Saturday Afternoon Service

It's already going on in heaven. You're joining what's happening in heaven worship. Your holy hands before him just worship. Father, we honor you today. Gathered here as your people, blessing the nations of the world and in this city, the church, the body of Christ, but worshiping collectively together with what's going on around your throne. We honor you today. We honor you today. We bless you, Father.

We bless you, Father. Just with solemn moment, just with hands lifted, we just, in his presence, just honor him. Just honor him. Just a moment in his presence. You've been worshiping out of your heart, true worship. Holy Spirit, have your way in the gathering of the believers here today, we pray. In your holy name, amen. Wow, thank you.

Thank you for worshiping. Those of you that in the upper and the lower elementary, they are being released to go to their classes. If you could take just a moment, they may be joining us online. Say hi to someone sitting next to you. We're about to welcome Owasso Campus to join us this morning. This is our only way to be able to be one church in locations. And so we're glad that you're able to be a part of this today as we prepare our hearts to hear from our guests today. Marza and Marisa Day will be joining me in just a moment.

Let me just say it's an honor. To be able to share the beginning of our conference today with this special time. It was our way of being able to connect with both campuses. In doing that, so she was over in the Owasso at the 9 a.m. and able to be with us at 11 a.m. We wish we could be both places simultaneous, but this is the best thing that we can do to be able to share that time together. So as soon as they let me know that Owasso's joined us, they are with us. So come on, guys, let's welcome Owasso. Could you do that?

Welcome to Owasso Campus. Thank you guys for letting us do this. As we just said, our speaker was able to be over there with you at the 9 a.m. and now here at the 11. So going back and forth, about I think 2014, I first got a hold of her book. I don't know how I got a hold of her book, but read it Captive in Iran. And when I read that book, I said to myself, somehow, somehow we've got to hear this challenging story and testimony. And our theme this year is Stand. And our theme for the conference is Anchored.

And I'm praying that her word today will establish you and cause you to stand boldly in the gospel. After spending those nine months, nearly nine months, in one of the worst prisons of Iran, boldly sharing the gospel, the Lord has opened doors really around the world right now. To share the truth about what's going on over there, as well as to cause Christians to be bold in the kingdom of God. Would you give me, come on Owasso, help me. Come on, you're welcome. Would you welcome Marzia Amirizadeh. Come on up here and join us and have a Claremore Owasso welcome. God bless you.

Father, we thank you for your presence at the top of our hearts today. With the power of the Holy Spirit, help us to get closer to understand you, to understand your glory. We'll come out in Jesus' name. Thank you so much, Pastor Glenn. It's a great honor for me here to share my story, to tell really what's going on in Iran. The news, unfortunately, doesn't share the truth. It's good to hear from somebody that is connected and know what's happening. There are lots of stories in both my books.

I encourage you to read them. My first book is Captive in Iran. Pastor Glenn mentioned that. It's about my imprisonment with my friend. We were in that prison, Evin Prison, the most notorious prison in the world for torturing, executing, killing lots of innocent people. And we shared our story and also a lot of other stories that how God changed the life of prisoners through our prayers, through miracles, through dreams and visions that he would give me in prison. And also, as I mentioned, we shared the stories of other women, that how they were innocent and the government ruined their lives. The second book I encourage you to read is Love Journey with God.

I shared my whole journey from 1999 that I gave my heart to Jesus. And I shared a lot of other stories of myself, that how God, in all these years, built my faith and helped me to build a personal relationship with him, to understand his love, his purpose for my life. And I also shared how it is like living in a country under Sharia law, Islamic law, and how it will impact your life, especially being a woman. Because there are a lot of misogynists against women in Islamic law. And also, I shared lots of my poems. God gave me that gift to write poems for him. I encourage you to read them because it's in one hour, maximum one hour. We don't have much time to share lots of amazing stories, which is not about me.

It's about God's work in my life. And I always say at the beginning of my talk that I give all the glory to God. He's the only one who deserves. I am just a vessel in his heart. And he decided to use my life's story for a purpose. He allowed me to experience pain, suffering, for a reason. So also, besides that, that can educate you, educate your children about what is true Islam. Because unfortunately, in Western countries, in America, I remember the first time I heard this sentence was in America, that an American told me Islam is religion.

I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know what to say. I was shocked. I didn't know to cry or to laugh. Because the truth is that Islam is not religion of peace, period. If anyone, any politician, says such a thing, there is a benefit behind that, or they are, you know, misunderstood. Because I lived that with those Islamists.

People like me lived that. And I see in Western countries, they try to shut the mouth of people like me, the Syrians, living on their own. They're creating, you know, terms like Islamophobia. But they cannot close the mouth of people like me. Because people like me live that. And I have Islamotraum by living under those Sharia laws, what Islam means to my life. The lives of many Iranian people and Muslims, we call them Muslims. They are just nominal.

