Stephanie Ike - I Still Want It (01/19/2026)
This sermon, titled «I Still Want It,» encourages believers to confront and release resentment caused by deferred hopes and unmet expectations toward God, others, or themselves, so they can boldly reaffirm their deepest desires. Using Proverbs 13:12—"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life"—the preacher explains how prolonged disappointment leads to a weakened, resentful heart that buries godly longings. The key conclusion is that embracing pain’s purpose, refusing to cast away confidence (Hebrews 10:35), and declaring «Lord, I still want it» revives faith, brings wholeness, and positions one for the fulfillment of desires as a tree of life.
The Message of Expectation
You see, this past week, you know, I’ve noticed a connection in the messages, right? It’s been a message of expectation—whether it’s your expectation of God based on your perception of Him, or the expectations that you have of yourself based on how you perceive yourself, or you perceive, you know, the things that you’ve experienced. And so, in continuation to that, the title—'cause there’s a title, right? —the title of this message is «I Still Want It.» Now look at that. Wow, that’s what’s up right there.
Now, I wonder—my question for everyone here—I wonder what your «it» is. I wonder what is the thing that used to wake you up in the middle of the night with excitement. I wonder what it is that when God spoke to you about it, you had so much joy, and now you can barely get out of bed. I wonder how—what life has done or where things went wrong—that just the thought of it makes you angry. When someone tries to bring it up to you, you become very defensive. It used to be that there was a time where you were excited, that you know what, what’s that song—you would do it again. And then you’re like, God, um, I’m not sure if You’ve done it yet.
Hope Deferred Makes the Heart Sick
And so, you know what, let’s go to a passage of Scripture. It’s in Proverbs—Proverbs 13:12, I believe. If it is, my biblical skills are getting better. Look at the Lord. 13:12. Amen. Now the passage says, hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.
So there are two things in this passage, right? And I want us to focus on the first one: hope deferred makes the heart sick. Hope deferred—we got background music—hope deferred, right? When something you have been having an expectation of, when something you hoped for seems like it’s being prolonged, it makes the heart sick. It makes the heart weak. The heart is tired. The heart is exhausted. It’s been drawn out.
You see, I wonder a lot of times we find it difficult to say that, you know what, God, I’ve been having an expectation of this thing, and the truth is, you know, it hasn’t really happened. But it’s funny because we never realize that that statement is not like—it’s not a period that goes there. It’s that it hasn’t happened yet. And so there is almost like a tiredness in the spirit. The heart is weak.
And you see, when someone becomes weak, they’re not as active. They’re not as engaged as they used to be. When the heart is sick, when the heart is weak, when the heart feels drawn out, when you feel like you’ve been having an expectation of something and you end up feeling disappointed after disappointment—your expectation of God, or of yourself, or sometimes of people—and we’re going to talk about those different fields there—it becomes weakened.
And I wonder where our expectation… Right, in order for us to have an expectation, in truth, resentment cannot be in the picture. And oftentimes where resentment comes in—because you see, family, when your heart is weak, you’re not engaged emotionally anymore. When you’re not emotionally engaged with the very thing you desire, oftentimes it is the evidence that resentment has kicked in somewhere.
Resentment and Its Sources
And my prayer—my prayer for each and every one here and watching—is that the Holy Spirit will bring to the surface the areas of your life where you may have resentment. Because the thing with resentment is that it is very tricky. You can actually live with it. You can come to the house of God. You can pray. You can worship. You can pray for other people. You can have a prophetic word—thus says the Lord. I’m not sure who said, but you can function with resentment. It only surfaces when that desire, that thing that you had a longing for, you’re having an encounter with it in some way.
And so you never realize that maybe I have resentment against myself because there was an expectation I had for my younger self and the things that I said I would do that I never did. Maybe there’s resentment I have against, you know, a family member—because expectation—can I get a hand held? Okay, it’s coming, because this is up and down—but maybe there’s an expectation I had of a family member, because whatever I believed them to be in my life, they failed at it. And maybe—thank you—and maybe I have resentment against the Lord because what I believed Him to do, in my perception, He failed me or He betrayed me.
