Seeing Wonders — Gary Wilkerson

Yeah, thank you worship team. We love you guys. Appreciate you so much. Good morning Springs Church. How are you today? Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and you got everything you wanted and maybe not everything you wanted because that might not turn out too well for a lot of us.

But glad that you're here today. We hope that you're gonna have a wonderful time in God's presence. Before I go to my message, I wanna ask Scott Middlebrook if he'd come up here on the stage. Scott is one of the overseers and directors here at Every Home for Christ in the Jericho Center.

And we wanna take a moment to thank Every Home for Christ and Scott for all that you've done. We appreciate you guys. We have been here almost two years now and they have been such gracious hosters, haven't they?

They have treated us like royalty and you guys have gone over and above and beyond what we think or imagine. Now, we ordered a very special page from a Bible about prayer when Solomon was dedicating the temple and the glory of the Lord came upon the house and it's from 1620, one of the original King James Bibles and it's in a frame, has glass over it and it's not here.

Wow. So it's right here, see this beautiful, look at that. You see this by faith, I don't know if you can see this but it was supposed to have been delivered earlier in the week and it didn't show up.

So we apologize for that but we wanted to pass that gift off to you but we will get that to you. But mostly we just wanted to say thank you and a blessing. It is, we could not have done what we've done.

The Lord used this place, you guys serving us as a means to help us get started at first upstairs and then we overgrew that and you were kind enough to, I think we were one of the first ones to meet downstairs here and you guys have just blessed us and overwhelmed us.

I'd like to pray for you and for every home for Christ if I could do that, okay? Thank you. Father, we thank you for Scott and Tim and for Dick Eastman and the whole team at Every Home for Christ. We thank you that they're touching millions of lives around the world, God, probably unlike any other ministry in the world in its expanse and its scope and its reach.

And God, that takes a lot of administration, a lot of leadership and it's a heavy burden upon their shoulders and we ask you, Lord, to send them teams and leaders and finances and resources to bless that.

Lord, they have been such an amazing blessing to us. I pray we as a church in this prayer right now could just in a small way as a token of our appreciation and thanks tell this ministry how grateful we are, Lord, that the Springs Church could not be the Springs Church if it weren't for their graciousness and their kindness.

You use them, God, to bless us and we wanna continue to pray. We've been praying for this ministry and we wanna continue to pray and bless and give thanks for all that God has done through Every Home for Christ.

We thank you for Dick Eastman, his leadership even in this church as he has called me on several occasions and given us a word from the Lord, a prophecy that was timely, precise, and edifying. We thank you and we pray this relationship would not diminish but it would even grow even though we're not in the same building now.

We give you thanks for this in Jesus' precious name. Do you mind standing at your feet and giving a great round of applause and thanking you, Lord, for Every Home for Christ? Thank you, bless you so much.

And then please pass on our gratitude towards Dick and Dick Eastman as well if you would and the whole team here. Let's not make this building a stranger. There are wonderful prayer meetings going on here every day, almost every day.

You can look at the schedule. It's on some of the cards they have being passed out. There is a prayer wall going on here, a wall of prayer, and there's prayer rooms as well. We want you to continue to be a part of that even though we're in a new location.

This is still a great place. Some of our staff come here and receive refreshing and words from the Lord and we want you to join in with that as well. This is our last Sunday here. We love being here. We have fond memories of being here, but Scott, no offense, we're ready to leave as well.

You're probably ready for us to go. Are you ready for a new adventure? Are you ready to start filling up 100 ,000 square feet with people that are hungry for Jesus, children on the streets that are lost and hopeless and living lives of quiet desperation unless God gets ahold of their life?

You ready to see that building filled with children coming to know the glory and the power of God? Are you ready to see God unleash his glory and his splendor in the midst of a people that want to see him move mightily?

Amen. Yeah, I am too, I am too. Let's thank the Lord. And so next Sunday, we won't be here. Nine o 'clock will be the nine o 'clock service. 11 o 'clock, those of you that come to the 11 o 'clock service, come and invite your friends.

It's gonna be a great day of celebration. We're calling the New Year's Eve service launch because we're not only launching that service in a new building, launching a new year, but also launching a new season in this ministry.

