Protect Your Edge | Pastor Sarah Jakes Roberts

[Music] God gave me something to say my subject is protect your Edge and I am in numbers 20 verses 2-13 this is the new King James version context is that Moses is leading the children of Israel into the promised land and they've had this same cycle over and over again where they get there but then well they get close but then something happens that makes them wish that they could go back to Egypt over and over again for 40 years we see them repeating this cycle they are closer than they have ever been when we find them in this text and yet they're still struggling with this notion of trusting God in the wilderness of trusting God in this next stage of their life and Moses has been selected as the leader who will guide them into the promised land in verse 2 begins it says this is at this point in the text they have no water they're in the wilderness of Zen Miriam his sister has died so Moses is carrying the weight of leadership while also dealing with the heaviness of loss and the complaints of a people who don't just get it now there was no water for the congregation so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron and the people contended with Moses and spoke saying if only we had died when our Brethren died before the Lord why have you brought up brought up the Assembly of the Lord into this Wilderness that we and our animals should die here and why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place it is not a place of GRA or figs or vines or pomegranates nor is there any water to drink so Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the Tabernacle of meeting and they fell on their face and the glory of the Lord appeared to them then the Lord spoke to Moses saying take the rod you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together speak to the Rock before their eyes and it will yield its water thus you shall bring water for them out of the Rock and give drink to the congregation and their animals so Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the Rock and he said to them here now you rebels must we bring water for you out of this rock then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod and watered came out abundantly and the congregation and their animals drank then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron because you did not believe me to hallow my name in the eyes of the children of Israel therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them Spirit of the Living God I need you I desire more than anything to be used for your purposes for these your sons and daughters God I ask that you would fill me with the love that you have for them and that from that place of love that I would be filled with prophecy wisdom insight and strategy that could only come from Heaven God I pray for the hearts and the Destinies connected to this moment that their hearts would be open to receive that their minds would be more malleable than they have ever been God I pray that this would be a Divine encounter with your grace your anointing your word and that it would forever transform them God give me strength give me power give me energy give me Pace that I may not miss a single crumb that you seek to serve them I yield myself over to you and I say Have Your Way great God that you are in Jesus name I pray amen Amen Let It [Laughter] Rip I love that I grew up in this church as most of you know and as people who grew up in church environments like I did I had like my biological aunts and uncles but then I had surrogate aunts and uncles that were so close to me growing up that they felt like they were biological family and one of the things that I enjoyed the most was being raised by like these country uncles they taught me everything from playing SP SP and not just like playing Spades but like you got to put the card on your head kind of playing Spades you know where you got to Humble people tell them study long study wrong you know they taught me how to play dominoes but of course they didn't call them dominoes they called them bones and I don't know if they kept the Crown Royal bag from before they got saved or but for some reason the dominoes were always in Crown Royal bags I didn't ask no questions I just shook the dominoes up like they asked me to we would slam dominoes down I was probably like 11 or 12 years old I'll be slamming dominoes down and I call my low points I say 10 they be like 10 top roof don't leag I'm like huh five you killing me with these nickels like it was just such a good country black experience amen these same uncles when it was time for me to start driving you know I was taking driver education and I would learn things like keeping my hands on 10 and two and they like ah you don't need 10 and two you just need to put one hand on there and I'm like the book says 10 and two and so I would go to Driver's Ed but then they would take me out to go driving and when they would take me out to go driving they would undo everything that they told me I need to do in driver's head when in driver's dead when parallel parking they say take as many times as you need now you got to be able to do it in one swoop baby girl one swoop why like do I get street credit if I do it in one swoop then say when you get really good I'm going to teach you how to drive with your knees now I'm lost because why are we driving there nowhere in the handbooker they talking about driving with your knees I'm just trying to figure out how to drive I'm getting in the car I got to turn the music down I can't afford to change the air conditioning when I first started driving I'm like I cannot afford to have any distractions at all and you all are talking about driving with your knees it was crazy then they told me once you get your routine once you get your Rhythm you'll be able to add other things to it so I finally figured out how to drive it became like innate where it didn't require as much studying so I could turn on music right I could add