Ben Peterson on Sunday Service 41:05

Let us pray. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. Psalm 147.3 Dearest Lord, the depth of your wisdom cannot be fathomed. You know the number of stars in the sky, and the number of hairs on my head. Yet you bend your ear to those who suffer from a broken heart. When the pain is so deep, words cannot convey the comfort necessary at that moment. It's only your divine touch that can bring comfort in the darkest of hours.

That is when I need you most. Father, pour out your healing oil over the fissure in my heart. The gaping wound of loss is wide and deep and continues to bleed. Waves of grief wash over me with uncontrollable tears. Mend my heart, Lord, with your love and comfort me with your warm embrace. Help me feel your presence so I know I'm not alone in my time of grief. My pain feels almost inconsolable.

but only you can contain my grief and bring me comfort. Teach me to lay my head on the warmth of your chest and feel the heartbeat of love soothing my pain. I will cling to you in my time of loss and ask you to fill the void that only you can fill. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to today's daily prayer. For more inspiration and an incredible message from our feature pastor, stay tuned to Pray.com's Sunday service.

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What's going on, Conduit Church? Hey, living the dream, huh?

Amen. Happy Memorial Day weekend. It's an honor to be here speaking in front of you guys on this beautiful holiday. Can we just give it up for Pastor Darren and Pastor Mo and the pastors here at this church?

They have supported me, believed in our organization. Pastor Darren has canceled services for prayer gatherings that we're having. Pastor Mo has supported us in various ways through mobilization of the church. Jason Coons has helped us help soldiers tell their stories through song and help them record it. This is a great church, y'all. And so I'm so honored that they would trust me to come in here and bring the word today.

So it is Memorial Day weekend, and this is a solemn time to remember those who have given their lives for this nation. And I believe that this is a special time where we can remember those who have given their lives, but also pray for those who are still with us, who have grieved the loss of someone dying in combat or in the uniform. So if you're someone who's known someone who has passed away while wearing the uniform, can you please raise your hand?

Awesome. Awesome. So keep your hands up, please, guys. Would you just put your hands on these friends, extend your hands to them? I want to pray over them. Father God, I just thank you for these gold star brothers and sisters in this room. And God, I pray you would meet them right now in the name of Jesus. I pray God for their loss. I pray God for what they have suffered through and that you would be near to their broken hearts.

hearts, for those who have suffered and died for this nation. And Father, we pray just for a special blessing this weekend and a grace on this weekend. And God, we pray for our Gold Star families across this country who have lost those in combat. And Father, we just pray that you would be close to them and bring them to your love, the love that Jesus, only you can bring healing and deliverance to. And God, we pray for our nation in such a confusing time. And

that the sacrifices of those who have come before us would not be in vain. And God, we just pray you'd heal our land as we turn to you, confess our sin and confess the sins of our nation as the prophets of old would take account for the sins of their nation, the ones they hadn't even committed. And so God, we repent before you and we pray that you would heal this land and bring America back to you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Well, out of such a solemn moment, it feels only appropriate to tell a good military joke. So do we have any Marines in the room? Anybody? Awesome. All right. Good. Got a couple. So I served in the military from 2004 to 2012. I was in the Army. We got any Army people in this room? Yeah.

There we go. There's my friends. And so, you know, I heard this story one time about a soldier. He was getting on a flight from LA to Dallas. And he gets on the flight and he happens to be sitting next to two Marines. And the flight takes off and he kicks off his boots because, you know, he's been in those combat boots all day. His dogs are barking. And as he kicks his boots off, one of the Marines says, boy, you know, I could really go for a Coke.

And so the army guy pops up and says, "Well, relax, brother. I'll go get it for you." So he goes and he does this meritorious deed. And as he's doing so, one of those Marines grabs one of those boots and hocks up a big fat loogie and spits in that combat boot. Marines. Disgusting. So the army guy comes back, delivers the Coke, and the other Marine goes, "Boy, I could really go for a Coke too." And so army guy says, "Relax, brother. I got it for you." And while he's doing this deed, what does the other Marine do?

