I command my feet to leap for joy. I command my feet to leap for joy. I command my feet to leap for joy. I command my feet to leap for joy.
I command my feet to leap for joy. Bend my feet So leave So leave, leave Leave for joy Leave, leave Leave for joy Leave, leave Leave, leave Leave for joy. Leave, leave. Leave for joy.
Say his name. Give him praise. His name.
Give him praise. His name. Give him praise. His name.
Give him praise. Say voice, voice. Sing his praise. Voice, voice. Sing His praise, boys, boys Sing His praise, boys, boys Sing His praise Say feed, feed, feed for joy Feed, feed, feed for joy Feed, feed, feed for joy Feed, feed, feed for joy Sing, sing Bless the Lord.
So, so. Bless the Lord. So, so.
Bless the Lord. So, so. Bless the, bless the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Oh, bless the Lord, oh my soul. And all that's within me. Bless his name. That's what blessing the Lord looks like. Peace.
said that everything that has breath, everything that he ever created ought to praise his name and bless his holy name. Hallelujah. I don't know about you, but it's a privilege and an honor to be here another day amongst you all.
Oh God, there's someone looking their eyes up into heaven. There's someone just got bad news. There's somebody just scratching their head off of the doctor's report. Lord, but God has you here on this morning for one purpose and one purpose, and that's to worship him. Oh, he said to cast all your cares on him.
Father, we come this morning to tell you how much we love you, how much we appreciate you. We adore you. Oh, we honor you this morning. If you could just take a moment and let's get into a time of intimacy with our father.
He wants all of you right now. with this moment. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. Our hearts cry. Be magnified in this, your holy temple, in this, your holy place, and we will rise to Zion's heights.
To praise and glorify you. Unify. Oh, how we love you. Oh, how we praise you. Oh how we worship Oh Lord Oh how we love you Oh how we love you How we praise you.
Oh, how we worship. Oh, Lord. How hearts cry. Be magnified. In this your holy place, we will ascend, heal, love the Lord.
We will rise to Zion, to praise and glorify. Unified. Come on all over the building and say, oh how we love you.
Come on. Oh, how we praise you. Oh, how we worship you, Lord.
Oh Lord, oh how we love you, our hearts cry out to the living God, oh how we praise you, our soul tower, our safety, oh how we worship you, oh Lord, oh Lord, oh how we love you, oh how we love you. Oh how we praise you, oh how we praise you, oh how we worship, oh how we worship, oh Lord. Oh say, oh how we love you, oh how we love you, we run into safety this morning, oh how we pray, thank you for being our strong tower, oh how we worship, oh Lord.
Oh Lord, oh how we love you, oh how we praise you, oh how we love you, oh how we love you, oh how we love you. Our hearts cry out, oh how we praise you. Thank you for your love, y'all.
Oh, you are the source of my strength. I don't know who this is for this morning. You are the strength of my life. You are the source of my strength. Come on and pull on your strength this morning.
You are the strength of my life. Come on all over the building and say, say you are, you are the source of my strength. Say you are the joy of the Lord.
The joy of the Lord. I live, yeah. I lift my hands in total praise. Only to you God. Only to you God Only to you God Oh He is my only source You are The source Of my strength Oh you are You are You are the strength You are the strength of my life And I lift my hands Oh You are Total praise, total praise to you, to you.
And now, let the weak say, I am stronger. poor say, I am rich because of what the Lord has done for us. And now let the weak say, I am rich Now, Sharona, let the poor say, I am rich because of what the Lord has done.
And now, and now, let the weak, come on, you're getting your stress back. And let the poor, let the poor say, I am rich because of what the Lord has done. We have a grateful heart. We give thanks to the living God We magnify We glorify Oh, I am rich Because of what the Lord has done Come on, let's say it Come on, come on, let's say it now Let the weak Let the weak I'm strong, and I'm all right, because of what the Lord has done for us, and I'm not the weak, I'm the weak, too. I am strong not the poor I am rich because of what the Lord has done for us give thanks With a grateful heart, give thanks to the Holy One.
Give thanks because he's given Jesus Christ his son. Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks to the Holy One. Give thanks because he's given Jesus Christ his son. Oh, how we love you.
Can we just flow? Oh, how we praise you. That's why we love him.
Oh, how we worship. Oh, Lord. Oh, how we love you.
Don't miss this opportunity. He's here this morning. Oh, how we worship.
Oh, how we love you. Oh You've been so good to us How we love you you'll be so good to us Oh how we love you Jesus Oh how we worship and adore you this morning God we call on your great name For you are the king of kings For you are the lord of lords For there is none like you in all the earth Oh how we love you Jesus Oh how we worship you Jesus Oh how we adore you Jesus Oh for you are the king of kings And you are the lord of lords And there is none like you in all the earth I looked all over And I found nobody like you Jesus so how we worship you this morning we give you the fruit of our lips we give you our worship and our praise oh God we give you glory this morning we worship you we adore you we honor you God we give you glory this morning when there is truly no one like you and we give you glory say hallelujah say hallelujah To our great King, to the only risen King, oh Father we thank you this morning. We ask that you have your way throughout this service.
