Spirit Comes, Church Goes | Joakim Lundqvist | April 12, 2026

0:00 Friends, my name is Pastor Yookim Lungquist and I want to ask you, have you ever thought that you wanted to do the will of God and obey whatever he called you to do, but you felt afraid and insecure? Well, in this message, I will teach you how to step out in faith and see God move in a brand new way in you and through you. So, watch this video. Hey, good afternoon CCF. SO GREAT TO BE BACK IN THIS HOUSE. I love it so so much. And I just want to first of all honor the father and the mother of the house. Pastor Peter and Diana have been great friends of of us and for many many years. And they're

0:47 such an incredible inspiration and every time I'm asked to come, I consider it the greatest honor for sure. So really really privileged to be here with you today. Now I understand many of you might not have heard me or even know who I am. So just a quick introduction here. Uh my name is Yua Kim and I know this very hard to pronounce my name. That's all good. I want to show you my family right here. That's my crew. I got my beautiful wife Maria who is with me here today. Her first time in the Philippines. Would you greet her? Uh, actually we're about to celebrate our 39th anniversary in just a few weeks

1:33 time. Woo. And then we have uh two daughters, Eveina and Julia, our son-in-law, Toby, and our two grandsons, Zion and Samson. Now, as you heard, we just relocated to the US, but we are from Sweden. Now, Sweden is a frozen nation up in the north of Europe. It's governed by two princesses called Elsa and Anna who reside in the castle of IKEA. Maybe you heard about it. On a more serious note, Sweden is actually one of the most secularized nations in the world. But you know what my Bible says? That where sin abounded, grace would abound even

2:19 more. And by that grace, our church has now become the launch pad of a global movement with over a thousand churches. Can we give some praise to the name of Jesus? And again, I'm so honored to be here with you. We just celebrated Easter, celebrated the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the next thing that happens in the Christian calendar is Pentecost. And I want to give you a little foretaste of the upcoming Pentecost celebration by sharing a message with you that I call Spirit Comes, church goes. Spirit comes, church goes. And you know what? The scripture that we just read from Acts chapter 2, the story of the initial day

3:05 of Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I read that so many times and I knew the story by heart but my understanding of the story turned out to be a bit limited because recently when I read that story again the Holy Spirit started speaking to me and he said Yookim because he can pronounce my name he said yoakim your understanding of this story is that I did one thing on the day of Pentecost but that's not True. I did two things. Not only did I pour out my power on the baby church of Jesus, enabling them to share the gospel with power, but also I

3:52 did something out on the street among the passers by. The same violent wind that announced to the believers to you and I that you are now being prepared to share actually also brought a crowd together in bewilderment outside the church preparing them to receive. So on the day of Pentecost, what really happened by the same spirit was one group, the church, you and I were prepared to share, prepared to speak, but at the same time, another group, people on the street outside were prepared to receive and to listen.

4:38 And the spirit spoke to me saying, "It's the same way today. Every time you come together on a Sunday like we are today and we worship the name of Jesus and we hear the word of God and we stay in God's presence, the spirit is preparing our hearts to go back into our world and share the love of Jesus. But at the same time, someone out there, someone who is part of your world, maybe one of your ne relatives, maybe a neighbor, maybe a colleague at work, maybe a fellow student is right now being prepared to receive the love that you are being prepared to share.

5:24 Somewhere out there there will be some heart in your world that the spirit of God is slowly massaging so that when you share the love of God they will be ready and prepared to receive it. And I started teaching this to our church basically saying every time we meet and you leave church after service leave with the eyes of faith. Leave with a heart that is open. lead expecting to go back into your world and that that world is being prepared by the spirit to receive what you have been prepared to share. And as we did, we started seeing this rise of boldness in our church and

