WEBVTT - Don't Waste Your Angel

0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:02.840
<v Speaker 1>Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik.

0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:05.840
<v Speaker 2>I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast.

0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:08.360
<v Speaker 2>I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope

0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:11.080
<v Speaker 2>this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it

0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:13.600
<v Speaker 2>gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.

0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:18.160
<v Speaker 2>Enjoy the message. I want to read your scripture from

0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.960
<v Speaker 2>Exodus chapter twenty three, verses twenty through thirty one, and

0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:23.360
<v Speaker 2>it's a scripture.

0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:24.599
<v Speaker 1>About how God makes away in our life.

0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:28.520
<v Speaker 2>We're in this series called Waymaker, and this scripture has

0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:31.360
<v Speaker 2>a subheading in my Bible that says God's Angel to

0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:36.560
<v Speaker 2>prepare the way. God's Angel to prepare the way. God

0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.639
<v Speaker 2>says this verse twenty. See, I am sending an angel

0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:43.879
<v Speaker 2>ahead of you to guard you along the way. If

0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:45.960
<v Speaker 2>you don't think it's sacrilegious to write in your Bible

0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:49.800
<v Speaker 2>circle that phrase along the way, it's important. I am

0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.760
<v Speaker 2>sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along

0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:55.160
<v Speaker 2>the way and to bring you to the place I

0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:59.680
<v Speaker 2>have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what

0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:00.000
<v Speaker 2>he's says.

0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:02.560
<v Speaker 1>Do not rebel against him.

0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:05.600
<v Speaker 2>See, God can send things into your life that you

0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:10.280
<v Speaker 2>don't access because your attention is elsewhere. Come on, God

0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:14.240
<v Speaker 2>can send you instruction, wisdom, and provision, but you miss

0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:16.600
<v Speaker 2>it because you were paying attention on something stupid.

0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:20.040
<v Speaker 1>I'm not talking about fantasy football. I'm talking about other

0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:21.240
<v Speaker 1>stupid stuff you pay attention to.

0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:26.360
<v Speaker 2>I wouldn't rebuke you for that, It's fine. But he says,

0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.080
<v Speaker 2>do not rebel against him. He will not forgive your rebellion,

0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:31.360
<v Speaker 2>since my name is in him. If you listen carefully

0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:33.640
<v Speaker 2>to what he says and do all that I say.

0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:36.600
<v Speaker 1>I will be an enemy to your enemies.

0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.760
<v Speaker 2>This is God speaking how he feels about his people.

0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:45.280
<v Speaker 1>I will be an enemy to your enemies. Now touch

0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:47.000
<v Speaker 1>your neighbors, say you better be nice to me.

0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:53.280
<v Speaker 2>I got back up. Be careful how you talk about me.

0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:56.200
<v Speaker 2>God likes me a little bit. I mean, how do

0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:59.720
<v Speaker 2>you act when somebody talks about your child. Imagine how

0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.800
<v Speaker 2>God feels about it. Imagine how God feels about it. Well,

0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:04.560
<v Speaker 2>that's what he said. He said, I will be an

0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.120
<v Speaker 2>enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you.

0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:12.480
<v Speaker 2>My angel, here's this angel again, will go ahead of

0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:18.560
<v Speaker 2>you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Parazites, Canaanites, Hivetes,

0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:22.720
<v Speaker 2>and Jepizites, and I will wipe them out. Get them

0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.480
<v Speaker 2>out of your way. Now, do not bow down before

0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:28.400
<v Speaker 2>their gods or worship them, because after I get them

0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:30.119
<v Speaker 2>out of your way, don't get in your own way

0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:34.400
<v Speaker 2>by doing what they did. Sometimes God removes something from

0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:36.280
<v Speaker 2>your life and you trip over it like it was

0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:38.079
<v Speaker 2>still there because.

0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.880
<v Speaker 1>You can't change your mind and be renewed according to

0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:41.800
<v Speaker 1>your new reality.

0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:45.520
<v Speaker 2>Okay, this is not I'm just kind of flowing right now,

0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:46.960
<v Speaker 2>not in my notes, and I'm gonna let you sit

0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:49.520
<v Speaker 2>down in a minute. But there's a lot in this passage,

0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:51.560
<v Speaker 2>and I've been excited about it, and I was eating

0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.240
<v Speaker 2>cranberry sauce and thinking about just if we could get

0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:56.120
<v Speaker 2>here together, I could share this with you because I

0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:58.920
<v Speaker 2>was really excited about it. But really, here's where it starts.

0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:04.079
<v Speaker 2>Skip all the way down to verse twenty eight. I

0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:08.079
<v Speaker 2>will send the hornet, because God's a Charlottean, I will

0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:08.760
<v Speaker 2>send the hornet.

0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:10.080
<v Speaker 1>I've been trying to tell you all that.

0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.040
<v Speaker 2>I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive

0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:19.320
<v Speaker 2>out the Hiites, Canaanites, and Hittites out of your way. Okay,

0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:25.680
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna take away all those Ipeshites, Canaanites, sell you lights,

0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:29.480
<v Speaker 2>all of them. They gotta go, somebody said, they gotta go.

0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:33.080
<v Speaker 2>As I bring you into the place that I promised you,

0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.160
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna get them out of your way. But I

0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:38.960
<v Speaker 2>will not drive them out in a single year, because

0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:43.000
<v Speaker 2>the land would become desolate and the wild animals too

0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:48.680
<v Speaker 2>numerous for you. Little by little, I will drive them

0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:52.280
<v Speaker 2>out before you until you have increased enough.

0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:55.920
<v Speaker 1>Until you you're.

0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.160
<v Speaker 2>Waiting on God to show up, and he's waiting for

0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:09.560
<v Speaker 2>you to grow up, my little and you don't even

0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:11.800
<v Speaker 2>notice the things that are growing right before your eyes.

0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:14.240
<v Speaker 2>That's why it takes a grandparent to tell you that

0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.240
<v Speaker 2>your kids have grown, because you're with.

0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:16.800
<v Speaker 1>Them every day.

0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:21.400
<v Speaker 2>But God is doing things incrementally in our lives, and

0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:23.520
<v Speaker 2>so he says, little by little, I will drive them

0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:25.640
<v Speaker 2>out before you until you have increased enough to take

0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:26.600
<v Speaker 2>possession of the lamb.

0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:31.680
<v Speaker 1>Can I give you one more verse? It's not rhetorical.

0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:38.080
<v Speaker 2>I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to

0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:42.039
<v Speaker 2>the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River.

0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:46.080
<v Speaker 2>I will give into your hands the people who live

0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.400
<v Speaker 2>in the land, and you will drive them out before

0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.599
<v Speaker 2>you say man for the word of God. Hey, those

0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:54.680
<v Speaker 2>of you in a control, don't throw my title because

0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:56.040
<v Speaker 2>I'm changing it and the one you have is the

0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:58.080
<v Speaker 2>wrong one. I want to preach a message to you

0:04:58.120 --> 0:04:59.840
<v Speaker 2>from my heart today, and I want you to look

0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:01.400
<v Speaker 2>at your neighbor and give them my title that I

0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:02.839
<v Speaker 2>just thought of right now, but I want to share

0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:04.680
<v Speaker 2>it with you, and I believe it's a message for

0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.800
<v Speaker 2>you today. Look at your neighbor and say, neighbor, don't

0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:17.320
<v Speaker 2>waste your angel, please be seated. The sense that I

0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:19.520
<v Speaker 2>get from the text is that God is giving his

0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:26.600
<v Speaker 2>people the resources that they need for the responsibility that

0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:27.320
<v Speaker 2>they are facing.

0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:30.320
<v Speaker 1>And I love that about God is.

0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.000
<v Speaker 2>That he always has the resource ready before he gives

0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:37.280
<v Speaker 2>the assignment. In fact, I've learned this and I would

0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:38.800
<v Speaker 2>love for you to write it down. If you are

0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:46.080
<v Speaker 2>the note tape taking type, realize that the greater the assignment,

0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:49.200
<v Speaker 2>the greater the assistance.

0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:52.000
<v Speaker 1>Now, if you are married.

0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:55.000
<v Speaker 2>To someone who is a little difficult, perhaps that will

0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:57.800
<v Speaker 2>be good news to you. My brother from the United

0:05:57.800 --> 0:05:59.760
<v Speaker 2>States Air Force is visiting with us today.

0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:00.440
<v Speaker 1>You help me.

0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:07.640
<v Speaker 2>Thank God for my brother visiting all the way from

0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:14.360
<v Speaker 2>New Jersey. He's married now and we're thankful I had

0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:18.440
<v Speaker 2>the great privilege to perform their wedding. If I do

0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:20.080
<v Speaker 2>a wedding, which I don't get to do them very

0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:22.440
<v Speaker 2>much because usually people like to get married on Saturdays,

0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:25.400
<v Speaker 2>and I preach on Saturdays. So when I get to

0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:27.240
<v Speaker 2>do it, I like to make it creative because I

0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:28.560
<v Speaker 2>don't know how to do it the right way because

0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:28.919
<v Speaker 2>I don't do.

0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:29.440
<v Speaker 1>It that much.

0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.240
<v Speaker 2>And I almost did something when I performed your wedding.

0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.159
<v Speaker 2>I never told you this, because you got all the

0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.560
<v Speaker 2>typical sections of a wedding where you have the exchange

0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.400
<v Speaker 2>of the rings and the exchange of the vows. I

0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:49.160
<v Speaker 2>almost did a whole section called realistic expectations, and.