You see, on Sunday, PT talked about—and I believe that the stories in Mark chapter 6—you see, he talked about how Jesus… So Jesus had gone, you know, Jesus—I mean, He was doing a lot at this time. He was raising people from the dead, healing the sick, doing all kinds of things—healing people with like seven demons and all this kind of stuff. Then He goes to His hometown, and the people hear Him. They hear the power that He’s speaking with. They see that, you know what, Jesus is actually performing miracles. And I’m sure they have heard about the things that He had done in other towns.
And what was fascinating is that they were offended by Him. Now, for our first-time guests, PT is, you know, our pastor, senior pastor—we call him Pastor T, call him PT—and the message is on our live stream, on our YouTube, and you should watch it. It’s amazing. But he talked about how they were offended by Jesus. And I wondered, you know, why would they be so offended by Him? That word is really heavy.
You see, Jesus, before He went into ministry, right—for 30 years of His life, He lived as Joseph’s boy. He was a carpenter. They even said, «Is this not the carpenter?» They were familiar with Him. Maybe Jesus even had a few friends in the crowd that were offended by Him.
You see, I want you to realize something. You know, something interesting about the Bible to me is that it leaves a lot of open-ended questions. And I think it’s so that we can fill it with our lives. We can see ourselves in the people and not just make them some, you know, angels or something. Like, these were people that had emotions.
You see, for 30 years, Jesus had known and seen people and their family members die. There were people that were sick, and perhaps in His presence, they even prayed to God. Perhaps they even said, «Jesus, you know, can You pray with me? My son is ill. My mother is ill.» There were signs of even demonic manifestations at that time. But it wasn’t Jesus’s time to move as the Son of God.
You see, they had known Jesus in their time of suffering, and He did nothing. And all of a sudden, now You want to show up and start healing people? Where were You when my son died? Where were You when I didn’t catch no fish? You know, back then, things were happening. All of a sudden, You know, where were You when the economy was against me? Where were You? And all of a sudden, You want to show up and heal people, speak with wisdom?
No, check this. Let me bring it home. Imagine, right, you’ve been struggling just financially, you know, tripping. Your account just stays in negative. And you’re like, your best friend all along is like a millionaire, right? And you call him, you’re like, «Man, I’m just, you know, struggling. Just got overdrawn again.» And he’s like, «Girl, you know, I’m just believing God for you.»
And then one day, years later, he calls you and he’s like, «Hey, girl, did you get, you know, this magazine I was featured in?» You know, was talking about how I had all this money for 10 years. I will hang up on you. I’ll say, «Say what?» But now click. Because so you’re telling me for all this time, you could have solved my problem, and you were just there silent.
Personal Testimony of Loss and Resentment
I want to talk about—you see, sometimes we are here, we’re like, «Hey, yes, » you know, but there are things that we struggle with. You see, personally—some may know this story, some may not—my father, as a baby… was murdered. It was a planned assassination. I don’t know what made me more upset—if it was the fact that, okay, did God, did You allow him to die? Or when I found out the story of how he died.
You see, my mother told me later on in life that after they found him shot and bleeding, he was actually still alive. They took him to the first hospital. The hospital denied him and said they required a deposit before they treated him. You know, back then, Nigeria was a little tripping. So the hospital—because the people that found him were strangers, right—they didn’t have, you know, the deposit money. Somebody’s dying here. They take him to the second hospital. He’s still alive. The second hospital said, «We cannot treat him without a deposit.» They take him to the third hospital, and there was some favor in the third hospital, and they said, «Okay, we’re going to go ahead.» But by then, he had lost so much blood and died.
So I didn’t know if I should be more upset that God, did You allow the shooting or You—I mean, You allow that to occur? Or the fact that the favor was delayed to the third hospital when it was too late. So what’s happening here?
And so, growing up, I had a very hard time being vulnerable with people because I had a hard time giving my heart to someone, thinking that they could die or they could go away. Because I wondered… And growing up, you know, the Lord is talking to me about, you know, when the time comes, your marriage would be long and fruitful and all this stuff. And I had a hard time believing that because, although I love the Lord and all of that, I wondered, how is it possible that You will give me something that You took away from my mother?
