Force for Good

Our Greatest Praise

Oh, there’s nothing there. It’s our greatest praise. It’s the highest honor. Just to give you glory. Come on out your praises right. Oh, the sweetest brave. Filling up the happiness. It is going to be incredible. I’m shaking off the heavenness. I’m dancing out of my regret. I’m throwing caution to the wind. No, I am not ashamed to praise like this. Someone say it’s foolishness. But I say it’s worth the risk. I don’t care what anyone says. No, I am not ashamed to pray like it. Where are those shame that won’t kill me? I’m free, I’m free, I’m free, I’m free. My sin is gone, I’m kidding me. I’m free, I’m free, I’m free, I’m free. And look at what the Lord has done. I’m never going back to the way I was. I’ll sing on this because I really I’m free, I’m free, thank God I’m free.

I’ve found love and never quit. No other love is good as this. No, I am not ashamed to play like this. Where are all those shades that won’t tell me? I’m free, I’m free, I’m free, I’m free. My sin is grown out killing me. I’m free, I’m free, I’m free, I’m free. Look at what the Lord has done. I’m never going back to the way I was I’ll see my dead because I really I’m free, I’m free, I can I’m free. You took the cross and you broke your body. My dead butt now the sinner can see. My debt is paid and my record is good. I couldn’t do it, so you did it for me. You took the cross and you broke your body. You shed your blood, now the sinner can see. My debt is paid and my record is good. I couldn’t do it, so you give you too much. I want to shed your head. You shed your blood on my death. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it for it. I couldn’t do it too hard, you didn’t for me. I couldn’t do it too. I couldn’t do it on my own.

Look at What the Lord Has Done

Where are those chains that want to sell me? I’m free, I’m free, I’m free, I’m free. My sin is gone, I’ll kill it. I’m free, I’m free, I’m free, I’m free. And look at what the Lord has work. I’m never going back to the way I was. I’m free, I’m free, thank God, I’m free. You took your cross and you broke your body. You shed your blood now, the sinner came. My dead is changed and my record is deep. I couldn’t do it so you did it for shed no good. I can do it on my heart. I couldn’t do it till you did it for me. I couldn’t do it till you did it for me. Look at what the Lord had done. I’m never going back to the way I was looking what the Lord has done. I’m never going back to the way I worked. Look at what the Lord has done. I’m never going back to the way I was. I’m never going back to the way I was no way until you make one.

God, I’m Just Grateful for You

Praise upon grace. Hallelujah. Even though I don’t deserve it. You did it. And even though I couldn’t earn it, you give you my that you keep me on your God, I’m just grateful for you God, I’m just grateful for you, and all my life, you’ve been right here my side, God, I’m just grateful for you, God, I’m just grateful for you for you. There’s only one I give you for all that you love, and even though I don’t deserve it, you did, even though I could enjoy it, you give it that you keep me on your mind, God, I’m just grateful for you. God, I’m just grateful for you, and all my life, you’ve been right here by my side, God, I’m just grateful for you. God, I’m just grateful for you. I’m just grateful for you, God, I’m just grateful for you my life you can right here must I God, I’m just grateful for you. God, I’m just grateful for you I’m lifting up the mind you give me chest after jail after jail I’m gifting all that I am still getting me chess after jail after jail and I’m just gonna lie chest after jack after jail I’m giving all that I am you gave me chest after jail after jail and I’m giving up that I am just you give me chest after death after jail and I’m giving up that I am just you give me chest after jazz after jail?

Who am I that you keep me on your mind? God, I’m just grateful for you. You’ve been around here by my side, God, I’m just grateful for you. God, I’m just grateful for you. That you keep me on your mind, God, I’m just grateful for you. God, I’m just grateful for you. Oh my life, you’ve been right here by my side, God, I’m just grateful for you. I’m just grateful for you. God, I’m just grateful for you. And I’m alright, if they say I’m out of my mind, God, I’m just grateful for you. God, I’m just grateful for you. And maybe we’ve made this complicated than it was ever meant to be, and hasn’t it always been about the same thing? Bring us back to simple things. You’re the one I hold on to for the beauty of your name. Keep us away to what’s important. Oh, just like Mary, she chose the better thing. I say you’re all in all you’re the one I hold on to the beauty of your name, my soul will hear to you say Jesus I love you for you for you are the center of it all my heart belongs to you my saving all you’re the one I hold on to the beauty of your name my soul will live to say Jesus I love you all I love you love you Jesus I love you how you know how I love you Jesus In my whole life for your glory my whole world for you owe me everything for the honor of your name And if my days tell a story, let it be of you owe me everything for the honor of your name.

Jesus, I Love You

Come on, we say, in my whole life, for you go, in my whole world, for you all every day, for the honor your day, my days, tell a story that it be all in every day, for the honor in my whole life, my whole life, for your God in my whole world, for you all me every day, for the honor of your day and if my days tell a story, let it be of your own day, for the honor of your day, oh how I love you, all how I love you, Jesus I love you, oh how I love you Jesus I see my whole life my whole life for your glory, my whole world, for you all every day, for the honor of your day, if my days, and if my days tell a story, let it be. Yes, we do and oh love Jesus come on, let’s sing now, and oh how I love you all how you love sing oh how and oh how I love you oh how I love you, Jesus are the center of you my heart belongs to you, my Savior all in all. You’re the one I hold on to for the beauty of your name. Jesus, I love you, my soul will choose to say Jesus, I love you, my soul will live to say, Jesus, I love you, my soul live to say, Jesus, I love you, I soul live to say, Jesus, I love you, my soul will make you say Jesus, I love you, my soul just my day, Jesus I love you, Jesus I love you, my soul will you say Jesus I love you, we love you, Lord We love you, Lord We love you, Lord. Oh, we love you, love. Oh, we love you, love. Only you love only you love.

Lamb of God, Anointed One

So we sing Lamb of God, anointed one who was in this and this to come. Seated on the throne, and we’re singing holy, only the righteous one who shed his blood. He proved to us the Father’s love. Jesus Christ be lit. And we’re singing holy. We sing Lamb of God anointed one who was in this in this to come. Seated on the throne, and we’re singing holy one who shed his blood and proved to us the Father’s love. And Jesus Christ be lived. And if my day tells me all every day, oh beyond, oh how I love you, and oh how I love you, Jesus, I love you, oh how I love you, oh how I love you, Jesus, I love you singing, oh how I love you, oh I love you, Jesus, I love you, oh I love you, yes, we do. Oh love you. For you are the censor of it all. My harpen to you, my Savior all in all. You’re the one I hold on to for the beauty of your name. Jesus, I love you, my soul will choose to say, Jesus, I love you, my soul will live to say, Jesus, I love you.

Oh isn’t it the most amazing thing that Jesus loves us? It’s amazing. Best news ever. If you sang that song when you were a little girl, yes, Jesus loves me, it’s still true. Totally true. Who else could bring all of us together on a Friday night but Jesus? We’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for you to get here. We’re so excited. We’ve been planning and prepping and praying. In fact, the very seats that you’ll sit in in a little while have been prayed over a number of times by different people. And this is our prayer. That for every person in this room, when you sit in that seat, God will meet you right there. Right where you are. Oh, he wants that more than we want that. And we really want that. Right, right. So let me just look at you. I just have to. You’re so you’re gorgeous. If no one said that to you lately, let me say it, and you have to believe it when I say it. Because I’m on platform with a microphone on in front of Jesus, and I can’t lie. You’re gorgeous. Every one of you. Every one of you. From the core of your being to the gray hair on top of your head. And the feet that hurt right now. We’re so thrilled. Very thrilled that you are here.