0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:49.920
<v Speaker 1>I didn't do it.

0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:52.560
<v Speaker 2>Maybe one day I'll get that opportunity, but it would

0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:54.880
<v Speaker 2>be the part of the wedding ceremony that's not poetic.

0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:56.279
<v Speaker 1>It'd be the part that's practical.

0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:58.640
<v Speaker 2>And I would have told you things like, you know,

0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:03.800
<v Speaker 2>be prepared for this woman whom you love to bring

0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:08.000
<v Speaker 2>items into your bathroom that you have never seen before

0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:10.600
<v Speaker 2>or known of their existence.

0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:12.480
<v Speaker 1>Be prepared, make.

0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:16.840
<v Speaker 2>Space on your counter for a pharmacy, and don't be surprised.

0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:18.960
<v Speaker 2>Little things like that I would have put into it.

0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:20.960
<v Speaker 2>If they would have done this for being Holly's they

0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.360
<v Speaker 2>would have said a lot.

0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:24.560
<v Speaker 1>Fifty extra minutes.

0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:28.760
<v Speaker 2>When you are telling your wife what time to be

0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:31.520
<v Speaker 2>ready for an event, lie to her, put her on

0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:35.480
<v Speaker 2>daylight savings time and back it up an hour, and

0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:37.679
<v Speaker 2>you might possibly be on time.

0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.200
<v Speaker 1>But I'll be honest with you.

0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:43.440
<v Speaker 2>My wife, now something has shifted in the balance of

0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:45.320
<v Speaker 2>our marriage relationship.

0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:47.600
<v Speaker 1>And she's usually the one telling me.

0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:49.840
<v Speaker 2>You're looking to see how she's responding to this part

0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.280
<v Speaker 2>of the sermon, aren't you with that? As she walked out,

0:07:54.320 --> 0:08:00.040
<v Speaker 2>what would that say about the pastor's spiritual life? So

0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.920
<v Speaker 2>she's actually the one who's usually telling me. Now she's

0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:07.040
<v Speaker 2>usually telling me, if you can believe this, she says

0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:09.160
<v Speaker 2>something to me the other day. I never thought i'd

0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.440
<v Speaker 2>hear this out of my wife's mouth. She said, I'm

0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:12.280
<v Speaker 2>ready when you are.

0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:16.160
<v Speaker 1>It's just things you never think you're going to hear.

0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.480
<v Speaker 2>You never think like that's like hearing your teenager say I'll.

0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:21.920
<v Speaker 1>Do it, Like.

0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.200
<v Speaker 2>It's just stuff you never expect to hear from that person.

0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:29.000
<v Speaker 2>But it's true nine times out of ten. Now she's

0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:33.079
<v Speaker 2>ready before I am. Something has shifted in the relationship.

0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:34.120
<v Speaker 1>And I pointed out.

0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:39.400
<v Speaker 2>Because in Exodus twenty three, it's not a marriage relationship,

0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.520
<v Speaker 2>but it's a covenant relationship between God and his people.

0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:46.920
<v Speaker 2>And they have waited now for over four hundred years

0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:50.080
<v Speaker 2>for God to deliver them out of their slavery and

0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:54.719
<v Speaker 2>their cruel bondage. But now something has shifted. They are

0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:59.880
<v Speaker 2>so used to waiting on God, and now a bus

0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.559
<v Speaker 2>there are turn of events. God says to his people

0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:08.640
<v Speaker 2>through Moses, I'm ready when you are. Now, he's already

0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.200
<v Speaker 2>brought them out of Egypt. He's already brought them out

0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:14.200
<v Speaker 2>of slavery. But there is a difference between coming out

0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:15.920
<v Speaker 2>physically and coming out mentally.

0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:21.160
<v Speaker 1>Some people are perpetually stuck.

0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.400
<v Speaker 2>In the stage of their life. Even though God has

0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:27.080
<v Speaker 2>set them free, they still dragged the shackles of a

0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:31.720
<v Speaker 2>situation that God long since delivered them from. So he

0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.440
<v Speaker 2>gives them several gifts, several gifts, several gifts. I'll mention

0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.960
<v Speaker 2>a few the Ten commandments. He gives them the ten commandments.

0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.679
<v Speaker 2>Thou shalt, thou shalt not not to prohibit them, not

0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:42.800
<v Speaker 2>to prohibit them.

0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:44.960
<v Speaker 1>How many of you have a dog.

0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:46.920
<v Speaker 2>Did you put in a fence in your yard for

0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:53.080
<v Speaker 2>the dog? Why so he could run around? So he

0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:59.400
<v Speaker 2>could run around without getting killed. The fence brings freedom right.

0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:05.360
<v Speaker 2>When God establishes parameters for your life, what He's really

0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.360
<v Speaker 2>doing within those parameters is giving you permission to enjoy

0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:14.000
<v Speaker 2>his promises, within the parameters of his principles, so that

0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:16.920
<v Speaker 2>you are not destroyed by the very thing that God

0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:20.360
<v Speaker 2>intended to bless you with. And then he gives them

0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:24.000
<v Speaker 2>some laws, regulations, and statutes for living with one another

0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:28.040
<v Speaker 2>in relationship as a community. He speaks about social injustice.

0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.960
<v Speaker 2>He speaks to them about treatment of one another and foreigners.

0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.839
<v Speaker 1>He speaks to them specifically.

0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:39.000
<v Speaker 2>About festivals that he wants them to keep, and three

0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:40.760
<v Speaker 2>times a year he says, I want you to send

0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:44.199
<v Speaker 2>all the men to the sanctuary, and nobody should come

0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:45.000
<v Speaker 2>empty handed.

0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:46.840
<v Speaker 1>I want you to bring me an offering.

0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:50.000
<v Speaker 2>I want you to bring me an offering because I

0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:54.960
<v Speaker 2>want you to be protected. There's a keyword protected from

0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:59.160
<v Speaker 2>trusting in your provision. So every time I bless you,

0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:03.240
<v Speaker 2>I want you to engage in the discipline of intrusting

0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:05.640
<v Speaker 2>to me what I've invested in.

0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:07.600
<v Speaker 1>You got it.

0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:12.079
<v Speaker 2>In that context, God makes his people a promise because

0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:16.559
<v Speaker 2>He has given them a great assignment, a great assignment

0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:21.920
<v Speaker 2>to occupy this land that's full of enemies, enemies that

0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:26.439
<v Speaker 2>are bigger and stronger, more skilled and experienced in warfare

0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:28.640
<v Speaker 2>than this nation, who.

0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:30.559
<v Speaker 1>Has barely become a nation at this point.

0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:34.480
<v Speaker 2>In this he gives them three promises from verse twenty.

0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:36.800
<v Speaker 1>I'll lift them now, write them down, put them on

0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:39.760
<v Speaker 1>a sticky note, because these three promises apply to you. Two.

0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:42.560
<v Speaker 2>These are three things God has promised you. I'll hit

0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:46.240
<v Speaker 2>them one by one. See, I am sending an angel

0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:50.319
<v Speaker 2>ahead of you. In the Jewish tradition, it is mostly

0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:53.840
<v Speaker 2>believed that the angel is Moses. However, most of us

0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:58.600
<v Speaker 2>would think that the qualifications that are listed here as

0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:00.840
<v Speaker 2>in my name is in him, and the ability to

0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:04.560
<v Speaker 2>forgive sins goes beyond Moses. So this must be a

0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:08.240
<v Speaker 2>foreshadowing of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ.

0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:13.240
<v Speaker 2>I will send my angel ahead of you to guard

0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.520
<v Speaker 2>you along the way and to bring you to the

0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:18.560
<v Speaker 2>place I have prepared.

0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:19.760
<v Speaker 1>They're all three right there.

0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:22.680
<v Speaker 2>The first one is God promises to protect his people.

0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:28.240
<v Speaker 2>God promises to protect his people, and specifically he says,

0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:32.840
<v Speaker 2>I will guard you along the way. I was interested

0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:35.560
<v Speaker 2>in that phrase because a lot of times God is

0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.280
<v Speaker 2>guarding you from things in your life that you don't

0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:41.440
<v Speaker 2>even know you need to be guarded from. And so

0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:43.320
<v Speaker 2>the way it works, you can follow me real quick

0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.840
<v Speaker 2>with the cameras. God will guard you along the way,

0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:51.640
<v Speaker 2>but you will only see it looking back. That's how

0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.640
<v Speaker 2>life works, is that God is doing it for you

0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:58.040
<v Speaker 2>along the way. Now, notice, in order for God to

0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.480
<v Speaker 2>protect you, you have to be an motion. God cannot

0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:02.720
<v Speaker 2>guard you until you.

0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:04.480
<v Speaker 1>Are along the way.

0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:06.920
<v Speaker 2>And so when you are praying for God to protect you,

0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:09.200
<v Speaker 2>but you're sitting on your couch doing it instead of

0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.840
<v Speaker 2>obeying the instruction that he's given you, God cannot dispatch

0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:15.600
<v Speaker 2>his assistance for an assignment that you are not present for.

0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:17.640
<v Speaker 1>This.

0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:21.760
<v Speaker 2>One intern was asking me recently on the subject how

0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:26.120
<v Speaker 2>do I deal with feeling insecure? And I shocked myself

0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:27.880
<v Speaker 2>the answer I gave her because I usually say, quote

0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:30.120
<v Speaker 2>the Bible and confessions of faith, and you are the

0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:33.360
<v Speaker 2>righteousness of God in Christ. But I found something coming

0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:34.520
<v Speaker 2>out of my mouth was kind of weird.

