May 25, 2025 • 50 mins
Standing in life’s storms takes more than positivity—it requires a supernatural strategy. In John 16:33, when Jesus said “be of good cheer,” He wasn’t offering a suggestion but issuing a spiritual command that anchors us in courage and comfort. Like King David, who sought fresh instructions from God before each battle (1 Chronicles 14), we too must seek current revelation for current challenges. Recycled strategies won’t win today’s wars. Many believers stay stuck because they rely on past insights rather than tuning into God’s fresh guidance. Whatever battle you’re facing—be it anxiety, illness, or setbacks—your breakthrough starts with asking God for His specific strategy today. Victory isn’t just possible; it’s promised when you follow His lead.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hallelujah, reach down and just grab your Bible.
Let's just go ahead and make aconfession together.
Thank you, praise and Worshipteam.
It's an honor to serve with youguys.
Let's just say this togetherSay, heavenly Father, I'm at the
right place at the right time,with the right people, ready to
receive directly from you thingsthat will change my life.
(00:25):
Supply, increase, lord.
You're about multiplication.
So I open up my mind, I open upmy ears, I open up my spirit
and I turn my heart towards youto receive tonight exactly what
I need for you to put me overevery circumstance.
(00:49):
It's under my feet, in Jesusname, amen, hallelujah.
I just thought I'd share theword first.
There's a little bit of a ring,but I know you're working on it
, thank you, there's a littlebit of a ring, but I know you're
working on it.
Sheree Ray, thank you.
(01:12):
Let's just turn together to John, chapter 16, and starting in
verse 33, the last verse of John16.
And Jesus is talking, talking.
He said these things I havespoken to you that in me you may
(01:33):
have peace in the world.
You will have tribulation, butbe of good cheer, for I have
overcome the world.
And I just wanted to preach amessage entitled Be of Good
Cheer.
Be of Good Cheer.
And I didn't realize I startedthis message and I wanted to
really preach on the realitiesof heaven and that kind of
(01:56):
turned into a funeral.
So I was telling my dad like Ibetter not preach a funeral and
so but just, I've been kind ofmeditating on the realities of
heaven and how, you know,looking forward to we're going
to get a crown, amen.
I'm kind of skipping ahead ofmyself because that's my last
point, but you know you betterget a crown.
(02:19):
You know you better get a prize.
You know, and you know Jamestalks about that in the book of
James that we'll receive a crownafter we've gone through some
things.
You know we've seen, we know afew things because we've seen a
few things right.
And so how do we face trials,how do we face situations and be
(02:41):
of good cheer?
You know God didn't say thatwe're going to have a trouble
free life.
And then when we read what Jesuswent through in the Bible, what
we read, when we read whatPeter went through, when we read
what Paul went through, whatJonah went through just
disobedience, right, beingswallowed by the great fish and
we look at all these storms thathappened, and Paul's shipwreck
(03:04):
and other storms, and and, uh,I'm telling you, uh, god wants
to put us over.
He said be of good cheer, wecan be happy, we can be full of
joy, we can be full of peace.
Have peace.
These things have I spoken toyou that in me you may have
peace, that may like like dadwas preaching this morning, is
(03:26):
on our side, you know it's.
It's up to us to grab a hold ofthat peace, to live our lives
in christ amen.
And so, uh, he didn't promiseus that life would be trouble
free, but be of good cheer, it'sa command, don't you see it?
It's a command, command.
He's not saying it's optional,he's telling us be of good cheer
(03:51):
.
And so that's something that wehave to do, that's something
that we have to stir up.
And so in the Greek, that wordcheer or good cheer means good
comfort and good courage.
And so, while I'm preachingtonight, I just wanted you to
receive, fresh from the HolySpirit, an infilling of cheer,
of joy, of peace, of comfort andof courage and of strategy.
(04:15):
You know, some of you havelacked spiritual strategy, and
tonight there's an impartationof a fresh infilling of
spiritual strategy.
And so, ephesians 6.10,.
Be strong in the Lord and thepower of his might that you
(04:36):
might be able to stand againstall the wiles, the strategies of
the enemy.
You know God's strategy isbetter, it's going to put you
over every single time.
But I think some of us, when wego through storms, you know
storms in real life.
I'm talking about naturalstorms.
You can see them coming,they're off on the horizon.
You know, we spent some time inFlorida and one year we were
(04:59):
staying at this condominiumyears and years ago, and it was
right in the middle of Houstonhaving this huge drought, and so
I just loved being out on thebalcony every afternoon and
watching these storms develop inFlorida and every afternoon
they would just hit Like.
Several times we've been toFlorida, even at summer camp,
when camp was in Florida, aboutfive years in a row there and
(05:21):
every you know, every afternoonthat storm would develop and
just wash everything and itdidn't last, didn't last long.
But you know you ever play inthe rain.
I think we forgot how.
You know in kids, you know Iused to beg my parents, my mom
especially, let me go out andplay.
You know it's different than athunderstorm, right, playing in
the rain is kind of fun.
We had sand dunes in Corpus, butI wanted to tell this story of
(05:44):
Selena and the kids and I inFlorida.
One of those trips we were outon the beach and there was these
two dark storms and they werecoming and but there was this
light in the middle of it and Iwas like you know what?
I'm looking at the radar.
I'm thinking, hey, this, thisis just going to blow right by
us.
Let's stay on the beach,everybody else is packing up,
we're the only ones.
(06:04):
And let's just say that I waswrong.
And instead of them splittingapart and blowing right by, they
came together for a really hugestorm.
And so we start running,literally running off the beach
down to, like, our littletownhouse that we were staying
in.
This was like 20 years ago, sothe kids were pretty small and
(06:28):
lightning struck right likedirectly across the street.
I've never been that close thatI know of to lightning strike
just right there and I just Istopped, I was in awe and then,
you know, just continued runninginto safety.
And sometimes when we go throughstorms, we really can't see
where they're developing.
All we see are the results,right, all you see are the
(06:50):
effects of that storm and youfeel like all hell is breaking
loose and that you just can'tseem to wrap your.
You want to figure it out withyour brain and you want it to
make sense, and you, you know.
And so sometimes we do that onour own and we forget that the
strategy that we need comes fromour Heavenly Father.
(07:10):
Right, and so you know.
I kind of quoted this maybe.
But 1 Timothy, 1, 6, and 7, itsays Paul is telling Timothy.
Therefore, I remind you to stirup the gift of God which is in
you through the laying on ofhands, for God has not given us
a spirit of fear, but of powerand of love and a sound mind.
(07:32):
Everybody knows that.
Everybody can quote that, butrealize there are some things
that he hadn't given us.
He hadn't given us a spirit offear, but there are a lot of
things that he has given us.
Amen.
He's given us power.
We've, we have all of the powerof God living on the inside of
us, and if we would just walk inthat authority, I feel like
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God's just waiting on ussometimes to to get up and speak
to the storms in our life.
You know, uh, people miss that,that point of Jesus being asleep
in the bottom of the boat andthen saying to the disciple
rebuking them.
When they wake him up, you know, hey, we're about to die.
What are you just down heresleeping and we're about to die?
And he's like where's yourfaith?
(08:14):
And then you know he rebukesthe wind and the waves, and we
all know that story.
But you know they were like whois this man that even the wind
and the waves obey him?
You know the winds and thewaves, they can obey you too.
That's the whole point of thestory.
We have the same spirit offaith, we have the same
authority that Jesus walked in.
(08:35):
We walk in, we are his handsand his feet, and he's waiting
on us to step up and step intoour authority.
You know, and so you know.
But would you run into a battlewithout any weapons?
No, you're going to be fullyequipped.
God has already given you, likeI said earlier, every spiritual
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blessing, but we have to grab ahold of it.
We got to know that it's ours.
We got to know what we have inorder to fight the devil and win
in life.
And so I thought we would turnback to the Old Testament.
So if you'll turn back with meto 1 Chronicles 14, and let's
talk about David.
David in the Old Testament.
(09:16):
And so David was a man afterGod's own heart.
That's what they say, that'swhat David's reputation was
known for.
And he had already gone againstGoliath, who was the biggest,
meanest Philistine there everwas, and he took five smooth
(09:38):
stones and slayed the giant withjust one of those stones.
Amen, we know that story.
And then in verse eight, firstChronicles 14, chapter 14, verse
eight, it says this is later onnow when the Philistines heard
that David had been anointedKing over all of Israel, all of
(10:02):
the Philistines went up tosearch for David.
Everybody say all.
Can you imagine?
All of the Philistines, notjust you know?
Did Goliath have some brothers?
I don't know, but all of thesePhilistines are coming up and
going after David.
But why?
Because of his reputation.
They wanted to take him outearly.
(10:22):
As soon as they found out hewas in charge, as soon as they
found out he was king, they'relike oh no, we can't stand for
this.
We got to, we got to wipe himout early.
And so all of them went againsthim.
Let's see.
And so, and they and David.
And when David heard of it.
He went out against them.
And so you know what is whatdid he have?
(10:44):
What weapons did he have?
Did he have, like I said, didyou?
He was like, where's my slingat?
I have some, you know foursmooth stones left over.
Let me dig through the closetand get those out.
No, he had a whole differentway of going about it and it
says in verse nine thePhilistines went and made a raid
in the valley of Rephaim.
(11:04):
And David verse 10, here's theimportant part David asked, or
inquired of the Lord, sayingShall I go up against the
Philistines?
Will you deliver them into myhand?
And so he didn't just go, hehad a plan and he stopped and he
asked the Lord hey, is this agood idea?
(11:24):
Stopped and he asked the Lordhey, is this a good idea?
I think so many of us.
We see we're facing somethingat work, we're facing something
in our personal lives and it'shitting us dead in the face and
we're like we can just keepgoing at it our own way and we
don't really stop and think.
And you know what?
Let's ask the Lord what is thestrategy?
There is a fresh strategy forwhatever you're facing tonight.
(11:47):
Amen.
And you're receiving that rightnow, as I'm speaking
Supernaturally.