We ask that you move by your spirit. We ask that you break every yoke, break every yoke of bondage, break. Take every evil yoke of the hearts and the minds of your people.
Set their hearts free. Set their minds free. God, give them an ear to hear your word.
Give them an ear to yield to your counsel. Give them an ear to yield to your wisdom on today. day give them my ear oh god to shift and change the trajectory of their life so they won't be the same after they leave this service on today oh god have your way in this place have your way in this place have your way in this place do what you came to do today god the only thing that you can do only you can do it only you can destroy the yoke only you can set the captives free on today so father god Have your way.
Have your way. Burn it up, God. Burn it up, God.
Everything that is not like you. Everything to change us. what you're going to do in this service on today.
Any hindrance, God, we bind up every hindrance. We bind up everything that comes to take up what you're going to do on today. We cover your women's service.
We cover them in your blood. We pray that you give them an ear to hear what you have to say on today. So, Father, we thank you.
We praise you. We glorify you. In Jesus'name, hallelujah.
Oh, come on and give him some glory on this morning, saints. Hallelujah, he's worthy this morning. Hallelujah, go ahead and lift up your voice in this place and say hallelujah.
Hallelujah to the one that was. Hallelujah to the soon coming king. Hallelujah you're worthy of this morning.
He's worthy of all the glory. He's worthy of all adoration. All praises belong to our God.
Give him glory in his place. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah this morning.
Hallelujah, hallelujah. Good morning, Open Fire. Hallelujah, good morning, good morning, even online. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, good morning.
I'm here to welcome you to Open Fire International. You may have your seats if you can. Hallelujah. Y'all kind of quiet in here this morning. Good morning.
Good morning. Hallelujah. We'd like to welcome you to Open Fire International Fellowship Ministries, our 8 a.m. fresh fire service.
Hallelujah. Where we come to encounter the presence of God on this morning. We'd like to say hallelujah, good morning, and welcome to our online viewers. Wherever you're at in your home watching this, we count it an honor and a privilege.
Amen. Amen. Now, do we have any VIP in here this morning? VIP means it's your first time here visiting us here at Open Fire. Is there anyone?
Amen. Do we have any new here this morning? Which means it's not your first time, maybe your second or third. Hallelujah. Anybody new here?
Just wave at me. Okay, man, we're family. Go ahead and clap your hands this morning. Amen.
We bless God for each and every one of you Hallelujah, even if you're online and it's your first time go ahead and put one in the chat or two If you're new here even online we bless God for you. Amen Now we believe in a culture of honor here at open fire So we'd like to go ahead and give a hand clap for our visionaries this morning Go ahead and clap your hands and go ahead and stand to your feet As we give honor where honor is due, amen. Woo! This is different when you're doing it. Hallelujah.
We'd like to give honor to our visionaries this morning. Apostle Dr. Lincoln George Coffey. We bless God for you, man of God.
We thank you for your visionary, your things that you do for the ministry. We bless God even to his rib, First Lady. Dr. April Antoinette Coffee We bless God for you Mom we thank you Hallelujah And we also want to give honor to the other pastors In our ministry Amen Pastor Philip Johnson, we bless God for you, man of God. We thank you for being a man of honor and discipline. Amen.
We thank God for Lady Diavon. Hallelujah. We bless God for you.
I can't wait to hear a word from you this morning. Even in their absence, we bless God for Pastor Gibson and his wife this morning. Pastor Gibson and Lady Tiffany Gibson.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We also bless God for Pastor Craig and Lady Chyna in their absence as well. Hallelujah. We bless God.
even for Pastor Blunt and his wife, Lady Aisha. Wherever you guys are, we'd like to say God bless you this morning. And last but certainly not least, we bless God for you, Pastor Damietta Jeffries and Deacon Antoine, wherever you're at.
God bless you, man, oh God. Hallelujah. And as you take your seats, go ahead and say, Dream Team! Hallelujah. So this is an important part of the service where we do our social media check-in.
So wherever you're at, go ahead and take out your phone. Hallelujah. Good morning.
And go ahead and take your pictures. Amen. Let them know you're in the house this morning.
Hashtag open fire. Hashtag ministers month. Hallelujah. and we also like to give a god bless you to pastor spells god bless you pastor spells wherever you're at hallelujah lady asia god bless you hallelujah go ahead and snap those last minute pictures oh there you are good morning all right hallelujah so we thank you for giving us the opportunity to welcome you into God's house we hope that you enjoy the rest of the service go ahead and turn your attention to the monitors and we'll be with you right back Experience the warmth of fellowship, the joy of togetherness, and the love of community at heart. Upcoming Friends and Family Church Service.
