Your Future is Worth Fighting For

Posted on July 14, 2023 by growintheword

Synopsis of July 9, 2023Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, IIIMark 5:1-15 NKJV Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3 who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.6 When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. 7 And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.” 8 For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” 9 Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” 10 Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country. 11 Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains. 12 So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.” 13 And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea. 14 So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that had happened. 15 Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.I.            INTRODUCTIONA.      One of the things that a believer needs to be clear about is knowing that you have an incredible future in front of you. No matter what people have said or what has happened, it has not robbed you of what God has in store for you. Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV says 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.B.      Gods plans for your life is so powerful, you shouldn’t lose sight of what God has promised you.C.       Even when you feel helpless or hopeless, you can’t believe your life is over. There is so much untapped potential inside of you. D.      The attacks you experience is not about your right now. Instead, it is about your not yet. E.      The enemy tries to beat you down enough where you don’t feel valued any more. Today we learn how to get your fight back. There are people in the stands eating popcorn waiting for you to fall. There are people that actually rejoice in your demise. Today you’re going to learn how to fight and win the war of the Assault of the Enemy. F.       When we look at Mark 5, we see demonic exposure. o   We see in Jesus Casts Out an Unclean Spirit . Mark 1:21-27 says 21 Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, [a]“Be quiet, and come out of him!” 26 And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. 27 Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, [b]“What is this? What new [c]doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”-released possess man from demon , o   We see Jesus perform an exorcism. – In Mark 1:32-34 NKJV says 32 At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.o   Today we see Jesus engaged with a man that was possessed by a demon. One chapter earlier, Jesus is sleep on the boat when the storm comes. The assignment was not on the boat, it was on the other side. When Jesus says go to other side, stop tripping on what happens in between. §  When they get to the other side, a man meets them, possessed with a demon. He meets Jesus and begins to worship him. The demons asked Jesus to cast them out into swine. The boy that was going through this system of attack is finally free of attack at last. On the way out, Jesus asks a question. He asks the demon what his name was. The demon says we are Legion. Legion is a military term meaning 5200 – 6000. This means the boy had 5200 to 6000 things wrong with him. The Lord shows us how to fight for our future. Your future is under attack!  II.            THE PRESENCE OF DEMONIC MANIFESTATION·       Some people think demons show up like they do in the movies. The movies show them with red suits and a pitchforks.They show them possessing people and making their heads turn around, having deep voices, and maybe even having people gravitate. This is not always the case. You must know that demons show up in many different kinds of ways. They can show up at lunch, in the choir, and even in the pulpit. Sometimes they go to lunch with you.·       You have to be aware of demonic presence at all times. Your natural man will say that a person is crazy. You have to realize that often there is demonic activity behind crazy behavior.·       Attacks would be easy if it was just the person. Attacks often are not just the actions of a person.  Ephesians 6:12 says For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. – So, we have to stop removing spider webs. The problem is not the spider web. The problem is finding the spider.·       Each one of us, have been used by the demonic activity, if we would be honest. It started with offense. When you got offended, your flesh rose up and then the enemy got into your ear gate and start controlling what you hear. Now you only are not able to hear what you need to hear, for your situation. Then he gets into your head. This is when you start contemplating stuff. Then it got into your heart. It made your heart hard. After that, it got into your hands. At this point, they had one more thing to do to you, before you would be ready to lay hands on that person. ·       The devil will give you a problem, but he needs a place. The problem for the boy in the tombs was the unclean spirit. The place was the cemetery. ·       Why did the people put the man in the cemetery? A.      It Normalizes Residing Among the Dead1.       Everything around you, doesn’t have a future, because they are dead. They are not able to respond to you or anything.2.       As a result of living among the dead, everything then becomes skewed. As a result of things being skewed, it affects your:a.       Socialization – You become comfortable hanging out with dead people. You are comfortable hanging out with people that don’t have your values. b.       Communication– Now you have conversations with people that can’t communicate with you. They are not able to talk on your level. Now you try to rationalize what’s not normal. You try rationalizing it by acting like you are assigned to save them.3.       There is a reason, the boy is out in the cemetery.