I believe in supernaturalhearing, we all believe that
around here, and so I say thatby faith that you're receiving a
supernatural strategy to dealwith that situation that you're
facing.
To deal with that situation thatyou're facing, similar to David
, david prayed and he inquiredof the Lord will you deliver
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them into my hand?
And what did God say?
He said go up, for I willdeliver them into your hand.
And so they went up toBaal-perism and David defeated
them there.
And then David said God hasbroken through my enemies by my
hand like a breakthrough ofwater.
Therefore, they called the nameof that place Baal-perism.
(12:34):
And so well, let me go aheadand finish this one battle.
And when they left their godsthere, the Philistines had left
all their gods behind there.
David gave a commandment andthey were burned with fire, so
all of those gods were burned up.
So it really was a war of whichGod is going to win.
And our God won, amen.
(12:56):
But he won through the hand ofDavid, through the courage of
David, through the obedience ofDavid, and David wasn't courage
of David through the obedienceof David, and David wasn't
didn't rise up in pride and sayI got this.
This is no big deal.
I killed Goliath.
I'm you know I'm going to goout there.
No, he stopped and he prayedand he made sure.
(13:20):
And then verse 13,.
We don't know, I didn't reallystudy this out.
There's maybe in the.
It might tell us how long itwas before they tried it again.
They come back.
They didn't learn the firsttime, right, or the second time?
This is really the third time.
And then the Philistines onceagain made a raid on the valley.
Therefore, david, what did hedo?
He's like, oh no, I got that.
We went straight ahead.
We just do that again.
No, what did he do?
(13:41):
You already know he inquiredagain of the Lord.
How many of you realize?
One time's not enough, man,when you prayed and you're
working off of 1988's revelation.
It's not enough.
There's fresh revelation fortoday.
There's a fresh strategy fromheaven.
Today, that's what it keepssaying, right.
And God said unto him you shallnot go up after them.
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And God said unto him you shallnot go up after them.
Instead, circle around them andcome upon them in front of the
mulberry trees.
And it shall be, when you heara sound of marching in the tops
of the mulberry trees, veryspecific, right and supernatural
.
See, the strategy wasn'tnatural, it was supernatural
right.
You see that Then you shall goout to battle, for God has gone
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out before you to strike thecamp of the Philistines.
And so David did as Godcommanded him, and they drove
back the army of the Philistinesfrom Gibeon as far as Gezer.
And then, so so God used thatstrategy and and Israel won
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again.
And so our God won againthrough the hands of David, but
it was through his obedience andthrough his prayer.
And I want you to see that itwas a fresh, completely new
strategy.
That was supernatural.
And so that's what we need to do, is we need to hold up in our
lives and wait for thatsupernatural strategy.
(15:11):
He's speaking to us on a dailybasis.
All we have to do is listen.
All we have to do is plug inand you say, oh Jay, you don't
understand that there's so muchpressure at work, there's this
is going on or that in mybusiness or whatever it is, and
this is going on and that'sgoing on, and I just don't have
time to plug in and listen and Ijust all I can do is pray for
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five minutes in the car.
No, rearrange your schedule,wake up earlier, do whatever it
takes.
Your whole life depends on itand your legacy of faith depends
on it.
Your kids depend on you hearingfrom God.
Your lack of obedience and yourlack of plugging in to what he
has for you today is costing youand your future.
And so make a change, amen.
(16:00):
And so it's easy to talk aboutand it's harder to do, but it
requires faith.
God requires faith.
He responds to faith, and so hedoesn't respond to laziness.
He doesn't respond to sleepingin and getting up late and just
starting your day and just goingon.
You know all of us have donethat, myself included.
You know I wake up, I startthinking about everything that
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I've got to accomplish that dayand it makes me want to get up
and go, move faster and harderat that goal.
And you know I'm kind of moregoal-oriented.
All of us have differentpersonality traits and I'm
preaching to myselfgoal-oriented.
All of us have differentpersonality traits and I'm
preaching to myself tonight tohold up, wait a second.
God has a whole new, freshstrategy.
There's an easier way.
He's going ahead of me andgreasing the skids and there's
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an ease.
If I would just jump in thatease, I don't have to stress out
about it, I don't have to call15 other people and gripe and
complain about how hard this is,and no, there's an ease in his
spirit, in his presence, if youwould just take time to receive
that fresh strategy and be morelike David.
(17:08):
So David had courage, he hadstrength and and he was used to
to dealing, uh, with Goliaths hewas, you know, in order to
fight Goliath he had to fightthose, you know, the lions and
the tigers and the bears, oh my,you know protecting his
father's sheep.
And so he had seen some things,he had been through some things
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He'd killed with his bare handsbefore.
And you know, I just I didn'twrite this down in my notes, but
I think it's later on inChronicles, you know, you hear
the story of David and Bathsheba, and that really started,
because I think it's verse oneof whatever chapter it is.
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It is In the time of war, whenkings should be out at war.
He sent his servant ahead andhe stayed back.
He stayed back in Jerusalem.
So he was in the wrong place, hewas in the wrong position and
so, yes, he did terrible thingsand lustful things, but it all
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started from being out ofposition, and the Bible doesn't
say why it doesn't.
Maybe he had good intentions,maybe he wanted his servant to
be glorified that day and beable to handle a situation and
win a battle without him.
Maybe you know, but the bottomline was he was in the wrong
position and it led to terrible,a terrible act that affected
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generations after generationsand ultimately we all kind of
assume that we know that story.
But he ended up gettingBathsheba pregnant.
Then he arranged a whole thingwhere he tried to pull her
husband back off the battlefieldso he would sleep with his wife
, so he could hide this wholething and it would go away.
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But he refused, right, and thenso he sent her husband into
battle under the you know, and,and so that he was killed.
And so then he had murder onhis hands and that, uh, that you
know.
God forgave him, but but itcost him being able to build the
temple because he had murdered.
And so there was consequences tothat sin.
(19:16):
There always is.
Walking in the flesh leads toconsequences, right, and so when
we can apply the blood of Jesus, we can nullify those
consequences, though some ofthose consequences, by having a
repentant heart.
You know so many people like mydad said this morning.
He was talking about a man thatwas in having an affair I don't
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know if everybody was here thismorning, but how he was just
more, he was sorry for gettingcaught.
He wasn't really, didn't reallyhave a true repentant of a
heart.
He was I don't know why I'mgoing through this again but he
just had a heart that was sorryfor getting caught and so not
being genuine with the Lord.
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And so David was genuine,though, and you find that and
then he was in.
He made it through to the hallof fame of faith in Hebrews,
chapter 11, and so the Biblesays that David was a man after
God's own heart, and so he hadthis reputation.
Let's go ahead and finish thisstory verse 17.
Then, after he won that secondbattle, then the fame of David
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went out into all lands and theLord brought the fear of him
upon all nations.
Everybody say all.
There's that word all again.
I won't get all pastrosian onyou and say say all five times.
No, I'm just kidding, I wouldyell out all five times.
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I had a little attitude anyways.
Uh, then the fame of of davidnot god, but david god made
david's fame spread.
Did you catch that.
So his obedience in his heartwas so pure towards the lord
that David was trying to shoutthe fame of God.
But God was exalting the fameof David, and so that's what
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obedience will do.
God knows how to exalt yourposition.
He knows how to bring promotionto you.
And all of a sudden, to you,and all of a sudden, you find
yourself in a whole differentposition, in a whole different
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place, being exalted wherever itis.
It could be at your job, itcould be in your business, it
could be with the amount ofclients that you have, it could
be a variety of different waysthat God brings promotion, but
promotion comes from God.
Ways that God brings promotion,but promotion comes from God,
and promotion comes throughobedience and humility.
Again, david, he could haverisen up in pride.
He had the army, he had thepower and he had the men that he
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had poured into, his mighty men, and they all knew how to kill
and they all knew how to win ina war right.
But instead he leaned on theLord, he asked for a fresh
strategy and he refused to moveuntil God spoke, until God gave
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him the plan.
And so today, again, as I'mspeaking, let's receive a fresh
infilling of courage andencouragement to do the right
thing.
And no matter how big the stormlooks, no matter how big the
issue, the problem, thecircumstance, no matter how, you
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know the devil, he doesn'tfight fair.
But at the same time, peoplelike to give him a lot of credit
, and I don't.
I just, you know, uh, uh.
Dad preached that, looking atthe year of milestones, you know
about not being in awe of whatthe devil is doing.
Let's be in awe of what God'sdoing.
(22:54):
You know we get people get sofocused on the devil.
I was going to tell, tell thisstory real quick and then I'll
move on.
But but uh, uh.
You know I struggled when I waslittle.
I had, I had a pretty traumaticevent happened to me when I was
15.
I was a freshman in high school.
I hadn't told this story in along time, and me and two of my
(23:16):
football buddies, we went overto this other girl's house and
we were just hanging out good,clean, fun.
We rode our motor scooters overthere because we didn't have
cars yet.
I had an Elite 80 Honda.
That's what started all thismotorcycle stuff, but it was a
much smaller, you know, and myfriend had one.
So we rode over to her house.
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She had a C, a senior that shehad just started dating and his
parents were divorced, and sohis dad had loaned him his brand
new blazer too I don't know ifyou know that the the smaller of
the blazers.
So five of us get in the carand we're going to go rent a
movie and pick up some ice cream, and none of us are really
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prepared for any of this.
We stopped at the randalls, atkirkandall and luetta first and
got ice cream and I don't knowwhy we didn't rent the movie
there at randalls, but we gotice cream first.
And then we all pile back upinto the blazer and he uh, he
exits out of the the east, exitthe left, but we're supposed to
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turn right.
So he starts to make the leftturn and we're like, wait, no,
we're going to go rent the movie, you got to turn right.
So he turns right, and when hedid, for whatever reason, he
just accelerated at a very highrate of speed.
So we get going now westboundon Luetta.
We're probably going 45 or 50,but we're really only supposed
to go across the street.
And so what did we do?
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Turn, turn, you're missing theturn.
And so what does he do?
He just turns, and so thevehicle starts flipping and one
of the like.
On the first revolution, thewindow that where I was next to
busted out.