6:11 the amount of people who just went to church and then went back like nothing ever happened went down. and the amount of people who actually started adding faith to the fact that as I go out from this church and into my regular week, I'm going into a world that is prepared by the spirit to receive started going up and we started seeing so many people come to the Lord and I've got so many testimonies uh in connection to that. But let me just share one story out of many. A number of years ago, there was this young guy, 24 25 year old guy from the Middle East, a Muslim young man who immigrated to Sweden from the Middle East. And he ended up in a city about 1

6:59 hour north from where our city is. And as this young Muslim guy started to try to make a new home in this frozen cold nation called Sweden, he had a very weird experience. Cuz you see church, every night when he was asleep, he would dream the same dream. The exact same dream kept coming back every single night. And in the dream, he saw a big auditorium of people, full of people, thousands of people. And they were all standing like this. And you have to understand, this is a Muslim. He's never been to a church. He doesn't know anything about Christianity or worship. So he had no idea what is

7:46 this auditorium. Who are these people? And why are they standing like this? And the dream kept coming back over and over again. Eventually, he thought to himself, "This must mean some something. I have to find out what this means." So, he started going out on the streets of his city asking random people, "Excuse me, do you know of a big auditorium where thousands of people stand like this?" My dear friends from Philippines, let me tell you something about Swedish people. Swedish people are very reserved and introvert and quiet. I'm a very unusual Swede. >> Okay, I see that. >> But but Swedish people don't talk to

8:31 strangers. People Swedish people don't talk to anyone. So just the fact that this guy was asking random people on the street made everybody think he's an idiot. So he nobody would help him and explain to him. Nobody had the answer. So he thought to himself, I need to find this auditorium myself then. So he got on a train to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, because he assumed that well the auditorium that I see in my dream is a big place. So most likely it's in the capital. So he got on the train to try to go to Stockholm and find this mysterious auditorium. Now when you go from his town to Stockholm, the last city you pass by before arriving is our

9:18 city where our church is. So he passed us by and arrived in Stockholm at the train station. He gets out of the train and as he does on the platform, a stranger walks right up to him. Complete stranger. And this man tells the 25-year-old Muslim, "Young man, you went one station too far. You need to go back one station and you will find what you're looking for. So the young Muslim says, "Um, thank you." And he goes back on the train and he goes back one station arrives in our city and he goes up to a random person on the street asking, "Excuse me, do you

10:05 know of a big auditorium where thousands of people stand like this?" And this guy says, "That's Word of Life Church. Everybody knows that." and they give him direction to our church. And he arrives on a bus. And when he enters our church, this is now 8:30 p.m. on Saturday night. Our Saturday night service is about to end. He comes into the auditorium, the first time he's ever been to a church, and he recognizes the auditorium in detail from his dream. The colors, the balconies, everything. This is the auditorium. And what does he see in this auditorium? Thousands of people standing like this

10:52 worshiping the name of Jesus. >> And he stands at the back completely overwhelmed. He has found this place and then the first thing he hears from stage is me giving the final altar call. Maybe you're here today and you don't know Jesus. He hears the gospel for the first time. His heart opens up. He lifts his hands and he accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Come on, church. Can we make some noise in this house? And only later, friends, only later did we hear the story, the full story of how God gave this guy a dream and put it on repeat. how God placed an angel on the

11:40 Stockholm train station to direct him to our church and then we realized this is how much God loves one single human being. This was is what God is ready to do to get one more individual within hearing range of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we were again reminded truly God prepares us to share the gospel but at the same time he prepares the world to hear. Can we say amen in the house of the Lord? So the spirit prepares one group you and me to share the love of Jesus. At the same time he prepares the world out there to receive the love of

12:27 Jesus. The big question now big question. How will the two come together? Because sooner or later, the spiritually prepared church needs to meet with the spiritually prepared world. How can we make that happen? How can we make sure that the anointing of the spirit passes from the church to the world and the gospel encounters the hearts that need it the most? Let me give you two ways this can happen. two ways where we can be part all of us can be part of making that connection between the church prepared to speak and the world prepared to listen. Number one, my first encouragement to you, dare to believe

13:15 that the Holy Spirit is with you. Dare to believe that the Holy Spirit is with you. Now, I want to read John chapter 14 with you. Now, John 14 is part of G Jesus's words to his disciples after the last supper and before his suffering and death. And in John 14, Jesus introduces the person of the Holy Spirit for the very first time. And as he does, this is what he says. I will ask the father and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever. Forever. Let's say that word together.

