The Reason God Won’t Let You Stay Comfortable | Journey With Jesus Part 9 | Apostle Mike Signorelli, Pastor Brian Duley, Brian Barcelona

Have you ever known in your gut that you were supposed to do

something, but you hesitated?

Maybe the Lord's been speaking to you.

Maybe the Lord's been revealing to you.

And you're like, I know in my gut that I'm supposed to be doing

something, but you just don't take action.

That that's what this message is all about.

And I want to speak prophetically because this is a prophetic

sermon, and it's a prophetic sermon.

God is removing delay and the things that he's told you to do.

We're gonna become immediately obedient to them, and we're gonna

do the things that he said to do.

And we're gonna step in now.

No more hesitation, no more delay.

We're gonna be obedient.

We're gonna do it now.

And what that might mean is that there are some relationships

the Lord told you to cut off, and you're not gonna delay it.

You're actually gonna cut it off.

That means that there's some people that you've been hanging with

that were good for a season where God's taking you.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, when you look at a rocket ship going out into outer

space, those rocket boosters get you into a certain atmosphere,

and they serve that purpose.

And then they break off because they weren't supposed to

go the whole journey.

And there are people that God will send into your life for a reason

and for a season.

But then you try to hold on to what he's telling you to let go,

and you're the one who suffers as a result of it.

So there could be a relationship for that God's dealing

with.

There could be a business decision.

There could be a career change.

I don't know what it is.

And listen, I'm not trying to get, like, you know, all up in your

business, but if God told you to change your address geographically,

why are you still receiving mail at the same apartment, the same

house?

Like, I don't know what I'm talking to right now, but God has

been broadcasting messages.

Is there anybody that's like, Pastor Mike, I'm ready to do what

he told me to do?

All right?

So think about this.

This is a prophetic message.

So this could have been a conversation that you're avoiding,

because sometimes people will choose the pain of the same instead

of the pain of change.

But let me help you.

You're gonna experience pain no matter what.

There are people who will stay at a compromised church where the

Holy Spirit is not moving, where the preacher is not in humility

asking God for the.

And they'll stay in that church for years even though the

Holy Spirit told them to leave.

Because they would rather have the pain of the same instead of the

pain of change.

Oh, come on.

I'm gonna break this down before we get into the scriptures.

There are people that will stay in relationships where you are

on the phone with them and they are just complaining.

There are people in your life that have never had a good day.

Think about it.

There are people, you know, that have never.

As a matter of fact, if you called them and said, how are you

doing?

And they say, I'm just doing dandy, you'd be like, whoa, are you

all right?

Like, them being in a good mood would shock you.

Those are the people who are weighing you down.

And sometimes you'll take the pain of the same instead of the pain

of change.

Sometimes you gotta set boundaries.

Sometimes you gotta communicate to somebody.

Listen, my ears are not garbage cans, and I'm not your counselor.

Matter of fact, this conversation was free.

But therapy's gonna cost you, and you should sign up.

Cause I'm not your therapist.

Oh, and by the way, I'm also not the Holy Spirit for you.

So why don't we hang up and you go into your prayer closet?

Because I just got out of mine.

All right, y' all with me?

So this is really important.

And let me.

Let me just.

So we've been.

Now, for those of you just tuning in, if you just jumped into

this, I already went from Bethlehem to Nazareth to Capernaum,

to the Sea of Galilee to Cesarea Philippi, which.

That was a brutal message last week.

And then we're on this, like, tour, and now we're stepping into

this.

This very critical moment where Jesus is wrapping up a lot

of his important ministry and he set his eyes to Jerusalem.

And actually, this is coexisting with the resurrection

Sunday and all the events that are gonna unfold.

It's a perfect synchronicity.

And so look at the Bible with me.

Luke, chapter nine.

Luke, chapter nine, verse 51.

I'm gonna read this text to you.

Luke, chapter nine, verse fifty one.

It says, when the days grew near for him to be taken up.

When the days grew near for him to be taken up.

He set his face to go to Jerusalem.

This is very important.

I want you to underline that.

If you got a physical Bible without any notifications, that doesn't

need to be plugged into your wall, Circle it, underline it.

I want you to write in the margins right now, because that single

verse is the hinge of the entire Gospel of Luke.

It's the entire hinge.

Everything before it, everything we've talked about, the

miracles, the healings, the feeding of the thousands, the calming

the storms, everything I've taught you in the scriptures, everything's

hinging.

