Speaker 1: Hey there. Before we jump into the amazing message today,
Speaker 1: we wanted to let you know about our upcoming tour,
Speaker 1: the starting end just a few days. We're heading out
Speaker 1: in the month of August with our friends Carry Joe
Speaker 1: and Codycarnes, and we're coming to a city near you.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have an amazing time in the presence of God.
Speaker 1: Every single time we gather, He's faithful to meet with
Speaker 1: us and do something new and fresh in our hearts.
Speaker 1: So we hope you'll join us. Yes, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: in Dallas, San Antonio, Omaha, We're gonna be in Toledo, Dayton.
Speaker 1: We're coming to you Knoxville, Huntsville. Yes, we're also going
Speaker 1: to be in Louisville, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and New York.
Speaker 1: So come out join us, bring your friends, bring your family.
Speaker 1: Everything you need tickets and information is at Elevation Worship
Speaker 1: dot Com. We'll see you. See all right, how many
Speaker 1: are excited about God's work going into your heart right now?
Speaker 1: That's what has to happen, y'all. The Word of God
Speaker 1: has to get in your heart. Up here in your head,
Speaker 1: you just got a history lesson. Oh no, maybe you
Speaker 1: got a little motivational saying, if it gets in your heart,
Speaker 1: it goes home with you. If it goes home with you,
Speaker 1: it can help you in your real life, not your
Speaker 1: church life, not this little time we share together, but
Speaker 1: the whole expense of your existence as a human being.
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm after, and I believe that's what
Speaker 1: God is after today. So may he speak something life
Speaker 1: changing in this place. I'm gonna let you be seated.
Speaker 1: I've got a few different scriptures to read, so go
Speaker 1: ahead and take your seat. Man, it gets hard to
Speaker 1: hold these sermons all week while I wait for you
Speaker 1: to get here. Really does I feel like I got
Speaker 1: these boxes keep coming and I can't hold all of them.
Speaker 1: So that's what's been like this week with the scriptures.
Speaker 1: But one scripture that I want to make sure we
Speaker 1: look at today is from nami chapter six, Verses one
Speaker 1: through four and Neamiah chapter seven, Versus one through three.
Speaker 1: And some of y'all might have post traumatic stress disorder.
Speaker 1: When I say Namiyah, don't worry. I'm not starting a
Speaker 1: building project for the church today. It's about the only
Speaker 1: time Neamiyah gets to come to church when they're raising
Speaker 1: money for a fellowship, Paul or something pend me another brick.
Speaker 1: But not to be corny about it, but I believe
Speaker 1: God is building something in each of us, and that
Speaker 1: God's construction project in your life related to your character,
Speaker 1: your contentment. That's what I mean when I say the
Speaker 1: hard work of happiness. Holly mentioned it when she made
Speaker 1: the announcements. That's what I've been working on in my
Speaker 1: own life, realizing that, man, there's an easy way to
Speaker 1: get high and feel happy, not necessarily just off of drugs.
Speaker 1: You know. It could be food, could be gossip, be
Speaker 1: a lot of different drugs, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: You just have your own little pill bottle. But it
Speaker 1: might not be something physical, It might be something might
Speaker 1: be something very internal. And then to realize that to
Speaker 1: truly in a sustainable way know the joy of the Lord,
Speaker 1: well that's going to take work. So not to bore
Speaker 1: you with all the details of how I got here,
Speaker 1: but in the Amiah chapter six, verse one through four,
Speaker 1: I want to share with you just just a really
Speaker 1: brief glimpse into something that I think it's going to
Speaker 1: be so simple that some of y'all won't listen. Some
Speaker 1: of y'all won't listen. It'll be so simple that some
Speaker 1: of you are gonna shut me out right now. But
Speaker 1: sometimes we need practical strategies for spiritual battles. Sometimes we
Speaker 1: do go name in and dip into Jordan. What in
Speaker 1: the world does that have to do with my skin?
Speaker 1: What in the world does what in the world does
Speaker 1: launching a fishing net on the other side of the
Speaker 1: boat have to do with me and the disciples? But
Speaker 1: the Lord will give you something practical sometimes everybody say practical.
Speaker 1: By the way, I hadn't even greeted the e fam yet.
Speaker 1: Hello to our epam all over the world less thank
Speaker 1: God for him right here from Valentine, quick question in
Speaker 1: the chat. What state, what city? What state? What city?
Speaker 1: If you're in the United States, shout out to our
Speaker 1: pop up church in California today. Where are they in
Speaker 1: California today? Riverside? Y'all make some noise for Riverside pop
Speaker 1: up praise party in Riverside. Amen. So good, so good,
Speaker 1: so good. So let me know the city and state
Speaker 1: that you're in right now as we go to the
Speaker 1: Word of God. Namiyah chapter six. All right, the Lord's
Speaker 1: going to shift something in your life today. Niamia chapter six,
Speaker 1: verse one, when word came to Sandballot, to Baya Geesham,
Speaker 1: the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I
Speaker 1: had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left
Speaker 1: in it. He's not bragging, but I mean he's been
Speaker 1: through a lot to get to this point. This was
Speaker 1: a hard project. Here's how hard it was. They couldn't
Speaker 1: do it for eighty years until Nehemiah got there. They
Speaker 1: kept trying and it would stop, and they'd get discouraged,
Speaker 1: and they'd stop and they'd be opposed. They're trying to
Speaker 1: rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, right, because they've been in exile. Right,
Speaker 1: I'll take a little history lesson real quick, just real quick,
Speaker 1: just real quick, just real quick. I will not stay
Speaker 1: in this very long. But the background is they've been
Speaker 1: in Babylon, about fifty thousand of them. The Jewish people
Speaker 1: came back to Jerusalem, but the city was in bad
Speaker 1: shape because it was still ravaged, so it came in waves.
Speaker 1: Zir rub A Bell took a group back and he
Speaker 1: helped to rebuild the temple. And then after Zor rub
Speaker 1: A Beel and you can always remember that he's the
Speaker 1: one who built the temple because zorrubb a beel rubble.
Speaker 1: He had to work with the that he had and
Speaker 1: build what he could, but he couldn't do everything. It
Speaker 1: came in waves. God sent Ezra after Zorobabel had been
Speaker 1: there a little while, and Ezra started preparing the people's hearts.
Speaker 1: Now that the temple was in position, he had to
Speaker 1: get the people ready. Okay, quick principle. In the Old Testament,
Speaker 1: God had a temple for his people. In the New Testament,
Speaker 1: God has a people for his temple. He lives in you. Now.
Speaker 1: The challenge of Bible application is we don't want to
Speaker 1: make it entirely external or entirely internal. If I just
Speaker 1: take this text and start talking to you and make
Speaker 1: it mean whatever I want, we can come to some
Speaker 1: pretty crazy conclusions, as i'll show you in a minute.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, if I just tell you
Speaker 1: about Zorobabel and Ezra and meah my in five thirty
Speaker 1: six BC and all of these things, you're like, what
Speaker 1: did I did? I did I really get up this
Speaker 1: morning for history? I got my diploma in nineteen eighty three,
Speaker 1: so I didn't have to learn any of this anymore.
Speaker 1: And you'll be totally checked out and that's not the
Speaker 1: point of the Bible anyway. All of this is written
Speaker 1: for examples. It's the living Word of God. It is
Speaker 1: not a dead history of a people who happen to
Speaker 1: live in a certain place that we can study from afar.
Speaker 1: It is meant to get inside of it. That's my
Speaker 1: challenge for Bible preaching, because I've got to get you
Speaker 1: to see that while they are rebuilding the city, God
Speaker 1: is rebuilding your soul. Your soul is like a city.
