Td Jakes God Is With You In The Battle

Invite, invite your prayerful attention to the Book of Joshua, chapter number five, verse number 13-15. It's our custom to stand for the reading of the word. Joshua 5:13-15. If you see in the Book of Acts, in 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians, you're a long ways from Texas, baby. Been a long time since you've been to church. Just teasing, relax, relax.

Joshua 5:13-15. When you have it, say amen. Amen. Going to invite you to read of the family from the word of God. I may drop out, but you continue.

And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, "Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?" And he said, "Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come." And Joshua fell on his face to the Earth and did worship, and said unto him, "What saith my Lord unto his servant?" And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, "Loose thy shoe from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy." And Joshua did so. Can you say amen? Yes.

And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, "Art thou for us, or are you for my enemies?" He said, "Neither one of you. I'm the captain of the host of the Lord, and I have come." And Joshua fell on his face to the Earth and did worship, and said unto him, "What saith my Lord unto his servants?" And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy." And Joshua did so. Can you say amen? Amen.

I want to talk about recognizing God in the middle of the battle, or recognizing God in the battle. To recognize God in the battle, understanding that you are not in it by yourself, but that God is there with you in the midst of the battle. You don't have to handle this by yourself. You don't have to go up against the enemy in your own strength. If you just calm yourself down, God's going to get some glory out of this in spite of you. Amen.

Let's pray. Father, we invite you into this moment. Just maximize our time in the word. Just do something for us that we need to have done. Give us clear direction as we open up the word today. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. Glory to God.

Before I get lost in the word, I saw uh M Gray, the mother of Holloway Gray. Would you stand? I just want to acknowledge her being in the service with us today. God bless you. Good to see you.

I am attracted to revisit this scripture and this text. It is a passion of mine, and it's a very interesting scripture for me because of Joshua, who has now assumed the responsibility of leading the children of Israel behind his predecessor, Moses. And now he's coming up against his first incredible challenge. I mean, there have been challenges, there have been battles, there has been opposition, but this one is greater than any other one. Perhaps this is the deal-breaker as it relates to proving to Israel that he is fit to be a leader. That he's fit to be a leader.

I'm telling you, being a leader is a huge responsibility. And what you must understand clearly, whereas you look at me, perhaps as a spiritual leader and a church leader, and you look to elected officials as leaders over our communities and over our government, you look to what the president being leader over our nation, but you need to understand specifically that you are a leader too, and you have responsibility. And to him whom much is given, much is required.

And so, as you lead, the problem with leading means that you are continually facing new things. If you're not continually facing new things, you're repeating. So there is a perpetual vulnerability that exists in the heart of a leader because you can never have your act down pat. Every morning you wake up, you're facing something new because every morning you wake up, you're moving into another dimension, another area. And if you are really a leader, you are progressive. And in the process of being progressive, it means that you are facing new issues and new areas all the time.

Now, much of our time when we deal with battles, most of our time is spent telling you, you know, "Just be still and know that God is God," and just to be passive and to lay back. "The battle is not yours, it belongs to God." And I'm going to talk about that a little bit today. But the idea and the inference suggests that once you turn it over to God, you have no responsibility at all. And this becomes a welcome message to procrastinators who love to say, "Well, you know, if the Lord meant for me to have it, he'd give it to me. If the Lord meant for me to do this, he'll do it. If, Lord, if you mean to give me this job, let it rain on the right side of this carpet in the hallway." And we put out all those fleeces and crazy concepts to relieve ourselves from the human responsibility of engaging the challenge.

As a pastor, with feeding God's flock, is on one hand, you have passive people who need to be motivated. And so you preach something to challenge them. But on the other hand, the concern is the aggressive person over here. Is it they go to overdrive because you got one person who needs to be stimulated? "Would you please do something? Just do it. If it's wrong, do it. If we have to fix it, breathe on a mirror, let us know you are alive. Do something. You live like a statue." And some of you are married to somebody like that. That's why you're just sitting there saying, "Lord Jesus."

