Pastor Gail – Welcome
1. Good morning, good morning, good morning. It’s good to be in the Lord’s house. Amen, amen. The sun is shining outside. But when you have Jesus, you’ve got the Son, oh, in English (S.O.N. and we have the sun, (S.U.N. and we have the sun to shine on us.) So, we have his life, amen. Father, we just thank you this morning. For the privilege to worship you, Lord. Amen? Lord, we just are going to raise a hallelujah today. Let’s stand.
2. Amen, amen, amen, amen. Would you remain standing for the Word? Luke 11:27, “As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out; Blessed is the mother who gave birth and nursed you.”
3. Is this it? No. Luke 11:27? No, sorry everybody. What verse do you have? I have 28, but it says, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and obey it.” Amen, amen, amen, amen. Father, we come before you this morning. We love you, Lord. Lord, we want to hear your word today. We want to honor you, Lord, with hearts that are listening to you, with open minds to receive of you, O Lord. Let it go deep down into us today, God. Lord, we desire not to just come to church to do something that we think we’re supposed to do. But Lord, we want to be in your very presence, Lord. That will set God just the atmosphere from all the days ahead. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Korina – reading the Word
4. Hebrews 12:1-2, “Therefore, since we have a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Despite any of the shame, he has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God forever.”

Pastor Gail
5. I like you wherever you’re at right now in the room. If you just take a moment to close your eyes and just shut out everything else, say to the Lord right now, O Lord, just remove everything else from my spiritual eyes right now and let me see you. Father, today, Lord, each one of us are going to pray in our own way right now. Lord, in the world we see so many things that break our heart.
6. Lord, we know when we have our eyes on you, Lord, we will understand, Lord, the wonder of you, Lord. Lord, if we will be your light to those that are struggling, Lord. Lord, let us see you today. Let us see you, Holy God, in all your wonder and your glory, and the splendor of who you are, the splendor of the King. You are matchless. You are matchless, Lord. No one like you, no one like you, no one like you, Lord. Praise God.
7. You may be seated for a moment. It’s an amazing thing to be able to say the name of the Lord so freely. To be able to worship Him freely. Pastor Brian and I just returned yesterday from teaching in Egypt. And persecution is increasing there. They are beginning to, particularly if Christians have left Islam and converted to Christianity. They are finding them and putting them in prison.
8. And they’ve been doing it for a while. They’re taking little girls, but they’re doing it even more now. And they’re forcing them as little girls to become Muslims rather than Christian. But there’s such hope in the church there. And I think it’s because they truly love Jesus. And they want to be His light in this world.
9. And so, what a privilege today, isn’t it? I will worship you with all of my heart. Let’s let that be true. Don’t let it be a lie today. When we come and see that our mind is on what we’re going to fix for lunch. Or our mind remains on all of our troubles. We’re not worshiping with all our heart.
10. So, if you’re struggling that way, just as we get ready to just a moment to sing one more song, I challenge you to say, Oh Lord, I want to think only on you. I want to worship you.

Korina – Reading the Word.
11. 1 John 2:3-6. “For we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments. The one who says, I have come to know Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in Him. But whoever keeps His word in Him and the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him. And the one who says He abides in Him ought Himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”

Pastor Gail
12. I invite you to stand and just take a look at somebody or take their hand and say, Let’s worship with all our heart. I would like to call the prayer teams forward. If you’re here this morning and you need prayer. The amazing thing is that Jesus is already here to hear you. The Holy Spirit is already here. Whether it’s for you or someone else.
13. These prayer teams are here. And for you if you don’t come forward this morning. Where you are standing or being seated. We continue to pray for Armand to get up out of the wheelchair and walk. I continue to believe that you pray for him. Let’s pray for Mary for her eyesight to be completely restored. We’re going to pray for Brian. He’s up here with the worship team that God will heal his back, his lungs, his feet. Amen. Just his whole body. Amen.
14. Next Sunday we’re going to hear a testimony from Sunil in South Africa. Praise God. God heals. God works. Would you pray? Come forward if you’d like prayer this morning.
15. Now we have prayed. We have prayed. We have prayed. And God says in his word. Where two or three agree. Did you agree today? For God to answer. Amen. Let’s say thank you Lord. Thank you, Lord. I believe. That’s why I believe. We need to tell God we believe his Word. Amen. Now greet somebody and say I’m so glad you’re here today.

Pastor Gail – Announcements
16. Good morning, everybody. You all look so good. You may be seated for just a moment. We’re going to be receiving an offer to give to the Lord in just a moment. But before we do, I just have something I want to present to you. As most of you may have seen, our tent is gone upstairs.
