Latest / THE WORLD'S BEST PREACHER / Opportunity in Chaos - The Potter’s House of Dallas
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: They have compromised their uniqueness for what they see as
- 0:07Speaker 1: an advantage of acceptance, and gradually, not only have they
- 0:12Speaker 1: taken on the customs of the Egyptians, but now they
- 0:16Speaker 1: have taken on the ways of the Egyptians, to the
- 0:19Speaker 1: degree that when they get ready to make an image
- 0:22Speaker 1: of what God looks like, they make an image of
- 0:25Speaker 1: an Egyptian God in the midst of a Hebrew people.
- 0:31Speaker 2: Deceased past.
- 0:36Speaker 1: Greetings, brothers and sisters, and the invincible name of Jesus
- 0:39Speaker 1: Christ our King. I'm excited as we come to the
- 0:43Speaker 1: end of the year to share this series with you
- 0:46Speaker 1: called Finnish Strong. I believe that that's exactly what we
- 0:50Speaker 1: want to do. The particular message that I want to
- 0:53Speaker 1: share with you is opportunities in chaos. Some people are
- 0:57Speaker 1: so busy seeing the chaos that they do not see
- 1:01Speaker 1: the opportunity. I think you'll understand better what I mean
- 1:06Speaker 1: as you take a look at this. Those of you
- 1:10Speaker 1: who insist on your comfort, you're missing your growth pattern.
- 1:15Speaker 1: It is good to be uncomfortable. I've never met anybody
- 1:18Speaker 1: who was terribly creative or gifted or strong in leadership
- 1:22Speaker 1: who was also comfortable. It's always those people who say
- 1:27Speaker 1: is there not a cause? Those exceptional people who are uncomfortable.
- 1:34Speaker 2: With the times and rise to the challenge.
- 1:37Speaker 1: Because they refuse to allow the chaos around them to
- 1:41Speaker 1: determine the conqueror within them. People who resist the told
- 1:48Speaker 1: to go down and stand fiercely in spite of opposition
- 1:52Speaker 1: and say, I'm going to do it anyway. Teared down
- 1:57Speaker 1: this wall, move this mountain. And it is not what
- 2:03Speaker 1: your country can do for you, it is what you
- 2:05Speaker 1: can do for your country. I have agreeved all of
- 2:09Speaker 1: these statements are born out of bad times, not good times,
- 2:13Speaker 1: not air conditioning, kool aid coming out of the water mountain.
- 2:17Speaker 1: It is the chaos of the time that creates the
- 2:19Speaker 1: conqueror in the man. So when God gets ready to
- 2:25Speaker 1: reveal to you what you have in you, he will
- 2:29Speaker 1: often place you in the midst of chaos to push you.
- 2:38Speaker 1: Like toothpaste out of a tube, it won't come out
- 2:42Speaker 1: without pressure.
- 2:43Speaker 2: We have an.
- 2:44Speaker 1: Opportunity that the Lord has afforded us to look into
- 2:48Speaker 1: a chaote. Woo, this is chaote. I need a really
- 2:52Speaker 1: chaotic moment. Let me tell you something. I run around
- 2:57Speaker 1: and have friends that are preachers, and we talk about
- 3:00Speaker 1: preaching the crowds and people and all of that, and
- 3:03Speaker 1: there is a feeling you can get in a sermon
- 3:05Speaker 1: that this is not going well. Yeah, and it's just
- 3:10Speaker 1: a little little memo that comes, a little email that
- 3:13Speaker 1: comes up in your head that says, ended. He just
- 3:18Speaker 1: ended this ended. This just ended. This ended. Its you
- 3:21Speaker 1: ain't gonna get it back. Just ended. And I've had
- 3:25Speaker 1: some things that didn't go well, but not to this degree.
- 3:28Speaker 1: Moses is standing in front of a congregation of naked
- 3:31Speaker 1: people who have taken off all of their clothes and
- 3:35Speaker 1: started worshiping another God in the middle of his first revival.
- 3:41Speaker 2: This is not going well.