We believe in building strong families. Join us as we embrace the spirit of togetherness. Because here, everyone is family and everyone is welcome. Dress down in your church t-shirts and jeans and remember to bring anonymous gifts to give to those God has placed in your heart. Immediately after the service, there will be a time for fellowship and food at the fellowship hall.
Let's meet and mingle with one another and pray. and flood social media with pictures. Welcome, sir.
Welcome. Welcome. I'm sitting here in Sierra Leone with the assistant, the deputy head teacher of Redeem International Academy.
And so I'm here right here. on the grounds of Sierra Leone Africa and I am so thankful and so grateful to be sitting here with this great man of God he's the assistant to the head teacher mrs. Lamine and so I want to thank God I want to hear from him because he works very closely with her to help her to accomplish what God is doing here in Sierra Leone in Redeemed International Academy so I just wanted I just want to say welcome thank you for all that you do you know you're a blessing to us just as we are a blessing to you and I want to thank God for you and the work that you're doing for the children here because what you're doing is you know we couldn't have done what we are doing there without your what you're doing here you see so we are joining hands together for the sake of the children their future and their destiny. And so I want to thank God for you.
Thank God for you. I really thank you from Open Fire as well and all our family across the world who are helping us, who are helping us, who are helping us to make this possible here in Sierra Leone. I just wanted to ask you, we heard from Madam Lamin about, you know, she's a head teacher. From your place where you serve, from where you serve, what's the current status of the school right now, the current status of the school?
I want to thank you so much. God bless you and God bless the entire Open Fire Ministry. We are proud of you for coming to Sierra Leone and we are proud of Open Fire Ministry for the good work they are doing in this country, Sierra Leone, not only Redeem International Academy.
We appreciate you and we are very much happy. I am John Ali Kamara, the Deputy Head Teacher, Redeem International Academy. 11th D.D. Dive, Allentown, Sierra Leone.
Yes, sir. I'm the deputy head teacher at Redeem. Honestly, I'm very much blessed for having you in an interview like this. You know, may God bless you, sir.
Yes, sir. And we are looking forward to seeing you at all times. Yes, sir.
Of course, you ask me what is the status of Redeem International Academy. Redeem, we start as you have heard from the head teacher. We started three years time. We started a few... students we started with um summer school we come together we organize the summer school for teachers so at the end of the summer school the head teacher asked me say when mr kamar since we started this i don't want us to stop we want to continue so we open it as a school i said well i'm with you i'm ready so we started how we started what was your background before the school started your background My background.
Before this too, because you said there was a background. Yes. Do you have a background education before, or you just started it because?
No, no, sir. I did teacher certificate, TC. Here we call it TC.
Then I also further to do my higher teacher certificate, HTC. Wow. So, yes. So, in Sierra Leone, when you have TC, you have HTC, you are qualified to head a school.
That's why the head teacher, she has HTC, she has TC also. So we have the same qualification. The only difference is she got her qualification years before I got my seniority.
Yes. So that's why she is the head, I am the deputy. Wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful. So we started the school with just few students.
So we continued, then Bishop came in. Of course the first year I want to open this school, Bishop said no. This, you know, it is good.
to start, but let us not start it this year. Let's wait for next year again. The following year again, we make the same summer school, then there we got some number of students, then there we start off this school. And when we start up...
It is not easy, you know, because there is no salary, no salary at all. So things are difficult, teachers, you know, but you know, we talk to bishop, bishop say, well, now there's no salary, but let's start this way. Until when Open Fire and you came in and started sponsoring, you know, that's why we are very much happy for Open Fire and even you.
the source for us to be in a relationship with Open Fire. So we are very much grateful. Whenever you come to Sierra Leone, we go all out to make sure we get something for you, to show you that we appreciate what you are doing for us.
So these are some of the things. Yes. It touched my heart, you know, because sometimes we take the small things, some things for granted.
Yes, sir. And to me, the biggest impact is when we impact other people's lives. Yes, sir.
That's the most. impact for me you know in my life my life was impacted just to say when I was 13 someone stepped in and helped me and so I always remember when when God caused that person to help me he was sowing a seed in my life and that seed now has turned into a harvest in Sierra Leone and that the same seed you are now sowing for us and that's what you are doing is also going to be from those dead people Yes, oh we are very much grateful sir. We want to thank God for you. Yes, thank God for you know I know Bishop Carbo is a man.
He's a visionary. Yes Bishop Carbo is a dad to us. Yes.
