puppets church

[music] you know, whenever you get room service they send all kindof combination of food condiments and accessories. you got nine kinds of sugar for47 people. you have salt and pepper. do you have any idea what myfood would taste like if i used all this salt and sugar. you have ketchup.

i know people put ketchup oneggs, and it's nasty. they think of every way you'llseason your food and they got to think of everything. they're trying to. you worry what you're tellinggod you have forgotten something. let me tell you something, godhasn't forgotten anything. stop tripin', trust got. he's got your back.

amen, amen, how is everybodydoing okay today? everyone is watching online,east county, north county, we've been working on that for a longtime. we have six months of videosfilmed so we can get ahead. you can download that itunesit's called miles a minute. you can get that app. when you get it today there willbe five on there. we launched it friday. it became live friday, and everyvideo will have a gospel

presentation. you can share it with everyoneyou know, share it with your family. but it's every single day adifferent video, and it will be all through the end of nextyear. every day for the whole year,and it's very exciting. every video takes me a half hourto get the right one. i film about 30 on average andthen the developers and they have to write the devotionals,so it's a lot of time.

we pray that you'll download itand share it with people. e-mail it, text, hopefully itwill get to a lot of people, amen. we had someone friday night--wedidn't even announce it. we put it up and sent it to afew people. we had someone get saved fridaynight. so we already had someone getsaved. by the way, if you send it tosomebody who gets saved they'll get a video from mecongratulating them, then

they'll be able to download abook "21 jump start." it's a devotional through thebook of john. a devotional every day--the bookis a devotional for 21 days. teaches them how to read thebible. and then in 21 days they'll getanother video, and then every year they'll get a videoreminding them of that day. so follow up, follow up, followup. i want you to think of peoplewho don't go to church. this was designed to give mainlyto give christians a way of

encouraging you and share yourfaith and the end user is ultimately the person who doesnot go to church. we've been testing this withpeople who do not go to church, and we've been getting a greatresponse. send it out there. send it every day. read it, watch it, and thenshare it. it's right there on your quickeasy button on the app. we're very excited about it.

and let's give the lord a hand. let's give the lord a hand. [applause] toys for joy was amazing again. let's give everybody a hand fortoys for joy. amazing. if you've never been, you needto come next year, in 364 more days or sometime next year we'regoing to do it again. i want to thank the people whoorganized it, debby, ernie,

michael, sharon and michelle,let's give them all a big hand. god bless you, michael hall,he's always sitting over here. amazing, amazing. i want to thank 16 churches thatpartnered with us. the pastor told me to tell youthat we have a new family in bayview baptist church. and city of hope also said thesame thing. great brothers in otherchurches, they're great partners, and we'll do greatthings here in san diego.

and december 19th come down tosouth bay. we're having a service to seethe interest in one of our churches. december 19th, worship, prayer,encouragement, and we'll give you vision for down in southbay. look at the person next to youand whatever campuses you are, whether you know them or not,look at the person next to you and say jesus loves you. i was going to say i love you,but some of y'all might think

that's kind of... just to clarify if someone tellsyou they love you in the christian context, in thebiblical context, and god is love and love is a biblicalthing because god is love, it really means in the most basicdefinition is that i'm really committed to helping you obeygod. it's not like you want to go outwith someone, date someone, nothing like that. i may say i love you, if i lovegod, i by definition that means

i want to obey god. that's what love means bydefinition. now when you're in love withyour wife or whatever, obeying god is still in that context. you want to help them obey godbut there is a lot more to it than that, love can never bedisobedience to god. ladies, if some guy is saying, ilove you and he's trying to get you to do something that isdisobedient, that's not love, that's lust.

just so you know. some of y'all are like, oh,snap. i wish i would have known that20 years ago. let's see your bibles. uno, dos, tres, word. very good. let's during to micah,m-i-c-a-h. micah. it's in the old testament.

if you go to the new testamentand then turn the bible, well, if you know where matthew is. i want to encourage you as weapproach the new year that you start thinking about your newyear. commitments. what you're going to do everyday. hopefully you watch miles aminute every day. it's only a minute. everyone has got a minute.

