Stand Alone Message | The X- Factor | By Lonnell Williams

welcome to the victory broadcast if this ministry has impacted you in any way please consider supporting the spread of the gospel by visiting us online and choosing the giving option that works best for you now we pray that this message will stir your heart and build your faith get ready to receive the word of god well praise god everybody i am so excited the lord is good it's it's just an honor it's a privilege to stand before you this morning fourth of july to celebrate the independence of you know america but the reality is the independence of us as people it is because of christ in christ alone that we are free i am so grateful for the opportunity this sunday morning to be able to preach what i believe is a message from god i want to just honor pastor philip and lena uh they are friends and when i say that you know it's preacher talk to some people they always say oh that's just my friend but these are truly friends i i really do believe that we actually hang out outside of church and we really enjoy being around each other your pastor he challenges me i say that he challenges me to be a better man i remember there was a season of uh that i was going through that was very tough and i took a break from preaching and i just wanted to be ministered to and he was the person that i leaned on the most he was the one that i called because i knew that he could carry the weight of what i was dealing with and he could walk me through the season that i was challenged with and so i am just eternally grateful for your pastor i want you to just celebrate him in the chat if he has just been a support the voice of god in your life tell him right now in the chat what he means to you because he means the world to me his wife means the world to me uh and i'm just grateful that i have that partnership with them and so victory i love preaching at your church i mean that from the from the depths of my soul i love the interaction i love the hunger i love the fire that you guys have for god and so i just want you even as we are here in the back and in the chat show some love because i know that god has something for us so let us pray as we dive into what the lord has to say to us heavenly father thank you i mean you have been so good words can't even describe we can't even begin to articulate how amazing you really are i mean the fact that i'm standing here today that we are standing here today is evidence of your goodness the fact that i'm able to breathe that we're able to breathe the activity of our lungs the the motion of our hands and fingers father god that even as we sit in our bedrooms father god the fact that we are here today is evidence of your goodness the world has gone through a pandemic father god the enemy has tried and he has taken lives those that are close to us for the god but by your grace and mercy we are still here by your grace and mercy we are still standing father god some of us have lost jobs father god some of us has lost family members father god some of us have lost hope and joy father god but we lean on you we lean in the summer season to know god that you will restore what has been taken father god and that the time that we have left you will make up for the time that has been lost i thank you father god in the name of jesus as we speak i speak to this camera father god and i pray for every single person father god i pray for miracles i pray for new opportunities father god for people who felt underemployed unemployed father god i pray that they wake up tomorrow morning father god with an acceptance letter in their email father god i pray in the name of jesus where families have been broken father god i've seen you restore families father god i've seen it in my own family father god so i pray in the name of jesus father god the tithes that have been broken that you will bound them back together father god i pray for marriage is in the name of jesus father god where the enemy has tried his best to break and to take the union that you have brought together father god the devil is a liar i commit and send him back to the depths of hell and i pray father god that the marriages are restored that children come back home father god that opportunities and your grace and mercy will flow through your people i pray for this message father you gave me this message in the midst of a storm and you cleared the path by the words that you gave father god so i pray that it clears paths for your people pray god that it it makes the crooked way straight that the the valleys will become straight father god that they would lift father god and i pray that although the word will challenge and correct i pray god at the same time that it restores for it is in your name god you be the you be the voice lord let me be the vessel you be the mouth lord and let me just be the mouthpiece i pray that your spirit would reign god i pray right now even as people are eating cheerios in their bedrooms father god goddess family sit uh on couches watching this on youtube by the god of facebook or any type of medium that they might watch it on father god that your spirit would rest rest in jesus name we pray amen well praise god i'm sorry but the holy spirit is present today i'm just so grateful and honored you know i want to hop into this word right now i just want to give uh the time and attention to this that we can so if you can't i want you to open up your bibles i'm certain it'll be on the screen but if you've got the the letters uh uh in the word and in the text i want you to open it up with me uh as my grandfather used to say all the time uh you know that the word and the paper is still good it's still good so i want you to open up if you can to second chronicles second chronicles oh thank you holy ghost second chronicles uh chapter 20. we're going to read a few verses i want to put this in context we really are going to walk through the