Like, if you've been with me all these weeks of this series, it's

all for this moment right now.

And it's so important because everything after it becomes the journey

to the cross.

From this moment forward, Jesus is walking towards his own

death.

I got a question for you Christians.

This isn't for the unsaved.

These are for those of you who are Christians.

Have you yet made the decision to face Jerusalem and to accept your

own death?

Death to lust and perversion.

Death to greed.

Some of you are not wealthy, but you're still greedy.

Everybody thinks that only people who are greedy are wealthy.

It's like, no, no.

The people who hold onto their money more than the promises of.

Oh, come on.

See, it comes in many different forms.

We have to die many different deaths as a Christian, and Jesus

has to go through the process of accepting his death.

And I'll tell you, there's a lot of Christians that are seeking

a word that tickles their ears.

And they're seeking a church that's always gonna encourage them.

Well, let me encourage you.

We're gonna die today.

This is a narrow road church.

You know, if you want that church that's gonna gas you up and

hype you up, if you want a motivational, you can find that church.

But I'm gonna give you a motivation.

Get up on your cross and die to self.

Crucify the flesh.

Tell the flesh, Shut up.

Stop blaming everything on a demon and

start saying, no, God, deal with me.

This is narrow road Christianity.

And the example that we have is Jesus went first.

See, the point of the crucifixion isn't Jesus died for

you.

The point of the crucifixion is Jesus died first.

Now you act like him and choose too.

You want to stay married.

I've been married 20 years.

That fine looking piece of meat on that front aisle.

Come on, men, we've been.

It's been a long weekend, hadn't it?

All the men that got their wives in service are.

I'm like, stop rubbing her.

I'm looking at a dude rubbing her arm like, no, no, just relax.

Just.

It's been a long weekend, Jules.

But I've been married for 20 years.

You want me to tell you how to stay married?

I'm gonna tell you how to stay married.

Choose to die to the right to your own opinions.

Men, stop blaming your wife and start apologizing because your

wife is a reflection of the reality of the words that you sowed.

And so everything you don't like about your wife is the fruit

of your words.

Change your seed and you'll change the fruit.

Come on.

You will have what you say.

Come on.

And you want to beautify your wife.

It's not about the skin care.

It's about the words.

And it's about what you're speaking.

And it's about, you know, they can go get their hair done.

But I'll tell you what beautifies your wife is when you

wash her with the word.

But you know what that requires dying to self.

It requires saying, God, you know, oh, I'm tired.

It's like, no, man, I'm going to persevere.

And what you see with Jesus is Jesus didn't wanna go to the cross.

And you know, you're saying, why would you bring up Julie as your

wife?

Because we are the bride of Christ.

And so Jesus, being the groom, showed us how to treat our wives

because he didn't wanna go to the cross.

He was tired, but he persevered.

Jesus had every right to say the meanest thing to us, but he said

the most compassionate thing.

And so, husbands, we have a great example through Christ that

we need to actually lay our life down for the bride.

And so of the Christian faith is, how good do you get at choosing

your own death?

I don't want to be in New York.

I want to be in Montana in my bunker, you know, when you hear the

news.

But the Lord called me to New York, so I choose to die to say,

God, I'm safer in your will in New York than a bunker in Montana.

The Christian faith is about embracing the thing he told you to

do, even if it means certain death to your desire.

Is this helping anybody?

Okay, and when I look at this, and that's why I wanted you to underline

this verse, I wanted you to look at this verse.

It's just one verse.

But understand, everything shifts after this verse.

And Jesus is not stumbling towards his destiny.

He's not drifting towards it, he's choosing it.

Okay, now, there's a Greek phrase that I want to look at in

this verse because it's extraordinary.

And the New Testament was primarily written in Greek, so it's

going to help you to understand this.

And essentially means he fixed his face towards Jerusalem.

And if you go deeper in the Greek, he strengthened his face.

And another translation is he hardened his face.

So think about when you see a fight and people get ready to, you

know, think about being on the subway in New York City and you know,

what's going down for all of us sickos, we wait for these moments,

but you set your face, think about an athlete, think about the

Olympics we just saw.

It's like they harden their face because there's this level of

determination.

And I think there's many of us.

Can I say this in love?

Do I have permission to say a hard thing?

It's many of us should be so advanced in the faith by now because

of how many sermons we've heard and how many years we've been

in this thing.

