Discernment Amid Storms - Bishop Dale C. Bronner
Transcript
00:00 This is Bishop Dale Broder. Thank you so much for joining our YouTube channel today.
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00:29 Our scriptural text today comes from the 14th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew.
00:35 Matthew is particularly meticulous about certain details because he is an accountant.
00:41 He's a he works for the IRS of his day, the Internal Revenue Service.
00:48 And so he is one who is quite calculating and particularly paying attention to details.
00:54 And now he shares with us an experience about Jesus and his disciples here in Matthew, chapter 14, beginning with verse 22 through 27.
01:03 Notice immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake while he sent the people home.
01:14 After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray.
01:18 Night fell while he was there alone. And meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from the land for a strong wind had risen and they were fighting heavy waves.
01:30 About three o'clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water.
01:34 And when the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, "It's a ghost!"
01:42 But Jesus spoke to them at once. "Don't be afraid," he said. "Take courage. I am here."
01:51 We're speaking today simply from the subject discernment amid storms.
01:56 Discernment amid storms.
01:59 The great question in life is not if you're ever going to have a storm, but it's having discernment amid storms.
02:10 You either just came out of a storm, or you're in a storm, or you're headed into one.
02:17 I want you to understand very carefully, storms are normal to life.
02:23 So when stuff starts happening, don't think it's strange.
02:29 As though some strange thing has happened to you, problems are normal to life.
02:35 Storms come and storms go. Rainstorms, hail storms.
02:41 Storms are simply most of the time wind out of order, or water out of order.
02:47 A hurricane, a typhoon, a tornado.
02:51 And so whenever you have a storm, you have to begin to function a little differently amid the storm
02:58 than when you would function without a storm being present.
03:03 And so here we are, where a storm comes up while they are on their way to another destination
03:09 and the problems that they encountered there.
03:13 Life is going to have storms, and you have different storms.
03:17 Some people have storms early in their life, some people don't have storms until they get into the middle of their life,
03:22 and other people have storms toward the end of their life, and some people have storms all of their life.
03:27 Some storms, you know, are storms that we precipitate ourselves because of our own behavior
03:34 and we cause a storm of attack against us.
03:38 There are other storms that come from a satanic source and we had nothing to do with it, and storms happen.
03:45 So don't try to always figure out, "Why am I having this storm?"
03:49 Any more than it starts raining and thundering and lightning, and then you start asking yourself,
03:55 "What did I do to cause this? Maybe somebody's farm needed water."
04:00 So God has a purpose oftentimes bigger in the storm than just you, and the storm has a purpose for it.
04:09 All of our trouble has teaching capacity.
04:14 Every storm is a school. Every experience is an education.
04:19 So storms have something that they actually teach us,
04:24 and the Apostle Paul, in Acts chapter 27, he was about to take a trip,
04:32 and he knew in his gut that, "I perceive that this voyage is going to be with much danger,"
04:37 and it was because a storm met them on the water, and he knew it before they left.
04:43 And sometimes you try to tell people and they don't listen.
04:46 This was one of those cases, and he says, "I'm afraid that it's not merely going to be of the ship only,
04:51 but our very lives are going to be in danger," and truly it was the storm tore the boat up.
04:56 Sometimes you go, and the storm that hits your life wrecks the ship, the relationship, the marriage, the family, the partnership.
05:09 You go through a storm, and irreparable damage is done, so that there are only boards and pieces of wood,
05:16 and they had to get on--the ones who survived had to get on the planks, pieces of wood.
05:23 They had to get on some of the wreckage from the shipwreck that happened in order to get to the land.
05:30 And you can imagine going through a storm, and your life is barely, barely surviving,
05:36 and then the Apostle Paul now gets here on this island of Miletus,
05:42 and there on the island, after he's just survived a shipwreck,
05:49 almost lost his life on the water in a storm and had to swim for his life to get to the shore,
05:54 he gets there, now he's standing up and sharing a message of the gospel,
05:58 and they've got a fire, their little campfire, and here comes a venomous snake
06:04 up out of the fire and latches onto his hand and bites him,
06:08 and now--I mean, he's just survived a storm, and now a poisonous snake comes and fastens himself onto it.
06:16 The Apostle Paul says, "You know what? I'm not finished doing what I need to do yet."
06:21 And he shook the thing off, and it went back down into the fire.
06:25 And they are standing there waiting on him because they know the nature of this snake,
06:30 is that when it bites, it will then cause the blood to coagulate and become so thick
06:34 that now it will stop your circulation and you will all of a sudden die of cardiac arrest.
06:40 They knew that, and they were sitting there waiting on the man to drop dead,
06:44 and the Apostle Paul shook it off into the fire and kept on.
06:48 I guess he said, "If the storm didn't kill me, if the shipwreck that I have been through didn't kill me,
06:54 all of this other stuff that's coming after me now, something satanic and demonic
07:00 that's trying to latch onto my hand, and the hand has to do with your works,
07:04 what you produce out of your life. Now you are a storm survivor,
07:09 and the devil is trying to mess up your life's work. The devil is alive.
07:14 He shook it--I'm just here to tell you today that you need a discernment amid the storm
07:21 so that if I survive that, I can survive this.
07:27 And every demonic thing that tries to latch itself onto me now,
07:31 trying to stop the works of my hand while I'm serving my master, arthritis, get back.
07:38 Birthsitis, get back. Inflammation, cancer, tumor, the high blood sugar, in the name.
07:45 In the name. In the name. In the name. Dementia, get--hey! In the name!
07:52 What is this? What is this? Trying to latch itself onto you and destroy your works.
08:01 The devil is alive. The devil is alive. The devil is alive. Jesus is Lord.
08:08 If I survive that, I can survive. If he brought me through that, he'll bring me--
08:15 he didn't bring you this far, too. You know it. You know it. You better know it.
08:21 You better know it. You're not through until you're through.
