Stealing Signs | Ebenezer Quaye

hey family i'm pastor torre i'm pastor sarah and listen you're getting ready to hear an incredible word for the lord i believe it's going to bless you i believe it's going to be timely do me a favor share the message if it moves you share the message and then also you have an opportunity to be a part of not only helping to spread this message but to be a part of our outreaches we're doing a lot of practical things to be a blessing to someone so feel free if god so moves you to use the information here in the video to support what we're doing we're being a blessing not just people spiritually we're being a blessed people practically we love you get into this message and change your life welcome welcome welcome welcome welcome welcome i'm honored that you have joined in this encounter that you have decided that this was a time where you needed a word from god and you came here to get it let us celebrate and honor the leaders of this house pastor terry roberts pastor sarah jakes roberts pastor stephanie ek our leadership has been leading us and guiding us through one of the most turbulent seasons our generation has ever seen and without fail you have been able to come here on a thursday on a sunday or any day of the week after and still receive a word that will move you forward i'm thankful and grateful to be a part of this movement let's pray very quickly heavenly father oh we thank you we thank you we honor you and we praise you that that indeed it is finished that your presence in our life is a finished thing that your word over our life is a finished thing that your word over this season is indeed a finished thing so father everything that is incomplete on the inside of us let this encounter be something that moves us further in the acknowledgement that you have indeed finished what you started on the inside of everyone involved in jesus name amen amen amen let's jump into it activate family so i'm going to be in the book of matthew chapter 16. we're going to go through verses 1 through 3. and just for quick context the pharisees and the sadducees have encountered jesus in one of their uh test encounters they love to encounter jesus and try to trap jesus into doing and saying things so that they can engage in debates with them ultimately with this incredibly false hope that they might win but here we are it says then the pharisees and the sadducees came and testing him asked that he would show them a sign from heaven he answered them and he said to them when it is evening you say it will be fair weather for the sky is red and in the morning it will be foul weather today for the sky is red and threatening hypocrites you know how to discern the face of the sky but you cannot discern the signs of the times oh the times that we are in right now and the signs that we see the title for for this message is stealing signs now i got this title because i am a massive baseball fan and stealing signs is actually a part of baseball it's a part of other sports too but particularly in baseball you see when you watch a baseball game for those of us who love it it's not boring but for those of us who are just kind of casually scrolling through tv and see it you see a lot of standing still what i love about baseball is in the standing still there's strategy that's a whole word in and of itself strategy in the standing still strategy and standing still but what's actually happening is as they are looking still they're looking around the entire field they're trying to get cues and clues for what the opposition is about to do so the pitcher is looking into the catcher to get the sign for what to throw the batter is looking at one of the coaches on the side to figure out what to do in the event that a ball is hit in this direction or it's hit in that direction so the batter's getting instruction the pitcher and the catcher are trying to get into alignment people are looking into the dugouts left and right everybody is sending and receiving signs and one of the arts of baseball is the art of stealing signs now it's one of these things where you're not supposed to do it yet everybody does it the idea of stealing signs is if i can get a hint of what my opponent is about to do i'm going to be prepared to handle it so there are teams who def do devote massive resources just to steal signs and i find it interesting because the idea is if i steal a sign if i'm looking for a sign and i get the sign and i interpret that sign well enough now i'm prepared for what's going to come and the the the wild part about it is if you've ever played baseball you can steal all the signs you want but if you don't know how to execute it doesn't matter what your interpretation of the sign is if you cannot execute with the information that you have received then all of your effort is for naught i can't hit a curveball even if i know it's coming if i don't know how to swing a bat it doesn't matter that i know what's coming if i don't know how to walk in what god has given me if i don't know how to act in the gift that god has given me if i don't know how to walk in the revelation that god has given me what signs i see in the world no matter how much i try to interpret the signs and look for where i think god might be or where i think my god is or where i think god is at work or what i think god is doing no matter how much i try to look into the world to try to steal a sign of who he is and what he's doing if i don't have my own revelation of who god is if i don't have my own revelation from god of who i am whatever the world shows me i cannot do anything effective for the kingdom with it we are in a time because it is so chaotic and it is it is so seemingly out of control that we have become a sign stealing generation we are looking out on the world and we're trying desperately to find indicators for what is coming next as if whatever we've been doing for the past 20 30 years has worked because nobody saw 2020 coming nobody nobody saw the things the