Millions of them are just nominal. When I say Islam is not religion of peace, Islam is evil. It's all about punishment, all about hate, revengeance, misogyny. But that doesn't mean that all Muslims are evil people or terrorists. Because in a country like Iran that I grew up, millions of Iranians like me, they were just born there. And when you're born in a country like Iran, from the first day, they call you a Muslim. Everywhere you go, in universities, in government, getting a job, or at school, they call you a Muslim. But millions of Iranians do not practice Islam at their homes.

Like my family members, we never practiced Islam. We were not devout Muslims. My parents never taught about hate or hate any people, they shared lots of stories. My father, I remember about before the revolution in 1979 that Americans, many foreigners, would travel to Iran. They had great freedom. but unfortunately people didn't appreciate that they lost my father's my parents had neighbors foreigners and they would share amazing stories about their friendship how kind they were and my father's relative some of them were living in America and sometimes they would travel to Iran I always was curious to know about America how it looked like from my childhood but when you go to the school there is a system of brainwashing that starts at the age of seven and in Iran I unfortunately I was not lucky I was born a few months before the revolution in 1979 I was not lucky to see any Frisians in my life when I was born there and it started with a group of minority young people brainwashed by radical Muslims where brainwashed by Marxism they came to the MUSIC They looted, rioted, set fires, if that's familiar to you, and then they supported radical Muslim Khomeini come to power because he was a good liar, promising false promises to people, and then they lost their freedom for more than 47 years that Iranian people are suffering. People like me, who were born at that time, we started suffering because when you go to school, as I said, there is a system of brainwashed, and I remember from every morning when you go to your school, they force you to stand in line and to say death to America, death to Israel. There were many children like me, we had no idea why we should say that. Where is America?

Where is Israel? They forced us to demonstrations, we would lose weight, and there would be punishment against us. If we refused to go to school, we would be punished. And for them to make a show, to see, go to the world, look how many Iranians are supporting us. It's a big lie, because I know many of my people hate this Islamic regime, like my parents, and at school there is a specific classes, they call it Koran classes, and they usually put a radical Muslim in charge of that class, teach Koran to students, and it's all about punishment. They teach us how God will punish us if we disobey the Islamic rule. And they would describe different kinds of tortures to us. And the purpose was creating fear in the minds and hearts of children to make sure they follow the Islamic rule.

They forced us to stand in lines and do Islamic prayers every day. And at, you know, at the streets, when we would go to the streets as a woman, I always had lots of stress. Walking in the streets of my country, because they had their security forces with a big van, waiting for women to get arrested, to be beaten up in front of other people, just for crazy reasons of not having, you know, Islamic dress code, having part of your hair out of your scarf, having a nail polish, having, you know, fancy sunglasses. So women like me who grew up on their jobs. And I think that the Islamic rules have many scars from our childhood. I never forget one story at my middle school, that one of my classmates, she had a thick eyebrow. She did her eyebrow. As a result of that, the manager came to the class, grabbed her with her hair, dragged her all around the school, called her a whore.

You believe that? I witnessed this kind of brutality from my childhood. Not just being in prison. Before I go to prison, I lived under these harsh rules of Islam, which impacted every part of my life. They arrested my husband. They tortured him to death for false accusation of drinking wine. He got 80 lashes. I'll never forget his back.

They peeled off his... And they tortured him to death. They heated him to the wall. He was an intelligent young guy. He was a young man. Very smart. Wanted to be educated. Make me happy.

They ruined his life. He passed away as a result of all those tortures. So my story here, I'm standing not to talk about myself. This is the one example of millions of stories of Iranian people who are suffering because they lost their freedom. They didn't appreciate their freedom. They didn't stand up for that. And now still they are suffering. I'm sure you are.

I'm sure you read the news these days. What's happening in Iran. It's a big news. In January, millions of Iranians came to the streets. They protest against the regime. They called the return of Prince Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah. Why? Because they understood they made a mistake.

They apologized for that. They called for his return. And the regime came to the streets with machine guns and they started killing people. They killed the new system. They killed 40,000 people. But believe me, it's much more than that. Because I was in prison in 2009 during another protest to witness how many people got arrested, tortured, imprisoned. The number is much more than that.

Every day they are executing tens of young people, athletes. And for people like me who live these traumas, every day when I open the news, it's like living in my traumas every day. I'm living in my traumas every day. Because I experienced that in prison, the execution of my cellmates, the execution of my best friend. So they shoot at people. They black out the internet because they didn't want the news to come out. They went to the hospitals. They shoot at the head of those injured protesters.

Their only crime was demanding freedom. They arrested nurses. These are real stories. And they torture them. They rape some of them because of treating. And they kill them. Some nurses dare to take people in their homes because they wanted to help them. And one story is Saleha Akbari.

She was a nurse. She decided to treat those injured protesters at her home. They raided at her home when they found out. They arrested her. They tortured her to death. They gang raped her. And then they sent the pictures of raping her to her husband. And then they sent the pictures of raping her to her husband.