08:27 But I want you to remember that all real peace is always based on a revelation
08:32 and all courage is based on a perspective. Peace is based on a revelation.
08:38 Any time you've got a person that has peace amid a storm, it's because they understand something
08:43 that God has already shown them. They've got a perspective that it's going to be all right,
08:47 that you're going to work through this little challenge that you're dealing with right now.
08:51 It's going to be all right. God's like, "I've got you. I've got you. Trust me. Trust me in this."
08:56 But I want you to just walk back through the Scripture and just unpack it a little bit here
09:00 with a little expository teaching. Matthew chapter 14, verse 22. Notice this.
09:05 "Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat
09:09 and cross to the other side of the lake while he sent the people home."
09:13 There are always some people that when you've got to go for a mission and have an assignment from God,
09:18 there are some people that you have to leave behind.
09:21 He said, "You go home. This is not your mission. This is their mission, and I want you to get in the boat."
09:27 He insisted. He constrained them, the Bible says in the King James Version.
09:31 He constrained them to get in the boat. He made them get in the boat to be able to get them
09:36 to the destination of the other side. And he made them get into a boat
09:41 knowing ahead of time he's Lord. He already knew that a storm was coming,
09:46 and he told them to get in the boat anyway. Isn't it crazy that God would put you
09:51 in a situation, and you know, he told you to go,
09:56 and the person he told you to go with was crazy?
10:01 He knew it already. He already knew it had a hole in the plan.
10:08 He already knew that you were going to get right in the middle of stuff,
10:11 and it was going to look like it was going to go down. He already knew that a storm was coming to try you.
10:17 He already knew when he hooked y'all up that they had issues that they had not disclosed to you.
10:23 He already knew that there was some stuff that was undesirable, some stuff in the resume that just was not true.
10:29 He already knew it, and yet he said, "Get in the ship and go to the other side."
10:35 I mean, God, I mean, for real? You want to tell me to get it and go somewhere?
10:41 You know why? Again, because in every storm is a school.
10:46 And God will put you in a hard situation, send you to school in a storm,
10:52 because the storm holds some things for you that you'll never have until you've gone through a storm.
10:57 Some of the sweetest people that I've ever met in the world have been through some of the worst storms.
11:02 You know why? Because you've got to have somebody that has already gone through a storm of sickness
11:06 to know how to have compassion on you when you've got a sickness.
11:10 People that have never been sick, they're like, "Oh, you can get up. You can get up. Do it yourself. You can get up.
11:15 Come on, I know you just—" "The operation is over now. That was nine hours ago. Get up!"
11:22 But when you have somebody who's already walked down that road, they understand how to be compassionate with you.
11:29 I'm telling you because the storm has a humility and a compassion for you to be able to get that you'll never get without the storm.
11:39 So storms hold something for you. Don't ever take it for granted.
11:43 So he told them, "I want you to get in this because it's got something for you, even if it doesn't work out in the end.
11:50 Get what I've got in it for you. Don't ever come out of a storm unless you get out of the storm what God put in the storm for you to get."
11:58 Don't just come out of the storm and say, "Whew, I'm glad that's over." There's something in the storm for you.
12:04 Notice verse 23, "After sending them home," that was the crowd, he sent the crowd home.
12:09 You can't do very much with a crowd. He sent them home.
12:12 "Then he went up into the hills by himself to pray and night fell while he was there alone."
12:19 You know why Jesus had to go pray?
12:22 Because right before his stepping out on the water, you know, to meet them as they got in trouble on the water and sending them ahead of him,
12:31 Jesus said, "I need to go and pray."
12:34 Now if Jesus had to go up into the hills, into the mountains to pray alone, how much more do we?
12:42 And I want you to see what had already happened in Jesus' life.
12:46 Jesus was dealing with a situation of where he was grieving the death of his forerunner, his own cousin, John the Baptist.
12:57 Because Elizabeth was a cousin to his mother Mary.
13:02 This child was born to be a forerunner for Jesus.
13:06 And he had unjustly just been beheaded and Jesus is getting the news that the man who has worked all of his life to prepare the way for Jesus' ministry,
13:14 his cousin, is now murdered, beheaded in the worst way.
13:20 And Jesus' heart is broken.
13:23 And after that, you know, crowds came to him.
13:26 He was there teaching and he said, "You know, do you all have anything to feed the people?"
13:32 And they said, "We don't have anything."
13:33 And he had to bless and multiply the food and he fed a crowd of 5,000 men, not counting the women and children.
13:39 It very conservatively could have been a crowd of 20,000 people.
13:42 And Jesus fed them all and he's got the burden on him of dealing with the death of his cousin who has worked all of his life to pave the road for Jesus to do his life mission.
13:51 And he's been snatched away and Jesus has not had time to emotionally process this.
13:56 This is why he had to send the crowd away.
13:59 He healed them while he was hurting himself.
14:04 There are times that you have to heal other people while you're still hurting.
14:09 But there comes a time that before you can go on, if you don't slow down, you'll break down.
14:15 So Jesus pulled away from the crowd, the folks that were pulling on his anointing and said, "I've got to go up into the realm of the spirit and reconnect with God.
14:23 I've got to go up and commune with my father. I must go up alone to pray."
14:28 There's sometimes it's good to have a prayer partner, but there are some issues that a prayer partner cannot deal with you with.
14:35 You've got to go alone with God.
14:38 He had to go alone with his father.
14:41 There were times that he got Peter and James and John as prayer partners and said, "Pray with me."
14:47 This was one of those times when he was hurting and he had to say, "I've got to go talk to my father alone.
14:53 I need time alone, time to heal, time to grieve, time to rebuild, time to restore."
15:01 Jesus needed time to heal, to grieve, to restore, and he got alone with God and began to pray.
15:10 Don't ever discount the incredible need of prayer.
15:16 Prayer reconnects us with God. It recalibrates our heart with God.
15:22 And it helps us to come into an alignment with the purposes of God so that we can understand life like God understands it.
