Good morning everyone from Hawaii to all the points of the globe and all the countries those are in-between. Today I have a lot to say eventually it will always end in the preaching of our beloved savior Jesus Christ who is in all and who is our all. Christ has been with me this entire time to some most people would have given up there faith and probably lost there minds by now, but I am a fighter and warrior of Christ, and there is nothing in this world or in this life that is going to make me go down, and if I am knocked down, the hands of God will lift me up. Normally I was going to get back into the book of John, at least that was my plan but I don’t believe it is the Holy Spirits plan, with all the trials and tribulations that have happened in the past few days plus this whole story has lasted a year, and we are defiantly dealing with extreme spiritual warfare, and there is no other explanation for any of the happenings , but the simple fact that satan and his agents are out to kill me and this church, if you can destroy the pastor of a church most of the time the congregation splits and causes a division and people loose touch and fellowship, plus the fact the pastor was bring everyone to the light with sound doctrine on a path to the truth and to the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven.
Let us begin with Wednesday, most of you all know I had to see a surgeon to check on my hernia and most of you all know I have an appointment for next week to confirm that I have Trigeminal Neuralgia which is classified as a disease of the fifth cranial nerve that causes episodes of intense stabbing electric like pain to my areas of my mouth and gums, most of you all know what I have been going through for the past year, to the visitors that are first attending our 48th service I have to give this small introduction, I know I am speaking about myself, this week and some weeks I do give a medical update, because there were so many people that were interested in what is happening to this poor man. We all have to admit that this has been long and drawn out but in the end of this sermon we all hope to find some realism in the work and care of God and how He put all this together and what the trials an tests result and permitting the out right attacks that never seem to end. First we are getting our faith tested, and we are being purified sanctified and justified to go on to the next level prepared by the Lord thy God, very similar to the book of Job, but with different characters and a different plot but the theme may be very similar.
So it is Wednesday I have an appointment with a surgeon that was or still is my main doctor’s surgeon. My regular doctor was a gift from God and she is an angel, where there was much prayer involved, and one angel brought me to her, and then another angel caused a open appointment right before I had an appointment with a doctor that was giving me medications and forcing me to take them even though I was having extreme side effects and I could have really hurt myself, by falling down, or not having my movement ability function able. Plus the fact these medications were not supposed to be mixed and if I continued on his course of medications I could have had a seizure, stoke, or some other fatality. So now I am in a real doctors office looking at a real surgeon, this guy was the best representation of a surgeon then I have ever seen, this man had a good demeanor and good spirit, and was very clean, proper dress, shoes shined white shirt, long white jacket everything pressed and cleaned and wearing a tie and hair was cut perfectly and nails where clean, and clean shaven close to the face, a man that looked right out of a hospital television show. I don’t know about you all, when someone is going to cut you defiantly want him to at least look clean.
So I am in the office and he takes me into the examining room and checks me over, and he looks at me and tells me that I have two hernias called a bilateral hernia, then he takes me into the room and sits down at his desk and tells me what he has to do, but then he said I cannot do this now, you are suffering from malnutrition, and even if he performed the operations they would not hold. He suggested that the brain surgery be performed first, and to let me get my teeth into my mouth and start to put some weight on, then I told him this might take months to get the right surgeon for the brain and there is only a few doctors that know the procedure of TN. Then he asked if I still had the pick-line in, and I told him that that was taken out after six weeks of antibiotic therapy, that I didn’t need in the first place. I went on to tell him that this doctor that I had to pay just to get to Honolulu and the cab fares and all the stress and swollen ankles an walking around on my 50th birthday to find out I had ostemyelitis which was an infection of my jawbone that he guessed on. This doctor’s head almost hit his desk in amazement, he said what? I told him the story of what I had to go through for six weeks with the bags of antibiotics and all the injections I had to give myself three times a day and it was all for nothing and then in the end I find out I never had ostemyelitis in the first place. This doctor hit the ceiling and then he ordered a full C-Scan of my chest, abdomen and pelvic area, this guy new how many doctors I saw and he also knew now that I was not treated at all like I should have been, plus he didn’t like me having a fever for ten months, and he also wanted to know what was going on in there before he had to cut into me, he didn’t want any surprises when he cut me open. So even for me a preacher I was a bit shaken up about the whole visit. I told him I will be seeing the neurologist on the 12th and see what he has to say about the 260 pictures of my head. He told me to eat a lot of meat and try to put some weight on. This is only the beginning of this day of trials and tribulations.