something into it cuz now now I've gotten the pattern down I've gotten the routine down now I can change the air conditioning maybe I could take a drink of water I was really learning and progressing fast I still haven't learned how to drive with my knees I'll be honest then in early 2000 I think most of us recognized that the world was experiencing a shift where the cell phone devices that we possess were something that were not just useful and handy because we were able to communicate with people but it was also something that was becoming a part of our routine so much so that because we were driving and texting that we had to start putting up parameters to keep us from incorporating into our routine something that could be damaging to our lives or the lives of other people I feel like that is one of the funny things about routines to a certain extent our routines have some flexibility you can add some things to them once you get down whatever your rhythm is going to be for school runs once you get down whatever your rhythm is going to be when it comes to driving you have the opportunity to incorporate other things but there comes a moment though where you can't ask your routine to stretch any further than it already has you have to be willing to change your routine to accommodate whatever it is you're trying to now fit into your life it's hard though for us to do this because our minds are wired for routine literally our minds are constantly thinking of the quickest most efficient way to accomplish any task when we learn something for the very first time this is controlled by our cerebral cortex once we've repeated this action multiple times it becomes routine once it has become it is stored in a part of our rain that makes it almost extremely impossible to delete so it starts off something that we have to do with real intention then it becomes something that is a part of our routine so much so that we would rather fit something in our routine than change our routine Al together I had a friend and she became a mother I think she was in her 40s and she had had this you know life of being single and traveling all over the world and she got married and she got pregnant and she told me you know one of the things that I'm going to do differently is when I have my baby I am not going to change my life to accommodate the baby I'm going to make the baby fit into my life and I was like cool I mean just seven days into it she's a completely different person she's like I don't think I'm ever going to see the life that I once lived again because I could not make this baby fit in the context of my routine I had to be willing to let go of my routine in order to accommodate this gift this is part of the reason why many of us struggle to enact change in our life is that when we say we want to change what we really mean is I want change to fit within the context of my routine I don't want to change my routine I just want it to fit into the context of what I already know not people in this room you have to say that cuz people get so sensitive these days but there are some people who were tired of being the strong friend it's a routine that they created for the people around them where you can count on me I have no needs my life exists only to serve you and they want to change that but they also don't want to be vulnerable enough to tell people I'm going through a depression or I actually need some help right now they want to change their routine but they actually just want people to accommodate a version of themselves that they are not willing to introduce into their routine because they if they introduced it into their routine it would changeed everything that people have known about them and they don't want to abandon their routine there are some people who say I want to find a way to rest and have more balance in my life but I also don't want to change my routine so your goal is only as good as the routine that you're willing to implement to support what you're going after that's why if we're going to introduce change in our life we have to be willing to have what research calls cognitive flexibility cognitive flexibility is what happens when we give our mind the ability to not be locked into the routine that we understand into the ways that we are used to showing up in the world but instead we allow ourselves the capacity to do different things like taking a new way home or changing the way we communicate because if I get stuck in a particular routine it's going to be even more difficult when it is time for me to break out of that routine and so I've got to have some cognitive flexibility I think one of the incredible things about this church is that as many incredible pastors as we have we all have different styles and if you are here then you recognize that though we have different styles it's the same anointing and you have become better as a result of the cognitive flexibility required for you to attach to different sounds and different voices sometimes you've got to sharpen up your mind because if you're going to be used in the Earth by God you cannot be used by God in the earth and stay within the comfort of your own routine you got to be willing to have cognitive flexibility that's why when we say stuff like anyway you bless me God I'll be Satisfied it means god I don't need you to bless me in the way that you blessed me last year God I got enough flexibility that any way you bless me I want my spirit to be open enough to see that that's a blessing it doesn't look like what you did last time but I got enough flexibility to understand when you're working in a way that feels different than before we have to have cognitive flexibility to even be in relationship with God Scripture says your thoughts are not my thoughts your ways are not my ways that means that in order for us to be in relationship with God we must be willing to recognize that we're going to have to be flexible God I wish I could say that better to recognize our relationship