Strange Tales Part 2 I Pastor Robert Gay

[SPEAKER_00]: High-braze podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, this is Pastor Josh.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll leave Pastor here at High-braze and I want to thank you for downloading today's podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know that this message is going to encourage and bless you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to open up your heart and receive with the Lord as for you today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go ahead and turn your bambles of second Kings chapter six, second Kings chapter six.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's so good to be in the house of a Lord today.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's so good to be home.

[SPEAKER_01]: As many of you know, we have been out a lot over the last two months.

[SPEAKER_01]: In August and September, we actually missed a total of five Sundays.

[SPEAKER_01]: We were not at home playing hooky or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But four times, I was in Crestview.

[SPEAKER_01]: He had response twice.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've preached.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the other two times, I actually shared.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I was in Ocala, two Sundays to go at now church and ministered in their three Sunday morning services.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know, maybe the Lord's just getting us prepared for what may be coming here at high praise.

[SPEAKER_01]: But nonetheless, I had a wonderful time I've been wonderful times of ministry.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for your faith, for this thank you for praying for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: One of the things that everybody has to understand is that we are not just a local church, although we are a local church.

[SPEAKER_01]: Understand, we are an also an apostolic sending center.

[SPEAKER_01]: It means a place where we send out.

[SPEAKER_01]: So ministries that we raise up, we just don't hold, but we also send them out to minister and other places.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the Lord has opened some tremendous doors, and we've had an opportunity to minister quite a bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there are other places that we go on a regular basis to minister.

[SPEAKER_01]: So thank you so much for praying for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just said quick report because last week, they did the building dedication over and crests view.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I know that we had some of our the OGs original folks that had been here for a long time that went over there and was a part of that service and it's wonderful to see what God is doing in Crestory.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now the reason that I mentioned it is this is because everyone here has been laboring in prayer.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we have now seen the answer to our prayers, and we have seen a miracle come forth, and we have seen God do great mighty things, and so we just continue to bless them, continue to pray for them that God will continue to increase.

[SPEAKER_01]: They went back to one service, and right now they are packed out, totally.

[SPEAKER_01]: I told Pastor Mike, I said, listen, you're going to have to go to two services because you don't have any growing room right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're parking lots, full, everything's full, and so, but it's probably good because if he's still in a recovery mode, but he's doing great.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for praying for him also.

[SPEAKER_01]: And second King's chapter six, verse one, in the sons of the prophet sent to Elijah, see now the place where we dwell with you is too small for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: and let every man take a being from there and let us make their a place where we shall be, we may dwell, so he answered, go.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the one said, please consent to go with your servants and he answered, I will go.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he went with them and when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees.

[SPEAKER_01]: But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron axe had fell into the water and he cried out and said, a last master for it was borrowed.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the man of God said, where did it fall?

[SPEAKER_01]: And he showed him the place.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he cut off a stick and threw it in there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he made the iron float.

[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore he said, pick it up for yourself so he reached out his hand and he took it.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is a very fascinating account that we read within the Bible as I think most of us know that throwing a stick in the water will not actually calls anything that is metal to come to the surface.

[SPEAKER_01]: However, we see a miraculous event occur all because of obedience to the Word of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about you, but there's been times that things have happened within my life that the Lord spoke to me, things that I needed to do to get out of the mess, and sometimes it just doesn't make sense.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have the Lord tell you something that it just doesn't make sense in the natural why would I do that?

[SPEAKER_01]: But on the other side of the act of obedience and your faith being extended, there was a breakthrough, there was a miracle.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want everybody to hear this today that I believe that God is calling each and every one of us to throw our stick into the water, and God's going to cause the axe head to float.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are some impossible situations that you might be facing right now today.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I declare to you by the spirit of the Lord that the axe head is going to float in your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that which seems to have been lost and that which seems to have been broken.

[SPEAKER_01]: I take we have a God who will restore, he will fix, he will repair, he will put the broken pieces back together, and it will be better than what it ever was before.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Chuck and Debbie, I just heard the Lord say, I'm going to put things back together for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the Lord says, I'm going to call the broken place to be restored.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to call as even as it were, I see like a bridge and it's almost like the bridge.

