Forward Progress

I'm gonna invite you if you can join with me book of Genesis chapter 35 been now in this series called road to revival

Genesis 35 · chapter mention

Road to revival and we've been looking at a very important period in the life of Jacob

As God was calling him back to the promised land back to Bethel to reestablish his faith and

His spiritual life and we've been drawing principles

We've been looking at different steps that this man of God had to take along with his family to prepare for revival

We're gonna look at one more thing today

Genesis chapter 35 and verse 5

Genesis 35 · chapter mention

reads as follows and they journeyed and

the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them and

They did not pursue the sons of Jacob

So Jacob came to Luz that is Bethel which is in the land of Canaan he and all the people

Who were with him and he built an altar there?

and called the place

L Bethel

Because there God appeared to him when he had fled from the face of his brother

Now Deborah Rebecca's nurse died

She was buried below Bethel

underneath the terrible tree

So the name of it was called Alan

Luke huff

Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from

Adam Aram

and

Blessed him. I'm entitling this message today

forward

Progress forward progress. Let's pray father. We love you today. Thank you for

The way in which you have already moved in this place God. We thank you that you blessed our church with such

Amazing talented and anointed musicians and singers

Praise team singers God and all that have come and gathered today Lord to create this atmosphere

But we know that you have a word for us today

So I'm asking God humbly that you would touch my tongue and anoint my lips and everything I speak would be your wisdom and not mine

God

I pray right now Lord that you would loosen the understanding of all that is here today to receive your word with gladness

Have your way God we ask this in Jesus name

Everyone say amen

Amen, you may be seated in the series. We've traced Jacob's journey back to Bethel

noting that

His road was one that was winding and bumpy

It was marked by delay and detours

and difficulties, but also by God's faithfulness at every turn and one truth

Became crystal clear in the process

That no matter where you find yourself

Your direction

supersedes your setbacks

If we can take anything away from Jacob's story thus far is that you're never too far from God's grace

And now no matter where you are as long as you determine as long as you set your mind to do the will of God

And to move forward in him that God will make a way won't be easy

It won't be comfortable, but it will be worth it

And the most important thing that we can do you can do is to move forward

Someone say forward

Even if you're not moving forward

Even if it looks like you're losing ground

Even if it looks like you're backtracking

Keep moving forward as I was thinking about this concept

My mind went to the sports world and I started thinking about in football. There is a rule called

forward progress

Some of you might be familiar with forward progress. I'm gonna say forward progress

Forward progress it state now, you know, of course, I'm gonna put the right team up there. Praise God. Hallelujah

Amen, it states that not to offend anybody

But it states that no matter how hard the defense pushes the ball

Carrier backwards the referee will always mark the ball at the furthest point they advance

So as the ball carrier is carrying the ball whether it's a receiver quarterback wide receiver

As long as he's pushing ahead moving in the forward direction

Even if he gets pushed back

Five ten yards the referee will get the ball and mark it at the spot where he was moving forward

Even if they get driven back that is the official spot where the ball belongs

So long as the ball carrier was in a forward direction

Direction even if the ball carrier falls down as long as his body is facing forward

They'll mark the spot at the furthest point

Amen, that's that's how the rule of forward progress works in the game of football now in the same situation

if the ball carrier at any point turns his back and

Starts retreating

Well forward progress is no longer in play because the moment the ball carrier turns back and starts running in the other direction

Or any place else there's no longer forward progress and if he gets tackled over there, that's where they mark the ball

So the key to forward progress to get that ball mark the furthest point is to stay looking forward

It's to keep your direction in a forward momentum

Even if you stumble stumble forward even if you fall fall forward

Even if you push and you slip as long as you're doing that forward

It might feel like you're losing ground and I feel like you're getting pushed back

But the ball is gonna be marked at your furthest place of advancement

and as I looked at that I saw a spiritual picture because

Oftentimes in our spiritual journeys

We are attempting to move forward in God forward in his will forward in his plan

Forward in his promises we're trying to move forward and in the process of trying to move forward