Her husband could not bear committed suicide. These are real things that are happening. Human beings cannot do that. It's only people who are possessed with demons who can do this. And I experience that. The evil nature of these people in my entire life living in Iraq. There are tons of stories like that. Horrible stories.

They remove the womb of women because they rape them and they don't want to have their parents have evidence. Many women's bodies are missing in Iran. People were saying they were dumped. They dumped a lot of them in mass graves. Still families cannot find the body of their loved ones. These are real stories. There are tons of names. I shared on my social media.

You can follow me and check. Lots of stories and films, what's happening in Iran. People are fighting with bare hands. Finally, after years because the Iranians at different times, seen the street protests against the regime. No one will hear their voices. Finally, the word could see that there is a big difference between the Islamic regime and the Iranian people. Finally, America and Israel stood with the Iranians. Iranian people are thanking them.

There are hundred of thousands of Iranians in the streets of Western countries that they loudly thanked the President. Trump thanked Israel for standing with them. Why? No one likes war but people know that America and Israel are not their enemy. Their true enemy is Islamic Republic regime and they know they are targeting this Islamic regime, these evil people, not them. My sister's friend, when they were talking over the phone, my sister is in America and she told me her friends are saying that we don't mind even by accident get killed if they are throwing a bomb on these, their facilities, their military bases, because we want to know that our children are in freedom. So they are willing to sacrifice everything to get back their freedom. And that's, as I said, my story is just one example to stand here to share with you what happened to me, not because of me or having sympathy for me, but to understand the reality of who we are.

Why we must stand with Iranians, with Israel, with America, with the government. So for me, from my childhood, I was finding, trying to find the truth. I was so thirsty. I could not find it Islamically. I tried it because I was so desperate to find the truth. I started reading Quran and praying Islamic prayers for two years, but it didn't bring a change to my life. But at least it opened my eyes to the truth. When you read the book of Quran, it's not I say that.

There are lots of verses in that book that I have a list of them that you can see that what Quran says about infidels. Who are infidels? Christians, Jews, any people of other faith in their eyes are infidels. And it says, I'm not going to quote the verse, but I have the list. It says to slay the unbelievers whenever you find them. Muslims must not take the infidels as friends. Any religion other than Islam is not acceptable. Maim and crucify the infidels if they criticize Islam.

Terrorize and behead those who believe in scriptures other than Quran. There are words here, which is in the book of Quran. How you can say this is a religion? There is a book of Al-Nisa in Quran, which is all about about women. How to teach men how to beat their wives. So how you can say that Islam is a religion of peace. There is no peace in that. And I lived under this Islam culture I experienced that in my entire life.

But since I was so thirsty in that situation, I was so desperate to find the truth. But no one can stop God to reach out to people, even dictators. And God reached out to me through my dream. And my frame of 치 thing was about a white horse that he showed up please read the details in the book we don't have much time there are lots of details to each stories i share that he revealed his amazing love to me and he revealed the true face of islam which i could not believe that it was unbelievable how much god loves us and that dream really changed my life but still i didn't know about you and it was a few years after that that one of my friends who has converted to christianity told me about jesus and it was the first time i could hear that jesus is the son of god but still i could not believe that how it's possible i started doing more research i prayed and i asked god to show me the truth about jesus and more miracles started happening more dreams which i shared tons of them in my second book a love journey with god and how he was communicating with me step by step and showing me the truth about himself and i gave my heart to jesus because i knew that he is the truth but still i had some doubts about you know reading bibles lots of questions what is the holy spirit but one day when i was praying to god talking to him that really changed my life it was the time that i was baptized by the holy spirit i was praying to him in my language suddenly i was baptized by the power of the holy spirit fire came on me i raised my hand without control and i started worshiping in other languages that i never learned and i felt the presence of god all around myself in my room i could not understand what languages i was talking to him and praying to him but i could fully understand that was what i was telling you and i could not it was not control it was so powerful i could feel a big circle in my forehead was burning like someone spilled me and then got me a quick vision i could see jesus right in front of myself in white robe beside a big golden throne i could not believe my eyes my face was full of my tears because it was the first time i could feel the presence of god in my life after years and years searching and it took for hours from late at night until early hours in the morning but shut my mouth removed all my doubts about jesus and i dedicated my whole life to jesus i remember i was on fire after that i wouldn't care where i was living i shared the message non-stop with my friends with my family members there's each longest stories for each family members how i reached out what i was doing and how i was living but god was using me and he had the purpose to meet me in that strong way but that just was the beginning of my journey which is i experienced his love but he took me to many files many pains and many sufferings which at the beginning i was questioning i was crying complaining i could not understand why this is happening to me why i went to poverty for years i was living in a filthy family because of the jealousy of my brothers my life story is more like joseph story what happened to him because of his brothers the same thing happened to me and i asked lots why but god gained through my dreams told me there is a purpose i am building you my child and then when i learned that i told god do whatever you want take away everything from me but know not your presence not yourself and he tested me with everything i tell people that my my life story is very similar to the greatest command in the bible that jesus told us in mark 12 verse 30 to 31 love your god with all your hearts with all your minds all your strength and then love your neighbors love your enemies if you are not building your strong personal relationship with god the first verse you're not able to go to the second command and it's not like is that easy that i tell god i love you i'm done no it's not that easy he takes you to trials he gives us instructions which are other verses for example one verse he tells us you must pick up your cross every day and follow me in matthew 10 verse 37 to 39 he says anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me anyone who loved their sons and father more than me is not worthy of me whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me whoever finds their life will lose it and whoever loses their life for my sake will find And I said, take it away. He took away my wallet and I went to poverty. I experienced many hardships. And I said, yes, Lord, I will follow you. He touched every corner of my life.