And so I just I didn't have aseatbelt on, none of us had
seatbelts on, you know, this wasthe nineties man.
(25:00):
And so, uh, uh, I just grabbeda hold of the outside of the
vehicle with my left arm and and, like, pinched myself against
the whatever the side of thevehicle and it just kept rolling
and rolling and rolling andwhen it came to a stop it was
facing the window that I wasnext to is facing the sky.
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So I just pulled my body upwith my left arm and so I had
like a bunch of glass embeddedin my arm.
I had been burned really bad ayear before that, so I had like
sensitive skin anyways.
And the motor was still on, itwas still in gear and the tire
was right there and it was stillspinning, and somehow, when I
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got up, I caught my leg in thetire and so I have a scar on
this leg.
To begin with, so I shouldn'thave my leg, I shouldn't have my
arm.
I jumped down to the ground andI run to the payphone and you
thought I could rescue everybody, call 911.
No, I called dad.
I just needed somebody to sayyou know what, son, it's going
to be okay.
And so they beat the ambulance.
There I'm like I was in aterrible car accident just right
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down the road Luetta andKirkendall, and so they rushed
down there but my football coach, my junior high football coach,
coach Crosby, was getting someice cream with his family, with
his wife, and had ice cream inhis hand, walked out and
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witnessed the whole thing and hesaid later on he said every
time that the car got to yourside of the, you know, I should
not have my arm or I should havebeen killed or crushed, but
every time on the left side ofthe vehicle it bounced so it
would roll and bounce, roll andbounce, and so it never hit
where I had my arm holding onand so God protected me.
And so that's a miracle, right,and somehow, I don't know
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centrifugal force.
But on one of those rolls theice cream came out and we
smooshed it like a.
You know, it was likecompletely smooshed, like a
pancake, right.
So everybody lived, everybodywas okay.
My friend in the middle, likehe hit his head really hard
several times and so he had abig concussion and, kind of
(27:09):
honestly, was never the sameafter that and but it was just.
That was the.
That was probably the worstinjury of all of that accident.
But, god right, we all lived,we all survived, and instead of
being a hero and helping peopleout, I had to just run to the
payphone, had change in mypocket.
That was just funny to me.
You have no idea how you'regoing to react in a situation,
(27:31):
but I kind of, as a 15-year-old,I got kind of stuck on the why.
Why did this happen, god, whydid you allow this to happen?
And I think people get stucksometimes, especially like the
immature, like you're tempted toblame God, you're tempted to
just be stuck in a moment and Ikept like replaying all the
(27:53):
things that I could have done orshould have done and should
have said.
But basically, what caused thataccident?
Yeah, I was at the wrong placewith the wrong people, but
really it wasn't some demonicforce necessarily trying to take
me out Although that was somepercentage of it but really it
(28:13):
was just an inexperienced driverand an immature.
You know, he hadn't beendriving very long and he just
wasn't used to having all thesepeople in the car and we're
yelling directions to him.
That's really what caused thisaccident, not some, you know,
the devil, you know, made him doit and engineered this whole
thing.
No, like people, people do dumbthings, people make mistakes.
(28:35):
That's what an accident is.
It's not always the deviltrying to, you know, we just
give way too much credit.
You know, coming home from thebeach last week, we had a flat
and I really realized real quickthat with all my big tires and
everything that whatever camewith the truck, I just I wasn't
(28:55):
going to be able to change thetire.
And I was trying to count itall joy, but I was a little
frustrated, wasn't I?
And uh, and the Holy Spiritinterrupted.
That whole thing is like call amobile tire company, so I
Googled one.
That's what I had to do.
In the.
We used to have a big bus andwe've had a couple of flats in
the bus and the and the bigtrucks come and change the tire
(29:17):
and sell you a tire right thereanyways.
Um, but I did and it was thebest thing.
And then my dad, today he had ablowout and he calls me.
He's like I know you're aboutto preach and it's really hot
outside, but you know it waslike no, I'm, you know I'm not
going to come change your tire,I'm going to call somebody.
And so I called that sameperson and they showed up in 20
(29:38):
minutes and got him on his way.
And so I didn't know if I had aflat, because God knew that he
was going to have a flat and Icould help him out.
I don't know how this works, butit wasn't the devil.
So don't be quick to give.
Be in awe of all the devil'sstrategies.
And no, god has a strategy ofrescuing you.
No matter how small of aproblem that you have, he wants
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to pluck you out.
Like my offering scripture thismorning, he wants to protect
you from that.
And yes, we're going to havetribulations, we're going to
have trials, we're going to havebad things are going to happen
to good people.
But don't ever blame God.
Don't ever allow yourself,allow the enemy to deceive you
(30:23):
into thinking that this is God'sfault, that God sent this storm
or God sent this.
Whatever issue that you'refacing, be quick to realize the
mercy of God.
Be quick to walk and to lookfor his mercy, to look for his
favor, to be grateful for hisgoodness, to be grateful for his
(30:44):
glory, which is his goodness.
And so that's what God is allabout.
Amen.
And so James, chapter one.
I quoted this scripture earliera little bit, but verse 2, james
1, verse 2.
My brethren, count it all.
Joy when you fall into varioustrials, knowing that the testing
of your faith produces patience.
(31:06):
But let or allow patience tohave its perfect work that you
may be perfect and complete,lacking nothing.
And so tonight we are.
We lack nothing, we areallowing patience to have its
perfect work.
Amen.
And so we remain in faith,expecting the best, but we're
(31:29):
prepared for the worst.
That's what I realized when Ihad that flat in the truck.
I'm totally lost, I don't haveany of the right tools, and so,
before we leave for summer camphere in a couple of weeks, I got
a couple of weeks to get theright parts.
So I am prepared, amen.
And so Proverbs 21, 31 says thehorse is prepared for the day
(31:52):
of battle, but the victorybelongs to the Lord.
So we're prepared, but we knowthat victory belongs to the Lord
, and so we're expecting.
Our expectation for victory isin the Lord, amen and so.
2 Timothy 2, verses 1 and 3 sayBe strong in the grace Paul's
(32:14):
talking to Timothy be strong inthe grace, that is, in Christ
Jesus, and endure hardship as agood soldier of Christ Jesus.
And then, so you know, my pointnumber two is to keep the end
goal in mind.
And so we're keeping the endgoal in mind by being a good
(32:34):
soldier, mind by being a goodsoldier, enduring hardship as a
good soldier.
And in Acts 14, 22, paul, itsays Paul, along with Barnabas,
went about strengthening thesouls of the disciples,
exhorting them to continue inthe faith, saying we must,
(32:55):
through many tribulations, enterthe kingdom of God.
And so Paul and Barnabas wereconstantly strengthening the
souls that's your mind, yourwill and intellect right of the
disciples, telling them hey, youknow, quitting is not an option
.
Right Through many trials andtribulations, we are going to
obtain the prize.
Keep the goal, the end goal, inmind.
(33:17):
We're going to receive a crown.
Right James 1.12,.
Blessed is the man who endurestemptation, for when he has been
approved, he will receive thecrown of life which the Lord has
promised to those who love him.
So we're going to receive thatcrown.
Have your mind on the goal.
You run your race with patienceand endurance, looking unto
(33:39):
Jesus, the author and thefinisher of our faith.
That's Hebrews 12.
But have the goal in mind.
So you're running your own race.
It's not a race where you're incompetition with one another,
so you're not comparing yourselfto the person running next to
you.
You're running your race andyou're at the pace that God
wants you to run, and you'rebecause you're looking unto
(34:02):
Jesus, the author and thefinisher, the starter and the
finisher of our faith.
And so if he's, you know, if heresponds to faith, it's good
that he's the starter and thefinisher of our faith.
And how do we receive faith?
Faith comes by hearing, andhearing by the word of God.
So we remain in faith, but wenever forget the crown or the
(34:24):
goal that's ahead of us.
And so we are heavenly minded,but we're not so heavenly minded
that we're no earthly good,right?
Pastor Osteen would say thatall the time.
And so we are.
We're heavenly minded, but wehave, we know, how to function
right here in the nasty now andnow.
You know, pastor Osteen wouldsay that all the time, the nasty
(34:45):
now and now.
And so I just want to leave youwith three things, three
statements how we can remain inhaving good cheer.
So, number one, remember God'spresence.
Having good cheer, so numberone, remember God's presence.
He is with us in every storm oflife.
God, you know, look to Godfirst.
(35:07):
He said he'd never leave us norforsake us.
You know, I was listening tothat brand, that new Brandon
Lake song.
Maybe it's called Hard FoughtHallelujah, is that it?
But you know and I'm notknocking the song, it's a great
song.
But I got stuck on itafterwards and I was singing
that line over and over againabout my been through hell.
Hallelujah, and the HolySpirit's like Jesus went through
(35:27):
hell, so you didn't have to.
And so my hallelujah did gothrough hell with Jesus.
You know his praise.
The Lord went through hell, butI don't have to go through hell
, and so nothing that you'refacing is anything like hell.
And so I went through asituation a couple years ago.
(35:49):
I think I have some time if Iwanted to tell that story.
I've never really told it.
The Holy Spirit's kind of on meright now to tell it.
I'm, I don't the Holy Spirit'skind of on me right now to tell
it so, but I kept comparing itto hell.
I used to.
You know it's, this is hell,but it really.
Nothing you've ever beenthrough is hell it's.
(36:10):
It can be hellish, it can be.
I'm not cussing, I'm just I'mtalking about the hell over here
.
Okay, I never said hell ofanything, it's hell, but you
know.
So it was January of a few yearsago, two or three years ago,
and I was, I had this growth inmy mouth and I'd gone to the
(36:35):
doctor.
I was already at my regulardoctor and so, like I have him
take a look at it, which was myfirst mistake, and he's like,
ooh, and he was all concernedI've never seen anything like
this at all.
You need to go see the ENT.
And so that was my mistake.
Number two, I went to your noseand throat for something that
was mouth related, which if youhave anything wrong with your
(36:56):
mouth, you go see your dentist.