And yet we've never learned to set our face.

And we're living a life filled with self imposed confusion.

You are not confused.

You know the commands of Christ.

You are not confused.

You know how the future, the Bible says God does nothing without

first revealing it to his prophets.

It's already all been written.

It's like a play that we're watching.

And all of these people that they think they're getting elected

and they think that they're bombing and they're all playing into

God's sovereign will.

Nothing is happening outside of God's control.

So you can be mad about the election, you can be mad about a

war, but I'm celebrating knowing that the Lord divinely allows

all of it because he wrote the script and I'm on the winning team.

I'm not confused.

I'm mature in my faith.

I'm not tossed to and fro by

every wind of doctrine.

I know what the word of God says.

I'm resolute.

My feet are on a solid rock.

I am not confused.

But the difference is this.

We have been discipled into an emotion based Christianity.

That's why we come for the worship.

But we leave early in the sermon because we've been discipled

into an emotional based Christianity.

That's why we seek people that get our emotions up.

But the thing about it is we are not to be led by our emotions.

It's a data set, but not a decision maker.

Emotions is a data set.

There is value to emotions, but emotions don't make the decision,

they just inform the decision.

And when the emotions lie, we tell the emotions the same thing

we tell our flesh.

Shut up.

I feel discouraged.

Think about David.

He's being pursued by Saul, who's throwing javelins, trying to

kill him.

He felt anxiety, he felt fear.

He felt discouraged.

But what does he write in his journal called Psalm?

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my

life.

Well, that wasn't true.

Saul's following you.

Saul wants to kill you.

Well, I don't say what I feel.

I say the opposite of what I feel.

Because I'm a prophet, and I declare and I will eat the fruit

of my words.

So if I say, Saul is following me, I have an enemy.

But if I say goodness and mercy are following me, I have a

future.

Some of you need to learn how to set your face towards Jerusalem.

Choose your own death to your feelings and say, I feel discouraged,

but I have the joy of the Lord.

And the joy of the Lord is my strength.

It is my strength.

I feel discouraged, but I have joy.

And that joy is my faith.

Come on.

It's my strength.

So this is what Jesus and I love, the example we have here, because

it's like Jesus knows the outcome.

You're talking about anxiety inducing, but he chooses it.

And what he's modeling for all of us is we don't let our feelings

lead.

Because if David lets his feelings lead, he never becomes king.

If Jesus lets his feelings lead, he never becomes king of kings.

Are y' all getting something out of this?

So your feelings are a data set, but not a decision maker.

All right, can we go deeper?

Okay, okay.

So it's when he's.

When it says he fixed his face, it's unshakable resolve.

Unshakable resolve.

I have fixed my face.

I don't know about you, but there comes certain points in our

lives, and I look, it's a holy agitation.

It is a righteous thing that happens when you.

When the Lord allows your situation to go from bad to worse.

And some of you are like, why is it not working out for me?

I keep praying and things get worse.

I'll tell you the answer.

Because the Lord is gonna take you to a place where you get so irritated

and so agitated that you get sick and tired of being sick and

tired.

He's taken you to a. Oh, this is a.

God is doing it.

I'm speaking to somebody because he wants you to strengthen

your resolve.

And when you say, I can't take anymore, that's God's way of saying,

okay, you're almost ready.

You're almost ready.

I'm doing.

I'm allowing things to go from bad to worse, to irritate and agitate,

because you keep choosing the pain of the same over the pain of.

So when you don't change your situation.

Sometimes God will.

He's helping you.

And Jesus chooses to go to Jerusalem.

He strengthens his face, and it's locked in determination.

And this is not man being dragged to a fate that he can't control.

This is ultimately a man choosing the hardest road in human

history.

And I need you to hear this right now, loud and clear, all around

the world.

His death was not plan B.

Stop settling for plan B.

If God said it, believe it.

Stand on that truth.

My mother had a degenerative disease in her esophagus, and she

was diagnosed in the late 90s with that.

But I had given her a prophecy that God was gonna miraculously heal

her esophagus, which, by the way, the doctor said is medically

impossible.

So now we have two realities.

What God said, what access we have to his promises in the Word,

and what the doctor said.

See, when you set your face towards Jerusalem, what you're saying

is, I choose what God says, even in the face of something that

looks verifiable in the natural.

Well, you know what?

It may have taken 25 years, and I don't know why there was such

a long duration of time, but I will tell you this.

