 God is good and all the time. Amen. It was such an awesome weekend that we have had here at the Good News Church and it was such such a great time meeting so many people who you know who not only are fans but people who are our friends and some churches that I sometimes would go in and and then they come back here and you would hear them they listen to every podcast they follow every single Wednesday service and then how they kind of you know do what we do and though they're like separated so far from us it's so encouraging for us to never to take every service for granted you know and never to just sit and simply say well today's ones and I just gotta be here you know to scratch that off no matter how you feel but to always be focused on our vision we've reached that place in our church now let me speak to just church people were the vision that we used to carry today that vision carries us you know that vision that used to we have to we had to carry and protect it and today you know when I meet with different guys even few days ago had the opportunity you know to meet with the young man who got saved on Wednesday and he said you know passive lad I just got out of jail and he says the first time I come to church I get saved during the salvation he says I literally felt electricity he says when you place your hand on my head electricity went through my whole body he says I felt something I never felt before comes back on Sunday now has a job comes to home cup and he said now I want to bring other people to Jesus Christ you know that feeds you when you hear that you know a young man who comes to every service you know on during the conference and I'm not gonna mention much details and that meet with him and stuff and he says passive lad I want to give my life to Jesus Christ but he says God can't forgive me I was like of course he can forgive you I was like what did you do you know did you kill somebody's like no he said it's something worse he says for a very long time I don't use drugs I sell them I was like oh that's different well definitely God can't forgive you for that but and then I find out some guys who got free from drugs here they're like hey I know that guy I bought drugs from him what is he doing in church I'm like who said God can only forgive the drug addicts not the drug dealers and I remember I start talking to him and I start praying with him and praying for him and he's I want to change he said my brother isn't in right now facing 25 year to life and he said I don't want that road I know that that weekend was a wake-up for me and I wanted to find God and when you when that when you see that when you're surrounded by that you know it makes morning prayers at five in the morning enjoyable when you meet other people you know who come in and who's saying you know guys don't give up because of what's happening a young gentleman who came on Saturday night drove all the way from Seattle on Saturday night just for one thing from Seattle four hours got a hotel just to receive a prayer because of attacks of the enemy on his mind a decent good-looking if you will look at him you would never recognize somebody who needs help you know and you see things like that you know something shifts with any you recognize the vision that we have is no longer we have it it has us can somebody say amen you look and you raise a microphone and so just really want to encourage each one of you another thing that I want to encourage you with right now is this is that every time God does a miracle in our life it's not only to reward us for our faithfulness but it is to inspire our commitment every time God does a miracle in your life it's not to reward you for your faithfulness it is to inspire your commitment when Jesus comes to Peter and Peter is fishing all night and he cannot catch fish and Jesus touches Peter's situation and Peter catches so much fish that his boat begins to sink then net begins to rip and Peter comes out and Peter doesn't just simply throw a party and say hey guys I want to write a book on how to catch so much fish that your boat will sink and your nets will rip he doesn't start a block on how to be a very successful fisherman with Jesus along your side that miracle inspired in him a commitment to follow Jesus in abandoning the ship and the boat you know it it touched my heart when that scripture became a reality because sometimes when I see small blessings in my life you know I immediately look is like what did I do right and sometimes God wants to remind you it's not about what you did right it's how I want to inspire your commitment God sometimes will be good to you not because you've done something good but to inspire you to be good the Bible says the goodness of God leads men to repentance that means that God sometimes does something in your life just to lead you to help you inspire you pat you on the back to change see most of us are thinking that God is the only one who pulls out a belt and beats people into change sometimes he stretches his arms and hugs you into change blesses you into change loves you into change and gives you things into change because somebody say amen so don't ever when you have good things happen in life pat yourself on the back and you say well it's because I'm smart I can smoke weed drink and do these things and not get caught and life is just good to me no no no my friend the reason why things work out for you and never got caught is because God is trying to be good to you to lead you into change he loves you too much yeah he loves you too much because somebody say amen and so our God is a good God our God is a positive God our God is a victorious God and our God he's the best one we are so blessed to know him and we are so blessed to be connected with him I just finished reading book of Jeremiah and finishing is equal is