Showing posts with label End Times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label End Times. Show all posts

Saturday, November 8, 2025

Frequency | Endure. Resist. Remain. Jesus Is Worthy of It All.

 

It's Your breath
in our lungs, so
we pour out our praise
to You only.

The lyrics above are what we were singing in the picture above during one of the many powerful moments when the Spirit of God was moving during the 2025 Frequency Conference in Philadelphia.

On the night of Friday, November 7 around 8 p.m., Pastor Phillip Anthony Mitchell felt a groaning in his heart before he preached as he invited the 700+ people in the room to join him in worship singing:

All the earth will shout Your praise,
our hearts will cry, 
these bones will sing,
"Great are You, Lord!"
It's Your breath in our lungs,
so we pour out our praise
to You only!


The greatness of God in the grief of living in a world in need of redemption and renewal was the focus for both Friday and Saturday in midst of the songs, sermons, and communion of saints who came together from across the world (ex. one sister, Bethlehem, flew from Dubai to join with us this past weekend) to remind each other to:

Endure,
Resist, and
Remain
as a Remnant of
humble and faithful 
Jesus followers
for such a time as this.


This post will include a stream of consciousness collection of Scriptures, songs, and notes from the communion of saints who poured into us the 36+ hours we were together (including some from Redemption City Church where I had the privilege to preach on "Nehemiah 9: The Lord Who Writes Our Stories" on Sunday morning). May anyone reading these words of encouragement receive an exhortation to walk with King Jesus and see Him as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end of your story, the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 

And after reading some of these words, my hope is you will join the choir singing this chorus that potently punctuated a praise break:

You're worthy of it all!
You're worthy of it all!
For from You are all things
and to You are all things,
You deserve the glory.


Main Session | Vision
w/ Rev. Dr. Eric Mason

It's a privilege to be a Kingdom participant. 
Jesus wants living sacrifices, 
people who are committed 
no matter what. 

Are we building our lives 
around what's best for the Kingdom 
and our spiritual growth? 
There's no microwaving discipleship. 
Go through the battle. 
Vintage beauty gets its character 
from being cut and washed 
over and over. 

Through suffering with the Savior, 
God produces:

+ Substance
+ Stability
+ Structure
+ Sense of belonging

so we can be Jesus' people 
sent out as His incarnational missionaries 
in the spaces we live and dwell.



" ... If the highest place I reach
Is at Your feet,
Then I've done it all.

If the best thing that I've seen
Is Your glory,
Then I've seen it all.

Your love has changed my life,
Forever satisfied,
God, You are my everything.

If one Word is the only thing
You speak,
Then I've heard it all.

If I feel Your heart
And never see Your hand,
I still have it all.

No treasure of this life
Could ever satisfy.
God, You are my everything. ... "

(This song is a powerful "dayenu"
that brought me to tears.)

Fireside Chat | Enduring

We need to be broken,
as jars of clay in the Potter's hand
so people can see Christ through us.

You need people around you
that aren't impressed.
They value you, but they remind you
it all (i.e. your gifts) comes from God.

You participated,
but you didn't make it happen.
You need people in your life
who protect the glory of God
that rests on you.


" ... I can never repay You, Lord,
For what You've done for me,
How You loosed my shackles
And You set me free.
How You made a way out of no way,
Turned my darkness into day,
You've been my joy in the time of sorrow,
Hope for my tomorrow,
Peace in the time of storm,
Strength when I'm weak and worn,
You've been so faithful ... "

Main Session | Conviction
w/ Pastor Phillip Anthony Mitchell
Jude 1:1-3

Are you a servant of Christ
or is He your butler or genie?
Have you given Him 
your complete "Yes"?

May
mercy,
peace, and
love be multiplied to you ... 
I found it necessary
to write to you to
contend for the faith
that was once for all
delivered to the saints.

This is for the called.
This is for the beloved.
This is for the kept.

Salvation is enough
to give Him praise
for the rest of your life.

Fight for the faith,
for the salvation of Christ,
for the teachings of Christ,
for the family of Christ.

Contend in your prayer room
against the principalities and powers.

Contend from your knees 
and rise for Christ.

Wherever you show up, 
His light shows up.

If being a servant is below you,
being a leader is above you.

This is us caring about the Kingdom
more than our comfort.



Panel | Remnant Discipleship

It's hard to take up my cross
when I'm offended.
+ Megan Ashley

Life in community 
is a glorious mess. 
Everything is a part 
of your discipleship.
+ Phillip Anthony Mitchell 
& Eric Mason

Feel your emotions,
but remember that
they're still tainted with sin.
Feel them with Jesus.
Submit them to Him.
Work them through filters.
Filter them with Him.
Filter them with trusted friends.
Filter them in the Word.
Filter them in prayer.
+ Phillip Anthony Mitchell

How do you know you're called? 
Going anywhere else,
doing anything else, 
would be disobedience.
+ Eric Mason

Discipleship is a lifelong apprenticeship 
with Jesus 
in which you are transformed 
from the imago Dei 
to the imago Christi. 
+ Pastor Vernon Mobley &
Rev. Dr. Eric Mason

People will be more amazed
by your intimacy than your intellect.
Be personable and knowledgeable.
+ Preston Perry

God didn't ask us to be impressive,
He called us to impact.
+ Rev. Dr. Eric Mason

Suffering and weariness 
are means by which God 
will bring you to the end of yourself 
so you can understand 
your dependence on Jesus. 
+ Pastor Aaron Campbell


Final Main Session | Encouragement
w/ Jackie Hill Perry

God uses encouragement
and exhortation to keep us.