15:30 We give him our sorrows and then God gives us his perspective and out of his perspective comes his peace.
15:38 So Jesus went there to be reconnected with his father in a wonderful, wonderful way.
15:44 And so your life will never spiritually mature beyond your prayer life.
15:50 No matter how much you read the Bible, no matter how many courses that you take,
15:54 your life will never spiritually mature any more than what you will pray and commune with your father
16:00 because there are some things that God will give you of himself that cannot be given any other way but through the exchange that happens in prayer.
16:08 It's amazing. It's amazing. And that's why we need time to just spend with Jesus.
16:13 Notice verse 24, Matthew 14, 24, that "Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land,
16:20 for a strong wind had risen and they were fighting heavy waves." Strong wind and heavy waves. Strong wind.
16:28 "They were far away from the land." I wonder why in the world.
16:32 Does the Lord wait until we get away from the shore, out into the middle?
16:38 That's when we have our midlife crisis. You're away from the shore. You're away from your security blanket.
16:45 See, if they were still at the shore and you see something like a tsunami coming,
16:51 I mean, I know how to hightail it back to, you know, I'm going to look for a rock that is higher than I and try to get away.
16:58 But they were already in the middle. They couldn't go back to the land and they couldn't run ahead and get to the other side.
17:03 They are stuck in the middle. God had them exactly where he wanted them.
17:09 In a little vulnerable boat on top of the water.
17:15 And the worst storm came while they were out there in the middle.
17:21 And that's what happens right in the middle of our life, right after you've signed the deal.
17:25 And you're in the middle of it. You know, it's not until you get, you know, the car doesn't break down while you're still on the lot.
17:33 It's going to wait until you drive off. I'm just, it's a certain thing.
17:36 You know, they don't tell you when you're walking down the aisle with the person.
17:39 There are some little hiccups and little odd things about their personality, their family.
17:44 They're not going to share all of that with you.
17:46 You're going to discover that over in the, you follow what I'm saying?
17:50 So the storm comes. It's like, dude, why didn't you tell me she had a mouth like this?
17:56 Some of these things you just, I mean, you know, you didn't really realize that there was an alley cat on the, you know.
18:04 Some of these things you discover once you're in the middle, far away from the land, is you're too far out to go rushing back.
18:12 And this is where they are. And it puts them at a point of vulnerability to where they then have to look toward God.
18:19 Notice verse 25. About three o'clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water.
18:26 It was the fourth watch of the night. They had four watches.
18:30 The first one started when the sun went down roughly around 6 p.m. from 6 to 9.
18:34 That's the first watch. Then from 9 to 12. Then from 12 to 3. Then from 3 to 6.
18:39 So you would put people on a watch. And so this is how they told the time.
18:43 So they were in the fourth watch sometime between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.
18:49 Isn't it amazing? And that's when it's darkest.
18:52 But it's just before the breaking of day. It's just before the light comes.
18:57 So listen, don't you dare, don't you dare. You're in the fourth quarter of this thing.
19:02 How dare you give up in the fourth quarter?
19:07 That's where the games are won. You've been through too much hell to quit in the fourth quarter now.
19:13 My God, you're getting ready to break through. You're getting ready to step into really who you are.
19:18 You've just now coming into an identity of who you are and what you have the capacity to be able to do.
19:25 You're in your fourth quarter. It's amazing.
19:29 So now Jesus, they're in the fourth quarter here. So they're in this fourth watch of the night here.
19:35 And then notice, and here Jesus came toward them walking on the water.
19:40 Jesus was the answer. And when the disciples saw him walking on the water,
19:46 they were terrified and they cried out in fear. You know, they said, "It's a ghost. It's a ghost."
19:52 And he said, "Yeah, it was a ghost, a Holy Ghost."
19:57 But here's what I want you to get. The very thing that was sent to save them, they were afraid of it.
20:03 And sometimes the answer that you need from God scares the daylight out of you.
20:08 Because the Lord will sometimes tell you to do something that will scare the daylights.
20:13 It's the answer, but it scares you. And God will say, "Stand up and go forward.
20:19 I know you don't have all the money, but start building. Launch out, sign the deal.
20:24 I know you don't have the money, sign the deal." Anybody understand what I'm talking about?
20:29 Sometimes your answer, your answer is not being reserved in fear and too timid to do something,
20:35 but it is God bristling a faith on the inside of you. You're looking at it from the natural.
20:40 I don't understand this. This doesn't make sense. Trust him. Trust him.
20:45 Trust him. There is a power that is unleashed the moment that you trust God.
20:50 God's greatest need, hear me carefully, is to be believed.
20:55 You honor God. Nothing honors God more than to say, "God, I trust you."
21:00 In the face of fear, in the face of death, "I trust you. I trust you. I trust you.
21:07 I trust in the Lord." When we didn't have anything else, our people would steal away.
21:12 I will trust in the Lord. I am going to trust in the Lord.
21:27 I am going to trust in the Lord until I die.
21:41 The Lord I am. When you didn't have the money, when the doctors had done all they could do,
21:54 in the Lord I'm going to trust, in the Lord until I die.
22:08 And they were willing to lay down themselves and die and deal with whatever was going to come their way.
22:14 They were willing to do it. You got to trust Him when you can't see your way.
22:19 Trust Him when you don't understand the how. Trust Him when the answer looks like it's scary to you.
22:25 When God will tell you, "Sit on your hands. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord."
22:31 And your mind is trying to figure out a way. "I need to see what I can do and who I can call and borrow some money from."
22:39 I got to figure. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me.
22:44 I need to take more of my medication. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me.
22:49 I need to enroll in therapy. And I'm not against any of that.
22:53 But when God tells you, "Trust me. Anything else that you will do that betrays that is an error."
23:05 Touch somebody and shout, "Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him."
23:16 Look at verse 27. Let's go deeper.
23:19 Jesus spoke to them at once and He said, "Don't be afraid."
