If You Don’t Fight, You Don’t Win -Pastor Hope Carpenter

So Lord, I just thank you for this time that there is no time and space in you. There is no distance in you. Jesus. Lord, we can be here in California and this message can go out to somebody in New Zealand. This message can go all the way to China. It can go to Georgia, it can go to the Philippines, it can go to the Bahamas. God, there is no time and space and distance with you. You are everywhere. You are omnipresent, you are omnipres, omniscient. You know everything. God, you are everywhere at the same time. Because we serve such a mighty God, Lord, we. We cannot put limits on you, God, what you can do in a time right here together, when we're gathering to worship and we're gathering to teach and break down the word of God. Lord, it is more powerful than a two edged sword. It cuts and it divides and it shapes us and it changes us. Lord, we worship you. You are so big, you are so wonderful. Not even put words on who you are and what you are. God, we worship you today. You are magnificent, you are glorious. And I pray God that this time together ministers to and changes the lives of people all over the world. Lord, let it change us. God, let it forever change me. God, do something so quick and powerful in me today. The people on this stage, the people listening, the people playing, the people taping. God, do something powerful in this room. Do something powerful in the airwaves. In Jesus name we worship you. Come on, give God a praise right now. Because he's good, because he's worthy, because he's big, because he deserves it, because he's glorious, because he's wonderful. Oh, you are so magnificent. Jesus, words can't even describe what we feel for you. But today we attempt to worship you like you deserve. God, oh Jesus, we worship you. I worship you. Jesus.

O Jesus, I worship you. Almighty God. There is none like you. I worship you, O prince of peace. That is what I long to do. I give you praise. How far you are my righteousness.

Oh, I'm dirty in my own right. God. But when I stand before you, God, covered in the blood.

I worship you.

Woo.

Almighty God, mighty God. Yeah. There is none like you.

Come on, sing with me people.

Oh, I wore you. Just lift your hands and worship Almighty God. There is none like you.

Can anybody come up even beside you?

Jesus, I worship you. Oh prince of peace. That is what I long to do. I give you praise.

I give you praise.

For you are my righteousness.

Oh, I'm so thankful for that today.

I worship you, Almighty God. There is none like you. There is.

Like you.

There is none like you.