At times we get pushed back or we're losing ground instead of gaining ground

But I've come with good news today to tell you that we serve a God who I think

Invented this whole rule of forward progress because God in his goodness in his grace

Will judge you according to the furthest point that you pushed as long as you are

Set in your mind that you're moving forward as long as you have determined within yourself

That you're gonna keep pushing ahead. You're gonna keep pressing you're gonna keep moving forward direction

Then I've come to tell you that you've got the wind behind you

You've got the momentum behind you and I've come to tell somebody that your direction matters today

So keep pushing forward in the name of the Lord clap your hands up and give God some praise today. Amen

How many of you want to move forward in Jesus name?

He said but I feel like i'm losing ground

I feel like i'm getting put you know people been pushing me around the devil's been pushing me around

And you know my co-workers are pushing me around and I feel like i'm losing ground. Hey, that's all right

It sometimes looks like you're losing a little bit of ground

It sometimes feels like you're like you're not where you're supposed to be like you're not for man

I feel like preaching today hallelujah, but if you keep moving forward say you know what if I even if it's just an inch

You know what i'm saying?

Even if it's just a baby step even if I gotta crawl

Scratch and crawl my way there as long as I keep pushing forward as long as i'm scouting my mind and my spirit

And my vision set in the right direction my god is going to bring me through

How many of you are a witness today has god done that for you?

And this is the attitude my lord

We got to get some tenacity back in our faith get that ferociousness back get that the bible says that the the the the kingdom suffers violence

And the violent take it by four. We got to get that tenacity and keep pumping our legs

Because that's where god wants us and the enemy wants us to focus on what we've lost and what we have

Received and and maybe we're not as far along as we thought we would be but god has a bigger plan

So don't look don't look at the small picture look at the bigger picture

Look at the bigger picture and see how far you've actually come

Sometimes you know how many of you can be hard on yourself you can be so critical

Sometimes we are so critical of ourselves. We are so judgmental of ourselves

But look at the bigger picture you may not have it all figured out yet. You are still a work in progress

You're you're not quite perfect yet. I mean no one is right and sometimes we can judge ourselves by the current season that we're in

And i'm here to tell you don't be so critical of yourself

Don't judge yourself by the last three weeks or the last three months or the last even the last three years so to speak

But look at the bigger picture

Look how far god has brought you from where you first started

To where you are today. Let's give god a hand. Praise for that. Amen

God's been good and he's brought you a mighty long ways. You got to celebrate that

But there are some things that that jacob is is teaching us

That in order for us to learn from uh, the process there are some lessons about lessons

About letting go so today's message is is also about letting go letting go of things letting go of the past in order to

Move forward in god and the first lesson i'd like to bring to your attention today is lesson number one

Which is when you step out god steps in

When you step out god steps in notice the words

In in our opening verse it says

And they journeyed in verse five and they journeyed someone say it's a journey

It's a journey my friend. It's a journey. It's not a it's not an elevator

Okay, serving god is not an elevator. You don't just push a number and then you go up and then you're there

It's a journey. It's a marathon not a sprint. It's a it's a gradual process of moving from one step to the next

It's a gradual process of of moving from one step to the next and so I like the fact that as they journeyed

As they begin to step out on the wheel of god as they begin to obey

The will the word of god in their life as they begin to respond to god

Watch how things begin to move in their favor as they begin to step out notice what happens church

Uh, the terror of the lord was upon the cities that were all around them. This is fascinating to me

This is very encouraging to me to know that as the people of god begin to step out on the word of god

The lord sends out a terrorizing spirit. You know that god has the potential to terrorize

You think only the devil can terrorize. No, no, no my friend god can terrorize when he wants to

However, thank god. He doesn't terrorize us, but he will terrorize the things that are trying to terrorize you

My little i'm gonna preach this that day. I said god will terrorize

Your terrorist he will terrorize the things that are terrorizing you as jacob was stepping into the promises of the lord