And we're believing God for double portions. We are believing God for the greatest things are yet to come. We are believing that God has called us for such a time as this and his hand is upon us. We wanna make use of every opportunity to know and to believe and have faith that God is gonna raise up a work in this city that blesses and glorifies his name, cares for the poor, loves the lost, and sees people growing to the deep maturities that are in Christ Jesus.

Can you say amen one more time? Amen. And just thank the Lord for what he's done. I'm so, I couldn't be more thrilled, couldn't be more blessed. Are you excited about Jesus this morning? Yes. Amen, amen.

I love him and I know you love him and I love serving you. I love pastoring this church. And we have one more Sunday here. So we are not going out with a whimper. We're gonna go out with a bang. We're gonna believe that this day, God is gonna do something great in your life.

He's gonna speak to you. I want some of you to leave this building today knowing that at the end of the year 2010, you heard a word from the Lord, a transitional word, a word that is going to keep you, sustain you, and launch you into the greatest things you've ever seen in your life coming in the year 2011.

There are great things in store for us. We are already praying and believing God that we'll see 1 ,000 people come to know Jesus next year in this church. We are, I am believing for wholehearted enthusiasm when people clap their hands, that others join in and say yes to the goodness and the purposes of God.

Let's try that one more time and thank the Lord. We are not going to be defeated by the after effects of turkey here in this house today. Did you hear that? We're going to be alive and awake and energetic because that's what God has for us.

We're believing God to call each of us into a fast, a holy and awesome fast on January 10th for a 21-day fast, some a partial fast, some a full fast, believing that God is going to use that fast to pray for laborers to work in the fields and the harvest is plentiful and we want to see this church be sent out to reach thousands of people in this city.

So the fast will be instrumental in seeing us reach the goal that God's called us to reach, that 1 ,000 people, and see them grow and mature and develop in Christ. We're looking forward to a 2011 where the building and the facility that he's given to us is used for his glory and the honor of his name.

We want to see that place just minister deeply, not only in the sanctuary of the youth and the children's ministry, but the 40 ,000 square foot plus of what we call the mercy ministries, the furniture bank, food, clothes, crisis counseling, medical help, support supply, back to school supplies for kids.

If you were there for the feed the children, you'll have a taste of what that space is going to be used like all year long. That is now a one-time event, feed the children, but very soon that's gonna be a daily event, seeing people come in there by the scores, receiving the kind of help that Jesus intends them to have.

And church, you are going to be not only a participant in that, but you're gonna be responsible for it. Every member getting involved, every member involved in evangelism, every member involved in mercy ministries, every member involved in serving the body of Christ, every member involved in caring for one another in true Christian community, that's where we're headed in 2011.

And if you're on the wrong boat, now's a good time to know that, because we want to row together in the same direction. If you've ever seen those cartoons of some people rowing in a boat and they have different destinations in mind, it makes for chaos and confusion and division.

We want to be stalwart in our vision of seeing God raise up a prevailing church in this city that does love the poor and the lost and ministers so in-depth to people's lives that they're transformed and the glory of God comes.

How many of you believe that the glory of God still descends on churches today? Do you believe that with all your heart? I believe that, amen. Let us pray. Ooh, my time is short, real short. Trying to think of what I should cut out of my sermon.

Ah, nothing. Jesus, we need you today. We are thirsty for you, we are hungry for you, and we're asking you to minister deeply through your word right now. Transform our hearts, God. Make our lives quickened and awakened to the purposes and plans you have for us.

God, we don't want to play games, we don't want to be silly, we don't want to be foolish. We want to be on fire for God. We want to see the glory of God, the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit permeating our church and this whole city, God.

And I thank you. Lord, let this be our Jerusalem that we even send people to the four corners of this earth, believing that your name be high and lifted up and the glory of your train fill the temple of this earth.

We thank you for that in Jesus' name. And everybody said together, amen? Amen. I want to talk to you this morning about seeing wonders, seeing with your own eyes wonders. I want you to be a church that lives in the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit.

The Wonders of God in the Deep

I want you to see miracles take place in your life daily. I don't want the wonders of God to be an exception in your life, I want it to be the norm and the rule. God has established his kingdom purposes and plans in your life in such a way that it's meant to manifest his presence where these miracles, the supernatural, the glory and the wonders of God.

So seeing wonders should be a daily part of your life. If you have any kind of routine at all, it should be, I'm seeing wonders. I'm seeing the glory of God take place. Now we're gonna read from Psalms chapter 107, verse 23 through 30 in just a moment.