So without knowing, even though I had the desire for love, I had a desire to want to connect, I had a desire to want to be open with people—that desire was buried in resentment. It was buried in resentment because a part of me was yet to understand or deal with the pain.
So I wonder, in this room, what has been buried in resentment? You see, family, the crazy thing about pain and the crazy thing about how life happens—this morning even connected to that story—this morning, a friend texted me, and she said, you know, her goddaughter’s father was murdered in Gardena, in this state. Gardena—there was a shooting. It was just some guy opened fire in the streets. One person died, a few people were injured, and the person that died was her godbaby’s father. And she said, you know, that his child is only 1 month old.
And I wondered—would it be easy for the, you know, the baby, the, you know, dating or something—would it be easy for the mother of the child to connect with someone again? Would it be easy? I wonder the things that we have suffered. I wonder the pains that we have been through. And is that what is keeping you from experiencing life again?
You see, sometimes when a woman has experienced miscarriages—for example—she’s not as excited to be pregnant. When you’ve gone through one, two, or three miscarriages, the fourth pregnancy is like, well, we’ll see what happens. When you’ve been through a cycle of dysfunctional relationships, you almost give up on love.
I wonder, when your job—when God gave you a word about your career, and then you move to LA and nothing seems to be happening—I wonder where resentment has kicked in. And it is evident in our actions. It is evident when God talks to you about it—do you get excited anymore? Or do you have this disposition of, let’s see what happens? When someone gives you a word, you’re like, well, let’s see what God does.
But God wants you to confess with your mouth that, Lord, I still want it.
Releasing Resentment Through Purpose
You see, the crazy thing—I wondered, I said, okay, Lord, how is it that we release resentment? Right? Because it’s not something you just say, «Let it go in the name of Jesus.» Now it hurts. Okay, I’m going through a real pain here. There was somewhere in my life I felt betrayed by God, or I felt betrayed by people, or I felt betrayed by myself.
There are times that we have these things. And what I realized—it’s not really about letting go of the pain, but it’s about seeing it correctly. You see, the issue I had with believing God for longevity in relationships and all of that stuff was because I looked at the issue in a surface manner: You took my father, and now You’re talking about giving me a husband.
But in truth, everything had a purpose. It wasn’t really about my father. You see, my mother has a calling on her life to be a voice for widows in my country. And if you understand the climate of widows in Nigeria and in Africa, you would understand why there is a need for someone to be a voice. They’re literally the voiceless. But her experience is what validated her voice.
And so if I look at it just on the surface—You took this, so if Your power couldn’t, you know, give her that—why, how would You give it to me? If I don’t understand that pain—that every pain carries purpose—if I don’t understand that the awareness of purpose is in the embrace of pain—then the pain will cause me to be resentful.
The Story of David
You see, I’m reminded of a man by the name of David. There was something I noticed about David—that he could have been resentful, but he chose a different way. You see, there is a Scripture when it talks about a prophet—when the Lord had chosen, you know, there was a king at the time, King Saul. And the Lord said, you know what, I’ve chosen the man after My own heart, right? And He says, you know, I’ve chosen—He tells a prophet named Samuel, «Go to the house of Jesse.» Jesse is David’s father. «And you will pick one of his sons that I will show you—one of his sons that I would choose, that you should pick to anoint as king.»
The prophet goes to the house. Jesse has eight sons. David is in the back tending to the sheep. His father does not even have a desire or even a thought that maybe David could be one of the people that needs to see the prophet. No, the rest of the seven—they lined up. But then the prophet goes by them one by one, and the Lord is like, «I didn’t choose him. I didn’t choose him. I didn’t choose him.» To the point that the prophet says, «Wait, do you have any other sons, or am I just not hearing right? You know, one of them is wrong.»
And it was until the prophet said it—the father could not even initiate and say, «Oh, you know, after the last one didn’t get picked, hey, I have another son, by the way.» It was until the prophet requested it—then he’s like, «Oh yeah, you know, see David back there taking care of the sheep.»