Speaker 1: And this brings up a question. If your soul is
Speaker 1: a city, what's the crime rate your soul, your mind,
Speaker 1: your will, your emotions. Now your spirit. That's perfect. That's
Speaker 1: what Jesus. When Jesus saves you, he gives you the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. There's nothing wrong with the Holy Spirit. The
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit doesn't need upgrades. The Holy Spirit doesn't have
Speaker 1: bugs and glitches, the Holy Spirit doesn't buffer. The truest
Speaker 1: part of you, if you belong to Jesus is light
Speaker 1: and truth, and it is the incorruptible seed of the
Speaker 1: Word of God. So that's your new nature. When you
Speaker 1: do something crazy and say I'm just keeping it real,
Speaker 1: no you're not. Actually, that's not the real you. At all,
Speaker 1: that's the you that you remember. But to really learn
Speaker 1: this new way of thinking requires that God does some
Speaker 1: work not in our spirit, but in our soul. If
Speaker 1: your soul was a city, just putting this out there
Speaker 1: before we read all of this, how's the economy? Is
Speaker 1: it a lot of poverty of compassion? Are you in
Speaker 1: compassion fatigue? That would be poverty of compassion. If you
Speaker 1: have a poverty of empathy, only can see things how
Speaker 1: you can see things. So, if your soul is a city,
Speaker 1: God has given you charge over it. You are elected
Speaker 1: as the mayor of the city of your soul to
Speaker 1: develop and defend what God gives you. Hey, man, pastor Steven,
Speaker 1: you are on fire today. You only read a half
Speaker 1: a verse, but you are preaching. You are preaching. I
Speaker 1: have to encourage myself. I cannot rely on y'all to
Speaker 1: know when I'm preaching good, but I'm saying something. Give
Speaker 1: them Proverbs the Proverbs verse. This will make it clear
Speaker 1: the writer of Proverbs. Most people believe Solomon wrote the
Speaker 1: majority of the Proverbs. You got it like a city
Speaker 1: whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks
Speaker 1: self control? Did that scripture feel like it should have
Speaker 1: had your name by it, or you're doing real good.
Speaker 1: If your soul is a city, what's going on inside?
Speaker 1: I see your sneakers, I see your smile, I see
Speaker 1: all of that, But I'm asking about the city of
Speaker 1: your soul. That stuff. Yeah, only God really sees that.
Speaker 1: And if Solomon did write proverbs, he would be the
Speaker 1: perfect one to tell us that when you don't have
Speaker 1: self control, you're like a city with no walls. Just
Speaker 1: anything can get in anytime, because that's exactly what he
Speaker 1: let happen, not only to his own heart, but to
Speaker 1: the nation. You remember, Saul was the first king of Israel.
Speaker 1: David came after him. Solomon, David's son took the throne next,
Speaker 1: and the Bible says he was the wisest man who
Speaker 1: ever lived. The only time I can find a sort
Speaker 1: of contradiction in the Bible is that if he's the
Speaker 1: wisest man to ever live, how did he have seven
Speaker 1: hundred wives? So to me, I'm still working on that.
Speaker 1: That's the mystery of God right there for me. But
Speaker 1: the Bible says that he did something crazy. He'd let
Speaker 1: the influence of the foreign women that he loved turn
Speaker 1: his heart just the literal language of it tecon King's Limba.
Speaker 1: It says he let them turn his heart from the Lord,
Speaker 1: so he started to let things come in, not directly attention,
Speaker 1: but indirectly. He did not turn toward those gods. He
Speaker 1: turned toward those people, and those people turned him toward
Speaker 1: those gods. We are far more easily influenced than we realize.
Speaker 1: And like a city without walls, just anybody, anything, any thought,
Speaker 1: any feeling, any impulse, anything you want to do, anything
Speaker 1: you want to say, anything you want to look at,
Speaker 1: anything you want to watch, anything you want. Anything can
Speaker 1: get in when you do not see your soul as
Speaker 1: a city and realize that you have the responsibility to
Speaker 1: defend it. Now, I wish I could tell you different.
Speaker 1: I wish I could tell you that when you turn
Speaker 1: twenty five, somebody's gonna come in your life and make
Speaker 1: you happy, and they will help you deal with all
Speaker 1: of your dysfunctions, and you will meet the right person
Speaker 1: and they will make you whole. But if you are
Speaker 1: half and they come into your life and you are half,
Speaker 1: then they will make you watch this. They will not
Speaker 1: make you whole. They will make you go through a
Speaker 1: living hell as you realize that what you thought was
Speaker 1: in another person could only be found in God. I
Speaker 1: gotta work on my city. I gotta work on myself.
Speaker 1: I gotta work on what's within. I gotta work. Let's
Speaker 1: go back to the Amiah, because now I think you're ready,
Speaker 1: he said. When we got the wall built, they did
Speaker 1: it in fifty two days with the help of their God.
Speaker 1: So this is something to celebrate, and there was not
Speaker 1: a gap left in it. Verse one six. Though up
Speaker 1: to that time I had not set the doors in
Speaker 1: the gates. Sanballat and Gusham sent me this message, Come
Speaker 1: let us meet together in one of the villages on
Speaker 1: the plane of oh No. But they were scheming to
Speaker 1: harm me, Theamiyah says, so I sent messengers to them
Speaker 1: with this reply. And y'all, I'm glad Niamiyah was skilled
Speaker 1: as a builder because he did not have the gift
Speaker 1: of a preacher. Because he missed the most obvious layup
Speaker 1: in the history. Watch this, come meet with us on
Speaker 1: the planes of oh No. And them, I said, I
Speaker 1: am carrying on a great project and cannot go down.
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't you start the response with oh no missed?
Speaker 1: Come on, y'all, like my humor. You didn't pay anything.
Speaker 1: It's not like you need a refund for the ticket.
Speaker 1: So they say need the planes of Oh no, he says,
Speaker 1: oh no, he didn't say it. I'm putting it in there.
Speaker 1: You should have said it. I am carrying on a
Speaker 1: great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop? Well,
Speaker 1: I leave it and go down to you. Now this
Speaker 1: is the part I like, because this gives me an indication.
Speaker 1: You don't just fight spiritual battles once and they go away.
Speaker 1: Look at verse four. Four times they sent the same message,
Speaker 1: and each time I gave the same answer. So he's
Speaker 1: persistent about this because he has priorities. And we'll come
Speaker 1: back to priorities in just a moment. But skip over
Speaker 1: to Neamiah seven, verse one. They keep trying to get
Speaker 1: him to come. He won't come. They give him a
Speaker 1: false prophecy. They try to get him to go in
Speaker 1: the temple and close the doors. They're like, hey, come,
Speaker 1: somebody's get killing. You need to hide in the temple.
Speaker 1: He's like, if I hide, I lose my credibility. I
Speaker 1: know what you're trying to do to me. Why should
Speaker 1: a man like me run and hide after God? Brought
Speaker 1: me this far. If God enabled me through letters from
Speaker 1: Artis Zerxes to come here and rebuild this wall, and
Speaker 1: help me do it in spite of all this opposition.
Speaker 1: You think I'm gonna go run and hide in somebody's
Speaker 1: house right now. Not me. Oh no, you wouldn't do it.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't quit. So now look at chapter seven, verse one.
Speaker 1: And I never heard anybody preach chapter seven, because it
Speaker 1: lists a bunch of names of everybody who came back
Speaker 1: after the Babylon captivity. And so this is like a skip.
Speaker 1: Most of the time in the book of Neomiah, just
Speaker 1: read right past it. But I saw something so important
Speaker 1: that I thought we should spend this entire sermon on it.
Speaker 1: Neamiah seven, verse one. After the wall had been rebuilt
Speaker 1: and I'd set the doors in place, the gatekeepers, musicians
Speaker 1: and levites were appointed, and I put in charge of
Speaker 1: Jerusalem my brother hand and I along with Han and
Speaker 1: I are the commander of the citadel. Because he was
Speaker 1: a man of integrity, that doesn't mean he's perfect. That
Speaker 1: means he's one person everywhere, same person here as the
Speaker 1: same person there, whole integer in math. You remember that
Speaker 1: that's what he's saying he had integrity and he feared
Speaker 1: God more than most people. I kind of liked the
Speaker 1: shade of meaning behind that more than most people, Like
Speaker 1: he's better than all these other bombs, So I picked him.