[SPEAKER_01]: collapse, but the Lord says, I'm going to call the rebuilding of the bridge, and it's going to come forth in a hasty, and in a quick manner, says the Spirit of the Lord, and God says, I've heard your petition, I've heard your cry, and God says, I'm going to show up and do what nobody could do, what man couldn't do, and what you couldn't figure out on your own.

[SPEAKER_01]: For the Lord says faithfulness and the small things will cause even the Lord's ship if over much says the Lord and I'm going to bring much into your hands and God says suddenly the breakthrough, suddenly the breaking of the water, the breaking of the dam says the Spirit of the Lord, it's a little leak right now, but God says it's soon to break and you're going to get into overflow stage says the Spirit of God, I'm going to do something mighty and you're going to step back and say, Oh, has the Lord done great

[SPEAKER_01]: things.

[SPEAKER_01]: And God says, I will do great things.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm setting the lead.

[SPEAKER_01]: I see legal issues.

[SPEAKER_01]: God says, I'm settling the legal issues.

[SPEAKER_01]: And God says, I'm going to remove it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to take care of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what seems to be an insurmountable mounted.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord says, speak to it for surely it will be removed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Says the spirit of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can everybody give God praise today?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what, but just so everybody knows, I don't know what's going on with Chuck and Debbie, and we've just been a while since we've had a meal together.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need to have a meal together real quick.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're on by me, praise on a minute or the last.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, I'm just kidding, but anyway, but you know,

[SPEAKER_01]: I want everybody to say, we are a prophetic church.

[SPEAKER_01]: We believe the Holy Spirit is still speaking today.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many of you have lived God still speaking today?

[SPEAKER_01]: How many believe what Pastor Joshua, when he got up and gave that word about miracles?

[SPEAKER_01]: As a matter of fact, I believe the Lord is even saying, it's going to be below your mind miracles that's going to happen in your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Below your mind miracles, till somebody blow your mind miracle.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't know what a blow your mind miracle is, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's one of those things that doesn't make sense.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't understand how the world it could have happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, I've seen God do it in our life before.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, the God who did it then will do it again.

[SPEAKER_01]: If He did it then, He'll do it again.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if He did it for them, then He'll do it for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: So when we read the story, it's really fascinating.

[SPEAKER_01]: But one of the things that we see that there are times within our lives, whenever we can be doing everything right, but yet something wrong happens.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can be doing everything that God has told us to do when you read, recount the story what you find is that the school of the prophets was growing and they needed more space and needed more room and a man had a good idea, he had a good intention, he said, we need to build a larger place and we're going to go over here by the Jordan.

[SPEAKER_01]: They asked, they went to the man of God and said, can we do this?

[SPEAKER_01]: He said, you go for it, he's in this blessing.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is a good thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at somebody say, this was a good thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes in the middle of a good thing, something bad can even happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as anybody ever been in the middle of doing something good, whenever the unexpected happened within your life, we've all probably traveled there and all, and please understand that we're not wanting to magnify anything that has happened in your life or are trying to focus on it, but we almost realize that we live in a fallen world.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: We live, look at somebody, say, this world is falling at it, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And whenever Adam's send and and Eve's send, what happened is man fell in the whole world went into a cataclysmic shift.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we live in a fallen world and it's matter of fact God said now you're going to have thorns, you're going to have thorns, they're going to be briars, there's going to be all these other things that you're going to have to contend with now at them all because of your sin and because of that we have to contend with things.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know there's sometimes things happen within our lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not even the devil.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just living in a fallen world.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right, not long ago, I was doing to pick up a pair of shoes and I got the pair of shoes in my hand and then I turned and we have this a Shaze top loungeer that's in our master bedroom.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when I turned to go, because it was right there, the Shaze is right there and I turned and I don't know if anybody else has ever really stumped your toe.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I heard it crack, sound like gunfire, you know.

[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, you find out what's on the inside of you when something like that happens.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So you know how to lose your shit, come on, I love my car.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, how to lose you.

[SPEAKER_01]: When the squeeze is on, you find out what's on the inside of you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And anyway, make a long story short.

