Into The Late Rounds | Pastor Stephen Chandler

[Music] it's chapter 20 verse 18 it says this then the children of israel arose and went up to the house of god to inquire of god they said which of us shall go up first to battle against the children of benjamin the lord said send judah first so israel's getting ready to go into battle against their brothers the tribe of benjamin the 11 tribes are all arrayed in the presence of god and they said who should we send up first and god said to send judah first for those of you who don't know judah was the tribe that was responsible for praise and worship they were the musicians and the singers and the trumpet bearers here's what god says every battle that you face send your worship first oh if only we could catch the revelation that my worship is a weapon that my worship isn't just the opening part to get me warmed up for the message it's not just there to get me in a good mood but he inhabits the praises of his people i wish i had some people that understand that when my hands are lifted when my mouth is turned towards heaven when i'm declaring how great god is that heaven is releasing angels on my behalf that my worship is my weapon i can win more battles with my praise then i can win with my words now it's also funny because they sent all the worship leaders into battle first and i could just imagine all these worship leaders with their skinny jeans on you know how worship leaders are they got their little worship scarf looking like lenny kravitz tied around their neck and they're playing their little could we gonna whoop your tail right now that was right on kitchen look at that he said send judas send the worshipers first so the children of israel arose in the morning and they camped against gibeah the men of israel went out to battle against benjamin and the men of israel put themselves on the battle already to fight against the gibeah then the children of benjamin came out of gibeah and that day cut down to the ground 22 000 men of the israelites so israel asked god should we go to war god says yes go to war they went out and they lost they didn't just lose they lost 22 000 of their men and the people that is the men of israel encouraged themselves and again formed the battle line at the place where they had put themselves in a ray of the first day then the children of israel went up and wept before the lord until evening acts counsel the lord saying shall i again draw near for battle against the children of my brother remember this was a civil war against their own family members against my brother benjamin the lord said go up against him so the children of israel approached the children of benjamin on the second day benjamin went out against him from gibby on the second day and cut down to the ground 18 000 more of the children of israel all these through their sword so in two days israel lost over 40 000 men so of israel that is all the people went up and came to the house of god and they wept they sat there before the lord and they fasted that day until evening they offered burnt offerings and pete offerings before the lord so the children of israel inquired of the lord god what's going on you said to go but we're losing the ark of the covenant of god was there in those days and phineas the son of eliezer the son of aaron stood before it in those days saying shall i yet again go out to battle against the children of my brother benjamin or shall i cease today's message is for that person who's asking that question should i believe god again or should i give up man i've already faced two battles and those haven't turned out well i've already faced two a diagnosis and that hasn't gone too well i've already been through two surgeries and that hasn't gone well should i just give up now the lord said go up for tomorrow i will deliver them into your hand then israel said men in ambush all around gibeon the children of israel went up against the children of benjamin on the third day somebody say third day come on somebody say third day you don't even have to be a good preacher to know that the third day is a good day you don't even have to know a lot of bible to know that jesus rose on the third day come on encourage yourself just tell yourself if i could just make it to the third day the first day didn't look too good because that's when he was hanging on the cross the second day was hopeless because that's when the tomb was closed up but if i could just make it to the third day and put themselves in battle array against gibeah at as other times in 35 the lord defeated benjamin on that day before israel and the children of israel destroyed that day 25 100 benjamins all these drew the sword father god give us strength to make it to the third day father god i pray over every single person and the son of my voice even before i preach this message god that you would encourage god those that are losing courage that you would give hope to the hopeless that you would put a fight back in us not to tap out in the first round or the second round but to stand still and we will see the victory of the lord in every single area of our life god we're grateful we're thankful in the matches name of jesus we pray amen and amen and amen somebody shout third day we are in in week four of a collection of sermons called fight or flight fight or flight and the heart or the mindset behind this series is quite simple i want to turn you into a fighter i just want to turn you into the type of person that you're not rocking back in the lazy boy of life waiting for life to happen to you but you are going to happen to life so we talked about last week what life has a way of just knocking you