entire chapter but but i want to lift up a few verses that i believe is going to be important for us today so second chronicles chapter 20. let's start at verse 14. we're going to go verse 14 through 17 and then we're going to skip down and read verse 22 and 23. but so uh this is what the spirit of the lord says it says and then the spirit of the lord came upon jehaziel son of zechariah the son of banaya the son of jael the son mataniah a levite and a descendant of asaph as he stood in the assembly and he said listen king jehoshaphat and all who live in judah and jerusalem this is what the lord says to you do not be afraid or discouraged because of the vast army for the battle is not yours but god's tomorrow march down against him they will be climbing up by the paths of ziz and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the desert of jereal you will not have to fight this battle take up your position stand firm and see the deliverance of the lord will give you judah and jerusalem do not be afraid do not be discouraged go out and face them tomorrow and the lord will be with you verse 22 as they began to sing and praise the lord said ambushes against the men of ammon and moab and mount seir who were invading judah and they were defeated the ammonites and the moabites rose up against the men from mounts here to destroy and annihilate them and after they finish slaughtering the men from seer they help destroy one another if i could use a title for the purpose of this text i would use the title the x factor the x factor one of my favorite books that i have ever read i recommend this book to all individuals who are in sales or who are in development or leadership it is a book by a gentleman named tim grover and the book is called relentless relentless it is one of my absolute favorite books it sits on my nightstand next to me and the reason why is because tim grover was the physical therapist for michael jordan and kobe bryant his entire responsibility was to ensure the physical well-being of some of the greatest athletes in the world charles barkley dwyane wade you name it olympians of all kind but the two key individuals that he trained were michael jordan kobe bryant uh and he talks about this this x factor uh this this ability that is found in every person but only a few athletes can actually tap into it uh and he talks about uh this individual kobe bryant where there was a playoff game and i don't know if you remember this you can go on youtube and watch it and uh kobe goes up and he comes down he tours uh i think it was his acl and you have to understand in basketball normally when that type of stuff takes place uh the the the teammates huddle around you and they they carry you uh to the locker room because that at times can be a career-ending injury it can really impact your ability to go forth in the sport and normally when it takes place that's it the game is over for you but what's so amazing about kobe bryant when this took place he got up off of the floor on his own he walked to the free throw line he hobbled to the free-throw line and he took up the shots and made them and walked off by himself to the locker room that my brothers and sisters is the x factor every athlete has the x factor but many don't know how to properly tap into what it is and the question we have to ask ourselves is not how we get the x factor but the better question is how do we use the x factor and i believe this text will help us understand the significance and importance of that uh let me set the context for you you have king jehoshaphat he's 35 years old going into reign and historically the kings uh that took over judah i think he was the fifth king at the time but normally the kings they went back and forth with honoring yahweh or god uh as king supreme right so so so sometimes they had those who follow pagan religions and then those who follow god and king jehoshaphat just so happened to be one of those individuals uh he restored uh the temple he he repressed pagan religion uh he set up rules and regulations uh for the town and the people to follow god and he was it was an amazing thinker and he created uh partnerships with other regions in the area because he felt like that was necessary uh to bring unity amongst god's people but for some reason there was a group three into three groups that decided to to break this partnership and to turn their backs on jehoshaphat and jerusalem and judah and they decided to attack at that time against the land and it was kind of interesting because uh jehoshaphat who who really didn't understand why he called all of jerusalem together and he asked him he said listen we are going to fast we are going to pray we're going to rip our clothes we're going to get before the lord we're going to ask god to have mercy on us and everyone in the town they're sitting around they're praying and and in the midst of all of that a levite a worshiper he stands up in the midst of everyone praying and he says listen king jehoshaphat and all who live in judah and jerusalem this is what the lord says to you do not be afraid or discouraged because the vast army for the battle is not yours but the lord's now this is interesting this this particular text threw me off because historically it has been misunderstood and it has been preached within the church the text is oftentimes quoted to build encouragement and to build a level of success that that the battle that you're getting ready to face uh it belongs to god but what we have failed to recognize is the text also affirms the presence of fear yeah don't be don't be quick to skip over that it says fear not which means that the writer recognizes the reality of this truth and victory this is the foundation of our text we live in a culture uh uh that that supports and somehow somewhat exemplifies that fear is demonic i'm gonna say that again that somehow uh having fear means that you lack faith that somehow fear uh is a