Divine Design
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Divine Design - Pastor Damien Giacchino
“Life is Not Meant to be Lived Alone”
Then God said, Let there be light… and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:3–4
God called the dry land Earth… and God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:9–10
The earth brought forth grass, herbs, and trees… and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:11–12
God made the sun and moon… and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:16–18
God created sea creatures and birds… and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:21
God made the beast of the earth… and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:25
Genesis 1:31 NKJV
“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.”
Genesis 2:18 NKJV
“And the LORD God said, “ It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
Point 1 | The Design – You were created for connection
Point 2 | The Damage – What broke your bond
Broken Bonding Patterns:
Detachment — "I don't need anyone." Abandonment — "Everyone leaves."
Inconsistency — "Love never stays."
Criticism — "I'm too much. Or not enough." Abuse — "Connection equals pain."
Ecclesiastes 4:8-9 NLT
“This is the case of a man who is all alone, without a child or a brother, yet who works hard to gain as much wealth as he can. But then he asks himself, “Who am I working for? Why am I giving up so much pleasure now?” It is all so meaningless and depressing. Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.
Ecclesiastes 4:10-12 NLT
If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”
“To love at all is to be vulnerable… If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one… Lock it up safe in the casket of your selfishness… But in that casket, it will not be broken… it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, and irredeemable.” - CS Lewis
Point 3 | The Deliverance – How God restores you through community
Psalms 68:6 NLT
“God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.”
Acts 12:5 NKJV
Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.
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You are too kind, and I'm gonna say something that you should know already.
You guys have the most amazing pastors in the world.
Come on, give it up for Pastor Dean and Pastor Amy.
And we could not see the results or the testimonies that are happening in Lodi without our connection to Pastor Dean and Pastor Amy.
We see ourself as the sister church to Real Life Church, amen?
We have the same vision, same mission, same habitudes, and we're seeing the same outcomes, a multiethnic, multigenerational, multifaceted church.
At our church, you'll see people who are wearing Tupac shirts and Donald Trump hats.
It doesn't matter because we put Christ above culture.
And that's what we lean into is, hey, you may have your preferences, but be willing to put that aside for his presence.
And if that's what you're willing to do, our church in real life, these are great churches for you.
Amen?
Well, how many of you guys ready for the word?
We are going to find today's topic of discussion out of Genesis.
We're going to start in the first chapter, and then I'm going to lift the text in chapter 2, verse 18.
But before I get to that part of the scripture and lift the text...
Let's go ahead and get right into it.
Genesis chapter 1, verses 3.
And again, I want to welcome all the online folks.
Thank you for tuning in, for those in person and online.
The Bible says in Genesis 1, verses 3 through 25, we're going to be reading, Then God said, Let there be light, and God saw that it was what?
Good.
God called the dry land earth, and God saw that it was what?
Good.
The earth brought forth grass, herbs, and trees and God saw that it was what?
Good.
Verse 16, God made the sun and moon and God saw that it was what?
Good.
A lot of good stuff happening right now.
God created sea creatures and birds and God saw that it was what?
Good.
God made the beast of the earth and God saw that it was what?
Good.
Good.
Genesis 1, verse 31 says, Then God saw everything he made, and indeed it was what?
Very good.
That word good means pleasant, agreeable, and excellent.
But then for the first time in Scripture, something shifted.
And we have to understand this is before the fall.
This is before humanity rebelled.
Right now in this context, there's no shame.
There's no sin.
It's paradise.
Everything is perfect.
But yet God still said this in verse 18.
And the Lord God said, it is not good.
that man should be alone.
Our human beings.
I will make him a helper comparable to him.
My assignment today is to talk about divine design.
Life is not meant to be lived alone.
Do I got anybody in agreement with that?
Join me with a quick word of prayer.
Spirit of the living God, we acknowledge that your presence is definitely in here.
The atmosphere is definitely shifted.
And I just pray, Holy Spirit, that you have your way.
I decrease and ask that you increase in and through me.
Help me to articulate myself in such a way that every person in here, in person and online,
can receive the word of God on good grounds.
