← Victory Church: Paul Daugherty
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Today I got a special message for our anniversary. And the title of this message is the Keys to Victory. The keys to victory. Revelation, chapter one. Jesus says these words in verse 18. He says, I am the living one, y'. All. Jesus is not dead. Like, he's still not laying in the tomb. Jesus was saying, yes, I did die. I died on that cross. But look, I am alive forever and ever. The resurrection is still speaking today. Just because we celebrated it on Wednesday, Sunday, a year on Easter, doesn't mean that it stops his resurrection. Life is still speaking today. He says, I was dead, but now I'm alive. And I hold the keys. If you got some keys with you this morning, I want you to pull your keys out, just jingle your keys, and I want you to say, I got the keys, keys, keys. I got the keys. Jesus said, I hold the keys. I took the keys of death, hell, and the grave. Jesus was saying, I defeated the the devil. I hold the keys over the enemy. Keys represent authority. Keys represent responsibility. Keys represent access. Keys represent power. And I'm preaching. If you're looking for note takers are history makers. I want you to just write these words down. Keys, equal authority, access, and power. I need to borrow someone's keys for a second. Jordan, let me borrow your keys for a minute. And these keys that I'm holding, they can unlock things. They could turn things on. I remember when I was younger, I used to ask my dad for his keys, and I'd be like, dad, I want to borrow your keys. And he would say, why do you need my keys? And I'd be like, I just want to take your car for a drive. And he'd be like, you're 14 years old. You need to prove that you are ready to drive. You need to get your driver's permit, then a driver's license. Because keys equal authority and keys, equal responsibility. Jesus was saying, I have the keys over the enemy. Keys, equal access. My dad's keys could unlock doors that I wanted to get into. I wanted to go shoot hoops up at the church. I want to get in the gym. I wanted to kind of act like I was a somebody. Like I had keys to the. To the courts, right? And my dad said, not yet, son. Not yet. Someday you'll get these keys, but not yet. Now I want to go to Matthew 16, verse 18, because Jesus was talking to the church, and today I'm talking to the church. That's you guys. And in Matthew 16:18, Jesus asks this question. He says, who do people say that I am? And the Disciples say, well, some people say, you're a great teacher. You're a prophet. You're a miracle worker. And Peter says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus looks at him and says, bingo. And I tell you, you are not Simon. You are Peter. And on this rock. Now, some people have mixed up the scripture, thinking that Jesus was building the church on Peter. The church is not built on a pope. The church is not built on Peter. The church is not built on Mary. We don't worship Mary. We don't worship the Pope. We. We worship Jesus Christ. Jesus was saying, I'm building my church not on you, Peter, but on the rock of your revelation of who I am. Christ is the foundation for the church. Christ is the head of the church, but he's also the foundation for the church. Any other foundation is gonna crumble. If it's built on man, if it's built on popes and pastors and cardinals and priests and people that did not die on the cross for our sins, it's gonna crumble. But if it is built on Jesus, y', all, we got a firm foundation. And Jesus says, I'm building my church on this rock. And then he says, the gates of hell will not prevail against it. We are that church. Tell that person next to you, we are that church. When I think about victory, victory has outlasted critics, haters, storms hell, all the gates of hell that have tried to stop. And the church is still standing, still going strong, still. Still shining bright, still ministering to people, still sending out pastors and missionaries, still reaching the farthest corners of the earth, still celebrating on a Sunday morning, over a hundred people getting baptized. Come on. We're still here. Somebody say, we are that church. How many all have walked through some stuff that could have taken you out? How many all know it's a miracle you're still alive today? The fact that you're in church is like, whoa, I can't believe. Like hell tried to stop me. But when heaven has stamped you, hell cannot stop you. When heaven has stamped you. When Jesus said, this church will prevail even when the gates of hell come against it. But watch what he says next. In verse 19, he says, and I will give you the keys. Now, he was saying, the church is great, the church is powerful, but the church needs keys. Hold those keys for a second and jingle those keys. He was saying, I want you to walk with the keys of the kingdom of heaven. I want you to have keys to access the healing power of God. I want you to have keys to access the favor of God. I want you to have keys to kick out demons that are trying to. I want you to have keys to overcome depression. I want you to have keys to change neighborhoods. I want you to have keys to unlock cities. I want you to have keys to heal families. I want you to have keys to bring heaven down to earth. And I'm giving you the keys. Watch what Jesus says. He says, I'm giving you the keys. Somebody say, I got the keys. I got the keys to victory. I got the keys to victory. I got the keys to salvation. I got the keys to forgiveness. And I didn't purchase these keys. I didn't earn these keys. I was given these keys by Jesus. Jesus was saying, I'm giving you the keys to victory. When I think about the story of victory, I think about this story. I heard about the most sacred symbol in our state and you might be surprised that the most sacred symbol in the state of Oklahoma is a tree. Now I'm a tree guy and this really like kind of shocked me. I was like, okay, like our symbol for