Beyond The Storm | Ronnie Doss

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this message i want to talk to you today

about something um and you know a few

months back it was September you guys

remember this hurricane Helen how many

of you remember that hurricane that came

through it made landfall here i think it

was a category four when it hit landfall

and then it worked its way up through

Georgia on the way up through into the

Carolinas and then it was like it just

kind of stopped over Asheville North

Carolina that area Boone North Carolina

and it dumped rain and I believe that

the statistics on it were that it dumped

more than 30 inches of rain in these

places where they're not used to getting

rain like that you get a little bit of

wind in the mountains but not that type

of rain and what happened was this storm

moves up and it moves into this area

around Asheville and it starts to dump

rain and wind and it it got crazy and

there's a scripture in in in the Bible

that says when the enemy comes in like a

flood the spirit of the Lord will raise

up a standard against him that's right

and the storm came in here and it was

rough but when it came in up there in a

different region it hit different you

know that new term that new phrase oh

that hits different right well it hit

different up there and it did

devastation it literally looked like in

some of the mountain regions up there

that someone had dropped a

bomb the flooding tore trees down it it

what it did was unbelievable and last

weekend I went to that area and I went

on a hike with four really close friends

of mine i went with Dr jeremy Dr sam Dr

tyler and Dr grant great friends of mine

who I've worked with their teams i've

been friends with them for almost a

decade if not more we went up there and

we hiked on Saturday around that area i

did almost 14 miles in one day not bad

got 33,000 steps in not too bad right

how many of you have ever had a day

before where you're like I don't even

know if I'm going to be able to step

forward at all i did 33,000 steps in one

day was not easy but we did it around

that area and that picture if you guys

put that up here this is one of the

areas near the top of one of the

mountains where the path that we were

hiking on would normally

go can you see those

trees do you see what that looks like

that looks like all hell broke loose up

there and tore these trees down like

they were toothpicks you guys have seen

that happen before but up in the top of

the mountains like that to see that and

then if I would have panned this around

if I would have done a video and shot it

around to the left you would see where

the flooding started going down the

mountains and it was causing these

landslides that were just pushing trees

like these down like they were just

toothpicks piling them up throwing mud

into them rocks into them it was crazy

but this was part of the path that we

were going to hike

how many of you know that

sometimes you think you know the path

you're going to be on and you think you

know the direction that it's going in

and then a storm comes and it changes

everything

how many of you have ever been through

some sort of a storm that changed

everything

how many of you are

married then you

know look at your spouse and say "You

are the storm." No do not do

that but how many of you know you've got

this idea and you've got this plan and

then all of a sudden boom something

happens the storm comes and it starts to

mess the path up and you thought the

path would look a certain way and now it

doesn't

if it hasn't happened to you yet it will

it's going to happen storms will happen

look at your neighbor and say "Storms

will happen." Storms will happen one of

the things that we got to do and we're

going to talk about in a minute is make

sure that we're not the ones causing the

storm

because some people say "Oh my gosh it's

so much going on it's so much drama it's

so bad it's so whatever." It's like "Hey

hey hey cool cool wait wait wait wait."

