El Shaddai - Week 1: More Than Enough

All right, I'm starting a brand new series today entitled El Shaddai, the God Who is More Than Enough.

And if you've been with us for any amount of time, you know every year in October, I usually set aside a little extra time because I think it's important to remind ourselves of God's provision.

Remind ourselves of God's promise that He will always be our source, but also remind ourselves that we're not just blessed so we can consume more.

We're blessed so we can be generous and be a blessing to other people.

And so we take the time to do that every year.

But this year, I really sense as I was praying about what the series is supposed to be, I really sense that God wanted me to declare war on something.

So I want to tell you up front, I got an expressed goal for this month.

And my goal is I want to declare war on something that has quietly robbed Christians of our peace, our joy, and our ability to be generous when the Lord tells us to.

And that is this.

I'm declaring war on the not enough mentality.

I'm telling you up front, I'm declaring war because it has robbed us, it has stolen from us, it's had Christians spending too much time thinking about what we don't have instead of being able to be obedient to God with what we do have.

And so my goal is if I've done my job right by the end of this series, I will have done a great great job of attacking that not enough mentality.

So you walk out of here at the end of this month knowing that my God can supply all of my needs.

Amen.

So now let me describe to you if you're wondering, well, what is the not enough mentality?

It is this it is a mindset that views life through the lens of lack.

The person walking in this mindset kind of looks at life this way: there's never enough time, never enough money, never enough love, never enough help, never enough energy, never enough ability, or never enough opportunity.

The thing about this not enough mentality doesn't just come up and introduce itself, say, hello, I'm not enough.

I'm gonna cause you to have anxiety, cause you to worry, I'm gonna cause you to sit around and and think that things aren't gonna go right.

It doesn't introduce itself in an obvious way.

It shows up in our lives in different ways.

It shows up as worry in our lives.

The not enough mentality shows up as comparison in our lives, it shows up as jealousy in our lives.

Not enough shows up as stinginess.

Sometimes it shows up as overworking because I'm trusting me and not trusting God.

And then watch this.

Sometimes that not enough mentality shows up in the inability to celebrate other people's blessings.

Don't shout me down because I'm preaching so good already.

There's a book by Lynn Twist entitled The Soul of Money.

And in that she notes that for many people, the very first thought of the morning is some version of this.

I didn't get enough sleep last night.

I can tell you this is what I thought this morning at 4:30 when I got up.

I didn't get enough sleep last night.

And then the next thought is something like this I don't have enough time.

She says, we start the day short before our feet ever hit the floor, and then we spend the rest of the day chasing this thing called enough.

And most of us end up going to bed still counting what we did not get.

And it becomes a vicious cycle that we're constantly chasing enough.

I didn't have enough time, I didn't have enough resources.

I meant to call so-and-so, I meant to check on this, and we find ourselves in this rat race constantly trying to chase this thing called enough.

And I need you to understand this the problem isn't that we don't have enough, the problem is that we forget who is enough.

I thought y'all was gonna tear the place up on that one.

You see how I pause, I kind of was like let me say it again.

Maybe I read it wrong.

The problem isn't that we don't have enough, the problem is that we forget who is enough.

Amen.

So I want to introduce you to El Shaddai.

We break the name El Shaddai down.

The first part of that El comes from a Hebrew word, which means God, the mighty one, or the strong one.

Second part of that is Shaddai.

The Hebrew most often is translated as Almighty.

Some scholars translate it as the all-sufficient one.

Others translate it as the nourisher in the same way that a mother sustains a nursing child.

If you've ever paid attention to the ways of a mother, we have three kids, April and I together, and I watched her nurse all three of her children.

Can I just tell you, mothers, you deserve a standing ovation for how you take care of babies?

The way your body transforms, it disfigures to care for that baby and then bounces back.

And when a mother is nursing, it's amazing what God does because when that when when that baby is born, it's just a matter of time that the milk then comes down.

Just on its own, the body knows to trigger milk to come down.

And then when that baby cries, something about the cry of that child causes the mother's breast to fill up so she can supply what that kid needs.

There's a message in that.

Some of you you learn how to cry in faith.

I believe that El Shaddai's got something for you.

But the thing is, with mothers, as amazing as they are, mothers are still limited.

Because even though you know God bless you with two breasts, and if you have one child, then you're in good shape.

If you got one child and you're nursing, and I watched Berlin, she did she nurse on one side, they might empty that one out, and then she just switched and flip them upside down and put them on the other.

That kid's got more than enough, right?

But here's the problem.

If you have twins, you got one, you got one.

If you drink it all up, you're gonna be fasting for three hours till it comes back, right?

Well, now here's the here's the problem, but what if you have triplets?

I mean, if you have triplets, you gotta kind of start with any mini miny moe.

See who gotta draw straws or something to see why, because I have three kids and two breasts.

