Pastor Gail Stathis – Opening Prayer

It’s always so good to always come together to worship the Lord. And we’re glad for those with us on line today. If you have your Bibles, and if not, there are Bibles around on the seats. We’d like you to turn to Isaiah 60. We’re really encouraging people to use your paper Bible to kind of help you get the bigger picture of what’s happening in the Word. Isaiah 60:1-4, it’s in the Old Testament; it’s one of the bigger books, “​ Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.”
Father, we thank you today, for the privilege of being filled with the glory of Your presence. Lord, we have no brightness of our own, but oh Lord, when we come into Your presence, when You fill our lives, Lord, we shine with the glory, with the amazing beauty of who You are. So, Lord, we thank You today, for the privilege of being able to gather together, to celebrate You, and to encourage one another, ah to live in Your presence, that we can allow Jesus to shine, to shine and shine, that the world may know, there is a Savior, and we celebrate Him today and His Name is Jesus. Amen.
We’re so glad you’re here today, and we believe so much today as we worship Him together, we draw strength from one another Amen. When we lift our voices together, we encourage each other. Praise God. Would you please stand with me

Christina Prapas Testimony

Good morning. Ca you hear me? OK, how’s that? Ok, I just felt today, to share with you, everything I’ve been through lately. I’ll do it quickly. The first thing, I had a major operation called a mastectomy, and in the hospital, I thought it would be very painful. And all the other ladies around me, they were in great pain. By the mercy of God, I felt nothing. And then recently, I fell into a coma, I woke up and thought where am I? I had a major operation, a tracheotomy, and again by the grace of God, no pain. Then the other day, I had extractions, because they said, the reason why I had the problem in my throat, was because my teeth. That’s why I’m wearing a mask, because it’s not anything here, and as he’s doing it, the dentist, I’m praying, ‘Please Lord, no pain.’ I don’t know about you, but I am a big coward at the dentist. And honestly, no pain. And I was just thanking the Lord, for whatever reason, He’s brought me through these things, but I know, my family, were and are praying for me. And I’m just in awe of what’s going on. But one great thing coming out of it, I was just showing Evy, people who I know do not believe, are saying that we are praying for you, and it’s a miracle. And the people on my list of five. So I just wanted to share this with you.