    1. The Community Does Not Want Him to Co-Exist – It easier to put him away, than deal with him When They Can’t Comprehend, They Categorize –  It’s easy to punish people as opposed to restoring them.

                                                                           i.      One problem with this, the chains is no match for the demon. This is why the man would break the chains. This symbolizes us continuing to go back to our disfunction. Whatever we try to do, it does not hold us. B.      An Out-of-Control Life of Self-Affliction1.       The devil has this boy in a situation. He goes to the mountain and back to the tombs, all day long and he is cutting himself. This is like us, going up to the mountain posting how well things are in our life, and then going back to the tombs, wallowing in our addictions and dysfunctions. a.       We look good in front of everyone, but they don’t know our private struggles. 2.       The devil won’t kill you instantly. He is trying to kill you one drink or one smoke at a time. Like the guy with the unclean spirit, cutting himself. We are hurting yourself. 3.       Jesus shows up, because He knows when enough is enough. How many of us want God to deal with our issue once and for all? Your future is worth fighting for!  III.            THE PROVIDENTIAL DOMINION OF THE MASTER·       Providential – This how God moves and when. ·       Dominion – This is power and authority of a thing.·       Master – This means teacher or one who is over. ·       When Jesus shows up, he shows up at the right time, with the right power.·       When Jesus shows up: A.      Demons Are Subject to The Anointing1.       Notice in the scripture, the demon submits himself immediately, because he knows who he is in the presence of (Jesus).  This should explain to you why people don’t like it when you show up. You have this same anointing on you, that Jesus has.  Like Jesus, your presence, agitates demons. This is why the demon said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.”2.       Demons exist, but they have no authority over a true Child of God.3.       Demons historically insulate themselves behind spiritual language or statements. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if you are dealing with a devil or a Saint. Demons use the same language as Christians do, because they know the Word as well as we do.  If you will remember, Satan quoted scripture to Jesus when he was trying to tempt Him. a.       Here’s an example: Acts 16: 16-19 says 16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” 18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly [d]annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour. 19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. – Here we see the demon saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation”! By this, one would think that the girl was saved, but the scripture says that this annoyed Paul, because he could see through it. It was the demon inside of her was trying to call Paul and Silas out. Satan tries to use church people to fulfill his plans. B.      Whatever He Cast Out He Reveals the Cost  1.       Jesus tells the spirit to come out of man. The demon knows he has to go but asks if he could go into the herd of swine. The context here is economy. a.       Jesus spoke to two categories of people. They were, Jews and Gentiles. Even though Religious Law wouldn’t let Jews eat swine, the Gentiles on the other hand, could. What makes this an economic situation is, there were over 2000 pigs in the herd. The demons knew if they possessed the pigs, they would be messing with somebody’s money. The demon wanted to show how much it would cost the people, to try and live without the demons being in the boy.2.       The question is, how bad do you want to be free? IV.            THE PROBLEM MUST BE DISCERNED METICULOUSLY A.      Be Courageous Enough to Ask Questions Nobody Is Asking1.       The text says Jesus told the Demons to come out of the boy. While he was doing this, Jesus asks what is your name? You can’t fight the battle if you don’t know what you are fighting.2.       The man is in the tombs because people don’t understand totally what they were dealing with. Back in the bible days, they named you by your issue. For example, “The lame man…” or “The deaf man…” or “The woman with the issue of blood…”.3.       Jesus asks who they were, so that the people might know what they were dealing with. The response was, “We are Legion (5200 – 6000 issues)”. All this time the community thought you were dealing with one thing, but there were many things. a.       We have the same issue. We often think a problem is dealing only with the issue that you see, when, they have multiple underlying issues. You have to peel back the layers and get to the root of the issue. B.      Don’t Diagnose the Reaction Without Investigating the Root1.       Legion means layers of stuff. You deal with one thing, and other stuff comes up. This is why we become repeat offenders. The problem is much deeper than you think. a.       You think she is mean or guarded or maybe has a bad attitude. It may just be a defense mechanism. b.       Anger – You think he has an anger problem, but he really got that way, because he saw his father put his hands on his mother. c.       Do you think a person wants to be an addict? It may have started with them bringing their Dad beers when they were young.  V.            THE POWER OF BEING DELIVERED IN YOUR RIGHT MIND                                                                                      ·       We have to stop over spiritualizing our mental health. This is the intersection between theology and psychology. ·       Don’t think because someone puts oil on you and lay hands on you, that you won’t have work to do, to get rid of your delima. You have a multitude of things that need to be addressed.·       2000 swine were calm, but when the unclean spirits were cast into them, they ran over a cliff! It was like they were saying, we would rather die than deal with this. This was the same spirits that the man had been dealing with all this time. ·       You can run the race, but you can run better without the weight. We have to deal with our issues.·       The boy was at the mountain and in the tombs and he was cutting himself. When Jesus delivered him, the bible says he was siting, clothed in his right mind. ·       We thank God for: A.      Through All the Trauma, He Kept My Mind1.       Thank God, because he kept your mind! Like the swine, we could have ran off the cliff, but thank God, he kept us!B.      I’ve Been Through Too Much to Leave His Side1.       Say what you want, when people gave up on us, Jesus stayed by our side. We’ve been through too much, to leave his side! 

