Hope for Hard Times | Pastor Sheryl Brady

[Music] all right hebrews hebrews chapter 12. the bible said therefore we also since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight in the sin that does so easily ensnare us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto jesus now that's how you gonna run the race looking unto jesus the author and the finisher of our faith now to understand the first line there that says therefore wherefore whatever your bible says we also since we are therefore we also so in order to really understand what that line means you got to go back and read chapter 11. that's why i told you to take the time to go back this week and read chapter 11. but i'm going to trust you to do that galatians 6 and 9. one verse of scripture you all know it you could quote it we've heard it a million times probably but i'm going to say they get in your hearing today and i'm praying that the word bypasses just your hearing but it gets in your spirit the bible says in galatians 6 and 9 and let us not grow weary while doing good or in well-doing for in due season we might reap what does it say that's pretty that's pretty pretty pretty definite right there in due season we shall reap if we do not faint or if we do not lose heart so today i want to spend the next few moments and i just want to talk about because because losing heart is a dangerous thing and we've been through some stuff and if you could have lost it you probably would have lost it but by the grace of god we are standing here today and i am grateful for that but for the next few moments i just want to talk from the subject hope in the hard times hope for you shall reap if you faint not hope in the hard times does anybody know what it's like to be in hard times hard times that are that are just coming at you so fast you don't know what to do and you don't know where to turn they can come out of nowhere and wipe you out if you're not ready but god said today there's hope in the hard times i don't know who i'm talking to and i don't know who might be listening but there is hope in your hard times and so today all i'm going to do is encourage you in the word is that okay is it okay if i encourage you in the word today look at somebody next to you tell them be encouraged there's hope in the hard times father today i thank you for your word and i know that your word comes to bring life the hearing of your word god brings us faith i asked god that you were just moving this room you know every situation you know every person you know every trouble you know every tear you know who's been reaching for you you know who's been trying to run but lord today i pray that as i cast this word out that it becomes a net and it pulls us all together and that god people will leave here in courage knowing that your word you sent it and you healed us on so many different levels have your way today and we'll give you the praise for it in jesus name somebody say amen on your way down just holler hoping the hard times hope in the hard times if you don't know what hard times are just download this message after church because you don't need it at some point in your life in our text the apostle paul is he's an amazing man number one but the apostle paul he is reminding us those of us who are a part of the body of christ he is reminding us that the call to consistency and the call to steadfastness it must accompany our christian profession we cannot walk around professing to be christians and yet there's no stability in our life there's no uh consistency in our lives in other words what he's saying to us there if you are going to call yourself a christian there ought to be some consistency to you there ought to be some steadiness in you there ought to be some stability in you some immovability there ought to be some depend ability about you if you are a believer he is ex in other words let me back up and just work on that for just a minute because y'all pretty quiet uh if you're gonna call yourself a believer uh and if you're gonna call yourself a beacon of hope and if you're going to call yourself a disciple of christ then when the storm comes and it begins to rage everybody in around you can fall apart but there must be something in you that says i know in whom i have believed and i am persuaded that he is able and if you're constantly falling down with the crowd and going with everybody else and letting everything take over then that's just a sign that you need to anchor yourself in god and you need to anchor yourself in his word and you need to to ask god to give you that spirit of stability he is also exhorting us and he's telling us that we need to make sure that holiness is a personal pursuit holiness we don't hear about that today but i'm you're looking at a pastor who believes that we are to walk holy before the lord doesn't mean we're perfect hello but we ought to at least attempt come on come on i said we ought to at least one it's quiet in this church today but there there are some things about god god is holy so be ye therefore holy that's what is his word says be different be set apart uh that that still preaches today you don't get as many mans as you used to get but it's still the truth and the truth is what will make us free somebody shout amen he reminds us paul is reminding us that it is our duty okay it is our duty uh to make sure that we put off the old man and that we put on the new man the old man is adam the old man is adam the new man is christ and he's telling us that it is our obligation it is our duty if we call ourselves believers that we put adam off and we put christ on he is also exhorting us he exhorted us greatly about running a race and running our race now whenever you you see the scripture talks about running a race it is it is really uh talking about us and our race in in what god has given us and what he's charged us with on an individual basis and he's he tells us that we must be committed to our race and he tells us that we must not just be committed to the race but we got to be committed