If My People Will Humble Themselves and Pray

Welcome to this week's message from the church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

Good morning, CCW.

Good morning.

Ben just said, in his presence, every knee gonna bow and every tongue gonna confess that he's Lord.

And like I told Pastor Dan early earlier, I need your help this morning.

Not yet.

No.

Yeah, it's it's coming up.

We're gonna set the atmosphere.

We're gonna praise the Lord this morning.

Woo!

We're gonna praise the Lord.

I need your help.

Last year, my wife and I got a chance to go to New York.

I had been, but it had been probably like 20-something years.

We went to Times Square.

As everyone knows, you know, the New Year's giving to come up.

And I'm gonna tell you, I've never been, but I watched it on television.

They have a good time.

They party.

Now I'm gonna tell you something about me.

I'm not ashamed of my past.

God saved me.

I used to go to the club.

I used to have a good time.

And I gave my life to Christ at a young age.

But you know what I discover where I was able to stay over here too?

We can have a good time with the Lord.

We just have to participate.

We can have a good time in the Lord.

And today we can praise Him, we can uplift Him, we can dance, we can lift up holy hands, and I'm in the book.

Now I know the word of God said we must worship in the spirit and truth.

And everybody has their different way of worshiping God.

I'm not trying to tell you it's a one way to worship God.

But I do know I was designed by God.

I was fearfully and wonderfully made.

And he designed me to be loud.

That's what he designed me.

That's my DNA.

Now, some of you are quiet, I understand.

So just you have to sit with me about the next 30 minutes.

It's gonna be a short sermon, but he designed me to be loud.

So I want us to uplift the name of Jesus today.

I ask you to turn to your Bible, go to Psalms 150.

We're gonna read it together.

Can we you want to sit and stand up?

Yes, please.

Pastor Daniel helped me out.

That's what I'm talking about.

My spiritual father, he's taking care of me.

I'm at home.

So you can do this at home.

That's right.

Amen.

Psalms 150.

Let's read it in unison.

Let's praise him.

Ready?

Verse 1.

Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary.

Praise him in his firm and his power.

Praise him for his mighty acts.

Praise him according to his excellent greatness.

Praise him in the timber and dance.

Praise him with the hobs.

Praise him with the loud sounds.

Praise him with the high sounds, cymbals.

Let everything that have breath praise ye the Lord.

That's what I want us to do today is praise the Lord.

And it's certainly a blessing just being in the house of God.

You can have a seat.

It's a blessing, you know.

Like I said, this is the last Sunday of 2014.

Everybody that's in here, and you're watching by the internet, you should tell God thank you.

Amen.

It is truly a blessing that we're here.

And it's because of that song he sung earlier.

It's by the grace of God that we're here.

There were many here last year this time.

They're not here today.

And some that were here last year, they can't lift up holy hands.

They can't feed themselves.

So we got to write to praise him.

The word of God said he inhabits the praises of the saints.

And he said, if we don't praise him, he'll make the rocks praise.

I'm telling you what I'm living, why I have breath in my body.

The rocks are not gonna have to praise my Lord because I know what he's done for me.

I can't speak for you, but I know what he's done for me.

And I'm thankful for it.

Amen.

A lot of you ask me, and you've been praying for my very thankful that uh throughout the year.

It's been a long time since uh I've been missing church in and out.

But uh as you know, I'm married, we have four kids, and I'm proud of all my family, I'm proud of my wife.

But uh this year I had some victories and I had some Velatops experiences.

Um back in I think June, I went to Joshua's graduation, that's the youngest son.

He graduated, I was very proud of him.

He graduated from middle school.

And then I went to the high school graduation of my youngest daughter.

Uh, probably about a month and a half later, I had to go back to North Carolina.

She lost her mom unexpectedly, 49 years old.

She had just graduated from high school.

Now, what made it so tough is she had just lost her grandfather in March.

And I've always been the tape.

I believe in communicating with the Lord.

And I asked him, why did you take their mother at such a young age?

And God directed my attention to Job.

When Job asked him the same question, why did I have to go through all this, God?

I thought I was living righteous.

And what God told Job is, he took me, it's in Job the 38th chapter.

You, you, you, you, was you there when I created the earth, the sea, the mountains?

And you worry about your child?

Do you know who I am?

I'm a sovereign God.

I have all the details.

It's planned from the beginning to the ending.

You don't have anything to fear.

And so all of us can reflect back on our victories as well as valid experience.

