World Changers Sunday | Dr Matthew Stevenson | From Bitter To Better

exodus chapter 15 the 22nd verse in the New Living Translation I've got 34 minutes to do this I want to do this and go home Exodus 15 22 scheana you don't know this but we grew up on your music years ago all we would sing is pull back the veil and Lion of Judah it was important that you be here to give us some of what brought us through a transition hmm XS 15 22 then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea and they moved out into the desert asure they traveled in this desert for three days without finding any water and when they came to the oasis of Marah the water was too bitter to drink so they called the place Marah which means bitter then the people complained and turned against Moses what are we going to drink they demanded so Moses cried out to the Lord for some help and the Lord showed him a piece of wood and Moses threw it into the water and this made the water good to drink it was there at Marah that the Lord sent before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him he said if you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight obeying his commands and keeping his decrees then you will not suffer any of the disease's I sent all the Egyptians for i am the lord that healeth you and after leaving Maura the Israelites traveled on the Oasis to Elim where they found 12 Springs and seventy palm trees they kept there beside the water I know you've done a lot of talking and your neighbors breath smell like tongues but grab on one last time Rhys don't go far because this is gonna escalate very quickly I have a real prophetic word for you and I'm not saying that because I needed a man but this is a real word for you I want you to promise out to this person no matter how they look at you right now and tell them I prophesied that you are going from bitter momentum is a tricky thing because when you're dealing with any movement the heart of the movement can only be tested in the integral keeping of momentum lots of things start that don't stop or don't end well because somebody misses momentum momentum is one of those things that is the lifeblood of anything God starts and God has entrusted to several people several things over history where he wouldn't trust him with vision with call with courage and somebody's disobedience or somebody's fear or somebody's awkward response to his instruction cost them at their momentum you may or may not know this but statistically if you go to school if you study a tray if you take too long of a break and you lose momentum it's mentally and psychologically difficult to reengage what you dropped there's a lot of people who experience things in life where the breath leaves him they almost lose not just hope and courage but a rhythm and and the way you were made as a human being was that you were your best your most productive when you had the right rhythm and there are certain people groups on the earth that have a gift of rhythm not all of them but most of us know what it is to keep tempo and we know what it is now there are some people who when the praise break comes out they'd be shouting off the music they heard last week and we and we let them do that but we all have a sense of rhythm in our lives rhythm is so deeply engraved in the human experience that even children grab a hold there there aren't any textbooks to teach infants the power of pace and the power of rhythm and the power of momentum but they gravitate to it during simple phases such as the alphabet song when you teach your kid the alphabet song they learn the rhythm of the song and subsequently teaches them language and communication and understanding the problem with the future as we approach it is not that it's just coming together or that we need to believe it necessarily many of us run the risk of dropping what we just got at the conference because we don't understand the power of momentum momentum poses the question to everybody what do we do next now now before you move this over to somebody that act like this is not applicable to you there are a lot of things that you started' even at an accelerated rate that you lost because you didn't act what do we do next people in earth that are still reliving moves that have come and gone or having a lot of critical conversations about what needs to be done now but immediately after you figure out what needs to be done now somebody should be talking about what do do next and whenever nobody asks what's next you end up not fully doing what you should do now because what you do now should be related to what your knowledge of next is for example if you don't know where you're going in life you should not just pick a spouse immediately but if you don't know what you want to do eventually you should pick a career immediately so momentum matters let's take this two point number two momentum comes when moments are handled right your destiny is not going to be handed to you in a UPS box destiny is unveiled in moments and there is great power and great danger in mismanaging a moment you don't get destiny handed at you in days but your days are unlocked and what in moments this is why the devil wants to do everything in his power to cost you your sobriety and of course I'm talking about addictive agents but there are addictive things that have nothing to do with drugs or alcohol some of you monsters are addicted to attention so that's why you found and trying to control people with your facial expressions to intimidate people and it's an addiction to applause is what it really is you can see how many of you are drunk and by attention just by your Facebook post or just by your Instagram post if you don't need nobody why do you have to continue to remind us that you don't need nobody it's an addiction to attention but and what it really reveals is a misappropriated moment and if the devil can cost you your sobriety if he can cost you your wisdom if he can cost you your judgment then what it can do is get you to mismanage moments everybody in here has had a moment that they want back I want my virginity back because who I lost it to wouldn't even chew I wish I could have gave it to my wife y'all don't like that transparency I want a refund on my virginity it wasn't even good practice come on son I said that it was not good practice it was a total utter waste