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FREE AT LAST

Posted on July 7, 2023 by growintheword

Synopsis of Sermon 7.2.23

Delivered by Bishop Walker III

Galatians 5:1 NKJV 
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

  1. INTRODUCTION 
  2. One of the most important things to a Believer’s life is to live free. Many of us go through life not living free, because we are prisoners of our past. We really don’t know what liberty is.
  3. The Enemy doesn’t mind you saying you are free as long as you are still chained to your past. Many of us walk in doubt and uncertainty because we really don’t know what liberty looks like. This separates us from God.
  4. God not only want us to be free, he wants us also, to live free. For example, when God delivered the Children of Israel out of Egypt, the issue was not just getting the Children of Israel out of Egypt, it was more importantly about getting Egypt out of them! You can be out of something physically and still be mentally wrapped up in it, but you ought to be glad to know who the Son sets free, is free indeed. God wants us to be free of all Guilt and Shame!
  5. We are not just bragging about going to heaven. We want to live free, and everything connected to us will be free. We will no longer live in the bondage of the past.
  6. What’s interesting about Galatians is we run into people called Judaizers. These were people who said that they were Christian’s, but they held on to legalism or the Law. They would deputize themselves to enforce the Religious Laws. The problem is, they didn’t allow any space for grace.
    1. Paul tells them that we have been saved, and grace was what has done it. Paul preached that Jew and Gentile alike were justified by their faith in Jesus Christ without keeping the law. When you experience the Grace of God, you choose voluntarily not to be entangled in the hype of bondage.
  7. You have to get to a place where you want to be free of your bondage, instead of simply being afraid to be in it. There comes a moment you decide to be free of , bondage because you love God. This is truly living free.
  1. RESILIENTLY COMMIT TO THE FAITH 
  2. Paul shares that we have to live in this reality. Our belief is tied up in our relationship with Jesus. Our relationship cannot be separated from his Word because He is his Word. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  3. When I stand in liberty, I stand on my convictions, which is rooted in the Word of God. The Word then becomes the foundation of my faith. That means you are standing in the root of the Word.
  1. We Must Be Unwavering in His Word 
  1. The Bible speaks of the things that are happening in the world today. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 says For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables – We see evidence in today’s times, where people are caught up into whatever sounds good.
  • The world has shifted to a place where they only accept God’s Word if it:
  • Assimilates To Culture – If we can’t make it look like the world, they don’t want to accept it.
  • Accommodates Their Carnality – People won’t accept the Word if it calls out issues concerning their flesh.
  • Abolishes Consequences – People only want to accept the Word if there are no consequences for what they do. They want to be able to do what they want and still follow God.
  • We have to have an unwavering faith when it comes to God’s word.
  • We have to learn how to live by that Word. Other things will pass away and wither and die, but only God’s Word will last.
  • I’m Invested in My Relationship with Christ 
  1. I have to be consistent in my relationship. We don’t need to get saved and just sit in the pew. We need to stir up the gift that God gave us!
  2. Relationship is something that you have to work at. Relationships die when you are no longer willing to work at that relationship.
  3. You’ve been saved from things, but you have to put the work in to remain free. You fall because you don’t want to do the necessary work needed to stand.
  4. What’s necessary to work on your relationship with God?
  5. Priorities In Perspective – God has to be my chief priority. God wants to know if he blesses you, would the blessing get more important than Him?
  6. Positive People – You have to change your crowd. The people you surround yourself with are important. Often we adapt our crowd to accommodate our relationship.
  7. Pursue His Presence – We have to get to a point in our lives, where we want to pursue God’s presence, no matter what. When you have a relationship with God, you realize that you have to be in His presence. In him we, live, move, and have our being.
  8. Personal Prayer-Life – This simply means that we talk to God. When you’re in relationship with someone, you will talk to them on the phone until you fall asleep. When you are away from them, you just can’t wait to be with them again. In like manner, you have to spend time talking to God.