to finishing the race so in other words you can't stop until you finish look at somebody and tell them don't stop until you finish if it's a 5k if it's a 10k if it's a half marathon if it's a marathon if it's a an ultra marathon whatever it is you it is imperative that we finish the race and whether your race is short or whether it is long i have learned a little bit about running i don't so much i read about it a lot i'm going to say that okay i read about running because everything in me wants to run but something else in me says oh let somebody else do it but but i have for years i've read about running because i think it's i think it's important to us uh and if you're if you're going to be a runner if you're going to be a master runner in any race there has to be a certain level of uh training that comes in in into your into your world because if you don't train then you'll never you'll never be able to finish the race and when you're going through training some of the things that i thought were inspiring to me was that when you go through training you learn about six different things and one of those things is you learn confidence and when you're going through training you you learn concentration you learn motivation you learn self-denial if you're going to be a master runner in the kingdom of god if you're going to be a master runner you have got to understand what self-denial is about you learn discipline you learn perseverance and you learn endurance when you are a master runner anyone who understands running uh they understand uh especially a master runner they understand that you have to not just be physically tough but you have to be mentally tough as well to get across the finish line can i tell you in the church that if we're going to be master runners in the kingdom of god we have got to be more than just physically tough but we have got to be mentally tough because the enemy comes every day to kill and to steal and destroy and if he can tear it down in your mind it's just a matter of time until he breaks you down in your life so you've got to be mentally tough and you've got to have a scanner that scans all day long and says nope i'm not letting you in because you're coming to kill i'm not letting you in because you're coming to steal i'm not letting you thought that's a thought that i'm not allowing it you are the watchman on the wall of your own mind and you got to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of christ i'm preaching the word to you this morning you got to bring every thought every thought every every wild thought every crazy thought every thought that comes to steal kill and destroy every thought that comes to tear you down every thought that comes to tell you you're not going to make it you can't take it you've got to be mentally tough by the grace of god and say you are a liar i am the head and not the tail i am above and not beneath see some of you don't know the word so when the warfare starts you don't have nothing to fight back with and you end up succumbing to it but you got to know the word because then you tell you tell you speak to that mountain and say oh no you shall be moved out of my way absolutely not i refuse to sit here and die he was wounded for my transgressions he was bruised for my iniquities the chastisement of my peace is upon him and with his stripes i am here no devil i put a boundary up today you can't have my mind i said you can't have my mind if you give him your mind you might as well give him everything else that's the problem some folk has given the enemy their mind you'll love god your worship god but you gave the devil too much room and if you give the devil an inch he will take a mind to somebody mentally tough mentally tough and then and in the middle of of some of the the race's toughest moments another thing that i learned is that you got to remain calm when the race is really getting tough you have to remain calm and you have to stay focused those are two important things i have to remain calm i get a call i don't like what i heard but i'm going i'm gonna remain calm i'm not letting my feathers get ruffled in all of this i'm not going to act like i don't have a god i'm not going to act like my god in abel i'm not going to act like his word is not going to be there for me i'm going to stand on his word you got to remain calm and you got to focus the minute you take your eyes off of god in his word and his promises that's when you begin to go down so you got to remain calm and you've got to stay focused even when you you feel like god i can't run i can't run another inch i feel like i don't know i can't put my i can't pick up my foot and put it down another time where you are this is runners now master runners okay i feel like i'm talking to some master kingdom runners in here but uh a master runner even when they're feeling physically pressed even when they feel like they're receiving these conflicting signals from their body that's saying you got to stop something in there there's a warfare that's going on and said that says i can't stop because i don't see the finish line yet i'm gonna keep running and they fight in those moments when the fight is fierce when their lungs are feeling like they're going to collapse when they feel like they can't make it that's when they fight the fiercest and the reason they do that is because they understand yeah this is pain but pain is temporary but quitting is forever so i would rather deal with the temporary that have to live in the forever so if you want to win the prize what i'm saying to you today is you must mentally prepare to endure the pain if you don't endure the pain you cannot win the prize because the will to win does not matter at all if you don't possess the will to prepare look at somebody and tell them you got to be prepared for 2022. oh y'all ain't tell them like you love them tell them like you love them god's going to do something for you in 2022 but you're gonna have to be tough to get it you're gonna have to be tough yeah you're gonna have to be