PrayRadioHey everybody, thank you for tuning into Prey.
Dot com Radio.
My name is Mike Kai, the senior pastor of Inspired Church in Hawaii. Be sure to check out my channel on pray dot com and for more messages and other great content. You can also head over to www dot mike ki dot tv for leadership resources, podcast information, and ways to connect from Hawaii to wherever you are listening from. I hope you enjoy this message right here.
On Prey dot com Radio.
This message is very very important because I'm going I'm jumping back into our series or continuing our series called the Way Back. We need to find our way back as a country. If you were not here last week, last week I was. I was all my way back from Washington, DC. On my last week of vacation. I told Lisa, I feel something stirring in my spirit. I'm normally supposed to take a vacation and not read anything really important, but I took like six books with me.
I downloaded a bunch of books.
And now I feel like I have this bird and that I need to go back to Washington, d C. Not necessarily to our nation's capital per se as a tourist, but I have to go back to the Museum of the Bible in order to find what I've been looking for, in order to find the foundations of our country has been founded.
As I began to.
Look there at the urging of Phil Cook and my friend Mark Benson and I got there to the second floor. I took our crew with us. I was blown away by everything that I'd seen. I went there right before COVID hit. I had one hour I was at the President's National prayer breakfast. It wasn't just for the president, it was for the whole nation. You had both sides of the Isle were there. You had Democrats, you had Republicans. It was filled with all kinds of different people, and they all had all kinds of different political views, but they had one thing in common. They all loved God and trying to do the best with their lives that they could and run this nation. So when I walked into that Museum of the Bible, I was absolutely floored. I could not believe what I was looking at. And it took me aback. It took me back. It took me back to the fourth grade. It took me back to the seventh grade. And a lot of it was a blur, and I wondered, how many of our people in Hawaii and throughout the world do not remember what it was like to learn about the history of our nation. We remember the songs, we remember the anthems. All of that was so important. We sing God Bless America in this church, all of that because why because we believe the words that we were singing. But what was the foundation of those things that you and I had learned. When I looked at the whole year of the messages that I preached since COVID, I said, give me the whole list all of the sermon's series that I preached. We started off in twenty twenty in January before COVID called Living the Dream because we wanted people to dream again. But then all of a sudden, COVID punched us in the face and it changed everything. I came out with a series called Marching through the Madness because I love basketball and I love march madness.
So we talked about marching through the madness.
We're in a lot of madness at that time, a lot of crazy stuff. Then I went into Easter, of course. Then we went into the series called Long Term Battles. Then we went to re enter because thankfully, we were the first state to allow churches to come back to worship again in the month of July.
So we've been doing this for over a year.
And then we went into rebuilding the real you on the Book of Nehemiah, rebuilding our lives, rebuilding the framework of our children, and everything that we've been doing in order to become operable again. But then I started seeing people tripping. So I did a series called Why You Tripping? And that was awesome. That went great, And then I've mixed it up and I threw a curve ball instead of a fastball, and with the Book of Revelation called are We There Yet, I'm saying that we're getting a lot closer than we ever could. But then I went into the Book of Judges because it was more appropriate than ever before that we were heading into the election cycle, and I wanted to talk about what happens when a nation turns their back on God. Now I might be preaching to the choir, because we all love God, we are all in the church, but I want to tell you that I have not been preaching soft sermons. Come on, somebody, can I get an amen? Somebody said, you're not even getting political. You're not political. I said, what are you talking about? I think I'm overly political sometimes, but it does not matter. That was a criticism six months ago. So I went into something called built to Change, because why because normal has left the room and he ain't coming back for a while. Then I ended up doing a messagery called managing the tension. Managing the tension because there's a lot of tension, and how do we then manage the tension? And back then I predicted that the big deal is not gonna be not gonna be anything, but the big deal will be masks.
You wanna wear a mask? You're not gonna wear a mask?
Oh?
How wrong? I was.