- 3:45Speaker 1: He has led the children of Israel out of Egypt,
- 3:48Speaker 1: and this is their first gathering. He's gone up in
- 3:51Speaker 1: the mountain to pray to be a full power. And
- 3:54Speaker 1: his assistant pastor has led them in the building of
- 3:58Speaker 1: golden Calf and they've take it off all of their
- 4:01Speaker 1: clothes and they're daancing naked around a golden calf. This
- 4:06Speaker 1: is not going well. Moses comes down off the mountain.
- 4:11Speaker 1: His face is lit up with the glory of God.
- 4:13Speaker 1: He's all excited. He comes down up glory that God, God,
- 4:17Speaker 1: to do your thinking Jesus.
- 4:18Speaker 2: And he comes down off the hill and here, hey,
- 4:21Speaker 2: dropping me. Can't nobody tell a story like me?
- 4:37Speaker 1: This is a mass And he calls U the system passed.
- 4:42Speaker 2: He says, what's something you dude?
- 4:45Speaker 1: Where what had happened was? And see up under pressure,
- 4:51Speaker 1: people lie so the guys and he's not even a
- 4:56Speaker 1: good liar, you know he you can't even lie in
- 5:01Speaker 1: paid to believes him. Well, they put in We threw
- 5:04Speaker 1: in the ear rings into the fire, and.
- 5:07Speaker 2: The calf just jumped out of the fire. That is
- 5:14Speaker 2: not what had happened at all. What had happened for us.
- 5:22Speaker 1: They had leaned on God to get them out of
- 5:29Speaker 1: four hundred years of slave frey. Ten generations of slaves.
- 5:36Speaker 2: Had cried.
- 5:39Speaker 1: Out to a God that they could scarcely remember, get
- 5:44Speaker 1: me out of this mess.
- 5:48Speaker 2: Have you ever prayed a prayer like that?
- 5:50Speaker 1: Is?
- 5:52Speaker 2: This is a classic word. Lord.
- 5:56Speaker 1: I know I was wrong, and I'm sorry, Lord, I
- 6:03Speaker 1: really am. And if you just getting me.
- 6:06Speaker 2: Out of.
- 6:10Speaker 1: Don't you sit there and act like you have not
- 6:12Speaker 1: prayed that prayer with your holy self. If you just
- 6:16Speaker 1: get me out of this this time, Lord, I promise you.
- 6:22Speaker 2: Ain't hope me have to deal with me about this again.
- 6:27Speaker 2: I learned my.
- 6:29Speaker 1: Lesson this time. How then do you find yourself living
- 6:43Speaker 1: like you're living after I have done what I did
- 6:50Speaker 1: in your life? You know, when we talk about this scene,
- 6:55Speaker 1: it is a mess. You're coming down off the mountain.
- 6:57Speaker 1: The people arenked dancing around the calf.
- 7:00Speaker 2: The calf is.
- 7:00Speaker 1: Standing up, the big old golden calf in the middle
- 7:02Speaker 1: of the desert. Everything on fire and smoke is everywhere.
- 7:05Speaker 1: So it's a real mess. But it is not their
- 7:09Speaker 1: nudity that is offensive. It really is not their nudity.
- 7:14Speaker 1: They could have stripped nudy and and washed down by
- 7:18Speaker 1: the river. It would not have been an all occurrence
- 7:20Speaker 1: in the times. It is not their nudity that is obnoxious.
- 7:27Speaker 1: It is the audacity to backslide away from something greater
- 7:36Speaker 1: to something lesser.
- 7:42Speaker 2: No no, no, no, no, no, no no no. Don't think it's
- 7:44Speaker 2: the close.
- 7:45Speaker 1: Unless you become pious and sanctimonious and start talking about
- 7:49Speaker 1: how holy you dress. It doesn't matter how holy you
- 7:54Speaker 1: dress if your helles inside.
- 8:08Speaker 2: One of the.
- 8:08Speaker 1: Big things on the mind of God, the number one
- 8:10Speaker 1: commandment thou saught have no oh the God before me.
- 8:17Speaker 1: He didn't say thou shall wear long dresses, Thou shalt
- 8:23Speaker 1: cover up your elbows.
- 8:33Speaker 2: That wasn't the problem. The problem was.