You mention it to your dentistand then you go see an oral
surgeon anything mouth related,because an ENT is ears, nose,
throat, not mouth, not dental.
But they ran a biopsy.
They like ripped part of mymouth apart and so and send it
off for a biopsy and he was allconcerned oh my god, I've never
(37:18):
seen anything like this.
What is this?
I don't know and I'm like itcouldn't be that bad.
But then fear sets in and then Ipreached a funeral the next day
and I remember that was alittle bit of pressure.
I try for weddings and funeralsto not be pressure, but it was
just like a little bit of youknow, you feel like as a
(37:42):
minister, you feel like you onlyhave one opportunity to honor
someone at their funeral, so youwant to knock it out of the
park.
And so I, literally I was upall night thinking about two
things this growth in my mouthand then doing a good job at
this funeral.
So, preach the funeral.
Everybody said I did so goodand it was anointed, and I felt
(38:05):
the anointing and I was sorelieved.
Hey, I'm going to go home andI'm going to sleep and this is
going to be fine.
And I go home and day, you know, night number two no sleep.
And night number two no sleep.
And night number three no sleep.
And night number four no sleep.
And on night three I brokesomething in my brain.
All of that pressure, it wasn'ta psychological break, it was a
(38:30):
physical break.
I broke my ability to stayasleep.
So I could fall asleep, but Iwould immediately wake up in
this fear and this terror, andthat would happen over and over
and over again.
And then I went enough nightswithout sleep where I just had
(38:53):
lots of illogical decisions.
I wasn't thinking clearly,obviously and I began to have a
mental breakdown of some kind.
I don't know what to call this.
I started having panic attacks.
I started having these major.
So we've prayed for people withpanic attacks.
I didn't really understand whata panic attack was and I
(39:14):
thought I was going to die.
I thought I was having a heartattack.
It was very similar like yourchest.
You have zero control, like I'mpraying in tongues, I'm shouting
at the devil, I'm using all thefaith that I know, I'm doing
everything I know to do and I'mlosing this battle, and so I
can't breathe.
You know the whole shortness ofbreath thing and all it was was
(39:37):
a physical problem, a chemicalproblem in my brain.
So it was not.
I was not going crazy, youdidn't have to send me to the
loony bin, it was a chemicalproblem and so.
But I ended up having to gowent back to that same doctor,
by the way, somewhere in themiddle of this I went to an oral
surgeon and it wasn't cancerand he gave me a medicine and
(40:01):
cleared up in like moments, likea day.
So no big deal.
So all that was like fornothing, right?
So I had, I didn't have aproblem.
I just thought I had a problem.
And so you Google, like cancerand oral cancer and really like
oral cancer people that havethat.
It will.
It can tear your mouthcompletely apart and affect your
(40:22):
tongue and your ability to talkand swallow and all of those
things.
But but God right.
So like just coming againstfear.
So anyways, but after about 30days of no sleep, I really was a
crazy person.
I was fighting for sanity andeverybody rallied around me and
(40:46):
Selena especially would walk methrough.
I just had lots of irrationalfears.
I got to be where I couldn't.
I'd never been that depressedin my life, like I remember the
sun going down and justpanicking, like what am I going
to do?
Another night of no sleep, howam I going to?
Um, how am I going to deal withthis?
(41:07):
And Selena was just amazing andthat's that was one positive
thing out of this story.
Let me make this faster.
So, just, she would spend a lotof time with me, she would
drive me, she would watch afterme.
I would have to, like, sitoutside and try to sleep outside
.
It was January and she wouldjust, she would grab like a
(41:27):
sleeping bag and all the coversoff the bed and come out there
and and spend time with me sothat I wasn't alone and just
pray over me and got me through.
So I ended up having to go see apsychiatrist and I got on these
huge major drugs about three,three to four, and a couple of
those were really high doses inorder to sleep.
(41:48):
And so as soon as I got onthose drugs, man, sleep, and
sleep was good, but they'redowners right.
So I'm still depressed and soI've never been depressed, never
had to fight depression, neverhad to speak depression.
But the psychiatrist, she said,look, because of insurance or
(42:09):
whatever, you've got to go seesomebody.
You've got to go see apsychiatrist.
You know like she couldrecommend one.
Or some kind of counselor youhave to sit down, you know and
we don't or some kind ofcounselor.
You have to sit down, you knowand we don't.
We didn't believe in counseling, we didn't ever, you know.
And so I'm like talking to mydad, but through prayer we got
hooked up with thisspirit-filled counselor in
(42:31):
Conroe, and so Selena and I gotto sit down with her and she
found out who we were and what Iwas facing, and she was just so
gentle and so full of faith andso different than anything that
I could ever, and that was God.
So I don't know where all thiswas, but leading me, leading us
(42:55):
to her.
So she would ask me generalquestions, like questions about
my day, questions about what Idid not, you know what was
growing up like.
I guess there was a few ofthose questions, but not, she's
not trying to pry open anythingand she would draw pictures of
the words that I was saying, andthen sometimes she would like
(43:18):
bubble letter out one word thatI said and I don't know.
I was telling a story and I waslike, well, details matter, let
me get.
And I went back and I startedthe story over, and so she wrote
out details matter.
And I didn't even realize Isaid that, and so she pegged me,
my whole personality and alllike detail oriented, and I'll
(43:39):
bottom line it for you.
It just pointed out myconfession and how important
words are, and all she did wasshow a picture of the negative
words that I was using todescribe my situation and my
lack of faith and all it waslike.
(43:59):
So she was preaching themessage back to me with my own
words, and so, hey, I don't carehow long I've been preaching,
how long I've been saved, wordsmatter.
And I wasn't doing the word,that was the simplest definition
.
And so in the end she was havingsome trouble with her son and
so I think he was in his lateteens and dating the wrong girl,
(44:24):
and Selina, and I got to praywith her and give her some good,
practical advice.
So it was like a two-way.
It was just, and I needed thatat that moment.
I needed that.
I needed that to be able topour out and not just receive.
And so the bottom line is itonly took a few months and I
realized, man, I cannot stay onthese drugs and be me.
(44:48):
This is not God.
But I enjoyed the sleep, but Iknew at some point I won't get
into the chemical part.
The chemical part was the lackof iron, and that's a whole
nother story.
But I was taking, I was onprescription iron pill and
eventually my iron level cameback up and I and I knew when it
(45:09):
did I didn't need these pillsanymore but you're locked in
just in case you ever have toface relatives or something that
go to a psychiatrist.
There is no way out.
I was just reading I think itwas, maybe so there was an
article.
There was an article that wassent to me here recently I
forgot what doctor it was thatwas saying the same thing You're
(45:29):
locked in.
There is no getting out of that.
You want to, like, recover.
They don't want you to recover.
They want to sell you drugs therest of your life.
And so, on my own, with prayerand faith, don't do as I do to.
You know, um, I weaned myselfoff over time and I remember, um
(45:50):
, you know, and then, and then Iwas up for an appointment and I
I sent the psychiatrist anemail hey, thank you so much,
you can cancel my appointment.
I began weaning myself off ofthis medication on this date and
I'm free and I'm sleeping andeverything's fine and my, my
outlook is good and I'm notdepressed, and you know, and I
was completely healed.
But it took about four, fourmonths or so, roughly, from
(46:13):
January, like April, may,something like that I was
completely free.
Maybe it was a little laterthan that, but I had to make a
change.
I had to stop speaking doubtand fear and giving a voice to
all of the mess that I had gonethrough, and give God the glory
(46:34):
and begin to speak faith and tolive this and not just say there
were parts that God wasconnecting the dots through this
whole thing and he didn't sendit, but he used it and he used
the relationships that I gainedthrough that.
Our marriage was stronger afterthat from just walking through
something like that In sicknessand in health.
(46:57):
We have different faith ways tosay that in marriage vows now,
but really it's in sickness andin health.
I learned real quick that mywife's not going anywhere, that
she's going to stand with methrough anything and so.
But it took faith and so wereally do.
(47:19):
We have to rest in God'spromises and know that he's
right here, no matter what weface.
I remember Darcy, you know, inthe middle of that, I remember
Darcy, pastor Mark's assistant.
She's like, oh, you just needto get a hold of you.
Know, god takes care of us ingrand style.
And so that was her way ofencouraging me that that, you
(47:42):
know, the Holy Spirit is strong,jesus is strong, but God, the
father, and that I, I have tosay that that helped me as well.
And uh, and like, when I firstgot on, I was talking to pastor
Mark, cause I was I guess he washere right as I started all
that medication and I had somuch shame.
It was just I can't describelike having to do that, like
(48:05):
where how little your faith hasto be for you to have to take to
go see a psychiatrist and soand feel like a crazy person.
But you know, like he was justable to love me through that, my
dad too, of course.
But just love me through that.
And let me know that people facereal things.
(48:25):
What I, you know, what I wasfacing, was not really real.
I mean, it was a chemicalproblem, but that I but it was
my own fault the doctor had toldme for like five years hey,
your iron's really low, you needto do something about it, and I
ignored it and I ignored it andanyways.
So, yeah, god is real, god isright here, he's a right now God
(48:50):
, he's a very present help introuble, and so don't forget him
, don't forget that he has astrategy to win.
I needed a way of escape and itwas the way.
It wasn't any-mini-mini-mo way.
It wasn't a way, it was the way.
I think it's the Amplified Biblethat says that God provides the
way of escape, and so rememberhis presence.
(49:12):
He's with us in the storms oflife.
Rest in his promises.
His words provide direction andpeace.
And then, number threeencourage others.
Share the hope you've received,because other people are going
through storms too.
Don't think that you're theonly one going through stuff.
You know there's somebodythat's right next to your best
(49:34):
friend could be going throughthe same thing and you're able
to encourage them and raisetheir faith.
And so I'm always shocked at oursociety, especially social
media and online, how quick weare to just to rip each other
apart and call each other namesonline and say things you'd
never say to somebody's face andcriticize.
(49:57):
Don't be that person.
Be the encourager.
You have the Holy Spirit livingon the inside of you.
Don't become the voice of theaccuser.
Don't agree with the devil,don't?