[SPEAKER_01]: My toe, I knew I broke it, I just knew.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it turned blue all the way from the top, all the way down, right in my middle toe at that.

[SPEAKER_01]: That couldn't be as hard to put on a pair of shoes.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to walk.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm usually out walking my wife, but she was always out walking me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I said, slow down.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, of course, finally healed.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, occasionally I'm getting a little bit spin about a month ago that it happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was going somewhere, oh, I know what I'm saying.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I was doing something good.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was picking up a pair of shoes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to do a lady's will say that that's a good thing for a husband to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: She said, oh, I have five pairs of shoes while just laying around the house all the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I was doing something good.

[SPEAKER_01]: And while doing something good, something really painful happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so the reason I leave them like around the house.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I'm gonna say, said, that wasn't the devil causing that, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't God doing it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just the fact that we live in a world where your bones can break.

[SPEAKER_01]: We live in a world where accidents happen and they can't happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes you can even be doing something really good.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can be doing something godly.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can be on a godly mission.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then still something happens.

[SPEAKER_01]: But don't you hear this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever happened to you and whatever you may have lost.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or whatever pain you may have encountered.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's this.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is not the end of your story.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, tell somebody, it's not the end of your story.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, tell five people, it's not the end of your story.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tell somebody your pain, it's not the end of your story.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people when they experience hurt, what they want to do is camp out right there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they put up a tent, not only do they put up a tent, they put up a monument, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't build just a small monument either.

[SPEAKER_01]: They want one that extends to the sky that everybody can see.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like if you get poked in the eye.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you extend this monument, this hurt, this pain that you experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've got some good messages out of that, praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: I forgive this, I know, praise the Lord and I did a long time ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the reality, some of you don't know what in the world I'm talking about, but it's okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: But nonetheless, you know, there's this, we build these monuments to the sky all because of the pain that we experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: All because of what happened to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we, in not all of our friends over, and we have the pity party around the monument, a pain that we have.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want you to hear this, I believe that God wants to plight replace your monument, a pain with a monument of the testimony that the Lord has done great things.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe he wants to replace your monument of hurt with a monument that declares the glory of God and how that God can turn around in any situation.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he can turn around what was, you know, may have been a bad situation and a painful situation, but he can turn it around.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he can cause even good to come out of it, amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the reality is whenever Pastor Micah, I'll just refer to this because I believe it's very relevant, even to this message.

[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, you know about what four months ago, three or four months ago, we purchased the facility that they are now in and are having services, but it needed some repairs, it needed some work, it needed some TLC, it needed some attention.

[SPEAKER_01]: And even though I told my son, yes, I told him,

[SPEAKER_01]: I told him, don't get up in the high places.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus said, low, I am with you always, even to the ends of the earth.

[SPEAKER_01]: So don't get up in the attic, don't get up in a lift, don't get up on a ladder.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he's very similar to his mother.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to let her get the microphone and come up here now so she can say whatever she wants to say.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's actually, he's actually very similar to both of us.

[SPEAKER_01]: I hope everybody understands I love my wife and we kid around with each other and by the way, you ought to be able to do that without getting super offended.

[SPEAKER_01]: Love is not easily offended.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll just go and preach on that right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you get easily offended because somebody kids around with the recess, something to you that shows that you're not really walking in love.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't need to be touchy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Love's not touchy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, she kids with me sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's all good.

[SPEAKER_01]: We laugh.

[SPEAKER_01]: Have a good time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, anyway, enough about that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the reality is I told him, I said, don't get up in the attic, don't do anything like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't get up on ladders, don't get up in the lift.

[SPEAKER_01]: But of course, you know, that's dad.

[SPEAKER_01]: And like most grown children, they don't want to listen to their parents.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not saying anything bad about Pastor Mako, but everybody understands.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were just to need.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he didn't have anybody else at the moment in time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, I'm going to do it myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, that's very similar to his parents.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what he's seen in his parents, because there's been times when the church where there was a knee.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we didn't have anybody else to do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know who's gonna do it?

