Latest / Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE / Td Jakes God Is With You In The Battle
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Invite your prayerful attention to the book of Joshua chapter
- 0:03Speaker 1: number 5 verse number 13 through 15. It's our custom
- 0:07Speaker 1: to stand for the reading.
- 0:08Speaker 2: Of the word.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Joshua 5, 13 through 15. If you're seeing the book
- 0:28Speaker 1: of Acts and 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, you're a
- 0:30Speaker 1: long ways from Texas, baby. Been a long time since
- 0:37Speaker 1: you've been to church.
- 0:40Speaker 2: Just teasing. Relax, relax.
- 0:47Speaker 1: Joshua chapter 5, verse 13 through 15, when you have it,
- 0:50Speaker 1: say amen. I'm going to invite you to read of
- 0:53Speaker 1: the family from the Word of God. I may drop out,
- 0:55Speaker 1: but you continue. And it came to pass when Joshua
- 0:59Speaker 1: was by Jericho.
- 1:01Speaker 3: And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold,
- 1:05Speaker 3: there stood a man over against him with his sword
- 1:09Speaker 3: drawn in his hand. And Joshua went into him and
- 1:13Speaker 3: said unto him, Art thou for us or for our adversaries?
- 1:18Speaker 3: And he said, Nay. But as captain of the host
- 1:21Speaker 3: of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell
- 1:25Speaker 3: on his face to the earth and did worship and
- 1:29Speaker 3: said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant?
- 1:33Speaker 3: And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua,
- 1:37Speaker 3: Loose thy shoe from off thy feet, for the place
- 1:40Speaker 3: whereon thou standest is holy.
- 1:43Speaker 2: And Joshua did so. Can you say amen?
- 1:45Speaker 1: Amen.
- 1:47Speaker 2: Yes.
- 1:48Speaker 1: Amen. And it came to pass when Joshua was by
- 1:55Speaker 1: Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold,
- 1:58Speaker 1: there stood a man over against him with his sword
- 2:01Speaker 1: drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and
- 2:03Speaker 1: said unto him, art thou for us or are you
- 2:07Speaker 1: for my enemies? He said, neither one of you. I'm
- 2:13Speaker 1: the captain of the hosts of the Lord. And I
- 2:16Speaker 1: have come. And Joshua fell on his face to the
- 2:18Speaker 1: earth and did worship and said unto him, What saith
- 2:21Speaker 1: my Lord unto his servants? And the captain of the
- 2:24Speaker 1: Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off
- 2:27Speaker 1: thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy.
- 2:30Speaker 2: And Joshua did so. Can you say amen?
- 2:35Speaker 1: I want to talk about recognizing God in the middle
- 2:37Speaker 1: of the battle or recognizing God in the battle. To
- 2:40Speaker 1: recognize God in the battle, understanding that you are not
- 2:46Speaker 1: in it by yourself, but that God is there with
- 2:50Speaker 1: you in the midst of the battle. You don't have
- 2:52Speaker 1: to handle this by yourself. You don't have to go
- 2:56Speaker 1: up against the enemy in your own strength. If you
- 2:59Speaker 1: just calm yourself down, God's going to get some glory
- 3:03Speaker 1: out of this in spite of you.
- 3:05Speaker 2: Amen? Let's pray.
- 3:09Speaker 1: Father, we invite you into this moment. Just maximize our
- 3:12Speaker 1: time in the word. Just do something for us that
- 3:15Speaker 1: we need to have done. Give us clear direction as
- 3:18Speaker 1: we open up the word today. In Jesus' name, amen.
- 3:21Speaker 1: You may be seated in the presence of the Lord.
- 3:31Speaker 1: Glory to God. Before I get lost in the word,
- 3:34Speaker 1: I thought, Mithith Gray, the mother of Holloway Gray.
- 3:37Speaker 2: Would you stand?
- 3:38Speaker 1: I just want to acknowledge her being in the service
- 3:41Speaker 1: with us today.
- 3:42Speaker 2: God bless you. Good to see you.
- 3:48Speaker 1: I am attracted to revisit this scripture and this text.
- 3:52Speaker 2: It is a passion of mine, and it's a.
- 3:54Speaker 1: Very interesting scripture for me because of Joshua, who has
- 3:58Speaker 1: now assumed the responsibility of leading the children of Israel
- 4:03Speaker 1: behind his predecessor, Moses. And now he's coming up against
- 4:07Speaker 1: his first incredible challenge. I mean, there have been challenges.
- 4:11Speaker 1: There have been battles. There has been opposition. But this
- 4:15Speaker 1: one is greater than any other one. Perhaps this is
- 4:19Speaker 1: the deal breaker as it relates to proving to Israel
- 4:22Speaker 1: that he is fit to be a leader. That he
- 4:26Speaker 1: is fit to be a leader. I'm telling you, being
- 4:28Speaker 1: a leader is a huge responsibility. And what you must
- 4:33Speaker 1: understand clearly where as you look at me perhaps as
- 4:36Speaker 1: a spiritual leader and a church leader and you look
- 4:39Speaker 1: to elected officials as leaders over our communities and over
- 4:43Speaker 1: our government and you look to the president as being
- 4:46Speaker 1: a leader over our nation, but you need to understand
- 4:49Speaker 1: specifically that you are a leader too. And you have responsibility.
- 4:54Speaker 1: And to him whom much is given, much is required.
- 4:58Speaker 1: And so as you lead, the problem with leading, it
- 5:01Speaker 1: means that you are continually facing new things. If you're
- 5:07Speaker 1: not continually facing new things, you're not leading, you're repeating.
- 5:15Speaker 1: So there is a perpetual vulnerability that exists in the
- 5:18Speaker 1: heart of a leader because you can never have your
- 5:21Speaker 1: act down pat.
- 5:24Speaker 2: Every morning you.
- 5:25Speaker 1: Wake up, you're facing something new because every morning you
- 5:27Speaker 1: wake up, you're moving into another dimension, another area. And
- 5:31Speaker 1: if you are really a leader, you are progressive. And
- 5:34Speaker 1: in the process of being progressive, it means that you
- 5:37Speaker 1: are facing new issues and new areas all the time. Now,
- 5:42Speaker 1: much of our time when we deal with battles, most
- 5:44Speaker 1: of our time is spent telling you, you know, just
- 5:47Speaker 1: be still and know that God is God. And just
- 5:50Speaker 1: to be passive and to lay back the battle is
- 5:53Speaker 1: not yours. It belongs to God. And I'm going to
- 5:54Speaker 1: talk about that a little bit today. But the idea
- 5:58Speaker 1: and the inference suggests that once you turn it over
- 6:01Speaker 1: to God, you have no responsibility at all. And this
- 6:04Speaker 1: becomes a welcome message to procrastinators who love to say, well,
- 6:08Speaker 1: you know, if the Lord meant for me to have it,
- 6:10Speaker 1: he'd give it to me. If the Lord meant for
- 6:12Speaker 1: me to do this, he'll do it. If, Lord, if
- 6:14Speaker 1: you mean to give me this job, let it rain
- 6:17Speaker 1: on the right side of this carpet in the hallway.
- 6:23Speaker 1: And we put out all those fleeces and crazy concepts
- 6:26Speaker 1: to relieve ourselves from the human responsibility of engagement. The
- 6:30Speaker 1: challenge as a pastor with feeding God's flock is on
- 6:33Speaker 1: one hand, you have passive people who need to be motivated.