around beating the stuff and out of you and also taking the faith out of you where you just kind of find yourself in a position where like man if i just live to see 2021 if my business can just make it my marriage can just make it if my hope can just make it or whatever it may be if i can just survive you may be tired of me saying it but i'm not tired of saying it jesus did not die on the cross for survivors he did not die for you to just make it he said i came that you can have life and life more abundantly come on baltimore he died that you would be the head and not the tail above and not beneath he didn't want life to be on top of you he wanted you to be on top of life but one of the things i've discovered is anything worth having is going to have to be fought for there's just not many things that are worth having in life that doesn't require just a little bit of tenacity just a little bit of gumption just a little bit of i'm gonna fight for what i believe in i'm a not a huge boxing fan i love boxing uh uh watch ufc or what for whatever maybe but but i'm also kind of cheap so so i i don't really pay for the pay-per-view fights i'll i'll wait for somebody to repost it or or to let the news come out the next day or whatever it may be but something about paying a hundred dollars or a hundred fifty dollars for a fight i'm just like i've actually done one pay-per-view in my life it was mayweather against alpharez and if you remember that fight it was the fight it was a decision in the end mayweather danced the whole time said i'm too pretty to get touched well touch somebody because i paid 150 to see this i'm a need for something to happen but i just i just don't really pay for pay-per-view fights the other problem is pay-per-view fights happen on saturday nights and and i work sundays so i gotta go to bed anybody who have watched a fight you know if you're a fighter no offense but but they have you know the undercard the fights that now what he's really excited to see and then the one you paid for doesn't happen to like 11 12 o'clock at night at that point you're like just knock them out already i've discovered though that when you've invested in a fight when you've paid money to see it or whatever it may be especially pay-per-view they don't want a first-round knockout they don't want a quick fight they know they're going to have a whole bunch of angry customers if it's a quick fight they want that thing to go into the late rounds now oftentimes the the challenger the amateur the person that's challenging the champion they want a quick fight you'll see in the first rounds they'll come out swinging they'll come out aggressive because they're like i have a better chance of winning if i can just catch this fighter slip in if i can catch him in the jar or whatever maybe if i could end it early i'm doing well but if you study fighting a little bit you'll realize the experience boxer the veteran boxers that they're not really trying to get a quick fight matter of fact they're trying to drag the fight longer they they call it dragging their opponent into deep it's almost the imagery of an alligator who who i'm not going to fight you on the shore an alligator will take their prey and they'll drag them out in the lake where they'll drown because they said if i could take you out in the deep waters the environment will finish you off i don't even have to do it myself and those veteran fighters they know the deeper rounds it gets the worse your stamina is the more exhausted you'll be and the more exhausted you are the more likely you are to make a mistake i have a question what happens when a fight goes longer than you thought what happened when you were planning on a first round knockout and here you are three years later still battling the same illness huh what what happens when when you believe that this marriage situation we're gonna get some marriage counseling we're gonna knock this thing out in a week he gonna get over his issues i don't have any issues so i'm good but we're gonna fix this whole thing and here you are six months later or or two years later and it's not a quick win one of the things you have to understand about your enemy is he's going to try to drag out the fight because he knows the second you get that diagnosis the second you have a job loss you know sometimes you lose your job and you're like thank you jesus i hated that job and i actually didn't have more vacation time this year so now i got a built-in vacation this is good and it's not until about six weeks in that you're just like hmm all right this is a problem the enemy knows like in the beginning of that fight man man you have a loved one that's sicker whatever it may be you're fasting you're praying you're bombarding heaven you're calling your prayer warriors you're ready to go but what happens is after 21 days of prayer and fasting the battle's just begun it's not even close to over in this passage that we read the children of israel they're in a civil war if you know the history of israel that there were 12 brothers that god turned into a nation of 12 different tribes the youngest brother the youngest tribe was a tribe of benjamin and they had turned their back on god and had committed an outrageous atrocity actually abused a woman to the place where she died the other 11 tribe says we cannot allow this abomination to stand in the presence of god they went into a civil war they cried out to god says send judah first you're going to find victory and they went out to war and they lost what do you do when you're obeying god and still not seeing victory here's the thing if you live in a wretched life you expect drama i mean we in church we can