God Order My Life || Pastor Diego Mesa

I'm going to preach this this one hit wonder to

you today. I want to give kudos to my son Adam.

He was very, very.

Sick with a cold on Christmas Eve and he preached

two tremendous messages and just depended upon the spirit of God.

And so he's resting. We gave him the day off

to recover. So New Year's Eve service as a father

and a son relationship because he's now walking the steps

that I walk for thirty years. And sometimes you just

got to do what you gotta do, and you've got

to trust God.

And I couldn't help him in any way.

So he came up here and he preached two tremendous messages.

So I'm grateful for that. Let's stand and we're going

to share this thought with you today. We're going to

read this one scripture and I think it's going to

be a blessing to you. Psalms thirty seven and verse

twenty three says this, the steps of a good man

or good woman are ordered by the Lord, and he

delights in his ways.

You may be seated.

Father, thank you so much for the print vilege to

preach your word today.

It's not my right it's a privilege. Father.

People come from all variations of life. They're going through things, God,

and so I just pray that you administer a message

as we this last Sunday of the new year, God,

as we go into another year. God, I pray this

is a timely message that will speak to the hearts

of every one of us in Jesus name.

Amen.

My wife has this fit Bit watch or this Apple watch,

and she's just obsessed with counting her steps. She just

has this quota that she's trying to reach every day

of how many steps that she wants to do. And

so on Friday after Christmas, and she had done all

the Christmas shopping and we went to the various parties

that we went through with family. On Friday, I went

off to sheriff duty as a chaplain and I said,

what are you going to do? And she said, well,

you know, it's it's it's a med day for me,

and me day means that you know, don't bother her,

don't call her, don't text her, It's just me and

it's just going to be her. And she said, I'm

going to go to the Ontario Mills Mall and do

some windows shopping or whatever. And so at the end

of the day, I asked, haw was your day, and

she said, it's wonderful. I went through the mall, but

I also went there to walk, and I did ten

thousand steps. So I don't know what ten thousand steps means,

but she was really happy that she had done ten

thousand steps. What if I told you that God wants

to count the steps of your life as you go

into your marriage, as you go off to work, as

you interact in relationships, if you go to Starbucks, you

go to the gym, you go to church, that God

has a certain expectation about where you place your foot

or your step. And God wants to turn a left,

or he may want to turn a right, or he may.

Tell you to stop.

But notice that the scripture says the steps of a

good man or woman, they're ordered or means that God

wants to orchestrate your steps. That God wants there to

be some organization.

To your steps or your life.

That God wants there to be some kind of rhythm

or cadence to your steps. Right now, are all these

playoff games with college going on and entering playoffs with football,

and you see these marching bands and it's beautiful how

their cadence is a military band. And I wonder if

God has some rhythm for our lives of.

Expectation that he would have us.

So here's the thought today, God, I ask you to

order my life and order my steps. Don't just manage

my life, or don't leave me to manage my life.

See a life of managing looks like this.

You make the decision, you make the choice, and then

you come and ask God to bless the decision or

choice you made, or God, I really made a bad decision.

So now I ask you to get me out of

this thing. I ask you to resolve it. Now I

ask you to fix it. I ask you to solve it.

And God says, you're not allowing me to order it.

You're just simply allowing me to manage your life. See,

when a life is managed, it has a whole lot

of drama in it. It has a whole lot of

stress in it. I don't need you to raise your

hand and ask you today how much drama is in

your life today? How much stress is in your life today?

But a byproduct of all the drama and all the

stress is the fact that I'm not letting God order

my decisions. I'm just asking God to resolve it and

fix it, and so it's left to a life of management.

Let me give you some opening thoughts are going to

be on the screen for you to look at, some

opening statements. The first one is this, can you take

orders from God? Or are they only suggestions? Can God

give you orders? This is the way I want you

to be as a father, This is the way I

want you to be at a husband. This is what

I expect of you as a wife, This is what

I expect of you as a friend, this is what

I expect of you as a Christian. Or does God

have to just simply give you suggestions? You'll take suggestions,

which means I can, you know, pick and choose what

I like and what I don't like, what scriptures I

like in the Bible, and what scriptures.

