Transcription
Exodus chapter 8, verse 20. And the Lord said to Moses, "Rise early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh as he comes out to the water, and then say to him, 'Thus says the Lord, "Let my people go, that they may serve me." Or else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you, and your servants, and your people, and into your houses. Notice that the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and the ground on which they stand.'"
And in that day, this is so powerful, verse 22. And in that day, I will set apart, one translation says, draw a line in the land of Goshen, in which my people, that no swarms of flies shall be there. They bumped up to each other. There was no wall or barrier. They, they came right up like neighborhoods, but he said in Goshen, there shall be no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the Lord your God in the midst. I will make a difference between my people and your people. Tomorrow, this shall be a sign. And the Lord did so. Thick swarms of flies came into the house of Pharaoh, and his servants, and houses, into all the land of Egypt. The land was corrupted because of the flies.
But verse 31. The Lord did according to the word of Moses. He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and the people. Not one remained. I want to preach to you for just a few moments this morning on "No More Flies." I really believe that we serve a turnaround God. He can turn around things and fix things that we think are impossible. And when he does it, it happens quick. You're going to get that phone call. You're going to get that open door. You're going to meet that person that you're supposed to meet. You're going to see the goodness of God in the land of the living. It's going to happen. And what the vision is yet for an appointed time, though it tarries, Habakkuk said, don't give up on it. And he didn't say try to kick the door in. He said, wait for it. It will surely come to pass.
There is a God in heaven who reaches a point where he says, "It's enough." I'm drawing a line. I'm drawing a line. God said through Moses, "Let my people go to serve and worship me." And then when Mo- when Pharaoh said no, the fourth plague was released. It was the swarms of tormenting flies. But what, what I want you to know is this is so important. This is the premise of my whole little message here. The first three plagues, the water turning to blood, the frogs, frogs, a plague of frogs, lice on everybody, in everybody's hair, on all over every animal, not just a little, a lot. Those first three plagues, everybody went through them, including the Jewish people, including the people who were supposed to come out of Egypt. God let his people go through exactly the same suffering, exactly the same plagues and torments as, as the Egyptians. A type of people who are lost. He let them go through the same suffering, the same torment, the same anguish, the same season of sorrow. But he said on this fourth plague of flies, "But this day, I will sever, or I will draw a line in the sand, and my people will dwell in Goshen, and there shall be no more flies there."
I want to ask you a question. I want you to see the picture. On this day, when God says, "All right, they've all gone." When the water was polluted, and everybody was thirsting, and blood and dead fish everywhere, it was stinking, it was terrible. They all are suffering for weeks and months and months. And then when the lice are released, they're all scratching and itching. And when the frogs are in the bed, and frog- the Bible said they could not even walk without frogs. I, we can't imagine this. The whole land was covered with frogs. And the Jewish people, the Hebrew people, were going through the exact same plagues. But this time, God said, "I am declaring a no-fly zone." I am, I am declaring that you know. And I couldn't help but think when the Lord laid this message on my heart several years ago, it was during the pandemic that we all went through. The pandemic. It wasn't just the loss that, and those that didn't know God, and those that didn't believe, but we were suffering just like them. We had anxiety and mental attacks and, and losing our dreams and visions and everything falling to pieces and families getting addicted and all kinds of stuff. How many of you can relate to stuff that happened during the pandemic that was a, that was unbelievable? It's like a plague on our nation. But that plague, we all went through. And the question is, something changed with this fourth plague. Something significant. When God said, "I'm decreeing a no-fly zone." He puts everybody through the first three plagues. And the question is, why do we have to suffer like they suffer? Why did God allow the Israelites to go through the same suffering as the world, and the people who were tormenting God's people were going through?
I'm going to tell you why. Have you ever had a faith fog? I understand, God. I understand that I'm going to go through trials and troubles, but I don't understand why that person who don't ever go to church, look at them rolling up in that nice car, look at their happy little family, and we're going through hell, we're going through this, we're going through that. I want you to understand a principle. Exodus 12 and verse 38 says that when they came out of Egypt, the Hebrews, when they came out, you'll read right over this and miss it, they were quote, "a mixed multitude." Which means while they were in Egypt suffering, there were Egyptians who watched the Hebrews worship their God in the midst of their pain, in the midst of their suffering, in the midst of their tears, in the midst of their fears. They were so moved. They said, "I'm worshiping my gods, but I don't, I'm going through the same thing in my house that they're going through. Their families are going through the same challenges that my families. But there's something different about them. They have a hope. They have a joy. They have a peace in the midst of, of everything that I'm going through."