with God and to maximize it to its potential we have to recognize that the same God that can be present with us in this moment can be present with those who are watching online because God we got a he's got so much flexibility God is faithful he is consistent but God is also flexible that same God that healed your past can reach ahead into your future and go ahead and make that crooked path straight because he's got enough flexibility you're worried about what's happening now but while I'm standing in the presence of God here God's working out things at home because he's got flexibility if you don't understand the flexibility of God you will think that you are abandoned if you don't understand the flexibility of God you will be sitting in the same spot Waiting for God to show up in the same way but when you understand the flexibility of God you start keeping your eyes open to anything God I don't know who you're going to use to bless me God I don't know what you're going to do in this situation but I know you got so much flexibility that I don't want to lock you into what I've known and I believe that one of the greatest disservices that we have done is not elaborating on the flexibility of God that God could use you in spite of your shame that's flexibility where man says I'll never touch you where man says I'll leave you alone God says I got more flexibility than your mother had I got more flexibility than the culture has I can restore what the Locust have eaten because I got flexibility nothing is too far gone nothing is ever over because we serve a God who has flexibility and the heavens wrapped in flesh in the womb of a woman I got enough flexibility to wrap myself in flesh and still be the father I got enough flexibility to not just be crucified and raised but to also leave you with the Holy Spirit I got enough flexibility the disciples were crying because they thought they were losing Jesus Jesus says don't wait the comforter is coming you're going to receive power when the Holy Ghost is fall because just because I'm gone doesn't mean you are without of God I got enough flexibility to make sure you're still covered even if I'm not sure oh I don't know who needs to hear that but I feel like God wants someone to understand that you're still covered even if you don't see covering in the way that you once saw it God says I still got you covered I got a plan I know you feel forsaken I know you feel abandoned but I still got you covered you're covered and if we are going to be willing to be in relationship ship with God and to exercise this cognitive flexibility we must be willing to reject our routines that's the hard part man I'm thinking about when the Lord came to Abraham and he told Abraham get out of your father's house and out of your country and into a land that I will show you sometimes God gives us a revelation and if we aren't careful we'll try to make the Revelation fit within our routine oh not recognizing that the Revelation is meant to break us out of our routine oh God help me he gives Abraham a revelation about what he can do with his life that I can make you the father of many nations that I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you and most of us want the promises of God but we don't want to break out of our routine that allows for the promise to have enough room to really take root oh I feel like God is trying to help me say something that so many of us are so restricted in our routine that God couldn't bless us even though he wants to because we are more married to our routine than we are to the Revelation that God wants to give us and because we are married to our routine the Revelation doesn't have an environment that it can grow in God says I'm not going to put my Revelation in a small if you want my Revelation you got to be willing to let go of your routine cuz your routine will restrict the blood flow of the Revelation because the revelation God has given you has multiplication connected to it and if you make it fit in your routine that Revelation is going to have to shrink that's why you shouldn't be afraid when God starts pulling people away from you when God stops messing up your routine when God starts breaking you out of Cycles because if I start breaking you out of Cycles it means that I got something I want to give you that could not exist in that cycle it could not thrive in that environment it could not thrive in that relationship you need an environment that is big enough for the Revelation that God wants to give you God has a revelation about who you are God has a revelation about what you can do in the earth God has a revelation about the gift he's placed on the inside of you and the Revelation is reserved for those who are willing to break out of their routine Ruth gets a revelation she's got to leave Moab David Gets a revelation he's got to reject his routine as the shepherd boy it is not uncommon for God to give us a vision that requires us to let go of the routine that has once made us comfortable you got to watch out for people who don't mind getting out of their comfort zone because people who do not mind getting out of their comfort zone will never be without Revelation because they recognize that I would rather be where God is than be in the place that I once knew I would rather be where God is moving now than be in the place where he used to move I would rather follow the voice of God into the unknown than stay in the comfort of what I used to know I will follow God anywhere you got to be careful because those kind of people start hearing things from God that allows him deposit his vision for the earth into the world oh I feel like getting happy in this place because I feel like there are some people in this room and God is trying to get you to break out of your routine and you are so afraid of who you will be on the other side of your routine that you've been wrestling with God and I hear God saying you wouldn't wrestle with me if you understood what was on the other