Hawks up a loogie and spits in that other boot too. Unbelievable. So the army guy comes back, delivers the coke, and as they're making their descent to land, he slips his feet into those combat boots and he recognizes the joke that has been played on him. And he says, guys, how long are we going to have this fighting between our branches? I mean, the disrespect and the dissension, the spitting in boots and the peeing in cokes. It's ridiculous. Nice to have you here, Marines.

And thank you to all of you for giving me grace for that joke. So I run a ministry for the military and our mission is to fulfill the great commission in the military. And we've been operating...

For about eight years, good friend Ryan Higgins is here. He's going to enjoy these stories today as he was in the middle of some of them. But man, we have been able to do a lot of great work in not only winning soldiers to Jesus, but also walking with them through their journey in faith in the military. And so I have a short video that I'd like to play for you. When you have people who accept you for your imperfections and help you build on that, that's what I really found here.

And as you were saying, Holy Spirit, fill these people in this room with the presence of you. I felt a rush of excitement, of joy. It was amazing. I found a great community in Christ.

I feel like my experience has been like God showing me more of who I am. Being able to dig up the things that are holding me back to where I can move forward. And I'm not going to be the person that I knew. I'm going to be something better for him and for our daughter. Through Engage Your Destiny, I've found life, community, and friendship. That's so fun. Yeah. Yeah.

And so basically what we're doing here is we get on post and we've been doing a lot of our work up at Fort Campbell and we'll take soldiers through a series of trainings on resiliency and how to overcome hard things and help them work in their emotions and their emotional intelligence.

And then we'll just invite them to stick around and hear about our faith and about our story. And so we've been operating in that model for about the last 18 months. And we've trained over 3,700 soldiers in that model. And over 1,300 have taken the next step to start following Jesus. Thank you.

And so that is where the real work begins. And so we have weekly Bible studies, mentorship, discipleship events that are taking place. We just executed our first retreat and taking soldiers away for a weekend with their families, doing restoration in their marriages, also to help them understand their story and how their story can be a weapon for the gospel.

And so that's the work that we're doing. And it's an honoring and a humbling work, and we're so grateful for it. So I just want to invite you, if you want to walk with us and receive our updates on what God's doing, you can grab your phone, scan the QR code, go ahead and put in your name and your email. And we'd love to walk with you as we are advancing the kingdom on active duty basis and have you walk with us. So as I shared before, I served in the military from 2004 to 2012. And I went to Iraq in 2008.

Now, I signed up for the military right after 9-11. I signed up at 17 years old, ready to go. And I went over there and I was ready to kill terrorists. Amen? I wanted to get payback for 9-11. And man, we were hyped up and we were young, 21 years old when we went over and we were ready to go to war. What was interesting though, is we got into a little place called Kuwait. Has anyone ever been to Kuwait? My man, what's Kuwait like?

Not fun. It's hot, baby. The day we got there, it was 145 degrees. I remember walking from the tents to the chow hall and I had fever blisters on the bottom of my feet because my feet actually got burned from walking through the hot sand.

So we get into Kuwait and, you know, we're ready. We're ready to go to war. And we get this in briefing that, hey, we're in Kuwait. We're not in Iraq yet. This is a safe zone. There hasn't been any combat here since, you know, the early 90s. But we are on a base and they started to inform us of what are called controlled detonations. Okay.

Now a controlled detonation is basically when a unit or a convoy is running through a combat zone and they run into what's called an IED, an improvised explosive device or a bomb. Okay. And they call in the bomb professionals, they disarm the bomb, but they can't leave that explosive ordinance there. They have to bring it back to the base so that they can get rid of it. Otherwise the terrorists will just reuse it and use it to kill soldiers. Make sense? Okay.

So that's where on the bases to get rid of these bombs, they have what's called a controlled detonation. So they basically have these controlled detonation pits where they set off a small explosion and it gets rid of the bombs. Okay. So we were informed of this. We were briefed on all of this. And they said, there's also times while you're here that we're going to be testing the security alarms on the base, make sure things work. So great. All information, which makes this story hilarious. So

Next day, we get into the gym. My buddies and I decide we want to do a workout. We're the only ones in the gym. We throw our headphones in and we start working out. I specifically got on the treadmill. And as we're all working out, they made an announcement over the loudspeakers that they were going to have a controlled detonation and that they were going to test the security alarms on the base. All information not communicated to me or my buddies due to the Metallica blaring in our ears. Are you tracking? Yeah.