14:03 Forever. >> Forever. >> One more time. Forever. The spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him. For he lives with you and will be in you. This is fascinating because as Jesus is now introducing the person of the Holy Spirit to his disciples, the first thing he wants them to know is not that the spirit is big and powerful, although he is. >> And it's not that the spirit will give you goosebumps and emotional experiences, >> although he might. Yeah.

14:49 >> But the first thing Jesus wants you and I to know about the Holy Spirit is that he will always be with you. He will never ever leave you. He will be there every single day of your life. He will be with you forever. That's the number one first thing he wants you to know. Even before he goes into the characteristics of the spirit, the first thing he underlines is the fact that this spirit will always be with you every single day. That means friends that there will be days when we feel his presence and how we love those

15:35 days, right? I mean, I can feel his presence in this room right now. I don't even have to exercise any faith. I can sense his presence. However, there will also be days where you don't feel anything at all. >> Yeah, that's true. >> But he is with you just the same. Because the foundation for his presence is not your emotions, but the fact that Jesus promised that the spirit will never leave you. So there will be days when you feel and experience his presence and there will be other days when you don't. Those days are when you need to dare to believe that he is with

16:22 you even though you don't experience him emotionally. So I'm not here to talk to you about Sunday morning. I'm here to talk to you about Monday morning. Monday morning when you wake up with a sore throat. You got way too many bills and way too little cash. You got a flat tire on your car and your goldfish has died. >> Those are the kind of days I'm here to talk to you about. When everything does not go your way, but you need to still dare to believe that he is with you because he is. He's with you every single day. The only question is, will you ask for his help or will you live your life as though he wasn't there?

17:08 And when we dare to believe on a regular Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday, Saturday, that he actually is there, when we start our day saying, "Holy Spirit, I dare to believe that today you will be with me, you will help me, you will walk with me, and you will empower me to be a witness." That's when God's power will start to kick in to your life. you know, uh, many years ago, I was on a flight in Europe. I was going to a little group of islands in Europe called the Pharaoh Islands. I was going to speak, uh, at a Easter conference um, in in the Pharaoh Islands. And I was sitting in my seat on the plane reading

17:53 my Bible, getting my heart prepared for the upcoming messages. Now, next to me, chair next to me was a a huge man. Let let's just call him extra large in every direction basically. Then you'll have an idea. And not only was this guy very very large, he was also really drunk. >> Oh no. >> He was drunk. He was dunk. He was drunk from the moment he stepped on the flight. And he was so drunk I was almost intoxicated by the fumes that came out of his body. He was stinking and because he was very drunk, he was also very loud. And I've already told

18:40 you my dear Filipinos brothers and sisters about Swedish people that we are very reserved and very introverted, which means that if anyone is loud in Sweden, everyone else kind of quiets down. So now we have this guy, my seat neighbor. He's having his own solar performance on the flight. Everything that goes into his mind comes out of his mouth with no filter attached. He just goes on and on and on raving and everyone else is quiet. And they have to sit and listen to this whether they like to or not. >> And and everybody started getting really annoyed with the guy that I was sitting next to him. And every time he talked,

19:28 he also did these gestures. So he's pound bouncing into me and pounding me. And I'm sitting here trying to read my Bible. And you might say, "Oh, Pastor Yokim, holy man of God, I'm sure you were praying for the salvation of his soul at that moment." >> Oh, no. >> No. >> There it is. I I'm going to be very honest with you friends. I did not if I was praying for anything. I was praying for God to move him to another seat. Okay? Upgrade him, downgrade him, whatever grade him just get him off of me. I was not in prayer mode at all. I