He wanted to test me that if I am going to follow him or not. But I'm telling you, besides being difficult, but his journey is very sweet. That's why I called in my second book, All My Sufferings and Pains, Sweet Pain. Pain is not sweet. No one likes pain. It makes people bitter. But when you understand the purpose of God for your life, when I look back and see that all because of all those sufferings, I got to know my Savior, Jesus Christ. I got closer to him.

I said, thank you, God, for doing that in my life. Now I understand the purpose. And that's why now I say, take away. Anything, but never your presence. Because I don't want that precious things that I receive. It's a treasure. And I always tell people the reason I follow Jesus is not because I have a fear of going to hell. I don't know what it's called, how it looks like.

It's not because of practicing a religion. It's because of love. I am so in love with him. I don't want to lose that love. That's the reason that I follow him. And that's why I'm telling you that first, what you need to focus is building your relationship with him. And that's not going to happen in church. The church is amazing.

You must come to have a fellowship, to get a teaching. But what's happening behind the scene in your private is more important. Are you building that relationship or just going home and forget about him? Okay. It's a living with him. It's a relationship. And the second thing is forgiving your enemy, which is, again, it's difficult. And God, later when I started the ministry in Iran, I went to Turkey in 2005 because I was thirsty to learn more about Christianity.

And I could not learn it in Iran. There are many underground churches. And with my friend, we, after getting the training, we returned to Iran. And we started. We started our ministry by distributing Bibles. We distributed 20,000 Bibles in Tehran and a few other cities. It's not, when I say that, it's not that easy. There are tons of stories that how many times we were so close to get arrested.

But God each time would show himself, his presence, and save us each time. Once we were transferring thousands of Bibles in a van, every time a smuggler, an extremist smuggler, would bring. A few thousand Bibles to us. And we were in the streets going to our home. And we stopped in the big traffic. The police officers were checking all the cars. And we said, we are done. They are going to kill us immediately, seeing thousands of Bibles in that car.

And we didn't know what to do. We started just praying. And suddenly a big miracle happened. There was just one car in front of us. A big fight happened between the police officers and the driver. And as a result of that, they said, go, go, go. We were shocked. We said, wow.

So our God is awesome. He's alive. He gives us the power. So many times like this happened because he wanted to show us it's not about you. When I tell you to do something, it's me. And I give you the power. And I protect you. God gave us the victory.

And I remember at that time, our pastor, after we distributed 20,000 Bibles, they were in the UK. We were smuggling the Bibles to us. He met me in Dubai. And he said, Marzi, we heard that some of connections in the parliament, they had a security meeting. And they were saying that there is a big Christian group in Iran. They are distributing Bibles. We need to find them and arrest them. But they had no idea it wasn't a big Christian group.

It's just two girls with two backpacks. And God really protected us. Even when we got arrested, they didn't know it was us. And we were so. We started home churches. We were evangelizing every day. And finally, it was the time to go to prison. And it was 2009 that my friend and I got arrested.

They sent us to the most horrible jail for 14 days. That we had to sleep on a cold concrete floor. We had to cover ourselves with blankets that were full of urine. They called us dirty Christians for months. Because in the eyes of radical Muslims, anyone who converts from Islam, from any other religion, are in fiddle and dirty. And they must be killed. I remember in the first court, the judge told us, your charge, your biggest charge is apostasy, which is punishable by death. I was shocked.

I said, are you serious? He said, yes. And I said, why don't you show this in your national TV to tell people how you told them? And I said, you are fighting. You are not fighting with us. You are fighting with God, who is behind us. And he got so mad at me. Because of talking boldly in front of him.

Because they have the face of evil. It is even hard to look at their faces. And I remember how much fear I had. My body each time, in each court, in each interrogation, was shaking. But God didn't allow me to look weak in front of them. Which goes back to the verse, to the promise that Jesus told us. Whenever you got arrested and go to trial, don't worry about what to say, just open your mouth, and I will give you the word. I truly experienced that.

There were many times that I was thinking, it's not me. The power, the way that I was talking to them, I would hear my voice, and I was telling myself, Marzi, you are in a big trouble. But inside myself, I knew that how much fear I had. But God didn't want me to look weak. And that's the reason. That I'm telling you, we should never turn our cheek to evil. We should never negotiate with terror. This is not the language.

