MANAGING THE MOMENT Part 1:

Posted on May 6, 2020 by growintheword

Don’t Let It Change You

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Synopsis of Sermon May 3, 2020

Genesis 50:20 NIV – “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

I.            INTRODUCTION

  1. All of us must be aware that we are kingdom representatives. We are God’s ambassadors in the earth. When God allows us to walk in a particular space, it’s because he trusts us in those spaces.
    1. Often, Influence is given to us, not because we deserve it, but because it is a gratuitous gift to us.
  2. We have to manage these seasons. Influence has a way of influencing our character. Our faith means nothing if we don’t properly manage our Influences and our Moments.
    1. It is Influence that puts us into these positions.
    2. How you deal with certain moments, speaks to your character and your relationship with God.
  3. This season is filled with uncertainty. It is uncomfortable. You have the unique opportunity to manage this season.
  4. Why did God give this word today to us? It is because God wants us to manage our Influence and our Season.
  5. Look at the life of Joseph. Like Joseph, our life has a lot to do with how we manage Moments. Joseph’s brothers were jealous of his relationship with their father.
    1. Joseph has visions or dreams. When he shares his dreams with his brothers and they began to hate him for what the dreams said. As a result, they try and stage Joseph’s death. They place him in the pit to die.
    2. Joseph is found by Potiphar and as a result, he goes to Potiphar’s house, goes to prison, and there his gift is revealed. Joseph is then sent to Potiphar and he is elevated in the house of Potiphar. This causes him to be put into a position to save the Egyptian Nation.
    3. Joseph’s success and failures were all tied to how he managed the moment.
  1. Every stage of Joseph’s life, there was success. There will be moments where you and I will get tests like Joseph and you will have to manage that moment. Whatever happens in life, don’t let it change you.

 

II.            DON’T BE CARELESS WITH YOUR VISION, LEARN TO EXERCISE CONFIDENTIALITY

Dreams are given to prepare you for something up the road.

Dreams were not given to you carelessly, so you can’t share them carelessly. This is why you have to value confidentiality, because without it, you’ll create problems that you least expect.

A.     Everybody Can’t Handle Your Vision

  1. Joseph shared his vision with his brothers and on the surface, it seemed harmless.
    1. Often your vision will expose the insecurities of other people.
  2. Insecurities of others can hurt you. Be careful not to share too much. You have to learn to keep your mouth closed.
    1. Joseph’s brothers didn’t celebrate him. They became jealous of him.

B.     Discretion Will Keep You Out Of Ditches

  1. Joseph’s own bothers put him into a ditch to die. Joseph shared his dreams, too soon. You can’t share your dreams with everyone, because this will make you a target.

Proverbs 2:11 NIV – “Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.”- You can’t quote silence.

  1. Loose lips sink ships. You have to learn in some moments to keep your mouth closed.

III.            DEMONSTRATE CREDIBILITY AND CHARACTER

Character is behavior on display. Potiphar sees a guy in a ditch and rescues him, then he lets him work in his house. Joseph doesn’t let his status change who he is.

A.     Serve With Excellence Regardless Of The Situation

  1. Can you serve with excellence regardless of your situation? Joseph is used to having a coat with many colors and he’s used to favor, but now he’s a servant in the house of Potiphar. Joseph keeps serving with excellence.
    1. If you are faithful over a few things, God will make you ruler over much. If you can serve God during your little, He will bless you with much!

B.     No Matter The Cost Refuse To Compromise

  1. The bible says why Joseph is being elevated in house of Potiphar, Potiphar’s wife shows up. She makes an advance on Joseph. Watch his character. Character is who you are when no one is looking.
    1. Joseph doesn’t allow n 1 hour thrill to mess up the destiny that God over his life. Joseph realizes that what God is doing over his life is bigger than the attack that is about to come at him.
    2. When you experience some of the things that Joseph experiences, you are going through these seasons.
  2. Some of these seasons are:
    1. Conjured Up Accusations
      1. People will make up things on you.
    2. Character Assassination
      1. The devil will try to kill your character.
    3. Career Alterations
      1. The devil wants to mess up your destiny.
    4. Keep being what God called you to be. Your calling cannot be contained.

