PART 1: I’ll Survive This Too

Posted on June 14, 2024 by growintheword

 

Synopsis of Sermon 6.9.24
Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III


Acts 28:1-6 NKJV N
1 Now when they had escaped, they then found out that the island was called Malta. 2 And the natives[a] showed us unusual kindness; for they kindled a fire and made us all welcome, because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold. 3 But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4 So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live.” 5 But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. 6 However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.

I.               INTRODUCTION

  1. Make no mistake, whenever you are in the will of God and walking out your assignment, know that God gives you an anointing for that assignment. He never gives out an assignment without giving you the anointing you to do it.
  2. Anointed people have God’s hand on them. This means God puts His super on your natural. God’s hand is upon your life.
  3. God always has a destiny for you. When you walk out your assignment, there will always be people out to destroy you.
  4. As a child of God, you will discover that God will take care of His children. You got the devil and his affiliates going crazy, because you keep surviving stuff. People think you should be going crazy by now. You keep showing up, because you are anointed.
  5. People will testify that they have seen God make ways for them. If God did it in the past, he can do it again. When things go crazy, you recognize that the same power that worked back then, is here now.
  6. Know that dogs don’t bark at parked cars. When you are working in your assignment, expect to be attacked!
  7. One attack you don’t anticipate is when something comes out of nowhere, while you are doing your assignment. No matter what comes into your life, know that you will survive this too.
  8. Paul is anointed and God has his hand upon him. Paul has a desire to take the gospel to Rome. Before he died, he wanted to declare Jesus to Caeser.
  9. In Acts 21, Paul gets arrested. In Acts 27, with other prisoners. There were over 260 prisoners on this ship. A storm came and the ship began to break into pieces.
  10. The soldiers were given the order to kill all of the prisoners, so that none of them would escape. In acts 27, one of the soldiers, a centurion, kept the guards from killing all the prisoners, because he wanted to save Paul.
  11. The order was then given to the prisoners, instructing those who could swim, to swim to shore. Those that couldn’t swim were instructed to grab onto some of the ships’ broken pieces, so they could float to shore.
  12. The bible says all of the prisoners made it safely to land. They made it because somebody anointed was on the ship. That anointed person was Paul.
    1. They did not perish out there, because someone anointed was on the ship. We know that you are going to make it, because there is someone anointed around you.
  13. Some prisoners floated to shore on broken pieces, but others swam.
  14. In acts 28, they went to an Island called Malta. It is a Mediterranean Island.
  15. The natives of this Island were kind to the prisoners. They built fires for them and fed them.
  16. When Paul grabbed a bundle of sticks to lay on the, trying to make the fire better for everyone around him, a snake came and bit Paul on the hand and it latched on to him.
    1. When you are on a journey and trying to get to a destination, you can’t control what happens in between, but know that you will survive.

II.               YOU WITHSTOOD THE STORM

  • If you made it to Acts 28, you got to pause and give God back praise! In Acts 27, you already survived the storm. People came out of brokenness, but they are reading this today, because they are survivors. They may not have all gotten to their destination the same way, but just like the prisoners in the story, they made it to their destination (the shore).

A.    What You’ve Been Through Prepared You

  1. There is no such thing as a senseless season. Each season is to prepare you.
  2. Every time God does something, you ought to file it away. Put it in the deep freezer. There will be a time you will have to bring it back up, to remind you that if God did it for you before, He can do it again.

B.    God Always Takes Care Of You

  1. We know that the Lord saves his anointed. Paul simply wanted to share the gospel with Rome. You have to know that when it is in the will of God, it will come to pass. Gods word will accomplish what it is sent to do.
  2. Don’t Be Discouraged By Detours – Even though the route changes, know that your destination will be the same. Paul never expected to be in a shipwreck, but he still made it to his destination.
  3. Don’t Doubt His Directives – When God says move, you need to move. No matter what comes at you, you have to be determined to stay in the assignment.
  4. Be Determined To Make Your Destination – We already know that nothing will stop us from getting to our destination.

