It is what it is but not what it seems

Welcome to the Cross Power Church podcast.

You're listening to a service from our church in Campbell, TX.

We pray this message strengthens your faith and points you to the

cross. Now let's join the service to

have your Bibles today going to be in Matthew chapter 13

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

starting off and be a few places, but how many is happy

today? How many think you got problems

today? Nobody.

Nobody thinks they got problems. You can walk around.

You can breathe. Yeah.

The place I went last week. Yeah.

We ain't got no problems, you know, to sit there and see those

that are in line to receive treatments for disease.

And it's no respecter of persons.

It's young, it's old, it's middle age.

So if you're healthy and you're breathing today and you're on

your way to heaven, you ain't got no problems.

They're only temporary. But man, I had so many.

I stayed up late. I got in late and I just didn't

know which way to go this morning.

But if God finally lied me out and, you know, I had a thought,

I wanted to preach on this, won't preach it later.

I'm going to share it right now. Everybody's got somewhere to go.

You ever know, you know anybody that ain't got nowhere to go.

I've seen some old men you used to sit and whittle and sit on a

stool and this act like they had peace.

They wasn't in no hurry, you know, but everybody's got

somewhere to go. And I had the thought, I wonder

what happens when the rapture takes place.

You know, there's people that I really think there's people that

will say, hang on, God, let me get this done.

I'll go in a minute. You know, I got to I got to get

this done. But everybody's got somewhere to

go. I just wonder how many is going

to be too busy to go to heaven. That'll preach, won't it?

But you chose to come to church today, so I'm going to preach to

you. Hey man, good to be in the House

of the Lord and I, I love preaching the Gospels.

I said I, I, I didn't mean to say I don't like like weddings.

I slip slip sometimes I ask if one time if I like weddings or

funerals. I said, well, I like funerals

better if I didn't know one. And you know, they can't

complain and a wedding is 1 big. This lady was sitting there to

go into this wedding yesterday and she said we're in the old

cotton gin. She said, remember anything you

say, somebody can hear it because it echoes.

And this one boy, he's he, he was there with the, with the

groom. He's that's the way I like it.

I thought that's good. You know, you go to South, you

go to Louisiana, you can see some real people.

They man, they don't care. They don't care.

But you go to some other place and it's like we put up a front,

you know, but it's good to be in the House of the Lord today.

You know, I preached this several years ago and it's just

one that stuck out and I've got messages stuck in book and

folders and sometimes they just stick out.

And I tried the iPad deal for a while me and it didn't get along

too good. So, but sometimes I'll go back

and look at some titles in there and and let's stand in the

reading of this because it, this message goes lots of ways.

But there was a few years ago it seemed that everybody I come in

contact with, it was a little phrase.

It's kind of died off somewhat, but it seemed like everybody

that opened their mouth, I would hear this statement.

It is help me. Y'all know it.

Well, it sounds cool, don't it? When you're going through just

saying, man, I, I don't care. It's just you know, it is what

it is. It's going to happen.

I can't do nothing about it. Say it with me.

It is what it is. And I heard someone saying that

they were talking about their life.

I said, well, it is what it is. And the Holy Spirit spoke to my

Spirit and said, but it's not what it seems.

If you're a child of God today, you're going through some things

that it is what it is, but it's not what it seems.

Because if you're a child of God, you have a hope and you

have a future and you have a God that knows the plans for you, is

to prosper you and not to harm you.

It may be what it is for a moment, but I got news for the

devil. It's about to change.

It is what it is. Say it with me, but it's not

what it seems. In Matthew chapter 13 and verse

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

24, Jesus was teaching a parable here and he put it forth to them

saying, and I love these parables that you want to know

what heaven's going to be like, Go read the book of Matthew in

the gospels. Because when Jesus said the

Kingdom of heaven is like he says here, it's like a man who

sowed good seed in his field, but while men slept, his enemy

came and he sowed tares among the wheat and he went his way.

He snuck in, he scattered some things among your field, among

the things you have planted. And it said he throwed these

seed out. And when the grain sprouted up

and it produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

You've got to understand about the terror here.

To the naked eye, the the terror resembles wheat.