I want to ask you a question. Since we do have to go through hard times and suffering, when you get saved, there is no promise that you will not face tribulation. As a matter of fact, the devil is not going to send you a congrat- congratulatory telegram saying, "Hey, uh, congratulations, you got saved last Sunday. Let me send you some extra money just to make sure." Hell's going to break out. But that's when the Egyptians start noticing you. And have you suffered in such a way that an Egyptian wants to convert? Because they've seen you walking with Jesus through the fire. See, we are not to suffer like the Egyptians suffer. We will go through things, but we don't have the same outlook. We don't go to the same sources. When the world suffers, they get high. They get drunk. When the world suffers, they have an affair. When the world is hurting, they turn to other things. They try this, that, and the other. But when we suffer, we turn more to the Lord. We say, "God, I don't just praise you when I'm on the mountain. I praise you when I'm in the valley. I know you're real in the fiery furnace. I'll praise you in a lion's den. I'll praise you when my back is beaten and it's the midnight hour. I'll praise you because you're still a good God. I'll praise you in a graveyard when I bury somebody I love. I'll praise you in an intensive care unit when all I've got is a question mark for a brain." Why did you allow this to happen to that person? That's when the Egyptians get converted. Because they may never read this black book called the Bible. But Paul said, "We are living epistles." Which means they may never read this book, but they're reading you. They watch you struggle in your marriage just like they struggle. But instead of getting a divorce, you get some counseling. You hold each other's hands, and you get up and come to church. And you came in mad, but you leave glad. You came in fussing in the parking lot, you leave praising, saying, "Well, Hallelujah! I love you again. Again, let's just do this thing." Oh, come on and shout somebody! This is the faith that overcomes the world! Hallelujah! Child of God suffers differently than the Egyptians. That's why at the midnight hour, Paul and Silas, with bloody backs, began to sing praises, and the jailer heard them, and the prisoners heard them, and they all started. The jailer got converted, not when everything was powerful and supernatural and walking in blessing, but when they were beaten and they were praising. We suffer in such a way that the world wants our God. They're watching us. We live in the freedom of forgiveness. Do you know the Bible said they washed the man that, that the man washed their stripes? The attitude. Here's what I want to preach now. The attitude to move you into Goshen, where there's no more flies, has to shift. Before you are taken into Goshen, forgiveness needs to gush out of us. The key to moving you out of suffering like everybody else is forgiveness has to start gushing out of you. Have you suffered in a way that wounds embittered people? Have you suffered in a way? If you've lost a loved one, there are people who've lost a loved one. If you've been through a divorce, there are people all around you going through a divorce. If you've been through cancer and, and treatment and chemo, there are people all around you. And why didn't God take you out of it? I don't know. He does heal. We are believin- supern- but if God allows us to go through it, it's so that we can reach back to somebody who's going through the same pain, darkness, depression, and fear, and say, "The God that I serve, I know I'm on the other side. There's joy in the morning. Weeping will endure for the night, but joy will come in the morning." I'm sorry if I'm screaming, and I know I'm, I don't mean to scream, but I feel this thing. Something's building in this place. The anointing is coming in this room. God's going to make sense out of your pain. God's going to, it's going to all come together. Together, you're about to turn the corner, and you're going, "Oh, I had to go through that, and I had to walk through that to get to this, and I wouldn't be ready for this if I hadn't gone through that." You see, we suffer differently. See, uh, you may have to go through it, but you don't have to look like what you've been through. You know, you don't have to look like the Cover Girl of the book of Lamentations. I don't, I, I, I, I don't have to smell like the fiery furnaces I've been through. I don't have to smell like bitter. I don't have to smell like addiction. I don't have to smell like unforgiveness. I can go through the fire, and the Bible said they didn't just not burn up, but there was not the smell of smoke on Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego. Turn to somebody and take a whiff and say, "You smell like what you've been through." But if you'll let God, he'll release forgiveness, and you'll have a new aroma of joy and peace and love, the fruits of the spirit. Everybody take a praise break and give him a shout right now! Oh!