literal things that are happening now coming yet what happens is when we find ourselves in a season where so much is happening that we cannot explain we start trying to steal signs we start trying to see what's happening in the world and then taking what's happening in the world and it affects how we interpret and see the word the reason jesus got so upset with the pharisees and the sadducees is he said you guys can interpret all of these earthly things you can look at the sky you know the color of the sky and you can say this is going to be the weather and this makes you look wise to other people i feel that for somebody watch out for people who are giving you interpretations without a godly foundation and passing it off as wisdom there are a lot of people who are going to sound very wise because they can interpret the weather it's going to rain tomorrow and it rained that does not mean they are wiser than god so jesus has this encounter with the pharisees and the sadducees and he lights them up he says you can interpret what's going to happen with the weather but you cannot discern the sign of the times in other words you can see what's happening in the earth but you have no revelation and you are passing off observation for revelation family this is a very dangerous dangerous time that we're in right now because we are so consumed and focused with what's happening in the world we are inhaling information from the world like we have never done it before and it's because we have such incredible access the generation before me had two times to watch the news six o'clock and 11 o'clock that was it that's all the news you were gonna get you bought your one newspaper at the beginning of the day you read it for breakfast then the day passed you did whatever was in front of you and at six o'clock you came home you watched the news maybe at 11 o'clock you watched the news before you went to bed and that's it that was your uh taking in of the world that was your access to the world in the previous generation our generation now is a little bit different the news is on 24 7. literally you can wake up at three o'clock in the morning and check the status of the stock market live time there is a live feed of congressional hearings and senate hearings in our in terms of our political government you couldn't do you can do this right now we have access to the world in a way in lifetime we are overloaded with access to the world like we've never been overloaded before and what is dangerous about that is because we're breathing in so much of the world because we can see so much of the world the world starts to look bigger than the god who created it there was a time where all i could see was what was happening in my neighborhood i've got the local news maybe i have some general news and that's it now sitting in my living room i can read a digital newspaper about another country we have access to the world now mind you the world has not gotten any bigger catch that the world has not expanded the world geographically speaking has not got the planet has not gotten any bigger but because we're consuming so much of it it starts to look so vast and the vastness of the world is now consuming our minds and it's consuming our thoughts and it begins to consume how we see the world that the world is starting to eclipse our view of god i call this message sign stealing because instead of looking to god for who god is we are too busy looking for the signs to try to interpret the world for ourselves and if we're not careful we will breathe in so much information we will inhale so much information we will overload our minds on so much information that the world will start to look more relevant than the word the world will start to take on a presence that is more overwhelming than the presence of god and god created the world perspective is a wild thing uh pastor phil munson we call him uncle phil he preached about uh how jesus said that take the speck out of your own eye take the plank out of your eye before you take the speck out of someone else's and i i caught that passage when i read it immediately i was like i get it take care of your business before you tell somebody to take care of their own got it no big thing but the spec and the plank because of my imagination i always was like how big is somebody's eye that a whole plank could fit in it and then i realized it was not that the piece that was stuck in the eye was actually bigger than what was stuck in the other person's eye perspective is everything if i take a toothpick and i bring it close enough to your eye it will take away all of your vision you won't be able to see the world that's happening around it this toothpick will look like a plank because i've placed it so close in my vicinity i've brought it so close to me that i can no longer see what's supposed to be happening around it that's why it was that's why it was described as a plank in the person's eye because it was from that person's perspective so i'm here family to get us to switch perspectives because the people of god right now have a perspective that is consumed by the world and we are not consumed enough by the word i know this isn't some deep deep revelation it's a reminder that we need to get back to the fundamentals one of my favorite quotes i probably quoted every time i preach if not every time every other time it's from the great mike tyson he said everybody has a strategy until they get punched in the face that's stuck with me because it's so true you see in boxing you have a strategy in boxing you learn the fundamentals you hit the speed rope you do the footwork drills you do the side-to-side drills you have a strategy you're fighting a certain type of fighter these are the fundamentals of boxing you keep your hand up you keep your guard you keep your stance you switch you pivot these are the fundamentals of boxing every person who takes time to study in the gym knows the fundamentals of boxing until you get hit in the face when you