23:23 He said, "Take courage. I'm here. Don't be afraid."
23:26 He says, "Don't be afraid." He knew they were scared.
23:29 He knew when He told you to trust Him that you would be afraid.
23:32 But He says, "Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid."
23:34 That phrase there in the original Greek means, "Don't resist me."
23:40 Don't resist me. Because whatever you're afraid of, you resist.
23:44 If a woman is afraid of a man, she'll resist him.
23:47 She'll resist getting in the car if she's afraid.
23:50 So He's saying, "You don't have any reason to fear with me. Don't resist me. I'm coming to help you."
23:56 Because He was the answer. He was the Savior.
23:59 He was exactly what they needed in the time of a storm, but they didn't recognize Him.
24:04 Sometimes the answer doesn't look like you think it ought to look.
24:08 But trust Him anyway. Trust Him.
24:10 And He was saying, "I know you don't recognize Me right now, but trust Me. Trust Me. Don't be afraid. Don't resist Me."
24:15 Because unless I come in the boat with you, you're still going to have turmoil.
24:20 You'll never have peace unless I come in the boat with you.
24:23 Until I come into the relationship, until I come into the partnership, until I come into the membership,
24:29 until I step into your ship, you'll never have My peace.
24:34 So He says, "Don't resist Me. I'm coming. I'm coming to you on the water.
24:38 I'm walking on the very thing."
24:41 You see, the very thing that frightened them, they were afraid that they were going to go under the water.
24:46 Now Jesus has the water under His feet.
24:49 He's walking on the very thing that they're afraid is going to take them under.
24:53 Jesus is saying to them, "I've already got all power and authority given to Me.
24:58 I'll walk on the stuff that will take you under.
25:01 It's under My... Hey, my God, if you'll ever understand that whatever you're dealing with is already under...
25:09 It's under His... It's under His... It's under His...
25:17 If you get a revelation that it is under His feet, it's under His feet, it's under His feet.
25:23 That difficult relationship, that issue in your body, it's under His feet. It's under His feet.
25:29 He's walking on it. He's walking on it. He's walking.
25:32 He said, "I'll use your trouble as a doorway to get to you.
25:36 I'll come to you on the very thing that has presented the issue that allows you to receive Me."
25:43 But He said, "When I come, you may not recognize it. It doesn't look like an answer. It still looks like a problem.
25:47 It still looks scary. It still looks intimidating. But go ahead and sign.
25:51 I'm coming to you on what scares you. If you'll do this, it'll liberate you.
25:54 It'll force you to come and do another thing.
25:57 The moment that you close this door, I've already got the other one open.
26:03 If you'll just go up there, go there with your knife.
26:07 I've already provided a sacrifice. You may not see it.
26:11 And you may think that you're going to lose what's precious to you.
26:15 But just go and trust Me. Just go and trust Me. Go and trust Me."
26:18 That's why Abraham developed a relationship and got favored with God.
26:22 Because he was able to trust Him when it looked like he was losing what he loved.
26:26 You got to trust Him. You got to trust Him. Touch somebody and tell them, "Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him."
26:31 When there are many things in life to fear, Jesus told them, "Don't be afraid. Take courage. I'm here."
26:40 When Jesus tells you to take courage, "I'm here," He told us that in 1427.
26:47 Trust Me. You know, He says, "Don't fear. Take courage. I am here."
26:52 Why does that make a difference that He's here?
26:54 Because He's the One with unlimited power.
26:57 And He's the One with unfathomable love for you.
27:01 He loves you and He's got the power to do something about it.
27:04 He loves you and He's got the power to do something about it.
27:07 I mean, if somebody, if your friend tell you, "You know, don't be scared. They ain't got no money."
27:16 They really can't help you in this. But when Jesus tells you, "Take courage. Don't be scared. I got this. I got unlimited power.
27:26 Even if I didn't have it, I could say abracadabra and bam, there it is."
27:34 He said, "I'm the one who made the whole idea of manifesting stuff. I speak it.
27:43 And out of the darkness, out of the nothingness, I'm able to bring something."
27:49 God is not a man that He should lie.
27:51 It means that if it didn't exist, it would come into manifestation because God said it.
28:00 The word abracadabra actually means, "I create as I speak."
28:06 That's what it literally means. In the original language, abracadabra, "I create as I speak."
28:13 "I create as I speak" is exactly what God did.
28:17 It's exactly what He did.
28:18 So Jesus says, "Don't be afraid."
28:20 So this is not just anybody telling you, "It's gonna be alright."
28:23 No, no, no. This is Jesus.
28:25 The one who loves you and the one who has unlimited power to be able to help you and to stop the power of the enemy that's trying to destroy your life.
28:33 And so I want you to realize that we have no reason to fear when we depend on Jesus.
28:39 Because His words of encouragement and His words of comfort, they are based on His unlimited power and His unfathomable love for us.
28:47 And whenever you go through a storm, your mind will start seeking justification as to why you're experiencing the storm.
28:55 And you're saying, "You know what? There's some stuff I did back there. Maybe God's paying me back."
29:00 But whenever you feel a voice trying to bring something back to you to say that you're paying for your sins, just remember Jesus already paid for your sins.
29:14 Look at Romans chapter 8 and verse 33 and 34.
29:17 "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?"
29:21 I want you to know that you are the elect of God.
29:24 "Who shall bring any charge?" Who will accuse you and bring a charge against God's elect?
29:29 It is God who justifies. It is God who justifies.
29:34 Lay your hand on yourself. Say, "I am justified."
29:38 Say it again. "I am justified."
29:41 Say it once again. "I am justified."
29:44 Now say, "Justified."
29:46 Just if I'd never sinned.
29:50 Just as if I'd never sinned.
29:53 Just as if I'd never sinned.
29:56 Justified. Just as if I'd never sinned.
30:00 And it says, "Who is to condemn?"
30:03 Christ Jesus is the one who died and more than that, who was raised and who's at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us.