It was very hard to to tell it apart.

In verse 27 it says, so the servants of the owner came and

said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?

How then does it have tares? I've had to ask the enemy that a

lot lately. I've sowed some good seed.

Why is there tares? Because somebody, the enemy

sneaks in and he said to them, an enemy has done this.

The servant said to him, do you want us then to go and gather

them up? This is Jesus talking.

But he said, no, you know, we're good at gathering.

I think sometimes the body of Christ is so focused on the

terror, we missed the real task at hand.

We got to get rid of the tear because we ain't, come on, we

ain't saw some issues in our life and we're afraid the tear

is going to get on us. Amen.

So we got to get away from that tear.

We got to pull it. Jesus looked at it totally

different because he knew that it is what it is, but it ain't

what it seems because there's something on the inside of me

that can withstand the tear. Hello.

But he said no, unless you gather up the tears, you might

root up some wheat with them. I like that.

But look what he said right here.

Let both grow together. Let both grow together until the

harvest. Can I tell you there's a great

harvest coming? And at that time of the harvest,

I will say to the reapers first gather the tares and bind them

in bundles and burn them. I like this right here, but

gather the wheat into my barn. Father, we come before you

today. We thank you for your love and

your mercy. We thank you for the anointing

to preach the gospel once again in Jesus name.

Amen. A statement that seems to be

used more and more today, but when I hear it, it really gets

up in my spirit because many times we're just accepting the

fact of the way life is the way I am and the situation in our

life and the thing we're going through at the time.

But when you're a child of the Most High God and you begin to

look through the Scripture and what it says there should be

something else to it is what it is.

It's not what it seems because some things are real.

And yes, we go through heartache in this life.

We go through trials and John 16 and 33, it says that that in

this life we we will have trouble, we will have

tribulation. It is what it is, but it's not

what it seems because he goes on to say if we're a child of God,

but but God knows how to what deliver us out of them all.

I think of many situations through scripture.

I think of the blind man in John Chapter 9.

John 9 · chapter mention

Let's do a little reading here. I think of the blind man and

Jesus had saw this man and he was blind from birth, but he was

a lad. He was believed probably to be

in his 30s. He'd been blind quite a while,

maybe older. But his disciples, they walked

by and they automatically looked at him.

They were travelling with Jesus, the man who could heal, the man

who could raise the dead. And they looked at this man

talking about the wheat and the tares growing together.

You know, as I said, I, I, I do funerals, weddings, I do all

kinds of stuff. And they, you know, they, they,

they want to tell you. Well, pastor, I want you to know

there's going to be alcohol there.

Well, I don't care. Alcohol is not going to stop me

from preaching the gospel. What you doing is not going to,

not your tares, not going to get in this wheat that I've been

growing a long time. Hey, man, I'm not going to

condemn you for it. I'm not going to be like the

disciples that day I learned that don't work.

They were about to learn it didn't work.

But they said they looked at this blind man that had been

blind from birth. Picture this.

And they said, they said, Master G, who sinned?

This man or his or his family? But see, that was the tradition.

Hello, that was what they had been taught from birth that if

you had an illness, if you you know nowadays, if you had

cancer, if you had something ailing your body that who send

this man or his parents that he was born blind.

I like how Jesus answered this. He said neither, neither.

What were they trying to do? They were trying to figure out

the reason for the is what it is they were trying to figure out.

And we do the same thing. We try to figure out why we're

going through what we're going through and the why just drives

us crazy. Hello.

Sometimes there is no why sometimes you will never you may

I can't tell you Prince. Well you'll know it God or he

may never reveal it to you this side of heaven.

Amen. He did an apostle Paul.

What makes it think that he will do it to us.

He didn't reveal the thorn that was in the flesh of the apostle

Paul, but he left it there because he knew that they kept

the apostle Paul digging it kept the apostle Paul seeking quit

looking at the why. But he said neither this man nor

us parents sin, but Jesus went against everything they had been

taught that the church, the the religion of that time had taught

them. But look what he says here.

He said he was born blind, that the works of God should be

revealed in him. Amen.