Pray for the Girls

A few ladies are gonna come up on the platform and help me right now with this next part of ministry. I want you to just know this that my sister Carol, right, wave your hand, you’re gonna see her in a minute. My sister Carol and four of her friends came from Texas. And her daughter Jana and a couple of Janna’s daughters, Ava and Rosie are here. You know, our mom, mine and Carol’s mom had two sisters, and then our mom and dad had us two girls. Both of us had two daughters, and between us, we now have six granddaughters and two grandsons. They’re coming up because I just want them here. Don’t you want your kids and your grands with you? And my sister, aren’t they gorgeous? All of them. Jordan is mom to Gracie. This is my sister Carol, and Rosie, and Hannah and Lainey, whose birthday is today. You can thank me later. Yeah. She’s 20, so and she’s a college kid, so if you want to throw money at her, that’d be out. As you can see, there have always been a lot of girls in our world.

And last year, two of our grandgirls were experiencing some challenges around the same time. And during my one of my early morning stumbles to the coffee pot, I heard this pray for the girls. Now hearing an impression of someone to pray for, it’s not new to me, and it’s probably not new to you either. But I always appreciate a Holy Spirit prompting. So I sat down, sipping my coffee, and began praying for a couple of the girls. And that became my practice for a week or so. And then it grew. Well, you should pray for all six of them. And a few days later, well, what about the four daughters? And of course, my sister. And it’s not new for me or them to pray for each other. But this seemed like an intentional assignment of prayer for them right now. And so I kept on. And then a woman here and there would send me a text, or someone I spoke to at church, would say, Will you pray for me about this? And so more and more women just kept getting added in. And I’m a little slow sometimes. Or God’s just nice and starts me slow. And one morning I went, Oh, you meant pray for the girls. All the girls.

And to be very clear, neither God nor I are ignoring the boys in our lives. We love them. When Jensen Hennison was born, my mom, who hadn’t had a boy born in her life in her family for four generations, called him my Jensen. That was his name. So our celebration of girls, it’s never ever ever a dissing of boys. None of us gain value by stealing it from somebody else. And we don’t receive honor by dishonoring another human. We don’t have to. God’s love is big and high and wide and deep. There’s more than enough. But this, this was a prayer assignment saying, remember, God’s saying, remember, there’s a specific hostility the serpent has for women that goes all the way back to the garden. And God said, So ask me, ask me for the divine help, aid, support that I want to go out to all my girls all the time. So here we are all together, and we’re gonna pray for the girls. Are you okay with that? We’re gonna pray one for another. We are a force for good, ladies. We’re a force for good on the earth, and we’re a force for good for God, and we’re a force for good for one another. And prayer makes help available for every one of us. So can we pray? Let’s pray.

They’re gonna join the other ladies behind me, and we’re just gonna pray for a few minutes. Open your heart and receive what God wants you to have. Heavenly Father, we just thank you that from the beginning, you designed and created your daughters, the female in your image, alongside your sons, each one of us with unique shapes and skills, colors, and capabilities to partner with you on the earth in every generation and age to come. We are so very grateful that you included us, that you love us. So tonight I’m following your instructions, Father, to ask big for the girls. I’m asking that you open up our eyes to see your wondrous things. To see that even right now, earth is crammed with heaven. Open the eyes of our hearts wide and big. So we’re filled up with your light to see and know you. Increase our understanding to behold all your wonder and all your beauty and lay hold of your heaven-born possibilities over our lives. And grant us from your rich treasury in heaven, the inward strength, power to become mighty in you.

Throughout of Earth’s history, God, you’ve given the words of life and power, and a great host of women have heard your words and gone out to proclaim your words of life in a fresh, full, cheerful manner. And we are in this room tonight to join that great happy crowd of women to carry your life forward. Remind us that you have placed your wellspring of living water within every one of us so that we can drink fresh from that living water with you, God, every day. And I believe that even right now, your life-giving spirit is bubbling up within us. It’s reviving our parched souls, it’s rehydrating our tired minds, and it is refreshing us for the days ahead. We draw from your ceaseless supply of Holy Spirit help that you have so graciously made available. We are hungry and we are thirsty, and we remind ourselves that only you can satisfy our deepest hungers and our unquenchable thirst. Nothing else, no one else can beautify, dignify, and crown us with loving kindness and tender mercy that we require to flourish in this life. But you, Lord, you satisfy our necessities and our personal ages and situations so that we are perpetually renewed day by day. Enlarge us in our spirit and our soul. Increase our capacity to accommodate your fullness of life itself and break off our self-imposed limitations and the hardships in this world that have made us shrink to small contained thinking and believing and living. Remind us, Lord, that you sent Jesus to give us life more abundantly than we can dare ask, think, or imagine. We desire to fulfill all that you have spoken over our lives. For we are indeed capable, intelligent women, resourced by you, God, with gifts, talents, abilities, and wisdom so we can be your force for good on the earth. Amen. Amen.

There’s no judgment, there’s no condemnation. We don’t need to know your stuff. We just want to support you so that you know you’re not walking this out alone. So if that would be a help to you, would you just raise up your hand really high just for a minute or two? Really high. Come on and say, hey, I need some help here. I’m not afraid to say that in the kitchen, are you? Somebody needs to take out the trash. I need some help here. Ladies, look around you. If you see somebody, would you just with their hand raised, just gently lay a hand on them? And let’s just ask God. You got it. Lord, you see us. You know what each one of us needs. We pray that you would deliver us from all of our fears. Heal our bodies. Because Jesus’ blood, sickness and disease has to leave, and healing and wholeness can move in. Bring peace to our souls. Show us how to cast every care that we have over on you. Remembering you care for us. And we trust you, God, to give us our daily bread, whatever we need. And Lord God, for my sisters in this room who are grieving from all kinds of loss, comfort them as only you can do. For you alone, in you alone, can our sorrow in time be turned to joy? And on our impossibly hard days, you become our possibilities. And we thank you with all of our hearts. And we say in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen.

I love you, girls. I gotta have a battle. Make no mistake. No battle of belly again today. Thank you, Jesus. His presence is in this room. And I hope after praying for one another, you can understand and experience the power of prayer, especially when we pray for one another. There’s so much strength that happens when we do that. I have been the recipient of prayers from women in this room my entire life. And my daughter now experiences those same prayers. For many of those same women and then some. And that is a legacy that we want to carry forward. And that we want to see happen from this place forward. And so pray for the girls is something that we believe in. And so tonight the host team is coming around, these wonderful gentlemen, and they’re gonna give you a gift. And the gift is part of pray for the girls. And so if host team, you can start handing that out. Ladies, they’re all the same. You don’t need to look in the box to see if it’s different than the person next to you. I promise it’s the same. And once you get your gift, you can take a seat. You can get comfortable for a few minutes, not for long, but for a few minutes. And can we just, as the guys are handing out the gifts, just thank those gentlemen for being here and serving us and helping us. It’s such a gift that they’re here in this room. I want to make sure everybody has them because I don’t want you to miss it. But once you do have your gift, you can take a seat. That way you can give your feet a rest. If you’re like me, you wore heels for like the only time this year. Because I don’t like them anymore. You guys are doing great. I promise it’s worth it. I promise it’s worth it. Oh, I like it. They’re still standing, so I know who has it and who don’t, who doesn’t. It’s great. Oh, look, they’re opening them. You can see them. I don’t want to give it away by saying what it is, but you might be able to guess. Okay, has everybody got them or almost getting close?