30:11 He's not up there just drinking, you know, Kool-Aid and, you know, and eating Twinkies.
30:17 He's interceding for us. He's interceding for us.
30:22 How can you freak out when the King of glory is interceding for us?
30:30 Jesus is inter—you're in a storm. Jesus is already seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for the saint.
30:37 He ever lives to make intercession for the saint.
30:40 It's one thing to have your mama and your grandmama and your daddy and your granddaddy praying for you.
30:45 Your pastor is another thing when the Son of the Living God Himself is interceding as your go-between, as your mediator,
30:54 as the one that is assigned, that is saying, "God, I know that they should have died, but I'll take it. I've already taken it on myself.
31:02 I changed places with them, God. Lay their sin on me, not on them.
31:07 Just if I'd." And so now in the eyes of God, it's just as if you'd never sinned.
31:13 So get that out of your mind that this is some retribution. Jesus already paid the price.
31:19 He paid it. He paid it. He paid it.
31:22 I want you to see here that storms do a few things. Storms get our attention.
31:27 They will disrupt you. They get our attention. They have a way of coming. A storm slams you.
31:34 And all of a sudden, you're in the water. It's a firestorm, a hail storm, a lightning storm.
31:39 You know, there's different storms. Storms get our attention.
31:42 First thing, you know, back in the day, I think that my parents just really wanted some quiet time.
31:46 Maybe it's that, "Shh, be quiet. God is at work."
31:52 They had six sons at home, running around, tearing up things.
31:56 We, you know, we were jacking each other up, and my brother jacked me up and put a hole in the sheetrock.
32:02 We tore stuff up. Our home was jacked up, but we were happy.
32:11 They didn't restrain us. I mean, we put the hole in the sheetrock in the living room.
32:16 In the living room. But we were happy.
32:21 We were so happy. We were so happy.
32:24 But storms get our attention. Storms humble us. They humble us.
32:28 They have a way of letting us know we're not in control.
32:31 There's something that's bigger that's happening out here than me.
32:35 Storms help us to--they give us clarity on what is important.
32:39 Clarity is about understanding what is important.
32:42 Clarity. When you're talking about clarity, you want to be clear on what's important.
32:47 You don't want to major on the minors.
32:49 When you go through a storm, it's like, "That little mess doesn't matter.
32:53 My nail polish doesn't match."
32:58 That's a trivial thing.
33:02 If there's some bigger fish to fry, then the fact that your nail polish doesn't match.
33:08 You got to run and you're stuck. There's a bigger issue than that.
33:14 It helps to give us clarity on what's important.
33:16 And then storms lead us to repentance.
33:19 Storms can make you say, "Lord, oh, Jesus, I don't want to die here."
33:22 I mean, I know people who've given themselves to God many, many times.
33:26 Almost every time they get in trouble, "God, forgive me, God," or whatever.
33:29 It can lead us to repentance.
33:32 And then finally, it can align our life with God's plan.
33:36 It can align our life with God's plan.
33:38 Sometimes in the storm, you know what happens?
33:40 God will shake things that need to be shaken until that which cannot be shaken remains.
33:45 And then God will use the wind to blow away stuff that you didn't have the strength to turn loose.
33:51 And it's helping to align our lives with God's plan.
33:55 God is trying to bring us into alignment.
33:58 He's trying to bring us into alignment.
34:00 And so some things will shift in your whole mindset and how you think and cause you to reconsider things whenever you go through a storm.
34:08 Storms will help you to reevaluate what's really important.
34:12 I want to give you nine things to do during adversity.
34:15 Storm is an adversity.
34:17 Number one, you give thanks for what you have.
34:19 Give thanks for what you have.
34:21 Not for what you've lost, for what you have left.
34:25 God will always use what you have left to build your future.
34:29 Never what you lost.
34:31 Never what you lost.
34:32 Give thanks for what you have.
34:34 For your life, for your health, your strength, your shelter.
34:36 Just for an appetite.
34:38 It's a blessing.
34:39 You don't know what it's like to be sick and not have an appetite to eat.
34:43 And your body is emaciating away and you don't have an appetite.
34:45 I thank God for appetite.
34:47 I'm just telling you.
34:48 Just find something to thank God about.
34:51 You know, you may not have everything that you need, but give thanks for what you have.
34:54 Number two, breathe.
34:55 Just inhale and exhale.
34:57 Slow your breathing down.
34:59 Just slow down.
35:00 God's breath, when he wants to recalibrate us, he allows us to inhale again from his nostrils.
35:07 God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.
35:14 We became a living soul.
35:16 Just breathe.
35:17 Relax and breathe.
35:18 We breathe too shallowly in our life.
35:21 We don't take time to actually slow down and breathe.
35:24 It'll bring your blood pressure down when you take deep breaths.
35:28 You'll be surprised.
35:29 Just breathe.
35:30 Relax.
35:31 Number three, re-evaluate your priorities and habits.
35:35 Whenever you're going through adversity, it's time for you to re-evaluate.
35:38 If you're in a storm, it's time for you to re-evaluate your priorities.
35:42 We try to live now.
35:44 Re-evaluate your priorities.
35:45 Re-evaluate your habits.
35:47 Number four, check on others who are dealing with adversity.
35:51 Because the way to be able to get through adversity is to realize it's not just about you.
35:57 You can help others.
35:58 Check on somebody else who's dealing with adversity.
36:02 Whenever you're going through adversity, because one of the best ways to get out of your depression is go across the street and help somebody else who's depressed.
36:10 Number five, exercise.
36:12 There's something about exercising and moving that actually releases these endorphins in your body.
36:17 You start feeling better.
36:19 I mean, just from exercise.
36:21 Take a walk out in nature.
36:23 There's something calming about it.
36:25 There's something grounding about it.
36:26 Just to get out in nature.
36:28 You've been stressed with too much brick and mortar and steel and glass.
36:32 Get out in nature and just exercise, exercise.