So I'm on the treadmill doing my thing. And as I'm running, I feel the force that could only be understood or ascertained as that from an explosion fly through my body. And I kick my legs out and I look at my buddy next to me and I'm like, was that what I think it was? And he goes, it has to be. And so we turn around, my other buddies come over and we're like, dude, what's going on? Like, and we start talking and I go, guys, if that was a real explosion, they're gonna sound the security alarms.

I swear this is a true story. The words are leaving my mouth and we hear, net, net, net, incoming, incoming, net, net, net. And like everything in me from being 12 years old and seeing Blackhawk down and Saving Private Ryan rose up and I just said, oh my gosh. And so I run over and I bust these double doors open and I'm like, come on, we gotta get to a bunker. Now you gotta realize there's people outside who know what's going on.

And so now these four 21-year-old grunts come tearing out of the gym, and we run through the sand, and we dive into these bunkers. So we get in there, and we're, I mean, we're freaked out. And then we look out, and nothing's happening. And the alarm shut off, and we're kind of like, okay. So then we run back to our area of operation, and our first sergeant's coming out to use the latrine. And we run up, and we're like, first sergeant, do you know what's going on with the explosions and the alarms?

And he goes, "Yeah, guys, they were testing the alarms. It was a controlled detonation." "Right, First Sergeant. We wanted you to know what was going on so no one thought we were in danger." And he said, "I'm sure." Now, I love that story because it so beautifully portrays the power of one emotion, which is what? Fear.

Now, what's fascinating about fear is that it is our most primal emotion that we feel in the body. That's how our bodies have survived for thousands of years. And we have in our system, in our nervous system, what's called the sympathetic part of our nervous system, which is the fight or flight part of our nervous system. And when we anticipate or feel fear, that part of our nervous system comes on and it takes the emotional side of the brain and it completely overtakes the logical side of the brain.

which is why a soldier will dive on a grenade in combat to save his buddies. Because emotions have taken over and logic is out and I'm willing to die in this moment for my brothers and won't even think twice about it. Are y'all tracking? This is how the body works. Now, not all situations are combat. And that's where we need to look at the impact that fear is having in our lives. Because how many of you have made a really bad choice when you were emotional or afraid? That's a Roger. Okay. So with that, I want to take a look at a few scriptures.

That's me, by the way. This says, the Lord delights in those who, come on church, the Lord delights in those who, who put their hope in his unfailing love. So this means the Lord delights in those who fear the government, who fear politics, who fear the election, who fear the border, who fear fentanyl. No, the Lord delights in those who fear him. And when the Lord says fear not, he means fear not.

And there's this relationship between fear and hope, which I want to dive a little bit into today, because when we put our hope in his unfailing love, we receive his delight. Now, what's fascinating about fear is that it has an exact opposite to it, which God has given us as a blessing of how we can advance. So what is the opposite of fear? Faith. The opposite of fear is faith. Faith.

And this is what Romans 5, 1 through 5 says. Come on, church. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation produces perseverance. And perseverance, character. And character, now. Now.

does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Here's the deal. Fear is assaulting and attacking our lives. It is trying to create death, hell, and destruction inside of us because fear is a spirit.

The Bible says the Lord has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. And we war not against flesh and blood, but against powers, rulers, and principalities in the spiritual realm. And all through the gospels, you see Jesus setting people free from sin and from demons and spirits that have possessed them that are then causing them to not do good things.

And this is where we have to recognize today that fear is a spirit and what that spirit does is it gets into us and it breeds depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, thoughts of hopelessness, worthlessness, all of that junk. Are y'all tracking? Now the opposite side of that, when we overcome fear with faith,

Now we're getting somewhere. Because we have been justified by faith, which we have peace with our Lord Jesus Christ, which then produces a rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God so that we can glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulations produces perseverance, character, and hope. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So if we have fear assaulting our lives, we are not in faith, and the product of faith is...

