THIS MEANS WAR | VICTORY CONFERENCE 2020 | DR. DHARIUS DANIELS

[Music] come on victory let me hear the sound of victory in 2020 victory has a sound let heaven hear it and put hell on notice we are victorious [Music] so father we love you tonight and thank you for the confidence that we can have that you are faithful to your word you watch over it to perform it you are not a man you will not lie you're not the son of man you will not change your mind it is that with that confidence that we pull our chair up to your table ready to receive from you today knowing that your word is truth and truth will set us free i pray now for the anointing of the holy spirit your empowering presence not only to prepare and equip me for this assignment i pray for not just the anointing to teach i pray for the anointing to receive an open heart you are the only one that can speak to all of us and say something different to each of us at the same time speak through your word let us know we are seen known loved and cared for and i thank you as a result of our time together tonight lives will be shifted hearts will be mended callings will be accepted destiny will be realized we ask this in the name of the one who saved our life that name is jesus it's in his name that we pray amen now let me hear praise of expectation like he's going to speak [Applause] tonight yes you can be seated so good to see you tonight and so good to be back in the house this place of faith this spiritual family and i want to as always just show some major love and appreciation to the incredible legacy of leadership that god has gifted to this house generational leadership and of course to the one and only this brother singing and everything i'm like i didn't know you could sing bro you lead you preach you sing you got the most creative ideas i've ever seen i want to steal it but everybody would know i stole it from you so can you make some noise this is a dynamic duo let's celebrate paul s we love you both um we honor you what what what a great what a great gift and um every time mama walk in the house i just want her to pray for me sometimes nothing even wrong just pray for me anyway right man thank god for such people of faith and legacy of prayer well um something on my heart i want to share with you this time last year i am young my wife and i got married like 20 i met i was 19 we got married 21 something like that and we got started on everything early so um this time last year i think i was here and i had both my kids in the house i got two boys and um now i've only got one boy in the house my oldest right now as we speak i'm so proud so i'm bragging i don't know if there's pride but i'm bragging so my oldest right now is um he's in new york he is a first year he's what they call a plebe he's a first year cadet at west point military academy yep and so he's we're excited for him he's on the football team there gaining weight already and um we're really excited i'm proud it has nothing to do with my sermon i'm just proud of him i just wanted to share that that's it so we uh we dropped them off that was the weirdest drop off the covid drop off because we couldn't do the ceremony and anything like that and so you know i'm had to be strong for mama like turning by you're like wait we just literally we pulled up opened up opened up the car he had to get out and that was it and uh but he made it through we're proud of him and we're just speaking great things over his life my youngest son's life and um really excited all right so uh i want to share something from you i want us to look at the book of judges chapter number six verse judges 6 verse 12. i want to read a few verses here this is a brief part of a narrative regarding a gentleman named gideon here and i'm reading from the new international version of the scriptures judges chapter 6 verse number 12. it says this it says when the angel of the lord appeared to gideon he said the lord is with you mighty warrior pardon me my lord gideon replied but if the lord is with us why has all this happened to us where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said did not the lord bring us up out of egypt but now the lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of midian the lord turned to him and said go in the strength you have and save israel out of midian's hands am i not sending you pardon me my lord gideon replied but how can i save israel my clan is the weakest in manasseh and i'm the least in my family and the lord answered i will be with you and you will strike down all the midianites i want to stop right there and i want us to think around this thought in our time together tonight it's a declaration a declaration referring to something internal not external the declaration is simple this means war family it can be said and suggested that the church is the educational arm of the kingdom of god that is not to say that the church is a school it isn't the churches of family however this family has educational responsibility matthew 28 records what some biblical historians call the great commission some of jesus's final words to his first to his up to the apostles his followers prior to his ascension and he says that you are to go and make disciples of all nations that word nations means is ethnos it means all types of people baptizing them in the name of the father son and the holy spirit and that's not it and teaching them is that what it says to observe all things that i've commanded you and when you do this i'm with you always even until the end of the age i will empower you when you are accomplishing my agenda not yours power is present for my purpose is not your own i anoint you for what i