But Joshua is not a passive, reserved person who procrastinates. He is an aggressive person. He is a warrior. He is a fighter. He is tenacious. He is relentless. And oddly enough, the very thing that makes him a great leader almost kills him. Isn't it amazing how your greatest strength in the wrong place can become your greatest weakness? Joshua had no trouble taking on issues and taking on areas and taking on authority. Joshua was aggressive. Perhaps he is selected to be the successor of Moses because Moses has a tendency at times to leave people in circles. In fact, an entire generation followed Moses around and around and around and around the same stuff. And Moses, faced with an opportunity to go forward, becomes frustrated and leads people out of his human frustration, and he vents over the pulpit, and he gets angry, and God removes him from leadership because Moses is a leader who cannot control his own temper. You cannot lead into greatness with small-mindedness. You cannot go forward with your feelings on your sleeves. You got to be able to feel your emotions and still control them. We all have them, but you cannot be controlled by your emotions and be an effective leader. Moses, instead of telling them what thus saith the Lord, had started telling them what thus saith Moses. And God had to get him out of the way because he was misrepresenting God.

God is concerned about people who abuse authority. Not only when it talks about corporate leadership, church leadership, but even domestic leadership in the house. God warns men against being abusive to their wives. God said, "I won't hear your prayer because you abuse authority." Thankfully, God doesn't just mentor followers; he also mentors leaders and helps you to develop your skill so that you can be more adept at what God is going to do in your life. Many times, when God starts training you, he trains you with trouble, exposing you to various degrees of frustrating situations, and then critiquing your response. See, some people don't have that back in critiquing your response so that you can learn what, how you should have handled this particular situation.

Joshua has got the war thing down pat. And in a moment, we're going to go back and look at his background and understand he's got the war thing down. Some of you, you've got the war thing down pat. We don't have to motivate you to speak your mind. Nobody, you didn't even have to get saved to learn how to speak your mind. You don't need any tapes on how to be aggressive and to tell people what you think. You will do it in a flash. You will fight in a minute and find out what the war was about later. You just tell of you are so aggressive, you slap people then say, "What did you say?" Joshua would fight at the drop of a hat. Let's just be honest. This man. How many people in this room have a tendency to go to war? You will go to war in a flash. That's not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing. It's in you, and God can use that in you. You don't want to kill it; you want to control it. You want to make sure that you have found a place that is appropriate where your strength, skills, and your skill sets and strengths can be utilized effectively. You might be a great person to have a job calling people with bad credit. I don't know. There's a calling somewhere. We're going to find someplace for you. Bounty hunter. You'll get it tomorrow. Never mind. You should have went to bed earlier.

Joshua is getting ready to take on the battle of his life, and he has all the tenseness that comes from being in a series of battles. When you get in a series of battles, you are prone to fight. But the problem is, when he looks up and he sees a man standing by him, he says, "I saw a man standing by me," and he ran out and said, "Are you with me or against?" First of all, it wasn't a man; it was God. And yet we have a problem becoming so practical that we don't recognize God in the middle of our situation. To not discern God as being a part of the process is a crippling mistake that Joshua is about to make here because he thinks he's just running into man, and he's running into God.

Have you recognized God in your situation? Or are you so practical, and are you so busy dealing with man, and dealing with processes, and dealing with budgets, and dealing with facts, and dealing with figures, and dealing with the principal at the school, and dealing with the problem down at the hospital, and dealing with this and that or the other, that you don't know that there is a spiritual dynamic to winning? I am not saying that you should do nothing except pray. In fact, it drives me crazy to hear people tell you, "Just pray, spin around seven times, and throw $5 over your head, and God's going to bless you." It drives me crazy because it makes you think something that is not real. You have to get engaged, and you have to do something in order to win. Faith without works is dead. Being alone. God. And I want to be clear about that. But you must understand that works alone doesn't get it either. It's not about how much. There's some of you working overtime, undertime, around the clock. You got five jobs. You don't have time to go to church. You don't have time to get your hair done. You don't have time to patch your kids. You don't have time to go to the restroom. You're just working, work it, work it, work it, work it, work it, work it, work it. You determined you're going to get there by 37, and you decided to go at 36 and a half, and you want it in the next six months, or it won't be done. And so you have unrealistic expectations, and you jump into it, and you're relentlessly going after it, and you've got everything going, all your engines are going, all your flames are shooting from every direction, and you've got everything in it but God.

