Andre Butler

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Andre Butler, pastor of Faith Experienced Church.
You're listening to the Faith Experience podcast. Thank you for
joining us. We hope that this message helps you engage
your faith and experience the future God has for you.
I'm glad to hang out with you guys and this
year what God has put on my heart. And you
know we've been talking about We've been answering the question God,

(00:23):
where are you? Because sometimes we find ourselves in situations
where it feels.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Like God's not there.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
In fact, we read a scripture last week in Jeremiah
twenty nine and verse eleven, where God said, I know
what I'm doing. I have it all planned out, plans
to take care of you, not abandon you, Plans.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
To give you the future you hope for.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
And by mine is even if you know God, even
if you've been walking with God for a while, there
are times where things are tough and you can feel
like you're experiencing the opposite of the scripture, that God
doesn't know what he's doing, that he has nothing planned out,
that instead of taking care of you, he's actually abandoned you.

(01:13):
Instead of you get in the future you hope for,
you get in the future you dread it. And and
the series what we're doing is trying to help you
to see things as they are, help you to see
that indeed, God does know what he is doing. God
is there with you, that even in the midst of
your trouble, God is a God who can protect you.

(01:39):
He's a God who will bring you out. He's a
guy who will still give you that future you've been
longing for, that future that you've been hoping for. And
so last week we began this series by just simply
finding out that even though it may not feel like it,
God does care. Somebody turned down. Turn your neighbor and
tell him God cares. Learn that God cares many cares

(02:01):
about you. The Bible says, he cares about how you feel,
cares about your emotions, He cares about your prosperity. He
actually wants you to do well in life. He cares
about your future. He wants to make sure you go
to heaven one day. And today we want to pick
up in March chapter four again, beginning with verse thirty five.

(02:21):
And this is the story that we looked at last week.
We're just gonna look at a little bit more closely today.
And it says as evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, let's.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Cross to the other side of the lake. So they took.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the cross behind.
All the other boats followed. But soon a fierce storm
came up. High waves were breaking into the boat and
it began to fill with water, and Jesus was sleeping
at the back of the boat with his head on
a cushion. So once again recognize that they're in this
on this trip. Apparently when they first got in the boat,

(02:58):
the weather was fine, but once they got in the boat,
there's this massive storm, you know, seemed to come on them,
and it's so bad that the boat is actually filling
with waters, actually sinking. And yet when they look to
find Jesus they find him sleep on a pillow. So
the Bible says, the disciples woking up shouting, teacher, don't

(03:18):
you care that we're going to drown?

Speaker 2 (03:22):
It doesn't look like he cares.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
They're screaming and they're doing everything they can to save
their lives, and he sleep.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well. It says, when Jesus woke up, he rebuked the.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Wind and said to the waves, silence be still, and
suddenly the winds stopped and there was a great calm.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
And thank God, the great calm is coming for all
of us. You will get out of this.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
You will have the moment that we heard about in
our panel today where you'll look back at your notes
and you'll say, you know what, God brought me out
of that.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
I know it.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
May I feel like that right now. You may feel like, no,
this is it, this is gonna do me in. But
I'm here to tell you God's bringing you out. This
is gonna be another notch on goud. Come on now,
there's gonna be another victory that you have. You're gonna
look back. I don't know if it's gonna be in
a month or in six months, but you're gonna look
back at the trouble you're in right now and say,
you know what, it felt like God didn't care. It
felt like I was never gonna get through this. But

(04:13):
God brought me out of this. God gave me victim.
I'm preaching better than y'all saying amen this morning. Come on,
God gave me victory. Look what the Lord has done.
Well here, that's what happened. They ended up in this
great storm and looked like they were going to die,
and then.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Jesus stopped the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
But I want to focus on the next thing that
Jesus said, because this is really interesting. Then he asked them,
why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
So after he.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Dealt with the storm, he turned and dealt with them.
These are his disciples, they've been with him for a while.
He says, why are you afraid? What's the reason? What's
your explanation for being afraid? And didn't that seemed like
a strange question? You know, what do you mean? Why
am I afraid? I mean, did you just see what happened?

(05:14):
We were in a storm, The boat was full of water,
we were sinking, we were about to die, and you
were sleep and you asked me, why am I afraid?
Some of us, this is what God's saying us today,
Why are you afraid? And you're like, are you kidding?

Speaker 2 (05:33):
What do you mean? Why? Why aren't you afraid?