pick for you not what you pick for yourself there is a teaching responsibility and and the teaching is not just for the purpose of education paul told the believers that correct knowledge puffs up but this teaching is for the purpose of transformation this the result of this teaching is not simply watch this to produce people who like christ but the result of this teaching is intended to produce people who are christ-like and liking christ and being christ-like are not the same thing pastor darius why is this important because victory which is the life our faith produces right victory family is not just accomplished by liking christ we don't experience victory simply by liking christ we can only experience victory by being christ like and this means doing more than learning from his teaching this means also adopting his traits and there are two dominant metaphors that the bible uses to describe the trait and the character of jesus the first of which many of us is familiar with is the animal metaphor of the lamb the lamb of god slain before the foundation of the world which speaks to jesus's humility his meekness his docileness his ability to be diplomatic his willingness to lower himself and to make himself of no reputation his commitment to live a self-less life a sacrificial life this is important it is essential if we're going to live in victory we must be lamb-like but whenever there is imbalance with any scripture it increases the likelihood that you will slide into error jesus was a lamb but that's not all the scriptures say about jesus there's another animal metaphor that the scriptures use that that is equally important but often overlooked and underemphasized jesus is not just referred to as a lamb jesus is also described as a lion the lion revelation says from the tribe of judah the root of jesse has prevailed which speaks to his assertiveness his resoluteness his resilientness his spiritual stubbornness his ability to take a licking and to keep on ticking and i want to tell you the lamb went to the cross but the lion went in the temple and turned over tables the lamb went in the grave but the lion rose on sunday morning with all power in his hands and i want to tell you that if we are going to live in victory which is the result of our faith it is incredibly important that we hold intention these two traits and we know when to be lamb and we know when to be lying i came to victory tonight to declare to someone with i believe a prophetic sense of urgency is lion season when you're in the middle of a battle you got to wake up the lion when your back is up against the wall you got to wake up the lion when you feel like you've taken three steps forward and three steps backwards instead of three steps forward it's time for you to wake up the lion and sometimes you don't know the lion is in you i'm preaching the text already until you find yourself in a situation where you're facing the media nights and the lion has to show up or either you are going to go down that line is in you and maybe god is using this season to wake it up and i'm coming to get you tonight come out of there a stronger you is in there come out of there a wise of you is in there come out of there a buoyant you is in you come out of there let me hear some lions make some noise tonight it is an attitude that must be adopted it is not always organic it's a choice we make to be resilient when we don't feel it even as joshua is succeeding moses god gives joshua instruction he says be strong and be courageous he didn't say feel strong and feel courageous he's saying joshua i have just placed you in a season and given you responsibility to steward that cannot be stewarded by your emotions you got to be it even when you don't feel it there are too many people depending on you for you to depend on your feelings there's too much riding on this for you to let your emotions drive the car it's time to wake up the lion and tell the devil that my god promises me i am not just a conqueror i'm more than a conqueror and if you bite me devil i'm biting back because you're a toothless lion all you got is a roar but i got power [Applause] this is essential i'm learning this this is essential it's essential because of this principle family here it is victory's promise right i mean a scripture right a victorious life right not not a life that is absent of trials like so i talked about this last year the christian life isn't always about exemption i don't know you can't come to that conclusion reading the bible holistically and objectively it is about overcoming there are sometimes we have passover experiences where we avoid and then there are times where we have experiences when we go into fiery furnace but we come out and not and we don't even smell like smoke you follow me so here's the point that i'm making victory is promised then but just because something is promised in scripture doesn't mean it's always the experience of the believer i'm not telling you anything you haven't been taught you don't know right the bridge that connects your experiences to god's promises is a bridge called faith did you hear what i just said the bridge that connects my actual experience and god's promises is a bridge called faith you cannot read especially in the new testament objectively and not come to that conclusion you cannot most of the miracles of jesus are attributed to what faith and even when you get into the epistles which are written primarily to believers you hear the right of hebrews whoever that was you hear them saying things like um um we follow after those who through faith and patience inherited the promises why's faith you see are y'all following me so far so