tough to get it and and i will tell you no matter how prepared you are and no matter how tough you get it is always an added bonus to have somebody in the crowd who is on your side who is in your corner who is cheering you on y'all know you love that we all do something happens when somebody comes and starts cheering you on when they show about your game when they're there to tell you you're doing great you've got this my greatest cheerleader in the whole wide world is sitting right here on this platform i don't care where i have been i don't care where i preached it was his voice that always made me want to preach better because and sometimes he'd be preaching my stuff giving away the key points before i ever said them you know but you know what it still meant something to me because i had somebody that was for me he didn't we didn't if he was there it didn't matter that anybody was for me because he was for me we had them come through some storms together and we were gonna have each other's back in good times and bad times and and thanks be unto god we're still here 44 years later glory be to god cheering one another on one day i was this is a long time ago so i'm sure she probably would not remember this because she was little but mackenzie one day i was in my room and i was walking on my treadmill and mackenzie walked in and she saw me and she she ran into the room they were in the middle playing something and she ran into the room and she just looked at me on that treadmill and she said wow gigi you're good at that and then she turned around and ran right back out of the room do you know that made me want to walk harder and further and faster because somebody said hey gg you are good i picked up my pace my tenacity came back in i got my stride and i probably went another half mile but anyway i felt good about it because there is something about encouragement that is directly related to performance i said there's something about encouragement that is directly related to performance some of y'all won't give nobody a compliment why don't you just break down and tell them hey you are doing great i see it on you i can tell you're trying to lose weight or i can tell that you're trying to do this or you are good at this now you can also you can also mess up people who i mean who who really aren't too great and you try to encourage them beyond um what they uh really should be encouraged you can't sing a lit but mama is saying get up in that choir but the truth of it you can encourage them to their own demise is what i'm saying but but for the most part all of us could find something that we could say to somebody that would encourage them and you don't think your words matter that much i dare you to try it i dare you to tell your kid i dare you to tell your spouse hey i believe in what you're doing i think it's awesome how can i help there's something about encouragement that makes you take your performance to the next level because we all do what we do best when we know that somebody wants us to do it and somebody is celebrating us and we realize that we are not i realized that day i wasn't just walking by myself somebody noticed my effort and it is a fact of life that we will all go through things and through moments and through seasons that we battle emotions and we battle feelings and and those feelings that suggest to us it don't matter what you're doing ain't nobody's paying attention you're by all by myself you're all by yourself but let me tell you something here's the good news the good news is you are not usually nearly uh as alone as you think that you are the bad news is that if the enemy however can plant enough seeds in your mind that says nobody is forming nobody believes in me nobody is with me everybody is coming against me then it will be just a matter of time until you start feeling alone and you start feeling isolated and you start feeling cut off when you find yourself battling those types of feelings when the feelings of isolation uh come and they begin to intertwine with the feelings of fatigue that always happen in the race then it would do you good it would do me good to take our bible and open it up today like we did and and read in the in the book of hebrews and that what what that will do is it will offset the the exhaustion that is trying to wipe us out take your bible and read about how they made it over about how they made it through about how they conquered about how they did this or that reading hebrews 11 and 12 will help us to understand hey the life of faith has never been easy it's never been easy but if you will take that little grain of mustard seed faith that you had and if you will use what you look at somebody say use what you got if you will use what you got then like noah did you can build something that will preserve your family through a storm that wiped every other family on the face of the earth out i'm telling you they were in the same storm and what killed one family the other family just sailed right through it why because they used their faith the same kind of faith that enabled abraham to separate from his house from idolatry and to gain a rich inheritance that rich inheritance is now in you and it is me because we are the seed of abraham it was by that same faith that moses forsook egypt and he became a leader of the host of israel oh why it was that same faith that same faith because of that same faith the red sea got crossed jericho was captured goliath was slain and the mounts of the lions were shut up it was by that same faith that enoch was translated that he would not see death it was by that same faith that sarah found strength in herself to conceive the sea it was by that same faith that rahab the harlot did not perish because she too she also grabbed hold of that cave all of these men and women ran their race and crossed the finish line and they did it by faith you got to use what you got the question that is so critical to us today however the question that i'm asking you is do you have do you have faith and the reason that