Speaker 1: But really, when he says he's a man of integrity,
Speaker 1: we realize that he is appointed because of his character.
Speaker 1: And look at verse three. It says I said to
Speaker 1: them the gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened
Speaker 1: until the sun is hot, while the gatekeepers are still
Speaker 1: on duty, had them shut the doors and bar them.
Speaker 1: Also appoint residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their
Speaker 1: post and some near their own houses. Y'all, if I
Speaker 1: could call this study what I want to call it,
Speaker 1: what I really want to call it, I would call
Speaker 1: it self awareness as a form of spiritual warfare. But
Speaker 1: the more I thought about that, I thought, they will
Speaker 1: never remember that when they leave. I don't hardly even
Speaker 1: remember it. And I just said it's so clunky. So instead,
Speaker 1: I'm going to call it and I want you to
Speaker 1: look at the person that you and tell them the
Speaker 1: title that I think you probably can't remember. Say, it's
Speaker 1: your door, it's your door, it's your door, and I
Speaker 1: need your prayers as always because God continues to have
Speaker 1: to help me to focus my priorities. I am constantly
Speaker 1: having to deal with the Holy Spirit about my priorities.
Speaker 1: It's almost like a bath or brushing your teeth. It's like,
Speaker 1: if I don't do it a couple times a day,
Speaker 1: I start to notice in my attitude, in my thoughts,
Speaker 1: in my conversations, and I can be the pettiest person.
Speaker 1: Last week, I told you that I'm very protective as
Speaker 1: a father. When my kids are in the ocean, I
Speaker 1: turn into safety Steve. You know, y'all come in. You're
Speaker 1: too deep. It's really annoying, and I know it while
Speaker 1: I'm doing it, but I'm just scared because I just
Speaker 1: don't want I'm just I don't know I'm getting old.
Speaker 1: I know I'm getting old because Elijah went to get
Speaker 1: five napkins last night and I freaked out just last night.
Speaker 1: This is recent, but see, even that goes back because
Speaker 1: my dad used to tear the paper towel in half
Speaker 1: and say, you don't need a whole paper towel. Half
Speaker 1: a paper towel is all you need. Was in the
Speaker 1: world you need With a whole paper towel, you need
Speaker 1: to learn how to manage me. Had a whole system
Speaker 1: for folding it and getting through with half paper towel.
Speaker 1: But he grew up poor. So now you carry all
Speaker 1: these things into your adulthood. I don't know where this
Speaker 1: one came from. I can almost hear my mom's voice
Speaker 1: in my head. But somewhere along the line, my children
Speaker 1: all had a meeting and decided relatively recently that none
Speaker 1: of them was ever going to close a door in
Speaker 1: the house ever. Again, not a door to a bedroom,
Speaker 1: not a door to a pantry, definitely not a door
Speaker 1: going outside. I mean, I'm just walking through the house
Speaker 1: all day and I hear my mom's voice. That's the
Speaker 1: craziest part about it. I hear my mom's voice, you
Speaker 1: are cooling off the outside, and then she used to yell, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, she would yell. She would yell, you're letting
Speaker 1: the cool out. You're letting the cool out. Shut the door,
Speaker 1: you're letting the cool out. Or if it wasn't that,
Speaker 1: shut the door, you're letting the flies in. So I'm
Speaker 1: either letting the flies in or the cool out. And
Speaker 1: I am so petty. I was walking through the house
Speaker 1: just the other day and there's a door, and there's
Speaker 1: a door, and there's a door, and I'm closing the doors,
Speaker 1: and I'm doing a little speech under my breath. That's fine.
Speaker 1: I'll just be the official door closer around here. I
Speaker 1: got nothing better to do. It's not like I lead
Speaker 1: a global ministry. I got nothing better to do. Then
Speaker 1: follow y'all and close the doors so that the dumb
Speaker 1: dog that y'all made me buy won't get out and
Speaker 1: get hit by a car. That's what I would love
Speaker 1: to do today, is close the doors behind y'all, And
Speaker 1: I promise when the Lord speaks to me, sometimes it
Speaker 1: is so basic, he said, this is like I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was the Lord. It was a thought
Speaker 1: that went through my mind. Wonder what would happen if
Speaker 1: you were as concerned about what you let in your heart? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I didn't get to the best part yet. Here you're
Speaker 1: talking about I'm letting the I'm letting the flies in, okay,
Speaker 1: but you let the fear in. Don't seem to be
Speaker 1: very concerned about that. So I wonder what would happen
Speaker 1: if you would be as concerned about what you let
Speaker 1: in your heart as what's getting in this house? Because
Speaker 1: the door is open. I wonder what would happen if
Speaker 1: you were as concerned about what you let in your heart.
Speaker 1: And this is the one that got me and what
Speaker 1: you let out of your mouth. So, uh, everybody do this.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about that in a minute. Because
Speaker 1: that's your door, whether you realize it or not, that's
Speaker 1: your door. And that's your door, y'all with me, And
Speaker 1: that's your door. And that big old elephant sized brain
Speaker 1: that you're carrying around up there, that knows all of
Speaker 1: that math and science, that's your door. Because Neiamiah builds
Speaker 1: the wall, and they've got the structure, and the city
Speaker 1: is spacious and large, but the people aren't back yet.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you notice the detail, but it
Speaker 1: is pretty significant if God put it in the Bible.
Speaker 1: Anything God put in the Bible, I'm like, Lord, that
Speaker 1: seems random, but it must not be revealed to me
Speaker 1: what's in it. And he said in chapter six, verse one,
Speaker 1: that when his enemies everybody say enemy, when they heard
Speaker 1: that I had rebuilt the wall, the whole thing and
Speaker 1: didn't leave the gap in it. But look at verse
Speaker 1: two or verse one part be excuse me, though up
Speaker 1: to that time I had not set the doors in
Speaker 1: the gates, So we got two things happening. In the scripture,
Speaker 1: Nehemiah is making progress for God and he receives an
Speaker 1: invitation from his enemy. All at the same time he
Speaker 1: is making progress for God. He's getting this wall. Bill.
Speaker 1: If we could get a wall, we can get an
Speaker 1: educational system. If we can get a wall, we can
Speaker 1: worship without being worried that they're going to come and
Speaker 1: get us. If we can get a war all built. Ah,
Speaker 1: But he said after the wall was built, that was
Speaker 1: the first wave. Now I had to set the doors
Speaker 1: in place so that in the daily comings and goings
Speaker 1: we could have assurance of protection, so that when we
Speaker 1: did what we did in the course of our lives,
Speaker 1: whether worship or work, we would be protected. I've got
Speaker 1: to get these doors in place. If I don't get
Speaker 1: these doors in place, this wall isn't going to do
Speaker 1: me any good. Because if I get a wall but
Speaker 1: no doors, nobody can go out. But if I have
Speaker 1: a wall without doors, anybody can just get in. So
Speaker 1: I got to have a wall, and I gotta have
Speaker 1: some doors. Because I'm making progress for God. But I'm
Speaker 1: receiving an invitation from the enemy. So this is the question.
Speaker 1: I'm bringing it right to twenty twenty two. What do
Speaker 1: you do when you are making progress for God but
Speaker 1: you receive an invitation from an enemy? And invitation from
Speaker 1: the enemy not a physical enemy. Remember, we don't wrestle
Speaker 1: against fresh and flesh and blood. So sand ballot, he's
Speaker 1: over Samaria in the north, and Tobiah is over the
Speaker 1: Ammonites to the east, and Gsham is over the Arabs
Speaker 1: to the south. But we're not talking about geography here
Speaker 1: are we. We're talking about psychology, theology. We're talking about
Speaker 1: your sand ballots of self pity, your tobias of temptation,
Speaker 1: your Gusham's of what starts with the g gluttony. We're
Speaker 1: not supposed to preach about that sin in church. No,
Speaker 1: that's that a mess the whole. How about we go
Speaker 1: with grumbling. I like grumbling. He said it was an enemy,
Speaker 1: and they asked me for a meeting. The enemy didn't
Speaker 1: ask Neamiah, can we come in and destroy your credibility?
