New Year Same Season

nice thanks brandi yes thanks brandi that was wonderful and happy new year happy new year to everybody it's a blessing and you're can you believe we just we have just finished the hardest year of my lifetime i don't know if you would say the same is certainly the strangest it's been the strangest i can't honestly say it's been the hardest but i think it has been the strangest that's cause you didn't get covert well actually you did get it and didn't know it i did but i was out for 30 years yeah yeah she's got she took a test and found out she had it we think probably when it first came out wow yeah we were in new york um the beginning of march so new york highly possible that i have not new york is cool i don't know it's highly possible i had coveted back in back in march yeah but god is faithful he brought us through this last year and now we're in the first week the first day of a new year yeah he's been faithful sort of like uh what we heard the praise and worship team say today yeah god has been faithful i think that we can definitely definitely say that about 2020. yeah that in spite of everything that's gone on around us with this pandemic we're still here and god has been faithful he's faithful yeah and praise and worship was awesome i love the fact that uh we're trying to at least give a replica of you know being back together them being on stage again that was pretty cool to have that experience and they had me crying today that was that was real real real powerful what they did but they always great that was a good cry a good cry good cry so what's your new year's resolution what you going what you trying to do i have to confess i don't really make resolutions because by february i'm done right right and i mean disappointing yourself yeah i think i'm going to try to continue what i started in this year or the previous year in 20 um 2020 and that is to eat healthier yeah yeah yeah we do need to do that that's my goal too it's been my goal for 25 years 30 years to eat better exercise yeah that's like because we go hard the wrong way we go hard we don't just get a slice of cake we go get a a sheet cake from this place yeah we do that and all y'all who love me with dunkin donuts um gift cards and boxes and and sending me desserts you know praise the lord i appreciate the love but just ignore me this year yeah skip that let's get send something else some fruit send some just some bottled water amen fruit is always good fruit is good all right i'm getting ready to serve and hopefully help somebody would you pray for us yes amen father we are so thankful for this new year lord and we are thankful for your word that um is just eternal and will carry us through this new year so as we listen this morning or this afternoon or wherever we are listening we just pray that we would hear what you're saying to us through pastor battle that our hearts would be receptive to becoming better this year better than we were last year so we thank you for the opportunity to improve to grow and to just love and serve you in jesus name we pray amen amen amen thank you i appreciate it all right family hey it's good again to be back and to have this opportunity again god has brought us to this first weekend of the year and i kind of want to do something different this year because you know typically at the beginning of the year we use these optimistic cliches to kind of you know make a thematic give a thematic approach to the year right so so you know and i'm pursuing my dream in 2018 and and eyes have not seen in 2019 and of course 2020 was supposed to be the year of perfect vision no 2020 was going to get our vision and and i'm sure next year to be you know we going to have some fun in 2021 or 2021 is the one or we going to get it done in 2021 and and and and i'm not making light of those things i think those things have their place and and i think they're they're strategic and they're they're practical and they're helpful but this year is different because when the clock struck midnight all over the world at different moments we were in a new year but we still in the same season the season hasn't changed and and as true as it is about midnight that's what we were still in and that's what we're still in we're still in midnight i think we should be have a reality check because at the end of the day even though we went into a new year and it was a new day and when we went from 12 11 59 p.m to 12 a.m we went into a new year the reality is we're still in we're still in the middle of something that has only happened twice in the last two centuries we're in a global pandemic we still can't go and come as we want to we still can't gather the way we want to i can tell you how unnormal or abnormal this is most of you watching me right now wouldn't be watching me from home many of you would be at one of our locations right now but it's a reminder that we're in a new year but it's the same season we still got bills to pay we still got school at home we still have we still have problems in relationships we still have habits that we need to break many of us still have weight we're trying to lose we still have pressures against us we still have medical challenges that we're facing we still have financial challenges that we're facing we still have a strange relationships that we haven't figured out how to navigate through i'm saying y'all let's talk about it today it's a new year but it's the same season in fact that's my subject today that's what i want to talk about it's a new year but it's the same season and i'm not trying to be negative but the reality is many of us are still in the same pain we were in at 11 59 in 2020 on december 31st whether that's family pain or or physical pain or emotional pain or spiritual pain we're hurting