When God gets into the midst of your goals and the things you're going after, it helps you to be more effective. The hardest thing in the world to do is to balance between what is my responsibility and what is God's responsibility. Who does what? So the first thing I have to do is to recognize God in the situation. And once I have recognized that God is there, even in situations that look quite natural to me, that look like a man to me, that God could show up as a man and me not recognize it. And the certain, the second thing is for me to distribute responsibilities appropriately. I begin to understand what is my business and what is God's business.

See, the disciples messed up that first thing because whenever Jesus showed up in another form, they didn't recognize him. And when you keep doing new things, God keeps showing up in new forms. Religious people have a tendency to get stuck in a wandering pattern where God keeps showing up in the same form, and they get what I call deep. They get deep. They're walking around in the grocery store deep. What they're trying to do is try to get God to do something that he did before, over and over again, and to lock him down to a pattern and recipe. And they think that if they roll their eyes up in their head, and they walk around real spiritual, they suck their bottom lip, that God's going to conjure up in the same time. They don't know that God could use somebody that wasn't a missionary, that wasn't an evangelist, that God could use somebody who wasn't even a Christian to bless you and to speak a word into your life. That God can use your enemies. That sometimes God speaks through your children. That sometimes God will speak to you through a commercial. That sometimes God will speak to you through people that you would never think possible. And they're not open to new experiences. And whenever God does something fresh, they go back to something old. And so they have a Moses mentality of wandering around a mountain that's safe, rather than to have a contemporary, ongoing experience with God. These people are deep, but they're not prayerful. They, oh, they say prayers, but it's not really praying. You have to face new things to have a prayer life. You have to face something that makes you vulnerable and insecure to have a prayer life. You have to come before God not being an know-it-all to have a prayer life. Some of you can't pray because you are so convinced that you know how to do everything. You don't pray; you just go to God and brag. You know, "I got this. You know, I got this. God, thank you for turning it over to me so I can straighten out all those other dummies who don't understand how to deal with this situation." You're not praying; you're bragging. And the only reason you got it and you know how to do it is that you keep repeating the same class. I guess you do pass the test. You know all the questions. You've been in the same grade for seven years.

How many of you are facing new challenges? New challenges is a sign of progress. It's a sign of going into another dimension. But don't expect your old ideas about God to show up in your new situation because the God that you need in the storm is not the God that you needed in January. He may come to you walking on the water, and he may look like a ghost, but don't be afraid of him because God does show up in other forms. The Bible said that the disciples were out in the sea, they looked at and they thought it was a ghost. Peter said, "No, that's not a ghost. He said, Lord, if that's you, bid me to come." Don't be afraid to see God in other forms. Don't be afraid to recognize God when he walks through a door and eats fish with the disciples, and they're afraid that he's a spirit. And he says, "No, can a spirit eat fish? Touch my side, touch my hand. Be not faithless, but believe." See, when you go into new experiences, we have a tendency to be afraid because you're looking for God to show up like he did before. When God says, "I'm going to do a new thing in you," that means I'm going to show up in a new way, and you got to be ready to receive me as I take you into a new area. And so I'm come on you like because now you're in the boardroom, and you can't be in the boardroom to just fall on the floor talking in tongues. I may need to whisper in your ear, and I may not come complete with a dance and a shout. I may need to be able to navigate you through a person in the workplace. I may need to be able to speak in your ear in a way that is calm and quiet, and I don't have time to hit your push buttons, your pulse buttons, your familiar buttons. In order for you, you've got to recognize my voice even when I show up in another form. Oh, this is good for somebody.