    1. You don’t have to paint your prayers with a lot of doctrinal King James verbiage, when you pray. When you have a relationship with God, it’s not the length of your prayers, it’s the strength of your prayers that matters.
    1. Even when we don’t know what we should pray for, the Holy Spirit helps us out. Romans 8:26 says “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans”  
  9. Passionate And Persistent – We’ve got to get to a point that our love is so powerful, that you wake up in the morning on fire for God. This is what makes you want to serve. Stand in the liberty whereby Christ has made you free!
  1. REAL COST OF YOUR FREEDOM 
  2. Have you ever thought about the real cost of your freedom? Freedom is never free!
  3. We celebrate the 4th of July because we celebrate the sacrifice people made for our freedom. In like manner, God paid a price for us! He did so, that we could live!!
  1. He Died So I Could Live 
  1. In order to be reconciled to God, there had to be a sacrifice. In the Bible days, people used to bring animals to be sacrificed for their sins. Jesus Christ became the ultimate sacrifice for us, so that animals didn’t have to be sacrificed anymore and so we wouldn’t have to go to a High Priest. Jesus became the Lamb of God.
  2. God loved us why we were yet, still sinners. He died for us!
  3. You ought to thank God that he paid a price for you!
  • He Left Me the Power to Fulfill My Purpose 
  • God didn’t just save me and give me a ticket to heaven. The moment happens where we get saved and we think that’s all we have to do, but no! It takes power and work to stay free.
  • When God died, it wasn’t the end of the story. He got up with all power and He gave that power to us.
  • God sent us a helper and a comforter. The helper in you gave you the ability to serve your purpose. God saved you to serve a purpose.
  • The Helper, the Holy Spirit gives us:
  • Ability – The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to overcome and fulfill our purpose. The bible says, “And now unto him who is able to keep me from falling…” It’s his ability and not our own.
  • Access – The Holy Spirit also gives us access. Access means I have access to heavenly places and heavenly resources. Ex – You get a key to your hotel room. There are lots of people in the hotel lobby, but you have to be given access to go up on the floors of the hotel. Your key gives you access to the amenities on the upper floors. Without it, you can only access the lobby. In a similar manner, we have access to stuff in our lives, but some of us are comfortable just staying in the lobby.
  • Authority – We think we need to have people pray over us when things go wrong. God gave us the authority to pray and speak healing over ourselves. Somebody ought to declare they have authority! You have to walk in it!
  • REFUSE TO BE CAUGHT UP IN FOOLISHNESS 
  • We are not supposed to allow ourselves to be entangled again. This causes us to be under the yoke of bondage. You must declare you are going forward because you know what freedom feels like.
  1. You Must Be Disciplined in Your Decisions 
  2. People may offer you one bite, but when you do, it opens your spirit up. If you are trying to get rid of something, you have to have some level of discipline, because you know yourself and you know your struggles.
  • When You Grow Up, There Are Things You Outgrow – When you grow up there are some things that you outgrow. When they pull the strings of the yoke on an ox, they turn, because the yoke is heavy. Getting entangled again, with the very thing that God delivered you from, means that it has become a yoke that now controls you.
  1. You are growing so fast, some people haven’t got the memo that you have outgrown some things. Some people are still trying to invite you to places that you have outgrown.
  2. You have to forget those things that are behind you and reach towards the thing that are ahead of you.
  • REJOICE THAT THE ENEMY DIDN’T ROB YOU OF YOUR FUTURE 
  • The enemy did not rob you of where God was taking you. Having said that, don’t allow the enemy to pull you back into that which God has delivered you from.
  1. Every Plot of The Enemy Was Blocked by The Blood 
  1. God blocked every plan of the enemy by the blood. There were some things that could have taken you out, but the Blood blocked it!
  2. The blood provided protection! The blood guaranteed healing! The blood yielded you sanctification! The blood promised redemption!
  3. Story – A woman was headed for an interview for CEO of a corporation. She has on a white pressed suit. She looks down at her lapel and sees blood. Her nose had started to bleed, and she didn’t know it. She asks herself, “How this could be? Not now!”