Hallelujah! Something good is going to happen to you. Something better things are coming. Something beyond what you have ever experienced. If you'll let go of unforgiveness, turn to your neighbor and say, "Are you still plugged into P- I told him in the first service, we're not Pentecostals. Well, we're, we're Pentecostals. We're Pentecostals, not Pentecostals. And I'll throw this one in there, not Pentecostals either. Not a bunch of broke, poor people on the other side of the tracks. I'm the head and not the tail. I'm above only and not beneath. I lend and I don't borrow. Hallelujah! Ah, I feel this thing. I'm prophesying to you, City Light. You're going to be debt-free quicker than you ever imagined. You're about to move into Goshen. There's life there. There's no flies there. There's no rotting there. There's no ruin there. Calm down. I can hear my wife's voice. Calm down. You're so intense. She tells me that all the time. Before I go up, sometimes she says, "Don't embarrass me. Calm down. You don't have to scream." She hasn't changed me all these years. I'm talking big when she's not here. Amen. I heard the Lord say, "You can't have pity and power at the same time." So ask yourself, do you want to be pitiful or do you want to be powerful? And if you're ready to get powerful, you got to let pity, self-pity. But you don't know what I've been through. But you don't know what you're going to let the grudge go. Every family, every marriage, let the grudge go. The devil wants to divide and conquer. There's such a blessing waiting for your family beyond this current plague that you've been in. Hold on to each other. Defy devils and demons and say, "This home, this marriage is holy ground, and you can't have my babies. You can't have my children. You can't have my destiny. You can't have my husband or my wife. I will not give up on what God has joined together. Let no devil put us under." Woo! That's for somebody. The gates of hell will not prevail against your house if you'll believe it.
I'm almost done. You know what a scab is? This is a definition of a scab. Something that tried to heal a wound. The only thing that can stop a scab from healing the wound is if you keep digging at it. I love this definition. A scab that should have healed five years ago can still be a fresh wound. A scab leaves a scar, usually if it's big enough. And a scar is a testimony that says, "I left it alone long enough to let it heal." If you keep pulling the scab off of something that happened three years ago, you keep doing this, you're not leaving it alone long enough to let it. And flies are attracted to scabs and openings. And at some point, you've got to move into Goshen and gush with forgiveness. So why did he choose the fourth plague? No flies that will be on my people. Why? Why not the first or the second or the third? Why this particular insect? The fly. He said, "I'm decreeing a no-fly zone." Why start with the flies? Flies signify death. I go out in the woods a lot. I, I live in the woods basically, and I love it. But you can always tell when something's dead. There will be flies on it. You can always tell when fruit is rotten. Flies are attracted to it. And flies speak of death. Listen, flies speak of deterioration. Flies speak of ruin. Flies speak of decay. But God said, "I'm drawing a line, and the flies will be all over their houses, all in their houses, would be signs of death and divorce and destruction and decay and ruin. But I'm drawing a line of protection on my people, and there will be no flies of death and deterioration and decay." That says, "Just give up on it. There's no hope." If you'll let me, God said, "If you'll get under the blood of the Lamb and get on the right side of forgiveness, I'm going to draw a line." Things that I spoke to you and I promised you, that the flies have been all over saying, "It's over. It's too late. It's not going to happen. It's never going to be a reality." God says, "I'm declaring no more flies. No, no flies on." I'm speaking it today over this house, over this pastor, over this ministry. This is going to be a no-fly zone. No flies on your dreams. No flies on your children and your children's children. No flies on the vision that God gave you for that business. No flies on your calling and your purpose and your anointing. No flies over this church. No flies over your family. Shoe fly, get away from my family. Get away from my son, you demon of drugs. Get away, alcohol, from my children. Get away, sexual perversion and gender confusion. You can't have this city. Woo! You can't have Las Vegas, devil. You can't have this city. This city belongs to King Jesus. No more flies. The king of Las Vegas is not Elvis. The king of Las Vegas is not Be-elzebub, the devil. The king of Las Vegas is Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Clap your hands and shout!