our state is a tree. It's an 80 year old American elm tree. People will drive from hundreds of miles to come and see this tree. It's not the largest tree in the state. It's not the greenest tree in the state. It's not even the prettiest tree in the state. But it is the most important tree in our state. They pay 20 different arborists that will come and take care of the garden and the area around the tree to make sure the tree continues to. It's adorned with posters and letterhead. And the city of Oklahoma City treasures this tree not because of her appearance, but because of her endurance. When Timothy McVeigh parked his death laden truck only yards away from her over many years ago, he parked his truck there and he bombed the federal Murrah building, killing 168 people and wounding 850 people that were in the hospital when he destroyed this building and the bomb went off. How many of y' all remember this in history? You remember the bomb going off in our state? This was over 30 years ago. I believe this was in the 90s when this happened. And when it happened, rubble covered this specific tree. Months went by and tractors came through as they were moving the rubble and kind of helping change that area. And a year had gone by and no one expected to see what would happen. But this tree began to bud. No one expected it to survive because it had been stripped of every single branch There was no green left, no branches left. It was a stump. But something started to happen. Through the dust, through the rubble. Sprouts pressed through the damaged bark, green leaves pushed away, gray soot. Life resurrected from an acre of death. And people took notice. The tree modeled resilience for the victims that had walked through this pain. So they gave the name. They gave the elm tree a name. And the name of the tree is the survivor tree. When I think about that story, I think about this tree right here. This church has walked through so many moments where it could have stopped. But because of the goodness and the grace and the faithfulness of God, we're still standing. We're still walking in Victory. Come on. You didn't walk into defeated church. You walked into Victory Church. You didn't walk into victim church. You walked into Victory Church. When Jesus rose from the grave, he was saying, I'm giving you resurrection life. Anything that was supposed to silence you, stop you, shut you down. You have the power to overcome. When I listen to my mom share stories of what our church has been through, I think about the word resilience. Everybody say resilience. Resilience is this term of, like, unstoppable, like, unbeatable. No matter how many times it gets knocked down, pushed down, stomped on, hated on, criticized, it just keeps moving forward, forward. And that's us, friends. David said in Psalm 145, verse 4, one generation tells the next generation of the mighty acts of God. Each generation passing down stories. Stories. This scripture speaks of generational storytelling. When I was younger, my mom and dad, they would sit with us in the living room and they would tell us stories. I do this now with my kids. I tell them stories. I remember this one story my dad was telling me. He said, when I was in high school, I was running in this track meet, and I was starting to get, like, super winded. I was losing my steam. I was losing the race, and people were running faster than me. And I could hear my dad in the stand shouting, come on, Billy Joe, Come on. And he was running, and he kept hearing his dad saying, come on, Billy Joe, Come on. And then the voice started getting closer and closer until he realized his dad had gotten out of the stands and gotten onto the track, running with him, shouting, come on, Billy Joe.
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And when my dad would tell this story, I'd get so excited, I'd start running right? And my dad said, when my father's voice got closer to my ear, my speed got faster, my strength got faster. He said, I don't know who won that race, me or him. But it reminds me of when Jesus left the grandstands of heaven and got in the race with us. And he cheered us on, and he's cheering you on. And. And when I hear that story, how many all remember my dad telling that story. I hear that story and I think about what David's talking about, that one of the keys to victory is making sure each generation hears the stories of the miracles and the moments where we could have missed it, the moments where we could have shut down. But because of God's faithfulness, here's what this generational storytelling does. It passes down wisdom. It builds resilience. It creates a sense of belonging. We're part of something that's bigger than us. We're not the first ones to walk through hardship. We're not the first ones to lean on the grace of God. We're not the first ones to face battles that seem like we're in over our head. When David was dying, he told his son Solomon. He said, solomon, I'm going to the grave, but before I die, I want to tell you something. God made a covenant with me that when I'm gone, he will be faithful to my family. Generation after generation, Solomon was listening to his dad. He said, here's what I'm telling you, Solomon, I've been working hard. I've saved up enough money for you to build a temple. I couldn't build it in my lifetime, but you will build it in yours. And when your generation celebrates the ribbon cutting of this temple on the day you open up, I want you to remember that your dad paid a price for you to be where you are today. Friends, we are here because of sacrifices, blood, sweat and tears that Billy Joe and Sharon, Oral Roberts, many people that came before us that sowed seed into the soil you're sitting on. We stand here today because of their sacrifices. And one day, our kids and our kids. Kids will sit in here and in buildings that aren't even built yet, celebrating the faithfulness of God and the grace of God. David was telling