and what i decided to do today is say what is it that we need in this season it's a new year but instead of talking about oh this is going to be the one 2020 wasn't funny but 21 gonna be fun and all of the things that we say to try to try to speak our way into a better existence i thought about maybe it would be helpful if we really take a look at the things we're going to need for sure in this season and i came up with a list of things that i wrote down in my own life things that i need and things that i see from a leadership perspective that we're going to need in this season and they're not any any particular order but they're just what came to me as i was thinking and the first thing that we're going to need that we all need right now is support we all need support in fact galatians chapter 6 verse 2 says share one another's burdens and therefore when you do that you're fulfilling the law of christ that we're supposed to share one another's burdens we need each other's support people need support right now i remember it was about 22 years ago i was serving at the greater mount nebo ame church in upper marlboro maryland on staff there and pastor jonathan weaver allowed me to do a sunday night service it was 6 p.m on sunday nights and it was a young adult emphasis service and there wasn't a lot of people that came to the service it was in fact if it wasn't for the generosity of a deer man who would take his out of his own personal time he would drive the church bus all the way from up in barbara to catonsville maryland to go pick up students from umbc if it wasn't for that we probably wouldn't have 30 people in the service i mean that was that was half our church that was coming in from umbc and what i remember about that i had so many memories about it but it was a it was a guy who was who sent out an email and his name is delali drossie and delolali forgive me if i mess your last name up but i remember that email he used to send out and what was so powerful about the email was the last phrase in the email every time this group email would go out and circulating among some young christians it would say at the end of the email that burdens aren't as heavy when we lift them together that's powerful right there burns aren't as heavy when we lift them together i never heard that before but i've never forgotten it and it's so true that if we we share one another's burdens it's it's not as heavy as a load and i thought about that the other day my um two of my sons i have three sons now because my daughter got married so we we got another son and two of my sons were helping actually removing a box from my garage around the back of my house down the steps into my basement but it wasn't a simple box it's probably several hundred pounds is this box because it's a literal nordictrack elliptical machine in a box that's not assembled and so they didn't have um they didn't have a hoist or anything to carry it on they they literally dragged this box through the yard lifting it carrying it trying to get it down the steps and i mean it was hard for the two of them to do it but it would have been harder for one of them to do it alone and then here i come and i'm much older than them and much weaker than them and i chip in and doing my little part and maybe i didn't do a lot but i'm sure even they would say you know what you pitched in that help and the point i'm trying to make is is that that's an illustration of how helpful it is when we all share our burdens together when we all pitch in and help each other that's fulfilling the law of christ and so here's my question i want to ask you two questions they're reach out questions reach out questions reach out questions my question to you is what burden are you carrying which burden are you carrying right now that you should reach out to somebody to help you with which is it what is it what is it that you're carrying right now and i know you want to be a superhero i know you want to be a big girl you want to be a big boy and you don't want to be a burden of people and you don't want to seem weak but i'm telling you if you keep carrying that thing by yourself you're not going to be around to carry it long the impact it's having on you carrying it in private might be more detrimental than you reaching out to the right person to give you assistance with it or the right resource to give you assistance with it or the right you might have to listen to the right podcast or hear a sermon or or read a book or or go to counseling like what is it what burden are you carrying that it's it's wearing you down and you really need to reach out to somebody and get help with it i want you to consider that and then i want you to do it because watch this when because you we all have multiple burdens but there's that one that you really should get help with and once you know which burden you should get help with the who you should go to becomes really clear because not everybody can handle or is capable of helping you with your burden but once you know what it is you can then go to who it is you need to go to to reach out for help reach out everybody type reach out in the chat right now just say reach out reach out and then there's a second question i want to give you and it is regarding the support who is going through something difficult that you need to reach out to see see this reaching out reaching out reach out to somebody reach out for somebody reach out to somebody reach out for somebody reaching out shouldn't go one way you shouldn't always be the one receiving help and you shouldn't be always the one giving help it's supposed to be cyclical you got to reach out for help you have to reach out to help so here's the question who is it that you need to reach out to to help who is it that's going through something