36:35 Number six, pray.
36:36 Pray.
36:37 You'd pray for salvation, pray for wisdom, pray for guidance, pray for peace, pray for healing.
36:41 You know, pray for unity.
36:42 Pray, pray, pray, pray.
36:44 Pray, and after that, pray again.
36:45 Number seven, limit your exposure to negative news.
36:49 Limit your exposure to negative news.
36:52 If you ever look at the news before you go to sleep at night, please don't let the news be the last thing that you have in your mind before you go to sleep.
37:00 Pick your Bible up and read a verse to wash your mind of all of the negativity that the news brings into your day.
37:06 Wash your mind with the water of the word.
37:08 Wash your mind with the water of the word.
37:10 So limit your exposure to negative news.
37:13 Number eight, communicate with family and friends.
37:15 There's something about that social contact when you're going through adversity, you need somebody else.
37:20 You're not in this alone.
37:22 You need affirming and confirming voices that can speak to you and give you a sense of who you are and that you can make it through it.
37:28 You know, I'm so blessed that I was raised with parents that just were natural optimists.
37:34 I mean, if something negative happened, they always pointed out the blessing.
37:39 Well, we lost that, but at least we still got this.
37:41 They always, my mother and my father were just natural encouragers.
37:47 They were natural encouragers, and I think they were so encouraging to the degree that it made me impervious to peer pressure.
37:55 I didn't care what people thought about me.
37:57 I was already assured.
37:58 I didn't care.
38:01 My mother would talk to me sometimes, and she says, "Boy, you're going out of the house."
38:04 She says, "Your pants are high watered and they're wrinkled."
38:06 I said, "They ought to balance each other out."
38:08 She said, "They're too tight."
38:11 I didn't care what people thought about me.
38:16 And I think it's because I was so affirmed.
38:18 I was so affirmed by my parents that were just natural encouragers.
38:24 My dad would just wake up every morning, and he would ask this question, "How are you feeling this morning?"
38:30 And then he would do his finger like this up in the air and say, "Great!"
38:36 And if we just said, "Okay," you know, he would, "Great!" until we mimicked him, and we said, "Great."
38:46 And we just trained ourselves.
38:48 We trained ourselves to do that, that we declared that, "I'm great. I'm great. It's a great day."
38:56 You know, and so I grew up with that kind of encouragement.
39:00 So you have to communicate with family and friends.
39:02 And journal what you learn and what you discover amid the adversity.
39:08 Journal what you learn and discover amid the adversity.
39:13 Journal it. Put it in writing.
39:15 God always had people to write down the things that God did.
39:18 Because what happens when you go and you can't tell your own story?
39:22 Your journal will tell it.
39:24 Your journal will speak of the goodness of God.
39:26 Journal what you learn, what you discover from that.
39:29 If you fail to write the blessing, the other generations will lose the lesson.
39:35 I want you to realize this, that your life can improve drastically just by praying better prayers,
39:42 reading better books, thinking better thoughts, speaking better words, and hanging with better people.
39:49 I mean, just simply, your life can improve drastically, drastically, by praying better prayers.
39:55 And the more you pray, the better you pray.
39:57 By praying better prayers, reading better books, thinking better thoughts, speaking better words, and hanging with better people.
40:04 Thinking with better people. Hanging with better people.
40:07 It makes you better.
40:09 You'll gravitate to the average of the people that are in your inner circle.
40:13 And here's a bonus for you, that whenever you're dealing with things and your adversity, learn to locate your anchors.
40:18 The people that are anchors for you, that keep you grounded.
40:21 When you get ready to quit because you're tired and you're frustrated and your personality has clashed with somebody,
40:26 you need to say, "Baby, look, listen, don't you cuss them folks out down there with that job. You need that.
40:32 You're gonna —" Because if you cuss them out, you're gonna be trying to borrow money.
40:41 You better keep your anchors located in your life because they've lived longer and they've got a perspective that you may not have,
40:51 and you all enter your emotions, and the angrier that you get, the more foggy that your judgment becomes,
40:56 and you can't see the real issue because emotions cloud things.
41:00 So you've got to have anchors of people who are not wrapped up in your emotional cloud that can keep you grounded when things happen.
41:10 So keep anchors in your life.
41:14 And you have to ask yourself, "What do I believe that — about my source?"
41:18 I'm in a storm right now. I'm going through a storm, and I need discernment in this storm.
41:23 When you're in the storm, you need to be able to discern.
41:26 To discern — one of the understandings of the word "to discern" means to see or to understand.
41:30 And remember when Jesus was walking to them on the water, they thought it was a ghost. They didn't understand him.
41:35 They couldn't perceive him right. Their discernment was off.
41:39 They couldn't even recognize the answer of Jesus himself.
41:44 He wasn't sending a disciple. It was Jesus!
41:48 And they couldn't discern him.
41:50 Your discernment is critical in a time of adversity or in a time of storm.
41:57 You need to be able to discern. You need to be able to see.
42:00 You need to be able to understand while you're in a problem area of your life.
42:05 While you're in a storm, you need to be able to discern.
42:08 And this is where we come in. We're talking about discernment amidst storm.
42:13 Who is your source? Who is your source?
42:15 Is your source your own training in terms of your ability to swim?
42:20 You know there are expert swimmers that get pulled by an undercurrent and end up drowning.
42:26 Trust not in chariots and horses, but put your trust in the Lord.
42:32 Because God will always send something bigger that you can't handle in your own strength and according to your own smarts.
42:38 And it will go beyond the level of what you have been educated.
42:41 I don't care whether you've gone to Oxford.
42:45 You will not learn the answer to that because God will write some situations into your life that you were never taught in school.
42:54 And you'll have to look to him.
42:56 So who is your source? When you get in a storm, always recognize the source.
43:02 The source of the one that called you.
43:04 The source of the one that told you to do this.
43:06 The source of the one that opened the door for you.
43:08 Always understand your source.