Here's the thing with God when we call him the nourisher, I grew up hearing El Shaddai meant the many breasted one.

That means that means that he's got enough substance for all of his kids.

Can I give you a reason?

Shout out that means if your sister or your brother is getting blessed, it's not taking a blessing away from you.

Come on, somebody.

That's why we can celebrate when God is blessing somebody else's life, come on, somebody else's church, come on, somebody, somebody else's marriage, come on, some other coworker, because you don't serve a God that's just got two breasts.

Come on, you serve the many breasted one, which means whenever his kids have a need, when you cry in faith, God has provision just for you.

Here's another definition for for for for Shaddai.

Sometimes it's translated as the mountain God who cannot be moved.

So we can put all those definitions together.

El Shaddai is the Almighty God who is all-sufficient, who nourishes, and who cannot be moved.

Come on, that's who you serve.

Amen.

And there's something I notice in scripture, every time you see the name El Shaddai, you see God showing up as El Shaddai.

Almost every time you see two words that show up.

Sometimes they're both there, sometimes it's one or the other.

Those two words are fruitful and multiply.

So whenever God shows up announcing himself as El Shaddai, you hear him talking about his people being fruitful, or you hear him talking about his people multiplying, he never talks about you staying in the same place or going backwards.

What are you trying to tell us, Pastor?

I'm trying to say this El Shaddai is not the God of barely enough or just enough.

He is the God of more than enough.

Now again, understand what I'm saying.

I'm not just talking about more than enough money.

Thank God for money.

But I'm saying he's more than enough of whatever you have need of.

All right, let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 9.

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

Verse 8 says this God is able to make all grace.

Somebody shout all grace.

Someone shout it from your heart, shout all grace.

God is able to make all grace abound toward you.

Stay with me.

I'm gonna teach you here.

God is able to make all grace abound toward you.

Now, this is not in your notes, but the word abound comes from a Greek word parisio.

P-E-R-I-S-S-E-U, paricio.

And it means to overflow, to exceed, or to exist in superabundance.

So God is able to make all grace abound.

He's able to make all grace paricio in your direction, make it exceed, make it show up in excess overflow or in superabundance.

And the imagery that it gives when you study this out is like a river that is overflowing its banks and flooding the town.

I'm trying to set you up for something because God just said that He's able to make all of His grace overflow your life and flood you with grace.

Now, if you really understood what happens when His grace shows up, you'd be shouting a little bit more than that.

Because if I said this, why if I said that God is able to make millions of dollars overflow your life?

See, see, you hear that?

Woo in the back, though somebody's because the thought the thought of money overflowing our lives gets us excited.

Can I tell you that there's something better than money overflowing?

Can I tell you that there's some things that grace can do that money can never buy.

You can have all the money in the world and still have your family fall apart, but grace can fix the broken pieces of your life.

You can have all the money in the world and still not have any peace in your mind.

But come on, grace can give you a supernatural peace that passes all understanding.

Come on, we've seen this.

You can have all the money in the world, the ability to buy the best doctors and still can't get healing.

But there's something that happens when the grace of God shows up.

Come on.

And we stop working in our own strength, start trying to make it happen in our own way.

See, when the grace shows up, especially in abundance, it can fix things in our lives that money can never fix all by itself.

God is able to make all grace abound toward you so that you always, what does the word always mean?

Always.

Always mean always.

Little smart addict.

I walked into that, didn't I?

Always means all the time, right?

And I want you to see, he says he's able to make his grace abound toward you so that you always, that means no matter what season, no matter what time, that means no matter what the economy, that means no matter what the gas prices are, that means no matter what the interest rates are, come on.

You always having all sufficiency in all things may have abundance for every good work.

Come on, that's a lot of always right there.

A lot all the times.

What he's saying is there's not a crevice in your life where God cannot step in and take you from not enough to more than enough.

If you find yourself lonely, God can step in and fulfill the loneliness in your heart.

Let you be fulfilled with family and friends all around you.

I'm saying there's and I'm and I'm I'm declaring war on this not enough mentality.

It's not just a financial mentality.

Sometimes people think I've gotten too old, it'll never work for me.

Sometimes people think I missed my opportunity.

I wish I had known this years before.

God is trying to say, no matter where you are, in all circumstances, He's the God of all sufficiency.

He can make it work in all areas of your life, He can turn all things around.

But you got to be willing to believe that God is able to do what He said.

See, God doesn't want us to live in a space of barely enough.

He doesn't want us to live in a space of just enough.

Watch this.

But for some of us, here's the problem: not enough is all we've ever known.

Some of us, the way we've grown up and some of the disappointments and challenges we face, we all we've ever known is not enough.

So when we find ourselves in not enough, instead of turning and getting to know him as El Shaddai, guess what we do?

We turn on our hustle.

That's why I watch this.

And the devil, he he he specializes in getting you to turn on your hustle to fix your not enough.