Joshua runs out there. I like old Joshua. You got to have at least one Joshua on every committee, every board, and there's at least one in every family. Because some of you, it's your Aunt Maggie. You know, "Aunt Maggie, come here. What's going on in here? What did he say to you in the first place? You ain't coming up in here doing this." And you know to call Aunt Maggie when you need some backup. Because if you call Aunt Helen, she'll bring over some bread and some fruit muffins and stuff, but she ain't going to help do nothing. But Maggie will come in there. Well, Joshua had that kind of tenacity. Don't kill that in your children. Don't kill that in your family. Direct it, but don't kill it. There's a reason God gave them that personality. He is going to use them in a unique and strategic way. Joshua would fight. He was aggressive. Ran up on God. He ran up on the Lord, said, "Are you with me or against me?" Start nothing there. Joshua is so aggressive that he is asking God, "Are you on my side, or are you on the side of the enemy?" In other words, he's saying, "Look, if you're going to be with me, choose a side."

And we live in a world that is forever trying to get God to choose a side. It drives me crazy, the people who are trying to get God to choose a side. I mean, it starts with little children. They want God to choose a side. "I'm right, and this child's all wrong, and you start praying for the wrong child. Straighten them out, fix them, this and that." As if they were all wrong. But there's some right in the most ungodly person, and there's some wickedness in the most spiritual person. Trust me, I've been around a long time. I know what I'm talking about. And when you start praying these carnal prayers, it would be like one of your children saying to you, "Mama, Fred jumped on me. He took my toy. He stole my bicycle. He wrecked my bicycle." All of that is true. And then they say, "Kill him." You don't want to kill one child because they wronged the other child. But they want you to take sides. People want God to take sides. "Are you with me, or are you with my adversaries? Take sides." God, "Are you Democrat or Republican? Take sides." God, "Are you Methodist or Baptist? Take a side." We're always arguing over whose side God is on.

Joshua said, "Are you on my side, or on the adversary's side? Are you for our church, or are you for their church down the street?" Then we preach, "Our church is taking the city." We have the "Taking the City" conference. And I always ask them, "Where you going to put it?" If your church is going to take the city, where are you going to put them? You only got 5,000 seats. You only got 8,000 seats. You got 5 million people in the city. Can somebody else have some members too? Would it be all right if we had more than one restaurant in the city? Could we have more than one laundry mat? When we got 20 families in the apartment, a narrow, myopic vision of God limits your understanding to thinking that God is a butler or a maid that you can summon for your agenda. And most of us who embrace faith do it from such a selfish perspective that all we want to know is how we can use God to promote what we're trying to do. "Are you for me, or against me?"

And the Lord said, "Neither. I'm not for you. I'm not for your enemies. It's not about me being for you; it's about you being for me." Uh oh. It's not about how you can get God to support your agenda. It's about you getting on your knees and finding out what is God's agenda and seeing how you can support what God is doing. Oh, God help me. Are you hearing what I'm saying?

But I want to show you something. Go to the Book of Exodus. I want you to take a look at this because I just want to teach this. This is for somebody. I don't know who it is. Go to Exodus 17:8-12. Your heaven say amen. It says, "Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, 'Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.'" So Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. They're on the mountain. Moses, Aaron, and Hur. Joshua was down in the valley fighting.

And it came to pass, and it came to pass, when Moses held up his hands, that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hands, Amalek prevailed. So, in other words, Moses is up on the mountain, raises his, raising his hands, and whenever he raises his hands, Joshua beats up the Amalekites. Moses's hands got heavy. They put something up under his hands, and he had to hold his hands up to sunset. That's all I need out of that.