Now I bring this up because there’s a passage in Scripture where David says—in sin did my mother conceive me. Check this: «In sin did my mother conceive me.» I wonder if David felt as though maybe I’m not—maybe I’m not really the son of this man. Because if he says, «In sin did my mother conceive me"—because remember, these are real stories. These are real people that experienced real pain.
Has anyone here ever felt as though you were not the child of your father or your mother? It doesn’t change the fact that that is your biological father or mother, but there was something about the relationship that made you believe a lie. There was something about the way his father might have treated him that made him wonder, okay, did my mom cheat on my dad? Because there is no way—you cannot defile a marriage bed—so there is no way that he would think of his birth as «in sin» when marriage is a covenant by God.
And so I wonder that when we read about David—and okay, David, you know, he conquered—he killed the bear and he killed the lion to save the sheep. I wonder, was he doing that to seek validation from his father? Why would you put your life at risk for sheep that belong to your father that does not even acknowledge you? Was his ability to protect the sheep in such a way that he put his life in danger—for his father to validate him? For his father to understand that, you know what, as long as I’m taking care of your sheep, none has gone missing. I don’t need to add to your resentment towards me or anything. I don’t know what the problem is. I wonder.
You see, sometimes we get angry or we have pain towards people that God has placed something for us in—because of the way they treated us—not realizing that in David, perhaps in his quest to seek validation from his father, there he encountered the protection of the Lord. There in that place, he had an experience of God as his Deliverer. It was in that place that he had the faith to believe that he could fight against Goliath.
You see, family, when we blame people for the wrong, we should also blame them for the right. When we blame people and say, «You never validated me. You never loved me. You never did this"—we should also blame them that something about your rejection pushed me into who I am. And so in every pain, there is purpose.
And it’s not to be afraid to say, God, I still want it. It’s not to be afraid to say, God, I still want validation. Ultimately, David, you know, got the ultimate validation from the Lord. It’s not to be afraid to say, God, I still desire the marriage—even though everything else has been looking messed up.
When you become so defensive—"I’m good, I’m good"—over things that the Lord has shown you, there is resentment that crept in somewhere. And you see, resentment is like the uninvited guest that shows up with friends just to make it more awkward. Like, first of all, I didn’t invite you—then you bring your crew? Like, um, I ain’t got no plate for you or you. And no, for real, that has happened to me before. But because, you know, we are pastors, I said, «Oh, God bless you. God bless you. Hi, how are you? How did you find out about the event? So sorry I didn’t invite you. I didn’t mean to, » you know. But for real though, I didn’t say that part, but I thought it, you know.
But real talk, right? Because you see, resentment is accompanied by anger and fear. You become angry at the thought that you desire something that you fear you cannot have because you were disappointed. But in you, there’s disappointments that you faced in your past. But family, I am here to say the truth—that what you perceived as disappointment served a purpose. It was unrelated to the promise. It wasn’t that the promise didn’t manifest or none of that. There was something about that pain that God is using to sharpen you.
There is something about that. I kept—when preparing for this message—the picture of just a mother who has gone through several miscarriages kept coming up. And for some people, that is literal, right? And in many more ways, it’s very symbolic to how you feel—that you carry this thing, you work at this thing, and it fails. It feels like you cannot hold something in your hand. It feels like every time you reach to grab something—few minutes or few days, few months, a year—it slips away. And then you are expected to believe again. God reminds you of His promise, and you’re just like, well, we’ll see.
But family, have the confidence to say, God, I still want it. You see, the truth is—even in losing a father—and the best father you can have is the Lord—but there’s still a reason why God gives, you know, earthly fathers, right? I’m like, God, I love You. You’re the best Dad I could ever have. But there was a part of me that still wanted a fatherly figure on the earth. And it was very hard for me to say that, but it was the truth. I’m like, God, there’s a reason for that.
And that came in the form of PT. And I share this because you have to be open to the ways in which God would answer your «it, » right? Because whatever your «it» is, it doesn’t die because of disappointment. It doesn’t die because literally something might have died—or symbolically, or however it may be. There is a way that God can still bring it back into your life.