watch this thing so whatever is promised must be possessed god promises it we must don't you mess with me preacher god promises it we must possess it this is the text the this is the bible right the book of judges is a powerful picture of this truth isn't it the book of judges i love it it is the old testament equivalent to the new testament book of ephesians it's about possession and experience israel through joshua's leadership has now entered into some of the first cities of the promised land they've conquered jericho they've conquered ai but they were promised that the land in the promised land listen to me would be distributed among 11 out of the 12 tribes every tribe except for the levite tribe for the scripture says the lord will be their portion this is what's interesting now god promised it right it's called the promised land right it's the old testament antitype of what of of what life is like in christ canaan land the promised land in the old testament is a metaphor for a foreshadowing of what life is like in the new testament for those of us who are in jesus okay so god promised it it's the promised land but judges is filled with battles to possess don't y'all mess with me tonight to possess what has been promised it's called canaan land because it was occupied by canaanites because all the promises of god are occupied with opposition and your willingness to overthrow the opposition determines whether or not you possess the promise your faith has to fight did you hear what i just said yes god promises joy that's in the new testament promised land right but you don't get joy without a fight you gotta fight for joy and then once you possess it you gotta protect it you gotta fight to get it and then you gotta fight to keep it now i grew up in mississippi and i grew up in the old church so i value my church is generationally diverse my life is generationally diverse i believe there's richness in generational diversity that's why i love churches like this because it's generationally diverse they live through stuff they laugh at some of the stuff i complain about when they talk about what they lived through and they would say things in the midst of suffering that were statements that sound like religious rhetoric until i got older and went through some stuff myself i used to judge and say why they always say that until i lived a little bit and then i began to understand what the mothers of the church used to mean when they said this joy that i have the world didn't give it to me and the world can't take it away you don't get joy without a fight you don't get peace without a fight all the promises of god are occupied with opposition but it doesn't mean it's not yours yeah your willingness to fight with your faith is not an indication of unbelief it's an indication of your belief because you don't fight for what you don't believe is yours am i making sense family i said am i making sense here yeah so so whatever's promise has to be possessed because all the promises of god are occupied with opposition and our willingness to overthrow the opposition determines whether or not we possess the promise i sense this this just came in my heart and i don't believe this is random of the holy spirit drops thoughts in our heart and in our mind i'm telling somebody that's watching or in this room is still yours see somebody see see faith makes general declarations personal i'm gonna say that one more time what do i mean by that you remember mark five when the the woman had the woman uh there's a woman with an issue of blood jesus is walking by and there's crowds and there are tons of people touching him and then he stops and say who touched me the disciples say what do you mean who touched me all these people are touching you he said no i felt virtue go out of me y'all missed it in other words he's saying no a lot of people are touching me but when faith touched me it feel different faith will pull something from me did you hear what i just said that everybody can be in the same room but if i got faith faith will pull something from him i don't know who i'm speaking to and i don't know about everybody on your road but i want to know do i have two or three people in every section that'll reach up and grab it and say it's still mine i had some setbacks but it's still mine i had some heartaches but it's still mine i made some mistakes but it's still mine let me hear the lions roar one more time faith takes personal possession of god's promises it makes the general personal that's what people mean when they say i receive that this is important because if we want to learn how to possess we need more than i want you to catch this we need more than power we need principles and this is why judges are so important judges i love it is it is a blueprint on possession i mean from chapter one all the way to the end of the chapter i love it we see it we see in the beginning of chapter one something so interesting to me is is in the very first verse in the very first chapter of judges one it says after the death of joshua the israelites asked the lord who of us is to go up first to fight against the canaanites and the lord answered judah shall go up see that's a principle for possession right there notice the order they say who will go up first and the lord said judah who's first don't you mess with me who will go first judah lying from the tribe of judah [Music] who's going to go first judah i'm going to show you something now we know judah's name means praise right it is when his mother gives birth to him his mother suffered with people-pleasing tendencies we know that right and so she keeps giving birth to things so she keeps trying