The language should be the language of power in front of those people. But yes, as a Christian, still, Jesus told us to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us. And he tested me in that prison many times when I was insulted by these people. They were evil people, and God taught me how to forgive them, how to pray for them when they insult me, not to insult back. But when you must stand strong, then that's a different story. I remember in prison, they transferred us after 14 days to another prison, a prison which is notorious for torturing, executing a lot of innocent people. And they, because of our story, many prisoners were interested. And we shared our story with many prisoners.

Many of them gave their hearts to Jesus because of our prayers, because of the miracles that Jesus was doing among prisoners, because of the dreams that God would give me. And as a result of that, a miracle would happen. And they could see there is a big difference between their faiths and our faiths. They were so desperate because many prisoners wanted to spend time with us. I remember my interrogator. Once. He threatened me, and she shouted at me, he said, you need to shut your mouth in prison, not talk about Jesus brainwashing our young generation with your fake religion. And I said, are you kidding?

It's Islam that you are brainwashing my people with that. Why these young people, instead of being in universities, these innocent people are in prison. You are ruining their lives. He said, we will cut your tongue if you do not stop. Stop. I said, go ahead and do that. As long as I'm alive, I will find a way to talk to Paul about Jesus. You can't stop me.

So this is our God. This is not me. This is the power of God in us. And they could see that. They forbidden us to go to any facilities in prison because they could see how many prisoners wanted to spend time with us, to hear from us. They were so desperate. And there is a facility for. Prisoners would go use the library, other things.

I remember the first day I went there and we had to go to the manager room, produce ourselves and to say, what is our charge? And I went there and there was a radical woman, a woman sitting there. And she asked me, what is your charge? I said, I'm here because of the name of Jesus. I'm a Christian. As soon as I said that she got so outrageous and she shouted at me and she said, get out of my office, you are in fiddle and you must be executed immediately. I don't know who let you here. I was shocked by her reaction to my charge.

And I said, do you know what I'm here because of the name of Jesus. And I'm so proud of that. I'm not a criminal, but I never forget that day when I left her office, my tears was coming out because the way that. She insulted me, it was unbelievable. And God would remind me the verses in Bible at the right time. I remembered at that time, he reminded me first Peter, that he says, rejoice when you suffer because of the name of you're insulted because of my name, you're blessed. For nine months, I didn't have Bible with me, but thought, and I'm, I've had a hard time to remember verses of Bible, but God at the right time would remind me. The right words that I needed at that.

So I saw many miracles in prison. At the same time, I witnessed firsthand the brutality of Islamic regime against my people. I experienced tortures of my soulmate. I experienced their execution. Once they put me in a cell intentionally with the murderers, and they knew that they are going to execute one of prisoners, they wanted to show me what will be the cost of our resistance. And after. I built the friendship, they took one of the prisoners that and execute, I was shocked. I could not believe how easily they can kill people.

And later they killed my best friend, which I build a friendship for nine months with her, executed her. And the worst thing that they did, they never gave her body back to the family. And the reason that they do that because they rape virgins before their execution, they believe if they send the virgin. Kill, execute her, she will to heaven, and by raping her, they avoid them. And this is happening in Iran to many women, but fine, because of lots of international pressures on the regime, many Christian organizations advocated for our case. I was lucky and hope from Vatican send a letter to government on behalf of us. And finally, because of all these pressures on the regime, we got to relate. Okay.

So God had a reason to send me to prison, and he also had a reason to bring me to America. And he always would tell me through my dreams, I remember before going to prison and after I got released, God told me next should be in America. I didn't know why. The ministry that we were working in the UK, they insisted us to go to the UK. I said, no, I said, sorry, I respect you, you are my pastor, but I'm follower of Jesus, not you. He told me I need to be in America. I don't know why. So we moved to America.

And since then, I started sharing about the persecution of my people, persecution of Christians in Iran. And I see that God sent me here, not just to enjoy my freedom and forget about what's happening in other countries like Iran, how the church, how Christians are suffering just because of being a Christian. So God wanted to use me to bring me here with America. He sent me a message for the churches in America to wake them up, especially what's happening these days. It scares me. It reminds me what exactly happened in Iran in 1979. They have targeted American children. These pro-Palestinian movements and all these protests, these are fake.

These are just lies and deceptions to brainwash your children, to take away your Judeo-Christian values. And replace it with Islam. I always tell Christians, tell people that the danger of a radical religion like Islam is not less than missile and bomb. It can be even more than that because it will infect the whole society. It will spread like a virus and it will stay for centuries and it's hard to eradicate. The Islamic Republic regime has already stand up. And their agents, to America, to Western countries, they infiltrated their political system, education, media, for a purpose. Because when I was living there, they were saying, teaching us that we would destroy America within.

And this is going to happen little by little. And it has already spread in America. So what is our responsibility as Christians? America and Israel are doing their job. They are doing their job. The Iranian people are tanking them, that finally they are helping them to get rid of this evil regime. But we as Christians also have a responsibility. It's not just coming to a church and enjoy our fellowship and then go home, forget about what we heard.