Actually the big deal? Now are you vaccinated or are you unvaccinated? Or have you not chosen to take the vaccine? That is the big tension of this day. Then I went into Psalm twenty three, the Lord is my shepherd, because I sensed a lot of fear and I was feeling it a little bit as well. But then I went into a holy week because you've got to do that, and of course it's the most important message that we have. And I came out of that with a secret sauce how to make life work. And then Memorial Day weekend, I did it on the on the bridge of the of the Mighty World, the US Missouri, I went to vacation on at the movies and now here I am. But now when I begin to look at it, thank you obviously staff over there, love you guys. But now when I begin to do this, and last week when we started to take out the blackboard and draw and connect the dots between what was happening with our the framers of our constitution and American Revolution, it goes all the way back to the Book of Moses. When you go to Moses, excuse me, the Book of Deuteronomy and the first five books of the Bible, you begin to actually see the foundations of the Magna Carta, and then you see the Mayflower Compact, and then you see the Declaration of Independence. All of these different documents are absolutely important. Some of you might be thinking, well, this is Hawaiian, we don't have those problems. Yes we do, or why do we have to learn all of this because if you don't know history, you're doomed to repeat it, or or why the history lesson? Or are you getting political. I'm not getting political. I'm getting biblical and historical, and it has happens to have politics in it.
Somebody say, amen.
So one of the biggest things that we are witnessing right now in this country is the over step of government.
The overstep of government.
When you look at the overstep, your liberties begin to be taken away. So in order, in other words, the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence says this.
We hold these truths to be self evident.
That all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I am concerned about the liberties right now. I'm concerned about the liberties. So when you look at the word liberty and the Greek and the Hebrew, which the Bible is written in Old Testament, in Hebrew, New Testament. In Greek, the Old Testament word means swift flight. The New Testament word means a loosening, a relief or rest from persecutions. That's what liberties mean, rest from persecutions. And then Johnny thirty two Jesus said, then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
So if we don't understand the truth.
The most important thing that took place with the Gutenberg Press and Protestant Reformation was when they printed the Bible in German for the very first time. It was no longer in Latin. Now the truth was setting people free. Now they realized that they were free indeed. And then the Bible went into different languages. And then Martin Luther began to protest with ninety five thesis on the church bulletin board, which is actually the door of the church. What was wrong with the church? The big c church. That was necessarily wrong with the pastor, but what was wrong with the church? And when they discovered what was wrong with the church, now the people began to read it, and then all of a sudden you have sweeping reforms called the protest Reforms or the Protestant Reformation. Result of that, we are part of that lineage where we're part of the Evangelical society or the family, or the Protestant or the what do you call it, the Pentecostal churches. Now, as you are sticking with me, it's very important for us to understand that. Sometimes they say that there needs to be a separation between church and state, they've got it all wrong on purpose. As a matter of fact, the late doctor Martin Luther King says this, Throughout history, the church has done what it could to hold back monarchies and governments from seeping into religious liberties and freedoms of their people. There have been times that the church has been involved in the affairs of society, and there are times that it hasn't. But the night doctor King says this, the church must be reminded that it is not the master nor the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. And it must be the guide and the critic of the state and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. True today than ever before, by doctor King. So when you look at the separation of church and state, and you'll hear that all the time, we need to separate church in state.
That's why we can't say prayers and schools anymore.
So that's why we won't open up government with a prayer or whatever it is. You pick anything. You can't even do any prayer in school at all. Nobody can even give a testimony at all in the public school, and even private schools are welcoming that as well. And they're using this excuse because they believed it. They've believed it. But when Thomas Jefferson in eighteen oh one became the new president of the United States, all of these different denominations were congratulating him, and they were celebrating his win because he knew that he was for the church. It was during the Enlightenment period, and during the Enlightenment period. During that period, Paris or France had bought into that. And then all of a sudden you have the seventeen eighties and seventeen eighty nine, you have the revolution of the French. And their revolution was different from our revolution. Our revolution wasn't about taxation without representation. That was only one of the things. The most important thing was religious liberty, religious liberty.
Come on, are you with me?
So now Jefferson says, well, we will make a partition where the state cannot get into religion and develop a state religion like the Church of England had. We don't want that here, and we want the freedom of religious expression. So that's why he wrote what he wrote. As a matter of fact, when Thomas Jefferson wrote that he came under a massive persecution, however, what he wanted to do was keep the two separate, so to speak, only not to involve the state or the government into church affairs, not the church into government affairs.
Right. So now they took it to in the next level.
As a matter of fact, back in eighteen thirty five, a great man named Alexis Detaukville, who came all the way from France because he heard about this democracy experiment that never succeeded throughout the earth in the history of the world, never succeeded. You always had monarchies, always had kings, you always had despots, and you also eventually would have dictators. And it was during this time that Detulkville came from liberal France to America, and he was amazed.
By what he saw. What he saw, let me read it to you. He said this.
He said, there is no country in the whole world in which Christian religion retains a greater influence on the souls of men than in America. And there can be no greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature, than that its influence is most powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation on the earth. Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention, and the longer I stayed there, the more did I perceive the great political consequences resulting from this.