When you begin to look at your situation and you don't say it

is what it is, it may be for a moment, but it's not what it

seems because I serve a God that's able to deliver me, Amen.

I serve a God. Y'all ain't preaching with me

this morning. I serve a God that's able to

look in the innermost part of my situation and he's able to

change it. Jesus said he's born blind

because I'm fixing to do a work and you're fixing to see it, and

all these heathens is standing around.

They fixing to believe in the power of God.

Hey, man, he says I must work the works of him who sent me

while it is day, the night is coming, man, the scripture, I've

read it many times in my life and, and, and, and it's really a

sad statement because Jesus says that there's coming a time that

he's calling night here when it's coming and no one can work.

There's not going to be the Holy Spirit up on the face of the

earth because when the rapture of the church has taken place,

the restraining of the Holy Spirit is unleashed.

See, the church is praying and holding back the wrath of God

right now until the Saints of God and the children of God are

raptured out of here. And then you're going to see the

wrath of God with all vengeance and everything called the

tribulation period hit planet earth.

Amen. And that's the night he's

referring to right here. There's going to come a time

that it's not going to the work. Amen.

That the Spirit is going to be lifted from mankind.

I must do the works of him who sent me while it is day, but not

is coming when no one can work. As long as I'm in the world, I

am the light of the world. And when the disciples had seen

these things, Jesus really rocks the world.

Now he goes over there and he spits on the ground.

He mixes him up a little mixture of saying I can just see him do

it there. They're like, what's he going to

do, man? What's he going to do?

Some of these people today will say, Oh no, I might get a

disease. Don't rub that on my eye.

They don't even want the oil rubbed on them.

It smells good. Afraid the oil going to do

something to them. It'll do something to you.

All right. But Jesus spits upon the ground

and then he tells him something. He says he says go wash in the

in the pool of Shalom, which is translated sin.

Go wash in that pool and wash this stuff off of your eyes.

And and he went and and he began to wash it off of his eyes.

You know the story and his sight.

But Can you imagine the man that began to see and the minute it

happened, those that were around?

Can I tell you when you step out in faith and you begin to say it

is what it is, but you don't stop there and you say, oh, but

it ain't what it seems because my God's about to do a work in

my life. But see, we we stopped short of

that faith because when you leave the is what it is, you

start operating in the not what it seems and you realize that

every day, every chance. Amen.

I was sitting in that in that chemo treatment place the other

day and I said it maybe is what it is, but it's not what it

seems. Something's about to change.

I'm not supposed to be here, you know, I don't have to.

I have to. I have to know that I'm going

through some things, but I also have to know it's got not God's

ultimate plan. His ultimate plan is to get me

to heaven. What is God's ultimate plan for

us? It's really to to either go in

the rapture if he tarries or when we die, to be absent from

the body is to be present from the Lord.

And I got to not be scared to live in that plan of death that

God has appointed to each and every man and woman and child.

But as they begin to wash, as he begin to wash, his sight begin

to come back and they begin to question him.

I, I preached a message on this one time, the investigation of a

healing. The Pharisees had to know

everything about who was this man?

They said, Gee, they told you, you can't do this, you ain't

God. Well, it's too late.

It's not been done. Amen, because it's about Jesus.

And then they keep on asking the man and and they asked him, they

said, is he a prophet? But the Jews in verse 18 did not

believe concerning him that he had been blind and he had

received his sight. So they go on and they call his

parents. Hey, is this your child?

Yeah, He was born blind. He's been blind his whole life.

Well, all they were trying to see it was OK.

Did you go home and read this? It was OK.

They they said, man, just say God did it.

Just say God did it. He said, no, God did do it.

That man that was walking right by me that they're calling the

prophet, the healer is the one that did it.

He was God in the flesh. But see, they wanted to deny

that, that that the deity of Christ.

And can I tell you, we're still doing it today.

We want to deny the deity of Christ just mentioned Jesus in a

school system. Just go to a real religious and

educated church and just keep mentioning the name of Jesus and

you see the demons begin to crumble.

You see the walls begin to break because he knows that it is what

it is, but it's not what it seems.

Some things are about to change this particular day Jesus walked

by and his is what it is became not what it seems.