to use productivity to get acceptance did you hear what i just said so she keeps having these babies hoping it's gonna make her husband like her right so it's a metaphor for for people who try to use productivity to get acceptance let me just keep birthing stuff let me keep producing stuff let me keep building stuff and starting stuff so people would like me and this is what happened then she recognizes that i can never do enough for him so when she gives birth to judah she says i'm shifting my focus from him to him i'm just going to praise god i don't care if he ever wink at me i'm just going to praise god i don't care if another door ever opens for me i'm just going to praise god because no matter what it is it doesn't change who he is and as long as he is who he is i'm gonna give him praise as long as i got breath i'ma give let everything that has breath praise the lord but i want to show you something it says send you the first now i'm a bit i think i told you this before i'm just wired this way i'm gonna be analytical my father's a pastor my grandfather was a deacon my great-grandfather was a pastor uncle's pastor so i come from a lineage of christians but the way i'm wired if you know me you know that is not why i'm a christian i have my own mind i'm a christian because it is it is it is a to me a superior worldview it is the only reasonable way for me to live life for me christianity is the is the is the only religion for me simply because i need more than a prophet i'm broken unbattered i'm bruised i need a savior i need more than principles i need power i need the holy spirit to empower me and to equip me i want you to catch this now so so when it came to all kinds of church stuff when i was growing up when i saw it i i i not that there's always a reason for things but because i was inquisitive i wanted to know because god is not just righteous god is wise the epitome of all intellect my ways are not your ways my thoughts are not your thoughts as high as the heavens are above the earth of my ways from your ways and my thoughts from your thoughts god says my ways don't contradict reason they transcend reason i operate at a level of reasoning that's higher than you think i see things you don't see you see to the corner i see around the corner you see to the hill i see over the hill you see today i see tomorrow and sometimes you don't understand what i'm doing today because you don't see what i'm seeing for you tomorrow but when you get to tomorrow what i did yesterday is gonna make sense for you and the thing you were crying about yesterday you'll be praising me for tomorrow i'm like okay judah means praise what does this have to do with battles with possession then i saw in the scriptures you've established for me praised as a stronghold against my enemies i say oh if i'm gonna possess so praise has neurological benefits that when god's telling me to praise he's not telling me to praise because he needs to hear it he knows who he is whether i tell him or not when he's telling me to praise him he's not telling me to praise him because he needs to be reminded of who he is y'all better come get me i've been cooped up and quarantined i feel like preaching i'm preaching to real people i don't know what to do with myself he said no you don't praise god we don't praise god because god needs to be reminded of who he is we praise god because we need to be reminded of who he is and he says when you start praising me it starts establishing a stronghold in your mind it starts putting gates and walls around your mind and when worry and anxiety and stress try to get through praise has put a hedge of protection is there anybody here that that has learned how to fight with your praise because when you fight with your praise you're fighting for your mind [Applause] and people who don't understand this will look at us and say that's rambunctious that's unnecessary that's ostentatious what are you doing and you're like no i'm not praising uh because i'm crazy i'm praising to keep myself from going crazy lions raw [Music] lions roar lions roar jesus came from a roaring tribe because the lions roar cause the first place i gotta fight is here no matter how big the mattress is the quality of it doesn't matter what thread the sheets are if i'm not winning here i can't sleep doesn't matter how much square footage is in the home if i'm not winning here i always feel closed then and in prison he says send judah first so judah says okay so judah partners with the perizzites and partners with simeon excuse me to fight the parasites and the canaanites and when judah and simeon defeated the canaanites and parasites they captured adonai bezek and they do something really interesting they take out an albezek and they cut off his thumb and then they cut off the big toe now here is my hypothesis as to why they did that when you cut off the thumb adonai bezzad could no longer now grip his sword when they cut off his big toe he could no longer grip the ground so so when when it was impossible for him to hold the weapon uh it made him made it impossible uh for him to attack them but when they cut off the big toe he couldn't hold this ground so he couldn't stop them when they were attacking him this teaches us that it's another principle for victory that if we're going to possess promises we got to know what to cut off did you hear what i said there are some things you got to cut off in the present so it won't be able to get a grip on you in the future i can tell if you really believe god's taking you somewhere tomorrow by what you're willing to cut off today [Applause] [Music] yeah in this season that there's that that sometimes and i'm i'm not