Participants:
Series Code: BOLS
Program Code: BOLS000134S
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00:06 #S070 - “Stop Watching Other People Eat” (Part 1)
00:20 I want to invite you to remain standing 00:21 because we go to the scriptures today. 00:22 Judges, chapter six. 00:24 Judges, chapter six. 00:26 And we're going to begin together 00:27 at verse number one, judges chapter six. 00:31 And we will begin together at verse number one. 00:35 When you get there, let me hear you say a man 00:39 judges. 00:39 Chapter six. 00:42 We're going to look together at verse number one. 00:46 You get there, you see past the room there. 00:49 I'm going to try to be quick today. 00:55 I just said them a try and we'll see where it lands. 01:01 The Bible says then the children of Israel 01:04 did evil in the sight of the Lord. 01:07 So I want you to notice how the Lord responds to this 01:10 so the Lord deliver them into the hand of 01:13 Midian for seven years, 01:16 and the hand of 01:17 Midian prevailed against Israel because of the midnights. 01:21 The children of Israel made for themselves dens, 01:25 the caves and the strongholds which are in the mountains. 01:28 And so it was when ever Israel had sown 01:32 Midian nights would come up also a malachite 01:36 and the people of the east would come up against them. 01:40 Then they would encamped 01:41 against them and destroy the produce of the earth 01:45 as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance for Israel. 01:49 Neither she nor ox 01:50 nor donkey, for they would come up with their livestock 01:54 and their tents coming in as numerous as locusts. 01:59 Both they and the camels were without number 02:02 and they would enter the land to destroy it. 02:05 So Israel was greatly impoverished 02:08 because of the midnights 02:09 and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord 02:13 and it came to pass when the children of Israel 02:15 cried out to the Lord because of the midnight, 02:18 so that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel 02:21 who sent them to them. 02:22 Thus they as the Lord God of Israel. 02:24 I brought you up out of Egypt and brought you out of the house 02:28 of bondage, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians 02:33 and out of the hand of all those who oppressed you 02:35 and drove them out before you and gave you what 02:40 their name. 02:42 Also, I said unto you, I am the Lord your God. 02:46 Do not fear the God of the Emirates 02:49 in whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice. 02:53 Verse 11 02:55 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terrible tree 03:00 which was in O'Farrell, which belonged to Joash the Beza 03:04 right while his son Gideon Thrace, wheat in the wine 03:08 press in order to hide it from the midnight, 03:13 and the Angel of the Lord appeared 03:15 to him, 03:16 anybody ever thankful that God still appears to His people? 03:19 The Bible says the angel of the Lord appeared to him 03:22 and said unto him, 03:24 the Lord is with you, mighty men of valor 03:28 and Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, 03:32 if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? 03:36 And where are all His miracles which our father 03:40 has told us about? 03:41 Saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from the land of Egypt? 03:46 Now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us 03:48 into the hands of the mighty. 03:50 And then the Lord turned to him and said, 03:54 Go in this might of yours 03:57 and you shall save Israel from the hand of the midnight. 04:01 Have I not sent you? 04:05 And again I want to reprint persist verse number four. 04:08 Then they went in camp against them 04:09 and destroyed the produce of the earth 04:12 as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance for Israel. 04:17 Neither sheep nor ox 04:20 nor donkey today states for a little while. 04:22 I want to talk to you under the subject. 04:24 Stop watching other people, even 04:28 stop watching other people eat. 04:32 Let's pray to God their father. 04:38 All that I have 04:40 in all that I am. 04:42 It's yours. 