Okay, for those of you that have them, you’ll notice there’s six bracelets in your box. Six of them. I’m wearing them. I cheated. I’ve had them on. If you’ve seen me in the hall, I already had them. But there’s a black one in there, and that one says force for good. That one is for you. You keep that black bracelet and you remember that you are a force for good on the earth for Jesus. So you wear that and you remember who God has created you to be, and that is a force for good. But the five colors, they match the five colors you see everywhere. On those, they say, pray for the girls. And with that, you have an assignment. With that, you have an assignment. It is our hope that whether it’s tonight in this room or other people that you know around the city or family members or whoever, that whoever God puts on your heart to pray for, one of those girls, that you’ll take that bracelet and give it to her. And don’t give it to her just flippantly and think like, okay, I hear you saw it. It says pray for the girls. No, you need to look her in the eye and say, I commit to praying for you. It is my commitment to pray for you. And it’s a beautiful thing that we can do to say that we’re really gonna do that. And I’m gonna show you how easy it is.

We have a pastor in the room, her name is Dorinda, and a few weeks ago I knew we were doing this, and I saw some things online, and immediately I knew that the Lord was asking me to pray for her daughter, and so I am right now gonna give this to Dorinda to give to her daughter, and it is my commitment to pray for her daughter. And then a few days ago, I found out my cousin was coming, and I didn’t know that, and that was cool for her. And so here’s my commitment to pray for my cousin, who I’ve probably prayed for my whole life, but it’s different when we say I’m gonna do this. So can you see how easy it is? I’ve already lost two, just that quick. And we want to do this because it does something in us, and it does something for them. And then we have one extra step for you. You probably saw it when you came in and on the glass. It says girls, and there’s a bunch of post-it notes. On those post-it notes, we’re gonna ask you that the people that the Holy Spirit is asking you to pray for that you write their name down, you stick it on that wall, and that’s your commitment. It’s solidifying it in you, but it’s also us joining with you to pray for those girls. Many of your names are already on there because we’ve been praying for you this week to come and be here and be in the room. And so, before you leave today, do that. We want to fill those letters completely up. Can you do that for us? And don’t be afraid of the praying part. If you don’t know what to pray for someone, just pray scripture over them. Or if they come to your mind, just say, Jesus help them today. Don’t freak yourself out. Just know that you have power to pray for that woman, and it could change the course of her day and maybe even her life. So that’s our hope. That’s you have an assignment with your bracelets, okay?

A Force for Good

Okay. Well, we also, before I step down, we’re gonna receive an offering tonight. And we do this every year. And for those of you that have come for many years, you might know this, you might not. But force for good actually started as our offering because we were always going to put action into what we were doing in our city by being a force for good on the earth. And so the vision behind force for good didn’t start last year, it didn’t just continue this year. It’s been going on in this house for a decade or more. That we’ve known that we were supposed to, as women, be a force for good. But you know, that’s not just a phrase that sounds cool, it’s a Bible thing. It is a biblical word, and it comes from Proverbs 31:10. Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies? You know, the origin of the word virtue in Hebrew, it’s the same word used to describe mighty men of valor and a woman of virtue that’s described in Proverbs 31. And that word carries strength, it’s a word that means strength and influence and capability to be used for good. That’s what that word means. If we are a virtuous woman, we are supposed to use our power for good on the earth. So we are supposed to be life carriers that produce good everywhere we go. That’s where force for Good comes from.

And so we can produce good in so many different ways in our prayers, like we just talked about. We can do it in how we live our lives day to day, and we can do it in being generous givers. And over the last decade or more, we have given to at least five organizations that we could count, and we have given out into the city over $50,000 just from the women in this room. Just from the women in this room. We have given $50,000 to different organizations to do good. And tonight we’re gonna add one more. How do you feel about that? Can we add one more? And they are a nonprofit, they began in 2014, and what they do is provide clothing for students from kindergarten to 12th grade. That’s what they do. They provide clothing, shoes, essentials that they need. The way it works is their school will often give a referral, and then they will go there and they will actually get a volunteer who’s a personal shopper to shop with them. And as girls, I think that’s great. We all want a personal shopper, but what they do is they help those kids find clothes that make them feel good to make them feel confident, to lift their heads so that when they go to school and they walk into school, it’s not about the clothes they’re wearing because they have what they need, and they have helped over 40,000 students in our community. 40,000 students, and so we want to be a part of that. We want to contribute to that. So tonight, half of what you give is gonna go directly to them so that they can buy more clothing, more shoes, more essentials for those students.

And I know some of you in the room are like me, and you’ve got kids who outgrow their clothes faster than you can purchase them. Another great step, if you want to take it an extra step for yourself, is you can donate clothes to them directly. There’s so many great ways that we can be a force for good. And so that’s the first part. This the other half goes towards everything that you see here tonight. Everything that you see here tonight is free to you. It’s a gift to you, and we feel privileged that we get to offer this to you for free. But you also know that actually putting it all together is not free. And you can help us keep being able to do this for free for our city for more women to come and be a part. And so that’s what you’re offering, that’s what you’re giving goes to tonight. It goes to those two simple things. But I want you to think about it this way. It’s you being a force for good in action. It’s actually taking a step to do something good in our city and in our community. And so I hope you can see that force for good is many things. It’s your prayers, it’s your commitment to write somebody’s name on a wall to so that you can pray and they can pray, but it’s also being generous with what you have and giving it to those who need it, but also making it possible for us to keep doing this so we can reach more people in our city. So let’s link arms. We can do a lot more together than we can as individuals. When we all do our part, the message of Christ goes out further. So let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for this opportunity to be a force for good. And we ask that you bless whatever we do give. We ask that you bless it and take it farther than our hands can do it. You can multiply it, you can make it bigger, you can make it go farther. And we believe by what we do tonight, we can start to make a difference in our city. Father, we love Albuquerque. We love this city, and we want this city to know the goodness of you. And so we thank you for it. We thank you for this incredible night, and we thank you for all that’s ahead. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Ladies, would you mind standing? We’re gonna continue in worship for just a few more minutes. Have you come to the end of yourself? Do us for a drink from the well. Jesus is calling. Oh, come to the altar, the Father’s arms are open white. Forgiveness was born with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Leave behind your regrets and mistakes. Come today, there’s no reason to wait. From the ashes, a new life is born. Jesus is calling. Oh come to the altar, the Father’s arms are open wide. Forgiveness was born with the precious blood. The precious blood of Jesus Christ. Oh, what a save is in his sing Hallelujah. Christ is risen. So bow down before him for his love. Sing Hallelujah. Christ is bring. Forgiveness was born with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Worthy were worthy you are worthy you will be forever, worthy you were worthy you are, worthy you will be forever, Yahweh, worthy you were, worthy you are, worthy you will be forever, Yahweh, worthy you were, worthy you were, worthy you will be forever, Yahweh, worthy you were worthy you are, worthy you will be forever, Yahweh, worthy you were, worthy you are, worthy you will be forever, Yahweh, your name is great, and to raise to be raised your day, his grave. You guys sound so beautiful, so beautiful. I think Kevin noticed us singing tonight. I think God is pleased, and God just enjoys time with his daughters. I’ve said for many years, every time we do this, it’s a party at Dad’s house for the girls. And it is. Do you? I do. I especially like new friends that love Jesus. They’re the best.