talking about i'm talking about biblical principle not just positive psychology there's some negativity you got to cut off like i can show you in scripture that where in numbers 13 i can show you where moses moses's unwillingness as a leader to minimize the people's exposure to the negative voices of those 12 spies went over 10 came back talking about giants two came back talking about god and the bible says when they begin to give that negative report the hearts of the people begin to melt like wax and they said we are like grasshoppers in our eyes and in their eyes also so they didn't fight a fight that was fixed not because watch they didn't fight it fight that was fixed not because of the size of the giant they didn't fight it because of the size of the grasshopper and for some people your grasshopper's too big because he wasn't going to cut it off but joshua who wasn't in senior leadership at that time watched and then when he in joshua won gets ready to go into the promised land he takes a completely different approach before they walk around jericho he said everybody everybody everybody listen to me we're getting ready to walk around this wall once a day for seven days on the seventh day we're gonna walk around seven times nobody say anything am i preaching the book y'all he said i don't want anybody to say one word you say nothing until you hear this trumpet blow and then you shout he knew what to cut off see some people can't go in because they don't know what to cut off they have negativity and cynicism and pessimism and people reminding you of how big the problem is you know how big the problem is we need to be reminded of how big our god is [Applause] we've got to know what to cut off am i making sense yeah yeah that's chapter three chapter three they get uh possessed excuse me oppressed by a group of people called the moabites and moabites had king eglon and elgon and he has this huge entourage nobody can get to him but the bible says that god raises up a judge named ehud now the bible gives us these little weird details at times that seem unnecessary that they don't that it doesn't give to every biblical character so the bible talks about this with ehud it says ehud was from the tribe of benjamin but he was left-handed i'm like what's that got to do with anything why do i you know why do i need to know that he's left-handed but then when you think about benjamin's story then e-hud being left-handed makes sense because it's really ironic you see the bible is clear that rachel is giving birth right and her birth experience with benjamin is one that's eventually going to cost her her life it was a painful birth experience so she gives birth to benjamin and it was so painful so traumatic she names him ben onei which means son of my sorrow because some things people call you they call you that because they in pain i'm gonna say that one more time right some things that people call you the labels that they gave you they gave you those labels because they were labeling you in their pain but the father walks in the room i said what'd you name the baby they said she named him she named him ben on he said uh um his name will not be ben o'neil his name will be benjamin which means son of my right hand see it doesn't matter what people called you when they were in pain when your heavenly father walks into your life he's got the right to overrule and change your name is there anybody here anybody watching that can say he changed my name i'm blessed not cursed i'm the head not the tail i'm above only not beneath i'm the lender not the barbara i'm more than a conqueror i'm blessed in my going in i'm blessed in my coming out why because my daddy said so [Applause] so you have someone you have someone hallelujah oh i just pray god erases the labels you've been carrying that don't belong to you so benjamin son of my right hand comes a tribe and ehud is from the tribe of benjamin he's left-handed in a tribe named son of my right hand e hood represents those of us who always felt like you didn't quite fit in you left-handed and it feels awkward and it can make you insecure because you can wonder why am i not like everybody else but you've got to be willing to live through that season of awkwardness to allow god to show you the reason for your left-handedness just because your uniqueness doesn't make sense to you now does it mean it doesn't make sense you got to live long enough for god to show you why i made you that way and the thing that you call awkward in one season is going to be your anointing in the next [Applause] did you hear what i said they probably called david awkward when he was sitting around throwing rocks with a slingshot at cans in the backyard of his daddy's house but when he knocked that giant down they didn't call him awkward then and i don't know who i'm preaching to but they're calling you one thing now listen to this so he heard this left-handed man nobody could get to the king he had this entourage but somehow the bible says he heard he says i'm gonna get to the king so he takes his sword the bible says it's a two-edged sword which is was a metaphor for the word of god and he puts the two assaults he's the left-hander man puts the two head thrower on the right on the right thigh and somehow gets he gets to enter against an audience with the king and here he is he gets an audience with the king and in a brief moment with the audience he has with the king he's able to take his left hand reach it to his right thigh pull out the weapon but as he pulls it out he's pulling it out and using it at the same time in one motion and so now he's able watch this to take out the king that inspires israel they