get hit in the face there go the fundamentals gone 2020 has hit us in the spirit like no other year i can think of and what happens when you are hit and encountered in the spirit in this kind of a violent way is we forget the fundamentals we lose track of the fundamentals and what happens is you go into survival mode now in survival mode you're not thinking about the fundamentals you're thinking of whatever is going to bring you some comfort whatever is going to alleviate the pain whatever is going to make that which appears to be misunderstood understood quickly and cleanly and completely the problem with thinking that way is there's any number of things in the world that can bring us that feeling that are not god there is any number of things in the world that can bring us comfort that are not god there are any number of predictions that we can take in that will make us feel better that are not god there are polls right now taking place in elections not just in this country but in all countries you have people who are looking on their phones just glued what are the polls saying what do the polls say what are the percentages saying who's got this vote who's got that vote who's winning this state who's winning this country who's winning this who's winning there all of these things we are consumed with them because we desperately want to steal some signs to bring us comfort not understanding that at the end of the day those things are irrelevant without a revelation of who god is i want to leave you with a few points i have a couple other passages to scripture but the first point i want you to jot down in this season meditate on god study the world in that order if you get nothing else from this message get the order of this first piece meditate on god then study the world and it has to be in that order it has to be in that order because if you study the world if you study the world if you meditate on the world and then come to god the world will confuse your view of god meanwhile the whole point of the relationship is for our time and fellowship with god to clarify the world because god created the world if i need to understand the creation i need to speak and have time and intimacy with the creator so instead of searching out the creation to create my own definitions and principles to make myself comfortable in an uncomfortable season i need to be studying the creator who will tell me who i am and once i know who i am i know what i am supposed to do and what i know what is i'm supposed to do it does not matter what signs i see i'm already prepared because i have mastered the fundamentals family we are getting away from the fundamentals meditate on god study the world now that's actually a slight remix of one of my favorite mantras i always speak i always say that i meditate on success i study failure sounds weird most people try to forget failure i don't i love to study failure i like to see why something went wrong what my part was in it what i can change what is in my power what is in my control to change what what adjustments can i make so that i can have a different outcome when not if this is important when the same situation presents itself again because it will that's why i study failure why didn't it work why did that business fail i need to know why because the next time i open a business i need to learn why my first business failed and if i try to open a second business i study it i don't just forget it i don't just bury it i don't pretend it didn't happen i need to study why this didn't work so that i can make the adjustments so that it works the way god intended for it to be so i say meditate on success study failure so all i did was replace the words success for god and the world for failure why because there is rampant evidence that right now this worldly system is failing and all we are doing is meditating on it we are meditating instead of meditating on god and studying the world we're meditating on the world and then studying god so we're meditating on everything that's happening around us and then we're going to god and then we're trying to to understand god's place in it think about the order god's place in it as if i can take god and compartmentalize him and fit him into it i can explain god in this season i can see the signs for this season i know when it's gonna rain in this season i know when there's a drought in this season and now that i have that understanding i've created this framework which makes me comfortable and now i'm gonna take god and all of who he is and smoosh him in there because he's infinite i actually think i'm able to smush him in this frame to make sense because at the end of the day family we're desperate to make it all make sense i need to pop a bubble for you it's not all going to make sense it was never meant for all of it to make sense to us now i promise if god had told abraham you you're going to wait till you are 100 years old to have this child that you so desperately want that don't make sense 100 to start popping out babies even if it's biblical years doesn't make sense and yet it happened and if we limit our scope of what god can do based on our constant observation of the world we are taking god and we are minimizing him and we are actually increasing our distance from him at the same time i'm trying to get off this one point i promise i have two more but i might not leave meditate on god and study study the world meditate on god meditating on god i love that the definition if you look up this word there's a part of it that speaks of murmuring speak the word of god if this sounds like a reminder good 20 20 punched us all in the face we need a reminder of how to get up and fight again meditate on god study the world now i'm not saying bury yourself in the word of god and don't pay attention to anything that's happening around you that's not wise there's no wisdom in that that's not even common sense i'm not saying be so consumed with what's happening in the newspapers and the news