0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:35.360
<v Speaker 1>I said, do the work.

0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:40.880
<v Speaker 2>Do the work, because it is in completing your assignment

0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:45.120
<v Speaker 2>that you receive your assistance. It's the best thing you

0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.959
<v Speaker 2>can do. If you feel insecure like I can't do it,

0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.520
<v Speaker 2>to do it. And as you do it, you will

0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:53.560
<v Speaker 2>receive the strength for the assignment.

0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:56.600
<v Speaker 1>But let me tell you this, you will not get.

0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.440
<v Speaker 2>The assistance praying for God to make the assignment easier.

0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.880
<v Speaker 2>He does not promise that. And I don't care how

0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:05.320
<v Speaker 2>hateful y'all look at me. God is not going to

0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:06.199
<v Speaker 2>make it easier what.

0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:06.800
<v Speaker 1>He said I'll do.

0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:12.960
<v Speaker 2>I will release my assistance in correspondence with your assignment.

0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:14.680
<v Speaker 1>And if you.

0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:18.240
<v Speaker 2>Insist on trying to fulfill somebody else's assignment.

0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:20.040
<v Speaker 1>Don't expect my assistance.

0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:24.600
<v Speaker 2>But if you will do you right here, right.

0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:26.440
<v Speaker 1>Now, and quit wishing she.

0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:29.520
<v Speaker 2>Was your wife, and love the wife you've got as

0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:35.160
<v Speaker 2>Christ loved the church, I will release my assistance in.

0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:39.800
<v Speaker 1>Correspondence with your assignment. Hey man, good preaching. Only JJ's

0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.400
<v Speaker 1>standing up. I don't know. He must need the Lord

0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:42.880
<v Speaker 1>this week.

0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.080
<v Speaker 2>To me, I think it's significant all the different times

0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:50.720
<v Speaker 2>that God gave people an assignment that was greater than them,

0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:55.360
<v Speaker 2>in fact, often contrary to their natural ability. Because Abraham

0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:57.680
<v Speaker 2>could have had a baby for God when he was forty,

0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:02.280
<v Speaker 2>not when he's eighty. God likes him at eighty better

0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.080
<v Speaker 2>than forty. I know why, but I'm not gonna tell

0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.680
<v Speaker 2>you why. I know why I studied it. I know

0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:09.920
<v Speaker 2>why God picked him at eighty and not forty.

0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:11.360
<v Speaker 1>Okay, I'll tell you.

0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:15.320
<v Speaker 2>If you do it at forty, you'll think you did it.

0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.320
<v Speaker 2>But if God gives you something that you know.

0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:28.960
<v Speaker 1>You shouldn't be able to do it.

0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:34.640
<v Speaker 2>Somebody say, don't waste your angel, and you waste the

0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:37.320
<v Speaker 2>assistance of your angel.

0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:40.280
<v Speaker 1>This is so good. I'm gonna help you.

0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:42.240
<v Speaker 2>Right there, right there, You right there, right there, I'm

0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:42.840
<v Speaker 2>so glad you know.

0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:44.800
<v Speaker 1>Not you her, I'm gonna help her right there.

0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.080
<v Speaker 2>You got a giant assignment. That's good.

0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.800
<v Speaker 1>The greater the assignment, the greater the assistance.

0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.480
<v Speaker 2>Now I can look back on several phases of my

0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:02.480
<v Speaker 2>life where God, God was protecting me with what I

0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:07.520
<v Speaker 2>thought was a problem. You know, God has a defense system.

0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:09.800
<v Speaker 2>I have a security system in my house. A couple

0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.800
<v Speaker 2>nights ago, me and Holly shot straight up in the bed, screaming,

0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.560
<v Speaker 2>both of us just screaming. The alarm went off so loud.

0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.240
<v Speaker 2>I never heard it that loud, and I jumped off, screaming.

0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:21.240
<v Speaker 2>She jumped up, screaming. We're screaming at each other. Five

0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:23.840
<v Speaker 2>seconds later, I had that baseball bat that I keep

0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:26.800
<v Speaker 2>under my bed. I was crouched going through the house too.

0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.320
<v Speaker 2>I was shaking the bat. I was saying stuff under

0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.280
<v Speaker 2>my breath that wasn't prayer oriented, you know, just getting

0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:38.080
<v Speaker 2>ready for what the situation required. But how could it

0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:41.120
<v Speaker 2>be that loud. It was the loudest thing I ever heard.

0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.160
<v Speaker 2>You know, those little AirPods that you put in your ear.

0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:49.160
<v Speaker 2>I forgot that I had fallen asleep with my AirPods in.

0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:52.760
<v Speaker 2>And it wasn't the security system in the house that

0:16:52.840 --> 0:17:01.080
<v Speaker 2>went off. It was an amber alert on my phone.

0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:02.880
<v Speaker 1>And here I am.

0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:08.199
<v Speaker 2>Ready to kill something that's not even there. And you know,

0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:12.240
<v Speaker 2>sometimes you let the devil in your head to the

0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:15.160
<v Speaker 2>point where you're waking up in the middle of the night,

0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.080
<v Speaker 2>chasing an enemy that ought to.

0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:19.240
<v Speaker 1>Be running from you.

0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:21.480
<v Speaker 3>Where are my.

0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:25.120
<v Speaker 2>Powerful people at that know you have the Holy Spirit,

0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:27.920
<v Speaker 2>a deposit guaranteeing your inheritance.

0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:33.240
<v Speaker 1>Make some noise about it, make all the quiet people uncomfortable,

0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:35.040
<v Speaker 1>shout if you know, God's.

0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.200
<v Speaker 2>Got a defense system and a surveillance on your life,

0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:39.800
<v Speaker 2>and the devil can only.

0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:45.760
<v Speaker 1>Go so far. Get out of my head because I'm protected.

0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:54.480
<v Speaker 1>High five point three people say, I'm protected and God, God.

0:17:54.320 --> 0:18:03.800
<v Speaker 2>Will even protect you from your own prayers. You will

0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.160
<v Speaker 2>pray for him to ask you out, and he will

0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:11.120
<v Speaker 2>walk right by you to your best friend, and she

0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:12.760
<v Speaker 2>doesn't even have a prayer life.

0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:14.400
<v Speaker 1>And that's why he.

0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:18.560
<v Speaker 2>Walked past you, because you were praying. God, I want

0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:23.200
<v Speaker 2>what you want for me. Protect me from anything that's

0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:24.359
<v Speaker 2>not from you.

0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:27.360
<v Speaker 1>I got an angel. Somebody said, I got an angel.

0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:37.679
<v Speaker 1>You can't see anybody's there. That's weird. It's weird. You

0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.520
<v Speaker 1>believe in angels. What do you believe in?

0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:50.040
<v Speaker 2>Some of y'all believe in college age boys in tight pants.

0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:54.479
<v Speaker 2>Your hope is in them. And I can't have an angel. Oh,

0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:58.159
<v Speaker 2>I got angels. Don't make me flap it you I

0:18:58.200 --> 0:18:59.560
<v Speaker 2>will flap right in your face.

0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:03.359
<v Speaker 1>I got angels. I got something better than an angel.

0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:10.280
<v Speaker 2>I have the spirit that raised Christ from the dead.

0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:14.920
<v Speaker 1>And I'm protected. I'm protected.

0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:20.720
<v Speaker 2>Even sometimes what you will call a disappointment in one

0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:23.000
<v Speaker 2>season of your life, you will see as a defense.

0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:26.720
<v Speaker 1>Later you will see that.

0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.720
<v Speaker 2>If I had gotten what I wanted when I wanted it,

0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:32.960
<v Speaker 2>it wouldn't have been a blessing because I wasn't ready.

0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:40.040
<v Speaker 2>I hope I'm helping somebody. I hope I'm helping somebody.

0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.320
<v Speaker 2>I will guard you along the way, God says, I'll

0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:46.760
<v Speaker 2>protect you, and the second one he says, I will

0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:50.200
<v Speaker 2>bring you to the place, So I'll guard you along

0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:50.960
<v Speaker 2>the way.

0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:52.280
<v Speaker 1>And I'll bring you to the place.

0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:55.840
<v Speaker 2>If guard you along the way is God's promise to protect.

0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:58.920
<v Speaker 2>Bring you to the place is his promise to position.

0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:02.320
<v Speaker 2>And one thing I've really come to believe is that

0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:05.080
<v Speaker 2>God is good at getting me where he wants me

0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:08.960
<v Speaker 2>when he wants me, for reasons that I do not

0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:15.760
<v Speaker 2>understand while I'm there. And honestly, some of the places

0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:17.800
<v Speaker 2>that God has sent me in my life is not

0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.840
<v Speaker 2>where I wanted to go. And I'm gonna say something

0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:22.719
<v Speaker 2>to you that I never ever said before in public.

0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:25.040
<v Speaker 2>I said it to Holly, I might have said it

0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:27.680
<v Speaker 2>to a few of our team members thirteen years ago,

0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:29.879
<v Speaker 2>but I never said it in a big room like this.

0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:36.600
<v Speaker 2>I didn't even want to come to Charlotte because it

0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:43.240
<v Speaker 2>seemed to me like Charlotte had churches covered. Have you looked,

0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:50.120
<v Speaker 2>there's trees and steeples. People, there's a lot of them already.

