Survival Was Never the Goal - Pastor Stephen Chandler

his message is called survival was never the goal that's the name that's the name of the message i want to preach a message called survival was never the goal aka drunken naked all right here we go genesis chapter 9 verse 18 baltimore you're ready says this now the sons of noah who went out of the ark were shem ham and japheth and ham was the father of canaan these three were the sons of noah and from these the whole earth was populated and noah began to be a farmer and he planted a vineyard noah said i'ma become napa valley i got this planted a vineyard then he drank the wine and was drunk there's you're drunk and he became uncovered in his tent there's your naked you see where i got the title from drunken naked and ham the father of canaan who was noah's son he walked in on his father and he saw the nakedness of his father and he told his two brothers outside so he walked in on his father just sloppy drunk and he began to humiliate him and take advantage of him and to make fun of him but shem and japheth they took a garment they laid it on both their shoulders and they went backwards and they covered the nakedness of their father their face were turned away and they did not see their father's nakedness let me pause there and preach a message that has nothing to do with today's message there's no such thing as perfect people and you are going to see that some of the greatest heroes in your life they're not perfect and what i've discovered is when i see someone's imperfections i have two choices i can either expose them or i can cover them covering is not condoning it's not saying oh it's okay oh it's no beginner but i can either make a fool of them or i can cover them so so no awoke from his wine and he and he knew what the younger son had done to him then he said cursed be canaan a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren and he should bless to be the lord the god of shem and may canaan be his servant and may god enlarge jephthah and may he dwell in the tents of shem and may canaan be his servant you may not know this but let me just help you out you want to thank god that you were born in the new testament and not the old testament in the new testament when you irritate your parents you just get the back of the hand he said what would you say in the old testament they don't slap you they curse you god lead would you slap me already no no they're like may your grandkids be cursing you your great can's gonna have six toes and i mean he's just cursing every generation of his son it'd be better if you just hit me i mean that's a lot better let's pray father god we're grateful we're thankful for this moment in your presence and it's a bold statement to say that you're here with all the wars and rumors of wars and floods and catastrophes but you're here because you said wherever two or three are gathered in your name there you will be also and by the fact that we know that you're here we know that healing is here and breakthrough is here and miracles are here because wherever you show up all that you are is available so god i pray that not one person would walk out of this room out of baltimore out of the online experience without an encounter with you and when you speak we will obey in the matchless name of jesus we pray somebody shout amen come on that was weak somebody shout amen we are in the final week we're concluding a sermon series that we started three weeks ago called shipwrecked on purpose shipwrecked on purpose and the whole mindset behind this series is that storms happen you are not making it through life without facing trials and hardship the bible says that it rains on the just and the unjust alike life just gets difficult sometimes one of the reasons why so many of us find ourselves angry at god is because our theology is jacked up we think that the second that we become christians or that it's god's job to make sure that we never experience pain or heartache or anything bad happens to us we have earth confused with heaven heaven is the place where there's no sickness and there's no pain and there is no heartache and there is no torment but this earth here this earth is broken and god says you're gonna face some storms you're gonna face some heartache you're gonna face some difficulty you will hit a storm the only question is when you hit that storm will that storm make you or will it break you you see when you go through a storm it has an ability to break you down and it caused you to become somebody that you never thought you would stoop to but in the inverse it also has the potential to make you and to bring out gifts and talents and abilities that you never thought a resilience that you didn't even know was in you the bible says all things work together for the good of those who are called by god and are walking according to his purpose you need to understand you may be going through a storm but god has a purpose on the other side of that storm he didn't cause the storm but he will use the storm for your good and for your glory he didn't cause that divorce but he's gonna use it to bring a confidence and an assurity and a faith in you that you would never have he didn't cause that cancer but he's gonna use it to bring a faith out of you that you know he is able to do above and beyond all that you could ever ask think or imagine well as we conclude this series i want to preach this message called survival was never the goal the goal was never just to get through the storm the goal was always to thrive on the other side of it i i've been blessed to not have been in a lot of car accidents in my life actually i think i've only been in one accident my brother says it's two but the bumper didn't fall off so you can't count that as an accident so as far as i'm concerned i've only been in one accident but it was a good one i was a senior in high school i was driving the green machine it's what i called my 1996 toyota camry it