side of your yes you wouldn't wrestle with me if you understood that my plans are to prosper you and not to harm you to give you a future and a hope I can't give you a future if you want a routine I can't give you a hope if you are still married to home you got to get out of the place that you have known and move into the place of the unknown I hear God saying your strength to Brave the unknown is waiting for you to move I don't know who you are Potter's house but I hear God telling me that only a few people are really going to get this message because those are the few people who are going to be on The Cutting Edge of what God wants to do in the earth and if you're going to be on The Cutting Edge of what God does in the earth you got to be willing to let go of what you once knew I hear God saying that it's time for you to break out of your routine I hear God saying that it's time for you to do something different if you want to be something different you want to break a generational curse you cannot do it and stay in your same routine you're going to have to shock yourself [Applause] sometimes you got to shake up your own life to show God that you don't mind moving in the direction that he's calling you to you see he gave Abraham the Revelation but just because he gave Abraham the Revelation he still placed it in Abraham's hand to respond to the revelation we ask God for more Revelation but we have not yet get responded to the first revelation we want him to give us more and more but God says I didn't see you abandon your routine for the first revelation you don't recognize that your obedience is connected to your next you want next and you didn't even move now but if you want to see what I can do in your life you got to let me see what you will do with your life you got to let me see what you'll do with what I already gave you to work with you got a revelation you got to work and the Revelation doesn't work in your routine the Revelation may not work in your friend Circle the Revelation may not work in your family Circle but if you insist on having Community instead of having consecration then that Revelation cannot take root and produce fruit but there is something dangerous about somebody who will say I choose consecration over Community I feel consecration is required for the next level of my life God if you make me choose I wish could take someone with me but if you make me do it all by myself you've been too good for me to turn around you've been too good for me to back [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] away sometimes our yes to God requires us to reject our routine to grieve our [Music] Rhythm to let go of what we've known and it is easier to do that when we are rejecting our social patterns and routines but it is much more challenging for us to reject our routines when they are mental routines mentalities routine way of thinking routine ways of being when I was studying for this message I was looking at Paul's letters to the Church of Ephesus I specific Bally looks at the letters to the Church of Ephesus although there is a recurring theme in almost all of his letters but there was one in Ephesians that really stood out to me it's in Ephesians 4 and I want to share it with you I want to talk about us breaking out of the mental routines that keep us from laying hold of the identity required for us to walk out who God has called us to be God help me Ephesians 4 4 verse 12 context for those of you who may be unfamiliar is that Paul has he is converted a group of people in Ephesus they have received a revelation of who Jesus is but that Revelation must exist in the context of the culture that they exist in this is good because for many of us we receive a revelation from God but the Revelation has to exist in the context of the families we live in of this world that we live in of the churches that we're a part of and Paul is writing to them because he wants them to understand that the effectiveness of what you received requires that you break out of a routine that means you can receive Jesus as your savior but until you start attacking your routines you may just know Jesus as your savior but you will never experience the full development of what it means to be a disciple because you stop at being saved instead of being conformed [Applause] transformed that's why we have sometimes really good church people but we don't always have disciples because disciples are those who have decided I'm gonna follow Jesus I want to think the way he thinks I want to speak the way he speaks I want my spirit to look like his Spirit he is the model that's why I think our church is in such a beautiful stage of development because we are going from recognizing that God can use anybody and we are having to be hungry enough to receive the word from whoever can get me close enough to the hym of His Garment I don't really care who's preaching if his train is going to fill the temple I don't really care who's up there if the glory is going to shake the house you see that's a different kind of hunger there are some people who will come and if their favorite person isn't speaking they'll walk out of the room not realizing that they walked out on the very Revelation that could have broken a stronghold off of them but when you get hungry enough to hear from God you come in to worship with your hands lifted up because you recognize baby I'm so hungry to hear from God I don't care if Tanya does I don't care if Justin does it your word may not may be sitting right next to you you better watch who you're sitting next to cuz that person might have the word that God has been trying to deposit in your spirit sometimes you just got to get in the environment where you know the spirit is moving I need you to turn me up in the monitors cuz we're just getting started and I want to make sure hell hears me because when we get finished in this place somebody's going to break out of their routine somebody's going to break out of the way they've been