Because he's not really concerned that you don't have enough.

He's concerned with how you get rid of your not enough.

See, because when you turn on your hustle to get rid of your not enough, and you get a second job, and you start picking up some extra hours.

Well, you you you put a dent in the not enough, but here's the problem.

Now you mess the marriage up.

Now you're missing the kids' games.

Why?

Because you turn on your own opportunity or way of thinking to fix whatever the problem is.

Listen to this.

Our not enough is the stage where God wants to reveal that He is more than enough.

So for the balance of this message, I want you to I want you to take a moment and think about that area in your life that's not enough.

Because that's the stage, that's the platform where God wants to show you that he's more than enough.

When you look at the story where this comes from over in Genesis chapter 17, God has showed up in the life of a man by the name of Abram.

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

At the time he was 75 years old.

He lived in a place called Haran, and God told him, Leave your homeland.

He says, Go to a land that I will show you.

He said, I will make your name great, I will multiply you exceedingly.

He said, I'll make a mighty nation come out of you.

Anybody that blesses you, I'll bless.

Anybody that curses you, I will curse them.

How many know if God's gonna bring a nation out of you?

You gotta start with a child.

So he's 75 when God makes his promise.

His wife is 65.

It's already a tough sale at 75 and 65.

But now when we get to chapter 17 of Genesis, it's now been 24 years, and he does not yet have that child of promise.

And God shows up to him, and this is what he says Genesis 17, verse 1.

Genesis 17:1

When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, Watch this, I am Almighty God.

I'm El Shaddai.

Walk before me and be blameless.

I'll make my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.

The man is 99 years old.

And God says, I think I need to introduce myself to you.

I need you to know who you're dealing with.

Let me introduce myself to you.

I am El Shaddai.

I'm the God.

That's what He's doing to you to He.

He's trying to introduce Himself to you as the God who doesn't have enough.

He's the God who is enough.

He said, I'm more than enough, and I'm ready to fix this situation you're dealing with.

Did you notice that God didn't show up to him when he was 25?

He didn't show up to him when he was 40, because you know, if he was 40, you could kind of assume, well, yeah, of course you can do this, God.

Even when he showed up to him at 75, he didn't immediately turn his situation around.

He waits till the man is 99 years old.

And then he steps in to his place of not enough.

I think there's something we can learn from that.

Listen to this.

El Shaddiah shows up at the end of you.

You say, I'm looking for El Shaddai.

Let me tell you, let me tell you how to find him.

He shows up at the end of you.

He said, I'm really, I'm really interested in getting to know this God who's more than enough.

Let me tell you where you will find him.

He shows up when you finally get to the end of you.

Can I tell you something that's going to make some of you shout and may hurt some of your feelings?

Some people struggle to ever meet El Shaddai because they never reach the end of their effort and their ability.

Every time God's ready to reveal himself and come in and shake your hand and introduce himself as a God who's more than enough, you call one more person to borrow some money.

Every time God's ready to step in and demonstrate to you he can fix that hole in your heart, that little loneliness, you pick up the phone and call somebody he told you too many times to stop dealing with.

Every time God's ready to step in and demonstrate I can make your world better than you could ever imagine, you allow that loneliness, that anxiety, that fear to make you reach out and grab something to fix it and band-aid the situation and end up right back in the land of not enough again because you wouldn't slow down enough to trust him.

I'm preaching better than you said, amen.

Romans 4 19, Abraham's faith did not weaken, even though at about 100 years old, he figured his body was as good as dead.

And so was Sarah's womb.

Abraham never wavered in believing God's promise.

In fact, his faith grew stronger.

And in this he brought glory to God.

He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises.

Notice the Bible says Abraham figured his body was dead, which means he didn't deny the facts, but he refused to let the facts outvote the promise.

Yeah, that's what the doctor said.

Yeah, that's what they told you.

But just because you got that report doesn't mean that's the final vote.

Amen.

I said, Amen.

Have you ever noticed?

Have you ever noticed this?

God seems to have a pattern of waiting until our human resources are exhausted.

So there's no question about who gets the credit for what happened.

My grandmother used to say this, God is never late, but he sure seems to be last minute.

Anybody else ever notice that?

I mean, we look back and say, Yeah, God is faithful.

He came through, but boy, it would have been a whole lot easier if it had been three weeks earlier.

You think about the story of Gideon in the Bible?

God tells Gideon that you're a mighty man of valor.

I'm gonna send you out to fight against the Midianites.

If you go back and read the story, I think there's like 135,000 Midianites, and he had 32,000 Israelites with him.

So, number one, you're already up against four to one odds.

But I think Gideon was like, well, well, we we we're 32,000, but we north side 32,000.

We can deal with 135.

And so God says to him, You got too many people with you.

What do you mean, too many?

It's 32,000 of us, 135,000 of them.

God says, You got too many people with you.