When the Desire Comes
You see, the next part of this passage talks about, «But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.» I wondered why they would say, when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. Because when I think of the tree of life, I think of the Garden of Eden. And the desire they’re talking about is the same desire in your heart. It talks about the longings of the heart.
And I wondered, okay, the Tree of Life—when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. You see, in the Garden of Eden, something that really amazed me is when, you know, Adam and Eve had eaten the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—it bothered God. I mean, there are several reasons—read the Bible, read that whole passage, you know, you’ll be blessed, you’ll be fed—but there are several reasons why God was like, okay. There was something in particular that actually stood out to me. Because He said, now they have eaten the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
You know, God was so particular about protecting the tree of life—because if they ate the tree of life, then now they would live forever, and this would be an issue. So I wondered, what if they ate the Tree of Life first? Because that means there’s something about that fruit that would give them the understanding of the wholeness to not eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I wondered what if it happened in reverse.
And so it was a picture that the tree of life was symbolic to wholeness. Because the devil—or the enemy, or whatever, him—I don’t really care about him, you know—he can only play on your weaknesses. He can only play on your insecurities, on your fears, on your doubt. So there was something about the tree of life that was symbolic to wholeness.
And so it says, when the desire comes—when the desire is fulfilled—it is a tree of life. Could it be that the very thing you are saying, like, «I’m good, nah, you know, it’s all good"—it’s actually killing a part of you? That you’re killing a part of yourself that God desires for you to encounter? That there is something about that thing coming to manifestation that introduces you to you?
Family, God desires you to be whole. And I don’t know—even as we’re going—the things that have buried your desire for life—whether it was the loss, the death of a loved one, the death of a dream, the perception of what you think of how you think a dream might have died—whether it’s in your career, whether you feel like, God, I’ve been tugging at this thing and tugging at this thing and nothing seems to be working—but hope deferred is not hope denied.
And the same God—see, what I love so much about Jesus is that He says, in our weakness, He’s our strength. And so when it says hope deferred makes the heart sick—makes the heart weak—in those moments, the Lord is saying, come to Me. This is not when you run away from Me. This is not when you pretend with Me. No, come to Me.
What in your life are you fighting? What in your life are you so defensive about? For a moment, think about the very things that the moment someone talks about it, you become very defensive. David chose to honor his father anyway. David chose to honor his dad. He didn’t look at his father like, you know what, you don’t respect me, so I’m not going to respect your sheep. I’m not going to respect any job you give me because you don’t even acknowledge me.
It would not have affected his dad. It would have affected him. Because in that place is where he found himself. Family, I’m here to say that the truth is—just like I said earlier—the Bible has a lot of open-ended questions. I can’t really tell you why certain things happen to you. I can’t explain and say, you know what, this happened because of this. But I do know that there’s a purpose. I do know that that purpose is for your good. I do know that the very fact that you’re alive and that you survived that—that in itself is hope.
I do know that there is something about this life that we are still learning about. You see, a lot of times, you know, there’s a passage in Scripture that talks about those that compare without wisdom. A lot of times we have this weight of, you know, this negativity, doubt, depression, and questions, and all these things. And I love when PT said on Sunday, release irrelevant questions. Because we have these questions about, okay, why did it happen for this person? It didn’t happen for me. Why did it happen for that person? It happened for me.
This life is not as it seems. It’s about purpose. There is something that God put within you that needs to be birthed out. And sometimes the ability for that thing to be born—every childbirth is painful. I’ve never birthed a child—I’m praying for favor when the time comes—but I have witnessed. My mother has told me stories. Friends have told me stories. No one said it was just easy.
And so if the process—bless God for all the mothers in the house—if the process of childbirth is painful—if the process of birthing something that God put in you in the natural is painful—but then that pain serves a purpose—then how much more would the very thing that God put within you supernaturally to be birthed—it’s not going to be easy.
And I’m not here to say, just let it go, child. No, it’s a hard thing to lose somebody. It’s a hard thing to feel like you’re giving your best and nothing seems to be coming out of it. It’s a hard thing. But God is with you. He said He will never leave nor forsake you. He said—He talks about—David talks about that, «Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil.»
