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00:00:00First Peter chapter 4 and verse 12.
00:00:24I'm going to read that today.
00:00:25If you have it, you can pull it up for me.
00:00:29First Peter chapter 4 verse 12, I'm reading out of the New King James Version.
00:00:35And it says this, Beloved, do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial, which
00:00:43is to try you as though some strange thing has happened to you.
00:00:53Beloved, do not think it's strange.
00:00:57Now flip over to Hebrews chapter 12 verse 26 and 27.
00:01:03And let's pick up these two verses and then I'm going to let you sit down.
00:01:08Hebrews 12, 26 and 27.
00:01:11We're concluding our series today that has been entitled Unshakable.
00:01:19Have y'all enjoyed the series and the speakers?
00:01:22Let's give God a great big hand for those who have shared the word of the Lord with
00:01:28us.
00:01:29Hebrews 12, 26 says, and when he spoke from Mount Sinai, his voice shook the earth.
00:01:39But next time he says, I will not only shake the earth, but I will shake the heavens too.
00:01:49Give me the next verse.
00:01:50This he means by this, he means that he will sift out everything without solid foundations
00:02:00so that only unshakable things will be left.
00:02:09I want you to look to your neighbor on the right and say, neighbor, don't be shocked.
00:02:15Just be unshakable.
00:02:18Tell somebody else, don't be shocked.
00:02:21Just be unshakable.
00:02:23Have your way.
00:02:24God bless your word today.
00:02:27Breathe in here.
00:02:28Speak in here.
00:02:29Blow in here.
00:02:30Rain in here.
00:02:31Flow in here.
00:02:34Today we want to hear what you have to say.
00:02:37We ask you to bless us now in Jesus name.
00:02:39Somebody shout amen.
00:02:41On your way down, just hit somebody and tell them, don't be shocked.
00:02:46Be unshakable.
00:02:51While you're sitting down, I want to say welcome to Terry and Joe Johnson.
00:02:56Where are y'all at?
00:02:57You're visiting today.
00:02:58God bless y'all.
00:02:59Glad to have you.
00:03:00They pastor the courts of praise community church.
00:03:05And what city is that?
00:03:07Manteca.
00:03:09So we thank God that you've chosen to visit with us today.
00:03:12Also want to say thank you to our ministers and our elders, to prophetess Calloway and
00:03:16to all of you who are in the house of the Lord today.
00:03:22I hope you're hungry.
00:03:23I want you to get your pin out.
00:03:25I want you to get your pad out.
00:03:27I want you to get some things out because we're going to do a little bit of writing
00:03:31today.
00:03:32I'm going to try my best to wrap this up and not be long.
00:03:35But this is a supernatural Sunday, amen.
00:03:41I was thinking this week that the, as I was listening to some things on the news, I was,
00:03:47I was just thinking that the older I get and the longer I live, the more I have an appreciation
00:03:55for truth.
00:03:57Yeah.
00:03:59Because truth is often hard to come by today.
00:04:04It used to be a part of our core values, that truth.
00:04:10It was imperative that that truth was there.
00:04:15It's what we thought.
00:04:16It's what we, it's how we lived.
00:04:19And my mother always had me scared half to death to tell a lie because she would always
00:04:23quote that verse that says all liars shall have their part in the lake of, you heard
00:04:30that too.
00:04:33And so I was always scared to, to tell a lie, but people today, you know, well, even back
00:04:39then we were, we might try to tell a little white lie.
00:04:43That's what they called it.
00:04:45Means it's got a little truth in there, but, but it's still alive.
00:04:48But people today are not telling little white lies.
00:04:52Okay.
00:04:53They are turning our world upside down with things that don't even come close to resembling
00:05:01truth.
00:05:02People are just, they will make up a story.
00:05:06It didn't even exist, but they will make it up.
00:05:09And it's not like just little kids.
00:05:11You know, when your, your, your mama will come to you and say, now Johnny, tell mama
00:05:15the truth.
00:05:16Did you really eat that cookie in the cookie jar?
00:05:20No, it's not that simple today.
00:05:23Today we have got people from all walks of life that are just pulling things out of thin
00:05:29air and they are calling it truth.
00:05:32And they're persuading nations of people to believe that what they're saying is true and
00:05:39really is completely as far away from truth as truth can get.
00:05:44People that have been sworn in to tell the truth are lying.
00:05:51Come on.
00:05:53We have politicians that are lying.
00:05:56We have presidents that are lying.
00:05:59We have, we have companies and we have CEOs and we have preachers and we even have prophets
00:06:08that are lying.
00:06:11I mean, they're making up stuff, making up story, lying on the witness stand, lying,
00:06:18even though they put their hand on the Bible, they're lying on the witness stand, lying,
00:06:23even behind the Holy desk of God, lying on the pulpit, lying on job applications, just
00:06:32lying.
00:06:33You know, you ain't never worked that, that, that machine, but you're telling everybody
00:06:38you did.
00:06:40People lie in advertising every day.
00:06:43This right here, if you'll take two of these every night, it will melt away the fat.
00:06:51That's a lie.
00:06:54Oh, if you use this, we will deal with every wrinkle that will never, ever have another
00:07:01wrinkle in your life.
00:07:04People lie in academic settings because they hope it will give them a way to have a little
00:07:11bit of an advance.
00:07:13People lie in healthcare.
00:07:15They lie to be able to get medicine that they know they don't really have the symptoms
00:07:21for, but they'll get it because in their mind or in their life, they feel like they got
00:07:27to have this particular medication.
00:07:30People will lie.
00:07:31Y'all got mighty quiet on that right there.