was army fatigue green and i say army fatigue because it was green and rust and between the green and the rust it looked like army fatigue it was i mean it was my baby and i remember my dad sat me down at 16 he said stephen i have money your mom has money but you have nothing so he said if you don't get a job and work you won't have a car so from 16 to 18 i worked every summer saved up bought my car and you couldn't tell me nothing i love that car with the love of christ i anointed it with a quart of oil every single day because it had a little leak that i couldn't afford to fix but that thing was my ticket to freedom and i'm telling you i did not use it all for good i use it to skip school and go to route 40 and get sorrento's cheesesteaks and i was living my life so one day i was skipping school and i was driving coming back and i had my french fries in my lap and i was anointing my fries with ketchup and just having the time of my life and the car in front of me they started to go you know people will go when you're like they're going so you go but you're not really paying attention and i'm looking at my fries next thing i know my car is in their backseat i don't know how i got that fast i don't know how i got there but i mean and it was a listen if you're gonna crash you might as well do it right and i did it right i mean airbags out of the driver's seat airbag burns all on my arm the engine was crumpled and all the guts of the car fell out i'm just sitting here wearing my car my dad showed up called the tow truck and they put it on the floor i feel like sometimes the tow truck does more damage to the car than the accident did in the first place i'm like be careful with that thing i look at my dad i said dad i guess i got to get a new car he said no no no you only get a new car if you had comprehensive insurance but you couldn't afford comprehensive insurance so you gonna fix that car so somehow they pieced it back together and three weeks later i was driving the same car so this time i was driving it different i didn't have my seat rocked back with one hand rocking to the black album like ah no no i was ten and two have my seat all the way scooted up i'm over the dashboard like i'm 98 years old turn that music off i'm concentrating every time a car would come into the lane next to me i'm creeping over on this side the truck would come and i mean i'm almost on the curb i'm trying to avoid the car so badly one time my dad was driving with me he said stephen you're so afraid of an accident you're getting ready to cause an accident here's what happened i gotten through the car accident but the car accident had gotten on me it had messed me up psychologically over the weeks after the accident where i was now looking for a wreck because i had been through a rack here's what i've discovered you can survive a storm and the storm could be 10 years ago but the storm could still be in you i've ran into people where the divorce was 20 years ago and the way they talk about it you would think it was last week the cancer diagnosis was 15 years ago but they talk about it with such a freshness with such a pain and agony as if it was three days ago i've discovered i can survive a storm but will i thrive on the other side of that storm this passion that we read noah had just gone off of the ark have you ever heard of noah no no we talk about adam and eve as if they were the mother and father of all of mankind actually they were but then it was noah because god wiped the earth of all humanity after adam and eve's sin just ran rampant man said we don't need god we can build a tower up to heaven and get to heaven without god and they turn on each other and there was such evilness god says no we gotta start over he said i'm gonna find one righteous family noah's family we're gonna put them in this ark we're gonna flood the earth and we are going to start over and in this passage noah had just stepped off of the boat the first thing noah could think of to do after he got off the boat was to get drunk now you got to understand this is how committed noah was to getting turned there was no liquor store for him to drive to there was no happy hour he had to plant grapes wait for them to grow harvest them smash them wait for them to firm it he was commit he waited about six months for this one party he said y'all just wait right there cause we're about to turn up we're gonna survive this flood ain't nobody gonna stop me and in his drunken state got in a fight with his family and ended up cursing his grandson which the curse landed we'll talk about how it plays on in scripture but here's my thought the only reason noah survived the flood was that his family could keep going and the same people he was living for he ended up cursing because the storm got in him even though he got through it i've discovered i can get through difficult seasons of my life but if i don't get those difficult seasons out of me i'll end up cursing my future when it's actually my future that i'm living for three quick thoughts through goodbye first of all i want you this is storms take a lot out of you it doesn't matter how strong you are how resilient you are how intelligent you are storms take a lot out of you in 2005 it was my freshman year in college at the best university on planet earth university of maryland college park fear the turtle somebody's like what's so great about maryland well it's better than howard i mean h you you watch it pasta all i know is maryland played howard last week and we won 64 to we're not a football school we're a marching band school okay whatever anyway freshman year 2005 was also the year that hurricane katrina hit hurricane hit in august 23rd of 2005 in our generation it was the greatest hurricane that we have ever seen they estimate over 1800 people passed away in that one storm over 125 billion dollars of damage it was my freshman year in college happened in august well march of that year seven months later me and a