But are you the one that's causing this

storm that you're complaining about

because in some ways if you're the one

that keeps complaining and you're the

one that keeps starting it maybe you

like the storm maybe the storm that you

create with your drama is a diversion

away from the thing that you know you

need to be working on so if you can keep

some drama stirred up then we don't have

to look at what really needs to be

worked on can I just say that sometimes

we do that say yes say thank you thank

you

you're welcome

so I want to give you a couple things

today that I know can help you help to

remind you you may know these things but

to help you to continue to navigate

through the storms as you go and here's

what I'll tell you sometimes the storms

are not just external

storms sometimes they're just

internal any of you guys up there ever

had an internal storm that you've gone

through like you you felt it emotional

storms you ever had that you ever just

had an emotional storm like I don't know

i'm about I'm about to tear it up in

here it's about to become a cyclone

we're about to blow you know what I mean

you gonna blow through the office you go

to work with all your co-workers you're

just gonna create a storm let everybody

know be

careful you have a have a relational

storm co-worker friend can I tell you

something uh the people you work with

your friends your family people in your

community if you care about people you

can love people and do you know what

sometimes you're still going to get

frustrated with them

you might get frustrated with your

parents you might get frustrated with

your kids you might get frustrated with

your spouse you could even get

frustrated with your pastors you might

get frustrated with me today i might

offend you in the best way I can in the

most loving way that I can but do you

know that you're going to get

frustrated storms will frustrate you

will they not yes let me tell you a

couple things about storms number one

come storms do not come to stress

you god allows them to strengthen you

and the storm that we deal with today

often times is to equip us for a storm

that we know nothing about that may come

in the

future yesterday at Surge I was talking

to them i said you know sometimes we

think success is a win that I have to

get the win and do you know sometimes

you can gain something so much more than

a win when you get wisdom

the win may not be the win the loss may

be the win if you get wisdom so I'm

gonna tell you something wisdom is

better than a win that's right that's

right and a lot of times what people say

is "Oh okay you get wisdom from

experience." Can I tell you where

experience comes from i could probably

ask my daughter Kennedy if she knows

this because she can recite a lot of my

stuff she's smart like me she's

beautiful like her mom intelligent like

her mom wonderful like her mom but I'm

the one wearing the blue suit check this

out hey looking good i thought when

Pastor Caleb was talking about not being

able to change that tire I was like

"Well of course you're not going to be

able to change your tire you wear a blue

suit." I mean like you know and I went

"Uhoh." Um you ever been convicted

wanting to say something to somebody

else and you got to look in the mirror

and be like "Uh-oh I'm wearing a blue

suit." You ever do that sometimes

but please hear me that sometimes what I

believe is that we get frustrated and we

create this stuff and what I tell people

all the time is this is you got to know

that if God allowed it there's a purpose

in it right it's good if if you're

frustrated if something hurts if there's

a circumstance you didn't plan God

allowed it you can look all through the

scriptures of all the people in the

scriptures the great leaders in the

scriptures they were tormented they were

afflicted they went through stuff how

about my servant Job i don't know if you

guys know this if you read the Bible

story Job it's like he had everything

and he lost it

didn't mean he didn't love God didn't

mean God didn't love him he went through

it we're going to go through challenges

the storms don't come to stress us they

come so that God can strengthen us

that's pretty good yes sir storms don't

come to exhaust us right

storms don't come to exhaust us storms

come to equip us that's good i don't

want to get bitter because of the storm

i want to pull the wisdom take the

lesson i want to get better because the

storm so in some ways when I become a

leader I start looking around going is

there a storm somewhere that I could

help to be a solution to i'm not going

to add to it i'm not going to bring my

drama to it i'm not going to bring my

negativity to it i'm going to bring some

peace to this storm because of the peace

I have in me and it's a peace that

surpasses all understanding i might not

be able to intellectually get it but I

can carry it because there's something

in me that's

different so storms aren't here to

exhaust us

they're here to equip

us and storms aren't here just to

challenge

us they're here to change

us they're here to change us how many of

you know that there are some changes