Hope, which we need a dose of in this day and age. Amen. That is an amen. And so that's why today I want to talk to you about hope and what we need in this hour in our nation, in our hearts, in our families, we need an injection of hope. And so that's why the title of my message today, for those who are taking notes, if not, please pull out your phone and pull open your notes. I've got some great things I want to give to you and write down.

Restore a hope to engage your destiny. Now it's Memorial Day weekend, so I'm going with a two-point sermon. We're gonna take it easy on you today, not do three. You're welcome. And so number one, how we're going to restore our hope to engage our destiny is to believe for a personal resurrection. Believing for a personal resurrection in our lives. As I said before, I went to combat in 2008, and on the sixth day of my tour, one of our Chinook helicopters went down and seven of my guys were killed.

I was awoken in the middle of the night. Chaplain informed me that we had a fallen angel. And then we went to the S3 shop where they began to explain to us what had happened as everyone was trying to piece everything together. And we found out about the seven fathers, brothers, and husbands that had died. And there's no way to really describe what that amount of loss of life in one moment in a combat zone can do on the sixth day when you still have about a year to go.

And so the day after that, my chaplain spent the entire day counseling soldiers. I was a chaplain's assistant in the military. So that means that I was the ministry assistant to my chaplain as he did ministry. And then I was his bodyguard in combat because chaplains don't carry weapons. And we just watched one soldier after another that was so devastated by this. And we were ministering to people and we were showing up in that moment. So there was no moment for me to process anything, right? So then we go into the memorial service and watching soldiers

hundreds and hundreds of soldiers devastated by this loss. And then the next day, it was like it never even happened because we were a combat aviation brigade, which means that if anyone flew on a helicopter or called in gunships or called in a medevac between 2008 or 2009, that was my guys going to pick them up. Do you guys understand how important helicopters are in combat? And so with that, there is no time to mourn people dying and you don't just get over it in 48 hours.

And so the shame, the guilt, like everything I was dealing with just got shoved down and we had to just get right back to work. A few months later, a suicide bomber walked into a school outside of our base and he blew himself up. He killed about a dozen kids and wounded several dozen more. That local town did not have the capacity to handle a mass casualty of that size. And so a bunch of our quick reaction force guys went out and rescued those kids and we brought them into our base hospital.

I was in the ER with my chaplain as they brought those kids in. And I remember standing in the middle of the ER and I looked over and I saw a four-year-old girl with half of her face missing. And she was just standing there holding who I think was her older sister's hand waiting to be helped. And the only way that I can describe that moment is it cut my soul. And it was so far from what I thought combat would be. After I came home,

It was about a month later that I began having nightmares. And I remember waking up in the middle of the night after having a nightmare that I was killing kids with my bare hands. And I began to fall apart. I was pouring sweat, overcome with anxiety, and just overwhelmed with shame of who am I and what is wrong with me. My life began to just inspire a lot of control.

And I ran to what would numb all of this pain. I ran to alcohol, I ran to the bars, ran to women, just trying to find something that could provide relief, but it didn't relieve at all. And one night I was out till bar closed. I got home at about three o'clock in the morning and I had reached the end of myself. I remember having a handgun and I can say that like in that moment, I didn't wanna die, but I didn't know how to get out of the pain I was in. Has anyone ever felt that way?

Like, I don't know how to get out of this. And I called my mentor at three o'clock in the morning. He picked up the phone and I just kept crying. And I just kept saying, why? Why is this happening to me? What did I do to deserve this? And he began to talk to me about the disciples, which really annoyed me because I didn't want a Bible lesson at three o'clock in the morning after being in the bar. Some of you can relate to that. But he began to speak to me about these men and how each one of them was living their lives doing good

working, providing for their families, just living an everyday normal life when one day this rabbi comes along and he says, come follow me. And what's fascinating about why they got up in a second to follow him is because in that culture, the greatest thing that you could do would be to study and learn under a rabbi. And at the age of the disciples, if they were not currently studying under a rabbi and they were working, it means they were not good enough. They were not good enough.

