Transcription
[Music] Uh, listen. You've got a special opportunity. We're doing a special promotion starting now. You can purchase a registration for our International Leadership Summit and get one half off. Not both of them, but one, one of them half off. So you can bring somebody with you or take advantage of our one-of-a-kind group deals. We have scenarios for everyone. Auxiliaries, a lot of times the pastors come, the leaders come, but they don't bring their team. And it's like Moses going up on the mountaintop and seeing the glory of God and coming down, and the people he had to work with were dancing naked around the calf. I found out if you go up by yourself, you come down, uh, back to the level you were on again because you didn't bring anybody up with you. Look at somebody and say, "Bring somebody up with you." I urge you. You can get groups for 12, 25, or 50. You can go on the site and learn more about it. I urge you to use this offer while it lasts, 'cause it will not last long. It's just a Christmas special. Uh, this is our Black Friday. Anyway, I urge you to. Y'all missed it. I, I hate it when y'all miss something. I'm trying to be funny. It just hurts my feelings so bad. Mmm. I'm auditioning in case y'all farm me. I could do stand-up comedy or something for a little bit. I tell you what, back to the corner, I could give them a run for the money. Don't, don't, don't laugh at me now.
I urge you to use this offer while it lasts and take advantage of the experiences set up for you. Nevertheless, the occasion to glean wisdom from today's leading experts has never been more critical. Please don't sleep through this. And I won't. I'll try not to go off on it because I just came back from Atlanta talking about the urgency of right now, the prevailing change, the paradigm shift of our times, the entrance of AI, the inflation that we're dealing with, the economy, uh, coming up, but the inflation not going down. You have to be a creative leader. The stress, the pressure, the fatigue, the frustration. Just because you wear a collar doesn't mean that you have mental health.
[Music] Just because you have a corner seat in a corporate office doesn't mean that people don't get on your very. Yeah, that last one. My wife has a jar in the house that says, "Mama's Last Nerve." I stay away from it. I dance all the way around that nerve 'cause I don't know what'll happen if I get that last nerve. Now, that next-to-the-last one, I will get on it in a minute. But that last nerve, you wouldn't like me if you made me mad. Most of you know that the theme of our event is "Timing is Everything." And it's not just a slogan or an idea. If, if we don't take advantage of time and be proactive, more times than not, we end up reactive. After we are assaulted, after we are wounded, after we are fired, after we are in trouble, then we go to God. But if we would seek the Lord early, the whole purpose is to seek the Lord early, get ahead of it, and find out what you need to do to be prepared. God has a prepared blessing for a prepared people. And I want to be prepared. I don't want to get ready. I want to stay ready. I was saying, "Get ready, get ready, get ready." 40 years ago. If you ain't ready now, I don't know what to say for you. That's all I can do.
So, uh, take advantage of that. Again, it's March 21st through the 23rd. There's information on the screen. Amongst the mighty preachers that we have, we have. I'm so proud of our lineup this year. It's one of the most. We got everybody. Gen X, Gen Y, Millennials, Gen Q, Gen R, Boomers, Bammers, and Beamers. They're all going to represent. From Jake and Jones to Sarah Jakes Roberts to just about everybody you can think of. I, I resent the fact that you all didn't start clapping till I said Sarah Jakes Roberts. I'm, I'm terribly offended by that. No, we've got Keon Henderson. We've got great. Yeah, go ahead, clap. Go ahead. I can't beat it. I can't beat it. Can't beat it. Just join. Listen, it's some of everybody there. Also joining us, on, on to focus on some of the business issues and important issues, is, uh, the head, the Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Marsha Fudge. She'll be joining us. I talked to her when I was in Atlanta. She's coming in to talk to us about what to do with that excess property you have that you're just sitting on, and how to turn it into an answer to our city's problems for housing and development, and an answer for your retirement plan, 'cause your 401k has turned into a 401c. You, you know. And so, in case you need to supplement your income, you need to. You, sometimes God gives us assets that we don't recognize. Can, can I get a good amen in here? And she's going to tell you how to take advantage of some special programs that HUD has available for you and just deal with a plethora of different things. Things that I think are very important.