20:13 was in annoyment and irritation mode. Maybe you've never been there, but I'm going to be honest with you this morning. So, I was sitting there and he was getting on my nerves, pouching me, smelling like alcohol, talking at the top of his voice. I'm trying to read my Bible and he is messing with my holiness here. But after a while, all of a sudden, the captain came on the speaker and he said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we just heard news from the Pharaoh Islands and there was a storm over the islands and we won't be able to land tonight. I'm sorry, but we have to turn this machine around and go back to Sweden and make another attempt tomorrow morning. We are sorry for any inconvenience."

21:01 And at that news, the whole plane went, "Oh, that's Swedish people expressing intense anger." By the way, if you ever hear a Swede go, "Oh, run for your life cuz you're in grave danger." And everybody did, OH, APART FROM THIS guy who started screaming and shouting at the pilot, and he went like, "Get us down." because I want to see my family tonight. And I was just sitting there going, "Ah, I can't believe this guy." But then all of a sudden, he looks at me, he looks at my Bible, he looks back at me, and he says, "Man, you better

21:49 pray right now." And I was so not prepared for that. I did not see that coming at all. And you have to understand my friends, the whole plane is listening to this conversation now. And I'm thinking, what do I say? What do I do? So I said the one thing that appeared in my mind. I said, uh, no. I said, I will only pray if you pray with me. And the plane went, "Oh." And then he thought for a while and then

22:36 he said, "No, I don't believe in God. Isn't it amazing that he wants me to pray to a God that he doesn't believe in?" >> So I said, "Well, if you don't pray with me, I don't pray either." And the play went "Oh. And then he thought for a few more seconds and then he said this and I'll never forget it. If I pray with you, will the guy be able to land tonight? >> The plane is now dead quiet. Everybody wants to know what will the

23:22 Bible guys say now. And here is where I desperately, desperately start searching my heart for divine confirmation. I said, God, this is the time we turn on the loudspeaker in here and I want to hear that baritone voice saying, "Yes, Yokim, you will be able to land." So, God, this is where you send an angel to bring me confirmation. Gabriel, Michael, anyone really. This is where you take your divine finger and you write in fire on the airplane wall. Yesim, we will be able to land. Let me tell you friends, there was nothing, no word, no emotion, no guarantee, no

24:08 confirmation. I had absolutely zero happening on my inside. The one thing I had was the promise of Jesus Christ that the spirit will be with me always. So with that and with that alone I took like the deepest breath in my life and I said yes if you pray with me we will be able to land tonight. So help me God. And he went, "Oh, let's pray then." And he folded his hands and he bowed his

24:54 head. And I put my hand on him and I prayed and I prayed for a long time. This was extended version director's cut prayer. This was allowing God maximum time to perform the miracle requested. I prayed for his salvation, for his family, for his job, for whatever I could think of. Eventually, I ran out of stuff to pray for and I ended up saying, "And God, I pray that we will be able to land tonight in Jesus' name, amen." And he said, "Amen." And the whole plane went, "Amen." No, they didn't do that. I kid you not, friends. Five seconds later, ladies and gentlemen, we just heard news

25:40 from the Pharaoh Islands. The storm has cleared and we will be able to land tonight. And my big fat drunk friend went and friends just let me tell you I'm not sharing this story to make me look like a spiritual superhero. Quite the opposite. I'm sharing it to remind you that sometimes you will not will not feel anything. You will not have an emotional experience. You will have nothing apart from the promise OF GOD. WITH THE PROMISE OF GOD SAYS THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL NEVER EVER LEAVE YOU. HE WILL ALWAYS BE THERE EVERY SINGLE DAY UNTIL THE END OF YOUR LIFE. AND WHEN YOU

