The Great Escape

Pick our Bibles up and wave them around, as is our custom, make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

Let's say this together say Heavenly Father, I've tuned in intentionally because I'm hungry for more, more of your word, more of your spirit, more of your presence.

Tonight, I'll be taught the Word of God and I have need of instruction so that my faith can be perfected, that I can close the gaps between what I know and what I do.

In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen.

Let's look at Proverbs, the third chapter, and also, while you're turning to get 1 Corinthians, chapter 10 and verse five, proverbs 3.5, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean, not under your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge Him and he shall direct your paths.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

All right.

And then 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 13.

1 Corinthians 10:13

There hath no temptation taken you, but such as common demand, but God is faithful.

Let's say that all together.

God is faithful, who will not suffer or allow you to be tempted above what you're able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it.

And so I wanted to share a message entitled the Great Escape.

The Great Escape.

Our God is always faithful, and knowing that and trusting Him, that he is faithful, that will get you through anything.

It'll get you through anything, no matter what you're facing.

Just thinking about how, instead of looking at how big the problem is, just think about how faithful God is.

He will not permit us to be tempted beyond the breaking point.

We will not be pushed beyond our limit.

The message Bible says it's not that well.

He won't give us any more than we can bear.

He won't put on us any more than we can bear.

That's the way that most people read that verse and of course it's not at all like that.

God doesn't tempt us.

James tells us that every man is tempted who's drawn away of his own desires.

And so we get tested and tried and tempted when we have our own way and we don't walk according to the Word, we don't walk according to the Spirit.

So God does not tempt us.

It's our flesh that gets us in trouble.

Really, jesus said in the world you shall have tribulation, you'll have trouble, you'll have anguish, you're going to have temptation, test and trial.

The word temptation there in 1 Corinthians 10 is more than just temptation to sin, but it's tests and trials of all sorts.

It's circumstances that try us.

And with every test the Bible says there comes a way to escape it.

I mean, if you've got a test, there's an escape route and of course, the greatest.

The greater the trial, the greater the escape.

That's why I've got the message the great escape.

I mean, if you've got a great trial, there's a great escape all mapped out for you.

And so I just want to encourage you.

I know we know these things, most of us, but many times we need to be reminded, and especially we're going through a trial, a fear.

Fear is the greatest tactic of the devil and of course, it's so easy for fear to get on us right now because there's such fear in the world the fear of this pandemic, the fear of this and that and the other, the fear of what things are, you know, the economy, going down the tubes and so forth and so on, all the crazy things that are going on in the world today.

Whatever's out in the world seems to just leak into the church.

And so, in October of 2004, I went away to pray we had just been in this building for about six months and I went to Galveston and the Holy Ghost spoke this word to me and he said this.

He said many are satiated, and of course that's not a word I typically use, but he used it.

He said many are satiated with the cares of this world and the pleasures of this world, and much of the care comes from the pursuit of the pleasure.

He also said many should just tip their hat to me and go along their own merry way.

And so I looked up the word satiate, you know, I thought I knew what it meant, but I wanted to make sure I hadn't misunderstood.

And satiated means to be filled to repletion.

It means to be gorged.

In other words, you feel so big that you can't hold anymore.

Think about what the Holy Ghost told me.

He said cares are overflowing and the pursuant and pleasures, you know.

Think about America, as there's such pleasure available.

A lot of the people that have the pleasure have a whole lot of the care because they're in pursuit of the pleasure.

The pleasure didn't come their way.

They, they mortgage their future to buy it.

They bought it on credit, they bought it on there and they filled up their credit cards.

They, they spent beyond their means, and so sometimes we have this pressure to keep up with the Joneses, and we didn't know the Joneses went broke and so now in in the, where we are right now in this country, and really I believe the whole world, is that many people, even in the church, believe that our best days are behind us and it's they were having to just get you know, get ready for a disaster or something.

Yeah, I just don't believe that.

I don't believe God's that way.

I believe God's the greatest farmer that ever lived and I believe he's bringing in in a great crop of, of, of harvest, and and I just believe our best days are yet ahead.

That's what I choose to believe.

And so when we look at 1 Corinthians, chapter 10.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

, it starts off by listing the five sins of the Israelites in the wilderness, say they committed five different sins and he warned the believers there and Corinthians don't do what they did.

He said all these things were written for your example, on whom the ends of the age have come.

Well, at the ends of the age have come to the Corinthian church 2000 years ago.

Listen, we're a lot closer to the end of the age now than they were.

And so this fear, fear is one of those, one of those sins.

Fear in the world, fear in the church.