It can happen to you too. I said it can happen to you too,

but you have to understand Matthew 17 and verse 20.

See they had brought a boy to Jesus.

That was an help me with that word somebody and and he had he.

I can't say that word right now. Epileptic, I guess is the name

of it. He would fall on the ground.

He would fall in the fire. You know, I was in Walmart a

while back and I seen a kid like that.

You know, he, he really wasn't. He just needed a whooping.

It's a demon. No, it ain't.

A belt will fix a lot of it. But this particular 1 he had, he

was at that said he was falling and I'm going to get away from

that. Said it was fall.

But but now let me preach on it a little bit.

They may be four or five years old and they can turn one of

these tablets on. I don't know how I'm getting on

this, but I'm going, I like it. They can turn a tablet on.

They can dim it, they can brighten it.

They can turn it off. They can turn it on.

I'm over here trying to find a button.

So he's like Pulitz right here sitting here waiting on us.

So what's this thing doing trying to start a movie?

She said Paul, it's loading four years old.

Hello. But yet when we set them down

and we we put a Bible in front of them or we put a little

literature in front of them. And and then I get this all the

time. I've had it.

I fought it for 17 years here because our teacher back here

teaches she don't just play well.

If if they would just do that a little more activity.

You think they can't understand the word of God?

My mom called last night when I was talking to her.

My daughter and my granddaughter just turned 4 in February.

So she's barely 4, barely four. And my mom, the other day

yesterday, she said she was working on something.

She said, well, crud, Swayze said.

Nana, you can't say that that's a bad word.

She said crud is she said yes. And then she proceeded.

She said you've got to get in the word, a scripture out of the

mouth. She said, Nana, you got to get

in the word. And she said when you get in the

word it, it changes you. But now when she said something

that changes you, you know what to do with your life.

But that's a three-year old. Just turn 4.

You got to get in the word. Don't tell me they ain't get

but, but OK, here's what happened.

She's supposed to be back here on Wednesday night, but we don't

have enough in that class. So it's just her.

So she has to go back here with the teenagers all but they can't

comprehend. They need to be back there with

the Tonka toys. Four years old.

She got it. Grab your ears and get it this

morning. I got to get in the ward.

I don't know how I got in that, but you needed it.

See in Matthew 17, you got to get this verse 20.

They had just brought this boy and they could not heal him.

Jesus said it was because of what?

Why couldn't they do it? Why couldn't the disciples do

it? Because of what?

Why can't we do it? But you know, sometimes I feel

like I really believe, don't you?

And it don't happen. That's when I say it is what it

is, but it ain't what it seems because God's about to change

something. But Jesus said, he says it's

because of your unbelief. And then he said, I assured

them. He said, I say to you, and I

know I preach this a lot, but I believe this is where it is.

I assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith, the substance of

things hoped for of a mustard seed, Brother Tony can show you

how small one is. He carries them in his pocket

and he sews them little bitty seed.

But see, the deal is when you take that little bitty seed, you

got them with you. You take that little bitty seed,

it's like a speck of pepper and you begin to look at it.

But see, faith is looking at that seed and believing that it

can become a tree. Because a mustard seed really go

grows. But he said, I say to you, if

you have faith as a mustard seed, come on, let's get in the

word. Like the four year old said, you

will say to this mountain be removed.

See, we we try to figure out why the mountains there.

We try to figure out what the mountains going to do to us

physically and financially, mentally and socially.

Hello. Don't we, instead of just

saying, be removed from here to Yonder and cast into the sea?

Then Jesus said this. I didn't say it.

He said that nothing will be impossible for you.

Can you see the trees and the seed that you're planting yet?

It's the smallest, but when it when it grows, if you plant it,

it will. Grow.

Go ask the. Shepherd boy in the field, go

ask David when he began to plant seeds of faith and said, who is

this uncircumcised Philistine that defies the armies of the

living God? When he began to sow seeds of

faith that I can't overcome this Philistine, what happened?