Here's my issue. Joshua's down there fighting, and he's winning. He's winning, but he doesn't know that he's winning because Moses is up on the hill holding up his hands. See, some of you think you're winning because you're such a good fighter, but you're not winning because you're such a good fighter. You're winning because somebody's in a secret closet praying for you, causing you to prevail over your enemy. Oh, my God. And you're running around with your sword in your hand, saying, "Don't fool with me. I'm tough. I whipped this, and I overcame that." I overcame the shut up. It was not your works alone, lest any man should boast. It is that balance between the sacred and the secular that is so important, between faith and works, between action and consecration. Finding that balance is the critical thing.

And Joshua doesn't know what Moses was doing to help him. And so Joshua goes out there in his own strength to do his thing because Joshua worships his his own skill set. Joshua has too much confidence. He's too aggressive. He'll go in and fight in a minute. He's so ready to fight that he's fighting his own help. When you get like this, you fight away people who love you. You fight away help that God sent to sustain you. You fight the paramedic that's trying to get you in the ambulance. You fight the swimming expert that's trying to stop you from drowning. You fight your own husband. You're fighting with your parents. You're fighting with your wife. You're fighting with the person who cares about you enough to confront your hateful self and tell you how you really are. And you're fighting them, and you're fighting them because your past has shaped how you see your present. Your past has shaped how you see your present. It didn't shape your present; it shapes how you see it. Your perspectives on where you are are based on where you've been. So you read into it a prejudiced, prejudged disposition based on past experiences. And now God's brought you into place. He said, "He is demanding maturity." I define maturity as balance. He's demanding maturity. He's demanding that you understand that you're not going to whip everything with your sword. That you can't just assign God a post in your army, using him for your agenda. That this is not about you. The thing that you are up against right now is not about you. Now, the battle is not yours; it belongs to God. That doesn't mean that you don't have to show up for the fight. It just means that ultimately, the victory that you seek is not your victory. It is the victory because God has a purpose in you getting the victory over this situation. It is not you that's getting the victory; it is God that's getting the victory. And you're not using God to get your victory; God is using you to get his victory. And as soon as you get that straight, you can get down to business.

I'm telling you, the thing that is fighting you is fighting him, and you're not using him. God is using you. Tell somebody, "Don't get that twisted." Because when you get that twisted, you become God over the battle, and you start manipulating everything that comes in your life trying to get the victory. You need to understand this battle is not yours; it belongs to God. And in order to get the breakthrough, you don't run against the enemy before you have an encounter with God.

I told the Lord, I said, "I'm getting tired. I'm getting tired. I'm getting physically tired." And you know, you get some rest from that. Emotionally tired, spiritually tired, drained. I said, "It doesn't mean that the battle is intense. I said, I need to spend more time with you." I can tell. I always tell when I need to spend more time with God because people start getting on my nerves. They just get on my nerves. And it is a sign, not that they need to change, but is it a sign that I maybe need to get up 30 minutes earlier, an hour earlier, spend a little bit more time in His presence, get my core back, get my center straight, get my priorities in place so that I can work from a position of strength and not a position of strain? I'm a body. Tape myself. I want to operate from a position of strength and not strain.

Some of you right now, you're strained and stressed and at the breaking point because you're in a battle that you can't get out of and you can't stop. And you've got to fight the battle. And part of you wants to give up because you're tired and frustrated and you want to quit. But you can't quit because you're in the kind of battle that does not afford you the luxury of retreat. You've got to stand there and arm yourself and fight. But until you recognize that God is in the midst of the battle, and you humble yourself and say, "Lord, I'm here to serve you. How would you use me to get the victory in this situation?" Tell somebody, "This is not your battle."

Why must the warrior, in spite of his skill set, be faced with the battle that you cannot win through your skill set alone? Because it teaches you to pray. You will not beat this devil with what you can do. You will not be able to tap into your skill set and your core ability and what you did before and get the victory because when you do that, there is no room in your life for God. Before you go against Jericho, Joshua, you must have an encounter with God. Not the traditional religious God of your fathers, but a fresh vision of a contemporary, revolutionary understanding of who God is. That we're in a battle right now because people are trying to hold us to a traditional mentality about God because traditional people like a traditional God, and they want to keep it in a traditional place and traditional atmosphere, and they wanted to stay just the same. Well, the devil is a lie. It's time for a radical change to get God out the box and out of narrow thinking. Until you embrace a contemporary understanding of God, God may not be the same, but his methods change, his mannerisms change, and he changes his garments. Suppose he shows up in another suit.