thinking and I want to make sure that we got all of Heaven's resources we got to [Music] oh oh [Music] y'all wo I feel like there's a shift taking place in the world and only those who are willing to break out of their routine are going to be able to be on The Cutting Edge of what God wants to do in the earth and while you could grieve your routine you may mess around and Miss God God needs a few crazy people who don't mind getting out of line God needs a few crazy people who don't mind upsetting what they've known so that they can step into what God wants to do now [Music] I got to break out of this thing and I can't wait for it to break sometimes you got to break out of it I don't know who you are but you've been waiting for something to break off of you I hear God saying it won't break until you move it won't break until you start making a [Applause] decision when you get desperate for it to break off of you you'll attract the level of Glory that'll make sure it has no choice but to get up off of you if you don't believe me you better ask the woman with the issue of blood she messed around and got desperate for that thing to break off of her and she only had one shot who would you be if you started acting like you only got one shot to break this generational curse you only got one shot to establish this family you got one [Music] [Applause] shot sometimes we take for granted that he's the god of first chances and Second Chances and third chances and we start waiting for another chance but I hear God saying that's when you abuse Grace you got to act like you only got one shot to get this right you got to act like you only got one shot to deliver this message one shot to write this song One Shot to build this business one shot to get this marriage right I got one [Applause] [Music] shot when Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 4 verse 12 he's trying to get them to protect what they got from God put it on the screen for me cuz I want to show you how to protect what you got [Music] I got a different text God just gave it to me y'all give me it's Ephesians still but it's further down give me verse 17 Ephesians 4 verse 17 this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk oh don't let the New Testament language fool you you can replace Gentiles with culture with family whatever routine it is that you got to break out of I want you to understand this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the culture walks you don't have to walk like the rest of the world walks you don't have to do this the way that you've seen everyone else do it because they walk is in the futility of their mind and verse 18 continues it says having their understanding darkened they walk that way because they haven't seen the light and it's okay our job is not to judge them but you who have seen the light have a responsibility to walk like you saw him light something up for you can we take about 10 seconds and than God that he lit something up for you I know everybody's saved in this room but there's about two or three of us who once were blind but now we see there's about two or three of us in this room who thought that there was only one way to do this thing but God turn the lights on you would have been in jail you should have been dead you should have been divorced you should have been depressed you should have been in the mental hospital you should have been but turn the lights on that's why you can't judge where somebody is they're walking in the darkness that you knew well if it wasn't for the goodness of God who turn the lights on for [Music] you having their understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God because of the the ignorance that is in them because of their blindness of their heart who being past feelings have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness but you have not so learned if indeed you have heard him and have been taught to him as the truth is in Jesus that you put off concerning your former conduct you got to get out of your routine you got to put it off it's not just going to fall off you don't just wish it off you are going to have to with intention take off your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust in verse 23 it says and be renewed in the spirit Spirit of your mind that mind that is wired for routine can be renewed in the spirit of your mind that means if you catch it in your spirit it'll change your mind when God drops something in your spirit it's not meant to just live in your spirit when God drops it in your spirit it's meant to give your mind a Target if you let it drop in your spirit but you don't change the way you're thinking then you will be be at War because your mind wants to do one thing but your spirit wants to do another thing but my spirit is leading my mind my mind is not leading my [Music] spirit even that Paradigm within itself is a rewiring of our minds that my mind is led by the spirit I don't make my mind fit into my spirit when when I've dedicated my life to the Lord when I have been filled with the Holy Spirit then I am being renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and Holiness so the goal is to get out of my routine because once I am out of my routine I get to lay hold of the renewing of my mind that allows what God did in me to be protected in the world in which it must exist oh God help me God if I'm going to protect what you did in me I'm going to have to be willing to step out of my routine and once I step out of my routine I got to be willing to let your pace order my steps to let your Revel ation my desire to be aligned with who you are to dictate who I am now I'm no longer on autopilot I'm on God pilot I'm being Guided by the holy spirit with the goal of being transformed into a person that is a reflection of true righteousness and Holiness I think that the concept of Holiness coming down to different definitions has kept us from recognizing that our Holiness is an inside job Holiness is something that