We need to activate our faith. There are many things we can do, like prayers. It's a big tool. It's the spirit of God that we have the power to do. And I experienced that in prison, in different times of my life. We have that authority to pray. And I initiated a program through my ministry, NewPersia.org, you can read the details, that I asked Christians to pray for Iran. And I got that vision, the story of Joshua, that God tells him and his army that you need to march around the city seven times.

And you need to do that. You need to declare the city under God's power to bring down the onslaughts. He gives them specific instructions like to blow their trumpet, to take the ark of the covenant, and to have seven priests in front of you. God could tell them to sit there and pray, I will make it for you. No! God wants us to activate and He tells them to march and pray. I got that vision. for Iran, that Iran is surrounded with seven countries. I tried to find Christians in those seven countries to stand up against the darkness in Iran, because there is a darkness.

There is a curse over the country of Iran for so many years. They invited through the religion of Islam. They do witchcraft. But God gave Joshua instruction. We can look at that, what we can do. I ask Christians, please print the map of Iran. Put your hands and just pray. Pray for Iran and declare Iran under God's kingdom.

This is God's promise in the book of Jeremiah 49. He says after killing the rulers and king of Elam, which is the ancient name of Iran, I will set my throne there. And I don't believe just because in the Bible, that's God's promise, but also when I was in prison, I remember it was during another big protest in Iran. I was crying to God when I was witnessing how many people are getting killed, tortured in prison. I cried to him and I said, why don't you destroy them? And I had a dream and he told me, I am giving these people a chance to repent, but if not, I'm going to destroy them all. When I woke up, I understood that God is God of love. He gives a chance to everyone to repent, but he's God of justice as well.

And what's happening in the Middle East regarding Iran is God's justice against these evil people were possessed with demons. So I ask people, please pray for Iran. Pray for Iranian people. I found my ministry newpersia.org based on that promise and based on my vision that Iran is going to be a Christian country. Yes, it's possible. Yes, it's happening. They're Bible is happening in Iran. Just yesterday, I shared a video on my social media that Iranians started throwing their con to the rivers.

Hundreds of Quran. You can watch that movie because they understood the roots of their problem. On the other hand, America and Western countries are racist religion. We need to wake up. We need to stand up for our values. Christianity is the foundation of America. When we say religious freedom, it's about Christianity. It's not about Islam and other religions.

This is very dangerous. And as I said, it gives me a lot more trauma when I see what's happening in America, in Western countries. When I was moving to America, I was thinking I'm moving to a Christian country. But they know, the enemy knows how to use your religious freedom, to use it against you. If you go to their countries and dare to talk to anyone about Christianity like Iran, they will kill you. But they easily come to your country because they know they can take advantage of your religious freedom. Build their mosques and brainwash your children. So we need to be vigilant and stand up, to pray, to be active, to question your politicians, to make them accountable.

They are not allowed to negotiate with these terrorists. We need to pray for our leaders to make a right decision. Because what's happening in Iran is not just happening in Iran. They have funded, organized and supported their agents in our country, in America. We need to get rid of them. Pope said that whoever prays Beige's War, God doesn't hear their prayers. It's nonsense. It seems the Pope, the new Pope, has not read the Bible.

There are tons of stories in the Bible about how God used other nations to punish those nations. This is ridiculous. How many times King David prayed to God, consulted him, God, should I go or not to go? Should I fight against this or not? And God would tell him to go and he would give him the victory. We should be vigilant not to be deceived by this kind of thing. And this deception also is moving in churches, trying to convince Christians not to stand with Israel. Why?

Your Savior Jesus was a Jew. Paul was a Jew. Prophets of the Bible all are Jews. We're Jews. Above 60% of your faith comes from the ascendance of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. How you can deny that? They are chosen people of God. It's in the book of Romans 11 that God tells that we should not be arrogant.

Because we are grafted into the covenant that God made with his chosen people. And he says they are our brothers and sisters. They are fighting against the most dangerous enemies of the world that I know them. Why we should not stand with them? As a Christian, I'm not supposed to take a gun and kill but I can do the right thing to stand for my values, to stand for my country and not to allow them to infiltrate the church and break and brainwash your children. Because if you separate the roots from the branches, there is nothing. You can't separate Judeo-Christians. It's all together and we must stand for that.

We can march like Joshua in our cities. Go to the streets, simple things. Just march and pray. Stand up for your values. Stand up for your children. If you do not do that, I promise your children in future will ask you why you did that. They will ask you why you didn't do anything. Iranian children are blaming their parents because the majority of them were silent when this happened to Iran.

And they didn't do anything. And now they are saying you ruined our life but by being silent. So as I said, as a Christian, we have power, spiritual power. God gave us three powers. We are not fighting against the flesh but while the army, the soldiers are doing their job, we can do something as Christians to pray, to support them, not to be deceived by the lies of the enemy in our country. Because as I said, while Iranians are rejecting that, boldly stand against it. Do you know what is the cost of that? They can get killed.