State of things to which I was unaccustomed.
In France, I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing forses diametrically opposed to each other. But in America I found that they were intimately united, that they reigned in common over the same country. That was from a Frenchman that looked at our country and was amazed that America.
Could do both, that we could do both.
And then it goes on to say that the main reasons why the Patriots opposed Great Britain. Great Britain wasn't about taxation without representation that was important.
It was about the religious freedoms.
So the rights of the colonists as Christians may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes.
This is by Samuel Adams.
Excuse me, He said, it would be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the Great Lawgiver and the head of the Christian Church, who is at Jesus, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated or publicly proclaimed in the New Testament.
You're following me.
They want to be They wanted to portray Jefferson and Washington and Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Adams at the beer guy. You know what I'm saying something you go, oh oh Oktoberfest. You know whatever you thinking about all these guys, that they were deists, that they were atheists or at best agnostics, And it is not true.
It is not true.
They understood the framework of this nation would have to be God and the Bible.
Now, last week we explored the Glutenberg Press. I told you about that.
But I also want you understand that last week I talked to you about the Gutenberg Press because I wanted everybody to get to get back to the Bible.
I held up my Bible, I said, this is the Bible.
The same way that Vince Lombardi coached his very first football team with at the time, with the what's the team that the tee s heads. What's the Green Bay Packers? Thank you the Packers. And he held up a football. If you were in here last week, held up a football. And every time he held up a football the first day of training camp in every year and he won seven championships, so it works.
He would hold up the football and he would say, this is a.
Football, and everyone's like duh, but the veterans by the next year they want a championship. Oh yeah, I do that again. This is a football. And last week I came back to you and I said, this is a Bible. This is a Bible, and we got to get back to reading the word somebody, because if you are reading the words, let me tell you what it's a gosh.
I forgure what his name he said.
He said, show me a Bible that's not falling apart, that's falling apart, and I'll show you a Christian who isn't. And when we're in the Word of God, we will not fall apart. We will not be dismayed, we will not be tripping, we will not freak out when we see what's going on. However, you will be concerned. And this week I was concerned, and if you got my email talking about my concern and my heart goes out to you. You also need to know that there is a religious exemption. You can go online and download that. It is an affidavit. And at the same time, if you are in you if your sons or daughters who're gonna play athletics, they have to be checked twice for COVID and if they want to play I think it's worth it to get swabbed again in order to do that, because we need our kids playing sports. I'm hoping they will see the error of their ways that it does not have to happen with minors, but with adults it's a different story. I want to say this that look, it doesn't matter if you are vaccinated or unvaccinated. This is not a church of either either or it's the church of both. Okay, So if you want to get vaccinated, and you've done all the science and you studied everything that, praise the Lord, go get it.
If you've got a peace in your heart, do it.
I also believe this that some of you have gotten your vaccinations and you're like, oh my gosh, I wish I did, and I've been reading all the data.
Well, this is what I know.
In Matthew or Mark chapter sixteen, verse eighteen, the Bible tells us, let me read it to you. Okay, if for some of you have second thoughts that you had the vaccination, I want to put your mind at rest verse fifteen, Mark chapter sixteen. And then Jesus told them go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone. And anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. And then he says this, these miraculous science will accompany those who believe.
They will cast out demons in My name. They will speak in new languages. Look at this. They will be able to handle stakes with safety.
They will drink anything poisonous and it won't hurt them, and they'll be able to place their hands in the sick and they will be healed in the name of Jesus.
So for those of you who are worried that I got to I've got it.
Well you know that's your shield, that's your ultimate shield, in the name of Jesus. And for those of you who have not taken it, you're taking a risk as well. You have taken the vaccination. You're taking a risk as well. Everybody has taken a risk. They have weighed their risks and they've taken their action. And you know what, at the end of the day, we gotta trust God. Trust God, and not your Instagram. In Jesus name, somebody say amen. But when you look at this experiment of democracy, it's never worked anywhere else like works here. You look at Singapore, it's not a true democracy. They're wealthy, it's not a true democracy. I love Singaporeans, by the way, if you're watching, I love you. But if you look at throughout the world, if there is any place that this experiment being attempted by imperfect men with a less than perfect history, who have made many flaws and many mistakes along the way, but you still have to say, this is a great country because God's hand has been on it. It's been on it in his hand, and we need his hand on it. But the only way it's gonna happen, it's gotta start with the House of God first. And so we gotta walk our walk, we gotta talk our talk, we gotta we gotta, we gotta act in love.