God sent out the terror of god upon the inhabitants of the land those those evil doers those people

who would seek to subvert him and and to uh hinder him and possibly attack him from the flanks and

encumber him in some way but god put the terror of the lord out on these people and

Protected jacob so that he can continue walking and guess what happened. They left him alone

They just they just left him alone

They let jacob be and and I don't know how the lord terrorized him

But there was a there was a fear that came over these people so that nothing would come against jacob

But the pattern that I want to you to understand today in order for you to receive that kind of a miracle

Blessing in your life is you have to first walk out what god is telling you to do

You have to step out. This is a spiritual pattern in the kingdom of god

Many times we sit back and we are waiting for things to change before we step out

But god says you need to step out first and then I will cause things to change. Oh, hallelujah

Somebody when you step out the bible shows us time after time

Through story after story and passage after passage

There are illustrative examples of his people when they step out all of a sudden

Miracles are activated and the supernatural is initiated at the jordan river

Here are some examples the priest had to step out into the water

In order for those waters to part so that they might cross over on dry ground

We're waiting sometimes for the waters to part we say well when the conditions get better

And when the water starts to part then i'll do my part. No, you've got to step out

Someone say step out when you step out then god will step in hallelujah

The ten lepers that jesus healed

He tells them to walk out and as they begin to walk in obedience

The bible says that they were cleansed along the way

He heals these lepers, but they did not experience or they did not

Feel or realize their physical healing

Until they began to walk their way to the temple to show themselves clean to the priest

But it was as they walked they started noticing a difference in the complexion of their skin

They started seeing the miracle transpire manifest before their burial

But they had to walk it out for peter the great and famous water walker would have never walked on water

Until he had stepped out of the boat

Can I tell you today if god has called you to walk on water?

Well, praise be to god, but you're never going to walk on water as long as you're sitting inside of the boat

Everybody wants to walk on water

But very few people are willing to get out of the boat

I've come to tell you today if you will step out of that comfort zone

If you will step out of the boat if you will step foot into the jordan

If you will simply walk out the word and the voice in obedience unto god you will see

The hand of god move in your life somebody if you believe it say amen today

And as they begin to walk out then they started seeing the terror of god

And this is the kind of miracle that god does in their life

We think that god uh, we often try to put god in a box

On the way that he moves and and how he works and and and sometimes we forget that one of the ways that miracles

Manifest one of the ways that god works is not by delivering us from a fight like david and goliath

Not by parting red seas and jordan rivers

But one of the ways god works in our life is by never letting the enemy get into a fight with you to begin with

I

Don't know about you, but I love those kind of miracles

I'm glad when god delivers me from the foul and the hand of the snare

I'm glad when god delivers me from the hand of the spirit and all that when I find myself in a battle

But I much rather prefer me not even have to get my hands dirty

Amen somebody I would rather that god would go before me and this is what god did for jacob

But he did not even have to lift his hand and fight those that were around him

Because god had already put the terror of the lord in those people

So he was simply able to walk in and claim what belonged to him. I hear the holy ghost saying today

What you wrestled with yesterday you will not have to wrestle with today

You will simply walk into it if you just listen and respond to the will of god in your life

I've come to prophesy into somebody i've come to prophesy to this church and tell us today

That the battles that we have fought and engaged yesterday

We will not have to fight today because god is so good and god is so great

And god is so loving and so merciful that there are some battles. You will never have to lift a spear

You will never have to raise a sword

All you have to do is walk and if you are simply walk and simply move in the will of god

Come on, do I got a witness here today if you'll simply move in the will of god god will make away

Somebody shout hallelujah

He'll do it for you

He'll do it for you

And i've come to prophesy and if you feel like this is from the lord receive it into your spirit today

The battles and the giants you fought yesterday you will not have to face them today

If you'll be obedient under god and just walk out what he told you to do

And he will cause your enemies to get so preoccupied so shaken with fear so frozen in fear and intimidation

That they won't even bother you the devil will know don't even pick with jacob today

Oh my lord, the demons in hell will know don't even mess with that brother day. Don't even just leave them alone

They just let you be. Ah, that's the kind of joy

That's the kind of victory that i'm getting ready to walk into today

So that god will give me housing that I didn't build and vineyards that I didn't plan

I've come to tell you son. I'm not saying that's all going to be easy

I'm not saying it's all going to be comfortable

But what I am saying is that we're going to walk into some things in this season that we had to fight tooth and nail for

In the prior season do i've got a witness in the house. Is anybody believing god for a blessing?