I don't like, what morals I like and what morals

I don't like.

The second thought is this, how many of us have

ever ordered something? And when you're putting your order together online,

it's gonna ask you certain specs. It's gonna ask you

color that you want, It's going to ask you size

that you want.

It's gonna ask you details or textures that you want.

How many of you expect that when you place an order,

you want it to be exactly the way you place

the order.

Can God do that for our lives? There aspects that.

He wants, textures he wants from it, certain sizes he wants.

Symbolically from our lives.

And the third opening point, the third opening point is this,

can God.

Order for you?

Or do you do your own ordering? Can God order

for you or do you do your own ordering? I'm

gonna just show you just a little illustration here today,

and I'm gonna have my friend Hovey. You know, everybody

wants to know who Hobby is. Now, you know who

Hobby is. So Hobby's gonna help me right now. And

I'm gonna pretend that I'm in a restaurant and Hobby

is my waiter, and I'm with Jesus here. It's just

me and Jesus gonna have dinner. Hello, how are you?

Oh? Menus that it's wonderful? Okay? This is this is

called the U menu, and so this is the U menu.

So this is preferences that I like or whatever. The

first one is fornication. H what does waiter, What does.

That you're taking my order? What does that come with?

It comes with a side of porn, a side of stripper,

a side of call girl, and a sign of affair.

Hmm sounds delicious. Okay, what is this other one? This

sounds pretty good. Unforgiveness I hold revenge, bitterness, a side

of grudges with a little bit of glazed honey.

Retaliation, m.

Yummy, pride dish, Oh my god, selfishness, stinginess, arrogant and stubbornness.

That that one's gonna be tough to be. The competition

dish of jealousy ending in line, the procrastination dish, laziness,

excuses and irresponsible.

How about this do nothing less?

It comes with a side of you watching everything, observing

you receive and you don't do no serving.

And then there's the idolatry dish.

Now this one, this comes with a side of social media,

because social media is my idol.

It comes with a side of sports.

Oh my god, how many hours of football can I watch?

Then basketball at the same time, I'm idolatry of a

person or my husband.

He's like, my god, my wife is my God.

And then on my children, my grandchildren, and then emotions

and pleasures and interest and feelings. Boy, all of that

is delicious.

Do you have another menu? Okay this God? Would you

like me to order for off of this menu? Oh?

You want me to order off of this menu? This

is the God menu.

The God menu that God wants me to order my

life around is Micah six 's eight. He has shown you,

o mortal, what is good and what does the Lord

require of you? To act justly in every where, every

area of my life, to love mercy in every area

of my life and walk humbly with God. Then God

wants me that was that was just my little bit

of appetizer.

Now here's my entree. He wants me to order for

my life.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

with all your soul, with all your mind, and all

your strength. And this is the first commandment. The second

like it is this, that you shall love your neighbor

as yourself. There is no other.

Commandment greater than these.

And then my dessert is this Ecclesiastes twelve thirteen. Let

us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God

and keep his commandments. You know what, God, instead of

me ordering for myself. Why don't you just order for me?

You know that's what an ordered life looks like. So

let me just share with you now from the Book

of Samuel first Samuel fifteen, and I want to introduce

to you a character by the name of Saul.

And Saul's life is left to managing his life.

And the result of managing a person's life when you

and I will not allow God to order our lives.

And the main way that God is going to order

our lives is through his word.

And you'll never know the order that God has for

your life.

Everything will kind of be out of order until you

know the word of God in your life, until you

practice the word, until you live the word, until you

obey the word, then you may be a hit and

it may be a miss sometimes. So we're introduced to

a character by the name of Saul and his life

because he's going to manage his life and not let

God order his life. It's going to end with chaos,

it's going to end with confusion, it's going to end

with complications, it's gonna end with compromise in his life.

And I don't need to ask anyone today that is

are you experiencing any chaos in your life, complications in

your life, Is anything confusion confusing in your life? Or

are you living with compromise? But this is what we're

going to learn from the life of Saul and how

he got these results Saul. Also Samuel also said to Saul,

the Lord sent me to anoint you king over his

people over Israel. Now, therefore, heed, listen to the Bible.