that you're aware of and maybe check this out maybe the way you reach out is just through a text saying hey i was just just checking on you you crossing my mind hey hey maybe just sending them hey what's your cash app and just sending them hey we could all use some extra money in a time like this when our cash flow has been compromised due to the pandemic that's that you you'd be surprised how how a cash app how far that can go not just the monetary support that it provides but just the fact that god touched somebody's heart to think about me just was the encouragement i need to wipe my tear and to take another step it's so important and even if you have to cut me off for a second and stop listening to me i want you to think right now of who it is you need to reach out to even if you need to reach out to him right now or type it in your phone or write it down or make a note right now i need to check on this person they've been coming up on my mind i need to text them i need to email them i need to send them something i need to give them a call and check on them that's the first thing we need the second thing i think we need in this season is encouragement see see support is tangible it's it's money it's it's helping them move a boxes is is helping them with a situation it's it's hey i'll go i'll go for a couple of weeks while you're at the hospital because you got to be at the hospital more i'll pick your son up when i pick my son up from aftercare and i'll drop off i'll stand in the gap with you i'll help support you but encouragement is different the greek word for encouragement is there i want you to go in hebrews chapter 10 is where i want to want to look it is hebrews chapter 10 verses 24 and 25 say this it says let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works and watch this verse 25 and let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do but encourage one another especially now that the day of his return is drawing near encourage one another encourage one another the greek word for encourage there is a greek word para oh the word para means near coletto means to call the word means to call near somebody it is verbal support it is coming alongside somebody and say you look like you're losing weight keep it up you know you just say three donuts but you said when you heard that you're like you know what i'm eating celery stick right now cause you said that like that's the encouragement is is paying enough attention to come alongside somebody verbally to encourage them with your words to call alongside them it's not just a tangible gift it's a word of encouragement for somebody who is discouraged you know in life you need courage we need courage to keep going and if i am discouraged that means i'm without courage that means i'm ready to quit i'm ready to give up it might be my family it may be my job it may be my career but if i am encouraged that means i have been endued with the courage i need to keep going and you'd be surprised at how much your words can encourage somebody when they just hear you say that was a great job you did you did a great job right there that was so meaningful that that special touch you said that that really meant something encourage one another this is what gets me about church people about people in general i go to this work i do i do funerals i have to do eulogies i'm at i'm at funerals i'm at i'm standing there over and on platforms over caskets and i'm telling you i hear some of the most encouraging things i've ever heard about a person's life but they're not there i'm saying why don't you start eulogizing people while they're living the word eulogy means to bless somebody verbally start speaking well of people start writing down what you would say about a person before they're gone and then say it to them that's encouraging that's collect that's power collect oh to call near to somebody to encourage them sometimes encouragement can be support it can be uh financial support as i said when we support one another but encouragement is usually a verbal support here's the third thing we need i don't i want to make most of my time you know we need during this season it's a new year but same season you know we need and i know this don't sound spiritual we need to laugh we need to laugh the power of laughter what it does to the human body is amazing there's some research that was done out of the university of maryland that talked about the power of laughter and how it actually impacts the flow in blood vessels which actually can prevent heart disease just laughing enough and that and that laughter also releases endorphins in the chemical endorphins which actually is a feel-good uh chemical that that actually can actually relieve pain it actually can work like morphine now most people laugh because they're happy but i'm saying laughter can actually make you happy it has that kind of power on us and and in proverbs 31 25 it's a powerful verse in proverbs 31 25 let's talk about a woman and her family and no matter what she's facing it says and she laughs at the future i love this let me turn to the verse because i don't want to i don't want to mess it up but in proverbs 31 25 listen to what it says about this woman it says she is clothed with strength and dignity and she laughs without fear at the future she laughs without fear her future whoo that that's that's powerful right there think about this think about this we're in it we're in a season of uncertainty we still don't know we're most of us still scared of the vaccination we don't know we're going to take it we don't know we're going to go down to dr dr phoebe and them and go get some natural juices and some and some hemp seed and some shrimp oil and we we don't know what we're going to do but we just know we know it's still a