equal depressing book very depressing book I'm so glad for Jesus because if we will be stuck with this equally with very very hard life but reading book of Jeremiah and you see half of book of Jeremiah these prophecies against Israel because of their disobedience to God and you see God's displeasure with them and then you see Israel getting into captivity of Babylon because of their disobedience to God and my favorite verse from book of Jeremiah is the one that I had on my wedding invitation most of you have heard this verse you probably have it somewhere in your house it's the verse says this in Jeremiah 11 29 I think it's 11 29 29 11 I always get them mixed up Jeremiah 29 11 this is what the verse says for I know the plans that I think of you says the Lord the plans of good and not of evil to give you hope and to give you future anybody heard that verse before okay you did so when you read the Bible that's why encourage people to read the Bible from the beginning till end because then you don't just take verses that you like and put it on your refrigerator you see those verses in the context of when they were written did you know that 29th chapter of Jeremiah it was a letter of Jeremiah written to the people of Israel who were rebellious to God who were stubborn who were so stiff neck that they were delivered to captivity and when they got delivered to captivity and they got what they deserved God sends them a message to the people he said please don't sin or else your sins will catch you to the people God said please stop rebelling against me stop turning your back against me because that's gonna turn out bad for you and to the people who always said to God we'll do whatever we want to do those kind of people when they got what they deserved when they finally made a mistake and the mess of their life God sends a message and God doesn't send the message and said I told you so I warned you you foolish little uncircumcised Philistine God doesn't send a letter and say you are such a stupid people I'm sick and tired of you and I'm so relieved you're in trouble God sends a message and says for I know the plans I have for you you're rebellious people he doesn't say that but he says I know the plans to remember these are rebellious people and God even for people who are trapped in their own sin God still has a plan see we read this verse and we think it's talking about the priest the pope the nun the pastor it's talking about your neighbor that looks better than you but God says I know the plans that I think about you not only when you do good but even when you find yourself in the mess the plans of good and not of evil the plans to prosper you and not to harm you that's my God that's your God can somebody say man God has a plan for your life even if you're not serving him right now maybe you found yourself today in some problems maybe you're crushed in the mess maybe you made mistakes and they caught up to you God has a plan for your life still amen when I was in San Diego two days to two weeks ago and we had to use a rent rental car and we didn't know the city of San Diego so we had to rely on Google apps because Apple apps fail and so Google apps are like the Lord has never failed and so in the Google apps one of the things that we would do because we don't know the city and we don't know the highways and we know that with the city so vast millions of people there and so we would constantly get lost we would constantly take wrong turns it would say take this turn and there's like five different lanes I don't know which lane to take and so I would always take the wrong turn and what I love about the Google Maps is that anytime you took a wrong turn it will right away reroute you from that turn all the way around I've never once had an incident where I took a wrong turn and the Google Maps says you stupid I quit on you somehow we think God will do that to us when you take a wrong turn you don't cancel your destiny you will detour you may delay it you might take it longer but God never says I'm done we're finished I hang up the phone as long as there is a breath in your lungs God will pursue you he won't give up on you he has a plan for your life cuz somebody say amen your disobedience does not cancel God's plan it may delay God's plan you might have to five more minutes go straight and take a u-turn and if you keep disobeying that five will turn into 50 minutes it will turn into five hours and five million hours but I want to tell you something there's no place you can find yourself if the God's GPS cannot point you home no place no turn you can take the God can say you know what you too stupid I don't handle these idiots no no no even if for Israel there were rebellious God still found a way and says I have plans and I have a future for you in Jesus name you know if when I told you I finished reading book of Jeremiah when I got to the half of book of Jeremiah and God first half was so displeased with the nation of Israel because of their disobedience he was so not happy with them and he told them guys don't do this because you it's gonna it's gonna get wrong for you and then when they finally disobeyed God and they got themselves into trouble the rest of the half of the book of Jeremiah God goes bashing under slave masters under land of Babylon God says how he's gonna attack and punish them because they punished his kids who got into their mess because of their own stupidity oh just made me love God more and when I get myself into trouble even because of my own sin and God it doesn't bring God's pleasure but then God gets angry about my problem and not instead of pushing me down in my problem God wants to punish that problem and destroy that problem and set me free that is our God he has freedom he has liberty and salvation in mind like a pastor always says God never warms