Believe in god for a miracle. Come on and clap your hands if you're believing god to move in your life

This is what i'm believing for and we've got to step forward and when we do god will step in

and jacob

Understands his principle and so he he's stepping forward. He's moving forward

Forward and the second lesson that comes to light in this process because he's almost there

He's almost there

He's almost here going back to that football analogy man. He's in the red zone now

Hey, man, he's in the red zone. You know what that means that that means if you don't understand football

I mean he he's within striking distance man. He's right there. He's so close to the goal line. He can taste it

That's how close he is

And so he's right there and it's all on the line right here and the second lesson

He has to learn lest he fumble and miss his destiny is that there is no substitute for an altar

Oh, this is gonna be an important lesson for him to learn

The bible says in verse seven that he built

An altar someone say altar

And he called the place

El bethah

This is interesting because

Prior he had named that place bethah, which means the house of god

But now he renames this this spiritual place

El bethah, which means god of the house of god

God of the house of god

This is the house of god

This wasn't just a name change my friend this marked a significant shift in his life

Now jacob is starting to realize something that I hope and pray to god that every one of us realize it

There is a difference between knowing the house of god and knowing the god of the house of god

Hello somebody

There's a difference between knowing the song and knowing the person you're seeing in it, too

There's a difference between knowing amen knowing the routines the routines of apostolic church

The routines of apostolic life the routines of christian living and all these things and knowing why you're doing it

And who you're doing it for?

Not to impress people but to please him

Amen

And so he realizes that I need to build an altar

I need to build an altar. I need to build a place where where god can dwell because I don't just want to know

the house of god

I want to know the god of the house of god

I don't want to just love church. I want to know and love the god of the church

Hey my hallelujah. Oh, I feel I feel this in my bones today

You see at bethel at bethel which was the the first sort of go-around for jacob at bethel

He he he did something important. He set up a pillar

I don't want to say a pillar

He set up a pillar of stones and and this was good. This was all good. It was a memorial

He was memorializing his encounter with god. He built a pillar

Beautiful wonderful. I'm sure it was a great looking pillar. In fact, jacob was known to be a pillar builder

Throughout different uh points in his life. He would he would build a pillar

And that pillar would serve as a memorial

It would serve as a reminder of what god did and that's good and that's wonderful

And he did that the first time around at bethel, but this second time around

Something must have triggered in him something must have awakened in him to understand

That I need to be more than just a pillar builder in my life. I need to be an altar builder

And so at bethel he built an altar

a place of sacrifice and of worship

You see a pillar let me explain to you. This is important

This is important these symbols in our in our spirit in our minds today are important because they tell a story

And they communicate a lesson to us. Amen. Are you are you still tracking with me here today? Amen a pillar marks the past

Amen a pillar marks the past it marks what what god did yesterday

But an altar marks the present

It marks what you're offering today

today

Again jacob was mostly a pillar builder. He he was very good. He was he was uh

He was good at remembering or recalling things that god had done for him and memorializing events

moments and seasons of his life

But the one thing he hadn't quite figured out was how to build an altar

And I have observed in the church world how people are always building pillars instead of altars

What does that mean pastor jacob? Let me explain to you

It means that we go from service to service and we talk about how great that service was

Wow, wasn't that service awesome didn't god move man. Yes. He sure did. Can't wait for the next service

All right, and then the next service comes and we say man wasn't that service was fire today

Amen, it wasn't that great. That was great man. I'm looking forward to the next service

And then we go from service to service

And we go from experience to experience and we just mark these moments

And we do it in in a number of ways we do them through through our interactions

We do it maybe through social media nothing wrong with posting these things memorializing these things. That's great and wonderful

But at some point we got to move beyond just going from service to service

And we come on sunday praise god praise the lord god bless you and see you next sunday. Amen

All right

And then then then we see what this thing and we'll see you over there

And we're just kind of going from event to event from service to service

And the question is we at some point we've got to ask this question

Where is the altar in our life?

Because when there is an altar in our life

The whole attitude of our relationship to god our service to his kingdom our connection to the local church

Our connection to the vision of god our connection to the holy ghost

And the and and the move of his spirit is going to be determined on the vibrancy of our altar

But there is a tendency especially in penicall especially in apostolicism

Where we are constantly trying to relive what god did yesterday

And we're constantly going back and man wasn't you know five years ago man?

God sure moved me 20 and then it's wonderful to have a testimony

And it's wonderful to talk about what god did we're not against that at all because we have a testimony

But i'm coming to tell you that we don't just serve the god of yesterday

We don't just serve the god of yesterday and last year and and the revival of times past

Uh, we serve the god of the here and the now we serve the god that wants to do something in our midst today

This is the day that the lord has made and I will rejoice and be exceedingly glad in it

I don't want to be a believer that is stuck in the past

I want to be moving forward

But what we do when we're afraid to move forward and it happens to all of us

Is instead of taking that next step we convince ourselves through a false sense of spiritual validation that we're good with god

By remembering something he did for us over there and we're living off yesterday's blessing

Living off yesterday's anointing you say oh god will never let that happen read your bible

Read your bible you can be out of the will of god and still be anointed i'll give you a perfect example

Saul

God was still using saul king saul. He still had an anointing. He was still being used, but god had took his favor from his life

And it was only he was on borrowed time. It was only a matter of time until he eventually succumbed

To his condition, but there are seasons of our life that we're not careful

We'll just keep going and going and going based off of what god did in the past instead of that

When was the last time you laid something down fresh at this altar?

Fresh at this altar and you see here's the thing

Jacob he had this propensity about him

And if the shoe fits put it on today brother or sister if not, you know, praise god

But but maybe you'll need the service this message another time

But he had this propensity prior to this altar moment in his life to constantly be negotiating with god

He was always negotiating. He was always trying to like work out a deal

He was like a deal maker, you know always trying to work out a deal with god

And at the ladder when he saw the ladder from heaven, he he said, you know what he said?

He said if you bless me, i'll serve you

That's what he told the lord if you bless me i'll serve you in other words i'll serve you but with conditions

Oh lord, hallelujah. It's gonna get quiet now. That's all right. Amen

Like that one sunday, I brought my cricket spray

Let the cricket shipper. That's all right

Because we got to get out of that funk that kind of thinking

They said well everything must be all right, but if we're still having this attitude of well if god had i'll do it

But on my terms, hello somebody

And jacob continued that pattern even when he wrestled with god now

These are all wonderful moments in jacob's life. He's wrestling with god

What does he tell the lord i won't let you go?

Until you bless me

Now we always champion that moment in his life

And sometimes you do have to be that way with god

You do have to be tenacious and determined to get what you have. But but again, it's conditional

He's always negotiating and this is how people approach their relationship with god with their service unto the lord

They want to know what they want to do

They want to know what's in it for me

What am I going to get out of this?