Before you turn there, I just want to tell you a story about a wonder that I went through. And it comes out of a risk, going into a place that I wasn't supposed to go to, at least according to man's measure.

I was in Brazil a number of years ago and we were speaking at a pastor's conference, about 4 ,000 pastors had gathered from all over Brazil and the bishop, the head of the main denomination that was sponsoring the conference, he and I was a young man, I got to be friends with him.

He began to tell me about one of the pastors in his denomination that was ministering in a place called a favela. Now, if you've never heard of a favela, a favela is a location outside of the city of Rio de Janeiro up on side of a hill where people just began to move.

Originally, they were slaves that when they would leave their employee during the day, they would go up and live in the squalor of these mountains on the side of the hill in Rio de Janeiro. And it, over the last 100 years, has continued to perpetuate extreme poverty.

And this area, he was telling me about, where they started this small church, was in one of the worst gang-infested, drug lord-led communities in all of Brazil. And he told me it was Torino Favela and they have a pastor there, but they don't go in there as other pastors to help them because it's so violent, you can't even get in.

Police aren't there, government resources aren't there, there's no trash collection, the people that are there are trapped in a life of bondage and that part of the city is run by the drug lords. You have to come to a gate and they open up the gate and there's drug lords at the gate and they give you permission whether to come in or not.

So this bishop was telling me all about this and I said, I wanna go. And tears came to his eyes, he goes, I've been a bishop for 20 something years now, or 15 years now, and I have never in my life, of all the Americans and people from the West that have come to my country and preached at my church and other churches and at conferences, not one has ever asked to see the poverty and the drugs and the gangs in the favela.

He said, I'm just so overwhelmed, he said, I'm overwhelmed with joy that you'd be willing to come, but it's risky. There's bullets flying through that neighborhood, there's gang violence, and so I was, I was kind of a little bit tentative at that point, the worse he painted the picture, the more I was going like, did I really just say I wanna go see this place?

Well he had to call and get permission from the drug lords and he did, and we went into this favela and we walked through these narrow buildings where they just build homes randomly wherever they are, you can't even call them homes, they're just shacks that they put up, and we walked through this muddy village, sewers open on the sides, and we walked through there and we saw this little building where this church was meeting, and the pastor there, he introduced us to the pastor, and the pastor said to me, would you come and meet with the woman who helped found this church?

And I said sure, I'd love to meet her. As we're walking up to the top of the hill where her house is, the pastor begins to explain her life story, she was over 110 years old, and she was a slave when she was a child at 18 years old, at 18 years old she'd been a slave, she was set free from slavery and moved to this favela, and had lived there ever since, nearly 100 years living in there, and he said, and she was the founder of this church, I said, how did she become the founder of this church?

He said, by prayer and fasting alone. She didn't do one thing, she just prayed and fasted and loved the children and the neighbors, and she led some to Christ, and then one of the boys she led to Christ is now the pastor of the church, and that was him, and he was walking me up to her house.

I walk into her house, it's probably the size of from this piano to the other side of this podium right here, and she was lying on a mat on the floor, she was lying on the mat, all she had was that, one dresser there, and had to duck down to get in the ceiling, and when I walked into her room, she reaches out her hand, and she grabs hold of my hand, and just begins to weep.

She just begins to, just bawling her eyes out, and then she begins to pray for me, and she's praying what I assume is in Portuguese, she's praying for me, and one of the pastors who's with me begins to interpret her, so I thought, began to interpret the prayer, and here's what she was praying, she said, thank you, Father, for sending this, the equivalent of, I guess, a gringo, thank you for sending this white man into our favela.

I've been praying for more than 20 or 30 years now that you would send someone from the outside who has some resources to help, and I thank you that you've sent the man of God to my house, and I thank you that he has been willing to press through the difficulty to get here, and he's here now, and God, I thank you that your hand is upon him, and he and his ministry are going to help us establish a place for our children in this city, and it was just, I was shaking, it was like the most glorious prayer I've ever had prayed over me, and as I walk out of her little shack, I turned to the man who was interpreting for me, and I said, that was the most amazing prayer I ever heard prayed, and your interpretation, I was just so glad you were there to interpret it, and he goes, what interpretation?