When my mom walked into that doctor's office last year and they

told her, throw your medication away.

You don't even need it anymore.

She's sitting right in front of you right now.

A testament that God will do what he said he will do.

But here's the thing.

My mother had a choice.

Am I gonna set my face towards Jerusalem or am I gonna go back to

Nazareth?

Some of you are turning around right now, getting ready to go back

to what's familiar, even though they don't honor the anointing

on your life instead of moving forward into Jerusalem because it's

unfamiliar.

And my mother, every single year, she said God said I was gonna

be healed.

And I've set my face towards Jerusalem.

And I know on the other side of this cross is a resurrection.

And last year, it happened.

So if you're watching this right now, if you're here at any

one of our campuses and you've got something that the doctors say

is medically incurable, you know what I tell you?

Set your face towards Jerusalem.

Set your face.

Set your face towards Jerusalem.

Don't back down.

Don't give up.

They say the cancer is going to be unto death, but I say he's

defeated.

Death.

He's defeated.

Come on.

Hell in the grave.

We got to choose what we believe.

Set your faith.

Somebody shout, set your face.

So when you look at this.

It's crazy.

It wasn't God turning the the enemy scheme into something good

after the fact.

The cross, that was for the redemptive plan.

It was planned from the very beginning.

So God knew all these.

It's never a shock to God.

And later, Jesus says to himself, no one can take my life

from me because I sacrifice it voluntarily.

So it raises the question, was Jesus murdered or was he sacrificed?

Murder is when it happens against his will.

But he became the sacrifice because he was the lamb that offered

himself.

Nobody took his life.

How many victims do we have in this church?

Well, Mike, I would be normal if I didn't have abusive stepparents.

How many victims?

Well, Mike, I would volunteer at the church if the other church

didn't hurt me.

How many victims?

Oh, Mike, you know, I would give if the church didn't only want

my money.

Oh.

You know, I would ask somebody on a date, but I've been in some

bad relationships.

How many victims do we have in this church?

I'm looking for victims right now.

See, here's the thing.

Jesus was not a victim.

Jesus said, you can't kill me because I offer my life.

You can't steal from somebody who gives freely.

You understand what I'm saying?

And I think for us, we need to get out of the victim seat.

Listen, when I.

That other church, they did abuse me.

But guess what?

When I was serving them, I was never serving them.

The Bible says that when I gave, it was as if I gave to Christ

himself.

Hey, let's talk about the money.

They may have misused the money, but

I didn't mishandle it.

They misused, but I didn't mishandle it.

It came through me.

My job was to sow.

Their job was to steward.

I ain't got no problem.

I gave that money to the feet of Jesus and they messed up.

But I didn't mess up.

I'm not a victim.

Come on.

Some people might have messed me up.

Listen, let me talk to the single people.

That relationship didn't work out, but thank

God because he just prepared you for a mate and.

Oh, come on.

Sometimes a hookup doesn't work out because he's trying to make

you ready to get married.

See?

Thank God.

But you can't take nothing from me.

Oh, those people used me.

Did they?

Did they?

How could you use somebody who's offering it freely?

Come on.

I'm not a victim.

The anointing that you feel on this message is from 25 years of

me being trapped in victim Mentalities.

And when I looked at these scriptures we're looking at now,

when I looked at these scriptures we're looking at now,

it clicked.

Jesus wasn't murdered.

He was sacrificed.

He offered himself up.

How are we supposed to live our life as a living.

Oh, you're about to get it.

You're about to get it.

You're about to get it as a living what?

As a living sacrifice.

Come on, go ahead and use me.

Eat all the fruit off of my tree.

Cause I'm gonna keep it.

Keep growing fruit in every season.

I'm gonna feed you and your children and your children.

You take whatever you need because I've been growing fruit.

Love, pace, peace, patience, kindness, long stuff.

Oh, come on.

Eat whatever you need.

You can't use me because I'm a tree.

You can't use me.

Cause I'm a tree.

Eat whatever you need.

Come on.

I'm living my life as a sacrifice.

Somebody shout unto God if you believe it.

Hallelujah.

About to preach myself freed up here.

Use me.

That church used me.

Eat this fruit.

See that?

Come on.

Now there's an explosive connection that most preachers miss.

And this would not be a V1 service if I didn't try to get you

a master's of theology all in 30 minutes.

So Luke, chapter nine, verse 51, it was not written in a vacuum.