In the Book of Numbers, Chapter number 20, verse 2-13, there you will find the reading of the word of the Lord. Open your hearts and your minds as we contemplate the text, that we might extrapolate from it the substance that is necessary to sustain us through the vicissitudes of life. We thank our God for sustaining us through winter, spring, summer, and fall. You sustained us at every age and stage. You sustained us when you have it. Say amen. Numbers 20 and two. And there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people strove with Moses, gave him a real hard time, and spake, saying, "Would that we had died when our brethren died before Jehovah!" And, "Wherefore have ye brought the assembly of Jehovah into the wilderness, that we should die there, we and our beast? And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us into this evil place? It is no place of seed, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink." And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly. I don't blame them. Unto the door of the tent of meeting. Sometimes you got to get away from folks. And fell upon their faces. And the glory of Jehovah appeared unto them. And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, "Take the rod, and assemble the, the congregation. I'm not going to use anything you don't already have. Thou and Aaron, thy brother, and speak ye, and speak ye, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, that it give forth its water. And thou shall bring forth to them water out of the rock. So thou shall give the congregation and their cattle drink." And Moses took the rod from before Jehovah, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock. And he said unto them, "Hear now, ye rebels. Moses was hot. Hear now, ye rebels. Shall we bring you forth water out of this rock?" And Moses lifted up his hand and smote the rock with his rod twice. And water came forth abundantly. Somebody shout, "Abundantly!" Abundantly! And the congregation drank, and their cattle. And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron, "Because ye believed not in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them." These are the waters of Meribah, because the children of Israel strove with Jehovah, and he sanctified. And he was sanctified in them. Can you see? Say amen.
Amen. For the next few moments, I would like to talk to you. You might not be in this place right now, and you might not need it today, but save it. You'll need it tomorrow. I want to talk to you from the subject: "Working Through Hard Places." In doubt, me, sir. With Your Grace, empower me with Your presence. Invigorate this clay body with the kind of glory that enables it to function in supernatural ways. Translate me out of my flesh into the kingdom of Your dear Son, and let me feed the flock. For beneath, beneath all of the fancy frally of this occasion, truth of the matter is, many of us are working through hard places. We're dancing, but we're working through hard places. We're smiling, but we're working through hard places. We even clapped our hands, but we are working through hard places. Anything you can tell us that will help us with what you have for us to do. We are hungry to receive because we don't want to get this close to the promise and stagger in unbelief. Now bless the furtherance of the, the service in Jesus name, we pray. Somebody shout, amen. You may be seated.
We are in the Book of Leviticus. We are studying the life of Moses. We are delving into the fact that he has been assigned to people who have not been kind, because God doesn't always assign you to nice people. And just because they're not nice does not mean that you're not assigned. We're living in a time that people give up their assignment for their comfort. They think that if they are not comfortable, then they are not assigned. Mind, but occasionally God assigns you to hard places. And depending on what was modeled in front of you, and what your character level is, and your personality profile exhibits, it is possible for you to forsake the assignment because of the surroundings to which you have been assigned. We are very vocal generation. We have all of us have become news reporters. We don't just vocalize in our home, we vocalize publicly because we don't always like the assignment. It is in a way, retaliation. But behind the retaliation, there's no judgment here, it's frustration. Frustration occurs when our life does not look like what we imagined it to be. We're looking at the imagination of the people and saying, "Where are the figs? All I see is sand dunes and gusts of high air. Where is the pomegranates? Where is the promised land?" They are assaulting Moses and making him responsible for their choice to go. It is not as though Moses has put a sword to their throat and asked them to go. No. And it is not as though Egypt was a wonderful place to be. But isn't it amazing how quickly we forget what worse was like?
My first point, I want to leave in your hearing is that underestimating the difficulty of the assignment will get you in trouble. Underestimating the difficulty of the assignment is, in part, a fault of our own mentors, because they often made it look easier than it really was. Not wanting to murmur and complain, they made it look more simplistic. But when you actually took the job, when you actually had the baby, when you actually got married, when you actually started the business, when you actually started the career, it was not as glamorous as dating. It, dating is far more glamorous than marriage. Dating is filled with Tic Tacs and deodorant and cologne and, and nicety. Marriage got bad breath, sharp words, unexpected situations. "It's too cold in here. Turn the heat up." "It's too hot for my people over 50. Turn it down." The, the discrepancies in our comfort has become so paramount that now we sleep in the same bed, but we got different sides. So you can tilt up while I tilt down, and you can regulate the temperature because we can't even agree on the temperature in the room. We do not understand that hard places are given to strong people. The question is, can God trust you with a hard place? I know he can trust you when everything is falling into place. But can he trust you in a layoff? Can he trust you through a repossession and you're moving back in with your mama? Where is your praise now? While your enemies are saying, "Where is your God?" Your God is saying, "Where is your praise?" Or do you only love me when I play Santa Claus in your life? As long as I'm coming down the chimney, you got cookies. But what happened when God does not show up the way you expected him to show up, in the form you expected him to show up in? Can you still be assigned and uncomfortable? Can you be assigned and be miserable? Now, I'm not talking about the things you assign yourself to, 'cause some of this stuff you got into, God didn't assign you to. Your lust assigned you to it. Your sin assigned you to it. Your pride assigned you to it. Your ego assigned you to it. Your overinflated confidence assigned you to it. But I'm talking about the times that God has assigned you to a hard place, and you're rebuking the devil and pleading the blood and trying to cast out devils that are absent from the situation because it was all right in spring and summer and fall, but now winter has set in, and you're not dressed for a hard place. I'm wondering if you understand. If it were easy, anyone could do it. I said, if it were easy, anyone could do it. If it were easy, anyone could be a great parent. If it were easy, anyone could be a great husband. If it were easy, anyone could be a great wife. Truth of the matter is, some of y'all are hard to be married to.
