9.12.21 | "You Can Run, But You Can't Hide" | Bishop R. L. Williams

[Music] oh my car will never lose is [Music] he's never lost a battle he's never lost [Music] he's oh he has never lost him [Music] of sickness oh he is hallelujah jesus [Music] and he never will he again [Music] you are my champion [Music] everybody [Music] help me [Music] [Music] is [Music] everybody in the heavenly place [Music] you're my strong towers [Music] you've never lost [Music] hey [Music] you never fail [Music] we always [Music] [Music] never ending hallelujah can we stand all across this house and just begin to usher in the presence of the lord come on can we begin to lift our voices to the king of kings and the lord of lords god you're worthy jesus you're faithful hallelujah god thank you for bringing us here this morning lord we're asking you move in this service god move upon our hearts lord we need you to show up in a powerful way come on somebody can we lift up our voice come on somebody can we lift up our voice hallelujah jesus we need you come on somebody let's worship [Music] can we just lift your hands and magnify jesus can we acknowledge your god in the house today he is worthy [Music] thank you lord uh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] um [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] on [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] oh [Music] come on can we give him a little praise in this house come on somebody why don't we lift jesus a little bit higher hallelujah hallelujah thankful in this place for the life that jesus gave you wanted to put those hands together thank you come on somebody help me [Music] kindness [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] it's giving me [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thankful thank you cheers [Music] [Music] i've got the best [Applause] [Music] jesus [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] abundantly [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] hallelujah i'm thankful for life in this place how many know we live the best life now how many truly believe that you're living the best life now you know i'll be honest as a young person it's easy to look on social media and see other young people that are not inside the church living their best life and i don't mean to come at anybody sideways in any type of way shape or form but i'm telling you once you step outside of these four walls and you step outside of the fold of god that is not the best life that is not living life with a headache every day living life looking over your shoulders living your life in pain living your life in fear that is not the best life i'm thankful for a god who loves me i'm thankful for a church family that loves god just as much as i do this is the best life this is the only life i'm thankful i'm thankful at this time we're going to go ahead and have a few uh prayer we have a few prayer requests this morning we're going to go before the lord in prayer we're continuing to pray for brother wang and his family they're from san jose the wang was rushed to the hospital i believe it was last week or two weeks ago and i i don't know any updates personally but let's continue to pray god is a miracle worker god is able amen we have a praise report i was told the details but i don't remember them brother pack is now back home and he's recovering thank you jesus thank you we still serve a god that can raise the dead that can bring dry bones back to life that can heal i'm thankful for his healing in this house if you believe that your god is able to work a miracle in your life if you believe that that same power that raised brother pack up from his hospital that bed is able to touch you today why don't you lift your hands with whatever needs you have in this house your god is well able to meet and supply every need that you may have somebody ought to lift up your voice and give god a praise right now come on open up your mouth and talk to jesus in this place hallelujah hallelujah we thank you lord we bless your name hallelujah [Music] he lifted him lord we want you no one else [Music] [Music] [Music] lordly [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] so many things [Music] okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] a miracle can happen a miracle will happen your miracle will happen is [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] it is [Music] oh somebody oughta lift your hands in this place for just a moment i don't know what you may have walked into this building with this morning i'm not trying to pull your emotional heartstrings and i'm not trying to be that type of guy this this church ain't like that but let me tell you we have testimony after testimony after testimony after testimony here i'm telling you god moves there is miracles that can happen your breakthrough moment can happen i know brother trevor already mentioned it but brother pack my god everybody knows how this situation has been with covet this day and an 80 year old man should not make it through coven an 80 year old man should not make it through coven but when god steps in listen you could try and medicate it and i'm not trying to step on anyone's toes here you could try and do medication you could try and put people on ventilators i don't care what you want to do but until god steps in nothing we do in the arm of the flesh can negate what god does but when god says you know what let me take care of it put it in my hands put your life in my hands i'm the one who created you i'm the one who breath broke breath into your body when you give it to jesus there's a supernatural shift that happens inside of you and no matter what you're going through in this place i don't care what it is let me tell you that jesus has the power to reach down he has the power to make your need he has the power to heal your sickness i don't know what you've been trying i don't know if you've been trying prescription medication if you've been trying drugs if you've been trying alcohol but let me tell you jesus is the answer jesus is your answer amen what a sweet presence of god that has already touched this place as you make your way back to your seat we'd like to get through a few announcements early morning prayer is at 6 00 a.m monday through friday come and start your day off with prayer family prayers this thursday night at 7 pm outreach will be this saturday at 1 pm street ministry every friday and saturday night at 7 30 p.m search for truth will be meeting this saturday at 11 a.m i'm telling you search for truth has just taken off isn't it awesome that we have a place where we could just learn and learn about god's word and just be equipped i'm so thankful for it heaton kidzone will be meeting at the church this friday at 7 00 pm amen we'd like to welcome all of our guests and our visitors we thank you so much for being with us this morning [Music] everyone's streaming online but it's hard to uh it's hard to have church with people you don't really know it's like the analogy we've used about going to a party it's hard to party and dance with someone when you don't know him right so before we continue on with this service i'm going to give everyone an opportunity to get to know your neighbor that way you don't have any excuse when we continue on with the service so for the next little bit get out and get to know your neighbors that