You know they already have alittle demon on their shoulder
speaking to them.
Don't agree with that demon.
Be the one that just flicksthat little thing off and off of
(50:17):
their shoulder and gives themhope and gives them courage and
speak encouragement back in.
You're full of the Holy Spirit.
Don't ignore Him and otherpeople's need and other people's
hour of need.
Amen.
Hallelujah, reach down and just grab your Bible.
Let's just go ahead and make aconfession together.
Thank you, praise and Worshipteam.
It's an honor to serve with youguys.
Let's just say this togetherSay, heavenly Father, I'm at the
right place at the right time,with the right people, ready to
receive directly from you thingsthat will change my life.
(00:25):
Supply, increase, lord.
You're about multiplication.
So I open up my mind, I open upmy ears, I open up my spirit
and I turn my heart towards youto receive tonight exactly what
I need for you to put me overevery circumstance.
(00:49):
It's under my feet, in Jesusname, amen, hallelujah.
I just thought I'd share theword first.
There's a little bit of a ring,but I know you're working on it
, thank you, there's a littlebit of a ring, but I know you're
working on it.
Sheree Ray, thank you.
(01:12):
Let's just turn together to John, chapter 16, and starting in
verse 33, the last verse of John16.
And Jesus is talking, talking.
He said these things I havespoken to you that in me you may
(01:33):
have peace in the world.
You will have tribulation, butbe of good cheer, for I have
overcome the world.
And I just wanted to preach amessage entitled Be of Good
Cheer.
Be of Good Cheer.
And I didn't realize I startedthis message and I wanted to
really preach on the realitiesof heaven and that kind of
(01:56):
turned into a funeral.
So I was telling my dad like Ibetter not preach a funeral and
so but just, I've been kind ofmeditating on the realities of
heaven and how, you know,looking forward to we're going
to get a crown, amen.
I'm kind of skipping ahead ofmyself because that's my last
point, but you know you betterget a crown.
(02:19):
You know you better get a prize.
You know, and you know Jamestalks about that in the book of
James that we'll receive a crownafter we've gone through some
things.
You know we've seen, we know afew things because we've seen a
few things right.
And so how do we face trials,how do we face situations and be
(02:41):
of good cheer?
You know God didn't say thatwe're going to have a trouble
free life.
And then when we read what Jesuswent through in the Bible, what
we read, when we read whatPeter went through, when we read
what Paul went through, whatJonah went through just
disobedience, right, beingswallowed by the great fish and
we look at all these storms thathappened, and Paul's shipwreck
(03:04):
and other storms, and and, uh,I'm telling you, uh, god wants
to put us over.
He said be of good cheer, wecan be happy, we can be full of
joy, we can be full of peace.
Have peace.
These things have I spoken toyou that in me you may have
peace, that may like like dadwas preaching this morning, is
(03:26):
on our side, you know it's.
It's up to us to grab a hold ofthat peace, to live our lives
in christ amen.
And so, uh, he didn't promiseus that life would be trouble
free, but be of good cheer, it'sa command, don't you see it?
It's a command, command.
He's not saying it's optional,he's telling us be of good cheer
(03:51):
.
And so that's something that wehave to do, that's something
that we have to stir up.
And so in the Greek, that wordcheer or good cheer means good
comfort and good courage.
And so, while I'm preachingtonight, I just wanted you to
receive, fresh from the HolySpirit, an infilling of cheer,
of joy, of peace, of comfort andof courage and of strategy.
(04:15):
You know, some of you havelacked spiritual strategy, and
tonight there's an impartationof a fresh infilling of
spiritual strategy.
And so, ephesians 6.10,.
Be strong in the Lord and thepower of his might that you
(04:36):
might be able to stand againstall the wiles, the strategies of
the enemy.
You know God's strategy isbetter, it's going to put you
over every single time.
But I think some of us, when wego through storms, you know
storms in real life.
I'm talking about naturalstorms.
You can see them coming,they're off on the horizon.
You know, we spent some time inFlorida and one year we were
(04:59):
staying at this condominiumyears and years ago, and it was
right in the middle of Houstonhaving this huge drought, and so
I just loved being out on thebalcony every afternoon and
watching these storms develop inFlorida and every afternoon
they would just hit Like.
Several times we've been toFlorida, even at summer camp,
when camp was in Florida, aboutfive years in a row there and
(05:21):
every you know, every afternoonthat storm would develop and
just wash everything and itdidn't last, didn't last long.
But you know you ever play inthe rain.
I think we forgot how.
You know in kids, you know Iused to beg my parents, my mom
especially, let me go out andplay.
You know it's different than athunderstorm, right, playing in
the rain is kind of fun.
We had sand dunes in Corpus, butI wanted to tell this story of
(05:44):
Selena and the kids and I inFlorida.
One of those trips we were outon the beach and there was these
two dark storms and they werecoming and but there was this
light in the middle of it and Iwas like you know what?
I'm looking at the radar.
I'm thinking, hey, this, thisis just going to blow right by
us.
Let's stay on the beach,everybody else is packing up,
we're the only ones.
(06:04):
And let's just say that I waswrong.
And instead of them splittingapart and blowing right by, they
came together for a really hugestorm.
And so we start running,literally running off the beach
down to, like, our littletownhouse that we were staying
in.
This was like 20 years ago, sothe kids were pretty small and
(06:28):
lightning struck right likedirectly across the street.
I've never been that close thatI know of to lightning strike
just right there and I just Istopped, I was in awe and then,
you know, just continued runninginto safety.
And sometimes when we go throughstorms, we really can't see
where they're developing.
All we see are the results,right, all you see are the
(06:50):
effects of that storm and youfeel like all hell is breaking
loose and that you just can'tseem to wrap your.
You want to figure it out withyour brain and you want it to
make sense, and you, you know.
And so sometimes we do that onour own and we forget that the
strategy that we need comes fromour Heavenly Father.
(07:10):
Right, and so you know.
I kind of quoted this maybe.
But 1 Timothy, 1, 6, and 7, itsays Paul is telling Timothy.
Therefore, I remind you to stirup the gift of God which is in
you through the laying on ofhands, for God has not given us
a spirit of fear, but of powerand of love and a sound mind.
(07:32):
Everybody knows that.
Everybody can quote that, butrealize there are some things
that he hadn't given us.
He hadn't given us a spirit offear, but there are a lot of
things that he has given us.
Amen.
He's given us power.
We've, we have all of the powerof God living on the inside of
us, and if we would just walk inthat authority, I feel like
(07:53):
God's just waiting on ussometimes to to get up and speak
to the storms in our life.
You know, uh, people miss that,that point of Jesus being asleep
in the bottom of the boat andthen saying to the disciple
rebuking them.
When they wake him up, you know, hey, we're about to die.
What are you just down heresleeping and we're about to die?
And he's like where's yourfaith?
(08:14):
And then you know he rebukesthe wind and the waves, and we
all know that story.
But you know they were like whois this man that even the wind
and the waves obey him?
You know the winds and thewaves, they can obey you too.
That's the whole point of thestory.
We have the same spirit offaith, we have the same
authority that Jesus walked in.
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We walk in, we are his handsand his feet, and he's waiting
on us to step up and step intoour authority.
You know, and so you know.
But would you run into a battlewithout any weapons?
No, you're going to be fullyequipped.
God has already given you, likeI said earlier, every spiritual
(08:55):
blessing, but we have to grab ahold of it.
We got to know that it's ours.
We got to know what we have inorder to fight the devil and win
in life.
And so I thought we would turnback to the Old Testament.
So if you'll turn back with meto 1 Chronicles 14, and let's
talk about David.
David in the Old Testament.
(09:16):
And so David was a man afterGod's own heart.
That's what they say, that'swhat David's reputation was
known for.
And he had already gone againstGoliath, who was the biggest,
meanest Philistine there everwas, and he took five smooth
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stones and slayed the giant withjust one of those stones.
Amen, we know that story.
And then in verse eight, firstChronicles 14, chapter 14, verse
eight, it says this is later onnow when the Philistines heard
that David had been anointedKing over all of Israel, all of
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the Philistines went up tosearch for David.
Everybody say all.
Can you imagine?
All of the Philistines, notjust you know?
Did Goliath have some brothers?
I don't know, but all of thesePhilistines are coming up and
going after David.
But why?
Because of his reputation.
They wanted to take him outearly.
(10:22):
As soon as they found out hewas in charge, as soon as they
found out he was king, they'relike oh no, we can't stand for
this.
We got to, we got to wipe himout early.
And so all of them went againsthim.
Let's see.
And so, and they and David.
And when David heard of it.
He went out against them.
And so you know what is whatdid he have?
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What weapons did he have?
Did he have, like I said, didyou?
He was like, where's my slingat?
I have some, you know foursmooth stones left over.
Let me dig through the closetand get those out.
No, he had a whole differentway of going about it and it
says in verse nine thePhilistines went and made a raid
in the valley of Rephaim.
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And David verse 10, here's theimportant part David asked, or
inquired of the Lord, sayingShall I go up against the
Philistines?
Will you deliver them into myhand?
And so he didn't just go, hehad a plan and he stopped and he
asked the Lord hey, is this agood idea?
(11:24):
Stopped and he asked the Lordhey, is this a good idea?
I think so many of us.
We see we're facing somethingat work, we're facing something
in our personal lives and it'shitting us dead in the face and
we're like we can just keepgoing at it our own way and we
don't really stop and think.
And you know what?
Let's ask the Lord what is thestrategy?
There is a fresh strategy forwhatever you're facing tonight.
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Amen.
And you're receiving that rightnow, as I'm speaking
Supernaturally.
I believe in supernaturalhearing, we all believe that
around here, and so I say thatby faith that you're receiving a
supernatural strategy to dealwith that situation that you're
facing.
To deal with that situation thatyou're facing, similar to David
, david prayed and he inquiredof the Lord will you deliver
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them into my hand?
And what did God say?
He said go up, for I willdeliver them into your hand.
And so they went up toBaal-perism and David defeated
them there.
And then David said God hasbroken through my enemies by my
hand like a breakthrough ofwater.