CCW had a great year.

God is doing great and mighty things.

We bought land and paid for most of it in warp speed.

Thanks to everybody out there.

Keep on giving, keep on giving.

God is well pleased.

But then as I look back over the year, I was like, one night I was up, actually, I was getting ready for the sermon, and I saw something, and I said, Well, I'm gonna share it with the people of God.

It talked about the top ten stories that was Google last year.

And I'm gonna read some of them to you.

First one started with number 10, Obamacare.

Okay, we had domestic violence.

Uh, I don't know if you remember, but Ray Rice, it went viral.

He punched his wife.

And I mean, it went viral when I said viral.

Uh, we are involved in terrorists, but it's a different type of terrorist now.

They call it ISIS.

They're actually killing people in a barbaric style and doing it on TV.

Can you imagine, as a parent, to watch your child being executed in such a fashion?

And then in Ferguson, Missouri, racial tensions have re-emerged again as a result of what happened in Ferguson, Missouri, where the unarmed team was shot by a police officer.

Then the Malaysian airline, I wouldn't touch him.

Not only did they lose one plane, but they lost two planes.

Now the first plane disappeared.

And what's so amazing about it, just like I'm standing with this iPad in my hand, this is the time of technology.

I mean, we're so technology driven.

But for a plane just to pew, they don't have a clue.

They had to be hard on the parents and the loved ones not to get closure.

Then we had the leak photos of certain celebrities.

Death of Robin Williams, but the number one story was Ebola.

I'm like, wow.

And now, I know the way most of us are, and I'm guilty of it too.

When something's going on, if it's not in your house, it's kind of okay if it's not in your house.

However, once it comes to your house, it's totally different.

Now, as we know, it bowler started over in Africa.

It killed over 5,000.

But in September, it crept away into the United States.

So, with all this going on, I was asking God, what would be a good word for today?

And I was thinking about Marvin Gay, and Marvin Gay came with this song to my baby boomers.

You'll know the lyrics.

Marvin said, What's going on?

He said, Father, father, we don't need to escalate.

You see, war is not the answer.

For only love can conquer hate.

You know, we got to find a way to bring some love in here today.

And so today I'm gonna talk about if my people that are called by my name.

Yeah, we're gonna come from the second chronicle, the seventh chapter, and the 14th verse.

Let me have prayer.

Heavenly Father, I just enter your gates with thanksgiving, Lord God.

Thanking you, Lord, for another opportunity to speak to your people, Lord God.

And God, I ask that I may decrease, God, and you increase God.

I ask that you use me, Lord God.

I'm your vessel, Lord God, and I praise and magnify you, Lord.

For this day, in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Okay, let's go straight to the word of God.

Okay, we're gonna start in 2 Chronicles, the seventh chapter.

We're gonna read the first through the sixth verse, and then we'll read 11 through 14.

Let's read together.

Now, when Solomon had made an end of praying, I'm sorry, everyone there.

Okay, sorry.

And while y'all turn, uh, first of all, I thank God for my shepherd, my spiritual father, Pastor Daniel Lovett, and his beautiful wife, Dr.

Lovett.

Let's give them a round of applause.

They've done a wonderful job this year.

Wonderful job.

And I thank God for being a part of CCW.

Everyone there?

Everybody there, okay.

Okay.

Now, when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house.

And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the house.

And when all the children Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces ground upon the pavement and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good, for his mercy endure forever.

The king and the people sacrifices before the Lord.

And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and a hundred and twenty-two thousand sheep.

So the king and all the people dedicated the house.

And the priests waited on their officers, the Levites also with instruments of music, the Lord, which David the king had made to praise the Lord, because his mercy endured forever.

When David praised by their ministry, and the priests sounded trumpets before all of Israel.

Okay, now read uh 11 through 14.

Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house and all that came into Solomon's heart to make the house of the Lord and his own house.

He prosperously effected.

And the Lord appeared before Solomon by night and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place to make myself a house of sacrifice.

If I shut up heaven and there be no rain, or if I command the locals to divide the land, I will send pestilence among my people.

And our key verse If my people, which are called by my name, should humble themselves, pray and seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, I will forgive the sin and heal the land.

That's what we're gonna focus on today.

That's our subject.

If my people, if my people that are called by my name.

Now, most of the time you hear this preach, you talk about revival.

And we're gonna talk about revival today.

And it's four nuggets in this particular scripture that talks about reviving, what we need to do, and we're gonna talk about those nuggets.