Listen to what I'm going to say. He's telling him.

He says, Now, therefore, heed the voice of the words

of the Lord. Here's the direction or the order that

God ask of you. Sir, Thus says the Lord of host,

I will punish Amelek. This is a tribe of people

for what he did to me, what they did to Israel.

This is more than four hundred years ago when Israel

came out of Egyptian bondage. They could have helped Israel,

but they shun them, and they were hard on them.

Because what is so you eventually read, But God is

a long suffering god, and his punishment is not always immediate.

In his long suffering, the goodness of the Lord leads

to repentance, and he wants people to be forgiven and repent.

But should they not, then judgment has to take place.

And that's what's going on here. Thus says the Lord

of Hosts, I will punish Amalikan for what they did

to Israel. How he ambushed him on the way when

he came up from Egypt.

Now go and attack Amelek and.

Utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them,

but kill male, female, infant, nursing child, ox, sheep, camel,

and donkey.

What can I learn from that?

God hates sin and he wants it utterly destroyed from

our lives. It doesn't need to be hanging around, It

doesn't need to be a pet, it doesn't need to

be compromised.

Then he goes on and he reads like this.

Okay, and Saul attack the Amlakites from Hevl all the

way to shore, which is east of Egypt. And he

took a guy. He took a gag king of Amalakites.

What did he do with this king? He took him alive?

Is that what God told him to do? He took

him alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the

edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared

a gag and the best sheep, the best auction, the

best fatlings, lambs, and all that was good?

Is that what God told him to do?

No, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them, but everything

despised and worthless. They utterly destroyed anything in their definition

or their interpretation. Now the word of the Lord King

to Samuel, saying, I greatly regret that I've set set

you up as a king, basically for human I greatly

regret that I have set up Saul as a king,

for he has turned his back from following me and

has not performed my commandments. And agreed Samuel, and he

cried out to the Lord all night. Now we're left

with him managing his life. That's what's happening right now.

So here's what you and I can learn from this story.

The story is this, Saul didn't listen to God's word.

He thought it was more of a suggestion.

Than a commandment.

It was more of a suggestion than a directive. Oh God,

you didn't really mean that. I know there's a book

called your Bible that's from Genesis to Revelation. But those

are just suggestions, God, those are not directives. I can

pick and choose who to date. I can pick and

choose who to marry. I could pick and choose how

to retaliate, how to get even that's me to decide that.

He's going to be left with managing his life. He

didn't live a life.

He did not live a life where he listened to

the consciousness, which is the voice of the Holy Spirit

that warned him or was quickening him.

He put it on mute. Every one of.

Us have a gift, and we don't often appreciate that gift.

It's the gift of our conscience. It's directed by the

Holy Spirit. That when you are about ready to do wrong,

or you're being tempted to do wrong, that voice rises

up within you, that filling rises up within you, That

intuition rises up in you says don't do it. Stop,

and you all of a sudden feel uncomfortable. But most

of us put it on mute, and we blow past

it and do whatever. I'm going to do what I

want whenever I want. No, won't tell me nothing, So

it happens. Sometimes we just turn it on mute. And

while he is beginning to do this, in other words,

he's destroying all these other animals, that voice is saying.

But you're not completely doing what God told you to do.

That King is still alive, and the best of this

is still alive. And he chose not to do it

but put it on mute. And we see here that

again he doesn't value his relationship with God. But he

allowed distance to come in between and you and I

cannot afford to allow distance to come between me and God.

Then you insert the world and the world's culture and

the world's weighs into that, and you'll drift more toward

the world than you do God. Seeing you are a

triune being, spirit, soul, and body. Your spirit always wants

to obey God. Your spirit always wants to submit to God.

Your spirit always wants to follow God. Your body never

wants to follow God. Don't look at me like you

don't know what I'm talking about. Our bodies want to rebel.

Your body never wants to go on a diet. Your

body never wants to fast. Your body never wants to

shut up. Your body never wants to deny itself. Your

body wants pleasure, leisure, more, more, more.

How do you like it?

Do you like it?

Come on now?