but don't let that be all youdo. micah 5. lord, thank you so much for yourfaithfulness. thank you for your word. thank you for loving us, andthank you for blessing us. lord, i pray this christmas wewill be a little more bold in inviting people to church. be a little more courageous andhave a little more faith in who we invite to church.

use us in jesus' name, amen iwould also like to ask you to pray for my wife and daughterbecause my home has visitations of evil. especially when something likemiles a minute comes out, evil attacks my wife and my daughter. my wife has been in physicalpain, no one can figure it out. back, neck, bone broke, odd, andmy daughter has all kinds of stuff going on with her. so we deal with that every day.

just pray for my wife debby andmy daughter, if you're on our e-mail list you'll get achristmas card from us. and if not, get on the e-maillist and we'll send you a christmas card. it's real simple. during toys for joy i do a lotof interviews with media and answer questions from peopleabout the event, when we started, we started four yearsbefore we started the church. this is about our 17th year ofdoing it.

and someone asked me yesterday,it was actually the church staff, we did an interview forour video, what do i hope people leave with when they come to atoys for joy event. thousands of people, they getfood, clothes, they get a toy. if you saw the video there was achannel 10 did a report of a young lady who was crying givinga toy to her daughter. she said, this is the only toythat my daughter will get. when i was growing up, this ladysaid, we rarely, sometimes we didn't have any toys.

we didn't have toys. my wife grew up like that. my wife had several years as akid where they wouldn't get any toy or get one that someonedonated to their family. they didn't have christmas. so it was very real to us. one in five people here in sandiego live under the poverty line, 400,000 to 500,000 who arefood insecure. that's a phrase which means youdo not know where your next meal

is coming from. it doesn't mean you don't knowwhere you you're going to eat your next meal. many of you don't know whereyou're going to eat your next meal. food insecure means i don't knowif i'm going to eat again. there are 400,000 people in sandiego who are food insecure. when you get groceries, hotdogs, you get to eat, that's a real need being met in theirlife.

it's a big blessing for us tosee that happening, and that's why it's one of my favorite daysof the year to see that happening a lot, a lot of peopleat one time. but one thing i hope they allleave with is hope. when they leave that place withtheir groceries that they're going to get, their toys, a fullstomach, and a bag of clothes, that they would have hope thatsomeone somewhere cares about them, and somebody somewhereunderstands what they're going through and is there to say i'mhere for you.

and the church should be that. the as a matter of fact, godcalled the church to be that. when asked if jesus is reallythe messiah, jesus said tell john what you see me do. i raised the dead. i healed the blind, thecrippled, the mute, i'm doing all kinds of signs and wonders,and i preach the gospel to the poor. i preach the gospel.

that's what our responsibilityis. so that's why all these people,as we continue our series on christmas we're going to look inthe book of micah as micah an old testament prophet is goingto prophesy about the messiah. we saw christmas in the oldtestament. we think about christmas being anew testament thing, but christmas was prophesied in theold testament because the jews were looking for the messiah. they would tell them about themessiah.

they would talk in the futureabout a messiah who would eventually be jesus. it was christmas in the oldtestament. now a prophet was a person whowas a mouth piece of god. say mouth piece. a prophet is known by sayingthis phrase, thus saith the lord. the prophet was not there togive their own opinion. i'm not here to give my opinion.

my opinion means what? you don't want my opinion. i could say here's what i thinkgod is saying, i tell you i don't know because you have todiscern for yourself, but my responsibility is to say, here'swhat god wants you to hear. that's my responsibility. it's not about me it's aboutwhat god wants to say. the prophets would come, andthey would speak to the leaders of the nations or individualpeople or small groups of people

and say, i'm here to tell whatyou god says. sometimes they would act it out. their own physical illustrationof how they lived or suffered, isaiah walked around naked. ezekiel cooked food on cow dung. they illustrated what god wasgoing to do. their whole point was here iswhat god wants you to hear because he wants you to obey andtrust him. micah came.