Pastor Gail Stathis Main message

Praise God. Lord, we give you all the glory. Lord us to glorify You more and more. We need You to be King. Thank You Jesus. I’m not going to talk long today, but I’m going to talk a little about the Church.
Praise God, at the beginning of service today, we read a passage from Isaiah 60. From some of my earliest memories of being part of a local church, that particular passage, Isaiah 60:1-4, spoke to me about what a local church should be like, what it should do and of course, I know it has other meanings, about Israel and other things, but I always believed that Jesus gave His life for the Church universal, worldwide, that all of us, anyone that becomes a believer, that accepts Jesus, at that moment you become part of this great big family, because you have the same blood, the blood of Jesus.
So, we become related to everyone in the world, that has asked Jesus to forgive them of their sin, and invited Him into their life. But I believe and I felt as a little girl, that the Lord, revealed this to me, that I learned the way to live that family, to be part of that family, was to be part of a local church. There are no ‘Lone Rangers’ in Christianity. You know, ‘I’m going to do it my way! I’ll do it alone.’
The whole book of 1 John, we don’t have time, there is so much that I’d like to share today, but maybe in the next few weeks, we’ll talk more about the church. But I challenge you this week, to read the book of 1 John. It’s really tiny. Read it really quick. By the way, short advertisement, before I go forward. I just learned, if you’ll read your Bible, 17 minutes a day, you can read the whole Bible in a year. What’s 17 minutes? So, if you’ve never read the Bible all the way through, start now. It’s great. All right, that was an advertisement for Bible reading.
But the book of 1 John, much of the theme of it, is we need one another. We need one another. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone that loves God, knows God. He that doesn’t love, doesn’t know God. For God is love.
But that’s not some ethereal concept out in the air. During Covid, churches worldwide, had to log-in on Zoom, Facebook or something. And I thought about this recently, nowhere in the Bible, where 2 or 3 are logged-in, now the Lord could be there, and bless this, but the Scripture says where 2 or 3 are gathered, the local church, is a place where we gather together. We encourage each other We celebrate, like we heard Christina’s testimony today. And I think if we don’t gather together or if we say, I watch somebody on Television, or I listen to a podcast, I challenge you, to look in the Word of God, where Jesus ever says, that is how I will build My Church.
Do you know, how He says He will build it? And we don’t have a lot of time, so, I’m just going to throw out some Scriptures, but first He tells us, “I’m the Head.” Recognize that I’m the Head. Your My Body. Your My Body if you know Me. Now, my head, tells my arms how to work. If my right arm just starts doing what it wants to do, it’s not obeying the head. There’s something broken down inside.
We are designed to be a body put together, fit together, with Him as our Head. And the Bible also says, as His Body, we encourage each other, we pray for one another. Amen. We ask one another for needs, we fellowship one with another, and that’s something in the world today that many people aren’t doing today. They don’t get together like they should.
In fact, I love the idea of fellowship so much, I was talking to my son one day, ‘Who are we going to fellowship with?’ He said, ‘Mom, these are people that just go to school, they’re not Christians.’ There’s another word for it, besides fellowship. I almost don’t know another word, because I think the idea of fellowship is so beautiful in the Word, in the Book of Acts. They ate together; they studied together; they prayed together; they were even persecuted together. And it made them stronger. We must have fellowship one with another.
The Bible says that we are to agree with one another. If you see the Church just as a worldwide thing, how are you going to agree with people? I need to talk to you, to know what I’m going to agree with, right? You can find that in 2 Corinthians 13. Sometimes it would be easier, not to be part of a local Church, because if I wasn’t, when I got mad at you, I wouldn’t be mad at you, because I wouldn’t know you very well. But the Bible says, in Ephesians 4, we’re supposed to forgive each other.
Now, in kind of a backwards way, a roundabout way, it’s saying that we live together, we do life together, so sometimes, you’re going to do something I don’t like. I know you well enough, so, when I see you do something I don’t like, but Ephesians says we have to practice forgiving one another.
Brian, I’m going to use you as an example. Brian, I know you don’t mind this. Brian’s mother, when he was a little boy, used to say to him, ‘I love you, but I don’t like some of the things you do.’ And the reason she could say that, was because they were family. They saw how each lived and moved and reacted and responded.
We live in a world today that’s so disconnected, people don’t really want to know each other well enough to have to forgive them. If I don’t get close to you, I won’t get hurt. There’s going to be hurt, when we get close to each other. But what a wonderful way to learn to forgive like Jesus did. They spit on Him, they beat Him, they mocked Him, ‘Father, forgive them.’ I’m not quite their yet, I’m working on it. But I need to be in relationship with you to live out life with you, so I can become like that.