26:25 DARE TO BELIEVE, WHEN YOU LEAN INTO THAT, WHEN YOU ADD FAITH TO THAT, a miracle is going to happen. A miracle is about to Come on. Can we make some noise in the house of the Lord? DARE TO BELIEVE. DARE TO believe that he is there because he's with you every single day 247. The second thing we need to do to connect the church prepared to share with the world prepared to receive is to somehow sometimes step out of the boat. Step out of the boat. And I'll explain to you what I mean by that. But obviously I base my story, my example,

27:10 my principle on the story in Matthew chapter 14. Matthew chapter 14 from verse 22. Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountain side by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn, Jesus wal went out to them walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately

27:57 said to them, "Take courage. It is I. Don't be afraid, Lord. But if it is you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water. Come, he said. Then Peter got down out out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me." Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. You of little faith. He said, "Why did you doubt?" And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly, you are the son of God." I love this story so much. And actually,

28:44 you know what? I love Peter so much. Many times when I've read this story or heard this story being quoted, Peter comes across as a failure in the story. I think we should give him credit. He actually walked on water. And until you and I have walked on water, who are we to criticize him? >> Yes. >> And you might say, "Well, he sank. He got his eyes off of Jesus and he sank." Well, let me tell you this. I would much rather be a Peter kind of person who will walk on the water, do something great for God, maybe sometimes get it wrong, and then be restored and forgiven, and then walk on on the water.

29:31 I would much rather be that kind of person than one of the 12 spectators in the boat who are just sitting there inside their safety zone not doing anything or not making any change for Jesus. So I want to give credit to Peter in this story. But the thing is that we have to understand also where Peter comes from. Peter is a fisherman. Matthew 4 says he was the son of a fisherman. So even from the days of him being a toddler, he would be completely used to the facts about boat and lake and fishing. And one of the first truths he would have learned growing up was

30:17 that if you're going to be transported on the Sea of Galilee, you need a boat. If you have a boat, good. If you don't have a boat, bad. That's basic fisherman knowledge 1.0. And that would been his like life conviction. This is like one of my found fundamental truths in life. But now all of a sudden Jesus comes walking on the lake and he says to Peter, "Come." Meaning that Peter has to step outside of everything he knows up until this point. He has to step away from his

31:02 experience to this point. Step out of his zone of security. And this is where this story connects with you and I. Because you might not have a physical boat, but in a way, every single one of us have a spiritual boat. You see the boat represent represents our safety zone. It represates the area in which we are in full control. Just like Peter felt completely safe and secure in his boat. You and I have a certain area in which we feel completely safe, completely secure and in full

31:48 control. We can manage life as soon as it stays within these limits. And there's nothing wrong with that. You have your experiences, you have your education, you have the knowledge you have gained growing until the point where you are today. However, sometimes there will be moments when Jesus will come walking on the water and he will ask you to step out of your boat. Step out of your safety zone. Step out of the area in which you are in full control. He will ask you to do something you've never done before so you can see

32:33 something you've never seen before. Oh, I hear good things coming out of this Swedish mouth. I'll say that again. He will have you do something you never done before so you can see something you never seen before. He will have you say something you never said before so you can experience something you have never experienced before. Maybe you've always identified yourself as being very very shy and would never ever open your mouth and share Jesus. That's going to be your boat. But maybe today as I speak Jesus is saying come step out of your boat. take that step out of your safety zone, out of the area

33:21 in which you are in full control. And when you do, when you open your mouth, when you share Jesus, maybe for the first time, you're going to see that the world around you is way more prepared to receive than you could even imagine. But we need to take that initial step. We need to step out of our safety zone. And then and only then will the power of God to salvation be released around us. And I want to share one more story with you. Is that okay? By the way, >> please say yes. >> Cuz I'm going to do it anyway. So just feels better if you said yes. Many a few years ago, God challenged not

34:06 only me personally, but my whole church in Sweden to take a step out of our boat and do something we've never done before. You see, back in 2016, 2017, we had a humanitarian crisis happening on the continent of Europe. And the whole thing h was uh like emerged when tens of thousands of Muslims from the Middle East came out of the Middle East as refugees fleeing the terror of the ISIS and the bloodshed that was going on in the Middle East. Many of them headed into inflatable boats and got out in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, hoping