So Luke is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and

deliberately echoes a prophecy written nearly 800 years earlier

by the prophet Isaiah.

So the Bible talks to itself.

Itself, references and confirms itself.

Biblical prophecy is one of the reasons why I went from atheism

to a born again believer, because the Bible confirms itself.

So In Isaiah, chapter 50, verse 7, it says, but the Lord God

Isaiah 50:7

helps me, therefore I have not been disgraced.

Therefore I have set my face like flint.

And I know that I will not be put to shame.

Do you see it?

So Luke says he set his face.

Isaiah prophesied, I have set my face like flint.

This is the third servant song, one of four astonishing prophecies

in Isaiah.

Look at this.

Chapters 42, 49, 50 and 53.

They all describe the coming Messiah with surgical precision.

And then God uses a former doctor to write the message of Luke.

And the verse just before it in Isaiah 50, verse 6 tells you that

Isaiah 50:6

the servant is literally walking into this scene.

I'm gonna read it to you.

I offered my back to those who beat me.

I offered my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard.

And I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.

This redefines Your entire perspective.

When you watch the Mel Gibson version, it's as if Jesus has no

control.

What really happened was, oh, you want my cheek?

Go ahead and have it.

Oh, you want my back?

Here's my back.

You can't murder me because I'm being sacrifice, because I'm

giving to you.

Jesus was not a victim of crucifixion.

And this is why.

The only reason why we would make movies that depict him as a

victim is because the producers think that they're victims.

And we make a Christianity where we

portray Christ as a victim because we

feel like a victim.

It was the opposite.

He was saying, I am not your victim.

I am the sacrifice.

I was a victim in my marriage.

No, I offered you the best love I had, and you just couldn't

recognize what you had until it was too late.

And maybe somebody else will.

God's trying to break a victim mindset off of the body of Christ

right now.

There's a major victim mentality in the body of Christ.

And the Lord's trying to break it off because, no, we offered it.

Now this is even crazier.

Jesus read these words, and he basically steps into him and he doesn't

even flinch.

So, flint.

Now what does this mean?

I set my face as flint.

So flint is a rock that is so hard that actually it retains its

edge even after it's been repeatedly struck.

So when you look at the archeological discoveries that are

connected to this, and you go to, like, the Jordan Valley, for

example, and you uncover ancient flint knives that were used

in, like, military combat.

For example, the blades, they kept cutting even after being struck

again and again.

This is the metaphor that the Holy Spirit chooses to divinely use

in scripture, that Jesus looks to Jerusalem and he sets his face

like a flint.

He sets his face like a rock that keeps its edge and it stays

sharp even though it receives multiple blows.

So come on, somebody.

Ah.

Y' all hear what I'm saying?

Okay.

Come on.

You can talk about me.

You can walk out on me, you can reject me, you can gossip about

me, about.

Oh, come on, somebody.

You can do it.

You can leave me high and dry.

The only thing you can't do is dull me down.

I'm never losing my edge because I am like a flint.

And no matter how many blows I take, you don't dull me down.

You can't take my fire of the Holy Ghost.

No matter how much you tell me you don't like the church, you can't

stop my worship, no matter how much it desires, disrupt the demons

that are in you.

You can't stop this.

I made a decision to set my face like a flint.

And no matter how many blows I take, I'm gonna be sharp over here.

Hallelujah.

Oh, you want me to turn it down, devil?

How about we turn it up?

Oh, come on.

You don't like the way I'm dancing?

Well, I feel a dance coming on right now, you know?

Oh, David.

Dance.

I'm gonna dance.

See who was disturbed by David's dance.

You gotta understand who is disturbed by David's dance.

Come on.

There's gonna.

How you know that you're in an act of unadulterated obedience to

God is.

You are gonna start to get enemies by becoming a friend of Jesus.

Jesus.

If they're not disturbed by your worship, you probably ain't

worshiping the way he's calling you to worship.

If they're not.

Oh, come on.

What do you mean?

You're gonna go all the way across the country to that Breakers

Conference?

What do you mean?

It's like, what, you didn't have a problem with us going all

across the world to the Dominican Republic and drinking all

day and night?

You didn't have a problem when I

gave my body in that nightclub and you didn't even know where I

was at.

You didn't have a problem with when I ruined my life, but when the

Lord began to build me up, you got a problem.

You want to go on your sin vacations, but you're mad at me going

on a salvation vacation.

Come on.