Welcoming Dr. Donna Pisani

And so tonight we’re welcoming Dr. Donna Pisani. She’s coming. Donna and her husband Dennis pastored on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. for decades and raised four children while they were doing that. And she’s still here. And not only that, but after her four kids were grown, she decided to go back to school. And she got her master’s degree and her doctorate at Minister of Divinity. So she’s really smart. But it what it tells me is that she’s a lifelong learner. And I think we can learn a lot from women that follow Jesus and are lifelong learners. So I think after you hear her, you’re going to want to follow her on Instagram, and you’re wanting you’re going to want to get her book tonight after service. She’s going to be signing books in the bookstore. So run over there because there aren’t enough copies for everybody. But would you welcome, please, Dr. Donna Pizana. Thank you. Enjoy yourself. Thank you. Well, I think somebody tells you now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Perfect. Okay. Yay. Here we go. Cooking with gas right now. Okay, this is what I want to do. Such a beautiful holy presence of God in this room tonight. And so of all the 500 women that are here, whether you’re in the farthest or the front, you’re not here by accident. God brought you here.

But before I I’m so honored to be here, I feel like I have a God in trustment. I don’t take it lightly to be here in Albuquerque. It’s my first time in New Mexico with my new friends. And um, I just think uh to have a church that is the four decades and a half old from pastors who founded it and then new pastors who are leading it and have generations in a house. Some of you have been here from the beginning, some of you are new to to be here, but that is so rare, and to still have the presence of God here. It’s not like there’s not tradition in the room, the presence of God is here. So I think tonight we should give your pastors a big huge hand. Thank you. Thank you. Both of you, yes. And I just met Pastor Cindy. We had lunch together, and I leaned over to her tonight and said one of the things I love about you is that you’re smart, you’re funny, you’re clear, and you’re anointed. What a package. And you’re a fireball. And I haven’t really gotten to know Pastor Jordan yet, but I’m excited to. So, anyways, let’s give God a big hand tonight. Amen. He’s so good. How great was the worship team. Yeah? So, so you’ve been, you know what? I always get up here and I’m like, I should have done the back of my hair better. You’ve been standing for a while tonight, so I just want everybody to face this wall. Now put your hands on the shoulder of the girl in front of you. Go ahead. You came for a girl’s night. You should get a spa treatment as well. Don’t be wimpy with your hands. Use those strong hands. Yeah. Don’t be wimpy with your hands. It’s gonna say wimpy. Don’t be a wimpy hand massager. Okay, now let’s turn to the other wall. Come on. Do it so well that your friend’s gonna be like, I should pay you for this. There you go. Okay, give somebody a high five, and you can go ahead and sit down. We’re gonna have fun tonight.

So I hear that it’s super high elevation here. Is anybody else having a difficult time breathing? Besides me. Well, I want you to, I want you to feel comfortable tonight. We’re gonna have fun. I believe I have a word from God for you tonight, and I believe that there’s freedom in this room. Amen. How many of you know that girls’ night, you can go home at whatever time you want? Some how many of you somebody has your kids? Yeah, oh, in the back. Oh, maybe we should time it then, huh? Well, I want to show you tonight. My husband and I, as Pastor Cindy said, pastored in Washington, DC for three decades, and then we transitioned our church, and we actually moved to Texas. It was a wild one day I’ll have to tell you the story. But all of our children are adults right now. I want to show you the picture. Oh, other one first. No, that’s there. You go. Oh, okay, great. That’s a good one. Okay. So, what I love about this picture is all of our adult chill, all of our kids are adults now, and two of them are married. And so on the very farthest end is my daughter Bethany, our eldest, and her husband Alex, and they kind of are our favorites because they’re the only ones with that gave us grandkids so far. So they live in Washington, DC. And then on the other end is my daughter Gabby. She’s our third oldest daughter. She’s married to Colby, and they are also our favorites, even though they have we only have a grand dog with them, no grandchild. And they also live in DC. And then I say the last sheet for last because next to my husband, oh, next to me is my very hot husband of 47 years. 47 years this year. Yeah, isn’t that awesome? So, yeah, I’m we’re more in love than we ever were, and just grateful that we didn’t kill each other in the early years, right? It’s the reward. But next to him is our daughter Jessica, and she is single. And so if you have a son who’s single, who does not live in your basement, when I’m signing books, I’ll put her phone number in the book. And then next to me is my 27 29 year old son, Evan. He is called to ministry, he has started working out and bulking up. He’s like Jesus, he’s just amazing, and he is single. And so, and it’s biblical to do arranged marriages, right? So if you’re interested, follow him on Instagram and tell him in his messages that God spoke to you. I’m just kidding. Don’t do that. Anyways, just kidding. But who knows? We may get a wife yet.

Being a Force for Good

So I want to talk tonight for a few minutes on being a force for good. But we for many years, when we were pastoring for three decades in Washington, DC, we lived right on Capitol Hill, about 12 blocks from the Capitol building. Which means this we did not have a garage, we lived in a brownstone, and we could have paid a small the debt of a small nation with our parking tickets because we could only park on the street. And we our offices weren’t too far from where we lived, and so both my husband and I worked together, led together, and this one evening, it was our date night, and so we had come home from the office, and we were getting ready to go to date night, and as we’re leaving the house to go to get in my car, which is across the street from where we lived, to go to dinner. And by this point, does anybody else in here get hangry? Yes. So I was hangry, I was a little irritated, just wanted to get to date night and eat dinner. And my husband, as we’re leaving the house, going down the steps, says to me, Hey Donna, I just want to make you aware there has been a bunch of carjackings in our neighborhood. It was the wild west on Capitol Hill in those days. And he’s like, I just want you to be protected. He’s like my anchor, my security, he’s always taking care of me. So he had bought me a little canister of pepper spray. And he was trying to talk to me and say, I’m gonna put this in your glove compartment. And if anything ever tries to happen, you just use this pepper spray. To which I responded, super spiritual woman of God. I’m not gonna need that because I’m just gonna say in the name of Jesus, and nothing’s gonna happen in my car. Nothing, I don’t even want the pepper spray. To be honest with you, I was afraid that I would spray it in the wrong direction. But I’m unaware of the fact because I’m trying to get to my car, and I’m like in the middle of this Capitol Hill Street, and Dennis is trying to show me how to use the pepper spray, and he has actually pushed the button. And because I’m not paying attention and I’m irritated, I walked right into the cloud of pepper spray in the middle of the Capitol Hill Street. Has anybody been pepper sprayed before? Why? I mean, it’s very painful, especially if you have makeup on. It’s the worst. And so I’m blinded, and because he’s my good, secure, safe husband, he comes to protect me, and he walks in to the cloud of pepper spray. And the two of us are in the middle of a Capitol Hill street. There are cars honking, and we can’t see anything. Neighbors are walking, nobody’s helping us, and we have to feel our way back to the house. And they can they say to you, you know, wash your eyes out with milk or water or whatever. Nothing worked. I mean, it was three hours later. We still had to ask the waiter to read us the menu because we were both blind by that point.