III.               YOU WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH SNAKES

A.    In Every Blessing There Is Always A Snake To Bite You

  1. All of us will have to experience what Paul did. Paul was bitten by a snake. If you haven’t been bitten yet, just keep living.
  2. There are snakes among you. Everyone doesn’t have good intentions for us. The more you do the more snakes you will encounter.
    1. The more cheese you have, the more rats you attract, and snakes eat rats. In every blessing, there is a snake waiting to bite you.
  3. Blessings and bites – The natives at Malta showed the prisoners great kindness. It was a blessing to eat and have a fire to get warm.
    1. When Paul went to put sticks on the fire, trying to do something selfless for others, he was bitten by a snake. Paul did nothing wrong, but he was still harmed.
    2. Sometimes snake bites are not a result of a bite back. Often a person is bitten, because a snake doesn’t like movement. You experience your greatest bites, when you are moving or do something selfless. Your blessed times are often the times when you are most vulnerable.
  4. Every time you get a breakthrough, here comes a snake. No matter what snake comes, no weapon formed against you will prosper!

B.    The Enemy Assigns Latching Spirits

  1. This snake was assigned with an attaching spirit. Paul says the snake latched onto him.
    1. Normally snakes bite and move away quickly. They let the venom do its job.
    2. This snake latched on and didn’t let go. Some spirits will latch onto you. Snakes want to inject their venom into you. They want to inject what’s inside of them into you.
  2. Venom is designed to cause paralysis so that you lose momentum and eventually die.
  3. God is about to release you from every latching spirit in your life.
    1. Maybe it is time to release the latching spirit in your life.

IV.               HAVE THE WISDOM TO SHAKE IT OFF

  • Paul refused to let this snake stay attached to him. This is a word for somebody that is fed up.
  • It is time to start shaking things off that have become attached to you, yet have no value.
  • When the people saw Paul shake it off, they looked at him, and some of them said, “He must have gotten bit, because he is a murderer. Maybe justice finally caught up with him”

 

A.    You Can’t Control What People Think

  1. You better learn emotional intelligence. Some people have judgements built up concerning your life, when they don’t know anything about you. Stand still and let God fight your battles.

B.    Don’t Just Shake It Off, Send It Off

  • Paul didn’t just shake it off, he sent it off. He shook the snake off into the fire. You have to give your enemy a destination.
  1. This Is About Control – No enemy has control over me, because I am anointed.
  2. This Is About Closure – This snake is going into the fire. This is about closure! Let it go, it’s over! What’s ahead of you is greater than what’s behind you.

V.               YOU WILL SURVIVE

  • You were anointed for this attack.
  • When Paul shook the snake off into the fire, the people of Malta looked at him, waiting for him to swell and to fall over and die.

A.    There Is Always An Audience Waiting To See What Will Happen To You

  1. There are people waiting to see if you are going to get over this. They’ve seen people die over this kind of snake bite, but this has nothing to do with us. We will survive whatever comes to take us out!
  2. Don’t think people are calling to check on you. They are calling to see if you have lost your mind.
  3. Our anointing is antivenom. This is why we will survive it.

B.    You Will Outlive What Tried To Outlive You

  1. Paul was standing there. The snake bite had no impact on his life. You have no idea how many people are waiting for your demise.
  2. Know that you will outlive your diabetic situation, your unemployment, even your divorce. God is about to turn your situation around! God is about to turn your situation around!
  3. You will outlive what is trying to outlive you. When Paul stood there something unusual happened.
    1. The chief heard that Paul did not die from the snake bite. As a result, he asked Paul to lay hands on his father and his father was healed. When Paul finished laying hands on the chief’s father, he noticed there was a line waiting for him to lay hands on them also.
    2. Turn to your neighbor and say the same hands that were snake bitten, are the same hands that will be used to bless somebody else. These are the hands that are going to change your community. These are the hands that will make sure that everyone in your community becomes a homeowner. These are the hands that will make sure that every child in your community goes to school.
  4. Raise your hands as high as you see God taking you! God has anointed us for the attack. Don’t wait until the battle is won, shout right now!
  5. Your hands are anointed hands. Everything our hands are laid on, God will use our hands to bless it. The anointing doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to God!
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PART III: God’s Going To Do What You’ve Never Seen Before