sign of weakness or or the reality that that that fear is somehow negative but it is it is part and parcel of who we are as people uh the bible says this in psalms 34 4 it says i sought the lord and he answered me he delivered me from all of my fears it is a part of life it is quintessential to the human experience and for example you have people who have phobias there are some people uh who are afraid of heights there are people who are afraid of spiders there are some people who are afraid of clowns and if you're like me you are afraid of cats i said it help me holy ghost i don't know how or why this came about but i am deathly deathly afraid of cats and if you came to me and told me just don't have no fear fear is of the enemy you better stand strong in the name of jesus i cast that out of you that fear of cats i would look at you like you are crazy i am saved i am a christian i am a bible believing dipped in the water of the fires speaking in tongues but if you lock me in a room with a cat i am going to freak out watch this because the bible doesn't shame you for having fear but it does tell us that our faith doesn't rest in us but that having faith in the one who's standing with you in the midst of your fear come here shadrach meshach and abednego daniel 3 17 says if it be so our god whom we serve is able to rescue us from the fire uh but he will rescue us from your hand o king but even if he does not let it be known o king that we will not serve you and i know uh that you have fear but i want to stop by and let you know you need to stand on your faith shadrach meshach and abednego they were escorted into the fire uh by individuals by by men who plotted against them and i don't want to mess with that uh because people need to be careful who they mess with uh because there are some people who will try to destroy you who will try to throw you into some mess and those very same people have to be careful because they too will be consumed by the stuff they try to take you into oh my god some people been trying to get you fired they don't even realize they about to get fired themselves some people have been trying to break up your relationship not even looking at the mess of a relationship they have themselves they need to be careful touch not my anointed do my profit no harm be careful who you talk to who you mess with because i am a child of the king this is it so so sadrak meshach and abednego they stood in the fire and with the fire they still believed and the king said this in the text he says was it not three that we threw in the fire but i see a fourth one and he looks like uh the son of god and and i want to let you know that somebody right now is struggling you are struggling with fear but the battle is not yours somebody has a fear of tomorrow somebody is scared about the job somebody is scared about the relationship somebody is scared about paying bills this month of july but i want to let you know as a believer uh that we don't stop having fear fear is okay but my faith informs my fear and reminds me that the battle is not mine it is the lord you are worried about the problem but the problem needs to be worried about god because god will stand in the midst of your problem and he will stand it the bible's very clear uh he says that the enemy will come in like a flood but he'll raise a standard against him now watch this he said that the enemy will come in like a flood he didn't say that the enemy would be a flood he said he'll try to come in he'll mimic a flood he'll mimic a problem but the lord will raise a standard a standard an army against him and in this case he'll raise a damn he'll stop the water before he tries to overtake you he'll stop the water he'll stop the problem before it overtakes you because the battle is not yours it's the lord's look at verse 16 this is tomorrow march down against them now they'll be climbing up the path of ziggy and you'll find them at the end of the gorge in the desert of jerusalem uh you will not have to fight this battle judah and jerusalem do not be afraid do not be discouraged go out and face them tomorrow and the lord will be with you now this is very important now one might think that because of the promise in verse 15 that judah would not even have to show up at the battle and perhaps god wanted them to stay in jerusalem and pray because some battles are meant for you to fight and some battles are meant for you to watch let me say that again some battles are meant for you to fight and some battles are meant for you to watch and this is why prayer is important because you will waste your energy trying to defeat something that god never meant for you to fight it's like pushing a boulder up a hill you will exert energy on something watch this or someone that god never wanted you to deal with and that's why discernment is so key uh because the sermon will allow you to understand when to move and when to stand still stand firm and see the salvation of the lord why isn't the individual the boss not listening stand still uh why isn't uh the situation moving in the way that i wanted to stand still you've been too consumed and trying to find strategies and and you've been reading books and you've been praying and all this but god says i want you to just stand still and watch me fight on your behalf you gotta stop trying to waste energy uh and attitudes and calling on people you know nowadays we got people looking at stones and trying to find different yoga positions to figure this out but god said stand still help me holy ghost stand still and watch the salvation of the lord he says take up your position and stand firm in this moment of the text this is a a key junction i feel like this part is what everybody skips over when preaching this text now i've heard this text preached time and time again and everybody jumps to the fact that they started praising god after they received the prophecy and they were shouting and the next