- 6:37Speaker 1: And so you preach something to challenge them. But on
- 6:41Speaker 1: the other hand, the concern is the aggressive person overhears
- 6:44Speaker 1: it and they go into overdrive. Because you got one
- 6:48Speaker 1: person who needs to be stimulated. Would you please do something?
- 6:53Speaker 1: Just do it if it's wrong. Do it if we
- 6:56Speaker 1: have to fix it. Breathe on a mirror. Let us
- 6:58Speaker 1: know you are alive.
- 6:59Speaker 2: Do something. You live like a statue.
- 7:04Speaker 1: Some of you are married to somebody like that. That's
- 7:05Speaker 1: why you're just sitting there saying, Lord, Jesus. But Joshua
- 7:16Speaker 1: is not a passive, reserved person who procrastinates. He is
- 7:21Speaker 1: an aggressive person.
- 7:23Speaker 2: He is a warrior. He is a fighter. He is tenacious.
- 7:27Speaker 2: He is relentless.
- 7:28Speaker 1: And oddly enough, the very thing that makes him a
- 7:31Speaker 1: great leader almost kills him. Isn't it amazing how your
- 7:38Speaker 1: greatest strength in the wrong place can become.
- 7:41Speaker 2: Your greatest weakness?
- 7:45Speaker 1: Joshua had no trouble taking on issues and taking on
- 7:49Speaker 1: areas and taking on authority.
- 7:51Speaker 2: Joshua was aggressive.
- 7:53Speaker 1: Perhaps he is selected to be the successor of Moses
- 7:58Speaker 1: because Moses has a tendency at times to lead people
- 8:02Speaker 1: in circles. In fact, an entire generation followed Moses around
- 8:11Speaker 1: and around and around and around. The same stuff. And
- 8:17Speaker 1: Moses' face with an opportunity to go forward becomes frustrated
- 8:22Speaker 1: and leads people out of his human frustration and he
- 8:25Speaker 1: vents over the pulpit and he gets angry and God
- 8:29Speaker 1: removes him from leadership because Moses is a leader who
- 8:32Speaker 1: cannot control his own tempers. You cannot lead into greatness
- 8:40Speaker 1: with small-mindedness. You cannot go forward with your feelings on
- 8:46Speaker 1: your sleeves. You got to be able to feel your
- 8:50Speaker 1: emotions and still control them. We all have them, but
- 8:53Speaker 1: you cannot be controlled by your emotions and be an
- 8:57Speaker 1: effective leader. Moses, instead of telling them what thus saith
- 9:03Speaker 1: the Lord, had started telling them what thus saith Moses,
- 9:06Speaker 1: and God had to get him out of the way
- 9:07Speaker 1: because he was misrepresenting God. God is concerned about people
- 9:13Speaker 1: who abuse authority. Not only when it talks about corporate leadership,
- 9:22Speaker 1: church leadership, but even domestic leadership. In the house, God
- 9:26Speaker 1: warns men against being abusive to their wives. God said,
- 9:29Speaker 1: I won't hear your prayer because you abuse authority. Thankfully,
- 9:36Speaker 1: God doesn't just mentor followers. He also mentors leaders and
- 9:41Speaker 1: helps you to develop your skill so that you can
- 9:44Speaker 1: be more adept at what God is going to do
- 9:46Speaker 1: in your life.
- 9:48Speaker 2: Many times when God.
- 9:49Speaker 1: Starts training you, he trains you with trouble. Exposing you
- 9:56Speaker 1: to various degrees of frustrating situations. and then critiquing your response— see,
- 10:03Speaker 1: some people don't have that back end— critiquing your response so
- 10:06Speaker 1: that you can learn how you should have handled this
- 10:09Speaker 1: particular situation. Joshua has got the war thing down pat.
- 10:17Speaker 1: And in a moment, we're going to go back and
- 10:18Speaker 1: look at his background and understand he's got the war
- 10:21Speaker 1: thing down pat. Some of you, you've got the war
- 10:23Speaker 1: thing down pat. We don't have to motivate you to
- 10:25Speaker 1: speak your mind. Nobody, you didn't even have to get
- 10:33Speaker 1: saved to learn how to speak your mind. You don't
- 10:35Speaker 1: need any tapes on how to be aggressive and to
- 10:38Speaker 1: tell people what you think. You will do it in
- 10:40Speaker 1: a flash. You will fight in a minute and find
- 10:44Speaker 1: out what the war was about later.
- 10:45Speaker 2: You just.
- 10:49Speaker 1: Some of you are so aggressive, you slap people in
- 10:50Speaker 1: the head and say, what did you say?
- 11:00Speaker 2: Joshua would fight at the drop of a hat.
- 11:02Speaker 1: Let's just be honest this minute. How many people in
- 11:04Speaker 1: this room have a tendency to go to war? You
- 11:07Speaker 1: will go to war in a flash. That's not a
- 11:10Speaker 1: bad thing. It's not a bad thing. It's in you,
- 11:12Speaker 1: and God can use that in you. You don't want
- 11:16Speaker 1: to kill it. You want to control it. You want
- 11:22Speaker 1: to make sure that you have found a place that
- 11:25Speaker 1: is appropriate where your skill sets and strengths can be
- 11:30Speaker 1: utilized effectively. You might be a great person to have
- 11:34Speaker 1: a job calling people.
- 11:36Speaker 2: With bad credit. I don't know.
- 11:37Speaker 1: There's a calling somewhere. We're going to find some place
- 11:40Speaker 1: for you. Bounty hunter. You'll get it tomorrow.
- 11:51Speaker 2: Never mind. You should have went to bed earlier.
- 11:57Speaker 1: Joshua is getting ready to take on the battle of
- 12:00Speaker 1: his life and he has all of the tenseness that
- 12:04Speaker 1: comes from being in a series of battles.
- 12:06Speaker 2: When you get in a series of battles, you are
- 12:08Speaker 2: prone to fight.
- 12:10Speaker 1: But the problem is when he looks up and he
- 12:12Speaker 1: sees a man standing by him, he says, I saw
- 12:16Speaker 1: a man standing by me and he ran out and said,
- 12:19Speaker 1: are you with me?
- 12:20Speaker 2: First of all, it wasn't a man. It was God.
- 12:25Speaker 1: And yet we have a problem becoming so practical that
- 12:30Speaker 1: we don't recognize God in the middle of our situation.
- 12:35Speaker 1: To not discern God as being a part of the
- 12:38Speaker 1: process is a crippling mistake that Joshua is about to
- 12:41Speaker 1: make here because he thinks he's just running into man
- 12:45Speaker 1: and he's running into God. Have you recognized God in
- 12:49Speaker 1: your situations?
- 13:07Speaker 1: I am
- 13:12Speaker 1: not saying that you should do nothing except pray. In fact,
- 13:17Speaker 1: it drives me crazy to hear people tell you just pray.
- 13:21Speaker 1: Spin around seven times and throw $ 5 over your head
- 13:25Speaker 1: and God's going to bless you. It drives me crazy
- 13:27Speaker 1: because it makes you think something that is not real.
- 13:30Speaker 1: You have to get engaged and you have to do
- 13:34Speaker 1: something in order to win. Faith without words is dead
- 13:39Speaker 1: being alone. And I want to be clear about that,
- 13:48Speaker 1: but you must understand that works alone doesn't get it either.