0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:54.479
<v Speaker 2>I say, God, what could it possibly have to do

0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:58.200
<v Speaker 2>with me to be in this town where there's already

0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:03.960
<v Speaker 2>all these big churches. It was Joe's crabshack that God used,

0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:08.199
<v Speaker 2>and just in a way I can't explain. And I'm

0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.000
<v Speaker 2>preaching to somebody with an attitude right now because you

0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:12.160
<v Speaker 2>don't even like where you live.

0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:15.240
<v Speaker 1>You don't even like it.

0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:22.680
<v Speaker 2>But often God positions you according to a higher priority

0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:28.760
<v Speaker 2>than your preference, and it's called his purpose. I'm sending

0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:32.119
<v Speaker 2>my angel and he will bring you to the place.

0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:34.000
<v Speaker 1>Here's the interesting thing.

0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:37.800
<v Speaker 2>The angel can bring you to the place, but it

0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:38.960
<v Speaker 2>cannot go in for you.

0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:41.879
<v Speaker 1>All God can.

0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:44.440
<v Speaker 2>Do, because it is a cooperation of grace and faith

0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:47.000
<v Speaker 2>that causes his kingdom to operate on earth as it

0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:47.639
<v Speaker 2>is in heaven.

0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:51.000
<v Speaker 1>All he can do is set you up. But He

0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:52.359
<v Speaker 1>will not take the step for you.

0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:55.840
<v Speaker 2>If God took the step for you, it would not

0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:57.480
<v Speaker 2>be kindness, it would be cruelty.

0:21:58.359 --> 0:21:59.360
<v Speaker 1>If God took.

0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:00.840
<v Speaker 2>The step for you, he would put you in a

0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.639
<v Speaker 2>place that your faith was not prepared for. So the

0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:09.160
<v Speaker 2>great tragedy of Exodus twenty three is that God sent

0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:13.800
<v Speaker 2>the protection to bring them to the place. Yet an

0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:16.320
<v Speaker 2>entire generation never entered in.

0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:19.320
<v Speaker 1>Did you hear me?

0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:23.480
<v Speaker 2>The entire congregation that Moses is delivering the message to

0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:28.199
<v Speaker 2>doesn't get to experience the benefits of God's promise. And

0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:30.520
<v Speaker 2>here's where it's a little theologically controversial.

0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:37.680
<v Speaker 1>God's promises are not automatic. They're optional. Joy is optional.

0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:41.159
<v Speaker 1>Peace is optional. You can have it or you can

0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:41.639
<v Speaker 1>leave it.

0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:46.280
<v Speaker 2>You can live in bitterness or you can live in deliverance.

0:22:47.000 --> 0:22:48.720
<v Speaker 1>But you have to take the step. Now.

0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:52.640
<v Speaker 2>God says, I've positioned you. I've protected you. I kept

0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:55.359
<v Speaker 2>you alive. I brought you through it. The sea didn't

0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:58.159
<v Speaker 2>sweep over you. The slave master didn't kill you with

0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:00.520
<v Speaker 2>this whip. All I did was bring you out with

0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:03.360
<v Speaker 2>the possession that you need to go into the place that.

0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:05.040
<v Speaker 1>I've prepared for you. Three.

0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:07.520
<v Speaker 2>Not only will he protect me, not only will he

0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:10.680
<v Speaker 2>position me, but he will prepare me. Now we got three,

0:23:10.720 --> 0:23:14.159
<v Speaker 2>peace less preach. God has been setting you up for

0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:17.639
<v Speaker 2>this step all of your life, and before you is

0:23:17.680 --> 0:23:21.040
<v Speaker 2>the goodness and the glory of God made possible by

0:23:21.040 --> 0:23:24.280
<v Speaker 2>the grace of Jesus Christ. If it's just three people,

0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:27.720
<v Speaker 2>I came with an announcement. You're ready now. You don't

0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:30.040
<v Speaker 2>have to live in what was any longer, and you

0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:32.399
<v Speaker 2>don't have to stay stuck in a mindset then no

0:23:32.480 --> 0:23:36.399
<v Speaker 2>longer accommodates your anointing. You're ready now, the says the

0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:39.200
<v Speaker 2>spirit of the Lord. I kept you all your life.

0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:42.600
<v Speaker 2>I sustained you through many dangers, cause and stairs, and

0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:47.280
<v Speaker 2>now you're ready. A mind somebody looks happy say I'm ready.

0:23:52.119 --> 0:23:57.040
<v Speaker 2>I will protect you, I will position you, and I

0:23:57.160 --> 0:24:02.560
<v Speaker 2>will dirty word prepare you. Not a very fun one,

0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:05.919
<v Speaker 2>I know, I know. And the way he does it

0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:08.159
<v Speaker 2>is terrible. The way he does it is terrible. Did

0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:09.520
<v Speaker 2>y'all hear about the boiled frog?

0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:13.280
<v Speaker 1>Have you heard this? They teach. I don't know why

0:24:13.280 --> 0:24:14.239
<v Speaker 1>someone would want to do this.

0:24:14.560 --> 0:24:16.880
<v Speaker 2>I'm not recommending it, but if you want to boil

0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:19.800
<v Speaker 2>a frog, you ever just get it in your mind

0:24:19.840 --> 0:24:21.560
<v Speaker 2>you want to boil a frog? If you heard this before,

0:24:22.240 --> 0:24:25.920
<v Speaker 2>it's the old preacher thing. If you want to boil

0:24:25.920 --> 0:24:29.680
<v Speaker 2>a frog, don't put it in a boiling pot. Put

0:24:29.720 --> 0:24:34.240
<v Speaker 2>it in a pot and turn up the heat little

0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:38.520
<v Speaker 2>by little, and the frog won't know he's being boiled. Now,

0:24:38.520 --> 0:24:40.160
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what made the preacher want to boil

0:24:40.160 --> 0:24:44.280
<v Speaker 2>a frog. I can't answer that, but he is correct.

0:24:45.480 --> 0:24:48.119
<v Speaker 2>When the enemy wants to steal your confidence in the

0:24:48.119 --> 0:24:49.840
<v Speaker 2>promise of God, he doesn't do it all at once,

0:24:51.400 --> 0:24:53.440
<v Speaker 2>because if that alarm really went off, you jump out

0:24:53.440 --> 0:25:01.960
<v Speaker 2>the bed. So what does he do? Little by little?

0:25:03.040 --> 0:25:05.240
<v Speaker 2>And that's the warning that God is giving his people.

0:25:06.320 --> 0:25:09.320
<v Speaker 2>I'm sending my angel ahead of you. But if you

0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:12.320
<v Speaker 2>don't pay attention, and if you don't listen to what

0:25:12.359 --> 0:25:15.960
<v Speaker 2>he says, you will come to the place. And I

0:25:16.000 --> 0:25:19.600
<v Speaker 2>can prove to you that this happened to them because.

0:25:19.320 --> 0:25:23.760
<v Speaker 1>They got to the edge of the promise and they stopped.

0:25:24.760 --> 0:25:28.680
<v Speaker 2>And the reason that they stopped is because two spies

0:25:28.760 --> 0:25:31.320
<v Speaker 2>went in to the land and came out with faith

0:25:31.760 --> 0:25:34.440
<v Speaker 2>that they could do it. Ten spies went in and said,

0:25:34.640 --> 0:25:40.720
<v Speaker 2>they're bigger than us, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Jeptizites,

0:25:41.520 --> 0:25:47.120
<v Speaker 2>the Parizites, the Hiptites, the Amorites. They're bigger than us.

0:25:47.760 --> 0:25:51.959
<v Speaker 2>They're but guess what. They were already on the run.

0:25:53.600 --> 0:25:58.119
<v Speaker 2>Sometimes you are running from something that God has already.

0:25:57.720 --> 0:26:01.800
<v Speaker 1>Defeated ex trus you.

0:26:02.800 --> 0:26:05.640
<v Speaker 2>So they're standing at the place God has protected them

0:26:05.680 --> 0:26:10.080
<v Speaker 2>along the way. God has what's the second one? Position

0:26:10.240 --> 0:26:14.040
<v Speaker 2>them for this moment? What's the third one? He prepared them?

0:26:14.040 --> 0:26:15.280
<v Speaker 1>But guess what the angel can't do.

0:26:15.800 --> 0:26:17.800
<v Speaker 2>There's one thing the Angel can't do and will not do.

0:26:17.840 --> 0:26:20.000
<v Speaker 2>There's one thing God won't do for you. He'll protect you.

0:26:20.160 --> 0:26:22.960
<v Speaker 2>He'll keep you. He'll keep your mind, he'll keep your sanity.

0:26:23.160 --> 0:26:25.080
<v Speaker 2>He'll keep you from people that would harm you. He

0:26:25.119 --> 0:26:26.960
<v Speaker 2>will keep you from places that you didn't even know

0:26:27.000 --> 0:26:28.439
<v Speaker 2>if you would have been there, what would have happened?

0:26:28.480 --> 0:26:30.200
<v Speaker 1>And you will never even know on this side of.

0:26:30.160 --> 0:26:33.199
<v Speaker 2>Life, how many times God blocked stuff and turned stuff

0:26:33.280 --> 0:26:35.840
<v Speaker 2>and shifted stuff and moved stuff. And you thought it

0:26:35.920 --> 0:26:37.280
<v Speaker 2>was just you were a little bit late because you

0:26:37.320 --> 0:26:38.199
<v Speaker 2>forgot your wallet.