overthrow the moabites and regain their freedom now if he was right-handed he would have had to have two motions he would have had to pull it up and then try to stick it in but because he was left-handed he could pull it out and use it at the same time did you hear what i just said however god made you he made you that way for a reason however he wired you he wired you that way for a reason and you're gonna get to a season where he shows you the reason that you left-handed so instead of panicking about your left hand praise god for your left hand because god's going to use he's going to use that left hand yup you see it in chapter four this is one of my favorite chapters this bothers some people the bible should bother you a little bit it bothers some people i love it i love chapter four because see israel's in trouble and now god raises up a unique judge in chapter four her name see some people bothered already see i'm just t i'm teaching the book you can read and see if i'm teaching a book her name was deborah and a military general has so much sense he said she said now i want you to go right here and i want you to handle accessory he said um i'm not going unless you go with me i love her confidence she said okay now i'll go with you she says now i was sending you so you could get the credit she says but if i go the lord her confidence was in god not herself the lord will deliver sisera into the hands of a woman in other words she say now if you don't want help don't call me because when you call me i'm not playing i come to fix it i wish i had some deborah's in the house that say i'm not just cute i got a calling i'm not just pretty i got a purpose i'm not just attractive i got an anointing and when i show up things get better the board gets victory in chapter five they praise god for that victory and then we get to our text chapter six where israel is in bondage again and this time they're in bondage with a different kind of enemy called the midianites and the midianites attacked israel in a unique way because they did not exterminate them they impoverish them this is what they would do the midianites would wait until harvest season israel's planted they've tilled they've tended and then it when it was time for harvest the midianites would show up attack israel and steal the crops every year they will show up and steal the crops and that's what the enemy wants to do to us he doesn't just want to attack us he wants to impoverish us listen to me did you catch that he wants us to suffer so he can steal something in the sufferer the first word jesus used to describe him in john 10 10 is a thief did you did you catch that right see because sometimes we survive and we celebrate the survival but you don't realize you've been robbed are you hearing me you say whoa praise god i came out of that and god's like wait a minute you don't know you lost something in there you should have kept and sometimes you don't know you lost it until you reach for it and is not there did you hear me see you can survive portray survive betrayal but then lose your optimism and belief in people and that's what the enemy wants to do that's why some of you here at victory is why you frustrate the devil so much it's why he don't like you he doesn't like you because you won't let him get what he's after that's what frustrated him with job he took his assets he took his resources he affected his relationships he affected his health but he kept being frustrated because he wasn't after his assets he wasn't after his resources he wasn't after his relationships he wasn't after his health he was after his commitment to god because the devil told god if you let me touch these things he's going to curse you to your face come on talk to me and what frustrated the devil about job is what frustrates the devil about many of you is that he's attacked you in so many different areas but he still hasn't got your praise every time you praise him he starts stumping every time you praise him praise god the devil starts pouting every time you praise god the devil thought starts throwing a tantrum because he's like i messed with everything i could but they still won't give me what i really want still so there's this one man in israel his name's gideon the bible says somehow he's taking some wheat because he knows the medianites want to steal it and he's gone to the place where they press wine and he's threshing wheat in the wine press trying to hide it from the midianites and the lord the bible is clear an angel of the lord the messenger of god comes to gideon and said the lord is with you you mighty warrior don't mess don't miss this now family he is threshing wheat in a wine press he's hiding wheat so he's supposed to be pressing mine he's threshing weak in the winepress he is behaving in the way in a way that is the exact opposite of what god calls him so either his behavior is lying or god's line did you hear what i just said you are not what you did you not what you doing just because you have been that way doesn't mean that's the way you've been called to be watch this and when god calls you something grace is released to become what he called you did you hear me is that not what paul meant in romans 4 when he said god calls those things that be not as though they were i don't care what you are when he meets you when he calls you a thing grace is released on you to become [Music] what he calls you blessed favored anointed chosen beloved selected elected appointed anointed authorized his when he speaks it over you grace is released to become it right here it is but watch what gideon says if the lord is with us why's all this happen because he assumes that if god