Just keep looking straight ahead. I'm going to get you through it without a scratch. Hard mothers-in-law. Yeah, I know they're coming over for dinner next week. It's going to be all right. Hard father-in-law. And now you got to serve somebody who complains about everything you do. "That's not the way I make my potato salad. What did, what did you put in this?" Assigned to a hard place. Assigned to a boss who gives you a task to do, takes all the credit, and never acknowledges you. Assigned to a hard place. You drive to work speaking in tongues 'cause you consider your, the job you prayed for. Speaking in tongues now, you're speaking in tongues trying to endure the answer God gave you because now you realize that the paycheck doesn't matter because I'm assigned to a hard place. You don't yet realize that people are fickle. So you bought into their praises and you bought into their adoration, and you bought into you were liked, and you were accepted, and you were loved, and you were appreciated, and you were validated. And you didn't understand that people are fickle. These are the same people that Moses stopped from dying by lifting up the brazen serpent in the wilderness. These are the same people that Moses prayed till bread loaves fell from heaven. That's, these are the same people that Moses cast a tree into the bitter waters of Marah and caused them to drink healthily. These are the same people that an 80-year-old man was walking through the wilderness, and he had, had not had a drink of water either. See that part? No empathy for the fact that Moses' mouth is dry. No empathy for the fact that Moses is just as depleted and older. These are the generations born in the wilderness. They're half his age, young enough to be his children, maybe a quarter of his age. And they are complaining about an old man who never made them go from Egypt. This is the man that prayed in such a way that not one of their children died while all of, all of the Egyptian firstborn sons were destroyed. But we get amnesia when we get uncomfortable. Oh, you don't believe it? But keep living. People will forget everything you did because of one thing you did and throw you completely away. These are the same people who are, uh, calling him and attacking him and blaming him and assaulting him. They're the same people who later will cry at the bottom of the mountain because he's dead. Because we deify the dead while we crucify the living. Some people don't get wonderful till they get gone. Woo! My God! Then I really appreciate it until you roll over and that side of the bed is empty. I'm talking about the fickleness of people. The procurement of the promise doesn't negate problems. With every promise, we just got through shouting about, they will not come without problems and obstacles and setbacks and delays and trauma and adversity. You thought you were going to eat the figs and the pomegranates without stress. You thought you would drink the water without dryness. And by the way, you're not the only one who's thirsty. Everybody in the text is thirsty. The people are thirsty. Moses is thirsty. God is thirsty for the praises of his people. He has nothing to drink but complaint. And everyone in the text is dry and still moving. You're not a full-grown man until you can walk dry. You're not a real woman until you can walk dry. Dry meaning your needs are not being met. Legitimate needs. Dry meaning you don't get things the way you want them to be. Dry meaning you can't control the external circumstances around your life. And you must make progress under pressure. Progress under pressure. Is there anybody in here that knows what it's like to make progress under pressure? And yes, we get frustrated over our, our haters because our haters think our walk was easier than it was, and they envy us for things they would not endure that they could have had, but they quit. They died in the [Applause] wilderness. But with parched lips and a dry tongue, they kept on moving. One thing I have learned in life is, keep it moving. Keep it moving. Do not sit down and bask in how you feel about it to the degree that you delay your assignment. Investigating your emotions should not delay your assignment. The discomfort we were just talking about, the chickens running in the yard and all of that, makes your tolerance stronger to pain. But when everything was brought to you, served to you, given to you, handed to you, anytime it doesn't work like that, you think you're being abused. Mama didn't tell you that it's going to get hard. Daddy didn't tell you it was going to be hard. Or they told you. See, the problem with communication is, all we have is words, and your idea of "hard" and my idea of "hard" are two different things. And I told you it's going to be hard being a grown-up, and you couldn't wait to be grown. And now you find out it's not what you thought it was going to be.