Oh, Jesus, you have been a friend that sticks closer than a brother. You have been there when people have rejected us, Lord, when people have forgot about us, God, when we thought we were doing it on our own, you were there the whole time. Even when we felt alone, God, you were still there, protecting us, shielding us, guiding us, walking with us. Oh, you are the great comforter, Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost. Go to wherever these people are today, tonight, listening to this message, joining in, in worship, and wrap your arms around them. Let them feel the tangible presence, the sweet presence of the Holy Ghost right where they are in their room tonight, whether it be a bed or a dining room or a workspace, God. Or in prison. Wherever this message in this tape, this recording reaches somebody tonight, sweep in Holy Spirit. And be what a father can't be. Be what a mother can't be. Be what bank accounts can't be. And 401ks can't be. Be everything that they need tonight. Jesus, encourage your people. Lord, we lift you high. We lift. We are nothing, God, and you are everything. It's only because of you we woke up this morning and we had breath in our lungs and the ability to brush our own teeth and comb our own hair. God, we're forever grateful. We lift our hands and we worship you, Jesus. We will always give you praise, for you alone are worthy. You are worthy. You are worthy. You are worthy. God, we give you praise. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Encourage your people tonight. God. Draw us close to you, Jesus. Let us hear your voice, God. Give us something, God, to hold on to in these troubled times. Lord, I decree and declare tonight that. That you are going to breathe life into dark places and into dry places where people almost thought they were going to give up. People were on the verge of suicide. And, God, I thank you that tonight, today, wherever they are, all over the world, Jesus, you're going to save people. You're going to save souls. You're going to save their minds. You're going to save their spirits. You're going to save them tonight. I believe you for it, Jesus. And in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Y' all ready to jump into the word of God? Whoo. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. You know, as I was just praying and asking the Lord, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to say, God, to your people today? And it just was just reminded of teachings and even people that we've dealt with all over the years. And, you know, we've been doing this over about 30 years now in ministry. 30 years. I know I don't look that old, so. Don't. You don't. No, no, no, no, no. Over 30 years. And, you know, I've seen people over and over and over when they get saved, when they ask Jesus into their heart, they think that everything's just supposed to go smoothly. Oh, wow, I just got saved. Everything's going to go good now. My marriage is going to be great. My job's going to be good. Everybody's going to like me. I'm going to have all these wonderful friends and relationships. Well, you know what? That just is not true. That is not true. You know, you have an enemy. There is an enemy of your soul who has an assignment against your assignment. You were born into this earth with a plan and a purpose and an assignment from God. But you have an enemy who hates you. You have an enemy who wants to come to steal. The Bible says in John 10:10, he comes to what? To steal, to kill, and to destroy. So every single day that you wake up, you have an enemy who's ready for you. He's already plotted against you. He's already schemed against you. He's already planned against you. And if you don't fight, you don't win. If you don't fight, you do not win. It's that simple. And this is what I want people to say about me. I want people to say about Hope Carpenter. She was a fighter. She just got knocked down, but you couldn't keep her down. She was a fighter. Her marriage might have been in trouble, but she fought back. She fought for it. She did the necessary work to get it back. Her kids might have been strung out on drugs. They almost didn't make it. But Hope Carpenter, she fought on her knees for them, and she did not give up on them. She prayed them through. She encouraged them. I remember looking in my oldest son's face at times, and I would look at him, and he would be high as a kite, just high as he could be, alcohol reeking from his breath. And I would look at him in the eye and I'd say, I love you, man of God. I called him out of where he was. See, that's what faith is. It's. It's calling things that are not as though they are. And he would look at me in the eyes and he'd say, why do you say that? I'm not a man of God. I said, yes, you are. What you're living right now is a lie. What you're living right now is not your purpose. I call you saved. I call you Holy Ghost Field. I call you on fire. For God. I love you. Man of God, right in the middle of his trauma. That's what faith is. It's calling things that are not as though they are. I'm a fighter. And if you can get anything today, get this message. If you don't fight, then you don't win. Life's not going to be easy. It's not going to be fair. I wish it was. I wish everybody liked you. I wish everybody was nice to you. I wish everybody was nice to me. Marriage is not going to be what you see on Disney. You're not going to slip your foot in the slipper and, oh, he's a prince. And you ride off on a white horse and everything's golden. No, marriage is not Disney. We're all raised in dysfunctional homes. We all have issues. Y' all know what my saying. I got issues. You got issues. All God children got issues. We all have issues. People hurt us, People betray us. We get abused, we lose our loved ones. But the way that you win is if you don't give up. When hard times come, you never get a victory without a battle. Right? There's never, ever, ever a victory without a battle. I posted this on social media the other day. If we're fighting each other, how can we fight the enemy? If we're always fighting each other, how can we really fight the enemy? John 10:10 says, the thief comes. He comes but to steal, to kill and to destroy. But