way we could party right [Music] how can it be [Music] [Music] me is [Music] all i wanna do [Music] love is but you i don't wanna love nobody love nobody but you you can't do every one of my secrets that you keep me [Music] [Applause] he will come through [Music] all i wanna do is [Music] nobody but you i don't want to love nobody but you i don't wanna love nobody [Music] you i don't foreign love nobody like you i don't wanna love nobody love nobody but you i don't wanna love nobody but you i don't wanna love nobody but you i don't wanna love nobody love nobody [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] all i wanna do is make you proud of i don't wanna love nobody but you i praise the lord church feels good in the house of god today don't it as we make our way back to our seats we're going to prepare to pick up our sunday morning offering and ties i was reading the other day and i came but stumbled uh upon an article that it's quite interesting about giving and if if if you give me a chance i'd like to go ahead and go over um just share it with you guys i promise to be expedient it's five ways and this is uh by the way this is this is done by uh scientific researchers in the secular world this is not it has nothing to do with any religious organization or any churches or anything like that five ways giving is good for you number one giving makes us feel happy a 2008 study by harvard business school professor michael norton and colleagues found that giving money to someone else lifted participants happiness more than spending it on themselves despite participants predicting that spinning on themselves would make them happier happiness expert sonia lamberski a professor of psychology at the university of california and riverside saw similar results when she asked people to perform five acts of kindness each week for six weeks these good feelings are reflected in our biology in a 2006 study george mo and colleagues at the national institute of health found that when people give to charities it activates regions of the brains associated with pleasure social connection and trust creating a warm glow in fact scientists also believe that altruistic behavior releases endorphins in the brain producing the positive feeling known as the helper's high i found that quite interesting number two giving is good for our health a wide range of research has linked different forms of generosity to better health even among the sick and elderly in his book why good things happen to good people stephen post a professor of preventative medicine at stony brook university reports that giving to others has been shown to increase health benefits in people with chronic illness including hiv and multiple sclerosis a 1999 study led by doug owen of the university of california berkeley found that elderly people who volunteered for two or more organizations were 44 less likely to die over a five-year period than were non-volunteers even after controlling from the controlling from their age exercise habits general health and negative health habits like smoking stephanie brown of the university of michigan saw similar results in a 2003 study on elderly couples she and her colleagues found that those individuals who provided practical help to friends relatives or neighbors or gave emotional support to their spouses had a lower risk of dying over a five-year period than those who didn't interestingly receiving help wasn't linked to a reduced death risk research researchers suggest that one reason given may improve physical health and longevity is that it helps decrease stress which is associated with a variety of health problems in a 2006 study by rachel befer of john hopkins university excuse me at kathleen lloyd lawyer of the university of tennessee people who provided social support to others had lower blood pressure than participants who didn't suggesting a direct physiological benefit to those who give of themselves number three giving promotes cooperation and social connection when you give you're more likely to get back several studies including work by social sociologists brent simpson and rob willard have suggested that when you give to others your generosity is like to be rewarded by others down the line sometimes by the person you gave to sometimes by someone else these exchanges promote a sense of trust and cooperation that strengthens our ties to others and research that research has shown that having positive social interactions essential to good mental and physical health what's more when we give to others we don't only make them feel closer to us we also feel closer to them being kind and generous leads you to perceive others more positively and more charitably we're almost finished number four giving evokes gratitude whether you're on the giving or receiving the end of the gift the gift can elicit feelings of gratitude it can be a way of expressing gratitude or instilling gratitude in the recipient and research research has found that gratitude is integral to happiness health and social bonds robert edmonds of michael mcclove co-directors of the research project on gratitude and thankfulness found that teaching college college students to count their blessings and cultivate gratitude cause them to exercise more be more optimistic and feel better about their lives overall barbara frederickson a pioneering happiness researcher suggests that cultivating gratitude in everyday life is one of the keys to increasing personal happiness when you express your gratitude in words or actions you not only boost your positivity but others as well she writes in her book positivity and in this process you will reinforce the kindness and strengthen your bond one to another and finally number five giving is contagious when we give we don't only help the immediate recipient of our kid we also spur a ripple effect of generosity through our community a study by james fowler of the university of california san diego and nicholas christakis of harvard published in the proceedings of the national academy academy of health shows that when one person behaves generously it inspires observers to behave generously later toward different different people in fact the researchers found that altruism could spread by three degrees from person to person to person to person as a result they write each person in a network can influence dozens or even hundreds of people some of whom he or she does not know and has not even met giving has also been linked to the re release of oxytocin a hormone that indulges indulges feelings of warmth euphoria and connection to others in laboratory stutters studies pause that the director of the center of neuroeconomic study at claremont graduate university has found that a dose of oxytoc oxytocin will cause people to give more generously and to feel more empathy towards others with symptoms lasting up to two hours and those people on an oxytocin high can can potentially jump start a virtuous circle where one person's generous behavior triggers another says that so when you buy gifts volunteer time or donate money to charity you're giving us much more than just a year-end chore it may help you build stronger social connections and even jump-start a cascade a generosity through your community and don't be surprised if you find yourself benefit benefiting from a big dose of happiness in the process all in all it comes down