takes place on the inside of us my goal is to make my life align with Jesus and when I break out in my routine that's the first step but then I'm chasing after something I'm chasing after Holiness I'm chasing after righteousness I'm chasing after my words being a reflection of God's words in the earth I'm chasing see most of our language is a reflection of something it's a reflection of our trauma it's a reflection of our pride it's a reflection of our ego and our where language is often a reflection of what we gone through but when we make a decision that I'm stretching for Holiness I'm not there yet I'll be honest but my goal I got a goal which means I know when I fall short I know when I've sinned because I didn't reach Holiness when I did that that's why I apologize because sometimes the apology has nothing to do with you the apology has everything to do with my reach the apology has everything to do with what I'm stretching for I'm stretching for this and why would I not stretch for Holiness I stretch for drugs I stretch for toxic relationships I stretch for money I stretch for all types of things but finally I got something that is Within Reach God says I will not ask you to stretch for Holiness unless I'm going to put it within [Applause] reach so now when we talk about breaking out of our mental routines we have to recognize that the thoughts that wage war against the knowledge of Christ are barriers to our Holiness barriers to our righteousness barriers to our consciousness of who we must be in the Earth as a holy people I don't even mean to sound like churchy and religious on you but our Edge is that we are set apart [Applause] oh God help me and I don't mean set apart like we can't minister to the world we're called to be in the world but not of the world so this is not about an arrogance that we're better than people who are in the world this is a reality that we cannot change the people we are called to change if we are also trying to be like them I got to be set apart enough to give them something worth reaching for but relatable enough that they don't feel alienated in their pain I'm walking on this bridge only Jesus could fully understand that I got to be in the world but not of the world I'm called to be a holy [Music] people and when you are a holy person everything you do ought to be holy the job may not be holy but your role in the job ought to be holy they ought to come to your office and feel like they need to take their shoes off cuz I'm now on Holy Ground the Family itself may not be holy but God says if I put you in it then all of a sudden when they talk to you they can't talk the way they talk to everybody else cuz right here is Holy I don't know what you did before you came out of here but I'm reaching for something people ought to watch their mouth when they are around you because you cannot just say anything to me I bind you in the name of Jesus don't speak that over my child that child's going to know who God is they may not look at right now but you don't get to just talk about this marriage because this marriage is Holy if you [Applause] [Music] lose if you lose the perspective of Holiness and your identity holiness and what you do then you will become common and you cannot be common and on The Cutting Edge of what God wants to do in the Earth at the same time the salt of the earth you add something to everything you do you add flavor you add wisdom you add creativity you add innovation God says be ye holy for I am Holy and I'll be honest when I was praying I felt like God was challenging me because so often I think that I have been able to make God reachable where I can show a compassionate savior who will meet you where you are but God told me as we embark on the halfway mark of the year that he has reached you where you are but for this second half that is soon to come you going to have to reach up to where he is that sometimes we're always asking God to come down to where I am to meet me in my suffering and I'm so glad that we serve a God who was willing to do that but he doesn't reach us down to stay down he reaches down with the goal of elevating you and I don't know who you are but you've been in the routine of him coming to you long enough I hear God saying now you going to have to stretch up to where he is because he has a vision too you have a hurt but he has a vision and this vision is only accessible if you're willing to stretch yourself into his Holiness if you're willing to reject the routine that constantly has him coming to you and instead humble yourself in such a way that you say I'm reaching for where you are I'm reaching for your Holiness your goodness your Purity your righteousness You' never known sin holy enough that you spoke the ocean in motion and it ain't stopped moving yet holy enough that you were present right here but healing my inner child all at the same time you were so holy holy holy that that was all the Angels could say was holy holy holy you're so holy that when I couldn't pray at all that I would just say Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus and the Very mention of his name made Darkness tremble God say say I'm looking for a people who don't mind stretching to me when we break out of our mental routines that's when we start talking about taking every thought captive and bringing it into obedience the full verse says casting down arguments and every High thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God if I'm going to break out of my mental routine I got to make sure that I'm capturing the thoughts that have been on rotation in my mind for so long that they have changed the way that I speak to myself change the way that I speak to God it doesn't mean the thoughts won't come it just means the thoughts can't stay you got to be active and capturing those thoughts thoughts and forcing it to come into obedience because I got to break out of this mental routine when I was studying the children of Israel and what happens to them over and over