i say it's critical is because without faith what does the bible say it is impossible to please god so i'm i'm not asking you about your church status i'm i'm not asking you do you worship at home do you worship online i'm not asking you if you're committed to be here every sunday i'm not asking about your giving record i'm not asking about your your who you've joined i'm not asking about all of that because i do understand that it is possible to be a very faithful church member and still not have faith y'all know what i'm talking about you can you can be a part of the praise team you can be a part of the band you can wear the t-shirts you can work in destiny house you can uh you there's there's a whole lot of things you can be faithful to amen the preacher you can be the biggest tither in the house and still not have any faith you can come consistently you can sing every song you know every word and it's nice when they put them on the screen but if they don't you still know the words so you can sing them you can dance you lift your hands like everybody else you rejoice you smile you take the greatest notes when the pastor preaches and you talk the talk of a believer but it's possible that you can do all of that and still not have faith look at your neighbor and ask them do you really have faith and you got to know that you've got to know that because if you don't when hard times come you're going to be reaching for whatever comforts you whether it's god or whether it's the wrong thing you'll be reaching for it because you don't have the ability to comfort yourself because you don't have anything in you because before the storm came you were just going through the motions but you were never growing up the man on the inside or the woman on the inside you fed the flesh but you never felt your spirit come on now i said your fists are your flesh is grown but your spirit is immature and so you're like oh yeah i have faith i'm not talking about the kind of faith that makes you god conscious like people get up uh you know on the television oh i want to thank god i'm conscious that there is a god that is out there no i'm talking about a deep rooted faith a faith that says go enslave me yet will i trust him a faith that says come hell of high water i am still going to survive this i'm talking about a faith that says he it don't look good right now but he that began a good work in me and in my family and in my church and in my city and in my state and in my nation he that began a good work in me will be faithful to i might have to cry but you watch me come through it i might have to get in my prayer closet and lay hands on myself and say live cheryl do not die you but you watch me i will get through it i might have to encourage myself because ain't nobody encouraging me but i will come through it i might have to restructure i might have to re-strategize it's been a tough year but i will get through it you might have even left me in a pit like joseph's brothers left him in a pit but thanks be unto god i will get through it see faith faith let me tell you something hey faith doesn't promise us that life is going to be easy faith doesn't say to us that it will keep us from the pain but i am telling you faith will hold you in the middle of the night it'll rock you steady with the winds of doubt competing against your house when the winds have give up come fighting against you faith will keep you moving in the face of everything that's trying to come against you some of you are there right now you've been going through a lot but you're saying i'm getting ready and i'm going to church because i refuse to sit here and die i might be betrayed i might be denied i might be crucified and i might be buried but watch out because when it's all said and done i'm gonna get up with all power in my head look at somebody and tell him i bet you i'd get up out of this i bet you i get up i bet you i'll get up cause faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of god and i'm opening up my spirit to receive the word of god look at somebody tell them don't count me out yet don't count i know the curtain has fallen on the stage of my life and it looks bad but look at somebody and tell them don't touch that style don't touch it don't touch it don't walk out now this is not the time to walk out of my life and and just say oh it's over she's already seen her best day look at somebody and tell them you bet enough you bet not you better not you know why cause the curtains tell on daniel one night but when they looked in in the next morning he was alive and he was well why better it's the end tell somebody keep going keep going keep going keep going oh and hold on to your faith i don't care how little it is hold on [Music] listen make no mistake about it we have been in a fight come on y'all i said we've been in a fight there has been an invisible warfare there's been a visible one but there's also been an invisible one those spirits those lying spirits things that try to come and wage war against your mind and wage war against your peace forces that want nothing more than to destroy your mind and your will and your life and your destiny and your passion it is real and it sometimes makes you feel like giving up and sometimes i'm being honest it makes you feel like you want to quit those forces of darkness begin telling you things like you're nothing you have never been anything you'll never get out of this you'll never for sure get ahead in life you will never succeed justice will never prevail for you nothing like that will ever happen nothing good is going to come out of you you'll never be able to buy the house you'll always have to take gifts to everybody else's housewarming party but you'll never be able to buy it you'll never own land you'll never own anything significant can i tell you life has been tough but look at somebody and tell them but i will survive by the grace of god life has been tough let me tell you from the very fact that you came to church today the very fact that you tuned in today it is a