to the verse in the book of acts chapter 20 verse 35. i have shown you all things how that so laboring you ought to support the weak and to remember the words to the lord jesus how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive you were divinely created by god himself to be a giver you're wired to be a giver tell your neighbor i'm blessed to be a blessing tell your other neighbor i'm blessed to be a blessing all right let's go ahead and pray for the sunday morning tithing and offering thank you jesus for everything you're doing in this hour father we know that you blessed us to be a blessing father unto others father and we're here to do your work father to be obedient to your word to apply it to our lives lord we ask you to strengthen us to lead us to guide us lord to show us what you want us to do in your kingdom father to pursue your will lord we're here lord and we're so thankful for everything you're doing this hour in our lives we give you all the praise all the glory and all the honor and everybody say in jesus name let's clap our hands unto the lord [Music] oh [Music] say [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] come on put your hands together [Music] i have no reason to [Music] is [Music] with me i have no reason [Music] i have no reason to [Music] i [Music] oh [Music] i oh [Music] is [Music] somebody ought to put those hands together one more time and lift your voice and make that declaration this morning that i have no fear come on somebody open up your mouth and shout in this place why don't you high-five about eight people on the way to your seat and tell them i have no fear this morning [Music] anybody thankful for what we feel in this place this morning come on if you're excited to be in the house of the lord put your hands together one more time and give god a praise [Music] amen amen you can be seated for just a moment what a privilege and an honor it is to be back home this morning amen i feel like little dorothy in the wizard of oz there's no place like home pardon the reference i'm sorry i wasn't raised in church some of y'all don't even know what we're talking about but i am so glad to be back home i've been in about six states in the past two weeks preaching all over the place and traveling and i'm just gonna tell you something i am so excited to be home today there's nothing like this place there's nothing like the rock church of fort myers amen i want to take a moment this morning to give a great big welcome to all of our guests that are here in the house of the lord with us today would you help me rock church come on we can do a little bit better than that i want you to help me put your hands together and welcome all of our guests that are in the house of the lord with us today amen it is so wonderful to see you with us and if you are here for the very first time you should have received a vip invitation card when you walked in the door that looks just like what's on the screen behind me and if you're here for the first time and you didn't receive one of these if you just slip your hand up in the air really quick one of our staff will bring one that one of them to you very quickly but this is an invitation for you to join us immediately following the service in our vip room and we've got some light refreshments and a small gift we'd love to give you and just take a quick opportunity to get to know you a little bit better and thank you for coming and joining us in worship this morning amen would you just spin around in a 360 degree circle all around you and touch everybody you can and tell them welcome home this morning come on tell them welcome home welcome home i need you to help y'all are our ushers and first impressions team this morning tell everybody welcome home amen amen so good to see you i see several uh people in the house of the lord that i make i'm just excited it's good to see sister natoya back home this morning she's been recovering from surgery and i'm glad she's back in the house of the lord giving the devil a hard time this morning amen brother ricardo you've been keeping her on the straight and narrow all right amen we're so glad to see her this morning and to all the rest of our guests welcome to the rock church amen listen i want you to uh to say something tonight i feel a very very special word from god for this house and it goes without being said but i just want to put a little bit of an emphasis this morning on all of our efforts to make sure that we're faithful to the house of the lord in on tonight i've got a word that i want to share with this house and i don't want you to miss it so turn around tell your neighbor be here tonight be here tonight be here tonight and uh god is doing some wonderful things last sunday i think we had six people baptized in jesus name for the remission of their sins five of them came out of the water speaking in tongues as god filled them full of the holy ghost and if you're here this morning and you've never been baptized in jesus name or received the holy ghost i've got good news for you today is your day amen today is your day and god is continuing to do amazing things it is good to see brother and sister stewart and their family back home this morning amen amen they left a couple of weeks ago for a couple of days trip to go get some of their stuff that turned into two weeks and during that couple of weeks time just by the divine providence of god brother stewart was able to spend what he did not know would be some of the last days together with his father who passed away last week i think it was early last week and we've been praying for them and want them to know that we love them and we are with them and uh we thank god who is the great comforter of us all amen and uh so we love them today it's good to see them back home how many of you came expecting something great from god in this sanctuary today would you stand with me all over this sanctuary as we go to the word of the lord i want to invite you to the book of psalms chapter 139 this morning uh psalms 139 is where you will find my assignment for today as i was preparing for this service i felt like the lord arrested my attention concerning this text and as much as i tried to explore and feel after potential other things that maybe the lord would do this morning i could not get away from this text today and so i want to obey the holy ghost psalms 139 verse number 7 is where i want to begin reading the writer said whither shall i go from thy spirit or withers shall i flee or run from thy presence if i ascend up into heaven thou art there if i make my bed in hell behold thou art there if i take the wings of the morning and i dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me if i say surely the darkness shall cover me even the night shall be a light about me yea the darkness hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to thee one transliteration renders verse 11 and verse 12 like this it says i could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night but even in darkness i cannot hide from you and for a few moments this morning i simply want to preach you can run but you can't hide i need you to turn around and look somebody right in the eye and point your finger at him this morning and tell them you can run but you can't hide come on look at him point him right tell him you can run but you can't hide would you put your hands