You see, the shadow of death is everything that is just—is everything close to death. It sounds—when I used to say that passage, I’m like, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death—there was actually a song, I think it was Coolio or something like that—"As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…» That was good days. I used to try to be a rapper, but no. But I do have a good rapping voice, you know. I think it’s better than my singing voice, but my singing voice is glorious anyway.
But I used to recite that passage like this beautiful thing, you know, like the Lord is with me. But then it hit me one day—you know, I was walking, then I see my shadow—and I realized the ability for me to see my shadow is because of the proximity. And I said, if I’m walking through the valley of the shadow of death, it is everything—death is close to it. It is the ability to want to give up. It is everything—but it’s not death.
So it’s everything within the proximity of death. And so the Bible—the Scripture—is already telling us that we are going to walk through experiences that feel like death, but it is not death. Your very presence here is evidence of that.
So family, whatever it is, God is with you. Hope deferred is not hope denied.
Altar Call and Declaration
There are things that are still tugging at me. There are people here—and just stand with me. We can get some strings playing—there are people here that even when we talk about resentment, you have resentment against your own self because you believe that you were supposed to do things at a certain point in time, and you didn’t do them. So now you don’t have any faith or belief in your own ability to execute. But that is also a lie.
You see, as I was preparing for this message—and before—and if you want to start coming down, you know, feel free—but as I was preparing for this message, I understood that there are also leaders involved—leaders in this house—that the message touched you in a way, and it’s a tug in your heart to even come down to this altar. But if you know you’re here and there are desires that have been buried in resentment—come on down. It doesn’t matter if you’re a first-time guest, you’re, you know, regular, you’re a leader—come on down.
Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. If you’re sitting, standing—I’ll share something personal. You see, coming down to this altar is work. Listen, it is not an easy thing. It looks easy because you’re like, come on down—you’re just like, oh, get out of my seat, walk on down. No, no, no, no.
I think it was about last week or two weeks ago—First Lady preached a message where she talked about the sycamore tree. And she was talking about, you know, this man, this tax collector man—and how his desire to see Jesus, and Jesus seeing him. Powerful message. That message moved me in a way that I wanted to cry like a baby.
And when she did the altar call, everything in me was tugging. But in my mind, I’m like, no, no, no, no, no. But I couldn’t even leave this house because it was so powerful. Because in that moment, I’m fighting myself to come to the altar. Because I’m like, nah, no, no, no, no, no, no. You know, this is not for me to be coming to the altar. I am—Jesus, You got me.
But the Lord gave me this picture of what the altar represents. You see, the altar is where you lay things. It’s where you lay the sacrifice. It’s where you lay things down. And even though I didn’t come to the altar—'cause He gave me the picture later on—I didn’t leave this house. There were a few people in this church. I didn’t leave this house.
I just imagine—like, I’m very, you know, interactive in my mind—I imagined First Lady on the altar again doing the altar call. And I walked down. And real story—some people were here, they’re like, what is she doing? I said, please don’t talk to me. I’m accepting the altar call. And I walked on down here, and I knelt down before the Lord, and I released it. I released everything that was on me, and I just prayed over it.
Some of you are not going to have the opportunity—for this place is empty because, you know, parking lot times and all kinds of other things. If you’re here, don’t let the enemy cause you to question why—why was I still in my seat? Lay it down. What is that thing that you’re holding on to? Where is that resentment coming from? Lay it down.
Thank you. I see you. God bless you. You’re not alone. Come on down. Come on down. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
When the desire comes, it is a tree of life. The desire will be fulfilled. There’s no question about it. The only question that God has for you—are you willing to tell Me you still want it? Are you willing to say, God, I still want it? I want it. I want everything that comes with it.
One thing I love—you see, when I would think of—people find this strange or something—when people talk about, um, you know, correction from the—and my mom is very—my mom is, you know, she is firm. She’s blunt. She will tell you her mind like straight up, right? I just love her for that.