00:07:38People will lie in financial matters.
00:07:41They will go into a bank and over inflate their worth just so that they can get more
00:07:46and more loans so that they can get further and further in debt.
00:07:52People lie in relationships.
00:07:55We lie to spouses.
00:07:57We lie to our children and then we wonder why do they lie back to us?
00:08:04People lie on social media.
00:08:07Come on y'all.
00:08:08And they do that to create a false narrative for their life that they're lying.
00:08:15People lie and the bottom line that I'm trying to get to today is they lie and don't think
00:08:19a thing about it.
00:08:22It's not new though, but I do feel like it's getting worse by the days.
00:08:28The boundaries that we have used for generations to create a healthy society are being trampled
00:08:38under foot today.
00:08:40The prophet Isaiah, he warned us about this thousands of years ago.
00:08:48He warned us that our culture would collapse if we continued to disregard truth.
00:08:55He said in Isaiah 5 and 20, woe to those who call evil good and those who call good evil.
00:09:06Woe to those who call the darkness light and the light darkness.
00:09:11Woe to those who call bitter sweet and sweet bitter.
00:09:17He is saying to us right here that when your great culture that you've built begins to
00:09:23disregard what made you a great culture to begin with, then your culture has no other
00:09:30choice but to collapse.
00:09:33And we who have been watching what's going on in our world, we are seeing that happen
00:09:40right in our very, right in front of our very own eyes.
00:09:44And it's happening now, but it's been happening really for years and years.
00:09:49It happened to Israel over 2000 years ago.
00:09:54Israel, when I say that I'm talking about the people of God, the people of God fell
00:10:00into a state of immorality.
00:10:04They fell into a state of corruption.
00:10:08They fell into a state of idolatry and they became, these are the people of God, they
00:10:14became indulgent.
00:10:16They became unjust and complacent.
00:10:20They began to oppress the poor.
00:10:23They forgot what it was like to be poor.
00:10:26And so they began to oppress the poor.
00:10:29They became very greedy and they engaged in practices that contradicted the commandments
00:10:38of God.
00:10:39And so Isaiah opened his mouth and he cried loud and he didn't spare, but he said, I'm
00:10:45warning you that the judgments of God are coming into your life.
00:10:53All of those behaviors sound like what we're looking at in America today.
00:11:01Several other prophets began to prophesy with Isaiah and they began to, people like Jeremiah
00:11:08began to prophesy.
00:11:10He came a little bit later, but he was still one of the prophetic people.
00:11:15Micah was, began to prophesy, Hosea began to prophesy.
00:11:21Hosea was not doing it alone.
00:11:25There was a group of them, Amos, he came just a little earlier and Bishop read that verse
00:11:31today.
00:11:32But they began to, they lifted up their voices and collectively they cried out against things
00:11:40like social injustice.
00:11:42Yes, even back then they cried out against that.
00:11:46They cried out against exploiting those who were poor.
00:11:50They cried out against idolatry and they reinforced the need for repentance.
00:12:00Repentance is not a bad word.
00:12:03Repentance is a needy word.
00:12:04And they began to call the children of Israel out and they warned them that they had better
00:12:10get their act together or they would ultimately lose their freedom.
00:12:18And that is precisely what happened.
00:12:23The Babylonian empire invaded Israel.
00:12:27They were led by a man whose name was Nebuchadnezzar.
00:12:32The Babylonian empire was one of the most powerful empires of its day.
00:12:41And so they came in and they took over, destroyed the capital city of Jerusalem.
00:12:49And they took 25% of the nation as prisoners of war.
00:12:56They took those prisoners of war back to Babylon.
00:13:01They took them back to Iraq and they kept them there for 70 years.
00:13:07So they lost their, let's think about that.
00:13:11They lost their freedom because they were not listening and they were not paying attention
00:13:20to what God was saying.
00:13:24Let's make sure that we don't let that happen to us.
00:13:29I'm not here to scare you.
00:13:32I'm not here to say that, yes, I've heard from God that's what's going to happen.
00:13:36But the truth is, when you forget God and you ignore the ways of God, you set yourself
00:13:44up for trouble.
00:13:49And they would not hear God and they failed at this.
00:13:53And so it cost them a hefty price.
00:13:57Their culture that they had built and they had developed, it cost them their culture.
00:14:04It cost them their freedom because they took things for granted.
00:14:10And the collapse around them, it happened and it shook all of them.
00:14:16Now there is, in the middle of all of that, there is another man whose name is Asaph.
00:14:22He wasn't what you would call, per se, a prophet like the others that I had previously mentioned.
00:14:30But he was a songwriter and his songs would address many of the same things that these
00:14:35prophets would address.
00:14:38Asaph wrote 12 of the songs.
00:14:41David is not the only one that wrote songs.
00:14:45Asaph wrote 12 of the songs that we have in scripture.
00:14:50And in Psalms 82, Asaph is complaining on God's behalf.
00:14:56And he is saying, your magistrates, your judges, your leaders, they are corrupt.
00:15:04The message Bible says, God calls the judges into his courtroom.
00:15:11He puts all the judges on the dock.
00:15:14Enough!
00:15:16You have corrupted justice long enough.
00:15:20You've led the wicked to get away with murder.
00:15:24You're here to defend the defenseless, to make sure that the underdogs get a fair break.
00:15:32Your job is to stand up for those who are powerless and prosecute all of those who exploit
00:15:40them.
00:15:41Ignorant judges, head in the sand judges, they haven't a clue as to what is going on.
00:15:50Now everything is falling apart in the world and the world is coming unglued.
00:16:03Another translation says, all the foundations of society have been shaken to the core.