[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna step in and do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's on a bad trade.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a good trade.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so he's in the middle of doing something good.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's putting in insulation in the nursery facility that is there, the preschool facility, and they also use as a daycare.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so he's only a good mission.

[SPEAKER_01]: And at the same time, it probably wasn't a wise mission, but it was a good mission.

[SPEAKER_01]: And while he's in the middle of doing something good, something bad happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: While he was doing something good, is anybody ever had anything like that happened?

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you were outside doing something good in something bad happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you were doing, you know, whatever it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: And or, you know, somebody got mad at you for doing something good.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've all had those times.

[SPEAKER_01]: Of course you know the story felt 15 foot out of the ceiling, fractured his skull, and it was not a good situation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amber was over there, Kyle was over there, and Amber was saw him immediately after the fall.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when we talked to her on the phone, and she was saying that this is really bad.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is really bad.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amber, I'm going to tell you, you were really frightening to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was not one word of faith coming out of her mouth, whatsoever.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pad is awful.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm at, you know, and I have to tell you, that was the most frightened I've ever been in my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Amber.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the most frightened I've ever been in my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't have children, you know what?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whenever there's blood, Kyle was saying

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going, you are the most negative.

[SPEAKER_01]: People I've ever...

[SPEAKER_01]: They were just trying to give us a play by play.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can laugh about it now.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't funny at that time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we were very, it was very, very concerning.

[SPEAKER_01]: And ended up he had fluid coming out of his ears from because he had fractured his skull and there was cranium, spinal, some kind of fluid that was coming.

[SPEAKER_01]: cerebral spinal fluid, it's coming out of his ears, it's not good, it's bad, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: The ax head had fallen into the water while doing something good, something bad happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: While doing something noble, something bad happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you know what?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, but God.

[SPEAKER_01]: if you throw your stick into the water.

[SPEAKER_01]: And at that moment in time, Pastor Joshua and I, we didn't plan for this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua, Pastor Joshua and I, we were both at Pastor Stacey Shea had actually taken some of our grandkids that we had, as a matter of fact, we had Pastor Mark and Josie's kids at that time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she had taken them there to the pool.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I just went down there to check on them, and I think Pastor Joshua brought there to youngest children there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And at that moment in time is when we'll get the call.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so the only thing we could need to do, pastor say, say, go, go, go.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember us getting in the car and pastor Joshua could tell you all about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whenever we big, I didn't say, I didn't say, oh God, it's over.

[SPEAKER_01]: I did say, I told him not to do this, but in the name of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: I said, but in the name of Jesus, can I tell you even sometimes whenever your kid he may do something that ain't the smartest thing in the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: But how many know we have a God that knows how to intervene in the situation?

[SPEAKER_01]: How many know we have a God that can take care of it and can turn things around?

[SPEAKER_01]: But you've got to throw your stick into the water, and we begin to pray in the name of Jesus, and he can tell you, Pastor Josh went to ask, pray this fear.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, kind of the little Koshutta, in the name of Jesus, I speak life.

[SPEAKER_01]: You will live and not die.

[SPEAKER_01]: You will fulfill the will of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: You will fulfill the purposes of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: In the name of Jesus, see at that time,

[SPEAKER_01]: I was being attacked with fear.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, all sorts of fear was attacking my mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was, again, as I said, it was probably the most frightening time I'd ever had in my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: The only other time it was even close, probably would be with Josiah, but it seemed like whenever that happened faith immediately began to rise, and I was fighting off fear.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're never been there where you were fighting all fear, and everything within you is wanting to fear, everything within you is wanting to cry, and not so much cry out to God, so not just cry in sorrow of what's taken place, but I'm here to tell you if you'll turn your cry of sorrow into a cry where you're seeking the Lord, God will turn your situation around, God will turn it around.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you'll just throw your stick into the water, I'll let you go.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know the rest of the story.

[SPEAKER_01]: Last three Sundays, this is the fourth Sunday straight that he will preach in his pulpit.

[SPEAKER_01]: The doctor told him said, you are a walking miracle because you should either be dead or paralyzed from the fall that you actually experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many of you know there is such a thing as the angel of the Lord who encamps round about those who fear him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he will deliver us, hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: God brought deliverance.