We come against every plan of the adversary that would try to stop, hinder the word from going forth, and we declare there is a special blessing on not just the hearer, but the doer of the word.
In Jesus' name, somebody say amen.
Amen.
Well, we see loneliness in our world today.
Amen.
And in fact, there are more lonely people than maybe you and I have even considered.
Check this statistic out.
Loneliness affects about one in three adults experience chronic loneliness.
Let me read that better.
Loneliness affects millions.
About one in three adults experience chronic loneliness.
Now, loneliness is not just about not having people around.
It's the feelings around it of disconnection, isolation, sadness, and anxiety.
And it can come from a lack of having deep relationships in our life.
It can come from life transitions, change of jobs, changing location, changing schools for the young people, or emotional wounds from what had happened in our past.
You know what I've also learned?
Loneliness is not just for single people.
Married people can be lonely as well.
Because you can live in the same house but still be miles apart from each other if you don't know how to connect with each other.
Now, what we have to be more aware of is loneliness sometimes go undetected.
And we see people covering up their loneliness through their curated lives on social media.
Not everyone that posts happy is living happy.
Somebody say amen to that.
And just because you look like you got it going on on social media don't mean that you're not struggling and hurting behind closed doors.
We also see loneliness go undetected in our busy calendars.
Sometimes it's easier to fill the schedule than to fill our heart with forgiveness.
Sometimes it's easier to ignore the pain, ignore the wounds, and just be busy because when you settle down and you stop being busy, you're reminded of some of those wounds and some of those pains and some of those things that the Holy Spirit may be asking you to deal with.
And we also see that it's covered up with fake smiles.
My gosh, Christians can be some of the most fakest people in the world.
Me included.
People ask us, how we doing?
I'm blessed, highly favored.
The head and not the tail, above and not beneath.
Yes, that is a great declaration, but how are you doing?
That's a declaration.
But it is okay.
It is okay to say you're not okay.
It is okay to acknowledge you're not in a good season and still declare that I will be the head and not the tail.
I will be above and not beneath.
I will be the lender and not the borrower.
And I am blessed.
We can also see loneliness go undetected with overworking and addiction, substance abuse.
See, I dealt with this.
I drank, I smoked, I did a lot of different things.
B.C., before Christ, before y'all start thinking I'm one of those pastors that be drinking and smoking.
No, that's not me.
But I struggled with a lot of insecurities growing up in life.
I grew up in a blended family, and in my blended family, we all looked different.
We all looked like we were from different tribes.
I felt like I was the most unique-looking one out of all of us.
and I felt more like an anomaly in the family, so I struggled with loneliness because I didn't feel comfortable in my own skin.
And with that loneliness, I dealt with it through medicating my pain.
And some of us, we feel hurts, we feel wounds, we feel judged, we feel alienated,
and instead of taking those emotions and feelings to God the Father who will heal them and approve and affirm that you are not an accident, we now start looking for healing in the wrong places with the wrong people and the wrong substances.
Now we're drinking our pain away, smoking our pain away,
snorting our pain away, popping our pain away.
Whatever it is, we try to numb the pain.
But God didn't send his son Jesus so you can keep numbing the pain.
God sent Jesus so the great physician can heal the pain.
Come on, somebody.
One of the names of God that I love studying the names of God, he identifies himself as Jehovah Rapha, the Lord God that healeth thee.
And the Bible talks about that he was wounded, bruised for our iniquity.
He was chastised for us.
And these are not just physical healings.
A bruise is an inward bleeding, which means Jesus didn't just bleed for the outside of you, the physical things that you need.
He also bled for that inner turmoil.
He also bled for those
afflicting spirits that he wants to break off of you he died for the physical version of you the mental version of you the emotional version of you the relationship he died for it all call me greedy but I want all my healing and we also can allow distractions busy working versus sitting at the feet of Jesus
You know, we can be so busy serving God that we don't sit down with the one who called us to serve.
And you can hide your loneliness, to my leaders in here, with speaking engagements, ministry opportunities.