0:26:38.320 --> 0:26:39.240
<v Speaker 1>But there was a car.

0:26:39.080 --> 0:26:41.639
<v Speaker 2>Accident on seventy seven that had your name on it.

0:26:41.720 --> 0:26:44.120
<v Speaker 2>And when the devil said they're out, God said, I've

0:26:44.119 --> 0:26:45.120
<v Speaker 2>got sore.

0:26:45.640 --> 0:26:46.040
<v Speaker 1>Anyway.

0:26:46.080 --> 0:26:48.720
<v Speaker 2>There are so anyway anyway, there's so many things you

0:26:48.760 --> 0:26:51.600
<v Speaker 2>don't even know to thank God for. If you could see,

0:26:51.640 --> 0:26:54.879
<v Speaker 2>for one moment all of the things that God kept

0:26:54.880 --> 0:27:05.080
<v Speaker 2>you from, Listen to me, Blakeney, if we ever got

0:27:05.080 --> 0:27:08.320
<v Speaker 2>a revelation of what God kept us from, it would

0:27:08.359 --> 0:27:11.639
<v Speaker 2>be a bad day for the worship team, because all

0:27:11.680 --> 0:27:15.119
<v Speaker 2>the worship leaders wouldn't have a job, because we wouldn't

0:27:15.119 --> 0:27:18.560
<v Speaker 2>even need them, because we would lead ourselves in worship,

0:27:19.320 --> 0:27:20.720
<v Speaker 2>because we would walk in the door.

0:27:20.920 --> 0:27:21.880
<v Speaker 1>And we will walk in the.

0:27:21.800 --> 0:27:27.119
<v Speaker 2>Door clapping and shouting and rejoicing and praising God that

0:27:27.240 --> 0:27:30.200
<v Speaker 2>sometimes we don't see all the things that He's kept

0:27:30.280 --> 0:27:32.679
<v Speaker 2>us from and brought us to.

0:27:33.800 --> 0:27:37.480
<v Speaker 1>And now we're at this place and God has protected us. Yeah.

0:27:38.119 --> 0:27:44.040
<v Speaker 2>God has positioned us absolutely, and God has prepared us.

0:27:44.920 --> 0:27:48.480
<v Speaker 2>But there's one thing he won't do. He will not

0:27:48.680 --> 0:27:52.800
<v Speaker 2>possess the land for you. Here's the word of the Lord.

0:27:54.680 --> 0:27:58.320
<v Speaker 2>I will go before you, but I will not go

0:27:58.400 --> 0:28:00.800
<v Speaker 2>for you.

0:28:00.800 --> 0:28:05.680
<v Speaker 1>Your faith must make the step. Your faith must make

0:28:05.680 --> 0:28:08.200
<v Speaker 1>the step. And most of them never did.

0:28:09.440 --> 0:28:12.280
<v Speaker 2>Now, if they had gone in, they would have seen

0:28:12.320 --> 0:28:15.080
<v Speaker 2>that the giants that were still in the land were

0:28:15.119 --> 0:28:18.359
<v Speaker 2>left there on purpose. That was always confusing to me.

0:28:19.280 --> 0:28:22.080
<v Speaker 2>God said, I'm going to be an enemy to your enemies.

0:28:22.119 --> 0:28:24.800
<v Speaker 2>I'm going to oppose those who oppose you, and when

0:28:24.840 --> 0:28:25.720
<v Speaker 2>you get to the land.

0:28:25.520 --> 0:28:26.960
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to start driving them out.

0:28:28.119 --> 0:28:30.400
<v Speaker 2>I'm going to chase them away so you can inherit

0:28:30.480 --> 0:28:33.560
<v Speaker 2>what I have promised to you. But then he says,

0:28:34.200 --> 0:28:38.600
<v Speaker 2>I'm not going to do it all at once. I'm

0:28:38.600 --> 0:28:45.480
<v Speaker 2>going to do it like the frog, little by little,

0:28:46.400 --> 0:28:47.000
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna do it.

0:28:47.560 --> 0:28:48.320
<v Speaker 1>We wait a minute.

0:28:48.320 --> 0:28:53.400
<v Speaker 2>God, if these are giants who can kill us and

0:28:53.480 --> 0:28:56.520
<v Speaker 2>cause us to worship other gods, shouldn't you get rid

0:28:56.560 --> 0:28:59.760
<v Speaker 2>of them as soon as possible? Come on, I mean,

0:29:00.400 --> 0:29:02.640
<v Speaker 2>wouldn't it make sense that if God wants something out

0:29:02.680 --> 0:29:04.840
<v Speaker 2>of your life, he would take it out right away?

0:29:05.480 --> 0:29:07.480
<v Speaker 2>And maybe this is just me because I grew up

0:29:07.520 --> 0:29:10.200
<v Speaker 2>in churches where they said, if you will pray this prayer,

0:29:10.280 --> 0:29:12.920
<v Speaker 2>Jesus will come into your heart and he will take

0:29:12.960 --> 0:29:15.640
<v Speaker 2>away your fear, and he will take away your pain,

0:29:16.400 --> 0:29:18.240
<v Speaker 2>and he will dry every tear from your eye.

0:29:18.280 --> 0:29:19.480
<v Speaker 1>And then I cried that night, and.

0:29:19.440 --> 0:29:22.320
<v Speaker 2>I couldn't figure out where did that Kleenex go, that

0:29:22.560 --> 0:29:25.240
<v Speaker 2>cosmic Kleenex that Jesus was gonna bring and wipe every

0:29:25.240 --> 0:29:27.440
<v Speaker 2>tear from my eye? I couldn't figure it out because

0:29:27.480 --> 0:29:34.600
<v Speaker 2>I was expecting sanctification to work like salvation. When Jesus

0:29:34.680 --> 0:29:38.720
<v Speaker 2>saves you, he does it all at once. He doesn't

0:29:38.760 --> 0:29:42.640
<v Speaker 2>set you up on a thirty year payment plan. Salvation

0:29:42.840 --> 0:29:46.000
<v Speaker 2>is not a mortgage. When he comes in he comes.

0:29:45.720 --> 0:29:47.880
<v Speaker 1>All the way in. And for those of.

0:29:47.760 --> 0:29:50.040
<v Speaker 2>You who have received his grace, let me tell you

0:29:50.080 --> 0:29:51.000
<v Speaker 2>something is amazing.

0:29:51.040 --> 0:29:52.880
<v Speaker 1>It's amazing. Here a shot, lean on the edge of

0:29:52.920 --> 0:29:53.360
<v Speaker 1>your seat.

0:29:53.520 --> 0:29:57.080
<v Speaker 2>You will never be more forgiven than you are right now.

0:29:58.000 --> 0:30:00.240
<v Speaker 1>You will never be more love than you are right now.

0:30:02.960 --> 0:30:06.960
<v Speaker 2>When He forgives you, he forgives you completely, immediately, fully,

0:30:07.200 --> 0:30:10.480
<v Speaker 2>without qualification. There is no corner of your heart he

0:30:10.480 --> 0:30:14.720
<v Speaker 2>didn't see when he sent his spirit to live within you.

0:30:14.720 --> 0:30:17.240
<v Speaker 2>You will never be more forgiven than you are right now.

0:30:17.480 --> 0:30:22.880
<v Speaker 2>But there is a difference between forgiveness and freedom.

0:30:23.160 --> 0:30:24.680
<v Speaker 1>Forgiveness happens all at once.

0:30:25.760 --> 0:30:33.479
<v Speaker 2>Freedom happens little by little, by little by little, and

0:30:33.640 --> 0:30:37.520
<v Speaker 2>is often so incremental that you don't even think is happening.

0:30:39.080 --> 0:30:42.400
<v Speaker 2>This is for everybody who's forty and thought you would

0:30:42.440 --> 0:30:47.040
<v Speaker 2>be smarter than you are right now, and you keep

0:30:47.080 --> 0:30:49.720
<v Speaker 2>doing dumb stuff that you've been doing all your life,

0:30:50.880 --> 0:30:53.080
<v Speaker 2>and you still feel outrage to the back row.

0:30:53.120 --> 0:30:54.000
<v Speaker 1>I don't need any love.

0:30:55.640 --> 0:30:58.160
<v Speaker 2>You're doing stuff right now that you are doing at

0:30:58.200 --> 0:31:01.040
<v Speaker 2>age fourteen, and you got your own thirteen year old

0:31:04.200 --> 0:31:08.000
<v Speaker 2>and you still feel like a little kid yourself. And

0:31:08.200 --> 0:31:15.320
<v Speaker 2>it happens. It happened to Paul. Paul was that great apostle.

0:31:15.840 --> 0:31:18.600
<v Speaker 1>Have you heard of him? He took the gospel to

0:31:18.640 --> 0:31:19.880
<v Speaker 1>the Gentiles.

0:31:20.360 --> 0:31:24.160
<v Speaker 2>What God started through Abraham he continued through Paul. He

0:31:24.200 --> 0:31:26.360
<v Speaker 2>told Abraham, he said, I got an assignment for you.

0:31:26.920 --> 0:31:29.080
<v Speaker 2>All the nations of the earth will.

0:31:28.960 --> 0:31:30.360
<v Speaker 1>Be blessed through you.

0:31:31.480 --> 0:31:34.520
<v Speaker 2>A What an assignment, he said, But don't worry about it.

0:31:34.880 --> 0:31:37.840
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to bless you so you can be a blessing.