Solomon, this faithfulness extends from generation to generation. The faithfulness of God has no expiration date. Eleven years after David died, Solomon opened the temple. Three million people came in. There was 4,000 choir members, 4,000 musicians, 4,000 ushers. That's a lot of ushers. And Solomon gets up in front of the people and he says, the same God who was faithful to David is faithful in our generation. Same God, everybody say the same God. 57 years later, there was a Man named Hezekiah. In Isaiah 37, Hezekiah gets a letter from an enemy army saying that he's going to be destroyed, that he is surrounded by armies that are bigger than him. And the letter was so intimidating, Hezekiah didn't know what to do with it. David has been dead for 57 years. Hezekiah runs to the temple, lays the letter on the altar, and he says, God, the same God that moved from my great, great great grandpa, I want you to prove your faithfulness. The faithfulness of God is not based on your goodness. It's based on his covenant. It's not based on your performance. It's based on his character. How many are thankful God's faithful even when you've missed it? Anyone in the room that's ever missed it in your life before, and God was still faithful to you. Friends, God has been faithful to victory, not because we've been perfect, but because he is good. He is faithful. So Jesus was telling his disciples, I want you to use the keys, these keys to the kingdom that will continue to build the church. And I want to give you five ways to use the keys to victory. Five ways to use the keys to victory. The first way is you've got to see it. Everybody say, see it. My dad used to take us to undeveloped land. In fact, sometimes he would take us to land that we hadn't even bought yet as a church. And he would say, what do you see? The room you're sitting in right now used to be a soccer field. Before it was a soccer field, it was a cow pasture. I still remember as a baby walking around with a hard hat near this area with my dad. And he was dreaming about the day that we would have our own church building. And I would say, dad, I see grass. I see trash. Sometimes when it would rain, it would turn into a pond out here. And I would say, I see a pond. And he would say, I see a church. I see a church. I see it in here. You gotta see it in here before you see it out there. The biggest enemy is between the ears. The way that the key works is you've gotta get a vision. Proverbs 29:18 says, Without a vision, people perish. Where there is no vision, there is no. There is nowhere to run. People don't know where to go. There's no direction. But vision gives you a hope. It gives you a purpose, a plan to move towards. So my dad would get this vision in his mind and he would speak it to us. He would say, stir up a Vision. Get a vision inside of you. There was a guy named Elijah, and Elijah did a mighty amount of miracles in his lifetime. But then the day came that Elijah was being taken up to heaven. Second Kings, chapter two. God says, elijah, I'm picking you up on a chariot with horses of fire. And so Elijah's, like, excited about this. You know, chariots of fire going up into heaven. And there's this one young guy that's following Elijah. His name is Elisha. Elisha won't leave Elijah alone. Finally, Elijah turns to Elisha in verse nine, and he says, what can I do for you? And Elisha says, please. In fact, here's how I would put it in my words. Elisha says, you know how you had a great ministry, Elijah? And Elijah's like, yes. You know how you had a lot of miracles in your lifetime? And Elijah's like, yes. You know how you impacted an entire nation in your lifetime? And Elijah's like, yes. Elisha looks at him. He goes, I want to do what you did times two. I want the double portion. I want the double mantle. I don't want to just maintain your ministry. I want to take it to a whole nother level. I want to take it to the next dimension. Now, Elijah, out of his own pride, could be like, how dare, dare you? You know, punch him in the face. But Elijah says, if you see, you can be. If you see me when I'm taken from you, it will be yours. If you see it, you can be it. If you see it, you can do it. If you see it in here, it's possible. But if you can't see it in here, you'll never do it out here. If you have no vision, no imagination for the supernatural. Here's what Jesus said to two blind men in Matthew 9:29. They were crying out to be healed. And Jesus says, what can I do for you? They said, we want to see. Jesus said, become what you believe according to your faith. Let it be done to you. If you can see it in here, then you'll open your eyes and see it out here. And all of a sudden, their eyes were open. There's a lot of people that have sight, but they have no vision. And what Jesus was trying to teach these blind men, what. What Elijah was trying to teach Elisha is you've got to see it on the inside before you see it on the outside. The way that the keys to Victory work. Friends, the room you're sitting in was just a dream and a vision in my dad's mind. But today It's a reality. If you drive down to north Tulsa, at one point, there was just an old field there with an old little oil rig set up there. Today there is the north Tulsa dream center behind our church over here. There used to be just a field that would collect puddles of water. Now there's the victory athletic center right beside our church right here. This used to be a parking lot with a lot of potholes. Now we got the next generation building that was built during COVID when churches were closing down. Our church was building the next vision. Here's what I'm trying to say. The enemy tries to destroy church by destroying your vision. He doesn't have to destroy you if he can just destroy your vision. He comes to steal, kill and destroy. The way we get victory in our life is you gotta see it. Number two, you gotta serve it. You gotta serve it. Jesus said, I didn't come to be served, but I