Jesus said, but I have come, that you have life and you have it abundantly. So here you are. Poof. You get saved, you have an enemy, and you have this abundant life over here that God has designed for us. We have this wonderful, abundant life. The Bible says, it is my will that you prosper and you be in health, even as your soul prosp. Wonderful life. Where he's saying you're the head and not the tail. You're above and not beneath all of these wonderful promises of God. But you have an enemy who is always standing there waiting on you every single day, making sure that you do not get to that life. He's got a job description. What is it? I just said it. Three things still. Kill, destroy. He's got a job description. Okay. And the enemy is not people. It's not your boss. It's not your Husband, it's not your wife, it's not your mom in law. It's not sickness. None of those things are your enemy. Satan is your enemy. Those are symptoms. And those are the things that Satan uses to discourage you, to get you just to throw your hands up and say, I'm out. This is too hard. I can't do this. Have you ever played that game? Have you ever gone to a fun park as a kid or Disney or whatever it's called? Whack a mole. I used to love whack a mole. I was gonna beat the tar out of that mole. Whack a mole. And there you are, banging away, right? Boom, boom, here it comes. Ooh, ooh. But how do you whack it? You have to be ready, right? Right. You got to be ready. You got to whack it, and you got to just start banging away at everything. Whack a mole. Well, there's a lesson here. There is always something that you cannot see controlling what you do see. And if I spend all of my time and energy popping at all of the symptoms, the people, the sickness, my boss, my husband, if I spend my time popping and all of that at the symptoms, you will continue to be manipulated by the enemy that's under the surface. And it's exhausting. Life can get exhausting, right? How many times can you just be honest? You say, you know what? I'm just so sick of this, man. I just need a break. I just need a break. Do you think the enemy of your soul is sitting back going, you know what? But I'm just going to give Andrew a break today. I think, Andrew, I'm just going to let you have an amazing day. I'm just going to let somebody come up and give you $10,000 and pay all your debts and how about that? Going to make all the family problems just poof, go away? No. He is scheming. He is plotting against you every single day. And this is what we do. We're stupid. We're ignorant. We are. We really are. This is what we do. We get up in the morning, we turn on our jam music, our secular music, first thing. Not y', all, the. The people, some of the people listening. We get up in the morning and we do, you know, we got to go get our workout on, got to go to the gym, and we got our secular music playing. And, you know, we planning out our day like we want it planned and not made one time for God. But there is an enemy of our soul who is plotting, planning, and scheming against us 24 7. And we give him no thought and we give him no priority. But then we wonder why all hell's breaking loose in our house. And we want. We're like, oh, it's just so hard. This is just too hard. I just quit. God don't keep his word. No, we don't keep our word. And we're not faithful and we're not diligent and we're not disciplined. Listen, we got to get it together. We've got to stop fighting all this mess and fussing out people on Facebook. Never calling names, of course, never. But just using passive aggressive tactics and memes, trying to get at people because we think people are our problem. People are not our problem. It's the enemy who hates you. It's the enemy who hates us. What would happen if we spent all of that time and energy in the word and in prayer? What would happen? The enemy is so strategic. He is so smart. He studies you. Do you know you've been studied? He studies you. He knows exactly what will pull your chain and jerk your earrings. He knows exactly what ticks you off. He knows exactly who to bring in your path. He knows exactly who to sit you. Besides, he studies you. He knows your weaknesses. And you cannot let him outsmart you, the enemy. Actually, the Bible says he schemes against you. He schemes against you. That means he is. It's not just a good idea. He's actually making plans against you. He studies your weaknesses. He studies your fears. He studies your defects. He studies your generational iniquities. He studies what your family line's like. And he knows what your proclivities are. And he's going to put you right there in the middle of something to tempt you, to drag you away by your own evil desires that's already in your bloodline. And this ought to make you so mad at him. This ought to make you so mad that you turn your weapons on him. This is war. You're in war. Have you ever watched war movies? Oh, man, I love to watch war movies. I don't know why. I just. I guess because I'm that kind of girl. I'm that girl, you know? I'm that fighter. I am a fighter. I love war movies. I love to study them. I love to read about them. War is bloody. It makes you tired, makes you stay up at night. It makes you get up early and it makes you miss meals, God forbid. But if you don't fight, you don't win. Look at somebody beside you say, if you don't fight, you don't win. Come on. If you don't fight, you don't win. Ephesians 6 says this. Apostle Paul says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Just stop there and think of that. Finally. Okay, be strong. Come on, y'. All. Quit being weak. He said, be strong, not in your own might. He said, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Be strong in the Lord, in the power of his might. Put on the full armor of God. Why? So that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood and Pookie and Ray Ray. Y' all ain't got no Pookie and Ray Rays in your house. He said, I do, actually. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil that are in the heavenly realms. Therefore. I love that word, therefore. It means you got some good news coming. That means, oh, I got an answer for you. Therefore, put on the full armor of God. Why? So that when the day of evil comes, and it will. So that when the day of evil comes, and it will, you will be able to stand. Stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand. So that tells me right there, you got a lot of work to do. To stand. After you've done everything that you can do to stand, stand firm. Then how? With the belt of truth buckled around your waist and the breastplate of righteousness in place, knowing who you are in God. That's what the breastplate of righteousness is. It's sitting there, your righteous breastplate. Not because you're so righteous and you're so holy, but because when God looks at you, he doesn't see you. He sees Jesus. The Bible says you are hidden in Christ. You are. He don't even see you. He sees Jesus when he looks at you. See? But we do this when we go into the presence of God. Oh, God. It's me again. I messed up. Oops. I did it again. That's how we go into the presence of God. And he said, he don't even see that. He sees the blood of Jesus all over you. So put on the breastplate of righteousness, and with your feet fitted with the readiness, the quickness, the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up Your shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. You say pastor Hope, how do I get him to stop? The Bible says, take up your shield of faith. Your shield of faith. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Listen, you can't fight if you don't know the word of God. How are you going to use the word of God as a tool if you don't even know it? He's coming at you. He's coming at you with sickness and disease. You got a bad report and you don't know one healing scripture. How are you going to fight and pray in the spirit on all occasions, my God, with all kinds of prayers and requests with this in mind. Be alert. Wake up, get out of your funk. Get out of your slumber. Wake up, be alert. And always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. These are your weapons. Verse 16, the shield of faith. What does the Bible say? Faith is? Fight the good fight of faith. Faith is a fight to call things that are not as though they are. To look at a child strung out on drugs and say, man of God, that takes courage. That takes faith. Because, see, we look at what the natural is. We look at what they're doing right now, and we want to say, oh, my kids are this, and my kids are far away from God. No, I refuse. I'm going to operate in faith. Yes, I may have sickness in my body, but the word of God says that he spilled just his blood. He took stripes on his back on the Via Dolorosa, called the way of suffering, so that you and I would not have to suffer. The price has already been paid. The price for healing has already been paid. I believe you are our healer. God, I stop right here and I want to pray for somebody right now who's struggling with pain in their body. God, I just pray for people who are struggling right now with COVID 19 all over the world. Lord, you are our healer. God, I believe you are our healer. People who are struggling with depression, anxiety. God, you are our peace. You have broken down every wall of separation. People who are struggling right now with diabetes and Crohn's disease and heart disease and high blood pressure. God, I thank you that the blood that you spilled on the way of sacrifice, suffering, God already covered it. You paid the price. There is nothing else to pay. It's paid in full. Our healing is paid in full. And, God, we reach out and claim it today. I thank you, Lord Jesus I just believe that miracles and testimonies are going to come in all over the computer right now and phones and laptops and our website. God, you are touching people's body right now. I pray for deafness in the left ear. God, I just heard you say that there's somebody struggling right now with deafness in the left ear. God, I thank you that everything that you created, God, will work perfectly in their body. That their ear would open up right now, God, because nothing's too difficult for you. The same faith that believes for a headache, God, can open up deaf ears. The same faith that believes, God, for you to just give us a good night's rest, God can heal people of cancer. Right now, today, I thank you, you for it, Jesus. I believe it to be done because that's who you are. I've seen it. I know it. I believe you to do it, Jesus. Be alert and keep on praying. These are your weapons. These are your weapons. We cannot turn on each other and get so distracted by people that you forget that you are in war and that you have an enemy who hates you and who wants to destroy you. And these are weapons that work. These are not feudal weapons. These are weapons that work. Paul says, put down those feudal weapons. That's what he called it. He said, put down the feudal weapons. He said, these plastic knives and them pop guns, they don't work. The things that we think work, our manipulation, our gossip, our own schemes against people. And if I do this, this will get me ahead. And all those things that we think work. He said, put it down. Put up the. Pick up the weapons that work. Wherever you are right now, won't you just go grab your Bible? Go get it. Go get it. It could be in your bedroom. You may not even know where it is. Go get your Bible. Take the dust off of it. Open it up. Get in the word of God. It will save your soul. It's going to help you get through every battle in your life. The one you're facing right now and the one you're going to face next week. We're in war. And in war, you're always fully covered. You're aware, you cover up your vulnerable issues. You ever seen people in war, what they cover up? They cover up their heart, they cover up their head. You cover up your vulnerable issues and you cover them with the word of God. You're looking out for your brother. I've never seen a war movie when. When they didn't have somebody else's back. That's what we're all About. That's what family is. That's every joint supplied. That's when you're down. I pick you up. And that's when I'm down. You come and pick me up. But see, we don't have time for people anymore. We're too busy scrolling and futile things. You know those people who have a scripture for everything? You know that person? Yeah, that's the one