of my time I was like boy this could not be what everybody's raving about surely I could have found another option I really wanted to recant my repentance buy me somebody a little more sexy and get some practice it just didn't happen that way if that scares you hold your seat belts for a little while longer i'ma say some more inappropriate stuff the interesting things about moments though is that they can be led leadership a part of their responsibility is to help you manage your moments well be angry Jesus said get mad but sin not what is he teaching you are allowed to have but you are not allowed to make that moment your character jesus said offenses will come it is okay to have an offense you are not permitted to be offended and people that are easily offended I make no time for them I can't stand easily offended people because they end up moving in a strong spirit of witchcraft but when a person is offended nothing you can do is right if you say hello to them Monday hello to them Tuesday hello to them Wednesday fool around and don't respond to latex on Thursday and now they got the sabe face on gossiping about you I'm not about to be control by your emotional instability I'm on an assignment so if you are offended forgive yourself order me in your head cuz I ain't cutting you and your emotions moments are everything I want to dig into this a little bit more but this is why many of you need to illiterates because you've not been celebrated on your birthdays I'm gonna make a point I often discern demons Oh y'all should see y'all each and stuff don't like that I'm didn't I often watch how people respond around the day where they have to acknowledge how old they are often respond or often discern things and people when they have birthdays don't say anything and let it come and go a little cope up it's not a big deal how you been reared to not acknowledge how much energy and effort and willfulness it takes to stay alive and sane and saved but something in you won't even allow yourself to have the moment to realize my god it's been 30 years instead of seeing the faithfulness of God you sit in your failure so instead of acknowledging that it's a joy to be 30 it's a powerful thing to be 40 you say I'm almost 50 G's and you look at what you have not accomplished instead of what you escaped Oh God I'm trying to help you realize if you can change how you looking at these moments maybe you can get some more miracles if I were God and I went out of my way to make sure you stayed alive 250 and I live to 60 in your disrespect of my grace I would not give you miraculous anything if you were sad to be how old you were see what I'm trying to show you is if you have revelation you should never have a regret everybody that lives their lives wishing they would have done more that's not open their eyes to see what more they still can do you serve a timeless God it doesn't matter what you didn't do it 18 25 30 father God has a way to put life into your life I don't care 70 he can make it feel like you was 20 come on look at somebody say give me a moment give me a moment oh yeah I feel like God is about to heal some moments I said I feel like God is about to heal some moments there are some moments that he needs to heal so you could have some moment the hardest people to lead our people in transition transitional stages transition costs security you are never going to feel secure in transition when you are in any transition it literally is gonna cost you a feeling of security and the instability that comes in transition is because I know where I'm starting but I have to hope in where I'm going you have a physical a mental beginning point which requires no faith you've been there what requires faith is where I'm going to land up and the challenge is in the interim so nobody really likes transition you know what I hate I hate when people call me and saying or see me in the hallway or pastor I got something I want to talk to you about I'm like okay you're in my face now I want you to make for use at my time don't have me pensive about something that now I gotta wait into a whole nother month oh I got something to tell you why that suspense in the middle is enough to leave anybody to come up with their own conclusion if it was an emergency you should just say oh yeah by the way I meant to mention this but when you live your life in that middle place that suspense place what you're losing is peace but you're losing his focus and you have the room to come up with your own conclusion until you hear the bottom line mommy tell you something transition is difficult God has never given a people anything without forcing them to transition into it hey you have to transition into manhood you don't just arrive there with a driver's license you have to transition into womanhood and then you have to transition into wifehood it takes a real chemical adjustment to go from being single to married and I wish I would stop underplaying that like all it takes is a dress and a ring no it is an entire lifestyle adjustment and you can be the most generous person in the world nobody knows how selfish they are until they're having sex with the same person all the time all of you are selfish no matter I have Wow when you're by yourself all you got to worry about is once you go eat how you feel where you going you don't have to consider nobody else all the time but covenant will make your self-centeredness manifest never trust a promise that I didn't transition into the danger of not transitioning well is whiplash when you into it you get in there and you don't know how to treat it so transition gives you the character to treat it well when you transition right into a thing then you treat the thing that you are in well and we know that Israel because of who and how they were spent a lot of time in transition they were always going from this place at that place moving from this land to this land and artex lands us up on a transition and where we start to get interesting is this in the beginning they have faith towards the middle they get frustrated look at me if you are frustrated you are in the middle frustration is never the sign that you just started I'm going over here frustration is always the sign that you're almost there I can get a man's nowhere frustration is another when you begin something you're always excited New Year's Eve do