Posted on May 24, 2024 by growintheword

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Sermon Synopsis 5/19/24

Ephesians 3:20 NKJV
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,

Prerequisite: Before reading this, take a piece of paper and write down something that you want God to do for you that is supernatural and outside the box. Something that only He can do. Then place it inside the envelope.  

I.            INTRODUCTION 

  1. What you will discover about God is that He will always amaze us. If you walk with Him any length of time, you will realize that there is always something that He will do that wows you. It causes you to live in a moment of expectation.
  2. God is never stagnant concerning relationships. He takes us from glory to glory! We have to recognize that whatever happens, He did it! As you grow in your relationship with God, you mark moments where you say, “God did that!”. You see how God was always at work in your life, even when you thought He wasn’t.
  3. We should never put limitations on our expectations with God. Often, we envision what we ask God for, but it is limited by our exposure and our comprehension.
    1. If we do this, what about those things that you haven’t been exposed to or comprehended? Do you think God needs to downsize our blessings to meet our expectations or our comprehension? Or do you think God should upgrade our blessings according to His ability?
  4. Pentecost occurred 50 days after Jesus had risen from the grave. Jesus had appeared to them and ascended into heaven. Afterwards they went into an upper room, where they were staying. Jesus promised that they would receive the power after His death.
  5. On the day of Pentecost, everyone was in one place on one accord. Jesus died to bring us all together. There were all kind of people, both Jew and Gentile, gathered together in one place.
  6. If it is about being together, you have to remember that the Holy Spirit is a uniter. He brings us all together. When the Holy Spirit is involved, He brings us together for a move of God.
  7. In this atmosphere, we are all gathered together on one accord. We expect God do what we’ve never seen before. Many of you have an envelope that has things written down inside of it. It is things that we want God to do. They are outside of the box blessings. They are things we probably never shared with anyone else.
  8. Know that today, God is about to do something you never seen before!
  9. In today’s text, Paul says “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think”.

II.            REMEMBER TO RELEASE IT TO HIS ABILITY 

  • When God does something in our lives, it comes down to our willingness to trust Him. It’s all about what we are willing to let go of. There have been many events where God had to remind us that we have to release it.
  • It’s about time, intuition, and instinct. Anybody moving in the Spirit has learned how to move instinctively at the right time.
    • If you will remember God told Joshua that His servant Moses had died and he directed Joshua to take the people over to the Promised Land. Hebrews 11:1 NKJV 11 Now faith is the [a]substance of things hoped for, the [b]evidence of things not seen. Often we leave the most important word out of this scripture. That word is Now. Now faith is the substance…. God wanted Joshua to lead the people now! This means we need to move now. This is the moment that God is going to do it! Now!
    • Now! God is about to remove tumors and break generational curses! Now, God is going to fix your job situation! Now, God is about to turn things around for you!

A.   Your Extremity Is God’s Opportunity 

  1. When I recognize I can’t do it, I have to trust the one that can.
  2. We try to hold on to it and say we got it. God is ready for us to release it and turn it over to Him.

B.   He’s Proven He Can Get It Done 

  1. Why not trust the one that can get it done? We won’t let someone work on our house, unless we know that they can get it done. We won’t let anyone cut our hair unless we are sure they can really do it. God can get it done!
  2. He was wounded for my transgressions and bruised for my iniquities. He can get done!
  3. Even if we can’t keep going, God can get it done. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
  4. How do we know God is able? Because the scripture says, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” …

III.            RIGHT TO RECEIVE ABUNDANCE 

  • This is about scale. It is the assurance that God can get something done that has never been done before.