We cannot hate. We have to love everyone. That's our job.
We have to love everybody. And that's what we that's what we're called it that we need to be filled with love so that we can love everybody, even your detractors and even your critics, and even the people that might not even like you, because you're gonna be a target no matter what vaccinations are not because why because Jesus said that you are mine and as a result of you are mine, they're gonna hate you. And he said even crazier things than that would happen to me and to you, and we would be led into places. When I begin to look at this and all of these different things, started to think, what is the framework, what is the foundation to all of this? When you look at the main things that I want to focus on with the time that I have left, is right here is the Magna Carta. And I want to talk about the Mayflower Compact. With the Magna Carta. The date was right here in twelve fifteen, and King John was his name, and he was a tyrant. There were barons all across Great Britain who were upset because during that time a king could do anything that he wants. He wants to take your wife, wants to take your kids, wants to take a pig, he wants to take anything it's his. There were no he was he was above the law. There was actually no law. He could do whatever he wanted. There was no due process, no habeas corp, no opportunity for you to stand up for yourself. You can hire an attorney back then. And so now all of these different barons or landowners get him cornered and they make him sign this thing called the Magna Carta.
The Magna Carta means the great Charter.
A charter is something that you sign when you're gonna do something that is big, like a government will have a charter, or churches will have charters. Those are very important. They call this the Magna Carta or the Great Charter. In that Great Charter were sixty three different statements and starting off with the church number one, and adding and ending with the church number sixty three, and in between. It is the church, and it was started by the church, it was instilled by the barons. And finally King John signed it and gave away his rights to be above the law.
He was now held accountable to the law.
He had power, but he had limited power, although he would always try.
To push up against it.
The result was this was the very first document that we know that actually said kings can only go this far and you cannot go any further. That actually was powerful because the Magna Carta actually was being sent out to different parts of the Kingdom of England. But it wasn't given to the sheriffs because if the sheriff read it he was in cahoots.
He would throw it in the fire.
It was given to the priests, and the priests and describes would continue to make more and more copies. They were changed over time, but because of the Magna Carta, this was precedent setting. Now, who got the idea for the Magna Carta? In my opinion, we have to go back to the Book of Deuteronomy. In the Book of Deuteronomy, in Moses's last address to the people of Israel before God takes him to Pisgod peak and watches the children of Israel cross over into the Jordan River. And he would not be able to participate, but he would be no more or he would die.
But we don't know where Moses's body is.
But he could not go and as a result of that, God reminds him of reminds the people of the deliverance out of Egypt. He'll remind them of what God did with the Shimab, and to remember that the Lord your God is one god all of these different things, and reminding them that they were brought out of captivity in Egypt. Here but in the Torah or the first five books often called the Pentateuch, in twelve thirty BC, in the Book of Deuteronomy, the Bible tells us in verse fourteen of chapter seventeen, says this that you are about to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, and when you take it over and settle there, watch this. You may think we should select the king to roll over us like all the.
Other nations around us.
Right if this happens, this is what he says, be sure to select the king as the king the man the Lord your God chooses. You must appoint a fellow Israelite, and he may not be a foreigner. But now skip down to verse eighteen, because verse sixteen and seventeen is all about what the king must not do.
Okay, but look at what he must do. In verse eighteen, Verse eighteen.
When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the levitical priests. So he's got to write it down himself. Then this isn't verse because when you write it, you committed to memory. Then verse nineteen. He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily, everybody say daily, as long as he lives. That he that way, he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees. This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way, and it will ensure that he and his descendants will reign for many generations in Israel. Out of this framework, the Magna Carta we believe was written. The Magna Carta gives us four things you've taken notes today. Is number one, it's a framework and it's Christian. It's a framework and it's Christian. Here's number two. The Church was an advocate. The Church was an advocate for that. Number three, it's biblical in its roots. It's biblical in its roots. When we look at the Magna Carta, we also have to understand that when you leap frog over here to the Mayflower compact.
Well, most of us know the Mayflower because we remember the.
The Pilgrims coming to America and then we have Thanksgiving and then they had a great feast with turkey and pies and brought in the Indians.
Well, let me tell you there's more serious than that.