sign that you still have something kindling in you there is some faith somewhere down inside of you it might look like it's out but my grandmother used to take a poker in the morning and she'd stir up those ashes and it looked like there was no fire but i'm telling you the more she stirred them the more fire begin to explode oh help us jesus you feel like you ain't got nothing but i'm here today to tell you you got something inside of you and you really shouldn't be here if you hadn't had something in you you wouldn't have been here anybody that's endured what some of us have endured anybody that has encountered and experienced some of the things that we have encountered and experienced anybody that has found themselves engaged in some kind of battle in the last 18 months you could have quit but you are here today you are at home today lifting your hands and you're about to run around your living room oh i want you to come and run around the church is what i want but i'm telling you tell your neighbor you got more faith than you think listen listen the reality of it is this that people who say they know us they don't know us because rarely do they ever really appreciate what it cost us to be us and until you know what it's cost me to be me you don't really know me see most of the time people think that that because you're because that you're making it and because you're still here it's because all is well in your life wow what a myth that is they don't know the times that you had to fight they don't know the times that you had to reach and press they don't know the times that you prayed for yourself they don't know the times that you've opened the bible just to see if you could find any scripture that would help connect to where you are they don't know that you've had to encourage yourself they don't know that you've had to talk to yourself they don't know these things they don't know that you even you have had to borrow from peter to pay paul they don't know the times you had to pray all the way to church and all the way home church from church hoping that your gas would make it where somebody can go fill up and think nothing about it somebody else can put three dollars in i remember those days and i would be like lord help me to get where i need to get without my car running out of crap out of gas they don't know that you've had to scratch your way to get to the top they don't know that you've had to struggle to hold everything together struggle to hold your mind together struggle to hold your marriage together struggle to hold your kids together struggle to hold your everything struggle to get all your utilities on at the same time they don't know those things they don't know they don't know the things that just blew up overnight in your life things that you didn't see coming things that blindsided you the relationships that blind send you the things that literally knocked the wind out of you not the hope out of you not the joy and the life the betrayals that you had no idea were coming if i would have only known i would not have given you so much of me to work with the betrayals the sicknesses that people fight they don't they don't see you fighting them because you look okay on the outside the grief that you're going through you know you can look good on the outside and you're still going through life but people don't know something on the inside of you has died it's just absolutely died it died with the one you love with the thing you love everything in you it looks good out here but inside it is dead they don't see those things they don't see the bills they don't see your broken dreams they don't see your broken heart they don't see your back up against the wall because when you come out you square your shoulders and you smile and you put on your church face and you say praise the lord everybody they don't see all of the stuff you go through but let me tell you something i don't care who you are what your title is i don't care where you said how much money you make what kind of tax bracket you're in i don't care what kind of home you own or what kind of car that you drive sometimes life hits all of us so hard that it makes us want to quit quit i just want to when i'm at my wits in i'm at a breaking point i cannot take one more pain i'm done stick a fork in me because i am done i don't know if your neighbor would ever admit it but just look at him and say have you ever been there what do you do when everything in you wants to quit what do you do i mean you you know that it would be just such a such a smack in the face of god for you to just walk away but there's something in you that says i i i just cannot take it anymore well listen hebrews 12 gives us a few things that i feel like they've helped me and i believe that they can help you things that you you need to know in your life when you feel like quitting when you feel like you've hit a hard spot in life write this down you have to write fast because i'm going on without you this is the first thing hebrews 12 wants us to be aware of they want us to remember that somebody is watching us the very first thing what does it say right there wherefore saying that we are compassed about with so great a cloud and i noticed one of my translations said last night with such a great crowd of witnesses that crowd has gotten thicker over the last 18 months the very first thing that the writer is telling us here is that he is encouraging us not to quit therefore in the light of all of the people that we just read about in 11. of course you haven't done that yet you can go home and do that but in in the light of abraham in the light of moses in the light of abel of david of jacob of sarah in light of them let me tell you therefore if they made it you can make it they didn't have near as much as we have but they still made it and not only did they make it they made it without some of the luxuries that we are having a problem making it with they didn't have nice cars they didn't have beautiful homes they didn't have a designer clothes they