00:16:12If this don't sound like 2024.
00:16:17All of the foundations of our society, our financial institutions have been shaken, our
00:16:23political institutions have been shaken, religious institutions have been shaken, educational
00:16:32institutions have been shaken, marriages and families are being shaken to the core.
00:16:40Our borders, immigration policies have all been shaken to the core.
00:16:46Freedoms that people fought for us to have are now at risk and they are being shaken
00:16:52to the core.
00:16:53Health care is being shaken to the core.
00:16:57Look at your neighbor and tell them there's a whole lot of shaking.
00:17:03Finish it.
00:17:04There's a whole lot of shaking going on, but I want to tell you today, no matter how bad
00:17:14that the world may get, we must always remember that this book right here, I said that this
00:17:23book right here is not about doom and gloom and despair, but this book right here is about
00:17:32hope.
00:17:33And I came to tell somebody on this supernatural Sunday, I came to tell you that even though
00:17:40we are living in a culture that is collapsing and we are living in a decaying society, God
00:17:48says in the midst of it all, I want you to survive it.
00:17:53I want you to succeed in it and I want you to thrive in it.
00:17:58I have destined for you to do that.
00:18:02Hit somebody and tell them survive, succeed and thrive.
00:18:10Anytime you turn the news on and it's something else, just say, yeah, but I'm going to survive
00:18:16and I'm going to thrive and I'm going to succeed in this mess.
00:18:23So Daniel who wrote the book that we are about to read from, he was ultimately God's prophet.
00:18:33However, that's not how his story began.
00:18:36As a matter of fact, Daniel's story began when he was approximately 15, 15 years old.
00:18:43And now the boy is a prisoner of war.
00:18:46However, 70 years later, he ends up being the second most powerful man in the most powerful
00:18:55empire of his day.
00:18:58And he did it without losing his integrity.
00:19:04He was only 15 years old when he got there.
00:19:07He was 70 later, but he rose in the midst of that system without losing his character,
00:19:17without losing his integrity.
00:19:19Tell somebody it can be done.
00:19:23Daniel watches the destruction of his nation.
00:19:28Daniel would never see his parents again.
00:19:33He would never see his family again.
00:19:36And he will spend the rest of his life living in a foreign hostile culture.
00:19:43I want to read Daniel one versus one through seven.
00:19:49Can you find it?
00:19:50Can you pull it up for me?
00:19:51Dad?
00:19:52I want to read it in, in the, the message Bible, Daniel one versus one through seven.
00:19:58I'm going to read this in, in your hearing.
00:20:01Here's what it says.
00:20:03It was the third year of King Jehoiakim's reign in Judah.
00:20:08When King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon declared war on Jerusalem and he besieged the city.
00:20:17Does anybody know what it's like to be besieged?
00:20:19I mean, it feels like things are coming from everywhere you turn.
00:20:24It's just coming to take you over.
00:20:26Well, that's, that's what they were feeling in the city.
00:20:30The master handed King Jehoiakim of Judah over to him.
00:20:35Okay.
00:20:36Let's wait a minute right there.
00:20:37The master, the master handed the King Jehoiakim of Judah over to the enemy with some of the
00:20:53furnishings from the temple of God, Nebuchadnezzar because sometimes God will even use the enemy
00:21:01to get his point across.
00:21:04Nebuchadnezzar took King and furnishings to the country of Babylon and ancient Shinar.
00:21:12He put the furnishings in the sacred treasury.
00:21:16So what he's done is he took some of the fine things from Jerusalem and now he's took them
00:21:21back to his place and he's put them all up and he's making it look all beautiful.
00:21:27He's bragging.
00:21:29That's what he's doing.
00:21:30He's bragging over something that wasn't even his to begin with.
00:21:33Okay.
00:21:34So he, he, he told, he told the King, the head of the palace staff, he said, get some
00:21:41Israelites from the Royal family and, and, and nobility get the young man here.
00:21:49Listen to the qualifications.
00:21:51Get the young men who are healthy, who are handsome, who are intelligent and well educated.
00:22:03Give those who will be good prospects for leadership positions in the government.
00:22:10Get me perfect specimens.
00:22:14Once you get them, I want you to indoctrinate them.
00:22:19I want them to forget everything they knew before they came here.
00:22:24And I want you to indoctrinate them in the Babylonian language and the lore of magic
00:22:31and fortune telling.
00:22:33The King then ordered that they would be served from the same menu as the Royal table, which
00:22:40is the best food and the finest wine.
00:22:44After three years, three years of training, they would be given positions in the King's
00:22:51court for young men from Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Michelle, and Azariah.
00:23:02They were among those that were selected.
00:23:05The head of the palace staff gave them Babylonian names.
00:23:10Okay.
00:23:12Let's just look at what is happening to these young men.
00:23:15They have been ripped away from what they, all they had ever known.
00:23:19They had been stripped away from their family connection.
00:23:23They had been, because they look good.
00:23:27Now they're being indoctrinated from this cult that is happening here and now he's saying
00:23:38change their name and give them Babylonian names.
00:23:47Daniel was named Belteshazzar, Hananiah was named Shadrach, Michelle was named Meshach,
00:23:58Azariah was named...
00:24:02There you go.
00:24:03So that just gives you a little bit of the background that is happening right there.
00:24:11Daniel, in those passage, he begins to realize something is happening.
00:24:22What is happening in this text?
00:24:25They are shaking things up.
00:24:29They're reprogramming their mind.
00:24:32They relocated them.
00:24:35They isolated them.
00:24:37They separated them and they wanted to change their diet.