They got into the Mayflower because they were escaping religious persecution even in Great Britain. They were looking to read their Bibles whenever they wanted to in public. They were looking to preach whenever they wanted to. They were looking to be normal citizens who were Christians. They had persecution where they were, so they decided that they would go to America. They also knew that if they went to America, it was to propagate the Gospel, to push the Gospel forward. They get them to the Mayflower, and while they're on the Mayflower, a huge storm takes them further north than they wanted to be. They ended up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, rather than in Virginia. But before they got off of that ship, Bradford, one of the most important people. Wasn't the captain, but he's one of the most important people signed the Mayflower Compact. He had all of these forty one heads of households. You can see the picture over there. You can see on that side, you can see from this side. He had all forty one heads of household begin to sign their names to what he would call the Mayflower Compact. They adopted it from the Magna Carta, and this would be our rule of governance while we are here. We're not coming here renegade. We're not coming here roughshod. You're not gonna do whatever you want to do. You're not gonna be in your feelings. We're gonna have some government while we're here. So when William Bradford instituted that right about here in sixteen twenty, when they got off of the Mayflower, they already had acquired for themselves a legal document in which they would rule one another while they were there. Of course, that eventually turned into the seventeen seventy six Revolution because they were freemen and they understood that. Now you begin to see the dots that are connected when we look at the Bible and how the Bible was important because of the Gutenberg Press, very very critical to the Protestant Reformation. We look at what Moses's writings, we look at Paul's writings, we look at Jesus's writings. What it did for the Magna carta, what it does for the Mayflower, what it does for us today. This is the context in which we are looking at America right now, that the things that we were built upon are being chiseled away, and those freedoms and liberties are slowly eroding. But then the Bible tells us that Moses is charged to the people to stay faithful to God's commands before he leaves and not deviate from them. He says, you will have life, and you have prosperity. I believe the same thing for this nation. Deuteronomy thirty versus eleven says, this is command I'm giving you today that is not too difficult for you.
Moses' is, and it is not beyond your reach.
It is not kept in heaven so distant that you must ask who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey. It is not kept beyond the sea so far away that you must ask who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear it and obey. No, the message is very close at hand, and it is on your lips, and it is in your heart, so that you can obey it.
Verse fifteen.
Now listen today, I'm giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land that you're.
About to enter and occupy.
But everybody say, but if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long, good, a long good life in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.
Verse nineteen.
Today I've given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Like this, now I call on heaven and Earth to witness the choice that you make.
Oh, that you would choose lives that you and your descendants might live.
You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself to firm to him. This is the key to your life, and if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land that the Lord swore to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the framework. This is what our founding fathers believed in. This is what the pilgrims came over on the Mayflower. This is why they signed the Compact. This is why it influenced the Magna Carta. This is why it's so important to the foundations of our faith. This is why I'm teaching this. It was twenty hours of study gone into this. I can tell you that I haven't slept a lot. I'm not don't take out my violin for me. It's okay, I could play it myself. But I can tell you that this is stuff that is so important to us right now, that this burden is a burden, and this burden is serious because why because now what is our response?
Yeah? Last week, this is my Bible.
I hope it prompted you to pick it up a couple more times this week.
I hope it prompted you to stay in it longer.
I hope it remind kinded you of the people that actually gave their lives that Tyndale died for this. He was burned at the stake because he was smuggling bibles into England.
From Belgium.
I hope you understand that the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther was threatened everywhere that he went because he went against what the common thinking of society was when the church back in those days. Hope you realize, and I know you understand, that are people in China that take a page of this, smuggle it somewhere in their body, and begin to begin to memorize it, begin to eat this word because they know that they can probably never get this.
If they're found with this.
In different parts of the Middle East or different parts of Asia, they will die for it. This is my Bible. This is my Bible. But when I look at what is the way back, it's not just the word of God. It's obeying the word of God. It's not just looking at it and reading it and oh that's nice. It's got to have an effect on the way that I live. It's got to stop me from sinning. It's got to stop me from the way that I'm living. It's got to stop me by the way that I'm thinking. It's got to make me love people better, not make me more righteous more self righteous. But then if I looked at you, what is the other way back? It just made sense that the other way back is that we we repent. You might be saying, Mike, I didn't do nothing wrong, or you might say, Mike, that was pause for effect there.
But you might be.
Saying, Mike, I'm not like other people, or Mike, this is Hawaii, We're not like that, or whatever.
But all I know is this, that revival comes from repentance.
And when we all repent and we decide that we're not just gonna be sorry, we're actually gonna live out what God called us to live out, then we're not gonna be the biggest hindrance where we work or where we live to the gospel because of the way that we live or the way that we're not living. We're actually gonna be the biggest witnesses. By the way that we turned around. They go, oh, now you're serious, I am, I am, or maybe you have been serious. Maybe this message just bolstered you. You said, Okay, I know now where you really stand.