And just because your gift is being used don't mean you're still not healing.
God will use your gift, but that still doesn't mean that you've healed from your trauma.
Amen.
And I've learned that if I want the man to arrive, I got to visit some boyhood trauma because when I heal the boy inside of me, the man will start showing up.
When you heal the girl inside of you, when you heal the 11-year-old inside of you, when you heal the 13-year-old, when you go back to some of the things that caused the wound and pain, you will show up and start acting your age.
We've learned that spiritual maturity is not based on age.
Spiritual maturity, just because you're 16, you've been serving the Lord for 20 years, and somebody's 15 and been serving the Lord for two years, it doesn't necessarily make you more mature because maturity is not based on age.
Maturity is based on obedience, on surrender, on repentance, on following God.
That's why Paul tells Timothy, don't let anybody look down on you because of your age.
Amen.
So loneliness can also cause us to stay in unhealthy romantic relationships we know we shouldn't be in.
You're in a relationship and you've seen the yellow flag.
You're in the relationship, you've seen the red flags.
You're in the relationship and now the flag is on fire and you're still ignoring it.
That flag is flaming.
And instead of adhering to the flags, you don't wanna be alone.
So you'll stay in something that is breaking you because you don't wanna be alone.
Because you have not been aligned vertically to know that God has better for you horizontally.
Because if you know vertically that God will never leave you nor forsake you, although you may gotta break up with your boyfriend, although you may gotta break up with your girlfriend, just because you're alone for a season don't mean you're gonna stay lonely forever.
In the seasons of being alone, guess what God is doing?
He's showing you the paracletos, the Holy Spirit, that he will never lead you or forsake you.
He will guide you.
He will direct you.
I went through a season of loneliness.
I went through a season of abstinence.
I went through a season of giving up everything for God, and it was in that season I found joy.
I found peace.
I found salvation.
You are not alone when you think you're alone.
You are not alone when you think you are alone.
And loneliness will cause us to change ourselves to try to be with somebody we don't need to be with.
You're dressing different, looking different, acting different because you are trying to live up to the avatar version of the person that they want you to be.
You are living up to the simulated version of this person's desire when you should be living to the alpha and the omega desire.
You are giving up who you are to try to appease somebody who don't know you, who haven't created you, who is not El Shaddai, all-sufficient one.
See, we got to stop outsourcing to people what only God can define.
Your security, your significance don't come from people.
It comes from God.
Amen.
Sometimes we outsource our loneliness to digital resources.
I love ChatGPT, and me and Pastor Dean been talking about how ChatGPT has been helping us, but ChatGPT ain't G-O-D.
And although you may have access to some artificial intelligence, it's only God who has absolute intelligence.
See, God knows who you should marry.
God knows what church you should go to.
God knows your purpose.
God knows your destiny.
You can't outsource things to technology and AI that only El Shaddai, the all-sufficient one, can only know.
So I want to talk about the design.
God designed us for connection.
That's why he says it is not good for us to be alone.
God designed us for relationships.
And if God designed us for relationships, Satan, who counterfeits everything God does, if he knows God uses relationships to bless you, then the enemy is going to want to use relationships to curse you.
That's why relationships are not neutral.
They're either moving you forward or backwards.
You have to be careful who you're in fellowship with.
Some of my real life folks who knew me when I was pastoring here and on staff, you knew that one of the things that I was called to do was to be a club promoter and a real estate agent.
I was going to sell all kinds of houses and throw the fattest parties and turn up.
But this identity came from the people I fellowshiped with.
Fellowship is a giving and exchange.
You're giving and exchanging things.
You're giving.
So when you're in right fellowship, they're giving you what God says about you.
You're exchanging what God says you are.
But when you're in wrong fellowship with the wrong people, you'll end up accepting an identity that God never told you to walk in.
Amen.
But it was when I got into fellowship with the right people, people started prophesying over me who I was.
People started to speak to the version I was becoming, not the version I was in that current season.
I'm here to tell you, you need somebody who can see you down five years down the road.