43:11 And secondly, understand what you believe about your purpose.
43:16 As many times as I've been on airplanes flying around the world, millions of miles, millions of miles.
43:23 I've flown so much between one passport I had to send my thing back to get some additional pages I'd run out of stamps.
43:30 A place they couldn't even stamp it.
43:32 And so they had to, mine was extra thick because of that.
43:36 And so millions of miles and I've been in a lot of turbulence along the way.
43:40 And sometimes we would hit a dead air pocket and the plane looked like would drop 10,000 feet in just a matter of seconds.
43:47 And I was calm as a cucumber and I've had total strangers to just grab my hand because they were so afraid.
43:53 And I'm calm as a cucumber because I understand I'm on assignment here.
43:57 I'm yielded to God and I can't die before I finish what he sent me to do.
44:01 He told me to go to the other side.
44:04 So there is a confidence in my knowing that he's going to get me to the other side.
44:11 So you have to understand your source and you have to understand your purpose.
44:15 Understand your source and understand your purpose.
44:18 What do you believe about your source?
44:20 When you're in a storm, what do you believe about your source?
44:23 And number two, what do you believe about your purpose?
44:26 The purpose that God has marked out for your life.
44:29 If somebody comes to mess up your purpose, they'll get in trouble with God.
44:33 Their fight is really not with you, their fight is with God.
44:36 Are you hearing me by the Holy Ghost?
44:38 Their fight is not with you, their fight is with God.
44:41 I mean if we're fighting a man, that's one thing, but if you're fighting against the living God,
44:45 you better just may as well turn your resignation in.
44:49 Because he's got all power and he's got nothing but time.
44:53 He can beat you by waiting you out until you pewter out.
44:57 Until you run out of life, he'll wear you out.
45:02 Just please understand this principle that plans change, purpose does not.
45:07 Plans change, purpose does not.
45:10 Plans change, purpose does not.
45:13 You're working for one organization, plans change, purpose does not.
45:17 If your purpose is still to help people, you're going to be helping people I don't care where God plants you.
45:21 Are you listening?
45:22 Plans change, purpose does not.
45:25 Here's what I would say to you.
45:27 In matters of plans, be flexible, but in matters of purpose, be steadfast.
45:32 If your purpose is in the earth to educate, you might lose a job at one place where you're educating,
45:38 but God will open up another door because that is your purpose in the earth.
45:41 Are you listening?
45:42 The plans change, plans change, plans change, purpose does not.
45:47 If they let you go over here, God's got a better door over there.
45:50 I'm just telling you when you yield to God, when you yield to God, you may not be able to see it,
45:56 that he's trying to get you into a higher position where you'll be able to have a greater fulfillment
46:01 and do what you're called to do because it's according to his purpose, according to his purpose, according to his purpose.
46:07 And there'll be a greater ease in it when you realize that this is my purpose.
46:12 I've had people that say, "Bishop Brown, as much as you speak, don't you ever get nervous?"
46:16 I'm born for this.
46:19 I'm born for this.
46:21 How can I be intimidated by what I was born for?
46:25 And I understand my source.
46:28 I'm not speaking out of my own intellect.
46:30 I'm able to speak because I've hooked my spirit up to the Holy Ghost
46:35 and chained myself to the revelation of God, and I'll say, "God, pour forth, pour forth, pour forth.
46:43 Speak to your people."
46:48 They're not my people. You're God's people.
46:51 It's not my power. It's his power.
46:54 It's my purpose. I was born for this.
47:00 I was born for this. I was born for this.
47:03 And before I started it in the church, I started it in the home.
47:10 And after the home, the school.
47:13 And after the school, the business.
47:15 And after the business, the church. It was my purpose.
47:18 I was doing ministry every place that I was, not because I had a title or a church, but I had a purpose.
47:27 Called according to his purpose.
47:32 All things work together for the good of them that love God and are called according to his purpose.
47:42 Amen.
47:43 While you're here, may you come into an understanding of the purpose that God has called in your life.
47:57 When he's called you to teach others through your own personal pain.
48:00 When he's called you to bring clarity through your own personal confusion.
48:04 You never know why God assigned a problem to you because the answer was going to come to that problem.
48:10 You don't get answers unless you have problems.
48:13 And God has trusted you, reque masito.
48:19 He's trusted you with trouble so that you might come to know the one who brings peace amid your storm.
48:30 Don't let the storm derail you.
48:33 Storms come and storms will go.
48:36 The storm didn't come to last, the storm has only come to pass.
48:41 The storm is passing over.
48:43 Yeshikamashikadeeshimoh, fakashno telebekash.
48:47 Let it pass.
48:49 Shikre man'sko.
48:51 Take your refuge in him.
48:53 Find that abiding place in the secret place of the most high.
48:59 It's a place of worship.
49:02 It's a place of prayer.
49:04 And sometimes when it happens to you on the job, you have to slip away to the bathroom.
49:09 Put your hand over your mouth.
49:12 You don't even understand that when black folks were in slavery,
49:18 their masters banned them from praying and they developed these prayer bowls where they would go and speak in a hole.
49:26 "Shikram God, deliver me, deliver my family, oh God, oh God, oh God."
49:32 And they would ban the very connection to God, but when prayer is in you,
49:37 and you understand God is my source and he's my only hope,
49:41 and that without him I would fail.
49:44 If the Lord told you to get into a ship and go to the other side,
49:56 why am I having so much trouble in the middle?
49:59 God, if you're in this, why am I, why is it so hard?
50:04 He comes to get into trouble with you.
50:07 And he's not forsaken you. I want you to hear me by the Holy Ghost.
50:11 He comes into trouble with you.
50:14 And he says, "I'm here to undergird you.
50:18 I want to bring strength to you in the midst of it."
50:22 And when Jesus comes into the boat,
50:25 somehow the very thing that frightened them, which was the answer the moment that he stepped into the boat,
50:30 the winds abated.
50:33 A calm came over them.