bunch of friends a part of the ministry group that we were in hundreds of universities around the country we said hey we're going to spend spring break in new orleans and help them muck out houses and help them recover y'all it was seven months after the storm we got down there we were staying at fema tents y'all it was like a missions trip we lived in a tent slept on a cot and ate mystery meat to this day i don't know what that meat was they just put so much gravy on it you couldn't tell i don't know it was chicken it was veal whatever they said listen it won't kill you and if it does you won't feel it and you won't even know it's no biggie but for two weeks during spring break we went from house to house to house and licked me every house we went to it looked like the storm had happened yesterday there were refrigerators that were not open for seven months that were still filled with water i know cause i was the dummy who opened one oh my gosh the smell we're pulling drywall out taking houses down to the studs putting people's stuff on the front lawn because they didn't have any family to come and help them with the storm had passed seven months ago and here's what kind of irritates me about america because the news is for profit as soon as a story is no longer salacious they move on to the next so the rest of the country has moved on but the people actually affected by the storm are still in the middle of it seven months later here's what i find sometimes the damage after the storm causes more problems than the actual storm itself and we think just because we made it through that storm oh i'm good now divorce papers are signed i'm good to go foreclosure is over bankruptcy is over i got my clean bill of health i'm gonna do i'm just going on to the next not realizing that storm may be over but the damage to your soul is still lingering one reason i got in trouble my thumb is because i said i'm just giving some time i actually didn't even go to the hospital when i slammed in the door i just forgot maybe i put some dirt on it i was literally at an event holding a coke can not drinking it like what are you doing this is my thumb i'll be all right like you need to get that checked out here's what i discovered that time doesn't heal anything time actually makes it worse you know we could read scripture and you can judge people in scripture because you're not in their seat by the way anybody grateful that your life is not in the bible all your sins and all your wretchedness is not recorded for the entire world to read for i'm grateful that you ain't gonna find stephen in there you look at noah and you say what kind of man are you you got your family through the worst storm ever and the only thing you could think of is to get drunk and you got naked what were you even doing we're not going to answer that but i bet if noah was here to defend himself he would say you have no idea what i've been through do you understand what it's like to take close to 100 years to build the first boat in history no what are you doing i'm building a boat what's that it's something that floats on top of water why would you need that well because it's going to rain what's that do you know it had never rained on the earth before the flood the bible says up to that moment all the plants are watered from water bubbling up from the dirt it's going to rain rain is when water falls from the sky this idiot you see this is what happens when you believe god you'll lose your ever-loving mind okay what's going to fall from this guy next money well actually close to 100 years he was humiliated for building something that people had never seen before then after it finally finished god says okay get on the boat i'm going to take wild animals from everywhere and there's going to be two of every kind and we're going to put them on the boat can you imagine how stressed noah was when the lion got on right after the lamb he said this is not going to go well some of y'all freak out a little bumblebee or a little cicada y'all there was cicadas on the boat there were mosquitoes on the boat there were mice on the boat i feel like no like i'm upstairs i ain't coming down until it's over but then the door closes one day goes by two days i know it's like i feel like a complete idiot they're laughing outside they're partying next thing you know that one drop then a second drop then the third drop and then the sky cracks open and rains come crashing down now i'm telling you when the rain started i promise you noah was excited like he felt vindicated you you're in a position where where god finally proved that he was right and and everybody else is wrong you've been tithing your whole life and you finally get blessed you're like yo i told you god is for me he's looking at me i told y'all next thing you know the water doesn't stop water starts rising and what used to be laughter now turns to screams what choose to be fingers pointed are now hands scratching at the hole of the boat and here it is the people that that were on noah's softball team and the people that were at his crossfit box and all this are screaming noah let us in don't leave us out here no one said i can't open the door because i didn't close it if noah was here he would say do you know what it's like to go to sleep every night to the screams of humanity saying no can you save me and no one would say the worst part wasn't the screams the worst part was the silence the worst part was when they weren't screaming anymore so yeah i got drunk yeah i was naked i don't know how it happened you've probably done the same thing if you had been through what i had been through but here's what happened to noah he didn't realize that even though he survived the storm like there was psychological damage that took place in that storm we probably would have called it ptsd if it was 2021 and noah got out of that boat but he was not okay and he survived something that ended up getting inside of him that caused him