together one more time and give god a great praise all over this house today amen you may be seated this morning the penman of this text presumably david is making an observation of something that he has discovered in life and that is that you can not hide from god he said where shall i run from your presence if i ascend all the way up into the heavens guess what you're there and if i make my bed in hell behold thou art there too he begins to say if i take the wings of the morning and i dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea that even there in the most unlikely places your hand is going to lead me and your right hand shall hold me he declares that surely the darkness shall cover me and even the night shall be light about me he makes the observation that the darkness even the darkness cannot hide anything from god but in god's eyes the night shines like the daytime and he comes to the conclusion that you simply can not hide from god why is this such an important revelation it is such an important revelation because man has a propensity to run and to hide when things are not right in his life because he is uncomfortable with confrontation man runs and he hides because confrontation brings accountability to our lives and there is a presupposition in the mind of mankind that if i can run from it then i don't have to face it if i can hide from it then i won't have to deal with it if some way i can find an escape from it then i can exempt myself from the realities of the things that i don't want to know about myself you see there is a polarizing existence of mankind is this all right this morning man is created in the image of god and when god creates us there is an ideal a perfect self that god has said this is who i have created you to be but the fact of the matter is we are like david said we are born in sin and shapen in iniquity and in that existence our existential self the real us lives in a type of polarity between who god created us to be and the actuality of who we are can i get a witness in the building in other words i have to deal with the reality that this is who god made me to be this is who god expects me to strive to be but i am left dealing with the fallen nature of my humanity and the fallen nature of my humanity the carnal man as the bible puts it does not like to face the idea of dying the carnal man does not like to face the idea of extinction and the only way for the perfect man the spiritual man to be revealed is that the carnal man has to die oh that's why one writer said that the carnal mind is the enemy of god and neither is not subject to the law of god and neither indeed can be that is why the word of god is replete with the ideology that we must be crucified with christ not hung on a tree physically but our carnal man has to come to a place of death and like every other living being in this dimension he doesn't want to die he doesn't want to perish and so there is a mechanism of self-preservation in the carnal man that when he feels threatened he flight it is fight or flight he runs because he is trying his best not to die and when man falls in the garden when adam and eve fall from the state of perfect union with god their first reaction to their sin their first reaction to their fallen nature is they run and they hide from the presence of god they begin to cover themselves and run from the voice of god can i preach to somebody in the building this morning you can run but you cannot hide oh i feel like preaching this morning they did not run to a different place but rather they hid themselves in the garden oh if you've ever played hide and seek before you understand that the best place to hide is the most unlikely place that somebody would hide i'm gonna hide in the same room that the person doing the seeking is counting i'm gonna hide close to them in a place that they would never want to look for that's why people come to church on sunday mornings and really what they're doing is they're hiding from god in the church there's no better place to hide from god than to come to church to disguise myself as somebody that's living for god to disguise myself i'm going to put a covering on a self-manufactured covering and i'm gonna blend into the surroundings because if i can blend into the to the surroundings and i can make it appear then maybe god won't confront me maybe god won't deal with me maybe i can run from the confrontation oh but i came to preach to somebody in this place that the son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost and you might be here in the church this morning and you might be sitting in your pew just saying i'm going to sit here and i'm going to duck and dodge but this morning god sent me to tell you you can run but you can not hide god sees you god knows where you're at god's got your number god put out an abp on you this morning and he tracked you down followed your license plate all the way to the parking lot this morning god knows which pew you're sitting on and god knows exactly what you're trying to hide from him today and so for some people it becomes a game of hide and seek people running and hiding from god and god seeking after them in 1946 joe lewis who was the world heavyweight boxing champion at that time prepared to defend his title against the skilled fighter by the name of billy khan lewis was warned to watch out for khan's great speed and his tactic of darting into attack and then moving quickly out of his opponent's range and in a famous display of confidence lewis replied he can run but he can't hide oh somebody needs to understand this morning you're running in circles trying to run from god as the writer in our text described you can run all the way to the heavenlies and when you get there god will be there waiting on you if you descend into the depths of hell god's going to be there it doesn't matter if you try to hide in the nightclub god's going to be standing there it doesn't matter if you're in the bedroom of a string of a strange person god is going to be there when god's got your number there's nowhere you can run there's no distance too far there's no mountain too high there's no valley low enough there's no place conspicuous enough to hide you from the eyes and the hand of god you see there's a very close correlation between running and hiding and being lost you can run and hide so long that before you know it you are lost i remember in one of the houses i lived in as a child we lived in an area that was surrounded by some trees as a little boy they seemed like massive woods to me much later in life i realized it wasn't as big as i thought it was but as a child it was the enchanted forest and we used to love to play hide and seek and we'd hide all around in those trees and in the woods but i remember one morning we were playing hide and seek and as they began to count i said to myself i'm going to hide so good today that nobody's ever gonna find me i'm gonna go further than i've ever went before they'll never ever find me and so i ran out in the woods and i went left and i went right and i circled around and doubled back trying my best to figure out a trail that nobody would be able to find and i waited and i waited and i waited and i waited until i finally realized ain't nobody coming yes i finally won now what and when i thought enough time had passed that okay i won they're done looking for me i came