outlets and just put this god thing to the side that's not what i'm saying either use the powers the god-given power of analysis to study what you see but you do this after you have provided the framework of what god has said and who god is i'm talking to somebody right now get this in the comments i know who god is i know who god is i know who god is i may not be able to explain everything that's happening in this season but i know who god is i know who god is he's the same god who was there in 2019 he's the same god who was there in 1999 he was the same god who was there in 1619. god has not left the building god has not disappeared i need somebody to hear this we have to stop acting as if god has turned on his vacation responder and disappeared because times are hard this is the one thing that frustrates me as a pastor is when i hear people of god saying where is god in this listen to how the questions even phrase where is god in this as if god disappeared god is the same place he was before you asked the question you get this one for free god can do everything one thing that's not possible god cannot appear where he already is i need to say let me make sure you catch this god cannot appear where he already is we're looking in one specific place one specific number one specific article one specific uh poster one area of government one country one nation one world one economy we're looking in all these specific places and saying where is god if you can't see god perhaps it's because he is everywhere you're looking for something to appear that's already there and we make this a big mystery we oh my god i can't see where the lord is it's because he's right there i feel that if you're you're watching right now asking where god is is no different than if i walked up to you in the street and i said here i am i'm clearly you can see i'm chocolate i'm black and you looked at me and said i'm looking for a black person i'm standing right in front of you god is standing right in front of you but because we're so busy trying to steal signs like the pharisees and the sadducees so that we can build up our own sense of wisdom and comfort we're missing that god has never left same god right now same god back then he's right i feel that he's right in front he's right in front of you god can't disappear because he is in all things at all times god is not some ceo who's afraid to come to the meeting when all of a sudden the numbers don't add up and the company's starting to tank he doesn't go on vacation god is still there but it's up to us on to meditate on who he is while we are studying the world we've gotten to a place i'm gonna get in trouble but it is what it is there are people right now literally their entire faith their entire faith walk their entire spiritual journey with god is hinging on an election literally hinging their attendance at the church for 2021 or whenever it is we open up again their their attendance is hinging on an election and people right now if president joe and vice president joe biden is elected president ah god is not in this and that's it they're done they didn't get the result they wanted god clearly isn't in this i'm out the whole is over suddenly they're available for brunch on sundays suddenly they're available on thursday night instead of here at activate and on the other side the exact same thing if our current president is elected in this country there are people god they know god know the word can out quote me and all my holy ghost friends but if president donald trump is elected president again oh i can't see there's no god in this it's crazy and there's enough of these people who are murmuring enough of these things that if you're not careful and careful and you begin to hear these things you will start to believe it too we have taken a supernatural god and made his presence an infinite god and we have made his presence relegated to a man made event i need you to breathe that in and understand the climate the toxic climate that we are in right now because i need the people of god to pull yourselves out i need us to pull ourselves out how do we do this the first thing you do when you get up in the morning i know you want to check the news you're checking the wrong news you need to check the good news before you check that news because that news is going to confuse you to the good news and you will miss the real news of who you are and what you are supposed to do stop swiping before you turn a page i know some of us got bible apps in the phone but let's be real let's be real you're in your news feed before you're in that bible app who is it it's okay you don't even have to put a hand up in the comments i'm just i'm just going to talk to you it's just me you a few million other people who agree with us that's okay you're not telling yourself you're in your news feed you're in usa today your cnbc nbc abc all of it we're all in all of the networks fox news uh npr we're in every single one of them but we're not in that word of god first and that's why everything is so confusing because we are trying to explain a phenomenon that we don't have the spiritual pay grade to fully understand and act in i only got to my first point who y'all working me today meditate on god study the word and study the world i'm gonna move to my next point and before i do that i actually want to go to uh john chapter six i love this because jesus is encountering people who are looking to be fed after he has fed five thousand people so jesus answered them and said most assuredly i say to you you seek me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled it's all right this is a verse that i just have in front of me that i want to reference we're not doing the whole thing don't worry about that you seek me not because you saw signs but because you ate of the loaves and were filled this grieved me because not only are we searching out signs instead of searching out god the reason we're searching the signs is not necessarily because we