that you could make in your life right

now just not everything but something

that could help you to be just a little

bit better come on raise your hand

really really really high yeah that's

all of us let me tell you if if you

didn't raise your hand that's okay you

don't have to i get it but everyone

seemed to raise their hand but do you

know sometimes we can get to a place

where we feel like we've been through so

many storms that we know everything

about everybody else's storm and that

ain't true right can I tell you

something just from this point of that

that storm hit landfall here in Florida

the reason I wanted to talk to you about

it is because we live in North Carolina

now we're closer to my family we moved

back almost a year ago it's been the

toughest year of my

life the storm's hit different we don't

always know what the storm looks like to

someone else right right for some person

it just feels like wind to someone else

it could be rain to someone else it

could be a

fire i think it's Elijah in the the

scripture he said 'The spirit of the

Lord told him to go out by the cave and

he said 'There was an earthquake and

there was wind and there was fire and

God wasn't in all that but it was this

still small voice of whisper to Elijah

that said "Hey hey hey here's what you

need to do next." Do you understand that

storms are different to all of us but

how we respond to them is going to

determine where it is we wind up that's

right

this last year has been difficult we

moved back closer to North Carolina i'll

be closer to my family um we get back

closer and then it's like all hell broke

loose for me

personally I've started feeling bad i

had bad allergies before i went to the

doctor changed all that up thought I had

myself dialed in changed all my diet up

in a way i thought I was good have you

ever been before like "Oh we're good i

got this." And then all of a sudden

something else comes from over here

and so I go and I'm not feeling good and

I go get some blood work done

get the blood work done then I get on a

plane this is December and I fly to

Colorado training a team that I've

worked with for over a decade that is

has done so many amazing things around

the world i go out it's December the

19th and when I come back I've got CO i

don't know if you guys ever heard of

it's CO it's this word i don't know if

anybody any of you have ever heard it

before but it's a little virus people

don't know what it is but CO any of you

ever heard of the word CO i got COVID

for the fourth time i've had it four

times and it's rocked me every single

time and some people are like "Oh I got

CO i just couldn't taste anything." I'm

like "Well let me tell you

something i have tasted and seen that CO

is not

good." So I come back about two weeks

rocks me through the holidays missed the

family Christmas party missed the

gathering i'm rocked miss it then the

beginning of the year finally meet with

my doctor i'm getting to a point where

I'm foggy in my mind like I'm fatigued

there's a point like I'm like this is

not good so when I have my appointment I

have my wife Jen sit with me because I

knew I was in a place where I wouldn't

be able to retain what the doctor told

me you guys with me it's kind of like

church sometimes this is why we say "Hey

take notes." Yeah right don't just come

okay i had this appointment here's what

what what did you learn from it uhuh

well I don't know how was the doctor's

appointment it was good what would they

tell you i don't know that wouldn't be

very good right we don't want to do that

and so I have Jen sit with me here's

what my doctor says to me he says

"Ronnie Doss," he said "I'll tell you

something." He said "If on a scale of 1

to 15," he said "A one being your

heart's really good 15 is you're about

to stroke out have a heart attack and be

dead." He said "You're pushing 145."

And he said "You're too fit man we got

to do

something." And so Jyn's listening and

and it's at that point it's like okay

there's work to be done i got a family

to take care of i got a life to live i

got a pursuing i got a calling I got to

pursue what is this and so we start

changing things up i immediately go into

a detox

and can I just tell you that the detox

stuff that they gave me these

supplements if I could describe Satan in

pill form I got this one green neuro

detox thing that I take that I will tell

you is the devil himself in a little

capsule but please hear me sometimes

things have to get worse before they get

better and if you only get one thing

from today I'm telling you when you

decide to make some changes sometimes

things get worse before they get better

we start this detox we go through it i'm

pushing now I'm almost three months in

it's like the the what went on in those

months thank God for friends thank God

for Pastor Scott my friend Pastor Leroy

like people that were checking in going

"You okay?" Because I was not it was

tough

and let me tell you we come out of it

and about a month ago I say out of it

I'm on the way out i'm starting to think

"Oh this is going to be good i'm

starting to get the old thinker back."