04:45 So, Father, I'm praying that in this moment 04:46 that you would do a miracle, that you would give us the power 04:52 to hear and act upon your word. 04:55 Lord, would you feel this space with your spirit? 04:59 And at the end of our time together, 05:01 may heaven along with earth rejoice 05:04 because your people have heard 05:06 your word in hearkened unto your voice. 05:09 So, Lord, I'm praying that we would not just see in this text. 05:12 Gideon But Lord, may we see ourselves. 05:17 Hide me in the shadows of the cross. 05:19 That Jesus alone might be seen. 05:21 That Christ alone would be heard. 05:24 And at the end of our time 05:25 together, let Jesus alone be praised. 05:28 Bless us. 05:29 To this end, we ask in the wonderful name 05:30 of Jesus, our Lord, and those who believe, say together, amen, 05:35 and you may be seated in the House of the Lord. 05:45 You know, friends, I want you to know that 05:49 I love our churches theology, 05:55 but sometimes I struggle with 05:57 our church's thinking. 06:02 You see, too often there is this willingness to embrace 06:06 small. This 06:10 so that we even 06:11 demonize biblical terms like overflow 06:15 abundance, prosperity, harvest, 06:19 because we see that as first day language. 06:25 We are the Church of prophecy, but we truly believe 06:29 all visions died with Ellen White in 1950. 06:35 And at a certain point. 06:37 CHURCH We've got to have testimonies beyond 06:41 just thanking God for life, health and strength. 06:44 And let me be clear, I'm thankful for those things. 06:48 But do you realize that those are mercies 06:50 that God gives to those who don't even believe? 06:54 You got to have a testimony that's greater than God. 06:58 Pay the bills and God help me till the end of the month. 07:01 And God, I'm just thankful to have a job. And 07:05 let me be clear, we are thankful for those things. 07:08 But I want God to do more than just pay my bills. 07:13 I want to be able to pay several people's bills. 07:16 Y'all not hear me today? 07:17 I'm not just glad to make it to the end of the month. 07:21 I want to 07:23 have enough and reserves so I can handle months of famine 07:26 when they appear. 07:27 In other words, 07:28 you shouldn't just be praising God for good health, 07:32 but you ought to expect 07:33 to prosper in health as your soul prospers. 07:37 In other words, you are not just thank God 07:39 to get the loan, you are to be the one giving the loan 07:43 and living on the interest that is repaid. 07:46 I don't want to just wake up in the morning. 07:49 I want to have a reason to wake up in the morning 07:53 and say, Please, friends, don't just take my word for it. 07:58 You need to hear and receive the language of Scripture 08:01 and Deuteronomy 28 did not God say to an obedient Israel 08:06 that if you walk in my covenants and keep my ways, 08:10 he says, I'll make you the head and not the tail. 08:13 I'll put you above and not beneath. 08:16 You will be a lender and not a borrower, he says. 08:19 The blessings of the Lord will chase you down and overtake you. 08:26 Do you realize, friends, that you are more than a survivor? 08:30 Romans eight says that we are more than conquerors 08:34 through Christ Jesus who loved us. 08:37 In John ten, in verse ten, Jesus said, I have come 08:41 that to might have life and have it more abundantly. 08:46 Ephesians 320 says now unto him 08:50 that is able to do exceed ingly and abundantly. 08:54 Above all, you can ask our thing and the problem is 08:57 that some of us 08:58 are still looking at me with this logical disgust 09:03 because you're still sitting on the premises 09:06 instead of standing 09:07 on the premises and apart church of our excuse 09:11 this journey 09:12 is a call for some of us to come out of survivors space. 09:17 God is trying to deliver you from a just get by mentality. 09:21 I want more than a barely passing mindset. 09:25 I want my life not to reflect my reality. 09:29 But my life ought to reflect what God promised to me. 09:33 Oh, okay. 09:33 Let me say it this way. 09:35 I remember church on my senior year in high school. 09:37 I was getting ready to go to the prom 09:40 and I remember I was blessed. 