And I said, when she was praying for me, you were interpreting what she was praying for me over, and I heard you in English, that's how I knew what she was praying about, our ministry helping her. He goes, she wasn't praying for you in Portuguese, she was speaking in tongues, and he said, I have no idea what she was saying, and I didn't say one word to you in English to interpret that, so I had no idea what was going on.

Now I'm a little bit of a skeptic, I hate to admit that, but I'm sort of like, okay, well, who did then? And I walked our whole team, double checking, triple checking, did you interpret that? Did you interpret that?

Not one of them did, it was the Spirit of God speaking to my heart, interpreting it directly. Through my ears, I heard the audible voice of God saying that our ministry was to be there. And I won't go into all the details, but we helped her and her house, we helped that church build a building, we helped them build a school for the children.

If you were to go to that favela right now, there'd be a school there with 200 children, and I was there for the opening, and they put a white, looked like a doctor's cloak on me with my name, and founder and director of the Favela Toronto School, and I looked like Dr. Seuss more than anything else, I think, and walked in there and saw these 200 kids hearing about Jesus, and getting a meal, and finding the love of God, and in that school, there was a couple kids who had just wandered in off the street, and I picked up one of the little boys, and as I was teaching a little lesson to the kids there, I was holding this little boy, and I found out later, as I was holding him, his mother had come and stuck her head in the window because the little boy had been wandering away from home, and she was coming to beat him.

She was very abusive, and she hated her child. She hated him. She told me this. She said, I hated him. She said, I used to beat him almost every day. And when I walked to the church, and I looked through the window, and I saw the pastor of the church, a man of God, holding my son, I said to myself, maybe there's some value in my son.

And then I heard your message about Jesus, and his love, and his forgiveness, and I gave my life to Christ, and I wanna change, and now she's holding her son in her arms. Just glorious. I mean, God's presence was rich over that place, but it took, and I don't say this to boast, I just, this is gonna make sense in just a little bit.

It was a little bit difficult for me to hear that they have guns, and they might kill you, and you're gonna walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And it would've been very easy to say, you know what, I think I'd rather not go.

Don't you know today here that I'm glad I went? Even though it might've been a little bit scary to go. And that's what David is writing in Psalms 107, verse 23. He's talking about seeing wonders. But you don't see wonders unless you take risks.

You don't see wonders unless you're willing to put yourself out there on the limb at times. And that's what David is calling his people to here, I believe, in this chapter. Verse 23 says, some went down to the sea and ships doing business on great waters, and these saw the works and the deeds of the Lord and his wonders in the deep.

Isn't that a powerful verse? The ones that go down to the sea and ships and doing business in great waters, these are the ones who see the works of the Lord. Can you say amen to that? Amen. For he commanded, speaking of the Lord, he commanded and raised up the stormy wind which lifted the waters to the sea.

They mounted to the heavens and they went down to the depths. That's a big storm, isn't it, church? Their courage melted away in their evil plight. They rebelled, excuse me, they reeled, and they staggered like drunken men and were at their wits' end.

Anybody in this church ever been at their wits' end before? Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from all of their distresses. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.

Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and like this last part, and he brought them to their desired haven. He brought them to their goal. He brought them to the place where their spiritual ambitions were met.

God saw them through. They went on a journey that was a difficult journey, but God was present, and God saw them through. And you might be on a journey in your life that is the most difficult journey you've ever been on.

You might be in the trial and tribulation and testing of your life. You might see, like the Bible says here, storms ascending to the heavens and descending to the earth below, into the pits. You might be on the ride of your life that is so tumultuous, it is literally making you seasick.

You may have experienced trials and tribulations beyond to the place where you're at, the scripture says you're at wits' end. Doesn't matter what you've been through. It doesn't matter what you're going through.

The Bible promises, the Bible tells us, the word of the Lord encourages us here in this place that he is going to bring you to your desired haven. He's going to see you through. There is no trial in your life too difficult for the Lord to handle.

There is no tribulation you are suffering that doesn't have, ultimately, the higher purposes of God in your life. He is working through the storm. He is working through the high winds and raging waters to bring you to a place where God has desired his haven, his rest, his power, his glory, his majesty will be experienced in your life.

Engaging the Battle Instead of Spectating

Now, many of us in this room here, hear David say this, some go down to the sea and ships and do business in great waters, and this is David, he's writing this, as a man who has experienced what it is to go down into the depths, to go into the pit, to fight with the lion.