And so now Jesus comes along who is a rabbi and he says, come follow me. And they left in a second. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. And they think they're gonna be studying stuff, you know? And then Jesus starts setting people free. He starts healing people. He starts feeding thousands and turning the world upside down. And these guys were in with the dude every step of the way. They were in like Flynn. And then one day after they've watched him be the impossible,

He just gets led away like a coward with the Romans and he's murdered, gone. It made no sense to them. And Scott said, that's where you are. You're at a place where you just don't understand why you're going through what you're going through. But beneath all of your pain and not understanding, there is a victory greater than you can imagine because beneath the death of Christ alone,

was the greatest victory in the history of the world in him defeating sin. And the disciples just couldn't see that. They couldn't see the victory that was happening. But Jesus went, he defeated death, hell, and the grave, and he rose again. And then they understood why they went through what they went through, and they went and they changed the world. And Jesus said, Ben, if you will trust God, he'll do the same for you. Because what he'll do for one man, he'll do for another.

And that's what I want to put into you today, that we have to believe for a personal resurrection. And that's where I believe God has sent me today, that if there's anyone in this room where there is something hopeless in your life and you're asking, why is this happening? Or why have I gone through this? Or why in this? Why is this? Why is that? There's a personal resurrection and a victory beneath it greater than you can imagine. Amen? I think we need a bigger amen than that. Number two, we have to believe for a multiplying resurrection.

We have to believe for a multiplying resurrection. In 2016, I founded Engage Your Destiny. And I remember I was at home. My dad was passing away of cancer at the time. And I was passing through our living room and there's no other way to put it, but I had a vision. It was the only time in my life that I've actually seen something that I believe God was showing me.

And I saw this massive stadium and it was filled with tens of thousands of specifically Vietnam veterans. I saw it. And then the vision zoomed in on this one Vietnam veteran and tears were just streaming down his face because he was healing and he was being welcomed home. You see, when I came home from combat, I was met with parades and flags and love and honor. But when these guys came home from combat,

They were treated with disgust and shame. They were spit on. They were called baby killers. I've had Vietnam veterans tell me that they had cups of blood thrown on them, on their uniform. And these were guys that were drafted to go do. They were just answering their call and not running away to Canada. And they came home to that. And worst of all, this country did not want to help them and wanted them to just go away. And so that's when I knew God was showing me something to heal something so important and to do an event that would honor them and welcome them home.

And so in 2022 on Memorial Day, two years ago, my organization held the largest Jesus-centered outreach to veterans in American history. There were over 35,000 in attendance.

We did it with Toby Keith. It was one of his last concerts. Ron DeSantis. We had jet flyovers. Navy SEALs parachuted in. We did it at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida. We had NASCAR fully behind us. Fox News live streamed it and Fox Nation supported it to put it all over the country. And we deemed it the biggest, baddest, most patriotic celebration and welcome home.

And I had this vision around it because my organization wasn't large enough to raise the $6 million that we needed in order to pull this off. That if we could raise a portion of it, but then if we sold tickets, we could make the event free for the Vietnam veterans and their spouses, and then regular America-loving patriots could buy tickets and we could finish off the bill. And so going into the event, we had raised $4 million and we had $2 million to go, which means we had to sell $2 million in tickets to pull this off.

And that day was one of the greatest days of my life. We had to wipe the wonder from our faces as we watched thousands of veterans heal and cry and come up to us sobbing, thanking us. It was unbelievable. So the next day I received the ticket sales report needing to sell 2 million and we sold 500,000. And I remember in that moment feeling this just, I felt like a fool. I had trusted God so big that

And now I'm staring at a mountain of debt. I have no vision of what I'm going to do next. We have no cash in the bank. And I had to let go of 25 members of my team. There are only two left. I was devastated. I was burned out. I was angry. And now I'm in a situation where I have to take this organization from a hopeless state and try to revive it to do something and to live again and that it wouldn't be the end. And so now I have to begin raising money for something that has already happened and

in order to pay for something that we already did with no vision of what we're gonna do next. Anyone want that job? It was really hard, but God is good, amen. I remember I was at the Music City Grand Prix and I'm standing in this area in walks, Brian Hedwelch. He's the lead guitarist of a band called Korn. And he wrote a book called Washed by Blood. And the amazing book totally ministered to me. And I just went up to him and I'm like, hey, Brian, I'm Ben. I read your book. And he's like, you read my book? Yeah.