09:41 The date 09:42 had already been secured and the rental car was in place, 09:46 but I still needed to get a tuxedo for the prom. 09:49 And I remember that day my dad had given me the opportunity 09:52 to choose the tux. 09:54 In fact, he wrote the name of the tuxedo shop. 09:58 But what he did not do was write an amount in the check. 10:02 And so he said, Son, I want you to choose 10:04 whatever tuxedo you want. 10:07 And so I remember going to the place 10:08 and I saw the cheap tuxedos and the expensive tuxedos. 10:13 And when I was about to get the expensive one, 10:14 I thought to myself, This must be a test. 10:18 I began to get afraid. 10:21 I was anticipating a lecture on overspending, 10:23 and when I got home 10:25 and gave him the receipt for the cheap tuxedo, 10:29 he actually began to fuss at me for spending less 10:32 than what he had provided. 10:34 In fact, he said, Son, your problem 10:37 is that you say too small. 10:40 If I was worried about the amount, 10:42 I would have written it in. 10:44 In other words, 10:45 if I didn't give you a limit, why did you assign a limit? 10:50 And what I'm saying 10:51 is that we need a church with a blank check faith. 10:55 And if God didn't give you a 10:58 limit, why are you assigning I limit? 11:02 You are to walk in what he promised us, 11:05 not what you think that he has designed you. 11:09 You are here in the world today, friends. 11:13 And so as we unpack the word a little bit further today, 11:16 I want you to just see some things in the Scripture. 11:19 You see, our text 11:20 today is filled with powerful nutrients for the soul, 11:25 but the first thing it teaches is that when you make 11:28 excuse says you wind up having to watch other people eat. 11:35 Let me say it again. 11:36 When you make a bunch of excuses, 11:38 you wind up in a position 11:40 where you have to watch other people eat now. 11:43 Now, this is a 11:45 very strange thing, because when you disobey God, 11:49 he reverses the promise of some 23. 11:53 Instead of preparing a table for you 11:56 in the presence of your enemies, he prepares a table 11:59 for your enemies in your presence. 12:01 So Jordan didn't catch that. 12:03 Instead of preparing the table in the presence 12:06 of your enemies, he prepares the table for your enemies. 12:10 In your presence you see here in Judges six, the Lord employs 12:15 a strange form of chastening against his very own people. 12:21 Now recall Israel has failed God in two particular ways. 12:25 The first is that when God gave them the land, 12:28 they did not drive out all the foreigners. 12:31 They allowed them to remain attached. 12:33 And the second thing that they did 12:36 was they committed idolatry in the land that God promised. 12:40 But notice what God's tasting was, not 12:43 God did not drive Israel from the land, 12:47 and neither does God curse the land or the harvest. 12:51 God simply lays up the bounty of the harvest for their enemies. 12:56 In other words, I need you to catch this. 12:58 He does not cause the land to be barren. 13:01 The land bears its fruit 13:03 and its seeds and the vine cast for its fruit. 13:08 When it is time the livestock grows in abundance, 13:11 God does not take away the harvest. 13:14 God just outsources the harvest. 13:16 You are not with me. 13:17 In other words, every year 13:19 the land this plus every year the land gives fruit. 13:23 Every year the oxen are fat. 13:25 And guess what? 13:27 As soon as the food is edible, the Midian knights come up 13:32 and they raid every thing inside and they leave Israel 13:35 with nothing but barrenness 13:39 and understand, friends that God had initially set it 13:42 up, that he would prosper Israel in such a way 13:47 that when the other nations watched them eat, 13:51 it would make them curious about God. 13:53 But because they became curious about other gods, 13:58 Israel now is having to watch other people eat. 14:02 Now remember church. 14:03 This is 14:04 the land that God promised to Abraham and His descendants. 14:08 And God says, I'm going to bless the land. 14:11 God says I'm going to produce the land 14:14 and notice that God makes good on His promise. 14:18 God causes the land to prosper in an abundant fashion. 