lot of uncertainty a lot of uncertainty out there but here's what this woman does no matter what the circumstance the bible says she laughs at her future no matter what what that means her joy is stronger than her anxiety man i want that in my life i want that in my life i don't want to i don't want to laugh as if i'm ignoring my future like it's not scary i'm just saying i want my joy to be stronger than my worry that's got to be healthy that's why what we did on new year's eve was so important having the comedians come in we we need laughter we deserve some time to joy of joy in fact let me encourage you to do something if you're a social media person i was strong i know you just all you all you followers black businesses or or or white evangelicals or or whatever you follow god bless your heart but you better follow somebody funny you need to every now and then you go on one of them social media platforms you need to laugh you need to see something i know we supposed to laugh at some stuff you need to say something and i'm talking about the kind of lad to make you bust out you have to say i'm sorry like you just like but like you literally laugh out loud like i have people i'm following you may not like it if you look at people i'm following i gotta follow some people who are funny because when i go there after hearing bad news all the day and seeing bad news and hearing bad reports i need to have something that makes me smile that that gives me a mental escape from everything i'm facing that gives us an emotional break laugh laugh laugh here's my question here's my question to you who what group of people who is it that you need to help laugh send something funny to be that person that sends a group text of something funny i mean it should be appropriate you don't want to be raunchy and send that to the wrong group but but but but i think it's important to have people that send you and you send other people's stuff that makes you laugh i think we need that during this time here's a fourth thing we need and you know i used to i would put this on the flip chart but we're going to be fancy today and you know what you know what people need during this time they need help with addictions the addiction relapses have skyrocketed during covent 19. and the reason for it is see when you're when you can't go anywhere for 10 months you feel trapped and you're trying to escape and when you're trying to escape a feeling of being trapped you usually go back to the thing that's familiar that you used to run to before even if you've been sober like it's very tempting to do something wrong now because all of your options for healthy things are no longer available so now people just want to escape all this stress and anxiety so so so recovery is so serious now and i think it's very important that we have a strategy to recover look at ephesians ephesians i'm gonna start in the scriptures in ephesians chapter four i hope i'm not boring y'all we it's only church let me read the bible to you ephesians 4 22 says throw off your old sinful nature everybody say throw off type throw off say it throw off wherever you are throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life which is corrupted by lust and deception then verse verse 23 says instead everybody highlight instead instead instead let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes then verse 24 and put on your new nature created to be like god truly righteous and holy so i want to emphasize these these these phrases in verse 22 throw off in verse 23 instead in verse 24 put on throw off instead put on throw off instead put on throw off instead put on that could be a song right there throw off instead put on you know what it's saying switch it up throw off instead put on this is how i do it because every one of us has something that we do to comfort ourselves that's not healthy now you may not do what the next person would do but we all got something we do that ain't healthy here's how it works now again i would normally put this on a flip chopper that's how it works it starts off like this the way you fix it is is i've come up with this this this this this system is it's called tb rr and this is how it works it starts with a trigger first you're triggered then that trigger leads to a behavior and that behavior brings about a reward and then that reward leads can lead to risk and results i'm gonna say it again it starts with a trigger which leads to a behavior and the behavior gives us a reward and then that reward can bring about risk and results let me break it down for you a trigger is where addictive behavior starts your trigger is your it's the strong emotion that makes me it can be i feel lonely i feel like a failure i feel rejected uh i feel abandoned i feel betrayed i feel empty i feel hurt whatever the feeling sometimes i feel entitled hard as i work around here nobody's going to respect me i feel disrespected the feeling is so strong that we reward ourselves with a behavior it could be a number of things you can put whatever your addiction is you put it it could be food it could be drugs it could be sex it could be a number of things right in there whatever that behavior is brings about a reward well you say well how can it be a reward well it's a reward because it medicates the trigger the feel what it does is if if the feeling is i'm stressed out i'm worried but if i smoke this i feel relaxed that's the reward so so when i feel this i do this and i don't feel that anymore i feel this i feel high i feel my spirits are lifted i feel like i'm on top of the world i feel like i don't have a care i feel excited or i feel confident you know how some people they they get drunk and they be like swear what you want to do like you're all turned up now the problem is when the