I can spend my money however I want to.

I'll do whatever I want to do.

I'm grown and you're grown.

If you want to spend your money for a ticket to hell, go for

it.

But I made up my mind.

Just set my face like a flint.

I'm gonna go to Jerusalem.

I'm gonna do what God called me to do.

Don't tell me how to.

Come on, Jezebel.

Come on.

You messed up.

Jezebel.

I'm not Elijah.

He was in his feelings.

I'm Jehu.

I do what needs to be done, and I make a decision.

I ain't hiding under a tree.

I'm ripping you down off your legs, witch.

Okay, take your seats.

This is but you the reason why I'm preaching.

You think this is emotionalism?

This is the bare minimum of what Jesus was doing on the inside

of him to ready himself for the cross.

The warfare that was happening, you understand?

Jesus was 100% man and 100% God.

So that biological part of him was fighting harder than you've ever

been fought in your flesh.

You think your hormones are off.

Jesus was.

I mean, he suffered in every way.

You think you deal with depression and discouragement.

Jesus suffered in the war.

And that attitude I'm giving you is.

Is when I'm a faithful witness to the scriptures.

Scriptures.

When I'm a faithful witness, when I'm a student of these scriptures,

this is what I believe.

He set.

It's.

This is what.

When.

When you read the text.

I set my face like a flint.

Imagine getting ready to go into work tomorrow.

I'm not been in my need of

the spirit in this workplace.

I don't care what happens.

I'm not gonna compromise.

I'm not backing up.

I'm not.

Listen.

If they can get loud about their

sin, I'm gonna get loud about my Savior.

I'm setting my face like a flint.

I'm not gonna take it anymore.

They're not gonna shut me up and silence me.

If everybody else can have an opinion, I can have the truth.

I know what I stand for.

See, it's like, it's.

This is the attitude.

Are you with me?

I set my face like a flint.

You gotta.

It's like that.

That's what I imagine when I read the text.

It's like that, You know, with Mom, Donnie here, you know, rents

are probably going to go high and New York City is probably not

safe.

I set my face like a flint.

I'm going to Times Square.

We're going to have that whole place filled with Christians, and

I don't care.

Listen,

I'm going to Jerusalem.

I made up my mind.

I'm gonna represent Jesus.

I don't care if it's a Muslim, I don't care if it's a Hindu.

I'm a Christian.

There's a remnant in New York City.

I said, ah, I'm not leaving digging my heels in.

I set my face like a flint.

When you find out your kids are

drinking, your kids are smoking, your kids are acting crazy,

you set your face like a flint.

Listen, this is a Christian house.

You're gonna go to church.

If I pay the bills to this house, and I don't care if you like

church or not, but it's for your soul.

And you begin to minister to your family.

I've set my face towards Jerusalem.

I know how this story ends.

You don't like it, move out.

But as for me in my house.

As for me in my house, Devil's like, what's going on?

I thought I discouraged them.

Oh, no, I'm just warming up because I'm getting ready to run

rush shot all over you.

I'm not backing down.

I already know.

I am the hunter, not the hunted.

I am the predator, not the pray.

See, Jesus was not just the lamb, he was the lion.

And when he offered his life, he said, I'm gonna give you my life.

Because the next time you see me, I'm gonna have a sword.

The next time you see me, I'm not gonna be like this, and I gotta

encourage somebody.

You are not the victim.

You are the lamb that dies and becomes like, That's the word of

God.

That's the word of God.

Yeah.

And that's the thing.

When you understand God's hierarchy, when you understand God's

control, you're not worried about anything.

Because you're like, wait a second.

You don't even have the power to stop me because I'm divine in

God's hand.

Like, you can't stop me because you didn't start me.

Matter of fact, for those of us who are real bad, I know that

you can't stop me.

Cause I couldn't stop me.

Did nobody try harder?

That's why.

Oh, Mike, are you worried they're canceling?

Oh, no, no.

I canceled myself a long time ago.

They're not gonna succeed where I failed.

I tried to stop myself, and the Lord said, no, Mike, I got for

you in Jerusalem.

Set your face like a flint.

You're going back.

You're going back.

I'm sending you to Jerusalem.

And I'm here to tell somebody.

I remember I started this sermon with saying, God told you

to do something.

Remember?

You set your face like a flint and you say, God, I'm gonna do it.

I'm going to Jerusalem now.

And when you surrender, the story of this church, Julie, was

me trying to not go to Jerusalem.