At least my flesh is that way wants to fight

every time. It's mad when someone cuts him off wants

to retaliate with half of a peace.

I mean, that's your flesh. Then you have a mind.

Your mind can sway either way, and wherever your mind

goes is where you'll have victory or defeat.

And if that mind is not renewed by the word

of God.

You get that flesh and body and with that mind together,

and you will never follow the spirit of God.

Jesus said that your flesh is weak. The spirit is willing,

but the flesh is weak. Let me hear what I'm

talking about.

But you get your mind, you're willing, your emotions renewed

by the word of God lined up with the spirit.

He'll crucify that flesh all the time. That flesh will

never ever dominate you or control you. He allowed dis

to come. I don't know about you. I don't want

to be in the proximity of God. I want to

be in the presence of God.

God.

I just want to be able to see you wherever

you are. No, I want to be as close to

you as I possibly can be. And he kind of

got comfortable with I'm a Christian and I go to

church and occasionally pray and I kind of tip God.

I don't tie to God, and you know, instead of

fully following God like he should. And that's where his

life is going to get completely out out out of balance.

And he doesn't realize that following orders and living out

orders is always going to affect others. It's it's a

repercussion that's going to take place, and he's going to

affect a bunch of other people by his out of

order lifestyle, and he's going to cause somebody else to

have to do what he was called to do, and

he's going to be replaced. I don't want to be

replaced as a father. I don't want to be replaced

as a grandfather. I don't want to be replaced as

a father. I don't want to be replaced as a pastor.

But the reality is this, if I don't do what

God asked me to do, God will find somebody to

carry out his orders.

He will.

So he says, you don't want to do it. I

have a servant by the name of Samuel. Samuel will

cut off the head egg right there, and he'll kill

all that sin, all those animals that I wanted you

to kill. You are not I don't care how tall

you are heading shoulders. I don't care how gifted you

are as a king. I don't care your prominence. I

will find somebody to do what I have asked them

to do, and you will be replaced. It's amazing that

that took place. See, I love what the Bible talks about.

A great scripture here it says in Psalms seventeen and

verse five, my steps have held to your paths, my

feet have not stumbled. Let me ask you an honest question,

just to yourself today. Where in twenty twenty four did

you stumble to stumble over?

What trap? What trip line? What snare?

Did you fall to in twenty twenty four that kind

of left you with some form of regret, maybe some shame,

maybe some guilt in your life, or you felt like

a victim.

What would that look like?

See, when your steps are ordered by God, God says,

don't step there, step over here, and don't step there,

step over here, and don't step there, step here.

See.

But when you let your God manage your life, you're

just going and wherever you want to go. And you're

gonna hit some snares in your life, and you're gonna

hit some traps in your life, And so what do

those snares look like. I'm asking you to identify personally

those snares that took you out in twenty twenty four,

that left you with that shame, where that guilt as

a victim, and God saying, I want to order your

steps so that we will go around these things in

twenty twenty five, that we will overt these things in

twenty twenty five, that we will bypepass these things in

twenty twenty five, because you fall to them in twenty

twenty four, twenty three and all the years pass. So

what are they? Their temptation? Let me teach you how

to avoid temptation in your life. It's vanity. You keep

running down this vain road that leaves you empty on

the inside, the pursuit of fame and fortune and women

and body and social media, and you keep getting down

the same road.

It leaves you empty. Deception.

You're being deceived by someone, You're being deceived by something.

You keep falling victim to deception. You keep falling victim

to depression, hopelessness, helplessness, you keep falling victim to grief.

I want to order your steps so that we could

start overcoming some of these things in your life. I

was unshare sheriff chaplain duty the other day and there

was an officer and she got her phone and she

was showing me how she uh.

Decorated the front yard.

And so she was showing me the picture, and I

did I didn't have my glasses, so I have to

kind of blow it up to look at it. And

then when I did that, she grabbed the phone out

of my hand and ripped it out, and I thought, hmmm,

why can God look at your phone right now? Gods,

show me your phone, give me your phone, give me

your phone, give me a phone, give me.

A fr that's a level of ordering your life. What

are these pictures? What is this app doing on your phone?