his hands on people sorrow God never gets a kick out of your tears God never smiles out of your despair God never inside laughs you know how sometimes you have some people that you jealous of for people that you don't like and when they get like some smaller trouble and you would never show it never posted on Facebook up but inside you're like I'm just so relieved let's face it we all have this sometimes God never has that inside he never has the sense of relief when you're suffering even if that's suffering is caused by your own mistakes let's open judges chapter 16 in verse 21 it's a negative verse sad verse yet we're gonna learn something so the Philistines captured him him is Samson and gouged out his eyes somebody say ouch they took him to Gaza where he was bound with bronze chains and forced to grind the grain in the prison if you came around the church or any know anything about stories from the Bible you probably have stumbled upon this story of this normal guy who had this Rambo Superman kind of powers who went around unfortunately beating people this was his way of setting free his people and at this particular time we see that this man he gets blinded by the enemy and when they take his eyes then they quickly bind him and then they make him go in circles and then we see eventually he actually commits a suicide in destroying his enemies I want to speak today about faith now we're gonna get to this scripture in the moment in the title of the message will be called painful positivity faith is maintaining positive attitude in the midst of negative circumstances sometimes when we hear were faith we immediately think of something like a creed a doctrine a philosophy something so deep something so profound but faith let's break down faith and bring it down to a normal level faith is actually having a positive attitude in the midst of negative situations why in the midst of negative situation because everyone is positive when their life is positive and that's not faith faith is not when you're positive because everything is good that's called common sense and if you can't be positive and your life is positive it's most likely you got a demonic attack on your life it's actually very serious but typically normal average people when everything is good you got good grades you got a promotion you got the card that you wanted the person that you like finally responded back and you set up the date you finally got the home group that person you prayed for came the daughter you prayed for God say when things happen that you like you typically normally smile and rejoice why because you're happy when things are happy that's not faith that's called common sense most of us exchange that and think that is faith if I'm happy when everything is good that means I have faith that is not true my friend that just simply means you're a human who has all of his greats working properly real faith is when you can maintain a positive outlook and attitude when everything is negative now most of us when everything is negative we go debit the downer we immediately start going into negativity we immediately start going into loss of a seam we immediately start saying panic mode some people go into depression other people begin talking to young gentlemen today he says when everything's the falling from underneath of my feet I had a gun and I was tossing it back and forth to shoot myself because that is exactly what happens when there is no faith in the negative situations we are negative it's kind of like Titanic Titanic did not sink in the ocean because there was too much water in the ocean Titanic sunk because the water around Titanic got inside of the Titanic and no matter how magnificent and unsinkable Titanic was it sunk to the bottom of the ocean and just the same with you when the problems around you get inside of you you sink that's called absence of faith faith is like that boat that keeps you above the problems in life now during hard times it is natural to be negative and positivity is painful how many you found it that it's very easy to be negative when things are hard it comes like a gift naturally you're like I never knew I was so good at it and to be positive when things are negative is actually mentally painful it would be easier to put little needles into your body lift 300 pounds when you can't lift the bar it would be easier to run a marathon during that time than to actually think one positive thought when everything around you is falling apart and what would you think do you think God is sympathetic to you to me when he sees that our life is negative our circumstances our health our finances our relationships maybe they're not going the right way they think God comes along and sees our negativity he sees our self pity he sees like us been our bitterness and God says you know what actually I understand God does not allow negativity even when being positive is painful look at the father whose daughter is sick in the Bible he comes to Jesus to ask Jesus to go help his daughter who is sick probably high fever he comes to Jesus Jesus let's go to my house heal my daughter as they're walking he receives a text message don't bother Jesus your daughter her fever spiked and there's no more pulse her heart stopped beating she's dead we're making the funeral arrangements leave Jesus alone this is where a heart of the father plunges into negativity depression despair that none of us here most of us here will never understand because we don't have children this is a moment where this is not just when your bills are due and you don't have money this is not just a moment when your daughter or your son is struggling and you're praying and they're not making change this is when they die this is the worst of the worst of the worst of the worst of the worst that could happen and it happens right