A.   Don’t Settle For Just Enough 

  1. This is about becoming comfortable with settling and saying “just enough” is your destiny. Jesus didn’t die for you to be satisfied with just enough.
    1. John 10:10 NKJV says The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. – Abundantly is more than just enough!
  2. It is about a mindset. Your mind has to shift.You have to begin to believe you have a right to an abundant life. For example, we don’t just pray for a car, we pray to own the dealership. We don’t just pray to be able to pay our bills. We pray to have money left to put away.
  3. You ought to scare folk by the way you pray and talk!

B.   Declare The Benediction On Your Struggle 

  1. You got to stop your struggle from talking to you. If exceeding and abundance is what we want, then we don’t sign up for the struggle!
  2. This is about understanding:
    1. Divine Devotion – I know what God’s word has told me.
    1. Discipline In Your Decisions – How I live my life and who I choose to hang with, has everything to do with what God has promised me.
    1. Determination To Achieve Destiny – It doesn’t matter what comes in my life, I can declare the benediction on my struggle.

IV.            REMAIN RECEPTIVE BEYOND YOUR APPREHENSION 

  • If God is able to do beyond what I can ask or think, it means I have to be open to a different level of thinking.
  • God is able to do above what we ask or think. Just because you hadn’t experienced it, doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.
  • You got to be so receptive that God is going to do it, you pray beyond the facts.

A.   Pray Beyond The Facts 

  1. Pray like it’s already done! Don’t pray for stuff and then act surprised when it happens.
  2. Story: There was a church in the country, experiencing a drought. They decided to come together and pray for rain, for their crops. They planned to do this for 40 days. For 38 days, they all marched to the church. They wanted it to be a group effort. Mr George didn’t participate. He just sat on the porch and watched every night when they would go down to the church to pray.
    1. They began to get mad at Mr George, because he didn’t participate in the group prayer. They were blaming him for their prayers not being answered. They thought maybe their prayers weren’t being answered, because they didn’t have 100% participation from the community. They decided to confront Mr. George. Mr. George told them that the reason he didn’t join in was because out of 38 days of them marching down to the church to pray, no one took an umbrella. If you pray for rain, atleast look like you believe its going to happen.
  3. How should we pray?
    1. Pray For What I’ve Never Seen – You will be the first in your generation to believe God for something you’ve never seen before.
    1. Pray Expanding My Scale – Can you ask God to show you a scale for praying. God will put you into rooms to show you your future! God is not showing you your floor, He is showing you your ceiling! What He gives you will exceed what He showed you.
    1. Pray For It In Your Season – Please don’t let it happen out of season.

B.   Expect God To Blow Your Mind 

  1. When He answers, know that He will do something you’ve never seen before. Believe God for the miracle and the intangible.
  2. God would not have you reading this today, if this wasn’t a divine appointment for your life. God is about to blow your mind!!
  3. You have to posture yourself to:

V.            REAP THE RESULTS OF THE ANOINTING 

A.   His Power Is At Work In You 

  1. It will happen because of what God placed inside of you.
  2. The fullness of the Holy Spirit means less of me and more of Him.
  3. All spirits are not the Holy Sprit. The Holy Spirit is intelligent. For example: He won’t let you break your leg shouting.
  4. The Holy Spirit can’t be minimized to a shout! And know that every shout is not of the Holy Spirit.
  5. The Holy Spirit gives us access to the gifts of God. He also gives us access to the God language.
  6. In the Old Testament, God was always seen above on the mountain. Lots of interactions with God was done on the mountain, like when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. This was God above us. Jesus was born of a woman and became God with us. Jesus left us with a comforter, the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, God came down and got inside of us.
  7. The Holy Spirit in us says we have authority over everything in us.
  8. His power is at work in our lives. Therefore:
    1. You Acknowledge The Source Of It – You don’t take credit for it.
    1. You Are A Good Steward Of It – You don’t misuse it.
    1. You Share It – You are generous with it.
  9. Instead of being haters, you need to be a saucer and catch someone’s overflow. When God blesses someone else, you want to be the one that catches the overflow.