- 13:53Speaker 1: It's not about how much there's some of you working overtime.
- 13:56Speaker 2: Under time, around the clock. You've got five jobs. You
- 13:58Speaker 2: don't have time to go to church.
- 14:00Speaker 1: You don't have time to get your hair done. You
- 14:01Speaker 1: don't have time to pat your kids. You don't have
- 14:03Speaker 1: time to go to the restroom. .
- 14:05Speaker 2: You're determined
- 14:09Speaker 2: you're going to get there about 37 days.
- 14:13Speaker 1: And you decided to go at 36 and a half
- 14:16Speaker 1: and you want it in the next six.
- 14:18Speaker 2: Months or it won't be done.
- 14:20Speaker 1: And so you have unrealistic expectations and you jump into
- 14:23Speaker 1: it and you're relentlessly going after it and you've got
- 14:26Speaker 1: everything going. All your engines are going. All your flames
- 14:30Speaker 1: are shooting from every direction and you've got everything in
- 14:33Speaker 1: it but God. When God gets into the midst of
- 14:39Speaker 1: your goals and the things you're going after, it helps
- 14:42Speaker 1: you to be more effective.
- 14:44Speaker 2: The hardest thing in the world to do.
- 14:46Speaker 1: Is to balance between what is my responsibility and what
- 14:51Speaker 1: is God's responsibility.
- 14:53Speaker 2: Who does what?
- 14:55Speaker 1: So the first thing I have to do is to
- 14:57Speaker 1: recognize God. in the situation and once I have recognized
- 15:02Speaker 1: that God is there, even in situations that look quite
- 15:05Speaker 1: natural to me, that look like a man to me,
- 15:08Speaker 1: that God could show up as a man and me
- 15:11Speaker 1: not recognize it. And the second thing is for me
- 15:14Speaker 1: to distribute responsibilities appropriately and I begin to understand what
- 15:18Speaker 1: is my business and what is God's business. See, the
- 15:22Speaker 1: disciples messed up that first thing because whenever Jesus showed
- 15:26Speaker 1: up in another form.
- 15:27Speaker 2: They didn't recognize him.
- 15:29Speaker 1: And when you keep doing new things, God keeps showing
- 15:32Speaker 1: up in new forms. Religious people have a tendency to
- 15:37Speaker 1: get stuck in a wandering pattern where God keeps showing
- 15:40Speaker 1: up in the same form.
- 15:42Speaker 2: They get what I call deep. They get deep. They're
- 15:45Speaker 2: walking around in the grocery store.
- 15:46Speaker 1: Deep. Deep. What they're trying to do is try to
- 15:52Speaker 1: get God to do something that he did before over
- 15:55Speaker 1: and over again and to lock him down to a
- 15:57Speaker 1: pattern and recipe. And they think that if they roll
- 16:00Speaker 1: their eyes up in their head and they walk around
- 16:01Speaker 1: real spiritual, they suck their bottom lip, that God's going
- 16:04Speaker 1: to conjure up in the same time. They don't know
- 16:06Speaker 1: that God could use somebody that wasn't a missionary, that
- 16:09Speaker 1: wasn't an evangelist, that God could use somebody who wasn't
- 16:12Speaker 1: even a Christian. to bless you and to speak a
- 16:15Speaker 1: word into your life, that God can use your enemies,
- 16:18Speaker 1: that sometimes God speaks through your children, that sometimes God
- 16:21Speaker 1: will speak to you through a commercial, that sometimes God
- 16:24Speaker 1: will speak to you through people that you would never
- 16:27Speaker 1: think possible, and they're not open to new experiences. And
- 16:30Speaker 1: whenever God does something fresh, they go back to something old.
- 16:34Speaker 1: And so they have a Moses mentality of wandering around
- 16:38Speaker 1: a mountain that's safe rather than to have a contemporary,
- 16:43Speaker 1: ongoing experience with God. These people are deep, but they're
- 16:48Speaker 1: not prayerful. Oh, they say prayers, but it's not really praying.
- 16:53Speaker 1: You have to face new things to have a prayer life.
- 16:56Speaker 1: You have to face something that makes you vulnerable and
- 16:58Speaker 1: insecure to.
- 16:59Speaker 2: Have a prayer life.
- 17:00Speaker 1: You have to come before God not being.
- 17:02Speaker 2: A know-it-all to have a prayer life.
- 17:04Speaker 1: Some of you can't pray because you are so convinced
- 17:07Speaker 1: that you know how to do everything. You don't pray.
- 17:10Speaker 1: You just go to God and brag. You know I
- 17:12Speaker 1: got this. You know I got this, God. Thank you
- 17:17Speaker 1: for turning it over to me so I can straighten
- 17:19Speaker 1: out all those other dummies who don't understand how to
- 17:21Speaker 1: deal with this situation.
- 17:23Speaker 2: You're not praying, you're bragging.
- 17:28Speaker 1: And the only reason you got it and you know
- 17:29Speaker 1: how to do it is that you keep repeating the
- 17:31Speaker 1: same class. I guess you do pass the test. You
- 17:36Speaker 1: know all the questions. You've been in the same grade
- 17:42Speaker 1: for seven years. How many are facing new challenges? New
- 17:57Speaker 1: challenges is a sign of progress. It's a sign of
- 18:00Speaker 1: going into another dimension. But don't expect your old ideas
- 18:04Speaker 1: about God to show up in your new situation because
- 18:08Speaker 1: the God that you need in the storm is not
- 18:11Speaker 1: the God that you needed in Gennesaret. He may come
- 18:14Speaker 1: to you walking on the water and he may look
- 18:17Speaker 1: like a ghost, but don't be afraid of him because
- 18:20Speaker 1: God does show up in other forms.
- 18:23Speaker 2: The Bible said that the disciples were out.
- 18:25Speaker 1: In the sea. They looked up and they thought it
- 18:27Speaker 1: was a ghost. Peter said, no, that's not a ghost.
- 18:29Speaker 1: He said, Lord, if that's you, bid me to come.
- 18:33Speaker 1: Don't be afraid to see God in other forms. Don't
- 18:36Speaker 1: be afraid to recognize God when he walks through a
- 18:39Speaker 1: door and eats fish with the disciples and they're afraid
- 18:41Speaker 1: that he's a spirit. And he said, no, can a
- 18:44Speaker 1: spirit eat fish? Touch my side, touch my hand. Be
- 18:47Speaker 1: not faithless, but believe. See, when you go into new experiences,
- 18:50Speaker 1: we have a tendency to be afraid. Because you're looking
- 18:54Speaker 1: for God to show up like he did before. When
- 18:58Speaker 1: God says, I'm going to do a new thing in you,
- 19:01Speaker 1: that means I'm going to show up in a new way.
- 19:04Speaker 1: And you got to be ready to receive me as
- 19:06Speaker 1: I take you into a new area. And so I mean,
- 19:11Speaker 1: because now you're in the boardroom and you can't be
- 19:13Speaker 1: in the boardroom to fall down the floor talking in tongues.
- 19:20Speaker 1: I may need to whisper in your ear, and I
- 19:22Speaker 1: may not come complete with a dance and a shout.