Speaker 1 (05:37):
But Jesus actually expected them to ignore what they saw
and how they felt, to the place where imminent.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Death didn't even scare them.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
He wanted them, He expected them to keep their eyes
and their mind on what he said and the fact
that he was with them to the place where no
matter what would happen, they would know that they were
getting to the other side. And you have to recognize

(06:15):
God wouldn't send you on a journey to the other.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Side if he didn't know how to make sure you
would get there. So this is what Jesus expected.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
He expected them to kind of put on their faith glasses.
You know, I got my shades this morning. I don't
know these arebuffs and I don't remember. But you know,
this is how Jesus lived, right. You know, Jesus will
look at things.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
I don't know what. How didn't take the lights out?
Did I? Okay? You know Jesus wouldn't look at things.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
He wouldn't base his faith on what he could see
or what he could feel. He entirely based his faith
on what God said, And in this case, Jesus had
said something.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Let's look at verse thirty five again.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, let's cross
to the other side of the lake. Well, when he
said let's cross to the other side of the lake,
there was enough power in that statement to make sure
that they would cross to the other side of the lake.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
So the reason why he could go.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
To sleep even though they were in the middle of
a storm, was because he knew he had said, let's
cross to the other side of the lake.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
So he actually slept with his faith shades on.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Because as far as he could see, we were getting
to the other side. In fact, he saw himself at
the other side. That's how he felt, I'm already I
better hurt him and get some sleep because we're gonna
be there in a minute. And he affected them in
the middle of a storm, in the middle of the
boat being full of water, to put on their faith
shades and say, guess what. I don't see a storm,

(08:09):
I don't see any water. All I see is Us
on the other side. And I'm here to tell you today,
whatever's going on in your life. You might see some
things you don't like, you might feel some things you
don't like. But God expects you to ask the question
what did God say?

Speaker 2 (08:25):
To put on your.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Faith shades and say, all I see is what God said.
The doctor said, I'm sick and dying, but I see
myself heal. My financial manager said, man, you going bankrupt,
but I see myself debt free. My family looks like
it's falling apart, but I see my family happy and
serving God. Twenty twenty two looks like it's going down
to drain, but I see twenty twenty two as a

(08:48):
year when I get dumb before my trouble. Come on, now,
God expects you to make a decision today. Stop looking
at what your body says, what your mind says, what
everybody else says, and ask the question, what did God say?
Turn out and tell him, Ask them what did God say?
Turn somebody out and tell him what did God say?

(09:11):
Come on, when your face were trouble, your first thought
needs to be what did God say? Come on, Matthew
Chapter fourteen, Come on, don't be laughing at my swag.
Come on, now, you remember that song we sing, Weymaker
even when I don't see it, You're working, even when

(09:32):
I don't feel it. You're working. See how can I
sing that? How can I believe that? Because I'm focused
on something. I'm focused on what God said instead of
what I see. Faith walks based on what God said,
not what I see. Matthew fourteen, very similar story. Immediately

(10:00):
after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into
the boat. And cross to the other side of the lake.
Notice that he said, cross to the other side of
the lake.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
While he sent the people home.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
And after sending them home, he went up into the
hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was
there alone, and meanwhile the disciples were in trouble. There
it is, he said, you know, God says you're gonna
get double before your trouble. That doesn't necessarily mean the
trouble won't come. Jesus told him go to the other
side of the lake.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
And guess what. When they were doing what Jesus said.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
Trouble came. Sometimes that's how it works, because you have
an enemy. He's trying to take you out. Don't be surprised.
Ible says, don't be don't be surprised by this fiery
trial that you're facing. This shouldn't be surprised that something
bad happened. You shouldn't be surprised that certain things show up.
You are in a war zone. That's what planet Earth is.

(11:02):
It's a spiritual war zone. The good news is you're
on the winning side. So once again they're in the boat.
The Bible says, they're in trouble, far away from the land,
for a strong wind had risen, and wins always seem
to rise once Jesus speaks his word.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
And they were fighting heavy waste.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
About three o'clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them
walking on the water, and when the disciples saw him
walking under the water, they were terrified and their fear.
They cried out, it's a ghost. But Jesus spoke to
them at once. Don't be afraid. I believe that's what
God is saying to some people today. Don't be afraid.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
That's what somebody this many turned down, and tell them that.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
Don't be afraid. Putting out in comments, don't be afraid.
Find somebody else, tell them, don't be afraid. I'm'a find
one more person. Tell them, don't be afraid. This is
a no fear zone. This isn't fear experienced church. This
is faith experienced church. We don't walk, we walk by faith.

(12:03):
He said, don't be afraid, take courage.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
I am here.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
Then Peter called to him, Lord, if it's really you,
tell me to come to you.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Walking on the water.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yes, come, Jesus said, so. Wait, a lot's happened here.
Number one, These are really jumpy guys man, they see him.
It's a ghost, right, and so he immediately speaks up,
he it's me, don't be afraid, and he must have
been close enough for them to hear him in the
middle of a storm, rememb there's a strong wind, and

(12:42):
yet he says, don't be afraid as me, and they
could hear him, so he's pretty close. He's already made
most of the journey. And so of course, as we said,
he said, don't be afraid. There's a lot of mention
of faith and fear in these stories, and that's really
what this is about today.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
And then Peter.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
Knew enough about Jesus to know that his whole thing
was what you see me, do I want you to do?
So he said, you know, and apparently he's still even
though they heard his voice, he must have been far
enough away from that that it wasn't entirely clear that
it was him.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
So Peter says, well.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
If it's you, I'm gonna test you because I know
you want me to do what you do. So if
it's you, tell me to come walk on the water
with you, you know, it's almost like I dare you
to do this. And then he you know, Jesus calls
your bluff will come. Peter's like, wait, why, I was
just kidding Broun. I mean, it's cool. No, Peter actually
is Peter Man. He you know, he's one of those