Therefore, they called the nameof that place Baal-perism.
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And so well, let me go aheadand finish this one battle.
And when they left their godsthere, the Philistines had left
all their gods behind there.
David gave a commandment andthey were burned with fire, so
all of those gods were burned up.
So it really was a war of whichGod is going to win.
And our God won, amen.
(12:56):
But he won through the hand ofDavid, through the courage of
David, through the obedience ofDavid, and David wasn't courage
of David through the obedienceof David, and David wasn't
didn't rise up in pride and sayI got this.
This is no big deal.
I killed Goliath.
I'm you know I'm going to goout there.
No, he stopped and he prayedand he made sure.
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And then verse 13,.
We don't know, I didn't reallystudy this out.
There's maybe in the.
It might tell us how long itwas before they tried it again.
They come back.
They didn't learn the firsttime, right, or the second time?
This is really the third time.
And then the Philistines onceagain made a raid on the valley.
Therefore, david, what did hedo?
He's like, oh no, I got that.
We went straight ahead.
We just do that again.
No, what did he do?
(13:41):
You already know he inquiredagain of the Lord.
How many of you realize?
One time's not enough, man,when you prayed and you're
working off of 1988's revelation.
It's not enough.
There's fresh revelation fortoday.
There's a fresh strategy fromheaven.
Today, that's what it keepssaying, right.
And God said unto him you shallnot go up after them.
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And God said unto him you shallnot go up after them.
Instead, circle around them andcome upon them in front of the
mulberry trees.
And it shall be, when you heara sound of marching in the tops
of the mulberry trees, veryspecific, right and supernatural
.
See, the strategy wasn'tnatural, it was supernatural
right.
You see that Then you shall goout to battle, for God has gone
(14:29):
out before you to strike thecamp of the Philistines.
And so David did as Godcommanded him, and they drove
back the army of the Philistinesfrom Gibeon as far as Gezer.
And then, so so God used thatstrategy and and Israel won
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again.
And so our God won againthrough the hands of David, but
it was through his obedience andthrough his prayer.
And I want you to see that itwas a fresh, completely new
strategy.
That was supernatural.
And so that's what we need to do, is we need to hold up in our
lives and wait for thatsupernatural strategy.
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He's speaking to us on a dailybasis.
All we have to do is listen.
All we have to do is plug inand you say, oh Jay, you don't
understand that there's so muchpressure at work, there's this
is going on or that in mybusiness or whatever it is, and
this is going on and that'sgoing on, and I just don't have
time to plug in and listen and Ijust all I can do is pray for
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five minutes in the car.
No, rearrange your schedule,wake up earlier, do whatever it
takes.
Your whole life depends on itand your legacy of faith depends
on it.
Your kids depend on you hearingfrom God.
Your lack of obedience and yourlack of plugging in to what he
has for you today is costing youand your future.
And so make a change, amen.
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And so it's easy to talk aboutand it's harder to do, but it
requires faith.
God requires faith.
He responds to faith, and so hedoesn't respond to laziness.
He doesn't respond to sleepingin and getting up late and just
starting your day and just goingon.
You know all of us have donethat, myself included.
You know I wake up, I startthinking about everything that
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I've got to accomplish that dayand it makes me want to get up
and go, move faster and harderat that goal.
And you know I'm kind of moregoal-oriented.
All of us have differentpersonality traits and I'm
preaching to myselfgoal-oriented.
All of us have differentpersonality traits and I'm
preaching to myself tonight tohold up, wait a second.
God has a whole new, freshstrategy.
There's an easier way.
He's going ahead of me andgreasing the skids and there's
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an ease.
If I would just jump in thatease, I don't have to stress out
about it, I don't have to call15 other people and gripe and
complain about how hard this is,and no, there's an ease in his
spirit, in his presence, if youwould just take time to receive
that fresh strategy and be morelike David.
(17:08):
So David had courage, he hadstrength and and he was used to
to dealing, uh, with Goliaths hewas, you know, in order to
fight Goliath he had to fightthose, you know, the lions and
the tigers and the bears, oh my,you know protecting his
father's sheep.
And so he had seen some things,he had been through some things
(17:29):
He'd killed with his bare handsbefore.
And you know, I just I didn'twrite this down in my notes, but
I think it's later on inChronicles, you know, you hear
the story of David and Bathsheba, and that really started,
because I think it's verse oneof whatever chapter it is.
(17:50):
It is In the time of war, whenkings should be out at war.
He sent his servant ahead andhe stayed back.
He stayed back in Jerusalem.
So he was in the wrong place, hewas in the wrong position and
so, yes, he did terrible thingsand lustful things, but it all
(18:11):
started from being out ofposition, and the Bible doesn't
say why it doesn't.
Maybe he had good intentions,maybe he wanted his servant to
be glorified that day and beable to handle a situation and
win a battle without him.
Maybe you know, but the bottomline was he was in the wrong
position and it led to terrible,a terrible act that affected
(18:35):
generations after generationsand ultimately we all kind of
assume that we know that story.
But he ended up gettingBathsheba pregnant.
Then he arranged a whole thingwhere he tried to pull her
husband back off the battlefieldso he would sleep with his wife
, so he could hide this wholething and it would go away.
(18:55):
But he refused, right, and thenso he sent her husband into
battle under the you know, and,and so that he was killed.
And so then he had murder onhis hands and that, uh, that you
know.
God forgave him, but but itcost him being able to build the
temple because he had murdered.
And so there was consequences tothat sin.
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There always is.
Walking in the flesh leads toconsequences, right, and so when
we can apply the blood of Jesus, we can nullify those
consequences, though some ofthose consequences, by having a
repentant heart.
You know so many people like mydad said this morning.
He was talking about a man thatwas in having an affair I don't
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know if everybody was here thismorning, but how he was just
more, he was sorry for gettingcaught.
He wasn't really, didn't reallyhave a true repentant of a
heart.
He was I don't know why I'mgoing through this again but he
just had a heart that was sorryfor getting caught and so not
being genuine with the Lord.
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And so David was genuine,though, and you find that and
then he was in.
He made it through to the hallof fame of faith in Hebrews,
chapter 11, and so the Biblesays that David was a man after
God's own heart, and so he hadthis reputation.
Let's go ahead and finish thisstory verse 17.
Then, after he won that secondbattle, then the fame of David
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went out into all lands and theLord brought the fear of him
upon all nations.
Everybody say all.
There's that word all again.
I won't get all pastrosian onyou and say say all five times.
No, I'm just kidding, I wouldyell out all five times.
(20:42):
I had a little attitude anyways.
Uh, then the fame of of davidnot god, but david god made
david's fame spread.
Did you catch that.
So his obedience in his heartwas so pure towards the lord
that David was trying to shoutthe fame of God.
But God was exalting the fameof David, and so that's what
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obedience will do.
God knows how to exalt yourposition.
He knows how to bring promotionto you.
And all of a sudden, to you,and all of a sudden, you find
yourself in a whole differentposition, in a whole different
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place, being exalted wherever itis.
It could be at your job, itcould be in your business, it
could be with the amount ofclients that you have, it could
be a variety of different waysthat God brings promotion, but
promotion comes from God.
Ways that God brings promotion,but promotion comes from God,
and promotion comes throughobedience and humility.
Again, david, he could haverisen up in pride.
He had the army, he had thepower and he had the men that he
(21:47):
had poured into, his mighty men, and they all knew how to kill
and they all knew how to win ina war right.
But instead he leaned on theLord, he asked for a fresh
strategy and he refused to moveuntil God spoke, until God gave
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him the plan.
And so today, again, as I'mspeaking, let's receive a fresh
infilling of courage andencouragement to do the right
thing.
And no matter how big the stormlooks, no matter how big the
issue, the problem, thecircumstance, no matter how, you
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know the devil, he doesn'tfight fair.
But at the same time, peoplelike to give him a lot of credit
, and I don't.
I just, you know, uh, uh.
Dad preached that, looking atthe year of milestones, you know
about not being in awe of whatthe devil is doing.
Let's be in awe of what God'sdoing.
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You know we get people get sofocused on the devil.
I was going to tell, tell thisstory real quick and then I'll
move on.
But but uh, uh.
You know I struggled when I waslittle.
I had, I had a pretty traumaticevent happened to me when I was
15.
I was a freshman in high school.
I hadn't told this story in along time, and me and two of my
(23:16):
football buddies, we went overto this other girl's house and
we were just hanging out good,clean, fun.
We rode our motor scooters overthere because we didn't have
cars yet.
I had an Elite 80 Honda.
That's what started all thismotorcycle stuff, but it was a
much smaller, you know, and myfriend had one.
So we rode over to her house.
(23:36):
She had a C, a senior that shehad just started dating and his
parents were divorced, and sohis dad had loaned him his brand
new blazer too I don't know ifyou know that the the smaller of
the blazers.
So five of us get in the carand we're going to go rent a
movie and pick up some ice cream, and none of us are really
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prepared for any of this.
We stopped at the randalls, atkirkandall and luetta first and
got ice cream and I don't knowwhy we didn't rent the movie
there at randalls, but we gotice cream first.
And then we all pile back upinto the blazer and he uh, he
exits out of the the east, exitthe left, but we're supposed to
(24:17):
turn right.
So he starts to make the leftturn and we're like, wait, no,
we're going to go rent the movie, you got to turn right.
So he turns right, and when hedid, for whatever reason, he
just accelerated at a very highrate of speed.
So we get going now westboundon Luetta.
We're probably going 45 or 50,but we're really only supposed
to go across the street.
And so what did we do?
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Turn, turn, you're missing theturn.
And so what does he do?
He just turns, and so thevehicle starts flipping and one
of the like.
On the first revolution, thewindow that where I was next to
busted out.
And so I just I didn't have aseatbelt on, none of us had
seatbelts on, you know, this wasthe nineties man.
(25:00):
And so, uh, uh, I just grabbeda hold of the outside of the
vehicle with my left arm and and, like, pinched myself against
the whatever the side of thevehicle and it just kept rolling
and rolling and rolling andwhen it came to a stop it was
facing the window that I wasnext to is facing the sky.