came to serve. Heard this story about this man named Don Ritchie in Australia. He moved to this really interesting real estate. No one wanted to purchase it. It was really cheap, but it was beautiful. He didn't understand. He bought it for dirt cheap. And it was gorgeous. It sat on a cliff. And the first day he wakes up, he's having his morning cup of coffee, and someone walks up to the cliff and ends their life. And he's confused. Then the next day, same thing happens. He goes to the place where he bought this real estate from. He says, what is happening? Why are people coming to my backyard cliff and jumping to their death? And the person said, well, I didn't want to tell you this because I wanted to sell it to you. This place is known as suicide cliff. It's the number one suicide spot in the world. People come here to jump. And he said, why didn't you tell me this when you sold me the real estate? And the person said, I'm sorry, if you want to get out of it, you can, but it's up to you. You gotta sell it. Don, instead of selling it, decided to stay there. He said, instead of seeing it as a curse, I saw it as a blessing. My wife and I every morning would go with our cup of coffee, sit right next to the cliff and wait for a person to come and strike up a conversation. He said, we begin to talk to them, pray for them, offer them smile, offer them a hope. He said, I remember reading this story that this one man who jumped from the San Francisco golden gate bridge there. He said, if one person stops me and talks to me with A smile. I won't jump. So he said, I decided to be that one person that stands between the suicide and their decision to stop it. And he said, because of my faithfulness, over 20 years, he saved 400 people from jumping from that cliff. There's one time that Time magazine took a picture of him literally holding a woman from jumping off the cliff as his wife was holding him and she was holding a small tree. And they saved the woman's life and talked her into living. But here's the point. He made a decision. I'm not going to live my whole life serving myself. I'm going to look for ways to serve others. I'm going to look for opportunities to minister to other people. One of the biggest ways to get out of depression, to get out of a place of anxiety, stress, is to give of yourself to other people. When we make life all about us, we get really depressed and overwhelmed, and we start saying, oh, nobody sees. We become a victim. But when we start looking for ways to serve. David said, I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than dwell in the tents of the wicked. What has built this church are the people that keep showing up and serving other people. I want to honor people that have been a part of this church for many years. If you've been a part of Victory for more than 10 years, will you stand up? If you've been in this church for a decade or more, would you stand up? I want to honor people that have been coming here, loving, forgiving, serving, holding a door open, sharing God's love, giving into this church. Come on. Ten years or more, you've been a part of Victory. That's a decade. All right, if you've been a part of this church for 20 years or more, stay standing. Two decades, you've been rescuing, you've been serving, you've been ministering, you've been praying, you've been giving, you've been showing up. You could have left, you could have got offended, you could have got angry, but you stayed. Rob Hook. I see you back there 20 years, man. You know what? You know what encourages me is that we got people that have been here 20 years that are in their 70s and 80s, but we got people that have been here 20 years that are in Their early 20s over here. I think that's really encouraging. Stand up. If you stay standing, if you've been here for 30 years, 30 years, that means you were here in 1996. 1996, you were at Victory. Come on. Look at y'. All. 30 years. Come on, y'. All. That's amazing. Josh Malden, 30 years. That's really special. Stay standing. If you've been a part of this church for 40 years or more, four decades, you've been coming to this church. I see in the very back up there. Mighty man of God. Anyone else way back there in the top? Right back here? Yep. 40 years. 40 years, Ms. Hunsaker was my teacher. Come on. 40 years, you've been a part of this house. All right, stay standing. If you've been here since the beginning, since 1981, you were coming to this church. I see y' all right over there. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, in the back. Come on. Seven in the back. Golden grads of Victory, give them a big hand. One more time. Come on. In the same church for 45 years. That's crazy. It's crazy. In a world that is constantly looking for reasons to leave. But there's something about just faithfulness, the faithfulness of God starts to rub off on you, and you go, you know, I don't think it's a bad idea to be a little bit predictable, to just say, I'm going to be here. I'm going to show up on Sunday. I'm going to be dependable. I'm gonna become one of those people that just stays at a church and just becomes a pillar over time. I'm gonna sit in my seat, and if someone shows up and they're sitting in my seat, I'll sit a couple seats over and I'm gonna pray for the church and I'm gonna minister. There's something powerful about serving in God's house. I want the band to come up. Number three. You gotta say it. How do you use the keys to victory? You gotta see it. You gotta serve it. You gotta say it. Life and death is in the power of the tongue. Victory is voice activated. So I want to back up a little bit. When my father passed away, right before he passed, I was in the hospital with him here in Tulsa. And he called me into his room, and he didn't know he had about three weeks left to live. And he said, paul, I'm sad that my office hasn't been being used and my car has been sitting in the driveway. I want someone to use it while I'm in the