- 19:25Speaker 1: I may need to be able to navigate you through
- 19:27Speaker 1: a person in the workplace. I may need to be
- 19:30Speaker 1: able to speak in your ear in a way that
- 19:32Speaker 1: is calm and quiet, and I don't have time to
- 19:35Speaker 1: hit your push buttons, your pulse buttons, your familiar buttons
- 19:39Speaker 1: in order for you. You've got to recognize my voice
- 19:42Speaker 1: even when I show up in another form.
- 19:46Speaker 2: Oh, this is good for somebody.
- 19:50Speaker 1: Joshua runs out there I like old Joshua you got
- 19:52Speaker 1: to have at least one Joshua on every committee every
- 19:56Speaker 1: board and there's at least one in every family.
- 20:00Speaker 2: But some of you show Aunt Maggie you.
- 20:02Speaker 1: Know Aunt Maggie come here what's going on in here
- 20:05Speaker 1: What did it say to you in the first place?
- 20:07Speaker 1: You ain't coming up in here doing this. And you
- 20:10Speaker 1: know to call Aunt Maggie when you need some backup
- 20:13Speaker 1: because if you call Aunt Helen, she'll bring over some
- 20:15Speaker 1: bread and some fruit muffins and stuff, but she ain't
- 20:18Speaker 1: going to help do nothing. But Maggie will come in there. Well,
- 20:20Speaker 1: Joshua had that kind of tenacity. Don't kill that in
- 20:24Speaker 1: your children. Don't kill that in your family. Direct it,
- 20:27Speaker 1: but don't kill it. There's a reason God gave them
- 20:30Speaker 1: that personality. He is going to use them in a
- 20:33Speaker 1: unique and strategic way.
- 20:35Speaker 2: Joshua would fight. He was aggressive.
- 20:44Speaker 1: He ran up on God. He ran up on the
- 20:45Speaker 1: Lord and said, are you with me or against me?
- 20:56Speaker 2: Just thought nothing of it. But now.
- 21:05Speaker 1: Joshua is so aggressive that he is asking God, are
- 21:10Speaker 1: you on my side or are you on the side
- 21:13Speaker 1: of the enemy? In other words, he said, look, if
- 21:16Speaker 1: you want to be with me, choose a side. And
- 21:20Speaker 1: we live in a world that is forever trying to
- 21:23Speaker 1: get God to choose a side. It drives me crazy,
- 21:29Speaker 1: the people who are trying to get God to choose
- 21:32Speaker 1: a side. I mean, it starts with little children. They
- 21:35Speaker 1: want God to choose a side. I'm right, and this
- 21:38Speaker 1: child's all wrong. And you start praying for the wrong child,
- 21:42Speaker 1: straighten them out, straighten them.
- 21:43Speaker 2: This and that and the other, as if they were
- 21:45Speaker 2: all wrong.
- 21:45Speaker 1: But there's some right in the most ungodly person. And
- 21:51Speaker 1: there's some wickedness in the most spiritual person. Trust me,
- 22:00Speaker 1: I've been around a long time. I know what I'm
- 22:02Speaker 1: talking about. And when you start praying these carnal prayers,
- 22:06Speaker 1: it would be like one of your children saying to you, Mama,
- 22:11Speaker 1: Fred jumped on me. He took my toy. He stole
- 22:14Speaker 1: my bicycle. He wrecked my bicycle. All of that is true.
- 22:17Speaker 1: And then they say, kill him. You don't want to
- 22:22Speaker 1: kill one child because they wronged the other child, but
- 22:26Speaker 1: they want you to take a side. People want God
- 22:29Speaker 1: to take a side. Are you with me or are
- 22:31Speaker 1: you with my adversaries?
- 22:32Speaker 2: Take a side.
- 22:33Speaker 1: God, are you Democrat or Republican? Take a side. God,
- 22:37Speaker 1: are you Methodist or Baptist? Take a side.
- 22:42Speaker 2: We're always arguing over whose side God is on.
- 22:45Speaker 1: Joshua said, are you on my side or on the
- 22:49Speaker 1: adversary's side? Are you for our church or are you
- 22:51Speaker 1: for their church down the street? Then we preach about
- 22:57Speaker 1: our church is taking the city. We have the taking
- 23:01Speaker 1: the city conference. And I always ask them, where are
- 23:04Speaker 1: you going to put it? If your church is going
- 23:08Speaker 1: to take the city, where are you going to put them?
- 23:12Speaker 2: You only got 5,000 seats. You only got 8,000 seats.
- 23:15Speaker 1: You got 5 million people in the city. Can somebody
- 23:19Speaker 1: else have some members too? Would it be all right
- 23:24Speaker 1: if we had more than one restaurant in the city?
- 23:28Speaker 1: Could we have more than one laundromat when we got
- 23:30Speaker 1: 20 families in the apartment? A narrow myopic vision of
- 23:41Speaker 1: God limits your understanding to thinking that God is a
- 23:45Speaker 1: butler or a maid that you can summon for your agenda.
- 23:52Speaker 1: And most of us who embrace faith do it from
- 23:55Speaker 1: such a selfish perspective that all we want to know
- 23:58Speaker 1: is how we can use God to promote what we're
- 24:01Speaker 1: trying to do. Are you for me or against me?
- 24:06Speaker 1: And the Lord said, neither. I'm not for you. I'm
- 24:10Speaker 1: not for your enemies. It's not about me being for you.
- 24:15Speaker 1: It's about you being for me. Uh-oh. It's not about
- 24:23Speaker 1: how you can get God to support your agenda. It's
- 24:26Speaker 1: about you getting on your knees and finding out what
- 24:29Speaker 1: is God's agenda and seeing how you can support what
- 24:32Speaker 1: God is doing.
- 24:35Speaker 2: Oh, God, help me.
- 24:37Speaker 1: Are you hearing what I'm saying? But I want to
- 24:40Speaker 1: show you something. Go to the book of Exodus. I
- 24:41Speaker 1: want you to take a look at this because I
- 24:43Speaker 1: just want to teach this. This is for somebody. I
- 24:45Speaker 1: don't know who it is. Go to Exodus 17. Exodus 17,
- 24:56Speaker 1: 8 through 12. In your heaven, say amen. It says, Moses.
- 25:12Speaker 2: Is living now.
- 25:12Speaker 1: He says to Joshua, Joshua, Choose us out men and
- 25:24Speaker 1: go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand
- 25:27Speaker 1: on the top of the hill with the rod of
- 25:29Speaker 1: God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses had
- 25:32Speaker 1: said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron,
- 25:35Speaker 1: and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
- 25:38Speaker 1: There on the mountain, Moses, Aaron, and Hur, Joshua's down
- 25:41Speaker 1: in the valley fighting. And it came to pass. And
- 25:44Speaker 1: it came to pass. When Moses held up his hands,
- 25:47Speaker 1: that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hands,
- 25:50Speaker 1: Amalek prevailed. So in other words, Moses is up on
- 25:52Speaker 1: the mountain raising his hands. And whenever he raises his hands,
- 25:57Speaker 1: Joshua beats up the Amalekites.
- 26:02Speaker 2: Moses' hands got heavy.
- 26:03Speaker 1: They put something up under his hands, and he had
- 26:05Speaker 1: to hold his hands up to the setting of the sun.
- 26:07Speaker 1: That's all they need out of that. Here's my issue.
- 26:09Speaker 1: Joshua's down there fighting, and he's winning.