didn't have the internet they didn't have all of their own businesses they didn't have conferences to go to they didn't have counselors they didn't have pastoral care they didn't have their support groups like we have today they didn't have a small groups like we have today they didn't have any beautiful sanctuaries where they could go in and sit down and enjoy the warmth in the in the winter and the cool in the summer and all the wild churches going on you could sit they didn't know all of those kind of things and now we are surrounded by all of those things plus we're surrounded by all of those people and i'm telling you we still feel like we are going to lose it but i am here today to tell somebody that leaning over the balconies of heaven is abraham is isaac it's jacob is all leaning over the balconies of heaven they are also is uh leaning over the balconies of heaven is rosy angel it's chaos it's lee warren it's pastor simon it's who it's your mama it's your mama it's your daddy and they're leaning over the balconies of heaven and they're saying hold on girl hang in there my son hang in there you got this get back up it's okay it knocked you down but get back in the fight katie your mama is over hanging over the balconies of heaven saying there ain't no pain in my body ain't no sickness in my body i don't need none of that stuff anymore i got jesus now son you can make it you can take a press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling the same god that brought us through cheryl is able to bring you through what are you saying to us pastor pray i'm saying to you that your life has an i audience your life has an audience but we are co encompassed about with so great a cloud a crowd of witnesses and the cloud is saying we're for you we're here to cheer you on we're here because we want to see you make it we want you to stay in the fight because right around the corner you're getting ready to hit a space that you can take your weapons off because god is going to give you grace and you're going to walk through this season of grace you can get the house when you got the grace you can get the job when you got the grace stay in the fight i got a view from up here that your life is about to get way better they are cheered not only is your clown and is your crowd cheering you on but you got loved ones that are cheering you on because i'm telling you somebody wants you to make it somebody wants you to get your house somebody wants you to get your victory somebody wants you to get your healing i know you got haters but haters make you greater you know that don't you a hater will only make me crada because i'm going to stay in the fight and every time that i have to press a little harder it just makes me a little greater somebody in this church needs to know whatever you're facing somebody over here has faced what you are facing right now somebody over here has faced what you are facing somebody in the back is just coming out of what somebody else in this church is going through but we hide everything so therefore we don't know that anybody else is going through it but us but i'm here today to tell you the truth of the matter is we all go through this kind of crazy stuff sometimes i come to church to give encouragement but there are sometimes i come to church because i need encouragement as a matter of fact somebody in this room right now feels encouraged and you feel like going on and somebody else says god i don't know how anybody can feel that way but i came to tell you somebody is watching you i said they're watching you they're watching you the second thing that this chapter tells us that we got to do is we got to declutter tell somebody you need to go home and declutter declutter where's the scripture for that one lay aside every weight and the sin which just so easily beset us declutter every weight declutter you'll never make it across the finish line with all of this weight on you so you got to simplify things simplify them no matter who gets mad i'm only one person i can only do so much and guess what the last time i checked i mattered too y'all ain't gonna help me sometimes you have to look at kids and say let me tell you something i know i'm mama but mama matters too i know i'm your spouse but i matter too and if if you're not careful you'll get so caught up being doing everything for everybody else that you will be depleted yourself so you got to declutter declutter unnecessary friends declutter unnecessary relate you are too high maintenance i ain't got time anybody had friends in your life that are so high maintenance and you worked with them and worked with them and you tried everything but they want so much they're just always and whatever you give them it is never enough if you give them 10 minutes they think you should have gave them 30 if you gave them 30 they think you should have gave them an hour it doesn't matter it's never going to be enough because they are high maintenance and you got to get out of my life because i got to declutter declutter your burdens declutter some thoughts declutter everything that's unnecessary unnecessary allegiances i said i was gonna be there five years ago and i've been there for five well it's time for me to declutter something unobligate yourself because when you got too much going on you're distracted you're distracted you find yourself discouraged and you'll find yourself defeated and you'll never cross the finish line lay aside anything that's weight anything that doesn't give back something to you lay it aside according to this verse it says lay aside every wig and every and and and what and the the sin the sin the sin the sin now every every every weight is not a sin but rest assured every sin will become awake you can rest in that and it's not that you can't run but if you get too many weights on you then it'll stop you from making the speed that you should be able to make look at somebody telling you you got to lose weight this year oh i'm sorry i didn't mean to defend you i don't mean that kind of weight you're