hospital until I get out of here. I said, well, who do you want me to give it to? He said, no, I want you to. I said, dad, I'm not worthy to go into your office. Your office is like the Holy of holies. And he was like, stop it, Paul. I rebuke you. I was like, all right. He said, use my office. I said, dad, like, that's your. You're gonna get healed. You're gonna get out of the hospital and use your office. He said, no, no, no. Just use it until I'm back. He said, here's my key. Here's my office key, and here's my car key. And I said, no, I'm not going to use it, Dad. I took those keys and I put them on my key ring. But eventually I took them off because I just. When my dad passed away, I didn't want to look at those keys, so I put them in my console, middle part of my car. And so time went on. And many nights after he passed away, I would come to this church building at, like, late at night when no one was here, because I felt close to my dad and this building. I didn't feel close to him at the graveyard. I felt close to him when I was here. And so I would come in here. And the Bible says we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. So in my mind, sometimes they can look down and see us and pray for us when we're feeling discouraged. And so I remember just many nights coming here, but I couldn't get in because I didn't have a key to get in. And so I would call a janitor, a security guard. Hey, can you come and unlock the back door of the church? And then come and unlock the next door and the next door to get in to this auditorium? And they would be like, why didn't your dad give you the keys? And I'd be like, I don't know. Why isn't your mom giving you the keys? And I said, I don't know. I'm just. You know, she was. She was grieving. She was walking through the loss of her husband. I didn't want to bother my mom. And I also didn't. I didn't want to have those awkward conversations, like, why do you want those keys? And so I was just like, you know what? I'm just going to ask for help. And so time went on. And so this lasted three years. One night, I was walking through something so discouraging and so sad, and. And it wasn't like things were terrible in the church, but things were hard. And I made it even harder in my own head. And sometimes you can be living in a good reality but come up with a. A false reality in your own mind. And I was believing the Lies of the enemy. That the things in, in our church were going to never turn around and that we were going to have to shut down our school. This one guy was telling me, you know, Paul, if the day ever comes that you, you become the pastor, you're going to have to shut down the school because your dad was the only one that was good at fundraising to keep that school open. And you're going to have to shut down the camp. You're going to have to sell off the camp because you're not good enough to raise money for that camp. That camp requires a lot of money to keep it going and staff out there. And you're probably going to have to give the Dream center over to like Life Church or Battle Creek or Church on the Move, someone else that can fund it. Because Victories, your, your finances are going to end, Paul, if you become the pastor. Pastor. No offense, but you're just, you don't have the skills and the keys that your dad had. And I was believing these lies that like I was going to lose my dad's legacy, that I was going to ruin it all and it was going to just fail. And this one night I was in such a dark place in my mind that I wandered across an overpass. And worst thing you can do when you're discouraged or depressed is be alone. You shouldn't be alone. So come to the church. If you're ever in that place, just come here. But I remember not going to the church that night. I went to this, this overpass. I walked there and it was only a 24 foot drop. It wasn't enough for me to like actually die, maybe break a bone or break a leg or an arm. But I started watching the semi trucks coming and I was timing it. I was like, if I jump at the right spot, I can end my misery. And maybe the world would be better off without me. And maybe everyone would be better off. Maybe victory would be. Be better off without me. And I'm sharing this story because one God delivered me from that night. And I've never gone back to a place like that before. So if you're wondering if I'm okay, I'm okay. You're like, is he good? I'm good. Never went back to that. Had that one very dark night in my life. And what helped me walk away from those thoughts was it felt like my dad was up in heaven, dropping raindrops on my head like scriptures. And this one hit me and I was standing there looking over the bridge and it was like the enemy Was laughing like just a laughter of defeat, like, you're defeated, you're defeated. Your dad's legacy. The church will never make it to the 30 year anniversary, the 40 year anniversary. It's gonna die and the school's gonna die and all these negative words. And this scripture hit me because I was at a place of just deep discouragement. I think the devil wants to try to take believers out with two things. Resentment, bitterness and discouragement. It's like the two tactics to try to get Christians to quit on church, quit on their marriage, quit on God, quit on their dreams. Just bitterness and discouragement. And I was there. I didn't want to be there, but I was there. And this scripture hit me. It was in Psalms, where my parents used to teach us to memorize scripture. The Bible says, train a child up in the way they should go and they will not depart from it when they get older. And I am a testimony of that verse right there. But this one verse came to my mind, and the verse was, I will live and not die and declare the works of the Lord. And I pointed in the darkness, tears coming down my eyes, and I said, I will live. Satan, I rebuke you. I choose to live and not die. I will live and not die. I will live. I choose to live. I choose