Come on, talk to me, somebody. It's not as good as it looked on the outside when the bills start coming in your name, and when you start running out of capital, and when you have to get up and go to work when you don't feel like it, and you don't like your job, but you love your kids. You go do your job. Work through hard places because life, not demons, not devils, not witches, not hexes, life is hard. I can stay there all day. Life is hard. Life is hard. Life all by itself. Life is lifen. People being born at the same time, people are dying. You're connected to both sides. You got to go to the baby shower and prepare for the funeral. Life is hard. Before you can bury one another, one dies. Life is hard. Life is tough. I'm not simplifying it. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm not saying it's not painful. I'm not saying that it doesn't break you down to your knees. But that doesn't always mean that a devil is prob. Satan did not create the desert. It's just that the desert was the only way to get through to the promised land. If you were going with Moses, you cannot get through to the promises you just got through shouting about without going through dry places. It would be different if they were hungry, 'cause I can live longer without food. Yeah, the body is designed to protect me. My metabolism slows down. It starts eating off of fat in the body. I can go longer without food than I can without water. These people aren't just hungry, they're thirsty in their mind. They saw pomegranates, in their eyes they saw sand dunes, and even the animals were tired. What do you do when what you're writing on, that's so good, that's so good, gets tired eventually? No matter how strong of a camel I may be, if you take me through enough drought, I'm going to get tired. That's why it's dangerous to rely on people because the person you're dumping on has as many problems as you do. And initially, they had the capacity to absorb the extra weight. But eventually, necessity necessitates that I have to let you go 'cause I had problems when you called me 'cause we all going through a, a hard place.
Number two, hard places are often made more difficult by past problems. You see, this is particularly difficult. God, give me the grace to make this clear. This is particularly difficult for Moses. I know that they entered the text talking about their drought and their dry place, but I want you to understand that this is a trigger to Moses, Moses' trauma, because Moses' identity relies on their affirmation. You see, Moses, you will remember, is a Hebrew child that escaped the massacre by being raised in Egypt. So he is raised like an Egyptian, but genetically he is a Hebrew. Yeah, which that alone creates an identity crisis. He wasn't raised with the heritage of the Hebrews. He was raised with the heritage of the Egyptians, speaking the language of the Egyptians, and yet having an affinity for the Hebrews. My Moses is homeless. He, he cannot go back to what raised him. And if the people that he has now been assigned to reject him, it is not just rejection that he's dealing with, it is identity. Because if you hate me, who am I? And Moses, who I believe to be one of the greatest leaders of the Old Testament, Moses, who God said, "Other prophets have I spoken to through dreams and visions, but of my servant Moses will I speak to face to face." Moses, who had direct access to God. Moses, who could walk into the temple and God would appear. Moses, who was as anointed as anybody. Moses, who could turn the sea to blood. Moses, who could part the Red Sea and bring the children of Israel across on dry ground. Does not negate the fact that internally, you can have a hard place that people don't see. They can't see it because they are camouflaged in your successes. And you can be so successful that people deem you not human. They love to make you a hero so that they can kill you for being like them. Oh, we do it all the time. Look around. We love to take people up so that we can watch them fall down. All the way back to the gladiators in Rome, thousands would gather to watch them die. We are a bloodthirsty people.
Good news travels slow. Bad news travels fast. Bad articles make the front page. Redaction, redactions are in the back of the newspaper, just a line or two. "We apologize. We were mistaken when we said so and so." So, so no pictures, no, just a paragraph of a retraction that you only got because you got a lawyer, right? And being known is a hard place. And being a leader is a hard place. And being a breadwinner is a hard place. And being innovative is a hard place. And being gifted is a hard place. And being chosen is a hard place. And so what you're praying for is a, "Give me a child, lest I die." Yeah, you're asking for a hard place. The same person who says, "Give me a child, lest I die," holds her stomach filled with twins and says, "Why am I thus? I asked for the baby, not the pregnancy." You didn't tell me it was going to be twins, and that the twins were going to fight in my body. I did not ask for this hard place. I asked for pomegranates. I asked for figs. You answered with dust and freezing nights and scorching days, and no rivers run through this desert. And you performed a miracle, but now the miracle has dried up too. And when we get in a hard place, we get vicious. We get toxic. We get hard to deal with. And sometimes nobody can see your hard place. Because Moses' hard place is not so much as the drought. You don't hear him complaining about his mouth being dry because he is so committed to being accepted. They are his family. They are his dream. They are his promised land. Because we always pray for what we didn't get. He has been rejected by the Egyptians. He has been driven out of the palace. He has had to go out into the wilderness and get a, a precursor of what his future was to be like, working for Jethro. He has built up an immunity to the heat because he spent 40 years in hard places. Sometimes God will train you in hard places so that you don't faint like other people faint, because your endurance has been built up by the. I wish there was somebody in this room who looks back on your hard places and says, "It was good for me that I was afflicted, for had I not been afflicted, I would have never known the glory of God." You can't roll your eyes and run me back home. I'm a little tougher than that. You can't write a bad note about me and make me quit because I trained in hard places. I was raised in hard places. I'm not used to folks liking me, no way. So roll your eyes all you want to. Delete, delete, delete, delete, delete. And [Applause] delete. Yes. Every now and then, somebody writes me, "I'm going to unfollow you." And I think, "Not before I delete you." So if you're going to unfollow me, you got to hurry 'cause I got a button too. But you can't push the button when you are assigned to them. What do you do when you can't defend yourself the way you want to defend yourself because you're on assignment? And if you defend yourself, you offend [Applause] God. Oh, if it came down to it, word for word, I could hold my own with you. Don't, don't let the collar fool you, baby. Yeah, yeah. I could get you back in rhyme while I was doing it. They'd have to put music behind what I would put on you. If God would turn me loose, I didn't hold my peace because I was weak. I held my peace because I was assigned. And I realized your attack on me is Satan trying to trick me into cursing myself. So I have my peace. But don't think I couldn't get [Applause] you. And if you're not careful, your pride will make you retaliate, and you will win, win the battle and lose the war. I'm talking about working through a hard place. The people that he needed affirmation from and validation from and acceptance from, so that he could have a people, a society that embraced him, a womb that incubated him, a matrix that protected him. We all crave connectivity in an age of disconnection. We have more people in our phone than we have in our house, and yet we are alone. And here he is, dealing with the people who are angry because anger is often the camouflage that hurt wears.