- 26:12Speaker 2: He's winning.
- 26:14Speaker 1: He's winning, but he doesn't know that he's winning because
- 26:16Speaker 1: Moses is up on the hill.
- 26:18Speaker 2: Holding up his hands.
- 26:23Speaker 1: See, some of you think you're winning because you're such
- 26:26Speaker 1: a good fighter, but you're not winning because you're such
- 26:28Speaker 1: a good fighter. You're winning because somebody's in a secret
- 26:31Speaker 1: closet praying for you, causing you to prevail over your enemy.
- 26:36Speaker 2: Oh my God. And you're running around with your.
- 26:40Speaker 1: Sword in the hand saying, don't fool with me, I'm tough.
- 26:43Speaker 1: I whipped this and I overcame that and I overcame that.
- 26:46Speaker 2: Shut up!
- 26:49Speaker 1: It was not your works alone lest any man should boast.
- 26:59Speaker 1: It is that balance between the sacred and the secular
- 27:04Speaker 1: that is so important between faith and works. Between action
- 27:10Speaker 1: and consecration, finding that balance.
- 27:12Speaker 2: Is the critical thing.
- 27:13Speaker 1: And Joshua doesn't know what Moses was doing to help him.
- 27:21Speaker 1: And so Joshua goes out there in his own strength
- 27:24Speaker 1: to do his thing because Joshua worships his own skill set.
- 27:32Speaker 1: Joshua has too much confidence. He's too aggressive. He'll go
- 27:36Speaker 1: in and fight in a minute. He's so ready to
- 27:38Speaker 1: fight that he's fighting his own hell. When you get
- 27:45Speaker 1: like this, you fight away people who love you. You
- 27:51Speaker 1: fight away help that God sent to sustain you. You
- 27:55Speaker 1: fight the paramedic that's trying to get you in the ambulance.
- 27:58Speaker 1: You fight the swimming expert that's trying to stop you
- 28:01Speaker 1: from drowning. You fight your own husband. You're fighting with
- 28:04Speaker 1: your parents. You're fighting with your wife. You're fighting with
- 28:07Speaker 1: the person who cares about you enough to confront your
- 28:10Speaker 1: hateful self and tell you how you really are.
- 28:13Speaker 2: And you're fighting them.
- 28:21Speaker 1: And you're fighting them because your past has shaped how
- 28:26Speaker 1: you see your present. Your past has shaped how you
- 28:33Speaker 1: see your present. It didn't shape your present, it shapes
- 28:38Speaker 1: how you see it. Your perspectives on where you are
- 28:42Speaker 1: are based on where you've been. So you read into
- 28:48Speaker 1: it a prejudiced, prejudged disposition based.
- 28:53Speaker 2: On past experiences.
- 28:56Speaker 1: And now God's brought you into a place that he
- 28:58Speaker 1: is demanding maturity. I define maturity as balance. He's demanding maturity.
- 29:08Speaker 1: He's demanding that you understand that you're not gonna whip
- 29:12Speaker 1: everything with your sword. That you can't just assign God
- 29:16Speaker 1: a post in your army using him for your agenda.
- 29:21Speaker 1: That this is not about you. The thing that you
- 29:30Speaker 1: are up against right now is not about you. now
- 29:41Speaker 1: the battle is not yours it belongs to God that
- 29:48Speaker 1: doesn't mean that you don't have to show up for
- 29:50Speaker 1: the fight It just means that ultimately the victory that
- 29:58Speaker 1: you seek is not your victory. It is the victory
- 30:02Speaker 1: because God has a purpose in you getting the victory
- 30:06Speaker 1: over this situation. It is not you that's getting the victory.
- 30:10Speaker 1: It is God that's getting the victory. And you're not
- 30:13Speaker 1: using God to get your victory. God is using you
- 30:16Speaker 1: to get his victory. And as soon as you get
- 30:19Speaker 1: that straight, you can get down to business. I'm telling
- 30:25Speaker 1: you the thing that is fighting you is fighting him.
- 30:32Speaker 1: And you're not using him. God is using you. Tell somebody,
- 30:43Speaker 1: I said, don't get that twisted. Because when you get
- 30:48Speaker 1: that twisted, you become God over the battle. And you
- 30:53Speaker 1: start manipulating everything that comes in your life trying to
- 30:56Speaker 1: get the victory. You need to understand this battle is
- 30:59Speaker 1: not yours. It belongs to God. And in order to
- 31:03Speaker 1: get the breakthrough, you don't run against the enemy before
- 31:07Speaker 1: you have an encounter with God. I told the Lord,
- 31:14Speaker 1: I said, I'm getting tired. I'm getting tired. I'm getting
- 31:16Speaker 1: physically tired. And, you know, you get some rest from that,
- 31:19Speaker 1: emotionally tired. spiritually tired, drained. I said, it doesn't mean
- 31:22Speaker 1: that the battle is intense. I said, I need to
- 31:23Speaker 1: spend more time with you. I can always tell when
- 31:28Speaker 1: I need to spend more time with God because people
- 31:30Speaker 1: start getting on my nerves.
- 31:34Speaker 2: They just get on.
- 31:43Speaker 1: And it is a sign, not that they need to change,
- 31:46Speaker 1: but it is a sign that I maybe need to
- 31:48Speaker 1: get up 30 minutes earlier, an hour earlier, spend a
- 31:50Speaker 1: little bit more time in His presence, get my core back,
- 31:54Speaker 1: get my center straight, get my priorities in place so
- 31:57Speaker 1: that I can work from a position of strength and
- 32:00Speaker 1: not a position of strain. I'm about to take myself.
- 32:08Speaker 1: I want to operate from a position of strength and
- 32:11Speaker 1: not strain. Some of you right now, you're strained and
- 32:22Speaker 1: stressed and at the breaking point because you're in a
- 32:25Speaker 1: battle that you can't get out of and you can't
- 32:28Speaker 1: stop and you've got to fight the battle. And part
- 32:31Speaker 1: of you wants to give up because you're tired and
- 32:33Speaker 1: frustrated and you want to quit. But you can't quit
- 32:36Speaker 1: because you're in the kind of battle that does not
- 32:38Speaker 1: afford you the luxury of retreat. You've got to stand
- 32:42Speaker 1: there and arm yourself and fight. But until you recognize
- 32:46Speaker 1: that God is in the midst of the battle and
- 32:49Speaker 1: you humble yourself and say, Lord, I'm here to serve you.
- 32:52Speaker 1: How would you use me to get the victory in
- 32:55Speaker 1: this situation? Tell somebody, say, this is not your battle.
- 33:15Speaker 1: Why must the warrior, in spite of his skill set,
- 33:20Speaker 1: be faced with a battle that you cannot win through
- 33:23Speaker 1: your skill set alone? Because it teaches you to pray.
- 33:30Speaker 1: You will not beat this devil with what you can do.
- 33:40Speaker 1: You will not be able to tap into your skill
- 33:42Speaker 1: set and your core ability and what you did before
- 33:45Speaker 1: and get the victory because when you do that, there
- 33:48Speaker 1: is no room in your life for God. Before you
- 33:53Speaker 1: go against Jericho, Joshua, you must have an encounter with God.
- 34:02Speaker 1: Not the traditional religious God of your fathers. but a
- 34:08Speaker 1: fresh vision of a contemporary revolutionary understanding of who God is.