out from my hiding place and i started to walk back and i said hold on a second did i come from over here or did i come from over there hold on a second i and i went here a little ways and hope that that ain't the right way and i tried to get back and i said wait this this doesn't look familiar and within just a few moments panic began to sit in because i realized that i had ran and hid so long and so good that now i was lost i had ran and hit so much that even though i wanted to get back now i didn't know how to get back now i was in a situation where i wanted to be found but nobody could find me as a matter of fact i couldn't even find myself there's no kind of loss like being lost to a place that not only can ever other people not find you but you can't even find yourself and when they finally found me they took me a few steps this way and a few steps that way and there i was at the house because when you become disoriented and lost you could be just a few feet from home and still never be able to find it when you get lost in yourself you can be right here in the sanctuary just steps away from freedom just steps away from deliverance just but still can't find it so oh i'm going to preach this morning you can get to the place brother keith where you're so lost that the holy ghost is moving and you'll want to repent and you're only five cues away but you still can't seem to make your way to an altar you still can't seem to find your way to repent itself your hands are in the air but you can't feel the breakthrough the tears are coming down your face but you just what's happened you have ran and hit so long that you become lost the book of luke gives us the example of three things and parables to communicate the idea to us about lost things and in the first story we read the parable about the lost sheep the lost sheep leaves the 90 and 9 and it requires the shepherd to leave the 90 and 9 to go and find the one sheep and i don't have time to preach everything behind this then there is a story about a young man who leaves father's house and he leaves father's house because he has a misconception that things are better outside of father's house and he's running from father's house he's running and and he finally the bible says comes to himself and realizes i made a wrong choice i made a bad decision but thank god he found his way back from being lost he found his way back to father's house oh and we can rejoice over those stories but there is a third story in between those two uh concerning a lost coin and the plight of the lost coin is that the lost coin is lost but it's lost in the house can i just tell you there's no being lost like being lost in the house i'd rather lose something outside the house and say i know where it went but i can't get to it i know it's not here i know for a fact it's not here it got lost on the bus on the plane on the train it got lost somewhere else but to know that it's here somewhere and i just can't find there's no more greater frustration than trying to find something that you know is in the house but i cannot find it can i preach to you don't let the fact that you're in the house this morning deceive you into thinking that you're not lost just because you're in the house because some of the most lost things are lost in the house oh i wish i had a church with me this morning lost in the house absent in the house disengaged while being in the house untouched by god sitting in the house non-responsive sitting in the house while the parable of the lost sheep and the prodigal son is tragic there is nothing more tragic than being lost in the house preaching right now to people that are sitting under the sound in the auspices of my voice but you're lost can't find your way to repentance can't find your way back to jesus can't find your way to deliverance can't find your way to an altar i can't find my way to a bra i'm here i got dressed i drove up in the parking lot but i can't find my way back to freedom huh i'm lost in the house sir you've been running from god for so long that you don't even remember how to get back to him huh ma'am you've been running from a confrontation for so long that you don't even remember how to repent i'm preaching to somebody in the building ma'am you've lived according to your will for so long that you forgot what it is to fall on your face and sob and repent before god you are lost in the house perhaps the most well-known fugitive in history is a man by the name of jonah you see it's one thing to run from men al capone el chapo but jonah was trying to run from god and in the book of jonah chapter one verse number three it opens up by saying that jonah rose up to flee unto tarshish from the presence of the lord what a silly thought rabbit tricks are for kids you can't run from the presence of the lord [Music] he's omnipresent he's everywhere you ever thought about going whenever you get there he's already waiting on you silly jonah there's no country that you can escape the hand of god silly jonah whatever made you think you could flee from the presents did you not understand the words of david if you go all the way to hell god's going to be there you can stick a needle up in your arm and take your mind a million miles away and god will still be there you can run from the presence of god you might get up and walk out of this house but he'll be waiting for you in the lobby when the altar call is given this morning you might run to your car he'll be sitting in the driver's seat when you unlock the door you might be driving down the road trying to get as far from this place as you can but your entire trip god will be right there with you you can run from the presence of an omni-present god and so he finds a ship going to tarshish and he pays the fare the bible tells us that he goes into the bottom of the ship to try and hide from the presence of the lord he doesn't even go up where everybody else is at he has to go below where the cargo is because when you're running from god baby you'll never fit in anywhere else you'll always be out of place when god's calling you you'll always be uncomfortable when the voice of god is reaching for you you'll always be unhappy when the hand of god is pulling you'll never find respite you'll never come on who am i preaching to in this place you can get on the biggest ship with people all over it but when you get on the ship you're gonna find that you don't belong there he's running trying to hide from god but god knows exactly where he is and not only does god know where he is but god doesn't stop reaching for him oh i thank god this morning for a god that never stopped reaching for me i just need a few people in the building with the testimony thank god that even when i was running from him he kept on chasing me thank god that when i was high on drugs and trying to fill my life with everything else that there was a god that kept on reaching for me thank god that he never gave up thank god he never let i wish i had somebody in the building that would just thank god today that he didn't leave you in your trouble that he didn't leave you alone in your dilemma that he never turned his back on you and said forget them god kept reaching for me he kept reaching for me brother daniel when everybody else gave up on me he kept reaching for me when nobody else wanted to touch me he kept reaching for me when nobody else wanted to give