I'm going to say that again. Anger is often the camouflage that hurt wears because it is easier to be angry than to admit you hurt me. I don't want to give you the pleasure of letting you know how important you are to me. That hurt. So I get angry. And Moses, you see, as mighty as he is and as gifted as he is, has a problem with anger. Do not forget. Don't let the grace of God become so flamboyant that you forget the fact that Moses is a murderer. Moses would take you. You barking at the wrong brother. This brother is an ex-convict, run away from the law. Be careful what you call him 'cause he might [Applause] backslide. But the truth of the matter is, the people are just hurt. They are hurt because the promise is delayed. Like many of you in this room right now, you are hurt that the promise is delayed. You are hurt because what you had in mind didn't happen like you thought. You are hurt because you envision pomegranates and grapes and fruit and promised lands and a house instead of a tent. You are hurt because your life doesn't look like TV. You are hurt because you are getting older and you thought you would be further than this by [Applause] now. You are hurt because you have had to keep it moving with your mouth dry, and you need somebody to blame for your discomfort. So you blame the one who led you, not acknowledging that he never made you. You absolve yourself of any responsibility in being in the situation that you're in, and you act as though I made you when I came to save you. Beautiful. And the problem with the hero complex, the person who wants to save everybody, is that the only thing they want back is appreciation. You don't have to pay me, just appreciate me. Just acknowledge that I did without so that you could have. Just acknowledge that I prayed more about you than I prayed about myself. Just acknowledge that I paid you when I didn't get paid myself. Just acknowledge that I helped you when I couldn't help myself. Just acknowledge that you got the last piece of chicken and I ate the breadcrumbs that you left behind. Just acknowledge that I took care of you and cleaned you up before I went to work. Just acknowledge that because I need your affirmation to validate my existence. But isn't that dangerous? Because people are so fickle that one moment they will say, "Hosanna," and the next moment they will say, "Crucify him." And the shock of it all is that both words come from the same people. I cannot believe that the same people who are assaulting Moses spent 30 days at the bottom of the mountain crying over Moses' death. Make up your mind. Just be consistent. If you're going to hate me, just hate me. Don't confuse me with one moment you love me and the next moment you hate me. I can't adjust to which one you're going to be. I can adjust to either one, but not [Applause] both. Ingratitude can blind you to your purpose. It can knock you off course. It can make you react out of your feelings because you must understand it is not just Moses' leadership that is being attacked, it is his identity. You are saying that I am not one of you, and I gave up everything in Egypt, in the palace, to be associated with the slaves. I came down to you when you couldn't get up to me. I came down where you were. I came where you were. I came, I came to you because you were important to me, more than palaces and gold and silver and columns of granite. I gave it all up to be with you. And now you, who I gave it all up for, hate me, and I am alone. And even God himself says, "It is not good for man to be alone." There are good 7,000, maybe 6,000 people in this room, and yet there are many of us that are alone. There are many of us that have big families, but the truth of the matter is, we sit at the table and we grin and we smile and we make small talk, but on the inside, we are alone. Single people get married so they won't be alone, only to find out that you can be married and still. Oh, come on, come on, come on. Help me preach this morning. Help me preach this morning. Help me preach. And you find yourself in a hard place when you attach your identity to other people's reaction. I only feel like I look nice when you say I look nice. Love is giving people the power to hurt you, 'cause if I didn't love you, I'd tell you I don't care what you think. I put it on 'cause I like you. But if I mess around and love you, your power to hurt me intensifies. Moses' past has become his tormentor because he's suffering from identity crisis. Who am I? Where do I fit? I gave up everything to be connected to you, and now you are telling me you don't want me to. Until you understand the consequences of your words, you will hurt them without thought. Yeah. And now Moses is losing sight of his assignment because he is angry with these people because they are angry with him. Be not deceived. God is not mocked whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. You can only be angry at a woman so long before she turns around and she's angry