They can be executed. But they are standing against it. They are saying no to that. Why we should embrace such evil to our country, to our homes. God is looking for the warriors. The warriors of faith. Those who are ready to say yes Lord. I am ready to stand.

I am ready to go. I am ready to do whatever you want. I learned that. I lived like that. And I always said my life is in your hands. Just tell me where to go, what to do. And you can read my whole story. You can see that.

So be the warrior for God. God bless you. Two things I wanted to do today. First of all, I invite you to stand with me. You can't hear a story and a testimony of a sovereign God who reaches into a lie and says that one's mine. And brings a conversion in an environment that seems impossible. You can't hear that and the story of the call of God upon their lives to risk their life. You can't hear that and not want to rededicate or at least dedicate your life in the same way.

The prayer today is that there's an impartation placed in this house in line with our theme this year and in line with the theme of this conference. That is to stand unashamedly in this conference of Anchor. That there would be every individual in this room that names the name of Christ. That says Lord you've called me bold. You've called me to be the testimony of the gospel. And I dedicate my life to that. I am hungry to see souls come in the kingdom of God because of bold testimony. How many feel that?

I believe today you're being challenged. We're going to pray over that while you dedicate your life. If you're in this room and you've not given your life to Christ. If you've not said Jesus, you paid the penalty. The price for my sin. If you are a nominal term used towards some Muslims in Iran are nominal meaning they're not real Muslims. They're just in there. There are people in our nation that are nominal Christians.

How many know what I'm talking about? They go to attend on a Sunday morning but nothing's ever changed in their life. There's no transformation. There's no discipleship. If that's you today, I don't know of a better moment than for you to give your life to Christ. So I want to lead us in a prayer. Then we're going to pray for the nation of Iran. Is that okay?

We're going to take the time. Maybe God will burden someone in this room to start pleading for the nations like Iran. I believe there are those in our room this room that give themselves to pray for the nation. We have Venezuelans in this room. Venezuelans, raise your hand. All the Venezuelans, give them a moment through the translation. We have a brother from Chile back there. But Venezuela suffered 20 years ago.

Socialism and Marxism started coming in for that nation to offer free things. Right now, that's happening in our nation with Islam. There's in New York and in Minnesota and other places there's a bonding together and our young generation are embracing it because the church has not taught biblical world view and biblical values. That's why we need to pray for deep understanding because you'll be accused of being not compassionate enough. In reality, it's a twist of biblical values and it's getting infiltrated into our Christian universities and our seminaries. I'm well aware of that. Well aware of that. So there's a lot to be covered and prayed over.

When we come to it in the Scriptures, we're bold to speak of it, even in spite of resistance. And so I'm praying for boldness today. And I'm going to lead you in a prayer and I want you to give your life to Christ and dedicate your life to the Gospel. Say this we say, Heavenly Father, I accept that Jesus Christ is both Lord and my Savior. I commit my life to that call and to the Gospel. Now right there, I want you to dedicate your life to Him. If you need to make some things right with God, take that moment right now. I want you to just dedicate your life.

Say, Jesus, I belong to You. Wherever there's been an idol, wherever there's been an idol established, repent and turn from that idol. I don't care what it is. Any idol that's taken the place of a commitment to Jesus Christ above everything, Lord, I pray over that right now in this room by the power of the Holy Spirit. I pray, Lord, not one person walk out of here without a full commitment to the call of Christ. Embolden your people in every work area, in every work force, in every place. Embolden them, I pray, Father. In the name of Jesus.

Now let's pray for the nation of Iran. There should be a map come up on the screen here and I want you to stretch your hand toward that nation of Iran and we're going to pray for that nation. You may not know much about it. You've heard more in the news, but let's pray for the church in that nation. Father, we pray for the body of Christ in that nation. We pray, Lord, for the mercy. I ask You to uncover every wicked and every unrighteousness and every area of evil that You would bring it to justice. Lord, I ask You for wisdom for the nation that the leaders of Israel, the leaders of the United States to know the right things to do and the right way to go.

I pray, Father, for the counsel of the right, a Holy Spirit counsel. And I pray right now, Lord, encourage the Iranians who want to be free from the evil regime. I pray, Lord, for the gospel to have free course. I pray that I hear of millions coming into the kingdom of God. Let that be so, Lord. Just as we've heard testimony today, I pray, Lord, that there would be boldness in the face of every circumstance. And I pray for open doors for Christians to flood into that nation. And there may be those in this room that say, I will go, Lord.

Open the door for the gospel in that nation. Burden us on how to pray. Let us see Jesus. You're seated on the throne, and You're ruling nations in the affairs right now. Not just some day, but right now You rule in the affairs of nations. And any nation that refuses to kiss the sun will perish from the earth. Lord, we pray that the gospel of this nation be bold with the gospel. We pray for our President and those who are in authority, that we might lead a quiet and peaceable life, that many come into the kingdom of God, we pray.