[SPEAKER_01]: God's healed him, and he's still healing him.

[SPEAKER_01]: So in this story, they're right in the middle of doing something good when something bad happens.

[SPEAKER_01]: While they were obeying the word given to them, life happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tell somebody stuff happened sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that's what Jesus said in the world, you'll have what, tribulation, but what?

[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody say, be of good cheer.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at somebody say, get a put a smile on your face.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, even the midst of the pain, you've got to put your, that, see, you're not faking it, you're faking it.

[SPEAKER_01]: In the midst of the pain, if you put a smile on your face, you're not faking it, you're faking it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because that's why Jesus is in the world, you'll have tribulation, but, but what?

[SPEAKER_01]: Be of good cheer, go ahead and get happy anyway.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't let the sadness and the sorrow overtake you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go ahead and get your dance on.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go ahead and lift your hands in worship.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go ahead and begin to rejoice in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Regardless of what you might see at the moment in time, amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying that it's easy because a lot of times it's just not.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of times, everything within you will be crying out something different, but you have to make a choice to rejoice.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to make a choice to worship Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to make a choice to raise up the sacrifice of praise.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Bible says that Jonah offered the voice.

[SPEAKER_01]: He lifted up the voice of thanksgiving while he was in the belly of the well.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think about that.

[SPEAKER_01]: It didn't have too much to be thankful for at that moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: But yet Jonah began to praise and worship the Lord, even while he was in the belly of the well.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the next verse says this, and God spoke to the fish and it vomited out on dry ground.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's some of you going to get vomited out on dry ground.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you'll just start getting your praise on, rather than you're whining on, rather than your sorrow on.

[SPEAKER_01]: rather than your gloom despair and agony on me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I won't sing this song this morning, but you've got to get rid of that song and you've got to begin to put on a song a praise.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: You'll get anything out of this.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, obeying God and doing what it's right doesn't exist us from living in a world that where things break, accidents occur,

[SPEAKER_01]: Losses many times take place, but the good news is we serve a God of restoration.

[SPEAKER_01]: Notice what the man who lost the accent said, a last master.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was borrowed.

[SPEAKER_01]: A last is an expression of grief or disappointment.

[SPEAKER_01]: Point, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was very disappointed.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was very upset.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was grieved in the fact that he had lost something, that he was responsible for, that had been borrowed from somebody else.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's an unpleasant situation.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the reality of life.

[SPEAKER_01]: The fact is this and you might want to write it down.

[SPEAKER_01]: Life can throw us some curved balls.

[SPEAKER_01]: You ever had life throw you a curb ball?

[SPEAKER_01]: You weren't expecting it, and all of a sudden, whoo, here it comes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know some of your stories.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know Garrett's story, life threw him a curb ball.

[SPEAKER_01]: But how many of you know God knew that it was coming before?

[SPEAKER_01]: It ever got thrown.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now the end of the thing is better than what it was in the beginning.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Life can throw you some curb balls.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, understand this, just because life throws you a curve ball here, this, it doesn't mean you're being disobedient.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't mean either doesn't necessarily mean the devil's attacking, it just means many times.

[SPEAKER_01]: We live in a fallen world.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of times I find Christians are rebuking the devil for the things that the devil didn't have anything to do with the start-out with.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, now there is a real devil.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are real demons, and we have to address those things, but not everything that happens to you that is unpleasant is a devil behind it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Again, sometimes it's just products of life and living in a fallen world.

[SPEAKER_01]: So life throws us some curveballs sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: As the man was cutting down the tree, the iron axe had flew off the handle.

[SPEAKER_01]: It sank into the Jordan, the added weight was the fact that the axe head was borrowed.

[SPEAKER_01]: This axe was borrowed from another man.

[SPEAKER_01]: This wasn't nearly a small inconvenience at the moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: It carried dead, it carried embarrassment, and also calls the complete halt to the work that needed to be done.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what?

[SPEAKER_01]: There was things that had to be adjusted.

[SPEAKER_01]: And for a day or two, there was no work that was being done.