want more evidence of him we just want something that's gonna fill us up we're just hungry increase comes and goes but revelation is forever we have to stop seeking out signs signs signs and jesus has numerous opportunities where people encounter him and they keep asking him for signs sign signs and he says i can't keep giving you signs because i'm the ultimate sign of who you're supposed to be with and you're missing me because you're looking at the stuff that i'm doing verse 27 do not labor for food which perishes but for the food which endures to everlasting life which the son of man will give you because god the father has set his seal on him i'm gonna skip down very quickly they were so consumed with wanting god to do some new miracle that they were missing the greatest miracle that was sitting right in front of them family if you pay too much attention to the news outlets and the media outlets around you listen i love abc and nbc but i need niv i need kjv i need cjb i need nk jv i need the nlt i the gnt i don't care which version of the bible you need to get it from you need to get it from those letters first before you chase all the other worldly acronyms later gdp it makes a whole lot more sense when you understand those first because those letters mean something and i need to break something off real quick family i listed a whole bunch of different versions of the bible i don't have time to argue with you about which version of the bible is better because you need to look at the world right now i'm speaking to you those of you who study the word i'm speaking to you those who lead in the word we don't have time to argue over which version of the word is better than the other they all lead to god second timothy all scripture not all scripture in the kjv not all scripture in niv not all scripture now all scripture is breathed and inspired by god pick whatever version brings you in keeps you in fills your spirit brings you closer to god that's the version you need to be in rant over number two once we meditate on god and we have that firm understanding and we get instruction from him and we know who he is this is so important the reason we meditate on god is because if we know who he is it does not matter what's happening in the world who he is supersedes everything we see so as long as we have a firm understanding of god who said it is finished sealed in heaven it's already done then what we see in the world cannot confuse us into believing that his word is not true don't let the world confuse your word i'ma say that again don't let the world confuse your word no matter what is happening around me greater is he that is in me than he who's in the world i don't care what the world is showing me that's what the world has told me that's what god has has put on the inside of me that is the word that has been spoken over my life and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit in its season whose leaf shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper the he that is being spoken spoken of is the one who meditates in the word not studies the word meditates murmurs the word day and night not meditate in the world meditate in the word day and night man number one was media i didn't even get to number two i'm coming i'm coming so we have met we are meditating on the word first this is important stick to god's plan this is number two stick to god's plan when god when you have time with god he reveals his plan so there was i love this i have did you have to use yet another sports reference come with me i'm gonna make this work a few years ago i think there's still some offenses in football that uses called the west coast offense but there was a coach who used it who invented it what he would do was at the beginning of football games he would send his offense out there it didn't matter what defense showed up or what team showed up he scripted 10 to 15 sometimes 20 plays the first 10 to 15 plays of the game he ran the same place every time didn't matter if he was down 14 or up 21 down 30 up 20 it made no difference he ran the same 10 or 15 plays no matter what he saw and this was scripted and it was on purpose and it was to do two things one it gave his team confidence because they walked out there knowing what they were already going to do they had rehearsed it they had practiced it they had placed it on the inside of them so now when they hit the field they were ready there was none of this nervousness in the huddle there was no nervousness in the midst of action because they had prepared so thoroughly they already knew what they were going to do i feel that for somebody are the 10 or 12 pieces of scripture verses of scripture where are the 10 or 12 words or revelations that you have in your back pocket that you meditate on that no matter what you see in front of you you run in the same 10 or 15 plays every single time because it gives you the confidence to face the enemy that's coming so he would run these 10 or 15 plays it didn't matter why number one it gave his team confidence number two this is the part that i absolutely love he was watching to see what how the defense responded to those plays so the defense that his offense was facing would respond to the plays and then he would game plan the rest of the league was trying to steal signs they're looking over there they're at the sideline they're trying to read the clipboard what's on the clipboard they're trying to read the defense where's he about to go what's he going to do they're looking over here what's happening over here what's he doing they're looking all over the place and he's sitting there just looking at the defense he's run out the same 10 or 15 plays calm as a cucumber why because his offense knew what to do more importantly he was getting information from them to form the real strategy he was not getting his strategy from the first things that he saw from the first signs that he saw he was getting strategy based on what he had received what he had imparted