That's good. Or maybe for somebody's like I didn't know, I might not come back next week. I'm sorry. There was a joke right there. Keep coming back.
She might be thinking, Mike, what is repent is repent Those crazy guys that would come down to Wiki Ki and hang on their big signs to tell us that we're gonna go to hell?
Is that what you're talking about? Said, No, that's not that's not repentance. Mm hmmm.
And those guys don't represent us. You have a lot of friends that don't see it the way you see it. Worship team can come up already, Milanda's playing fast. It will be a hard landing. Everybody, put on your seat belt. You might you might want to put your head between your knees, grab a pillow, because we're.
Coming in hot. We're coming in hard, right.
I think we don't want to be the biggest hindrance to someone receiving Jesus. We want to be the biggest bridge. But I think along the way some of us have compromised our ways just in order to reach people. You can't compromise your style you can't compromise your witness. You are who you are. You're a believer in Jesus Christ. You have to be wise as serpents, as innocent as doves. Right now, you can't just speak everything and blab everything, because you won't reach anybody. You're only going to reach people who are already reached, and that's not what we need. We need to strengthen each other who are in the church so that we can go to reach more people because we're gonna be people who are.
Salt and light.
So if you're expecting me to now seeing this more radical side of pastor Mic, that's not gonna happen. No, I have my battle, I have my strategy. I have a strategy, and I don't tell everybody my strategy because why why would I let everybody know my strategy? Because I don't want the world to know my strategy. Here's my strategy. I will speak when I need to, I will stand when I should, I will love it all times, and I will not be pressured. The only pressure that I will get is from the Holy Spirit, and you can.
Trust that I feel the pressure. So if you ever.
Wondered when I'm gonna say something, you don't have to wonder.
You just pray for me because it's about to come out. And when it does, it may not be.
The way that you want me to say it. It's gonna be in my package. It's gonna be with my style, it's gonna be with my finesse, it's gonna be with the package that.
God gave me. I've never been that guy.
I'm gonna be the same guy, but it's gonna get stronger and it's gonna be more intense, but it's gonna be all with love. And so watch and pray and pick your battle when you need to pick yours, and then you stand up and you fight, and you fight the battle. But you don't fight every single one because one of those will take you out. Pick the one that you want to fight, and when you do, make sure you're heard from the Lord, because why because you got to fight the battle that God told you to fight. And at the end of the day, that's a battle that I fought. I didn't fight the other battles before November four. I fought some of them, but I was covert, you know what I'm saying. I was coming in like guerrilla warfare. I was dropping stuff innuendo. I was saying stuff. That's my style. It's always been my style. But now, don't let the smooth paste fool you. If you remember the dear mind that refirst to that refirst to a different kind of drink, and that should.
Me not to talk about.
I feel in my heart that God has uniquely positioned me in Hawaiian I'm born here. I'm Kannaka Maoli, born and raised part Hawaiian. I can speak to the people on the mainland. I can speak to people in foreign countries. Put me in Hawaii. I was raised here, perfect place, the middle of the Pacific. I'm gonna use that. What I'm really excited about is I want to get to next week because this was the hardest message. Last week was easy. This one was harder. Last week was still hard. This is gonna be easier tomorrow, I promise you, because I'll get it. I need a rep We listen to it three times. I'm gonna go to bed, listen to it on the way over, and we'll do it again. But I'm excited about getting beyond the revolution because the revolution is important.
I can't wait to.
See how God moved before those events and after those events, through the Civil War, through the Great Awakening, through Hawaii, and I'll I want to remove the myth that it's all the missionary's fault because they all get a bad rap. You know what, it was the merchants, and it was the business guys.
There were.
There were guys from Germany and Russia. Still here, Go look at Sprecklesville. What happened over there. Lahina was already one of the biggest seal and whaling places in the world. Go look at that before the missionaries came. Missionaries got a bad rap. They could have done better, but they got all the blame. But I really was excited about talking about is how revival swept these islands. And I'm telling you, between eighteen thirty and eighteen sixty, every every person in Hawaii was literate. They read, they wrote, and who taught them that the missionaries. I was standing outside the church and boss and when it was aside of the church in Boston called Park City Church, and Park City Church sent out the very first missionaries in eighteen nineteen.
By eighteen twenty, they arrived here.