- 34:16Speaker 1: We're in a battle right now because people are trying
- 34:18Speaker 1: to hold us to a traditional mentality about God because
- 34:22Speaker 1: traditional people like a traditional God and they want to
- 34:25Speaker 1: keep it in a traditional place and traditional atmosphere and
- 34:28Speaker 1: they want it to stay just the same. Well, the
- 34:32Speaker 1: devil is a liar. It's time for a radical change
- 34:35Speaker 1: to get God out the box and out of narrow
- 34:38Speaker 1: thinking until you embrace a contemporary understanding of God. God
- 34:46Speaker 1: may not be the same, but his methods change, his
- 34:49Speaker 1: mannerisms change, and he changes his garments. And suppose he
- 34:55Speaker 1: shows up in another suit. And Joshua's standing there having
- 35:01Speaker 1: an encounter Why are we here this morning? Why do
- 35:06Speaker 1: we get up and go to church on the little
- 35:10Speaker 1: bit of weekend you got? It's amazing to me when
- 35:16Speaker 1: I'm speaking out of town on a Sunday and I'm
- 35:18Speaker 1: in a hotel and I see all the people who
- 35:21Speaker 1: never think about this on Sunday. It's just amazing to
- 35:25Speaker 1: me that it never crosses their mind.
- 35:27Speaker 2: I'm in the elevator.
- 35:27Speaker 1: I'm coming down in my suit getting ready to go
- 35:29Speaker 1: to church. They're in their shorts. Their golf clubs are
- 35:31Speaker 1: on their back.
- 35:31Speaker 2: They're going out.
- 35:34Speaker 1: Fred, I'll meet you out there in a minute. It's
- 35:36Speaker 1: a great day for golfing, man. I'll see you.
- 35:38Speaker 2: Right out there.
- 35:45Speaker 1: It doesn't cross their mind. It's day to get their
- 35:48Speaker 1: hair done. Day to get the laundry done. Day to
- 35:49Speaker 1: do this. Day to draw.
- 35:51Speaker 2: Day to read. Give me just a.
- 35:53Speaker 1: Glass of Chablis and I'm going to sit up and
- 35:56Speaker 1: relax today and read. What is it about you that
- 36:01Speaker 1: makes you get up on Sunday morning And on your
- 36:06Speaker 1: one true day off, put on clothes, get in the car,
- 36:14Speaker 1: drive down the road and get in some church traffic.
- 36:19Speaker 1: To line up to try to get a parking space
- 36:22Speaker 1: so that you can line up to try to get
- 36:25Speaker 1: a seat and get ushered in a service. And now
- 36:27Speaker 1: you got a schedule on your only day off. I
- 36:31Speaker 1: got to get up at 7, got to be out
- 36:33Speaker 1: by 730, got to be at the church. If you
- 36:41Speaker 1: do all of that and you don't know why you're
- 36:43Speaker 1: doing it, you won't do it long. then we're reduced
- 36:48Speaker 1: to coming up with tricks and scams to keep you coming.
- 36:53Speaker 2: Let me entertain you.
- 36:55Speaker 1: We're gonna have a good time. Let me entertain you.
- 37:07Speaker 1: Now we got to make crazy promises to get you
- 37:09Speaker 1: to come out and keep begging you and massaging you
- 37:12Speaker 1: and tell, oh, you're so wonderful. We're so glad to
- 37:14Speaker 1: have you in this church. Oh, we couldn't make this
- 37:16Speaker 1: church without you. You've been here so long. You're so wonderful. Oh,
- 37:19Speaker 1: God bless you. And now we got to give you
- 37:21Speaker 1: all these mental massages to keep you coming back. And
- 37:23Speaker 1: if you don't get there, your little feelings get hurt
- 37:25Speaker 1: and you stay home.
- 37:27Speaker 2: I am not a massage therapist. I didn't come to
- 37:29Speaker 2: give you a rubdown.
- 37:38Speaker 1: If you bring your hips up in here, you are
- 37:41Speaker 1: going to come because you understand that the battle you
- 37:45Speaker 1: fight tomorrow necessitates that you spend some time in the
- 37:49Speaker 1: presence of God being directed and motivated and filled and
- 37:53Speaker 1: charged with the mind of God how to get the
- 37:57Speaker 1: victory on tomorrow. Slap somebody and tell them I had
- 38:02Speaker 1: to be here. I will never see the walls of
- 38:05Speaker 1: Jericho come down until I have this experience with God.
- 38:10Speaker 1: I will never see my credit come down, my debt
- 38:13Speaker 1: come down, my tumors come down, my crisis come down,
- 38:16Speaker 1: my crushes come down, unless I have an encounter with God.
- 38:30Speaker 1: I didn't come out of here to have an encounter
- 38:32Speaker 1: with the ushers, an encounter with the deacons. And with
- 38:35Speaker 1: all due respect, I didn't come out of here to
- 38:37Speaker 1: have an encounter with T.D.
- 38:38Speaker 2: Jakes.
- 38:39Speaker 1: I'm here to have an encounter with God. Speak to
- 38:44Speaker 1: my heart. Speak through the music. Speak through the song.
- 38:47Speaker 1: Speak through the word. Speak to me. Oh my God,
- 39:10Speaker 1: who am I preaching to today? Tell somebody, tell them
- 39:15Speaker 1: I had to be here. It doesn't matter whether I
- 39:19Speaker 1: felt like coming or not. I had to be here.
- 39:22Speaker 1: I had to be here. Just like I have to
- 39:24Speaker 1: stop by the gas station if I'm going to keep
- 39:26Speaker 1: on driving my car.
- 39:27Speaker 2: I had to be here.
- 39:28Speaker 1: I needed this word. I needed this moment. My spirit
- 39:32Speaker 1: needed it. My flesh didn't want to come, but my
- 39:35Speaker 1: spirit needed this encounter with God where I worship Him
- 39:40Speaker 1: and praise Him and adore Him without phones ringing, without emails,
- 39:45Speaker 1: without bothers, without blasts.
- 39:47Speaker 2: I need this.
- 39:49Speaker 1: This moment of consecration with the Lord. Surrounded with people
- 39:54Speaker 1: who understand, hallelujah, and thank you Jesus, and glory to God.
- 40:12Speaker 1: God says, sit down, I'm just talking to you. God says,
- 40:16Speaker 1: y'all keep jumping up, why do y'all do that? God says, Joshua,
- 40:23Speaker 1: you must understand that the ground you stand on.
- 40:31Speaker 2: Is holy ground.
- 40:35Speaker 1: Well, Joshua, for all intents and purposes, is on the battlefield.
- 40:44Speaker 1: He's not in a cathedral. He's not in a synagogue.
- 40:47Speaker 1: He's not in a prayer meeting. He's not in a
- 40:49Speaker 1: Bible class. Can you see holy ground in the battlefield?
- 40:59Speaker 1: Devil want to trip me, see.
- 41:05Speaker 2: Amen.
- 41:08Speaker 1: Seeing holy ground in a crisis is what separates greatness
- 41:17Speaker 1: from mediocrity. seeing this as an opportunity for God to
- 41:24Speaker 1: reveal himself.
- 41:26Speaker 2: See, that's what makes a sanctuary a sanctuary.