back. You, you can only fathers provoke not thy children to wrath. You can only beat them so long until one day they break a bottle and say, "I dare you. I wish you would come over here again." You can't sow animosity and reap respect. And now they don't call you. Now they don't come. And you say, "Pray when you tell the story, I can't believe they wouldn't come home for Mother's Day." You didn't tell me that you beat the slop out of them, and you hated them, and you put men over top of them, and you left them alone, and you forsook them, and you rejected them, and you cursed a girl out and called your daughter a hoe. Bop, preach. All you told me is, "It's Mother's Day. She don't even call." See, we are, we arrange the [Applause] story. Y'all ain't going to talk to me, but the real people are clapping their hands 'cause the real people, the real people know what I'm talking about. They understand what it's like to have to work through a hard place. The hard place isn't just the weather. The hard place is my heart place. My heart place is a hard place. I am conditioned to the external weather. I spent 40 years in the desert, but my heart place is my hard place. Am I preaching good? We still have died in Egypt speaking out of despair only intensifies the [Applause] crisis. What difference does it make where we die? If, if it has come down to dying, am I any less dead in Egypt than I am in the wilderness? Your complaint makes no sense because it comes from selfishness and pride and vindictiveness, and the only reason you're saying it is to hurt me. Yeah, "We should have died in Egypt." What kind of sense is that? Is that your problem that you didn't die in the right place? So why are you leveling a ridiculous argument against me? You're mad at me that you didn't die sooner. Don't let your personal pain make you say stupid stuff right there. Can I go deeper? What gets lost in this text for me is God's unfailing love is seen in his provision for rebellious people. When the water starts to flowing, it flows on people who don't even deserve it. That's what people never bring up in this text, that God's unfailing love is toward his people even when they are rebellious and foolish and resentful. You didn't get the water because you were good. You got the water because God was good. Now you're bragging about how much water you got. Now you're bragging about how much money you got. Now you're bragging about how many grandkids you got. You didn't get the water because you were good. You got it because God was good. You didn't deserve it. You didn't talk right. You didn't hold on to the faith. You didn't say, "I know if He did it once, He'll do it again." You didn't read the resume of all the things that He'd done for you before. You didn't even praise Him for saving your life from the snake bites that were supposed to kill you. You didn't praise Him for the manna that you were eating that was falling from heaven. You didn't thank Him for the quail that He gathered to feed you just because you got tired of the same cuisine. Now you forgot all the good, and all you do is harbor trash. Water for the wicked. That's the star, uh, that's the apex, the opiate of the entire text is that God is good to people that are bad. I wish sometimes He wouldn't be, but I'm not going to wish it 'cause sometimes it includes me. But God is good to people that don't deserve it. God is good to people you don't like. Have you ever had God bless somebody you didn't like, and you had to stand there and watch them be blessed, and it got on your nerves, and yet you shout when we say that He prepares a table before you in the presence of the enemy? Because you imagine yourself as the one sitting at the table and not the one watching the other person eat. But God prepares a table in the presence of your enemies, even when the enemy is you. I dare you. I dare, I dare you not to give me credit for it. I dare you not to give me credit for it. I dare you not to acknowledge that God just said something that's so heavy in your life. You never liked that girl. You told him not to marry that girl. You were against it. You didn't even want to come to the wedding. And now they're living better than they ever lived before, and you're sitting over there with a smirk on your face because you're frustrated because God has prepared a table that you don't get to sit at. And now you got to watch them eat, and you're talking about, "I don't even get to see my grandkids." Your mouth ran your grandkids away. Oh, that was a good place to dance right there. That, that's a good old Christmas message right there. I'm getting you ready for your kin folks to come over for dinner. You going to be so ready. I want you to listen at this tape right before they come in the house so that you don't say what you want to say like you like to say it. When she says, "Why you put raisins in the potato salad?" "Because I want them to, and it's my house. I like raisins. Pick them [Applause] out."