IV.            OUR CALLING CANNOT BE CONTAINED

Joseph ends up in prison, though he stood on his character. Prison doesn’t have to be just a physical place. It can also be a state of mind. You can be in prison on your job, in your home, or even in your church.

A.     You Can Be Effective In A Negative Situation

  1. Joseph meets the Butler and the Baker in prison. Joseph interprets their dreams.
  2. Joseph realizes that he can still be positive in a negative situation. Joseph figures out how to be effective in a negative situation.
  3. You can put a child of God in a negative situation and they will still give God the glory.

B.     Your Gift Will Always Make Room For You

  1. God will put you into a situation where your gift is needed. God will put you where people will need what you have. All you have to do is walk in where God told you to.
  2. In t
  3. In this season, your gift will shine like it never has before.

 

V.            REMAIN CONSISTENT WITH YOUR CONVICTIONS WHEN YOUR STATUS CHANGES

  1. One thing that blows our mind is when God elevates people and they change. We have to learn no matter where we are in life, it remains all about God.
  2. Joseph was in an interesting place. God will place you where people need what you have.
    1. Joseph told the Butler, “Just remember me”, when they were in prison together and the Butler was about to get out. God has some stuff that is about to find you, even in this crazy season. Even in this crazy situation, God has some resources that is about to find you.
  3. Pharaoh has a dream, and no one is able to figure it out. The Butler informs Pharaoh that he has someone in his prison that interprets dreams. Joseph, just like that, was brought out of prison and placed in front of Pharaoh.
    1. Joseph interprets the dream. He determines that the dream meant that this region would have 7 years of harvest and 7 years of famine. As a result, Joseph told Pharaoh that he needed to store in the time of great harvest, so that they could live off of what they had stored up during the famine.
  4. Pharaoh elevates Joseph and leaves him in charge of distributing the bread or in other words, what they stored up. God is about to elevate you and you’re about to be a God is about to make you a blessing to others.

A.     God Didn’t Raise You Up To Be Bitter, He Did It For You To Be A Blessing

  1. We look over the things that happen to us that was bad, but we are not supposed to be bitter.
  2. Joseph’s brothers who threw him in the pit, ultimately needed him during the famine. God showed this vision to Joseph early and Joseph shared it too early. Youthfulness will make you think it is all about you, when it’s really all about God.
    1. When God showed Joseph the vision, it wasn’t about them all bowing down to Joseph. It was about everyone.
    2. God allowed Joseph to be put into the pit, to show him humility and that the vision was about God.
    3. When Joseph’s brother’s come, they were nervous. They knew that Joseph had every right to refuse bread to them during the famine.

B.     It Wasn’t Just My Work, But It Was God At Work Through Me

  1. Here is a season God says he is trying to show you something. God allowed you to go through so he could teach you humility.
  2. The bible says when Joseph’s brothers come, he has a right to deny them or get even. In Gen 50:20 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. – If you take the bait of bitterness and let it change you with hate and resentment, there are people that are trying to bless by what you are doing and what you’ve gone through.
    1. Joseph realized that it was never about him, it was always about God and his glory. You need to know that it is about to change for you. You’re about to walk through every season of your life.
    2. When God gives you influence, you have to manage the moment. Don’t be bitter, just pass out the bread. Don’t be bitter to the people that did you wrong.
  3. Sometimes you’ve got to pass out bread to the people that did you wrong, but God will get the glory. Can God trust you when He blesses you? Don’t let it change you, when he blesses.
  4. All things work together for the good of them that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. If Joseph had never been hated on, he would have never been in pit. If he had never been in the pit, then Joseph wouldn’t have ended up in Potiphar’s house. If Joseph had never been in Potiphar’s house, then he would have never been lied on. If Joseph hadn’t been lied on, he wouldn’t have ended up in prison. If Joseph had not been put into prison, then he wouldn’t have met the people that knew Pharaoh, that when Pharaoh had a problem, his gift wouldn’t have come to the forefront. If that hadn’t happened, then you wouldn’t have gotten to this place to manage the Moment for God’s glory.
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RECALIBRATE PHASE 2: , Bible Study 4.29.20

Posted on May 1, 2020 by growintheword

Realignment

Synopsis of Bible Study April 29, 2020

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III, D.Min.