And if you agree with that, say, Amen. Amen. Wow. Give the Lord a praise. Thank You for this word today. Thank You, Sister. Thank You for coming, being here, being bold to preach. You may be seated.

I want to just give a moment, just a couple reminders. I want to, first of all, say to you, if there's a black book passed by, would you take a moment and fill it out? Norma asked me this morning, how did you know it was my birthday? And I said, because you put it in the black book. And if we don't know it's your birthday, it's because it's not in there. If we don't have your address or your email, it's because you didn't put it in there, okay? So help us to know a little bit about you if you've not updated. Some of us who have been around here forever, we're not in the black book.

Please don't let your name not be written in the black book. Okay, so help us with that if you will. Said the black book. I didn't say the book of life. I said the black book, okay? And then, if you're our guest today, there's an offering, I mean there's a guest card right there in the front seat in front of you. If you'd fill that out, and we'd love to have it. Just drop it in the offering container when you leave the building.

That way we'll know you're here and we can say thank you for coming if you're our guest. Also, I want to give you a chance to worship. This is not for our guests today. This is for the regular worshipers here at DLC. We believe in worshiping with our tithes and offering so we give you a chance to do that every time we come together. There's a means on the screen. If you'd like to use a check, obviously it's in the seat back in front of you with pens and there's offering containers as you leave today. But most of us use the text to give.

It's just an easy way to worship the Lord. You have worked this week. You've been given in exchange of your life, finances. You're coming to worship with that. And may the Lord richly bless you. I just want to pray over those who worship with their tithes and offerings each week and the missions. You guys have been so faithful to missions to be able to be a part of nations of the world. I mention Venezuela because we're praying for that.

Open doors have come in that nation. Jerry and Teresa, you've labored there for so many years. You were supposed to be there last week or a couple weeks ago not able to get in without a visa. But we're praying for that opportunity. Wherever there is things that are happening in the nation, keep your eyes open. Because you may not understand what all is happening when those things happen in the nation but God's opening the door for the Gospel. And there's great pastors and great leaders not only among us from Venezuela but right now are getting out of prison in Venezuela. So our hearts towards the nations of the world.

Thank you for being a part of missions. So Father I thank you for the tithers in this house. I pray blessings upon them and increase upon every area. Those who have a burden for the missions, I pray God that you bless them in every area. And we honor you in Jesus name. Amen. I know we've run over just a little bit but it's all been right. Can you say Amen?

Let's get called up here right quick before we release you so you know what's going on this week. If you'd like to go or to sign up for child care visit dlc-signup.com or dlc.tv slash summer. ATI Kids 2026 our famous Ready for your kids now on applethoughteams.com The Freedom Celebration is right around the corner. It's one of our biggest events of the year where we get to celebrate freedom and serve in our community with a night of fireworks and fun. We need many volunteers for this big night. To see the need visit dlsignup.com and sign up to help us. That's all the announcements for this week. If you have a prayer need, please let us know.

We would love to walk alongside you in prayer. But with that being said have a fantastic week DLC fans. Amen. While you're standing let me remind you that the children's events called ATI Kids is on the Owasso campus and if you were over there this morning you saw the ocean around you couldn't walk down the hall they're taking over that center over there. So that's a blessing. Now tonight launches our ATI conference. We've been invaded again with Birmingham, Alabama. Wave at us all you Alabamians.

Wave at us throughout the building. Okay. And Florida has invaded us. Come on Floridians. Wave at us. Where are you? Hold your hand up. All you Floridians.

Thank you for this long distance way out to us. I heard you had invaded us anywhere here. Wave at us. Scream at us. Out to us. Or you're on your way possibly. On your way. All the way from Chile.

Mauricio. Come on now. We welcome you here. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone here. I'm looking around seeing if I'm missing some particular group here. But thank you for being here tonight. You don't want to miss it. Come early.

Get a seat. The registration is closed for the morning sessions but the night sessions are powerful and are open. You can enroll your children for the BBS style but you'll want to do that. And so you can even be there tomorrow. Now every able bodied man that can I want to ask for your help. We have some heavy sofas out in the foyer which we love. They look nice. But they're going to have to be moved into this room right over here.

And then we've got some tables out of this room here. We asked them that we didn't want to set up the foyer for tables for the meals today because we wanted you to be able to come in and out. So we need some men to help us move those tables in here and set up chairs. I'm looking for the director. Who's going to direct me? Miss Jones. Who's in charge of that? Where are you?

Where are you? Okay. They're in the 9am. I don't see them. Maybe they're getting things ready. Okay. Here. Tony's here.

Okay. Alright. Somehow I thought you were going to abandon us. I'm glad you're here Tony. Give Tony a hand. Okay. These guys will tell you what to do. God bless you.

Love on one another. And you strong. Young guys, help us. Everybody from MOVE knows how to work out. They've got the muscles.