Speaker 1: Why would the enemy do that? You would say? No,
Speaker 1: he said, let's talk. I'm hearing the rumors about what
Speaker 1: you build. Let's talk. It's an invitation let's talk. Hey,
Speaker 1: get that situation on your mind that you don't see
Speaker 1: any way out of, and play out every hypothetical scenario
Speaker 1: of how it could go worse than you ever possibly thought.
Speaker 1: Let's talk, Hey, count up everybody in your mind who
Speaker 1: ever left your life and they were supposed to be
Speaker 1: there for you and they're not, and think about how
Speaker 1: they failed you, mistreated you. And think about the fact
Speaker 1: that they're probably off somewhere right now on an island,
Speaker 1: happy without you, driving a Ferrari. Let's talk. Think about
Speaker 1: the fact of everything that you don't have, and I
Speaker 1: want you to go look at everybody else who has
Speaker 1: everything you don't have. And I want you to put
Speaker 1: together a perfect conglomerate of all the people that in
Speaker 1: your imagination have something that you don't have, and then
Speaker 1: compare your image of them to your reality of yourself.
Speaker 1: Let's talk. And Neamiah is like, oh, no, which gave
Speaker 1: me a lesson? When the enemy speaks to me, say
Speaker 1: and doesn't get to give me a command, He can
Speaker 1: only make a suggestion. So I see it like this.
Speaker 1: A lot of us in making progress in our walk
Speaker 1: with God, or in the ways that God is working
Speaker 1: in us. The ways that God is working in us.
Speaker 1: I hear a lot of sermons by the way about
Speaker 1: God will work it out. Those are great sermons for
Speaker 1: shouting and clapping and celebrating. But what about what God
Speaker 1: is working in It is Him that works in you
Speaker 1: to will and to do according to His good pleasure.
Speaker 1: So when God is working in you and actually making progress,
Speaker 1: and then you received that invitation from the enemy, what
Speaker 1: do you do with it? The first thing is to
Speaker 1: realize that just because he invites you doesn't mean you
Speaker 1: have to go. Now you don't belong to Jesus, then
Speaker 1: you've got to go because you're a slave to sin.
Speaker 1: So the enemy can just lob any accusation at you
Speaker 1: that he wants to bring you down, pull you down,
Speaker 1: and beat you to dead. But if you belong to Jesus,
Speaker 1: if you belong to Jesus, you are not under the
Speaker 1: jurisdiction of Sambalat or Tobiah or Guessham or any of
Speaker 1: the enemies that threaten the stability of your soul. What
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say is if he purchased you with
Speaker 1: his blood, Jesus, that is, Satan just doesn't get to
Speaker 1: invite you out of that state of being seated with Jesus,
Speaker 1: into a state of feeling sorry for yourself. You don't
Speaker 1: have to go feel a spirit of Oh no coming
Speaker 1: on me today. Oh no, it's your door, it's your decision.
Speaker 1: Heynam i yea. They want to meet with you. No, neamyah,
Speaker 1: they want to meet with you. No, Neiamyah. They want
Speaker 1: to meet with you. No, Niamiyah they want to meet
Speaker 1: with you. No. Four times no, because I got something greater,
Speaker 1: because I got something higher, because I'm working on something important.
Speaker 1: Because if I come down and talk to you, it
Speaker 1: will invite me into the sabotage of the self destructive
Speaker 1: patterns that this conversation will initiate. I'll be discouraged, I'll
Speaker 1: be discredited. How well do you know yourself in order
Speaker 1: to realize, oh, this is an invitation from the enemy.
Speaker 1: How many of you got an invitation from the enemy
Speaker 1: this week and the rest of you just got an
Speaker 1: invitation from the enemy to lie in church. I hate
Speaker 1: it when they do that. I don't know. I've actually
Speaker 1: been praising him this week and rejoicing in him. He
Speaker 1: is my rock, and I get these invitations at the
Speaker 1: strangest times when I'm making progress. When I get the
Speaker 1: wall built, get the wall belt, get a little win,
Speaker 1: you know, feeling pretty good, getting ready to go forward. Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe I will forgive them and then I see them.
Speaker 1: I noticed that all through scripture, you know, right when
Speaker 1: they get to the Red Sea. Pharaoh's like, I'm not
Speaker 1: so sure I want to let them go. That's because
Speaker 1: they are all most gone. Sometimes when the enemy starts
Speaker 1: talking to you, crazy stuff, discouraging stuff, workless stuff, distracting stuff,
Speaker 1: that's how close you are. And yeah, yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: how close you are that he's inviting you back. Look,
Speaker 1: the wall is built, so sand balletnos. If they get
Speaker 1: the wall built, all the trade is going to start
Speaker 1: going through Rusalem, not through Samaria. I'm gonna lose money
Speaker 1: if I let them go. Huh, come on down and
Speaker 1: talk to me a little bit. Let's just talk about it,
Speaker 1: No big deal. Just talk a little bit about it.
Speaker 1: Because the devil isn't dumb enough to show off your
Speaker 1: door with face paint on, looking like the Joker, laughing
Speaker 1: all crazy to talk to you about destroying your life
Speaker 1: just to get you to crack the door. Hmm. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I want to hear this today, Pastor Stephen,
Speaker 1: because when you said the door, I thought you were
Speaker 1: saying about like the door of the opportunities that God
Speaker 1: has for me, Like you know, like God has shut
Speaker 1: to open the door that nobody can shut. I'm looking
Speaker 1: for God to open the door for me because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm an entrepreneur, is what it is. And I just
Speaker 1: need the Lord to open the door for me, because
Speaker 1: you know, people don't really see my giftedness and our work.
Speaker 1: They really don't understand what I'm capable of. But you know,
Speaker 1: I'm anointed. I'm anointed, I'm it. I'm annoying it. I'm
Speaker 1: annoying from the top of my head to the soles
Speaker 1: of my feet. But nobody, I just need the Lord
Speaker 1: to open the door. I just need the opportunity. I've
Speaker 1: been wanting to sing up there on that stage, Pastor Steven,
Speaker 1: but I need a place to try out, because I
Speaker 1: really am a good singer, better than some man the
Speaker 1: people you have up there. Right now, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: that right now, I'm Pastor you and I just get
Speaker 1: an open door. If I just get a chance, I
Speaker 1: just get meeting. Okay, that's fine. God God opens doors, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's all shot real quick that God opens doors. Let's
Speaker 1: get it out of our system. God opens doors, now,
Speaker 1: shout about it. Y'all are the most episcopal, non denominational
Speaker 1: church I've ever appreciated in my life. Y'all are Presbyterian today.
Speaker 1: I'll know. Sometimes I think y'all meet in the lobby today.
Speaker 1: Let's give him Pentecostal today, Presbyterian. We're gonna be Catholic today.
Speaker 1: I don't know what y'all do out there. And watch this,
Speaker 1: watch this, watch this. Because you belong to the light,
Speaker 1: not the darkness. When the enemy invites you, you don't
Speaker 1: have to go. You don't have to go. If you
Speaker 1: belong to Jesus. There are some scriptures that apply to
Speaker 1: you that do not apply to those who don't call
Speaker 1: on his name. So you get to say, greater that
Speaker 1: is than he. So the devil says, come on down here,
Speaker 1: and let's talk about how weak you are. Oh, no,
Speaker 1: greater is he that is in me? Then I'm doing
Speaker 1: a great work for God. God's doing a great work
Speaker 1: in me. I can't be distracted right now by that.
Speaker 1: You have got power because of the spirit, not your
Speaker 1: own self power, self will none of that I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about that that will put you in the fetal position,
Speaker 1: sucking your thumb eating macaroni and cheese for the next
Speaker 1: sixteen days. I'm talking about what Neemiah knew. I'm doing
Speaker 1: a great work for God. I'm doing a great work
Speaker 1: for God, and God is doing a great work in me.