17. During one of the earlier storms, the wind blew it away. And so, in addition, not in exchange for but in addition. To your offering for the Lord and your ties to this church. We need to raise an offering. To purchase new tents because it’s hot and it’s very difficult to do anything up there. Now Michael has helped us with one idea for one section. And believe it or not, we’ll explain it till a little later. But it’s going to save money and help us with our electricity. Praise God.
18. But it’s only one little section. So, we’re going to cover the other two thirds with retractable tents. So that we can protect them from people throwing cigarette butts and all kinds of stuff. We’ll close them when we’re not using them. And the total… we think… we think it’s about 3,000 euros. And what we would like to do, because I’ll be honest, I’d like to have those other two tents up by next Sunday. Honestly.
19. If we could get 1,000-euro deposit. What’s the word? ‘procataboli’. I couldn’t think of the word in English. If we could get 1,000-euro deposit. Hopefully we can have them up by next Sunday. This can’t replace your regular offering. We need the regular offering and tithes to function as a local church to pay the rent, the bills.
20. So, we’re asking you to stretch a little today if possible. If 10 people gave 50 euros… That’s already half. That’s already half. If just 10 of you could give 50 extra today. And we really don’t push money a lot here. We don’t. We try… We don’t want you to ever think we push money, but we need this. We need them. And if you don’t have it today, Leto and Stavros are here. Evy is on the church council. Cecilia is on the church council. You can tell them after church.
21. I will try to give and tell them how much money, hopefully by next week if possible, or as soon as you can. Is that okay? Because I don’t carry cash. I don’t have it today. So, for myself, I have to give later because I don’t have it right now.
22. I will tell you; I believe the Word of God is very true. If we give, we’re not even sure if we have it. The Lord said I will open the windows of heaven and I will pour you out a blessing. You won’t be able to contain.
23. Now my son doesn’t listen to these broadcasts because he’s not following Jesus right now. But I remember when he was about 16 years old. The Lord told me, Micah, if you will give God a tithe from your offering, God’s going to do a miracle for you. He doesn’t always listen to me, but that day he did. So that Sunday when he came to church, he gave God his tithes. And the next day, someone anonymously just said I feel like I’m supposed to give you this money and gave him an envelope full of money. And someone had slashed the tires on his motorcycle, which he had to use to go to work. And in the envelope, what he needed to get new tires.
24. God, you can’t outgive God. You cannot. He wants to pour blessings on us. Amen. I’m so proud of that. Doesn’t it look good to come forward, both of you guys? Doesn’t it look good to see our young people receiving the offer? We love that very, very much. So let us tell Stavros if you’ll pray for our offering and the extra giving.
25. And if you wouldn’t mind, if you’re giving an extra offering, could you put it in an envelope so we know what your offering is? Felicia and Emmanuel, they have envelopes. You can write offering or tithes.
26. While we are doing that, just a few announcements. Saturday night, the women are going bowling. If you’re here, they’re going to go bowling. It’s going to be lots of fun. The announcements on the bulletin board and in the WhatsApp group.
27. And of course, we have the time in the word and prayer on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. And we have a great, big, wonderful event coming up. You don’t want to miss it. We’ll make sure we have these announcements, Pastor Brian, on the PowerPoint.
28. I think Leto has a sign-up sheet that she will walk around. We’d like you to sign up if you’re going with us and you can bring a friend. Because it’s going to be lots of fun. We’re going to be together on the bus. We want to fill the bus. 58 people.
29. And so, Leto will come around or you can see her upstairs at coffee time. Now, I just got an announcement from Pastor Brian. Pastor Bryan would like to make a challenge. He said he wants to dip into his personal savings. And he’s going to give 500 euros towards the first, for the tents. Praise God. Praise God. Hallelujah. So, God’s going to bless him some way even more than that. Praise God. Amen. Thank you, Pastor Brian. Praise God. Hallelujah. Praise God.
30. Amen. We were singing, I will worship, I will give you all my worship. I will give you all my praise. When we open our checkbook, that’s really telling him you’re first in everything, isn’t it? Amen. And Leto has the purple jar. And before you leave today, if you have coins, coins, coins, you can put them in there. That’s the purple jar.
31. I can’t, how much? 500? Oh, hallelujah. Cecilia, we got our thousand today. Praise God. Hallelujah. Praise God. Praise God. So Evy’s just donating. So, we need 3000. Evy, thank you. We’re halfway there. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise God, Evy. Thank you. Praise God. And Evy and Leto and Stavros. Praise God. 200. Hallelujah. We’re more than halfway there. Amen. Praise God.