(13:38):
people that has no problem being bold, and he has
a problem, you know, being wise, but he has no
problem being bold. So the Bible tells us if we
keep reading here, you know, the Bible says here. So
Peter went over the side of the boat and walked
on the water toward Jesus.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
So he gets out the boat, takes.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
That first step, finds out just like walking on this stage,
because when Jesus said the word come, there was enough
power in that one word to give this man the
ability to supersede nation nature to walk on water.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
So he does it. He walks in water to go
to Jesus. But then I know the next thing that
says here.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
But when he saw the strong wind and the waves,
he was terrified and began to sink. Now, wait a minute,
didn't I just read that before they even saw Jesus,
they were dealing with the strong wind in waves. Isn't
that how this story started?

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Right?

Speaker 1 (14:44):
They were in trouble, far away from land, a strong
wind had arisen and they were fighting heavy waves.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
So the wind and the waves were not new.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
There was strong wind and there were heavy waves before
he even stepped out of the boat. But now he
steps out of the boat, he's walking to Jesus based
on what Jesus said, and he loses his focus. He
stops focusing on that supernatural word come, and instead he

(15:15):
starts focusing on the reasons why you normally wouldn't come,
the wind and the ways. It's really, why does that
it even He really didn't even focus on the water,
because wait a minute, you can't walk on water. But
he starts looking at all these other things. And this
is part of the reason why some of us are
even asking God.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Where are you?

Speaker 1 (15:33):
He says, Lord save me, And this is our way
of saying, Lord save me, because we just lost focus.
It's not that God went anywhere. It's not that he
changed what he said. It's simply that you have stopped
looking at him. You stop looking at the promise he
gave you, and you start looking at what's going on
around you.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
And when you get in fear, you will sink.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
When you say in faith, you will walk, but fear
will cause you to sink. Every time this man lost
his focus. So the Bible says he began to sink,
and and and he says, and of course he says,
save me, Lord, and I love this. Jesus immediately reached
out and grabbed him. Every time I read this, this
always jumps out in me, because what's wild about this

(16:22):
is that he clearly got.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Very close to Jesus.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
You know, Jesus didn't you know, the Bible doesn't say Jesus,
you know, ran across the water that had have been
cool to see.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
The Bible didn't say that.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
Jesus, you know, jumped in and swam and you know,
you know, grabbed him and and you know, you know,
took him back to the boat. It says Jesus immediately
stretched forth his hand. So that means that Peter was
almost there, like another couple steps, and he's made it.

(16:58):
It was right before he had his final breakthrough, that
he had his he had seemingly his greatest challenge. And
for some of us, that's what's going on right now.
You are right there, I mean, you are right there.
You've been believing God for this for who knows how
long you fought over who knows far how many battles.

(17:21):
God has done some miracles through you. God has done
some miracles for you. You've been walking on the water,
and just when you're about to have your breakthrough, everything
breaks out.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
All of a sudden, things seem to be falling apart.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
And what you need to do in this moment, more
than ever, is keep your focus on.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
What God said.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
You might be facing your greatest battle because you're on
the doorstep of your greatest accomplishment, because you're on the
doorstep of your greatest victory. That's why things are falling.
But I'm talking to somebody bout the holies fear. You
might be sitting at home. But that's why you were saying, God,
why is all this happening? Because the enemy knows that
if you have another couple more steps in you, he
is done.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
That battle is over, and.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
From here on out you'll be telling people about what
the Lord has done. So you cannot allow yourself right
now to give up.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
This is the time to put on your faith shades
and say what did God say?

Speaker 1 (18:16):
God said, Come So, even though it looks bad and
it feels bad and everybody thinks I've lost my mind,
because God said, come, I'm gonna keep on walking on
the water, and I'm gonna have my victory. But notice
the key once again. You can't be focused on the wind.
You can't be focused on the waves. You can't be
focused on how you feel right now. You need to

(18:39):
ask yourself the question very simply, what did God say?
Turn to somebody and ask him what did God say?
I want to end this by noticing Jesus immediately reached
out and grabbing He said, you have so little faith?
And then he said, why did you doubt me? Why

(19:01):
did you doubt me? See, that's the challenge. We end
up in a situation we're doubting God, and you don't
have any reason to doubt God. He can do the impossible.
He cannot only do the impossible. He can cause you
to do the impossible. But you gotta stay focused on
what he said. Well, let's look at a different type

(19:23):
of story in Genesis chapter twenty two, because sometimes we
have to hold on to what God said, even when
for God to do what he said would take the impossible.