B.   Can God Trust You To Testify? 

  1. When God brings you from bottom to the top, can he count on you to testify. When something happens, the news wants to talk to someone that was on the scene.
  2. SYNERGY – This deals with togetherness. Paul writes that the Jews and Gentiles and tells them that God wants them to be together.
    1. They were together on one accord, and suddenly God showed up.
  3. SHOWING – When we are together, you can expect God to show up. God doesn’t show up without showing out!
  4. SPEAKING – In the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, the Disciples spoke in other tongues like fire They were speaking in languages they had never been taught. People of every nationality understood what they were saying in their own language. When you release something into the atmosphere, you are speaking something the Holy Spirit is doing in your life.
  5. SEEING – 3000 souls were added to the church on the day of Pentecost. We are speaking it and in Spirit, people understand, and as a result, we start seeing what God is about to do!

Take your envelopes out and raise them up to God and wave them into the air. Call out the things you wrote inside the envelope and ask God to do it for you. Speak it into the atmosphere, with belief that it is already done!

God is about to do it for you Now! Now watch God deliver on your requests!

We will be waiting for your testimonies!

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PART II: What I’ve Learned In A Low Place 

Posted on May 17, 2024 by growintheword

Synopsis of Sermon 05.12.24

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Psalm 40:1-3 KJV
1 I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.

I.         INTRODUCTION 

  1. Life is the best teacher. Some of us have gone through so much, we have enough credit hours to say that we have a degree in adversity. As you experience life, your perspective changes. You don’t see circumstances the way you used to.
  2. For every season we go through, there is a lesson. Low seasons can stretch you like nothing else. It puts a demand on your faith.
  3. Today David chronicles the pit as a horrible pit. The pit is translated from the word, Sheol, the same word where we get the words Hades or Hell. In essence, referring to the horrible pit, David is saying he is in a living hell.
  4. Our pit doesn’t have to be just physical. It can be spiritual, financial, emotional, and even mental. The pit reminds us that we will experience low places in our lives.
  5. Just because you’re in a low place, doesn’t mean you have to stay low. When your perspective changes, you can still see God working in these low seasons.
  6. When you read the Psalms, you have to realize that they are songs. They were songs that were about what was being experienced at that time. David pins this Psalm today, out of an experience that he had gone through.
  7. David picked this particular experience to write about, but David had a lot of experiences he could have pulled from. Remember David defeated Goliath the giant? David experienced betrayal from his own son too. He even experienced jealousy from Saul who turned on him. David also receives moral favor from God, over his indiscretions with Bathsheba. David saw that God was a forgiving God.
  8. David had a lot of reasons to pin this Psalm. Know that God will bring you out of your low place. The scripture today starts out by saying David waited patiently on the Lord.

II.         I’M SPIRITUALLY PATIENT 

  • David is saying that even his wait needs to learn to wait.  Psalm 27:14 NKJV says 14 Wait[a] on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!, Job 14:14 NKJV says 14 If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, Till my change comes.
  • When you wait, you have to wait right, you can’t wait with anxiety.
  • David said he waited patiently on the Lord. In other words, David was saying he trusted God in his low place. While we are waiting, we must continue to serve. David served while he was waiting on God.

A.  Sometimes You Have To Serve While Struggling 

  1. The waiter in a restaurant has developed the capacity to serve you. No matter how busy he or she is, they continue to serve you. Likewise, we are going to have to serve God in the midst of all that we are going through.
  2. Can you continue doing what God asked you to do, while he is delays you? You have to still be what God called you to be, despite what you might be going through.
  3. We serve the Lord with gladness and come before His presence with thanksgiving!