Yes, you know, that's why when he went back to the United States He left us in care of the schoolmate and the head teacher and everything works well. You know, and one of the most important things, you know, in Sierra Leone teachers got their salary maybe the second or the fifth, but for us at Redeem we got our salary the 20th. Wait a minute, so you get your salary almost 10 days before the government? All other teachers get paid? Yes, all Redeem teachers, all of us, we are paid at the same time.
the same day everything is the same yes y'all hear that yes sir because of what we're doing by God's grace they're getting their salary earlier than any all the teachers here yes sir that get paid by the government yes sir they're getting paid 10 days early yes sir every month every month every month yes sir oh we give God thanks that blesses my soul yes sir and blesses me to hear that yes sir yeah well I give God thanks for you thanks anything else on your heart you want to share with the people yes yeah whatever everybody. Yes, and we want to be grateful to Open Fire Ministry, to all those who in diverse ways contribute in one way or the other their financial support for Redeem International. We are very much grateful.
We want to continue to pray for you that God continue to bless you as you provide for us. God will continue to provide for you more and more. We appreciate you and want to give God the glory for what you are doing for us in Sierra Leone.
God bless you. I want to appreciate and say thanks. God bless you.
Amen. Praise God. Thank you for what you're doing.
And just know that we in America appreciate you. We appreciate you too. You can do what we do unless you do what you're doing. Yes, sir.
We appreciate you too. God bless you, sir. God bless Open Fire Ministry. Amen.
God bless all of you. Come on, clap your hands for Jesus. Hallelujah.
Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that beautiful? Come on, Open Fire.
Stand and give God praise for what we do. we're doing in Africa let's clap your hands for Sierra Leone clap your hands for Jesus they're getting their salaries 10 days before everybody else get paid but we want to give God thanks for what he's doing in Sierra Leone amen praise God amen I don't want to tarry this morning but I also want to greet you in the name of Jesus amen and I want to say I am excited are you being blessed by ministers month Amen. Praise God.
You are getting ready to be electrified. Amen. Something great is about to happen.
Amen. I look forward to these days. Praise God. Sit right here and be fed. clapping hands for the leaders for the pastors praise god and to my lovely wife come on clapping hands for her god bless you amen minister aries i miss you When are you going to preach?
You're on the roster? Clap your hands for Minister Iris. I love her.
Love her. Praise God. But I want you to help me this morning to just give God thanks for the minister.
Were you blessed on Tuesday? I'm telling you. Minister Elijah, Minister Orlando, take this thing to another level. Praise God.
Amen. I was so shocked. And blessed at the same time.
Praise God. This is so phenomenal. Pastor Charles, God bless you. Good to see you. Amen.
Praise God. Praise God. But I don't want to tarry this morning.
I want us to be blessed and have enough time to be blessed by our daughter, minister. Dear one, let's clap your hands for her as she come. Clap your hands for her. Amen. Come on, woman of God.
Amen. Praise God. Y'all can do better than that. Clap your hands for Jesus.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, come on, keep on clapping. Because our God is not dead. Newsflash, he's alive. So clap him like he's alive.
Praise him like he's alive. On the third day, I remember, he got up. And he's still up. He's still risen. So help me praise Jesus.
God, we bless you. God, we thank you. God, we salute you. For your majesty.
And your majestic. Come on, don't get tired of praising him. We engage the supernatural on this morning. We engage the things of the spirit.
If you have your heavenly language, go ahead and speak out. We begin to ink up the atmosphere. The Bible says that we frame. The worlds were framed by words.
We frame the atmosphere this morning with the word of Almighty God. If you are online, begin to ink up. He said if I be lifted up Ah we lift you up this morning God We dare not do anything before we lift you up He said if I be lifted up above the earth I will draw all men unto me So in the name of Jesus Christ We begin to decree and declare Amen that there's already been a drawing. There's a drawing from the north. There's a drawing of souls from the east.
There's a drawing from the west. There's a drawing from the south. Draw them Jesus.
Draw them. We draw back our children. We draw back our children.
And we praise you. We bless you. Hallelujah.
If you are happy and you know it, go ahead. and clap your hands for Jesus. we can't do anything without him.
I am nothing without him. well I have to big him up. I have to praise him.
you wouldn't even know me without him. Also, we want to big up our senior leadership, our apostle Dr. Lincoln Coffey. Man of God, we love you. Man of God, we will follow you because your vision is so beautiful. is clear and your heart is for the lord and we are sons and daughters we say thank you thank you for every sacrifice thank you for every teardrop thank you for every time that you said no so that we could rise to another level in god we want to say thank you this morning dad Even the very fact that you are here in person.
I am so encouraged. I am so encouraged in my spirit. I love you. Father's day just passed.
And I've never been able to say the word dad. Because I've had an absent father. And God used this man of God here.
With daddy daughter. to dig deep where I got my deliverance where I was able to call my natural father who I've given the term sperm donor I was able to now transition from that place and really let him go and said happy father's day dad and meant it it was because of our apostle thank you and the amazing fire starter hallelujah by his side his wife his rib his good thing prophetess dr april coffee we call you mom for a reason because we love you because truly you have pushed us out you saw something in us that we didn't even see in ourselves and you buckled down and you You labored and you stayed the course, even sometime without the medication. We made you cry.