But I wonder how many of us, if we’re not careful, the enemy comes in with lies, and we don’t realize it, but we use them to protect ourselves, but they’re actually blinding us to the truth that God wants us to see. And I want to talk about this tonight because sometimes for some of us in this room, there’s all kinds of lies that the enemy uses to speak against us. But what if the fact that you’ve been praying for something for more than just a minute? Perhaps you’ve been praying for something for years. What if in that wait the enemy uses the weight to tell you that the reason why you’re not seeing it is because there’s something wrong with you because so-and-so got it, and you didn’t get it as quick as they got it. Is anybody else? If I is this just in Washington, DC, and now I’m in Texas. Y’all in our Albuquerque, can you pray? There’s a word of faith, you just get it right like that. No, I’m telling you right now that I feel like the enemy, if we’re not careful, will lie to us in the wait to tell us that there’s something wrong with us in particular, and we are a force for good. So you know that wherever the lie is, behind that lie is something God wants us to see. The enemy knows if we see it, we’re shaking hell with the truth of God. In fact, I wonder how many of us tonight realize that perhaps the restraint of God is just as much the miracle as when the miracle comes. Because some of us can’t handle the answer just yet. We haven’t grown into the size, it doesn’t fit us yet. God’s working inside of us so that we can actually carry the miracle when it comes.

In fact, what I’ve discovered in following Jesus for over almost 50 years now. Does that I sound so old? And following Jesus for so long is that I’m grateful that He doesn’t give me what I want when I want it sometimes because I can’t handle it, and He always gives me something better than what I was hoping for. I am so grateful that He didn’t answer my prayer to marry Alex Giordano in kindergarten. Because I would have missed the hot, hot husband that I have now. How many of you know what I’m talking about? God’s like, I hear what you’re saying, but I want you to understand the restraint is doing something inside of you that’s going to equip you for what he’s doing for your future. In fact, I love what it says in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 36. If you have a Bible, you can turn to it, you can open your phone, you can look at the screen. But can I say this to you tonight? Take a drink, because apparently you can get dehydrated here. And if I look like this, it’s because my lip got stuck to my teeth because of the altitude. But I love what it tells us in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 36. I love it and hate it. Has anybody else ever read a scripture that you love hate? Okay, amen.

Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive part of what he’s promised. 30% of what he’s promised. No, all.

And I have to be honest, there’s times I’ve had to wait for God to answer a prayer, and I keep using my faith and believing God. Sometimes I’m I’m actually willing to settle for 30% because the weight is painful. But I’m just saying, tonight, God is saying to somebody in this room that patient endurance or patient expectation. Can we replace that word endurance with expectation? Because endurance isn’t just like, dear Lord, gloom, despair. What was that from? Heehaw. Agony. Am I not old enough? Are you not? I don’t remember the rest of the words, but you’re just like enduring till the end. But that’s not what endurance means. It’s expectation that you are waiting for whatever God’s gonna do. Your expectancy is as great today as it was 20 years ago, as it was five years ago, five minutes ago, we’re still expecting God to move because our faith is not in the outcome, our faith is in the God who delivers the outcome.

So if you remember one thing tonight, it’s this. Is that noise? Okay. What feels like a deficit in your life is not a deficit. Because sometimes God will allow us to feel like we’re less than so that we lean into his more than. Adam and Eve didn’t feel like they had enough. They weren’t supposed to turn away from God. They were supposed to lean into God. But I want, if you feel like you are, I lived a lot of my life feeling too brain cells short of smart. Let me say to every woman in this room, every one of you is smart. You have to discover your own kind of smart. And I lived a lot of my life feeling like I wasn’t smart enough to do whatever it was. I felt less than, but God’s like, if you’ll turn towards me, whatever you feel is less than. Listen, what I can do in my own strength is nothing. But when I lean into God’s more than enough, He takes my not enough and brings it beyond what I could have ever imagined because there’s a supernatural component that I need in my life. So if you walk away with one thing today, it’s this. I want you to know that it’s time to stop defending who you’re not and become curious to all God has created you to be. Let me say that to this side of the room. It’s time to stop defending who you’re not. We’re real big as women. Well, I’m not this, I’m not that. You look on, you can scroll on TikTok or Instagram and you can see all the things that you’re not. But God’s like, time to stop defending who you’re not and become curious to who I’ve created you to be. Because the uniqueness of what He’s created you to be is not going to be to be compared to anybody else. It’s who you are uniquely. Turn to somebody next to you and say, I think she’s talking to you.

So we’re gonna, if you have a Bible, you can open with me to John chapter 2, verse 1 through 11. We’re gonna read. I’m reading it from the Passion Translation. I just like the way it reads. And it’s a familiar story, and I want to unpack it a little bit because I believe that maybe, you know, you can get so used to reading the Bible story that you forget to become curious. That God may have something deeper. And there’s nothing unintentional in the scriptures. Okay, you ready? John chapter 2.

Now on the third day there was a wedding feast in the Galilean village of Cana, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were all invited to the banquet. But with so many guests, guests in attendance, they ran out of wine. And when Mary realized it, she came to him and asked, They have no wine. Can’t you do something about it? And Jesus replied, My dear one, don’t you understand it? That if I do this, it doesn’t change a thing for you, but it will change everything for me. My hour of unveiling, my power has not yet come. Mary immediately did not listen to him and went to the servers and told them, Whatever Jesus tells you, make sure that you do it. Now everybody say, six stone water pots. That were standing nearby. They were meant to be used for the Jewish washing rituals. Each one held about 20 gallons or more. So that’s a specificity. There’s something very specific. There’s six of them, they’re each 20 gallons. There’s a reason why that’s in the scriptures. So Jesus comes to the servers and tells them, fill the pots with water right up to the very brim. And then he said, Now fill your pictures and take them to the master of ceremonies. And when they had poured out the pitcher for the master of ceremonies to sample, the water had become wine. And when he tasted the water that had become wine, the master of ceremonies was impressed. Although he didn’t know where the wine had come from, but the servers knew. Just side note, this is not my message. But if you’re serving in the kingdom and you’re serving in the house of God, you’re gonna be the first ones to see the miracle. Let me just say it’s not about your works, but if you are serving, there’s gonna be miracles along the way, not just for your life, but you’re gonna be able to experience the miracles in other people’s lives. So he called the bridegroom over and said to him, Every host serves his best wine first until everyone has had a cup or two and doesn’t know what he’s drinking at that point, then he serves the wine of poor quality. But you, my friend, you’ve reserved the most exquisite wine until now. This miracle in Cana was the first of many extraordinary miracles Jesus performed in Galilee. But this is what stuck out stuck out to me. This was a sign revealing his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