00:24:43Daniel is in a situation that is completely shook up.
00:24:49Look at somebody and tell him it's a whole shake up going on.
00:24:54He's only 15, but there is a whole shake up that is going on.
00:24:58But here is what I want you to see.
00:25:01So everything about Daniel's life has been shaken to the core.
00:25:08He still grew up to be a great man of God.
00:25:15And though Daniel was forced into a new community, into a new atmosphere, into a new kingdom,
00:25:21into a new culture, into a new way of life, into a new name, into a new diet, and into
00:25:28a whole new identity, he grew up to be one of the greatest prophets in the scripture.
00:25:36He grew up to be a man of integrity.
00:25:39He grew up being a man of charity.
00:25:42He grew up being a man who could hear God in spite of how loud the changes in his life
00:25:50were screaming in his face.
00:25:55And even in the face of all of that, Daniel kept being promoted.
00:26:03In spite of all that he had been through, he kept finding a way to go up higher and
00:26:10be promoted.
00:26:12He was promoted five times.
00:26:15He outlasted three different empires.
00:26:19He outlasted three different administrations.
00:26:24And he led two of the three empires to faith in Christ.
00:26:29That was Nebuchadnezzar and Silas the Great.
00:26:32Both of those leaders turned their lives around because of Daniel's life.
00:26:41When he turned 85, they brought him out of retirement.
00:26:49He had done his job so well that they did let him retire, but they brought him out of
00:26:57retirement because the emperor said, man, we still need you.
00:27:04And you've done such a great job, I'm going to pull you out of your retirement.
00:27:08And on top of that, I'm going to make you the second in command.
00:27:14And if you look closely into Daniel's life, we will see a whole lot of clues as to what
00:27:20we should do when our world is being shaken to the core.
00:27:28When your world is being shaken to the core, what do I do when everything around me is
00:27:35being shaken?
00:27:37What do I do, Pastor Brady, when out of nowhere my life is thrown into chaos?
00:27:43Have you ever had your life just thrown out of nowhere?
00:27:49Here's the first thing you do, I want you to write this down.
00:27:52Don't be shocked by the shaking.
00:27:57Don't be shocked by the shaking.
00:28:03If there's anything in you, the Bible clearly tells us, that can be shaken, it will be shaken.
00:28:13And periodically, God himself will take us through shakings.
00:28:23First Peter, just write this verse down, First Peter 4 and 12 says this, Beloved, don't think
00:28:31it's strange concerning the fiery trial, which has come for the purpose of trying you.
00:28:42As though, don't think of this as though some strange thing has happened unto you.
00:28:50Here's what the message Bible says, it says this, Friends, when life gets really difficult,
00:28:58don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on his job.
00:29:05Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ has experienced, because
00:29:15this is a spiritual refining process with glory that is just around the corner.
00:29:24Hit somebody and tell them, glory is just around the corner.
00:29:33When I read that, everything in me began to rejoice, glory is just around the corner.
00:29:46Look at somebody and tell them, keep walking, keep walking.
00:29:52And while you're walking, don't charge God foolishly.
00:29:56Don't say, well, if he was really God, he would have never let that happen to me in
00:30:01the first place.
00:30:03When you tell me that, that tells me your level of spiritual immaturity.
00:30:11Can I tell you that the shake-ups are a part of life?
00:30:18Why?
00:30:20Because we live in a broken world.
00:30:23Somebody say, our world is broken.
00:30:27We live in the world that is broken.
00:30:30We do not live in heaven.
00:30:33We are not there yet.
00:30:36In heaven, everything is whole.
00:30:38In heaven, everything is healed.
00:30:42Mother Gretel is in heaven where everything is fixed.
00:30:47Hallelujah.
00:30:49Every problem has been worked out.
00:30:53Every fight has been settled.
00:30:56There are no tears and there's no pain in heaven, but the rest of us, we live in a broken
00:31:05world.
00:31:06Our minds are broken.
00:31:09We live in a world that's been broken by sin, a world that is broken with sickness and broken
00:31:18with disease.
00:31:19We live in a world that is full of pain.
00:31:22Not only is our world broken, but our economy is broken, bodies are broken, relationships
00:31:31are broken, hearts get broken, desires get broken, and sometimes it feels like even our
00:31:39faith gets broken because our world is broken.
00:31:47So the next time something in your life doesn't turn out like you wanted it to turn out, don't
00:31:55sit there feeling sorry for yourself, saying, why me God?
00:32:01No, just stand there and say, I know why it's me.
00:32:06I live in a broken world, but greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.
00:32:17My hope is not in this broken world that I am living in.
00:32:21My hope is in God.
00:32:24My hope is in heaven.
00:32:26And John 16, 33 tells us this, these things that I have spoken unto you, I've spoken them
00:32:33unto you that in me, you may have peace.
00:32:38In the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.
00:32:46And if you are in me, you've overcome the world too.
00:32:54He makes it very clear.
00:32:56He says, you will have problems.
00:32:59You will have adversity.
00:33:01You will face difficulties, but be of good cheer because I have overcome the world.
00:33:10Why did he tell us that?
00:33:12Because he wanted us to know that when everything around me is shaking, I can remain unshaken.
00:33:22Look at somebody and say, let it shake.
00:33:30I'm going to be all right.
00:33:33Let me tell you something.
00:33:35Just because my world is shaking does not mean that I am shaking.
00:33:42And it is a work in progress, but it doesn't happen overnight.
00:33:51But if I will continue to grow, if I will continue to feed my spirit man, then I will
00:34:00be able to stand in what other people collapse in.