Keep going. 

Encouragement and exhortation:

+ Help us to stay protected
+ Remind us of His promises & presence
+ Inform our perspective
+ Keep us being faithful today

Discouragement can turn into lies 
that you decide 
you want to believe. 
But discouragement is not the enemy, 
per se, unbelief is.

Today if you hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts.

Do you let your temporary discomfort
reveal your distrust in God,
or do you let it
reveal your trust in God?

We have expectations that the places God leads us will have no depravation. If we are our own resources, we will be discouraged in those spaces. We can be so discouraged that we think God rescued us to then kill us. That the God who loves you doesn't like you. The devil is a liar. But in the LORD, where it seems there is no way, God can make a way. 

Is the LORD among us, or not? 
Are we posturing ourselves as someone 
God has to prove Himself to? 
Or do we trust He's with us?

To one God gives courage.
To another God gives patience.
Both are needed for endurance.

Are we exhorting each other every day?
Are we encouraging each other every day?
Are we edifying each other every day?
" ... As long as it is called today ... "

Weariness is 
a consequence of faithfulness.
We can be tired of what comes 
when being useful and faithful.

Encourage each other 
every day 
while it is still called today.

There is manna for every morning.
But you got to get up and take it in.
His mercies are new every morning.

Some races can't be finished by yourself.
"I finished last. But I finished."

God will supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. He has not given you a spirit of fear, but the Spirit of power, and love, and a sound mind. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. When you don't know how to pray, the Spirit intercedes for you with groans that are too deep for words. If God is for you, who can be against you? In the temptation, He will provide a way of escape so you can endure.

Frequency Blessing + Benediction

May God Himself,
the God of peace,
sanctify you through and through.
May your whole spirit,
soul and body be kept blameless
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The One who calls you is faithful,
and He will do it. 
+ 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

Bonus Frequency Speaker Videos:

w/ the Perrys

w/ the Perrys

w/ Jackie Hill Perry

w/ Lecrae

w/ Lecrae

w/ Rev. Dr. Eric Mason

w/ Lecrae


Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan


Thursday, December 3, 2020

Advent Is Here | The Lord's Coming Before, Now, and Again




Advent begins in the dark, revealing that Christ comes in surprising and powerful ways to meet us in our darkness and confront evil. Jesus is our Prince of Peace, the Messiah, the everlasting Light, "the Lord is come" as "Joy to the World proclaims year after year. And in the darkness, disease, and disruptions of 2020, we still sing that even these cannot overcome Jesus plan to bring us His whole-making peace.


"A Day of Glory" is a modern hymn we tend to sing with Emmaus City Church as we draw close to the end of the year. It's one of my favorite Advent songs written in the past decade, and my kids seem to love it, too. When we sing, I continue to reflect on the lyrics that merge together Messiah Jesus' first coming with His second coming as the Church's practice of Advent has historically done throughout history. 

A Day of Glory by Austin Stone Worship, 2012 A.D. 


A day, a day of promise, a hope to end our woe,
A day that tells of triumph against our vanquished foe!
In flesh His entrance humble, the swaddling clothes His robe,
The meek displayed in power, the Prince of Peace now known!

Let angels shout the triumph as mortals raise their voice,
"Behold the Son of heav'n and earth, the King of kings is born!"


A day, a day of glory, when Jesus calls us home.
Our glorious King eternal returning for His own!

Gloria, gloria, gloria, our King has come! 

Singing these lyrics in the darkness of night not only complements what Fleming Rutledge profoundly unveils in Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ that "ultimately, our hope lies in ... the God of Advent who drew near to us in Jesus and who will come again to take away the darkness forever and be our eternal light," but also reminds me of the revealing Bible Project Video: Day of the Lord. 

In the midst of a tumultuous 2020, the "Day of the Lord" video pops all the more, and the combination of visuals and words together reminds us why we need the season of Advent to compel us to remember who truly reigns and how He came to save us in humility with hope beyond any pandemic or politics.

Perhaps this song and video will benefit you today, too, as you wonder about darkness and light, despair and hope. I invite you to listen, sing, watch, and wonder with me at Jesus' first and second coming that reveal His steadfast love, faithfulness, and power to overcome every evil for us.



Advent 2020 | The Bible Project Video: Day of the Lord and Manuscript


"The Day of the Lord," it's a phrase in the Bible that religious people use, usually when talking about the end of the world, things like Armageddon, the Apocalypse. You might be familiar with this image of Jesus returning on a white horse. He's got a sword to bring final judgment. And everyone wants to know, "How will it all go down?" 