Oh my lord, hallelujah

And the problem is is that we want revival without sacrifice. We want blessing without commitment

Oh hallelujah, we want accountability, but we don't want to be accountable

We want god to do it, but we're not willing to give and god is saying today

I want you to build an altar because when you build an altar you do so

Unconditionally you lay yourself at the feet of me you put it all out there and you say lord

If you never bless me again, if you never heal me again, if you never do it for me again

I'm gonna serve you and love you and worship you as long as I live

I'm gonna be a living sacrifice

I'm gonna be a living sacrifice. Romans 12 1 I beseech you therefore brother by the mercies of god that you present your bodies

a living sacrifice

Holy acceptable unto god, which is your reasonable service someone say reasonable service

That's all god is asking for

It's a reasonable service put yourself on the altar

God's not asking you to give an offering although that's what you should do, but he's asking for you to be the offering

And that bethel jacob was now we're starting to see him change give me a few more moments

I'll be done in just a little bit here, but but we're starting to see a transformation. He's transforming

You know god wants to transform every one of you

I'm gonna say it again. You know god wants to transform every one of you

Amen somebody can I hear an amen?

He wants to transform if you keep reading this verse

He says be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind

God is transforming us and now david is or excuse me. He uh jacob is being transformed and and he's now starting to see things differently

Now he's no longer negotiating now. He's not telling lord if you bless me, then i'll serve you he's not saying well

You know i'm gonna hold on until you give me what I want now. He's not talking like that now. He is surrendering

Everything to god and saying lord if I really want you to move in my life. I really want revival

I really want you to use me to win the loss. I really want you to use me to advance your kingdom

I really want you to use me god to bless other people. I really want god for you to use

My life, I really want to go to another level. I really want more of what you have for me great

That's wonderful. But now it's time for us to lay those things down before god and say lord and i'll do these things regardless

Even if you don't bless me, even if it doesn't work out the way that I hope that I wanted god

I'm tired of trying to control you. I'm tired of trying to control people. I'm tired of trying to control systems

I'm just gonna throw myself into your hands lord and whatever it is that you want to do lord here I am god

Take me and jacob is starting to realize once and for all this is how you get in to the land of milk and honey

This is how you get back to bethel. This is how you get back on the road to revival

How many of you want to see revival in your life? Why don't we just worship the lord for a few moments?

Hallelujah. Oh hallelujah. Jesus. I'm gonna buy the piano player to come up here in a few seconds

Get ready. I want to see revival from the lord. Come on. Let's worship god for a few moments church church

Come on church. Let's just worship him right now

Oh, come on with somebody lift up your hands lift up your voice for a moment right now

Come on. I need somebody to respond with worship today. Hallelujah. You're not worshiping me

You're not worshiping the message. You're worshiping your creator

You're not worshiping the message. You're worshiping your creator. Come on. Hallelujah

Would somebody just entertain the presence of the lord here today with somebody just entertain the presence of god right now

Come on. We're at an impasse moment. We're at a holy moment. We're at a sacred crossroads

Come on for another 30 seconds

Lord hallelujah with somebody raise those voices and keep them raised right now. Hallelujah

Come on hallelujah saints. Let me hear you saints. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah

God is in this place today. God is in this place right now

Oh god, hallelujah

We have hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Listen, I only have just a little bit more time as the brother begins to play

There's just one more thing i'm going to give to you and then we're just going to give this

Everything else to god in this service

But but here's the last thing that god showed me as I was praying I was I was seeking the lord god

What do you want me to tell your people lord?

What is it that we need to hear god to prepare for this next revival to prepare for this next?

This next fresh move of god and the lord spoke to me out of these verses

And he tells me this lesson that revival follows bearing the past

Revival follows bearing the past something interesting happens

Right as jacob's now if I go back to my sports analogy now, he's on the one yard line

I mean he is he is now fourth and inches into his goal line of promise

Uh, and he has to understand that to get beyond that

And into greater glory and into revival into miracles signs and wonders into the promise

He sees this and this happens and the bible says in verses eight through nine now deborah rebecca's nurse

Rebecca's nurse rebecca was

Was his mother jacob's mother rebecca's nurse died

And she was buried below bethel under the terabith tree

And god appeared to jacob again

And blessed him

I find it interesting that even after everything jacob had already done

The steps he had gone through the purging of his house

The the giving up of his the idols and all the things that have taken place the turning from the past and and here

Here the lord with holds this measure of blessing in his life for this event to happen

Why why god what is so significant about this woman's death that would trigger this next level of blessing in his life?

well

Because deborah was his mother's nurse

Rebecca had already died years in the past

And so now deborah hear me today in the holy ghost

Is you you you need to be you need to have spiritual ears to hear what i'm about to say, okay?