His faith begin to grow. Ask the little boy that had

brought his lunch to the seashore that day and they had

no food. And Jesus said, let me borrow

your lunch for a little bit because it is what it is, but it

ain't what it seems. I'm fixing to multiply that

thing that comes to you. Place the seed in the soil of

your faith. Place the seed.

Many got faith, but they never placed the seed.

See, when planted it will grow. The only.

Way a seed will grow is to place it where.

In the. Ground, you can't place it in

your pocket, you can't keep it in your ears.

You can't tuck it in your lip. You got to sew it right.

And when you place it in the ground, it it may be really dark

for a while because see, when you place it in the ground, what

happens to that seed farmers, they say it actually dies.

The soul kills it, it dies. It begins to re germinate,

rejuvenate or whatever it's called.

And it then after it's dead, see, after I've taken my doubt

off of it, after I planted the seed of faith and I've left it

alone, it may be dark for a little while.

I may not know how God's going to do it, but it come on, y'all

ain't helping me this morning. But if I plant that seed of

faith and it begins to grow, even though you're in a dark

place of your life, even though Satan seems to be bombarding you

right now, maybe your hopes and dreams are vanished.

Keep your seed. Plant your seed.

Hang out 2 and 19. What does it say?

Anybody know that? He said.

Is there any seed left in the barn?

See, that's the problem. We leave it in the barn.

We're scared to. Get it out of the barn.

We're afraid if we throw a little bit of that faith out

there and God don't do it exactly the way we said we'd do

it, we're going to get a little pride.

Hello, place your faith. In the Word of God and the

Master of the seat of faith. Well, I don't have much.

Faith. That's OK.

Get in the Word. There's only one way you get

faith is by getting in the Word. I you don't.

Understand how long I've been praying for this?

No I don't. I've got some things too.

Bury the seed. Try some faith.

It don't take much, he said. Just a little bit of faith and

you can move mountains. Jesus can fix it.

You can do this. Or you can run everywhere, but

when you come to the one that knows the real problem, guess

what he. Can fix it and there's

something. Unique happens right here when

we do this. We find out.

Our identity. I've never seen so many people

with no identity in Christ Jesus.

Does that make sense? How do I really?

Identify. God identifies you as his child.

He knows your weakness. He knows your strong points.

He knows where you overcome. He knows where you'll fail,

right? He knows who we are, but yet we

we don't really step in to our identity.

Where does peer pressure come from?

When we send our kids off to school, they see somebody that

was that's a certain way and they they identify with that and

they say, I want to be like. That I want to act.

Like this person I want to do. Like this person I want to

become what they are. But yet many times we're looking

at the wrong person, right? What's your?

Identity in Christ. I love.

Daniel the book of Daniel The first part of it the end of it

gets a little confusing, but Daniel chapter 3 we're going to

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

get we're going to take a little time today and read this.

I love it. We know the story it was about

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego that was about to be thrown.

It was about the three Hebrew boys 4 counting Daniel but.

They had. Came into a different Kingdom

because Daniel could do what he could interpret dreams, and they

were Hebrew boys and they were living under the rule of King

Nebuchadnezzar. And he?

Declared a their their little bit of worship and prayer that

they were doing it. And it's always, it's always

astounded me how that these four Hebrew children that were sent

over there in this big Kingdom, it just shook them up because

they worship the God that they did not know.

Hello. But yet it didn't bother Daniel

because he had his identity. He said it is what it is, but it

ain't what it seems. They're going to reject me.

They're going to talk about the way I eat.

They're going to talk about the way I worship.

They're even going to take the worship away from me.

But see, the modern day Christian now has no identity in

that worship and it come on somebody and in that praise

through Christ Jesus. Because the minute that the

enemy attacks through other Christians or friends or social

media, we want to change our identity.

Peter did it. Right by the fire they said

you're that you're that guy that was hanging out with you.

No, I don't know the man. You even talk like him.

No, I've never been around. He didn't have his identity yet

until the until the Holy Ghost fell upon him in Acts chapter 2

Acts 2 · chapter mention

and then he got his identity right.

Boy, I'll stay with. Me.

This is good this morning. But they he.