behavior is is is dangerous and it brings about a reward to comfort the trigger there are risks involved for example the question now needs to be asked what did i put in danger by that behavior what's at stake now could i lose my job doing this could i lose my driver's license doing this could i lose my family doing this could i lose my reputation do could i lose my life yeah doing this and sometimes this feels so good that i'm willing to roll the dice and hope i don't get caught with the consequences and the risk then there are results over here as well which are emotional are y'all understanding what i'm saying they're emotional in nature so watch this i was feeling down here i was feeling rejected i was feeling disrespected i was feeling betrayed so i did this i felt this way but now watch this because i'm a christian and because i know right from wrong now i'm feeling ashamed now i'm feeling guilt now i'm feeling like i should have never done that now i'm feeling like i'm sad about what i've done and by the way when that feeling can be as strong as the feeling that triggered it which puts me in a vicious cycle because now i was just feeling rejected now i'm feeling ashamed and rejected so guess what i'm more tempted to do i'm tempted to do more of this behavior to numb myself more and it's a vicious cycle so how do you fix that pastor this is this is how you fix it don't try to stop the trigger you can't stop a trigger all of us have feelings we can't control that when you feel some you feel it what you want to do is is introduce a new behavior that gives you a similar reward without the risk and the negative results there is something else you can do that won't get you locked up or in trouble that will bring about a certain comfort that won't you won't have to be ashamed of so find something else so for me my trigger is loneliness and emptiness i know when i'm lonely and empty i'm i'm i'm tempted to behave in a way that can throw a lot in my life at risk so what i've done is i've created a list of things that i can do when i feel that way that give me a reward of not being lonely and empty anymore but it also doesn't leave me at risk that i'm putting everything at risk that i've built in my life or that i'm feeling ashamed of it so now that list has gotten really truncated doing covet because there's a lot less things you can do so i've had to add to that more virtual things that i could do but you have to have a list of things a list of options that feed those feelings and that and that comfort those feelings and that respond to those feelings so that you're not controlled by them so that you're not behaving out of character do you all understand that so so people so here's my question here's my question i'm not going to ask you what your addiction is or what you're doing because i want to put that in the chat but here's what i want you to do i want you to be sensitive by answering this question who is it in your life that needs a little more empathy to you from you and a little more patience from you as they wrestle with their addiction because see see some of us are i'm tired of you and you know you're coming in here and you toe up and your toe down and you're high and you're drunk have you have you have you any idea how much pain they're in and that this is the only thing that they've mastered to comfort that and most people who are using anything or abusing anything don't mean to hurt anybody they just mean to help themself so who is it that you need to understand better and maybe come alongs hey power i collect oh them and encourage them with maybe some different options on how to get a a reward that doesn't have risk and results i got to hurry up i'm running out of time here's the fifth thing that i think we need i hope y'all getting something out of this a fifth thing that we're going to need in this season is help managing anger and disappointments if you live with somebody in close proximity for 10 months and you know you're you're staying in the same house and the house now is everything the house is the epicenter now you do school in the house you have church in the house you have your office in the house you got the gym in the house you got a restaurant in the house now you got you got romantic dates you have in the house now ain't no way in the world you could be in the house with the same people that long if you live with anybody and y'all ain't thought about just just yeah just thought about it so when people disappoint us we need a strategy when people are not there for us when it seems like they don't care for us we it's natural to get angry so what is what what do we have to do and i'm gonna give it to you really simple the the best thing you can do when you're constantly angry in a season like this is just let stuff go you gotta let stuff go and understand real stuff you gotta let stuff go and you cannot if you're gonna keep your sanity you gotta let stuff go you you can't you can't be that person who's always gonna get people back you always want to get back you always oh you ain't gonna do that to me you're always gonna make break even with people you ain't gonna break even you're gonna get ahead and i'm saying if you keep living like that in this season it's gonna hurt you you're gonna lose your mind you're gonna have to take some else and just let some people go just you know what i'm gonna let you go i'm gonna let that go how do you let it go how do you let it go it's a powerful word it's called forgiveness it's not easy but it's it's it's actually the only thing that can really release you from things that are hurting you because when you don't let something go you're holding on to it and whenever you're holding on to something that hurts you it keeps hurting you think about that if i grab this thing