(19:45):
And let me shoot tell you what I'm talking about.
Genesis twenty two, verse one, it says, sometime later God
tested Abraham's faith.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
Abraham, God called yes.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
He replied, here, I am take your son, your only son, yes, Isaac,
whom you love so much, and go to the land
of Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on
one of the mountains, which I shall show you. So
God speaks to Abraham and he says, I want you
to take your son. This is the son you believe,
for you had him at one hundred years old, and

(20:14):
I want you to take him to this mountain.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
I want you to sacrifice.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
And Abraham had a covenant with God and that meant
that he needed he had to obey what God told
him to do.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
And Abraham understood that.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
So he's now going to obey God and take the
thing he.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
Wanted the most in the world.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
And sacrifice it for God. And do recognize that God
does require our lives. That's what salvation is. It's not
just praying a prayer. It's giving God your life like
he gave you his life. Right, you don't get to
pick and choose what areas of my life God's involved in.

(20:55):
That's not what it means to be a Christian. That's
what not what it means to be a follower.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Jesus.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
To be a follower of Jesus means that Christ is
my life. I don't pick stuff. I seek God and
find out what he's picked. I don't pick my calling.
I don't pick my job. Then I don't pick my church.
I don't even really pick who I'm married. I don't
even pick you know, I talked to God. Okay, y'all

(21:22):
was all happy loving this message until that moment.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
But it's true.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
So God's saying, Hey, this is what I'm expecting you
to do. Verse eight. So of course, if we were
to keep reading, you find out that his son eventually
kind of says, hey, Dad, you know what's going on.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
You know where's the land? Where's the sheep?

Speaker 1 (21:49):
And this is Abram's response, God will provide a sheep
for the burnt offering my son.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
And they both walked on together.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
And when they arrived at the place where God had
told him to go, Abraham built an altar and ranged
the wood on it.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Then he tied his son Isaac and laid him on
the altar on top of the wood.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
There's a message in there about the fact that Isaac
trusted his dad this much. And Abraham picked up a
knife to kill his son as a sacrifice, And at
that moment, the Angel Lord called him from heaven Abraham.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Abraham.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yes, Abraham replied, here, I am, don't lay a hand
on the boy. The angel said, you not hurt him
in any way. For now I know that you.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Truly fear of God.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
You have not withheld from me even your son, your
only son, which of course paved the way for God
to not have not withhold his son from us. Because
Abraham was willing to give his son to God. God
was willing to give his son to us. So there's
some deep things in there. I won't try to teach today.
He said, why would God require that? Because he was
working on something? Okay, But then look at Hebrews chapter eleven.

(22:57):
Let's get a different perspective on this. Talking about the
same instance, it says it was by faith that Abraham
offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham,
who had received God's promises, which would include the promise
of a son, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Get this, even though God had told.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Him Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will
be counted. Wait a minute, and if you were to
back up, we won't go there for times sake. You
can find scripture where God made it very clear to
Abraham that he'd be the father of many nations, but
that it would happen through Isaac, meaning Isaac was going

(23:45):
to get married and have kids, and then they would
get married and have kids. And they get married and
have kids. But the idea was that Isaac was going
to be the one that was going to give him grandkids.
So God said, Isaac is going to be the one
that does these things. But then God tells him kill Isaac.

(24:06):
You see the problem.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
But God, you said this, but you're telling me to
do this. So it's really wild about this?

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Then?

Speaker 2 (24:20):
Is that?

Speaker 1 (24:20):
The Bible says Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God
was able to bring him back to life again, and
in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from
the dead. So here's how Abraham did this. He put

(24:42):
on his faith shades. God said in Isaac, will my
seed be called? Now I know he told me to
kill him, But God said, and Isaac, will my seed
be called?

Speaker 2 (25:00):
God said, So, I don't know what God's gonna do here.
Maybe he gonna raise him from the dead.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
But I know that when God gets done, Isaac is
gonna be alive because God said, and Isaac, shall my
seat be caught? And what I love about this is,
up until this point in the Bible, you've never seen
anybody raise from the dead. Now, if you are Christian

(25:30):
at all, you read the Bible, all you know there
are cases after cases after cases of people being.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
Raised from the dead.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
We know Jesus was raised from the dead, but at
that point in time, there wasn't no instances of anybody
being raised from the dead.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
It never happened, was never heard of.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
He was so confident in what God had said that
he made it up. Well, God got to raise him
from the dead, and he'll do that, because in Isaac,
shall my seed be called? He literally just came up
with it. I don't know how God's gonna do it.