thing you know the battle is over and the story ends and everybody is just so excited yes you know praise your way through the battle praise your way because god is gonna fight on your behalf shout cause god's gonna do it but but but the part of the text that everybody skips over is the a clause of the text you will see some will say that prayer is what caused them to wait and i believe that and some will say that it was praise that caused them to win the battle but praise is the appropriate response but there was an action before that changed everything because can i can submit to you today uh that could it be that it wasn't just prayer uh and it wasn't just praise but was it could have been the x factor that was allowed them to win and that x factor is obedience look at the text it's right there he said take your positions stand firm and see the deliverance of the lord now imagine with me just just use your imagination what if they chose to circumvent the instructions what if they chose to go around what the lord said and do what they wanted to do he said stand still but what if somebody in the crowd said well wait a second y'all let's let's go get our army let's go watch let's do it today let's move right now uh listen i want to get some popcorn i want to see them fight each other and destroy but he said wait until tomorrow see somebody's moving today when god told you to wait yeah come on sir somebody's trying to move too fast god said hold on and watch this he says but obedience isn't based on feelings it's about my faithfulness and fortitude in spite of my feelings because my arrogance can make me think that just because god is on my side means that i'm invisible to correction or defeat i got bible to back me up look at king saul they went into the battle against the philistines and god told him that he would be the one that would defeat them but he said i want you to blot out the philistines kill everything i want you to kill the animals how would you kill dogs he said i want you to kill everything that stands that it reflects to this because he made a promise hundreds of years ago that he would destroy them and so he had he was fulfilling a prophecy uh but saul chose to save the king and the fatted calf for sacrifice and the prophet samuel told him he said what is this that i hear the sound of goats and of calves he says does the lord delight and burn offerings as much as obeying the lord he said listen obedience is better than sacrifice now because of his obedience he at that moment has set his expiration date as the king now saul meant well but his feelings got in the way of his obedience sometimes god's word doesn't align with my feelings but that does not give me the right to overlook the instructions if they don't benefit me come on sir did you hear what i just said uh that sometimes the instructions don't necessarily benefit me but there is a purpose there there is a divine alignment that's going on behind the scenes you don't even know what god is doing you're trying to figure out well why can't i react why can't i respond when they talk about me because god said you don't even know what i'm doing uh somebody planted the seed somebody watered but i'm trying to add the increase if you don't act and react let me do what i got to do and i'm gonna save this person i'm gonna restore this person i'm gonna correct this person stop talking stop moving let me do what i do but your feelings get in the way of obedience obedience is saying yes when your flesh says no a god gives us instructions and requires our obedience because he's not trying to stop us from uh from having fun but he's trying to protect us from something that we don't see it it's like when the bible says not to engage in pre-marital sex now it's not because god doesn't want you to have pleasure there is an entire book of the bible dedicated to this the song of solomon it's about sex he wants you to enjoy yourself and if you're married praise god because you can enjoy yourself but if you're single god knows something that you don't know so when when i understand this it means that my faith has to lean in the direction of trust and obedience even if i don't understand this watch this obedience requires an ear for god's voice in the midst of the noise because sometimes noise can be so distracting that you miss the point that god needs you to hear the most and that's why you have to have people in your life who know when to be quiet when god is speaking you need people who know when to speak and when to be quiet because the difference is consequential sometimes people talk so much uh that they mess around and can't hear what god is trying to say well let me help you out some person uh apple just released uh some air pods that i love i love my air pods because there's a moment on the airpod when you can squeeze the bottom and it destroys the noise in the background it allows me to focus on what i'm listening to my goodness somebody needs to hit the button on their spiritual ears and clothes out the noise that's going on around them because not everything that you hear is of god that's right that's why you have to separate yourself sanctify yourself sometimes you've got to get out of circles out of situations out of people's circles and say let me just alienate myself for a moment because i got to hear what god are saying because what he says can be so consequential to my future so consequential to my faith if he says move left and i move right i could mess around and destroy my destiny so i got to be able to hear what god says watch this joshua told the people he said when i give you instructions to go around the wall he said i want you to go around the wall one time for six days and on the seventh day i want you to go around seven times and he says i don't want you to say nothing until the trumpet sounds and when the trumpet sounds then the walls will come down and watch this he knew that the last time they