32. This is good. This is good. Amen. Hallelujah. We’re almost there. Praise God. And Stavros, I believe that this person will be working next week. We believe next Sunday we’ll have our tents up. Amen. Amen. Amen. Praise God. God is good. No, we’re believing. We’re believing. Praise God. Thank you so much. This is so good.
33. Now, Heidi and Ole and Miss Korina and whoever. Elpitha, are you doing children’s ministry? Yeah, we dismiss our children to children’s ministry today. Hi, Ole. I love these two little kids. They’re so good. They’re so wonderful. So wonderful.
34. Actually, I got saved in a really tiny church. There were lots of Sundays, it was just me. But it was so wonderful to be loved by the church family. So, I challenge you when you go upstairs. Love those little kids. Tell them you’re so glad they’re here today. Amen.
35. This morning on the news, and you may be seated. I saw the news of seven men in Laos, they were in the mines in Laos. They were actually mining for gold, and it’s illegal, but they were there underground. And about a week ago, the mine fell in on them.
36. So, all week long, there have been people down there searching for them. And late, well, early in the morning for us, they found five of them. But two, they’re still searching for them. And I was thinking about that as we sang this song, ‘I will give you all my worship, I will give you all my heart.’ They were searching for gold, and probably two of them have lost their lives. And more than anything, we need to search after God. We need God. He is more precious than all the gold of the world. And when gold becomes worthless at the end of our lives, we will have that which remains forever.

Pastor Gail – Main Message
37. The love of God is greater than all the rubies and diamonds and gold in the world. So, I just got back from Egypt, and so my brain’s a little foggy, but I worked on the sermon today. I felt like the Lord has given me a word on OBEDIENCE. And we’re going to be talking about biblical obedience. Biblical obedience to God means to hear, trust, submit, and surrender to God in His Word. Amen.
38. And I want us to read that one more time. English speakers, let’s read it together. Biblical obedience to God means to hear, trust, submit, and surrender to God in His Word. That’s biblical obedience. And so, we’re looking at the letter ‘O’, the letter O, obedience.
39. We don’t like this word a lot, because we think it means something that we have to do and don’t want to do it, but we just read it’s really not. When we understand biblical obedience, we will want to do this. We want to obey God because we trust and love Him.
40. It’s not just doing it when people can see it on the outside and in your heart, gritting your teeth. But it’s John 14:15 says, “If you love me, if you love me, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” True obedience comes from a heart that’s been transformed and changed.
41. There’s no fear that God’s going to punish you because when you’re obeying from a biblical point of view, you’re trusting God for whatever situation that His wisdom, His character, His love and presence is with you. And it says that, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments,” means you will obey Him. 1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments. His commandments are not burdensome.”
42. Actually, when I was, I’ve been thinking for this sermon for several weeks now. I was surprised how much obedience is emphasized and repeated in the Word of God. And if you read the early church fathers, in much of their writings, emphasis to God is emphasized. Obedience to God doesn’t cross your personality. It’s not following rules.
43. It’s not, God will approve of me if I have perfect behavior. But it is something deeper. It is much deeper. Obedience means I trust God enough to act as He wants me to. Obedience in the Word of God is never separated from faith. Obedience and faith are woven together very tightly. You cannot have genuine faith without having obedience to follow it very closely.
44. For example, if you give, then obey Him when you give. He actually says when you give. That you have faith, that He will supply your every need. Amen.
45. It’s faith and obedience. Hebrews 11:8, the Bible says, “By faith, Abraham obeyed what he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance, and he went out.” Listen. “Not knowing where he was going.” Abraham’s faith wasn’t just mental, okay, I know God exists. His faith and obedience, many had to pack up his entire life and moved to a place he didn’t even know where he was going. The destination was unknown. Because God told him to. That’s obedience rooted in trust and faith.
46. We follow that pattern through much of the Word. Noah built an ark because he trusted God. That judgment was coming. He obeyed and had faith. Moses confronted or went in front of Pharaoh. Because he trusted God was going to deliver Israel. But he trusted, he obeyed and had faith.
47. David faced Goliath. Because he trusted God’s power and presence. Mary agreed to bear the Messiah. Because she trusted God’s plan. Obedience often means you’re not going to see how it’s going to work out.
48. But when you obey God, you have faith that he’s got it already all worked out, amen. Biblical obedience always comes back, to this question that we have to ask ourselves. Do you trust God enough to do what he says, even when it doesn’t make sense to you?