me a chance he kept reaching for me when everybody else rejected me he kept reaching for me even though i turned my back on him keeps reaching for jonah one author in his musings about sailing writes this a sailor chooses the wind that takes the ship from a safe port ah yes but once you're abroad as you have seen winds have a mind of their own be careful of the wind you choose jonah thought that he had hopped on the right ship headed in the right direction but he forgot who the master of the seas was he forgot who controlled the winds and the ways and it doesn't matter what situation you put yourself in god is in control and the bible says but the lord sent out a great wind into the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be broken sometimes we experience storms in our life that have everything to do with the vicissitudes of life but there are other times that we experience storms in our life that are directly sent by god himself oh i'm going to preach for just a moment because you can pray against storms that the world sends your way and you can pray about storms that come to your life and threaten your existence but when god sends the storm you can pray all you want to pray that storm was sent by god and the storm had purpose god said i'm sending the storm and the storm has a job to do the job of the storm is to destroy the ship the job of the storm is to destroy your hiding place oh sometimes god will send storms to your life to wreck everything you've been hiding behind her to destroy every wall you've been god said i'm gonna show you jonah it doesn't matter where you run you cannot hide from me i'll destroy your hiding place i'll let your job fall apart so you quit hiding behind your work i can't live for god because my job i can't live for god i can't be faithful to church because i work to god'll destroy the ship that you've been hiding from because god cares more about you than he cares about the well-being of the stuff that you're hiding behind there's times people call first lady and i will get a text message bishop pray for us pray for me we're going through a storm right now oh god pray that god delivered us and i'm really nice and i just reply with praying hands instead of words because they don't realize that i'm praying that the storm keeps on raging oh see y'all i lost half of you right there because you want your please stand in the way of the storm bishop i'm not gonna get in front of god because sometimes god is using the storm to get your attention and sometimes it's the only way that god can shake you out of your stubbornness and god can shake you out of disobedience ah come on somebody i reply with praying hands and then i do start praying god whatever it takes god whatever it takes if they gotta end up in the hospital for you to get their attention god do whatever it takes god if you gotta if they gotta lose the house god take away any idols that would cause them not to live for you god if that young man is going to keep drawing her attention away from you let him move out of here let him break up let something happen what are you doing i'm on the lord's side because sometimes it's god that sent the storm to break up the ship because you can run but you can't hide god sent the storm the storm was on assignment break it apart do whatever it takes to get his attention and here he is on the ship until finally he fesses up to the guys on the ship the reason we're in trouble is because i haven't been listening to god but you see self-realization and admittance is not always an indicator of repentance all it meant was that he was willfully disobeying god i know i'm doing wrong and i'm still not gonna repent the stubbornness of man the stubbornness of man i'm gonna do it my way there's some people in this building god's been trying to get your attention and you're not listening to him and god's even sent people right to you to sit and say hey listen stop you need to listen and instead of you listening your stubbornness has stood up in the face of the storm i don't care who doesn't like me i don't care what nobody thinks and those guys you know what they did they went down to where jonah was he was trying to sleep he thought he could just close his eyes and turn his attention away from everything and somehow it would just all go away you see oh i feel like preaching right here too many of us are afraid of confrontation but if you're gonna have peace you've got to make peace blessed are the peace makers there is no peace without confrontation without conflict resolution i know people that live their whole life in turmoil and storms because they will not learn how to resolve conflict brother michael i know people that will go their whole life topsy-turvy from one storm to the next from one problem to the next from one bit of friction to the next because every time god tries to bring them to a place of conflict resolution they just run they are predispositioned because of our carnal nature i'm gonna run from the trouble i'm gonna run from the conflict i'm gonna you better hear your bishop today you can't run from trouble you can't run from god somewhere you're gonna have to stop and face yourself self-confrontation is the genesis of spiritual formation in that perfect existent existential self and the realities of who you really are the gap in between those two things is called potential who you are versus where god is trying to take you and the only way you can ever become what god has called you to be is you've got to confront self you've got to confront the difference between what god expects of you and where you are somewhere oh i already said that self never likes confrontation self always runs from the idea of extinction and that's why sometimes it takes catastrophic threatening to cause somebody to face themselves sometimes it takes a catastrophic threat the idea that maybe everything will be destroyed if i don't get a hold of myself maybe it's a saul who gets knocked off of his horse and a light from heaven comes and he's struck with blindness what happened god said i've got to get his attention he's not listening to my prophets he's not listening to the word and so it's going to take a catastrophic threatening in order to get his attention uh jonah's not listening to the man of god joda is running from the prophet he's not listening so it's going to take a catastrophic threatening i'm going to bust up the ship and i'm going to put his very existence in danger in order to cause him to stop running because most of the time when we're running from god it's because we're running from ourself so he thinks i could just sit in the bottom of the ship and if i ignore everything long enough it'll go away if i just put myself to sleep and wake up in the morning eventually it'll go away deception the ship's rocking back and forth and finally these guys come running down and they wake him up and you read it when you get home they say oh sleeper what are you doing sleeping at a time like this they had more sense than he did you know what they told him why don't you get up and start praying to your god call upon vaga ain't it something when even the people you're trying to hide amongst have a better sense of what you should be doing than you do ain't it something when the people you tried to get lost with uh have to look at you and say hey listen man i don't know what's going on in your life