spoke they talked so much that moses disobeyed god's instructions and he missed the promised land himself sometimes you need people in your life who know when to be quiet obedience i'm almost done obedience is a manifestation of spiritual maturity you've got to be spiritually mature to be able to obey the word of god because it requires a keen ear to the holy spirit jesus was the best teacher of this he understood the power of listening and obeying tons of times he would say uh those who here let them hear luke 11 28 blessed are those who hear the word of god and keep it he know i i've got to listen i've got to have an ear for what god is saying i've got to be able to tune in to tap in to the x factor which is obedience because god is trying to give me something he he's downloading to me something that's so key and if i miss the instructions i can mess up i'll give you this little tidbit about myself i love to build legos that's my thing some people like playstation some people like taking walks i like to play with legos don't get me wrong and my lego sets are great i mean i have right now i'm building a baby grand piano i kid you not and it's probably about that big that wide it has a motor on it you can actually play the piano on the legos it's the coolest thing in the world but here's the problem oftentimes uh when i play with the legos i'm so arrogant that when i look at the picture i try to put the and put it together on my own uh and there at times can be little bitty pieces that if i don't put it on there correctly it can literally throw off the entire build now watch this yesterday i was putting together the motor uh and and when i was putting together a motor i let my son push the button so we can play uh and and the motor would circle around and then it would stop and i'm like what is going on uh and i would do it again and it would turn around and it would turn around and then would stop and i got so frustrated i even emailed lego company i'm serious i emailed lego because i'm like listen bro i paid 350 for this piano this sucker better work right now and nobody responded i'm like yo what is going on and so i decided to break up the pieces that i put together i mean literally i broke up the entire portion so that i can gain access to the motor uh and it took me about an hour and a half because i was so mad and when i looked back at the book and i looked at my my my my piece and i'm like yo i did everything correctly the red is where the red supposed to be uh the brown is where the brown's supposed to be and then i noticed one thing there was one piece that was in the wrong spot that one little bitty piece made the whole piano not work properly i had to undo almost six hours of work because i didn't follow the instructions of one tiny little piece see obedience says that when i hear what the lord has to say i'm going to follow it to a t i'm not going to inject my own perspective my own emotions i'm not going to get in the way of the instructions that god says because one misstep i know i'm talking to somebody out there one misstep can completely throw off what god is trying to do now watch this it's easy to be obedient when it only affects you but what happens when the obedience determines the destiny of others that's heavy that's heavy what happens when your disobedience affects the destiny of others what happens when you choose not to listen and it impacts the generations that follow see see this this is the thing about us today and this it really just slows me off because we we we're so consumed in ourselves but we don't recognize the decisions that we make literally impact our future uh i'll give you another story when i was uh when i was 21 21 uh i was trying to flaunt on them and i got into a car accident uh when i was at princeton and my car flipped over it was the weirdest thing i got out the car unscathed there was nothing wrong with me i praised god for that uh but i decided that that moment that i was gonna ball until i fall because i got this brand new check that because my car got totaled so guy geico sent me a check uh for the total amount and so i decided at 21 to go and give me a lexus that was stupid don't do that don't don't do that i went and bought me a brand new lexus is 250 uh she was so she was all black leather interior it was the brand new body style i called her lacy i was like i love my lacy and i was rolling rolling in my six foe right i was going i was doing my thing uh and then i met my wife and and me and my wife decided we got married we had a child right so at that time we had a child and my lexus unfortunately uh was not gonna fit the car seat that we needed it just wasn't uh practical uh but because when i bought the car originally i got it as a lease and there were uh there were mileage limits that i would that were placed on the car it was ten thousand miles per year you know so thirty thousand miles in three years uh but me you know being immature thinking i know uh i'm rolling right i'm going to florida from new jersey i'm doing my thing uh and so when it was time for my lease to be up i had 56 000 miles yeah 56 000 miles now mind you that's a quarter a mile over so you paid a quarter for every mile you went over so i went over 26 000 miles times a quarter yeah it was a lot of money that i didn't have i wasn't making it like that and so what it had what it forced me to do was i then had to go buy me another car so i rolled over uh the the the amount of money that i said that that 25 26 000 miles times a quarter i rolled that over into my next car and then i had that car it was a highlander us it was a little bit bigger so i can drive with my kids and we had another child and we had another child so we had four kids at the time and my highlander longer fit but me being arrogant me not following instructions i went over that one by 10 000 miles and so now i got 36 000 miles that i had to roll into my next car which meant that my