We've got to resist it at all costs.

We need to fear God, not man.

Fear of the Lord is getting so rare in the church.

It shouldn't be that way.

We care more about what man thinks and what God thinks.

We care more about the edicts of unelected government officials and what they say than what we say, what the Word of God says.

So in Second Timothy 1, 7 says God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.

They've been.

Let's realize that fear does not come from God, that fear is just another temptation, test and trial the devil is offering you and you don't have to take it.

It's your enemy.

The Bible says perfect love First John 4, 18,.

Perfect love casts out fear.

Perfect love casts out fear, I like.

Go back in Second Timothy 1, 7 in the amplified.

I like how it reads.

In amplified it says God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind, a calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self control.

See, that's what God gave us.

And so we can choose not to lean.

He said lean not on your own understanding.

All your ways acknowledge him.

And he said don't trust in the Lord with all of your heart, in other words, with all of your spirit, and lean not under your own understanding or your own head.

Don't lean on your head, why?

Because your head can be tempted to fear, but no, we can have a calm, well-balanced mind and self control and discipline.

And that's what we need.

We need to discipline our thinking, especially when we're going through a trial.

We need to get our minds trained on our faithful God, who has already prepared a way to escape.

And so the Bible says in Romans eight if God be far as who can be against us?

Amen.

We're more than conquerors through him who loved us.

So God has a great escape prepared for you.

No matter what you're going through, there's an escape route.

One of the things brother Osteen used to stress all the time He'd say no great faith without great tests, no great victories without great battles.

So you know, as we grow in our faith, as we grow in what we're wanting to do for God, there's bigger opposition.

We have to be ready for it.

So I've got four things for you to keep in remembrance.

You know that's the thing about the children of Israel.

They forgot when the pressure was turned up.

You know when the when the trouble started, they forgot, they forgot, and so let's not forget, let's remember.

The first one on the list is Romans, chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Remember God loves you and he is for you.

If God be for you, who could be against you?

Now, he loves you and you know when I read those verses, and in fact it'd be good, let's go back to Romans 8.

It it's so good.

What should we say to all these things?

If God be for us, who can be against us?

He that spared not his own son but Delivered him up first.

All.

How shall they not also with him, with him, freely give us all things?

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

It's God that justifies.

Who is he that condemns?

It's Christ that died, yeah, rather, that has risen again.

Who's even at the right hand of God?

Who makes Intercession for us?

You know, you've got somebody praying for Jesus are praying for you.

You're not in this thing alone.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Notice all these questions.

Who, who?

Who, yeah, who, indeed, you know well, we know who.

It's the devil.

The devil does all these things.

He comes against us.

But if God be for us, who can be against us.

Amen, and, and, and.

So in all these things were more than conquerors, through him who loved us.

So remember, god is on your side.

You know he's got the way of escape.

He loves you, he loves you and, and.

Then the second one that you need to remember is that God is faithful to you.

See, we said God is faithful, but sometimes we forget the to you part.

Let's say that out loud, say God is faithful to me, god is faithful to me.

See, when we just say God is faithful, sometimes we just don't really apply it to Ourselves when we're going through trouble.

But no, god is faithful to you, he's faithful to you.

So you have to trust in the Lord with all your heart all your heart, I mean you.

And when you're going through trouble, that's the time to start looking to the inside, to your spirit, and Don't lean on your head, don't.

Don't start trying to figure things out.

He's, he's faithful to you, god is faithful to you.

I like Hebrews 13.

Let's turn over there real quick.

In the second part of that verse, hebrews 13, 5, be Says For he has said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper.

I shall not fear what man will do unto me.

See there again, see we're, we're.

We're not afraid of man, we're not afraid of what man is saying to us, we're not.

I mean, maybe we've got a bad report Financially.

Maybe we've got a bad report from the doctor.

Maybe we've got a bad report in our marriage or in our home, or from our children or from our family or whatever.

The bad report is that we will not fear what man will do.

No, god said I'll never leave you enough for sake you.

I will not.

I like to amplify I will not.

I will not, I will not.

And so In Mark 11, 22, jesus said have the have the faith of God.

One verse, one translation says have the God kind of faith.

And I like what brother Mark said this past Sunday.

He, his favorite translation, is a mark, a mark 11, 22 lay hold on God's faithfulness, faithfulness, lay hold on God's faithfulness.

I mean, you know, when things are looking bad, the first thing you think about is how God is faithful to you.

Lay hold on it, grab a hold of it and take it into your bosom, into your spirit, and hang on to it, because that's that's, that's the beginning of you finding your way to escape.