here and he walks with Jesus and you think Jesus would give him a hug and say listen I'm sorry I'm sorry I feel you I send my condolences I send my sympathies with you Jesus looks at him and Jesus asked him to do something unthinkable and something extremely painful he grabs him in the Bible says he says don't be afraid only belief how could you believe how could you be positive when everything is negative how could you be walking with faith when everything around is a failure but Jesus expects us to have painful positivity when negativity seems so natural when being depressed comes with the flow when being stressed out when being negative in your thoughts and in your feelings and say well you just don't understand how hard and difficult it is and you just want to throw the towel and Jesus comes along and does not pity you but he says rise up be positive even if it's painful he did this with other instances what he almost seemed to not have a regard of how painful it is to have faith and people who had that kind of faith they saw results they saw changes and they saw breakthroughs in their lives as statistics as medical statistics as health statistics says that if you're positive you're more likely live 10 years longer than people who are negative you're more likely fight cold and flu better than those people who are negative you are more likely to outperform your co-workers you're more likely to have happier relationships make more money you are more likely have a lower rate of heart attack and all other hard related diseases you are more likely to recover when you get a disease the statistic studies our human body and notices one thing is that you are prone to overcome your problems when you don't let your problems overcome you why is it that because the God who created you created you he is positive God and the reason he overcomes every problem is because he never lets any problem overcome him he placed that inside of your DNA and God doesn't necessarily protect you from problems but he wants you to protect your faith in the midst of your problems and to understand the Satan's main aim will be to take your faith away because when he takes your faith he takes your fighting chances when your faith is gone you stop fighting you give up he ties your hands and you're like a person who gets thrown into a lake with your hands tied you can't swim why because your hands are tied when you lose your positivity when you lose your faith no matter what the reasons are remember one thing it is Satan who wants to take your eyes out your eyes is your faith you may say why is our eyes like a faith because just like faith so is eyes we can see with eyes the whole picture of the room for example God forbid if there is one person here in amongst us that would be blind would walk into this room they would only see the darkness they will not be able to see the colors they will not be able to see the carpet they will not be able to see the objects the pews they will not be able to see the walls they will not be able to see the stairs and they will walk in the room and they will see the dark they will be convinced that darkness is all that exists in this room they will be a hundred percent right but you and I will know one thing is the darkness is not the only thing that is in this room this room also has pews this room has walls this room has a carpet this room has a handsome man holding a microphone speaking to teenagers this room has bunch of handsome young men and young women this room has lights this room has music this room has different things why because you see a full picture see what faith does is faith lets you see a problem as a peace in the puzzle without faith your problem is the whole puzzle without faith the problem is that's all you see it's just pitch dark samson anointed big but walks around he only sees pitch dark because that's exactly what the enemy wants him to see just the dark I want to tell you something tonight Satan is after your faith he's not really even after other things when he takes your faith this is what happens you come to church your hands can't lift when you come to church your feet can't jump oh no and it's not because you haven't been going to gym you come to church your sour even right now looking at some of you I see like somebody put a vacuum inside of your mouth and suck life out of you you come you live in America you have an AC in your house you got an AC in your car you have a place to live you have a roof over your over your head you even have a roof over your car you got a job you got Starbucks you got a church you got a family but what the enemy wants to do he wants to bring a problem blindfold you with that problem that's the only thing you see and you are like samson remember if Satan can make you blind then he can make you bound if he can make you bound he will make you go in circles without faith faith lets me see the full picture faith sees that there is symptoms of cancer but it also sees the healer it also see that I will live forever in heaven it also sees hundreds of thousands of people who got healed and so I look at this cancer with the full picture of everything else that exists but without faith I only see cancer and 20,000 20 million people who died out of cancer and I'm like Samson I'm walking around blind and then guess what happens I am bound by that cancer because now I'm walking around nobody gets healed I just need to get dialysis that's it I might die very soon I am bound by this cancer and my life reduced to go in circles my friend God doesn't want you to live like that God wants you to live by faith faith is having a full picture maybe you broke today maybe you've been betrayed maybe you're like Joseph and your brothers betrayed you maybe your family has hurt you that is a small piece it feels like a whole puzzle it