fine you're fine you're fine you're fun you're fine all y'all first time business i'm sorry y'all are so cute you're fine but i'm talking about you gotta wait to lose it's how many years you gonna let it hold you back how many years are you gonna allow it to keep you from being the best you how many years are you going to continue to put everybody else in front of yourself yeah you can run with some of the weights but anytime you find yourself spending trying to move you you'll realize i can't move at the same speed so i'm getting left behind so i yeah i can still run but i can't run like i need to run and that means that sometimes you have to say no to good things so that you can finish your race i said you got to say no even a good thing so that you can finish your race look at somebody say let it go let it go lay aside the weight and the sin the weight and the sin not just a sin but lay aside the sin that so eat you know that one sin that you you could be worshiping god and that's that temptation goes in front of you and you'll find yourself falling right into the middle of it because it's easy it gets you every time it's easy it's time for you to take that thing and pull it down it's become a stronghold in your life and it's going to stop you from yelling or help me but i'm still going to tell you the truth it will stop you from crossing the finish line get rid of that thing the same old snare the same old trap the same old temptation the same old enticement look at somebody and tell him it has got to go the sin has got to go the weight has got to go it is dead weight and dead weight steals your strength dead weight steals your joy dead weight will steal your life dead weight will cause you to miss the mark drop it all drop worry drop grief drop pain to everything there's a season but you at some point you have to say okay god i have to surrender it all to you because i trust you because i'm gonna tell you something whoever i'm talking to today you're too significant you're too full of purpose and you're too full of destiny you're too gifted and you're too important to the kingdom of god for you to allow yourself to be held back by weight and sin i don't know who i'm talking to today but i do want to tell somebody you have worked too hard to get where you are you have trained too long you've got up too many times you've climbed up and over too many times you fought back tears you fought your battle you wiped tears off of your face you went to god in prayer you've labored you've fasted you've cried out to god and you cannot get this close and fool around and not get it now lay aside the sin and the way because if you don't it will jeopardize your journey look at somebody and tell them not after everything i've been through i am not i'm not gonna get this close and miss it now i refuse as much as i've been through i cannot get close and miss it because of some stupid little sin oh wait in my life third thing that this passage teaches us whenever you feel like quitting it tells us you still gotta run but you gotta run god's race for your life god's race let us run with patience the race that god has sent that god has set before us that god we only have the strength and we only have the grace to run the race that god has set before us not the race that people want you to run hello not the race that your friends want you to run not the race that your parents want you to run you only have the grace you ain't even got the grace to run the race that you want to run i said you don't even have the grace to do that but i'm telling you you do have the grace to run the race that god wants you to have and if i run anybody else's race i am going to fail you are going to fail we are going to fail and we will never cross the finish line because god does not strengthen us to finish the race of somebody else he's strengthens us to finish the race that he has assigned us to run so we gotta stop living our lives trying to get everybody else's approval listen this is my path and i'm running in it okay i can't help what you don't like and i can't help if i don't meet the dreams that you had for me i am going to stay in my lane and run my race because i want to cross the finish line and i want to hear him say well done thou good and faithful servant enter into the joys of the lord here's my last one number four you have to whenever you feel like quitting we've all been there but you have to look at the solution and not the situation so much easier said than done but you have to look at the solution looking unto jesus the author and the finisher of high faith you have to look to him because if you don't keep your focus on him weariness will wipe you out i'm the only one in here that that will admit it but i i know what it's like to be weary i mean doing what i love but wearing doing what i was born to do that i'm wearing doing the thing i prayed for and asked god to give me can i get weary i mean so weary that i can even see fruit on the vine i can see the victory i can see the finish line i can see things that my eyes haven't seen and hear things that my ears haven't heard see some of y'all can't relate to that because when you see it you immediately feel that passion and you want to go after i can see it and still feel weary cause i'm tired and when people see you get weary they think it's because you don't really want it but can i tell you that it's possible to be running the race of your dreams building the life of your dreams raising the family of your dreams building the marriage that everybody talks about can i tell you you can be doing all of those things and and and still get weary so what do you do we're back to the question what do you do when you find yourself wearing well first of all what is weariness wearing this is exhaustion it's when you find yourself drained of resources [Music] it's where you say i used to love this [Music] now i don't even i don't love what i used to love because i'm weary y'all can't be that honest but i will for you i'll be honest for you now when i first got in the