(26:09):
If he got to raise him from the dead, that's
what he gonna do, because I believe He will do
what he said.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
There's something we can learn in this.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Abraham held on to his faith despite the fact that
it would take God doing something he had never seen
or even heard of before, and so he got what
God promised. And sometimes that's when we get caught up.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
I just can't see how God can fix this.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
Anybody been there? Come on, I'm there right now. Anybody
been here? You put your hand up, even if your
hand out, they're not. Look at all those hands. I
just can't see. It is impossible if you're not careful.
You know, like this guy in Second King, chapter seven,
You remember that story. If I would talk about how
the city I believe of Samaria was in such great

(27:09):
famine that people were eating their children. The prophet of
God came and said, this is what God said, by
this time tomorrow, and he gave some economic indicators, but
bottom line was this nation's going to be prosperous. And
one of the men who was there said, man, if
God were to make windows in heaven, that couldn't happen.
And he said to him, well, you'll see it, but

(27:29):
you won't get to eat any of it, because he
doubted what God said because of what he saw. And
if we're not careful, we'll follow his example instead of
following Abraham's example. Abraham's example was very similar to us saying, today,
you know what, You're the God who was able to
do exceedingly abundantly above all I can ask or even think.

(27:53):
Your thoughts are higher than my thoughts, Your ways are
higher than my ways.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
You can do the impossible.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
So even though I don't see how you can fix this,
even though I don't see how I can get to
the future you long for, I'm gonna put my faith
shades on and I'm gonna say, you know, what, what
did God say? And if God said I'm getting double
from my trouble, I don't know what he gonna do,
but I'm getting it. If God said I'm gonna be healed,

(28:22):
I'm getting that. God says my family will serve the Lord.
I'm getting that. I don't care what it looks like.
I don't care if I can't figure it out. I
know that if God said it, God will do it.
I'm a focus on what God said. Come on, somebody said, again,
what did God say? Muscles simple message today, But as
when we got to get a hold of we gotta

(28:43):
get refocused here. We've got to get you know, recalibrate
our faith here and focus on what matters. If God
said it, he will do it. If God spoke it,
he will bring it to past. Has he said it?
And will he not do it? Has he spoken it?
And will he not bring it to pass? Is it
not impossible for God to lie? You've heard it said before.

(29:05):
If God were to say the sky is purple, it
would turn purple because he said it's purple.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
If he said it, he will do it.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
And there is nothing on this planet that can stop
it from happening except you, because he.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
Needs your phase. What's the question? What did God said?

Speaker 1 (29:25):
God likes doing the impossible, but it does require us
believing for the impossible. It's go a step further. Y'all
get anything out of this. It's flowing a little different
than I thought it would, but as long as y'all
getting it. Second Chronicles shot the twenty The reason happened

(29:48):
after this that the people of Moab, with the people
of Amen and others with them besides the Ammonites, came
to battle against Jehosaph Fad. Then some came and told
your host of Fact saying, a great multitude is coming
against you from beyond the sea, from Syria, and they
are in Hazizon tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
Which is ingody. The idea is they're pretty close.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
Jehostah fact Fear get this and set himself to seek
the Lord and proclaim to fast throughout all Judah. So
Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord. That's
what he's seeking the Lord, for I need help, and
Judah came, and that's help of the Lord.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
And thank God, God offers.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
Help, Bible says the Hebrews, for that we can come
boldly to the throne of grace and obtain mercy and
grace to help in time of need. So Bible says,
once again, they gather together to ask help of the Lord,
and from all the cedars that juitter.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
They came to seek the Lord.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
So notice that they find out that three armies are
coming to attack them, and they already know they can't
they can't defeat them. So we will say the president
today caused National Day of Prayer, and he sets himself
and the people set themselves to seek the Lord. And
they're just they're just coming to God to say, God

(31:08):
help us. There's nothing we can do. We jumped down
the verse twelve, and he says, Oh, Our God, here's
Jojosephat's prayer. Will you not judge them, for we have
no power against this great multitude that is coming against us,
nor do we know what to do what's he saying here,

(31:29):
He's saying there's nothing we can do, and we don't
know what to do. Anybody relate to that, and nothing
I can do to fix this, and I don't know
what to do. Say so, our eyes are on you.
That's the right place to put your eyes. Verse fourteen.
Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jehaziel, the.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Son of Zachariath, the son of Beniah, the.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
Son of Jyale, the son of matt and Iah, a
levite of the sons of the a of Asap. You
know what's interesting about this is the sons of Asap.
We're anointed to be musicians.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
That's what they were. They were musicians.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
And you know, God didn't choose to jump on a
prophet in that moment. He chose to jump on a musician.
And sometimes you got to recognize God will not speak
to you through who you expect him to speak to
you to. You know, I mean, you remember that place
in the Bible where God had a donkey speak to
the prophet and the donkey saved his life. You know,

(32:30):
sometimes we want to tell God who went, we're and
how and God say, wait a minute, I'm God. Remember
Sometimes we want to have God tell We want to
tell God how to speak to us about our situations.
God is such a big, bad situation. I need you
to speak loud and clear this time. Can you peel
back the roof and put your head down and just

(32:51):
say it's me, Please, God. I don't need that little nudge.
I don't need no little whisper. I don't need none
of that. I need straw heavy voice from Heaven and
sins seven people to confirm what you said. Lord and God,
like I already nudged you. There's some faith involved in