Could have been very easy for David to say, hey, there's a lion, I got 200 sheep. You know, what's a lion gonna eat, three or four? And he's gonna get full, so, you know, I'll just change the number in the books, 197.

He didn't do that, did he? He went down into the valley. He went into the midst of the storm. He purposely put himself in what he calls here deep waters. Why? Because he trusted in God. He knew by fighting that battle, he was gonna see the glory of God.

And he knew by not engaging and fighting in that battle, he was gonna lose the opportunity to see the presence and the power and the majesty of God at work in his life. So many of us in the church today are missing out on the splendor and the glory and the majesty and the release of the power of the Holy Spirit in our life, because we're backtracking.

We're opting out for safety and security and quiet and rest and a life of resisting difficulties, and it doesn't work. David understood what it was like to fight lions and then bears and then giants and then whole tribes and whole cities and then whole countries.

He knew what it was like to fight even people on his own side, his own commander, who was warring against him. He knew how not to avoid the battle. He knew that some are gonna go down to the sea, and they're gonna be doing their business in great waters.

They're gonna see that the transactions they have with God are going to be not in the shallows, not in the koi ponds or the trout fishing places, where you pay a dollar and you can catch a fish with a piece of cheese.

He's gonna go down to the deep waters, because he's gonna see the deep things of God in his life. He wants to see the majesty. I like what David writes here. The first word could be a sermon all in itself, couldn't it?

Some, some go down. As he's writing this, what he's meaning is some are gonna go down, a few. Many are called, but few are chosen. Few actually engage in the battle. Many like the idea of battle. Many buy battle brochures, read battle books, buy battle fatigues, get ready to go on a battle excursion, and when it comes to actually launching, they back away.

So David says, some will go down to the sea and ships and do business in great waters, and these ones that will go down will see the works of the Lord, but a lot of people refuse to go down. Some go down, but some sit idly by.

It's my opinion that, for most of us, our experience in the Christian church in America is not going down to the sea and ships and doing great business in the deep waters. It's more like going to an aquarium, where you look at the fish behind a nice three-inch fish.

Not stained glass, but a glass, and you're just watching them. And you might even go into the shark tank and see, look at the sharks. Look, honey, look how close we are to the sharks. We're living on the edge, aren't we?

Some of you will even go further than the aquarium. You will risk SeaWorld. And I've actually had people tell me this. I went to SeaWorld, it was amazing. I got so close to the whale, Shamu, the killer whale.

He jumped up into the air. It was splendorous, it was glorious, and then he splashed down in the water, and I got all wet. Wow, that's a real dangerous mission you're on there. But how many of us as Christians have opted for the aquarium and the SeaWorld, rather than going down to the sea and ships and doing business in great waters?

How many of us are more inclined to be spectators and get the travel brochure about the journey to the sea, and watch on television what this journey is like to the sea? And buy the sea clothes and get the, what do you call it?

The little windbreaker things with a helmet, not a helmet, a hoodie, a slicker, whatever you wanna call it. And buy all the equipment and have pictures of yourself taken. I'm getting ready to go on a journey into the depths.

But then when it comes time to launch, you don't go. You sit there and you hear more about the journey, and you learn more and you're a spectator more about the journey. Church, how about we put the brochures down?

How about we not worry about what kind of clothes we have? How about we just start taking the journey? How about we start going, how about we saying yes to God for the plans he has for our life? Now, some of you are asking, what is this journey you're talking about, Pastor Gary?

For some, it's a journey like the Nichols who were here this morning, and they literally take their two children and leave America and go into Afghanistan at risk of life. And they go there and they're kicked out of the nation for preaching the gospel.

But because they did that in faith, they are now able to sit here today and say, right now, while I'm sitting in church, there are Afghanis who are now believers in Jesus Christ because I was there. And they are an example of those that go down to the sea and do business in great waters.

And they told me this morning, they're going back. Even though they're asked to leave the country, even though they might be martyred for their faith, they're going back. Later this year, they're gonna spend three more months there and they're gonna preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's doing business in great waters. Some of you are saying, but I'm not called to be a missionary. That's not the only way you can do great waters. It's not the only way you can go down to the sea and ships and do great business.

For some of us men, going down to the sea and ships and doing great business in deep waters is finally living up to the manhood call that God's given us in our marriages. For some of us, the deep water is engaging with our wives.

