accept you if you can't leave the world to follow

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God into the night. I have lost nothing in my
walk with God that I didn't need to give up
to walk with God. And I testify today with joy.
God and Jesus are worth everything. Why Because God with
Jesus is the joy and the jury, the kick and

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the feet, the light of our life, the joy that
overcomes pain. Friend, Jesus is the life that matters now
in life. The Holy Spirit is the peace I would
have never had if not for the trials and the
tests that prove our faith is the victory that overcomes
the world. Stephen's name means victory, a wreath of victory.

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Stephen bore testimony to the truth as he lost his
life like Jesus did as the first martyr of the
Christian Church, because he loved the Lord. He was not
in it to get what he could get. He was
in it because of Jesus. That is how we overcome. Also,
we die in life to live for God. We lose

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in life to gain for God. We surrender in life
to overcome for God, to bear testimony to God, to
the God of the Glory, the God of the Light,
the exact linguistic sinner. The book Revelation ends with these
words words in Revelation twelve ten and eleven, and I
heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, now the salvation

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and the power and the kingdom of our God and
the authority of His Christ have come. For the accuser
of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them
day and night before our God. And they have conquered
him the devil, by the blood of the Lamb and
by the word of their testimony. For they love not

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their lives even unto death. I'm alive today. There are
others who are not, who have been in this journey.
Dear Heart, let us choose this day to bear testimony,
to stand with the great cloud of witnesses who have
honored God by faithful life. And let us never forget
that when God calls us out of the world, he

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calls us into relationship with the God of the Glory
and faith. Faith is an e without light. Forget that
faith sees in the night. God bless you everyone. Dear Father.
We're not good people, but we're your people. Yes, we're
not perfect people, but you are. And we don't see

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the future, and we can doubt, and we can have
little faith like Jesus' disciples, but you'd have great faith. Father,
give us Jesus every day for the rest of our lives.
Help us to serve you for you, not for us.
May you let self die that Christ might live. And Lord,

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grant every dear heart here who needs to know they
are loved. May they know that if they have faith
in Jesus, they are accepted as if they had never sinned.
They are complete in the Beloved. They are your children
in the journey, not just at the end of the journey,

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and that you love them. Thank you for proving it
in Jesus. Bless your people to day in Jesus name. Amen.