He says, Announce to everybody, if you are afraid and don't want to fight, you can go home.

I'm sure Gideon thought a handful of people would leave.

22,000 men left.

Yeah, yeah.

He then says, All right, no, no, no problem.

It's 10,000 of us.

We got rid of all the cowards.

We can still do this.

Then God says, No, you still got too many.

God, too many.

There's uno dos three.

Too many.

He says this.

He says, Tell your men to go down to the river to get some water.

He said, pay attention to how they drink their water.

He said, Everybody that puts their head down is not paying attention, send them home.

Everybody that laps their water like a dog, still paying attention.

What God is saying is you can trust them, they got your back.

I'm sure Gideon wanted to say, keep your head up, keep your head up.

9,700 of them put their head down.

Gideon is now left with 300.

God says, Yeah, now we're ready.

You remember the the widow woman at Zarephath that God sent the prophet Elijah after his brook dried up?

God sent him.

He said, I remember, he said, I have already commanded somebody to take care of you.

He sends them to this widow woman.

He meets her at this well, and it's a drought, so he says, Can you give me some water?

She goes to get the water.

While she's on her way, Elijah says, Hang on, bring me a cake too.

Bring me something to eat.

Then she turns around, watches.

Now she's going to get the water, but when he asks for a cake, she turns around and starts talking from her not enough.

Never mind, God already told her before he got there that she's supposed to sustain this guy when he shows up.

When he asks her for the cake, she turns around.

This is what she says.

I don't have enough for you and me.

All I have, this is not enough talk.

All I have is a little oil, a little meal to make one more cake so my son and I can eat our last cake and then we're gonna die.

That's how not enough sounds.

Nobody asks you how much you had.

God gave you an instruction of what to do.

This is what the prophet said.

He said, I hear what you said, but still make me a little cake first.

He said, Because here is the word of the Lord the oil and the meal will not run out until the drought is over.

Now she's got a choice now, right?

She got a choice.

She can either obey or she can stay stuck in that enough.

The Bible says she went and did.

There's power in went and did.

She went and did what the prophet said, and the Bible says the oil and the mill lasted for one whole year until the drought was gone.

How do you get from having enough oil and meal to make one last cake to enough oil and meal to last a whole year?

I can't explain it, but something happens when El Shaddai steps in.

Something happens when we stop trusting what we have and we put it into the hand of a multiplier.

Come on, say amen, somebody.

Have you ever noticed that when they came and told Jesus that his friend Lazarus was dead, he still waited a few more days before he went?

I mean, why didn't he just well, you know what most of us would have done?

We'd have got up, canceled everything, and took off.

For some reason, Jesus waited.

By the time he got there, Lazarus had been in the grave for four days.

He tells him to take away the stone.

This is what they said.

He stinks.

Some of your problems have been sitting there so long they stink.

But you gotta know that something happens when El Shaddai steps in.

It may feel like he's last minute, it may feel like because Martha showed up, she said, if you had been here, Lord.

That's what some of you feel, Lord.

If if you had to, couldn't you have stopped this before we got to this place?

I don't know all the details.

What I do know is if you take your issue, you're not enough, and put it into the hands of a multiplier, he can multiply you're not enough and turn it into more than enough.

Amen.

Come on, I said amen.

Listen to this, 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 9.

2 Corinthians 12:9

This is what you need to know.

My grace, God said, is sufficient for you.

I got enough grace to fix your situation.

For my strength is perfected in the middle of your weakness.

Did you get that?

God says, I got I have enough grace, I can fix this.

Don't worry about it.

I got a resume.

You gotta check it out.

I can fix this.

He said, but you gotta understand how it works.

My strength is perfected.

It works as best when it attacks your weakness.

Here's the problem.

Listen to this.

Pride and human dependence and our need to fix it often keeps us from bringing our weakness to God.

Some of you that have had to fend for yourself for so long, fix it for so long, come up with a solution for so long.

The reason you have not had a chance to shake hands and meet El Shaddai is because you never get to a place of weakness in order to finally bring it to him.

Now hear me out.

Weakness doesn't mean you gotta hit the bottom.

In fact, I believe that El Shaddai will step in even when you have a lot, if you realize my lot isn't supposed to be the solution.

See, we don't we don't have to get to rock bottom.

Sometimes we don't ever get to see him step in because we figure it out ourselves until we run out of all of our options.

Listen to this.

God is not intimidated by our shortage.

Our shortage is his favorite workspace.

I know a little something about this, man.

April and I have lived through this.

We've been married for 33 years, and it hasn't always been as good as it is right now.

It's good right now.

God has blessed us.

I mean, we literally are living a blessed life.

Our kids are getting a chance to step on our shoulders and go even higher.

But you hear me out.

You should never get jealous of somebody who's doing well unless you slow down and ask them, What did you do to get to where you are?

Think about God.