2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you are disqualified.

  1. Realignment is the act of restoring something to its former or original state. To become intimately connected and actually engaged with God.
  2. Getting out alignment with God, does not happen overnight. For example, when you bought your car and drove it off the lot, it was not out of alignment. After hitting potholes and bumps, over time, the car inevitably gets out of alignment. As a result, you have to take the car somewhere where they will jack the car up and realign it. After the realignment, car won’t be as difficult to steer.
    1. Maybe the bumps, potholes, hills, and valleys you’ve gone through in life, have thrown you out of alignment. God is trying to get everything in your life, back into alignment.
  3. Alignment is the ultimate balance. Spiritual alignment centers around 3 fundamental laws of attraction. They are thoughts, emotions, and
  4. Your thoughts involve feelings that lead to certain actions. So as a man thinketh, so is he. When you are out of alignment with God, it hampers your ability to effectively do the work that God has called you to do.

I.            PRACTICAL SIGNS THAT YOU ARE OUT OF ALIGNMENT

Most of us don’t know how to identify the symptoms of misalignment. Some symptoms of misalignment are:

  1. You feel like something is off. -This is a hint that you could be out of alignment. Something is nagging you when you wake up. Something just isn’t right and you can’t put your figure on it.
  2. You’re still disconnected. – This often happens to a lot of people. You don’t hear or recognize God’s voice anymore. You don’t have the passion for Christ you used to have or maybe you don’t recognize God speaking anymore.
  3. External reality does not match what you desire. – What things in your life don’t look like you expect? For example, you desire one thing, but you are getting another thing. How you view this could be an indication of your misalignment.
    1. If you’re not getting what you want over and over again, it could be you.
  4. You feel stuck. – You’re connected to the One that has the blueprint and instructions for your life, but you still feel stuck. For example, we can’t produce, we can’t create, and can’t fulfill our tasks. You can’t produce if you are out of alignment!
  5. Tired and uninspired. Being tired is a point of life. Just because you are tired, doesn’t mean that you are out of alignment with God. You can have an overwhelming sense of weariness that hits your life or it could be that you are ignoring the desires of God to fill you up, build you up, or fill you up.
    1. Holding back part of your true self, is draining.
    2. The majority of people will stumble through their lives without noticing that they are out of alignment with God.
    3. It’s time to recalibrate. We can no longer just go through the motion where our worship is weak and our praise is poor.
    4. Our relationship with God is one who is living and breathing. One that is growing.

II.            HOW THE ENEMY SEEKS TO KEEP YOU OUT OF ALIGNMENT

A.      War Between Flesh And Spirit

  1. Its spiritual warfare. – The only connection your spirit has to the world is your mind, your will, and your emotions. You may start your will at the beginning of the day wanting to invite Jesus into your every moment, but the distractions of our day to day, pull us away. We are drawn to the desires of the world; therefore, Jesus has no space in your life.
  2. The enemy puts conflict against the Will of God vs the Will of Satan. You could be going through spiritual warfare and have no idea that you are dealing with that.
  3. It’s warfare.
    1. The desires of the enemy are trying to overtake the desires of your spirit.

  4. Not Sensitive To God’s Presence

  5. God could be moving and you don’t even notice. You’re in worship service and you just can’t feel anything. You don’t notice when God’s presence is around.
    1. In the beginning, Satan hated worship, because worship went back to God.
    2. Satan does not want you to acknowledge the presence of God.
  6. We’ve got to get to point where we recognize what God is doing and not what Satan is trying to do.