0:31:38.320 --> 0:31:42.160
<v Speaker 2>I will not require from you a resource that I

0:31:42.200 --> 0:31:43.160
<v Speaker 2>do not put within you.

0:31:44.680 --> 0:31:47.320
<v Speaker 1>You hear me. If God called you to.

0:31:47.360 --> 0:31:49.960
<v Speaker 2>Raise those hard headed kids, he will make your head

0:31:50.000 --> 0:31:56.160
<v Speaker 2>even harder. Boom, You met your match now because God

0:31:56.240 --> 0:31:59.560
<v Speaker 2>gave me. God gave me a cranium that can withstand

0:31:59.600 --> 0:32:06.520
<v Speaker 2>all of your craziness. Now God gives him the assignment,

0:32:07.280 --> 0:32:09.360
<v Speaker 2>and he gives him the assistance.

0:32:10.760 --> 0:32:13.000
<v Speaker 1>And Paul, in many ways, was grace.

0:32:13.360 --> 0:32:15.960
<v Speaker 2>He was grace to be able to speak eloquently. He

0:32:16.120 --> 0:32:19.600
<v Speaker 2>was grace to be able to preach to the diaspora

0:32:19.760 --> 0:32:23.080
<v Speaker 2>of the Jewish tradition that he himself came from. But

0:32:23.120 --> 0:32:26.320
<v Speaker 2>one thing about Paul he couldn't understand. He couldn't understand

0:32:26.400 --> 0:32:30.040
<v Speaker 2>there was something in his life that he expected God

0:32:30.080 --> 0:32:33.720
<v Speaker 2>to take away that God left. You got anything like that,

0:32:35.840 --> 0:32:38.480
<v Speaker 2>fella looking at me so weird right now?

0:32:39.960 --> 0:32:41.120
<v Speaker 1>Maybe you're beyond Paul.

0:32:41.160 --> 0:32:43.160
<v Speaker 2>I would understand if you were holier than Paul, that

0:32:43.440 --> 0:32:44.200
<v Speaker 2>would make sense.

0:32:45.160 --> 0:32:46.800
<v Speaker 1>But Paul was struggling. He hadn't quite a.

0:32:46.800 --> 0:32:50.600
<v Speaker 2>Arrived to your level of spiritual development and maturity. Paul said,

0:32:50.840 --> 0:32:55.040
<v Speaker 2>there was something that I asked God to do for

0:32:55.200 --> 0:32:58.400
<v Speaker 2>me that he would not do. Now, if you want

0:32:58.400 --> 0:33:00.560
<v Speaker 2>to know what it was, Paul's going to disappoint you

0:33:00.760 --> 0:33:01.840
<v Speaker 2>because he refuses to.

0:33:01.800 --> 0:33:02.560
<v Speaker 1>Name it by name.

0:33:04.040 --> 0:33:05.760
<v Speaker 2>And I'm glad he didn't name it by name because

0:33:05.760 --> 0:33:07.440
<v Speaker 2>if he would have said it, I couldn't relate to it.

0:33:07.840 --> 0:33:09.480
<v Speaker 2>But the fact that he used this image, and I

0:33:09.480 --> 0:33:11.920
<v Speaker 2>want to read it to you now two Corinthians twelve seven.

0:33:12.200 --> 0:33:16.000
<v Speaker 2>It means that whatever is left in your life, whatever

0:33:16.160 --> 0:33:19.280
<v Speaker 2>is left in your life that you have been blaming

0:33:19.360 --> 0:33:24.960
<v Speaker 2>on the devil, can be used by God to fulfill

0:33:25.280 --> 0:33:29.520
<v Speaker 2>his purpose for your life. If you got anything like that,

0:33:29.560 --> 0:33:31.600
<v Speaker 2>wave at me, so I can see the seven people

0:33:31.880 --> 0:33:36.200
<v Speaker 2>that God gave me this message for. Paul said, I

0:33:36.240 --> 0:33:40.560
<v Speaker 2>was ascended to the third heaven. I saw things inutterable.

0:33:40.760 --> 0:33:43.960
<v Speaker 2>I was used by God in ways that are astounding,

0:33:44.040 --> 0:33:46.440
<v Speaker 2>in fact, beyond human vocabulary.

0:33:46.920 --> 0:33:49.680
<v Speaker 1>Therefore, now watch this. This is crazy, he says.

0:33:49.920 --> 0:33:54.000
<v Speaker 2>Because of that level of blessing, God gave me an

0:33:54.040 --> 0:34:01.200
<v Speaker 2>equal burden. Because the greater the assignment, the greater the adversity.

0:34:02.400 --> 0:34:05.680
<v Speaker 2>The greater the assignment, the greater the attack.

0:34:06.560 --> 0:34:09.680
<v Speaker 1>So Paul said, God took me up so.

0:34:09.880 --> 0:34:14.000
<v Speaker 2>High and showed me so much that there had to

0:34:14.080 --> 0:34:17.560
<v Speaker 2>be something in my life that would keep me grounded

0:34:17.600 --> 0:34:21.520
<v Speaker 2>to his grace. He doesn't name it by name. He

0:34:21.560 --> 0:34:24.680
<v Speaker 2>doesn't need to, because he knows you have your own.

0:34:25.480 --> 0:34:29.960
<v Speaker 2>So he simply says, therefore, in order here's the clue

0:34:30.400 --> 0:34:37.919
<v Speaker 2>to keep me from becoming conceited, there was something that

0:34:38.000 --> 0:34:42.160
<v Speaker 2>God gave Paul to keep him in a space called grace,

0:34:43.760 --> 0:34:46.640
<v Speaker 2>so that he would never forget who led.

0:34:46.560 --> 0:34:49.320
<v Speaker 1>Him along the way, So that he would never.

0:34:49.120 --> 0:34:52.640
<v Speaker 2>Forget who brought him out of bondage and darkness into

0:34:52.680 --> 0:34:56.320
<v Speaker 2>the marvelous life. God said, I'm gonna I'm gonna lead

0:34:56.880 --> 0:35:03.759
<v Speaker 2>some stuff in your life. And so in order to

0:35:03.840 --> 0:35:08.040
<v Speaker 2>keep me from becoming conceited, there was given to me.

0:35:09.000 --> 0:35:11.560
<v Speaker 2>Sounds like he's about to get a new car, right,

0:35:12.160 --> 0:35:14.319
<v Speaker 2>He gave me gave me.

0:35:14.480 --> 0:35:16.120
<v Speaker 1>This's got me in the mindset of a gift. What

0:35:16.200 --> 0:35:18.520
<v Speaker 1>did he give you, Paul? Did he give you a house?

0:35:18.560 --> 0:35:20.960
<v Speaker 1>Did he give you a promotion? Did he give you

0:35:21.000 --> 0:35:22.040
<v Speaker 1>a blessing? No?

0:35:22.040 --> 0:35:27.000
<v Speaker 2>No, no, Paul said, one day the devil showed up

0:35:27.000 --> 0:35:30.560
<v Speaker 2>on my doorstep with a package and it had a

0:35:30.560 --> 0:35:34.400
<v Speaker 2>bow on it. I opened the package and in the

0:35:34.440 --> 0:35:36.480
<v Speaker 2>package was a thorn.

0:35:37.480 --> 0:35:40.239
<v Speaker 1>Now it was a gift, but it didn't look like

0:35:40.280 --> 0:35:40.720
<v Speaker 1>a gift.

0:35:41.840 --> 0:35:44.680
<v Speaker 2>It was a gift, but it was wrapped in something

0:35:44.800 --> 0:35:45.799
<v Speaker 2>that looked like pain.

0:35:46.840 --> 0:35:47.720
<v Speaker 1>I was given.

0:35:48.080 --> 0:35:53.360
<v Speaker 2>Watch this a thorn in my flesh? Was it a sickness?

0:35:54.440 --> 0:35:58.439
<v Speaker 2>Was it a temptation Paul had? Was it people talking

0:35:58.480 --> 0:35:59.880
<v Speaker 2>about him and he couldn't shut him up?

0:36:00.600 --> 0:36:03.440
<v Speaker 1>Was it Facebook? Probably?

0:36:07.840 --> 0:36:13.240
<v Speaker 2>And he calls it this is crazy, a messenger of Satan.

0:36:15.719 --> 0:36:18.560
<v Speaker 2>How can he refer to it as a gift. If

0:36:18.600 --> 0:36:22.960
<v Speaker 2>it came from the enemy, it was sent to torment him.

0:36:23.040 --> 0:36:25.880
<v Speaker 2>That was the devil's intention to torment him.

0:36:28.120 --> 0:36:28.640
<v Speaker 1>Paul said.

0:36:28.840 --> 0:36:34.440
<v Speaker 2>God took what the enemy intended to torment me and

0:36:34.640 --> 0:36:36.160
<v Speaker 2>used it to transform me.

0:36:38.440 --> 0:36:41.960
<v Speaker 1>So the enemy's tools.

0:36:41.520 --> 0:36:44.680
<v Speaker 2>Of torment become God's tools of transformation.

0:36:46.960 --> 0:36:47.879
<v Speaker 1>And now I get it.

0:36:48.840 --> 0:36:52.080
<v Speaker 2>Now I get Exodus twenty three, because it's not just

0:36:52.200 --> 0:36:54.759
<v Speaker 2>the angels that God sends ahead.

0:36:54.520 --> 0:36:57.680
<v Speaker 1>Of you that he uses to bless you. Those are wonderful.