Watch this, God does have favors, but you can be one of his favorites too.

And see, when we started, we didn't start as blessed as we are today.

When we started off, we got married.

I was 23, she was 22, and we got married, we didn't have a lot of money.

In fact, my first paycheck, my first salary, when I started working for the church there in Detroit, I was making$22,000 a year.

We're getting married on$22,000 a year.

And we got car payments, we got an apartment, a rent payment, because I said we're not gonna live in your parents' basement.

So we if we if we're grown enough to get married, we're grown enough to have our own space.

Come on, say man, somebody.

She was still in school, so I gotta pay for her school tuition.

All of this on$22,000 a year.

To this day, I have no earthly idea how we got everything paid every single month.

It was so tight when we first got married that even from when when we when we got married, you know, I look on social media today and I see all these stories of people going on their honeymoon, they go in Hawaii.

I was like, ooh, that's nice.

I see somebody going on their honeymoon to the Maldives.

Ooh, that's nice.

I see somebody going to Rome.

And what's that place they go when the ladies be having that big old dress flowing?

And I'm like, man, we didn't go into those places.

We were living in Detroit.

We went to Orlando for our honeymoon.

And it'd be nice if we flew to Orlando and we just, you know, got off the plane and we were paid.

It was so tight for us that when we got married after the reception, we went home to her parents' house before we went to the hotel so we could open up our wedding gifts.

Now, let me tell you which ones we opened up.

We didn't touch the toasters.

We didn't open no coffee makers.

We took all the envelopes.

You know what I'm talking about.

Give me that envelope.

We was going through the envelopes, pulling the cash out of the envelopes.

Why?

We needed the cash to find our honeymoon leaving tomorrow.

Craziest thing when we went to the hotel and we woke up the next morning.

We should, we, they wasn't Ubers out back then, but we should have planned a taxi because her parents picked us up from the hotel.

And her two little brothers picked us up.

And her little brother's looking at me like, you dirty dog.

I know what you did to my sister.

I was like, Yeah, I did do that to your sister.

I wanted to say, take consolation, didn't last long, but I did do that to your sister.

You know what I'm talking about that first time, boy.

Act like you.

I'm like, hold me.

Things are changed today, though.

You better believe that.

They picked us up at the hotel, took us to the airport.

We fly to Orlando.

Let me tell you how, let me tell you how we funded our Orlando honeymoon.

Checked into our little hotel, and we went, we went for a little to get some meat, and we saw one of these little boots that had tickets.

So I'm going to buy I'm going to buy some tickets with the little money we have so we can go to the parks.

And they told me, you know, you know what?

You can get free tickets if you go to this little timeshare presentation.

I was like, what?

They said, yeah, you can get free breakfast, and we'll give you two tickets to go to Disney World, whatever park you want to go to.

So this is what we did every single morning, every morning we got up, went to a timeshare presentation.

Every day.

Went to a timeshare presentation, got cash, or got tickets to go to the park.

And I would walk in the door and I would tell them, look, I have no money.

I'm not buying anything.

No matter what you say, there's nothing you can say that's gonna make me buy, because I don't have any money.

I'm only here for the breakfast and the tickets.

True story, right?

I said, I'll save both of us some time.

Give me the short version so I can get to the park and you can move on to somebody that might actually buy something.

Now, I'm saying all this for you to understand, guess how we got to where we are right now?

Because at 22 and 23, it's been 33 years we've been married now.

There has never been a time where we did not honor God with our tithe.

And some of you look at us today, like you don't understand what we're going through.

I'm trying to tell you, even when we had very little money, we made a decision.

I made a decision as the head of our house.

Then I'm not gonna let the devil keep punking me out.

I'm not gonna let the devil cause us to be afraid to trust El Shaddai.

And so, guess what will happen?

We made sure before we paid rent, before we pay light bills, and I can't tell you what to do, but we honored God every step of the way.

And this is what I decided in my heart, Flacco.

I said, I would rather sit in the dark if I came down to it.

I'd rather sit in the dark than be afraid to trust God.

And I can tell you this, much like David said, I was young and I'm a little bit older, but I have never seen the righteous forsaken.

I have never had to beg seed for bread.

You know why?

Because God always comes through when I get to the point of my not enough.

God always shows up and demonstrates I know how to supply, I know how to provide, I know how to take care of you.

But you never get to know him as El Shaddai.

If you keep trying to be El Shemami.

Here's the second thing you gotta understand: not enough thinking is what produces the Ishmaels in life.

You say, What does that mean?

Well, when Abram was 99, God showed up and told him I male Shaddai, but he first promised him a child at 75.

Eleven years go by and nothing has happened.

His wife comes up with a great idea.

Chapter 16, verse 2.

Sarah said to Abram, See, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children.

She says, Why don't you go into my maid and perhaps I will obtain children by her?

And Abram heeded the voice of Sarah.