there were 12 major propheticalbooks. five major prophetical books. they call them the majorprophets but really they were the books. and then 12 minor prophets,micah was one of those smaller books, seven chapters. and in his book one-third wasdedicated to the sins of the people. one-third was dedicated to thejudgment that god would bring on

the people, and one-third wasdedicated to hope. hope is an expectant desire nomatter what you're going through that god is going to bring youthrough the shadow of the death. there is something at the end ofthe tunnel that is really good. you have to have hope. god always, always, alwaysthough he disciplines his people, he corrects his people,he would always give them hope that in the end he's going toget them through. they trust him.

when you hear haul things worktogether for good for those who are for christ and work in hispurpose. some cut that off and say, allthings working together for good. that's not true. not always things work togetherfor good for you. all things work together forgood for those who love god and work for his purpose. what does that mean?

if i go out and commitment acrime and i don't turn to god, all things are not going to worktogether for good. i'm going to suffer. if i say lord, i'm going to beon your program, everything is going to work out. that's a fact because god can'tlie. but if you don't obey god, youdon't have any hope. your hopeless. so if you want hope startobeying god.

let's read chapter 5:1. the first thing that he's goingto say is that they're going to be judged because they'resinning. now israel gather yourself introops. get your army together, ohdaughters of israel. god has laid siege against us,that your enemy has laid siege. they will strike the judge ofisrael with the rod on the cheek. what micah is saying, israel,get your troops together, to be

hit on the cheek is an offense. it's very offensive. what micah is saying is you allhave sinned and you will be judged. i like to work out withdifferent people, i worked out with chris byrd, he may belistening right now. if he is, what's up, chris, howare you doing? adrian gonzalez used to workwith the padres and now los angeles dodgers.

he works out with chris. i said i'm going to go and workout with you y'all. now the first thing we do isspar. i'm not in that good of shape,but i'll spar. i put the gloves on, i took myglasses off. now i can't see. first thing, put me in the ring. we went six rounds. we boxed two minutes, and then iwould get in the last minute.

and then when i finished myminute, adrien would come in for two minutes, and then i wouldcome in for a minute. and chris would just block. it would be a five-second, athree-second work out. the whole work out was two hoursbut it would be three seconds he would knock us out. he would graciously let us punchon him, literally, he would say go for it. adrian was trying to hurt him,and then i'm trying to hurt him.

i don't box, i'm lying a littlekid hitting him. but i'm 180, he's 230, he'sblocking. i'm trying to income him out. i know i can't physically knockhim out, but i'm still trying. i'm punching and punching, andevery now and then i would get him. bop, the mouth piece would goflying out. i'm kidding. but every now and then i hithim, and i could hear adrien in

the back, good shot, good shot. because i hit him and then i getall confident and then i rush and throwing punches. he's just like this. he's like this, he would movearound. every now and then when hewanted to remind me, you know, remind me of all the things ishould be reminded of like who i am not, who he is. all that.

literally he would just go boom,in my stomach. chris, you can't hit this righthere. this is the franchise righthere. you can't hit this. market, i went in there and iput a belt around my head because in boxing you can't hitbelow the belt. so i put the belt right here. he would just go, boop, and iwould go, ooh. now i'm like this.

he would be like, come, come,come on. he would just remind me. god will let you mess up for along time he'll let you do so much because he's so patient. but not because he approves ofwhat you're doing then every now and then, boop. and when you hit the boop, it'snever what you deserve. you deserve a whole lot worse. if you ever think, oh, my lifeis so bad.

god could justify giving you awhole lot more. not that he gives you your pain. sometimes your pain is selfafflicted. you're going suffer. your king is going to beembarrassed. your city is going to bedestroyed. but then came verse two. but--everybody say but... take a deep breath and say but.

it's like three people who gotthat one. but you bethlehem, ephratah. everybody say bethlehem. anybody get spit on? beth is house. and lehem is bread. bethlehem is house of bread. jesus is life. he was born of house of bread.

though you are among thousandsof judah come forth unto me. he said king of kings, lord oflords, eternal god. jesus when he was born, that wasnot the start of his life. it wasn't the start of hisministry. it just was the start of hisearthly life to mary. but jesus is eternal. go to the old testament. moses is standing before a fierybush 1400 years before christ, and the fire starts to talk andmoses says, who are you?