34:52 to reach Athens or any other southern port to find a new life and escape from the terror of the ISIS. And this happened so fast. Within a few days, tens of thousands of people were on their way into mainland Europe. And in Sweden at the very top of Europe, we understood what was going to happen because back then Sweden was very accessible. We had basically open borders. So we understood all these people or very many of them will aim for the south of Europe and then they will walk through the continent of Europe and aim for Sweden where they would try to find a safe haven of security. Now our

35:38 nation is very small. there are only 10 million of us. So we realized that with tens of thousands of people pouring in through our borders, that would be an incredible challenge. And everybody started speaking out in fear. The media spoke out in fear. Even church leaders spoke out in fear. And I will never forget when we heard about the news and we realized that in maybe two weeks this wave of refugees will come in over our borders. I took all of our pastors aside and we spend a day in prayer and fasting asking God, "How do we position ourselves here? What do we do now?" And God spoke to me and I will never ever forget it. He said, "Yo,

36:26 do you want to build a church of fear or a church of faith?" And I said, "Lord, I want I want to build a church of faith." And then he said this, "Faith sees the potential inside the problem. Faith sees the opportunity inside the obstacle. where every other will just see the problem and the obstacle, the eyes of faith will see the potential and the opportunity. And I started realized these people who are coming our way that used to be in Iran, in Afghanistan, we couldn't reach them with the gospel there, but now

37:12 they're coming to us. There's a potential. There's an opportunity here. So we came together as a church and we decided to believe God that somewhere inside this humanitarian disaster there might be a seed of revival. So what we did was we put a big banner on our church uh building saying refugees welcome and we started throwing welcome to Sweden parties for Muslims. We've never done that before. And I remember we started to invite the Muslim refugees as they arrived to Welcome to Sweden parties. And our first faith goal for the very first Welcome to Sweden party was 100 Muslims. If we can only

37:59 get 100 Muslims into our church, that would be incredible because for even for a Muslim to enter a Christian church is a big deal. So we set our faith goal at 100. You know what, friends? We didn't reach 100. We reached 471 471 Muslims in our church and we gave them food. We gave them clothes. We gave them medical care. But more than anything, we told them that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And these Muslims started opening up their hearts. And many of them told us, "We're actually not just fleeing the ISIS. We are fleeing Islam.

38:47 Our hearts are empty. Our hearts are dry." And as they came and as they came in contact with the gospel, God released a wave of dreams and visions. Jesus started appearing to the Muslims in Swedish apartments and Swedish houses. And they started giving their lives to him. And in the course of a year and a half, we led over 900 Muslims to faith in Jesus Christ. Come on, can we make some noise for Jesus? All of a sudden, we have so many former Muslims in our church that we had to start a former Muslim Bible school.

39:34 to train these new converts in the word of God and give them a strong foundation on the gospel of Jesus. And now so many of them has emerged to become leaders in our church and and strong believers in in Jesus and also missionaries as they've gone back home to the Middle East starting underground churches for the glory of God. But I remember a few years ago, I was in a Sunday service like this in our church back in Sweden and during worship I looked over my shoulder and I saw all these former Muslims, sons and daughters of Ishmael who used to bow down and worship Allah.

40:20 But now here they are, hands raised, tears streaming down their face, worshiping the lamb who was slain for the sins of the world. And my eyes teared up. Equal measures of gratitude, but also the fear of God came upon me because I realized we could have missed this so easily by simply not taking a step out of the boat. By simply saying, "No, no, no. We have never done this before. So, we're going to stay inside our safety zone. I love these people so much. Now, you know what? They speak Arabic and Farsy. They can't pronounce my name either. So, recently they gave me this t-shirt.