  7. Your Words
  8. Watch your mouth. You have to invite God over the enemy into the conversation. The power of life and death is in the power of the tongue. If you are not careful, your soul will throw a temper tantrum.
    1. Just like a small child, you tell them what to do and they rebel against it. Our flesh does the same thing. When God tells it what we should do, we rebel against it.
      1. Your flesh will have a fit when you bring your flesh into alignment with God.
    2. We have to watch complaining about our situation. When we speak negatively about things into the atmosphere, we receive negative results.

James 4:13-16 NIV – “13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.”- Let God have lordship over your lips. When we do this, what comes out of your mouth is God’s will for your life.

  1. You’ve got to get yourself out of the way.

Luke 9:23-24 NIV – “23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.”

Luke 22:31-34 NIV – “31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” 33 But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” 34 Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.” – Satan is always trying to get you out of alignment. Satan is trying to pursue people that have purpose on their lives.

III.            HOW TO ACHIEVE SPIRITUAL REALIGNMENT

A.      Spiritual Meditation

  1. The best way to clear you mind is to discover your vision.
    1. In prayer our desire gradually become God’s desire and our will aligns with God’s will.

1 John 5:14-15 NIV – “14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

Hebrews 4:16 NIV – “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” – The necessity of prayer is powerful. We have to go to God and ask for what we need.

  1. You have to get to a place where you are willing to just talk to the Lord.
    1. Just talking to God is where the reconnect happens.
  2. Prayer changes our attitude to thankfulness.

Romans 8:26 NIV – “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.”

B.       Practice Gratitude

  1. After everything you became and all that God has done for you, we have to pause and thank God for everything He has ever done for us. This is realignment.
    1. Philippians 1:3-11 NIV – “3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”- Paul said he was thankful for God and all he had done in his life.
  2. What God started in you, the year 2020 is not going to cancel.
  3. You have to have gratitude.

Philippians 1:6 NIV – “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”- By grace I will be confident of this word. Remember, in the 7th month things will turn around.

C.       Diet And Exercise

  1. Take care of your mind, spirit, and body. You’ve got to be in spiritual shape in order to receive what God has for you.
  2. You can’t operate in what God has for you, if you are not healthy enough to work in it.

D.      Be Committed To The Best Version Of Yourself

  1. You’ve got to use your God given gifts. You have to be committed to be the best version of yourself.
  2. Let’s stop talking about it and start being about it.

 

  1. THREE NECESSARY EXAMINATIONS FOR PROPER ALIGNMENT

  2. The Signs -Learn how to examine the signs. Sometimes we get in routines that have nothing to do with our passion and our true love for God.
  3. When we come back in our churches, you won’t ever be a spectator again. You will come back being a participator of what God has for your life. Examine the signs.
  4. Are we so busy that we don’t have time for God anymore? It’s to realign ourselves.
    1. We have to get up and pray, rather than getting up checking our timeline.
  5. Is the only time we pray during the prayer over the food?
  6. How You Got Out Of Alignment – Us being out of alignment has nothing to do with what is current.
  7. It is important for us to get back to the root issue. We have to ask where did we get off track? Where did we go wrong?
  8. Find out why you are open to be pulled away from God? Remember Jesus at the cemetery after getting off the boat. The man says, “Lord have mercy on me.” The man was hanging out in the cemetery. The demon possessed man was hanging around things that were dead. Jesus asks what his name is. He says, “Legion” which means many.
    1. The man had an issue. It wasn’t just his mental wellbeing. The root of his issue was he had demons inside of him.
  9. Your Technique Vs. Timing
  10. As you grow in your walk with Christ, you will discover that there may be a different routes that God uses, that will be far better than what you set out to use.
  11. Better does not always mean faster. Check the timeline that you create for yourself, and you will begin to realize that you don’t want anything outside of his timing.
    1. In this season, we want to make sure we are operating in God’ timing. You don’t want to rush the process.
    2. We want to be sure that every aspect of our life is a part of His timing.
  12. When a thing is in alignment, the blood flows properly. When your arm is pushed out of alignment, your whole body feels it. Though it is just your arm out of alignment, your body feels the pain from it. In like manner, when you are out of alignment, the Church Body feels it.
    1. When your arm is out of realignment, your doctor has to reset your arm. They have to stabilize it and keep it still, so it can heal.
      1. God is resetting you so that He can realign you. It is painful, just like the arm, but it is necessary. God is putting you where you need to be, though it is painful.
    2. God is trying to get you into realignment. When you seek God first and get into alignment, all things will be added unto you.