to live. And I'm getting out of this depression and I'm going to declare the works of the Lord. Well, that. That night was a big turnaround moment. And later on, about a couple weeks later, the season was still hard for us, and I was still walking through some hard things. But this one night, I was locked outside the church. It had been three years since my dad had passed, and now I was in the winter of 2013, early 2013, still the winter, and locked outside the door. Called a janitor, can you let me in? He said, paul, I'm locking up doors in North Tulsa at the Dream Center. I'm not going to be able to get over there for another hour. You'll just have to wait. It was cold and I just wanted to get in. It was cold, it was rainy. And so I start trying to break into my own church. I'm trying to break into the church and my fist is getting hurt. I was like, I'm not even strong enough to break into my own church. Took my credit card out of my wallet, broke my credit card. I was like, nothing's working, you know? And then I went through my car key, my house key. And then it dawned on me, hold on. I got my dad's Office key. And so I ran to the console, and I got my dad's office key, and I thought, now this only unlocks his office. But I guess I've never tried it anywhere else. And so I stick it in there, and I turn it, and it unlocked the outside doors of Victory. And I was like, what just happened? Did God just morph my key? And I'm like, what just happened? And then I walked to the doors down the hallway of our church, and I start using the key on every. It unlocked every single door to Victory. Every door. I had the key that unlocked every door to Victory. And then I, I, I said, God, if it works on this room. Because this room really intimidated me. There's a lot of seats in this room. And when my dad passed, I just thought, it's never going to ever fill up. And I just was so discouraged. And y', all, on Easter last week, we had some seven services that were packed with people coming to Jesus and getting saved. But let me tell you, that night, I stuck the key in the door, and I turned it, and I walked here and I sat on the stage and I cried for two reasons. I cried for the first reason that I've had this for four years almost, and I didn't know I had it. And I was looking up at heaven, and I could just see my dad going, duh, you had the key the whole time. But I think he wanted me to discover it for myself. I stuck the key in Colossians chapter one, and I preached to an empty room that night, and I preached. Christ in me is the master key. Colossians 1:27 says, Christ in you is the hope of glory. And I realized I had been cursing my future with my words. And it was time for me to start blessing my future. It was time for me to start blessing my wife and our future kids. Back then, we didn't have any kids. Here we are 13 years later. We got five kids, y'. All, and the church and the school and the camp and the college and the Dream center and the West Dream center and Victory Manford and Victory north and the prison ministry at 2,400 Bible colleges. Here's what I'm trying to say. Don't walk away when it looks dark, because God has a way of turning things around. If you will, stick with it. Number four. Seize it. Seize it. You got to see it. You got to serve it. You got to see. Say it. You got to seize it. The longer you wait to fight Goliath, the bigger he gets. You got to seize the day you got a carpe diem, you got to go after the thing that God's called you to do. Even if you just progress one inch a year, keep moving forward, keep shuffling forward. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl. But whatever you got to do, you got to keep moving forward, forward. Keep pursuing the dream that God's put inside you. Number five. The fifth way to use the key is you gotta share it, y'. All. What God has done in your life and in this church is too good to keep to ourselves. We gotta share this with the world. There are people in our city that need Jesus. They need Victory. There are people that are far from God. They are counting on you. Would you stand your feet all over this place? Everybody say, see it, serve it, say it, Seize it. Share it. I want to end with this last story. So 2014, my mom handed the baton off to me to start pastoring Victory. And I just want to one more time honor my mom, because she is literally the picture of perseverance. She is such an awesome pastor, such an awesome worshiper, an awesome woman of God. She said to me, she said, paul, it's time for you to run. It's time for you and Ashley to start running and building what God's called you to build. And she said, I'll be on the front row cheering you on. She's been over there cheering us on for the last 12 years, and. And our church started growing physically, but our finances were still in a really hard spot. And someone came to me. They said, it's probably time for us to start talking about shutting down the school and. And get rid of the camp, because it's just the church can't afford it. It's also probably time for us to start. And it was like that conversation started stirring again the anxiety. And I was looking at the finance reports, and I was like, ah, we can't afford this, can't afford that. There's no room for any vision. And I was teaching a class called Supernatural Faith in our Bible College. It was a class my dad used to teach when he passed away. Pastor Bruce Edwards taught it. And then Pastor Bruce said, paul, it's the time for you to teach it. And I was teaching this class, and the outlines were outlines my dad had gotten from Kenneth E. Hagin, who's like a great faith preacher in this city of Tulsa. How many all know Kenneth E. Hagin, and he's in heaven. But, man, I'm telling you that that cloud of witnesses cheering us on and so I was teaching on faith, but I was feeling a lot of fear and anxiety, and I was trying to preach to myself. This guy comes up to me after the class. He's got, you know, he's