to curse his future when that is the exact reason why he was holding on here is my question how has your storms gotten in you yeah yeah the divorce is over but have you gotten over it yeah yeah you made it through that sickness but but but have you gotten over it and here's what happens without even realizing it we end up cursing our grandchildren and cursing our future because of what we've been through and we don't mean it we won't say cursed be your future we'll say things like blood is thicker than water i know you're getting married but you can never trust anything more than family and we are your family come on now we'll say thing like education is the entire thing that matters in life make yourself of your make something of yourself because you can never trust anybody else and without even realizing it some of us are walking with mindsets from storms that our grandparents went through and have passed unto us now you guys know how i preach if you've been here and if you don't let me help you out it gets better at the end don't worry we're gonna smile we're gonna laugh we're gonna shout amen at the end but in the beginning i gotta give you some truth it gets worse before it gets better are y'all ready what gets worse is the enemy attacks you the most at the end of your storm not at the beginning you remember last week we were talking about paul in acts chapter 27 when he made it through the storm god sent an angel said you're going to be able to get through this storm because you have purpose on the other side he floats to the site of malta gets to the coast he gets on dry ground and the bible says they survived the storm and the next thing you know they're making a fire to dry off from the water from the storm they had just made it through and the bible says there was a poisonous snake in the fire and the snake jumps out and bites paul can you imagine you just make it through a storm and now you get bitten by a poison and say listen if i'm watching you i'm saying you're not tithing there is something that you are doing that has ticked off god and he is not letting you out but here's what that's a picture of the enemy won't attack you when you're at your strongest the only enemy won't attack you when you're on top of the world and you're ready he will wait to the weakest moment of your life and that's when he will attack second samuel chapter 17 verse 1 it says this when they were looking to attack david who the scripture says was the greatest warrior recorded in scripture it says this now let me choose 12 000 men they said here's how we're going to take david out we're going to overwhelm him and he said and i will arise and i will pursue david when he said they're going to go after in baltimore said tonight pause leave the verse up can i just help you out some of the dumbest decisions you've ever made in your life you made them at come on now you must have my sermon knows come on just think back think back through those i should have never done when did it happen after 11 o'clock at you should have just gone to bed come on marry folks some of the worst arguments you've ever had have happened at you wake up in the morning mad what were we fighting about i can't remember can i help you out you're not evil you're just tired and when you're tired you make poor decisions the enemy said no no let's wait till david is tired let's go at night he says we will come upon him while he is weary and weak and we will make him afraid when he is tired we're going to overwhelm him with fear and all the people who are with him will flee and will strike only the king here is the enemy strategy he said i'm going to overwhelm you but i'ma wait until you're tired and when you're tired i'm going to bring fear it's amazing when you're tired how paranoia is just an inch away you ever been exhausted you got a text message from your boss hey we need to talk tomorrow why do people send those dumb emails hey i need to talk to you if you're not talking to me right now don't send the email because when i see the text message we need to talk or i need to talk my imagination is on fire it's done it's done by this time tomorrow i'm going to be unemployed homeless living under a bridge eating peanut butter with a baboon named richard this is bad your imagination is maybe that's just me but your exhaustion takes you to a place of paranoia he said i'm gonna come when he's weary and then here's what he said he said because of that fear i'm gonna isolate him i'ma drive everybody away so he is by himself and that's when i'm gonna attack hear me there is nothing like a storm that will tempt you to isolate yourself can i be too honest for preaching i am tired of people asking me about my thumb oh man i mean you're them i'm wearing anything happened to myself it's broke anybody tired of explaining your storms people just asking hey what happened to so-and-so they left duh you see them just asking dumb questions i haven't seen you at work lately do you work there anymore have you seen me then what do you think if you saw me i was and what happens is because we get tired of explaining our storms we isolate ourselves which is exactly what the enemy wants now i'm alone and i'm tired and i'm susceptible to sin not because i'm evil but because i'm exhausted some of our worst decisions are not based on being evil it's based on being tired second thing is this write this down write this down without rest the storm is a life sentence without rest without a proper season of recovery a temporary battle will become a lifetime sentence i'm getting real teaching if that's okay baltimore county we're going to preach and shout in a second but can i just help you out practically just for a moment which means i have to strategically plan seasons of rest on the other signs of seasons of battles and storms whenever i go through a great victory here's what we don't understand a great victory indicates a great battle just because you won doesn't mean you didn't