00:34:05You know, we used to sing that song, when the earth all around me is sinking sand on
00:34:15Christ the solid rock, when I need a shelter, he's been my shelter.
00:34:23When I needed a friend, he's been my friend.
00:34:26So when I need a shelter or when I need a friend, I just simply go to the rock.
00:34:32The rock is unmovable.
00:34:34The rock is unchangeable.
00:34:36The rock is unfailing.
00:34:38The rock is unflinchable.
00:34:40The rock is unshakable and Christ is the solid rock.
00:34:48So the more that we come to know the rock, the less we will let life, because you do
00:34:58have a say so in the matter.
00:35:00The less we will let life shake us up.
00:35:05Strong winds for sure.
00:35:08Strong storms for sure.
00:35:11Strong tempest, strong challenges, strong adversities, strong obstacles.
00:35:20But he said, never forget what he said, be of good cheer.
00:35:26I've overcome all of that and I have prevailed in all of that.
00:35:30I have subdued all of that.
00:35:33I have conquered all of that.
00:35:35I have carried off the victory.
00:35:38And the reason I have told you all of this is so that you won't cave in when everything
00:35:45in your life begins to shake.
00:35:49The message Bible says, trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured deeply at peace.
00:35:58For I have overcome the world.
00:36:01I have deprived.
00:36:02What is that?
00:36:03One translation said, I've deprived.
00:36:07I've deprived it of its power to harm you.
00:36:13Look at somebody, tell them the world can't hurt you.
00:36:19He robbed it of his power when he went down to hell and he took the keys of death, of
00:36:27hell and the grave.
00:36:28He robbed the world of its power to harm you.
00:36:33And as you begin to settle the issue and as you begin to believe God and you begin to
00:36:38trust God in greater ways, those things that left you vulnerable and fearful and shaky
00:36:46will begin to settle down in your life.
00:36:50In that particular area, you will become unshakeable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
00:37:07When we are shaking and when we are shaken and when we are troubled and trembling and
00:37:14when we are going through a crisis in our life, we immediately look for who we can pin
00:37:23the blame on.
00:37:26See as long as we're fixing the blame, we cannot fix the problem.
00:37:29I'm going to say that again for the five of you that are in here that likes to blame everybody
00:37:36for everything.
00:37:38Go ahead and do that.
00:37:39You're getting a little old to be doing that, but you can do it.
00:37:43What ends up happening, as long as you're trying to fix the blame, you will never fix
00:37:47the problem.
00:37:49And you will be not just a fool, but you'll be an O.
00:37:57It ain't nothing worse.
00:38:03So go ahead and blame your mama.
00:38:07Go ahead and blame your daddy.
00:38:09Go ahead.
00:38:10Blame the government.
00:38:12Blame the church.
00:38:14Oh, I've had so much church hurt.
00:38:17So have the rest of us.
00:38:24It's the truth.
00:38:27Write this down.
00:38:28I'm going to give you four, four sources of every problem in your life so you'll quit
00:38:35blaming other people.
00:38:39Four sources of every problem in your life.
00:38:45Number one, you.
00:38:48Y'all thought I was going to really give you some deep.
00:38:56It is you.
00:38:59It is your dumb decisions.
00:39:01It is my crazy choices.
00:39:05It is my old man.
00:39:07It is my old nature.
00:39:11Go and read Romans seven and you'll hear more about that.
00:39:15You are the first source of every problem in your life.
00:39:21Number two, the second source of every problem in your life is the world.
00:39:28See the way the world pulls you down is it pulls you down through ridicule and it pulls
00:39:35you down by making you long for acceptance.
00:39:41You want its approval.
00:39:43We want the approval of man so bad that we will lower our standards and we will change
00:39:53our convictions.
00:39:54Lord, if I can ever tell you anything, don't lower your standards for nothing.
00:40:02Don't change your convictions for anything, but we will do that all because we want the
00:40:10world to like us.
00:40:13We want the world to think we're cool.
00:40:16Let me tell you something.
00:40:17You don't need the approval of the world to be happy.
00:40:22I'm going to say that again because I need a few more amen.
00:40:25You don't need the world.
00:40:27I don't need the approval of the world in order to be happy.
00:40:32I don't have to do that.
00:40:33I'll do what Paul said.
00:40:35I will think myself happy.
00:40:40He was in a trial and he said, I will forget about all of that and I'll think myself.
00:40:48When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all that he's done for, my soul cries out.
00:41:01Hallelujah.
00:41:02Thank God I am free.
00:41:10Write this down.
00:41:11The third source of your problem, the third one is Satan himself.
00:41:19Now nevermind that he's a defeated foe because we quickly forget that part, but we allow
00:41:27the enemy to fight us day in and day out.
00:41:33He wants you to be defeated.
00:41:36He has come to kill, to steal and to destroy.
00:41:43And if you don't meet him head on every morning, you might just be heading in the wrong direction
00:41:51because he should be scared when your feet hit the floor.
00:41:56He should be like, what are we going to do to her today?
00:41:59We got to do something because we can't let her just keep moving because if he keeps moving
00:42:04like he does, then we're going to have a big problem.
00:42:07So he works to discourage you.
00:42:09He works to defeat you.
00:42:11He works to distract you with foolish things.
00:42:15He works what Bishop said a while ago.
00:42:18He works to make you doubt God.
00:42:21He wants you to doubt God.
00:42:24He works to make you not only doubt God, but you start doubting yourself.
00:42:30He is already defeated for the Bible said that Jesus made a show of him openly triumphing
00:42:39over him.
00:42:41He is defeated.
00:42:43We just have to know that.
00:42:44The fourth source of your life's problems.