for his team to do and how the enemy reacted to it the people of god need to adapt this strategy there are 10 to 15 instructions that god has already given you it is 2020 we're in october that means january through september you've gotten plenty of word and plenty of revelation we need to stick to the plan it's time to run the plays stop coming out into the world and seeing the world change and then all of a sudden your game plan changes god's word is as powerful as it is now as it was back then it is inspired and breathed by him which means his eternal power is in it so greater is he that is in me than he who is in the world stands now it stands tomorrow it stands when the stock market goes up it stands when the stock market comes down it stands when there are enough electoral votes for a president to be president or not it stands whether governments come or governments go it stands whether nations are toppled or nations are risen that word stands run the play stop getting out in the world and getting nervous with what god has already given you to do run the play the beauty of it is because god gives us eternal word i said it was 10 or 15 plays it might be five there might be five verses of scripture you live your whole life by what happens is when you are consistent and steadfast in those verses in those instructions is the enemy reacts to it and now we see the enemy's strategy revealed i don't have to steal signs if i stick to the fundamentals and i am consistent i can wait for the enemy to react to my fundamentals and then i can start to get creative with strategy and innovate and have the victory that god planned for me no need to steal signs to win you just need to run the scripted plays that god scripted before he before before he put you in your mother's womb he knew you and or deigned you in being ordained there is instruction there is a plan all you have to do is stick to the plan don't get tossed to and fro by a very shaky world family let me tell you i'm not saying that the world is not in a shaky place i'm not even preaching that i would be lying to you it's shaky and shaky for all of us but when you meditate on him and you receive instruction from him you have to follow through with the play because what i loved about the football team that did that is sometimes they were down 16 nothing down 21-0 but what ultimately would happen was they would win these games 35 17. like wait a minute it looks like i'm losing i'm following god's instruction i'm following god's direction but it looks like i'm taking a nail i don't understand why it is that the enemy is advancing in the way that he's advancing it's because the advance of the enemy is giving away his position and giving away his strategy and giving you cues and clues that you wouldn't have if you didn't follow the play to begin with and now you counter attack that strategy that's how the kingdom of god works run stick to god's plans even when it looks like you are losing stick i'm trying to get off this stick to god's plan it doesn't look like it's working but the enemy is revealing his strategy i'm thinking about jesus in matthew 4. i always wondered why it was that when jesus after uh having after being baptized and then he fasted for 40 days after he fasted he was led into the wilderness i said why i don't understand why god why would you lead your son into the wilderness he's hungry you just said that you that you approved of him you just said that you loved him and then what do you do you make him hunger and starve and then you send him into the wilderness that does not look like love except what i love about that encounter is he goes into the wilderness and satan presents himself and satan reveals his whole strategy oh god don't miss this satan revealed his whole strategy not just for them but for all time this is satan's strategy it's all in matthew 4. read it on your own study it on your own time they're the three encounters satan asks jesus or tries to get jesus to do three things the first thing he says is if you are the son of god if god is who he is then you should be able to take this or take these stones turn them into bread in other words say what i tell you to say watch what you are speaking in this season this is part of my third point speak more kingdom don't just relay stolen signs in baseball when you steal a sign you take it you pass it to the next person and then you pass it to the next person and you pass it and you pass it you pass it we're taking signs from the world we're stealing signs from the world and then we don't even realize it in the conversations that we're having and we're just passing them on to the next person instead of speaking the kingdom and speaking the word of god and spreading the good news we're just regurgitating what we have studied and meditated on in the world when we're supposed to just be studying the world say what i love this the first thing he does is he tries to tempt jesus into turning stones in the bread in other words command these stones talk when i want you to talk watch out for people who you can tell have no god control over their mouths speaking with no revelation we're in that time period now there's a lot of talking but if you test it with the word of god it's missing revelation the first thing the enemy will try to do is to get you to say what he tells you to say the second thing he does is he tells jesus leap jump from these jump from this rock and let the angels come save you in other words first he says say what i tell you to say then he says do what i tell you to do out for instruction that does not lead you closer to god instruction that does not lead you closer to the virgin god created to you to be instruction that does not lead you into doing what god called you to do this is the strategy right here he says if you are the son of god god is who he is jump say what i tell you to say do what i tell you to do i love the third one he takes jesus up high shows him everything he says worship me and i'll