fight and the harder the battle is the more exhausted you are on the other side and it requires a season to replenish your energy to rest towards you ever been to a college graduation and depending on what degree people get is depending on how they walk across the stage somebody gets their undergrad and they're just like i'm the hated that person that's getting their masters they're like ah i made it but let those phds walk by and they just like i think i made it did i make it the longer the battle the more it takes out of you and watch this it could be the greatest victory you ever notice how sometimes you feel the most discouraged after the biggest promotion and you're like i should be celebrating right now i'm gonna get in trouble but all i feel like doing is drinking because the fight took something out of you and if you don't take the time to replenish yourself that storm is going to follow you for the rest of your life let me give you something practical every day there's a storm every day there's a storm every day you're going to face an argument you're gonna run into traffic on 295 and you're gonna lose every little bit of jesus you have what genius decided to put two lanes between two of the biggest cities on the east coast golly with potholes everywhere every day there's going to be a setback somewhere john maxwell said any leader knows that you never have two good days in a row so god bless you john maxwell you have a storm every single day you have a storm every single week you run into storms every year but i'm in trouble but that's okay but here's what we've done we've taken american culture and we've tried to make it biblical so because we live in the land of opportunity and ambition and pull myself up by my bootstraps and all these opportunities we have glorified the grind where people actually brag about how hard they work man i'm on my grind i'm building my thing man i only sleep three hours a night oh i'm sorry you must not have the favor of god on your life because the bible says that god blesses his children with rest the bible says unless the lord builds it they that build it in vain hear me rest is not laziness rest is strategy [Applause] i need to rest daily i need to rest weekly i need to have strategic seasons of rest in my life now we're going to take a test i need you to answer by a show of hands and i just want to help you out here it's not trick questions and every other service before you has failed the test so hopefully this is the intelligence service and you guys are going to get it you're ready please don't embarrass your pastor all right buy a show of hands how many people baltimore bwi those watching online how many people you believe that murder is a sin murder is a sin oh my gosh why are your hands not up every yo who am i preaching to every service has been the same it's like i mean if you get caught i guess it is but it depends on what they did to you y'all it's wrong okay it's wrong why am i why do i have to preach this let's try this again murder is it a sin okay thank you god lee it's like crazy people all right how about stealing how about stealing okay lion lion lion white lies white lies white lies black lives gray lies purple eyes there's no color to lie a lie is a lie by the way the bible says you can lie by not telling the whole story too how about adultery adultery is that is that yup yup yup don't do it don't do it don't do it all right got it cool olson how about working seven days in a row can i help you out because they're all on the same list there's not four sins on that list there's ten and we all know at least i thought we know don't kill each other that'll be next week's message hey don't kill anybody end the message things you don't think you have to preach we all know stealing just sin we all know you shouldn't lie we teach our kids that adultery that's a no-no but for some reason it never crosses our mind that we're sinning watch this not against god but he has our own bodies i just i gotta go i gotta go i gotta go i gotta go and here's what we don't realize by not stopping to sabbath to rest and hear me come to church worship god have a time in his presence that's part of the sabbath but the sabbath is not just going to church the sabbath is also taking a step back from the grind and saying god i trust you above my ability and when you don't do that [Music] [Applause] you bring yesterday's storms into today's promises mark chapter 8 verse 36 says this for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul yeah you've built a million-dollar company but you're a miserable person to be around yeah you got your phd but in the process you lost your joy yeah you got a bunch of friends around you but in the process you lost yourself you know what rest us rest gives you time to ask the question who am i who have i become and do i even like me the bible says in isaiah chapter 40 verse 29 he gives power to the weak and those who have no might he increases strength even the youth shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall but those who wait on the lord shall renew their strength i don't care what math says i ain't saying they don't win oh no lord shall renew this they shall mount up with wings like eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint here's what god said he said you'll make it further by resting david come come come here you know the quick analogy we're gonna land this way all right here's one of the reasons why we don't like to wrestle because we don't trust god and we feel like if we rest we're gonna fall behind you ready here we go so here's what he's the world by the way in every analogy they're ratchet i'm a child of god all right here we go but wait for me all right here we go so monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday sunday go ahead monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday sunday and here's our fear if i rest i will fall behind i some of y'all like you don't understand