And when I would think of—when people talked about, you know, people will talk about the difference between, you know, who is the firm one, who’s the strict one, who’s the soft one—and the father maybe being the strict one or the soft one, or whichever how you have it. And I had friends that used to complain about receiving correction from their fathers. And I’m just like, well, that sounds fun—'cause that sounds like, you know, he’s there. There’s something that he pays attention to for your growth, right?
And so when I told God, Lord, I still want it—I know You took it away, and what, you know, that served the purpose—but I still want it. And I would love, love, love when PT will correct me about certain things. Because I’m like, yes, that’s what I was looking for.
And so everything that comes with it—there are things that you desire, and you desire everything that comes with it. And for some people in this house, it’s not the «it» that you are fighting against. You’re fighting against what comes with it. Because what comes with it is where your pain comes from.
And I’m speaking to some of those people—if you understand what I’m talking about—come down. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. You’re not fighting the thing. You’re fighting what comes with—thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.
It’s going to happen, family. It’s going to happen. There’s a passage I want us to pull up. It’s Hebrews—before we pray—Hebrews 10:35, maybe that’s it. If not, y’all should read your Bible better. Hebrews 10:35—it says, therefore—everyone here, everyone watching—therefore do not cast away, do not throw away your confidence, your expectation, which has great reward.
The very thing that the enemy wants you to feel as though it’s nothing—you failed, you’ve been betrayed, you’ve been whatever—the Lord says, as long as you still got it—you see the reward. The reward—and it’s not just a reward. I loved when Pastor Bena said, you know, I would love to say good evening, but I say great evening. The reward is a great reward.
And the greatness of this reward is connected to—as long as you still have it. As long as you can still use your mouth and say, God, I still want it.
Isn’t it funny that the very thing that we’re afraid—that if I talk about it, I’m afraid to fail again—God is saying that just don’t cast it away. Just don’t kill it. Because what you’re looking for is in your ability to still hold on to it.
I want—before we pray—everyone in this room to scream, Lord, I still want it. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Closing Prayer
Let us pray. Father God, I thank You. I thank You for what You’re doing in this house. They said it—not me—they said it—that God, I still want it. They know what their «it» is, and You know.
Lord, we know that life—the trials, the tribulations, this season—this pulling season, this stretching season—this season that is causing us to be pulled in ways that we are not used to—we thank You, Lord, that it would not cause us to doubt the promise.
We thank You, Lord, that we would embrace the pain because we know it serves a purpose. We will embrace the pain because we know it’s a sign of birthing. We would embrace the pain because it means that there’s some dilation taking place—that something is opening up for us. We will embrace the pain, Lord God, because we know that You’re working on our behalf.
Lord God, I thank You—there are some questions that we may never have answered, but we have You, Lord. And You have given us life. We believe in You, Lord, above the questions, above the whys. We believe in Your goodness. We believe, Lord, that You will never let something happen to us that we cannot bear—that You will never give us above our capacity to handle.
And so when we think that there is something we cannot handle, it’s just a sign to come to You and be reminded that You are our strength. I thank You, Lord, that the shadow is just a shadow—it didn’t take us.
And for some of us, Lord God, we have to learn to survive—then that You may teach us how to thrive. And so surviving is not even a problem—it’s just a process.
I thank You, Lord, that Your Spirit has done what none of us could do. Your Spirit has touched each and every one in this house. It has brought things to the surface. And as they’re at this altar—as those watching are before You, Lord—I thank You that we lay it down. We lay down, Lord God, every resentment—every place in our lives that we said, God, I don’t even know if You ever did it—everything in our life that we have become defensive towards—everything in our life that has made us almost just lukewarm in the faith—that, well, we’ll see what happens.
No, Lord—I thank You that there is a fire that You are reviving within us. I thank You, Lord, that You’re awakening our ability to believe again—to live again. For You have said that You will give us life and life more abundantly.
No matter what, Lord God, we are not going to cast away our confidence. We will not be ashamed. We will not deny the fact that we still want it.
I thank You, Lord, for the testimony, for the miracles, and for the manifestation of Your word—as Your children have confessed with their mouths that they still want it. In Jesus' name, amen.