Because they believed in Opukahaya and his vision for Hawaii. He died in eighteen seventeen in Boston from typhoid.
He couldn't come. He died, but his legacy moves on.
And how I believe in Hawaii is going to be another powerful move of God.
That it doesn't matter what nationality we are part of.
But I'm also believing it's going to draw a bridge to Hawaiians, and all the things that we learned in the past are going to come back, and all the things that we want to unlearn from the past, we're going to come back. I'm telling you what Titus Cohen in Hilo. The biggest church in the world at that time was in Hilo. The biggest church in the world was in Hilo. It was called highly Congregational Church. They had like fifteen thousand people. In fact, you know that whole place in right stick with me now, the whole place where the soccer fields in Hilo where the tidal wave zone right there, All tense, tense cities because people just wanted to be in the presence of God. And Titus learned how to preach Hawaiian real quick by eighteen thirty six when he got here, and he was fluent in Hawaiian by the time was eighteen thirty nine and the.
Revival hit and they never saw that ever in the world. It's ranked number four or six in.
The history of the world of revivals since Pentecost. I'm believing it's gonna happen here in Hawaiian again. I'm praying that it happens. I think it's gonna happen in the world again. I think we're gonna have one more great move of God. I'm hoping for more, but I'm believing for that in the name of Jesus. That's not in my sermon. That was extra. I just let the cat out of the bag because I was so excited. But okay, real quick, here it is. Here's the heart landing Number one. Soften your heart. Soften your heart. The heart of your heart is God can't move. If you want a heart for God all over again, if you know that you might be not where you need to be, then soften your heart.
That God come inside. Let him come inside.
The Bible says in Exodus chapter eight, verse thirty two that Pharaoh heartened his heart and will not let the people go, and did not good go well for him. You have to harden your heart. To soften your heart and you gotta let down your pride. You have to soften yourself. You have to say, Look, I'm willing to be the first one. I'm willing to say, God, forgive me. I want to say, God, you know my pain, you know my past, you know why I'm upset. You know what they did to us, what people, all of that. You have to be able just to soften your heart. If you want a personal revival, here's number two. Number two, you gotta confess with your mouth. You gotta say it with your mouth. James five sixteen says, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that.
You may be healed.
You have to say it with your mouth because it comes out of your heart. Number three, we have to turn from our ways. Turn from our ways, our ways. We're going this way, and repentance means to make a U turn and then your head in the exact opposite direction. You were walking down this way for sin. You go back to that other way. You were walking down this way with vengeance on your heart. You go back this way.
You're walking down this way, you go the other way. You're looking down, you look up all the other ways.
Turn from your ways Pax three nineteen says, repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out. That times of refreshing online. I love you may come from the Lord. Didn't mean to ignore you. Here's number four.
Number four. You have to walk in obedience. Walk in obedience.
It's not enough to read all of this and go yeah, yeah, God, forgive me. I'm going in the opposite direction, but no longer obey him.
You know what it is, walk in obedience.
John fourteen, verse twenty one says, those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me.
And because they love me, my Father will love.
Them, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.
Look at the first part of that.
It says, those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. We can say we love God, but are you following him? That's real love, that's true love. Tonight, let's pause for a moment. Let's pause for a moment. You close your eyes and maybe bow your heads right now and just be still before God and ask him.
Lord. This is a holy moment for a lot of people.
Sacred session, so to speak, a time where we're looking at the Lord and we're saying God is at this moment, right here, right now, that you speak into my heart, that you speak into me. And I really believe that before there's any revival in a land, it has to start with its people. It's not about the Ainah. It's all about the person. It's not about anything else. Since the land is perpetuated in righteousness, but they finish off that can come Heha the third world that perpetuated in righteousness in Esu Cristo.
So without Jesus Christ, there is no righteousness. It's just righteousness.
And so when we understand that that God's got something in our hearts that is not about the land, that if my people will call by my name, will hummele themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from my wicked ways.
They're wicked ways, and.
I will hear from heaven and I will come down and I will heal their land. It's more than the land that's need healing. It's the hearts that need healing. And so if today, if you're going, Mike, I'm you've been speaking and my heart's been getting tender.
I feel it.
This is a burden I feel like I want to yell. I feel like I need to say something. I feel like I need to raise my hand. I feel like I need to say it's me. I need to come to Christ, say I need to come back to Jesus, or I need to repent, and I don't want to make a big to do about it, but it's inside of me. I can feel it right now. If that's you, then let's start with the House of God first of getting on our knees before God. I'm saying, Lord that I've sinned against you, Father, I have Jesus, I.