49. God, that person really wounded me. I have to go tell them I love them. And I didn’t do anything wrong, but I have to say to them, forgive me if I did anything wrong? When I’m thinking with my earthly mind, it doesn’t make sense to me. With my earthly mind, the best I can do is, I’ll be nice to you, but I’ll leave you alone. That’s not biblical obedience. Because in covering all of this, all of this, and you can go home and find the Scripture, I’m not going to tell you where it’s at.
50. It says to the children of God, “Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God. And everyone who knows God, Loves God.” Beloved. Don’t tell them what’s at.
51. Let us love one another. It doesn’t always make sense in our soul, in our natural mind, but we’re called to obey God and see what miracles he will work out. God values our obedience over religious performance.
52. We won’t take time to read the Scripture, I’ll just tell you very quickly. In 1 Samuel 15, King Saul, had received very clear instructions through Samuel the prophet. He attacked the Amalekites and destroyed everything.
53. But Saul thought he’d help God out a little bit. He thought he would help God a little. So, he destroyed most things. But he kept the best cattle livestock for himself. And he spared the king. When Samuel the prophet came before Saul, Saul defended his actions. He said, he insisted, I did obey. I brought these animals back to sacrifice to the Lord.
54. In his mind, he had done something better than obedience. There’s nothing better than obedience. He thought, well, I got these animals for worship. His mind justified his actions. But I love this Scripture very much in 1 Samuel 15:22. Look what God says, this is God. And you can find it in your Bible, 1 Samuel 15:22. And there’s a Bible on the back of your chair if you don’t have a Bible. “The Lord, has the Lord said that he has great delight in sacrifice? As he does in obeying the voice of the Lord.” And for years, I’ll never forget, the Lord gave me this particular part of that verse. The next part says, “It is better to obey than to sacrifice.”
55. Struggling as a young woman with the call to preach. And I was actually thinking I wouldn’t preach anymore because in some respects it was difficult being a woman to preach. And we were traveling and having special meetings in Minnesota. And that night, everybody that could preach was sick. Sick? They couldn’t preach. And I heard the Lord say to me, ‘It’s better to obey me, than to sacrifice.’ I was thinking, I was sacrificing, giving up preaching for God. And he wanted my obedience instead.
56. By the way, that night, five people asked Jesus to come into their life. And that same night, five people received the indwelling, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, praise God. And I obeyed. God doesn’t want your religious activity. Listen, if your heart resists his authority. You could come to church regularly; you could pray regularly. But if you’re ignoring what God has told you to do, then all your religious performance means nothing.
57. We cannot negotiate with God. God, I’ll do this if you’ll do that. There are no negotiations with God. Often, we want to give him something that is kind of comfortable for us, but we hold back specific obedience. We want to obey God on our terms, not his. But God designed obedience to reveal what’s really happening in our hearts. Amen? When we obey, we demonstrate that God’s authority means more than what we want.
58. Oh God, what’s in our heart this morning? What’s in our heart? Are you holding back giving him something because you’re afraid? Maybe you’re afraid you’re going to lose something? Obedience demonstrates love, not fear. So, obedience is tied to faith. Obedience is tied to love.
59. I think we all struggle here. He says John 14:15, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” There are several places where Jesus repeated this and repeated this, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Obedience is expressing love for the God who loved us first.
60. Think about your human relationships, when you genuinely love someone. You want to give them the things you know they desire. You’ll do the extra. God is saying, ‘what I desire, is you. Give me you. Give me you. And I will give you life to the fullest.’ And not only that, ‘I’ll give you eternal life.’ Hallelujah, you’re going to live forever.
61. Amen. When you begin, and I love this about God, I had a talk with Victor last Sunday. I feel like I’m just, I’m still growing and I love that. I feel like a little kid now. How much I’m understanding the love of God is getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. His love, our understanding, it should just grow and grow and grow. His love is never a burden, never. It’s a joy to carry, amen.
62. 1 John 5:3, it says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome.” When we understand they come from the Father, we know it’s coming to us because He wants what’s best for us. He is protecting our joy.
63. I love this. No matter how much wisdom and how smart all of you think you are, me included. None of us have perfect wisdom, but the commands of God come from perfect wisdom and genuine love. Okay, you are. Hallelujah.
64. We know, James, most of you know this. It says, “Do the Word. Don’t just hear it because when we do the Word, we’re full of joy.” When we are not doing what God says, when we’re not obeying, we really are living in self-deception. Because biblical obedience demands action. And it will show up through every action in your everyday life.