I can't bless your life. I can't give your life

a life of rest or peace. It's going to always

end in chaos and confusion and complications. So we get

introduced to Abraham now, and here's Abraham's story, and Abraham

is going to follow the orders of God, and because

of that, his life will not have to be managed

and his life will not be out of control sort

of speak. So the Bible reads this way. As we

read a little bit about Abraham. The Bible says this, oh, well,

good Genesis twenty two. Now it came to pass after

these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham,

and he said, here am I. Then he said, this

is the command, the orders of God. Take your son,

your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to

the land of Mariah and offer him there as a

burnt offering on the mountains of.

Which I shall tell you.

Now this is literally his son, that he's believed God

for twenty five years.

But symbolically God does.

This at least to me every once in a while.

He asked me to take something I love and lay

it on the altar every once in a while to

test me, not because he wants that thing from me,

but because he wants me.

And I'll leave that alone, and I won't.

Charge you for that. And so Abraham rose up early

in the morning. He saddled his donkey, and he took

his two young men or two servants with him, and Isaac,

his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering,

and arose and went to the place which God had

told him. These are servants. Why didn't he just order

the servants to split the wood himself. Why does he

have to do it, Why does he feel the need

to do it.

Because sometimes God wants you to.

Worship him, and he doesn't want someone else to worship

him for you. Wants you to pray, doesn't want someone

else to pray for you. Wants you to read the

word and know the word, and stop depending on someone else.

To do it. You split the wood.

You put forth the effort, and you put forth the energy.

Stop delegating everything.

You be the man of the house, and you lead

your family to church. You grab your family and you

lead them into prayer. Then you split the wood. So

then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes

and he saw the place Afar, and Abraham said to

his young men, stay here with the donkey. Stay here,

you servants, stay here the lad my son, Isaac and

I will go yonder, and.

We're gonna worship him. We're gonna come back to you.

So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and

laid it on Isaac's son, and he took the fire

in his hand and a knife, and the two of

them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father

and said my father. And he said, here am I

my son. Then he said, look the fire and the wood,

but where is the lamb for the burn offering?

He said, something's wrong with this picture. I've seen you

how you worship God. I see you how you serve God.

I see you how you sacrifice, and you always have

something to give God. But I don't see it right here.

Your children are watching you all the time, and you

and I need to be setting patterns of righteousness that

when we break them, they say, there's something unfamiliar about

what you're doing.

Daddy. It's Sunday morning. Why are we staying home? Such

patterns to follow?

And Abraham said, my son, God will provide for himself

a lamb for the burn offering. So the two of

them went together then came to the place which God

had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and

a place for the wood in order.

And he bound Isaac, his son, and he.

Laid him on the altar upon the wood, and Abraham

stretched out his hand. He took a knife, and he

was going to slay son. It literally was going to

kill him. And the Angel of the Lord called, and

all of.

This is a picture of what God did for.

You and I through in Jesus. He did not hold

back his hand, but he slaughtered Jesus so that you

and I can live. It was a four picture of

what Jesus would be. He would be our sacrificial lamb.

People talk about who killed Jesus. Did the Sanhedrin killed Jesus? No?

Did the Romans kill Jesus? No?

Who else killed it? God, the Father killed his son.

Put your head about round that one. He's the one

who slayed him. Before the foundations of this world. The

father and the son got together and said, I will

be the sacrifice. And God says, then my wrath will

come upon you, my wrath of judgment, my wrath of punishment,

and my wrath of sin, and that sin will kill you.

It will destroy your life. God became our sacrifice. So

let me just share with you a few points here.

Let me just share with you a few points for

you to understand about the life and order that took place.

The fact is is that when you and I allow

God to order our lives, it increases the presence of.

God in our lives.

That you still live in a world, and that doesn't

mean you're obsolete from the world and doesn't mean you

can't be tempted by the world. But the gravitational pull

begins to loosen its strength and power. And when you

follow the orders of God, you increase. You turn up

the voice of God in your life. You turn up

the voice of God in your life. Now all of

a sudden, you're getting spiritual downloads that you never got before.

God says, you know what, I want you to.