For so many men, they are spectators to their marriage. After a long day's work, they come home and their wife starts saying, how was your day? And you would think they were listening to Charlie Brown's teacher, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.

Because they're not really listening to the words. They're not engaging. They're not moving towards their wife. They want the meal on the table and they want the TV on before the meal's done. And they have forgotten the call of God to go into those deep waters and to probe and to move into their wife's life and to care for them.

You can be here today and you can go into deep waters if you're a young person. And you can believe God has a great call on your life. And you can say, I don't wanna settle just for a life of good Christian morals.

I don't wanna settle just to be a good kid. I don't wanna settle just to get good grades and hopefully get into a good college. I wanna give my life away to Jesus Christ. I wanna fulfill his purposes and his destiny in my life.

Whether it's being a doctor, a lawyer, a plumber, a school teacher, whatever it is, that you would look at that vocation and say, God, I wanna go into the depths and I wanna do great business with you.

And I wanna see the works of the Lord. If I'm a doctor, I wanna see people healed. If I'm a school teacher, even though I can't preach the gospel, I'm gonna still see kids saved in my school. I'm gonna believe God will do wonders.

I'm going to believe that God does great works. But these works are most often done in the depths of the sea. And he says here that these that go down to the sea and ships and do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord.

Persevering Through Storms and Suffering

But the next few verses begin to scare us. They begin to want us to back away a little bit. It's like hearing there's a favela up there that needs you, but it's dangerous, don't go. You hear about these raging seas.

It says that they were so fierce that the people reeled and staggered like they were drunken men being tossed around. It says here that they were at their wits end. But I thank the Lord that they stayed in the battle.

They stayed in the battle. This morning at our early service, a young couple was here and we were able to pray for their little two-year-old boy that almost drowned to death this year in October. They were vacationing in Florida.

And on the pool's end, a little baby boy fell off into the water. And by the time they got him out, his vital systems had shut down. They rushed him to the hospital and they thought they were gonna have to pronounce him dead.

Barely clinging to life, brain damage. They didn't think he'd be able to ever open his eyes again. Didn't think he'd be able to see, to communicate, to hear, to think, to feel, to eat, to do anything.

And as parents, when you hear something like that, this is it, you're reeling, you're staggering. You are totally at wits end. Here's a couple that said, we wanna be missionaries. We wanna dedicate our life to Jesus Christ.

We wanna serve his purposes. We wanna see the great things of God take place in our life. And then all of a sudden, the storm arises. And it's a storm that overwhelms. It brings you, as the scripture says, to wits end.

It means there's no possible going on. And yet at that point, they cry out to the Lord. That's what scripture says here. They began to cry out to the Lord. And this couple that was here this morning, they began to cry out to the Lord.

And after a few days in the hospital with their baby boy, Ryan, being on the verge of life and death, the doctor comes in and gives them the prognosis. He's gonna live. He's gonna live. Could you imagine the joy in their soul?

But they're still fighting the battle. They're still fighting the battle. And to think that that little baby would never see them again with his eyes or understand that they're around there. And here he was this morning.

We were praying for him. And he was not only looking at people around him as they were praying for him, but he was laughing at us. Can you believe that? Isn't that beautiful? And in the midst, the parents told me this morning, in the midst of this storm that they're in, in the midst of these raging seas, they're able to stand firm in their faith.

They're able to believe that God is gonna show them wonders. They're able to not only believe for themselves, but for their little boy, Ryan, that God is gonna use that boy as a testimony to God's healing power around the world.

There are other people here who, you say, that's a great story. I'm glad their son lived, but my son died. There are husbands there. I know of two husbands in the building today that this year, both of them lost their wives.

Mothers of little children have gone on to be with Jesus. And the husbands are here now. They're first Christmas alone. It's gotta be a horrific, horrific point of suffering. At wit's end, where do you go from here?

But I wanna say to you, if you've lost children, if you've lost a husband, if you've lost a wife, if you're suffering a sickness, if somebody in your family is sick, if you feel like the storms have so raged against your soul and your family and your life that there's no hope, I'm here today to say to you, the glory of the Lord wants to show you his wonders.

He wants to show you his wonders right in the midst of the deep, right in the midst where the boat seems like it's about to sink, where it's about to tip over and capsize. The Holy Spirit is there, and he's using my voice to tell you right now, stay strong, stand firm in the Lord.