 

 

 

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RECALIBRATE Phase 1:, bible Study 04/22/20

Posted on April 28, 2020 by growintheword

Reassessment

Synopsis of Bible Study 4/22/20

Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III, D.Min.

Lamentations 3:40 NKJV – “Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord;”

  • Reassessment is looking at things differently.
    • Lamentations 3:40 NKJV – “Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord;”
  • Reassessment. It means to reappraise or reevaluate
  • Life now causes us to look at every decision and every situation differently. We have to reassess everything in life for recalibration to take place. When you don’t do this, you end up in a state of mediocrity. We need to ask questions like how can I be more efficient in my life?
  • For some, reassessment says something different has to happen in your life. Even down to how we have been doing church.
  • Life shouldn’t be a business as usual process.

I.            HOW DOES ONE APPROACH REASSESSMENT?

A.     Search Yourself

  1. Let’s look closely at our own lives. Most people don’t even realize adjustments need to be made in their lives.

B.     Ask Someone You Trust

  1. There is safety in the company of many counselors. In this season, you need people that will push you, counsel you, and tell you the truth.
  2. You have to trust that God sent these people in your life to tell you the truth. You can’t be offended by what they say when they counsel you.

C.     Seek God

  1. If you are obedient in your heart, God will show you. If you will turn your attention to God and ask Him to show you the areas you need to reassess, he will show you.

Galatians 5:16-17 NIV – “16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.”-There is a war going on. You got to be a spiritual person, around spiritual people, talking to God, asking Him to feed your spirit, so that you don’t fulfill the desires of your flesh.

  1. My flesh wants to be content and it wants to harbor disfunction and abnormality, but my spirit wants us to walk in liberty and freedom and fulfill the purposes by which God placed me on the earth.

 

  1. You have to spend time with God.
  2. THREE COMMON DEFEATIST MINDSETS

A.     The Delusional

  1. The person that doesn’t find value in this process. They think it is just fluff. They think they are too good to reevaluate their lives.
    1. We often run from people that want to reevaluate their lives. This makes you delusional. Stay away from delusional people. All of us have areas in our lives where we need to grow.

B.     The Reactive

  1. I don’t have time. I can barely keep up with life as it is. This type of person is working for God, but not working with God.
  2. Sometimes God will make you lie down in green pastures to make you take the time you need to reevaluate your life.
    1. For some of us, this is the stillest you have been in your entire life.
    2. Now you realize things that need to be fixed. For example, you find yourself throwing out stuff you never should have kept in the first place. You were just that busy.

C.     The Hypertensive

  1. This is the person too busy living life, doing worthwhile things. They are so focused on doing things for others, they don’t do the things necessary for them to get to the next level.

III.            THE IMPORTANCE OF REASSESSMENT

A.       Recognize where your time and effort is being spent.

1.       It gives you the chance to figure out where you have been spending your time?

  1. It gives you a sense of the importance of slowing down.
    1. 365 days of the year, you have this amazing time to slow down, be still, and think through where your time has been going. It makes you really process, where have you been spending your time?
  2. Where have you been spending your time, that has caused you not to be able to catch up on your favorite shows or read your favorite book. Has life gotten so hectic for you that you haven’t been living life, instead life has been living you?
    1. For some, you have been spending time with your children and you have begun to notice small things about them that you like, such as how much they need you.