Speaker 1: So the enemy's invitation one way. The Lord showed it
Speaker 1: to me. He said, it's an invitation, not a subpoena.
Speaker 1: Satan can't subpoena you. He can't tell you you have
Speaker 1: to do anything. The devil made me do it. I
Speaker 1: don't think he did. I think you went to Trader Joe's.
Speaker 1: I think you bought the chips. I think you bought
Speaker 1: two bags. I think you ate both of them. I
Speaker 1: didn't see the devil put anything in the cart or
Speaker 1: pay for it. I'm keeping it PG. That's why I'm
Speaker 1: talking about food. We could go way deeper with this
Speaker 1: if this was a men's conference, Okay, Delilah, we could
Speaker 1: talk about all kinds of stuff if it was a
Speaker 1: men's conference early in the morning for me to do
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. But think about it. Think about it.
Speaker 1: While he's making progress for God. The enemy gives him
Speaker 1: an invitation, and the way he responds to that invitation,
Speaker 1: not reacts to his feelings, is going to be the
Speaker 1: most important thing about what happens next, because remember, he's
Speaker 1: built the wall, but there's no doors. The Lord said,
Speaker 1: I was going to be speaking to somebody today who
Speaker 1: loves Jesus making progress. You've seen some freedom in your
Speaker 1: life when you came to Jesus. You gave up the
Speaker 1: things that you didn't like, and now he's working on
Speaker 1: the stuff that you do. But you keep waiting on
Speaker 1: God to take struggles away out of your life, any addiction,
Speaker 1: any pattern that's between you and God. I won't sit
Speaker 1: here and name everything start listing it, but I want
Speaker 1: to show you today what Nehemiah did at a vulnerable time. Now,
Speaker 1: nothing is vulnerable unless it's valuable. When did they start
Speaker 1: the attacks when the wall started going up. Nobody messed
Speaker 1: with Jerusalem when it was lying in ruins. And the
Speaker 1: devil will never mess with you as long as you're
Speaker 1: serving him. He brings you water. The devil will rub
Speaker 1: the sunscreen on you if you go out there and
Speaker 1: serve him. Hm oh no, oh, yes he will, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he absolutely will. The devil won't tell you. No, the
Speaker 1: devil won't tell your flesh. No, the devil won't the
Speaker 1: devil won't mess with you at all. But as the
Speaker 1: resistance kicks in in your life, when you really start
Speaker 1: getting to a different level, and you really start pursuing
Speaker 1: something different than just satisfying your own flesh, that's when
Speaker 1: it kicks in progress. For God, all this built, but
Speaker 1: the doors aren't in yet, he said, I was vulnerable
Speaker 1: to the attack in that moment because the doors weren't there.
Speaker 1: How about your doors? How about your doors? Wide open,
Speaker 1: tightly shut door, the doors of your heart. What you
Speaker 1: let in, what you let out. I'm gonna need to
Speaker 1: move this from the metaphorical level. How about your social
Speaker 1: media intake levels? Wide open, tightly shut. Give me a visual.
Speaker 1: This is whide open, this is tightly shut. How you
Speaker 1: doing with the doors? Me? Show me how you're doing
Speaker 1: in your doors. We'll start with the social media doors.
Speaker 1: All right, all right, let's do the diet doors. The
Speaker 1: diet doors. How's the diet doors? How's it doing? All right?
Speaker 1: All right? All right, all right, all right? How about
Speaker 1: how about the judge not less ev also judge doors.
Speaker 1: How's how's those doors doing. I had a weird door
Speaker 1: the other day that the Lord was dealing with me about.
Speaker 1: Ever I say doors, I'm talking about doors. I know
Speaker 1: it sounds so boring, but some of the biggest breakthroughs
Speaker 1: in your life will be from boring stuff that you
Speaker 1: don't want to do. I could pick five thousand scriptures
Speaker 1: that people would shout over when I read them, and
Speaker 1: Niemiah seven isn't one of them because I was preaching
Speaker 1: about doors. Nobody ever shouted over a door. But if
Speaker 1: I preached on the walls of Jericho and they shouted
Speaker 1: and they fell, we would all shout over walls that
Speaker 1: fall down. But what do I do after they fall?
Speaker 1: I still gotta fight. We shout over all the wrong stuff.
Speaker 1: You should be shouting. If they got the doors in,
Speaker 1: shout conse they got the doors in, because you are
Speaker 1: gonna be so happy when you get your doors in place.
Speaker 1: I could almost see it this week when I was praying,
Speaker 1: I wasn't just studying with books. I was praying, God,
Speaker 1: show me why these people are so vulnerable to the
Speaker 1: enemy's attack. Show me why I am, he said, because
Speaker 1: you always focus on the attack. You never do anything
Speaker 1: about it before it comes. You have no doors, no priorities,
Speaker 1: no order, everything is important. Want to go to church today?
Speaker 1: While yeah, I guess so. The boat's in the shop
Speaker 1: and there's no kids having any games, and the weather's
Speaker 1: kind of like too hot to be outside, or weather's
Speaker 1: too cold to be The weather has to be like
Speaker 1: perfectly mediocre to get people in the South to come
Speaker 1: to church. No priority to it, no priority to it.
Speaker 1: I'm not fussing, Yes I am. I'm fussing at you
Speaker 1: because I am tired of the devil just coming in,
Speaker 1: picking off you, picking off your kids, just stripping you
Speaker 1: of everything God gave you. Cause you let the door
Speaker 1: all backed because you don't know what time it is.
Speaker 1: Couse you don't know what you've got inside of you.
Speaker 1: Guse you don't know how valuable it is. Couse you
Speaker 1: don't know who you are, how doing a great work.
Speaker 1: I love to preach Beddie. I'm gonna help somebody to dead.
Speaker 1: It's the doors. It's not the devil. It's the same
Speaker 1: devil that somebody else isn't giving into same devil, but
Speaker 1: they have doors. I asked her one time, how do
Speaker 1: you not be so negative? Amy? I said, how you
Speaker 1: not be negative. I need to learn, now how do
Speaker 1: you do it? And Chunk says like she just doesn't
Speaker 1: pay any attention to anybody else is doing. Huh, that's
Speaker 1: kind of cool. So she has like a closed door
Speaker 1: policy on judging what somebody else ought to be doing
Speaker 1: with their life. Well that might help me, Holly the
Speaker 1: other day, in a moment of vulnerability, something that I needed,
Speaker 1: not from her. She's amazing something that I felt like
Speaker 1: I needed from God. This woman is so bold. Oh man,
Speaker 1: Now she's always saying nice stuff. She was always saying
Speaker 1: stuff like this. I wouldn't be able to hear it,
Speaker 1: but it was just like a different tone. She just
Speaker 1: shifted the tone all of a sudden. She said, well,
Speaker 1: if God gave you that, you wouldn't do anything with it.
Speaker 1: Now before I could close my heart in that moment,
Speaker 1: or I can realize she is so exactly right that
Speaker 1: the way I received this correction, or I could say,
Speaker 1: get behind me, sand Ballet to Baya and Geesham, I'm
Speaker 1: doing a great work. What good is that going to
Speaker 1: just close the door on the person who's closed to me,
Speaker 1: who's telling me, I'm watching your life and you got
Speaker 1: a pattern and you're not going to get any power
Speaker 1: till you change the pattern. So I tested it. You
Speaker 1: ever read it about Gideon in the Bible. He put
Speaker 1: a fleece out before the Lord. He said, Lord, it
Speaker 1: is really you, and he put it through a series
Speaker 1: of tests. They call it fleecing the Lord fleece test
Speaker 1: and see if this is really God or not. So
Speaker 1: I'll put out a fleece, I said, give me an
Speaker 1: example of one time I had the chance to do that.