Said he said to Shadrach Meshach and of Indigo he said anybody

that doesn't bow to these golden images that Nebuchadnezzar had

put down. He said there's something going

to happen to you. You're going to get thrown into

a fiery furnace and in he says, but if you do not worship this

golden image, you shall immediately be cast into the

burning. I'm in Daniel chapter 3 and I

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

don't know what verse 15 and who is I like this right here.

See, they had no identity. Who is the God?

Who will deliver? You from your hands.

You've been worshipping Him, you've been praising him, you've

been eating a certain way and fasting.

Who is this God? He did not know him.

But in verse. 16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered,

and they said, King Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need

to answer you in this manner. But today we think we got to

defend the cross. We think we got to defend No,

it's a finished work, he said. I don't need to answer you in

this manner. That meant there was nothing in

their being, in their intellect, in their spirit, or in their

mind that was going to make them change just because it's a fiery

furnace. I don't have to answer you in

this man. What what, what would our walk

be like if we were like that? And the enemy knew that I had an

identity in Christ, that no matter what you pour on me, it's

not going to change because he's still got, they said,

Nebuchadnezzar. We have no need to answer you in

this manner. It is what it is.

But guess what? It ain't what it seems.

If that's the. Case if we do have to go to the

fiery furnace, if I do have to take some persecution on social

media, come on. If I do have to take some

persecution at the job, if that's the case, our God whom we

serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.

And he will. Deliver us from your hand.

Well, I like that. I want to hear Christians talk

like that today. We walk around.

Or I can't go over here. They're going to be partying.

I'm all I know. I'm going to do this.

If I go over there, I'm just going to do, I'm just, you know

what, getting the word. The words only thing.

Will keep you from doing that stuff.

It's not by mind, it's not by power, but it's but my spirit,

saith the Lord of hosts, right? He said, he will deliver us from

your hands, O King. And I like this because the mind

always comes. The mind's always going to come

in and try to screw your world up.

What did he say? He says, But if that's the case,

if not, if we have to die, because there's a possibility

that you might have to die for Christ, It's getting closer and

closer and closer to us. And a lot of Christians can't

even assemble themselves a couple times a week for the

glory of God, much less go to the chopping block.

I was asked one. Time you think you would, You

die for Christ. I said that's something I

cannot. I said I hope I would, but

that's something I cannot answer until they got the gun to my

little baby granddaughter's head or something.

And that's where we're headed. That's where we're.

Headed you don't believe it. Look at the the Moss that's

being set up right here in the state of Texas, 50 in the last

two years. You better wake up because it

can happen here. It can happen here, but he says

if not, if we do have to die and that's all, See, they had a

mind. They had the mind like you do

and I do, they said. But if not, I want you to know

something. I'm talking to the devil today.

You need to talk. To the devil sometimes, if not O

King, that we need you need to know that we do not serve your

gods nor will we worship the gold image which you have set

up. Isn't that powerful.

We will not worship him no matter what happens even though

so you know the rest of the story.

He said it made the king mad. He said I'm not getting anywhere

with them. This is key right here.

You go to stepping out for God. You know how the Christians

well, I want to do something for God, but I don't want no trials.

I don't want no battles. I don't want no fights.

How can I tell you? What God can do if I've never

been through it? He said turn it.

Up 7 times more than it's usually heated.

Get it? The people that went in there

without it being turned up 7 times more melted.

And these men? Were bound in their coats.

They wrapped them up with trousers and turbans and which

would just act as kindling. But guess.

What it is, what it is, but it was not what it seemed in verse

23. I'm going to skip down so I can

get done. It says these three men,

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they fell down bound in the

midst of the fiery furnace in the dungeon.

Can you imagine? All they had to do was just bow.

All they had to do was say, OK, it's you know, it's it's going

to be OK today. We know who, Oh my, who I feel

is power. We know who.

God is I've been saved and I've been baptized, but it's it's

going to be OK today. I'm just going to, I'm just

going to not acknowledge that for a little bit.

I got grace. I can run right back over here

tomorrow after I do this. But they said, no, bind us,

throw us in there. And King Nebuchadnezzar, he was,

he was astonished. He rose and haste, and he spoke

to the counselors, one of the most powerful passages of the of

the Bible right here. It says, did, did we not cast

three men bound in the midst of the fire?