A lot of these images come from the last book of the Bible, Revelation, but to understand them, you have to go back to the first book, Genesis. When the story begins, we watch God create an amazing world. And then He gives humans power to rule over it on His behalf. But the humans are tempted by this mysterious unhuman character who offers them a promise. You can define good and evil on your own terms and put yourselves in God's place, which is what they do. And the resulting stories are about the broken relationships and violence that results. 

This promise creates huge problems. Now everyone has to protect themselves and fight for survival. And they're all using death as this weapon to gain power. It all leads to a story about building the city of Babylon, or in Hebrew, "Babel." Everyone comes together to elevate themselves to the place of God. And God knows how devastating this could be, a whole culture redefining good and evil as if they are god. So God confuses their language and scatters them. 

Now from here on Babylon becomes like an icon in the biblical story. It's an image that represents humanity's corporate rebellion against God. And the next time we see it is in the story of ancient Egypt. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, feels threatened by these immigrant Israelites. He starts killing all of the boys and enslaving the rest. This is really evil; Egypt is like this bigger, badder Babylon. They take care of themselves at the expense of others by redefining evil as good. And so God turns Pharaoh's evil back on him. His pride drives him forward and he's swallowed up by death. 





Now after this great deliverance, the Israelites sing a song about how God is their warrior who liberated them from evil. And the Israelites referred to this moment as "The Day." The day they were rescued from a corrupt human system. And every year since then, the Israelites have celebrated "The Day" of their liberation with a symbolic meal of a sacrificial lamb. It's called Passover. 

Eventually Israel comes into their own land, have their own kings, and they face new enemies. So that past "Day of the Lord" celebrated every Passover begins to generate hope that God will bring "The Day" again to save Israel from new threats. Now out in the hills was a sheep herder named Amos. He was appointed by God as a prophet to announce shocking news to Israel. God was bringing another "Day of the Lord" against His enemies, and this time the target is Israel. Sadly, Israel's leaders had also redefined good and evil for themselves, resulting in corruption and violence. God's people have become like Babylon. The oppressed have become oppressors. Babylon seems like a trap no one can escape. 

And so the "Day of the Lord" comes upon Israel. They're conquered and taken captive in exile. And from then on, Israel suffered under the rule of continuous oppressive empires. 



This is the story Jesus was born into: in His day the oppressive empire over Israel is Rome. So is Jesus going to confront Rome, take them out? Well, no. Jesus saw the real enemy as that mysterious unhuman evil, the evil that's lured Babylon, Egypt, Rome, Israel. All of humanity has given in to evil's promise of power. This is what Jesus resisted alone in the wilderness when He was tempted to exploit His power for self interest. But He didn't.

And after that, He started to confront the effect of evil on others. He started to say that He was going to Jerusalem for Passover for a final showdown to confront the evil of Israel and Rome by dying. Dying? That feels like losing. Jesus was going to let evil exhaust all of its power on Him using its only real weapon, death. Jesus knew that God's love and life were even more powerful, that He could overcome evil by becoming the Passover lamb, giving His life in an act of love.  



Something changed that day. When Jesus defeated evil, He opened up a new way of escape from Babylon to discover this new kind of power, His new way of being human. So something changed, but the power of evil is still alive and well. We keep building new versions of Babylon. So the last book of the Bible, Revelation, points to the future and final "Day of the Lord." It's when God's Kingdom comes to confront Babylon the great, this image of all the corrupt nations of the world. This is it. Armageddon, the final judgment. How is Jesus going to finish off evil?

It's not how you'd expect. In the Revelation, the victorious Jesus is symbolized by a sacrificial bloody lamb. And then when Jesus does arrive in the end riding His white horse to confront evil, He's bloodied before the battle even starts. It's a strange image. It's because Jesus isn't out for our blood. Rather, He overcame with His blood when He died for His enemies. And the sword is in His mouth. It's a symbol of Jesus' authority to define good and evil and hold us accountable when He brings final justice once and for all.

In the meantime, the "Day of the Lord" is an invitation to resist the culture of Babylon and it's a promise that one day God will free our world from corruption and bring about the new He has in store.  


Other posts featuring overviews of the Story of God found in the Bible:

The Story of God, the World, and You | Our World Belongs to God | Creation, Crisis, Covenant, Christ, Church, (New) Creation Jesus as the "True and Better" One | The Messiah The Covenants | Heaven and Earth | God's Holiness God's Multi-Ethnic Family Hell Sacrifice and Atonement The Law The Gospel According to Mark What the Son of God Said About the Word of God | The Gospel of the Kingdom | The God Who Loves Kindness, Justice, and Righteousness | The Whole Gospel for Guilt-Innocent, Shame-Honor, and Fear-Power Cultures | Immanuel, God with Us, Has Been His Promise and Plan for Us Always | Why Humans Care About Justice


Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan