Don't Waste Your Angel

0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:02.840 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik. 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:05.840 I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:08.360 I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:11.080 this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:13.600 gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:18.160 Enjoy the message. I want to read your scripture from 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.960 Exodus chapter twenty three, verses twenty through thirty one, and 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:23.360 it's a scripture. 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:24.599 About how God makes away in our life. 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:28.520 We're in this series called Waymaker, and this scripture has 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:31.360 a subheading in my Bible that says God's Angel to 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:36.560 prepare the way. God's Angel to prepare the way. God 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.639 says this verse twenty. See, I am sending an angel 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:43.879 ahead of you to guard you along the way. If 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:45.960 you don't think it's sacrilegious to write in your Bible 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:49.800 circle that phrase along the way, it's important. I am 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.760 sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:55.160 the way and to bring you to the place I 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:59.680 have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:00.000 he's says. 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:02.560 Do not rebel against him. 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:05.600 See, God can send things into your life that you 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:10.280 don't access because your attention is elsewhere. Come on, God 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:14.240 can send you instruction, wisdom, and provision, but you miss 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:16.600 it because you were paying attention on something stupid. 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:20.040 I'm not talking about fantasy football. I'm talking about other 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:21.240 stupid stuff you pay attention to. 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:26.360 I wouldn't rebuke you for that, It's fine. But he says, 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.080 do not rebel against him. He will not forgive your rebellion, 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:31.360 since my name is in him. If you listen carefully 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:33.640 to what he says and do all that I say. 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:36.600 I will be an enemy to your enemies. 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.760 This is God speaking how he feels about his people. 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:45.280 I will be an enemy to your enemies. Now touch 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:47.000 your neighbors, say you better be nice to me. 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:53.280 I got back up. Be careful how you talk about me. 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:56.200 God likes me a little bit. I mean, how do 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:59.720 you act when somebody talks about your child. Imagine how 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.800 God feels about it. Imagine how God feels about it. Well, 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:04.560 that's what he said. He said, I will be an 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.120 enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:12.480 My angel, here's this angel again, will go ahead of 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:18.560 you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Parazites, Canaanites, Hivetes, 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:22.720 and Jepizites, and I will wipe them out. Get them 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.480 out of your way. Now, do not bow down before 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:28.400 their gods or worship them, because after I get them 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:30.119 out of your way, don't get in your own way 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:34.400 by doing what they did. Sometimes God removes something from 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:36.280 your life and you trip over it like it was 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:38.079 still there because. 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.880 You can't change your mind and be renewed according to 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:41.800 your new reality. 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:45.520 Okay, this is not I'm just kind of flowing right now, 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:46.960 not in my notes, and I'm gonna let you sit 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:49.520 down in a minute. But there's a lot in this passage, 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:51.560 and I've been excited about it, and I was eating 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.240 cranberry sauce and thinking about just if we could get 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:56.120 here together, I could share this with you because I 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:58.920 was really excited about it. But really, here's where it starts. 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:04.079 Skip all the way down to verse twenty eight. I 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:08.079 will send the hornet, because God's a Charlottean, I will 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:08.760 send the hornet. 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:10.080 I've been trying to tell you all that. 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.040 I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:19.320 out the Hiites, Canaanites, and Hittites out of your way. Okay, 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:25.680 I'm gonna take away all those Ipeshites, Canaanites, sell you lights, 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:29.480 all of them. They gotta go, somebody said, they gotta go. 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:33.080 As I bring you into the place that I promised you, 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.160 I'm gonna get them out of your way. But I 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:38.960 will not drive them out in a single year, because 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:43.000 the land would become desolate and the wild animals too 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:48.680 numerous for you. Little by little, I will drive them 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:52.280 out before you until you have increased enough. 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:55.920 Until you you're. 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.160 Waiting on God to show up, and he's waiting for 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:09.560 you to grow up, my little and you don't even 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:11.800 notice the things that are growing right before your eyes. 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:14.240 That's why it takes a grandparent to tell you that 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.240 your kids have grown, because you're with. 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:16.800 Them every day. 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:21.400 But God is doing things incrementally in our lives, and 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:23.520 so he says, little by little, I will drive them 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:25.640 out before you until you have increased enough to take 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:26.600 possession of the lamb. 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:31.680 Can I give you one more verse? It's not rhetorical. 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:38.080 I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:42.039 the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:46.080 I will give into your hands the people who live 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.400 in the land, and you will drive them out before 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.599 you say man for the word of God. Hey, those 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:54.680 of you in a control, don't throw my title because 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:56.040 I'm changing it and the one you have is the 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:58.080 wrong one. I want to preach a message to you 0:04:58.120 --> 0:04:59.840 from my heart today, and I want you to look 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:01.400 at your neighbor and give them my title that I 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:02.839 just thought of right now, but I want to share 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:04.680 it with you, and I believe it's a message for 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.800 you today. Look at your neighbor and say, neighbor, don't 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:17.320 waste your angel, please be seated. The sense that I 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:19.520 get from the text is that God is giving his 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:26.600 people the resources that they need for the responsibility that 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:27.320 they are facing. 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:30.320 And I love that about God is. 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.000 That he always has the resource ready before he gives 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:37.280 the assignment. In fact, I've learned this and I would 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:38.800 love for you to write it down. If you are 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:46.080 the note tape taking type, realize that the greater the assignment, 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:49.200 the greater the assistance. 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:52.000 Now, if you are married. 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:55.000 To someone who is a little difficult, perhaps that will 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:57.800 be good news to you. My brother from the United 0:05:57.800 --> 0:05:59.760 States Air Force is visiting with us today. 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:00.440 You help me. 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:07.640 Thank God for my brother visiting all the way from 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:14.360 New Jersey. He's married now and we're thankful I had 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:18.440 the great privilege to perform their wedding. If I do 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:20.080 a wedding, which I don't get to do them very 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:22.440 much because usually people like to get married on Saturdays, 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:25.400 and I preach on Saturdays. So when I get to 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:27.240 do it, I like to make it creative because I 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:28.560 don't know how to do it the right way because 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:28.919 I don't do. 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:29.440 It that much. 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.240 And I almost did something when I performed your wedding. 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.159 I never told you this, because you got all the 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.560 typical sections of a wedding where you have the exchange 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.400 of the rings and the exchange of the vows. I 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:49.160 almost did a whole section called realistic expectations, and. 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:49.920 I didn't do it. 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:52.560 Maybe one day I'll get that opportunity, but it would 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:54.880 be the part of the wedding ceremony that's not poetic. 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:56.279 It'd be the part that's practical. 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:58.640 And I would have told you things like, you know, 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:03.800 be prepared for this woman whom you love to bring 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:08.000 items into your bathroom that you have never seen before 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:10.600 or known of their existence. 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:12.480 Be prepared, make. 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:16.840 Space on your counter for a pharmacy, and don't be surprised. 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:18.960 Little things like that I would have put into it. 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:20.960 If they would have done this for being Holly's they 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.360 would have said a lot. 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:24.560 Fifty extra minutes. 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:28.760 When you are telling your wife what time to be 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:31.520 ready for an event, lie to her, put her on 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:35.480 daylight savings time and back it up an hour, and 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:37.679 you might possibly be on time. 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.200 But I'll be honest with you. 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:43.440 My wife, now something has shifted in the balance of 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:45.320 our marriage relationship. 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:47.600 And she's usually the one telling me. 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:49.840 You're looking to see how she's responding to this part 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.280 of the sermon, aren't you with that? As she walked out, 0:07:54.320 --> 0:08:00.040 what would that say about the pastor's spiritual life? So 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.920 she's actually the one who's usually telling me. Now she's 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:07.040 usually telling me, if you can believe this, she says 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:09.160 something to me the other day. I never thought i'd 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.440 hear this out of my wife's mouth. She said, I'm 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:12.280 ready when you are. 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:16.160 It's just things you never think you're going to hear. 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.480 You never think like that's like hearing your teenager say I'll. 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:21.920 Do it, Like. 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.200 It's just stuff you never expect to hear from that person. 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:29.000 But it's true nine times out of ten. Now she's 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:33.079 ready before I am. Something has shifted in the relationship. 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:34.120 And I pointed out. 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:39.400 Because in Exodus twenty three, it's not a marriage relationship, 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.520 but it's a covenant relationship between God and his people. 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:46.920 And they have waited now for over four hundred years 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:50.080 for God to deliver them out of their slavery and 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:54.719 their cruel bondage. But now something has shifted. They are 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:59.880 so used to waiting on God, and now a bus 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.559 there are turn of events. God says to his people 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:08.640 through Moses, I'm ready when you are. Now, he's already 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.200 brought them out of Egypt. He's already brought them out 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:14.200 of slavery. But there is a difference between coming out 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:15.920 physically and coming out mentally. 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:21.160 Some people are perpetually stuck. 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.400 In the stage of their life. Even though God has 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:27.080 set them free, they still dragged the shackles of a 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:31.720 situation that God long since delivered them from. So he 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.440 gives them several gifts, several gifts, several gifts. I'll mention 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.960 a few the Ten commandments. He gives them the ten commandments. 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.679 Thou shalt, thou shalt not not to prohibit them, not 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:42.800 to prohibit them. 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:44.960 How many of you have a dog. 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:46.920 Did you put in a fence in your yard for 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:53.080 the dog? Why so he could run around? So he 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:59.400 could run around without getting killed. The fence brings freedom right. 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:05.360 When God establishes parameters for your life, what He's really 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.360 doing within those parameters is giving you permission to enjoy 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:14.000 his promises, within the parameters of his principles, so that 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:16.920 you are not destroyed by the very thing that God 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:20.360 intended to bless you with. And then he gives them 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:24.000 some laws, regulations, and statutes for living with one another 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:28.040 in relationship as a community. He speaks about social injustice. 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.960 He speaks to them about treatment of one another and foreigners. 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.839 He speaks to them specifically. 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:39.000 About festivals that he wants them to keep, and three 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:40.760 times a year he says, I want you to send 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:44.199 all the men to the sanctuary, and nobody should come 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:45.000 empty handed. 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:46.840 I want you to bring me an offering. 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:50.000 I want you to bring me an offering because I 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:54.960 want you to be protected. There's a keyword protected from 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:59.160 trusting in your provision. So every time I bless you, 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:03.240 I want you to engage in the discipline of intrusting 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:05.640 to me what I've invested in. 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:07.600 You got it. 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:12.079 In that context, God makes his people a promise because 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:16.559 He has given them a great assignment, a great assignment 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:21.920 to occupy this land that's full of enemies, enemies that 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:26.439 are bigger and stronger, more skilled and experienced in warfare 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:28.640 than this nation, who. 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:30.559 Has barely become a nation at this point. 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:34.480 In this he gives them three promises from verse twenty. 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:36.800 I'll lift them now, write them down, put them on 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:39.760 a sticky note, because these three promises apply to you. Two. 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:42.560 These are three things God has promised you. I'll hit 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:46.240 them one by one. See, I am sending an angel 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:50.319 ahead of you. In the Jewish tradition, it is mostly 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:53.840 believed that the angel is Moses. However, most of us 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:58.600 would think that the qualifications that are listed here as 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:00.840 in my name is in him, and the ability to 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:04.560 forgive sins goes beyond Moses. So this must be a 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:08.240 foreshadowing of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:13.240 I will send my angel ahead of you to guard 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.520 you along the way and to bring you to the 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:18.560 place I have prepared. 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:19.760 They're all three right there. 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:22.680 The first one is God promises to protect his people. 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:28.240 God promises to protect his people, and specifically he says, 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:32.840 I will guard you along the way. I was interested 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:35.560 in that phrase because a lot of times God is 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.280 guarding you from things in your life that you don't 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:41.440 even know you need to be guarded from. And so 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:43.320 the way it works, you can follow me real quick 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.840 with the cameras. God will guard you along the way, 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:51.640 but you will only see it looking back. That's how 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.640 life works, is that God is doing it for you 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:58.040 along the way. Now, notice, in order for God to 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.480 protect you, you have to be an motion. God cannot 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:02.720 guard you until you. 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:04.480 Are along the way. 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:06.920 And so when you are praying for God to protect you, 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:09.200 but you're sitting on your couch doing it instead of 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.840 obeying the instruction that he's given you, God cannot dispatch 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:15.600 his assistance for an assignment that you are not present for. 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:17.640 This. 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:21.760 One intern was asking me recently on the subject how 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:26.120 do I deal with feeling insecure? And I shocked myself 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:27.880 the answer I gave her because I usually say, quote 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:30.120 the Bible and confessions of faith, and you are the 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:33.360 righteousness of God in Christ. But I found something coming 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:34.520 out of my mouth was kind of weird. 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:35.360 I said, do the work. 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:40.880 Do the work, because it is in completing your assignment 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:45.120 that you receive your assistance. It's the best thing you 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.959 can do. If you feel insecure like I can't do it, 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.520 to do it. And as you do it, you will 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:53.560 receive the strength for the assignment. 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:56.600 But let me tell you this, you will not get. 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.440 The assistance praying for God to make the assignment easier. 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.880 He does not promise that. And I don't care how 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:05.320 hateful y'all look at me. God is not going to 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:06.199 make it easier what. 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:06.800 He said I'll do. 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:12.960 I will release my assistance in correspondence with your assignment. 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:14.680 And if you. 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:18.240 Insist on trying to fulfill somebody else's assignment. 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:20.040 Don't expect my assistance. 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:24.600 But if you will do you right here, right. 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:26.440 Now, and quit wishing she. 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:29.520 Was your wife, and love the wife you've got as 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:35.160 Christ loved the church, I will release my assistance in. 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:39.800 Correspondence with your assignment. Hey man, good preaching. Only JJ's 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.400 standing up. I don't know. He must need the Lord 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:42.880 this week. 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.080 To me, I think it's significant all the different times 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:50.720 that God gave people an assignment that was greater than them, 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:55.360 in fact, often contrary to their natural ability. Because Abraham 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:57.680 could have had a baby for God when he was forty, 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:02.280 not when he's eighty. God likes him at eighty better 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.080 than forty. I know why, but I'm not gonna tell 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.680 you why. I know why I studied it. I know 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:09.920 why God picked him at eighty and not forty. 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:11.360 Okay, I'll tell you. 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:15.320 If you do it at forty, you'll think you did it. 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.320 But if God gives you something that you know. 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:28.960 You shouldn't be able to do it. 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:34.640 Somebody say, don't waste your angel, and you waste the 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:37.320 assistance of your angel. 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:40.280 This is so good. I'm gonna help you. 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:42.240 Right there, right there, You right there, right there, I'm 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:42.840 so glad you know. 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:44.800 Not you her, I'm gonna help her right there. 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.080 You got a giant assignment. That's good. 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.800 The greater the assignment, the greater the assistance. 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.480 Now I can look back on several phases of my 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:02.480 life where God, God was protecting me with what I 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:07.520 thought was a problem. You know, God has a defense system. 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:09.800 I have a security system in my house. A couple 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.800 nights ago, me and Holly shot straight up in the bed, screaming, 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.560 both of us just screaming. The alarm went off so loud. 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.240 I never heard it that loud, and I jumped off, screaming. 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:21.240 She jumped up, screaming. We're screaming at each other. Five 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:23.840 seconds later, I had that baseball bat that I keep 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:26.800 under my bed. I was crouched going through the house too. 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.320 I was shaking the bat. I was saying stuff under 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.280 my breath that wasn't prayer oriented, you know, just getting 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:38.080 ready for what the situation required. But how could it 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:41.120 be that loud. It was the loudest thing I ever heard. 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.160 You know, those little AirPods that you put in your ear. 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:49.160 I forgot that I had fallen asleep with my AirPods in. 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:52.760 And it wasn't the security system in the house that 0:16:52.840 --> 0:17:01.080 went off. It was an amber alert on my phone. 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:02.880 And here I am. 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:08.199 Ready to kill something that's not even there. And you know, 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:12.240 sometimes you let the devil in your head to the 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:15.160 point where you're waking up in the middle of the night, 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.080 chasing an enemy that ought to. 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:19.240 Be running from you. 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:21.480 Where are my. 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:25.120 Powerful people at that know you have the Holy Spirit, 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:27.920 a deposit guaranteeing your inheritance. 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:33.240 Make some noise about it, make all the quiet people uncomfortable, 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:35.040 shout if you know, God's. 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.200 Got a defense system and a surveillance on your life, 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:39.800 and the devil can only. 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:45.760 Go so far. Get out of my head because I'm protected. 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:54.480 High five point three people say, I'm protected and God, God. 0:17:54.320 --> 0:18:03.800 Will even protect you from your own prayers. You will 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.160 pray for him to ask you out, and he will 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:11.120 walk right by you to your best friend, and she 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:12.760 doesn't even have a prayer life. 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:14.400 And that's why he. 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:18.560 Walked past you, because you were praying. God, I want 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:23.200 what you want for me. Protect me from anything that's 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:24.359 not from you. 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:27.360 I got an angel. Somebody said, I got an angel. 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:37.679 You can't see anybody's there. That's weird. It's weird. You 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.520 believe in angels. What do you believe in? 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:50.040 Some of y'all believe in college age boys in tight pants. 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:54.479 Your hope is in them. And I can't have an angel. Oh, 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:58.159 I got angels. Don't make me flap it you I 0:18:58.200 --> 0:18:59.560 will flap right in your face. 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:03.359 I got angels. I got something better than an angel. 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:10.280 I have the spirit that raised Christ from the dead. 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:14.920 And I'm protected. I'm protected. 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:20.720 Even sometimes what you will call a disappointment in one 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:23.000 season of your life, you will see as a defense. 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:26.720 Later you will see that. 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.720 If I had gotten what I wanted when I wanted it, 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:32.960 it wouldn't have been a blessing because I wasn't ready. 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:40.040 I hope I'm helping somebody. I hope I'm helping somebody. 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.320 I will guard you along the way, God says, I'll 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:46.760 protect you, and the second one he says, I will 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:50.200 bring you to the place, So I'll guard you along 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:50.960 the way. 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:52.280 And I'll bring you to the place. 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:55.840 If guard you along the way is God's promise to protect. 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:58.920 Bring you to the place is his promise to position. 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:02.320 And one thing I've really come to believe is that 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:05.080 God is good at getting me where he wants me 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:08.960 when he wants me, for reasons that I do not 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:15.760 understand while I'm there. And honestly, some of the places 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:17.800 that God has sent me in my life is not 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.840 where I wanted to go. And I'm gonna say something 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:22.719 to you that I never ever said before in public. 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:25.040 I said it to Holly, I might have said it 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:27.680 to a few of our team members thirteen years ago, 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:29.879 but I never said it in a big room like this. 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:36.600 I didn't even want to come to Charlotte because it 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:43.240 seemed to me like Charlotte had churches covered. Have you looked, 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:50.120 there's trees and steeples. People, there's a lot of them already. 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:54.479 I say, God, what could it possibly have to do 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:58.200 with me to be in this town where there's already 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:03.960 all these big churches. It was Joe's crabshack that God used, 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:08.199 and just in a way I can't explain. And I'm 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.000 preaching to somebody with an attitude right now because you 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:12.160 don't even like where you live. 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:15.240 You don't even like it. 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:22.680 But often God positions you according to a higher priority 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:28.760 than your preference, and it's called his purpose. I'm sending 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:32.119 my angel and he will bring you to the place. 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:34.000 Here's the interesting thing. 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:37.800 The angel can bring you to the place, but it 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:38.960 cannot go in for you. 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:41.879 All God can. 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:44.440 Do, because it is a cooperation of grace and faith 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:47.000 that causes his kingdom to operate on earth as it 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:47.639 is in heaven. 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:51.000 All he can do is set you up. But He 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:52.359 will not take the step for you. 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:55.840 If God took the step for you, it would not 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:57.480 be kindness, it would be cruelty. 0:21:58.359 --> 0:21:59.360 If God took. 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:00.840 The step for you, he would put you in a 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.639 place that your faith was not prepared for. So the 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:09.160 great tragedy of Exodus twenty three is that God sent 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:13.800 the protection to bring them to the place. Yet an 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:16.320 entire generation never entered in. 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:19.320 Did you hear me? 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:23.480 The entire congregation that Moses is delivering the message to 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:28.199 doesn't get to experience the benefits of God's promise. And 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:30.520 here's where it's a little theologically controversial. 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:37.680 God's promises are not automatic. They're optional. Joy is optional. 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:41.159 Peace is optional. You can have it or you can 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:41.639 leave it. 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:46.280 You can live in bitterness or you can live in deliverance. 0:22:47.000 --> 0:22:48.720 But you have to take the step. Now. 0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:52.640 God says, I've positioned you. I've protected you. I kept 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:55.359 you alive. I brought you through it. The sea didn't 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:58.159 sweep over you. The slave master didn't kill you with 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:00.520 this whip. All I did was bring you out with 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:03.360 the possession that you need to go into the place that. 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:05.040 I've prepared for you. Three. 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:07.520 Not only will he protect me, not only will he 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:10.680 position me, but he will prepare me. Now we got three, 0:23:10.720 --> 0:23:14.159 peace less preach. God has been setting you up for 0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:17.639 this step all of your life, and before you is 0:23:17.680 --> 0:23:21.040 the goodness and the glory of God made possible by 0:23:21.040 --> 0:23:24.280 the grace of Jesus Christ. If it's just three people, 0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:27.720 I came with an announcement. You're ready now. You don't 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:30.040 have to live in what was any longer, and you 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:32.399 don't have to stay stuck in a mindset then no 0:23:32.480 --> 0:23:36.399 longer accommodates your anointing. You're ready now, the says the 0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:39.200 spirit of the Lord. I kept you all your life. 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:42.600 I sustained you through many dangers, cause and stairs, and 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:47.280 now you're ready. A mind somebody looks happy say I'm ready. 0:23:52.119 --> 0:23:57.040 I will protect you, I will position you, and I 0:23:57.160 --> 0:24:02.560 will dirty word prepare you. Not a very fun one, 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:05.919 I know, I know. And the way he does it 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:08.159 is terrible. The way he does it is terrible. Did 0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:09.520 y'all hear about the boiled frog? 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:13.280 Have you heard this? They teach. I don't know why 0:24:13.280 --> 0:24:14.239 someone would want to do this. 0:24:14.560 --> 0:24:16.880 I'm not recommending it, but if you want to boil 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:19.800 a frog, you ever just get it in your mind 0:24:19.840 --> 0:24:21.560 you want to boil a frog? If you heard this before, 0:24:22.240 --> 0:24:25.920 it's the old preacher thing. If you want to boil 0:24:25.920 --> 0:24:29.680 a frog, don't put it in a boiling pot. Put 0:24:29.720 --> 0:24:34.240 it in a pot and turn up the heat little 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:38.520 by little, and the frog won't know he's being boiled. Now, 0:24:38.520 --> 0:24:40.160 I don't know what made the preacher want to boil 0:24:40.160 --> 0:24:44.280 a frog. I can't answer that, but he is correct. 0:24:45.480 --> 0:24:48.119 When the enemy wants to steal your confidence in the 0:24:48.119 --> 0:24:49.840 promise of God, he doesn't do it all at once, 0:24:51.400 --> 0:24:53.440 because if that alarm really went off, you jump out 0:24:53.440 --> 0:25:01.960 the bed. So what does he do? Little by little? 0:25:03.040 --> 0:25:05.240 And that's the warning that God is giving his people. 0:25:06.320 --> 0:25:09.320 I'm sending my angel ahead of you. But if you 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:12.320 don't pay attention, and if you don't listen to what 0:25:12.359 --> 0:25:15.960 he says, you will come to the place. And I 0:25:16.000 --> 0:25:19.600 can prove to you that this happened to them because. 0:25:19.320 --> 0:25:23.760 They got to the edge of the promise and they stopped. 0:25:24.760 --> 0:25:28.680 And the reason that they stopped is because two spies 0:25:28.760 --> 0:25:31.320 went in to the land and came out with faith 0:25:31.760 --> 0:25:34.440 that they could do it. Ten spies went in and said, 0:25:34.640 --> 0:25:40.720 they're bigger than us, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Jeptizites, 0:25:41.520 --> 0:25:47.120 the Parizites, the Hiptites, the Amorites. They're bigger than us. 0:25:47.760 --> 0:25:51.959 They're but guess what. They were already on the run. 0:25:53.600 --> 0:25:58.119 Sometimes you are running from something that God has already. 0:25:57.720 --> 0:26:01.800 Defeated ex trus you. 0:26:02.800 --> 0:26:05.640 So they're standing at the place God has protected them 0:26:05.680 --> 0:26:10.080 along the way. God has what's the second one? Position 0:26:10.240 --> 0:26:14.040 them for this moment? What's the third one? He prepared them? 0:26:14.040 --> 0:26:15.280 But guess what the angel can't do. 0:26:15.800 --> 0:26:17.800 There's one thing the Angel can't do and will not do. 0:26:17.840 --> 0:26:20.000 There's one thing God won't do for you. He'll protect you. 0:26:20.160 --> 0:26:22.960 He'll keep you. He'll keep your mind, he'll keep your sanity. 0:26:23.160 --> 0:26:25.080 He'll keep you from people that would harm you. He 0:26:25.119 --> 0:26:26.960 will keep you from places that you didn't even know 0:26:27.000 --> 0:26:28.439 if you would have been there, what would have happened? 0:26:28.480 --> 0:26:30.200 And you will never even know on this side of. 0:26:30.160 --> 0:26:33.199 Life, how many times God blocked stuff and turned stuff 0:26:33.280 --> 0:26:35.840 and shifted stuff and moved stuff. And you thought it 0:26:35.920 --> 0:26:37.280 was just you were a little bit late because you 0:26:37.320 --> 0:26:38.199 forgot your wallet. 0:26:38.320 --> 0:26:39.240 But there was a car. 0:26:39.080 --> 0:26:41.639 Accident on seventy seven that had your name on it. 0:26:41.720 --> 0:26:44.120 And when the devil said they're out, God said, I've 0:26:44.119 --> 0:26:45.120 got sore. 0:26:45.640 --> 0:26:46.040 Anyway. 0:26:46.080 --> 0:26:48.720 There are so anyway anyway, there's so many things you 0:26:48.760 --> 0:26:51.600 don't even know to thank God for. If you could see, 0:26:51.640 --> 0:26:54.879 for one moment all of the things that God kept 0:26:54.880 --> 0:27:05.080 you from, Listen to me, Blakeney, if we ever got 0:27:05.080 --> 0:27:08.320 a revelation of what God kept us from, it would 0:27:08.359 --> 0:27:11.639 be a bad day for the worship team, because all 0:27:11.680 --> 0:27:15.119 the worship leaders wouldn't have a job, because we wouldn't 0:27:15.119 --> 0:27:18.560 even need them, because we would lead ourselves in worship, 0:27:19.320 --> 0:27:20.720 because we would walk in the door. 0:27:20.920 --> 0:27:21.880 And we will walk in the. 0:27:21.800 --> 0:27:27.119 Door clapping and shouting and rejoicing and praising God that 0:27:27.240 --> 0:27:30.200 sometimes we don't see all the things that He's kept 0:27:30.280 --> 0:27:32.679 us from and brought us to. 0:27:33.800 --> 0:27:37.480 And now we're at this place and God has protected us. Yeah. 0:27:38.119 --> 0:27:44.040 God has positioned us absolutely, and God has prepared us. 0:27:44.920 --> 0:27:48.480 But there's one thing he won't do. He will not 0:27:48.680 --> 0:27:52.800 possess the land for you. Here's the word of the Lord. 0:27:54.680 --> 0:27:58.320 I will go before you, but I will not go 0:27:58.400 --> 0:28:00.800 for you. 0:28:00.800 --> 0:28:05.680 Your faith must make the step. Your faith must make 0:28:05.680 --> 0:28:08.200 the step. And most of them never did. 0:28:09.440 --> 0:28:12.280 Now, if they had gone in, they would have seen 0:28:12.320 --> 0:28:15.080 that the giants that were still in the land were 0:28:15.119 --> 0:28:18.359 left there on purpose. That was always confusing to me. 0:28:19.280 --> 0:28:22.080 God said, I'm going to be an enemy to your enemies. 0:28:22.119 --> 0:28:24.800 I'm going to oppose those who oppose you, and when 0:28:24.840 --> 0:28:25.720 you get to the land. 0:28:25.520 --> 0:28:26.960 I'm going to start driving them out. 0:28:28.119 --> 0:28:30.400 I'm going to chase them away so you can inherit 0:28:30.480 --> 0:28:33.560 what I have promised to you. But then he says, 0:28:34.200 --> 0:28:38.600 I'm not going to do it all at once. I'm 0:28:38.600 --> 0:28:45.480 going to do it like the frog, little by little, 0:28:46.400 --> 0:28:47.000 I'm gonna do it. 0:28:47.560 --> 0:28:48.320 We wait a minute. 0:28:48.320 --> 0:28:53.400 God, if these are giants who can kill us and 0:28:53.480 --> 0:28:56.520 cause us to worship other gods, shouldn't you get rid 0:28:56.560 --> 0:28:59.760 of them as soon as possible? Come on, I mean, 0:29:00.400 --> 0:29:02.640 wouldn't it make sense that if God wants something out 0:29:02.680 --> 0:29:04.840 of your life, he would take it out right away? 0:29:05.480 --> 0:29:07.480 And maybe this is just me because I grew up 0:29:07.520 --> 0:29:10.200 in churches where they said, if you will pray this prayer, 0:29:10.280 --> 0:29:12.920 Jesus will come into your heart and he will take 0:29:12.960 --> 0:29:15.640 away your fear, and he will take away your pain, 0:29:16.400 --> 0:29:18.240 and he will dry every tear from your eye. 0:29:18.280 --> 0:29:19.480 And then I cried that night, and. 0:29:19.440 --> 0:29:22.320 I couldn't figure out where did that Kleenex go, that 0:29:22.560 --> 0:29:25.240 cosmic Kleenex that Jesus was gonna bring and wipe every 0:29:25.240 --> 0:29:27.440 tear from my eye? I couldn't figure it out because 0:29:27.480 --> 0:29:34.600 I was expecting sanctification to work like salvation. When Jesus 0:29:34.680 --> 0:29:38.720 saves you, he does it all at once. He doesn't 0:29:38.760 --> 0:29:42.640 set you up on a thirty year payment plan. Salvation 0:29:42.840 --> 0:29:46.000 is not a mortgage. When he comes in he comes. 0:29:45.720 --> 0:29:47.880 All the way in. And for those of. 0:29:47.760 --> 0:29:50.040 You who have received his grace, let me tell you 0:29:50.080 --> 0:29:51.000 something is amazing. 0:29:51.040 --> 0:29:52.880 It's amazing. Here a shot, lean on the edge of 0:29:52.920 --> 0:29:53.360 your seat. 0:29:53.520 --> 0:29:57.080 You will never be more forgiven than you are right now. 0:29:58.000 --> 0:30:00.240 You will never be more love than you are right now. 0:30:02.960 --> 0:30:06.960 When He forgives you, he forgives you completely, immediately, fully, 0:30:07.200 --> 0:30:10.480 without qualification. There is no corner of your heart he 0:30:10.480 --> 0:30:14.720 didn't see when he sent his spirit to live within you. 0:30:14.720 --> 0:30:17.240 You will never be more forgiven than you are right now. 0:30:17.480 --> 0:30:22.880 But there is a difference between forgiveness and freedom. 0:30:23.160 --> 0:30:24.680 Forgiveness happens all at once. 0:30:25.760 --> 0:30:33.479 Freedom happens little by little, by little by little, and 0:30:33.640 --> 0:30:37.520 is often so incremental that you don't even think is happening. 0:30:39.080 --> 0:30:42.400 This is for everybody who's forty and thought you would 0:30:42.440 --> 0:30:47.040 be smarter than you are right now, and you keep 0:30:47.080 --> 0:30:49.720 doing dumb stuff that you've been doing all your life, 0:30:50.880 --> 0:30:53.080 and you still feel outrage to the back row. 0:30:53.120 --> 0:30:54.000 I don't need any love. 0:30:55.640 --> 0:30:58.160 You're doing stuff right now that you are doing at 0:30:58.200 --> 0:31:01.040 age fourteen, and you got your own thirteen year old 0:31:04.200 --> 0:31:08.000 and you still feel like a little kid yourself. And 0:31:08.200 --> 0:31:15.320 it happens. It happened to Paul. Paul was that great apostle. 0:31:15.840 --> 0:31:18.600 Have you heard of him? He took the gospel to 0:31:18.640 --> 0:31:19.880 the Gentiles. 0:31:20.360 --> 0:31:24.160 What God started through Abraham he continued through Paul. He 0:31:24.200 --> 0:31:26.360 told Abraham, he said, I got an assignment for you. 0:31:26.920 --> 0:31:29.080 All the nations of the earth will. 0:31:28.960 --> 0:31:30.360 Be blessed through you. 0:31:31.480 --> 0:31:34.520 A What an assignment, he said, But don't worry about it. 0:31:34.880 --> 0:31:37.840 I'm going to bless you so you can be a blessing. 0:31:38.320 --> 0:31:42.160 I will not require from you a resource that I 0:31:42.200 --> 0:31:43.160 do not put within you. 0:31:44.680 --> 0:31:47.320 You hear me. If God called you to. 0:31:47.360 --> 0:31:49.960 Raise those hard headed kids, he will make your head 0:31:50.000 --> 0:31:56.160 even harder. Boom, You met your match now because God 0:31:56.240 --> 0:31:59.560 gave me. God gave me a cranium that can withstand 0:31:59.600 --> 0:32:06.520 all of your craziness. Now God gives him the assignment, 0:32:07.280 --> 0:32:09.360 and he gives him the assistance. 0:32:10.760 --> 0:32:13.000 And Paul, in many ways, was grace. 0:32:13.360 --> 0:32:15.960 He was grace to be able to speak eloquently. He 0:32:16.120 --> 0:32:19.600 was grace to be able to preach to the diaspora 0:32:19.760 --> 0:32:23.080 of the Jewish tradition that he himself came from. But 0:32:23.120 --> 0:32:26.320 one thing about Paul he couldn't understand. He couldn't understand 0:32:26.400 --> 0:32:30.040 there was something in his life that he expected God 0:32:30.080 --> 0:32:33.720 to take away that God left. You got anything like that, 0:32:35.840 --> 0:32:38.480 fella looking at me so weird right now? 0:32:39.960 --> 0:32:41.120 Maybe you're beyond Paul. 0:32:41.160 --> 0:32:43.160 I would understand if you were holier than Paul, that 0:32:43.440 --> 0:32:44.200 would make sense. 0:32:45.160 --> 0:32:46.800 But Paul was struggling. He hadn't quite a. 0:32:46.800 --> 0:32:50.600 Arrived to your level of spiritual development and maturity. Paul said, 0:32:50.840 --> 0:32:55.040 there was something that I asked God to do for 0:32:55.200 --> 0:32:58.400 me that he would not do. Now, if you want 0:32:58.400 --> 0:33:00.560 to know what it was, Paul's going to disappoint you 0:33:00.760 --> 0:33:01.840 because he refuses to. 0:33:01.800 --> 0:33:02.560 Name it by name. 0:33:04.040 --> 0:33:05.760 And I'm glad he didn't name it by name because 0:33:05.760 --> 0:33:07.440 if he would have said it, I couldn't relate to it. 0:33:07.840 --> 0:33:09.480 But the fact that he used this image, and I 0:33:09.480 --> 0:33:11.920 want to read it to you now two Corinthians twelve seven. 0:33:12.200 --> 0:33:16.000 It means that whatever is left in your life, whatever 0:33:16.160 --> 0:33:19.280 is left in your life that you have been blaming 0:33:19.360 --> 0:33:24.960 on the devil, can be used by God to fulfill 0:33:25.280 --> 0:33:29.520 his purpose for your life. If you got anything like that, 0:33:29.560 --> 0:33:31.600 wave at me, so I can see the seven people 0:33:31.880 --> 0:33:36.200 that God gave me this message for. Paul said, I 0:33:36.240 --> 0:33:40.560 was ascended to the third heaven. I saw things inutterable. 0:33:40.760 --> 0:33:43.960 I was used by God in ways that are astounding, 0:33:44.040 --> 0:33:46.440 in fact, beyond human vocabulary. 0:33:46.920 --> 0:33:49.680 Therefore, now watch this. This is crazy, he says. 0:33:49.920 --> 0:33:54.000 Because of that level of blessing, God gave me an 0:33:54.040 --> 0:34:01.200 equal burden. Because the greater the assignment, the greater the adversity. 0:34:02.400 --> 0:34:05.680 The greater the assignment, the greater the attack. 0:34:06.560 --> 0:34:09.680 So Paul said, God took me up so. 0:34:09.880 --> 0:34:14.000 High and showed me so much that there had to 0:34:14.080 --> 0:34:17.560 be something in my life that would keep me grounded 0:34:17.600 --> 0:34:21.520 to his grace. He doesn't name it by name. He 0:34:21.560 --> 0:34:24.680 doesn't need to, because he knows you have your own. 0:34:25.480 --> 0:34:29.960 So he simply says, therefore, in order here's the clue 0:34:30.400 --> 0:34:37.919 to keep me from becoming conceited, there was something that 0:34:38.000 --> 0:34:42.160 God gave Paul to keep him in a space called grace, 0:34:43.760 --> 0:34:46.640 so that he would never forget who led. 0:34:46.560 --> 0:34:49.320 Him along the way, So that he would never. 0:34:49.120 --> 0:34:52.640 Forget who brought him out of bondage and darkness into 0:34:52.680 --> 0:34:56.320 the marvelous life. God said, I'm gonna I'm gonna lead 0:34:56.880 --> 0:35:03.759 some stuff in your life. And so in order to 0:35:03.840 --> 0:35:08.040 keep me from becoming conceited, there was given to me. 0:35:09.000 --> 0:35:11.560 Sounds like he's about to get a new car, right, 0:35:12.160 --> 0:35:14.319 He gave me gave me. 0:35:14.480 --> 0:35:16.120 This's got me in the mindset of a gift. What 0:35:16.200 --> 0:35:18.520 did he give you, Paul? Did he give you a house? 0:35:18.560 --> 0:35:20.960 Did he give you a promotion? Did he give you 0:35:21.000 --> 0:35:22.040 a blessing? No? 0:35:22.040 --> 0:35:27.000 No, no, Paul said, one day the devil showed up 0:35:27.000 --> 0:35:30.560 on my doorstep with a package and it had a 0:35:30.560 --> 0:35:34.400 bow on it. I opened the package and in the 0:35:34.440 --> 0:35:36.480 package was a thorn. 0:35:37.480 --> 0:35:40.239 Now it was a gift, but it didn't look like 0:35:40.280 --> 0:35:40.720 a gift. 0:35:41.840 --> 0:35:44.680 It was a gift, but it was wrapped in something 0:35:44.800 --> 0:35:45.799 that looked like pain. 0:35:46.840 --> 0:35:47.720 I was given. 0:35:48.080 --> 0:35:53.360 Watch this a thorn in my flesh? Was it a sickness? 0:35:54.440 --> 0:35:58.439 Was it a temptation Paul had? Was it people talking 0:35:58.480 --> 0:35:59.880 about him and he couldn't shut him up? 0:36:00.600 --> 0:36:03.440 Was it Facebook? Probably? 0:36:07.840 --> 0:36:13.240 And he calls it this is crazy, a messenger of Satan. 0:36:15.719 --> 0:36:18.560 How can he refer to it as a gift. If 0:36:18.600 --> 0:36:22.960 it came from the enemy, it was sent to torment him. 0:36:23.040 --> 0:36:25.880 That was the devil's intention to torment him. 0:36:28.120 --> 0:36:28.640 Paul said. 0:36:28.840 --> 0:36:34.440 God took what the enemy intended to torment me and 0:36:34.640 --> 0:36:36.160 used it to transform me. 0:36:38.440 --> 0:36:41.960 So the enemy's tools. 0:36:41.520 --> 0:36:44.680 Of torment become God's tools of transformation. 0:36:46.960 --> 0:36:47.879 And now I get it. 0:36:48.840 --> 0:36:52.080 Now I get Exodus twenty three, because it's not just 0:36:52.200 --> 0:36:54.759 the angels that God sends ahead. 0:36:54.520 --> 0:36:57.680 Of you that he uses to bless you. Those are wonderful. 0:36:57.960 --> 0:37:00.600 It's not just all of the promotions, and it's not 0:37:00.680 --> 0:37:04.160 just the prosperity, and it's not just the peaceful situations. 0:37:04.360 --> 0:37:05.680 It's not just the yeses. 0:37:06.160 --> 0:37:10.120 Sometimes God uses the nose to lead you to a 0:37:10.160 --> 0:37:14.280 greater yes. God said, no, I won't take it away, 0:37:14.840 --> 0:37:19.000 but yes, I will give you so much grace that 0:37:19.160 --> 0:37:23.440 you will be stronger than it, and you will discover 0:37:23.960 --> 0:37:28.520 a power that you could have never known if you 0:37:28.560 --> 0:37:34.600 didn't have a problem. But he said to me, my grace, 0:37:34.840 --> 0:37:39.080 by shock grace. Shout grace, don't mumble, shout grace. Shot 0:37:39.120 --> 0:37:41.840 grace like you need it. Shout grace like you can't 0:37:41.840 --> 0:37:44.360 make it without it. Shout grace like it's not just 0:37:44.440 --> 0:37:45.360 something you say. 0:37:45.239 --> 0:37:48.440 Before you eat. Shalt grace like you live by it. 0:37:48.480 --> 0:37:50.680 Shout grace like he died to give it. 0:37:50.719 --> 0:37:55.200 Shout grace like you know it's the avenue of pless. 0:37:58.800 --> 0:38:02.760 So he didn't give me relief, He gave me grace. 0:38:05.880 --> 0:38:06.920 And now I get it. 0:38:07.719 --> 0:38:11.239 Why God left the giants in the land, because he 0:38:11.320 --> 0:38:17.400 had them under contract. See they were They weren't used 0:38:17.400 --> 0:38:19.360 to having to keep up their own land yet. 0:38:19.840 --> 0:38:21.720 So God said, I'm gonna do you a favor. 0:38:22.600 --> 0:38:27.359 I'm gonna keep some enemies on your property. But don't 0:38:27.400 --> 0:38:30.760 worry about your enemies. They work for me. I am God. 0:38:33.480 --> 0:38:35.520 What's good to me? It's good to me, it's good 0:38:35.560 --> 0:38:35.799 to me. 0:38:37.320 --> 0:38:39.880 Would it be bad if I downloaded this podcast myself? 0:38:41.520 --> 0:38:43.799 He said, I'm gonna leave some things. I'm gonna lease 0:38:43.840 --> 0:38:47.319 some weaknesses in your life. Take it away now, I'm 0:38:47.320 --> 0:38:48.120 gonna work through it. 0:38:49.440 --> 0:38:51.960 Now, I'm gonna leave that weakness in your life, and 0:38:52.040 --> 0:38:56.120 your weakness is going to lead you to my strength. 0:38:58.000 --> 0:38:58.840 God says. 0:38:59.480 --> 0:39:05.480 Sometimes times I drive the giants out. Sometimes I let 0:39:05.520 --> 0:39:11.200 them stay and I give them a job. Sometimes I 0:39:11.360 --> 0:39:16.920 use the devil to deliver my mail. Sometimes I use 0:39:17.320 --> 0:39:23.120 adversity to create an advantage in your life. Sometimes I 0:39:23.320 --> 0:39:24.840 take what people meant. 0:39:24.640 --> 0:39:26.720 For evil and use it for. 0:39:26.600 --> 0:39:29.879 Good because I'm God like that, and I got so. 0:39:30.000 --> 0:39:31.759 Bad and I'm already there. 0:39:40.560 --> 0:39:45.160 So I'm gonna use not only my angel, but I'm 0:39:45.160 --> 0:39:49.120 gonna use your enemies, and I'm gonna leave them there. 0:39:50.360 --> 0:39:54.280 Why would you leave enemies on my territory, very simple. 0:39:56.360 --> 0:40:00.240 Historians tell us that the land of Canaan at this time. 0:40:01.600 --> 0:40:05.560 Was populated with wild animals that the Canaanites knew how 0:40:05.560 --> 0:40:09.759 to deal with, but the Israelites didn't yet, particularly the 0:40:09.840 --> 0:40:14.399 lions that lived in the land. And so God knew, 0:40:14.400 --> 0:40:16.880 if I clear out all the enemies at once, the 0:40:16.960 --> 0:40:18.160 lions will take them over. 0:40:20.440 --> 0:40:21.839 What's a group of lions called? 