Pray this morning for your job, or it says I

want you to pray for your boss. Then when you

get to work, something plays out and you'll say, how

did that happen? Because your steps are ordered by God,

so God gave you spiritual downloads. You're just doing something randomly,

and all of a sudden a person flashes in your

mind or heart, and all of a sudden you feel

the need to call them or to pray for them

at that moment.

How is that happening?

Spiritual downloads are taking place because you're walking in the

order of God, and so the presence of God is

beginning to be increased in your life. This year, I've

been believing God for a lot of things spiritually, of

how God would use me as I transitioned, and I

really felt like God challenged me.

I need you to give me one hour solidly.

I love the bike. I love to run, I love

to swim. I love to answer my emails. I love

to do sheriff whatever. I love school, the president of

the school, I love work. I love all that. But

before I do any of those things, I got to

get up and spend one hour. If I need to

get on my bike at six, and I got to

get up at four, if I got to be somewhere

five in the morn, and then I have to get

up at three. But I will not sacrifice my one

hour of time with before the Lord and God that

has gone.

On about ninety eight to ninety.

Nine percent of this year. I have not missed my

one hour with God. It's amazing how the presence of

God has heightened in me. I pray for people, and

discernment comes. I read their mail. I know that I

don't know those things. It's the voice of God. Somebody's

gonna call them five seconds. Lay some of the phone rings.

I'm not trying to be spooky. I'm just as normal

as the regular God.

All of what does that happen?

I've increased the presence of God in my life by

following the order of God. The reality is is that

now you increase the provisions of God in your life,

those that you expect and those that come in an

unexpected way because you followed the order of God. You

did what God told you to do, and you didn't

do what your flesh wanted to do. And now their

supernatural provision meeting your life, and it's going to happen.

When I first started ministry, I made three hundred dollars

a week. I made twelve hundred dollars a month. I

had a family, and I had three little boys. We

lived in West Covine in an apartment, and the rent

was six hundred dollars.

Half of my salary went to rent.

But I told that little wife of mine, is is

that we will never sacrifice the tithe. I interviewed her

and I took her to You've heard me say that

through a bunch of things before I married her, because

I knew who I married would affect my ministry, and

I wasn't going to play. I don't care how fine

she looked at one hundred and six pounds my life ministry,

and I'd stand before God, based on who I married.

I took her through the mill I took and I

don't need to go into all that in a righteous way,

not in a stupid way, in a righteous way.

And I told her, you believe in tithing. I tell

her that while we're.

Going to tie when you give temper so I don't

care what goes on. If you don't want that, then

don't marry me, don't date me anymore.

That's it said.

I can see the tension in this room already, but

it's okay. I've been married forty one years and you haven't,

so let's move on. And I've been tithing the last

forty one years of my life and.

Never missed the tide.

So I work at this church. I'm a children's pastor.

A guy comes on over there. I know him because

he drops his kids off. His name is Joe. Joe's

naster is a financial broker. Joe Nasser comes to me.

I don't really know Joe. I'd see him every once,

so I'll drop his kids off. And he said, the

Lord put it on my heart to help you to

buy a home. I said, really, well, you know what

I've heard I'd heard people say they wanted to bless

me before, and never did. I've had people write out

checks but told me I couldn't cash it.

Do you think I'm joking anyways?

So, but sure enough he came through and he helped

me buy that first home in south Ridge, Fontown a little?

Did he know that the abundant living would start in

that church, in that home with twelve people?

Did he know that? Probably not?

But you find yourself in places where you couldn't bless yourself.

Your gift, your talent was not enough.

It puts you in a room that's got supernatural blessings because.

You followed the order of God.

You also know that some people can walk with you

for a season, and then some people can't finish with

you in the journey. He told his two servants, let's

leave where we're at. Let's go to the mountain, but

you stay here.

Now.

The only one that could go with me is my

son Isaac. And you realize that some people just can't

go with you wherever you're all the way with you,

wherever all the way is. Some people are there for

a season. You celebrate that. Then people move on. Then

people have their differences and they have their preferences as

to why the relationship should end. But the reality is

is that very few people can.

Climb the mountain of Mariah with you.