65. And I love this about God too. When we obey, it begins to close the gap. Between what we know and what we do, they begin to be one and the same. I love that. Partial obedience is still disobedience. Oh God, you know, like King Saul. But I wanted to give something to you, God. He said, well, I destroyed most of what you told me to destroy.
66. We do this too often in our lives. God speaks clearly to us about an area in our life. And we obey most of it, but if we look close in our hearts, yeah. There’s that one little piece. I’m going to protect that God. I’m not sure I can trust you with it, God. If I let go, God, if I let go and give it all to you, I do have to trust you. It’s like we said earlier, maybe somebody in the church is mad at you or you’re mad at them. I’ll just wait till you apologize to me.
67. Maybe you have a job that’s ungodly. None of you are, but if any of you were working in a strip club, I would tell you, quit your job. We’ll pray for a new job. It’s disobedient to work in a strip club. It’s a strip club. It’s a strip club. Partial obedience, partial obedience, partial obedience reveals we’re still trying to control.
68. Obedience often feels costly. Jesus never told us it would be easy. He says in Matthew 16:24, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Denying yourself, means saying no to your desires when they conflict with God’s will. And obedience, just as it cost the people of the Old Testament, in the time of Jesus, it still costs today.
69. When the Lord challenges to take some of our time from ourselves and serve others, when you’d rather focus on your needs, there’s a cost there. Speaking the truth when it’s going to make you unpopular, forgiving someone when they don’t deserve it and releasing your right to be bitter, here’s what matters. God never asks you to sacrifice anything that compares to what you gave from knowing him. True obedience, comes from a changed heart.
70. In the Old Testament, the children couldn’t obey him, even when they tried. They had the Law only. In the Old Testament, the children had the Law only. Give me just a few minutes. We’re almost through, but I want to finish this today.
71. They knew what God required, but they kept failing. External rules can’t change internal rebellion. In Ezekiel 36:26, the Lord told his people, and tells us today, “I will give you a new heart. And I will put a new spirit in you.” He wants us to walk with Him and obey Him. God doesn’t give us a list of rules and tell us to keep trying harder.
72. When we ask Him to come into life, he gives us a new heart. One that wants to obey him and maybe we don’t do it perfectly, but when we stay in touch with him, we will want to keep trying. And I love this about God. When we fail to obey perfectly, he says if we confess our sins, and they are sins, he is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us.
73. You see, God already knows what you did. He did. He does. He just wants you to turn from it and turn to him always. God, love for you isn’t based on your obedience. Jesus already obeyed perfectly.
74. We aren’t doing it perfectly yet. He knows we’re going to fail sometimes, but his grace, his grace, the riches of God, cleanse us, and sets us free, amen. We have to remember and look at what God said in his Word, and then begin to do it.
75. We have to remember and look at what God said. Obedience should be our immediate response, not something you’ll do when you can get around to it. Something you do when you can get around to it. Really, delayed obedience is disobedience. When God has made it clear what he wants.
76. Obedience won’t save you. But obedience brings us into that place where we understand it is him and his Word alive in us. In John 8:31-32, “If you abide in my Word, you are my disciples indeed. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”
77. Obedience demonstrates if your faith is genuine, if you abide in my Word. God’s commands are there to protect us. When we obey, we’re delivered from bondage. And this morning he’s not asking you to fix everything overnight or immediately. But he’s asking you to hear his Word today. He’s called to you today to obey him as much as you can and keep growing and growing in obedience.
78. To trust God in all that He’s doing. To trust his commands come from love. They don’t come from something to restrict your joy. But they come from love. Romans 12. Actually, as I finish today, I want to tell you, obedience is an act of worship. Salvation is free, we can’t earn it. We cannot earn it. But the obedience of a Christian flows from a heart of thanks.
79. Romans 12:1, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” I urge you today, give your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength. Give all that you are. Give it to the Lord today. Obedience is an act of worship. Lord, we want to come to you today.
80. I know it’s 10 minutes after 12. And we’ve already prayed some. But the Lord has been with us today. And actually, in this world we live in, it’s getting just crazier and crazier. The more, we will say, ‘Lord, I want to learn to obey you with all that I am. Forgive me what I don’t.’
81. And we will learn to live a life of thanksgiving and victory and joy and peace understanding that the Word of God is a place of protection. I invite you this morning to just, if you’d like to kneel, if you want to stand, if you want to sit, just take some moments right now. To ask the Lord as you come to His altar today, to give it all to Him right now. In your own way, just pray to Him. Out loud, silent, however you like. Come to Him. See yourself, coming into His presence right now. Talking to him.