Speaker 1: You're like, you're being really obscure. We don't know what
Speaker 1: you're talking about exactly. It's personal, she said. I said,
Speaker 1: give me example. She said, the exact one that had
Speaker 1: just happened the day before. Okay, I'll tell you what
Speaker 1: it was, not specifically, but enough where you can get
Speaker 1: the taste of it. It was letting new people in
Speaker 1: my life. I don't trust anybody. I got a closed
Speaker 1: door policy from anybody that I didn't know back when
Speaker 1: my hair was platinum blonde or buzzed off. That's what
Speaker 1: we were talking about. She said. You know, you keep
Speaker 1: asking this and that God to show you new things
Speaker 1: and do new things. Even if God sent them, you
Speaker 1: wouldn't trust them and let them in She's saying, it's
Speaker 1: your door is locked so tight that God can send
Speaker 1: answers and you won't open. It's your door, I said.
Speaker 1: Give me an example. She named the person that had
Speaker 1: texted me the day before that I didn't text back
Speaker 1: because I don't trust them. Yet she named them. She
Speaker 1: didn't know they texted me. I don't think she went
Speaker 1: through my phone and found it. She just said it
Speaker 1: like a prophet. But you see what I'm saying, is
Speaker 1: your door. It's not that God didn't give the opportunity.
Speaker 1: I didn't open the door to it. And that happens.
Speaker 1: And God works in waves. See, first came back some
Speaker 1: Rubb a Belle, then came Ezra, then came Nearmiah. He
Speaker 1: did all these things in ways. He works in waves
Speaker 1: in your life. And you have to be open to
Speaker 1: what God is doing now. You have to. But at
Speaker 1: the same time that Neamiah is celebrating this awesome victory
Speaker 1: with the exiles that have come back, I mean even
Speaker 1: that he could have been so discouraged that only ten
Speaker 1: percent of the people came back from Babylon. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you knew that or not. They didn't all
Speaker 1: come back after seventy years, some died, some had already
Speaker 1: built nice homes. Some of them had never even really
Speaker 1: heard that much about Jerusalem. So now he's working with
Speaker 1: the remnant of what's left. But he's not discouraged. He builds.
Speaker 1: He's attacked, but he's not discouraged. He builds. He refuses
Speaker 1: to let the door of discouragement lead him into the
Speaker 1: depths of despair. And I think the way he was
Speaker 1: able to do that is in chapter seven, verse one
Speaker 1: through three, very clearly enunciated. He calls a meeting. He's like,
Speaker 1: let me tell you what we're gonna do. Sambalot, Tobia Gosham.
Speaker 1: They're not going to stop. And I say that over you.
Speaker 1: These thoughts of insecurity, these pangs of worry, these problems
Speaker 1: that go on in your head, they are not going
Speaker 1: to stop. Okay, they will. They will daily, sometimes in
Speaker 1: certain seasons, sometimes in your high moments, sometimes when in
Speaker 1: your low moments. What I'm basically trying to say is
Speaker 1: that the enemy is going to attack you at all times.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna make it through the season. I'm just
Speaker 1: going through an attack right now. Well, I knew that
Speaker 1: because you're breathing, you know how I knew you were
Speaker 1: under attack. You are above ground. We are not at
Speaker 1: your funeral, So I assume the attack. But the question is,
Speaker 1: what are you doing about the attack to make sure
Speaker 1: that you don't have to fight the devil hand to hand.
Speaker 1: It's harder to fight him once you let him right
Speaker 1: there in your living room. It's harder to fight him
Speaker 1: once you let him so close. I'm telling you, the
Speaker 1: devil is a grappler. That's what he wants is to
Speaker 1: get at you, bite your throat. That's what he wants
Speaker 1: us to get you an isolation, that's what he wants
Speaker 1: us to get you, saying, well, I just do church online. Now.
Speaker 1: I don't go anymore because you know, cyber stopp going
Speaker 1: in pandemic, and I really don't pay attention while he's
Speaker 1: on there because there's fifty things going on. But I
Speaker 1: don't come anymore. Everybody who came to church physically clap.
Speaker 1: I am applauding you for being there me and Mayah
Speaker 1: was like, look, can I come down here? Can I? Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't want to make sure I won't scare y'all
Speaker 1: come over here? Can I? Y'all not used to seeing me?
Speaker 1: That's close? I look shorter like this, don't I look
Speaker 1: bigger on the screen, that's for sure. Hey, I'm going
Speaker 1: to these doors real quick. Come on, come with me,
Speaker 1: you mighty man of God. Come with me, mighty man
Speaker 1: of God. You be yeah, yeah, come on, doctor g
Speaker 1: come on. I need han I and Hanna and Aya
Speaker 1: hann and I and hanan Andayah. That's in neamyah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be good. I got the right guys.
Speaker 1: You think I got the right guys. You think I
Speaker 1: got the right guy? You got me. If they mess
Speaker 1: this illustration up, I'll come back for you. Put up
Speaker 1: Neamijah seven one through three, because this is what we
Speaker 1: gotta do. The Bible says, guard your heart. Everything you
Speaker 1: do flows from it above all else. Guard your heart
Speaker 1: above all else. So here's the door, and we'll just
Speaker 1: use it to illustrate. Hanna and I Han and Iyah
Speaker 1: Hanna and I Han and iyah Nia. Maiah said, look,
Speaker 1: give me Niamyah seven to one. I want to illustrate this.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I picked the door farthest away
Speaker 1: for us to come all the way up too. That's
Speaker 1: just the one up there that was kind of dumb.
Speaker 1: But here we are. How y'all doing. Did I come
Speaker 1: to the right side of the church. How's your doors?
Speaker 1: Has the devil been knocking at your door trying to
Speaker 1: discourage you to tell you ain't crap? But he says
Speaker 1: it's stronger than that. But if I said what he
Speaker 1: really said in church, you wouldn't. You would turn it off?
Speaker 1: Is that it come on meet with us on the
Speaker 1: planes of Oh no sa and keep you from doing
Speaker 1: what you're gonna do. So I could keep you from
Speaker 1: raising your daughter because you keep thinking you can't. That's
Speaker 1: an invitation from the enemy. And you got the wall built.
Speaker 1: But I just got to wonder about your doors. The
Speaker 1: Lord has been speaking to me about my doors. He said,
Speaker 1: it's your doors that's the issue. And look me, am,
Speaker 1: I said, I got the gatekeepers, the musicians, and the Levites.
Speaker 1: Are you a singer? Okay, that's good, that's self awareness, right,
Speaker 1: he knows his doors. He's like, uh uh, this door
Speaker 1: right here. You don't want to hear me saying you
Speaker 1: one thing though, the Levites go back to Verse one,
Speaker 1: show us real quick, enter his gates with thanksgiving, enter
Speaker 1: his courts with praise. So this is a unique move
Speaker 1: that I kind of like you up here with y'all.
Speaker 1: This is a unique This is a now always look
Speaker 1: at them down there, and this is kind of fun,
Speaker 1: you know, change it up. This is a unique move
Speaker 1: because the Levites were supposed to sing in front of
Speaker 1: the temple. But drastic times call for drastic measures, and
Speaker 1: the Amiah knows we're very vulnerable right now. So the
Speaker 1: Levites who led the praise service, who led the people
Speaker 1: in praise, he moved them out to the gates of
Speaker 1: the city to set a tone that we need God's help,
Speaker 1: that we need God's glory, that we need God's protection,
Speaker 1: we need God's wisdom, we need God's prospecta. So he
Speaker 1: moves the Levites out. He's like, I know y'all normally
Speaker 1: sing at the temple, but for now, I need y'all
Speaker 1: at the gate. And you have to set praise at
Speaker 1: the gate in your life sometime to just get up
Speaker 1: and almost if you even have to fake it, fake it.
Speaker 1: If you have to fake it, fake it. Sometimes driving
Speaker 1: to church, it's real early when I get here, and
Speaker 1: I won't feel my sermon, but I'll just start driving
Speaker 1: down the road like I do. I'm thinking about my sermon.
Speaker 1: I'm not feeling it, I'll just start going whoa, whoa, whoap.