14:22 God causes the harvest to go into the overflow. 14:25 God does not curse what He gave to them. 14:29 He simply gives what was playing to them, to somebody else. 14:32 You all missed it today. 14:33 And the reason I'm saying this is because there are times 14:38 where we get discouraged by the prosperity of the wicked. 14:41 But how many of us know 14:42 that sometimes the prosperity of the wicked 14:47 is simply the blessings forfeited by the righteous? 14:51 In other words, sometimes they get blessed 14:54 simply because we are acting like them 14:57 instead of acting like him. 14:59 And there are times where we get mad because they 15:02 we think they're being blessed more than we are, 15:06 but they're only being blessed because of how we are. 15:11 Oh, Lord. 15:13 And see, this is important 15:15 because somebody is about to miss God's planned 15:19 blessing for your life 15:21 because of a season of disobedience, 15:25 you see, because you are not acting on the vision 15:27 or the dream. 15:28 God gives you God out sources the blessing of the dream 15:33 to somebody else. 15:36 Okay? 15:38 When God gives a vision or a dream, I need you to know 15:41 He also gives an assignment that is also a call to action. 15:46 And what somebody needs to know 15:47 is that when God gives you a vision, 15:50 the vision is not the 15:51 intellectual property of the one who receives it. 15:56 It is the property of the God who gives it. 16:00 And so if you will not act in obedience with the dream, 16:03 God is not going to cancel the dream. 16:06 He's not going to censor the dream. 16:08 He's simply 16:09 go reassign it to somebody who's going to do something with it. 16:12 You are not acting like now hear me today 16:15 and see, this is critical because there are some of us 16:18 that are just content to be dreamers. 16:23 See, we love to run around in church world 16:27 and talk about how we see things and the spirit 16:30 and how God gives us visions and dreams 16:33 and how God showed you something in the night sees it. 16:37 And for many of us, the dream alone is the trophy. 16:42 But how many of us know that 16:43 only about 5% of those who receive dreams 16:48 actually act upon the dream that God has given them? 16:51 But I need somebody to know 16:53 that visions are not for your spiritual entertainment. 16:57 Visions are not for your church potluck conversation. 17:01 Visions are a call to act upon that with God 17:04 has put in your hearts. 17:07 I see friends of mine. 17:08 I need you to get that. 17:09 When you don't do what God has called you to do, 17:12 you show 17:13 that you're not a worthy steward of the vision God 17:16 has assigned to you. 17:19 You see, church. 17:20 If I don't act on the vision, 17:23 I miss out on the provision. 17:26 Okay. Okay. Yeah. 17:28 See? See, we wonder why they come in the back 17:30 if I don't act on the vision. 17:32 Are y'all here? Me, church? 17:34 I miss out on the provision and see like Israel, 17:37 God is not going to curse 17:39 the harvest that comes from the drain. 17:42 He's just going to reassign the harvest to somebody else. 17:45 Okay. Let me ask you this. 17:47 Has anybody ever been in a place in your life where you saw 17:50 something bearing fruit, you saw something blowing up? 17:56 Maybe it was an idea, maybe it was an app, 17:59 maybe it was a book, 18:01 maybe it was a song, maybe it was a company. 18:05 And when you saw it blowing up, you felt something like this. 18:07 I thought of it first. 18:11 Anybody ever 18:12 had that happen where you saw something invented on QVC? 18:15 Come on and say, man 18:17 and you thought to yourself, Man, I could have did that. 18:21 But the problem is that when God gave it to you, 18:24 it was also a prompting or a vision for you to act on. 18:28 But guess what? 18:29 If you don't act on it, guess what? 18:31 God isn't going curse the dream. 18:34 Guess what is still going to prosper is still going to blow 18:37 up, is still going to bear fruit. 18:40 It's still going to be big. 18:42 God is just going to hand it to somebody else. 18:46 Okay? 18:49 I need somebody to be clear that God is going got somebody 18:52 is going to write the book you are sitting on. 18:55 Somebody is going. 