not like oh I can't stand this year no no you are excited you are clear frustration is the half way this is why you don't ever quit something cuz you're frustrated that's juvenile that's kindergarten when you are frustrated you take a break so you can find out how you can begin the second half frustration is not finality it's a time to focus when you become frustrated it means you lost perspective about what's before me what's behind me what I need and what I have but you're frustrated is the middle point Israel got frustrated because they had not found water yet when they finally found water it was at a place called Mars and it meant bitter God will put you on a long transition so that he can allow for secret bitterness to come to the top I know you want me to turn the plow not going to do that and there are people who conceal bitterness very well off particularly if it's enveloped in some fake wisdom or if it's enveloped in some scriptures cuz you know I know bitter people who can also find Bible verses to justify their personal bitterness huh and nothing reveals bitterness like a German when when people are on a journey you end up seeing the bitterness by what by what they are unwilling to do again if you try forgiveness if you tried mercy if you've tried a mentor if you try to be mentored I can always see if you are bitter by what you forbid to allow to happen even if it's necessary people but I tried that before I'm not gonna do it again and it's God's Way of saying aha bitterness now here's the deal with bitterness you have a right to be affected that is your human right you have a right to be impacted that is a part of your human right but you cannot be is better the Bible said that when a root of bitterness is in anybody they poison everybody around them oh I don't think we talked enough about bitterness we talked a lot about moving on but we don't talk about a root of B look at you I think we talked a lot about growing up but what's behind a lot of your Arrested Development is an undiscovered root of bitterness it can be gender specific age specific it can even be role specific but whenever you are on transition you end up finding out if you are bitter and then 24 shows that after God brought them to a place or where the waters seemed to be bitter and bitterness was in that place they looked for an authority figure to blame they wanted to project this bitter situation on whoever was most visible around them let me tell you how to get free until you stop blaming everybody else for where you are in life you will never move on in life I understand that you may not have been raised how you wanted to but maybe you didn't get the opportunity but at the end of the day God gave your life to you if you don't stop looking at Moses concerning who he taught and who he didn't teach and what he didn't finance and who he didn't run and what he can't see you at the end of the day you still bitter and when Moses goes on you gonna be left at Mara crying over what a bit don't be bitter come on people say don't be bitter don't be bitter come on say don't be bitter it's too expensive to be sitting there living your life in vinegar and I won't be bitter even if it doesn't happen the way I want I'm not gonna be bitter bitterness ages you lose yourself bill this takes your joy you stop laughing bill this makes you skeptical bit of this opens you up to a lunatic spirit cuz now you want to about your discerning things that actually you're afraid of and if you're afraid of it you can't be disheartened come on stop somebody say don't be bitter don't be bitter w bitter don't be bitter you can hear it in preaching you can hear there in teaching you can hear it in play I've heard it in prophecy bitterness is a very powerful thing and here's a part of why bitterness is so dangerous it emits signals to open people when you are bitter and there are people with open hearts around you that bitterness sends an electromagnetic signals and stay away have you ever seen a bitter person well-supplied bitter people are not bitter because people leave them bitter people are bitter because people with open hearts come and there's a force field that pushes them all the bottom line everything is negative the outcome of everything is pessimistic and then with them demons do is try to recruit social support because to be bitter buy yourself a floor so now you make friends around your bitterness you have conversations around your bitterness you cry around your bitterness and that the root of it is a controlling spirit I don't have water now I met water and it's bitter I love the fact that God uses their blame shift of Moses to situate them for a miracle they blame Moses which forced Moses to go to God for help here's a problem if you're dealing with a better wife a better husband a better friend and if you got a bitter friend you probably got some bitterness in you cuz cuz whole people don't they can't tolerate bitterness it's training it makes you tired you'd be sleepy you just can't do it so if you have bitter friends I guarantee you is some bitterness under that slip somewhere you just have yet to find exactly what it looks like when you got a bitter child if you have a bitter anything around you what you need to do is discontinue the communication and ask God for some help what I'm showing you is you are not going anywhere trying to fix bitterness by yourself once I've realized that you're bitter I've identified that what it is I'm not gonna cut off access and I'm gonna go to God you're gonna have to either heal that or move it I don't want to be contaminated with this this is not gonna obstruct me it's not gonna cost me my movements of bitterness wants to break your moments they're people who don't like you cuz you live in a dream they're people who can't stand you cuz you accomplished once all the time and if you're not careful they'll try to befriend you to find an outlet to express their bitterness they just want you to realize that they use your life as their measuring stick bitter besties Moses cut him off and ask God for help and I want to talk to some Moses in here real quick I love the fact but in this scenario wood is not abnormal you said no will standing a wood there's wood in all of this but when your heart is right toward God you better receive this as a word God will show you the potential of a normal thing you'll