Moses is judged because, watch this, I ain't got the good stuff yet. I'm coming. Moses is judged because he misrepresents God's attitude for his own. He thinks that because he's angry, God is angry. He wants God to be on his side. Most of the people in this room want God to be on your side, but God doesn't want to be on your side. He wants you on His side. And in order to do that, you're going to have to give up being your own [Applause] God. Moses misrepresents God is where I'm at. Moses misrepresents God, and he is God's representative, God's ambassador at the United Nations. He is God's voice, God's mouthpiece. He is God's communicator. He is the one who intercedes between God and man. He is the one that brings down the Ten Commandments. He is the one that is refreshing them in the ways of the Lord that they have been absent from for over 400 years. But Moses is angry because he has a hard place. That is a hard place. This is why generational problems continue to occur over and over again because often our hardest place is our heart place. And we only go to church to campaign to get God on our side, so we never come to the altar to give up our perspective for His. And this leads us to a place where God is trying to get something through to him, and he punished him. But God's love is on display here because even though he punishes Moses for smiting the rock rather than speaking to the rock as he was commanded to, he punished him, but he still protected him. When Satan was after his body, he sent Michael the Archangel to protect his body. Moses didn't get into the temporary promised land, but he did make it into the eternal promised land. And I can prove it because when they were on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses shows up on the Mount of Transfiguration, and he's still standing with God. Oh, I got to stop right here and praise God for having mercy even when you got it wrong. I got to praise Him that God don't throw you away just because He's chasing you doesn't mean He doesn't love you. For the Bible said, "Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth." Oh, you don't hear what I'm saying to you. The devil's been trying to tell you you're cursed because you missed out on something that you could have had. No, you're not cursed. You're chastised. You're not utterly cast down. Come on, the book, sir. All the way in the New Testament, Moses is still appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration. So you can't do that from hell. And Michael fought off Lucifer for the body of Moses. Yes, he, yes, he did. And all you do is talk about he didn't get to the promised land. You're wrong. He got to the real promised land. Can I go a little bit deeper? Can I go a little bit deeper? I want you to see this. His problem was he struck the rock when he should have spoke to the rock. Now, the first time God tells him to strike the rock, he struck the rock. The next time God says, "Speak to the rock." Instead of speaking, the second time he struck. The second time. And the reason God penalized him is not just because he disobeyed, though that is a very relevant point, but God also penalized him because he broke the type. You see, the rock is Jesus. This rock is Jesus. Yes, He's the one. And the reason God didn't want him to strike him twice is that if he struck him again, it implied that he crucified the Son of Man afresh, as if the cross were not enough. For Isaiah says, "He was smitten of God, but only once." And with God, details matter. So if He told you to speak to the rock, it was to typify that once He had been struck once, that the waters would flow just because you spoke to it. You will see the reflection of it in the book of Hebrews when it says, "Many of them did not receive the promise because they crucified the Son of Man afresh, bringing Him to open shame." To crucify Him afresh is to strike twice. They believed on Him and then they rejected Him. They apostatized from Him and fell back in unbelief. And the writer of Hebrews said, "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, if they should fall away, to renew them again to repentance because they struck the rock twice." Striking it once breaks the typology that the cross was enough. And if you understand that the cross is enough, that you can get the water now by speaking. And if you don't believe that Jesus is the rock, then explain to me when the Roman soldier pierced His side, out of His side came blood and. Come on, come on, come on. Go with me. Came blood and water. Woman, if you knew who I was, you would ask me to drink, for whosoever drinketh of this water shall never thirst again. This rock is Jesus. Rock in the weary land. The Rock of Ages. He is a stone that the builders rejected. Uh, He is a hewn-out stone that the commandments are written on. This rock is Jesus. Following them through the wilderness, following them through the hard places. What I love about God is if you're in a hard place, He gets in the hard place with you. Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is present in the hard place. I came to tell somebody in a hard place, you ain't in that place by yourself. This rock has been following them all through the wilderness, and it doesn't deserve to be struck twice. Just 'cause you don't like people. How dare you call it church hurt? The church didn't hurt you. The people hurt you. And where are you going to go where there are not people? You think they won't hurt you in the bar? You think they won't hurt you in the strip club? You think they won't hurt you on your job? You think they won't hurt you at the family reunion? You got to learn how to work through hard. Three people say, "Work through it, baby. Work through it." Work through it. Work through it. Work through it. Work through it. Grow through it. Grow through it. Grow through it. Preach through it. Preach through it. Preach through it. Teach through it. Teach through it. Teach through it. Build through it. Build through it. Build through it. Advance through it. Advance through it. Advance through it. You can't run away from hard places. Stop dodging people 'cause you don't like them. Work through the hard place. Do what you got to do. You may have to love them at a distance, but you got to work through [Applause] it. Am I preaching? I feel like preaching this morning. I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost in this place. I wish somebody who was about to bust would give Him 30 seconds of crazy praise. [Applause] Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah hallelu Hallelujah Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah.