(33:13):
that too. And sometimes what God will do is he'll
speak to you through that nudge or even through other people,
and then he expects you to do what He said
through them, and if you don't, you just deal with
the consequences. Remember with Israel in Egypt, God didn't speak
to Israel. God spoke to Moses and told Israel, told

(33:34):
Moses what to tell Israel, and they didn't do what
Moses said.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
They died.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
I'm getting deeper than I want to get here today.
By line is God speaks to Jehzel and he says,
listen to all of you, Judah and your inhabitants of
Jerusalem and you, King jehosah Fat, thus says the Lord
to you, do not be afraid nor just made because
of this great multitude. For the battle is not yours,
but God's.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Tomorrow. Go down against them.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
They will surely come up by the ascentims, and you
will find him at the end of the brook, before
the wilderness of Jeriel. You will not need to fight
in this battle. Position yourself, stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord who.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Is with you, Oh Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear
or be discouraged.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
Don't be dismayed, don't fall, don't break apart, for the
Lord is with you.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Right.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
So notice this word they get from God. And if
we know the rest of the story, we know that
they immediately accept that. They fall in their face, they
worship God. Then they go ahead and get everybody, and
they're gonna head out to the battle tomorrow. They're in
such faith that jehosaph Fact didn't decide this by himself.
He actually consulted with the people, and they decided to

(34:44):
put the choir ahead of the army because they knew
that we were just going to spectate. So we're gonna
go ahead and start cheering for our team ahead of
time because we already know what God's gonna do because
we know what God said. They still got three armies
coming to attack them. It still looks bad, but we
know what God says. So come on, choir this, go

(35:06):
ahead and saying, praise the Lord for his mercy and
do it for the Lord is good. And can you
imagine the other the people that are attacking them, like
what is that?

Speaker 2 (35:14):
Are they singing? Right?

Speaker 1 (35:18):
So we know and what happens. God has them fight
each other. They all die. When they get there, they
find three days worth of spoil. And we talked about
that maybe a couple of weeks ago. All right, But
what's one thing I want you to get a hold
of here, is that for you to focus on what
God said, sometimes you need to figure out what God said.

(35:43):
One of the things that you have to find from
God sometimes you got to get from God is the
word of the Lord for your particular situation. And there's
another word for that. In fact, Inphesians chapter the sixth,
let me read it to you. It's talking about the
armor of God. It says, put on salvation as you're

(36:05):
a human, and take the sword of the Spirit, which
is the Word of God. Now the New Testament is
translated from the Greek and the original Greek. There were
two words in particular that were translated word. One of
them is logos, which is the written word right so
you're literally reading logos right now. The other is rama,

(36:29):
the rama word of God is a little different. In fact,
let me read to you what Van's Expository Dictionary says.
It says here the reference is not to the whole
Bible as such, that's logos, but to the individual scripture
which the spirit brings to our remembrance for use in

(36:50):
time of need. Did you see that it's the individual
scripture which the spirit brings to our remembrance for use
in time of need. He go was gonna say a
prerecords is being the regular storying of the mind with scripture.
You got to know scripture for God to bring it
to your remembrance. But there are times where God will

(37:12):
give you a rain of word. Well, God will will
either speak directly to you or God will bring to
your members a particular scripture, and that's the scripture you're supposed.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
To stand on. And this is sometimes where we miss it.

Speaker 1 (37:27):
I know, sometimes peop will come to me and say, Pastor,
can you pray for me about this, that and the other?
And I say, okay, what scripture are you standing on
the majority of the time I say that, they go, well,
we could, well, no, you need.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
To get from God the sword for this battle.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
Well you understand with guns, right that you know there
are times where you know, you know, a a assault
rifle would bet you run through Afghanistan trying to save
American citizens.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
You need an assault rifle.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
But if you in the city Detroit, and you in
a in an alley and you you fight for your life,
something a little small might work a little bit better.
And there are times where you you know you need
a specific word to stand on. That word is the
sword of the spirit that will take the enemy out.

(38:30):
Sometimes you can't take the whole Bible to a battle,
can y'all y'all with me?

Speaker 2 (38:37):
You can't, You can't quote.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
You can't even you know, when you when you're dealing
with all these thoughts and and you're fighting a storm
and all that is going on, you can't even think
of eighteen scriptures right now.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
I just need one. Just give me that one.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
Scripture that God has breathed on for this situation, because
when he breathes on it, that's when I got that.
When he breathes on it, that stuff, let's go to
the other side. When he breathes on it, that's where
the power is. So what did you say about this situation?

Speaker 2 (39:10):
God?

Speaker 1 (39:10):
And God says, this is what I said. I will
supply all your need according to him. So all of
a sudden, the bill shows up. No, my God shall
supply all my need. They say, well, you can't pay
this bill. My God supplies all my need. Well you're
about to run out, you know, we're about to take
your house.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
My God supplies all my need.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
And sure enough God shows up in the last moment
and pays off with you. But see you've got that word.
What's your reign of word? What's the scripture? God is
quick into your heart for you to hang on to,
for you to use as a weapon against the enemy.
And if you're saying, I don't know, do what Jr.
Hostaphact did he set himself to seek the Lord? What's

(39:56):
that scripture? Because God's got a for every situation. It's
got to rain about your kids, it's got to rain
about your marriage, it's got to raiment about your about
your ministry, about your church. What is it that God
is quickened to your heart? Sometimes he'll save you with that.