- 8:37Speaker 1: How you use me when you want something and forget
- 8:43Speaker 1: me after you get it. Now, let me say something
- 8:50Speaker 1: about the children of Israel. They are not in this
- 8:55Speaker 1: chaos because they are evil. They are in this chaos us.
- 9:00Speaker 1: They have not worshiped God purely for four hundred years.
- 9:04Speaker 1: They have been associating with the Egyptians, so long that
- 9:09Speaker 1: they have taken on the ways and the characteristics of
- 9:11Speaker 1: the people they associated with, until they have lost their uniqueness.
- 9:17Speaker 1: In their need to be accepted by a lesser society,
- 9:22Speaker 1: they have forsaken their own uniqueness. Be careful how much
- 9:27Speaker 1: of you you compromise to fit in. They have compromised
- 9:36Speaker 1: their uniqueness for what they see as an advantage of acceptance.
- 9:44Speaker 1: And gradually, not only have they taken on the customs
- 9:47Speaker 1: of the Egyptians, but now they have taken on the
- 9:51Speaker 1: ways of the Egyptians, to the degree that when they
- 9:54Speaker 1: get ready to make an image of what God looks like,
- 9:57Speaker 1: they make an image of an Egyptian God in the
- 10:01Speaker 1: midst of a Hebrew people. Is your God your God?
- 10:06Speaker 1: Or have you adopted the god of the people you're around,
- 10:12Speaker 1: and committed yourself to a cause that really isn't your own,
- 10:18Speaker 1: just so that you can fit in. That's not my message.
- 10:23Speaker 1: I'm just on the way to the message and stopped
- 10:26Speaker 1: over at seventy eleven and thought i'd pick up that
- 10:29Speaker 1: and give it to you. But I want you to
- 10:33Speaker 1: see the chaos is not just the external. Yes, they're
- 10:35Speaker 1: dancing neked around the calf, and smoke is everywhere, and
- 10:38Speaker 1: there's a big old golden calf down there.
- 10:40Speaker 2: But the real chaos is on.
- 10:42Speaker 1: The inside, because what the chaos on the outside introduces
- 10:47Speaker 1: is the chaos on the inside. We are dealing with
- 10:50Speaker 1: over a million and a half people who don't know
- 10:53Speaker 1: who they are. A million and a half people who
- 10:57Speaker 1: don't know who they are, a society of people who
- 11:00Speaker 1: don't know who they are.
- 11:01Speaker 2: A society of people who don't know who they are.
- 11:03Speaker 1: May do things like define themselves by.
- 11:05Speaker 2: Brand names.
- 11:12Speaker 1: Because you think if you take on the name of
- 11:15Speaker 1: the designer it makes you important. They missed that with Lord.
- 11:23Speaker 1: Maybe they got it on the internet. When you don't
- 11:29Speaker 1: know your name, you need my name to make you great.
- 11:38Speaker 1: And then you say I'm a jkitner. I'm gonna haard this,
- 11:42Speaker 1: I'm gonna earn that. But when you know who you are,
- 11:47Speaker 1: when you know who you are, who is gonna be good?
- 11:56Speaker 2: Today?
- 11:58Speaker 1: Still to come on the fodder's touch. What I'm trying
- 12:02Speaker 1: to do is bigger than that. It's bigger than that
- 12:04Speaker 1: little thing. I'm not trying to veer to the left
- 12:08Speaker 1: or beer to the right, or gradually get it together.
- 12:11Speaker 2: I'm too old to.
- 12:12Speaker 1: Gradually get it together. I don't have time to gradually
- 12:16Speaker 1: get it together. I'm getting ready to do something so
- 12:19Speaker 1: right for and so massive. I'm gonna turn the whole
- 12:23Speaker 1: thing one one hundred and eighty degreed. You know, when
- 13:34Speaker 1: you think of the blind man that goes back to
- 13:36Speaker 1: Jesus for a second touch, We're dealing with more than relentlessness.