is present that means god's going to perform a certain way so god if you're not doing what i think you should be doing when i think you should be doing it you must not be with me the way you say you with me and god's like i'm with you but i'm intentional i told you that last year if i'm all that's i'm intentional so if i'm doing something that's intentional and if i'm doing nothing that's intentional so i'm always doing something if i'm doing nothing on purpose that means i'm doing nothing because i'm doing something so praise me when i'm doing something cause i'm doing something and then praise me when i'm doing nothing because i'm doing something then too can anybody look back over your life and reflect on moments when you wanted god to do something and he did nothing and then you got to another season and you look back on that you say lord thank you so much for not answering that prayer let me see if i can find some authentic individuals lord thank you so much for for letting me break up with them lord [Applause] where's all this happen to us lord says no no i want to use you i want to use you listen to me i want to use you i want to use you to deliver the very thing you're complaining about i won't use you to fix y'all missed it the problem you're complaining about is the reason for your existence gideon i don't understand he's like that's why you're here this is the problem you've been created to solve because purpose is always an answer to a problem that's the problem you've been created to solve that's why you're here and getting while you're complaining about the miracle that i haven't done you're missing the miracle i have done because you're alive to complain seven years these media knights have been attacking y'all you're still here attack after attack after attack but you're still here so you're complaining about a miracle you haven't seen but you're missing the miracle that you already are your survival is a miracle your preservation is a miracle don't doubt that i'm a miracle worker because if you look at where you are and what you survive it is evidence of my miracle working ability are y'all here i'm almost done here it is that's what he says family he says he says um my tribe my family man we the least in all of israel and i'm the least in my whole family don't miss this god is calling gideon to carry out a new role in a new season of his life don't miss this and get in gideon's inadequacy response did you hear what i just said god says gideon i'm calling you and gideon's inadequacy responds to the call so my question to gideon is everything you just said about yourself and your family who told you that your perception of yourself gideon is getting in the way of your purpose because you survived these seven years but you lost you and so when the lion should be showing up the lamb is talking because something gideon all these years strip you your fight his perception of himself was about to get in the way of his purpose i'm done family god watch this god wants to set israel free but their their deliverance is delayed because he's trying to talk gideon out of his inadequacy did y'all hear what i just said is israel's waiting on the deliverer and god is having a volley back and forth with gideon because you cannot accomplish your assignment entrapped in inadequacy god's trying to talk gideon watch this out of an identity that's been formed from his past it's it became a prison watch this that was going to stop gideon from trying or if he tried he was going to try because he had to have so much fleecing with trepidation so israel's deliverance was tied to gideon's self-esteem which says to me the israelites weren't gideon's real problem gideon's was this is what one writer says and i quote he says you can tell the size of a person's identity by the size of the problem it takes to discourage them something took his lion and before gideon could be released into the next chapter of god's story for his life his lion had to be restored and i want to show you how god restores his life it's so powerful he restores gideon's lion not by rebuilding gideon's confidence in himself he restores gideon's lion by rebuilding gideon's confidence in god when gideon says when gideon says everything that he says about himself i'm weak my tribe is weak my clan is weak god doesn't argue because insecurity is illogical you can't win that argument with logic did you hear what i just said yes yeah when insecure is talking it's illogical it's illogical it gets jealous of stuff you shouldn't even get insecurity will make you jealous of people that are helping you see uh come on the holy spirit might be setting someone free right now because some sometimes you are frustrated and you're confused and you're like why are they so antagonistic toward me why are they so hostile toward me it doesn't make sense exactly insecurity is illogical and you might be thinking well pastor dares they they aren't insecure i'm not insecure see insecurity is the root not the fruit insecurity rarely shows up looking like insecurity saul was insecure was he not what he do he built a monument unto himself because sometimes insecurity shows up looking like arrogance so we can't recognize it because it really shows up looking like itself so god teaches us something here he doesn't even he doesn't argue with it he ministers to it he says i'm not enough he says go in the strength you have hallelujah did you hear what i just said he said he said go in the strength you have and save israel out of midian's hand he says lord i don't have much god said that's enough what you got go in that did you hear what i just said i don't have what they have but what you have