feels like your whole world is falling apart listen it's just a paragraph in the chapter of the book of your story it's not the end faith says this this sickness is not here to kill me it will be a puzzle in my testimony of healing faith unties your hands and gives you a fighting chance it makes you a fighter faith doesn't remove all the problems it just gives you gloves to fight and when you lose faith you stop fighting you're like a victim thrown into a pool of problems of life and your hands are tied you will drown you will drown and not because the water is too strong not because the pool is too deep your hands are tied you can't swim if you're drowning inside full of negativity when I was younger I used to think that Satan is only after taking my holiness and he just wants to condemn me to hell that if I like have one evil thought or if I compromise I will right away go to hell when I die even though I have a relationship with God and I was so afraid of sinning because I would go to hell and then I grew up I understood a little bit more about the grace of God I understood a little bit more about the love of God I understood a little bit more about sanctification the process by which God produces a God like character within us but then listening to the teachings of this pastor Vladimir Montan from Ukraine and he started talking about how praying and sacrificing financially and doing all of these things to grow your faith and I remember I listened to that I was like I know the Bible says faith comes from the hearing of the word of God means if you read the Bible you're gonna get faith but I never really understood how do you get faith by reading the Bible and what is that faith that he's talking about until when I started to take those steps in prayer and in sacrifices and feeding myself with testimonies and I started to experience that when I'm done I feel this confidence inside or I feel this like I call it sometimes hype but it's this inner confidence that God is on my side I am on the right path everything is gonna be good and everything will work out well and I started to recognize actually that is what faith is faith is not some cloud there it is that inner boldness and confidence that when you hear sing when you hear the songs he is on the throne yeah he's on the throne he's faithful he's a mighty God maybe not everything is the right but but that thing charges you on inside but guess what happens when you compromise your consciousness guess what happens when you go to the bar on Friday night the next morning you wake up and guess what's gonna be lost your faith you won't pick up the Bible not because God doesn't love you but because there's that confidence gone somebody asked you hey bring your friend now no no no I can't bring my friends I oh I just need a lot of work on myself yet hey you gotta come to school leaders no no no no not for me I don't know man I can't come for prayer no man I can't do the whole thing getting up and praying here yeah I can't do that and not necessarily because you're shy when you used to do that it's when faith is gone you lose your righteousness you lose your holiness and you quickly get bound when you get blind you get bound when you get bound you go in circles if you're going in circles I want to ask you a question are you bound if you're bound I want to ask you a question where have you stopped feeding your faith protecting your faith that's why I want to be very specific even when I'm very busy to constantly watch and listen to the Bible to the teachings sermons to testimonies even this week you know I was extremely busy I had to prepare 20 sermons to send to Florida for a Bible school that I'm gonna do their next month to teach there and every single day it was something else coming up and my brain had to be fried with that but even right before the service when I finished preparing I had to turn on some lessons of the school that I'm doing and some other testimonies and literally take a few hours and just to feed my faith my faith was good but I felt like my faith was a little bit weak not because I've done anything wrong which sometimes that's how we destroy our faith but because I've never fed it I had doing so many other things and when you feed your faith you walk into church like a lion you walk into a church you brave you walk into a church and you want some something to call me like I just you walk into your posture changes you have this you have this face inside inside of you it touches your spirit you're looking at other people you it seems like you're walking with these wings and not because of something physical but because of something spiritual that's happening inside it's called faith it's very simple when you feed it it will grow when you compromise your consciousness it will starve and then when you come you're like oh pastor the sermon is not good today the songs are not good so many people are gone no no no no no when the faith drops you go bound when you go bound you go in circles no matter how great you think you are you need to protect your faith can somebody say man we learn another thing about faith is that faith does not ignore the facts but it refuses to be ruled by them faith is not ignoring the facts faith when you have faith you don't ignore the fact that you are sick and those people who say well I have faith I'm gonna throw away all the medicine the doctor gave me sometimes that's that's assumption we're not talking about when you have faith that's it and you can't walk for example and you're dragging you walking and you're falling when you know you can't walk this is not ignoring the facts when you have faith that you're gonna be a milliner that doesn't necessarily mean that you're gonna go buy a Cadillac tomorrow or the God is gonna bless your financial it doesn't mean that you get a loan