She asked the driver to take her back to change. While in the closet, picking out something to wear, she sees the 911 tragedy on the TV. Had she not gotten the blood on her clothes, and returned home to change, she would have been in that building when the planes hit the towers. If it wasn’t for the blood!!

  • What’s Ahead Is Better Than What’s Been 
  • Living in freedom, sets you up for the best that God has for your life.
  • Today we declare that we are walking and living in freedom! Now you are free to dance, shout, and worship! Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty!
  • Where there is liberation, there must be celebration!
  • David says, God brought him out of the pit of miry clay and set his feet upon a rock.
  • Give God glory for living and standing in the freedom of liberty! You are not going back. The chain has finally been broken!
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PART IV: IT COULD HAVE GONE ANOTHER WAY

Posted on July 2, 2023 by growintheword

Synopsis of Sermon 6/24/23

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Psalm 107:1-2 NKJV 
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! 
For His mercy endures forever. 
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, 
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,

  1. INTRODUCTION 
  1. God has been keeping attacks from us, so the attempt of the enemy would not come to fruition and so we would could see the Grace of God. It could have gone another way!
  2. Today we will find ways to give God the Glory, despite our circumstance. We realize God’s redemption is at work. We see that we have gotten out of stuff that we couldn’t have gotten out of on our own.
  3. God continues to flip things in our favor. His mercy took a break-down and turned it into break-through! God turned a rough climb, into a set of stairs! God took a broke situation, and made it become profitable!
  4. You need to realize that you’ve been redeemed. If God wasn’t on your side, you wouldn’t be here!
  5. We have many things to thank God for. It could have gone another way!
  6. You must share what God has done for you so that others can learn more about God. The most powerful way to come to God, is your own personal way. There are some that will look at you and realize if God done it for you, he can do it for them!
  1. WE RECOGNIZE THE EXTENT OF HIS GOODNESS 
  2. The goodness of God can’t be disassociated from God himself. It comes down to perspective.
  3. Some of us don’t realize that God is good until later on in our journeys. We must understand that:
  1. God Determines the Good 
  1. We don’t get to choose what is good. If we could, we would tell God to take all the bad things out of our lives. We would never grow or learn.
  2. God determines what’s good and he therefore decides what things are good for us and what things are bad for us. We don’t realize some situations are good until we are in the midst of them. We don’t see it as good when we first go into it.
  • It All Worked Together for My Good 
  1. God has a way of taking all that we have gone through and using it for our good. This is why the Psalmist says, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, because He is good”.
  2. Setbacks give you comebacks. You know that all things work together for the good of them who love the Lord.
  1. WE’VE BEEN THE RECIPIENTS OF HIS ETERNAL GRACE 
  2. The things that really make grace is found in this text.
  3. Generally, are vindictive. By this we mean, if someone does something to us, we want to get back at them or we ask God to do it for us. This is why God doesn’t trust us with grace.
  4. Grace says we are forgiven regardless to the sin we have committed. Grace goes past the walls and cleans up our sins. 1 John 1:9 NKJV says 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
    1. God doesn’t make you beg. If you confess it, He will forgive it. We can’t forgive your sins because we don’t really understand grace.
  5. Mercy- Grace and mercy work together. Mercy is holding back the consequences and Grace is not giving us what we deserve.
  1. What He Gives Me, I Don’t Deserve 
  2. God has given us many things that we do not deserve.  Without understanding our human condition, you can’t really appreciate fully that God has given you what you don’t deserve. Understanding this helps you to avoid the condition of entitlement.
  1. What causes us not to deserve what God gives us?
    1. Iniquity 
    1. Inadequacies  
    1. Inconsistencies 
  2. He Never Runs Out of Mercy 
  3. We should give God glory for his mercy. God’s mercy is connected to God’s love. His mercy endures forever.
  4. God’s Mercy is inexhaustible, or incapable of being used up.
  5. In relationship, we feel like a person will eventually get tired of us and limit our resources. They will then create distance and the lack of resources from them, begin to show up. This is when we truly begin to feel the distance.