And Julie put her hand on my shoulder like the documentary moment.

No, babe, we're going to Jerusalem.

I said, no, we not.

Because Julie couldn't make the decision for me.

I had to make it for me.

So Jesus, the test he was facing was he had to make the decision.

That's why it became redemptive.

If he was forced, there's no redemption.

But if he willfully does it, it becomes redemptive.

You have to willfully choose to forgive.

You have to willfully choose to redeem.

You can't be forced.

There's redemption in this.

I'm coming to a close here in a few moments, and this is the connection

that so many people miss.

This Archeological discovery of flint.

But your greatest purpose.

And you know this.

It lives on the other side of your greatest pain.

But there's something about us that avoids that pain.

Luke, chapter 9, verse 51.

Luke 9:51

Jesus is healing the sick.

He's casting out demons.

He's feeding 5,000.

He's calming storms.

We've talked about those things.

But then after Luke chapter 9, verse 51, the narrative changes.

Luke 9:51

The miracles continue.

But now there's a new direction.

There's this heavy weight.

Jesus begins moving deliberately towards Jerusalem.

And that's the journey we're gonna take over the next couple of

weeks.

The journey towards Jerusalem.

Why?

Because Jerusalem is where three things are gonna happen.

The cross, the resurrection and the birth.

The cross, the resurrection and the birth.

The birth of what?

The church.

Mike.

The Lord told me to write a book.

Go die on the cross.

Then you'll experience a resurrection and then your book will

be birthed.

Mike, the Lord told me to start a business.

Go die to self.

Then you'll experience a resurrection and then your business

will be birthed.

Anything birthed without experiencing death first will die.

Are you following me?

So the Lord says to Abram, hey, you know Sarah, your old crusty,

dusty wife?

That.

Come on.

I just wanted to offend the women.

I don't know why I did that.

The women were like, ain't my preacher no more.

But listen, yeah, the, the, the, the, you know, your old wife,

your wife that can't is beyond ability to birth.

She's going to be the one to birth.

So this requires death to Abraham.

Death of what?

The natural mind.

This is it.

Death of the natural mind.

So when God tells you, write a book.

The death is the death of the natural mind because your natural

mind says, I can't write a book.

Well, the Lord knew you couldn't do it when he asked you.

You're missing the whole point.

It's like telling Abraham and Sarah, you're going to have a kid

and you're going to become the father of a nation beyond your birthing

years.

It was like the Lord knew it was impossible when he told you so.

The death is the death of your mind, the death of your emotions.

This is the death.

So then Abraham, who's like all of us, doesn't want to die.

So he concocts a plan of compromise and has a baby with a

servant woman and it becomes Ishmael, which then becomes the a

false father, the father of Islam that Christianity is still

fighting and, and the in Israel still fighting to this day.

One man's compromise became A multi generational conflict.

So when God calls you to do something, there's a purity in saying,

lord, I know this is impossible.

That's probably why you asked me to do it.

But the death that I'm willing to experience is death to my own

intellect, death to my own emotions.

And Lord, I'm just gonna agree with you.

You.

I'm just going to agree with you.

And then when you do that, the promise is birthed.

And so this is what I'm asking for you through, through the Lord

right now is will you finally come into agreement with the impossible?

Lord, there's no way my son, my daughter is going to be saved

and serving you.

It's impossible.

And the Lord's like, yeah, I know, but for with me.

Oh, come on.

That's the part of the equation, Lord, I know my spouse.

There's no way my spouse is ever gonna serve you.

And we're always fighting.

But I just.

I know you've given me prophecies and promises.

Yes, I know it's impossible.

But for with me, all things are possible.

Faith.

For without faith, it is impossible to please God.

The impossibility is not the promise.

It's the lack of faith.

For with.

I'm talking to somebody.

Do you feel this?

It's time to operate in faith.

Faith.

Faith speaks and fear jumps.

Faith is the evidence of things hope.

For in the substance of things not seen.

I preached in this building a thousand

times before I bought it.

Because by faith, I was already in it.

See, by faith, I begin to speak it.

I preached the stadium a thousand times

before we rented it.

Because by faith, I was in the stadium.

By faith, I'm already in Times Square.

Can you feel it?

By faith.

By faith.

By faith.

God, I set my face like a flint.

And by faith, I'm going to Jerusalem.

And when I die, there will be a resurrection.

But after the resurrection, there will be a birth.