[SPEAKER_01]: It calls a hall.

[SPEAKER_01]: It calls a slowdown.

[SPEAKER_01]: It calls a rescheduling of things.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we've all been through those things.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, in those moments of times, don't you hear this?

[SPEAKER_01]: The greatest temptation that you will face is the temptation to quit.

[SPEAKER_01]: The easiest response to sudden setbacks is to quit, to pack up your tools and walk away.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you ever been there, you know, I can remember many, many years ago, Stacy and I, we went through a very painful experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: We had left one church and

[SPEAKER_01]: We were planning on being in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and then we turned around.

[SPEAKER_01]: We came back to Panama City.

[SPEAKER_01]: We were kind of in a period of transition.

[SPEAKER_01]: Didn't know what we were going to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then we went and tried out for a very large church down in the Orlando area.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there was a bad recommendation that had come.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I won't go into the full details of all of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But basically it was just things that were not even true that would have been said about us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody, listen if you're in ministry, you know, give it less than five years and you will have some things said.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because I will tell you unfortunately sometimes not only do people live but sometimes Christians lie.

[SPEAKER_01]: Did you know that?

[SPEAKER_01]: And people were lie in order to justify where they want to be, they're reaction and what they want to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what they do is make up fabricate stories.

[SPEAKER_01]: And later on, by the way, the person that lied, he apologized, it made it to it and said he was sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: But at the moment in time, when we were walking through this, it was painful.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was very hurtful.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because we knew this is not even true.

[SPEAKER_01]: What he said to this individual, what said to the pastor there that we were,

[SPEAKER_01]: However, and at that moment in time, I'm telling you, I wanted to quit.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to throw in the table.

[SPEAKER_01]: But how many of you know, in those moments and times, the Bible says that with every temptation, there is a doorway of a scape and a doorway out that God's already provided.

[SPEAKER_01]: that even in the midst of the trial, even in the midst of the hard time that you might walk through here this, God already has a plan on the other side to bless you.

[SPEAKER_01]: God already has a plan on the other side for you to come through smelling like a rose.

[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes God is just divinely positioning you and aligning you for the greatest breakthrough that you've ever experienced within your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what was happening with us because it was only heels of that, the God opened up the door and we went on staff at Christian International.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm telling you things just to begin to fly open and opportunities and all sorts of things that don't have time to share with you all the things that God did.

[SPEAKER_01]: on the heels of one of the worst moments of our life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hear this, if you feel like you've walked through the worst moment, I know probably some of you here this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: You feel like I've just walked through the worst moment of my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I want you to hear this, that God is going to cause the axe head to float.

[SPEAKER_01]: And God will turn the tragedy into triumph.

[SPEAKER_01]: And He will turn your morning into dancing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And He will turn your sorrow into joy if you just allow him to move in your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many of you say, Pastor, I'm going to allow God to move in my life today.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, don't give into the temptation to quit.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've got to understand this.

[SPEAKER_01]: God never intended a sunken ax head to be the end of your assignment.

[SPEAKER_01]: And even though the ax head may have sunk, it's not the end of your assignment.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, one of the first things that we have to do to come out on the other side is we have to have some honesty within our lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then what the man of God actually asks him, where did it fall?

[SPEAKER_01]: See, turn around and break through begin with being honest concerning your condition.

[SPEAKER_01]: The man didn't hide the mistake or pretend nothing happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: He immediately brought his crisis to the man of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hear this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Taking an honest evaluation of where you are, it's not being faithless.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's actually putting yourself in a place where God can do something.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that sometimes what we've done to we believe that we can overcome by the Nile.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hear this, denial will not cause you to overcome.

[SPEAKER_01]: But here this, speaking the promise and speaking the Word with the understanding God I need your help in this situation, God will show up and He will do the miraculous within your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tell somebody, He will do the miraculous in your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he said, where did it fall?

[SPEAKER_01]: Where did it fall?

[SPEAKER_01]: Restoration begins with honest evaluation, not denial.

[SPEAKER_01]: We must bring God to the exact point of our disappointment, to the point of the failure, to the point of the hurt, and say, God, I need you to heal me.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many have ever been in that position?