0:36:57.960 --> 0:37:00.600
<v Speaker 2>It's not just all of the promotions, and it's not

0:37:00.680 --> 0:37:04.160
<v Speaker 2>just the prosperity, and it's not just the peaceful situations.

0:37:04.360 --> 0:37:05.680
<v Speaker 1>It's not just the yeses.

0:37:06.160 --> 0:37:10.120
<v Speaker 2>Sometimes God uses the nose to lead you to a

0:37:10.160 --> 0:37:14.280
<v Speaker 2>greater yes. God said, no, I won't take it away,

0:37:14.840 --> 0:37:19.000
<v Speaker 2>but yes, I will give you so much grace that

0:37:19.160 --> 0:37:23.440
<v Speaker 2>you will be stronger than it, and you will discover

0:37:23.960 --> 0:37:28.520
<v Speaker 2>a power that you could have never known if you

0:37:28.560 --> 0:37:34.600
<v Speaker 2>didn't have a problem. But he said to me, my grace,

0:37:34.840 --> 0:37:39.080
<v Speaker 2>by shock grace. Shout grace, don't mumble, shout grace. Shot

0:37:39.120 --> 0:37:41.840
<v Speaker 2>grace like you need it. Shout grace like you can't

0:37:41.840 --> 0:37:44.360
<v Speaker 2>make it without it. Shout grace like it's not just

0:37:44.440 --> 0:37:45.360
<v Speaker 2>something you say.

0:37:45.239 --> 0:37:48.440
<v Speaker 1>Before you eat. Shalt grace like you live by it.

0:37:48.480 --> 0:37:50.680
<v Speaker 1>Shout grace like he died to give it.

0:37:50.719 --> 0:37:55.200
<v Speaker 2>Shout grace like you know it's the avenue of pless.

0:37:58.800 --> 0:38:02.760
<v Speaker 2>So he didn't give me relief, He gave me grace.

0:38:05.880 --> 0:38:06.920
<v Speaker 1>And now I get it.

0:38:07.719 --> 0:38:11.239
<v Speaker 2>Why God left the giants in the land, because he

0:38:11.320 --> 0:38:17.400
<v Speaker 2>had them under contract. See they were They weren't used

0:38:17.400 --> 0:38:19.360
<v Speaker 2>to having to keep up their own land yet.

0:38:19.840 --> 0:38:21.720
<v Speaker 1>So God said, I'm gonna do you a favor.

0:38:22.600 --> 0:38:27.359
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna keep some enemies on your property. But don't

0:38:27.400 --> 0:38:30.760
<v Speaker 2>worry about your enemies. They work for me. I am God.

0:38:33.480 --> 0:38:35.520
<v Speaker 1>What's good to me? It's good to me, it's good

0:38:35.560 --> 0:38:35.799
<v Speaker 1>to me.

0:38:37.320 --> 0:38:39.880
<v Speaker 2>Would it be bad if I downloaded this podcast myself?

0:38:41.520 --> 0:38:43.799
<v Speaker 1>He said, I'm gonna leave some things. I'm gonna lease

0:38:43.840 --> 0:38:47.319
<v Speaker 1>some weaknesses in your life. Take it away now, I'm

0:38:47.320 --> 0:38:48.120
<v Speaker 1>gonna work through it.

0:38:49.440 --> 0:38:51.960
<v Speaker 2>Now, I'm gonna leave that weakness in your life, and

0:38:52.040 --> 0:38:56.120
<v Speaker 2>your weakness is going to lead you to my strength.

0:38:58.000 --> 0:38:58.840
<v Speaker 1>God says.

0:38:59.480 --> 0:39:05.480
<v Speaker 2>Sometimes times I drive the giants out. Sometimes I let

0:39:05.520 --> 0:39:11.200
<v Speaker 2>them stay and I give them a job. Sometimes I

0:39:11.360 --> 0:39:16.920
<v Speaker 2>use the devil to deliver my mail. Sometimes I use

0:39:17.320 --> 0:39:23.120
<v Speaker 2>adversity to create an advantage in your life. Sometimes I

0:39:23.320 --> 0:39:24.840
<v Speaker 2>take what people meant.

0:39:24.640 --> 0:39:26.720
<v Speaker 1>For evil and use it for.

0:39:26.600 --> 0:39:29.879
<v Speaker 2>Good because I'm God like that, and I got so.

0:39:30.000 --> 0:39:31.759
<v Speaker 1>Bad and I'm already there.

0:39:40.560 --> 0:39:45.160
<v Speaker 2>So I'm gonna use not only my angel, but I'm

0:39:45.160 --> 0:39:49.120
<v Speaker 2>gonna use your enemies, and I'm gonna leave them there.

0:39:50.360 --> 0:39:54.280
<v Speaker 1>Why would you leave enemies on my territory, very simple.

0:39:56.360 --> 0:40:00.240
<v Speaker 1>Historians tell us that the land of Canaan at this time.

0:40:01.600 --> 0:40:05.560
<v Speaker 2>Was populated with wild animals that the Canaanites knew how

0:40:05.560 --> 0:40:09.759
<v Speaker 2>to deal with, but the Israelites didn't yet, particularly the

0:40:09.840 --> 0:40:14.399
<v Speaker 2>lions that lived in the land. And so God knew,

0:40:14.400 --> 0:40:16.880
<v Speaker 2>if I clear out all the enemies at once, the

0:40:16.960 --> 0:40:18.160
<v Speaker 2>lions will take them over.

0:40:20.440 --> 0:40:21.839
<v Speaker 1>What's a group of lions called?

0:40:22.040 --> 0:40:27.240
<v Speaker 2>Does anybody know what?

0:40:27.239 --> 0:40:27.439
<v Speaker 1>What?

0:40:29.200 --> 0:40:31.560
<v Speaker 2>So? God said, if I clear all your enemies out

0:40:31.840 --> 0:40:45.200
<v Speaker 2>all at once, pride, we'll take over. Paul said, I

0:40:45.360 --> 0:40:57.120
<v Speaker 2>delight in weaknesses, Canaanites, insults, parasites, hardships, heavites. Don't you

0:40:57.160 --> 0:41:01.719
<v Speaker 2>see it, Paul said, I'm glad for my giants. I

0:41:01.760 --> 0:41:05.719
<v Speaker 2>don't just thank God for my angels. I thank Him

0:41:05.719 --> 0:41:08.759
<v Speaker 2>for my giants too. They taught me how to fight.

0:41:09.440 --> 0:41:15.839
<v Speaker 2>They built my faith. So it's a deep message. It's

0:41:15.880 --> 0:41:19.239
<v Speaker 2>a deep message. It's one thing to praise God for

0:41:19.320 --> 0:41:23.080
<v Speaker 2>your protection, but it's another thing to praise him for

0:41:23.120 --> 0:41:30.240
<v Speaker 2>your problems. I want to suggest that sometimes your problems

0:41:30.280 --> 0:41:32.080
<v Speaker 2>are your protection from yourself.

0:41:39.880 --> 0:41:42.560
<v Speaker 1>You've had an addiction all your life, and.

0:41:42.480 --> 0:41:44.759
<v Speaker 2>You've asked God to take the desire away, and he

0:41:44.880 --> 0:41:51.799
<v Speaker 2>won't why because I want you to need me, and

0:41:51.840 --> 0:41:54.160
<v Speaker 2>I want you to choose to serve me.

0:41:55.400 --> 0:41:58.600
<v Speaker 1>I will not force you to be free. I want

0:41:58.600 --> 0:41:59.880
<v Speaker 1>it to be your decision.

0:42:00.440 --> 0:42:02.640
<v Speaker 2>So I'm going to leave some things in your life

0:42:02.680 --> 0:42:04.480
<v Speaker 2>that I know you want me to take out.

0:42:05.760 --> 0:42:09.160
<v Speaker 1>But I'm not sending you into the fire alone.

0:42:09.360 --> 0:42:11.960
<v Speaker 2>I will be with you to deliver you, and I

0:42:12.000 --> 0:42:17.360
<v Speaker 2>will protect you, and I will prepare you, and I

0:42:17.400 --> 0:42:20.719
<v Speaker 2>will position you. But I cannot possess it for you.

0:42:21.840 --> 0:42:25.600
<v Speaker 2>Only you can possess this place. Only you can do it.

0:42:26.200 --> 0:42:29.240
<v Speaker 2>I can preach to you these principles, but I cannot

0:42:29.320 --> 0:42:30.000
<v Speaker 2>possess them.

0:42:31.239 --> 0:42:32.480
<v Speaker 1>No one can do it for you.

0:42:34.480 --> 0:42:37.440
<v Speaker 2>Stop expecting for God's deliverance to be sudden.

0:42:38.760 --> 0:42:44.239
<v Speaker 4>The greatest gift God can give you is gradual change,

0:42:44.840 --> 0:42:47.759
<v Speaker 4>so that he hides you from your own progress to

0:42:47.880 --> 0:42:50.800
<v Speaker 4>prevent your pride.

0:42:51.719 --> 0:42:58.319
<v Speaker 1>God doesn't even want you to know you're growing. He

0:42:58.360 --> 0:43:01.719
<v Speaker 1>wants you to trust his grace. And that's why God said.

0:43:01.480 --> 0:43:04.760
<v Speaker 2>To Paul, I'm not going to give you the gift

0:43:05.440 --> 0:43:09.839
<v Speaker 2>of relief. I'm gonna give you something greater, grace. It

0:43:09.880 --> 0:43:15.040
<v Speaker 2>looks like a thorn, but it's really grace. The devil

0:43:15.120 --> 0:43:17.640
<v Speaker 2>might have dropped it off at the doorstep. But I'm

0:43:17.640 --> 0:43:19.000
<v Speaker 2>the one who addressed it to you.