And Joshua was standing there having an encounter with God. Why are we here this morning? Why do we get up and go to church on the little bit of weekend you got? It's amazing to me when I'm speaking out of town on a Sunday and I'm in a hotel, and I see all the people who never think about this on Sunday. It's just amazing me that it never crosses their mind. I'm in the elevator, I'm coming down in my suit, getting ready to go to church. They're in their shorts, their golf clubs on their back, they're going down. "Fred, I'll meet you out there in a minute. It's a great day for golfing, man. I'll see you right out there." It doesn't cross their mind. They get their hair done, they got to get the laundry done, they got to do this, they got to draw, they got to read. "Give me just a glass of Chardonnay and I'm going to sit up and relax today and read." What is it about you that makes you get up on Sunday morning, on your one true day off, put on clothes, get in the car, drive down the road, and get in some church traffic to line up to try to get a parking space so that you can line up to try to get a seat and get ushered in a service? And now you got a schedule on your only day off. I got to be, got to get up at 7:00, got to be out by 7:30, got to be at the church by... If you don't, if you do all of that and you don't know why you're doing it, you won't do it long. Then we're reduced to coming up with tricks and scams to keep you coming. "Let me entertain you. We're going to have a good time. Let me entertain you." Now we got to make crazy promises to get you to come out and keep begging you and massaging you and tell, "Oh, you're so wonderful. We're so glad to have you in this church. Oh, we couldn't make this church without you. You've been here so long, you're so wonderful. Oh, God bless you." And now we got to give you all these mental massages to keep you coming back. And if you don't get there, your little feelings get hurt, and you stay home. I am not a massage therapist. I didn't come to give you a rubdown. If you bring your hips up in here, you're going to come because you understand that the battle you fight tomorrow necessitates that you spend some time in the presence of God, being directed and motivated and filled and charged with the mind of God, how to get the victory on tomorrow.

Slap somebody, tell them, "I had to be here. I will never see the walls of Jericho come down until I have this experience with God. I will never see my credit come down, my debt come down, my tumors come down, my crisis come down, my curses come down unless I have an encounter with God." I didn't come out of here to have an encounter with the ushers and encounter with the deacons, and with all due respect, I didn't come out of here to have an encounter with T.D. Jakes. I'm here to have an encounter with God. Speak to my heart. Speak through the music. Speak through the song. Speak through the word. Speak to me. Oh, my God. Who am I preaching to today? Tell somebody, tell them, "I had to be here. I had to be here." It doesn't matter whether I felt like coming or not. I had to be here. I had to be here. Just like I have to stop by the gas station if I'm going to keep on driving my car. I had to be here. I needed this word. I needed this moment. My spirit needed it. My flesh didn't want to come, but my spirit needed this encounter with God where I worship Him and praise Him and adore Him without phones ringing, without emails, without BS, without blast. I need this moment of concentration with the Lord, surrounded with people who understand. Hallelujah. And thank you, Jesus. And glory to God.