18:56 Patton The invention you keep in your notebook, 19:00 somebody is going to act on the idea that you're 19:02 smothering somebody who's going to publish the recipe. 19:05 God gave you. 19:07 Somebody is going to marry 19:08 that woman you are taking for granted 19:11 saying you're going to be mad and 38 hot when you having 19:15 to watch somebody else eat are you are hear me today 19:18 and I need somebody to be 19:19 clear that the vision is not your intellectual property. 19:22 It belongs to God 19:24 and see, the message for somebody today 19:28 is that when you see others being blessed 19:30 and you see others eating, guess what? 19:31 We ought to rejoice with those who rejoice. 19:35 The truth is that you ought to congratulate 19:36 those who are walking in calling. 19:38 The truth is that you ought to celebrate 19:40 and not become a hater. 19:42 But how many of us are at a place 19:43 where, even though I'm glad to watch you eat, 19:46 I'm not content 19:47 to just sit at the table watching you chow down. 19:51 I want to eat as well. 19:53 I don't want to just sit and watch. 19:55 I want to eat if I'm at the table. 19:59 Listen, listen. 20:00 I just this last week, 20:01 my brother and his wife and my nine month old niece, 20:05 they were here in town for Mother's Day weekend. 20:08 And it's funny because like I remember, 20:08 we would sit down at the 20:10 table and eat and my niece, nine months has just moved past 20:13 the point where she's graduating from milk to table food. 20:18 And it's funny because one time 20:19 my brother took a little too long getting her her food. 20:23 And so we're all sitting down at the table 20:26 and she sits down and she looks to the left 20:27 then and smiles and she looks to the right. But. 20:30 But nobody's feeding her anything but quickly. 20:33 That smile turned into a frown, and all of a sudden 20:36 she took that sippy cup and start banging it on the table. 20:40 And all of a sudden 20:41 she began to grab my brother's arm and try to steer his spoon. 20:45 And after a while 20:46 she grabbed her daddy's shirt and began to yank on it. 20:49 And after a while she grabbed the beard in his face 20:54 to let him know, 20:56 Daddy, I'm not just sitting here to watch it. 21:00 I'm here because I'm hungry and I need something to eat. 21:06 And I just need to know, do I have $0.07? 21:09 Donald, grab your daddy's hand and grab your daddy's shirt 21:14 and grab your daddy's beard and say, Lord, 21:17 I don't want to just sit at the table. 21:20 I'm tired of watching other people. 21:23 We Are y'all here? 21:25 Me today? Friends. 21:28 Come on. 21:30 Second thing this teaches church is that when God calls you, 21:34 he calls from the future. 21:40 You notice 21:45 that God steps into a space with Gideon 21:49 where Gideon is actually trying not to be noticed. 21:53 The reason he is threshing wheat in a wine press is so that 21:58 his activity will not be noticed by the media knights. 22:02 In other words, 22:03 Gideon is making it clear that I'm not about that life. 22:07 I just want to live and let live. 22:10 I just want to get my groceries and go home. 22:13 Y'all catch me today. CHURCH 22:15 But did you notice something 22:17 that when God steps into this space, Julian, 22:21 I need you to notice how he steps to Gideon. 22:24 When he shows up and appears to Gideon, he refers to Gideon 22:28 as mighty man of valor. 22:32 Oh, God. 22:34 In fact, man, there's a disconnect 22:36 somewhat in the conversation, 22:38 because Gideon is just kind of like, no, no, 22:40 you must not be talking to me. 22:42 In fact, man, I'm the weakest man from the weakest tribe. 22:46 When God refers to him 22:48 as mighty man of valor, Gideon, just like, Oh, you must think 22:52 I'm one of my brothers. You'll 22:53 never confuse me and listen all the time we look alike. 22:58 But that's not really. I'm not really that one. 23:01 But God shows up and calls him not what he is. 23:09 God doesn't call him what He is. 23:12 God calls him what He will become 23:16 and see. 23:17 The reason that Gideon is missing it is because 23:21 he's operating in the space of assessment 23:25 and God is operating in this space of prophecy. 