0:43:21.320 --> 0:43:24.040
<v Speaker 1>And no, I won't drive them all out, And no

0:43:24.160 --> 0:43:25.560
<v Speaker 1>I'm not going to make it easier. You know what.

0:43:25.640 --> 0:43:31.080
<v Speaker 2>God won't fix your attitude. He'll give you his spirit

0:43:32.840 --> 0:43:37.399
<v Speaker 2>little by little as you serve and pray, show up.

0:43:38.640 --> 0:43:40.840
<v Speaker 2>Trust that He's working in your life. Little by little,

0:43:41.800 --> 0:43:45.120
<v Speaker 2>little by little, I am bringing you into the place

0:43:45.160 --> 0:43:50.200
<v Speaker 2>that I have prepared for you. The greater assignment gets

0:43:50.239 --> 0:43:53.799
<v Speaker 2>the greater assistance. If you've been going through some of

0:43:53.800 --> 0:43:57.960
<v Speaker 2>the things that Paul mentioned, weakness, insults, hardship, persecution, difficulties,

0:43:58.040 --> 0:44:00.799
<v Speaker 2>he mentions five and verse ten. I believe they are

0:44:00.840 --> 0:44:02.840
<v Speaker 2>the five giants that God leaves a measure of in

0:44:02.880 --> 0:44:03.640
<v Speaker 2>all of our lives.

0:44:05.040 --> 0:44:06.319
<v Speaker 1>I believe He leaves a little bit of.

0:44:06.239 --> 0:44:08.319
<v Speaker 2>All of that in all of our lives to teach

0:44:08.400 --> 0:44:11.480
<v Speaker 2>us to trust it. If it's been speaking to you

0:44:11.520 --> 0:44:13.360
<v Speaker 2>today while I've been preaching, and you would like for

0:44:13.440 --> 0:44:16.000
<v Speaker 2>me to agree in prayer for you to take your

0:44:16.040 --> 0:44:18.520
<v Speaker 2>next step in faith, stand to your feet, and I

0:44:18.560 --> 0:44:28.520
<v Speaker 2>will please at every location something that you wanted God

0:44:28.560 --> 0:44:31.840
<v Speaker 2>to take away, but He's left it for a reason.

0:44:34.640 --> 0:44:37.400
<v Speaker 2>Please don't leave because somebody might be standing about something

0:44:37.440 --> 0:44:39.480
<v Speaker 2>that's much more serious than traffic.

0:44:40.000 --> 0:44:41.239
<v Speaker 1>So please stay right where you are.

0:44:44.120 --> 0:44:46.359
<v Speaker 2>When God releases a word like this into your life,

0:44:46.360 --> 0:44:49.440
<v Speaker 2>it's kind of like that angel. It can only transform

0:44:49.560 --> 0:44:51.480
<v Speaker 2>you to the level that you put your attention on

0:44:51.520 --> 0:44:54.439
<v Speaker 2>it and decide to obey it. And so what you've

0:44:54.440 --> 0:44:56.560
<v Speaker 2>heard today has been a principle from God's word, a

0:44:56.600 --> 0:45:01.680
<v Speaker 2>principle of possession. And the principle is it. It's ready

0:45:01.680 --> 0:45:06.920
<v Speaker 2>when you are, It's ready when you are. God gave

0:45:06.960 --> 0:45:09.480
<v Speaker 2>you the giant as a gift to teach you to

0:45:09.640 --> 0:45:10.920
<v Speaker 2>drive it out by faith.

0:45:11.520 --> 0:45:12.840
<v Speaker 1>That's how He strengthens you.

0:45:14.120 --> 0:45:19.080
<v Speaker 2>And the opportunity is before you today.

0:45:19.920 --> 0:45:21.000
<v Speaker 1>God said, I'll protect you.

0:45:22.360 --> 0:45:26.400
<v Speaker 2>I will, I'll prepare you, I'll position you, but I

0:45:26.400 --> 0:45:29.480
<v Speaker 2>will not possess it for you. The gift that I'm

0:45:29.480 --> 0:45:32.920
<v Speaker 2>going to give you is the grace to be patient

0:45:33.880 --> 0:45:38.719
<v Speaker 2>as you possess the promise. Father, would you minister right

0:45:38.760 --> 0:45:42.800
<v Speaker 2>now to each son and daughter that you have called

0:45:42.840 --> 0:45:47.279
<v Speaker 2>by name and chosen for this time, the grace that

0:45:47.320 --> 0:45:52.560
<v Speaker 2>they need for their specific situation. You said to Paul,

0:45:53.000 --> 0:45:58.560
<v Speaker 2>my grace is sufficient for you. I believe that promise

0:45:58.640 --> 0:46:00.400
<v Speaker 2>is personal for me.

0:46:00.480 --> 0:46:01.000
<v Speaker 1>And for them.

0:46:02.120 --> 0:46:05.400
<v Speaker 2>I don't believe there's a situation in this room that

0:46:05.440 --> 0:46:10.680
<v Speaker 2>you would not declare over My grace is enough. So

0:46:11.520 --> 0:46:15.799
<v Speaker 2>we stand in the sufficiency of your Spirit and your

0:46:15.800 --> 0:46:20.520
<v Speaker 2>son today and on every location. I come into agreement

0:46:20.960 --> 0:46:25.600
<v Speaker 2>with your people that we will not waste our Angel.

0:46:26.640 --> 0:46:30.520
<v Speaker 2>We will not waste this message. We will not waste

0:46:30.920 --> 0:46:34.640
<v Speaker 2>this moment. You have brought us this far. You have

0:46:34.760 --> 0:46:38.759
<v Speaker 2>brought us too far. You have been too good and

0:46:38.880 --> 0:46:43.080
<v Speaker 2>done too much for us to stand outside of freedom,

0:46:43.360 --> 0:46:46.680
<v Speaker 2>wishing about it, thinking about it and singing about it,

0:46:46.760 --> 0:46:48.279
<v Speaker 2>but not experiencing it.

0:46:48.560 --> 0:46:50.440
<v Speaker 1>I declare, in the name.

0:46:50.280 --> 0:46:56.280
<v Speaker 3>Of Jesus, we shall be free. We shall possess the land.

0:46:56.640 --> 0:47:01.400
<v Speaker 3>We shall inherit the promise. We shall receive all.

0:47:01.239 --> 0:47:04.560
<v Speaker 2>That you'll die to provide. We shall rise as you

0:47:04.680 --> 0:47:08.360
<v Speaker 2>are risen. Come on, put a sut on that people,

0:47:09.280 --> 0:47:10.279
<v Speaker 2>put a sut on it.

0:47:11.520 --> 0:47:12.640
<v Speaker 1>Put a sut on it.

0:47:19.520 --> 0:47:24.239
<v Speaker 2>By faith, we will inherit the land God. I come

0:47:24.239 --> 0:47:27.360
<v Speaker 2>against the spirit of discouragement today. The devil is a liar,

0:47:28.160 --> 0:47:30.680
<v Speaker 2>that spirit that always tells us, what's the point, You're

0:47:30.760 --> 0:47:33.720
<v Speaker 2>just like you were never gonna We say to that spirit,

0:47:33.760 --> 0:47:36.360
<v Speaker 2>shut up. In the name of Jesus, you're already defeated.

0:47:36.920 --> 0:47:39.600
<v Speaker 1>Get under our feet. We are the people of God.

0:47:41.680 --> 0:47:42.600
<v Speaker 1>Get beneath us.

0:47:43.920 --> 0:47:46.080
<v Speaker 2>Right now we are walking on what we used to.

0:47:46.120 --> 0:47:49.200
<v Speaker 1>Run from in the name of Jesus. And every place

0:47:49.280 --> 0:47:50.040
<v Speaker 1>we set.

0:47:49.760 --> 0:47:53.240
<v Speaker 2>Our foot, You've already given it to us. If we step,

0:47:53.320 --> 0:47:56.279
<v Speaker 2>you step, If we go, you go, If we will,

0:47:56.400 --> 0:47:57.000
<v Speaker 2>you will.

0:47:57.320 --> 0:47:59.239
<v Speaker 1>You are God, and we trusted you.

0:48:01.760 --> 0:48:07.960
<v Speaker 2>We declare this day total victory.

0:48:08.960 --> 0:48:13.319
<v Speaker 1>This is our declaration. Thank you for joining us.

0:48:13.640 --> 0:48:16.080
<v Speaker 2>Special thanks to those of you who give generously to

0:48:16.160 --> 0:48:19.640
<v Speaker 2>this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.

0:48:20.080 --> 0:48:22.640
<v Speaker 2>You can click the link in the description to give now,

0:48:23.160 --> 0:48:27.040
<v Speaker 2>or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information

0:48:27.560 --> 0:48:30.360
<v Speaker 2>and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.

0:48:30.640 --> 0:48:31.960
<v Speaker 1>You can share it with your friends.

0:48:32.239 --> 0:48:34.520
<v Speaker 2>You can click the share button, take a screenshot and

0:48:34.560 --> 0:48:36.680
<v Speaker 2>share it on your social stories and tag us at

0:48:36.719 --> 0:48:37.560
<v Speaker 2>Elevation Church.

0:48:37.640 --> 0:48:44.239
<v Speaker 1>Thanks again for listening. God bless you.