 

B.     Recognize where your effort is poorly spent.

  1. What did I shift my energy to that did not produce results or fruit?
  2. What people did I invest in and pour into that did not bring a harvest back to me? When you reassess and think on these things, you begin to realize that you don’t have that kind of time or energy to be sitting on the phone, talking to people, wasting your time, and yielding nothing.
  3. Now you have a time, to reassess, because time must be viewed as a commodity. Time is currency and you don’t have it to waste.
    1. When you begin to look at it from this perspective, you begin to reevaluate, where did I poorly spend my time?

C.     Recognize Indicators of Progression and Regression

  1. Take an analytical look at your goals and see how you are progressing. Look at your goal and where you are at, and ask, “Why aren’t I there yet?”
    1. You can never reach your goal, until you understand what is hindering you from achieving it.
  2. To reach your goal, stay in your God given assignment. Like the scripture says, we forget those things which are behind us and we press towards the mark of the high calling which is in Christ Jesus.

D.     Reenjoy Your Best Moments.

  1. Be intentional about living. Have some do overs. You have to live. You can’t be sitting around moping. Everybody is going through this Pandemic.
    1. Take time to sit down, pop popcorn, put on a funny movie, and laugh. Life gets so serious, but sometimes we’ve got to just sit back and laugh.

E.     Retain Life’s Lessons

  1. This a great time to say, what did I learn by going through going through what I had to go through?
    1. Confucius Quotes. By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

1 John 2:27 (NKJV) 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you [a]will abide in Him. – There are some things the Holy Spirit will teach you. They are lessons you should learn about who to trust and who not to trust, what to do with your money, and what’s really important?

IV.            HOW SHOULD I ASSESS MY LIFE?

A.     Re-Examine Your Why

  1. Before you start back up, go back to your “why”. Look at your mission and your life goals and ask what is your motive?
  2. As you grow and change, your priorities will change too. Your goals will have to be adjusted accordingly and so will your priorities.

Luke 22:27 NIV – “For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” – Go back an examine your original goals. What was the thing you were passionate about? What was your why. What was your motive?

  1. Colossians 3:23 NIV – “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,” – Do it from your heart. Don’t be a people pleaser. You have to do it for the glory of God.

 

Philippians 3:13-14 NIV – “13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. – In moments like this, to lead through this type of season, your motive has to be right.

  1. You can’t let other people’s circumstances (or what they are doing) cause you to lose your why. Don’t let their what, cause you to miss your why.
  2. When you know the why, you don’t worry about the what. God handles the why, the what, and the when.

Colossians 3:23-25 (NKJV) 23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for[a] you serve the Lord Christ. 25 But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality. – You can’t please people, because people will change on you.

 

  1. Is your why having everyone to like you.

Philippians 3:13-14 (NKJV) 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have [a]apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.- The goal is my why. You have to examine your why? Is your why in what God asked you to do.

B.     Re-Establish Your Priorities

  1. Examine your priorities. Do not let your life try to match somebody else’s. This sets you up for failure.

Luke 12:29-31 NIV – “29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” – Don’t worry about what you are going to eat. Do not have an anxious mind.

  1. This is what the people that are not in the body of Christ do. They don’t have the coping mechanism that you do.
  1. Just focus on God. If He’s been taking care of you all this time, why wouldn’t He now. God’s got you.

C.     Re-Assess Your Commitments

  1. Don’t push away your new normal. If there anything we are learning in this season, from the church to the world, we are learning what is essential.

Colossians 1:10 NIV – “so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,”- I don’t want to do anything that is not going to produce fruit.