(40:18):
I didn't plan and say this, and I'm starting to
get over time, y'all.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
I remember when I was pastoring in Atlanta and we
had a we had a nice facility, and we were
we had bought some land and we were planning to
sell the facility.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
How to buyer.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
They were gonna give us some really good amount of money.
We're gonna turn around and build on that land. But
there was an element of faith here because what was
happening was, you know, the amount of money we were
told it would take to build on that land just
kept going up. And this was right, you know. You
remember this was like right before two thousand and eight,

(40:59):
so that the market was doing this, it was crazy,
and so construction prices were going through the roof. So
you know, when I first set out to do the deal,
it looked like this is gonna work.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
Got to believe.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
But now it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse.
But here I am at the end of negotiations. And
I mean when I say at the end, I mean,
the lawyers have done enough everything they're gonna do, and
they kind of like, okay, this is we were pretty
much there, you know, you're ready to sign. And I
just felt kind of funny about it. And you know,
I mean I was. I guess I was thirty, I

(41:31):
don't know a little younger. And I remember walking around
my kitchen literally just thinking about it. And I walked
up to my sink and I don't know what I
was washing or doing, and I heard this scripture come
from my heart. Count the cost, you know that scripture.
No man builds a tower without counting the cost. It

(41:52):
was a rain of word, and I knew immediately, oh,
don't do this deal. And I didn't, and you know,
to thousand and eight happened, and we would have been
at church without a building, supposedly building a building for
who knows how many years. But God gave me a

(42:12):
raym up that saved us.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
That was a word. But you know, God can't give
you a ram a word if you don't know the word.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
So you got to start like reading your Bible every day.
But he gave me that word and it was And
so this is one reason why you want to spend
time in the Bible. One reason why you want to
spend time in prayer so that you know you can
when God does want to drop stuff in your heart,
you can recognize it. But having said that, let's go

(42:41):
back to the main point. You can't say what did
God say if you have been taken to find out,
to take the time to find out, what did he
say about your situation?

Speaker 2 (42:52):
What's your come James chapter one.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
See, once you got that raindal word from God, man,
then you'll find there's.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
Peace there, there's grace there. You can walk on the water,
but you gotta get it.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
And sometimes you'll get it from meditating in the world
of God, just reading the Bible and studying it and
something will pop up at you. You know, it's like the
words jump off the page. You know, God's saying something
to you. But other times you get it in this way.
And James chapter one. Of course, Paul, excuse me, James
is talking to the church. He's talking about being in
tough times, you know, and so if you're the reverse

(43:32):
two he says, my brethren counted all joy when you
fall into various trials. Ooh, that'll preach consider it all
joy when you fall into not if you fall in.
When you fall in, everybody's gonna fall in at death
tough times. So when it happens, I actually look at

(43:54):
it as a good thing. And he goes on to
talk about not because God sends trouble your way. God's
not sending anything to you to hurt you or to you.
But who is saying that trouble will work for you.
It will develop your patience, which will help you get
your place. You don't lack anything Verse five. So if
any of you lacks wisdom, well, lacks wisdom, win when
you're in tough times. I mean, this time, it's tough,

(44:18):
it's struggling. I'm trying to keep my joy up, but
I don't know what to do. That sounded like we
just finished reading God. I do not see the way out.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
I don't. I don't know. I don't.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
I don't know how to win this. Well, if you
lack wisdom, ask of God. God gives to all, which
means he will give to you liberally, bountifully. One scripture
in one hundred and forty fifth Psalm says that God
gives with.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
An open hand.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
He's got an open hand in front of you. God
knows the way out of your trouble. And God wants
you to.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
Know the way out of your trouble. I'm gonna say
it again.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
God knows the way out of your true and he
wants you to know the way out of your trouble.
So he says, just come and ask me. He says,
he gives literally and the upbrad of not meaning that
God will not correct you because you asked for him.
God will not hold back the answer from you. God's
not holding back the answer.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
He's not playing a game.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
He's not encrypting things so you can't hear them or
understand them. If you're not hearing clearly from God. The
problem isn't God. And sometimes the problem is God already
told us and we didn't like what we heard, so
we like, well, that ain't it?

Speaker 2 (45:35):
So Lord, what is it he keep telling you? And Lord?
What is he keep telling you? Lord? And you three months?
Six month, nine mother year?