is enough go in that i don't have this but but but you have enough go in there go in the strength you have because what you got is enough it's enough it's enough he says you go on the strength you have and you'll save midian is a lot of minutes here am i not oh gosh am i not sending you see getting you're not sending yourself i'm sending you i know what i'm doing so if i'm sending you you able if i picked you you worthy if i called you you capable i'm i'm sending you he says well my tribe is the weakest of my clan is the weakest and he says this he says i will be with you watch what he says he says get in listen you don't believe in who you are quite yet why are we rebuilding that i want you to believe in who i am now see i mean i think i'm small now but i grew up i was really small real skinny and i'll get sometimes i would get bullied from time to time by bigger guys and i had this cousin his name was michael paul i don't know why we called him by both of those names michael paul wright we call him michael paul but and so he was bigger than me right and so they there was a time he found out that this guy was bullying me and whenever i was around this guy would walk a certain way try to avoid him in the hallways and things of that nature because fear make you walk different inadequacy it makes you walk different now watch this but when my cousin michael paul was he's like no i'm gonna walk in the hallway with you now watch i was still the same skinny guy i weighed the same my height was the same but i walked differently i walked different not because of who i was i walked different because of who was walking with me [Applause] and i'm telling somebody tonight you may have walked in here one way but you're getting ready to walk out of here another way not because of who you are but because of who is walking with you the lion from the tribe of judah is walking with you now let me hear some lions [Music] roar some of you in your heart are saying pacifist i'm so tired i didn't know my media night season robbed me of some things i mean i'm believing god but it robbed me of lion level faith pastor i've got vision but i've been robbed of lying love of vision i have beliefs and expectations for my life for my family but i've been i've been raw i still believe god that's why i'm here but if i'm being honest i survive but some stuff got stole from me and i'm in a midianite season and i need it back and i can't go forward i can't leave here tonight without god restoring my roar pastor darius i've been through so much i don't even know where i lost it i just woke up one day and i realized it was gone it could have been last year it could have been the year after before that i don't know i just know i need it back i need god to restore my roar and tonight pasadena's i'm declaring war this means war not on my circumstance not on my devil but on the inner me that was stolen from me i gotta get it back i'm fighting for that and i don't know where i lost it but i'm not leaving without it so i want to pray for you tonight because i've been there i'm not just preaching a passage i'm preaching a story watch my niece as you get to a point where you're growing in your faith where you begin to preach your story using the words of the bible because god is walking you through similar seasons in the night i want to pray that god will restore that roar maybe disappointment took it maybe you believed god for something and it didn't happen and it took your role maybe you you thought things were getting better and then they took a turn for the worse and it took your roar maybe failure took your world maybe suffering took your i don't know what it is but i know god is a restorer and tonight i'm praying for your restoration would you just as a sign of receiving would you just lift your hands all over this house father i just thank you you restoring us years locust and cankerworm and caterpillars and palmer worms have stolen from us and some seasons have have taken our roar vision hope optimism faith and i pray today that the god who restores all things would restore that roar i pray for supernatural i pray for supernatural heart transplants right now in the name of jesus give us take that heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh a heart that sees us is you see us and father we we pray that you would silence and bind the voice of the enemy who's whispering to our inadequacies who's planting seeds and thoughts in our minds to make us timid and passive i pray for us now in jesus name that you would bind it and that you would release unto us a revelation of who you called and created us to be i pray that justice jesus was raised from the dead just as jesus was coming out of that tomb came out of that tomb i pray that we will come that lion will come out of the grave that whatever it is underneath whatever is burying it if it's dirt if it's despair if it's the pressure if it's disappointment i pray that we would rise from the ashes and i thank you that you're taking right now father the garment of praise and putting it on us and you're replacing it the spirit of heaviness i thank you for us to see who we are i thank you for a path that is clear and i thank you for a destiny that will be realized and we declare to the devil we declare to this city we declare to this nation we declare to this world that some lions are on the loose in the name of jesus we pray amen amen and amen one more time let me hear lions roar

Channel: Victory Tulsa

Views: 16,172

Rating: 4.8606963 out of 5

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Id: iyrRcB6V4ds

Length: 65min 35sec (3935 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 19 2020