All right i'm starting to get clear

minded again i'm good then guess what

happens the

flu i

thought that if you got

CO that your immune system then for a

while at least could fight off anything

else that might look like COVID like the

flu because people like COVID and the

flu is the same thing they are not the

same and guess what the flu floored

me so here I am excited i'm coming out

uh right i'm ready i'm like let's do it

and then uh no you're not boom flu hits

me knocks me

out couple of

weeks on the back end of it come down

here i'm doing an event here in

Lakeland come down here my wife's got

it addison my daughter's got it kennedy

got it it it got all of us on the back

end of it thinking like "Wow maybe

getting through the flu did the event

here was great was going to come over

here to the church i got to tell this

story was going to come to the church

and then Jen and I were feeling so bad i

text Heather i don't know if you guys

know Heather Nance heather Nance works

here at the church one of the greatest

stewards she's amazing unbelievable

human being i text her and I said

"Heather hey Jen and I still aren't

feeling well so we're going to go ahead

and head

home." The response was "Oh no we'll be

praying for her

you know what I mean did you guys get

what I just said i said "We still aren't

feeling good we us inclusive all under

the umbrella my wife and I still aren't

feeling good." And while I got back

we'll be praying for

her i'm like you know it ain't that hard

to throw Ronnie into a prayer you know

what I mean my name's not that hard to

say ronnie if you got don't have much

time with prayer just call me Ron just

throw it in there or maybe if you're

really busy Heather please just throw in

R lord bless Jennifer and Addison and

Kennedy and R you know who he

is trust level with Heather went from

here to

here but here's what I want you to

know after that it's been now 3 to four

weeks i'm going back in a couple weeks

going to have blood work done again i

just I'm telling you this cuz some of

you need to hear this i'm going back i'm

getting my blood work done and I'm going

to tell you that I'm not completely out

of this this change is going to be a

lifestyle deal i know that it's a change

but I'm believing that I'm completely

healed completely whole and that listen

to me here's the phrase I got let me

tell you the phrase and some of you need

to say this because you've gone through

some storms how many of you have gone

through some storms raise your hand

listen let me tell you here's the saying

I've heard people say before and I'll

say it now with authority devil you

should have killed me when you could

have because when I come out I'm ripping

the doors off these hinges it ain't

going to be like anything you've ever

seen before you thought you didn't like

me back then when I was operating at

about 70% you surely aren't going to

like me at 100 come on

they're

storms they're not meant to stop

us i think they're meant to stir us

and here's a few things that I want you

to know about this i'll give you a

couple of specifics on

this regardless of how tough the storm

may be there is still a path to be

walked

regardless of how tough the storm may

be there is still a path to be

walked if you decided you're going to

school even if it gets tough there's

still a path for you to

walk you start a new job God opens a new

door for you you open up a new business

you do something and you know you're

called to do it when it gets difficult

it gets challenging there is still a

path to walk

you get married new

relationship there is still a path in

the beginning come on am I right tell me

I'm right say yes Ronnie are you right

the beginning of a relationship it's

always like "Ain't this great love this

woo ain't this

awesome?" And then you get a little bit

more in the relationship and you're like

"Ain't this well?" You

know and then you feel like "Ain't this

great?" And then you feel like the

person in your relationship pulling you

back and you're like "Oh I thought this

was going to be great now it's your

fault." All that stuff you ever been

through this right yes there's still a

path to be walked good don't abort your

destiny just because the storm came and

made it challenging

if you promised to do it if you

committed to do it do it listen that

picture we saw up there today those

trees were laying across that path i

know this is what I've found that on the

path sometimes there's highs and there's

lows those trees we had to climb over

and under some of them up and down and

do you know that's how the path is it's

up and it's down but when we develop

emotional maturity can I tell you what

I've learned i have learned that when we

develop emotional maturity we don't let

the highs take us too high and we don't

let the lows take us too low we find

that middle ground we stay anchored to

Christ we stay anchored in what we know

we stay anchored in the word of God

because it keeps us and holds us and

here's what I'll tell you maybe the

storm that you're in it might not be

that difficult but let me tell you even

though it's not challenging that doesn't

mean you still can't stand for what it

is you decided you would stand for way

before any of the inconveniences started

right

even if it's not that

challenging you can still stand for what

you said you were going to stand for it

doesn't have to be all drama all

everything's lost before you go "No no

I'm still standing." There's a little

bit of gossip going on in the office

it's not a big deal no no no i'm still

standing it doesn't have to all implode

we don't have to wait till it all hits

the bottom before we can go no no no i'm

still standing there's going to be ups

there's going to be downs there's a

scripture psalms 23 i just spoke at a

celebration of life in Scottsdale

Arizona for a friend of mine his mother

passed away great honor for me for my

friend to say "Hey would you come speak