be honest you know i mean you know you were petty for that you know you were wrong for that you know that was a god you know you lied or whatever it may be so whenever the funk hits the fan you're kind of just like you know it is what it is i thought i was going to get away this time maybe i'm not you expect it but it's a different story when you're honoring god it's one thing when you're doing your own thing you lose your job it's a completely different story when you're tithing when you're not just tithing but you're generous on every occasion not just giving to the church but you're being a blessing to people around you and you still find yourself in a financial hardship it's one thing if you're just living like whatever it's a completely different thing if you're eating right you're exercising you're honoring god and you still get sick what do i do when i have the favor of god and i still lose not just one day not just two days but 40 000 lives lost obeying god what do you do when the fight goes into the late rounds maybe you find yourself in a fight that's lasted just a little bit longer than you thought it would i hope to encourage you today i just want to give you not even three points but just three words just three words that i believe is going to help you see the battle that you're in or the battle that you're going into to the late rounds baltimore you're with me the first word is this if you're going to make it to the end of this fight you're going to have to learn how to rest you're going to have to learn how to rest you don't even have to be a boxing fan but you know how it works if it's ufc they may have three five round uh five five minute rounds if it's boxing they may have ten rounds or twelve rounds three minutes each and you get in there and for the clock ticking three minutes or five minutes you just go at it you ham it out but at the end of the round everybody hears uh a bell come on now you'll actually hear a click click click and that means there's 10 seconds left in the round and that three clicks it tells the fighter if you could just live for these next 10 sec just run around for your life do whatever you have to do but if you can live for the next 10 seconds there's gonna be a bell and at that bell you get to go to your corner and rest could you imagine you're watching a fight and the bell rings ding ding ding and the ref is like go to your corners and one of the fighters says no let's keep going i don't want to rest i don't need a rest let me add them and that box is like well you can stay there i'ma go rest and one boxer goes in this corner and he's getting iced up and he's drinking water and he's getting strategy and the other box is in the ring he's like no no i don't need a rest i don't need a rest let me go if you're watching the fight you would say that guy's a fool or that girl's about to get knocked out like they're missing an opportunity to revitalize their energy so that they can go at it in another round but for some of us you've been in a fight for the last 12 months and you haven't taken one rest you don't know how to here's what i've learned a fight will never give you a good time to rest unless you decide i'm just going to step back like if you're battling cancer when's a good time to rest huh if you're raising children when's the good time to rest some of all you haven't even thought about it but your plan on resting from your kids is 18 years from now some of y'all got 30 year old kids you're like no 18 ain't the number here's what i've learned in order to not quit permanently i have to learn how to quit periodically in order to not throw in the towel permanently i have to learn how to step back periodically hear me business owner when you wake up tomorrow morning those problems are still going to be there go to sleep isn't it amazing how we struggle to step away from something how we get so consumed in the fight or the problem or the situation that we're in that we come home from work but even as we're sitting at dinner with our family we're still fixing problems in our head and as soon as the kids go to bed it's right back to our phone and we're pulling up that email and trying to figure out how do i word i hate you to my boss in a way that won't get me fired and it can actually kind of be missable where we're constantly in the fight not realizing that's not a strategy for victory after the first defeat israel stepped wars back in the day were so civil like the sun rose they went out and chopped each other's arms out and as soon as the sun sets see you tomorrow [Laughter] nowadays we dropping bombs on people at midnight like surprise but they realized that we need a moment that we're going to step away they didn't just step away but they got into the presence of god and they took a moment to just come on just breathe when's the last time you just breathe i'm i'm blessed to have friends all over the country really all over the world and i got some country friends not i'm not like some country like country country friends i was actually spending time with a friend on their farm they have a farm with 20 000 acres of land y'all 20 thousand acres that's a farm farm that ain't these no offense they need these little howard county you know maybe some grapes or got a little strawberries or some corn or what that's like a whole dog on state and we're out on their you know it's like a howard county farm if you could see the whole thing on the atv they said hey let's go to a property we jumped in a pickup truck the atv don't got enough gas we need a truck to drive this whole thing and we're driving these 20 and i mean it is just beautiful they turned me into a country boy i was