This was the first sign that Jesus did that revealed his glory. Now, I don’t know about you, but if I, if I were Jesus and I were starting a movement, my first sign would have been raising the dead, or like healing blinded eyes or opening deaf ears, not a party trick. Right? Are you free on Fridays? You know, like what I don’t understand. Like, why would that be his first miracle? And and I wonder if perhaps there’s more to this miracle than what we’re reading at just top level, surface level. And I think there is, because if Jesus decides that this is the first sign, and this first sign is gonna point the direction of who he is and where he’s going and what he’s gonna do. There must be more to it than he’s just turning water into wine. Can we talk about this for a minute? Because, you know, we all have the wonderful, beautiful ability to turn the water spigots on in our house and get a glass of water. Correct? You know, we just moved to Texas, and I’m just telling you right now, it’s about 3,000 degrees in the summer. If I was a pioneer, I would have died. I would have, I would have totally failed that test. And then they had to go to the well. I don’t think that they had a spigot. I don’t think that they just turned on the water in their kitchen. I think that they, these servants would have had to go, usually in a in a village like that, there was a town well. And they would have to go to the middle of the town to the well and fill up some kind of a container. Usually those wells had buckets in them. And then they would, I don’t know. The six stone water pots were pretty heavy, so they probably stayed in the house. So that meant that they had to take a number of trips to the well to get water from a well. And I can’t imagine what the servants were thinking. This is nuts. This is crazy. I mean, we’re all we’re doing is carrying buckets of water from one end of town to the next, and then they would pour it into the stone vessels, and then they would go back to the well and fill it back up again. Now, I the Bible doesn’t say this. Scholars say that may have been what happened. All I’m telling you is that there’s times I’m praying for God to turn the water into wine, and it feels like it’s taking a really long time, and there’s a lot of walking back and forth of faithful, obedient steps where it still looks like water, and I have no idea what I’m doing, except for God asked me to do it. What if in the middle of this, one of those guys said, Forget this, this? This is nuts. There’s a wedding going on. They won’t even know if we’re gonna give them more wine or not. They’ve already had enough wine. I’m going home and going to bed. But no, these guys knew that they were part of something that was extraordinary. They knew something was happening. They didn’t understand what was happening fully. But I don’t know about you. There’s times in the middle of my journey where I have wanted to give up in the middle. In fact, there have been some times where I have actually given up in the middle of praying for promises when I had a child that was dealing with debilitating, debilitating anxiety. And I after 2020 and couldn’t figure out how to help her the way she needed help. And we prayed and we cast out demons and we broke things off of her and put her in therapy and did everything that we could do, and it still didn’t seem like it ceased. It felt like in the middle of that, God, I don’t know what to do. Anyone else ever gotten to that place where you just wanted to give up in the middle? Right? Maybe you’ve been praying for a health issue and it’s been years and it feels like it’s still nagging you. Maybe, maybe I I mean, now there’s a pill to lose weight, but I remember for years thinking I’d love there to be a pill to can I just lose weight without having to go to the gym and still eat cake and chips every night. Anybody else watch the Olympics and criticize their abilities while you’re eating chips? Well, they could have done that better. Crunch crunch. Why is it as I age that I lose muscle? Why? Because God’s like, go to the gym. I’m like, no, why? Why? And I know I look fantastic. I know I look great, but underneath all of this clothing is one slab of cellulite. There’s not one muscle in my body, not one. I knew you wouldn’t believe me. Let’s show them the picture. I’m just kidding. I’m not gonna show you my cellulite. That’s why my button buttoned up my coat. But can we get vulnerable and real tonight? Because God can’t bless who we pretend to be. Can we just be who we are? I think too often in the Christian world, we like pretend everything’s perfect, and God’s like, I can see what’s happening. There’s no shame attached to where we are. So sometimes we can give up in the middle, or maybe you’ve been on an infertility journey, and it’s hard to go to one more shower for a friend that you love, but still you’re buying gifts, baby gifts for people, and you really have been praying for years to have a baby, or perhaps you do have please do not post a picture of me sitting on this bucket. Nobody will have the context. It looks like I’m in the loo, anyways. Or maybe you do have children, and you’re like, dear Lord, I need five minutes of peace. Could I just have one night of sleep? Or you got a full night’s sleep, and all of a sudden you realize that’s what sleep feels like. I have a brain, or maybe you’re in perimenopause or menopause. Isn’t it funny how that word menopause starts with the word men? When men don’t experience it, and you’re like, Lord, I’ve lost my mind, and your husband’s like, You sure have, but anyways, that’s another story. But in the middle of the wait of trying to think, figure things out, or or maybe you’ve been praying for your business to take off, and and it went the opposite direction, and maybe I don’t know where you are financially, or maybe you’re in the place where you’ve just been like, Lord, Lord, I’ve been praying for a husband. And you had this whole list of expectations, right? Like, Lord, I can’t wait to read the Bible with him. And you’ve been waiting so long now, you’re like, it’s okay. If he doesn’t know how to read, I’ll just read to him. You want him to be handsome and like you had visions, you know, if he’s worked out and he’s riding on a white horse into your front living room. You’re like, that’s the man. The longer you’re waiting, you’re like, what’s handsome? What’s handsome? I just want him to be kind. And you have these dreams of being married to somebody you, and it would be great if he was like financially wealthy and had his own home, and you have dreams of fixing up his home and making that from a man cave to something that’s decoratively beautiful, and you dream about it, but the longer you’re waiting, you’re like, oh, he lives in his mama’s basement, he’s good with women. I know you’ve heard this before, but you keep waiting for your boaz. And all that’s coming is Poass, broke ass, living as mama’s basement ass. Can you say that in church? I just did. Yeah. All I’m saying is that in the middle of this wait, it starts feeling like a graveyard. And when we have set these expectations of what we wanted God to do, sometimes we begin to lower the expectations in the middle of the wait. And then we begin to self-define ourselves by what we’re not seeing and defend who we’re not rather than becoming curious and to keep being curious to who God has created us uniquely to be. Because every single one of you in this room has a calling on your life. Now it may not be to preach from the pulpit, it may be to build a business, it may be a homeschooling mom, it may be to be the best wife, it may be just to be a light, a force for good in this community. Like if every single one of us in this room went to somebody who didn’t know Jesus and gave them a bracelet and invited them to church. Like, how about if half of those bracelets are people you don’t know yet, but you’re going to commit to pray for them and just ask the Holy Spirit to lead you? That’s being a force for good, but that’s allowing your expect. Can God you’re like, I’m an introvert? Doesn’t matter if you’re an introvert, extrovert, ambivert, whatever kind of vert you are, it doesn’t matter. God has a calling on your life. And if you if a friend brought you in tonight, this is your first time in this church, just keep coming back. And don’t base what’s happening out of my mouth tonight on whether you come back or not. Because God brought you here. The weight in the wait, we can self-define ourselves in a negative way. Because somebody else is getting the blessing that we’ve been waiting for. Somebody else got just got married, somebody else just had the baby, somebody else had the breakthrough in their business. And what am I doing that’s wrong? It must be