- 41:31Speaker 1: It's a place for God to reveal himself. Do you
- 41:36Speaker 1: understand that what you're dealing with right now is a
- 41:39Speaker 1: place for God to reveal himself? He may show up
- 41:43Speaker 1: in a way that you've never seen him before. He
- 41:45Speaker 1: may do something that he's never done before, but he said,
- 41:48Speaker 1: take off your shoes. Take off your preconceived ideas. Get
- 41:54Speaker 1: rid of your religious mentality and get ready to have
- 41:57Speaker 1: a fresh experience right in the middle of your fight.
- 42:01Speaker 1: This is holy ground. This is holy ground. Tell somebody, say,
- 42:06Speaker 1: this is holy ground. I'm going to have an encounter
- 42:09Speaker 1: with God on this ground. I'm going to learn something
- 42:13Speaker 1: about God on this ground. I'm going to learn something
- 42:15Speaker 1: about myself on this ground. I'm going to learn something
- 42:19Speaker 1: about life on this ground. I'm going to learn something
- 42:22Speaker 1: about my faith on this ground. God has decided to
- 42:25Speaker 1: make my sanctuary a situation.
- 42:38Speaker 4: Some of my greatest moments of worship have not been
- 42:42Speaker 4: in church. I've had some of the best experiences with God.
- 42:51Speaker 2: One of them was in an unemployment line.
- 42:55Speaker 1: And I had a divine encounter with God standing in
- 42:59Speaker 1: line unemployed.
- 43:03Speaker 2: A great experience with God in a hospital room. A
- 43:10Speaker 2: great experience.
- 43:11Speaker 1: One of the times I was working with my kids
- 43:13Speaker 1: and we were having, we were supposed to be having
- 43:15Speaker 1: a family meeting. It became a family battle. I was
- 43:17Speaker 1: thinking seriously about killing them. I'm gonna kill you. I'm
- 43:21Speaker 1: gonna kill you and tell God you died. Maybe he
- 43:27Speaker 1: won't know that I killed you. And right in the
- 43:31Speaker 1: middle of the argument, one of my kids started crying
- 43:34Speaker 1: and said, I know what's really wrong and you do too.
- 43:37Speaker 1: You know what's wrong. God is calling me to preach.
- 43:46Speaker 1: I took off my shoes. And suddenly I recognized that
- 43:53Speaker 1: what I perceived as a situation was a sanctuary. Does
- 44:05Speaker 1: anybody get what I'm preaching about this morning? Do you
- 44:09Speaker 1: understand that you will live beyond the temporary inconvenience of
- 44:14Speaker 1: this situation? This is not about Jericho. Jericho is going
- 44:19Speaker 1: to pass away. It will be no more. Do you
- 44:22Speaker 1: not know they still can't find Jericho?
- 44:26Speaker 2: Let me tell you something.
- 44:27Speaker 1: The problem that you're dealing with now, when God delivers you,
- 44:30Speaker 1: he's going to deliver you so completely that even your
- 44:33Speaker 1: grandchildren will never be able to find it. When God
- 44:37Speaker 1: brings you out, he brings you so completely out that
- 44:40Speaker 1: the archaeologists cannot find the battle. When God delivers you,
- 44:46Speaker 1: people won't even believe your testimony.
- 44:49Speaker 2: They'll never believe.
- 44:50Speaker 1: That you went through what you went through because when
- 44:53Speaker 1: God brings you out, He brings you all the way up.
- 45:09Speaker 1: Testimony say this has come to pass. The situation that
- 45:14Speaker 1: you're dealing with right now will come to pass.
- 45:17Speaker 2: It will come to pass. It came to pass. Get
- 45:23Speaker 2: over it. Don't worry about it. Don't build a house
- 45:25Speaker 2: in it. It will not last.
- 45:30Speaker 1: You will be standing when Jericho is laying in total ruins.
- 45:35Speaker 1: You will still be standing there telling your children, I
- 45:39Speaker 1: remember the times. You will make it to the front
- 45:43Speaker 1: porch with the iced tea, with your dentures in a
- 45:46Speaker 1: cup saying, back when I was your age, I faced
- 45:49Speaker 1: that too. I thought I was going to die, but
- 45:52Speaker 1: some kind of way we made it out of that.
- 45:55Speaker 1: This will come to, who am I preaching to?
- 45:58Speaker 2: I don't know who I'm preaching to. Touch seven people
- 46:28Speaker 2: and just say strategy, strategy, strategy.
- 46:30Speaker 1: Strategy, strategy, strategy. Our God is a strategic God. I
- 47:00Speaker 1: hate Katrina. I think it was horrible. I think it
- 47:03Speaker 1: was devastating.
- 47:05Speaker 2: I hate the trauma that it caused. I hate the hardships.
- 47:07Speaker 2: I hate the.
- 47:08Speaker 1: Images that remain in my head today from that moment.
- 47:11Speaker 1: But I also know that God used Katrina to push
- 47:15Speaker 1: some people into another dimension to give you a fresh
- 47:18Speaker 1: start and a fresh opportunity. I'm telling you, God will
- 47:22Speaker 1: take the storm you're in and blow you into a
- 47:25Speaker 1: change in your life. and a fresh opportunity. I'm telling you,
- 47:31Speaker 1: I haven't been in Katrina, but I've been in some
- 47:33Speaker 1: storms that blew me out of my comfort zone and
- 47:37Speaker 1: made me start over. And I'm glad they blew me
- 47:41Speaker 1: to a change. Look at somebody and say, this is
- 47:57Speaker 1: going to take me somewhere. Out of the box, out
- 48:02Speaker 1: of my comfort zone, away from my friends, into a
- 48:07Speaker 1: new life and a new opportunity.
- 48:10Speaker 2: Now shout about it right now. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
- 48:44Speaker 1: Sit with me, I'm gonna give you one more point
- 48:45Speaker 1: then I'll try to close. The situation is a sanctuary.
- 49:04Speaker 1: And as soon as you see it as a sanctuary,
- 49:06Speaker 1: you will do what Joshua did. He fell down and
- 49:09Speaker 1: started worshiping God in the middle of his situation, worshiping
- 49:14Speaker 1: God in the middle of your grief, worshiping God even
- 49:18Speaker 1: though you lost a child, Worshiping God at the cemetery.
- 49:22Speaker 1: Worshiping God after you've been fired and you don't know
- 49:25Speaker 1: where you're going to go to work. Worshiping God as
- 49:27Speaker 1: he fends up evil and chaos and tornadoes and hurricanes
- 49:32Speaker 1: in your life. But you're saying, though he slay me,
- 49:35Speaker 1: yet shall I trust him. And you worship God anyway.
- 49:40Speaker 1: It's when you convert that situation into a sanctuary. When
- 49:45Speaker 1: you convert the situation into a sanctuary, you have to
- 49:49Speaker 1: do it now. You have to turn it into a sanctuary.
- 49:51Speaker 1: How do I do that? By worshiping God in the
- 49:53Speaker 1: middle of it. What will he do in exchange? When
- 49:59Speaker 1: you make a sanctuary out of a situation, God will
- 50:02Speaker 1: give you a strategy.
- 50:15Speaker 2: Now, you can.
- 50:17Speaker 1: Pray for resources all you want to, but I would
- 50:23Speaker 1: rather have a strategy than all the resources in the world.