Dear Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, we all are of good courage and we pray that You grant us all boldness to speak forth Your Word. Because of our faith in Jesus we come forth to You with pure faith to enter into the Holy of Holies, to approach You and to ask You to cast all fear any of us have an any torment that we may me suffering to be lifted above us all. We will all be strong over Satan and his demons and all evil spirits, and we will triumph and concur through with the power of the blood of Jesus Christ over all sickness and disease pain and poverty. We call out to You Jesus we know You are above and ahead of every angelic principality and power, please my Jesus comfort us and purify our souls of any sickness or disease. I ask for all the attacks to stop and we command that all this evilness to go away in the Name of Jesus Christ. We declare in the Name of Jesus that all evil and fear to leave and go to the deepest part of the ocean, and plant in us a new peace and a new happiness and bring us all to perfect health. Dear Father we are all here to worship you, please help us to make this time of worship to bring joy to You. We are your children Father we are gathered here to worship You in spirit and in truth with our hearts fully open and our senses open to the filling of the Holy Spirit, Please Father anoint us with the Holy Spirit, please bring us that joy and healing and that feeling of warmth and the feeling of love from You Lord, from Spirit to Spirit. In Jesus Name, Amen
This Sunday will be a different type of a sermon than we normally do. After I got home I had a malfunction with the computer and I spent all of Wednesday night with Hewlett Packard and talked with three different people and it seems no one would help me, I had a problem with my Microsoft Word writing out a prayer and each time I would write it the page would disappear and I would get an error message, a clear attack from satan and his agents they don’t want me to be sending out prayers to help people, evil doesn’t want me to write to people to give them faith, and they also don’t want the Sunday sermon to be written, for me I have to start on Wednesday night and what happens I get bad news from the doctor, and then I get home and get pounded.
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4 NASB
I lift up my eyes to the hills- where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2
I was calm though the first guy and when he just wanted to fix that particular problem and not the other, I was heartbroken, then he said he would call me back the next day, first of all I need this computer, and we were not even sure that he fixed the problem in the first place plus they made me pay for the extended warranty, at least make sure when you fix something make sure that it is fixed. Then I told him how important it was to so many people, with this computer being The Church Ministries and with a prayer ministry on top then he said he would call back in a half hour, I knew by the tone of his voice he would not call at all, and he never did. Then I went back to the prayer and the same thing happened, then I had to call back HP again and each time you call you have to give them your name phone number id number and all the other information. This guy had all kinds of boxes open and doing all kinds of checks and then he either hung up or he disconnected the call. Then I was lost, I had all these boxes open and I didn’t want to dare touch anything, so I had to call back again. The same thing name number etc, and each time you get a new person and each person has a different accent and you can hardly understand them in the first place, then you get used to a person’s voice, and they either give up or hang up or you get disconnected, and then you have to tell the whole story over again to the next person. Well the third guy did fix the problem and he fixed the other problem, well Praise God. This was now about 3:30 in the morning, well there goes my sermon time, and my research time and my prayer time.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 1Pet. 4:12-14 NASB
And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him and let it drop (leave it, let it go), in order that your Father Who is in heaven may also forgive you your [own] failings and shortcomings and let them drop.