look at a common thing that everybody sees and you will see something in the common thing see what I love about end ingenuity and innovation is it doesn't have to always be bizarre you can look at something and say I see the potential of this thing and it can make it work that's what greatness is there are people that are blinded to the potential of stuff and God will open your eyes to it and you can end up making it do what it was not originally created to do now that's real beyond everybody else can walk past the word and you have the power and the capacity and the faith to look at the wood is it I think I can do something with that the reason why I think Moses usually was because it was there if it was a turtle shell if it was a rock if there was a piece of glass it would have become the solution because a real solution wasn't the object it wasn't what Moses so lift your hands I promise I change your perspective in your life you're gonna look at regular stuff supernatural outcomes you're gonna see a natural supper and see you're gonna look at the chair and see the tree God is about to give you third dimension perspective well you can see the maturation of a thing before it manifests a it is self change how you're looking at it now like this because Moses was walking with them at Mara the place called bitterness and he sees a piece of wood and he takes it and throws the wood into the water there is no such thing as sweet wood he takes the wood and throws it into the water he throws it into the water let me ask you a question if you're bitter do you take risks bitterness is a manifestation of the spirit of fear tormenting spirit to be specific so you cannot be bitter and full of faith you can't be bitter and do things that compromise your alleged safety so wants you to do so you won't get your best shot [Music] [Laughter] [Laughter] [Music] maybe your deliverance is delayed cuz you've not given it your best maybe your company is not growing cuz you won't give it your best Moses gave the water his best shot would landed in the water watch this watch this and the water became good to drink but I never see where Israel drink it God can heal something without it mandating that you still be there God can heal a person and that healing is not sign that you need to replace yourself back in that life I'm here to deliver you from first covenants past expectations your presence is not necessary for their health if they were bitter and get healed god bless you but there are brand new beyond the boundary oh no I want to hear this without he's allowing some stuff and not allowing some stuff just because it's sweeter tell me you need to stay some of you use the fact that it's been regulated as a reason for you to remain ban who told you that just because things get better that that means that that steel your appointment who told you to just because it's a little better than how it used to be oh she's getting really better with that so what the point is not whether it's better the point is do you belong there you forgot that the point was momentum I don't care how it tightens up don't you lose your rhythm because if you lose your rhythm you won't get to Canaan up trying to cater tomorrow the water problem got fixed but we don't see that Israel drank the port the point was to perform for Israel so that they would know that God was able to do anything but it was not an indicator that they needed to stay that throws it and gives it his best shot and the Bible say they keep going and here's what the scripture says papa Darius this was done as a sign to Israel you want to hear a hard word God's gonna heal some stuff to show you he can't and then tell you to leave it he's gonna let some people get better because of your presence in their lives and tell you now dismiss yourself Oh God you don't like that I know I know it's really bad he's gonna allow for some better communication and then tell you now that you're talking better put some distance there you don't want to hear this if you got to change friends every season the problem is not them the problem is you and maybe you're lonely because you was never supposed to be a daily thing y'all kill me full of gossip venting is something that maybe happens what venting is supposed to be the peak expression if you get Monday then Wednesday then catch event Thursday this is too much venting well what's going on now is you're using a synonym for the opinions that are going unregulated and just because they are property a few tears don't mean that they are justified you need to be delivered so that God can heal you so you can keep your man chopped this was done so that they knew God could do it continuing the text the Bible says that God told them as they were moving from a healed thing all healing don't happen so you can stay there God said if you will listen to me from this point if you will obey me from this point and keep all of my decrees I will not send upon you the diseases that I sent upon Egypt for I am the lord that healeth thee God healed the waters so that Israel could know that he would heal them it was not a sign if that was supposed to be their home he said if I can hear water certainly I can heal you but I cannot heal you until you keep it moving now a lot of you think that the way to heal is to stop dropping wrong some of us were built so much that God want us to walk healing everybody's not gonna have to take on this bed some of us are just gonna have to bleed out and grow up and walk it out my favorite part is 27 they went from having bitter waters no no water bitter water 212 whales they went from being absolutely depleted water to manifesting bitterness to twelve Springs what they ended up walking into was better than Mara one was a river but then they had 12 wells which do you want do you want one stream or twelve wells you sees the benefit of allowing God to rid your life of bitterness is what you stumble on it's gonna be better than what you plan for what you don't realize is Mara was a pit stop they had planned to rest there they did not expect to experience Elam it was something on the way I believe God can bless you more on your accidents then you can on your plans if you let them have the bitterness god bless you mom Oh things you stumble upon you more favored you more beyond your plans it's difficult to prove things to them it's difficult