race i didn't feel like this i felt well able we are well able we will take this land we are capable i got this devil you better back up you don't want none of this i'm going to do this thing i've been training i've been stretching i've been disciplined my disciplining myself i've got this but somewhere between the start and the finish line somewhere between beginning and end somewhere i have found myself wearing weary and it's not that i don't want it anymore but if you're not careful where it is make you want to just throw in the towel and say here you go after it it'll make you want to give up it'll make you hang and gone out of business sign on your neck and say don't bother me closed captioning not available and one of the best person in the scripture to help you when you are weary one of the best passages of scripture comes from isaiah because this is what he says they that wait upon the lord they shall renew their strength oh somebody say i'm waiting on you lord i'm just waiting on you i'm waiting on you lord does anybody know what i mean by lie i'm just waiting on you i'm expecting something i don't know what i'm expecting but i'm waiting on you i don't have it in me to make anything happen i need you to do it god but i will wait i'm going to worship while i wait i'm waiting on you lord for your word tells me about weight on the lord that i will mount up with wings as eagles then i'll run and not be free weary i walk and i'm not fake [Music] it's not that i don't want it because i still want to run my race i want to finish my course i want to cross the line but look at somebody and tell them i'm tired i'm tired but i don't want to win i do i do i still want to win so let us run the race with patience i'm almost done i'm going to help somebody right here let us run the race with patience so how do you run the race and be patient at the same time webster says to run means to hurry visibly busily from one place to the next to the next to the next to the next patience means to be passive or to be inactive so how can i actively run while i'm inactive how does that work pastor brady how can you be inactive and active all at the same time well i'll tell you something it's simple but it's not easy okay i said it's simple but it's not easy but the key to living in peace is being able to move on the outside but be still on the inside oh i still got demands oh yeah i'll be there i'll be there friday at five i'll be there tuesday at one so i'm oh i got to pick up the kids but i better stop at the grocery store because i need to get something for dinner i gotta cook dinner lord help me i got so much but i'm running all on the outside but on the inside there is something that is so-called it is the piece of card i know i got demands i know i got deadlines i know i got some issues i know i got a bad report but on the inside there is something in me that is so patiently waiting on the goodness of the lord i wait to see the goodness of the yell outwardly it looks like my circumstances are going to overwhelm me but inwardly i got me a little space oh does anybody know i know you don't want nobody to know you're wearing but if you know what i'm talking about lift up your hands right now and ask him to help you to run the race with patience because if you don't run with patience you'll never cross the finish line if you don't learn to pace yourself you'll never cross the finish line look at somebody telling pace your race paste it paste it paste it paste it because if you don't pace it you won't make it no no if you don't pace it you will not make because what happens when you start running and you run till you feel like you can't run anymore and your flesh your flesh starts fighting against you that is a sign to you i know you want to quit some of you have had your flesh fight against you some of you have had your flesh say where is your god why ain't he helping you why is he blessing everybody else and ain't blessing you ain't nothing to all of this that is that's what happens in our flesh our flesh cries out but when our flesh cries out if you fed your spirit man your spirit man raises up and says devil you are a liar in the name of jesus i'm conflicted i'm hurting i'm broken i don't even know why god does the things that he does sometimes but i sure ain't giving up now i'm gonna stay in my race i'm gonna stay in my lane because there is hope in the middle of hard times let me tell you about pain pain will tell you you can't take it anymore pain will snap and it will say that's it you gotta stop you gotta quit you got a right to quit you should throw in the towel you should walk away but i'm telling you in the name of jesus you gotta tell that pain you can't tell me what i can take and what i can't take god is my maker he knows my prey and as long as he gives me the grace i'll stay in my race [Music] [Applause] and here's why because if you oppress beyond the breaking point something happens ask any runner something happens something kicks in when your eyes get locked on the prize and you're exhausted and you're depleted something kicks in that is called a second wind and when that second wind kicks in you find yourself able to push every power every principality every lying voice everything out of your way [Music] because i can breathe again i'm still running but i can breathe i can breathe i can breathe i can breathe i'm gonna make this thing i'm gonna make it i made it i made it i have made this thing it's within sight it's within reach i am gonna make it over the finish line yeah you are go ahead pastor pretty you gonna make it preach your way there shout your way there worship your weight here come on you can fake it stand with me all over the building there's hope for your hard times let us not grow weary and well do it for we will we shall without a doubt you've got some stuff that you're going to reap if you don't [Music]

Channel: Sheryl Brady

Views: 12,906

Keywords: 11-16-21

Id: 4NrfR99dwr8

Length: 64min 36sec (3876 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 30 2021