give it to you worship me we get real spiritual about this and like oh the devil said worship me so as long as i don't worship the devil i'm good when satan revealed this part of his strategy it's to show us that everything we see we will be distracted by the vastness of what we see we can become so distracted by the expanse of what we see by the amount of signs that we are able to read and interpret according to our wisdom that we will worship anything that is not god and this was the strategy that was revealed because jesus stuck to the plan the whole plan was for him to go to the wilderness but it wasn't to to verify that jesus was lord we knew that we've known that since the very beginning the whole point of jesus going to the wilderness was for satan to unmask himself and come out in the wilderness and say this is my strategy this is how i'm going to try to mislead god's people now and for every time moving forward i'm laying it all out here but it doesn't happen if hungry jesus decides i don't want to follow the plan it doesn't happen if jesus decides i'm not going into the wilderness god says he said he approved of me and that does not look like approval if jesus followed the signs of what he saw he would not have gone into the wilderness but he stuck to the plan and because he stuck to the plan he ran the plays he followed the script the enemy revealed himself in full i'm i'm going to close i promise you i am the leader of this house said this was going to be a year of revealing and all of us if we're honest we're like ready to be revealed in terms of how amazing we were and how amazing god made us and how amazing the things we were going to do are so we wanted to step out and we wanted to be revealed so the world knew we were great great great great great great the part that we missed is the revealing of the evils and the enemy that are at work in the world in full i love this encounter with jesus in the wilderness because it prepared jesus so going back to the verse we read earlier when the pharisees and the sadducees approached and asked him for a sign he was ready for that because it was no different from what satan did in the wilderness when he was basically saying give me a sign if you are who you are do this if you are you are say this if your father really is who he is do this say this he had already seen it and that's why he went so hard on the pharisees and sadducees and calling them what he called them because he was recognizing the spirit of satan because he had already seen it and he already had strategy for how to deal with it which ultimately led to the victory that he secured not just for himself but the salvation for us all stick to the plan stick to the plan i'm moving on last one i alluded to this earlier and we're going to close speak more kingdom how much kingdom real talk have you spoken today how many principles of the kingdom of god have come out of your mouth today how much of the word of god the god-breathed and inspired principles of god have come out of your mouth i'm not talking about what you read i'm not talking about what you thought about i'm not talking about what was on your index card or what's on your fridge or what's on your mirror out of your own mouth the problem is we are speaking too much cnbc we are speaking too much abc we are speaking too much network television we're speaking too much facebook we're speaking too much instagram but we are not speaking enough king james we're not speaking enough new king james we're not speaking enough complete jewish bible we have more of the world coming out of our mouth than the word death and life is in the power of the tongue and he who uses it will eat the fruit of it so if you want to speak the world you can't be mad when the fruit of what you have is worldly i can't be mad if i can't sleep at night because i spent all day reading the news uh oh i just out ooh normally you know if i'm gonna get in your your your kitchen like that i'd like to give you a sign on my least comment i should have sent you an invitation we got a lot of sleepless people in the world it's because we're meditating on the world we have to speak more kingdom god called us to speak kingdom there are non-kingdom people people who don't even believe in god and they're looking for the people of god to see how they respond and if all you're speaking is what they're speaking we're not effective now i'm not saying you need to quote scripture every 30 seconds to people who have never read scripture jesus didn't do that they're called parables study them use them they're effective it worked for jesus it can work for us too but we have to stop inhaling and breathing everything that is available to us from the world people know the s p 500 better than they know matthew 6 this is not good because matthew 6 is infinitely more important than whatever stock market will come and go because it says in that word that you will be provided for it didn't matter what the economy looked like it didn't matter what was heading up or down it did not matter what the trend said it did not matter what the numbers said it said that if there were pigeons who were going to be fed that you would be taken care of too but we know our roth ira better than we know our word listen know your roth ira times is hard i get it you want to know those numbers but those numbers should not be known without revelation from numbers or leviticus or exodus or genesis or matthew or luke or john or revelation i'll close on this let the world let the word be clarified let the world be clarified by the word don't allow the world to confuse your word go ahead and put that in the comments the word brings clarity the word makes it clear that's better the word makes it clear the word makes it clear the word makes it clear the word makes it clear because if you study the world the if the word will become so confusing because you're taking something that was meant to be infinite and trying to explain it with something finite they don't