You need people who can call you up and tell you what your future is.
You need some Pastor Deans and some Pastor Amys who hired me and said, you know what?
I see God has more for you.
You're not just gonna be this.
There's more on your life.
But if you don't like people and you don't know that God used people to bless you, you will isolate yourself from people.
And when you isolate yourself from people, you're isolating yourself from the blessings of God.
It is impossible to access all of your purpose and destiny without people.
Ephesians talks about it.
Every joint supply is another.
In other words, you supply different people what they need through Jesus.
But if you're not connected, you're missing supply.
And God is not gonna allow you to access all your purpose, all of your destiny without people.
Somebody say, I need people.
Tell your neighbor, say, I need you.
So God designs us for relationship and he even describes himself in communal context.
Let us make man in our image.
He even identifies himself in a Trinitarian relationship, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, community.
And this is something that we need to lean into.
We cannot be fruitful unless we're relational.
You cannot bear fruit without having healthy relationships.
You can't thrive without healthy attachments.
You can't walk in purpose without people.
I need us to take a deep breath in, breathe out.
Make sure you pop the men in your mouth before you breathed out.
If Satan can't destroy your salvation, which he can't because Jesus purchased it for you, he'll try to isolate you.
Because isolation isn't just a struggle, it's a strategy.
He wants to strategize you.
He wants to strategize to keep us from God's best.
One of the things you might know is predators that are targeting sheep, they don't target the sheep that's in the center of the flock.
They target the sheep that's on the edge.
Because when they're in the center, it's harder to get them when they're connected.
But when you're on the edge, when you're bitter, when you kind of come to church, when you're not really connected, when you don't really need people and you check in and check out, you are most acceptable for the enemy to pluck you.
In the Bible that you and I are reading, it says that Satan is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
He's not seeking those who are connected to small groups or in the center of the flock.
He is looking for those who are kind of
outside of the flock and that's why he wants to keep you isolated and that's why he wants to bring wrong relationships because wrong relationships brings wounds into our lives and when we're wounded we don't try and what if I were to tell you that your healing is connected to your trying again but the issue is you've been trying them before you've been trying him and
You've been trying this horizontally.
You've been trying romance.
You've been trying sex.
You've been trying online dating.
You've been trying everything horizontally, but have you fully locked in and tried him?
Because when you tried him, he'll show you which them you should trust.
So it's hard for you to trust them because you haven't came in contact with a trustworthy love.
Amen.
You're trying to awaken different versions of love, but you need agape.
You need unconditional love.
You need to encounter the God of the universe.
And when you encounter him, he'll show you the them that you can trust.
So before you give up on people, first ask yourself, have you connected fully with God?
Come on, you can clap for that.
Which means God might call you to a season where you feel alone to show you that you're not alone.
Like myself.
He called me to a season of giving up dating, giving up romance, giving up promiscuity.
And he was like, I just need you to focus on me.
Because a lot of your problems is coming from different things because you haven't put me first.
And in my three years before I met my wife, learning what it means to feel fully satisfied in God was the greatest season to help prepare me for marriage.
Because if you approach marriage as if my wife is here to complete me, what happens is you'll start putting weight on the marriage that they can't handle.
And your spouse is not here to complete you.
Your spouse is here to compliment you.
Somebody say amen to that.
So again, we can't walk in purpose without people.
This is tough to hear, but I got to say it because I'm a guest speaker and I don't got to be here every week.
So I can just drop truth bombs and then just go back here, walk out, go sip my latte.
But I'm going to say it anyways.
You can be saved, you can be sanctified, and you can be filled with the Holy Ghost and still stuck.
Still stuck in depression, stuck in despair.
Stuck in a rut.
Why?
Because if you allow yourself to be isolated, you allow yourself to be robbed of what God wants to do in your life.
God blesses us through people.
He answers prayers through people.
He heals hearts through people.
So if Satan can't stop your salvation, he most certainly will try to sever your connection with people.
with people, and that's why he wants to be divisive, and that's why he wants to bring division, because the more division he can bring, the more he can splinter the church, splinter what God wants to do.