got a hole in his T shirt. And he says, hey, man. He said, I've been really enjoying your teaching on faith. He said, I wasn't here when your daddy was the pastor. He said, I started coming when you stepped in, right when your mom handed it off to you. And he said, but I just want you to know I think you're doing a good job. And that meant a lot to me, because I just felt like I wasn't. And he said, you're doing good, man. You're doing better than you think. I said, thank you, Lynn. He said, also, I want to take care of some stuff. He said, when's the last time you gave your staff a raise or a bonus? I said, bro, we haven't been able to do that at least since my dad passed. It's been a hard season. We just barely stand afloat. He said, all right, I want to take care of that. And I'm, you know, I'm trying not to judge his T shirt and stuff, because Bible says don't judge outward appearances. But I was kind of judging him. I was like, even if he gives five bucks, we need it. That's all we need. That'll help us. We'll go to Taco Bell and get a chalupa. But, you know, I was. I'm sorry. I was. I was. I was not. I was. I was fleshly. I was feeling afraid. And he said, also, he said, what's the fresh vision in your heart for the church? I said, my fresh vision is just trying to keep everything my dad started open. I just don't want to close anything down. I said, I don't want to ruin his legacy. I don't want to mess up my mom and dad's faithfulness. He said, okay, I got you. He said, but what about you? What's the vision that God's stirring in your heart? Not just your dad's vision, but your vision? So I started sharing some stuff. He said, okay. He said, I got a check waiting for you. And again, I'm trying not to judge the check, but he said, it's waiting for you, y'. All. We went to go pick up the check that day. It was the largest check in the history of our church. Over a million, million dollars that day. This man gave. I called my wife. I called my mom. I said, you're not gonna believe what just came in. I said, we're not gonna have to shut down the school. We're not gonna have to shut down the camp. We're not gonna have to give away the Dream Center. We get to keep it open and there's fresh vision. My mom said, is it a faith check or a real check? I said, what do you mean? She said, you know, in Tulsa, people give faith checks and they don't have that kind of money. I said, well, it deposited, Mom. It's a real check. It's a real check. She cried. She said, paul, your dad believed in his lifetime he would see something like that. He never did. But because of his sacrifices and his seeds, you're reaping a harvest in your lifetime of what your dad paid for in his lifetime and what his dad. Come on. We serve a generational faithful God. He's faithful church. And since that time, you know what God told me when that, when that happened, God said, don't be attached to him. He's not your provider. He's just. He's just a resource God was using. God was saying, I'm Jehovah Jireh, not this man, Paul, that man. He moved that next year. He moved away. But he told me something. He said, paul, when I was sitting in that class and you were teaching on faith, you said a scripture. He said, you, you quoted the scripture that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and that he's able to provide all of your needs according to his riches and glory. He said, but you forgot to mention he owns the oil underneath those hills. He said, I didn't tell you this, but I was sitting in your class. And the reason that I was able to bless you is because my dad and I, we had an oil business. He said, we got into the oil business 50 years ago. He said, I was sitting in your class and he said, I'm just telling you there's more where that came from. There's more than enough from Jehovah Jireh to meet all your needs, to take care of the school, the camp, the dream center, the college. You never need to worry. Let me tell you something, church. You have a Father in heaven who can meet all of your needs. And he is faithful. He is Jehovah Jireh. I want to pray for you this morning. I want to pray for faith to rise up on this 45 year anniversary. I believe that one of the biggest keys to victory is walking by faith.
- [37:57]
B
Faith.
- [37:57]
A
When you feel afraid, when you feel discouraged, when you feel Hurt when you feel forgotten. Walk by faith. Believe that God sees you, he is with you. He is for you. He has the power to provide for you, to show up just on time. Even when you think he's late, he's never early, he's never late, he's right on time. God's gonna get it to you, he's gonna take care of your needs. Here's what I want to do. This is gonna be a big altar call. But if you're here today and you're believing for God to show up in some area of your life in this season, I want you to leave your seat, come and meet me at this altar as a step of faith on this 45 year anniversary to say what God has done in this house, I'm believing he can do in my house, in my life, in my future, in my finances, in my marriage, in my dreams and my business, in my ministry and the gifts and the callings that he's placed in your life. Today is a day to just surrender, to say, God, I'm believing and I am counting on your faithfulness, on your character, not on my goodness, but on your goodness. God, I believe that you're still doing miracles that you can and you will do more than able. And if you're here today and you say, I just need to get right with Jesus, I need to repent of my sins, I need to surrender. This is your day. Come and join us at the altar. If you just need to get right with God and get a relationship with Jesus and get saved today, come and join us at this altar. We're just gonna lift up the name of Jesus we're gonna worship and I want us just to fix our eyes on the author, the finisher of our faith. He is faithful. God, you are faithful in Jes. Exceedingly, abundantly. Nothing is impossible. I still believe.