but it's probably a really good idea that you start praying to your god oh i'm preaching to somebody in the building right now that god has your number you can run but you cannot hide finally they make a decision if we don't get this joker off the ship we're about to pay the ultimate price oh boy okay god you see sometimes the reason you're having a difficult time in life isn't because of choices you made but the people you're holding close to you and their disobedience to god has drug you into their storm and there comes a point in time when you have to realize that god will let you pay the price by association if you don't have enough wisdom to throw jonah overboard oh i got some people on the ropes right now but i'm going to preach in the holy ghost you see what looked like an act of abandonment was actually an act of mercy they realized i can no longer enable him and as long as i let him stay in my ship i'm aiding and abetting in hiding a fugitive and i will be held accountable oh and what looks like me abandoning somebody is really me putting them back in the hand of god saying lord who do i think i am if you can't help them what makes them think i'm better than you are so god i'm throwing them overboard god i'm put who am i preaching to in this place tell your neighbor throw jonah overboard put him back in the hand of god before your house is destroyed put him back in the hand of god before come on somebody and so jonah is cast from the ship what he thought was the safety of the ship into the treachery of the waters but it was in the treachery of the waters that god had a plan of salvation sometimes you have to go into the storm to find your exit out of the storm and the bible says that god prepared a fish i like that because god is five steps in front of you jonah and while you think you're making an escape god's already preparing for where you're gonna be and at the moment jonah hit the water there was a fish that had been prepared god had given it gps coordinates god put an internal clock and said at this time this place this moment i want you to be here i got a snack for you god's in control not you somewhere somewhere jonah god's going to teach you the lesson that you don't call the shots that everything's not done according to your game plan and your call somewhere god's going to teach you a lesson to surrender yourself to his will and his plan tell your neighbor you can run but you can't hide so the stomach of this fish becomes the holding place where god says you're done running i'll i'll go to what the belly of a fish god will go to whatever lengths he has to to put a stop to your running because he loves you too much to watch you run yourself into destruction see we can we could get deep into this because he chooses the digestive system of a fish and jonah when he gets inside the belly of that fish the body immediately treats him as it would any other food and the acids begin to break him down god will put you in a holding place where everything in your environment starts to break you down i broke the ship down the thing that you were hiding in but now i'm gonna break down the thing that's hiding in and god begins to break him down god puts him in an environment where everything is falling apart around him now if it was me i'm just saying if it was me and i made it through the storm and the sea see some of y'all wouldn't even last on okeechobee or the caloosahatchee much less the waves of the ocean i watch people at the airport on the little tram when it stops oh my god if i made it through the storm of the sea and then the ship being broke apart the ship's falling apart oh no don't play that i've been like i surrender jesus but then for a fish i mean he's in the water and all of a sudden i mean at that point when that mouth opens up but you want to know what jonah still didn't repent swallowed by a fish sitting in the belly of a fish and he still wouldn't repent digestive juices eating his flesh the stench of rotten fish inside the gut of that animal the slime the lack of oxygen in my mind's eye it's like god gave him just enough air to live but to panic you ever lost your breath and thought you were about to die a real good asthma attack had the wind knocked out that's how i see jonah in the whale in the fish's belly god's squeezing him it shows you the strength of the human will the stubbornness of mankind i'll sit on a pew and i will not go to the altar you can preach whatever you want to preach preacher i'm not moving you can preach what you want to preach preacher i'm not going to cry i'm not going to an altar i'm not going to repent it amazes me the kind of conditions people are willing to live in instead of falling on their knees and surrendering to god it amazes me the condition and the state of life and conflict that people are willing to live in day after day week after week and they will not bring their flesh to an altar and let god fix them three days finally i think it's chapter three verse number one after three days everything that had happened the winds the ways the broken ship the fish all of it was designed for one thing jonah i just want you to pray that's all i want jonah is for you to pray and after three days in those conditions the bible says and jonah prayed you read it when you get home it's just a couple of verses the prayer isn't even very long it's jonah just finally coming to a place of realizing i'm wrong and god i'm sick of running from you yes to your will music come i'm i'm headed to close and it was in that moment that he repents that the bible says god spoke to the fish and it vomited jonah up on the dry land i'm preaching to some people right now you need to hear your man of god all god is waiting for to bring some reprieve to your life is for you to get on your knees and say all right god i'm done running from you all right god i'm done running for myself god i'm sick of this conflict i'm tired of the storm i'm tired of living according to my own will in my own way come on who am i preaching to right now where are you at today jonah i know you're in the building i know you're here and you're hiding and i might not know exactly where you're hiding but god knows exactly where you are and i'm preaching to you today jonah you might as well come out with your hands up because god's got the place surrounded today i said you might as well come up come out with your hands in the air because god's got the place surrounded this morning there's no place you can run there's nowhere you can hide god knows exactly where you've been and god is reaching for you and god is speaking to you today come on i want somebody to lift your hands all over this house somebody lift your hands in the sanctuary you can run but you can't hide you can run come on you might be fooling everybody else but you're not fooling god you might be tricking you might be lying to yourself but you're not lying to god you can come up with every excuse in the world come on i'm preaching to some people right now you can come up with every justification why you're going to sit in your seat today and you're not going to come to the altar but god knows exactly where you are listen i want you to hear me i want you to look at me and i want you to hear me today i'm going to show you what it looks like to hide in the house of god god always makes a call for action you hear me abraham come out from your children