  1. If it doesn’t produce fruit or bless somebody else, why are we doing it?

V.            THREE SIGNS IT’S TIME TO CHANGE DIRECTION

A.     You’re Forcing and Nothing is Happening.

1.      If you’re pushing something and its not working, then you need to step back and ask the Lord why.

  1. If it is not happening, it may be a sign from God that it’s not supposed to happen.

Isaiah 48:17 NIV – “This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.”- God is not going to lead you to something that will be a dead end or endless rotation.

  1. Isaiah 58:11 NIV – “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”- When I get up, my son gets up. In the same manner, we as a child of God, ought to want to go where God goes. We want to be where our Daddy is going.
  2. If you need help knowing where to go, see the next scripture:

James 1:5-6 NIV – “5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”

  1. Things are falling apart around you.
  2. When things are falling apart around you, this is probably a sign that you need to reassess. God is not going to bless your mess. You have to ask the Lord to show you what’s wrong.
  3. We are recalibrating, because we are trying to get things back in proper order.
  4. Continual Signs From God.
  5. When you keep hearing the same word from different sources and it keeps piercing your heart, God is trying to talk to you. Everyone needs to reassess your life.
  6. This is a season where we need to reassess our way.

Lamentations 3:40 (NKJV) 40 Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord; – Don’t waste this crisis thinking you will go back to the way things have always been.

  1. Its time to reevaluate the things around you, so that you can recalibrate. You starting to reassess, then you start putting value on things that matter. It’s not about the things that money can buy, it’s instead about the things money can’t buy. Now you know what a good night sleep feels like.
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Don’t Stop Living Part III, Sermon April 19th

Posted on April 21, 2020 by growintheword

He Spoke Life

 

Synopsis of sermon April 19, 2020

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III, D.Min.

Ezekiel 16:4-7 NIV – “4 On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. 5 No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised. 6 “‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!” 7 I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew and developed and entered puberty. Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, yet you were stark naked.”

I.         INTRODUCTION

  1. Every child of God must know that God cares about you. One of the things we never take for granted are those who choose to login into stream services or read synopsis like this one. The reason we don’t take it for granted is because we know that tuned in are people with stories of worry, stories of rejection, and stories of recovery. You stay connected, because you are in search of a relationship with God.
  2. Yet in the midst of it all, we are here, believing God, because we know God is powerful enough to lift us and strong enough to sustain us.
  3. We know that His word is transformational enough to move us to a place where we need to be. No matter where we find ourselves, we must know that we are never beyond the grip of God’s grace.
  4. God wants to speak to those who have been rejected. God ordered your steps to this stream or synopsis for a reason. God wants to speak to you.
  5. Your current situation will not be your final destination. God is at work in your life. Your life and story is still being written.
  6. Ezekiel who wrote the anchor scripture, was known as the complicated prophet who God would use to give us pictorial images about what God was saying to Israel, his beloved people. Many of us today, will be able to identify with this prophecy.
    1. In the anchor scripture, Israel (represented by the baby) finds themselves in a particular space. This represents us.
    2. The baby was born in an open field, bloody, and God walks by and says, “live”. God loves his people, Israel. Regardless of your past, can you say, “God loves me”? When you see how this child is in this open space, it goes back to ancient days.
      1. Often defected or deformed infants were thrown into open fields for population control and sometimes, economic reasons. Open fields bring about feelings of anxiety and insecurity. You wonder how you got here in the open field.
      2. Like Covid-19, we ask the question, “How did we get here” and “God do you see me?”. This word is for your life, because God is not going to leave you where you are!
    3. God’s relationship with Jerusalem had not always measured up, but He still loved them.

II.         REJECTION WAS PUBLIC

This situation in our text, was set out there for everyone to see. It was about neglect.

  1. Neglect Has An Adverse Effect

Many of us as adults are still sensitive and react to rejection that happened to us during our childhood. Satan will use your past rejections to mess up your destiny.