God says, "Sit down. I'm just talking to you." God says, "Y'all keep jumping up. Why do y'all do that?" Uh, God says, "Joshua, you must understand that the ground you stand on, it's holy ground." Well, Joshua, for all intents and purposes, is on the battlefield. He's not in a cathedral. He's not in a synagogue. He's not in a prayer meeting. He's not in a Bible class. Can you see holy ground in the battlefield? Devil want to trip me. See, amen. Seeing holy ground in a crisis. It's what separates greatness from mediocrity. Seeing this as an opportunity for God to reveal himself. See, that's what makes a sanctuary a sanctuary. It's a place for God to reveal himself. Do you understand that what you're dealing with right now is a place for God to reveal himself? He may show up in a way that you've never seen him before. He may do something that he's never done before. But he said, "Take off your shoes. Take off your preconceived ideas. Get rid of your religious mentality and get ready to have a fresh experience right in the middle of your fight." This is holy ground. This is holy ground. Tell somebody, "This is holy ground. I'm going to have an encounter with God on this ground. I'm going to learn something about God on this ground. I'm going to learn something about myself on this ground. I'm going to learn something about life on this ground. I'm going to learn something about my faith on this ground." God has decided to make my sanctuary a situation. Some of my greatest moments of worship have not been in church. I've had some of the best experiences with God. One of them was in an unemployment line, and I had a divine encounter with God standing in line, unemployed. A great experience with God in a hospital room. A great experience. One of the time I was working with my kids, and we were having, we were supposed to be having a family meeting. It became a family battle. I was thinking seriously about killing them. "I'll kill you. I'm going to kill you and tell God you die, maybe he won't know that I killed you." And right in the middle of the argument, one of my kids started crying and said, "I know what's really wrong, and you do too. You know what's wrong? God is calling me to preach." I took off my shoes because suddenly I recognized that what I perceived as a situation was a sanctuary. Does anybody get what I'm preaching about this morning? Do you understand that you will live beyond the temporary inconvenience of this situation? This is not about Jericho. Jericho is going to pass away. It will be no more. Do you not know they still can't find Jericho? Let me tell you something. The problem that you're dealing with now, when God delivers you, he's going to deliver you so completely that even your grandchildren will never be able to find it. When God brings you out, he brings you so completely out that the archaeologists cannot find the battle. When God delivers you, people won't even believe your testimony. They'll never believe that you went through what you went through because when God brings you out, he brings you all the way out. Tell somebody, "This has come to pass." The situation that you're dealing with right now will come to pass. It will come to pass. It came to pass. Get over it. Don't worry about it. Don't build a house in it. It will not last. You will be standing when Jericho is laying in total ruins. You will still be standing there telling your children, "I remember the time." You will make it to the front porch with the iced tea, with your dentures in a cup, saying, "Back when I was your age, I faced that too. I thought I was going to die, but some kind of way, we made it out of that." This will come to... Who am I preaching to? I don't know who I'm touching. Seven people and just say, "Strategy." Strategy. Strategy. Strategy. Strategy.

Our God, our God is a strategic God. I hate Katrina. I think it was horrible. I think it was devastating. I hate the trauma that it caused. I hate the hardships. I hate the images that remain in my head today from that moment. But I also know that God used Katrina to push some people into another dimension, to give you a fresh start and a fresh opportunity. I'm telling you, God will take the storm you're in and blow you into a change in your life and a fresh opportunity. I'm telling you, I haven't been in Katrina, but I've been in some storms that blew me out of my comfort zone and made me start over. And I'm glad they blew me to a change. Look at somebody, say, "This is going to take me somewhere. This is going to take me somewhere out of the box, out of my comfort zone, away from my friends, into a new life and a new opportunity." Now, shout about it right now. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Sit with me. I'm going to give you one more point and I'll try to close. The situation is a sanctuary. And as soon as you see it as a sanctuary, you will do what Joshua did. He fell down and started worshiping God in the middle of his situation. Worshiping God in the middle of your grief. Worshiping God even though you lost a child. Worshiping God at the cemetery. Worshiping God after you've been fired and you don't know where you're going to work. Worshiping God as he sends upheaval and chaos and tornadoes and hurricanes in your life. But you're saying, "Though he slay me, yet shall I trust him." And you worship God anyway. It's when you convert that situation into a sanctuary. When you convert the situation into a sanctuary, you have to do it now. You have to turn it into a sanctuary. How do I do that? By worshiping God in the middle of it. What will he do in exchange? When you make a sanctuary out of a situation, God will give you a strategy. Now, you can pray for resources all you want to, but I would rather have a strategy than all the resources in the world. It is a proven fact that people who have no strategy soon lose resources. Check the stats on people who hit the lottery. All of a sudden, they got $52 million. Uncle Fam said, "25 belong to me." 25. So you got $27 million left. That still ain't bad for somebody who was making $335,000 a year. $27 million ain't too bad. Never would think that the average person three years later would be completely broke. Resources without strategy leads to poverty. You're leaving your children your two houses and the farm, the goat, and five chickens. You worked your whole life and you give it to your kid, and you're dying, and you're just signing pay. "Take this and go with it." And you gave them your stuff, but not your strategy, and they will lose the stuff if they do not have your strategy. That's why the Bible said, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." I don't want Christ's stuff without his strategy. Somebody holler, "Strategy!" Good God.