and it was on fire and it's hurting me it would be wiser to let it go but a lot of times we don't realize that the person we're hurting the most by not letting it go is ourselves so now because i won't let it go and because i'm holding on to it now i'm drowning in a pool of my own bitterness in my own anger you have to let it go you have to forgive listen to these words in ephesians chapter four let me go back to ephesians chapter four uh in verse 31 verse 31 of ephesians chapter 4 says this it says get rid of all bitterness rage anger harsh words and slander as well as all types of evil behavior verse 32 instead be kind to each other tend to heart it forgiving one another just as god through christ has forgiven you instead of being raised and angry and volatile forgive be tenderhearted how's that process work well first of all it's not a simple process let me give you about four steps to forgiveness just really quickly for i know i'm giving you a lot but you know watch it again and use use what you can first of all you have to acknowledge what happened to you you can't heal a wound until you pay attention to where it is like like you you have to know what happened if you can't really identify exactly what took place you can't forgive it because you can't fix what you won't face so you have to first understand this is what happened to me this is what was taken from me this is what was said to me this is what was done to me and it hurt acknowledge the hurt then the second thing you do is you take that hurt to god not to the person because sometimes you might take something to the person and they ain't ready to own it and they can make it worse you're trying to go in there and you you want what you're old you're owed an apology and you try to go in there and and come up i'm here for payment i can't even give my payment you you've offended me and if they ain't mature enough to see that they need to own that then you now you're in a greater deficit so you first take it to god and say god that hurt me that hurt me i don't even know if they they even acknowledge the pain they've caused me but i'm asking you to help me to heal from this and help me to forgive that's stage two what happened god i take it to you here stage three you can you pray for the person you pray for them now man i don't pray for them all right god i pray they ride their car right off right off the bridge you know it'd be surprised what we be praying to the lord i'm saying you pray for god to bless them and this could take a while god bless this person bless their life i don't want any harm to come to them because as you bless them god as they grow they'll learn how to treat people better may they get close to you maybe grow in their relationship with you would you bless their lives and all that it takes to it takes the breaks the chains off of you and then if they're safe at some point one day you actually can reach out to them and be kind to them if they're safe if they still in a place where they're going to hurt you and they're mean or they're they're honored don't don't don't reach out to them only when they're safe so again here's the four stage first of all acknowledge what happened take it to god ask him to help pray for them and then actually reach out and be kind to them hey how you doing this is watch this watch this you say that's hard preacher i'm saying it ain't harder than holding on to it it was a it's a lady named sarah montana she has a powerful story it's it's it's on it's a ted talk she gave on forgiveness uh she forgave the man who killed walked into her house and killed her younger brother and her mother just took their life violently shot him in cold blood and she talked about how she gave the person and and it was really deep her journey and she says forgiveness is necessary when the price when when the price of you waiting for what you're old is too high see some of you waiting on what you're old from what was done to you and the price of waiting is too high you don't help your life is on hold you ain't moved on and i'm saying you what you can control is i can't keep letting this hurt me i got to move on my life because everybody around me is hurting because of what hurt me forgive i got one more thing i got one more thing and i'm done the last thing i got two more i got two more let me go into i'm sorry i got two more well hey hope people need hope this time of the year they need hope particularly in this this this year we need hope because proverbs 13 12 says hope deferred makes the heart sick but a dream fulfilled is like a tree of life yeah hope deferred makes you sick it makes you weak it makes you empty makes you sad i don't know what's going to happen i don't know if we're going to ever recover i don't know if things will ever be the way they were i don't know if we we might lose this we may i don't know what's going to happen when the dream is fulfilled it's like a tree of life like we all good we all good when the dream is fulfilled but while hope is deferred we're sick and i'm saying what do you do in the meantime in the meantime in the meantime i want to give you a quick hope exercise here's what i want to do i want you to think and this might take a moment think of three think of the three most difficult things you've ever faced in your life that you're not facing right now over the course of your life think of the three most difficult things you ever face in your life and if you're in the chat right now what i want you to do is is not name the thing but put the date of it may 1997 june 2011 whatever somewhere in there just i want you to put down the three most difficult things you've ever faced in your life just a date get them in your mind for me i can think of it i can think of the fall of the the end of 2010 and 2011. i could