So Sarah determined God hasn't given us enough, so maybe we need to make it happen ourselves.

She comes up with this amazing idea.

Why don't you go in and have sex with my Egyptian handmaid, this young girl, until she has a baby.

And you would have thought Abram said, You foolish woman.

How dare you tempt the man of God?

Abraham said, You say what?

Say that one more time.

And as a result, the child that is born, they named him Ishmael.

Now, watch Ishmael wasn't a problem.

God did not curse Ishmael.

In fact, God blessed Ishmael.

But watch this, Ishmael was never the promised child.

Listen to this.

The not enough mentality always pushes us towards striving instead of trusting.

Now I can hear somebody saying, I would never have a kid in that way.

But here's this you may not have a kid named Ishmael.

Let me tell you what some of the modern day Ishmaels in our lives look like.

Is when we end up going into debt trying to keep up appearances.

Come on, elbow that person next to you and say, that was real awkward when you got quiet.

Here's another one.

We start compromising our integrity just to close that deal.

That's right.

Here's a good one right here.

Watch this.

When we stay in the wrong relationship, because our mind tells us this might be the best I can get.

Come on.

I thought a couple ladies would have said, Amen.

Praise the Lord.

Ouch or something.

We end up staying.

You know the Lord has been telling you to let go of that relationship?

You know God has been telling us not my best.

You know God has been telling us not who I sent.

Yet the fear of what if I don't get anybody else?

What if nobody else will understand my story?

What if nobody else will be willing to, and see the fear, see, because right now, if God sent you that man you've been praying for, you let the Joker you've been messing with go in a heartbeat.

What we want to do is hang on to this one until that one shows up.

Let me announce to you, God is not a playa.

So He won't send you the new one.

Come on, He won't send you the new one while you're still messing around with the wrong one.

You gotta be willing to cut that completely loose and get Al Shaddai's space to bring you what he promised you.

Amen.

I said, Amen.

Listen to this.

Whatever we build out of fear, we have to maintain it with fear.

See, God didn't have a problem, but God didn't have a problem with us using medical science.

He didn't have a problem with you having a surgery, he didn't have a problem with you going through infertility, especially.

Nothing wrong with that.

He didn't have a problem with you using weight loss meds or something else if you need to.

What he's got a problem is when you trust dad and don't trust him.

If you're gonna go on those routes, watch.

We gotta pray until we know we have peace from God.

Because when we have peace from God, they may do the work, but we're putting our trust in the one who does it.

Amen.

Here's another thing you gotta understand.

Enough is a person before it ever becomes a provision.

In Genesis 17, God didn't show up to Abram and say, I will give you enough.

He said, I am enough.

I am El Shaddai.

I am the one who's enough, more than enough.

Before God ever shows us his provision, he wants to first show us that he is our provider.

That's why I love Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need because he's with me.

Hebrews 13, let your conduct be without covetousness.

Be content with what you have.

Why?

Because he himself has said, I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you.

He said, Be content because God is with you.

See, our contentment is not supposed to be grounded in what we have, but in who we have.

Remember the story of the children of Israel when they've been in Egyptian bondage and God getting ready to deliver them.

He's using Moses to deliver them.

But before they leave, he tells them to go and borrow jewels of gold, jewels of silver, fine linen from the Egyptians.

The Bible says they spoiled, they really took stuff from the Egyptians.

And I want you to get this picture because they've been slaves for over 400 years, but when they leave Egypt, they are rich.

They have enough stuff, they are rich.

But here it is they're rich, and he leads them into a wilderness where they have no place to spend all their money.

They're rich, but he leads them into a wilderness where they can't hire an army to protect them.

So when the Amalekites attack them, God has to demonstrate to them, even with your money, I'm El Shaddai.

I'm the one that'll take care of you.

They got all this money and they're out here in the wilderness and they're about to die from thirst.

They can't find any water.

But they got a bunch of money.

God wants them to know the money is not it, I'm it.

So what does he do?

He shows them, I can give you water out of her.

I got water coming from all kinds of places.

Are you with me?

They're out here in the middle of the, see, some people think if I just get money, God doesn't need you to get more money before you get more trust.

They're out here in the middle of the wilderness.

They got all this money, but they can't find a grocery store.

They can't find anywhere to buy food.

They're starving.

So guess what God says?

He says, I want to demonstrate to you that even with your money, I'm your source.

He says, I'm gonna give you food every day.

Something called manna.

He says, I'm gonna cause manna to rain out of heaven every day.

He says, I want you to get up out of your house every morning, go out and pick enough manna off the ground.

But this is what he says: pick up enough just for you to eat and your family for today.

What is he trying to teach them?

He's trying to teach them this.

Give us, Lord, our daily bread.

I trust you, Lord, for provision every single day.

So he says, just gather enough for today.

But you know how people are.

Ain't nobody looking, somebody putting a little extra mana.