And they answered, and they said, the King true, O king, we

did throw them in there. And the king said, look, he

said, I see four men. And they're.

Loosed in the fire. It is what it is, but it ain't

what it seems. If you have faith in God.

And he said they're walking around in the midst of the fire

and they're not hurt. And the form of the 4th man is

like the Son of God, Amen. It doesn't matter where the

devil puts you. It doesn't matter where you go.

If you keep faith in God, he'll go through the fire with you.

Then Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the burning fiery

furnace, and he spoke, saying, Oh, Shadrach, Meshach, and

Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out of here.

And then Shadrach. And a Meshach and Abednego came

from the midst of the fire and the sad traps, and the ministers

and the governors of the king and counselors, they gathered

together and they said, and they saw these men on whose bodies

the fire had no power. Isn't that cool?

Can I tell you you've been made fireproof?

You've been made fireproof. The hair on their head was not

even singed, their garments was not affected, and the smell of

the fire was not on them. Man, if you can't get excited

about that. Nebuchadnezzar spoke.

He said. Blessed be the God of Shadrach,

Meshach, and Abednego. But see, the deal is we're too

busy telling people about God instead of showing them who God

is through our actions, through the faith that God's given, to

see when you identify with him, there is a change.

We won't worship. The God that you worship, every

time you take a new step of faith, get ready, get ready.

You're going to get struck. You're going to get.

Struck. If you want a true, genuine

faith, it's tested by fire. Every time you step out and do

something for God, you're going to get struck by the enemy.

If the enemy ain't striking you, he ain't too worried about you.

Because every. Level that you come to, there's

another devil. But see, most Christians don't

want to fight the devil. They want to compromise with the

devil. I'm not.

Compromising see Daniel we go on over here to chapter 3.

We look at Daniel which had watched his buddies go in there

and he was about to go in the lines then go home and read

about that. I love Daniel chapter 6 it he

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

was saying the same thing. It is what it is, but Daniel

knew. That his.

God was able. So if you know God, it maybe is

what it is, but it's never what it seems.

Daniel went home. They said you can't pray,

Daniel. We didn't throw you 3 buddies in

the fire. You can go.

You can keep your position here. He was very high up in the

government, but they said you cannot pray.

Well, we panic. We'd be how am I going to do?

I can't pray. You know, I can't pray.

You come to everybody today and you'd say, oh, you can't read

your Bible and you can't pray. Boy, we would social media go.

But I wonder. What percentage?

We're really doing it. Anyway, say Daniel what?

Did he do when the trial hit? That's a great example.

He didn't do anything different, he said I've been praying every

day and I'm going to continue to pray every day, he said.

I'm just going to open the windows that up in my room and

I'm going to begin to pray. So what they do?

They threw him in the lion's den.

Satan knows what our weaknesses. But we have to.

Know that it's not what it seems.

He knew he. Wasn't going to win.

Daniel just kept doing what he was doing.

I love that. I like to be in a place in my

walk when trial and tragedy struck.

Just keep doing what you've been doing.

If you're doing the things of God, even the king in verse 16,

go home and read the rest of that.

We all know that story, but he had faith in David's God.

And then? Daniel, what did he do?

He said he shut the lion's mouth.

But see the King, your enemy, even Satan knows.

It's not what it. Seems he knows that he knows

he's not going to win, but he convinces us.

That it's always. Going to be this way.

It is what it is. He knows he's not going to win.

But the the God whom? You serve continually, is what

the King said to him, something we all need to settle now and

forever to gain your identity in Christ.

He's not the God that I serve when things go wrong.

He's not the God. That I serve when I when I'm

prospering and everything's good.

He's the God that didn't. That's what King said right

here. He said, Daniel, the God you

serve continually. I done told you in the lion's

den. I done take your prayer life

away and you just continually serve.

That's. What the apostle Paul said we

overcome by constant use of the word of God, and God sent his

Angel to shut the mouth of the line.

God's about to shut the mouth of the line for somebody.

I believe that here today. So where is God in the?