23:27 Oh, you're not hearing me the day 23:30 to. The reason 23:31 that Gideon is missing this moment is he's so busy 23:35 a setting his family and assessing his history 23:39 and assessing his capability that he's missing out 23:43 on what God is actually prophesy saying about him 23:48 and see if this is critical for somebody today. 23:51 Because I need you to get out of the assessment 23:54 business. 23:58 I need somebody to be clear on this truth 24:02 that you will never do anything for the glory of God 24:07 if you always live your life assessing what He is. 24:12 Because God, when He calls 24:13 us, He doesn't call us what we are. 24:18 He calls us 24:19 what we shall 24:24 take your time. 24:25 He calls us what we saw become and see. 24:28 The problem is that when you spend 24:30 your life in assessment, you live in a limited reality. 24:35 You see, the truth 24:36 is that some of us are planning our future finances 24:40 based upon our current financial assessment. 24:42 There are some 24:43 that are planning our ministry initiatives based on assessment 24:47 of the size of the team. 24:48 Right now, some of us are planning our romantic future 24:53 based upon the current crop that is before us. 24:56 And I need you to get to a place where you don't live your life 25:00 based upon what you can assess in the present. 25:02 But you got to live your life 25:03 according to what God says about your future. 25:08 Can I say this to somebody in the church? 25:09 You got to learn how to live your life with your eyes closed. 25:17 Because how many of us live in a space 25:19 where sometimes you see 25:20 something different when you close your eyes 25:24 than you do when you open your eyes and see 25:27 God speaks to us sometimes when our eyes are closed. 25:32 But what happens is you've got to always be mindful 25:35 to never interpret your vision through the lens of your sight. 25:41 Because how many of us know that sight will corrupt vision? 25:45 Sight will discredit vision. 25:47 Sight will overwhelm vision. 25:50 Sight will make you think that the vision was a hallucination, 25:54 simply because sometimes what you see when you close your eyes 25:58 won't match what you see when you open your eyes 26:02 and see friends of mine. 26:03 I need you to know that God is not here in the present. 26:08 Looking forward 26:09 to the future. 26:13 Know that Jesus said when he introduced himself 26:16 to the church in Revelation. 26:17 He says, I am the one who was and is 26:22 and I'm the one who is to come so 26:24 that God is not in the present, looking forward to the future. 26:28 God is already in the future, 26:29 waiting for the President to catch up with where He is 26:34 and because God is already in the future, guess what He does? 26:37 He calls you from the future 26:40 and some of us will miss the moment 26:44 and you will assume that God is talking to somebody else. 26:47 You will assume that God is not talking about you 26:50 because He's calling you by your future name. 26:54 And there's somebody that don't have the faith 26:56 to receive what the pastor is saying, 26:58 because I need you to know you ain't even finished school yet. 27:01 But God is calling you mighty professor. 27:06 You haven't written anything, 27:08 but God is calling you bestselling author. 27:10 Y'all not here. 27:12 The music industry is hard, 27:14 but God is calling you Grammy Award winner. 27:17 Now maybe you can't get pregnant, 27:20 but God is calling you mother of three. 27:22 Maybe today 27:23 you're just a real estate agent, but God is calling you mogul. 27:28 Maybe your life is full of sin, 27:31 but God is calling you saint of the most high God. 27:34 Do I have seven folks that know how to answer to your 27:37 future name? 27:39 Thank you for joining us for the Breath of Life 27:42 Television Ministries broadcast with Pastor Debleaire Snell. 27:48 We hope and pray that you have been blessed 27:50 by this fourth message in the new sermon series 27:55 ExcuseLess Join us next week for part 27:58 two of the message “Stop Watching Other People Eat”. 28:03 You don't want to miss it. 28:07 (Breath Of Life Music) |
Revised 2024-08-19