So remember, god loves you and is for you.

Number two remember God is faithful to you.

Number three remember God has made a way of escape for you.

It's not hidden from you, you know.

It may not be obvious when you first see the trouble.

It may not be obvious how you're going to overcome this situation, and you know sometimes it just if we're going by what we see or what we hear or what we, what it looks like, what it feels like.

It might seem like this situation is just inescapable, doesn't look like there's any way out.

But see, god is faithful, he's got a great escape.

The greater the trouble, the greater the escape.

He's got a great escape, all Ready for you.

It may not be obvious to you at that moment, see.

So it's not hidden From you, it's hidden for you.

I mean, if it was laying out here in plain sight, the devil would figure out a way to to short circuit.

That way He'd get in the way of the way.

No, he's got it in a place where he's safeguarded it for you and it's available to you, through prayer and through the word, to get back, get into your word.

Asked, you know, ask this question what does the word say about this situation I'm facing right now?

I mean, that's where you start.

You start looking at the word, you start looking to the word, pray much in the Holy Ghost, pray in the praying tongues, and quit trying to touch it so much with your carnal mind, because your mind, you're not gonna figure it out.

Be honest with you.

Some of the biggest mistakes I've made, I've had trouble, I've had a problem, and then I try to solve it with my brain and I start trying to figure it out.

You know, and I've done that a few times, and when you fall flat on your face, you finally learn hey, let's just wait on the Lord.

He's got that way already for me.

He'll let me know where it is and what it is and how to, how to get there.

I trust in the Lord.

I like Proverbs and three, six.

It says he'll make he'll, he'll, he'll direct your paths.

One version says he'll clear the road.

He'll clear the road, he will direct your paths and he will clear the road.

I like direct the paths, like he's pointing the way.

Yeah, you get close to him in prayer and close to him in the Word and Before long, see, don't get in a hurry, don't don't just go off half cocked trying to react to trouble.

There's no temptation taking you, but such as common demand.

So the devil is limited to, to, to fleshly things, he's limited to natural things.

But God is limit, he's not limited at all.

He's got supernatural means by which he delivers you.

And so don't get in a hurry to Figure it all out.

Just just know that God is faithful and God has that way of escape already prepared for you.

It's not hidden from you, it's hidden for you and by and by you're gonna know which direction to go.

Amen, amen.

He's cleared the road for you.

Come on, lift your hands right now.

He cleared the road for me already.

Glory to God.

There's nothing lead in the way.

I think about my partner.

Back, way back in the I guess, the 70s, we had a big deer lease out in a place called Rock Springs, texas, and it's 5,500 acre ranch.

It was a beautiful place and he had a small plane at Cessna 206, which is ideal for short field landing and takeoffs, and it would haul up to six people, or it haul four people with a whole bunch of payload, and anyway it was a really good airplane.

So we went out there the first trip and we found a pasture that was big enough to make a landing strip and so we took a tractor with us and we brush all the brush and we went through and there were some big rocks there and we roll those rocks out of the way and we cleaned the place up and got all the debris off of the landing strip so that when he the next trip he flew the plane out there, he wouldn't have a wreck.

I mean, it could be pretty catastrophic if you land that plane and you hit a boulder or if you hit a dead animal.

So the first time he used the plane, I happened to be flying out there with him.

We got close to the ranch and he said there's their strip.

He said I'm gonna buzz it, I've got to check it.

You look on your side, I look on mine, make sure there's nothing.

In the way he was very cautious, you know.

And what was I looking for?

Well, I was looking for a dead cow, a dead deer, anything big enough to cause our landing gear to fail and cause that plane to nose dive into the ground.

I mean you're talking about could be a fatal accident or it could be a very expensive damage to the plane Either way.

So we had to fly that landing strip real close.

Let me tell you, god has already cleared the way for you.

There's no obstructions, there's no boulders, there's no dead animals on your way, no dead skunks, except the devil.

You're gonna run right over him.

Oh, thank God.

All right.

And then the last one.

Now remember God loves you, he loves you, he's on your side.

Number two God is faithful to you.

Number three God is made a way to escape.

It's hidden for you, not from you.

And finally, remember, as you resist fear, panic and self pity, see, this is the trick of the devil.

This is where he's trying to get you into your own emotions.

So you resist fear and panic and self pity, and as you do, his power and his love, his sound mind, his calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self control are yours.

They're yours and you will come out of that situation.

On the great escape Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight the great escape.

I know you've heard these things before, but sometimes we just need a little reminder.

Hallelujah, aren't you glad God loves you enough to always have a way out for you, no matter what he has a way out.