And that day will be eternal.

Somebody jump to your feet and give God a 30 second praise break

if you're ready to go all the way.

Hallelujah.

So that's it.

That's the message.

We're going all the way now.

We've set our face like flint towards Jerusalem.

We've made up our mind.

I feel the faith in this room.

I feel it.

I feel the campuses connecting together in a unity I've never felt.

I feel like I have 3D goggles on right now.

I'm not kidding.

I feel like I have a virtual reality headset on and I'm seeing

into Miami.

I'm seeing into Brooklyn.

And you know what I see?

I see a Holy Spirit unity like I've never seen before.

I see the Lord threading us together, every generation, every

race.

I see us coming together for such a time as this.

And I just.

Can I do what I feel like the Lord's telling me to do?

I need to make a divine proclamation because the devil has

made schemes and the devil has made plans.

But I want to prophesy right now because I hear the Lord saying,

but I have also planned and I have also strategized Christ.

And by my mighty hand I have positioned those that I've called

to be in position.

I hear the Lord saying, the devil thinks that he has a strategic

advantage.

The devil thinks that he is one.

But I hear the Lord saying, no.

For what I do next, the enemy will not see coming.

For I have veiled my plans from his eyes.

I have failed my plans from his ears.

And I have not allowed the enemy to know what I do next.

And it will.

Will come suddenly and swiftly upon the enemy, says the Lord, and

God Almighty will receive great glory about what happens next.

But I hear the Lord speaking strongly

right now, strongly right now that God has been strategizing.

And I stand right now with the remnant.

I stand right now with the narrow road women and the narrow

road men that say, I'm done with.

With compromise.

I'm done with sin.

I'm done with the flesh.

I'm done with my emotions.

I've set my eyes like a flint and I'm moving in now I'm gonna believe.

I'm only gonna believe what the Lord said.

I'm only gonna believe what the word said.

There's no plan B.

There's no plan C. There's no alternative.

It's God's way or no way at all.

That's where we're going.

You feel this faith stirring in you.

Come on.

You feel this space turning you so across every location, y'.

All.

Wow.

Look at the boys.

Look at the boys already.

Look at the boys.

Look at the boys.

Come on.

Because we gotta leave a little room during this service to

enter back and worship.

But there's something churning inside of your stomach.

I believe when Jesus was looking at Jerusalem, I believe some

something was churning on the inside of him that he said, it's

time now.

It's time.

It's time now.

I know my fate is before me.

Let me just tell you, you are

alive for such a time as this.

You are alive for such a time as this.

I got a church Full of Deborahs.

I got a church full of Esthers.

I got a church full of Mordecai's.

I got a church full of mighty men of valor.

And we are ready now.

We are ready for what God wants us to do.

This is what we're going to begin to do.

We're setting our eyes towards Jerusalem.

Yeah, Come on.

I hear a song across every campus right now.

We're going to pray together.

And then at the conclusion of this prayer, and everybody that's

watching at home, just get up off your couch right now.

I'm talking to Canada.

I'm talking all over the world.

We're going to begin to enter in, but I want us to pray as a church.

And then I want you to have a time where you just walk around your

your church, walk around your carpet, and you just begin to declare

the word of the Lord.

Because now I'm going to shift it from the sermon to activation.

What does activation look like?

Use your mouth.

Use your words.

The power of life and death is in your tongue.

I've done my part.

The Lord's saying it's time to do your part.

You speak those words, you prophesy over your body, you lay

hands on your yourself.

We're gonna flip it.

We're going to Jerusalem.

And there's no plan B.

That's what this service is about.

So right now, across America and overseas, in this building, at

all of our campuses, let's begin to pray.

Come on.

Heavenly Father, I pray for each and every person under the sound

of my voice right now, Lord, that they are

going to begin to speak.

Faith over chronic illness, Faith over relationships.

Faith over their future.

Faith, faith, faith, faith, faith.

Begin to be released in the nations right now.

That they will begin to believe God for the impossible in

their life.

That they will begin to say, this time I'm walking the narrow

road and dying to self.

And Lord, I thank you that whom the sun sets free is free indeed.

And we're going all the way.

Come on now, let's do this across every campus.

Let's live up a song right now.

And then if you're in the congregation, I want you to begin

to pray, to begin to intercede, to go to war right now.

Come on.

We're in the war room together.

We're in the war room together.

Come on, let's go.

Sat.