looking at the dirt i was like that is some beautiful dirt look at that dirt it i never i mean it wasn't brown dirt it was black dirt not like this red clay we got maryland i'm like that is just amazing but i noticed something out of the 20 acres they were only farming 10 of it so they had 10 acres of corn and produce and all that other kind of stuff and then they had 10 acres of just dirt and you know me i'm a little ambitious i'm like let's make it happen let's move and i see 10 acres of corn i see 10 acres of money oh it's gonna be a good year it's gonna be a really good year and then i then i see 10 acres of dirt and i see 10 acres of missed opportunity and i'm like why didn't you farm all 20 000 acres like you're missing out on moony i mean i'm not trying to be your advisor i'm just saying the prosperity of the lord is right there in front of you and they said clearly you're not a farmer let me tell you how it works every time we have a harvest of sweet corn that sweet corn steals the nutrients from the dirt and if we farm this dirt year in and year out every single year every year the corn is going to have less quality till eventually this dirt will produce nothing it may look by letting that land rest that we're missing out on opportunity but by letting the land come on say it with me rest we are guaranteeing prosperity for hundreds of years actually not maximizing a moment guarantees that i'll be in the fight for years to come [Applause] some of us have never walked past an opportunity because we're so fear driven that we think if we don't maximize it now it'll never come around again not understanding if you maximize every opportunity now there may not be any of you left for tomorrow here's what the bible says in exodus chapter 20 verse 8 remember the sabbath day and keep it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work how many days come on americans how many days so this whole five day work week it ain't biblical god said work six days so you you deal with that anyway you want he said work six days you shall labor and do all your work but on the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord your god in it you shall do so on the sabbath you shall do it didn't say on the sabbath you should go to church it didn't say on the sabbath you should worship god it said on the sap that you should do nowhere i have a question for you baltimore is murder a sin i'm hoping baltimore said yes be more careful all right is lying a sin come on colombia we'll give you opportunity adultery stealing worshipping idols working seven days a week i don't want to answer that one pastor you know what's amazing you would never follow her pastor that was a murderer you'd have an issue with a pastor who was a liar but you're not really concerned if the pastor keeps the sabbath but it's in the same top 10 list of everything else that we for some reason we've put a hierarchy to the ten commandments idols bad stealing bad workaholics ambitious but here's what god said he said you need to rest there needs to here's what sabbath means there means it needs to be one day every seven days where you don't do anything that makes you money you rest here's what we don't understand about ourselves as humans we are limited resources we're not limitless we're limited and those of you who don't work physically you work with your mind hear me you have a limited mind your creativity your problem solving skills are limited and if you don't rest you don't have an opportunity to watch the word recreation to re-create your energy to recreate your creativity some of you business folks that you said you've just hit a ceiling i used to be innovative and problem solving i used to know what to do and it's just not coming as quickly to me could it be that you've skipped sabbath and you've drained the farmland of all its nutrients and you're running out if you're not familiar with the bible pretty much the entire old testament follows the children of israel and it's just this cycle of them honoring god being blessed them dishonoring god and going off into captivity honor god be blessed dishonor god off into captivity i mean it's just the they're invaded by the egyptians by the babylonians by the persians it's just the whole old testament well there's one passage where daniel comes before god there in captivity and he said god you promised 70 years we would be slaves and then we would be free it's the 70th year let us go and i was just wondering what's so special about 70 years that's a very specific punishment well as you do your research you'll find out that god commanded israel to farm for six years but on the seventh year let the land rest by the way any wisdom in the world came from god's word so watch this israel said no there's too much money to be made so we're not going to let the land rest so for 490 years they farmed made money and ignored god and god says fine you will either rest voluntarily or involuntarily here comes the enemy drags them off into captivity and for 70 years the land rested watch this one year for every sabbath that they skipped i'm not being a doomsday prepper or prophet but i'm just wondering did god just make the world rest in 2020 and said if you just want to go go go go go drive drive drive drive drive then i'ma shut everything down down down down down because you're not invincible we need i hate that verse he maketh me lie down in green pastures in order to restore my soul psalm 127 2 says this it is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night anxiously working for food to eat for god gives rest to his loved ones hear me if you're too anxious to rest if you're just going going going can't