match up it's not gonna work that's why people of god can read the word word and look in the world and you're wondering why it is they're so calm it's already been explained [Music] you see all of these uh news articles about countries fighting other countries nations rising up against nations races rising up against races ethnicities rising up against this is all in the word we're looking right now at a world that is being ravaged by a virus that we still haven't solved yet and yet there were plagues that rolled through the land in many parts of the bible plagues upon the land are not new viruses upon the land are not new those viruses happened for whatever reasons god had i'm not going to sit here and tell you there's some rosy ending for why covet 19 is here i'm not gonna lie to you i don't have time for that what i am saying is the world is not going to clarify the word for you but the word will make the world make a lot more sense knowing who god is it is in this season is going to make everything make a lot more sense and even when you have questions and this is important don't take your questions to your thumbs don't be jumping up on on msnbc on these forums somebody i have a question for a correspondent no no no no you're taking your questions to the wrong source at best you can get an observation and it's an observation that won't make sense in 10 years god can give you a word it'll save your generations i have great great great great grandparents who quoted the same word i quote now they weren't quoting the and i can't quote whatever economy they were a part of then because it's obsolete i don't want to utilize that which is fading and dying and obsolete and will be obsolete soon when i have access to the source of that which is infinite so family i'll leave with this first chronicles 16 and 11. it's a piece of a very long long long long long long verse it says seek the lord and his strength love this part seek his face ever more you don't have to steal signs when you are seeking his face [Music] you don't need to look in the opposing dugout when you're seeking his face you don't have to worry about what the opposition is doing when you're seeking his face because he has already ordered your steps and in the ordering of your steps is revelation in the ordering and the obedience to those steps is the revealing of the enemy and the enemy strategy in full and in the ordering of those steps is the revelation that comes from god to handle what has now been fully revealed and you don't have to do all the hard work trying to figure it out yourself i'll recap these last three for real for real i keep saying i'm landing the plane but the plane seems to be hovering on top of the runway i haven't let the landing gear down quite yet i promise i will so my first point meditate on god study the world do it in that order please my second point stick to his plan i don't care what the world is telling you i don't care what uh prognosticators are telling you i don't care what obser people who are on panels are telling you i don't care what crossfire is telling you stick to god's plan and this last thing speak more kingdom i'm actually going to leave you with a little bit of homework the verse i read first chronicles 16 and 11 that's part of psalm 105. this is the psalm that david created when he dis when he brought back the ark of god to god's people when the presence of god was restored to god's people he wrote this incredible narrative about how great god was and how faithful he was to his people so study psalm 105. i'll do you one better meditate on psalm 105. i challenge you for the next 30 days read psalm 105 before you read anything else don't open the news don't turn to your feed don't scroll up and down find psalm 105 whichever version of the bible you can get it in that is giving you revelation find psalm 105 read it aloud speak it aloud i timed myself reading it it takes about roughly three and a half to four minutes now if you happen to be one of these people who is in love with your own voice it might take you five or six but it should take you about four minutes read psalm 105 before you read anything else breathe in the presence and the power of his word before you start to scan the landscape the world because then you don't need to steal signs because you know the creator you don't need to try to predict because you know the author of all the events you don't need to try to write your own script because god has already penned the script he has already written the playbook you don't have to come up with your own plays you don't have to improvise just pay attention and meditate on him family this is a very toxic environment and my my heart is for god's people not to breathe in the toxic fumes because toxic fumes lead to toxic thoughts and toxic thoughts lead to toxic actions toxic actions lead to toxic consequences and we need to break the cycle of toxicity that is currently circulating through this world right now and it is up to the people of god who have the the access to the power and the salvation that is who he is to break that cycle you have your assignment psalm 105 family i love you so so much thank you for coming here and being activated with us i'm praying that what has been activated in you right now is an elevated and new perspective is it gonna be hard yep does the world look crazy sure does but the strategy of the enemy has been revealed and now is time for the people of god to get the counter strategy from him and respond in kind [Music] family i love you praying for you have an incredible week come back pastor terry has a whopper of a word coming this sunday be ready for peace and [Music] blessings you

Channel: ONE | A Potter's House Church

Views: 14,174

Rating: 4.8941798 out of 5

Keywords: LA Churches, TPH, The Potters House, TPH LA, The Potters House LA, One LA, Toure Roberts, Sarah Jakes Roberts, tphla

Id: 8o1OBcJkLHY

Length: 61min 50sec (3710 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 08 2020