41:07 Pastor Abdullah Kim, Pastor Abdullah Kim. How beautiful is that? Little did I know a few years ago that I would be pastor Abdullah Kim to hundreds and hundreds of former Muslims who have now come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But it all went back to that decision we made to step out of our boat to do something we've never done before so that we can see something we've never seen before. And I do believe from the bottom of my heart that as we all leave this building with a conviction in our hearts that we

41:53 will dare to believe that the Holy Spirit is with us as we go and we will be ready to step out of our boat, out of our comfort zone, out of the area in which we are in full control if Jesus so commands us. Then the church supernaturally prepared to share will connect with the world supernaturally prepared to receive and God will do an amazing thing in this city and in this nation and all across the world. Can we say amen in the house of the Lord? Can I for a moment have every eye closed

42:40 and every head bowed in this building? Maybe you're here today and you don't know Jesus. And only your heart can tell if you truly know him. You might never have heard of him. Maybe you came to church today with a friend. Maybe it's the first time in a church. Or maybe you once knew him, but things have happened in your life and your heart has gone cold. And even though you might still go to church from time to time, you know in your heart that you're separated from him and you're not sure if you truly are his child anymore. Or maybe you grew up in a Christian home and your security is on

43:25 your parents' faith rather than on your own. Then the door is open for you to say yes to Jesus right here today. And I want to give you the same opportunity that somebody gave me when I was 16 years old. I lifted my hand. I said a prayer. Little did I know that my whole life was going to change completely. And God has that change for you. If you need forgiveness, forgiveness is in this room right now. If you need restoration, restoration is here. If you need healing peace joy salvation whatever you need, Jesus is offering it to you right now. And all he asks is for you to respond. You don't have to try to improve yourself in your own strength. You have just have to receive what he's

44:11 already done for you. And it will be my honor to pray with you and for you if that's you. So what I'm going to do here, I'm just going to ask you to simply raise up your hand. Lift up your hand where you are. I will not call you to the front, but I will want you to lift your hand where you are really high. And that will that's going to be your sign of saying, I need Jesus in my life. And I want to take this opportunity to get right with God to receive forgiveness and walk out of this church knowing that I know that I know that I am a son of God or a daughter of God. There are so many hands going up all over this building. This is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Thank you, Jesus. Because every single one of these hands represents a life that is

44:58 about to change. You can take your hand out right now and I will lead us all in a prayer. And we can repeat this prayer every single one of us at the same time. But if you just lifted your hand, would you please pray this prayer from the bottom of your heart believing that Christ himself is listening and he's about to give you a brand new life? Let's pray together. Dear Jesus, thank you Lord, for saving me, for giving me a new life, for forgiving all my sins. Thank you for taking my hand right now and leading me straight into your perfect plan

45:44 for my life. God, from this moment I declare Jesus as my Lord. I leave my old life behind. And from this day, I will love you. I will follow you. And I will serve you for the rest of my life in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's welcome all of our new brothers and sisters into the family of the Lord. Beautiful. Let's stand up together in the presence of God. There is one more thing that I have on my heart to do.

46:30 What I want you to do, every single one of you, this is a call to any believer in this room. What I want you to do is just for a few seconds, close your eyes again. And in the presence of God, I want you to think about the people you will meet as you leave this church this upcoming week. Friends, neighbors, colleagues, fellow students in your school or university. And out of all the people that is part of your world, people you are likely to meet and encounter this upcoming week, I want you to focus on one person. Just allow your thoughts, your mind to stop at one person. And as soon as you have this person in your mind that you're focused on one person that's part of your world, maybe

47:17 someone who really needs Jesus, maybe someone who's going through a tough time right now, as soon as you're thinking about one person, one individual, would you just lift your hand? And that lifted hand is simply saying, "Yes, I'm thinking about this this specific person right now." Because I want to make this very concrete for every single one of us. I'm going to wait for a few seconds to give everyone the chance to land at one person and then lift your hand. And that hand will will represent someone in need of Jesus in your world. Thousands of hands going up all over this building. This is beautiful. What we're going to do right now is we're going to take 30 seconds to pray for that person that is on your heart