- 13:41Speaker 1: We're dealing with humility. We're dealing with honesty. I'm not
- 13:47Speaker 1: happy with the outcome. I'm not there yet. So many
- 13:50Speaker 1: Christians are a prayer to admit that they don't have
- 13:53Speaker 1: it all together, and so they walk on half blind,
- 13:56Speaker 1: seeing men as trees, rather than to humbly come back
- 13:59Speaker 1: to God and say you're not finished with me. There's
- 14:02Speaker 1: still some areas of deficiencies. Whether you are a leader,
- 14:05Speaker 1: a pastor, a bishop, a business owner, a daddy or mommy,
- 14:08Speaker 1: you don't know everything. And in that humility of going
- 14:12Speaker 1: back and say I want to see this more clearly,
- 14:14Speaker 1: you open up your mind to the fact that you
- 14:16Speaker 1: don't have it all. You become less judgmental of people
- 14:19Speaker 1: because that humility brings down that arrogance level and says,
- 14:22Speaker 1: I might this is what I think, but I might
- 14:25Speaker 1: not be right. And if you can do that, you
- 14:29Speaker 1: are always a student while you're a teacher, and if
- 14:32Speaker 1: you are always learning, you can always lead. But if
- 14:36Speaker 1: you don't get the right perspectives and come back again
- 14:39Speaker 1: and challenge your own ideas for more clarity, it will
- 14:43Speaker 1: end up the blind leading the blind. Now you've got
- 14:48Speaker 1: the twelve tribes of Israel. I want you to get there.
- 14:50Speaker 1: You've got all of them surrounding. You've got Dan and
- 14:53Speaker 1: it's the car nepthalizer all around them. You've got Benjamin
- 14:56Speaker 1: and Judah and all of them tribes are around them,
- 14:59Speaker 1: and everybody's in and everybody's trying to cover up and trying.
- 15:03Speaker 2: To find my skirt, where's my skirt? Give me my riches?
- 15:05Speaker 1: Those are my pants over there, and they're trying to
- 15:07Speaker 1: get it together. Have you ever had a moment of
- 15:10Speaker 1: chaos come at a time that you're trying to get
- 15:13Speaker 1: it together and you're saying, Lord, I could deal with
- 15:15Speaker 1: this better if I were at another stage in my life,
- 15:18Speaker 1: But at this time in my life, this is not
- 15:20Speaker 1: a good time for me to be up under attack
- 15:23Speaker 1: where my pants at. Don't come against me now. I
- 15:29Speaker 1: just lost my job. Don't come against me now, I'm
- 15:31Speaker 1: going through a divorce. Don't come against me. Now they're
- 15:34Speaker 1: downsizes and at my company. Don't come against me. Now
- 15:37Speaker 1: wear my T shirt. Don't come against me now. I'm
- 15:40Speaker 1: going through depression. Don't come against me now. I'm not
- 15:43Speaker 1: sure of myself, But it is the insecurity of the
- 15:47Speaker 1: times that defines who you really are. You will not
- 15:51Speaker 1: be challenged in your convenience. You will be challenged in
- 15:56Speaker 1: your chaos on the Lord's side. Nephtil I neptel I said,
- 16:02Speaker 1: saying nothing else. I ain't doing nothing to Benjamin. So no,
- 16:05Speaker 1: I ain't getting into that day and tune, I'm out
- 16:07Speaker 1: of here, gadgeting mom's the word, and here come old
- 16:11Speaker 1: Levi Levi saying I'm on the Lord's side.
- 16:19Speaker 2: And it was like, the most unlikely person.
- 16:23Speaker 1: I know, You're not gonna stand up here and go
- 16:25Speaker 1: to talk about you saved.
- 16:30Speaker 2: Just like some of y'all.
- 16:31Speaker 1: You know you can pass for saved in here because
- 16:33Speaker 1: we don't know you. H I fix that up for y'all, brother, please,
- 16:51Speaker 1: and and and and here there are in this, this
- 16:54Speaker 1: this total chaotic situation. And Levi stands up and says,
- 16:59Speaker 1: I am Now you must understand why Levi is the
- 17:02Speaker 1: most unlikely person to do that.
- 17:05Speaker 2: Levi has been cursed. Levi has been cursed.
- 17:10Speaker 1: Levi well a trickster and a schemer and a con artist,
- 17:14Speaker 1: so much that when Jacob was dying in the bed
- 17:17Speaker 1: and passing out blesses, he was dying and still mad
- 17:21Speaker 1: at his son Levi. He is cursed by a bad decision.