And I'm like, yeah, you know, and we start chatting a little bit. And I said, man, I'd love to just get together with you. So we meet up for lunch the next week and he walks in, but he walks in with this other guy who like had a bow tie on, really weird looking guy. And the dude sits down and I'm like, who are you? And we get to talking and this guy is Marsha Blackburn's faith guy to handle all the faith stuff for her senator's office. And him and I were in Iraq at the same time and he was a helicopter pilot.

And we just like bonded. We're sitting there and we're talking and I'm telling him everything that's going on with our organization and what we're trying to figure out. And he said, well, I know all the leadership up at Ford Campbell. I'll just introduce you to them and you can go try a bunch of stuff up there. Bam, the door opened. God provided the way.

And now we've trained over 3,700 soldiers, built a ministry, and the doors have opened in Alaska where we are launching two more sites for our program. And we're going to train 12,000 soldiers in August. You see, the first time that I was hopeless, my life needed to be personally resurrected. I had something so close to my face that I couldn't see in front of that I needed God to save my life.

And the second time that I was hopeless, it was greater than me. It was my organization that needed to be resurrected. And you see, that's what God does. He takes a person who is broken, that is struggling, that has something in front of them where they don't know why they're going through what they're going through, but there's a victory of Jesus beneath it. And he's asking you to come to him, to believe in him and to trust him. And he's gonna take that situation. He's gonna take it from death to life.

And then what he's going to do, because what he did with the disciples, is he went and he overcame death, hell, and the grave so that he could overcome death, hell, and the grave in them so that they could go and overcome death, hell, and the grave in the rest of the world. And those 12 people went and changed the world. And those 12 people have turned into today 2.60873814 billion people.

That's what my God does. He takes the hopeless situation, resurrects it, then he goes and he takes people to go change the country and the world. And so that's what I am calling you today for, church, is that if you're in a place where you don't understand why you're going through what you're going through, there's a victory beneath it greater than you can imagine. And if you're in a place where you've experienced the resurrection power of Christ, he is calling you to step into the place of victory and take it to this country.

That's what our God does. Stand to your feet, church. God doesn't just work in our lives so that he can work in our lives. He does it so that he can multiply it across the nation and across the world. Go ahead, brother. And so that's where I do believe there's two kind of people in this room. The first person, you have a pain.

you have a struggle that you're going through. It doesn't have to have anything to do with combat, but it's unique to the situation that you have and you need a vitamin B injection of Ben Peterson into your heart to say there's hope in Christ. And there is nothing, nothing, nothing that he cannot overcome. If you're in that place, I want to pray for you. Please just put your hand up.

There we go, right there. If there's people putting their hands up, would you guys just put your hands on their shoulders right there, right there in the back? Just put your hands on their shoulders right there in the back. Our brother right there. Our brother in the back right there. Please put a hand on him. Just put your hand on these people and we just pray. Father God, Lord, you know what these amazing men and women are going through. Maybe it's a child that's run away from you.

It's a situation with their health. It's a situation with their business. It's a situation with their family. And Holy Spirit, we just unleash the power of the gospel over them, the salvation, the wholeness, the fullness of Christ. And we pray, God, that you would meet them and you would just fill them with your hope. You'd fill them with the life and love of God and that, Lord, you would just take this moment to encourage them that nothing is impossible. And I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. The second kind of person in this room is you have experienced the power of the resurrection in the gospel, but God is standing over this room just like he did in Isaiah 6, where God calls Isaiah up into heaven.

And I want you to imagine the glory and the splendor. And as soon as Isaiah gets up there, and he's like the hotshot guy of faith down in the world, but he gets up there and his first reaction is, I am broken. Woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. And he cries out for mercy in realizing how unworthy he is to serve a living God. And in that holy moment, God says, I have a mission.