Speaker 1: And my car's not self driving, so I'm taking my
Speaker 1: hands off the wheel every time I clap, So I
Speaker 1: gotta be careful start slapping my leg or something. But
Speaker 1: I have to put the levites or the praise at
Speaker 1: the gate because I can't get here and wait to
Speaker 1: see how y'all feel, to see how I'm going to
Speaker 1: preach and do my job. So I gotta put praise
Speaker 1: at the gate enterest dates to see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But these these guys weren't weren't levites, these were guards.
Speaker 1: And he didn't just put him at the gate. He
Speaker 1: gave instructions. Look at verse two so powerful. Wow. Never
Speaker 1: saw me a Maya seven before I put Hanna and
Speaker 1: I and Han Andaya because you had integrity and fear God.
Speaker 1: Verse three says I told them the gates are not
Speaker 1: to be opened until the sun is high. That's unorthodox,
Speaker 1: because you're supposed to open the gates when the sun
Speaker 1: comes up. He said, we're under attack right now, so
Speaker 1: I need you to keep the gates shut until we
Speaker 1: have full light and until everybody is wide awake, because
Speaker 1: I know we we're vulnerable, and I can't just open
Speaker 1: the gates right now because the enemies are threatened because
Speaker 1: we're making progress. Hear me, Your enemy is threatened because
Speaker 1: you're making progress. It's threatened. That's what the attack is about.
Speaker 1: What it's been about. Oh, that's just picking on me. No,
Speaker 1: he's not just picking on you. He has actually studied you.
Speaker 1: He is more aware of you than you are aware
Speaker 1: of you. Your proclivities, your patterns, your past. He knows
Speaker 1: all of that because he is after your purpose. If
Speaker 1: the wall isn't built, he doesn't come to wage war.
Speaker 1: That's what it's been about. Listen to me. That's what
Speaker 1: this is about. That's what the attack is about. So
Speaker 1: ni Amayah is like, Okay, this is an unusual time.
Speaker 1: We're going to do an unusual thing. Keep these gates
Speaker 1: shut until the sun is hot, until it's hot, basically
Speaker 1: saying until noon, keep the gates shut, keep him shut
Speaker 1: a little while longer. So let me ask you something.
Speaker 1: In this season of your life where you've been struggling
Speaker 1: with depression, some of you been having panic attacks, some
Speaker 1: of you been having waves of anxiety. I mean, who
Speaker 1: doesn't some of you have been having suicidal thoughts. Some
Speaker 1: of you not suicidal, but it's just like hard to explain.
Speaker 1: It's like a low flying, low grade sense that you
Speaker 1: can't get any victory and sustain it. So I want
Speaker 1: to tell you something you can do. Keep the door
Speaker 1: shut while it's dark. Keep the door shut while it's dark.
Speaker 1: Put a time frame on it. I don't care seven days.
Speaker 1: I'm not looking at anything on social media till I
Speaker 1: read a scripture. All the applause, just talk. Y'all. Act
Speaker 1: like I told y'all to go on a pilgrimage to
Speaker 1: Jerusalem to the whole. You act like I told you
Speaker 1: to die on the cross. I'm not talking about a
Speaker 1: crown of thorns. I'm talking about keeping the gates shut
Speaker 1: until you have liked. That's why you gotta start your
Speaker 1: day with God. That's your door. I don't care how
Speaker 1: many of y'all wake up at crazy times of the
Speaker 1: night thinking crazy thoughts. What a sermon on your phone
Speaker 1: and put it in your ear till you go back
Speaker 1: to sleep. Keep the doors closed in the dark. That's
Speaker 1: not the time for you to be alone. You don't
Speaker 1: even have to. I will preach to you. I will
Speaker 1: do pillow talk with you. Through the phone, through the phone,
Speaker 1: through the app on YouTube. I'll talk you through it,
Speaker 1: or another preacher that you like better, who doesn't scream
Speaker 1: so much. But keep the door shut when it starts.
Speaker 1: You need light to fight the enemy. Holly, you hear
Speaker 1: me down there, baby, I'm telling them it's the door.
Speaker 1: Your thoughts are the door, your eyes are the door,
Speaker 1: your ears are the door. Dude. I do not just
Speaker 1: let anybody talk to me about anything. I don't rebuke them,
Speaker 1: but I pivot. People always want to come up to
Speaker 1: me and talk about other churches and other men and
Speaker 1: how this person fell in that and the other. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, hold up, man, look at me, Amia seven three,
Speaker 1: this is me, he said. Put some of them on
Speaker 1: the post and look at the end of the verse,
Speaker 1: and some near their own houses. That's my verse, that's
Speaker 1: my verse. I gotta guard my own house. I gotta
Speaker 1: guard my own heart. I'm not letting that door come in.
Speaker 1: You know, the door to feeling really horrible about yourself
Speaker 1: is through judging others, because now you're going to become
Speaker 1: a victim of your own judgments. Can y'all handle a
Speaker 1: little bit more? I mean, here's the door you gotta go,
Speaker 1: and you just gotta go. You gotta go through hand
Speaker 1: and eye and hand and I. But you, I think
Speaker 1: we should put some real bodyguards at the doors for
Speaker 1: people who leave in the invitation of my sermon. I mean,
Speaker 1: some real bodyguards who are barely saved leave during my invitation.
Speaker 1: But think about this door, and this may not be
Speaker 1: the best store to do it. But I'll ask you
Speaker 1: a question. Is this door closed? Is it open? Hen
Speaker 1: and I? He said, it's cracked and cracked? Isn't closed? Cracked?
Speaker 1: Isn't closed? For the season you're in right now. Look,
Speaker 1: I'm not telling you go home and only watch Disney movies.
Speaker 1: That's not what I'm preaching about today. But I'm saying
Speaker 1: for some of the attacks you've been under, the ones
Speaker 1: that really matter, because they concern your purpose. He said,
Speaker 1: make sure not only that they don't open the doors
Speaker 1: until it's noon, so we can fight in the light,
Speaker 1: not in the darkness. Because the enemy wants to fight
Speaker 1: you in the darkness. He wants to fight your loaning one,
Speaker 1: to fight you in ignorance, He wants to fight you
Speaker 1: in despair. But look at verse three. It also says,
Speaker 1: before the guards go off, duty. Okay, fell us, before
Speaker 1: you go off duty, have them shut the doors and
Speaker 1: bar them. And to bar them means put your hand
Speaker 1: on it and make sure it's shut. Make sure it's shut.
Speaker 1: God is going to put some of you in a
Speaker 1: season of shut up. I probably shouldn't say that, but
Speaker 1: I was reading Joshua six one when they went in
Speaker 1: the walls of Jericho. And look what Joshua six one
Speaker 1: said in the King James English. Now, the city of
Speaker 1: Jericho was straightly shut up. Come on, pastor, that's not
Speaker 1: what it means. It means that nobody was coming and going.
Speaker 1: I know. But look at verse ten what Joshua told
Speaker 1: them to do. While they marched around those walls. Joshua
Speaker 1: commanded the people, saying, you shall not shout nor make
Speaker 1: any noise with your voice. Neither shall any word proceed
Speaker 1: out of your mouth until the day I bid you shop,
Speaker 1: then shall you shall. Because I'm concerned if you just
Speaker 1: say what you feel in this season, you are going
Speaker 1: to speak yourself right into Satan's attack. I'm in a
Speaker 1: season of shut up because what God has for me
Speaker 1: is too great. Right. He brought me to Jericho. This
Speaker 1: is the first city of the promised Land, and God said,
Speaker 1: I need you to just take a sabbatical right now
Speaker 1: from other people's opinions. That's your door. You can't stop
Speaker 1: them from posting, you can't stop them from talking, you
Speaker 1: can't stop them from hating, you can't stop them from disliking.
Speaker 1: You can't stop them from being idiots. But it's your
Speaker 1: door that lets their voice in. Even if they talk
Speaker 1: around you, it doesn't have to get in you. Come on.