But when we won't let the division, the offense, the preferences that we want above God, we can see a people coming together, because you gotta belong to become
I'm going to say that again.
You got to belong to become.
But if you haven't yet belonged and you're trying to become, you're going to misbehave.
If you're trying to belong without becoming, you're going to misbehave.
Behavior begins to change when identity change.
And when you start seeing yourself as a son, as a daughter who's called to be the righteousness of Christ, you not only will belong, but you will start behaving like a righteous person.
I had a student years ago who was a junior and he made varsity.
And man, he was a resilient person.
He worked hard.
Last one there, first one to show up.
And he finally got a chance to get a starting position.
And he played and he had a good game.
And the coach came to the student and he was like, he dapped him up.
He was like, man, you crushed it.
You did a good job.
And the student just nodded like, thanks, coach.
But the student really wasn't fully happy because when he looked in the bleachers and when he looked around, he said, empty again.
His father wasn't present.
He was crushed because the one person he wanted there wasn't there.
And now this student, in a moment...
that was supposed to be celebratory, something happened.
Something shifted.
Something didn't just hurt.
What happened, his heart got hardened.
His innocence left, and he started making inner vows to himself.
He said stuff like this.
I'm not gonna expect anyone to show up anymore, and I'm not gonna ever need people again.
And in that moment, it wasn't the anger, it wasn't the sadness, it was just the voice.
Small voice telling him, no one is gonna show up for you because you're not worth showing up for.
So he stopped expecting, he stopped needing, and most importantly, he stopped trusting.
Now this student is a grown man, he's married, he's leading, and he's now wearing the fact that he doesn't need people as a badge of honor.
He walks around independent of people.
in such a way that he thinks that it's his armor.
And I want to use this as an illustration, is he's wearing not needing people like an armor, not because he's proud, but because he thinks not needing people is safer than being disappointed by people.
Have we allowed ourself to think we don't need people because we're afraid to try again?
We're afraid to be hurt again.
But could I remind us of a familiar story in the Bible?
The woman with the issue of blood, she was ceremonially unclean.
And the very fact that she's out in public, she could be legally stoned.
But this woman was willing to be stoned by people for the possibility of being healed by Jesus.
Are you willing?
To trust again.
And yet people may hurt you again.
And yet people may disappoint you again.
But guess what?
The healer can heal you again.
The father can touch you again.
He can connect with you again.
And really the root of it is he doesn't fear love.
He fears what happens when love lets him down.
hurts too bad what if our loneliness isn't a lack of love but what if our loneliness is a wound that hasn't been healed yet what if you are alone because you haven't healed from a wound and that wound that is not healed is now causing you to look at people from a wrong perspective
Like myself, some of you may have felt this, I had to start just trusting him.
And as I read scriptures and as I encountered the spirit of the living God through the pages, God showed me that I will never leave you nor forsake you.
And I used to tell God, like, if you mean that, where are you?
Why do I feel forsaken?
Why do I feel alone?
Why do I feel left?
And I remember God telling me, it's because you acknowledge me, Jesus, as your head, but you don't see me in the body through people.
It's impossible to be connected to Jesus without connected to the church.
If we want the head of Jesus Christ, we also got to embrace his body people.
And God will show you that you're not alone.
God will show you that he's still for you.
God will show you that he still loves you in the connection to the church and to the small groups.
But some people have this mindset of, I don't need church.
I don't need religion.
It's just about my relationship.
And if you mean you don't need religion in terms of empty rituals, you're right.
If you mean you don't need, it's not about religion in terms of rules, you're right.
But if you've used this statement, it's not about religion, it's about relationship, to choose to be disconnected from people, you're wrong.
Because to be in relationship with God means you're in relationship with people.
Because it is impossible to love God and hate people.
Because God so loved people that he died for people.
He reconciled us.
He's called us out of darkness into light.
He's called us out to sickness into health.
He's called us out of poverty into wealth.
He's called us to peace.
And some of the things that you're struggling with, you can be free from, but you're just trying to get out of it on your own.