Tell your neighbor, "I'm in a hard place, but I'm going to work through it. I may be down, but I'm not out. I may be persecuted, but I'm not forsaken. The Lord is on my side. Wherever I go, He is with me. If I make my bed in heaven, the Lord is there. If I take the wings of the morning and ascend to the uttermost parts of the Earth, the Lord is there."
This rock has been following them all through the Wilderness, and God judged him because he said, "You have not sanctified me before the people." Yeah, yeah. What does that mean to sanctify me? But my people is to make them to understand that your latter day shall be greater than your former day. That what it took to bring you here, it will not take to take you there. Sanctify me before the people is to teach my people that once I was crucified, you'll never have to go through that again. All you have to do is speak to me, and I am going to make the water gush for you. And that's why I told you to open your mouth, because the power of life and death is in your mouth. Woo!
I want to tell you that you got the power in your mouth. It will not be by might, it will not be by power, but it's by my Spirit, sayeth the Lord. Slap somebody and tell them, "God's about to do something." If you speak it, it's going to flow. If you speak it, it's going to happen. If you speak it, it's going to come to pass. If you speak it, you're going to get the same results with less effort.
And God said, "I wanted you to demonstrate before my people that I will make water gush in spite of your murmuring and complaining." If you stop using your tongue to complain about what's wrong and start speaking what's right, then as the scriptures have said, "Out of your belly shall flow rivers of Living Water." I don't know who I'm preaching to today, but I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost in this room. You got the power in your mouth to change situations in your life, but the devil wants you to murmur and complain, and the devil is a lie. Speak life to your death. Speak strength to your weakness. Speak healing to your disease. The Bible said, "Let the poor say I'm rich." Hallelujah to God!
I dare you to open your mouth and speak what you want. And may not see it. I may not see it, but I'm going to speak it. You may not like it, but I'm going to speak it. The devil is after my tongue. He wants me to stop speaking life to my situation, but God has so designed it that whatsoever you desire when you pray, believe you have received it, and ye shall have it. There ought to be speaking in this room. If you want the supernatural in this room, you got to speak the supernatural. If you want the supernatural in your finances, you got to speak the supernatural. If you want to break the back of debt, you got to speak, speak the supernatural.
Because all you got to do now, in the second iteration of Jesus, uh, is speak the word. Get away from people that are murmuring and complaining, and find you somebody that's speaking healing. I need some friends that speak life. I need some folk that speak the deliverance. I need some folk that speak positively, because the rock responds to word. Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. Uh, you don't have to go to my house. Just stand flat-footed in the middle of the road, and if you speak it, it's going to happen. Somebody take the roof off of this place. Speak it, speak it, speak it, speak it, speak it, speak it in this place, speak it in this place, speak it in this place. You in a faith fight. Speak, speaking in this place, speak it in this place.
Honey, the first time I was at a dinner that they served a seven-course meal, cuz you know, if I grew up eating powdered eggs, I wasn't used to seven-course meals. At the end of each course, they brought the sorbet, and I thought the sorbet was dessert. But they said, "No, it's to cleanse your palate so that you're ready for the next course." You got to cleanse your palate so you're ready for the next course. If you've been murmuring and complaining, cleanse your palate, because in 2024, you're getting ready for the next course.
The scriptures said it. The Bible said it. This is your time to speak to the Rock. I feel a flow about to take over this room. I feel a flow about to take over this place. I feel. I feel a flow. Somebody open your mouth.
Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, Jesus! Yes, Lord! Yes, Jesus! Yes, yes, Lord! I'm getting ready to speak some things. I'm going to speak over my house. I'm going to speak over my body. I'm going to speak over my finances. I'm going to speak over my children. Devil tried to shut my mouth, but the devil is a lie. I just cleansed my palate. My God! I don't know who I'm preaching to, but get ready for the next course. Get ready for the next course.
Your eyes have not seen, your ears have not heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things that God has in store for them that love Him. Somebody give Him five seconds of crazy!
Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah. You're driving the devil crazy. If you don't stop speaking the word, hell is going to get nervous. Demons are going to collapse. Shells are falling off of you. If you don't stop speaking it, rivers of Living Water are going to flow into your life. I decree and declare the drought is over! The drought is over! Do you hear me in the balcony? The drought is over! Do you hear me outline? I decree, I decree over, over, over. Over the drought is over! The drought is over! It's over! The drought is over! It's over! The drought is over! It's over! The drought is over! It's over! Over! It's over! The drought is over! The drought is over! Over! I dare you to declare it! Somebody move out of your spot and say, "The drought is over!" It's over! It's over! It's over in my mind! It's over in my heart! It's over in my body! It's over in my spirit! It's over in my mind! It's all in my heart! I'm been over!