    1. How many times have we created this distance from others? God says he will never step back from us. God doesn’t move from us, we move away from him.
  • God’s mercy can’t be used up.
  • When you pray, Hebrews 4:16 says Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.-
  • Psalm 23:6 NKJV says 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will [a]dwell in the house of the Lord [b]Forever.
  • Lamentations 3:21–23 NKJV says 21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. 22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
  1. THE REDEEMED EXPRESS THEIR GRATITUDE 
  2. You can’t know the goodness of God and sit there like a stone with no life.
  3. Being thankful is more than just saying “thank you”. It is an attitude. It is a learned behavior. Without the attitude, it is much like your child who receives things and don’t understand the sacrifice that happens to provide them with what they want.
  4. You have to train your children to pause and say, “thank you”. When you told them to say, “thank you”, you have trained them to appreciate the sacrifice it took to get them what they just received.
    1. When the maturity come in, they learn to associate the blessing with thankfulness for the intangible things. God doesn’t want you to associate your blessings with stuff all the time. When you mature, you associate blessings with love, joy, and peace, things money can’t buy. Give God the glory for the thing’s money can’t buy!
  5. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
  1. You Can’t Know It and Not Show It 
  2. When you get asked to do things outside your job, you realize for the greater good, you must help the company! Likewise, when God’s been good to you, you just can’t hide it. You have to show it for the greater good of the Company.
  3. In Acts 3, a lame man was dropped at the gate called Beautiful. After finally being healed, he walked, leaped, and praised God!
  • Your Witness Is Beyond the Walls 
  • When God’s been good to you, your praise is not restricted to the walls of the sanctuary.
  • Your Song – Songs were important to Israel. The songs help you to tell your story.
  • Your Story – If you don’t have a Song, you got a Story. In your Story, there is some glory!
  • Your Shout – Everybody ought to have a shout! This can be a bit controversial for some of us that grew up in a quiet church. Psalms 100:1-2 NKJV says Make a joyful shout to the Lord, [a]all you lands! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. – Noise is a nuisance for some people, but necessary for others. It allows us to express what we can’t articulate. It doesn’t make sense to you, but it makes sense to God.
  • Story: While walking to his room, which was near the Casino, Bishop noticed that ever time somebody hit, they hollered! As many times as God has done something for why don’t we respond in the same manner.
  • HE RESCUED ME FROM THE ENEMY’S GRIP 
  • He redeemed me from the hand of the enemy. The enemy wanted to control my life. To be in the hand of something, hand is the root word. If I’m in the enemy’s hand, it means I depend on being controlled by the hand enemy.
  1. The Devil Had an Agenda 
  2. Whoever hand I’m in, shows who is controlling me.
    1. Some of us are still feeling the result of being handled by the wrong hand. The enemy has been after your life from the begin 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.”, I Peter 5:8 NKJV “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”- God redeemed you from being handled the wrong way.
  • The Enemy Was Reminded That I’m Anointed 
  • Some of you can testify that no weapon formed against you was able to prosper!
  1. Psalm 20:6 NKJV says Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand. – God’s hand is greater than the enemy’s hand and the hand of whatever has been a handling us.
  2. To be anointed suggests that God has his Hand of Covering over you. When you’re anointed, you have divine confirmation, so you don’t seek affirmation elsewhere.
  3. It is a point of identification in the spirit realm. Anointed deals with a Greek word soteriology which is the study of salvation. If the Lord saves his anointed, something must be in a place that can’t be put there by ourselves, that causes us to be saved.
  4. In the Bible you see God save his anointed. In all cases, these people have been handled the wrong way.
  5. For example:
  6. Pharaoh wants to hold on to children of Israel (handled the wrong way). God says let them go!
  7. The 3 Hebrew boys is another example. The enemies convinced the king that they were beside themselves and therefore would not bow down when they wanted them to. As a result, they were put into the fiery furnace, but king sees the son of God in the fire. This means God was in there to bring them out.
  8. In Acts 12, Peter is in Prison, Herod has already killed James, and going to kill peter after Easter. The church is praying for Peter and God brings Peter out with the use of an Angel.