that you can't afford it just simply means that when you have faith you don't ignore your situation you just refuse your situation to make you into a slave you don't ignore the symptoms you you don't ignore the fact that maybe your dreams are not coming to pass your disappointments are greater than your successes in life it's just you do one thing with those things you say I don't ignore you but I also know you're not it you're not the whole picture there is other things in this room there is God's promises that is God's provision that is God's presence that is God's protection that is God's process that is God's glory that is God's miracles there is so many things in this room I see you problem but I also see other things I see Nazar but I also see the pew I also see Alexandra I also see Bryson I also see arena and they also see yes mean your problem is just one piece in the room faith lets you see your problem as one of them in the room among God's promise God's miracles God's past miracles God's help God's provision the fact you won't live forever on this earth and this problem even if it doesn't get fixed on this earth it will still end when you die it lets you see everything and you walk around and you're looking at your problems you're giving it its proper place it's not a pharaoh it's your slave it's no longer something you ignore but it's not something you get ruled by having faith does not mean if you get a payment for your car and look I have faith that it's paid for and you throw away the payment that's not faith that's called foolishness but it doesn't also mean that if you picked up the payment for your car and you don't have the funds that you go and pick up whiskey to help you deal with the fact that you don't have money that you go around and say him poor little me nothing ever works out to me no no no faith is not ignoring it but refusing to be ruled by it because somebody say man I want to inspire each person this morning this evening and I want to encourage you protect your faith don't watch junk not because you're gonna lose your salvation but because you're gonna lose your faith and honestly on earth this is worse when you lose your salvation when you lose your faith on earth you will live in hell you walk around beaten couch potato no passion no desire no passion was so you're gonna be only playing video games feeling guilty about it playing more video games feeling getting about drinking smoking and honestly and that will never cause anything to go away you'll be a titanic sinking down walk in faith you will walk over your problems you will overcome your problems and you will see the glory of God because everybody say man when you have an optimistic attitude you're more likely to overcome problems in life we have a girl in our home group we have a girl in our home group and her name is a lana's home group her name is a ksana the little xana not the one not xana schmiel the little xana she was an orphan when she was in Russia or Ukraine and she's the Russia and she was telling us the stories of how her dad she only now reconnected with her dad who's somewhere who knows where he was an alcoholic and how she never see her mom and she was dropping the orphanage where the things she mentioned to us the abuses as a little child she endured the beatings physical beatings and these are not like beatings in America where one person beats a child and they end up in prison in Russia there's no prison for the people like that you just do whatever you want especially in those times she got beaten she had to eat go in the cemetery and eat food that the people leave for the dead because there was no food she was traumatized to that degree she says the things i went through it was a crazy extraordinary other sisters that she went through the same things alcoholics today some are dead some can didn't make it and the rest of them literally they're drinking bottle to bottle every single day because that trauma is so devastating if you look at her life you see that she made it through even before she gave her life to jesus she still was able to somehow navigate through finish school get a job get a car and and somehow maintain everything and i remember i asked her i said what was the secret and before she answered the question she showed one of her pictures from that place out of all the people who were in that place she's the only one with a smile she said Vlad one thing that got me through she said even when i didn't know god she said i always remained ridiculously and i don't know for what reason optimistic that things will work out she's like one one time those people who were supposed to watch over us they didn't come home and they seemed like they were not coming home he said i saw the cross they said i didn't even know what the cross meant who it is for she said i came to the cross and i prayed to the cross and i said whoever you are and whatever you are whatever this represents if you can help those people who are watching over me to come back home and he said in five minutes they walked in he says i became more positive he says i went through things that other people will literally kill themselves if they go through half of the what i went through but she says i survived i'm not better i'm not mad because from the beginning somehow it came better and easier for me to be optimistic she didn't even know god you do know god optimism for you is not an option positivity for you is not an option it's a required no matter how painful it gets you gotta be positive you can make ends meet stay positive your god can help you you don't know what tomorrow holds you know somebody who holds tomorrow his name is jesus christ come off somebody chant your neighbor and say be positive chant the other name and say have faith chant the other name and say your faith will not fail