B.  Your Cry Has Not Gone Unnoticed 

  1. David says while waiting patiently, he also cried out to God and God heard him. Know that your cry has not gone unnoticed.
  2. When a child cries in a public place, somebody will probably say, “Someone ought to go check on the baby” or “Will somebody do something to make that baby stop crying?”. You start out being concerned about the baby, but later it turns to being annoyed.  
  3. If it is your child, there’s a whole different response. You have the ability to interpret gibberish. You know the cry of your child over any other baby. By the cry of her child, a mother knows exactly what her baby wants.
    1. How’s does she interrupt the cry? It is because of their connection. Just like this, God interprets our cries. Romans 8:26 NKJV says 26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession [a]for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. When we don’t know what to pray, the Holy Spirit makes intercessions for us.
  4. Know that God hears you. God not only hears you, but He also has a plan for you!

III.         HE SAVED ME FROM THE PIT 

  • We don’t appreciate salvation until getting into a situation where we can’t save ourselves.

A.  The Enemy Designed Your Pit To Be Permanent 

  1. The enemy wants you to be imprisoned by your pit. No matter how deep your pit is, God makes plans for your deliverance.
  2. You must see the hand of God in the midst of your situation.
  3. What is miry clay mentioned in the scripture? It is slippery clay. Every time David tried to come out, he slipped right back into his situation. We often are just like David. We’re almost out of our situation and something comes, and you slip right back into it.

B.  Only God Could Get You Out Of This 

  1. Sometimes your pit is just a setup to show you that you can’t do it on your own. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.
  2. When God shows up, he shows up to bring you out of it. God came to see about you!
  3. God is bringing you out of your situation even while you are reading this. If God brought Daniel out of Lion’s den, God can bring you out!  If God can deliver the 3 Hebrew boys out of the fiery furnace, He can bring you out!! We thank God not after we come out. We thank God even when we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.
  4. God doesn’t just bring you out. He established David’s going. That means God cares how you look when you come out.
  5. When you’ve been in a situation, it is hard to trust a new place. It’s like being in a bad relationship and you go into a new one, looking for something horrible to happen.

IV.         HE STABLALIZED MY PATH 

  • God is about to put you in a stable place.

A.  I’m Standing On A Solid Foundation 

  1. God is intentional by placing you somewhere solid. God is going to stabilize you. The rock is a foundation of your faith.
  2. The Word is a lamp unto my feet a light unto my path. It is a solid foundation. God is stabilizing everything in your life.
  3. After you come out stable:

B.  I’m Only Going Where He’s Leading 

  • God established David’s going. The real metric of your maturity is you don’t want to go places that don’t have value.
  1. Don’t Move In Your Feelings, Move By Faith – You can’t trust your feelings. You have to move by faith, not your feelings.
    1. Your feelings are subject to change.
  2. Don’t Let Your Friends Have More Influence Than Your Father – Your friend circle can lead you down the wrong path.
    1. Have you ever had the courage to go solo and be all by yourself?
  3. Don’t Let The Temporary Fun Cause You To Forfeit Your Future – It might be fun on the front end, but it might be fatal for your future.
    1. We are not going anywhere unless God leads us there!

V.         MY SONG IS PUBLIC 

  • He put a new song in his mouth. Songs in the Bible wasn’t just music. Songs in the Bible were stories about a moment. A song should always remind us of a moment.
  • In Exodus 14, the Children of Israel were delivered from Egypt. In Exodus 15, they sang a song of their deliverance.
  • When you hear your song, the words will take you back. When you hear your song, you want people to know this is your jam.
  • If the song is not just a song, it is an experience.