think of 1998 when the church wouldn't pick me to be their pastor and i could think of i can think of i can think of it has to be something you're not dealing with now when i went through covert for 38 days it's over now but i can think of it that's one of the most difficult things i've ever went through but here's what i want you to do when you got those three things in mind if you remember when you were in the middle of that thing in the midnight of it you were scared you know if you're gonna make it you were depressed you were deflated you were defeated you were hopeless you were worried but here's what happened because of god you survived it you made it out and i guarantee you john maxwell says whenever you whenever you fall and hit the ground make sure you pick up something while you're down there i bet you pick something up while you're down there i bet you learned something while you were down there i bet you came out of it better because god brought you out of it now while you say that pastor i'm saying because many of you are in a battle right now that's tough you're in a situation right now that's difficult and i'm saying the situation is different but he's the same god yesterday today and forever and because you're dealing with the same god just like he did it before he can do it again that's what builds your hope because god i was scared before i'm scared now i was worried before i was worried nothing i'm worried in this one it's a different situation but if you were faithful then you have not changed you will always do what's right and you will always do as well tell somebody i'm betting on god i'm betting on god i'm betting on god i i don't know i can't give this year a cliche but i'll tell you what i and it don't rhyme with 2021 but i tell you what i am doing i'm betting on god i'm betting on god i got one more and i'm done one things we're going to need this year in this season is patience psalm verse 1. i'm sorry i went over time but then again i'm not psalm 62 verse 1 psalm 62 verse 1 says this here it is i wait quietly before god for my victory comes from him i wait quietly before god look at verse 5 psalm 62 let all i am wait quietly before god for my hope is in him it's not just that you wait it's how you wait i waited quietly for my god i waited quietly for my god that's that's patience in the greek language the word for patience is the greek word who prominence it means perseverance hupo means under meno means to to arrange to stay it means to stay up under something come here let me help me out fellas by the way by the way you ever notice when it comes to patience um you ever notice when things are going well the time flies but when things are going well wrong and difficult the clock is not moving fast and the reason for that is is we pay more attention to the clock in the calendar when we're suffering you know i know that you never tell somebody man i've been healthy for six weeks i've been walking around without limping for eight months but lester might get sick man i was in the bed for 14 days and three hours and six minutes and 12 seconds we know exactly how long we were sick exactly how long we're in the hospital exactly how long we're down because we track our pain we don't track our pleasure we don't track our victories and so what we need is help me out here we need what is called perseverance the ability to stay up under something yeah thank you fellas appreciate that this is yeah appreciate that i just these guys helped me put on this weight vest it's 60 pounds the reason why they helped me put it on is because not only is it hard to put on without help but there's no way i would do this to myself this had to be put on me oh that's good and i put this on i may not look like i'm carrying a lot right now i can smile through it but i'ma tell you right now everything in me knows i'm carrying something heavy and i put this on because somebody i'm listening to i'm talking to right now you're carrying something real heavy and you didn't put it on yourself it may have been your fault to some degree but you didn't mean to carry all this and here's why it's so important because even if i take some of this stuff out just there's things that i can take out of here and i can say and i can share my burdens with other people and i can say hey can you help me out financially and they say yeah i'll do that and somebody else i might say hey can you um can you uh watch my kids for me for the day and they might say yeah i can help you with that this thing so heavy got me choking preacher do anything to make a point now the end of the day no matter how much help i get is still my vest i still got to carry it and it should change the way you look at weight in your life not just how you wait but how you look at the weight that you're carrying while you wait a lot of us when we pray we're just praying to get out of it god get me out of it instead of praying god get something out of it get me out of it and i'm telling you stop praying for deliverance and stop praying for development because god loves you too much to pull you out of something before it matures you and even if you pray doesn't mean it ain't going it's not just because you pray doesn't mean it's going to speed up the process god is not interested in speedy results he's interested in lasting results so instead of praying get me out lord get whatever's out of me that needs to come out of me develop me don't just deliver me we waited quietly the psalmist says i waited quietly on the lord why is that so important i think we ought to grow as christians this year where we can just look at somebody and they say how you doing as you say i'm waiting quietly on the lord and you don't have to go in any detail we need to understand that about people don't have to fake