at this celebration of life?" And the

scripture was Psalm 23 though I walk

through the valley of the shadow of

death I shall fear no evil for thou art

with me do you know when you're going

through the lows you walk through the

valley the shadow of

death i know that if there's a shadow

there's got to be a little bit of light

so you know what I'm doing no matter

what the challenge is whether it's a

little challenge or a big challenge I'm

still looking for the light in that

situation

and you can

too so here's a great question I'll ask

you this is a good one if you're in a

big storm middle storm light storm

whatever it is here's a great

question what are you looking

for because what you look for you will

find if you need to find that it's all

lost this is awful there's nothing we

can do oh no if that's what you need to

see in it you'll find that yes sir if

you're looking for hey yeah this is

challenging this doesn't feel good but

we can still do this there's a way

there's got to be a way with God all

things are possible if that's what

you're looking for that is what you will

find

you got to decide what you're looking

for that's right not just out there also

in here yes there's a scripture Dave

said "Search my heart Lord look inside

here." If we can do that and we can get

peace in here do you know that we can

weather the storms i'll give you a quote

that I didn't share earlier today but if

you can conquer the enemy

within the one on the outside can do you

no harm that's right if you can conquer

the storm within the one on the outside

can do you no harm i said it yesterday

and I'll say it again because it's worth

repeating if you can hold your tongue

you can hold your peace sometimes i

don't know have any of you ever done

this i don't know maybe you've done it

i've done it once um maybe twice i don't

know my wife and I have been together

for almost 21 years i said yesterday we

don't argue we just have a vigorous

exchange of dissenting

ideas but have you ever done this before

where you're a little bit frustrated and

you thought "I'm not going to say

anything." But then you start talking

about it a little bit and the more you

talk about it the more you hear it the

more frustrated you get have you ever

had that happen before you're like "This

ain't that big of a deal but I'm just

going to say a little something." And

then once you start talking it's like

gas on the fire am I right or am I right

how many of you have done that before as

soon as you said it you're like

"Shouldn't have said that put this back

in." Does that happen

if we can hold our tongue we can hold

our peace let me tell you something i'll

give you this and I'm going to be done

with you be done today hopefully I get

to come back hope y'all have me back be

your what number seven wouldn't it

wow here's what I want you to

know that if you're feeling a certain

way during what you'd call a

storm if you're feeling a certain way

during something you might call a

challenge or an unexpected

circumstance I want you to know that

what you are

feeling

requires say requires requires

emotion

requires

belief emotion requires

belief i'll give you the old story we've

all heard it before someone's walking

along a path they look down there's a

stick they believe it's a snake

how do you feel when you look down and

you see a stick that you believe is a

snake come on is there an emotion with

that yes or yes yes you believe it's a

snake and there's emotion but then in a

moment you have a realization you

believe something different and now you

believe it's a stick it's not a snake

what happens to the emotion goes away it

goes away

many of us are running through the same

same storm again and again and again

because we're not getting control of

what it is that we

believe we're letting the news tell us

news news north east west south cast i

ain't gonna say what that would mean

witchcraft news cast casting spells be

careful what you watch you might be

getting programmed there's a reason they

call it television programming i'm

sorry faith comes by hearing and hearing

what you hear starts to change what you

believe many of us are facing the same

storms because we keep putting the same

information in that's good and if you

don't conquer the mountain

that you were called to because you let

your emotions run you again and again

and again hear me please hear me if you

don't conquer that mountain you'll wind

up circling that mountain and you'll be

the same

face in the same place and the only

thing that gets better are your

excuses that's not who we are

that's not who we are say "That's not

who I am." That's not who I am let me

tell you this last thing i want to give

you this scripture maybe you guys have

seen it it's Romans 8:18 it says "I

Romans 8:18

reckon that the suffering of this

present time is not worthy to be

compared to the glory that's going to be

revealed in

us." What that means to me is maybe I'm

going through a storm maybe I feel like

I'm suffering maybe I feel like there's

pain but I reckon that this suffering of

this present

time is not worthy to be compared to the

glory that will be revealed in

us i'm going to challenge you today

church that when you leave here today

you look at whatever the storm is that

you may feel like you are facing maybe

you'd say it's a big storm maybe you'd

say it's even a small storm but I would

ask you to look at what it is that you

believe right now and if it's not

serving you to feel more bold more

courageous more proud more authority

more forgiveness more worth if it's not

causing you to feel that I'm going to

challenge you to shift that belief

because the work has already been done

so that glory can be revealed through us

he did the work it is finished let's get

to work and let's finish the job god

bless you guys i love you thank you i

hope you enjoyed that we hope you

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