(25:20):
So I just pulled my body upwith my left arm and so I had
like a bunch of glass embeddedin my arm.
I had been burned really bad ayear before that, so I had like
sensitive skin anyways.
And the motor was still on, itwas still in gear and the tire
was right there and it was stillspinning, and somehow, when I
(25:42):
got up, I caught my leg in thetire and so I have a scar on
this leg.
To begin with, so I shouldn'thave my leg, I shouldn't have my
arm.
I jumped down to the ground andI run to the payphone and you
thought I could rescue everybody, call 911.
No, I called dad.
I just needed somebody to sayyou know what, son, it's going
to be okay.
And so they beat the ambulance.
There I'm like I was in aterrible car accident just right
(26:04):
down the road Luetta andKirkendall, and so they rushed
down there but my football coach, my junior high football coach,
coach Crosby, was getting someice cream with his family, with
his wife, and had ice cream inhis hand, walked out and
(26:25):
witnessed the whole thing and hesaid later on he said every
time that the car got to yourside of the, you know, I should
not have my arm or I should havebeen killed or crushed, but
every time on the left side ofthe vehicle it bounced so it
would roll and bounce, roll andbounce, and so it never hit
where I had my arm holding onand so God protected me.
And so that's a miracle, right,and somehow, I don't know
(26:49):
centrifugal force.
But on one of those rolls theice cream came out and we
smooshed it like a.
You know, it was likecompletely smooshed, like a
pancake, right.
So everybody lived, everybodywas okay.
My friend in the middle, likehe hit his head really hard
several times and so he had abig concussion and, kind of
(27:09):
honestly, was never the sameafter that and but it was just.
That was the.
That was probably the worstinjury of all of that accident.
But, god right, we all lived,we all survived, and instead of
being a hero and helping peopleout, I had to just run to the
payphone, had change in mypocket.
That was just funny to me.
You have no idea how you'regoing to react in a situation,
(27:31):
but I kind of, as a 15-year-old,I got kind of stuck on the why.
Why did this happen, god, whydid you allow this to happen?
And I think people get stucksometimes, especially like the
immature, like you're tempted toblame God, you're tempted to
just be stuck in a moment and Ikept like replaying all the
(27:53):
things that I could have done orshould have done and should
have said.
But basically, what caused thataccident?
Yeah, I was at the wrong placewith the wrong people, but
really it wasn't some demonicforce necessarily trying to take
me out Although that was somepercentage of it but really it
(28:13):
was just an inexperienced driverand an immature.
You know, he hadn't beendriving very long and he just
wasn't used to having all thesepeople in the car and we're
yelling directions to him.
That's really what caused thisaccident, not some, you know,
the devil, you know, made him doit and engineered this whole
thing.
No, like people, people do dumbthings, people make mistakes.
(28:35):
That's what an accident is.
It's not always the deviltrying to, you know, we just
give way too much credit.
You know, coming home from thebeach last week, we had a flat
and I really realized real quickthat with all my big tires and
everything that whatever camewith the truck, I just I wasn't
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going to be able to change thetire.
And I was trying to count itall joy, but I was a little
frustrated, wasn't I?
And uh, and the Holy Spiritinterrupted.
That whole thing is like call amobile tire company, so I
Googled one.
That's what I had to do.
In the.
We used to have a big bus andwe've had a couple of flats in
the bus and the and the bigtrucks come and change the tire
(29:17):
and sell you a tire right thereanyways.
Um, but I did and it was thebest thing.
And then my dad, today he had ablowout and he calls me.
He's like I know you're aboutto preach and it's really hot
outside, but you know it waslike no, I'm, you know I'm not
going to come change your tire,I'm going to call somebody.
And so I called that sameperson and they showed up in 20
(29:38):
minutes and got him on his way.
And so I didn't know if I had aflat, because God knew that he
was going to have a flat and Icould help him out.
I don't know how this works, butit wasn't the devil.
So don't be quick to give.
Be in awe of all the devil'sstrategies.
And no, god has a strategy ofrescuing you.
No matter how small of aproblem that you have, he wants
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to pluck you out.
Like my offering scripture thismorning, he wants to protect
you from that.
And yes, we're going to havetribulations, we're going to
have trials, we're going to havebad things are going to happen
to good people.
But don't ever blame God.
Don't ever allow yourself,allow the enemy to deceive you
(30:23):
into thinking that this is God'sfault, that God sent this storm
or God sent this.
Whatever issue that you'refacing, be quick to realize the
mercy of God.
Be quick to walk and to lookfor his mercy, to look for his
favor, to be grateful for hisgoodness, to be grateful for his
(30:44):
glory, which is his goodness.
And so that's what God is allabout.
Amen.
And so James, chapter one.
I quoted this scripture earliera little bit, but verse 2, james
1, verse 2.
My brethren, count it all.
Joy when you fall into varioustrials, knowing that the testing
of your faith produces patience.
(31:06):
But let or allow patience tohave its perfect work that you
may be perfect and complete,lacking nothing.
And so tonight we are.
We lack nothing, we areallowing patience to have its
perfect work.
Amen.
And so we remain in faith,expecting the best, but we're
(31:29):
prepared for the worst.
That's what I realized when Ihad that flat in the truck.
I'm totally lost, I don't haveany of the right tools, and so,
before we leave for summer camphere in a couple of weeks, I got
a couple of weeks to get theright parts.
So I am prepared, amen.
And so Proverbs 21, 31 says thehorse is prepared for the day
(31:52):
of battle, but the victorybelongs to the Lord.
So we're prepared, but we knowthat victory belongs to the Lord
, and so we're expecting.
Our expectation for victory isin the Lord, amen and so.
2 Timothy 2, verses 1 and 3 sayBe strong in the grace Paul's
(32:14):
talking to Timothy be strong inthe grace, that is, in Christ
Jesus, and endure hardship as agood soldier of Christ Jesus.
And then, so you know, my pointnumber two is to keep the end
goal in mind.
And so we're keeping the endgoal in mind by being a good
(32:34):
soldier, mind by being a goodsoldier, enduring hardship as a
good soldier.
And in Acts 14, 22, paul, itsays Paul, along with Barnabas,
went about strengthening thesouls of the disciples,
exhorting them to continue inthe faith, saying we must,
(32:55):
through many tribulations, enterthe kingdom of God.
And so Paul and Barnabas wereconstantly strengthening the
souls that's your mind, yourwill and intellect right of the
disciples, telling them hey, youknow, quitting is not an option
.
Right Through many trials andtribulations, we are going to
obtain the prize.
Keep the goal, the end goal, inmind.
(33:17):
We're going to receive a crown.
Right James 1.12,.
Blessed is the man who endurestemptation, for when he has been
approved, he will receive thecrown of life which the Lord has
promised to those who love him.
So we're going to receive thatcrown.
Have your mind on the goal.
You run your race with patienceand endurance, looking unto
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Jesus, the author and thefinisher of our faith.
That's Hebrews 12.
But have the goal in mind.
So you're running your own race.
It's not a race where you're incompetition with one another,
so you're not comparing yourselfto the person running next to
you.
You're running your race andyou're at the pace that God
wants you to run, and you'rebecause you're looking unto
(34:02):
Jesus, the author and thefinisher, the starter and the
finisher of our faith.
And so if he's, you know, if heresponds to faith, it's good
that he's the starter and thefinisher of our faith.
And how do we receive faith?
Faith comes by hearing, andhearing by the word of God.
So we remain in faith, but wenever forget the crown or the
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goal that's ahead of us.
And so we are heavenly minded,but we're not so heavenly minded
that we're no earthly good,right?
Pastor Osteen would say thatall the time.
And so we are.
We're heavenly minded, but wehave, we know, how to function
right here in the nasty now andnow.
You know, pastor Osteen wouldsay that all the time, the nasty
(34:45):
now and now.
And so I just want to leave youwith three things, three
statements how we can remain inhaving good cheer.
So, number one, remember God'spresence.
Having good cheer, so numberone, remember God's presence.
He is with us in every storm oflife.
God, you know, look to Godfirst.
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He said he'd never leave us norforsake us.
You know, I was listening tothat brand, that new Brandon
Lake song.
Maybe it's called Hard FoughtHallelujah, is that it?
But you know and I'm notknocking the song, it's a great
song.
But I got stuck on itafterwards and I was singing
that line over and over againabout my been through hell.
Hallelujah, and the HolySpirit's like Jesus went through
(35:27):
hell, so you didn't have to.
And so my hallelujah did gothrough hell with Jesus.
You know his praise.
The Lord went through hell, butI don't have to go through hell
, and so nothing that you'refacing is anything like hell.
And so I went through asituation a couple years ago.
(35:49):
I think I have some time if Iwanted to tell that story.
I've never really told it.
The Holy Spirit's kind of on meright now to tell it.
I'm, I don't the Holy Spirit'skind of on me right now to tell
it so, but I kept comparing itto hell.
I used to.
You know it's, this is hell,but it really.
Nothing you've ever beenthrough is hell it's.
(36:10):
It can be hellish, it can be.
I'm not cussing, I'm just I'mtalking about the hell over here
.
Okay, I never said hell ofanything, it's hell, but you
know.
So it was January of a few yearsago, two or three years ago,
and I was, I had this growth inmy mouth and I'd gone to the
(36:35):
doctor.
I was already at my regulardoctor and so, like I have him
take a look at it, which was myfirst mistake, and he's like,
ooh, and he was all concernedI've never seen anything like
this at all.
You need to go see the ENT.
And so that was my mistake.
Number two, I went to your noseand throat for something that
was mouth related, which if youhave anything wrong with your
(36:56):
mouth, you go see your dentist.
You mention it to your dentistand then you go see an oral
surgeon anything mouth related,because an ENT is ears, nose,
throat, not mouth, not dental.
But they ran a biopsy.
They like ripped part of mymouth apart and so and send it
off for a biopsy and he was allconcerned oh my god, I've never
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seen anything like this.
What is this?
I don't know and I'm like itcouldn't be that bad.