You need people.
So my next point is the damage, what broke our bond.
Some of us don't fear love, we fear losing it.
Some of us might feel like our bonding got broken because a parent walked out.
Affection came with conditions.
Trust was met with trauma.
And I want to go through these broken bonding patterns.
Detachment.
This is when people say, I don't need anyone.
Abandonment.
You have this mindset that everyone will leave you.
So you never show the real version of you because you're afraid that if I show them who I am,
They're not going to want me.
So now you walk around like a chameleon.
Now you walk around mass.
Now you walk around not in your most authentic self, and you're trying to find yourself outside of everybody else, but you only find yourself in Christ, Jesus.
How about this?
If you want to find yourself, die to yourself.
Amen.
You've been doing you, and doing you is still keeping you lonely.
Doing you is still keeping you broken.
Doing you is still keeping you wounded.
You don't find you by doing you.
You find you by doing Christ, by dying to yourself, and Jesus showing you a better way, a better version of you.
Inconsistency, love never stays.
Criticism, I'm too much or not enough.
Abuse, connection equals pain.
But all of this doesn't mean you're broken per se.
Because we all have broken pieces that the potter is putting back together to bring something beautiful again.
But all of this just makes you human.
Acknowledge this hurt.
Because we were made for bonding.
Because we were made in the image of God.
And Ecclesiastes talk about two are better than one.
And it talks about that when we have one another, somebody can help us.
Let's read that real quick.
It says, this is the case of a man who is alone.
without a child or a brother, yet who works hard to gain as much wealth as he can.
But then he asked himself, who am I working for?
Why am I giving up so much pleasure now?
It is also meaningless and depressing.
Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.
Verse 10, if one person falls, the other can reach out and help.
But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.
My gosh.
Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm.
That's for the married folks, by the way.
This ain't God saying, get some cuddle time in.
But how can one be warm alone?
A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated.
But two can stand back to back and conquer everything.
Three are even better, for a triple braided cord is not easily broken.
The next thing that I want to bring to our attention, the design is for community.
The damage is our bond has been broken, but the deliverance,
This is how God restores us through community.
Let's look at Psalm 68, and we're going to land the plane shortly.
God, check this out, places, here's your deliverance.
I want to be delivered from this.
God places the lonely in families.
He sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.
Not all family is going to be biological.
Some family could be spiritual.
And God is saying, your freedom out of loneliness is in me showing you the family that I've called you to be a part of.
A church family like this, I am experiencing so much freedom in my life because of my connection to real-life church, my connection to Pastor Dean and Pastor Amy.
There is freedom there.
There's breakthrough.
There's deliverance.
There's resources when you are connected to God and his people.
And we'll end on this.
Acts 12 and 5, before I read this, let me set this text up.
Peter is in prison.
He's isolated.
He's alone, and he's in chains.
And although this is a physical prison, you may be incarcerated to depression.
You may be imprisoned to people-pleasing.
You may be imprisoned to wearing multiple masks in different settings.
You're different people, and you have not learned to be yourself in all the settings.
You keep changing it up.
You feel alone, you feel unseen, you feel unheard.
But check this out, Peter, who felt in prison, or he was in prison, he was isolated, he was alone.
Let's see how his deliverance took place.
The Bible says, Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.
His connection to getting out of captivity, it was through the prayer of the righteous people that avail of much.
See, God doesn't just want you in community just for the sake of social fun.
He wants you in community because community will cover you.
They will pray for you.
They will help you.
They will be there for you.
They will show you how to get to Jesus.
They'll open up the roof and have you lowered down so that you can connect to Jesus.
So if you want to encounter God in a way to where you don't have to walk in perpetual states of loneliness, we all have moments of loneliness, but this should not turn into a lifestyle.
You won't feel unconditionally loved until you start learning how to be unconditionally honest with yourself and with people.
Here's my challenge.
What mask are you wearing that's keeping you from connection?
What community are you avoiding that God may be using to bring you healing?
And what lie have you believed about being better off alone?
I'll read it again.