me. See, what the problem is with the thinking of what’s wrong with me is that we stop being curious about what’s right with me to build on the strengths and the gifts that God’s already given us. And it’s important to me that you understand this. I don’t want to ever be in a room full of women where they leave walking in the same way they came in. I mean, we’ve been so blessed tonight already. You’ve been touched by God already, but there’s He’s not done yet. And if you’re not careful, you can give up in the middle, and it what you had hoped for begins to feel like a graveyard of hope. I know for a fact that any graveyard that you might face is actually a garden. I don’t know if anybody. So I’m intense. So turn to the person next to you and just say, she’s intense. And she’s dehydrated. You know, Mary. Mary followed Jesus for three years. Now we know about Mary because Mary was the woman from whom seven demons came out. Like it would be like if she went to Starbucks and they put her name on her coffee cup, it would be Mary, from who had seven issues, seven demons. Like that, she was known like forever she was known as the woman from whom seven demons came out. Like, I don’t want anybody to really know about my past, but I think they did that because nobody could believe the transformation in Mary’s life once she started following Jesus. They’re like, it was that Mary that you see now. Her life has been so transformed, we’re going to remind you what God delivered her from because God’s powerful in her life. What’s that Mary, who’s now in a graveyard? She’d given up everything to follow Jesus. And to be honest with you, in that culture and in that time, Jesus was a radical rabbi. He was a radical leader. He did things that others didn’t do in that time. And Mary had seen this with her own eyes. She had watched him, and so now she’s in the graveyard, and she’s gone to dress his body with all of the burial spices. And when she gets to the tomb, it’s empty. And there’s so much confusion at this time because she gave her whole life up to follow Jesus. Then they watched him die on a cross. In fact, you may not realize this, but the last people at the cross were the women. And so as she’s gone to dress his body, the tomb’s empty, she can’t believe it. She’s like, Have they stolen his body? Like, what is the story they’re trying to tell? So she goes, running to get Peter and John. Peter and John now come running to the tomb and they look inside and they see that it’s empty. And they’re confused. So they go back to tell the others. And Mary takes a second look into the tomb. Or I say take a second look. Because the thing that looks like a graveyard, like it doesn’t have hope, the thing that you’ve been praying for and believing for, if you just look at it at first glance, like I was reading about the wine, the water being turned into wine. At first glance, it seems impossible. But when you take a second look, what appears to be empty, what appears to be just death, when she took a second look, this time she sees angels in the tomb, and they say to her, Why are you crying? Who are you looking for? And she begins to tell them the story, and then she sees, and we’re gonna pick this up right here, and I just want to read this to you. In um, we’ll get back to the wine in a minute. I’m just okay. So okay if we get back to the wine. I want to read it. Let me find it. Here it is. John chapter 20, verses 14 through 16. This is so powerful. Now Mary steps outside of the tomb crying, and as she wept, she bent over. Okay, we read that part. And then she sees the angels, and they say, Why? This is in John chapter 20, verses 11, starting there now, verse 13. And they say, Woman, why are you crying? And she said, They have taken my Lord away. And I don’t know where they’ve put him. And at this, she turns around and she sees Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. Okay, I love this. Because I think so often we miss that Jesus is right here because he’s shown up different than what we’re expecting him to show up. We wanted to show up one way. She didn’t recognize him. So he asks her. The first time he calls her, he says, Woman, why are you crying? Who is it that you’re looking for? So she thinks he’s the gardener. Again, there’s nothing insignificant about this portion of scripture. She thinks he’s the gardener. And she’s like, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go get him. And Jesus said to her, Mary. So the first thing he says to her is woman, she doesn’t recognize him. But when he says Mary, oh, that was familiar to her. She’d heard him call her her name many, many times. There was something so intimate about that, that name calling, Mary. It was personal. It was familiar, but it was filled with resurrection. And at that, she turns around, she realizes who he is, and she says, Raboni. Do you realize how culturally impactful this is? We wouldn’t understand that. I mean, I have a doctorate degree. It’s easy for us as women to read books, to go to school. We can get educated and be curious. I mean, right now with Chat GBT, you can learn anything. It may not be correct, but you can learn anything you want. But she says, Raboni, which means teacher, and in that culture, rabbis didn’t have females following them. He was the first rabbi to have a co-ed following of men and women because he was putting value on women. In fact, he was the first rabbi in his genealogy, mostly. It’s a business card. Here I am. Jesus, you would sit down at the dinner table, and instead of your business card being a cart, you would tell them your genealogy. You would hide the crazy uncle because you were best known by the people, the good people. Jesus had five women in his genealogy. You didn’t put women in your genealogy because Jesus wanted you to know that you’re part of his story and an integral part. You’re not an accessory, you’re part of his story. The longest conversation in the gospels that Jesus has with anybody is the Samaritan woman. To which my husband said, of course it was with a woman. But it wasn’t fluffy. It was a theological discourse about worship. And he revealed to her the first person ever that he was the Messiah. And when her life was transformed by that theological discussion, her life was so transformed. She went back to her village and preached Jesus. She is the first missionary mentioned in the scriptures, and she’s a female. And Jesus, when he showed up to the town, he didn’t say to her, Oh, you’re just a woman. Be quiet. No, he empowered her voice. Okay, by the way, this is not a woman’s live feminism message. This is hashtag same team, men and women. Hashtag same team, men and women. God’s given all of us a voice. I just think that as women, sometimes we second guess the voice that God’s given us, so I’m gonna push on it tonight. And we’ll get back to the wine in a minute. And then Jesus says, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead, this is so powerful, to my brothers and tell them I am ascending to my father and your father to my God and your God. Okay, excuse me a minute. Every time we talk about the resurrection, we are repeating the sermon of a woman. I’m sorry, the room just got quiet. Are you realizing that Jesus went to a woman who became the eyewitness and said, your voice will be what’s echoing for generations on what you saw? And he said, Go tell my brothers. So basically, Jesus put in your mouth and in my mouth resurrection. The power of the words that you speak, and that word go tell is echoing in this room tonight over you. You’ve been given a voice. You’ve been given a voice to speak to graveyards, you’ve been given a voice to speak to impossibilities, you’ve been given a voice to speak to those areas that feel like, Lord, I just want to give up, but you have the power to speak resurrection over those areas that feel hopeless. Amen. Can I say to you tonight that some of you in this room have been speaking words that are in agreement with the enemy rather than words that are in agreement with what God has been speaking over you? Amen. It’s just like a little bit of a heart check tonight that what is it? God put resurrection in her mouth. When God said light, let there be light, those words became an energy force that are traveling around the earth 186,000 miles per second. So every time you feel the sun on your skin, that is a direct result of the word of God echoing around the earth. So when God said go tell to Mary, those words are now echoing in this room over you. No matter what your background looks like, no matter what you were told in your past, no matter what lies have tried to define you, the word of God is stronger than any of that, declaring over you. Go tell the resurrection. Amen. And we’re the ones who