Colossians 3 says that we’re supposed to teach one another. 1 Thessalonians 5 says do good to one another. I’m waiting, I’m waiting. You’re all too good for me. You’re supposed to do good to each other. Did you ever tell a lie and you wanted to confess it, but you didn’t trust anybody enough to tell it to? Or did you ever do something wrong and you just feel like if I could just tell somebody and pray it through and things would be better? James 5:16 says that we are to confess to one another. We are supposed to grow so close together as His Body that we trust one another, as someone you can confess to.
So, we’re supposed to gather together, to build one another up, to love and good works. We can talk a lot bout the church today, but we’ll do a little bit more in the coming weeks. Our vision as a local church is that we will be devoted to Christ. I don’t know how I can be devoted to Him, really deeply devoted, unless I learn to live life with you and walk with you. It never says that we will always agree, we’re not going to always agree, and that’s OK everybody. We’re all from different cultures in this room today, different ages.
When I was a little kid in church, you had to sit still on the bench, you didn’t move or your mom would smack you. It’s OK Tina. No smacking here. I love it when Ole runs up, but it’s a different day today, things are so different. But if I didn’t live with you and grow with you, and just wanted to do life my way, with my old mindset, my closed mind, I’d sit here and say, ‘Katerina, why don’t you take care of those kids. How do you bring him to church like that.’
And sometimes we can get that kind of an ugly attitude, and I’m saying this for a reason. But when we really live together, one of the most beautiful things I ever saw happened in this church, was one Sunday morning, Ole ran up front, and the Lord told me to pick him up. I stood preaching and I held Ole in my arms, and he put his head on my shoulder and I kept preaching. We learn together. We learn how to live in a more beautiful way together. I don’t want to live like I did in the 1990’s. Yes, you could laugh, it’s true.
Just in closing, Matthew 16:17-18 , I told you I know I wasn’t going to preach long. It’s such a beautiful passage, if anybody that has ever studied church, you know this passage. Jesus lived, walked, travelled, ate, with a group with him. And some women guys, women too. He was in relationship; He was in fellowship. They loved each other. They knew each other.
And one day, Jesus looks at them and says, “Who does everybody say I am?” And I love Peter’s response, ‘You’re the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus looks at him and says, “Blessed are you Simon, flesh – just your earthly mind didn’t reveal this to you, but My Father in heaven.” And I love the picture Jesus gives there, because Simon meant, little pebble, just a little pebble, it wasn’t much of a rock, it was, it was little pebble, but this revelation from the Lord, it changes who you are. It changes who you are, when you get a revelation from the Lord, it enlarges who you are. You’re Peter, Hallelujah, you’re a great big rock, Hallelujah. You’re huge! And on this revelation, not on a small stone, but on a big rock, I will build My Church.
Each local church, we’re built to stand on the revelation of who He is, Amen! Yes, I’m part of the universal Church, the Body of Christ, yes. But I live it out, knowing you, fellowshipping with you, eating with you, learning from you, and I’m going to build My Church on this. And I love what He says, “And the gates of hell will not overcome this.” Hallelujah.
For too long, the living Church of the true God, we’ve been defensive. We’ve been protecting who we are, ‘Oh, evil is going to hurt us. Evil is going to hurt us.’ But He is saying here, ‘When you know who you are local church, when you know who you are around the world Church, you will begin to advance against the gates of hell, Amen. And those things will open, Amen. Those gates will fall!’ But we do it together, we do it together. We are the army of the living God, Hallelujah! We are a triumphant Church. We’re full of His glory.
Come here Stavro. There’s glory here, there’s glory there, Mary come this side, there’s glory there. The glory is growing, it’s growing, Hallelujah. And the enemy is coming against us. Fear, he says you are just one individual, and we say we’re not. We are the Body of the living God. King of kings, Lord of lords, Hallelujah. And we advance against the gates of hell, we say, you must fall, you must fall, you must go, open wide you gates, that the King of Glory may come in. That the King of Glory may come in. Our children be safe, our families safe. Greece to have a great revival, Europe to have an awakening. Oh Lord, we have to have healing, healing, healing.
Some people have said, ‘Have you seen people raised from the dead?’ Yes, I have, twice. And isn’t it wonderful, it’s great. But the way I understand the Bible, as we begin to walk together and believe together, and stand together, to make the Head of the Church, to make His Name great. It will be normal, to walk into the hospital and say, ‘In the Name of Jesus arise and be healed. Rise and be healed, in the Name of the Lord.’ I believe it. Do you believe it Hallelujah? And I’m telling you what – you better start getting excited about Jesus. He’s waiting to fill you with an anointing like you’ve known before.
He’s God; He’s God. The splendor of the King. Would you stand with me. If you’re here today, and you don’t know Jesus, as your Savior, Oh, He’s an amazing Father. His Son is your Savior and the Holy Spirit said, ‘I will be with you, to lead and guide you.’ It is true, it’s true, today can begin, the greatest season of your life. Ask the Lord, to do a new thing. Ask the Lord to do more with you, than He’s ever done before. I’m available Lord. I’m available Lord, help me to encourage my family to go, in the name of the Lord, in the splendor of the King.