At some point, you were mishandled, and someone was praying for you. Brittany, the basketball player, was held captive in Russia. America knew Russia wasn’t going to kill her, because they who she belonged. Likewise, You haven’t been killed, because the enemy knows who belong to. God protects his anointed!!

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HE SAW SOMETHING IN ME, I DIDN’T SEE IN MYSELF

Posted on June 20, 2023 by growintheword

Synopsis of Sermon 6/11/23

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Jeremiah 18:1-6 NKJV 
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. 
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!

  1. INTRODUCTION 
  2. How we view ourselves has a lot to do with the people we’re around during the informative years of our lives.  We are a result of what we were exposed to and the relationships we have had both horizontally and vertically.
  3. Relationships play a significant role in our lives. Some relationships we’ve been part of, we had no control over being in them. You just happen to find yourself in them. Who we are friends with, who we marry, or who we hang out with, matters.
  4. When you have a relationship with God, it transcends human relationships. God made us in His image. When you mature you not only realize who God is, you realize who you are.

Story:

There is a story about an Eagle that grew up in a Chicken Coop, with other Chickens. He walked like a chicken and acted like a Chicken, but finally a day came where he realized he wasn’t a chicken.

All this time, the Eagle tries to be a chicken; because this was all he had known. He thought the Chicken Coop was all there was in life for him.  Eventually he realized that the Chicken Coop was too small for him. Even the chickens realized that the Eagle was different.  The Eagle realized that he was made to fly!

People look at you in this manner, because you no longer fit. You try to be hip, you try to be gangster, you try to be street, but everyone knows that you don’t fit. They know who and what you really are, even if you don’t know it yet.

  • God will do whatever he has to do, to mold you.
  • Todays scripture comes to us from Jeremiah. Here is some context:
    • Jeremiah was born North of Jerusalem. While he is growing up, the Syrian empire was in control.
    • During the time of this story, Nineveh (the place Jonah didn’t want to preach) had begun to fall, because of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar is in charge at this point in time.
    • God tells Jeremiah to prophesy to these folk. Jeremiah wants to do things right. He takes his call seriously, but the people on the other hand, are not taking Jeremiah seriously.  As a result, Jeremiah begins to complain to God about it

In the text, we see Jeremiah wrestling with God over his task. In the midst of his frustration, he receives a revelation for his human situation. Jeremiah begins to see God as a Potter.