00:42:49Number one, it's you.
00:42:51Number two, it's the world.
00:42:53Number three, it is Satan.
00:42:56And number four, it is God.
00:43:00Yes, I did.
00:43:05I said that it is God because God has a way of taking everything that was meant for evil
00:43:18and working it together for your good.
00:43:22Jeremiah 29 and 11, we all know this says, For I know the plans that I have for you,
00:43:30saith God, plans for good, not to harm you, but to give you a hope and to give you a future.
00:43:44And sometimes in order to get you or me to that place of hope or to that future that
00:43:52God has planned for us, he has to shake up things in our life.
00:44:00Y'all ain't never had him shake up nothing.
00:44:05This is what he did in Daniel's life.
00:44:09I ain't got time to preach this whole chapter, but I feel like I could today.
00:44:14Five, there are five things that he did in Daniel's life to get him through the problems
00:44:22that he was facing.
00:44:23You ready to write?
00:44:27Sometimes God shakes things up to, number one, inspect me.
00:44:39Sometimes he shakes things up to inspect me.
00:44:44He inspects my attitude.
00:44:47He lets somebody cut you off and he's watching to see how you're going to respond.
00:45:00He inspects our heart.
00:45:04Let me say it.
00:45:05He inspects our heart.
00:45:09He inspects our agenda.
00:45:12Now why are you doing that?
00:45:14I know why you're supposed to be doing that, but why are you doing it?
00:45:19He inspects our motivation.
00:45:23What's motivating you?
00:45:26He inspects our character.
00:45:30He inspects our thoughts.
00:45:33And sometimes, like a tea bag, he will drop us in some hot water.
00:45:40Anybody ever had him do that to you?
00:45:43Drop you in hot water just to see what's on the inside of you.
00:45:51He doesn't do that so that he can know what's inside of you, because he already knows.
00:45:58But he does do that because he wants us to know what is inside of us.
00:46:05So sometimes he will allow us to face a crisis just because he wants us to know what we're
00:46:13made of.
00:46:15He shows us, this is what you need to work on in your life.
00:46:20I'm taking your, like you take your car through an inspection and they give you the list of
00:46:25things that are wrong.
00:46:26I have five things that are wrong.
00:46:28Well, I may not be able to get it, get to it all in one day, but little by little, I'm
00:46:33not going to stop until I get it all checked off the list.
00:46:38And he looks at our heart and he expects us, inspects us.
00:46:45And let me tell you something, it is not often what you did that is as bad.
00:46:56As why you did it.
00:47:01Have you ever asked your kids?
00:47:03I'm not asking you what you did, cause I see what you did, but I want to know the why behind
00:47:10all of that.
00:47:11Why did you do that?
00:47:14He inspects us because he is more interested in our integrity than he is our image.
00:47:25We are interested in our image, but God says, I'm interested in your integrity.
00:47:32And so he'll take us through a series of tests, looking at us, trying to inspect our hearts.
00:47:41He took the children of Israel through a 40 year wilderness, a desert to go from Egypt
00:47:51into the promised land.
00:47:53Now they should have, they could have walked there in, in a, in a two month period, but
00:47:59it took them 40 years.
00:48:02Think about that.
00:48:03Why did it take them 40 years when it could have taken them two months?
00:48:09Why was that?
00:48:10Because God kept sending them through tests and they kept failing the test.
00:48:16He actually, he gave them seven tests and I ain't got time to go into all that today,
00:48:20but he gave them seven tests and every time he gave them the test, they failed.
00:48:26So what would he do?
00:48:27He would take the, okay, do it again.
00:48:30Go around another lap.
00:48:32And many of them died in the wilderness because they could not pass the test.
00:48:39Don't get this close.
00:48:47Get somebody and tell them, wake up, you're too close to miss this.
00:48:58They died short of the promise because they couldn't pass the test.
00:49:08God led them into the wilderness.
00:49:11He said, I led you there to humble you, to prove you and to know what is in your heart.
00:49:22And when God takes you and me through the deserts or through the wildernesses of life,
00:49:30he is doing it to us for the very same reason that he did it to the children of Israel to
00:49:37humble us.
00:49:39I ain't got time to talk about all that, but the Bible said, humble yourself under the
00:49:46mighty hand of God.
00:49:49And he's the one that will exalt you in due season.
00:49:54You don't even know what your due season is, but God said, I know your due season.
00:50:00And the fact that I'm holding your back right now is because I'm waiting for you to humble
00:50:06yourself.
00:50:07And I'm doing that because I don't want you to step out and make a fool out of yourself.
00:50:15So I'm taking you through the desert.
00:50:19What is the desert?
00:50:20What is the wildernesses of life?
00:50:24It's the places that you walk through, the seasons that you walk through when you can't
00:50:31even feel God.
00:50:36You can't.
00:50:38You can't feel him.
00:50:41Things all around you have completely dried up.
00:50:48He's dried up your emotions.
00:50:52He's dried up your emotions.
00:50:56And he's doing that so that he can tell if you are trusting in him or if you're trusting
00:51:05in your feelings.
00:51:08And sometimes God will remove the feelings to see if you'll still do what's right anyway.
00:51:21Oh, I don't feel like doing it no more.
00:51:26Do you stop because you don't feel like doing it no more?
00:51:31Or do you pull yourself together and say, but I'm going to do it anyway.
00:51:39The real test of our maturity is not how much we can shout and dance and hear like we were
00:51:47a few minutes ago.
00:51:49But the real test is how straight we can walk when we leave this building and we can't feel
00:51:57anything.
00:51:58Will you trust him when you can't feel anything?