to get things through that now listen if that ain't deep enough there are possibilities for entire organizations to grow bitter bitterness is not just a personal issue I know bitter organizations now generally bitter organizations are led by bitter leadership if the entire approach is bitter it's because somebody an influence pursues their attempts or pursue their goal in bitterness for example when you build out of fear you can build you're just gonna build something that's not really productive because if you're building around sensitivity issues personal fears fears of pain then what you build is so frail that it can only handle what you can as a person if you situate your team around your personal fears then you may end up rejecting the help because they remind you of something that hurt good good little ugly this is my bitterness is so important you got to be so hold that people's personal character don't have the power to stop you yeah you crazy yeah you dysfunctional but they don't have the power to bring me come call me God anointed me God summons me better is the fruit of somebody who refuses to be bitter and you never be better until you allow yourself to be free from bitterness the interesting comparison to this and I'm done is that we see that after Mara got healed they moved once they found these twelve wells the Bible says they stayed by the water they encountered there that water was much better than what they had passed I want to let you know this the plan that you lift your hands we got a plan for your life hear the word of the Lord it's not going to happen well I want you to sit in that I want you to sit in it as surely as Jesus is Lord the plan that you have for your life is not coming to pass some of you make it close some of you may see similar God has never let a man have what he planned for his life you show me one Bible example when somebody said I think this is what I'm gonna I'm gonna do that God always has a way of humbling people in their plan your plans don't move God even when you cry over them even when you invest them why the Bible talks about how the purposes of the Lord continues against the plans of men the problem is this when you are so married to your personal plan and become inflexible to the point that you can't follow the leading of God in another direction that's because it wasn't how you play do you think I plan to be here with you it's not a part of my plan I plan to be in Dubai old in hotels smoking with the sheiks is what I wanted to but long I apparently got an assignment to change the world and other nations and it's okay cuz I fulfill here then I would be over there you got to realize that you can be sad even when you got plenty it doesn't matter where you are if it's not the plan of God you will be miserable you don't believe me try your only safe places in God's plan now does that mean don't plan no plan but always know that yours is a just in case it is a lack of stewardship to not plan but you have to realize it ago never end up how you turned out nobody dies like it was exactly how I imagined nobody God hides the turns and I have a hard work but how many got a big calling on your life y'all scared with your hair now you know huh they're lying calling do nothing but go to heaven I'm sick of all listen I'm calling see mahalia that's what I'm calling to do bring Rita back that's what I'm calling to see how many of you have a big call you feel like a sizable impact oh here's the word of the Lord to you God always made sharp turns and he don't use turning signals everything God has always done in my life has been abrupt are you when you're going go one round you like oh I got this he's like yeah anybody ever had a sharp turn tonight well I thought this was the city well I thought this was a woman this was a career come on say jesus take the wheel you don't mean that you angular can say jesus take the wheel it's not until you can have complete control that you deserve to prosper you from the ghetto when I was in the 90s right around when Ronnie era in my hood before there were alarms we asked some color club I know y'all don't know what it is so what it was this big metal bar and if you had if he's riding with like a drug dealer something when you get out the car two things they would always do don't ask me I know two things they would do y'all from suburbs are like a club now what is that you would pop out the radio cuz you never use the radio that was in the car this radio had a lot of lights and it will fluctuate go up and down so your pop out the radio and then you would take the club out and put it down many of you are driving destiny with a club own you crave stability more than you do obedience you just want to pace you don't care about if it's God's will or not you want to be able to rub rub shoulders with your boys and you want to feel accomplished even if you are deceived I know what I've heard from God here's what's about to happen November to December expect some sharp turns get all that crying in conference yes Lord going beyond yeah thank you dr. pale Heidi just know the futures place you know what you told the Lord you can have my stability you told them you can take anything I'm relying on currently whatever my current sources of stability is you have the right to that now you like wait a minute maybe I don't need to go beyond God starts a new journey with anybody he takes what they rely on immediately now I don't want you to be afraid it's not death it's just whatever makes you feel safe you said you told me to the Lord beyond you singing with John Gray I hid a sound to be I hey how'd you look flag running all around last week you was Employee of the Month you walk into a firing letter at Monday you mad on sabbatical that's your turn sabbatical now yeah jerk when the real truth is you ask the Lord to take you where you couldn't see why don't shout now you told the Lord you trusted him with your future so it doesn't matter what symptom or what shake shows up in between the bottom line is still the bottom line if you're going where God said go don't be afraid to lose something in the middle you're not frustrated you're in the middle it's a sign that you're almost where you're supposed to go

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Length: 45min 0sec (2700 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 27 2018