sleep at night always problem solving you are missing an amazing gift that god has for you and that's rest if you're gonna make it to the late rounds you gotta learn how to rest the second thing is this if you're gonna make into the late rounds you're going to have to learn how to regroup how to regroup dr john maxwell he says this he says experience is not a great teacher yeah people are man i was raised in the streets i went to university hard knocks and you have a concussion he said experience learning the i don't want to know i want to learn the hard way that's not he said experience is not a great teacher evaluated experience is a great teacher and one of the things is it's so exciting it's so much fun to preach you get to unpack god's word point people to jesus and you also get to talk about people and as long as you make it sound hypothetical it's all the way good i'm not talking about anybody at destiny church because you guys are all great we're talking about the church down the street but uh you ever met people that just date the same joker pastor i know you're going there i mean you that you've been friends for 15 years and it's like that song same script different cast they just find the same loser at different heights with different names and different songs i met you before no the first time we met no i've met you before you ever met people that run in the same money problems like you've met them you've known them for 10 plus years and they start telling you the problem you're in and you're like yeah yeah we talked about this say no no this is new keep picking the wrong job that's not their gifting not their strength over here's why because experience isn't a good teacher unless you evaluate it if you're going to make it into the late rounds you can't just pause it and spend time wrestling you got to step back and you got to say this isn't working one of the things that that i've discovered is going to be hard but y'all got helmets on you'll be all right just because you're trying your best doesn't mean you're doing what needs to be done to make progress and sometimes we find solace into i'm working so hard i'm giving so much effort if you are driving at 100 miles per hour on 95 south i don't care how fast you drive you're never making it to new york you're on the wrong road it's not just about effort it's about hey is this the right strategy for victory if you watch sports especially if you watch any of god's teams which are the baltimore ravens god help us with that washington team today that has no name there's no way we're going to lose to some nameless team i mean y'all even got a name y'all can't beat us or god's other team the los angeles lakers the favorite of the lord but the lakers coach of vogel uh he's known around the league for his halftime adjustments they said the team that you play in the first half of the los angeles is not going to be the same team you play in the second half because they're going to come out in that first half they're going to work their strategy they're going to do whatever they do and then at halftime they're going to evaluate and they're going to come out with a completely different strategy can i just tell you i'm preaching and all that but i also lead in organization and one of the things that i've just taken the approach of during this pandemic is hey this is just half time like i don't care what you're going to do you're not going to be doing much in this season we can't even get out of the state line most of the time so here's what i'm doing during this season i'm reevaluating i'm looking at our systems are looking at our strategies i'm looking at our approach and i'm saying whenever america does open up fully again whenever we get back to whatever our new normal is what's our approach going to be there we have to learn how to step back and ask this question is this working some of you are putting a lot of effort into your marriage but it's not working some of you are putting a lot of effort into raising your children i know this is mean but hear me they some aliens it ain't working you got some bad kids some of them are mine so pray for me here's a hard one some of you are putting a lot of effort into your faith you're reading your bible you're praying you're showing up to church and it's not working you need to change your approach if you if you've been coming to destiny church for a while baltimore online you'll know i am very cautious with the words god told me every message i preach it's from god's word i study god's word i look at commentaries i pray over you all week long for this message but it's very rare that i'll tell you god told me this as i was preparing this message i i was excited about this message i was prepping i had all my notes i was ready to go and honest to goodness i don't have many and i'm trying to help you understand this moment i don't have many conversations like this but sitting in my office on thursday and i said god i can't preach this message had all my points all the verses all the illustrations right wrong i said i can't preach this message god because i don't understand it because you told israel to go out and fight you told them to send judah first and they lost god they didn't just lose one day they lost two days in a row they prayed they fasted they sought you and they they lost 40 000 soldiers and god i love your word and i believe your word is true but i don't understand this let me just take a quick pause if there's a part of god's word that you don't like or you don't understand because you're not god always make the assumption that you're just not seeing something don't make the assumption that he's wrong or that