We kept you at the feet of Jesus. And we want to say thank you. thank you for not giving up thank you you can absolutely have your seat in the presence of the king put your hands together for their co-laborers the associate pastors We love our associate pastors here at Open Fire International because they work for real.
We see our pastor Dan the Might, our pastor Damietta Jeffries. I salute you woman of God. I thank God for your example. We see our pastor spells over here. We bless God for you and your beautiful wife.
Our pastor white and his beautiful wife. Pastor Gibson and his beautiful wife. All our pastors.
Pastor Blunt and his beautiful wife. We bless God for you. And every amazing person in this church that has said yes to the call.
That have gone through growth track. That is now a part of the dream team. Put your hands together for the dream team.
that's pushing in the back we thank god for you we bless god for you your work and your labor is not in vain anybody excited this morning and also we want to welcome our online viewers We are so excited that you are here. You are in for a blessing. There is a word in the house. This is not a wordless church.
There is a word here, an on-time word for you. A word that's going to... break you free and expand your mind any vips that's here among us are new here we want to say welcome i thank god for every family member i see my co-worker just walk in i put my put your hands together for her welcome sis love you woman of god hallelujah my beautiful sister-in-laws that are here put your hands together for my sister-in-law jenny i love you my other sister-in-law that you're gonna hear from at the 11 a.m service hallelujah my mother that is watching hi i salute you mom i thank god for you we are a people of honor we believe in We sow seeds of honor and I can't go any further without honoring my man of God His name is pastor prophet Philip Johnson. I Love you You are the best thing since sliced bread You are one of a kind, honey. God knew what he was doing when he put me in your life.
Just want to say thank you. I love you and I appreciate you. Appreciate his leadership. I appreciate him helping me to raise our beautiful children. Oh, to my children that are here.
Hallelujah. And I recently got a bonus daughter too what an awesome god we serve anybody ready for the word this morning hallelujah so the lord sent me here this morning with a word the title is from victim to victor hallelujah so if you find yourself being a victim it's about to change i'll grab your bibles uh the message this morning is taken from genesis 50 5 0 verses 15 to 21 when you find it i encourage you and invite you to stand hallelujah for the reading of the word glory hallelujah When Joseph's brother saw that their father was dead, they said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph saying, your father gave me this command before he died.
Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgressor. transgressions of your brothers and their sins because they did evil to you and now please forgive the transgression of the servant of the god of your father joseph wept When they spoke to him, he wept. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are your servants.
But Joseph said to them, Do not fear for am I in the place of God. Whenever we seek revenge, we just put ourselves in the place of God. As for you, you meant evil. against me but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people here about should be kept alive as they are today so do not fear I will provide for you you and your little ones thus be comforted thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them hallelujah that's a real test that you are over it is when you can really serve the ones that didn't serve you well hallelujah the ones that really wanted to take you out also we're going to jump over to deuteronomy hallelujah thank you media put your hands together for media this morning deuteronomy chapter 20 and verse 4 i am coming to you from the niv version it says for the lord your god he is who goes with you to fight against your enemies you To give you the victory.
Somebody shout victory. Come on, turn to your neighbor and tell your neighbor, you are a victor. Tell them one more time. Look them square in the eye. You are a victor.
Now put your hand on your heart and say, I am victorious. I am victorious. Hallelujah. You go ahead and take a seat and put your hands together for the God of all victory.
In Jesus Christ there is no defeat. Hallelujah. Glory to God. oh we exalt him this morning so this morning i have three objective the first is to define what it means to be a victim hallelujah the second is signs that we are living with a victim mindset the third how to transition from living like a victim to a true victor hallelujah it's important it is very important that we know how to get this done amen hallelujah so i'm gonna run ahead and lay some foundation hallelujah and i also want to make this announcement that it is god's will And plan for us to live a victorious life.
I am going to say it again. Because every now and then we hear that little voice. That tells us this is how it is.
This is how it's supposed to be. But it is God's will. and God's plan for us to live a victorious life in 2nd Corinthians 2 and verse 14 it says now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph do we hear any defeat in that No defeat. Every Tuesday we come to Bible study. Ma'am has given us this acronym called Believe.
It simply says because Emmanuel lives, I expect victory every time. Hallelujah. If you know it, say it with me.
Because Emmanuel lives, I expect victory every time. Hallelujah. When do you expect victory? Every time. every area of our hallelujah i love it if you're online jump on in put i expect victory every time right there in the comment section also god has a plan but guess who else has a plan the devil yes you said it right the enemy's plan is to keep us in cycles of defeat and living like a victim believe it or not Nothing just happens.