00:52:07Will you trust him in the desert?
00:52:10Will you trust him in the dry places?
00:52:13Will you trust him in the places where you just don't have the feeling that you used to have?
00:52:22Will you still call him your God?
00:52:27Will you still call him your healer?
00:52:31Will you still call him your waymaker when you cannot see a way?
00:52:39Will you still call him your provider when you have no idea how you're going to get through
00:52:47with what you have?
00:52:51Our reactions to dry seasons, listen, is how we measure our faith.
00:53:01I'm going to say it again.
00:53:05Our reactions in dry seasons is how God measures our faith.
00:53:17Your problems measure your faith.
00:53:21Your problems measure your commitment.
00:53:25Your problems measure your maturity.
00:53:29Problems measure your trust level.
00:53:33Because our problems are like refining fires.
00:53:39Are y'all following me?
00:53:44It's like the impurities that are in the gold.
00:53:49As they put them in the fire, the fire drives the infirmities out of the cold and now you
00:53:58have the pure product that is cold.
00:54:02As long as the impurities are somewhere in there, it's not really been tried by fire.
00:54:11But it's when the heat is on.
00:54:15Look at somebody and tell them, can you believe him when the heat is on?
00:54:21Because it's when the heat is on that shows what we really are made of.
00:54:28When the heat is on, it shows what we have inside.
00:54:32You have to ask yourself, when God is inspecting you and you're in the heat of the battle,
00:54:41don't look for somebody to blame, but say, what does this problem about me reveal to
00:54:50me about me?
00:54:54Sometimes, write this down, number two, God shakes up things in our lives to not just
00:55:03inspect us, but he does it to correct us.
00:55:08He does it to correct us.
00:55:10When they failed the idolatry test, God let them be carried off by a foreign nation.
00:55:17And after 70 years of captivity, guess what they never had a problem with again?
00:55:24Idolatry.
00:55:26They said, we've been there, we've done that.
00:55:31And they never again had to deal with idolatry.
00:55:34Hebrews 12, just write it down for reference 8 through 11, it tells us that God corrects
00:55:41his children.
00:55:44And if he can't correct us, we are not his children.
00:55:51So God comes to correct us and we get mad.
00:55:56I have not got to take this and we walk out.
00:56:04We ain't feeling nothing anyway.
00:56:09But let me tell you something, if God can't correct us, we're not his sons and we're not
00:56:17his daughters.
00:56:19As a matter of fact, the correction of God is what legitimizes our place in the family
00:56:24of God.
00:56:28And if you are his son or your daughter, he'll correct you.
00:56:33He'll nudge you in your spirit.
00:56:38And all of a sudden you'll be like, Oh, I should have never said that.
00:56:42I won't ever say that again.
00:56:43I won't ever be there again.
00:56:46I won't stick my head in every door.
00:56:48I won't try to get in every conversation.
00:56:52No.
00:56:54When God spoke from Mount Sinai, his voice shook the earth.
00:57:00But now he says, I will not only shake the earth, but I'm going to shake the heavens
00:57:04too.
00:57:05And by this, he means that he will sift out everything without a solid foundation so that
00:57:13only the unshakable things will be left.
00:57:19Job 5 and 17 says, consider yourself fortunate when God, the all powerful God, chooses to
00:57:31correct you.
00:57:35So God shakes up things in our life when he needs to inspect us, when he needs to correct
00:57:45us.
00:57:46Write this down.
00:57:47Number three, he shakes up things in our life when he needs to direct us.
00:57:55He wants to, whenever he wants to point you into a new direction, he starts shaking things
00:58:02up in our life.
00:58:03And you're wondering why as things all of a sudden begin to shake, because God is trying
00:58:09to reroute your course.
00:58:12Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that shall prevail.
00:58:23What does God use to direct or redirect his children?
00:58:28Look at somebody and say problems.
00:58:31When the prodigal son ran out of money, when he ran out of friends, when he started almost
00:58:40to the point of to eat what the hogs had walked in and urinated in, and it was such a mess.
00:58:50When he started to eat that, the Bible said that he came to himself.
00:58:58I bet he said, oh, this is probably not what I should be doing with my life.
00:59:05Have you ever had one of those come to Jesus moments where you're like, okay, I can't,
00:59:10the way of the transgressor is hard.
00:59:12I cannot keep doing this.
00:59:17But here's the deal.
00:59:18We rarely think of our life's direction when everything is going good.
00:59:26Because when everything is going good, oh, we got it on cruise control.
00:59:30We going to do this.
00:59:31We going to do that.
00:59:34One of our values of having problems in our lives, one of the good things is that the
00:59:43problems will teach us things that we wouldn't normally think about.
00:59:50So we have to ask ourselves the question, where is this problem leading me?
00:59:57And this is what David said when he started evaluating himself.
01:00:01He said in Psalms 119 and 59, I've been thinking about my life.
01:00:07I have thought about my life, he said, and in the thinking process, it's caused me to
01:00:14redirect my feet back to your written instructions.
01:00:24David said, I've been thinking about the things I've been messing up at.
01:00:28And the more I think about it, the more I start telling my feet, no, walk in the instructions
01:00:33of God.
01:00:34Walk in what he has told you.
01:00:37Don't worry about finding out what's new.
01:00:39Just try to master what he's already told you.
01:00:43Tell your feet, nope, you will walk this path.
01:00:47You will walk the straight and narrow.
01:00:50You will walk in the steps that God has ordained for you.
01:00:55He redirected his feet.
01:00:58Tell somebody, redirect your feet back to the written instructions.
01:01:07Number four, sometimes God shakes things up to not only inspect us, to not only correct
01:01:14us, to not only direct us, but number four, he shakes things up to protect us.