bill was three times higher than it should have been and i took that car and i wasn't paying attention and my miles went over so now i'm 56 000 miles over times a quarter into my fourth car watch this i'm 10 years out from the time i bought my lexus and i'm still paying for it but had i been obedient to the instructions watch this see evie you're gonna pay then or you're gonna pay now oh sir see you can't run from that you can't so when i decided i was like you know and i finally had some money i was like i'm gonna pay this car off and i'm gonna pay the mileage so i had to pay so much money so now i'm mileage free praise god i'm on my second car mileage free but but i had to pay so much i had to pay and some people who are being disobedient to god's word you are paying so much but you're paying in time you're paying an energy you're paying in failed relationships uh you're paying in job decisions you're paying in a future that you don't even realize your children are suffering right now from decisions that you made maybe you don't have kids maybe you're in the process of having children or one day with like kids but your obedience could determine their destiny how you play with your credit can determine your destiny you want to buy a house but you got a 350 credit score i'm sorry but that means that your your mortgage is going to be twice as high which means you can't take that money and put it towards a savings account or an investment account or a child's college fund so your children now have to pay for what you didn't do because obedience is key my grandfather used to tell me this and uh you can come on with it my grandfather used to tell me this he said uh taught sense is always better than bought sense i'd rather listen and obey and experience the consequences of not obeying somebody's gone through it already why do i have to take on the burden of others when i could just listen just listen i want to give you these three points and then i'll wrap up so how do we become obedient it's in the text i didn't read it for you but i want to read it for you now second chronicles 20 verse 18. since then jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground and all of judah and the inhabitants of jerusalem they fell down before the lord they worshiped him watch this this is what i see number one to be obedient requires observation obedience is a willingness to check my ego at the door it means that i'm willing to do things that don't align with my thoughts but align with his words psalms 139 23 says search me o god and know my heart obedience means that i need to observe what he's saying because sometimes if i'm not listening if i'm not king i could miss instructions that can change my destiny number two uh uh to be obedient and require sanctification we live in a culture when following others is the way heck even instagram follow me but when you sanctify you're called out you're set apart which means culture says react respond to do one thing but sanctification says that my job as a believer is to be spiritually mature enough to know that i'm not going to do anything that goes against god's word yeah psalms 1 19 11 says i'm going to hide thy word in my heart that i might not sin against him last point number three submission first peter 5 6 says humble yourself into the mighty hand of god and in due season he shall exalt you when you're willing to submit to obey to god's will he will take care of you and it may not make sense but god's ways are above our ways and his thoughts are above our thoughts so my job is to obey to do and to trust and his job is to actually act on it the battle's not yours it's the lord's it's already won it's already set up you're set up to win but it requires obedience first i'll tell you this story uh i've got four kids i tell people all the time when you go from three to four you no longer say four you say folks i got four kids uh i have three older girls and my youngest son his name is dawson he's named after me my name is lionel dawson williams he's my middle name my grandfather's name was lonnie dawson so he is he is my namesake my family's namesake uh and dawson is he's an alpha male i mean he got an honest you know he's got his mama's temperament he's got his daddy's drive uh we always say that he birthed himself i mean he is he's that kind of kid i remember when he was younger he was maybe one and a half and we bought all of our kids scooters and we even got him one and i mean he could barely walk but he saw his sisters scooting up and down the street and he refused uh to get off the scooter until he taught himself how to scoot and he did in less than an hour he taught himself he could barely stand and he taught himself how to scoop but dawson because of his his alpha male his his drive is pushed uh he oftentimes struggles with being obedient and saying it nicely he struggles with being obedient but but but you know my wife and i who i love dearly jessica who is the love of my life who is the person that has made me a better man i just want to stop and say that she she's made me a better man and i love her to death but but my wife and i we decided we were very adamant you know some people uh buy trinkets and toys and gucci louie and all that wonderful jazz we like to take our kids to see the world we we make sure that they get out i mean we travel the the world literally we we try to get them to places like beijing and and puerto rico and spain and brazil and switzerland like we literally traveled the world and we're in puerto rico we love going to puerto rico we just got back from puerto rico a couple of days ago and uh this last time we went uh we were at a beach called los quios it's a beautiful location you can always get great food and you're on the sand and but unfortunately during the season there were a lot of palm trees that had died and the leaves were on the ground uh and so you know you walk on the beach and you see a leaf and