god always told them to build an altar when they sinned as a nation build an altar offer us there's always action associated with repentance and responding to god and our flesh hates the altar our flesh hates repentance and so you want to know what our flesh does when we're sitting in church and god's calling for repentance i'm going to show you what hiding in the house of the lord looks like maybe if i look like i'm praying this will suffice everybody else this is a religious posture of deception right here lying in the house of god i'm really resisting what's preached i'm really resisting the move of god but i want an appearance that looks spiritual i want an appearance that looks like a response you can run but you can't hide i said you can run it's quiet in this house but i didn't come to play games with anybody today god's tired of you trying to hide jonah god's tired of your shenanigans god's tired of your religious game trying to run back and forth you're not fooling anybody and you're certainly not fooling god you can run but you can't hide the house of god's the perfect hiding place sitting in a pew in a posture of prayer is a perfect hiding place but it'll never replace running to an altar it'll never replace bowing your knees before god it'll never replace a place of surrender to god i had a brother-in-law he was a little boy he wanted to hide from somebody he had this idea in his mind and he would run into the middle of a room and he would sit down and cross his legs he would fold his arms and bow his head and he would close his eyes as tight as he could squeeze his eyes together and in his mind he thought if i've got my eyes closed then i can't see then nobody else can see me and if you walked in the room he thought he was invisible he thought because his eyes were closed that he was hidden and as funny as that little game sounds almost every church service i witnessed people sitting on the pews playing the same game with god i came to church and as long as i sit here with my eyes closed postured then nobody can see me maybe god can't see me but i'm preaching to you today you can run but you can't hide i'm closing this morning in april of 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to alaska and he walked alone into the wilderness of north of mount mckinley his name was christopher mccandless he had given 25 000 in savings to charity abandon his car and most of his possessions he burned all the cash in his wallet and invented a new life for himself four months later his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter the book into the wild by john cracker tells about chris who died of starvation on august 18th of 1992 112 days after he walked into the wild and 19 days before six hunters would happen across the old bus numbered 142 and his body inside you see soon after graduating from college chris left home and disappeared both a thrill seeker and a young man running from the structure and upbringing of his parents chris changed his name and covered his tracks to a boy avoid being found he wanted to get away where no one could find him he wanted to hide from everyone maybe even god by all accounts chris was very bright and charming in the spring of 1992 he followed the stampede trail and crossed the teklanica river to live by himself near denali national park he wanted to live by his wits and burned his bridges by going with only 10 pounds of rice a 22 rifle and some books he ignored the advice of people who lived in the area and he refused to take any maps or arrange any follow-up with anybody that loved him he learned how to hunt and gather and he kept a journal and took occasional pictures and though he got very thin he seemed to be doing well but after several weeks he had a change of heart and a change of mind and he decided to return to civilization but he found the teklanica river to be full and wild and impassable he returned to the abandoned bus that he was inhabiting possibly to wait for the waters to recede later he became very weak and eventually he died in the bus ironically just a couple of miles from where the stampede trail crossed the tecla konica there was a line across the river with a tram attached on chris's side where he could easily have crossed the river he ran and he hid so deep and so long that he couldn't find his way back and i'm begging some people in this building today that have been on the run from god i'm begging you to seek the lord while he may be found to call ye upon him while he is near with every head bowed and every hand lifted in this place i wonder if there's anybody in this building that would respond to the voice of god in this house right now come on i'm begging you to come out of your hiding place i'm begging you to move out of that pew and that place of comfortability i'm begging you to take a step this morning and lift your hands in the presence of god come on how much longer are you going to keep running from yourself how much longer are you going to let your flesh control you and your stubborn will control your moves and your decision come on somebody you can run but you can't hide you can run but you can't come on come on all over this house lift your hands somebody right now lift your voice there's somebody in this building that needs to fall on your knees right now there's somebody in this building you need to get on your face this morning before god there's somebody in this house come on come on your stubbornness is as idolatria and rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft come on you're self-sabotaging your future you are self-sabotaging god's plan for your life come on come on come on you can [Music] it's time to turn back it's time to surrender [Music] it's time to surrender come on come on i need some men to help me pray right here come on there's people all over these altars praying [Music] come on i need some men of god to help me pray i need some women of god [Music] come on here i am god here i am [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] i [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] it's time to stop running it's time to stop hiding [Music] is [Applause] [Music] here i am [Music] his hand is on you right now [Music] his hand is on you right here right now right here right now in jesus name [Music] everybody jesus [Music] [Music] come on somebody right now godspeed god's listening i surrender god i surrender god not my will but thy will be done come on come on come on [Music] [Applause] [Music] i can't give you [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] god's got a plan for you come on [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] with [Music] god's trying to get your attention today god's trying to get your attention stop running [Music] the storm has come from god the pressure is the hand of god trying to save you trying to rescue you trying to reach you [Music] [Music] come on come on [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] give to you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] stop trying to hide [Music] [Applause] [Music] everything everything [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] to you [Music] [Applause] everything everything i give we

Channel: Rock Church Fort Myers

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Length: 125min 41sec (7541 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021