Speaker 1: You know I'm preaching the truth. This is why you're quiet. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Let's do it. Don't shout, Just everybody
Speaker 1: close your door. You know how many times I had
Speaker 1: to do this this week while the Holy Spirit was
Speaker 1: giving me this message. I mean, I start to complain
Speaker 1: and I'm just letting it out right. No, you're letting
Speaker 1: it in because your words have power. And you keep
Speaker 1: describing the same problem, these stupid walls of Jericho, all
Speaker 1: this stupid situation, all this inflation, all these gas prices.
Speaker 1: That's a good icebreaker for like three weeks. But come on,
Speaker 1: is that all we're ever gonna talk to each other
Speaker 1: about is what's wrong? Maybe God wants to put you
Speaker 1: in a season of shut up so he can bring
Speaker 1: you into a season of shouting. Listen, it's not the
Speaker 1: devil defeating you. He doesn't have any power over you
Speaker 1: that you don't give him, not with Jesus inside of you.
Speaker 1: So we've got to get serious about our joy. We
Speaker 1: got to get serious about our peace. We got to
Speaker 1: get serious about our mind. We've got to get serious
Speaker 1: about our sanity. We've got to get serious about our
Speaker 1: mental health. We got to get serious about all this stuff.
Speaker 1: And God is bringing a prophet to you today. Like
Speaker 1: Holly said to me, what would you do with it?
Speaker 1: Even if God gave it to you? If God gave
Speaker 1: you peace, would you protect it? If God gave you
Speaker 1: a relationship, would you defend it? How is the city
Speaker 1: of your soul? I'm walking around today just wondering, how's
Speaker 1: it going in there? You got those doors up yet?
Speaker 1: I want to see you next week. Next week. I'll
Speaker 1: probably be here next week, how about you? And I
Speaker 1: just want to be like, where did you close the
Speaker 1: door this week? And just go like, you know what, man,
Speaker 1: you don't even have to offend anybody. You do not
Speaker 1: need to go up to people. This week. It's love
Speaker 1: week for crying out loud don't go up to people like, nah,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm in the season is shut up? You
Speaker 1: shut up, and I can't talk to you anymore. You're toxic.
Speaker 1: But I'm saying, are we praying for God to deliver
Speaker 1: us from devils that he has given us the power
Speaker 1: to defend ourselves from It's your door, And I wonder
Speaker 1: if I was this concerned about what's getting in and
Speaker 1: coming out, would I be having to pray to God
Speaker 1: about half the stuff I'm praying to him about. Stand up,
Speaker 1: I'm done, those hands. Give God praise? Was that good
Speaker 1: teaching today? Did you receive something? Huh? Come on? If
Speaker 1: God spoke to you, give him a praise, don't praise me.
Speaker 1: If he brought you a word, that was him not
Speaker 1: being and then all right. So I want us to
Speaker 1: get I want us to get better about one thing
Speaker 1: in this church. I think this is the most amazing
Speaker 1: church in the world. I love being your pastor. One
Speaker 1: thing I want you all to stop doing so much
Speaker 1: is running like right when I get ready to dismiss,
Speaker 1: like it's over. If the sermon doesn't even make it
Speaker 1: out this door, it is not going to give you
Speaker 1: victory in your life. This week, So every location, you
Speaker 1: gotta stop where you are, just stand up for a minute.
Speaker 1: Let me pray with you. Let me pray that what
Speaker 1: you heard today, because the Holy Spirit was speaking to you.
Speaker 1: I could see it in some of your eyes. You
Speaker 1: look like a deer in the headlights of the Word
Speaker 1: of God, like you're looking at your spouse. Did you
Speaker 1: talk to Pastor Stephen this week and tell him what
Speaker 1: I was doing? Get a restraining order on this preacher.
Speaker 1: I think he's been sneaking around my house. I think
Speaker 1: he's got some cameras up. That's my new goal. I
Speaker 1: want to preach so full of the Holy Spirit that
Speaker 1: you put a restraining order on me because you think
Speaker 1: I'm stalking you during the week. But how cool will
Speaker 1: it be that you will have a reminder of this
Speaker 1: sermon even when you leave today. You go through a door,
Speaker 1: and then through another door, and then you get in
Speaker 1: a car. I guess I don't think you're getting on
Speaker 1: a camel. This is in Jerusalem, this is the city
Speaker 1: of your soul. And every door that you open and
Speaker 1: every door that you close, I want you to begin
Speaker 1: to think about how you're defending what God gave you.
Speaker 1: I want you to do for the city of your
Speaker 1: soul what Neamiah did for the city of Jerusalem. He said,
Speaker 1: I put the doors in place, and I gave orders.
Speaker 1: I didn't just assume we're going to be okay, because
Speaker 1: God is with us. I put the doors in place,
Speaker 1: and I said you can open them. Then you can't
Speaker 1: open them now, y'all. Even in my daily disciplines, I
Speaker 1: am so unfocused. I am so unfocused when I go
Speaker 1: to do a physical workout. I can't take my phone
Speaker 1: in the room to do a workout. I know myself.
Speaker 1: I have to put my phone in another room. And
Speaker 1: did y'all know the new iPhone has an off button. Anyway,
Speaker 1: that's a special feature. I'll show you how to use it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's amazing. And then a lot of times, watch
Speaker 1: when I shut that off and just do my workout
Speaker 1: and focus, the Lord will give me my sermon because
Speaker 1: I closed the door. Could just give it to me,
Speaker 1: but just give it to me, But you got I
Speaker 1: close the door. What did Jesus say when you pray,
Speaker 1: Matthew sixty six, go in and close the door. You
Speaker 1: can't pray and ask God to defend you from the
Speaker 1: devil for stuff that you left the door wide open
Speaker 1: to He'll help you. He'll give you grace. But don't
Speaker 1: you want victory too. I want victory and grace. I do.
Speaker 1: And so one way we let God in we just
Speaker 1: lift our hands. So do that right now. That's not
Speaker 1: a charismatic thing. Stop it. People do that. People do
Speaker 1: that at football games when they're excited. People do it
Speaker 1: in a war when they surrender. So you could throw
Speaker 1: your hands up, and I love what. Revelation three twenty
Speaker 1: said that Jesus was speaking to the church and he said, here,
Speaker 1: I am a stand at the door and knock, and
Speaker 1: if you hear my voice and open it, I'll come
Speaker 1: in and eat with you. You've been sitting at the
Speaker 1: wrong table all week. You've been sitting feasting on the
Speaker 1: wrong thoughts, worrying about the wrong stuff. For some of
Speaker 1: us is obsessively checking our bank balance. Yeah, doesn't always
Speaker 1: come through something that's so evil. But once we open
Speaker 1: that door, the devil just has his way. But not today, Lord,
Speaker 1: Today we hear your voice, and we hear your knock,
Speaker 1: and we're opening the door to you. Come, Lord Jesus,
Speaker 1: into every heart that's open to you. Some hearts are hardened.
Speaker 1: But a lot of these hearts today, Lord, they're really serious.
Speaker 1: They're since here. They want your presence. So come Lord,
Speaker 1: just say it. If you mean it, say come Lord.
Speaker 1: He will hear that invitation. He'll respond to that invitation.
Speaker 1: Say it again, say come Lord, Come Lord, Jesus, the
Speaker 1: door of our hearts are open to you. We invite
Speaker 1: your presence, your peace, your joy, wisdom show us this
Speaker 1: week where we need to put our hand on the
Speaker 1: door and make sure it's shut. Conversations. We need to
Speaker 1: have conversations. We need to discontinue. We want to be
Speaker 1: right with you. We want to be in a peaceful place.
Speaker 1: I bless you and I thank you for the privilege
Speaker 1: of sharing your word today. I thank you that it
Speaker 1: won't return void. It will accomplish that what you sent
Speaker 1: it to do in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if you
Speaker 1: enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple things I'd love
Speaker 1: for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and
Speaker 1: review this podcast. You can also help us reach others
Speaker 1: by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org. Slash give and
Speaker 1: thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.