Big mama put a little extra mana in.

Because they're thinking we're gonna store up a little extra just in case he doesn't give us any tomorrow.

But what they found out is everything they kept over what they needed.

When they woke up the next day, it had worms in it.

Why?

God was trying to teach them, even when you have a lot, I am still your provider.

Watch this, Philippians 4 verse 11 says, Not that I was ever in need, Paul said, for I have learned.

Philippians 4:11

Somebody shall learn.

Come on, shall I learn?

Paul said, I have learned how to be what?

Come on, I have learned how to be what?

Content with whatever I have.

Paul said, I know how to live on almost nothing, but I also know how to live when I'm paid.

I got everything.

I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or an empty stomach, whether it's with plenty or with a little, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

You know what he's saying?

Paul said, this is something you gotta learn.

Contentment is not something that we automatically have.

Now, let me clarify the difference.

Contentment and being satisfied are not the same thing.

It's okay to still have dreams, it's okay to still have aspirations, it's okay to still want more.

Let me tell you what happens when we get content.

When we're content, that means that your peace is not being held hostage by your possessions.

I don't have to wait till I get married to finally be at peace.

I don't have to wait till I finally get out of debt to finally have peace.

I don't have to wait till I get a house or a car as nice as my sisters before I finally feel like I have made it.

My peace is not being held hostage by my possessions.

This is the last one I want you to grab hold right here.

When you know that God is enough, it makes you walk differently.

Walk differently.

Remember, he said, I am El Shaddai, walk before me and be blameless.

And then he tells him to do something that's really kind of odd.

He tells him at 99 years of age, I want you to change your name.

He's been known as Abram.

We always call him Abraham, but his name was Abram until he was 99 years old.

Abram means high or exalted father.

Abraham means father of a great multitude.

I want you to get this.

This man is 99 years old.

And God tells him, Won't you change your name?

Why does he tell him to change his name?

Because God needs him to put the words in his own mouth to say what God is saying.

Every time he said, I am Abraham, he was introducing himself as a father of a big multitude.

Every time his wife called him, Abraham, dinner's ready.

She was saying, Father of a great multitude, come get your food.

Can you imagine the ridicule he probably got from the people around him?

He's 99 years old and he's calling himself, he's got one kid.

He's calling himself the father of a multitude.

You can hear the people snickering, ha ha ha.

There's that crazy man thinking he's gonna have a lot of kids at 99.

Here's the thing about God God knows how to make all the people that laughed at you stop laughing when he turns around and does exactly what he said he was gonna do.

Here's a question I have for you, though.

What have you been calling yourself?

It doesn't matter what I call you, but what have you been calling yourself?

At the brunch with the ladies on Friday, we we told a story about Naomi.

And Naomi had been away from Israel for a while, and while she was away, she lost her husband and lost both of her sons.

Difficult circumstances.

She comes back to Israel, and when she gets back to Israel, everybody comes out to greet her.

Hey Naomi, we missed you.

Where have you been?

Hey Naomi.

This is what she says: don't call me Naomi anymore.

She says, Call me Mara.

You say, Why does she change her name?

Well, the name Naomi means pleasant one.

The name Mara means bitter one.

So what she's saying is, don't call me pleasant anymore.

Call me bitter.

Why?

Because of what I've been through.

What have you been calling yourself?

You've been calling yourself lonely.

You've been calling yourself too old to get married.

You've been listening to all the statistics or the latest podcasts.

They're telling you the odds of you get married at your age.

What have you been calling yourself?

I'm saying if you're going to see the goodness of God like He wants you, you're gonna have to put His word in your mouth.

Stop looking at what it is right now, and start declaring out of your mouth what God has said about you.

Isn't this two weeks in a row that God has said you gotta get those words together?

And I want you to understand something.

The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 43, this is what God is.

Isaiah 43 · chapter mention

God is the God who can do a new thing.

He said, I'll make a road in the wilderness and I'll make rivers in your desert.

You know what it means to have rivers in the desert?

Rivers in the desert means God can take your situation from as bad as it could ever be and make it as good as it could possibly get, suddenly.

And I'm here to declare, Brad.

I'm here to declare, I believe God's getting ready to do something suddenly in your life.

In fact, I'm gonna ask you to lift up both hands.

I want to prophesy over you in the name of Jesus.

I declare that there's a sudden move of God getting ready to hit your house, getting ready to hit your family, getting ready to hit your business.

I declare every lie that the devil has spoken over your house, it is broken by the authority of Jesus Christ.

I declare, declare, there's no devil in hell that has power and authority over what God has said, but instead there's a grace from God that is gonna cause it to happen God's way in a supernatural way with supernatural timing and supernatural results, and I declare it's gonna happen suddenly.

I declare you look up and you thought it was gonna take years, but God's gonna make it happen in days, in weeks, in moments, because God's anointing, God's power, God's grace is resting on your situation.