But before we get there, one of the aspects we gotta look at.

When the scripture was written, what was going on?

Who was the writer?

We gotta get some background on this.

What was happening?

What was the author's original intent when he wrote 2 Chronicles?

This is the seventh chapter.

First of all, the author was Israel, he was a prophet.

Actually, uh, first and second chronicles was one book.

Then they divide them up.

He had a priestly background, and from his priestly background, he came up with the idea that Israel had a priestly background working with his iPad.

Bear with me.

Yes, he wrote this book back in 970.

Which 970 BC, which was the time that this particular chapter was going on.

Some more background on it.

Solomon was the main character, but let's talk about Solomon, his heritage.

Where did he come from?

Where did Solomon come from?

He was David's son.

And Bathsheba.

Now we all know David was a warrior.

He was a serious warrior.

David Ashley was on the porch one day and he was talking to Naaman.

That was a prophet that God had assigned to him.

He was talking to Naaman, and he told Naaman that uh Ashley that he wanted to build a temple for God.

Now I think many of you that remember the last time I spoke to you, I spoke to you about the tabernacle, which was a moving temple.

It was a moving sanctuary.

They called it a tabernacle.

It's where people would get together and praise God.

And the key part of the tabernacle was the ark or the covenant.

It had the Ten Commandments in it.

And that's actually where God's spirit dwelled.

And it was very important.

So but David said, he was looking, he was talking to Naaman.

He said, he looked at his house.

You know, David was a man after God's own heart.

He looked at his house.

He said, Now, I live in a fine house, based on what he was saying.

I live in a fine and beautiful home.

But God's house is a tent.

And they're moving from place to place.

I think God should have a better house.

So he has a desire to build this temple.

But God told him, No.

He couldn't build a temple.

And the reason he couldn't build a temple, David was a warrior.

He was a fighter.

He used to fight.

But he said, I tell you what, you can't build a temple.

But I'm going to ensure that your seed build a temple.

Your son Solomon will get a chance to build his temple.

And so that's some of the background of Solomon, the seventh chapter.

It talks about that's why Solomon ended up building this temple.

But now God gave him the vision and some of the plans on how to build it.

And it was made out of pure gold.

Pure gold.

So let's go back to 2 Chronicles, the 7th chapter, and the first verse.

This is when Solomon's getting ready to dedicate the temple.

And the first verse said, Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and sacrifices.

And the glory filled the house.

I want to stop right there for a moment.

Now you look at it, you're talking about something supernatural.

So it's just like we have in church now.

They have an altar, they have a sacrifice out there.

And all of a sudden, fire came down.

Now let me tell you what that fire was symbolic of.

It was a symbol of his presence.

Benjamin just talked about it here.

He just sung about it.

It was a symbol of his presence.

Now, Pastor Danage is doing an outstanding series talking about the advent.

He talked about a virgin having a baby that got impregnated by the Holy Spirit.

A spirit now.

Those of you that have kids.

Now, that's deep.

If you really think about it.

But she told me, okay, you pregnant.

And it's not by me, but the spirit got you pregnant.

I'm like, okay.

I've been to war, I had bullets flowing my head and all that.

Come on now.

That is supernatural.

Amen.

And he told you about how the angel had to appear to Joseph.

The angel would have had to appear to me too.

So I understand.

I'm feeling my brother Joseph.

I understand.

But then we go on, and see, actually, I was talking to Pastor Danny.

He and I was having a conversation when we talk about the supernatural.

Most Christians, believers now, the one that carried the book that you carry, said we believe in God.

We believe in Jesus.

But then when you start talking supernatural, people, mmm, he's spooky.

I don't know about all that now.

Supernatural?

What are you talking about?

But the whole foundation of our faith is based on the supernatural.

So we said we believe in Jesus.

He came in, God sent his son Jesus to be the Savior.

He was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

He preached, died, got up in three days.

But now, while he was here though, let's talk about some of the things Jesus did.

He had just uh fed those 5,000.

He out there walking on water.

Walking on water.

His disciples saw him.

They said, Oh, that must be a spirit.

They was afraid.

Yeah, they was afraid.

They said, Oh my God, what is that?

And then you know the story ended up, it was Jesus.

And actually, Peter had enough faith.

He he came out and he walked on water.

Now tell me that's not supernatural.

Amen.

Amen.

The same thing when it came to a brother died, brother named Lazarus.

And when he died, he said, wait a minute, I'm just gonna not let him die.