  1. THERE IS POTENTIAL IN THE CLAY 
  2. Jeremiah sees a revelation of how God deals with his people. God is the Potter, and we are the clay.
  3. Know that the clay will become whatever is in the mind of the Potter.
  1. Remember You Are Dust 
  2. Clay is nothing more than an accumulation of dust. No matter what we accomplish or who we become, we’re nothing more than dressed up dust.
    1. Gen 3:19 says “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.””- We are dust, and we never need to lose sight of our dust-ness.
  3. When God molds us, he starts with the very essence of who we are, flaws and all.
  • There Is Destiny on You 
  • In the text, the Potter took the clay and worked with it, even though it was marred. He kept working on it because he saw something in it!
  • While we are struggling to remember how good God has been to us, we have to remember the scripture that says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV
  • The reason you endured what you did before coming to the Potter, was because of your destiny.
  1. THE PROCESS OF BEING CRAFTED 

  2. We are a work in process. We have not arrived.
  3. The Stages of the Potter is interesting. Here are some of them:
  1. God Begins with The End in Mind 
  2. You have to look at the end sometimes, to learn what it takes to accomplish the goal. Jeremiah 1:5 NKJV  says ““Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”” – Everything God allows, you have to accept. It is part of your becoming.
  3. The Potter never puts a lump of clay on the wheel without having something in mind for it. While God is working on you, he already has something in mind for you.
  4. God’s hands might be painful, but what he has in mind is worth it. God always has you on his mind. Our live isppam in his hands.
  • God Is at Work in All of It 
  • As you were maturing during the process, the Potter was working at the wheel. He never takes his hand off the wheel.
  • There were some tough seasons, but God was still at work. The more God is at work, the more spinning on the wheel you will experience.
  • Before you came to God, you were just a lump of clay. He put you on the wheel and started spinning you. This is why it seems like it’s been one thing after another, happening in your life.
  • Praise God you stayed on the wheel. Your life is not out of control, it is spinning in control on the wheel.
    • Everyone who came in and out of your life, was in control. They might not be under your control, but they were under the control of the Potter. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”Romans 8:28 NKJV
  • YOU CAN BE IN HIS PRESENCE AND STILL BE CRACKED 
  • This reveals a lesson. None of us have arrived, but we are becoming.
  • Under His covering, the clay was still marred, but the Potter didn’t just throw the clay away. He just remade it, new again, a new vessel.
  1. He Knows What Clay Is Capable of 
  2. God, the Potter, knows how fragile you are. He knows your issues and He knows what he has to deal with concerning you. The clay has flaws, but the Potter believes in it’s (our) potential.
  3. Your Imperfections Will Never Cause Him to Let You Go 
  4. God never took his hands off of you. His grace and mercy says, he won’t let us go.
  5. I WILL PRAISE HIM THAT MY CRACKS WERE CORRECTED 
  1. He Believed Beyond my Blemish
  2. He made what was pleasing in his eyes.
  3. God kept working with us and while working with us:

1. He sheltered us – He could have thrown us away, but he was committed to correcting our cracks.

2. He Salvaged us – God looked beyond our faults. This is why you can’t judge people. We are here because God salvaged us.

  • He Restored Me as If It Never Happened
  • Restored Vision – He restored us to a point where it looks like it never happened.
  • Restored My Value – He comes in, never takes his hand off you, and when He’s done, it’s like it never happened. Now the same clay that was with flaw, is now a beautiful vessel. The Potter didn’t allow my flaw to hurt my value.
  • Restored me to a place of victory. – What do you do when what you see in your hands is not what you have seen in your head? What do you do when that job is not what you’ve seen in your head? What do you do when that kid doesn’t look like what you’ve seen in your head? What do you do when that relationship doesn’t look like what you’ve seen in your head?
    • God made it(us) into another. Can you imagine what the angels said while watching God’s actions concerning Mankind? God didn’t throw mankind away. He just made it again, another vessel!
  • We throw away flawed things, but God remakes it again.  Jer 18:4 says – 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. – What do you do with used clay. It seems like it would be better to throw it away and start again. Only a Master can take marred clay and make it another.
  • The same vessel that didn’t look like what the Potter had in mind was made again, another Vessel!
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