What mask are you wearing that's keeping you from connection?
What community are you avoiding that God may be using to bring you healing?
And what lie have you believed about being better off alone?
You were not made to be alone.
You were made to do life with another person.
And God wants to bless you.
God wants to heal you.
God wants to deliver you.
God wants to set your feet on solid ground.
He is our rock.
He is our refuge.
He is our fortress.
The Bible says that when he is your shepherd, you shall not want.
He will lead you to green pastures and still waters.
He will restore your soul, your broken mind, your broken will, your broken emotions.
He will restore that.
And although you may walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
You will fear no evil because God is with you.
His rod and his staff will comfort me.
He'll prepare a table in the presence of my enemies.
He will anoint my head and he will walk with me.
Surely, goodness, mercy.
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
I need you to stand up and praise and bless the Lord all my soul and all that is within me and not forget his benefits of people, of church, of small groups that will sit to heal you.
I feel freedom in the atmosphere.
I feel breakthrough in the atmosphere.
I feel chains breaking.
Sit down, sit down.
Here's the call.
Here's the call.
Man, I'm yelling so much, my stomach is cramping.
Sheesh.
If you're here today, real quickly, and you're ready to get out of captivity of isolation and loneliness,
You're ready to heal from the broken bonding of the disruption that has happened somewhere in your life.
You're ready to be delivered from the damage of what others may have done to you.
You're ready to connect again.
I'm going to ask you to do one thing for me.
Just stand to your feet, and I want to pray with you and for you.
If that is you, stand to your feet.
Come on, praise God.
People all across the world.
the sanctuary.
And if you are watching online, stand right now where you're at.
If you're driving a car, just lift up your hands and say hallelujah.
And while those that are standing, I'm also making another call.
For those that don't know Jesus, remain standing who are standing.
If you don't know Jesus for yourself as your Lord and personal Savior, and you say, Pastor Damien, I want to know this Jesus.
I want to be set in a family that Jesus died for me to have.
If that's you and you're in here today and you want to make sure that your name is written in the Lamb's book of life, I'm speaking to you.
Or you might have broken fellowship and you need to rededicate your life back to God, I'm speaking to you as well.
So if you're in here and you need salvation or rededication, may you stand to your feet as well.
Come on and stand to your feet.
Come on, praise God.
Let's go.
Stand to your feet.
And as we get this salvation prayer prepared, all those who stood for the first call, lift up your hands.
And if you're next to somebody standing up, just stretch your hand towards them.
Spirit of the living God, I pray that you break every lie that they're alone, every lie that they're not good enough.
I pray that you break the spirit of despair, depression.
anxiety, Lord, and I pray that you will renew them in the truth, that you bled for them, you died for them, and you have a family for them.
I bind them to the mind of Christ and to the will of God, and I break every lying spirit, every spirit of deception and seduction.
I break it off your life.
We take every vain imagination captive to obedience of Jesus, that he loves you and he forgives you, and he's willing to leave the 99 just for
for you.
So, Father, in the name of Jesus, bless them with your presence.
I pray divine visitations in their night and in their morning seasons.
Visit them in their dreams.
Send prophetic words across their path as they take the step of stepping into community.
Give them not motivation, but encouragement.
Give them the joy of the Lord, which is our strength.
And if you believe that, give God a shout of praise.
Come on.
And as we remain standing, let's put this salvation prayer up, and let's say this together.
And everyone that's standing up, brother, for salvation, rededication, or the call to come out of loneliness, we're going to linger here a little bit, and we have some prayer warriors that want to pray with you if there's still more ministry getting done.
But can we as a family say this with those who are making the call to salvation and rededication?
On the count of three, one, two, three.
Dear Lord Jesus...
I know that I am a sinner and I ask for your forgiveness.
I believe you died for my sins and you rose from the dead.
Right now, I turn from my sins and invite you to come into my heart and life.
I want to trust and follow you from this day forward.
I confess you as my personal Lord and Savior.
Thank you for saving me in Jesus' name.
Amen.
God bless you guys.