I want to make sure they had customers.

I don't want nobody to get it twisted.

As a young people said, I'm gonna let him stay dead for four days.

So it so the glory be to God.

Then he raised him from the dead.

That's the kind of God we believe in.

So I look for the supernatural.

I believe in the supernatural.

Now I tell you when people want the supernatural, let the back get against the wall.

That's right.

Then we'll cry about the supernatural, then there's no problem.

Now let's go to 2 Chronicles 7 chapter in the second verse.

And it said the priest could not enter to the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the house.

You know what?

CCW.

I see the future.

They're looking bright.

Oh, I see the new church.

They're coming from the north, they coming from the south, they coming from the east, and they coming from the west.

But what's so good about it, it's gonna be just like with Solomon.

Let me tell you something what Solomon could do.

Now you look at unpack this whole the first part of the seventh chapter of Chronicles.

When they was dedicating this temple, I mean Solomon laid it out.

That's when we went over that, those 22,000.

He had like the biggest sacrifice, he had the musicians there.

This this thing was paving gold.

He invited all the dignitaries.

I mean, all the dignitaries.

But the only thing he couldn't control, like I said, going back to that first and second verse, was God's glory.

He couldn't control that.

He couldn't control that.

God, he does what he wants to do when he wants to do it.

He couldn't control that.

That was with God.

And that's what we got to start doing.

Now just start believing in the supernatural.

And I thank God for that, the way he ushered me in the spirit.

But I see God giving us a manifestation of his wonderful spirit.

Now let's go to 2 Chronicles 7:14.

2 Chronicles 7:14

We're just going to dissect that one scripture when it says, if my people.

Now, if that's conditional.

That's conditional.

Now we got to remember what was going on that time now.

They was living on the law.

The Mosette law.

Mosette gone up to Mount Sinai.

He was giving the Ten Commandments.

What most people don't know is actually more than 10.

It's 613 more.

That's why we definitely can live up under the law.

It's that all have sinned and come short.

It is no way.

That's why God had to send Jesus.

He knows the beginning to the end.

We can live under the law.

And I do realize now when we talk about revival that we live under grace.

We're on the grace now, and we're so thankful.

You go back when we were on the law in Deuteronomy, the 28th chapter.

A lot of preachers like to talk about it.

The first 14 verses talk about the blessings.

Basically, if you do good, God's gonna bless you.

Now, all the preachers preach about that the first through the 14th verse.

If you do good, how God is gonna bless you immensely.

But they don't preach, see, it started in that 15th verse.

From 15 through 66, it is about cursings.

When you don't obey God, it's all about cursings.

But then Jesus came on the scene.

And Jesus the same way people like to say, well, that was the law.

And I understand that.

But when Jesus came on the scene, basically he came to fulfill the law, but he said, Hey, Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandment.

So it's still, now we save on the grace now, but as a result of grace, you're gonna be obedient.

I think that was Pastor Danny last week.

He was talking about his spiritual father, Dr.

Farwell, how he loved the man of God, but he wanted to please him.

It's the same way with our Heavenly Father.

If we love our Heavenly Father, we want to please Him.

And the way you please Him is to be obedient to His Word.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

John 14, 15.

Alright, praise the Lord.

Now, another thing I like about it, before we move into further, we talk about my people, and it's a privilege to say that.

We're chosen.

We were chosen.

Let's go to John the 15th chapter and the 16th verse.

Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordain you that you should go forth and bring fruit, that you should fruit should remain, that whatsoever you should ask in my name, he shall give it to you.

Now that's a blessing.

Amen.

Yes.

That whatever we ask in his name.

I had an incident of I was sharing, we had gone out to witness, uh, we was going out to visitation.

It was back when I was in the army.

We had a ceremony, it was a graduation ceremony, and it came down to uh wherever you ask in his name, and that's where I always pray in his name.

And you know how they made all these changes now.

I said, No, the only way I'm gonna pray is in Jesus' name.

That's the only way I know how to pray.

That's right.

Then Peter said it like this but you are ye are a chosen generation, a raw priesthood, a holy nation, peculiar people that you should show the for the praises of him that called you out of darkness.

Now, see, that's why I get excited.

See, I can't speak for you.

I don't know where you came.

I came from a dog place.

It was really dark.

For some of you that don't know, I was an alcoholic.

I grew up in the church, but I joined the military.

And from 18 to 21, uh, I probably drank as much as the Red Sea, the whole volume of the Red Sea.