- 17:27Speaker 1: Any crazy how one decision can wreck the next fifty
- 17:32Speaker 1: years in your life.
- 17:34Speaker 2: One dumb thing can.
- 17:37Speaker 1: Mess up your kids and your kids kids and your
- 17:40Speaker 1: kids kids killed one dumb thing. Young people, please don't
- 17:44Speaker 1: make big decisions too soon. Just because you're chronologically old
- 17:51Speaker 1: enough doesn't mean that you're mentally old enough to make
- 17:53Speaker 1: a great decision. And there's nothing as reprehensible as spending
- 17:58Speaker 1: the rest of your life living with the consequences of
- 18:01Speaker 1: a dumb thing you could have avoided. That was Levi's situation.
- 18:07Speaker 1: He did something stupid and it wrecked his life, and
- 18:14Speaker 1: his children, and his children's children living up under the
- 18:19Speaker 1: generational curse of what their fathers had done. And in
- 18:26Speaker 1: this moment of chaos, God sends Levi an opportunity.
- 18:35Speaker 2: You got it. One thing about God.
- 18:40Speaker 1: He is justice, but he's also mercy.
- 18:44Speaker 2: He's truth, but he's also grace.
- 18:46Speaker 1: If he were not a god or a second chance,
- 18:48Speaker 1: this whole church would be empty right now. And most
- 18:52Speaker 1: of us are probably on our sixteenth, eighteenth, twenty fifth chance,
- 18:56Speaker 1: not our second chance. But I'm just going to say
- 18:58Speaker 1: two so you can have some dignity while you're sitting there.
- 19:04Speaker 2: You learn as you go.
- 19:07Speaker 1: All of a sudden, God says, in the chaos, I
- 19:12Speaker 1: am going to give you an opportunity to correct the mistakes.
- 19:19Speaker 2: Of your past.
- 19:21Speaker 1: I will not hold against you the bad choice of
- 19:25Speaker 1: yesterday if you will correct it with the good choice
- 19:30Speaker 1: of today. Opportunity comes in chaos, a chance to stand up,
- 19:44Speaker 1: a chance to get it right, a chance to make
- 19:48Speaker 1: a u turn it comes and Captain no Day. I
- 19:51Speaker 1: was driving down the street and I will have a
- 19:54Speaker 1: GPS on, and I'd made a wrong turn, as I
- 19:56Speaker 1: so often do, and the GPS is trying to talk
- 20:00Speaker 1: to me, and it's only a machine, and the machine
- 20:02Speaker 1: is not necessarily wired for people who are busy and
- 20:05Speaker 1: talking on the cell phone and driving and trying to
- 20:07Speaker 1: do a paper at the same time. And I made
- 20:09Speaker 1: a wrong turn, and and I think the GPS was
- 20:13Speaker 1: confused because it couldn't even tell me when to do it.
- 20:16Speaker 1: That it says when possible. I said, now, you're trying
- 20:23Speaker 1: to be funny. You're supposed to know the road and
- 20:26Speaker 1: tell me when possible make a U turn. So what
- 20:35Speaker 1: I had to do, even though I had the benefit
- 20:38Speaker 1: of the GPS, I had to look for.
- 20:41Speaker 2: A turning point. Now here's my dilemma.
- 20:51Speaker 1: When I saw the place to turn, it was at
- 20:55Speaker 1: an intersection with a lot of traffic, So I had
- 21:01Speaker 1: to get in the position and wait for the moment
- 21:07Speaker 1: to make the turn to reverse the mistakes of my past. Y'all,
- 21:14Speaker 1: do hear what I'm saying to you? You know, one
- 21:22Speaker 1: person slowed down to let me make the turn because
- 21:24Speaker 1: they thought I was going into the store, but I
- 21:26Speaker 1: told them go ahead. Your vision is too small. You
- 21:30Speaker 1: think I'm trying to go into the store. I'm trying
- 21:32Speaker 1: to make a complete you turn, ain't.
- 21:35Speaker 2: Going in another direction.
- 21:37Speaker 1: Sometimes you have to let some opportunities go past you
- 21:41Speaker 1: to get to the real opportunity that will correct. Y'all,
- 21:45Speaker 1: don't hear what I'm saying to you. High five, Somebody
- 21:54Speaker 1: tell them it's bigger than that. What I'm trying to
- 21:58Speaker 1: do is bigger than that. It's bigger than that little thing.