Things tend to happen in the spirit first. And then you see it manifest in the natural. If we look at the book of Job. We'll see where Satan was walking up and down in the earth. And God stopped him.
And they had a whole conversation. And God recommended Job for a testing. how about security can god recommend you can god recommend me for a testing sometimes when we feel victimized do you know what we're going through a testing so satan and god had a whole conversation without job having a clue and shortly after job was victimized hallelujah satan plans to keep us in darkness and deception so that we'll never fight to go free i remember aria tubman she said she would have freed a lot more slaves if they knew they were slaves it's the same thing in the spirit i can't help you if you don't think you need help Not even God himself can help you if you think everything is great. So the devil keeps us in that deception with lies and manipulation and let us think everything is okay when it really is not.
Do I have a weakness? I've been there. I also lastly want to sound this out that victory is not automatic.
I'm gonna say it one more time victory is not automatic there is work that is required victory means work you're gonna put in the work in order for us to enforce the victory that Jesus died for it must be activated through our obedience to God and to scripture so it means we gotta do something amen hallelujah our first peter 5 and 8 csb says you be sober minded be alert your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for anyone he can devour so the bible says be sober minded because most of the time where the devil comes to hit us first it is in our minds because our minds is a control tower and if he can hijack the tower guess what you just got hijacked in the spirit uh we know that he comes but to kill but to steal and but to destroy but we serve the god of all victory somebody shout victory victory is mine in christ jesus victory is yours in christ jesus and to summarize all of this in 2012 I had a situation where I too was victimized I found myself in a relationship with this gentleman that supposedly had his life together that had everything that a woman could ever desire amen He was an entrepreneur. He had his own business. He seemed to be doing very well for himself.
He was very fit. He had all the packs. Hallelujah. He was six foot something, something, something to look up at. And he was very handsome.
I remembered we were dating and what really helped me to really like him, you know, was that he accepted my son. And I believe you guys know the situation with my son. This was 2012 and this was when he was just diagnosed with autism and it was on the severe spectrum.
He was screaming, banging his head against the wall. When you have a child with autism and they're on the severe, severe, you don't expect to live a normal life. Sometimes you don't even have friends.
Simple things as going to the movies is a dream because any minute there could be an outburst and then you have to run out of the movies. So fast track. So I had one of my friends meet up with him. This is why godly counsel is important.
Godly friends are important because they can help save your life. So I had my best friend at the time met up with him. And she said, girl, don't you see that he's on drugs?
He's a drug addict. And I said, are you kidding me? I didn't realize how sheltered I was. I saw on TV what a crackhead looked like. They would be itching and itching.
But this guy was no crackhead. He was an expert at meth and what's the word some met he was a meth head he was a functioning addict and shortly after I recommitted my life to the Lord and God said drop him so I called him up and I gave him it's not you it's me speech I believe I have some witnesses in here It's not you, it's me. So for your good, this relationship has to end. But I had forgotten that I had allowed them to carry off all my belongings because we were going to be getting married and I was spending time with my mom before the transition.
When I told him goodbye, hallelujah, the day came for me to go repossess my possessions. Hallelujah! Glory to God! Put your hands together for Jesus!
We turned up to an empty house. The man took off with everything I'd work for. Every piece of furniture. There was nothing left.
I drove back home with an empty U-Haul truck. Do you know what that did to my spirit and all I heard was you are such an idiot you are such a fool how could you not know that you deserve it I mean the devil kept going and the devil kept going but my mother God used my mother to say she called me by my pet name Tamika and she said you better get back in church you used to pray get back in church it was that statement that helped that helped me in that moment to keep on going because i didn't want to keep on going after being victimized here i was in my late 30s about to start over again because i was victimized do you know what it's like to be a victim Ah, the basic, you know what I'm saying? Media has a chart that they're gonna show you in the U.S. right now what it looks like, what the victim statistics are.
In 2022, the rate of victimization in the U.S. increased to 23.5 victimization per 1,000 people, ranging from ages 12 and older. Look you see violent crime involving injury, domestic violence, robbery. Even as you look at this, this is what some of us look like in the realms of the spirit. Where the enemy came in and stole.
Stole what God said he was gonna do for you. Stole the prophetic word. Wrecked your house.
Wretch your marriage. Wretch your self-esteem. That is the devil. The same one that is out there like a roaring lion looking for somebody to be devoured.
Don't let that be you. Amen. We're going to jump into our point one right here.