decide if our lives are littered with tombstones or milestones. Because whatever that failure was that you walked through and you faced, it’s not I don’t first of all, I don’t believe failure is failure if you keep learning from it. Turn to somebody else and say, You’re not a failure. You may have experienced failure, but that label of failure is not on your life. Amen. The only difference between a garden and a graveyard is what you put in the ground. And we’re the ones who decide what happens with the water in our lives. In fact, can we have the keyboard come up and play for a few minutes? We’re the ones who decide what happens. So I think probably one of the things everybody does anybody watch Friends? No? Yes? Okay. I love Friends. My favorite episode was when pivot? Do you remember that? Okay. So the pivot in this story is this very sacred holy word called Hane. Hene. Oh, you know what? Thank you. Can you just play like gardens, graveyards into gardens music? Not the song, but just you know. Thank you. Perfect. What’s your name again? Dana. Dana, have you written songs? Yeah, there’s song writing on you and in you. There’s a sound in you. There’s a sound in you that has yet to be birthed. In fact, I’m talking about resurrection, but there’s stuff in you that you have yet to discover. And in your quiet times with God, God’s going to begin pouring out there’s an intimacy and song that He’s going to use you to write. Is that okay? Yeah. Amen. We declare that over Dana tonight in Jesus’ name that there’s an ease to it, that over the next three months, God, you’re going to begin revealing yourself to her in very special ways. In Jesus’ name. And so, Hanaine. And that was simply, every time it was used, it was a pivot point. It was a point of turning, and it literally means here I am. Remember, Moses was at the burning bush. Remember that when Isaiah was saw the Lord, he said, Here am I, Hanay, Hanaine. Not to be confused with the whip and the nene. You’ll never forget the word. Hene. It’s a it’s a complete surrender. It’s like when you’re before God and you’ve been waiting and it feels like it’s still water, that you’re still holding on to buckets of water. It’s been a really long time, or or maybe you never really believed God and never really saw a miracle, but you’ve only been in this for five minutes. I just want to encourage you tonight. Hane, here I am, God. I don’t understand what’s happening. I don’t understand. It’s like really like there’s a Hane walk, I would say. I don’t know if there is or not, but it’s kind of like you take a step out of surrender and just obedience, and I don’t understand it because at the end of the day, it’s not so much what I’m praying for. At the end of the day, it’s my relationship with Jesus and what he does in the process that comes through that. So, Hane, God, I don’t understand. Hene, God, I don’t understand. It’s it’s a pivot point in our story that I know following Jesus for as long as I have, it shifts everything and changes everything. But back to this story about the water into wine. I mean, if that’s Jesus’ first sign, and and he’s given all of us women the voice of resurrection, and we can speak to miracles and see water turn into wine. What was the point of that whole story? Well, you know, we lived in Washington, DC for 30 years, and oftentimes it was just easier to get an Uber to get to a meeting rather than to find parking because we already owed a million dollars in our parking tickets. And so this one time I got into an Uber car and I knew it was gonna be a different ride. The guy had gospel music blasting like 4,000 dust. In fact, my hair blew back and my skin and so he had it turned on like so loud, and he turned it down for a minute. He turned around, he’s like. He said, Have you ever thought about that miracle of the water turning into wine? And I said, Well, I had just been reading that in the scriptures that morning, and because I’m a pastor and I should know the answer, and you’re driving Uber, so I responded like I knew everything. I said, Well, yeah, you know, blah blah blah. I don’t even know what I said. Did you ever open your mouth and then at three o’clock in the morning, you’re regurgitating what you just said? You have the best comebacks, or I shoulda, coulda, woulda. That’s why some of you aren’t using your voice. Because the mistakes of what you said in the past or how you didn’t say it perfectly has shut you down. Shame keeps speaking over you. I’m gonna break that off of you tonight. So this Uber driver is like, well, he said, No, that’s not it. He turns around, eyes on fire. Like, just I’m like, dear Lord, if you don’t keep your eyes on the road, we’re dying and gonna go to heaven right now. Because he just was crazy. He said, That’s not what it meant. He said, Have you ever thought about this? He said, When Jesus turned that water into wine, he said, He didn’t just do cheap wine, he didn’t do mediocre wine, he did the best wine. Cheap wine, the fermentation process could take a couple years. Mediocre wine takes a little bit longer. The best wine that takes years and in a moment, what they’d been waiting for in a moment, the miracle wise, God turned a fermentation process in a moment. It flipped over and became a miracle beyond what you could ever imagine. And I was sitting in the back of that Uber car and I began to cry because I realized the point of the story is this. And in the process of waiting, God doesn’t turn you into mediocre wine. He doesn’t turn you into cheap wine. He turns you into the finest wine ever. You are the miracle. Because 2,000 years ago, when he died on the cross, it was for our transformation, for our peace, for our joy, for our freedom. Some of us have gotten stuck in the middle of the weight. In the middle of the weight, we’ve gotten stuck. And the rest of the band, oh, you’re here. Look at you guys. Wow. You’re right. Look at you guys are so brave. Look at all the men on the stage. That’s great. Same team. Hashtag same team. Thanks for what is the instrument you’re playing? Is that a bass bass? You can tell I didn’t have a calling to music. But the bass is instrumental in keeping the rhythm, and so are the drums. Is there a guy on the drums? Yeah. So, and you’re playing what? Electric guitar? And what are you playing? Electric guitar? It’s the symphony of men and women playing together. It’s a choir of everybody using all hands on deck. There’s a move of God on the earth right now. Do you know that in churches in England right now, kids are staying in prayer meetings till two and three o’clock in the morning, and thousands of kids are being turned to God. Like it’s unbelievable. I just had lunch with a friend who’s going into universities, and hundreds of kids are giving their lives to Christ in a secular university, and then they’re doing baptisms. She’s in prisons, and prisoners are giving their lives to Christ. And she’s like, everywhere I go, it’s like just at Southeastern University. It’s a Christian college, but she was preaching, and and she’s she’s like, I don’t even know why I said, but in the back of the room, a girl just started calling out the things that she the sin she was confessing. She just began to sob and weep, and heaven broke open, and thousands of kids were touched, and that meeting went on for two weeks, 24 7. God’s moving in the earth. Things that we prayed for for four decades. We’re now seeing. We get to be a part of it. Just don’t give up. I remember God speaking to my husband years ago. We were praying for revival, and God said to him, Would you be willing to pray for revival if you don’t see it in your church? It’s like, well, where’s the faith in that? It’s the surrender, it’s the henene. How do you want to use me? Because what if what I pray for isn’t about me? It’s about generations. And I maybe don’t even get to see the answer. Hebrews 11 talks about those who saw the promise and those who were still counted as having faith, seeing the promise afar off. It’s not about just this moment. God wants to give you a breakthrough tonight. But the the power of resurrection in your voice is not just for you, it’s for your kid, your kids, kids, your kids, kids, kids, kids, kids. In fact, what this room is is generations of declaring resurrection. In fact, it’s I would say the walls are loaded with words of resurrection. You’re here tonight because resurrection’s been spoken over you from the leaders and the pastors. And this whole story became so real to me. It was many years ago. I was between the ages of three and four years old. And my parents lived on the second floor of an apartment building, and below us was a grandfatherly and grandmotherly type couple. And the man would invite me down to have tea or coffee with him on a