i got a newborn i can't rest i i got a new business i got this i got that i'm taking care of my parents here's what i've discovered life will never allow you to do anything but life was never your master you are the controller of your life and you have to make a decision of how you're going to lead your life here's what we miss the bible doesn't say they that wait on the lord will eventually catch up they said they that wait on the lord will mount up on wings like eagles here's what it really looks like go ahead it's monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday and when i'm resting the world is just catching up because god has accelerated me supernaturally [Applause] you don't fall behind when you rest you leave room for the supernatural when you rest can i insult you and then i'll encourage you at the end if everything you have in your life you worked for you did it without the favor of god and you're walking in less than he had for you because there's certain things that only he can do that he wants to do somebody say amen because of the second time i'm just going to give it to you and not preach to you hear me you're made up of three parts you have your physical body you have your spirit and you have your soul your soul is your mind your will and your emotions the type of rest that we need is three parts it's not just a nap some of us need counseling because the storm that we went through messed up my mind you don't know what it's like to watch your father beat your mother for 12 years of your life and that's not my story but hear me i cover my dad that ain't my story but pastor ron no just an analogy calm down church people but you don't just make it through a storm like that and bounce back with a three-day vacation there's also a recovery of replenishing that a counselor can never do because it's not my mind it's my spirit and it's only the presence of god that can rebuild parts of me that were broken that's why you can come to church exhausted not sleep through the message because it's the most entertaining message you ever heard in your life but you walk out with no sleep but you're more revived and more joy-filled and more energetic why because the presence of god rebuilt and renewed something inside of you that no rest that no sleep that no time can do here's one of my my big concerns and i'm going to get out of the teacher we're going to preach i'm going to land this plane if i could just just show you my heart for a sec i'm really concerned about this world our country but more importantly this church because we all went through this storm of a pandemic and i don't think we know how it's affected us and just like i got in a car paranoid of getting in another accident i think we're going to come out of this storm with fear and paranoias that god never called us to walk in and even though we've survived this storm we're going to end up cursing our future because we haven't stepped back and said i need a minute i'm not okay can i get scientific just for one second let me throw out some big words uh dopamine oxytocin serotonin endorphins these are all chemicals that your body produces but watch this the activities that produce those chemicals were stolen from us over the last 18 months dopamine is produced through vacations pleasure and activities i don't know about you the best vacation we had in the last 18 weeks is we went down to lake elkhorn in howard county it's been a couple days by the lake oxytocin is produced through physical touch hugging and things that married folks do angle talk about that though is a different story serotonin is produced through exercise endorphins are produced one way they're produced watches is through serving other people so endorphins is what fights off depression and anxiety so we've been disconnected for 18 months and we've had over a million suicides coincidence no we haven't been able to go to our gyms and exercise where serotonin is produced that creates memory loss a lack of learning and a stealing of our happiness physical touch is what gives us empathy for other people and trust and dopamine is what gives us literally our our nerve messages listen god created your body to recreate energy but fear and isolation literally steals all that god's given us and if we don't sit back and say hey i've been through a storm but i got to make sure that that storm is not in me write this down we're going to land this plane surviving this storm was never the goal the goal wasn't get to to get through the storm the goal was that your family could survive on the other side so noah spends over a hundred years building this boat to save his family he gets his family through the storm and as soon as he gets to the storm he curses his family somebody said kanan kanan was noah's grandson and he said ham because you've humiliated me your children will be cursed well guess what that curse landed you ever heard the word canaan before canaan became a great nation and multiple people and canaan was the land that god destroyed and gave to the children of israel you know why god destroyed that land because canaan became some of the most wicked and evil people on the planet they became cannibals and began to sacrifice their children that's where goliath came from and god said they became such an abomination that i cannot allow them to stay on the face of the planet all because noah wouldn't take a nap i know i'm making it a little bit more elementary than it actually is but hear me one bad day from noah affected thousands of years yeah god got you through that storm but are you gonna allow the bitterness that you picked up in that storm to be passed to your children's children's children so two quick questions here's the first one what lies from the enemy did you pick up in those storms that you don't want to take into your future what habits of mistrust what personalities of bitterness you ever heard the term resting face you ever seen some people's resting face and