So receive it now in the name of Jesus.

Now come on, give God a shout.

Come on, give him a shout.

Come on, give him a shout.

Come on, give him a shop.

Come on, everybody stop, everybody try.

Do me a favor in this atmosphere, be seated for a second.

I'm asking nobody to be leaving.

This is the most important part of the service.

Because you see, we just heard a message that God is more than enough.

And if you don't know Jesus, it's hard to fathom that because you've been working so hard.

And as much as you work, deep down, you're like, I know I haven't done enough.

And you're gonna try to work your whole life to please God.

But the truth is we were never enough.

We'll never bring enough.

We never have enough.

And if you ever read the Old Testament or her stories, every year we brought sacrifices for our sin, but it was never enough.

It just kind of held off the moment.

But God so loved us that He didn't just give us enough.

In Jesus, we get more than enough.

So no matter how much you think you've done, or no matter how much you think you can't do, Jesus is more than enough.

And so if you're in the room today, amen, you can put your hand together for that.

He is more than enough.

So the Bible said that God so loved the world that he gave us more than enough in his son.

And today, if you don't know Jesus, I want to give you the opportunity to get to know him.

We're not gonna ask you to stand up, we're not gonna take you in another room, we're not gonna make a spectacle because it's between you and God.

But today you can find out that he is more than enough.

So in a second, I'll ask everybody to bow their heads.

And if you want to have that relationship with Jesus so that all the other stuff we talked about today begins to make more sense, I'm gonna pray with you.

I'll ask everybody to bow their heads.

And when what when I do, in the seat pocket in front of you is something called a say us to Jesus card.

It looks just like this.

You can grab one out of the pocket, or if you're on the front row and need one, you slip your hand up.

The usher gonna put it in your hand.

I'll count to three and I'll ask you to raise that card.

Even if you're in an overflow room, same thing there.

If you're online, follow the directions when we get ready to pray, say, pray for me, that's me.

But all I want to do is know who I'm praying for.

We'll ask you to slip that up, and then we'll have a moment just for you to pray to Jesus and receive more than enough.

So right now, everybody bow their heads in the room.

Everybody bow your heads, close your eyes.

And if that's you, I want you to reach in that C pocket, grab that card in an account of three.

I'll ask you to just slip it up so I can see it so I know who I'm praying for.

Again, if you're in the overflow, same instructions.

If you're online, just do what the online instructions say.

But this is your day to know the God of more than enough.

One, two, three.

Who am I praying for?

Thank you.

Wow, wow, wow, wow, thank you.

Wow, wow, all across the room, thank you.

I see you way in the back.

Thank you.

To my right here, thank you.

Who else?

Who else?

In the overflow, let us know.

Who else?

Just slip it up.

Thank you.

Why I see you way back there.

Young people, wow, thank you.

Who else?

Thank you, thank you.

While everybody's head is bowed, and you're you're this is your moment, we're all gonna pray together.

I want you to say, Dear God, thank you for being more than enough.

Thank you for sending your son to make up the difference where I fall short.

Jesus, you are more than enough.

So I'm asking you to save me, heal me, make me brand new, according to the Bible, according to the belief in my heart, and the confession of my mouth, I am right now born again.

Amen.

Can we put our hands together?

Did you just make a decision for Jesus?

Welcome to the family.

We're so excited.

Trust me, we're clapping for you, and we believe that you've made an important decision today.

We'd like to help you on your journey.

So if you'll follow the directions that are on screen, there is a free book you can download.

It's gonna take you five to ten minutes of your day for the next seven days.

But our pastors have put together some amazing resources that we believe will help you in the journey ahead.

If you don't want it, nobody's going to email you, text you, bother you, anything like that.

We just want to make sure you are successful in your walk with Jesus.

Now, let me tell you, one of the things you should consider is baptism.

And if you're in the Jacksonville area, we do baptism after our uh first weekend service every month, and you can just scan the QR code that's on the screen, sign up for that.

I'd love to be a part of that journey with you, um, or any of our ministers would.

If you don't live in town, we do believe you should find a Bible teaching church and at least go get baptized, even if you're still gonna watch our service.

But download that book, it's free.

We're excited for your journey ahead, and we can't wait to be a part of that.

Now, this is a part of the service where we also demonstrate our generosity.

If you're just checking us out today, you don't feel any pressure to give.

But for those of you, this is your church, you know that we are generous is one of our core values, and so you can give online or you can give through our app, which I really like.

You have the Apple Pay option right on our app.

Just go to your Google store or your Apple store, download the We Are Impact app.

It's also a great way to study notes that um come from the sermons that you watch on here, and there's a lot of events on there as well.

But you can give through that app, it's super easy, and we're just grateful that you partner with us week after week.

Well, we're so excited you joined us today.

Hope you have an amazing weekend, and we'll see you next time.