01:01:26Sometimes pain will protect you from something worse happening.
01:01:36Think about that.
01:01:38Pain will tell you something's wrong in my body and I need to find out what it is.
01:01:46See, your problem may ultimately end up protecting you from a bigger problem.
01:01:55And if you pay attention to the pain, if you will pay attention to the pain, how about
01:02:05this, if you pay attention to the pain of the cavity, you might not have to pay the
01:02:14price for a root canal.
01:02:22Sometimes our problems are really a blessing in disguise.
01:02:30John 36 and 16 says, God has led you away from danger and given you freedom.
01:02:42So we've got to trust God in every problem.
01:02:49Ask Joseph, Joseph's brothers meant it for evil, but sometimes God will use your problems
01:02:57to protect you.
01:02:59They put him out, but it was for his protection.
01:03:04Even though he got down into part of his house and part of his wife lied on him, he still
01:03:10kept his integrity intact.
01:03:14God was bigger than the lie that she tried to pull on him.
01:03:22The fever that you are having is often a warning that there's an infection going on.
01:03:33So sometimes the problem will be what protects you.
01:03:37Here's the last one.
01:03:39The fifth reason that God shakes things up is to perfect me.
01:03:49First Peter five and 10 says, after you have suffered a while, a while, then he said, I
01:04:03will make you perfect.
01:04:08I will establish you.
01:04:12I will strengthen you and I will settle you, but you got to suffer a while and you got
01:04:23to be okay with that because if you don't suffer, when God brings you into abundance,
01:04:30you don't really appreciate it.
01:04:33But if you have been through some suffering and God blesses your life with good health,
01:04:43it makes you think twice.
01:04:47Come on.
01:04:51The Bible said in Romans five, three and four, the living Bible says we can rejoice when
01:04:57we run into problems and trials for we know that they are good for us because they help
01:05:04us to learn to be patient and patience then develops strength and then strength develops
01:05:13character in us and it helps us to trust God more and more every time we use it.
01:05:25So when God removes certain things from our life, don't be so quick to run back and get
01:05:35them.
01:05:42He's trying to perfect you.
01:05:45He's saying, let that go and he knows when you can handle it.
01:05:51He knows when he can take that man out of your life.
01:05:56I ain't talking about your husband.
01:05:59You all in.
01:06:00Okay.
01:06:01You just all in.
01:06:02He knows when to take that so-called friend out of your life, behave because he has a
01:06:10goal and he has a purpose for your life and he'll take them out.
01:06:15So don't run chasing them, trying to get them put back in cause God will create for
01:06:22you a custom made problem.
01:06:30That's what happened to Jonah.
01:06:33He got a custom made problem.
01:06:37God said, go this way.
01:06:38He said, I'm going that way.
01:06:39I'm going that way.
01:06:41And he listened to his flesh and he disobeyed God, ended up in the belly of the whale covered
01:06:51in guts and seaweed and all of that.
01:06:56The good thing was is God is so faithful that when the whale spit him out, at least he was
01:07:03heading in the right direction.
01:07:09Have you ever been swallowed up by something and when it was all said and done, you thought,
01:07:17Lord, I got to go through so much.
01:07:20I got to start all over again.
01:07:22But the next thing you know, at least you're headed in the right direction.
01:07:33So how can I grow?
01:07:36How can I grow from the problems in my life?
01:07:42Number one, keep doing right.
01:07:45I don't care what they said.
01:07:46I don't care what they're trying to label you as.
01:07:50Keep doing right.
01:07:52Keep pleasing God.
01:07:54Keep being pleasing in his sight.
01:07:57Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, but I lost something so special.
01:08:04Trust in the Lord with all of your heart.
01:08:07Lean not to your own understanding, get off of your own understanding.
01:08:14In all of your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path.
01:08:25Let me tell you, I'm wearing a shirt that says unshakable.
01:08:33Some of you are too, but it's the stuff that we go through in life that God brings us through
01:08:44that makes us unshakable in that area.
01:08:50There might be some things that would cause me to shake.
01:08:53I'm just going to be honest.
01:08:55But there are other things that I whooped his behind a long time ago.
01:09:04I ain't crying over that.
01:09:07I'm not losing my mind over that.
01:09:12I'm not panicking over that.
01:09:14I don't mean no disrespect, but when I went through it that last time, it was going to
01:09:20be the last time for me.
01:09:26And now when the enemy comes in like a flood to wreck my mind and tell me it's going to
01:09:34take me out, I stand there and while everything around me may be shaking, I am unshakable
01:09:45in that area because on Christ, solid rock.
01:09:55So don't despise what you've been through.
01:09:59Some of you are in the middle of it right now.
01:10:02You're in the heat of the fire right now, but the Lord brought me here to tell you,
01:10:10it's okay.
01:10:11I'm just making you unshakable in that area.
01:10:20I know him for myself.
01:10:23You come telling me God ain't real.
01:10:25Have you lost your mind?
01:10:27Do you know what he brought me out of?
01:10:32You must not know what he brought me through.
01:10:36He's real.
01:10:37I ain't shaking over that.
01:10:41Some of you are, you're just like, you're hoping you're going, you're coming through
01:10:47it.
01:10:48You're right at the end of the tunnel, but you're not completely sure, but God brought
01:10:55you here today to tell you, I'm just making you unshakable.
01:11:02That's why everything around you is shaking, but what you can do is when everything around
01:11:08you is shaking, if you've got the victory in that area, you can go eat a hot dog.
01:11:15You can go have some wings because in that area of your life, you got this.