They don't want that level of love, they don't want

that level of sacrifice, they don't want that level of commitment,

they don't want that level of devotion. Just leave me

on the base of the mountain and I'm fine with that.

So you understand that. And the last one is it

is a sacrificial life. But that's where the life ends

with the rest of God and the peace of God,

and you enjoy the benefits of it.

It's a sacrifice.

It's a sacrifice to not order off that self menu

and to order off of God's menu. It's a sacrifice

not to give someone a piece of your mind who

hurt you bad and ripped you off.

Just the other day, just the.

Other day, a former employee ask a person that volunteers

in this church that used to be an employee, said,

what do you do and still at that church?

What are you doing at that church? Why would you

even stay at that church?

Because they fired me, and they fired brother so and so,

and he told me that and he said, he said,

he told them when they fired you.

Did they give you a severance package? Oh? Yeah, they

gave me a sip. Did they give brother so and so? Well,

they didn't fire you. You just quit brother.

You don't know how that ripped my heart because I

have a flesh and that that just that ripped my heart.

Because here's what I know. Every Holiday, that guy textes

me and he says passtor I love you, Merry Christmas,

and he did it again. And don't you know, Diego's

flesh wanted it. Let me it's merry Christmas. You don't

know what my friend told me that you said six

weeks ago to him.

So enough of that bull jiving junk. Marry Christmas. I

love you, but I didn't do nothing. God just let

it go, Let it go, let it, let it go.

So I didn't say Merry Christmas back, but I didn't

say anything else.

That's all you need to know. I'm not that delivered yet.

One day when I get my haylong go to heaven.

I know.

It's a sacrificial life to follow the orders of God.

Or you make your decision and you let God manage it. Indeed,

and last of all, it reflects your character when you

follow the orders of God, or you don't follow the

orders of God. It reflects your level of fear of God,

your level of honor of God, your respect of God,

and your love for God.

I think all of us have a level of that.

But the greater level comes to the level of order

in that when you follow the orders of God, it

reflects it reflects your character. It's a reflection of your character,

the fear of God in the honor of God. How

many of you when you go to a restaurant, how

many of you eat your dessert before you eat your

main menu?

How many of you do that? Come on, now, I'm

not telling you once in a while. This is how

you order all the time.

You sit at a restaurant, and then when they bring

you the men, you say, oh, can I have the

dessert menu first?

And I'm gonna eat my cheesecake first, and then afterwards,

I'm gonna order a full menu, full meal. None of

you do that.

Let me ask you, so, do you have the right

to do that? Will they kick you out of the

restaurant if you order your dessert first?

Oh? But let me ask you, why don't you do it?

Why don't you eat that way? Because it's not order

something instinctively. Not your mama, not your grandmama, not your daddy,

not any They're not there no more.

You're all grown up. You can order however you want

to order.

But why don't you eat your dessert Because there's an order,

there's an order, and there's an order when I'm single

that I can't have sex my dessert before I have.

The main menu a marriage. You wouldn't do it in

the natural.

Why are you doing it the other way?

You can ask God to bless your life.

When you're still walking in unforgiveness with someone. You gotta say, God,

I forgive them, and I'm gonna release that God.

And now I really need you to help me on

my job. You do what you need to do first,

and you don't get it the other way of around.

I conclude with this, we're asking God to order our lives,

which means order my time, order my schedule, order my calendar,

order my habits, order my disciplines. God, I want you

to just order every aspect of my life. God, I

need you to order that, because the Bible says do

everything decently and in order. I don't know if you've

noticed I've had something around my ankle the whole time

that I've been preaching. I can see you haven't noticed it.

I'll kind of put my leg up here so you

could see what I have. Anybody know what that is?

Come on, don't act like you don't know what that is.

First look down at someone else's ankle and see if

they got one of those. It was a tough Christmas

for me.

If you don't know what.

This is, these are called court ordered ankle bracelets. The

court or the judge ordered this on me, or ordered

on somebody. It's a court order. What happens should you

not where your ankle bracelets? When the court ordered you?

Bad boy? Bad boy? What you're going to do? What

you're gonna do? When the komfu you? Let's talk about it.

This thing orders my life.