another i don't have to fake i'm waiting quietly on the lord why is it so important i learned this from watching my granddaughter i was blessed almost the first five years of my granddaughter's life she lived with us as a toddler i can say that was a joy because she wasn't mine grandparents we look we look at tyler's different than we looked at our own because it ain't mine that's my daughter's toddler it's not mine but one of the things i'm able to observe is whenever my granddaughter wants something that she's asking her mother from it's a wonder to behold that because my granddaughter never wants anything later everything she wants is now so when she asks her mom mommy mommy can i have this can i have this she only get three answers either no yes or wait but it doesn't matter what answer she gets she's still gonna ask her right five seconds later can i have this so she says if my if my daughter says no you can't have it she'll just say but please can i can i can i can and she says no if she says wait she'll say but how long when can i if if my daughter tells my granddaughter yes you can have she said yeah but can i have it even a yes makes her keep asking now anybody's been around little kids y'all know i'm saying that's the truth but what you may not know is is that's how we act too we're telling god all the time when can you do this can you do this can you do this and god says i'm asking i'm saying to god can we psalm 62 god and wait quietly you already told them what you wanted i'm not saying don't pray i'm not even saying don't pray for miracles i'm not even saying don't ask god to give you a breakthrough but i'm saying if part of this problem you're in has a process that's going to produce something wait quietly until he finishes and pray for perseverance because if all you're praying for is god to change your circumstance and not to strengthen you to endure it then your life is on hold right now until god gives you what you want and i'm saying even if i got to carry this vest for five years strengthen me to carry it god if this is now my new normal i got to walk with this the rest of my life it ain't comfortable but strengthen me so that i can walk with it some of you have not accepted what has entered your life and you just wanted to be gone and fixed that's that toddler christianity it's whiny with the god that we had the maturity to wait quietly and say god give me the perseverance i need to go through this process for your glory i'ma stop right there and i'm gonna take this off well i'm not gonna take it off the people that put it on me gonna take it off that'll preach too thank y'all let me close like this some of you have been listening to this and it's made sense to you it's not it's not weird to you but you don't know how to do what i've been telling you to do is and i get that it's like somebody asked you to drive a car but the car didn't the car wasn't started it's kind of hard to drive a car if it was never started asking you to do something spiritual without starting a relationship with god is it's kind of hard to do it's impossible so what i want to do today is i want to be like a jumper cable for you between god's love and truth in your heart and soul and just hook you up so that you can get started in your relationship with him well how does that work first of all the good news is he's done all the work he's got all the power what work has he done here's what god's done every mistake you've ever made every sin every failure every flaw every transgression he's already paid for it jesus christ died gave his life for that and and he did such a great job that god says whoever puts their trust in jesus and believes in in their heart they confess jesus lord and believes in their heart and what he did they're saved they're forgiven forever you may have consequences for your behavior and your choices but you won't have to pay for them forever you're forgiven and you're saved just because of your connection and faith in jesus so what you have to do is you have to open up the hood and give them access to your heart and invite them in and i want to help you right now i want to pray for you i want to pray with you and if this prayer resonates with you you can just open up your hands and open up your heart and some of you are doing this for the first time and some of you have been you came back you're coming back to the lord you're getting a restart your battery's dead because of spiritual inactivity and god's brought me here to reconnect you today and i just want you to just take a moment wherever you are to just bow before him in your heart maybe open your hands up to him and if these words resonate with you repeat them after me dear god i thank you for this moment thank you for this time i thank you for being good enough to let me see another year and right now i ask for your forgiveness forgive me for everything i've done everything i've said forgive me for everything i should have done that i didn't do forgive me for everything i should have said but i didn't say forgive me for all of my sins and i thank you today for jesus christ dying and suffering in my place so that i don't have to and today i put my trust in him today i put my trust in him again and i thank you for this opportunity now lord be lord of my life don't just be in my life lead it govern it direct it in the way you would have me to go as i surrender to you get glory out of my life pray this in jesus name amen hey thank you all for being with us today i've enjoyed being with you this first weekend of the year and i hope we get to do this again next weekend

Channel: Keith Battle

Views: 2,306

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: Algfn2CteM8

Length: 50min 57sec (3057 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 04 2021