i am that i am. jesus in john says, i am that iam. shadrach, meshach, and abednegowere in the fire, and the lord came down and walked in thefire. you never knew that? shadrach, meshach, and abednego? read your bible. you all got the king james. shadrach, meshach, and abednegowere in the fire and the lord

came in the fire and the biblesaid the angel of the lord--that was jesus. abraham talked to the lord. that was jesus. all throughout the old testamentwhen you see angel of the lord with the capital "a," that'sjesus in the old testament. why? jesus is eternal. he created the earth, thefather, the son, the holy spirit

created the earth. every lasting to every lasting. creating a ruler for bethlehem. hope, hope. what was bethlehem? bethlehem was a tiny town of acouple of hundred people. that's why it says, you littlebethlehem. insignificant little town i'mgoing to bring in the king of the world.

what does that tell us? god is so amazing that he'll usesomething that is nothing to make something big. god uses insignificant people,insignificant places to do significant things. now when i say insignificant idon't mean unvaluable to god. i don't mean unloved. i don't mean unspecial or notspecial. i mean that in the eyes of theworld it's like you would never

think twice. bethlehem is just a tiny littletown. you don't think twice. just drive by and you may neversee it. it's just a, um, could havehundred people. it's not like a big palace, it'sjust a poor family in someone's manger. that's where the king of theworld is coming from. because god is all about takingsomething that is nothing and

making it something. that's exactly the kind ofpeople that god uses. once you start thinking you'resomething, no. other people can think you'resomething. and you can even do a lot ofgood for a lot of people just don't you start to think you'resomething. you know, perfume, how many ofyou always smell good. here's the thing about smellinggood. and you go through nordstroms orthe mall, and you walk through

the perfume, that area where allthe women are doing the makeup and perfume, i don't know whatthey call that area. cosmetics. all the honeys are in there allmade up, hi, hi, hi. and it smells. it just smells like a woman. smells like five women becausethere are all these different smells. all the ladies are getting madeup, and they got the smell good

everywhere. they will always tell you justtry it on your hand. i don't know, what you want todo and smell the aroma. put it on, aah, smells good. you never drink it, though. can i get amen? if you drink it you get sick. that's how compliments are. someone said, hey, you did agreat job, just go, thank you.

but don't drink it. don't eat it. in case you haven't figured outby that, don't start to internalize it and believe it. that yeah, i am somebody. because if you humble yourselfbefore god he will lift you up. if you put yourself up beforegod he will put you down. what the devil will tell you,the devil will beat you up to discourage you.

he'll lift you up to make youprideful. say devil, i'm just going to sitat god's feet and let him do what he has got to do. god is choosing bethlehembecause i can use insignificant people, unknown people to do anamazing thing. i guess i was so blessed lastyear at toys for joy because we do a bike raffle throughout thewhole day, but there is a part of the day where i go up on thestage with some local leaders, police captains, politicians,mayors for the county, senators,

and we all pick out of thisbucket, and we raffle off bikes for kids. i said a number, and this littlegirl comes running out. she's ten years old with areindeer hat. she had a brother and sister. she was ten, her brother wasmaybe eight and her little sister was four. they're there together. she comes running down.

they say she can pick any bike. and she picks a bike for herlittle sister. then her brother wins, and hecomes running down. he gets a bike for his oldersister who just gave the bike to the younger sister. i'm like, who raised these kids? i'm not--i noticed they weretogether. they're looking at the raffle,looking at the raffle, and they didn't get another bike.

so we got a bike like four dayslater and brought it to their house and gave the little boythe bike because they all had to have a bike, amen. when i say insignificant, they are very important in thekingdom of god. they're not wealthy. they're not influential in thecommunity. they're just real kids who wereraised right and had hearts this big.

they were there yesterday. i got to see them and talk tothem again. they looked like they grew forfive years. my point is it doesn't matterwho you are. god is not looking for someonebig in stature. he's looking for someone big infaith. out of you is going to come theking of the world, and out of you is going to come the saviorof the world, and bethlehem is the town that david was born in.

god told king david from yourdescendants will come a king. so when god told micah to tellisrael your savior is going to come from bethlehem, he was alsokeeping his promise to david. and if you read the jeanmatthew. when you see the names. this person begat this personwho begat this person. one of the reasons thatgenealogy is there is to show you that jesus is descended ofdavid just like god said. god keeps his promises.