god help me and i'm says god help me see this and he says stephen here's why israel lost and i mean the answer came in seconds he said they lost because they were fighting against themselves y'all oh wow that was deep i'm not that bright so i was like holy spirit you gotta explain that because that that i'm missing it he said stephen it was a civil war they were fighting their brothers they had grown up with them they had had done business with them they had played with them this was this wasn't a random invader this was family and yes this was family that had abused somebody murdered somebody turned their back on god they needed it to be dealt with but it was still and when you pull out a sword and you're getting ready to go to war against an enemy you don't think twice but you're going after family it's like oh and he said stephen the reason why they lost the first two days even though i told them they would win is because they were fighting with themselves and they couldn't bear to kill hear me a part of themselves here's what i've discovered before i will see external victory there's something internally that has to die before i see victory in my relationship there may need to be a death of my pride before i see victory in my business there may need to be a death of my ambition before i see victory in relationships there may be any death in the rejection issues that i've carried this far in life what you may not understand is every battle externally has an anchor internally that i face externally there's something that's going on internally and god is saying i want to bring victory in that area but there's something in here that you have to kill first before you'll see that that's that's tough i don't feel like laughing no more past this ain't funny no more tell some more boxing stories here's a boxing story until you knock out your ego on the inside your marriage on the outside will never work somebody say prove it third john chapter 1 verse 2 it says this beloved i pray that you may prosper that every area of your life will move forward watch this and in all things be in health he said i pray that you'd be healthy just as your soul prospers what's your soul your mind your will and your emotions here's what the writer was saying hey everything that goes on in your life is gonna be as healthy as your heart is i'm gonna say some savage stuff then i'll encourage you a point three and we'll get out of here y'all ready if you have money problems you have heart problems i don't like hearing that it was the truth if i have repeated relational problems i have heart problems if my career has plateaued why you gotta go there pastor i just gotta bring it down on the bottom shelf my career has plateaued hear me my heart has plateaued because the bible says that my life is going to progress at the pace that my heart is progressing and it's impossible to have a broken heart and a whole life because the bible says out of the abundance of the heart flows the issues of watch this even atheist doctors believe this you'll study reports and they'll tell you people that have terminal illnesses their life expectancy and their body's ability to fight that disease is directly connected to that person's will to live if that person has hope maybe if they have children or grandchildren to live for if they have something that they're looking forward to if they're encouraged on the inside their body responds the healing process is accelerated and they have more likely of a chance of beating that sickness even if it's terminal but if they say if that person that has a physical health problem but they don't have much to live for they've already lost their hope life has been beaten out of them the health their body responds to their mind their will and their emotions hear me before i can win outside i gotta win inside [Applause] and this is just a mistake that i've learned in life i've spent a lot of times rebuking the enemy and i realize the enemy is is in me there's something in me that god says until you kill that i don't care if it's family i don't care how long pride has been living in your house until you kill that you'll not win this victory outside rest regroup last thing is this i gotta re-engage if you're gonna win a late round fight not a sprint not a 100 yard dash it's cross country three years in and you're still fighting if you're going to win it you're going to have to learn how to re-engage their faith so they get into god's presence they fast they pray they worship they rest and they reevaluate and watch this they came out with a different strategy that third day when they finally won the battle they didn't go head-on the bible says that they set an ambush they changed their approach somebody say change your approach some of y'all that's that's the word you go home right now please don't leave but you could that's all you needed god just said hey you're doing it wrong you need to change your approach but to go to god the third day he said god are we going to win he said yes and you will surely today you will see victory now the first two days they said god should we go he said yes but he didn't say they were going to win victory here's what i've learned i'm going to pray but i didn't go until i hear that victory word god if i could skip day one and stay tuned like go know what i got to work on no plan going out there you can get me toe up let me just just figure this out right now it's a pride it's insecurity i'ma work on me because i going out there to get whooped i ain't losing no twenty thousand dollars eighteen thousand dollars whatever i'm gonna lose i got time for that let's just skip to the third day anybody third