Have not acknowledged you. I've been running roughshod in the way that I want you. I got caught up.
In a little bit of that movement, and caught up in that movement, I forgot that at the end of the day, that it was all about you. If that's you today, then maybe that you've gone off track and even one percent is a lot down the road. Or maybe he might be saying that, you know I was, I've fallen off the tracks whatever it is, or I even thought about just burning the tracks whatever it is. Amen, I'm telling you right now, there is no life like an obedient life. The best life that you could ever live is a life that is obedient to God.
I'm a testimony of that.
I'm a testimony of someone that said I'm gonna live for God because when I was twenty one, I could have done anything that I wanted. When I was a single dad, I could have said forget it, I'm not gonna go to church. When I was raising my girl, I could have done whatever I wanted. But I didn't because I knew that if I was obedient to God, God would bless me. And he did, and he did. With relationships on altars, I put hurt on altars. I humbled myself before God, and I need to do it more often. But what about you? Anybody in this room is saying I feel the same way in a different way. I feel the same thing in a different in a different arena. If that's you today, then then I just want us just to just worship.
But I would love for you to not let let this moment slip you.
By because I was afraid to call you out, and I was afraid that you would be embarrassed, or I was afraid that nobody would respond, or I was afraid that everybody's good everybody.
Good in this place. I dot it, I dot it.
I think everybody's in a most people, a lot of us in someplace are not good, whereas way as we know, we could be. So if that's you, as the lights have been dimmed, as the lights have been dimmed or whatever, and in this room or on the online, if you're saying, Mike Man caught me in that prayer that you're about to pray online, just engage right here in this room.
This is Mike. I'm right there. I want to get back.
And it doesn't mean it could mean anything, but it doesn't have to mean a lot. It could just I mean, it doesn't have to mean like, oh, I've been a wretched sinner.
Yeah, it could be that.
It could be just I have just not acknowledged God and I need to repent. You know, you should repent even of the most littlest things, the littlest things unforgiveness, repenting of lying, repenting of harboring an offense. All these things should be repented of because you want your heart to be a clean vessel, and when it's a clean vessel, God can use you. So maybe you gotta repent of gossip. Maybe you gotta repent of just of a vicious spirit.
Maybe you gotta repent of just being indifferent, even that one.
There's all kinds of levels and all kinds of things that we can pick, but it starts in the House of God, and it starts with me. So I'm just gonna stand right here and said, Lord, forgive me, forgive me. Forgive me of being upset. Forgive me of of not trusting you.
Forgive me of taking matters into my own hands at times.
God, Forgive me for being a little too harsh, a little too strong. Forgive me I'm not relying on you by going by experience. Forgive me by for looking at my Instagram too much, taking my eyes off you. Forgive me of being worried about what other people think about about me. Forgive me. Forgive me for the times that Forgive me for the times that I didn't trust. Forgive me for the times that.
See anybody here, you don't have to kneel, but you should stand, because it takes a physical kind of move to God, do something in your heart.
I can hear it. It's good, it's good.
Soften your heart, Soften that heart, open that mouth turned in the other direction, ask God to come the times of refreshing would pour into us. Lord, come right now, blow like a mighty rushing wind, fill our this room with tongues of fire over us. Put us in one accord. Let us be a church that is united. Let not the enemy, or let not the enemy use another entity to bring vision amongst us. And we are brothers and christisters in Christ, we are yours, Lord, God. We asked that you come powerfully in our lives, that you move, move like a mighty rushing wind. That you come and forgive your sons and your daughters who have just fallen short of your glorious standard.
God, we realize just how much we need you.
That we've looked to our own vices and our own devices. God, we have self medicated, and we have put things away. We have pontificated. We have spoken too much, we have said not enough. We have not stood up. We've too often sat down. We have not been aggressive, We've been too passive at times. But God, I all I know is this is that we need you now more than ever before. In Hawaii. God, come and move in my heart. Forgive your sons and your daughters for turning. Father, I pray right now that as we have stood up and took a stand in this house of the Lord, the Father, that you just forgive and breathe and bless in the name of Jesus. Come on, hey, everybody, thanks again for tuning into pray dot com Radio. To find more of my messages, podcasts, and leadership resources, go to pray dot com or head directly to my website at mike Kai dot tv mike Kai dot tv for curated content. Once again, this is Mike Cott, senior pastor of Inspired Church in Hawaii. Thank you so much for joining me on pray dot com Radio. Aloha and God bless