But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your failings and shortcomings. Mark 11:25-26 AMP
So as I prayed that evening I realized that I had to forgive those men and I had to praise God that it did get the computer fixed, it was just another attack that would put me behind for this sermon, that is why I am doing this way, because I am so far behind, and I figured I could use my short comings for a teaching and a learning experience, which this is the way the Holy Spirit is directing me. I was a bit tired and I was bit upset about the whole evening but anyone would be. I just said to myself that I would make it up the next day. And I also gave all my worry about the doctor’s visit to the Lord.
Be humble in the presence of God's mighty power, and he will honor you when the time comes. God cares for you, so turn all your worries over to him. 1Pet. 5:6-7 CEV
The next morning I wake up flinging the sword of the spirit, deep prayer and rebuking the evil thoughts and the fears that satan tries to implant into my mind about the doctor and being in the hospital. Then I started with my introduction of the sermon and prayer, like I said I was going to continue on in the book of John, after a while I went into the church office and checked my emails for prayer requests and prayer responses. Then I see the receipt for the money I paid for the update on my warranty, I went to print it out and the computer tells me I don’t have a printer, it tells me to hook up a printer. Well now, are we going through another attack from the evil one? I looked my printer was still in its same place nothing moved, well here we go again, I have to call them up and start all over this time I wrote down their name and their id number before I could even give my information just in case I got cut off again, when the technician gets on the phone they just say their name real fast and you never right it down you are concentrating on the problem at hand and you tend to overlook their name. Besides you have to give the person that answers the phone your name and all the information before you even talk to a technician. But we have to remember that we are still Christians and we still have to act accordingly.
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Col. 3:12-13 NIV
Now today is Thursday I get a new man on the phone and I tell him the story and how everything happened then he tells me that your printer is not an HP sorry call Lexmark and they will help you, we have nothing to do with it. I said wait a minute nothing has moved here and nothing was disconnected I am the only one using this computer, then he tries to do a few things like I did the day before. Then he was frustrated and he didn’t want to do anything, so then I asked for a supervisor and I waited on the phone again, then I get a woman and I felt she was waiting to here some crazy man on the other end of the phone but I just remained myself and she tells me I will give you my best technician, I said that would be fine then he gets on the phone, I go through the whole ordeal again and he does some checking and he finds something wrong with the spooling that was also missing in fact everything about the printer was totally gone, not trace of any printer or software anything that had to do with a printer was gone totally disappeared. I said to myself well the devil is really pulling my strings this time, and then some how the technician hangs up. Again this happens what am I supposed to do now? Well Pray that is the only force we have to defeat the devil, besides he is already a defeated foe, some of us give him too much credit and that is sometimes a big mistake with any Christian.
Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress;
be merciful to me and hear my prayer. Psalm 4:1 NIV
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him. 1John 5:14-15 NIV
Well now I called back again the same thing please hold and give them all the information and tell them the whole story, this time I get a guy out of Canada and at least I could understand him. This guy was totally logical he says let us try to load the software and see what that does, and we tried that and that would not load into the computer, the error message said it didn’t have any spooling, so then we went into this particular window and checked to see if we could start the spooling software and that would not start, so then he tells me I have to do a non-destructive system restore. Then he gives me a website for spy ware and we ran through that and I just did a spy ware check the other day before and I found a few things and I had to delete them, and I went to this guys site and it found over a hundred more spy ware programs, so this whole computer was full of spy ware. It is amazing how this world is making programs just to mess up and try to steal information from other people, it is amazing how many viruses are out there it is just another attempt by satan to mess up peoples lives and businesses and everything else that uses a computer. So we went back into that box after we cleaned up all that spy ware and to see if we could start the spooling which should always be on and this guy never seen anything like this before, so he had to tell me what to set up before I did the restore, and I only had one disk and I had to save all of my documents so I had to put them all on a folder one by one but I figured out a way to get six and ten at a time till I cleaned the whole folder clean , then I did the same with my pictures all the pictures I need to build the web page for the Sunday sermons. All the emails I copied