day areas come on now i'm skipped day one skip day two i just want to get to the good part but on that third day he said go today you will surely win victory can we just be real by the way always read your bible real god you said that yesterday you said to go out yesterday and i lost 22 000 soldiers god you said to go out the day before and i lost 18 000. god i'm so glad that you said all the promises of god are yes and amen but i'm still sick like let's be real what do you do when you hear the promise of god but you're there's a skepticism inside of you when the doctor says you have three months but he said by his stripes you've already been healed when the economy says that your your business is non-essential but he said never have i seen the righteous begging for forsaken or their children begging for bread what do you do when god's word contradicts the reality of what you've seen they had to make a decision to re-engage their faith hear me it's not the promise of god that brings victory it's your faith engaging with the promise of god that brings that victory it reminds me of the disciples do you remember the disciples the 12 that followed jesus the bible says one night they were fishing all night long it says they have thrown their nets out everywhere and they caught nothing they were tired they were exhausted and they came back to shore jesus said have you any vision sometimes boy i can't wait to get to jesus and she's like you gotta explain man because you look like one ignorant dude in scripture they came back with nothing i'm like did you catch any fish i just feel like she's like did you catch it man you know we didn't catch anything why no i'm not being sacrilegious why are you hecking dumb questions you know we didn't catch nothing he was trying to highlight is that relationship working jesus you know it's not working are your finances keeping you up at night is your business prospering the way that i told it you it would when i put it on your heart the disciple says jesus and they were they were humble enough not to kirk out they're like no we don't have any fish jesus said let down your gnats one more time trust people one more time put in that job application one more time believe for healing one more time go to that parent and try to restore that relationship one more time i feel like there's somebody under the sun in my voice that you're getting ready to tap out maybe not physically walk away but you're getting ready to rescind your faith you're getting ready to just accept that circumstance as the fate of life i'm just gonna have to deal with this sickness deal with this brokenness deal with this deal with that and under the unction of the holy spirit god sent me to say send out your faith one more time he said if you would just throw that i know it didn't work i know you fished all night i know that you've prayed and you've cried and you've fasted and you believe but if you would throw that net out one more time it says they pulled in a catch so heavy that their nets began to break that they had to call other people in to help them pull it up hear me if you would just re-engage your faith in god one more time you are on the verge of a breakthrough that is bigger than anything you could have even prayed for in hebrews 10 20 35 it says this do not cast away your confidence i know it's a pandemic but don't cast away your confidence i know 2020 didn't go the way you expected do not cast away your confidence why because it has a great reward you have need of endurance so after you've done the will of god here's what i read is that after you've killed the part of you that's not pleasing to god after you've dealt with that pride that fear the insecurity that ambition or whatever it may be after you've done the will of god you may receive the promises of god they are yes they're amen it's taken longer than you thought this fight is going into deeper rounds that you thought but don't you dare throw in the towel victory is still guaranteed let's pray father god we are grateful that god you're not like man you cannot lie father god i pray for hope and courage for every single person in the sound of my voice god so many of us gotta just tired just pushing pushing pushing god i pray that you'd give us strength not to give up permanently but give us enough faith god to rest momentarily to rest in your promises to rest in the fact that you have it under control just where you are with your eyes closing your head about if you could pray this prayer with me say holy spirit what are you saying to me and just give god a moment to make this time to make this message personal to you maybe you're in here or watching online or in baltimore and you realize you know what pastor i can't say that i've ever rested in god oh i've been fighting i know how to fight but i've been fighting by myself i've never asked god to be a part of anything man i'm tired of fighting by myself i need god in my life if that's you listen that's why we exist as a church to introduce you to a god that loves you more than you can humanly fathom you say i want that god in my life right where you are in this room baltimore online can you pray this prayer with me say lord jesus thank you thank you for not giving up on me thank you for being a place of rest thank you for dying on the cross so all my sin all my mistakes can be erased today i surrender i give you full control of my life be my lord be my savior and use me for your glory in jesus name amen and

Channel: Union Church

Views: 4,086

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Id: 8mLa3xY3U_E

Length: 45min 25sec (2725 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 05 2020