- 22:01Speaker 1: I'm not trying to veer to the left, or veer
- 22:04Speaker 1: to the right, or gradually get it together. I'm too
- 22:08Speaker 1: old to gradually get it together. I don't have time
- 22:11Speaker 1: to gradually get it together. I'm getting ready to do something,
- 22:14Speaker 1: so right up her and so myself. I'm gonna turn
- 22:18Speaker 1: the whole thing one one hundred and eighty degree. I
- 22:27Speaker 1: came to tell somebody, you got just enough strength left,
- 22:31Speaker 1: You got just enough time left, You got just enough
- 22:35Speaker 1: energy left to make one big turn that will bless
- 22:39Speaker 1: your children and your children's children. How your children's children.
- 22:45Speaker 1: This is a big one. This ain't no small thing.
- 22:51Speaker 1: This is a mighty thing. I don't know who I'm
- 22:54Speaker 1: preaching to, but whoever it is, God is setting you
- 22:59Speaker 1: up to complete there time your life. Yeah yeah, yeah,
- 23:16Speaker 1: And you've been telling God what's your don't hair? I
- 23:19Speaker 1: don't have this, and don't have that, and don't have
- 23:23Speaker 1: enough friends, and I don't have the right degree, and
- 23:26Speaker 1: don't have a husband, and I don't have But the
- 23:29Speaker 1: Devil's got your telling what's your door to hair when
- 23:32Speaker 1: you ought to be looking at what your do hair?
- 23:35Speaker 1: What you do hell is an opportunity. Slap your neighbor
- 23:41Speaker 1: and say I got an opportunity. Have give God of
- 23:46Speaker 1: Praise for the opportunity. We'll be right back after this, Partners,
- 25:55Speaker 1: don't mist come home for Christmas our special holiday weekend
- 25:59Speaker 1: and to beautiful gay Lord Texan Resort. We can't do
- 26:02Speaker 1: any of the things we do without your support and prayer,
- 26:05Speaker 1: and I don't want you to step into another year
- 26:07Speaker 1: without us being able to pray over the mandates of
- 26:09Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit has put on your life as well.
- 26:12Speaker 1: Registration is absolutely free, but we do need you to register.
- 26:16Speaker 1: Space is limited, so reach out to us today and
- 26:18Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to seeing you on December seventh through
- 26:22Speaker 1: the ninth as.
- 26:22Speaker 2: We come home for Christmas.
- 26:27Speaker 1: Levi, because of this decision, inherited the priesthood of Israel. Levi,
- 26:39Speaker 1: because of this choice, never had to go out and
- 26:42Speaker 1: work like the other tribes had to work. Because God said, Levi,
- 26:49Speaker 1: if you serve me, I'll open up the windows of
- 26:53Speaker 1: heaven and pour you out of blessing.
- 26:56Speaker 2: You won't have room.
- 26:57Speaker 1: Enough to receive. Levi became the priest generationally started. The
- 27:11Speaker 1: Levitical priesthood came from Levi's choice in the middle of
- 27:18Speaker 1: a chaos. It changed the trajectory of destiny through a
- 27:28Speaker 1: choice that was pushed out in the middle of a
- 27:34Speaker 1: chaos to run from the chaos, stand still and let
- 27:43Speaker 1: the chaos.
- 27:44Speaker 2: Run from you.
- 27:48Speaker 1: Well, out of time, we've got to stop there. But
- 27:50Speaker 1: it has been delightful to use the word of God
- 27:52Speaker 1: as a catalyst to inspire you to let that word
- 27:56Speaker 1: dwell in your life and your decision making and your
- 27:59Speaker 1: perspectspective about life itself. There are opportunities in chaos. Some
- 28:05Speaker 1: people take the opportunity, and some people drown in the chaos.
- 28:10Speaker 1: Which one are you? I pray that God will bless
- 28:13Speaker 1: you in strengthen you today, and I'll be here same time,
- 28:17Speaker 1: same station, waiting on you. Take care. This is the
- 28:23Speaker 1: parad