the day before, thank God. Then I had to copy the “my documents” which was about 34 megabits that is a lot of prayers, forms, letters and other documents. Anyway he said that would take a long time and he made sure I was set up and he helped me start everything, and hopefully nothing would erase, you see last time I had to do this, was because a man told me to check a box to make a credit card payment on line, and he knocked out my ability to save any pictures. So I had to do a system restore about 6 months ago, then I lost my whole Norton system, and Norton would not help me, get it back because it was factory loaded. Back then they wanted me to pay those 35 dollars just to talk with them, that is why I had to purchase MacAfee virus protector and HP just said to bad. I also lost the memory for all the passwords and I am not sure if I have that anymore, so I don’t have to type and re-type all the passwords into church and ministry sites and I belong to, and there is many of them. So I said good- by to the nice man. He told me a few clues of what to do when the restore was all over, anyway I could not have him sit on the phone for over an hour, and anyway he said he would call me in a few days. He was a big help, I thank God for that man. I wish I could remember his name.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1Pet. 1:3-7 NIV
"These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." John 16:33 NASB
I pray that your love for each other will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in your knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until Christ returns. Phil. 1:9-10 NLT
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be firm (steadfast), immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord [always being superior, excelling, doing more than enough in the service of the Lord], knowing and being continually aware that your labor in the Lord is not futile [it is never wasted or to no purpose]. 1Cor.15:58 AMP
By the end of the night I wanted to check things out but I had to run the virus scan first and make sure I didn’t have any viruses in a clean machine, this was the night I was really upset, I was in tears, I couldn’t believe I spent 2 days on nothing just a waste of edification, a complete torment by the devil, 2 days that were horrible and full of stress, tears and heartbreak. I sat up and prayed out loud with one of my prayer books and pleading to God for Him to help me get over the frustration and all the ups and downs of these days. I just wanted the scan to end and I just passed out in prayer. I woke up latter and it was about 4:20 am and I went in and shut down the computer and I made a prayer that everything would be all right the next day or a few hours later.
And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2Cor. 12:9-10 NKJV
Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Rom. 8:18-19 NLT
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Rom. 5:3-5 NIV
The next morning the same I am fling the sword of the spirit the Word, crying out to God for help and that all things will work out, and I didn’t even want to go into that computer office, I was not feeling well I can’t take any more trials and tests, I am getting weaker in my faith, my faith should get stronger, it is now Friday morning and I don’t want to go though anymore problems. You get to a point where your just about to snap or go out and scream, but you finally get your head together and go through some prayers and some scriptures, well let us see if we can get the printer to work, it still might be frozen. So I set in the software and let it run it seamed like the computer was taking it. Then I got to the test pattern to get the configuration properly, that I understand but all those dark lines of ink on the top what is all that for? That was a dollar or more of ink on that one piece of paper and that is not even the test section. What a world, anyway praise god that the printer worked. Next I had to see if my emails were still there Praise God! Next for the folder of my pictures that was gone, but I still had the CD, and the folder to my document was still there, Praise God. So next was the widows update that was one of the things that my buddy told me to get the updates as soon as possible. I tried to get there and I could not get the updates and the page just sat there and looked at me. No, now I have to call them again I don’t want to do this all day again. Well I had to make that call again, Father in Heaven please help me, anyway I got a guy named Robert in Canada the same base as the other guy the day before, and this guy worked with me for 5 straight hours trying to get this windows update to go on, we tried every test in the book and he was doing all kinds of research to help me. This guy really put all he had into it he even stayed late and tried all different tests, and we never could get it to come on. Then he told me to catch up on all the things I needed to do, start writing the sermon, answer your emails get back to all the people that contacted you on the messenger service, and we will have to do another system restore on Monday, I said I am not going though that again. I got chills all over my body and anything I put back together now; I would have to do again. I can’t take anymore. I almost burst into tears, and then he said he would call me Monday and we would have to do another system restore, then there is a good chance that I will loose more information. Anyway he had to go and he told me to finish setting things up, only to tear them down or lose them, I can’t take anymore. Then