[SPEAKER_01]: You need to God to heal you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Till there's nothing wrong with saying, God, I need you to heal me.

[SPEAKER_01]: The woman with the issue of the blood, you know, everybody knew of her condition.

[SPEAKER_01]: She knew of her condition, but she pressed through.

[SPEAKER_01]: What was she doing?

[SPEAKER_01]: She was throwing her stick into the water.

[SPEAKER_01]: She pressed through everything and she touched the hem of Jesus garment and she was made whole, right, man?

[SPEAKER_01]: See, opposition, when you face opposition, it requires confrontation not retreat.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can't retreat from what we are opposing us.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have to actually confront it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of running away and shame, that's what Adam and Eve did.

[SPEAKER_01]: We must pause and acknowledge our situation and invite God into the mess here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here, there's some of you need to invite God into your mess.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've tried to figure it out and you've tried to work it out, but the only way it's really going to settle out is for you to invite God to come into the midst of it and say, Lord, I need you to work out our mess.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of you in your marriages, you need to invite God to come into your marriages and say, God, I need you to come and work in this situation.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've tried everything else and you've sought help on from your Facebook friends and everybody else.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, what about just going to the Lord, Hallelujah, he created Adam and Eve to start with anyway.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, your mask is merely the invitation for divine intervention.

[SPEAKER_01]: It might be a mess right now, but I'm here to declare to you, he's not going to remain a mess.

[SPEAKER_01]: God has a way, as a matter of fact, it's like God loves to show up in the middle of messy situations.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not glad that it's messy, but he's glad that he can come to heal.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's glad he's coming to deliver.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's glad that, hey, I'm here, I'm your savior.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, what do you think it means whenever you confess him as Lord and

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, and that means he wants to save you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wants to save you in the midst of whatever situation you might find yourself in.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not there just to cause you to escape hell.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's there to save you right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's there to save you and deliver you right now in the situations that you face.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there's an act of faith that's required.

[SPEAKER_01]: For us to see God calls the ax head to float within our lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: Alasha, he cut a stick and threw it into the place where the iron sank.

[SPEAKER_01]: Naturally speaking, this is illogical.

[SPEAKER_01]: It does it make sense.

[SPEAKER_01]: Throwing wood on water does nothing to lift sunk in iron.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't believe that, go out to the bay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Though a stick in there, see what kind of iron floats?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll guarantee you this, nothing's going to float, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because that by itself will not do the job.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, it was merely just a step of faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was just an act of obedience.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to hear this.

[SPEAKER_01]: What always precedes the supernatural is an active obedience.

[SPEAKER_01]: What precedes God doing great in mighty things is somebody obeying God and exercising their faith and doing what doesn't make sense in the natural.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think about this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Moses lifting his staff over the red sea.

[SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't make sense.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can go out again over the bay.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can go lift a stick out over the bay and how he know it's not going to split.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to split.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, it was an act of faith and obedience.

[SPEAKER_01]: The blind man washing in the pool of Salone.

[SPEAKER_01]: Again, that's not going to automatically make you receive your side.

[SPEAKER_01]: However, we have the account where the man received his sight because he did what Jesus told him to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many of it pays to do what Jesus said?

[SPEAKER_01]: It pays to do what Jesus commanded.

[SPEAKER_01]: Alas, you're throwing a stick into the Jordan.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not necessarily by itself going to make the axe float, but yet it did.

[SPEAKER_01]: So here's the question today.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is your stick?

[SPEAKER_01]: Your stick is whatever simple act of obedience God places in your hands.

[SPEAKER_01]: It may be prayer, it may be forgiveness, it may be giving, it may be choosing to worship, or it may be just getting up and continuing on and not throwing in the towel.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, for some of you, maybe you need a restoration and a relationship, you need God to do a miracle.

[SPEAKER_01]: It may start out with you forgiving and calling them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, thank you for that overwhelming response.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I didn't do anything wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: They did something wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: How about the relationship?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you'd be the bigger person.

[SPEAKER_01]: You take the step of faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: You throw your stick into the water and give God something that he can begin to work with.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe it's an area of financial break through that you need.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it doesn't make sense that you can actually begin to sow and give a seed begin to sow financially.