Some adverse effects are:

  1. Not Cut – The baby was in the field and the chord had not been cut. This means that he was in the field and was still connected. Judah was connected to a nation that was worshiping idol gods and had not been cut from it.
    1. When we have not been cut from the disfunction of our past, many of us will cling to something and not be willing to release it.
    2. Many people have not been severed from things that can cause problems in our future. What are you still connected to?
  2. Not Cleaned – Back in the day, they would put salt on the child to clean the child. It would protect them from disease.
    1. Nobody thought enough to clean us up and tell us that God had a plan for us.
  3. Not Covered – The child was not swaddled. It was an open field, exposed to the elements. There are people that are connected to what they should not be, and not cleaned, and not covered.
    1. We need to make sure that our family is covered. Anything not covered will spoil.
    2. In the text, it looked like the odds were stacked against you (the baby), but note that it says that you are still breathing.
  4. The Odds Were Stacked Against You, But You Are Still Breathing
  5. In the midst of all that went wrong, the baby was still breathing. Many wrote you off. They said you would never make it, but we thank God that we are still breathing.
  6. As long as there is breath in my body, there is potential for me to get things better. If you are breathing, then like the scripture says, Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord”!

Psalm 25:1-2 NIV – “1 In you, Lord my God, I put my trust. 2 I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.”

Isaiah 54:4 NIV – “Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.”- God says he has your back in the midst of this.

III.         RECOGNITION OF YOUR POTENTIAL

God always sees your potential.

  1. He Pauses When Others Passed By – There I was in my blood. Looked like I wasn’t going to make it and God saw me. He paused long enough to see life in me.
  2. In another story, Jairus asked Jesus about his daughter, and Jesus paused to check on her. Just like the woman with the issue of blood, Jesus paused to check on here. We thank God that He paused.
  3. Give God glory for seeing you.

 

  1. He Refused To Leave Me The Way He Found Me
  2. God is not just other people who just sees you. He has a plan for where you need to be.
  3. The story of the boy at the pool at the gate of Beautiful, was still there, because people were satisfied just leaving coins. They kept dropping coins and leaving him there, still cripple. When Peter and John came by, they told him to get up! They actually did something about his situation.
    1. God says you are not going to leave this season the same way He found you. He will meet you blind and leave you seeing. He will meet you deaf and leave you hearing. He will meet you broke and leave you paid. God met you sick and left you healed. He might not come when you want him to, but when he shows up, He’s on time.

IV.         REVERSED YOUR PREDICAMENT

You need to know that God is about to reverse it.

  1. No Matter Where You Are, The Word Can Reach You
  2. God is trying to tell you that his word will find you where you are, when you need it most.
  3. At your lowest point, God’s word will find you.
  4. He Spoke To My Not Yet
  5. This baby in the text was bleeding. The blood found there was not from someone else. In other words, we are in a field abandoned and bleeding out.
  6. When everything said die, God loved you so much that he said, “live”.
    1. You are too blessed to go out and to go under. Your best days are ahead of you. We are speaking to your not yet.
  7. Release this word around your house, “live”. Everything connected to you will live. We come to speak life over you!

 

 

V.         RESTORE YOU TO PROSPER YOU

God is in the business of restoration. The women came to Jesus looking for healing, it didn’t just come.

  1. God Is Going To Move You From Subtraction To Multiplication
  2. God has caused you to multiply and bud in the field.
    1. Some of you look at what’s happening now and all you can see is subtraction.
  3. Your days of subtraction is about to be over. God is about to flip this and bring you into a season of multiplication.
  4. Constriction happens before expansion. You are about to start producing like never before. Our report is not everyone else’s report.
  5. Your Growth Will Be A Sign That You Made It
  6. Your growth will be a sign to the world that you made it. Your life will be a sign of God’s hand over your life.
  7. The same ground I bled in, is about to be the same ground that I’m about to grow in!!
  8. There was a bud. It starts out as a little thing. Start getting ready, because this blood will not be wasted. Every tear you shed will not be wasted. All the abuse you had to endure, will not be wasted!
  9. God is about to move you from whereas, to therefore. We are walking into our best life.
  10. Never give up on God, because “He will never give up on you”

 

 

 

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