50:36 Everything quieted down
50:39 so that they would recognize him in whichever form in which he came.
50:44 And that when they were experiencing a storm, it was not a sign that he had abandoned them.
50:49 And this is why he says, "Take courage, I'm here. I'm here. I'm here."
50:54 I know you got the doctor's report, but he says, "I'm here."
50:57 I understand you've got the eviction notice, but he says, "I'm here."
51:01 I know they've turned some stuff off, but he says, "I'm here."
51:05 I know you're in between careers, but he says, "I'm here."
51:09 And he has unlimited power, and he loves you.
51:14 His love for you is incomprehensible.
51:18 It is unfathomable.
51:20 We don't even understand it. Why would God even trust you to be where you are?
51:26 I came to say to you today that he's able to make you to stand
51:30 while you feel like you're going down.
51:33 He'll make you to stand if you'll just say yes to his purpose.
51:38 "Lord, I'll go where you want me to go.
51:41 I'll do what you want me to do, even if it costs me trouble,
51:46 even if it's unpopular.
51:50 God, I'll do it. I'll be a light wherever you're calling me,
51:55 in my home, in a school, in the marketplace, at work,
52:00 wherever, in my own family. Lord, wherever.
52:04 Whatever you can find.
52:06 [speaking in tongues]
52:10 Use me, God. Use me.
52:13 Some of you have thrown your hands up at some of your relatives.
52:17 But God knows how to deal with them and to reach them in places where you cannot.
52:22 And let me tell you this, parents.
52:26 One of the worst things that you can do is to pray for God to deliver trouble from your children
52:31 before he has delivered them from the hands of Satan.
52:36 Trouble is an answer.
52:39 And until some of them--I want you to hear me about the Holy Ghost--
52:42 have experienced the trouble that comes from the world that they cannot solve themselves.
52:49 They will never look toward heaven.
52:53 And every time that God gets ready to bring their deliverance,
52:58 you're rescuing them.
53:00 Stop it.
53:02 Let God be God.
53:05 Turn them over to the Lord.
53:08 And say, "God, deal with my son, my daughter. Deal with them. Deal with them.
53:13 May they come to know you in this storm the same way that I had to go through my storm and I came to know you."
53:18 God, show them. [speaking in tongues]
53:22 They need to know him. They need to know him.
53:26 They need to know him.
53:30 I pray a prayer over my grandchildren.
53:33 Jeremiah 24-7.
53:36 I want to encourage you to start praying it over your children.
53:39 Jeremiah 24-7.
53:41 And I don't think it's just 24-7 by coincidence. It's all to pray it 24-7.
53:46 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
53:48 24-7 is the divine answer. It's the divine answer.
53:51 That they may come to know him. They may come to know him.
53:56 We come to know God in a storm.
53:59 In deeper dimensions than you'll ever know him in peace times.
54:04 He is a shelter.
54:06 Shelter means nothing unless there's a stormy blast going on.
54:11 He's a shelter.
54:14 And you don't draw in to abide under the shelter of the Almighty.
54:19 Until there's a storm going on.
54:22 We don't stand under a covering if it's not raining.
54:27 But whenever there's a storm, here we are now looking for refuge.
54:33 And it's a time that God is looking for people that will say,
54:38 "Lord, help me to fulfill my purpose."
54:42 "Whatever that you have purposed for me, the very purpose that you placed me in this earth and put me in relationships."
54:49 "Though they get rocky and unsteady."
54:52 "Lord, if you're in it, we can win it."
54:56 "And I'll live. I'll not merely survive."
55:01 I heard the Lord say, "You will thrive."
55:03 "You will thrive."
55:05 "You will thrive."
55:07 It's not just going to be just surviving anymore.
55:11 He's delivering you out of survival mode.
55:22 Many people are in the wilderness experience of their life.
55:27 And they've confused the wilderness with the promised land.
55:31 Because they get just enough food for the day.
55:34 That's not the promised land. That's the wilderness.
55:39 Slavery, they never had enough.
55:42 The wilderness where God rained down the manna, they had just enough.
55:45 They couldn't save it.
55:47 But he brought them to the promised land, the land of more than enough.
55:51 They were surviving in the wilderness.
55:54 They thrived in the promised land.
55:56 You're on your way somewhere.
55:58 And whenever, please hear me.
56:01 Whenever the seasons are changing in your life, there's always a storm.
56:06 Storms signal the change of a season.
56:09 Something that needs to be blown away and changed.
56:12 That this is going as far as it can go now.
56:14 And I'm getting ready to take you.
56:16 The behavior, the mindsets and the habits of that last season will not take you into this season.
56:22 Storms signal the change of a season.
56:25 April showers bring May flowers.
56:28 Something is getting ready to bloom in your life because there's a seed in the ground.
56:32 Oh, rabbisheetim.
56:35 Storms, storms.
56:37 And you've got to have discernment so that you don't fight what God is doing.
56:42 What God has in store for you is so beautiful.
56:45 And if you just yield yourself to be an instrument in the hand of the master and say, "God, have your way."
56:51 The promise that we have is Romans 8, 28.
56:55 And we know not we think.
56:57 And we know that all things work together for the good of those that love God.
57:03 And who are called according to His purpose.
57:08 I'm looking at a people of purpose today.
57:11 But people of purpose always experience storms.
57:17 Brace yourself for the storm.
57:19 And welcome the Savior in whichever form that He walks on the very water.
57:27 The thing that could put you to death, but is under His feet.
57:31 I hope you got something out of the Word of the Lord for today.
57:34 Hallelujah to the Lamb.
57:36 Hallelujah to the Lamb.
57:38 Hallelujah, hallelujah.
57:39 Hallelujah to the Lamb of God.
57:41 Glory, glory, glory to the Lamb.
57:44 Glory to the Lamb.
57:45 Thank you, Jesus.
57:47 We hope that you enjoyed that message.
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58:01 Thank you for what you do.