I have three points and then I promise I'm going to be out your way. Who is a victim? a victim and if you have your notebooks this is a great place to take notes i promise you're gonna get to jump and shout later hallelujah we're just laying a foundation who is a victim a victim is a person that has been severely affected by a situation by a person or by both can you remember being severely affected by that situation severely traumatized by that incident by that person and having to wonder where do I go from here I have been there also another definition of victim one that is injured one that is injured one that's damaged harmed or tarnished a bus Can you remember being injured? I remember when I was injured by someone else's words that left me feeling less than.
that made me insecure that made me feel like I was not good enough that I would not amount to anything somebody shout injured I remember being damaged some of you have experienced being damaged that divorce damaged you You were not supposed to have recovered from that divorce. You were supposed to stay broken. Do you remember being harmed? You let that person in your home.
You let that person in your space. You gave access to your children. And they ramshacked your home.
You was harmed. Do you remember being tarnished? You were not supposed to have recovered from that divorce. by the hateful things they said that wasn't even true and they posted it over social media ah they ruined your reputation what you spent years to build up somebody else came and ripped it down in two seconds the word is tarnish i remember the story of the good samaritan my god the man was going about his business Minding his own business.
He was going from Jerusalem. Down to Jericho. And the Bible said.
That he fell among thieves. That he was robbed. He was beaten. They left him to die. Some of us was left to die.
I am here to tell you. That the devil. That being victimized. The devil's plan is for you to die. Right out there on the road.
On the wayside. But thank God there was a good Samaritan. The good Samaritan King Jesus. He is the one that is here today. He's going to pick you up.
The good Samaritan Jesus, let him pick you up, let him bind up your wounds, let him pour the oil, let him pour the wine, let him do it, somebody shout do it. Do it, Jesus, do it. Do it in us, God, from every place that was victimized, every place that they tortured, that they weren't supposed to torture. Do it, Jesus, do it. One more definition.
We're still at definitions. Lord have mercy. What's going on with the time?
One that's subjected to oppression, hardship, and mistreatment. There's all kinds of oppressive systems in this world. The oppressive system is designed for you not to rise above. If you've ever had a bad...
Credit score, that's a system that will bind you. That's a system that will restrict you, will make you live where you don't want to live. It'll make you work where you don't want to work.
You won't get the best prices. You won't get the best interest rate because of your credit score. Some doors won't even open for you because of the credit core system. There's another system. called the child support system any brothers in the house said Abassi if you fall behind on your child support my god might as well you go build your coffin Abassi and I don't support not paying your child support I say pay it but I understand also that life happens And sometimes people will skip, you'll rob Peter to pay Paul, and next minute you are now in prison.
Next minute you're locked into a cycle where you can't even have a driver's license. If you have a job, they'll take your paycheck. if you file for tax return they'll make sure they take it all away you won't even be able to go if you say i'm called to the nations you can't even get a passport that's an oppressive system that is meant to keep you down but i thank god that today we are breaking out hallelujah glory to god we are breaking out Mistreatment! Has anybody experienced mistreatment? You can experience mistreatment by a spouse.
You can experience it even on the job by your boss. They just simply don't understand you. They simply don't get you or they simply just don't like you.
You are so mistreated in that relationship. So beaten that you now believe that you deserved it. I deserve this.
This is my lot in life. I'm not gonna get anybody else. So might as well I just stay.
Has anybody been there? But I thank God that he's here today to take away all the lies and shine his fruit into our spirits. We also have another definition.
This one is one of my favorite. One that's been tricked or duped to fall prey to deception. Has anybody been on YouTube and Facebook lately?
We can't get enough of the get rich quick scheme. Make 100 million dollars from the comfort of your home without even lifting a finger. These are the things that is promised.
And a lot of us, because we don't want to do the work, we don't want to work hard, we want the easy ride there to success, we will go ahead and sign up for their seminar, sign up for their webinar, and guess what? You are still stuck. Now you're even more broke and disgusted. I remember buying the product.
It said, oh. within 24 to 48 hours that system is gonna that problem is gonna be fixed and i looked it was 30 days later and i still had the problem what happened i got tricked hallelujah glory to god but these are systems that will victimize us amen hallelujah we even have an example the first couple to be victimized does anybody know their names i love it it's a bible believing bible word reading church hey what kind of church is this hallelujah both adam and eve they were the first victims they fell prey to lucifer's lies to his deception He promised them that the grass was greener on the other side. He made it look like everything that glistened was gold. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life.
He had it wrapped up in a nice package, but they did not understand that when they bite the bait, that they were stripped out of a place of power. they was tricked out of the place of dominion they was tricked the morality was was taken and stripped from them and they were separated from God that's what it's like to be tricked and duped and left victimized somebody shall victory hallelujah And we're moving right on to point number two. It says signs that someone is living a victimized, with a victimized mindset.
A lot of times we don't want to face it. There was times I didn't want to face it. Victim who? Victim what? I'm a strong black woman, but...
Let's go through the list. There is a list here. And if it hits you, just say, ouch.
Guess what? It hit me first. Hallelujah. So signs that someone is living with a victimized mindset.
Point number one, you are defensive and always putting up a wall. Do we know anybody like that? You have known them for years, but you have never seen them be vulnerable.