I have a group of people that need to be reached. So who's going to go for me and whom shall I send? And Isaiah stands up from his moment of brokenness and he says, here am I, Lord, send me. I'll go.

That is what I'm calling you today to, church. And I believe that God is standing up before all of you with an unlimited amount of destinies and plans and abilities that he wants to give to willing servants that are willing to lay down their comfort and stop serving themselves in the most comfortable, selfish nation in the world.

and say, "I want something greater. I want to be uncomfortable. I want to feel some failure. I want to go, and I want a mission so impossible only my God can fulfill it." Because that's the heart of a warrior that Jesus died to put inside of you.

And so if that's speaking to you, I want you just to open up your hands to receive. Father God, I declare in the name of Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit over this room, that you are releasing ideas and dreams and destinies. But more than that, Lord, you're releasing the courage to say, here am I, send me. And if that's you, I just want you to say in your heart, right to the Father, not to me, not to anyone else, Lord, here am I.

Send me, give me a mission, give me a destiny, give me a plan. I will go where you want me to go. And I believe in faith that you will accomplish that unto which you sent because that is your job. And it's my job to be your willing servant. So I surrender to you right now in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. You guys can take a seat. Amen. In closing, I remember I was in the middle of all this

and hopelessness and not knowing what to do. And we have this, we had this big ugly pit in our backyard and our house is on a slope. The people that live there before us, they had this above ground pool that like they dug into the slope and left this big sandy ugly pit when they left and took their pool. I'm not bitter about it.

And so I've got this big ugly pit and I am not a projects guy. Okay. I'm not. Ladies, if your husband's a projects guy, can you be grateful for him right now? I am so far from that. I like to work hard and then go have fun. Projects are work. Don't like them. So the pit stayed there for a while. And then my wife, we have this kind of, that's on the right side on the left side. We have this kind of raised bed area where my wife wanted a garden.

And so we were negotiating the terms of the garden and who was going to do what. How often in marriage is it kind of a hostage negotiation, right? I had a guy in the last service who had been married 65 years ago. Oh, yeah. So I made a deal, you know, with a helicopter to Cuba that my wife, I would dig and I would like create the space. I'd till the land and then she would create the garden. She'd build the garden. Lost my power here.

And so I go out there and I spend an entire day and I am tearing up all this grass and all this dirt and I tear all this up. Now, because I'm not a projects guy and I'm not a planner, I look and I'm like, what am I gonna do with all this dirt and all this grass? And I looked over at the pit and I was like, oh my gosh, I have everything I need to now fill in the pit. And the Lord spoke to me. He said, son, everything that you will ever need for everything that I've ever called you to is in the land I have given you.

And that was before Fort Campbell opened up in the very place that God moved us to from Minnesota, the land, the place he's called us. Friends, everything you will ever need for everything God has called you to is in the land he has given you. When he says that this life and godliness, everything we need is according to his riches and his glory, he means it. So Lord, I pray for that blessing of provision over every one of us in Jesus' name, amen.

Lastly, I was very blessed to come out with a book this year. This is my first book. So I'm kind of learning the ropes of how to do this. But I wrote, it's called Engage Your Destiny and it's practical ways to run after your God-given purpose. It's really written for the purpose of, man, these are the steps of what it takes to really live a life of destiny.

We want to give a copy of these to every soldier that we train. So all of the proceeds aren't going to me. They're going right back into the ministry so we can give thousands of these away when we train all the soldiers up in Alaska, as well as at Fort Campbell. So I would be so blessed if you would stop at the table and purchase a copy so that we can advance this. Guys, thanks so much. I'll be back at the table if anyone wants to visit me. Thanks so much.

The podcast, The Bible in a Year with Jack Graham, is a moving and inspiring biblical audio experience that will help you master wisdom from the world's greatest book. In each episode, you'll learn to apply biblical principles to everyday life.

Each cinematic episode is a journey through the Bible's most profound stories that will strengthen your appreciation of the Word and inspire you to keep learning. Listen to The Bible in a Year with Jack Graham on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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