Speaker 1 (45:42):
Lord that Lord ain't talking to me? The Lord up
in here, and like, come on, man, not only want
to come. I'm dealing with that now. Lord's saying this
and then and I'm like, oh Lord, why because that's impossible.
Wait a minute, he does the impossible. No, he says, man,
just ask and it would be given to you. God

(46:05):
is not hiding his word from you. He's hiding his
word for you. Come on, now, he's there saying, if
you seek me, you will find me. If you set
yourself to seek me, then you're gonna find that. I'm
gonna give you the answer that you need. But some
of us we need to set ourselves there. Some of us, guys,
we're used to setting ourselves in front of the television.

(46:26):
We got the headset on, we got the PlayStation in
our in our hands, and we'll do that for hours.
But we won't give God fifteen minutes to hear a
rain of word that could change our life forever. Come on,
you know what it means to set yourself. Some of us,
we set ourselves in front of the Netflix, and we'll
ben just show five, six, seven, eight episodes till through
three in the morning. But we won't give God thirty

(46:46):
minutes to find out what he has to say about
my hell. We know what it means to set yourself somewhere.
We do it in a movie theater. Every time we
go to a movie, we sit down. We set ourselves
for two to three hours. If you just gave God
those two to three hours and heard from God, then
you'd be happy when you went to the movies. But

(47:07):
you gotta take the time. Come on, somebody say time.
You gotta take the time to find out what did
God say to me about this? And then when you
heard what God said to you about that, now you
can put on your faith glasses and no matter what
you see.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
It, what's going on?

Speaker 1 (47:27):
You can say, But God said, and get to the
other side.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
What did God say? You tell me when I come in,
you come to me hypasaka and you pray for this?

Speaker 1 (47:44):
All right, what's your scripture? Let's agree on it. Well,
this is what God said. I was reading my Bible
and this scripture jumped out at me and I knew
that was for this situation. I was praying and God said, tomorrow,
this is what's going on. I want you to do this.
And see a lot of times we're looking for answers.
We want God to do something. Healed this, change their heart,

(48:07):
do that, do this, do that, and the answer comes
in the form of a word instruction. There was a
woman at taking King Chapter four. The Bible says her
sons were about to be taken from her. She was
in such deep debt. She goes to the Man of God,
you know, help me, And then you would think that
he would give her money. He gave her a word,

(48:29):
go get vessels. Go gather vessels, not a few, and
fill them up with oil.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
She did it.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
Not only does she have money for that situation, she
had money for the rest of her life. There's other
places in the Bible the same thing happen. Namen was
a man who had leprosy. He came to the Man
of God and he he you know, And the Man
of God didn't even see him, didn't even bother even
meeting him.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
He just sent word.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
Out dip in the Jordan river seven times and Aama
gets upset, like I thought he was gonna do something spectacular.
I thought he's gonna call down something from heaven and no, no,
he just gave a word. But when they am and
did what was said, he was healed. What did God say,
Stop looking, Stop trying to tell God how to fix

(49:10):
your problem.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
That's for somebody me too. He's God.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
If he tells you to do something, you do it,
you hang on to it, and you watch God.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
Bring you vau one more thing, Saltner. I'm just gonna
end here.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
Just want to remind you of something somebody said, again,
what did God say? That's the big question, what did
God say?

Speaker 2 (49:45):
I like this. I love the scripture.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
I think it's a great ending to what we're doing today.
Salt ninety two twelve says this, the righteous shall flourish
like the palm tree. He shall grow it like a
cedar in Lebanon. The righteous shall flourish like.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
The palm tree.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
If you're somebody that's living right for God, that's really
what the Old Testament. The righteous are people who lived right.
This is your future.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
You will flourish.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
I'm preaching better than y'all saying a man I said
you will flourish.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
You see something similar Psalm one.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
That you'll be like a tree planted by the rivers
of water that brings forth.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
Its fruit and it season.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
You will not wither, you will not wither, you will
not wilt, you will not lose it.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
You're you're not gonna fall apart. You will flourish.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
But I love the fact that he says we will
flourish like the palm tree. Why I was I was
in Florida this week, got some sun Hallylujah came back
to Michigan and said, why on earth am I here?
Palm trees are the kind of trees that when you
do have hurricanes and things like that happened in general,

(51:01):
you don't see those break. You see all kinds of
trees on the ground. The palm trees are literally designed
by God to bend, but they don't break. In fact,
when whatever's happening is over with, the palm tree bounces

(51:22):
back up and is even stronger after the storm than
it was before the storm.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
You are a palm tree.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
You might be bending right now, but you're not gonna break.
You got some holy ghost buoyancy, some bounce back ability.
You're gonna bounce back, and you're gonna be even stronger
than you ever were when you went in it. You
came in at this level of strength, You're coming out
even stronger and wiser, with a story to tell about
how God's been good to you.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
But you will.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
Flourish, flourish, So I want to encourage you about that.
No matter what the enemy is throwing your way, God's
word is stronger. So the question isn't what are you
facing today?

Speaker 2 (52:15):
The question is what did God say I'm on.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Lift handsword he Let's thank God for the Word of God.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
Thank you Father, Thank you for tuning.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
In to another Faith Experience podcast. Remember God as a
future for you.