Pain I'm going through, we wonder that because we we say it

is what it is. It hurts and it does hurt, but

you go to Psalms 139. And we can read a.

Great scripture. Where is God when I'm really

hurting? He was right there.

In the lion's den, He was right there in the fiery furnace.

He was right there when Peter denied.

Where is God? He's right there in the middle

of it, but I don't see him. I don't feel.

Him sometimes. Anybody ever feel like that?

And Psalms 100. And 39 verse one it says oh Lord

you have searched me. And you know me.

We think we don't know God. I mean, we think God don't know

know us. You have searched me and you

know me. You know my sitting.

Down, you know my rising up you understand my thought afar off

you comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted,

acquainted with all my ways. And he still loves us.

He still knows we're a work in progress.

Maybe you're not a. Daniel, right now, maybe you're

not a Shadrach, maybe you're not a Abednego or a Meshach, but he

still knows you. But the kicker?

Is I got to get to know him? For there is not a.

Word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it all together.

You have hedged me behind and before.

You laid your hand. Upon me isn't that powerful.

Such knowledge is too wonderful or lofty for me to contain.

It's high. I cannot attain how someone

could do that. Where can I go?

From your spirit or where can I flee from your presence?

If I send. Into heaven, you're there.

If I make my bed in hell, behold, you're there.

If I take the wings of the morning.

And dwell in the. Uttermost parts of the sea.

Even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall

hold me. Come on, he's talking to

somebody. You can't get away from God.

You might as well find your identity and surrender.

If I say. Surely the darkness shall fall

upon me. Even the night shall be lied

about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not

hide you. But the night shines as day, and

the darkness as the light can't hide from me.

For you form my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's

womb. I will praise you, for I'm

fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works that my

soul knows very well. So your soul knows you just got

to get it through your mind. My frame.

Was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and

skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Abortion clinics. Need to read this.

Your eyes. Saw my substance isn't that

powerful. He saw your substance being yet

on Well, there's a time frame on it.

They say that ain't what the word says.

He says your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed,

yet unformed. I counseled with a guy one time.

Him and his wife had 3-4 beautiful children, grown knew

him very well and. The enemy had pulled.

Him down because in their teenage years his wife had had

an abortion. And he could not.

Get over it. Could not get over it and I had

to. Explain to Him and just you.

You can't get over it. It's only grace.

They can understand that. I can't understand that.

But you got to get it out of your mind and go forward with

God. And one day you'll give an

account to God, and God will be the just of that.

Not me, not what your mind thinks, not what you've been.

What a hard thing to live with. But see if you know the Word.

Your eyes saw my substance. Being yet.

Unformed. If he could see that, do you

think he can see what we're going through today?

And in your book they were all written.

The day's. Fashion for me when is yet there

were none of them. Your days were.

Fashion. And yet you weren't in your days

of life yet. How precious also are your

thoughts to me. Oh God.

How great. As you stand your feet as the

sum of them. If I should.

Count them, they would be more in number than the sand.

When I awake. I'm still with you.

Can I read the rest of this? Oh, that you?

Would slay the wicked. Oh God, depart from me

therefore, you bloodthirsty men, for they speak against you

wickedly. Your enemies take your name in

vain. Do I not hate?

Them, O Lord, who hate me, and do I not loathe that those who

rise up against me, I hate them with perfect hatred.

I count them my enemies. He got in the flesh a little bit

right there. But then this should be our

prayer today. If you want to find your

identity in Christ, if you want to be one that say it is what it

is, but it's not what it seems. You have to say.

Search me, O God. Search me O.

God and know my heart. See, the truth is.

He already does, but you have to give him that entrance.

Search me, O God, would you bow your heads this morning and get

this prayer? Search me, O God, know my heart.

Try me and know my anxieties. I just can't serve the Lord.

I got too many anxieties. Let him search your heart.

Try me and. Know my anxieties and see if

there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of

everlasting life. Thanks.

For listening to the Cross Power Church Podcast, may you know

that true hope, peace, and salvation can only be found in

Jesus. If you're near Campbell, TX, we

would love for you to join us in person.

You can find service times at crosspowerchurch.com.