But God, He delivered me supernaturally.

That's why I don't have a problem praising Him at all.

I don't have a problem.

Now that we identify who His people are and that the fact that we are chosen, we're gonna talk about the four principles that we need to implement to get revival in our land.

Four principles they simple, and we're gonna go to the house, take it to the house.

So the first one, we should humble ourselves.

Okay, humble means Cana.

Translated as it means to bend the knee, to humiliate, vanish, to bring down into subjection, subdue.

Now, most of us don't deal with that humble.

That's being on a subjection of somebody.

The military was big on leadership, so you have to be humble, no doubt about it.

Some of the examples I'll tell you about, like what was going on in Chronicles.

You had you had some good kings and you had some bad kings.

Because that's basically what they were doing back in that time, too.

They worshiped idols, they were big in worshiping idols, so they would go through cycles.

The good kings would worship God, Jehovah.

The bad kings, they they worship some everybody, the Baal, all those false gods.

But one of the good kings was Rayobon, he humbled himself from the wrath of God, and God blessed them immensely.

Then we had a bad king.

I mean, he was bad.

I mean, there was a sip to talk about.

His name was Manasseh.

It said, and the Lord's, let's let's let's go to it.

It's 2 Chronicles 33, 10 through 13.

It said, and the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but the word, but he would not listen.

Therefore the Lord brought upon him the captains of the army in Assyria and took Manasseh with his hooks, bound him with bronze feathers, and carried him off to Babylon.

So based on Mars, so if you don't listen, God can humble you.

And we don't want God to humble us.

You know, just travel around looking at people, just like, let's say, for example, we all are proud of our kids.

Your son is the president of the United States.

Your son is Billy Graham.

Now, as a parent, that would our sports legend.

Michael Jordan Weber, anybody, you had to kind of kind of start feeling yourself a little.

You would have to.

But but Mary, now think about Mary though, she had Jesus.

The kings are kings.

Help me out, brother.

I'm glad here.

Help me preach.

The kings are kings.

It's something I never seen in the scripture.

Now I got some doctors in the house.

I never seen Mary be braggadocious by Jesus.

Now I did see this.

He was giving ready to, uh, this is in John the second chapter, when he was giving to make water to wine.

Uh, she told the servants, whatever he said, do.

Do it.

I'm here to tell you today.

Whatever he tells you to do, do it.

Don't ask no questions.

Go on in 24.

Be obedient.

Whatever it is, it might not sound logical, but do it.

Whatever it is.

But the ultimate example of humility was Jesus.

Jesus was part man, part God, came down from glory.

And he operates just like you and I.

He was sick, he got hungry.

Cried.

Every infirmity that we dealt with, Jesus dealt with.

Now that's humility.

Now he left from glory to come down here and to go through all this that we had to endure.

Yes, a good God.

And then for living two and eight say, he humbled himself and became obedient even to death.

But he did it because he loved us.

And I thank God for Jesus today.

So it's all about being humble.

Like I said, Jesus is our great example.

The next principle we need to implement is prayer.

And prayer is no more than talking to God.

And he said, My house, go ahead, help me preach.

Shall be called the house of prayer.

And I can tell you, here CCW, we're praying.

The leadership team is praying, the shepherd first lady is praying.

We're praying.

Prayer changes things.

It does.

Prayer is powerful.

And in order for us to have a vibrant relationship with God, we have to communicate with God.

I tell people all the time, especially like I'm talking to a young convert, it's just like your spouse.

Or even if you're trying to develop a relationship with a friend, if you never talk to them, how can you communicate?

How can your relationship grow?

How can it grow?

You have to communicate with them.

And that's what God is designed.

He is designed that we communicate with Him.

Now, when you talk about the seventh chapter of uh Second Chronicles, people just dive in there and talk about if my people that are called by my name, they quote that scripture.

But actually, this is an answer to a prayer that Solomon started in 2 Chronicles, the 6th chapter.

And Solomon was dedicating the temple.

And he was serious about it.

He was grateful that God chose him to do it.

But God knew the future.

And Solomon actually knew the future too.

That they was going to sin.

So that was the provision he was asking.

Like if we sin.

And so in Chronicles, the seventh chapter, in the second chapter, 714, as is the answer to his prayer.

But I like what he said in his prayer.

Solomon actually repeated back the promises of God.

And that's what you and I got to do every day.

That's why it's vital that we read the word.