uh my son being a boy uh he's going around and he's picking up the leaves they're pretty big he's picking them up and he's swinging and he's hitting people with it hitting their kids with it and i'm like dawson stop doing that and he said okay daddy you know just being him but three feet later he'd pick up another one and hit somebody and i'm like dawson stops he's like okay okay okay and then he continues to do it so we get to the car the rental car that we had and there was it was a leaf on the ground uh and i see him walking towards and i say dawson don't pick up that leaf okay daddy so i go to unlock the car and i turn around and what is dawson doing [Music] he's picking up the leaf but this time when he picked up the leaf as soon as he picked it up over a thousand ants came rushing out underneath it baby ants seemed like it was a place where they were protecting themselves from the sun a thousand ants ran out and it was so bad they are so fast too because they're small so they were running up the entire family's legs they're in our shoes they're in our stuff and we're just sitting there i mean we're just slapping everything off it was disgusting right i don't like cats but i don't like bugs and so we're just we're slapping off all these things and we're getting in the car and my wife was like what in god's name is going on oh and i turned around and i said dawson [Music] i told you to not touch that leaf now i told you this not because i didn't want you to have fun heck i brought you here so that we can have fun but i know something that you don't know as an adult i know that something could be under that that you didn't see now you're three you don't you don't get it you're just having fun but when you fail to be obedient you can mess around and do something that can impact the entire family so now the second time we went to puerto rico he saw a leaf on the ground he said daddy i'm not touching that i ain't touching that right but no i'm good he walked around every single pawn for the leaf because he experienced the consequences of not being obedient my prayer today victory [Music] my prayers that you don't have to experience what my son experienced but you don't have to experience the consequences of not being obedient to god's word he see we see to the corner god sees around [Music] it's very simple jeremiah 29 11 says i know the thoughts that i think towards you thoughts of good and not evil to give you a hope and a future he wants you to win listen to me he wants you to win in whatever way that is right in whatever amount he wants you to win and he wants you to win but it is a part of it is a participatory experience i do my part he does his part i do my part by being obedient he does his part by being god yeah and some people say well i've made a lot of mistakes i i was disobedient and and now i'm suffering the consequences of that what do i do about that i'm sitting there now i'm sitting in my mess it's like the prodigal son he was sitting in literally the the feces of pigs his father's animals he said he came to a senses he ran back to his father and his father was there with arms wide open gave him a ring and said my son has returned home no matter how disobedient you have been no matter how much mess you're sitting in god still is standing waiting arms open to embrace you even in your mess even in your lack of listening even in your in your in your struggles but i'm telling you right now in the name of jesus that it's not over that the battle is not yours it's the lord's [Music] so i'm going to pray we're going to do an altar call virtually but heavenly father i thank you i thank you for this word i feel your spirit i know that right now somebody's sitting inside of their bedroom with tears in their eyes recognizing that they've received instructions and they're struggling because they don't know what to do it goes against some of their thoughts some of their preconceived notions some of their some of their actions of the past and they're struggling because they know what they have to do they heard it it's clear as day but they're fighting because it doesn't align with what they want somebody knows you need to end the relationship i speak prophetically let it go and when you let it go there is something someone waiting god has already set their heart towards you but you are blocking it because you won't let go somebody needs to accept the job opportunity walk away from the job they're in somebody's facing uh an emotionally abusive relationship and the lord is is calling on you right now to stand firm grab your kids and walk out that door get a plan walk out there there are individuals right now there are organizations that will help you find a place to start you over don't subject yourself be obedient if not that it's not that worth it it's not worth it somebody has financial decisions that they have to make do i go to this college do i take this job do i move back home with my parents [Music] you already know the answer i pray god that you would let them follow your word we repent from being disobedient [Music] we repent from not honoring your word and i pray god that you would restore the years that the king worm and the locust have taken from us you restore what has been lost because of our obedience to you it's not easy it's not fun it's not always aligning with what we want but we know that we're all the better forward [Music] not every medicine tastes good but it's good for us i thank you for this word and i pray god that you would speak to somebody right now in the name of jesus amen now listen listen listen you are sitting in your bedroom you're sitting in your living room you're in your car you could be watching this two years from today the lord is still speaking right now [Music] i want to speak to somebody right now who has never had a relationship with god you've never accepted jesus christ as your lord and savior but you heard a word ten years