it looks like they're resting in a morgue you know you just sing this song at church i got the joy joy joy joy it's down in your heart all right because it's definitely not up on your face you look at some people's face and you literally say what have you been through because you're wearing it on your face and it becomes a personality how about it stops here second corinthians chapter 10 verse 4 says this for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but their mighty and god for the pulling down on strongholds casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of christ i know that's what you've been through but is that god's best for you and if it's not god's best for you you need to reject it i reject fear i know sickness came to my family and i know that i went through that car accident but fear will not be my portion and i will not curse my future with fear he said that he commands his angels to encamp around me that he is my refuge my strong tower my protector he has not given me a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind here's my second question what truths in the storm did you discover that you need to make sure that you speak over your future and never let drop deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 9 it says this only take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself watch this lest you forget the things your eyes have seen unless you depart from your heart in all the days of your life and watch this he said teach them to your children and your grandchildren in other words don't curse your future bless it all the storm wasn't bad you see it's in the storm that i discovered he's a healer it's in the storm that i discovered that he's a provider it's in the storm that i discovered that he is closer than any friend could ever be it is in the storm that i discovered he's my refuge he's my strong tower he will raise up a standard against the enemy but the further away you get from your storms the more amnesia you have and god said don't you dare forget what i've done for you and matter of fact you make sure you tell your children don't you dare walk into your house and tell your kids hard work bought this this didn't come from hard work this came from the grace and the favor of god who enables us to build wealth [Music] how did you beat that cancer don't you dare say a doctor or a surgery or some health routine it was jehovah rapha my healer the one who touched me and guided that scalpel and made sure that i found everything that i need i've discovered my future will be whatever i tell it it is so if i tell my future you can't trust people my future will be full of broken relationships but if i tell my future no good thing will he withhold from one of those who walk uprightly every good and perfect gift comes from the father above he has a plan to prosper me and not to harm me to give me hope and a future that my gifts are gonna open doors for me and bring me before great men that i have never been forsaken nor begging for bread that i will have more than enough so that i can be generous on every single occasion that healing is the children's bread and that he has given me all things because i am a joint heir with christ whatever i declare is what it's going to be i can't say it anymore plain don't let the bitterness of the storm you came from cause your tongue to curse your future rest long enough to deal with the bitterness so life comes out and not death are you blessed is god good come on let's prank father god we are grateful and we're thankful that god you didn't just take us through a storm to survive but to thrive our best days are ahead of us somebody needs to hear this i don't care how old you are your best days aren't in your past they're in your future there's so much more that god has for you and you are not a survivor you're an overcomer father god i pray even now that you'd break off every lie from the storms that we've been through that fear and rejection and mistrust and perfectionism and self-sufficiency that it would bow to the name of jesus the joy that hope the purpose that wisdom that skill that abundance would follow us all the days of our lives right where you're sitting with your eyes closed your head about if you could pray this prayer with me say holy spirit what are you saying to me and just give god a moment to make this time to make this message personal to you what are some things that you've picked up in past storms that you need to leave in this room and not carry another day of your life there's some of you under the sun in my voice that you made it through your storm but you didn't make it through because of god you made it through because of grit you muscled your way through that storm and hear me whenever you make it through because of grit it takes more from you than life can ever give to you god says i don't want to see you go through one more battle without me will you allow me to be a part of your life if you're in here and you say pastor i've been gritting it out and i'm tired i i need not church not religion i need god with me if that's you you can make the decision right now we're getting ready to pray a prayer and there's nothing special to this prayer outside of it's the cry of your heart to god as you repeat after me i'm asking that you were directed toward god and he will step into your life in this moment pray this with me and say father god come on pray with faith say father god thank you for not forgetting about me for not abandoning me for not exposing me but covering me thank you for sending jesus to die on the cross so that all my sin all my mistakes can be erased be my lord be my savior today i give you all of me and use me for your glory in jesus name amen and amen and amen come on can you celebrate

Channel: Union Church

Views: 4,952

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Id: JGCozY_0HO4

Length: 49min 21sec (2961 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021