again in numbers in Exodus and first and second chronicles and Kings they had a history of over and over again this same routine of losing sight of who God is and I believe part of the reason why this happened to them over and over again is because they could not lay hold of the perspective of being holy and set apart for service to God and because they could not lay hold of that perspective that kept ending up in the same situation over and over and over again if we could ever lay hold of this reality that we're supposed to be set apart God help me I feel a burden for us to be comfortable being set apart and I know we got rejection issues and I know we got abandonment issues but what if all of that was to get you comfortable being set apart what if the enemy meant to it for evil but God meant it for good I know rejection happened for man but now that you've been comfortable set apart now I can show you what I can do when I set you apart their Edge their advantage is that they have been set apart so the things that would be problems for most people are not problems for them because they have been set apart so when we find them in numbers and they are thirsty for water they have a mental routine of thinking that lack means death that lack must mean the end but when you are a holy people you're never out of options that though I may not understand how God's going to do it because I know God led me to it then I will not get to where God led me and then believe that God would leave me because he did not set me apart to leave me thirsty oh I don't know who you are but I want you to understand that God did not set you apart to leave you thirsty he didn't even let Hagar be set apart and thirsty Hagar thought she had been cast out put the lad down so she didn't have to see him die and the lad began to cry out on behalf of his mother and when the lad cried out God didn't even respond to the lad God responded to Hagar if I had about 10 more minutes I would go down and Detour and talk about sometimes someone cries out on your behalf who you don't even realize is crying out for you and you think God answered your prayer you don't realize that God answered their prayer you wern't even praying for what they were praying for but because somebody cried out I'm going give you 5 Seconds to cry out on somebody else's behalf I don't know who your mother is I don't know who your cousin is I don't know who needs a healing in their body but I hear God saying if you cry out I'll meet them before I touch you I'll meet them and you won't even know I'm on the way to them somebody's getting healing they're not even in the room somebody's getting a touched from God they not even in the room I wish I had about five people who were crazy enough to believe that my God is flexible enough to be in this room and to touch that marriage to be in this room and to touch my grandmother okay I'mma tell you I'm wrapping up if you're going to protect your Edge you're going to be like the children of Israel you're going to have to be careful that when you're bonding with people that you are not bonding over loneliness Israel should have had enough Witnesses in all of them to confirm that the same God that showed up for them at the Red Sea the same God who showed up for them in Egypt would show up for them even in this moment but because they had bonded over loneliness when they needed a word a word couldn't get through to them you got to start bonding with people over Holiness when God does something in your marriage when God does something in your business when God does something in your friendship you better make sure that you Bond over God who did it because if you think it came down to you if you think it was a coincidence then you'll be looking for something else to fall out of the sky but I hear God saying if you know that I sent you you're never out of options just look back on my history the same God that did it back then he show up right now we Bond over Holiness we got to see this moment as holy we got to see this transition as holy if we don't see it as holy we'll start wanting to go back to the way things used to be but when we see it as holy all we got to do is will start calling on God because when I call on God I make my mind remember that this thing is Holy Ground I make my mind remember that he that began a work in me shall complete it until the days of Jil I got to make my mind [Music] [Applause] [Music] remember when God sends confirmation between you and another person don't let that slip through your fingers Bond over that remember what God did remember what God said because when one man is weak the other one can uphold him if we Bond over Holiness I know you like to bond over the game I know you like to bond over music but I'm telling you if you got to choose you better choose somebody who knows how to bond over Revelation you better choose somebody who knows how to get on their knees and pray you better choose somebody who knows how to call on the name of God you better choose somebody who knows how to get you into the [Applause] presence if they don't see it as holy they can't see it at all because what God is doing in your life is going to require that they see it as holy if they don't see you as holy you you are better off that they left you alone we don't need nobody contaminating the holy work that God is doing on the inside of you baby I'm not just gifted this is Holy baby this is not just an idea it's holy this is not just a church this is Holy gra I wish you would come up here performing on Holy Ground I wish you would make this about you this is [Applause] Holy and if you don't see it is Holy you can't see it at all these children are holy this marriage is Holy I ask that God would humble us that we would start seeing Our Lives as [Applause] holy so easy to get in our routine that we lose sight of the fact that this started as holy [Applause] and when holy was introduced it changed everything my dad he moved from Charleston West Virginia to