Some things are not received. They're not received carnally. They're not received through intellect. They're going to be received spiritually

deborah

Became like a mother figure to jacob

She was a beloved figure in his life

You understand?

She has taken almost the place of a surrogate mother to him

He loved his mother. How do I know this? Well the bible tells us so

That his mother favored him just like his father favored his brother

She was his life coach

Wasn't always a good one

But she directed him to do some things right there was a special bond between jacob and his mother

And so so she's out of the picture now. Deborah is this figure in his life

She's this maternal figure

she's this

authority figure if you will

But more than anything she is this link to his past

She's this provisionary link to his past represents the old move of god

Represents what god did in the last generation

Represents what god did in the last season

And then she was like the remaining

link

To that

And now she has died and jacob is heartbroken

He's weeping he's mourning her loss

This woman I imagine that he said that she he he must have grieved over her casket

Not not deborah not deborah

But this was significant

Why?

Not because deborah was bad hear me out today. Oh my lord. I'm this is all gonna be worth it for you right now

Not because deborah was deborah was not an idol. Okay

He had already buried that stuff

She was not a bad influence on his life. She was not bad

She was good

But sometimes it's not the bad things that keep us from revival

So it's the good things that we have become so attached to in our minds and in our spirits

That the good things hear me today are keeping us from the greater things

I'm gonna close my iPad so you know that I really am gonna close here

Some of your struggles, you're not i'm gonna be very honest with you

Some of you are not struggling getting rid of the bad stuff

In fact, god bless you because you know how to get rid of the bad stuff

And if you don't know how to get rid of the bad stuff then you need to go back and listen to last week's message

How's about getting rid of the bad stuff?

But there is a select group today

Your struggle is not getting rid of sin and the bad stuff compromise. God bless you for being able to do that

Your struggle is bearing the good stuff

You said well, why do I have to bury the good stuff?

Because when good keeps you from greatness

Good becomes bad

Not because it's inherently bad because anything that keeps you didn't jesus called peter a devil

Now I would tell you peter's not satan, but he said satan get behind me. Ah, that would have freaked me out

Lord, don't call me that my goodness

I'll take a bullet for you. I'll cut someone's ear off for you

But he said but but you're getting in the way from me and the cross

So right now you're satan

Get behind me peter because i'm trying to i'm not trying to go from from bad to good i'm trying to go from good to great

To glory whoo jesus and I hear this in the holy ghost

What are the good things good memories familiar things things you love things that have comforted you things that have been your your safe space to land

Things that you always go to people you always talk to all certain things and habits and rituals and things that have brought you this far

But maybe what brought you this far is not what's going to take you that far

Maybe the things that the prayers you prayed were good enough to get you to where you are today

Maybe the sacrifices and the altars and the prayers and the fastings and the things that you did to get you here

God bless it. It was good in his time

But that's not going to be what gets you to the next level of revival and glory restoration and miracle

God said I need you to sacrifice again. I see david bringing back the ark of the covenant every seven steps a fresh sacrifice

Every seven steps they sacrifice again every seven steps they sacrifice again

Imagine if david had said no, I think we sacrifice enough. Let's let god do the rest

No, he said we gotta keep sacrificing. We gotta keep laying something down at the altar

We gotta keep moving somebody stand with me today. Hallelujah. Come on

Oh stand up on your feet this afternoon. I feel the holy ghost in this

This is a sure word from the lord today that god wants to do exceedingly

abundantly above all that we can ask or think in our midst

Not only this weekend brother if you think i'm just trying to prepare

Or the holy ghost is just trying to prepare for a weekend that's coming. You've got it wrong

God's not preparing us just for a weekend

God's preparing us for a new season

Yeah, a new season of growth right there. I invite somebody to begin to pray with me. Oh