It's a sign that they were victimized. You have never seen them cry. You don't even know what their favorite color is. We are constantly rehearsing and repeating the incident. This act happened when you were five years old.
Here you are today, 45 years old, and we're still hearing about it. Every relationship you're in, they have to hear about it. Every new person that you meet, they have to hear about it. to hear about it you come to church and they ask how are you doing sister how are you doing brother oh here we go we have to hear about it it's a sign that you've been victimized if you find that you've been fearful fearful of being hurt again it's another sign you keep people at a distance You've made vows in your heart.
This will never happen to me again. I have been there. I used to be this girl. This would never happen to me again.
Nobody will ever hurt me like you hurt me again. hmm i have a plan but i didn't realize that the same plan it was also keeping people out and it was keeping god out too it'll keep your destiny helpers out it'll keep those god-ordained people out so you will be stuck right there that's the plan of the devil to keep you stuck hallelujah If you find that you have triggers, certain things bring you right back. That cologne that he used to wear, that perfume that she used to wear, that movie that we used to watch, that song when they play it, oh my god. It wakes up the trauma. It brings me back.
it brings back all those emotions minister iris knows about this she teaches a class that helps you with trauma am i telling the truth minister iris hallelujah hallelujah glory to god if you find that you have trust issues somebody say oh you struggle struggle to trust anybody because once upon a time somebody in leadership Somebody in a place of authority mishandled you, abused you. So now you have trouble to trust your boss, to trust your leaders in the church. Even worse, to trust God himself. Because you're saying, God, where were you?
It brings us right into identity crisis. If you find that you're having identity crisis, it'll show up in your sexuality. If you were violated, if you're a female that was violated by a female, a lot of times you'll turn to the love of a woman. It creates identity crisis. The same thing with a male.
they'll turn to relationships that God has forbidden. The identity crisis shows up in your everyday life choices. It goes beyond just your sexuality.
It begins to spill over into every single area of your life. You look in the mirror and you go, who am I? Who is this woman? Every relationship I get in I change who I am to fit that person that's an identity crisis if he wants me to be happy and outgoing but i'm really an introvert i will be happy and outgoing i don't know who i am you're having an identity crisis if you practice escapism ah jesus help me today if you practice escapism you struggle with commitment you are always on the run you You have become a master fugitive. Nothing and nobody could pin you down.
You struggle with commitment to the church. You struggle with commitment on the job. You said, I'm gonna sign up for the usher team.
I'm gonna do it! Because I feel the anointment to usher. and when the time comes we can't find you where are you at where are you at you just got the job and somebody step on your toe or ask you to do something you was put in your two weeks resignation jesus god almighty but help is here today the last thing on the list right now there might be more but this is the last thing i got you become what you hate and i can testify to this growing up as a teenager i had a brother in my home he was very abusive he wasn't always that way My mom had given her consent for him to go live with an uncle of mine because we didn't have a father figure. She raised six of us with no dad. But I don't think what she took into consideration was that my uncle was an illegal street pharmacist.
Hallelujah! Do you know what I mean? He showed up at our doorstep. He was all blinged out.
He had the latest ride. He had the latest gears. He was looking like he just hit the jackpot. And to a young, impressionable teenage boy, that looked like success. So my mother quickly signed him out of school and allowed him to move to Chicago to live with my uncle.
Big mistake. And my mother is watching. Can we love on my mother, please?
Mom, this is not to shame you. This is not to disgrace you, mom. You did the best you could with the information you had at the time.
And we love you. Hallelujah. So when he came back to live with us, guess who showed up?
A demon. He had gotten exposed to a different kind of lifestyle and he would beat me. I remember coming home from school one day and I was taking a nap on the couch and he grabbed me by my neck and he threw me on the ground for no apparent reason and he began to step in my face with his Timberland boots. Oh, and he stepped. over and over and over and over and I thought I was gonna die and I remember I looked up and I saw my mother and my mother did not jump in because she too was afraid he was a monster and I remember being whooped and beaten and I remember so happened that another uncle came by And he grabbed him and threw him off of me and said, boy, are you crazy?
But that was the beginning of many sorrows. And I remember being so damaged. I had just given my heart to the Lord at 16 years old. And I cried and I cried and I couldn't stop crying.
And I prayed and I said, God, kill him. I prayed that God would kill him. I prayed that God would take him out. I was tired of walking on eggshells.
I was tired of not having a safe place. I was tired of it and let me tell you saints of God a few years later he died and I wept. I don't believe that God took him out because of what I prayed because we learned that we're not supposed to pray those prayers. but because of his lifestyle it had gotten so out of control he had out he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant she was seven months pregnant and he beat her he beat the living life out of her that she had a miscarriage at seven months and he got deported right back to the island of Jamaica and shortly after that he struck