I'm talking about. That's that girl that I want to be. That's who you're supposed to be. See, we make fun of those people. But who do you call when you need something? Weapon. You gonna call somebody you know has got the weapon you need? Where are the people of God who walk into strife and chaos and bring peace? I had to talk somebody down off the wall the other night. They were freaking out. We're going through right now in the Times, we're going through all this, Covid. We're going through fires in California and they were freaking out. And I had to just take them by the phone by text message and shake them. I mean, just shake them. It wasn't time to pet. It wasn't time to I'll pray for you. No, I had to take them and I had to shake them. Where are the people who know the word, who have a prayer life, who walk by faith, who don't bail out on God when tough times hit? Don't be tricked and duped by the enemy? Pick up your weapons and fight the good fight of faith. Because if you don't fight, you don't. You don't win. Come on. I've come to give you a B12 injection today. I've come to give you an injection of fight. You got to get up from that dead place. You got to get up from that depressed place. You got to get up from that sick place. You got to get up from that anxiety ridden place. We're in war. We're in war and the enemy wants to destroy you. He wants. He wants to destroy your home. He wants to destroy your marriage. He wants to destroy your kids. He wants to wreck your mind with anxiety. We're in war. If you don't fight, you don't win. You don't win this prize of abundant life. You don't get to walk in the joy of the Lord and the blessing of the Lord. You don't. If you don't fight for your children, you'll never see them them be who God's called them to be. Don't let them wear you out so bad that you stop Praying, don't let your family get on your nerves so bad you forget they're dying and going to hell. If you don't fight, you don't win. So today I just decree and declare fighting spirit over you. I just decree and declare a warrior anointing is going to rise up in you right now. Come out of depression, come out of anxiety, come out of the blues and see this glorious life that God has called you to, that he's already paid for you to live in. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. But I have come that you might have life. It didn't say that you would. It said that you might have life and that you have it abundantly. God, I want that abundant life for everybody listening. But I can't make them fight for it. Only you can come, God, even in your words, you said we'd all been given a measure of faith. So, God, today I pray that you stir up that measure on the inside of them. Just lay your hands on your belly right now. Just lay your hand on your belly and say, God, stir up my measure of faith. Stir up my measure of faith. Oh, God, give me faith to fight. Give me faith to believe again. Give me faith to dream. Give me faith to get up out of this place I'm at right now and get back into what I know to do what I know to do. I believe it. Today I just feel the atmosphere, the spiritual heavenlies rumbling, calling for the sons of God to be revealed. In these troubles times, these hurricanes, these fires, these viruses, these plagues, the Bible says the earth is groaning, waiting for the sons of God to rise up and be revealed. We believe you to do it, God. Oh God. The next thing that pops up in our life, let us be ready and prepared. Let us be on the offensive, fully girded with our helmet of salvation, our shield of faith, our breastplate of righteousness, the truth around our waist, God, our feet that are shodded with peace. Help us to get up and get dressed first in the spirit before we get dressed in the natural. Help us to get up and be ready for every tactic and plan that the enemy has already schemed against us so that we can come out victorious in Jesus name. Now, everybody who wants to live this way, you better give God a shout of praise. You better give him a shout of praise. Come on, come on, come on, come on. You got this. You're stronger than you think you are. You are braver than you think you are. You know more than you think you know. Oh, God's big on the inside. Of you. You are not weak. You are not weak. You are strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Just go look in the mirror tonight or today or whenever you're listening to this and say, I'm just. I know that the God in me is so much greater than the enemy I'm fighting. And I believe he's going to give you grace today. I believe he's going to give you grace. He's going to let you see a victory. He's going to let you see a victory. And see, that's what our testimony is. That's how we build our strength. We overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. When you overcome one thing, then you say, man. Okay, all right, all right. I did that. I see how this works. That scripture just knocked him down. And. And, you know, I was struggling to sleep, but I just began to worship God. And that praise and worship just calmed me in my room. All right? Then I got a good night's sleep. Then the next night, you say, okay, that worked last night. See, David didn't just wake up one day and kill Goliath. He was trained in the dark place. He was trained in the wilderness. He had to. He had to kill the lion first. Then he had to kill the bear. And then he looked back and he said, looking over his life, he said, oh, man, I got this. God's already come through on the lion. God's already come through on the bear. Who is this great philistine? Because greater is he that is in me than he that I'm fighting in the world, man. I'm encouraged today. Feel like I could storm hell with a water pistol. I believe that for you today. I believe it for you. And let us hear your testimonies. We love you. If you don't have a home church, we got an amazing home church right now. We're doing it virtually, but it's myredemption, cc. It's our I church. We would love to have you. We would love to share, shepherd you. We would love to care for you and keep praying for California. It won't be long before we're in the building again. All right, all right, all right. God bless you. We love you.