Dallas Texas with 50 families he talks about it he says they thought he was starting a cult those family saw it as holy what God was doing in the Earth was holy and when you see it as holy there are certain sacrifices that are easy to make man I wish I could break this down better than I [Applause] have it's not just a family it's not just your lifeall this is a holy [Music] life still holy abused and still holy abandoned and still holy what kind of God is this that you would invite me into your Holiness with all of my dirtiness but God says you're still holy because I am Holy when you're in my presence I transform you into holy what kind of God is this that you would take these filthy rags and you would call them rightous what kind of God is this that you would take just this ordinary gift and breathe on it and do the supernatural through it God what kind of God is this that you would make me a part of your [Music] Holiness and Moses Moses knew it was holy that's why Whenever there was a complaint he asked God what am I supposed to do cuz I'm dependent on your Holiness I'm depending on your faithfulness I wish I was smart enough for this room I wish I was talented enough for this call but God me and you know that I'm dependent on your Holiness dependent on your Holiness to raise this family dependent on your Holiness God I'm dependent on you making me holy so that this industry doesn't contaminate my soul God help me to be set apart I just want to be holy and Moses wasn't even hungry for Holy until he had an encounter with God that made him dependent on holy if you have a Yes to God that does not make you dependent on holy then you need to say no he's not on one night stand he wants to be in relationship with you he wants to help you walk worthy of the call he wants to help you see this holy calling and people get on your nerves and people make it common they do we make it common we get tired we get stressed that's why you got to rest because if you don't rest you won't see it as holy that's why you got to be willing to pull away cuz if you don't pull away you won't see it as holy I don't know what you're arguing about but before you argue can we agree that it's [Music] holy this marriage is Holy so we're going to work through the conflict we're going to figure out what we need to figure out but we got to agree that first this is Holy because holy changes how you argue holy changes how you fight Moses he starts off on Holy Ground and over and over again he seeks the Lord I wondered what happened to him in this moment where he sought the Lord but then didn't follow God he sought the Lord about what to do and the Lord told him speak to The Rock don't even speak to your naysayers don't even acknowledge them they're stuck in the same routine over and over again you don't worry about where they are you worry about staying where I placed you he gave them the [Applause] strategy but something happened if we remember Moses is coming off the heels of Miriam dying he's got this frustrated congregation and though he sought the Lord's Holiness it did not negate the fact that he had heaviness and Holiness and heaviness living in the same place what do I do when this Holiness and this heaviness are living in the same place it distorts the way I hear it distorts what I do and then I start falling back into my old routine you see what Moses did wasn't necessarily wrong he struck the rock before in Exodus but this time he wasn't supposed to strike the rock this time he was supposed to speak to the Rock but now he's on autopilot because Holiness and heaviness are living in the same place I want to talk to somebody whose Holiness is always about what they need to do and not who they need to become that's a good word or what they need to lay [Music] down the lord gave them instructions on what to do and maybe it was ignorance maybe it was frustration but he never asked God but what about this heaviness there is a direct correlation between your ability to do what God has called you to do and the weight of what you're carrying that may take strength away from you that keeps you from being who God needs you to be in any given moment I wish I could say it better until Moses was willing to have a conversation with god not about what should I do but can your Holiness have a confrontation with my heaviness he became someone who half did what God Said and he was effective because they got water but he was left wounded which means that you cannot judge someone's Effectiveness and see that that is a criteria for them being connected to God because someone can be effective at serving you and miss the mark on being served themselves you're in this room and all you know is serving others all you know is going and doing and Performing and showing up and you want to seek God about what to do next but God wants to meet you in the area where you got heaviness because you can't can't be trusted to do until you have surrendered to becoming man I want to challenge you to protect what gives you your Edge your Edge is your insistence on maintaining Holiness from the inside for the outside what will make you different is your willingness to be sensitive to the moments where you're off balance where you can no longer trust your own decisionmaking because you know I'm frustrated by these circumstances this grief has got me off my mark and if I keep showing up I might be serving others but I may be emptying myself I don't trust myself in this season you got to acknowledge that heaviness because your inability to acknowledge the heaviness will keep you from optimal Holiness and why would we come this far to lose it started with Holiness and it's got to end with holiness [Music]

Channel: T.D. Jakes

Views: 331,721

Keywords: td jakes, faith, wtal, woman thou are loosed, megafest, potters house, bishop jakes, pastors and leadership, pastors, leaders, instinctbishops, village

Id: FAMniAUiKrQ

Length: 64min 31sec (3871 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 02 2024