So we can tell God, repeat back his promise.

He loves when we repeat back his promises.

Now, a good way of knowing how good your prayer life is.

Every day someone goes to the doctor, they tell them you terminally ill.

Every day people get bad news.

You and I've got bad news.

My question to you is who do you call when you get bad news?

Do you call the pastor?

Do you call your spouse?

Do you call your best friend?

Who do you call?

You can evaluate your own prayer life and how effective you think it is.

Now God desired that you call him.

He desired to be first.

And that's the right place you need to be.

It's with God.

And you know, the new year is coming up.

Everybody wanna know about their purpose.

There's some people, and it's amazing now.

Now I well I can say like the younger people, because most people you they go to college.

I've seen people go to college, study for years and years.

No, this is not what I want to do.

Then they'll go back to school, they'll change their major.

They'll get in one career and then go to another career.

But a lot of times, even the older people they don't know.

But I'm gonna tell you where you get your answer from.

Let's go to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 1, 4 through 5.

It says, The word of the Lord came to me saying, Before I formed thee in thy belly, I knew thee.

Came out, I sanctified thee and ordained thee to be a prophet of the nation.

Now God does not have respect a person.

That's right.

He knew Jeremiah before he formed, and guess what?

He knows you too.

He knew you too.

And so while you're seeking your purpose, because I'm telling you, the church of Chester Westover is gonna need you in 2015.

God gonna need you in 2015.

So you got to get in your rightful place.

And the only way you can get the information on what to do to get your instruction, to get your assignment, is to go before God.

And you can find out what has He ordained you to do.

Only you can answer that question in your quiet time with God.

And then the next principle we need to follow, we got to seek my face.

Now, back in the Old Testament, when this was written, like I told you, they had many gods, that's what was it was idology.

Everybody was worshiping idols.

Idols.

Everybody was worshiping idols.

Now, actually, you know, the children of Israel did it, but we're doing it now.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

We're actually worshiping idols now.

Sports.

I mean, it's just to a different level.

I'm not just talking about down here in Alabama.

I used to live in uh North Carolina.

In Alabama, it's SEC football.

In North Carolina, it was ACC basketball.

Some people worship their spouse, some people worship their kids.

Some people are materialistic.

But God is designed that we worship him.

But but seeking him, it means it's a translation, it means being in God's face.

I mean, that's what everything is about, though.

You gotta get in his presence.

You gotta get in God's presence.

Everything happened in his presence.

Everything happened in his presence.

Going back to, I told you about prayer, you get your assignment.

But but then after you get your assignment, God gotta tell you how to do it, how to deal with your assignment.

And he'll break it down to you.

Because one thing about being a believer, our mindset is totally different.

We're supposed to set our minds on things above.

See, everything you see around us now, it's gonna disappear.

It's temporal, it's temporal.

Everything we see.

In first Chronicles 22 and 19, it said, now set your mind at heart to seek the Lord your God.

If you seek him, we can find him.

If you seek him, you can find him.

And then the last thing with Isaiah talking about seek, it's to seek seek the Lord while he may be found.

Call upon him while he's near.

When he's near, you can talk to him, you can meditate with him.

Then Proverbs go on and say, I love thee that love me, and those that seek me shall find me.

So what I'm here telling you this morning, we have no excuse.

God said in his word, if we seek him without a doubt, we'll be able to find him.

But we got to seek him with our whole heart, with our whole mind.

And the thing about God I like about it, though, you gotta take on the God first mentality.

Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these other things will be added.

Now, sometimes he seek when you seek God, he'll tell you some things that really don't make sense.

Now I want to ask you the audience out here, the congregation, has God ever told you something that didn't make sense?

I think about old brother Abraham.

Now, Abraham was in a strange land, land, he lived in Ur.

We're talking about Genesis the 12th chapter.

All of a sudden, God tell this man to get up and move.

Go to a strange land, he don't know anybody.

Then later on, he even tells Abraham, he's 75, oh yeah, you're gonna have a kid.

His wife is older too.

And y'all know the story.

He has to touch the womb.

And he did.

But it took 25 years from the time that promise of God actually came to fruition.

And you know, we're in a time now where people get ready for, like I said, the new year resolutions, and people talk about vision boards.

Has anyone heard about a vision board?

Well, a lot of the motivation speakers will tell you now, like, where you want to go, like, say, for example, you want a new house.

If you want a new house, you go and get a picture of the new house and you put up on your vision board or a car, whatever it might be, church, whatever, financially, and you look at this picture every day.