if god made a promise to you,he's going to keep his promise. as a matter of fact, if god cando anything can he make a rock he can't lift? no, god can't make a rock thathe can't lift. he can't lie. he can't sin. he can't deny his own character. he cannot break a promise. so his promise to you is that ifyou trust him he will bless you.

if you look to him, if youknock, the door will be open. if you call to him he willanswer. if you seek he will find. he'll give you patience,self-control, if you trust him no matter what yourcircumstances say. no matter what. if you have hope. this savior, there shall bepeace. peace is the absence of chaos.

peace is stillness. peace is order. here's what i want all y'all todo. i want all y'all to--in aminute. i want you to bow your heads andclose your eyes all campuses. bow your heads and close youreyes. i want you to bow your heads,close your eyes and take a deep breath in. when you exhale drop yourshoulders, your neck and your

head. relax. peace. the devil will work to put chaosin your life. noise. clutter. god wants to bring peace. god wants to bring order. there are some of you who havechaos through stress.

financial stress. relationship stress. you're worried about your job. you're worried about yourhealth. you have fear. where are you going to eattomorrow? you don't know. how are you going to feed yourkids? pay your bills?

you're suicidal. depressed. you're losing hope. he wants to bring order. in a minute we're going to prayfor you, and then we want to pray with you. we want to encourage you. we want the prince of peace toreassure your heart that though your circumstances may notchange before you leave this

room your response to them will. and that you will see yourcircumstances through the eyes and heart of the prince ofpeace. i'm going to ask in all thecampuses i'm going to ask all the pastoral support team tocome at all the campuses because we're going to have people comeforward for prayer in a minute. just have the pastoral team comeforward in all the campuses. as our eyes are closed and ourheads are bowed we want to pray for you.

that the prince of peace who wasborn in bethlehem would fill your heart with peace. so pray with me in the privacyof your heart if you need prayer today, peace today, comforttoday, in the privacy of your heart pray dear god i need yourpeace. i need your presence. i need your comfort. i need your touch. i need assurance you are stillwith me.

i need assurance that you loveme. i need assurance you're going toget me through. i need encouragement. i need support. i need help. we want to help. eyes closed, heads bowed, if youprayed that prayer just stand to your feet and acknowledge god'sprayer in your life. god bless you.

just stand to your feet. stay standing, god bless you. we see you, we see you in thebalcony, all levels. god bless you, god bless you. we want to help you. we want to pray with you. you're not going to get this atwork. you're not going to get this atthe mall, you're not going to get this at the softball field.

this is where it happens. right here. it has to happen here. stand to your feet, god blessyou. we want to pray for you. some of you need a miracle inyour life. we want to pray for yourillness, anybody else stand to your feet, god bless you. in a minute we're going to askall of how are standing.

we're going to ask you to cometo the altar. if you're in the balcony theushers will bring you down. if you're standing up, just comedown to the altar right now and let us pray for you right now. come up out of your seat. come on down. anybody else we want to praywith you. if you're in the balcony, allyou have to do is turn around and walk up.

the ushers will bring you down. come on, come on, very good. some of you, your marriages,your relationships are falling apart. some of you have cancer. somebody has cancer. god will remove your cancer. can it happen? absolutely.

we serve a god who doesmiracles. we serve a god who heals. anybody else? good, good. amen, god bless you. somebody is getting a divorceright now. you don't need to. god can save your marriage. i want to call that husband tobring his wife down.

god wants to save your marriage. after we dismiss i want you tocome on down. anybody else come on down. what's going to happen next istommy is going to pray for the offering, and then we're goingdismiss all of you. before he does that let me say acouple of things. christmas is when people arelooking to go to church. you have people in your life whodon't know where to go to church.

and you have people in your lifewho might not know that you do go to church. invite them. take advantage of the easiesttime to invite people to church is christmas and easter. you need to be invited tochurch. come on invite them. come next week and we'llcontinue the series. we have next sunday and thenchristmas eve a couple of days

later. and then download the app andshare it with your friends. if you want to stay and pray youcan do that. they're going to stay right hereand pray.