When God gives you a strategy, you can overcome anything. When God gives you a strategy, you can overcome anything. But God can't give you a strategy when you think it's your battle because when you think it's your battle, you're giving God a strategy. Okay, God, I need you to show up in this situation. Go and fire Helen. Fire her. Get her out of that job. That you think you know what ought to be done. That's what's messing you up. When you humble yourself and say, "I don't know what ought to be done. I don't know how to get the victory. I don't know how to fight this. I don't know who to talk to. I don't know who to trust." Then God will give you a strategy for... Oh, God, I feel like I'm just talking right to somebody. God will give you a strategy for every situation you confront. There is a strategy that will bring you out. God, I believe that. I want to shout myself.

Joshua, you will not whip this battle with your sword. Put your sword up. I want you to just walk. Huh? Walk. What you want me to do? Go home, get some rest, talk to you tomorrow. That's it. That looks stupid. That's that strategy. We need to get Jericho. We need to shut up. Do what I told you. Walk. I sure do feel stupid. They're standing up here pointing cannons at me. They're threatening to kill every last one of them. The chariots are all on top of the mountain, and you got me taking a walk. Have you ever felt like God had you taking a walk while your enemies were conspiring to kill you and destroy you? And when you went to God, he gave you one of them silly answers that made you want to take matters into your own hands. Six days it took a walk. Went home, had rest. The day off. Seventh day. Here comes Joshua. Joshua says, "Okay, I'm going to take my walk and go sit down." And he goes, takes his walk. After six days, I know how to do this. All right, I'm going to let you go. No, go. Said, "No, no." See, that's what's wrong. You think you know how to do it. This time, I want you to go seven times around in the same day. See, you're going to have to talk to him every day. "Give me the strategy for today." You cannot afford to think you know anything. You have got to talk to him every day. Just because he said once on Tuesday, once on Wednesday, once on Thursday, doesn't mean he's going to say once on Saturday. Seven times he goes around the wall. On the seventh day, they blow the trumpet. Now God says something that is totally insane. He says, "Shout." No, no, you don't get it. Anybody can shout when the wall comes down. God said, "Get right in front of the wall that you've been looking at all week long, that wouldn't come down, that hadn't budged, that hadn't gotten any better, and even with my strategy, it still looks like you're still in debt, still in trouble, child, still on drugs, marriage is still kind of bad." God said, "Get right in front of the wall and shout as if it were already gone." Look at your neighbor, say, "What are you shouting for? You still got problems. You still got situations. You still got tests." But look back at them and say, "I'm shouting because something is about to break."

I got to quit preaching right now, but I want to tell somebody today that something is about to break. Your eyes have not seen, your ears have not... Something is about to break. Something is about to break. Something is about to break. Something is about to break. Hallelujah. Find those seven people you touched, said, "Strategy," and touch them again and tell them, "Something is about to break." Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're shouting now, if you shout now, if you shout now, if you're shouting now, if you shout now, if you shout now, if you shout now.

Touch your neighbor and say, "Neighbor, excuse me, I got some shouting to do." Give God some glory. Woo. I didn't.