A.  He Gave Me Another Reason To Bless Him 

  1. God gives you a pit, so that you can get a new song and a brand-new praise!!
  2. The Pit gives:
  3. New Insight – My perspective is different.
    1. New Intimacy – I see God different.
    1. New Intensity – My praise is different.
  4. The intensity of your praise is counterbalanced by your pit. If your cry was intense in the pit, then your praise needs to be just as intense, when you come out!
  5. Story: Bishop was at his Daughter’s Field Day event. He noticed that people started chanting, “We can’t hear you”. The reason for this was to get the crowd engaged and as a result, give the team more motivation to win.
    1. We can learn from this action. Our praise will encourage someone and motivate them to keep on trying, even though things may seem hard.

B.  Your Praise Has Power To Persuade 

  1. The pit is not always about you. It sometimes is about who you are attached to. It teaches them that they don’t have to be depressed about what they are going through.
  2. Paul and Silas praised God at midnight. When they sang praises to God, everyone’s chains came off, not just theirs. This praise is for everyone!
  3. One thing we have learned, if we praise God while we are in the pit, God will come and see about us!!
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PART I: God Is Up To Something In You And Through You 

Posted on May 13, 2024 by growintheword

Synopsis of Sermon 05/05/2024 

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III 

Philippians 2:13 KJV
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

I.          INTRODUCTION

  1. We should all be aware that God is at work in our lives. Before he formed you in your Mother’s womb, he knew you. God is actively involved in your arrival.
  2. Nothing just happens. When you look at your life and the events in your life, you think it is just for the moment, but know that they are tied to something much bigger. We must see ourselves on a journey and the events as something to get us to a place He has set for us.
  3. Eventually when you get there, you will realize that God was at work in your life the whole time. No matter the pain, you must know that God is at work on your behalf.
  4. In the scripture, Paul writes to the church of Philippi. He is concerned that they must become what God wants them to become.
  5. Paul reminds them that God will supply all of their needs and God will take care of them, just as the church had taken care of Paul. As a result, we find assurances of God’s help in the book of Philippians. For example, we see scriptures like, “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me”.
  6. Although God will supply our needs, we must work out our own salvation. God is at work for us. We have a human responsibility, however, to do what we can do and then God will do by grace, what we can’t do.
  7. God has started and completed something. He is now waiting on you to start it or catch up to what he has already started and completed for us. God sees further down the road than we can see. He already knows how the story ends.
  8. God is at work through us.

II.          THE POWER OF DIVINE PERSPECTIVE

  • You can’t look at your situation through human lenses. Don’t attribute all of your difficult seasons to being that of the devil. Everything bad is not of the devil. Sometimes God will allow things to better us.
  • God allows diverse moments because:
    • Sharpens Your Discernment – You can see clearer now, because of the situation God allowed.
    • For Your Spiritual Development – Look how you’ve grown. You wouldn’t be reading this now, if you hadn’t gone through what you’ve gone through in the past.
    • To Situate You For Destiny – God has taken you out of places and put you into other places. God was situating you. Some see opposition, when you see opportunity.

A.    He’s Working In All Of It 

  1. God is at work through all of it. The rain comes and no one likes the rain, but they like how good the yard looks afterwards. Your lawn looks good, because of the rain. There are benefits in the things that seem inconvenient to you.
    1. Job saw God in the midst of all that he was going through. Despite all that Job went through, in the midst of it, he could tell that God was up to something. This is why he said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him”. James says in James 1:2-4 NKJV, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
  2. God has not abandoned you. He is walking with you through it!