Every day.

When I was younger, I always read all these motivation books.

I thought it would give me the edge.

But then as I start reading the Bible, I start noticing every all the principles they were teaching the motivation book came from the book, the Holy Bible.

Abraham was in a tent.

God told him to go outside.

He said, Look up.

This when he was childish.

You say, you see all them stars?

That's the way your generation's gonna be.

Now, this is a man that's childish.

Now, that's the first time somebody had a vision board.

That's the first time God did.

Now you read most motivation, you will see that.

Get the vision.

Now, it didn't make sense, but it came to fruition.

And Sarah even laughed at God and the baby came.

Now you're talking about God will download some information to you.

That's why it's good to seek and be in his face.

Let's talk about the prophet Elijah in 1 King.

Now, Elijah was he was a very anointed man of God.

He was a prophet in the Old Testament time.

He actually stood before a king and told him it's gonna be a drought.

The king didn't believe him, King Ahab.

He told him it was gonna be a drought.

So the drought came, but in the midst of it, the drought, God even told Elijah how he was gonna survive.

He told him to go to this brook.

And a raven was gonna feed him, bring him meat and water every day.

Meat and water every day.

There it is, his provisions.

But now all of a sudden, though, the brook dried up.

Has anyone ever lost their job?

Did your brook dry up?

Same thing with relationship.

Has anyone's relationship just ceased?

Did the brook dry up?

So that's why we got to seek God because for the time that he told Elijah to go at that particular spot, the raven came.

But now I was talking to you about logical.

Logic.

That's why you got to realize we're dealing with a supernatural God.

Now, you got a raven feeding him, bringing them meat and water.

Check out what God does next.

God said, okay, it's dry.

You pretty much can say the provision is dry though.

God sent him to a widow woman in Zarefat.

Had a son.

Now let me tell you something about this widow woman now.

She was extremely poor.

They had no government assistance program.

She didn't have any life insurance.

So it was no income coming in.

But she did have a little meal, a little water, and she basically planned it out.

She said, Well, she and her son are gonna eat this, like we call the Last Supper.

Basically, they don't need their last supper and die.

Okay, then think of some of the biggest name televangelists you could think of.

You want to call it back in the older days, Billy Graham.

Uh now you got the Joel Osteens.

Uh the biggest name televangelists you can think of.

Here he comes.

This lady is getting ready to die with her kid.

The last meal.

I'm a prophet.

God said, give me some, you fix me some water first and the meal.

Wait a minute.

I don't have that.

I do not have that.

All I have is enough for me to, my son and I are gonna eat this last meal, and that's it.

And here it is.

You're a preacher, you know, but they said by preaching, we greedy.

Love money.

Here it is.

You should be prosperous already.

You will ask me for my last.

You're gonna let ask me for my last.

And he did.

But now let me tell you something about the woman of Zephyr.

She was in tune with God, evidently.

She had been seeking God.

That's why we got to seek God.

You know, it didn't make sense now.

But she gave him a last.

And then she said it said, in the word, it said, she had enough food.

Never to eat again.

Now I'm gonna tell you something about giving.

I told you many before, I come from an extremely poor family.

I grew up in an outhouse.

But you don't know what an outhouse is, that's when you don't have random water for the bathroom.

An outhouse.

So when we talk about giving, I gotta talk about how God has blessed me.

You know, when it comes to tithes, a lot of Christians, oh boy, you start talking about Samalak and give bring all the tithes into the storehouse.

That's a bad subject.

A bad, bad subject.

But let me tell you what I found out about it.

Now, so I've been out in the pew as a member.

I remember the first time I heard this.

So I'm checking out, I'm checking out the preacher.

He's up there dressed talking about bringing my money.

Give 10%.

I don't know about that.

He don't look like you know, you hear all the money, the preacher's stealing the money, like 10%?

So that's a lot.

So then he talked about a scripture that said, prove me.

This is the only time God is telling us, allow us to test him.

The only scripture in the Bible where God allows us to test him.

So what happened is I was challenged one time.

Like I'm gonna challenge everybody in the audience that's not doing this.

Because now it's one thing to read the Bible, it's one thing to memorize the scripture, and that's great.

But when you implement a principle and it works, I'm not telling you what Pastor Dana told me.

I'm not telling what this sister told me over here.

Tithing works.

So I started tithing.

And you, you know, like I said, if you if you only got a thousand dollars, and you know how sometimes I've done been there, you got more money.