Let me preach five more minutes and I'll be done. He's doing good. He's doing, he's learned that song. I want you to say something. I want you to make a declaration over things that hell's whispered, "It's dead. It's over. Give up on it. There's no hope." I want you to decree in Jesus' name, "I'm in Goshen now. There's life here. There's light here. Here's a big one: there's provision here. No more flies. No more demons telling me I can't do this because I don't have the money. No more. No more. No more. No more. Provisions here." When I went to Free Chapel, our tithes and offerings, the church that I pastored, few hundred people that we had gathered, $1,500 a week. I had no staff. I had no money. Me and my wife didn't know what we were doing. My knees weren't knocking, they were missing. I was terrified. When I see this, when I see this couple, I see myself. I see shares because it's the same spirit. It's the same anointing. And I, I can remember praying, "God, why don't you just send somebody so hard? Why don't you just send somebody, write the check for this and that?" Because we, we had building program after building program after building program. Then we, we, we literally bought an old farm, 150 acres, that was a cow and bee farm. Land flowing with milk and honey. Man, I'm, I'm getting messed up up here. We were in a, we were in a, a roller rink, a skating rink when we first started. Did you know that we were the original holy rollers? And that's, that's the history of our church. And then a cinder block, y'all know what cinder blocks are, and just a, a roof, held about 75 to 100 people, 50 on each side. Then we got into the building. Then we built another one. Built another one. But I remember thinking, "God, we got to that biggest where we're at now, it's 150 acres, $25 million." Back 20 years ago, was I thought God would have to hold the gates of Pearly Gates, man. I mean, he's going to have to. How in the world will we ever pay for this? God told us to build it. And I, I personally, and I travel all over the world, I personally have never seen a church in seven years need a building as bad as you need a building in all my years of travel. Which tells me the purpose that God has, it ain't just about you, it's about your children, your children. But let me go further than that. It's about your friends. It's about this strip. It's about the addicts. It's about the prostitutes. It's about the people he's going to use. Can I, can I just, I read this last night when Nehemiah was building the walls, and the Lord told me to tell you this. I forgot about this. Thank you, Holy Spirit. I was reading this, and I had never seen this. The Bible said that, uh, Sanballat, the critic. It's always the critics. The criticize is the smallest size. Why don't you jump in and do something? Anyhow, these people online, they get on my nerves. You try a ministry. There's no amount of money. I'm just being honest. There is, is no amount of money that could make me do what I'm doing. It's too much scrutiny. It's too much expected. Everybody in your family's got to walk like little ducks and be perfect, and if they don't, everybody sees it. Everybody sees. We struggle just like you struggle. Me and my wife get in arguments. We go through things where she don't like me, and I don't like her. This is, we are real people. We're not these, these little things are, that's not angel's wings, that's shoulder blades. There, there, don't be build us up like we're some, we're pitiful. We really are because we have to carry a load that is unspeakable at times. You've got five crises going on all the time. You're juggling a funeral. My, my emotions somewhere all over the place. I'm praying over a few weeks ago, a 17-year-old who got hit, beautiful model, cut her leg off. The car hits her. And then I'm going over here and marrying a couple. And I'm, don't, and I'm, if you love him, this man loves you. He's not building buildings. He loves people. And the Lord said, when Nehemiah started building the walls, the Bible said Sanballat showed up and said, "This is exactly what it says." Said, "What are you going to do? How are you going to build the walls with nothing but quote, 'trash and burned stones'?" Trash and burned stones. The Lord spoke to me and said, "Tell Pastor Jain that the way he's going to build those walls, I'm looking at a bunch of trash." So if you're trashy, this is your church. If your marriage is a little trashy, this is your church. If you've been burned over, this is your church. If you feel used up, broken, if you feel dysfunctional, if you're nothing, they call you nothing but trash, God says, "Let me mix that trash with blood and watch me build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail." I'll take that prostitute. I'll take that divorce. I'll take that addict. I'll put them right here. I'll put them right here, and they'll become the walls of salvation. Woo! Hallelujah! I want some trashy people to give God the praise if you believe when you see trash, he sees treasure.
And God removed the swarms from Egypt. Not one fly remained. Would you stand to your feet, please? All over the building now. There's an unusual anointing here this morning, and I'm thankful to God. I feel like I'm in the presence of the Lord right now, and this is greater than money. This is more precious than anything this world has to offer, to have a house of God where the Holy Spirit can be felt, and you're in that presence of the Lord. I'm going to ask you just to slip your hands up high. I don't care who you are. I don't care if you never raised your hand in church before, that's fine. This is your big breakthrough moment. Just throw it up. Nobody, it feels weird the first time. You, it feels like a big air balloon or something, but just throw it up there, and it's saying, "God, here's my house. Here's my dreams. Here's my hopes. Here's my children, my precious children. Here's my, my singleness. Here's my loneliness. No more flies. The enemy's told me to give up, that it's too late, but no more flies in my house. God has said it. God has spoken it. God has drawn a line, and today I cross over the bloodline and I say, in the name of Jesus, I release forgiveness." Say that. "I release forgiveness. I'm moving in Goshen. I let it go." Look at me just a moment. Offense is an action, but offended is a choice. It's a reaction. And you can't stop what somebody's done to you and how they continue to do it to you. Offense is an action that is wrong, but offense and taking it on is a choice. "They that love thy law, nothing shall offend them." At what does that mean? You're walking in that? No, it just means you choose to see the promise and by faith, let it go. God will deal with it in his time.