- 50:28Speaker 1: It is a proven fact that people who have no
- 50:31Speaker 1: strategy soon lose resources. Check the stats on people who
- 50:39Speaker 1: hit the lottery. All of a sudden they got $ 52 million.
- 50:47Speaker 1: Uncle Sam said, 25 belong to me.
- 50:52Speaker 2: So you got.
- 50:52Speaker 1: $ 27 million left.
- 50:54Speaker 2: That still ain't bad.
- 50:57Speaker 1: For somebody who was making $ 35, 000 a year, $ 27 million.
- 51:02Speaker 2: Ain't too bad.
- 51:06Speaker 1: Never would think that the average person three years later
- 51:10Speaker 1: would be completely broke. Resources without strategy leads to poverty.
- 51:21Speaker 1: You're leaving your children, your two houses and the farm,
- 51:25Speaker 1: the goat and five chickens. You worked your whole life
- 51:30Speaker 1: and you give it to your kids and you're dying
- 51:33Speaker 1: and you're just signing papers. Take this and go with it.
- 51:38Speaker 1: And you gave them your stuff but not your strategies.
- 51:41Speaker 1: and they will lose the stuff if they do not
- 51:44Speaker 1: have your strategy. That's why the Bible said, let this
- 51:48Speaker 1: mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
- 51:53Speaker 1: I don't want Christ's stuff without his strategy.
- 52:00Speaker 2: Somebody holler strategy.
- 52:07Speaker 1: When God gives you a strategy, you can overcome anything.
- 52:12Speaker 1: When God gives you a strategy, you can overcome anything.
- 52:16Speaker 1: But God can't give you a strategy when you think
- 52:18Speaker 1: it's your battle. Because when you think it's your battle,
- 52:21Speaker 1: you're giving God a strategy. Okay, God, I need you
- 52:24Speaker 1: to show up in this situation.
- 52:25Speaker 2: Go and fire Helen. Fire her.
- 52:27Speaker 1: Get her out of that job that you think you
- 52:29Speaker 1: know what ought to be done. That's what's messing you up.
- 52:32Speaker 1: When you humble yourself and say, I don't know what
- 52:34Speaker 1: ought to be done. I don't know how to get
- 52:36Speaker 1: the victory. I don't know how to fight this. I
- 52:38Speaker 1: don't know who to talk to. I don't know who
- 52:40Speaker 1: to trust.
- 52:40Speaker 2: Then God will give you.
- 52:42Speaker 1: A strategy for God. I feel like I'm just talking
- 52:47Speaker 1: right to somebody. God will give you a strategy for
- 52:52Speaker 1: every situation you confront. There is a strategy that will
- 52:57Speaker 1: bring you out. God, I believe that I want to
- 53:00Speaker 1: shout myself. Joshua, you will not whip this battle with
- 53:11Speaker 1: your sword. Put your sword up.
- 53:18Speaker 2: I want you to just walk. Huh? Walk. Just, just. Okay.
- 53:40Speaker 1: Okay. I walk.
- 53:42Speaker 2: What you want me to do? Go home. Get some rest.
- 53:47Speaker 2: Talk to you tomorrow. That's it? That looks stupid. That's
- 53:55Speaker 2: the strategy. We need to get Jericho. Shut up. Do
- 54:00Speaker 2: what I told you.
- 54:01Speaker 1: Walk.
- 54:09Speaker 2: I sure do feel stupid. They're standing up here pointing
- 54:13Speaker 2: cannons at me.
- 54:15Speaker 1: They're threatening to kill every last one of them. The
- 54:18Speaker 1: chariots are all on top of the mountain and you
- 54:20Speaker 1: got me taking a walk.
- 54:22Speaker 2: Have you ever felt like.
- 54:23Speaker 1: God had you taking a walk while your enemies were
- 54:25Speaker 1: conspiring to kill you and destroy you? And when you
- 54:29Speaker 1: went to God, he gave you one of them silly
- 54:31Speaker 1: answers that made you want to take matters into your
- 54:34Speaker 1: own hands?
- 54:40Speaker 2: Six days. They took a walk, went home, and rested
- 54:44Speaker 2: the day off. Seventh day. Here comes Joshua.
- 54:51Speaker 1: Joshua says, okay, I'm going to take my walk and
- 54:53Speaker 1: go sit down. And he goes and takes his walk.
- 55:01Speaker 1: After six days, I know how to do this.
- 55:04Speaker 2: All right. I'm going to let you go.
- 55:06Speaker 1: No, no. See, that's what's wrong. You think you know
- 55:09Speaker 1: how to do it. This time, I want you to
- 55:12Speaker 1: go seven times around in the same day. See, you're
- 55:15Speaker 1: going to have to talk to him every day. Give
- 55:18Speaker 1: me the strategy for today. You cannot afford to think
- 55:22Speaker 1: you know anything. You have got to talk to him
- 55:26Speaker 1: every day. Just because he said once on Tuesday, once
- 55:30Speaker 1: on Wednesday, once on Thursday, doesn't mean he's going to
- 55:33Speaker 1: say once on Saturday. Seven times he goes around the
- 55:40Speaker 1: wall on the seventh day. They blow the trumpet. Now
- 55:44Speaker 1: God says something that is totally insane.
- 55:51Speaker 2: He says, shout. No, no, you don't get it.
- 56:04Speaker 1: Anybody can shout when the wall comes down. God said,
- 56:08Speaker 1: get right in front of the wall that you've been
- 56:11Speaker 1: looking at all week long that wouldn't come down, that
- 56:15Speaker 1: hadn't budged, that hadn't gotten any better.
- 56:17Speaker 2: And even with my strategy.
- 56:19Speaker 1: It still looks like you're still in debt, still in trouble,
- 56:22Speaker 1: child still on drugs, marriage is still kind of bad.
- 56:24Speaker 2: God said, get.
- 56:25Speaker 1: Right in front of the wall and shout as if
- 56:29Speaker 1: it were already gone. Look at your neighbor and say,
- 56:52Speaker 1: what are you shouting for? You still got problems. You
- 56:58Speaker 1: still got situations. You still got tests. But look back
- 57:01Speaker 1: at it and say, I'm shouting because something is about
- 57:05Speaker 1: to break.
- 57:10Speaker 2: I got to quit preaching.
- 57:11Speaker 1: Right now, but I want to tell somebody today that
- 57:17Speaker 1: something is.
- 57:19Speaker 2: About to break. Your eyes have not seen. Your ears
- 57:26Speaker 2: have not heard. Something is about to break. Something is
- 57:43Speaker 2: about to break. Something is about to break. Something is
- 57:47Speaker 2: about to break. Hallelujah.
- 57:54Speaker 1: Find those seven people you touched and said strategy and
- 57:58Speaker 1: touch them again and tell them something's about to break.
- 58:01Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
- 58:06Speaker 1: Yeah. If you shout now. If you shout now. If
- 58:15Speaker 1: you shout now. If you shout now.
- 58:20Speaker 2: If you shout now.
- 58:22Speaker 1: If you shout now.
- 58:24Speaker 2: If you shout now.
- 58:26Speaker 1: Woo.
- 58:27Speaker 2: Woo.
- 58:28Speaker 1: Woo. Touch a neighbor and say, neighbor, excuse me. I
- 58:52Speaker 1: got some shouting to do. Give God some crazy praise. Whoo!
- 59:23Speaker 2: Ha ha!