Well, you got less money than your bills, it don't add up.

You only got a thousand dollars, but you got twelve hundred dollars a bill.

That does not add up.

That doesn't add up.

He already, I told him he helped me preach, he's doing it.

So, twelve hundred dollars a bill and you got a thousand dollars.

God don't want your money.

We don't need your money here at CCW.

Only thing God wants to see that you trust him.

That's all he wants to see, that you trust him.

Because what you saying.

No, you know I talking about the supernatural.

We say we believers.

I believe.

You say you believe in the supernatural.

So so to me, that's supernatural.

$1,200 was a bill, and you're only bringing in a thousand.

But I'll tell you what, try God.

Try.

I tried him, I'm telling you.

I get blessings, I get blessings, I get blessings.

God done bless me, and He'll bless you.

Try.

Be like that with a woman.

Listen to the man or woman of God that's speaking your life.

Be like that with a woman.

God will bless you immensely.

Amen.

Now the last one was turn from our wicked ways.

Now, as a nation, uh I don't know where to start on that one.

I mean, we're basically doing some everything now.

Our Constitution was actually written on Judeo Christian values.

Yes, it was.

I know you look at your money and saying, God, we trust.

Now, you said God now, most people they they basically want to jump on you.

I was telling a younger couple when I played football, wild sports, they actually had chaplains.

And prior to the game, the chaplain would get on the PA system and pray to the God of the Bible.

Didn't have to say, let's have a moment of silence.

No, he could pray to the God about to the God of the Bible.

We said to pledge allegiance every morning.

But I tell you what I didn't hear when I was coming up as a child.

I never heard of a case like the comboine case where they're just killing people or some of the killings that are going on in the universe.

I never heard of that.

That's right.

Now you got, they don't change marriage, the institution of marriage, some of the states.

They align same-sex marriage.

And Christians really can't speak.

They don't want us to speak now.

Not at all.

And yeah, they antichrist.

Just anything dealing with God, they totally against us.

But what we have to do in these last days, we got to be obedient to God's word.

We have to be bold, bold like a lion.

I want uh Pastor Dan and I was on a visitation, I'm not gonna call the member out, but we was visiting, and I suppose we encouraging her, but this sister, she encouraged me, she was bold.

She was bold, and she's in here now.

She was bold, she encouraged me.

I left my desk stirred up, let's let's go fight.

Because she said she got offended.

Somebody told her I'll just tell this part of the story.

They were saying uh they said Jesus.

She said she got offended because her son couldn't say Jesus and God.

Because see, we basically taking anything now.

We don't get offended.

We want to kind of just fit in.

But in the last days, God don't need us to fit in.

That's right.

He needed us to follow these basic principles.

We need to implement them in 2000 and 2015.

Now, 14 has been a good year, but 2015 is gonna be better.

Amen.

Yes, it is.

Now I heard God say the future looks bright.

It looks real bright.

We just gotta follow those principles.

We got to humble ourselves, we gotta pray, we gotta seek his face and turn from the wicked ways.

It's all about keeping God first and walk daily.

And then by I I told you, God needs your help.

He's not coming back down here, he's gonna use Christians like you and I.

But the way we turn around Chelsea and the rest of the part of the country, it started with Matthew 28, 19.

We got to go tell people about Jesus.

We got to go tell people about Jesus.

People are dying every day.

Every day.

And you know what?

They're not going to heaven either.

So we have to fulfill the Great Commission.

We have to feel the Great Commission.

It's about telling everybody about Jesus.

Don't be ashamed.

Don't be ashamed.

And be ready to testify at any time.

I was telling one of the groups I teach in uh this recovery class.

You might not know the scripture like somebody that's well seasoned, but you can tell people about how God brought you out.

That's right.

You can testify how God brought you out.

I was reading in John, the Pharisees was basically trying to hem up uh this person had gotten uh God had laid hand on him and healed the blind.

So the Pharisees want to know about it.

So they inquired from his parents, was he born blind?

And because the way it was set up back then, they had to lie.

They were like, Well, he's old enough, go ask him.

But he said, Hey, you know, yes, all I know I once was blind, but now I see.

And so I'm here to tell you that today, get in his word.

You might be blind now, but once you get to know Jesus, you'll be able to see.

That's right.

That's right.

All right, I love y'all and and pray.

Pray for me.

Amen.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

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We hope you have a wonderful day and again, God bless you.