[SPEAKER_01]: And God will multiply that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you will end up having more than what you had before you gain.

[SPEAKER_01]: However, that's what God does.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why he's always done.

[SPEAKER_01]: He multiplies it, doesn't make sense that somebody can give Jesus five loaves and two fishes and he can multiply that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it can actually feed 5,000, wouldn't that be wonderful Bobby, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: A Bobby just back there, we just, we don't have to pay very much for our overhead anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: We just got, we're multiplying it by there.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the reality is that the thing is things that don't make sense sometimes is what produces the greatest breakthrough within your life, amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so your stick is just doing what God told you to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, bang the Bible, doing faithful, by the way, being faithful to the house of a Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a part of throwing your stick into the water.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you've got to decide, I'm not going to quit.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to stop doing what I know that I need to be doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to throw my stick into the water.

[SPEAKER_01]: When opposition says, give up faith says, do what God says.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whenever opposition and adversity says you just need to quit, you need to stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what faith says is I'm going to keep on doing what God said.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many of you this morning is saying I'm going to do what God says.

[SPEAKER_01]: Usher's, I want you to go ahead and come forward right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now we have something this morning that I want to give to everybody.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to give everybody a stick.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody, everybody, we're going to give everybody a stick.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to just pass them out, go ahead and start passing them out to everybody.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to give everybody a stick, and it's basically like a popsicle stick, and I know this isn't exactly like the stick that the man threw into the water and obedience to what Elijah said, but I believe there's something that I believe God wants you to do this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to, this is just symbolic, and I'm not going to have you throw that stick at anybody.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you're going to leave with that stick today.

[SPEAKER_01]: When everybody makes sure everybody gets one, everybody gets a stick.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because this is a reminder for you that whenever times get tough, whenever there's adversity, when things aren't happening and the midst of doing something good and something bad has happened, I'm not going to give up, I'm going to take my stick and I'm going to throw it into the water.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to give up, I'm going to use my faith, and for us again, it's not necessarily a literal physical stick that we throw in the water, but it'll be whatever the Lord speaks to our heart or whatever we know to do, means that whenever somebody does something evil to you, you still turn the other cheek, right, and means you're still going to love your enemy.

[SPEAKER_01]: That means you're still going to love your spouse, even in times get tough, you're going to keep on loving one another, get everybody say, man,

[SPEAKER_01]: See, Elijah told the man not only to throw the stick into the water, but once the axe had flowed, he told him this, now you go pick it up, here this, God's providing miracles, but we have actually got to seize it and we've got to possess it and we have to embrace it.

[SPEAKER_01]: The man actually had to go into the water, he had to reach over and get.

[SPEAKER_01]: The ax head.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe what the Lord is saying today is this.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's time for you to throw your stick into the water and reach out and receive the miracle that he has for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's miracles of restoration.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's miracles.

[SPEAKER_01]: See this was not just written to give us a nice little story that we can tell our kids, even though what we're doing right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: With the adventurers of Judah, it's absolutely incredible.

[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, Pastor Joshua is doing all of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is actually producing 100% of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's spending many, many hours actually doing that.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not something that happens.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't just snap your fingers and it happens.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he himself is doing that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's doing it for your kids.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's doing it for your kids.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because we love the children in this church, they are the next gen and they are the still, the church of today, but they're also the church of tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_01]: As a matter of fact, a church is not sewing into the generation that's up and coming is going to end up being a failed church, ultimately, evil crumble.

[SPEAKER_01]: You always have to have the next gen and, by the way, hearts of the fathers have to begin to be turned to their children.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not hearts of the fathers turn to their own success.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's turned to their children.

[SPEAKER_01]: My heart turned to my children.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's my heart turned to your children.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to see them succeed.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to see them blessed.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to see them prophesied.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to see them move and flow moderately by the Holy Ghost.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I believe that the Lord is warning us to throw our stick into the water.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you stand to your feet today?

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for downloading this podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: We trust that this message has blessed and encouraged and identified you.

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[SPEAKER_00]: God bless you and have a great week.