0:40:22.040 --> 0:40:27.240 Does anybody know what? 0:40:27.239 --> 0:40:27.439 What? 0:40:29.200 --> 0:40:31.560 So? God said, if I clear all your enemies out 0:40:31.840 --> 0:40:45.200 all at once, pride, we'll take over. Paul said, I 0:40:45.360 --> 0:40:57.120 delight in weaknesses, Canaanites, insults, parasites, hardships, heavites. Don't you 0:40:57.160 --> 0:41:01.719 see it, Paul said, I'm glad for my giants. I 0:41:01.760 --> 0:41:05.719 don't just thank God for my angels. I thank Him 0:41:05.719 --> 0:41:08.759 for my giants too. They taught me how to fight. 0:41:09.440 --> 0:41:15.839 They built my faith. So it's a deep message. It's 0:41:15.880 --> 0:41:19.239 a deep message. It's one thing to praise God for 0:41:19.320 --> 0:41:23.080 your protection, but it's another thing to praise him for 0:41:23.120 --> 0:41:30.240 your problems. I want to suggest that sometimes your problems 0:41:30.280 --> 0:41:32.080 are your protection from yourself. 0:41:39.880 --> 0:41:42.560 You've had an addiction all your life, and. 0:41:42.480 --> 0:41:44.759 You've asked God to take the desire away, and he 0:41:44.880 --> 0:41:51.799 won't why because I want you to need me, and 0:41:51.840 --> 0:41:54.160 I want you to choose to serve me. 0:41:55.400 --> 0:41:58.600 I will not force you to be free. I want 0:41:58.600 --> 0:41:59.880 it to be your decision. 0:42:00.440 --> 0:42:02.640 So I'm going to leave some things in your life 0:42:02.680 --> 0:42:04.480 that I know you want me to take out. 0:42:05.760 --> 0:42:09.160 But I'm not sending you into the fire alone. 0:42:09.360 --> 0:42:11.960 I will be with you to deliver you, and I 0:42:12.000 --> 0:42:17.360 will protect you, and I will prepare you, and I 0:42:17.400 --> 0:42:20.719 will position you. But I cannot possess it for you. 0:42:21.840 --> 0:42:25.600 Only you can possess this place. Only you can do it. 0:42:26.200 --> 0:42:29.240 I can preach to you these principles, but I cannot 0:42:29.320 --> 0:42:30.000 possess them. 0:42:31.239 --> 0:42:32.480 No one can do it for you. 0:42:34.480 --> 0:42:37.440 Stop expecting for God's deliverance to be sudden. 0:42:38.760 --> 0:42:44.239 The greatest gift God can give you is gradual change, 0:42:44.840 --> 0:42:47.759 so that he hides you from your own progress to 0:42:47.880 --> 0:42:50.800 prevent your pride. 0:42:51.719 --> 0:42:58.319 God doesn't even want you to know you're growing. He 0:42:58.360 --> 0:43:01.719 wants you to trust his grace. And that's why God said. 0:43:01.480 --> 0:43:04.760 To Paul, I'm not going to give you the gift 0:43:05.440 --> 0:43:09.839 of relief. I'm gonna give you something greater, grace. It 0:43:09.880 --> 0:43:15.040 looks like a thorn, but it's really grace. The devil 0:43:15.120 --> 0:43:17.640 might have dropped it off at the doorstep. But I'm 0:43:17.640 --> 0:43:19.000 the one who addressed it to you. 0:43:21.320 --> 0:43:24.040 And no, I won't drive them all out, And no 0:43:24.160 --> 0:43:25.560 I'm not going to make it easier. You know what. 0:43:25.640 --> 0:43:31.080 God won't fix your attitude. He'll give you his spirit 0:43:32.840 --> 0:43:37.399 little by little as you serve and pray, show up. 0:43:38.640 --> 0:43:40.840 Trust that He's working in your life. Little by little, 0:43:41.800 --> 0:43:45.120 little by little, I am bringing you into the place 0:43:45.160 --> 0:43:50.200 that I have prepared for you. The greater assignment gets 0:43:50.239 --> 0:43:53.799 the greater assistance. If you've been going through some of 0:43:53.800 --> 0:43:57.960 the things that Paul mentioned, weakness, insults, hardship, persecution, difficulties, 0:43:58.040 --> 0:44:00.799 he mentions five and verse ten. I believe they are 0:44:00.840 --> 0:44:02.840 the five giants that God leaves a measure of in 0:44:02.880 --> 0:44:03.640 all of our lives. 0:44:05.040 --> 0:44:06.319 I believe He leaves a little bit of. 0:44:06.239 --> 0:44:08.319 All of that in all of our lives to teach 0:44:08.400 --> 0:44:11.480 us to trust it. If it's been speaking to you 0:44:11.520 --> 0:44:13.360 today while I've been preaching, and you would like for 0:44:13.440 --> 0:44:16.000 me to agree in prayer for you to take your 0:44:16.040 --> 0:44:18.520 next step in faith, stand to your feet, and I 0:44:18.560 --> 0:44:28.520 will please at every location something that you wanted God 0:44:28.560 --> 0:44:31.840 to take away, but He's left it for a reason. 0:44:34.640 --> 0:44:37.400 Please don't leave because somebody might be standing about something 0:44:37.440 --> 0:44:39.480 that's much more serious than traffic. 0:44:40.000 --> 0:44:41.239 So please stay right where you are. 0:44:44.120 --> 0:44:46.359 When God releases a word like this into your life, 0:44:46.360 --> 0:44:49.440 it's kind of like that angel. It can only transform 0:44:49.560 --> 0:44:51.480 you to the level that you put your attention on 0:44:51.520 --> 0:44:54.439 it and decide to obey it. And so what you've 0:44:54.440 --> 0:44:56.560 heard today has been a principle from God's word, a 0:44:56.600 --> 0:45:01.680 principle of possession. And the principle is it. It's ready 0:45:01.680 --> 0:45:06.920 when you are, It's ready when you are. God gave 0:45:06.960 --> 0:45:09.480 you the giant as a gift to teach you to 0:45:09.640 --> 0:45:10.920 drive it out by faith. 0:45:11.520 --> 0:45:12.840 That's how He strengthens you. 0:45:14.120 --> 0:45:19.080 And the opportunity is before you today. 0:45:19.920 --> 0:45:21.000 God said, I'll protect you. 0:45:22.360 --> 0:45:26.400 I will, I'll prepare you, I'll position you, but I 0:45:26.400 --> 0:45:29.480 will not possess it for you. The gift that I'm 0:45:29.480 --> 0:45:32.920 going to give you is the grace to be patient 0:45:33.880 --> 0:45:38.719 as you possess the promise. Father, would you minister right 0:45:38.760 --> 0:45:42.800 now to each son and daughter that you have called 0:45:42.840 --> 0:45:47.279 by name and chosen for this time, the grace that 0:45:47.320 --> 0:45:52.560 they need for their specific situation. You said to Paul, 0:45:53.000 --> 0:45:58.560 my grace is sufficient for you. I believe that promise 0:45:58.640 --> 0:46:00.400 is personal for me. 0:46:00.480 --> 0:46:01.000 And for them. 0:46:02.120 --> 0:46:05.400 I don't believe there's a situation in this room that 0:46:05.440 --> 0:46:10.680 you would not declare over My grace is enough. So 0:46:11.520 --> 0:46:15.799 we stand in the sufficiency of your Spirit and your 0:46:15.800 --> 0:46:20.520 son today and on every location. I come into agreement 0:46:20.960 --> 0:46:25.600 with your people that we will not waste our Angel. 0:46:26.640 --> 0:46:30.520 We will not waste this message. We will not waste 0:46:30.920 --> 0:46:34.640 this moment. You have brought us this far. You have 0:46:34.760 --> 0:46:38.759 brought us too far. You have been too good and 0:46:38.880 --> 0:46:43.080 done too much for us to stand outside of freedom, 0:46:43.360 --> 0:46:46.680 wishing about it, thinking about it and singing about it, 0:46:46.760 --> 0:46:48.279 but not experiencing it. 0:46:48.560 --> 0:46:50.440 I declare, in the name. 0:46:50.280 --> 0:46:56.280 Of Jesus, we shall be free. We shall possess the land. 0:46:56.640 --> 0:47:01.400 We shall inherit the promise. We shall receive all. 0:47:01.239 --> 0:47:04.560 That you'll die to provide. We shall rise as you 0:47:04.680 --> 0:47:08.360 are risen. Come on, put a sut on that people, 0:47:09.280 --> 0:47:10.279 put a sut on it. 0:47:11.520 --> 0:47:12.640 Put a sut on it. 0:47:19.520 --> 0:47:24.239 By faith, we will inherit the land God. I come 0:47:24.239 --> 0:47:27.360 against the spirit of discouragement today. The devil is a liar, 0:47:28.160 --> 0:47:30.680 that spirit that always tells us, what's the point, You're 0:47:30.760 --> 0:47:33.720 just like you were never gonna We say to that spirit, 0:47:33.760 --> 0:47:36.360 shut up. In the name of Jesus, you're already defeated. 0:47:36.920 --> 0:47:39.600 Get under our feet. We are the people of God. 0:47:41.680 --> 0:47:42.600 Get beneath us. 0:47:43.920 --> 0:47:46.080 Right now we are walking on what we used to. 0:47:46.120 --> 0:47:49.200 Run from in the name of Jesus. And every place 0:47:49.280 --> 0:47:50.040 we set. 0:47:49.760 --> 0:47:53.240 Our foot, You've already given it to us. If we step, 0:47:53.320 --> 0:47:56.279 you step, If we go, you go, If we will, 0:47:56.400 --> 0:47:57.000 you will. 0:47:57.320 --> 0:47:59.239 You are God, and we trusted you. 0:48:01.760 --> 0:48:07.960 We declare this day total victory. 0:48:08.960 --> 0:48:13.319 This is our declaration. Thank you for joining us. 0:48:13.640 --> 0:48:16.080 Special thanks to those of you who give generously to 0:48:16.160 --> 0:48:19.640 this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. 0:48:20.080 --> 0:48:22.640 You can click the link in the description to give now, 0:48:23.160 --> 0:48:27.040 or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information 0:48:27.560 --> 0:48:30.360 and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. 0:48:30.640 --> 0:48:31.960 You can share it with your friends. 0:48:32.239 --> 0:48:34.520 You can click the share button, take a screenshot and 0:48:34.560 --> 0:48:36.680 share it on your social stories and tag us at 0:48:36.719 --> 0:48:37.560 Elevation Church. 0:48:37.640 --> 0:48:44.239 Thanks again for listening. God bless you.