But then fear sets in and then Ipreached a funeral the next day
and I remember that was alittle bit of pressure.
I try for weddings and funeralsto not be pressure, but it was
just like a little bit of youknow, you feel like as a
(37:42):
minister, you feel like you onlyhave one opportunity to honor
someone at their funeral, so youwant to knock it out of the
park.
And so I, literally I was upall night thinking about two
things this growth in my mouthand then doing a good job at
this funeral.
So, preach the funeral.
Everybody said I did so goodand it was anointed, and I felt
(38:05):
the anointing and I was sorelieved.
Hey, I'm going to go home andI'm going to sleep and this is
going to be fine.
And I go home and day, you know, night number two no sleep.
And night number two no sleep.
And night number three no sleep.
And night number four no sleep.
And on night three I brokesomething in my brain.
All of that pressure, it wasn'ta psychological break, it was a
(38:30):
physical break.
I broke my ability to stayasleep.
So I could fall asleep, but Iwould immediately wake up in
this fear and this terror, andthat would happen over and over
and over again.
And then I went enough nightswithout sleep where I just had
(38:53):
lots of illogical decisions.
I wasn't thinking clearly,obviously and I began to have a
mental breakdown of some kind.
I don't know what to call this.
I started having panic attacks.
I started having these major.
So we've prayed for people withpanic attacks.
I didn't really understand whata panic attack was and I
(39:14):
thought I was going to die.
I thought I was having a heartattack.
It was very similar like yourchest.
You have zero control, like I'mpraying in tongues, I'm shouting
at the devil, I'm using all thefaith that I know, I'm doing
everything I know to do and I'mlosing this battle, and so I
can't breathe.
You know the whole shortness ofbreath thing and all it was was
(39:37):
a physical problem, a chemicalproblem in my brain.
So it was not.
I was not going crazy, youdidn't have to send me to the
loony bin, it was a chemicalproblem and so.
But I ended up having to gowent back to that same doctor,
by the way, somewhere in themiddle of this I went to an oral
surgeon and it wasn't cancerand he gave me a medicine and
(40:01):
cleared up in like moments, likea day.
So no big deal.
So all that was like fornothing, right?
So I had, I didn't have aproblem.
I just thought I had a problem.
And so you Google, like cancerand oral cancer and really like
oral cancer people that havethat.
It will.
It can tear your mouthcompletely apart and affect your
(40:22):
tongue and your ability to talkand swallow and all of those
things.
But but God right.
So like just coming againstfear.
So anyways, but after about 30days of no sleep, I really was a
crazy person.
I was fighting for sanity andeverybody rallied around me and
(40:46):
Selena especially would walk methrough.
I just had lots of irrationalfears.
I got to be where I couldn't.
I'd never been that depressedin my life, like I remember the
sun going down and justpanicking, like what am I going
to do?
Another night of no sleep, howam I going to?
Um, how am I going to deal withthis?
(41:07):
And Selena was just amazing andthat's that was one positive
thing out of this story.
Let me make this faster.
So, just, she would spend a lotof time with me, she would
drive me, she would watch afterme.
I would have to, like, sitoutside and try to sleep outside
.
It was January and she wouldjust, she would grab like a
(41:27):
sleeping bag and all the coversoff the bed and come out there
and and spend time with me sothat I wasn't alone and just
pray over me and got me through.
So I ended up having to go see apsychiatrist and I got on these
huge major drugs about three,three to four, and a couple of
those were really high doses inorder to sleep.
(41:48):
And so as soon as I got onthose drugs, man, sleep, and
sleep was good, but they'redowners right.
So I'm still depressed and soI've never been depressed, never
had to fight depression, neverhad to speak depression.
But the psychiatrist, she said,look, because of insurance or
(42:09):
whatever, you've got to go seesomebody.
You've got to go see apsychiatrist.
You know like she couldrecommend one.
Or some kind of counselor youhave to sit down, you know and
we don't or some kind ofcounselor.
You have to sit down, you knowand we don't.
We didn't believe in counseling, we didn't ever, you know.
And so I'm like talking to mydad, but through prayer we got
hooked up with thisspirit-filled counselor in
(42:31):
Conroe, and so Selena and I gotto sit down with her and she
found out who we were and what Iwas facing, and she was just so
gentle and so full of faith andso different than anything that
I could ever, and that was God.
So I don't know where all thiswas, but leading me, leading us
(42:55):
to her.
So she would ask me generalquestions, like questions about
my day, questions about what Idid not, you know what was
growing up like.
I guess there was a few ofthose questions, but not, she's
not trying to pry open anythingand she would draw pictures of
the words that I was saying, andthen sometimes she would like
(43:18):
bubble letter out one word thatI said and I don't know.
I was telling a story and I waslike, well, details matter, let
me get.
And I went back and I startedthe story over, and so she wrote
out details matter.
And I didn't even realize Isaid that, and so she pegged me,
my whole personality and alllike detail oriented, and I'll
(43:39):
bottom line it for you.
It just pointed out myconfession and how important
words are, and all she did wasshow a picture of the negative
words that I was using todescribe my situation and my
lack of faith and all it waslike.
(43:59):
So she was preaching themessage back to me with my own
words, and so, hey, I don't carehow long I've been preaching,
how long I've been saved, wordsmatter.
And I wasn't doing the word,that was the simplest definition
.
And so in the end she was havingsome trouble with her son and
so I think he was in his lateteens and dating the wrong girl,
(44:24):
and Selina, and I got to praywith her and give her some good,
practical advice.
So it was like a two-way.
It was just, and I needed thatat that moment.
I needed that.
I needed that to be able topour out and not just receive.
And so the bottom line is itonly took a few months and I
realized, man, I cannot stay onthese drugs and be me.
(44:48):
This is not God.
But I enjoyed the sleep, but Iknew at some point I won't get
into the chemical part.
The chemical part was the lackof iron, and that's a whole
nother story.
But I was taking, I was onprescription iron pill and
eventually my iron level cameback up and I and I knew when it
(45:09):
did I didn't need these pillsanymore but you're locked in
just in case you ever have toface relatives or something that
go to a psychiatrist.
There is no way out.
I was just reading I think itwas, maybe so there was an
article.
There was an article that wassent to me here recently I
forgot what doctor it was thatwas saying the same thing You're
(45:29):
locked in.
There is no getting out of that.
You want to, like, recover.
They don't want you to recover.
They want to sell you drugs therest of your life.
And so, on my own, with prayerand faith, don't do as I do to.
You know, um, I weaned myselfoff over time and I remember, um
(45:50):
, you know, and then, and then Iwas up for an appointment and I
I sent the psychiatrist anemail hey, thank you so much,
you can cancel my appointment.
I began weaning myself off ofthis medication on this date and
I'm free and I'm sleeping andeverything's fine and my, my
outlook is good and I'm notdepressed, and you know, and I
was completely healed.
But it took about four, fourmonths or so, roughly, from
(46:13):
January, like April, may,something like that I was
completely free.
Maybe it was a little laterthan that, but I had to make a
change.
I had to stop speaking doubtand fear and giving a voice to
all of the mess that I had gonethrough, and give God the glory
(46:34):
and begin to speak faith and tolive this and not just say there
were parts that God wasconnecting the dots through this
whole thing and he didn't sendit, but he used it and he used
the relationships that I gainedthrough that.
Our marriage was stronger afterthat from just walking through
something like that In sicknessand in health.
(46:57):
We have different faith ways tosay that in marriage vows now,
but really it's in sickness andin health.
I learned real quick that mywife's not going anywhere, that
she's going to stand with methrough anything and so.
But it took faith and so wereally do.
(47:19):
We have to rest in God'spromises and know that he's
right here, no matter what weface.
I remember Darcy, you know, inthe middle of that, I remember
Darcy, pastor Mark's assistant.
She's like, oh, you just needto get a hold of you.
Know, god takes care of us ingrand style.
And so that was her way ofencouraging me that that, you
(47:42):
know, the Holy Spirit is strong,jesus is strong, but God, the
father, and that I, I have tosay that that helped me as well.
And uh, and like, when I firstgot on, I was talking to pastor
Mark, cause I was I guess he washere right as I started all
that medication and I had somuch shame.
It was just I can't describelike having to do that, like
(48:05):
where how little your faith hasto be for you to have to take to
go see a psychiatrist and soand feel like a crazy person.
But you know, like he was justable to love me through that, my
dad too, of course.
But just love me through that.
And let me know that people facereal things.
(48:25):
What I, you know, what I wasfacing, was not really real.
I mean, it was a chemicalproblem, but that I but it was
my own fault the doctor had toldme for like five years hey,
your iron's really low, you needto do something about it, and I
ignored it and I ignored it andanyways.
So, yeah, god is real, god isright here, he's a right now God
(48:50):
, he's a very present help introuble, and so don't forget him
, don't forget that he has astrategy to win.
I needed a way of escape and itwas the way.
It wasn't any-mini-mini-mo way.
It wasn't a way, it was the way.
I think it's the Amplified Biblethat says that God provides the
way of escape, and so rememberhis presence.
(49:12):
He's with us in the storms oflife.
Rest in his promises.
His words provide direction andpeace.
And then, number threeencourage others.
Share the hope you've received,because other people are going
through storms too.
Don't think that you're theonly one going through stuff.
You know there's somebodythat's right next to your best
(49:34):
friend could be going throughthe same thing and you're able
to encourage them and raisetheir faith.
And so I'm always shocked at oursociety, especially social
media and online, how quick weare to just to rip each other
apart and call each other namesonline and say things you'd
never say to somebody's face andcriticize.
(49:57):
Don't be that person.
Be the encourager.
You have the Holy Spirit livingon the inside of you.
Don't become the voice of theaccuser.
Don't agree with the devil,don't?
You know they already have alittle demon on their shoulder
speaking to them.
Don't agree with that demon.
Be the one that just flicksthat little thing off and off of
(50:17):
their shoulder and gives themhope and gives them courage and
speak encouragement back in.
You're full of the Holy Spirit.
Don't ignore Him and otherpeople's need and other people's
hour of need.
Amen.
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