48:03 and in your mind. Because you know what? We're in the presence of holy God. And I want to dare to believe with you that you did not just come up with that person by accident. The spirit led you to think about him or her because he or she is more prepared than you can see with your eyes to receive the love of God. So we're going to pray for that individual. And as you pray in your heart for that person, for that man or woman, I also want you to pray with the perspective of Isaiah, saying, "Here am I. Send me." So would you please lift your other hand as well? And let's just pray in Jesus' name for that person that the spirit led you to pray for. Father,

48:49 we pray right now for all of our friends neighbors relatives colleagues at work, fellow students. Lord, we pray in Jesus' name for that person that we dare to believe that you put on our mind. And Father, we accept the fact that you have prepared us to share the love of God, but we dare to believe that you've also prepared this person to receive the love of Christ. So, we make a decision in our hearts that this upcoming week, we will reach out. We will make a call. We will pay a visit. We will send a text. We will plant the seed of the gospel in the heart of this person. And as we do, Father, surprise us. As we do, Father, come with your spirit. Come with that

49:35 violent wind and bring salvation and restoration and healing and peace and joy into that life. Here are we. Send us. Here am I. Send me. We pray all this in the name of your son, our lord, our savior, the alpha and omega, the lord of lords and the king of kings, Jesus Christ. And all God's people said, "Amen." Let's make some noise in the house of the Lord and lift up the name of Jesus. Amen. Good day CCF family and welcome to Sunday FastTrack where you ask real life questions and we give you biblical

50:22 truths. I'm Aika Makazo from CCF Communications and with me today is our special guest speaker Pastor Yokim Lenis to answer your questions. Hey Pastor Yokim, how are you? >> Great. So good to be back at CCF. >> All right, we'd love having you back. Are you ready to answer our questions? >> I'll do my very best. All right, for our first question, when waves of doubt come into our lives, how can we respond in a way that draws us closer to God instead of further from him? >> You know, that's a great question. And to me, I always think about, you know, all over the airwaves there are all these radio waves. There's so much music and talk and information going on around us. But if I would have a radio, I could still choose which one to tune into. And it's the same thing with our lives. We have so many voices speaking to us and

51:08 we but we can still choose to tune in to the voice of God. We do so by spending time in his presence, reading his word and in prayer. And as we do that and as we grow in that, his voice will become more and more dominant and he will push out fear of out of our lives. >> Praise God. Very simple and beautiful. Choose to listen to God's voice. For our second question, what does it look like to trust God not just when things are easy, but most especially when times are uncomfortable or uncertain? And at the same time, how can we step out in faith and do what God is asking us to do? >> Right? I'm so thankful and so grateful that the Bible doesn't only contain like success stories of invisible avengers who seem to be like way over our

51:54 reality, but it actually displays regular ordinary people who live their lives for God. They struggled with life. They struggled with this broken world. And so will we do sometimes. But the great thing is that God has given us a strong foundation which is the word of God. And as we read the word of God, as we confess the word of God, as we yield into the word of God, our lives can be stable and secure more and more for every year we live. Even though we might pass through storms, we have the stability that the world does not have of the holy word of God that will never ever fail. >> Praise God. And speaking of storms, when we find ourselves focusing more on the storm than on Jesus, what are practical ways that can help us realign our focus?

52:41 >> You know, here's where the church of God comes in. No one of us is called to be a solo artist or live our lives by ourselves. We're call we're called to be together as a family, stand by each other's side, help each other, pray for one another, and support one another. I, for one, would never ever want to live my life by myself as some kind of solo artist, but we're more like a choir where everybody sings and everybody supports one another. So, I do believe the presence of God, the word of God, but also the support of the church making this journey together is a key to stability and faith. >> Amen. And that's a true meaning of church. Well, thank you, Pastor Joe Kim, for answering our questions. And that's it for CCF Sunday Fastrack. God bless. >> God bless you.