It tells me where I can go and where I

can't go. It tells me who I can hang around

and who I can't hang around. It tells me what

I can do and what I can't do. This thing

you think controls my life, It does not control my life.

It protects my life. You think following the orders of

God is the fact that God wants to control your life. No,

God wants to protect your life. Because God doesn't want

me to go see Shakisha at twelve o'clock at nine.

This it's protecting my life. This thing don't want me

to go hit it up with Homie gee, the ex paroli.

Hey what, it's tired on the streets for the brother.

You know what I'm saying.

Would you live a more obedient life if God zapped

you with one of these? Does God have to zap

you because he won't. He trusts you.

You're his son, you're his daughter. He believes in you. Father.

I thank you for the message today and I pray

it resonates in the hearts of all of us today. God,

expose those traps and snares that we fall victim to

thank you Lord today that we want you to order

our steps, no matter how difficult that might be. Because

we have predetermined steps that we become so familiar with

in our lives. Sometimes it's a whole rerouting that needs

to take place.

God give us the courage to do that. In Jesus' name.

Amen, before we leave this place, and an ask that

nobody move everyone reverence the presence of God. Pastor Aaron

will come and dismiss us.

Here's what I know.

You and I are one germ when virus, when accident

and misapp away from Heaven's gate or Hell's doors. Tomorrow

is not promised to any single one of us. When

I was young, I used to think that only ninety

year old people died. But I realized that everybody, even

my age dies. People that are graduating from high school die,

People that are on their way to college die, people

that are taking their first job die, people that are

going on a vacation die, people that are planning to

retirement die. Here's how it happens in a large church

like this. It happens anywhere from one to three times

a week every week. People unexpectedly that we saw on

Sunday morning were I mean a funeral for Here's some

of the familiar stories. They worked a double shift sixteen

to eighteen hours.

They fell asleep on the wheel going home.

They were on the freeway coming from work or going

to work, and a drunk driver killed them.

That's how it happens.

I want you to live another one hundred years. I'm

just telling you the story. Number two. They do something

they've done a thousand times, no risk, no complications here

no threats, but this time an accident takes place and

it severs and it kills them instantly.

We grieve.

I just saw them on Sunday morning. They were planning

their vacation. Or here's what they do. They going for

minor surgery. There's literally going to be no complications. But

the doctor, nurse or anesty geologists cannot revive them. And

there's no explanation. Their heart just stopped. Here's what I

know it's going to happen for all of us. I

wish the way we all died was we went we

kissed our loved ones, and then we went to bed,

and we woke up in the presence of God. Sometimes

it doesn't happen that way, and sometimes there's no time

to get ready or prepare. Lord, I repent now, Lord,

I confess my sins. Jesus, I really believe you're my

Lord and savior.

Doesn't happen that way. You just do it now.

You make your reservation, now, you prepare now, even though

you're going to live many more years. None of us

would be irresponsible not to take care of our future

with whatever that looks like, let alone our eternal future

by putting it off and not thinking it's important. Today,

I'm asking you to let your guard down, take off

your masks that you wear a pretentiousness, let go of

your heart and heart, and believe that Jesus, no matter

who you are and what you've done, and no matter

how long you've done it, can forgive you of your sins.

But the way he forgives you of your sins is

the fact that you've got to repent and acknowledge. I

need a savior and my goodness is not good enough

to save me. I'm a sinner and I need a

savior to forgive me and my sins.

That's where you'll change destiny.

You're a change your eternal destiny if you want to

do that right now, stop running from God, but start

running to God. You want to recommit your life to Jesus.

I want you to raise your hand today. It's going

to take courage to go like this, But it took

courage for Jesus to dine across mar beaten and naked,

and to die for you.

One two, one, two three.

All across this auditorium, wherever you might be, God bless you,

God love you. Say this simple prayer with me say,

dear Lord Jesus.

You know who I am, You know everything about me.

And I come to you today just as I am,

a sinner, broken or empty, and I ask you to

save me, save my soul that is damned to hell,

and rescue me today with your love for eachurn, I

ask you now to be my Lord and Savior.

Give me the courage to follow you. Amen,