ago while you were sitting in church or you heard a song on the radio or maybe a friend who got saved and you know that there's been something that's been pulling on you i want you to be obedient to the word i want you to be saved i want you to accept christ as your lord and savior one of my spiritual gifts is evangelism i know when i can sense when there are fish that need to be pulled and i'm praying right now i can sense right now that somebody somebody's fighting somebody's wrestling uh you know the the word is very clear he said knock he said when i knock i want you to answer i want you to know that that the enemy is trying to pull you he's trying to convince you that you've got more time but if 2020 taught us nothing it means that we know that time is not promised it's not one of my very best friends 33 died of a heart attack he was a pastor died of a heart attack just like that you don't know when tomorrow will bring you don't know when it's going to be your last moment don't don't miss this chance to accept jesus as your lord and savior confess with your mouth believe in your heart you can do it virtually and then when we are meeting back in person i want you to walk down an aisle i want you to put your hand in the preacher's hand and your heart and god's hands and i want you to accept him as your lord and savior because it's the best decision that you will ever make i'm not telling you that your life won't have problems i'm not telling you that you won't have challenges but i am telling you that your life could will not be better unless you have god in it whatever you're facing i promise you uh that it is far times worse than it could be if you had god in your life i'm telling you right now give them six months six months follow his word be obedient for six months and watch your life change because salvation is not just about getting into heaven salvation is getting into heaven but it also means having a better life on earth a better life on earth to the individual right now you you love god you're saved and sanctified but you walked away for whatever reason you lost faith in the church you might have had a bad church experience sometimes you've even lost faith in god maybe maybe you felt like hey i did the right thing and i'm still struggling and and i want to try this new thing right you got to be careful what you see online because now people are doing chakra and all those other mess and stones and all that but but no stone and no no buddhist theory can replace god so so don't lean on those things lean on his everlasting word that's an old baptist him lean lean lean on him i want you to come back home come back to the place where god is waiting he's waiting with his arms wide open he's waiting to hug you waiting to bring you back to the vote he's got a table set before you and the presence of your enemies he wants you back don't miss this chance to the side i don't care how far back you've slid and god's behind you trying to push you back home and lastly to the person that is saved you love god you're faithful to his word but you don't have a church home you don't have a you've had negative church experience maybe maybe you struggled to find a place maybe you just moved to a new city to a new home uh you know a new part of town and you're like i i got i know i need to plug in somewhere i know i need to serve i know i need to place where i can receive nourishment where i can have a spiritual leader i'm telling you victory is the spot if nowhere else in the city victory is it this place is rocking it's filled with people that love god that are chasing after him you've got a spiritual leader with integrity who really loves his spouse and loves god and wants to lead people uh into the presence of the holy spirit and who literally has a mission and a passion until all have heard about what god is doing and what he can do in the life of the believer until every soul on this planet has heard the gospel this church will stand to fight to make sure that that happens and so i want you to know this is a great place plug in i'm certain that there will be a lower third where you can figure out how to plug in and if not google victory church atlanta pastor philip mitchell call i mean heck you can do whatever you want facebook instagram twitter if you want dm me and i'll connect you with them but i want you to join the church so again to the person who's looking for a church home to the person uh who is backslidden into the person who's looking for salvation i want you to know that god loves you he cares about you [Music] he's faithful and just and true [Music] can to give you and to be all that you need listen i love you i'm grateful for this opportunity pastor phillip and lady elena thank you so much for this chance i hope i pray that it blessed you i don't know but i pray that it did i'm confident that the holy spirit has done what he's supposed to do i told you from the beginning i knew i sensed i felt it i woke up with no nerves because i knew that god had something to say and so i'm just excited uh i pray that it blessed you uh hit me up you know let me know and put it in the chat all right put it down there see if the lord blessed you put put x factor x factor x factor the x factor's obedience obedience is the x factor let me know i'm watching i'm sensing in i'm plugged in listen i love you i'm grateful for you and i pray he will be all things to all people because that's who he is i love you god bless thank you for listening to the victory broadcast we prayed that message was a blessing to you if you have a story or testimony to share we want to hear all about it send us an email to share at victory victorychurchatl.org or visit us online under share thanks for listening go in peace

Channel: Victory Church

Views: 264

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 57PI322jTx0

Length: 53min 10sec (3190 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 05 2021