B.  He’s Working In You 

  1. All of us are becoming. We never arrive, but we are always striving to become. You are always growing and learning from all that you go through. Stop being hard on yourself because you are becoming!
  2. Sanctification – This is a process where we gradually become holy. It’s not an instantaneous thing like some people think.  
  3. Types of sanctification:
    1. Positional Sanctification – We are set apart by faith. We are declared holy by Him. We can’t work or serve ourselves in holiness.
    1. Progressive Sanctification – This is an ongoing process where we gradually become more like Christ. It is transformation by the Holy Spirit.
    1. Ultimate Sanctification – This is when you die and go to heaven, and you are made completely Holy. As long as you are in flesh, you have to work out your salvation. For example: Your car is dirty. Puddles and weather has caused your car to be dirty, so you go to a  car wash to get it washed. When you go to get the car washed, this represents Position Sanctification. The act of getting your car washed is representative of Progressive Sanctification. You are in the process of getting clean.
  4. Now you have to determine what kind of wash you want. This is determined by the level of investment that you are willing to make.
  • What kind of wash do you want for example? You may pick a basic wash, because you are cheap. The basic wash only covers the outside. The problem with this is, you look good on the outside, but the inside still looks terrible. Some people want the basic sanctification. This means they are holy looking on the outside, but on the inside, they are still nasty.
  • Look at how patient and resilient you have become. One of the scriptures says, maybe it was good that I was afflicted. Philippians 1:6 says6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; – God will always make certain he gets out of us what he needs for His plan.

III.          THE PLAN TO DEVELOP PROVIDENTIALLY

  • We weren’t designed to be static. When you are progressive, you have to be moving.
  • Actions tell me where you are on the spectrum of spirituality, not your age. There are those that have been in church all their lives, but they still act like infants.
    • On your job, people make you mad and if you haven’t been saved long, we expect that you might act out, but after 15 yrs of being saved, we don’t expect you to act the same over such situations. When you’ve matured spiritually, we expect you to act a little better and be able to better withstand things that challenge you spiritually.
  • Jesus took 12 men to develop. They became the Twelve Disciples. Any relationship needs a development journey.

A.    Don’t Fight The Process 

  1. We naturally fight the things that are difficult for us. Stop trying to just take the easy path. Take the path that will develop you.
  2. It is in the “no” responses from God, that He develops us the most.

B.  It’s Not About Where You Are, But Where You Are Going 

  1. It’s never about your right now, it’s always about where God is taking you. The size of your trial is always an indication of your blessing coming your way. God is setting you up for greater up the road.

IV.          THE PROCESS DISCLOSES PURPOSE

  • Purpose is only revealed in the process.

A.  There Is No Revelation Without A Situation 

  1. Everyone wants a revelation. Revelation never comes without a situation. For instance, the scripture says, “In the year that King Isaiah died… (this is situation), I saw the Lord high and lifted up and his train filled the temple (this is revelation). Paul was struck off his horse on Damascus Road (this is situation), then the Lord asked, “why are you persecuting me” and his name was changed from Saul to Paul (this is revelation).

B.    There Is A Season When It Will All Make Sense 

  1. We will understand it better by and by as the song says. Genesis 50:20 NKJV says 20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. – God meant it for my good.
    1. Remain Righteous – Don’t allow what happens to you to change you. You’ve got to be who you’ve always been.
    1. Remain Resilient – Don’t let people run you away from your purpose.
    1. Remain Resolute – Stay focused on your assignment.

V.          THE PRAISE WHEN DESTINY IS PROMISED

  • Praise happens when I know destiny is promised. God is doing this for His good pleasure. God knows what its going to look like down the road. If God allowed it, its going to bless you.

A.  If God Allowed It, It’s Going To Bless You 

  1. Whatever happens, if He allowed it, it will eventually bless you.

B.    It Was All For His Glory 

  1. You have to tap into those things and not be bitter, but instead be better.
  2. Every situation gave us a revelation. Everything we go through doesn’t feel good, but it’s necessary.
  3. Even though your route has changed, your destination is the same.
    1. Bishop tells the story of getting on a plane, trying to get back home in time to attend his daughter’s Birthday Party. There was a report of severe turbulence, so the Pilot told everyone that he would have to take another route back to Nashville. Even though they had to go out of the way, the plane ended up in Nashville on time, even though they still had to fight some turbulence on the alternate route.
    1. Know that if God changes your route, you still have a guaranteed destination. God is always up to something in and through you, even if you might not see it right now!!
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