- [39:41]
B
God, I believe you're working all things
- [39:44]
A
together for my good Lord, you're working it out for people today. Protection God, wisdom, direct.
- [40:03]
B
God, I thank you Lord, that you move, you're working. God, I believe you're working all things for good. I lay my hands on heaven. God, I receive your vision. God, I believe you're working all things for. I still, I still believe you're moving. I still believe you're speaking. God, I believe you're working, holding me for good. I fix my eyes on heaven. God, I receive your vision. God, I believe your word.
- [40:51]
A
He can do it.
- [40:51]
B
He can do it.
- [40:52]
A
He can do it. Lord, I thank you God.
- [40:56]
B
Come alive in the name of Jesus. Come alive in the name of Jesus. This is the house of miracles. We bring everything to the feet of Jesus. Everything in the name of Jesus. This is our house of fear.
- [41:21]
A
He's not finished yet. He's not finished yet. He's not finished with your testimony. He's not finished with your finances. He's not finished.
- [41:29]
B
To your family.
- [41:30]
A
God, I thank you, Lord. Lord, use us for your use our
- [41:40]
B
lives for your testimony of your faith, your grace. This is a house of miracles.
- [41:48]
A
Lord, I pray for.
- [41:57]
B
We believe you, Jesus.
- [42:01]
A
I pray God for supernatural spirit. Nothing is too magical.
- [42:07]
B
You move the mountain and I believe. I'll see you do it again. You made a way where there was no way. And I believe. Come on, say I see you do it. I see, I've seen you will you move mountains. Moving mountains. And I believe. I. I see you do it again. You made a way where there was nowhere. Come on. We believe in this place. I see you. I see you move. I see you. You move the mountains. And I believe. I'll see you do it again. You made a way there was no way. And I believe. I'll see you do it again. Your promise still stands. Great is your faithfulness. Your faithfulness. I'm still in your hands. This is my confidence. You never fail me,
- [43:47]
A
Lord. You never failed me. Your promise still stands. Great is thy faithfulness. Your mercies are new every morning. This is my confidence.
- [44:06]
B
You never fail me. Promise still stands. Great is your faithfulness. Your faithfulness. I'm still in your hands. This is my confidence. You never fail me.
- [44:36]
A
I've seen you move.
- [44:39]
B
You move the mountains. And I believe. I'll see you do it again. You made a way where there was no way. And I believe. I'll see you do it again,
- [45:04]
A
Jesus. Just pray this with me. Say jesus, I believe nothing is impossible. You are more than able to do anything in my life for your glory. God, you're not finished with me yet. Thank you Jesus, for dying on the cross for my sins. I repent. I receive your forgiveness. You rose from the grave and you've given me resurrection life. You've given me the keys to victory. So Jesus, I'm gonna walk by faith and I'm gonna believe that my best days are right in front of me. And I have victory because you live in me. In Jesus name amen and amen. Come on, give God praise one more time.
- [46:19]
C
I didn't get to do this in the other services because it's not the 11:00am I'm sure your reservations can wait, but I know that we honor the legacy of this house and our founding pastors, but I really want to do due diligence as we, you know, step into our, you know, what, 12th year of pastoring, something like that. I just want to honor Pastor Paul for the incredible work that he has done here at Victory. So thankful. So thankful for Paul's leadership. So thankful for Paul's life that he choose to continue to move forward and not just survive, but he fights to thrive in his thought life. You're leading the church with our staff, with our family, and I just think about the sermons that he continues to faithfully go before the throne room of heaven and deliver fresh manna. I'm thankful that our source that. That we have, you know, podcasts, that we have these sermons that he delivers, but I'm so thankful that he continues to point us to church Jesus, right, that he makes space for the presence of God here at this place at Victory. And so I just wanted to acknowledge just the leader that we have had that continues the work. It's hard. We've, you know, so many people wanted Paul to. To fill Pastor Billy Joe's shoes and Pastor Sharon's shoes, but I'm so thankful that he stood on the shoulders, but yet he got his own shoes. You know what I mean? That he's walking in his own anointing, that he's walking in his own purpose. I just want Paul to feel the gratitude. Over these last 12 years, how many of you have been impacted by Paul's life? So thankful. So thankful. We love you, Paul. You're amazing.