I said to myself I will call Microsoft an see if they can help, so I found the number and the one that was not toll-free was supposed to be free, and then I figured I would use my cell phone because I don’t have to pay for the toll but if I use to many minutes I will be ending up paying 45cents a minute. So when I got connected I knew I only had about an hour and a half so when I first got on they wanted to charge me 35 dollars to just to talk to someone, like who has that kind of money to talk for a few minutes, and to tell you the truth they are all doing it. They know you are at their mercy and I guess a lot of people pay it but when you’re poor you have to find out where you can find that much money. And you don’t know how long you have to fix the problem, I just told the guy I didn’t have any money and I was on the phone already for three days and he let me slide, Praise God, he gave me an action number and sent me on through, so about 15 minutes later here now I am stressing out about my cell phone minutes, and I was on the phone for about an hour, and we were going through standard tests, then my cell phone got cut off this time it was me, well it was another plain attack, and I never used my cell phone yet in all these days, so I was about to give up, and I tried the regular phone and then after about a half hour I was talking to a woman that said she would be right back with an answer and I hit one of the little buttons on the church phone and that hung up on me. I was about to scream, I said this is the straw that broke the camels back. I called back on my cell phone to get a hold of the woman because it was 2 minutes to closing time, a guy answered the phone and he told me they were closed. That totally broke my heart and spirit, I was devastated.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Psalm 51:1-2 NIV
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Psalm 51:10-12 NIV
Blessed and enviably happy [with a happiness produced by the experience of God's favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted! Matt. 5:4 AMP
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. John 14:1 KJV
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2Cor. 1:3-4
Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. Psalms 27:14 NKJ
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2Tim.2:15 NIV
Well Saturday morning D-Day for me I had nothing done a lot of scribbles of this and that, some prayers here and there, some kind of an introduction, I was pacing back and forth across the room what should I do? Well I have to pray and find direction and then I burst into tears and that lasted a good while, I thought about it well my cell phone cut off for no reason, let us first update the cell phone so that doesn’t cut off, and I can call Microsoft for free today and see if I can get that out of the way and the stress off my back. So I updated the phone and I called Microsoft hoping my same number was still good from yesterday, well they let me pass with the number I had, and I got a nice guy that told me his name off the bat and gave up his user id number now there is a first, that is a good sign that this guy is good. If he was bad he would not want to volunteer to give his number out. Anyway we went through a series of tests in the d.o.s. mode and he did them nice and easy very understandable and very patient, then he goes lets try it now, and then the window I was staring at all day Friday that would never open, finally opened, and we started downloading all the updates and there were a lot then, he told me to keep going back to the same page and keep doing it until there isn’t anymore, so he asked me can we close this case number and was his help acceptable, I told him he was a total blessing and I thanked him and told him that I would put his name in today’s sermon, well everyone his name is Anthony and let us all thank him, because without him, I would have to go through another 3 days with another system restore and there would be a good possibility that the church prayers and all the documents and maybe the emails and prayer responses would have been lost, plus all the back up’s were empty too. I would still have them on disk but they would be all hard to find trying to find a needle in a haystack, but we should Praise God for all of this. There is and ending to this story, as soon as he hung up each time I went back to the site it froze, and I went back again and totally froze and I had to the old trick to unfreeze it, to tell you the truth satan was trying his last digs in trying to get my goat, or “this tops the cake” as I said this morning. But it ends with everything is just about ready to build onto the web page which I didn’t even design yet and my back is falling off from sitting here so long. I have tried different chairs, pillows cushions, standing and typing, sitting on my knees typing, and every which way. I guess I will end this with a scripture.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom. 8:38-39 NASB
Dear Loving Father, we love Your Son Jesus, He is our blessed Savior, how great is Your mercy that would all have us to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. Let us all remember your commission for us to go to all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation that people everywhere may learn about Your love and power mixed with Your grace and truth. Please Lord be with us all the rest of this week, and keep us all from the evil one. Please bring us health and peace. Please be with us always in spirit. We love you Lord! In Jesus Name, Amen and Amen.
