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00:00 This is Bishop Del Brodder. Thank you so much for joining our YouTube channel today.
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00:19 And then if you're in the metro Atlanta area on a Sunday, check out one of our exhilarating services at 8.30 a.m., 11 a.m. or 6 o'clock p.m.
00:29 Our scriptural text today comes from the book of Lamentations, chapter 3, verse 1 through 12 and then verse 16 through 18.
00:39 Notice there these words, "I'm the man who has seen trouble, trouble coming from the lash of God's anger.
00:50 He took me by the hand and walked me into pitch black darkness. Yes, he's given me the back of his hand over and over and over again.
01:01 He turned me into a skeleton of skin and bones and then broke the bones. He hemmed me in, ganged up on me, poured on the trouble and hard times.
01:13 He locked me up in deep darkness like a corpse nailed inside a coffin. He shuts me in so I'll never get out, handcuffs my wrists, shackles my feet.
01:25 Even when I cry out and plead for help, he locks up my prayers and throws away the key. He sets up blockades with quarried limestone.
01:36 He's got me cornered. He's a prowling bear tracking me down, a lion in hiding ready to pounce.
01:44 He locked me from the path, knocked me from the path and ripped me to pieces. When he finished, there was nothing left of me.
01:54 He took out his bow and arrows and used me for target practice. He ground my face into the gravel. He pounded me into the mud.
02:04 I gave up on life altogether. I've forgotten what the good life is like. I said to myself, "This is it. I'm finished. God is a lost cause."
02:18 I'm speaking today simply from the subject "From Overwhelmed to an Overcomer."
02:24 From overwhelmed to an overcomer.
02:30 This, you thought you had a bad day. You may have thought you had a bad week, but the prophet Jeremiah here is not personally speaking of himself,
02:43 but he's speaking of a man actually representative of the nation of Israel. He's speaking of a people. He's speaking of their condition.
02:54 It sounds a lot to me like America. It sounds to me a lot like the people that we know in this world that feel as though they're in trouble, overwhelmed,
03:05 that life has become so unfamiliar that it is difficult, that it is hard.
03:11 And so the Bible, this is one of the things that I absolutely love and adore about this book.
03:20 This is God's Word. It records the history of God interacting and interfering in the affairs of mankind.
03:32 And I love the fact that this Bible is a real book with real life and real people and real trauma and real drama that happens in the lives of human beings.
03:47 But the Bible is also a book of real solutions and it is a book also of real hope.
03:54 And so it does not give us one without giving us the other. I love the counterbalance.
03:59 So that's why we don't just look at all of the negative stuff that happens because God has something else to say.
04:05 And so at certain times, life can be incredibly painful beyond words.
04:12 But I'm glad that we hear the author here talking about the perils and the plight and the stress and the trials and the tribulations and the problems and the issues and the attacks and the accusations and all of that that happens to us as human beings
04:29 because there are times that life hits us in a way that we don't understand.
04:36 But I'm so glad that it's showing us the troubles of other people in the Bible because sometimes when you go through trouble, the devil has a way of isolating you and making you--showing you everybody else who's being blessed and then making you look like you're the only one who's having a problem.
04:51 But there are a lot of folks that's having a problem.
04:53 And I'm glad that I wanted to show you this in Scripture today.
04:57 That's why I took the time to read that lengthy passage just to show you the testimony of how they were feeling at that time because if you don't see the trouble of people, then you won't understand their triumph.
05:10 And if you don't understand a person's problems, you--neither will you be able to comprehend their praise.
05:16 And also, if you don't understand the depth of a person's depression, you will not understand their degree of their devotion to God.
05:26 And so they've come through something.
05:29 Here's what I want you to realize.
05:31 I want you to realize that bad chapters can still create great stories.
05:36 I want you to realize that wrong paths can still lead to right places.
05:41 I want you to realize that failed dreams can still create successful people.
05:46 And I want you to realize that sometimes it takes losing yourself to find yourself.
05:52 And this is where the author is just going through a myriad of emotions and negative things that they are experiencing.
05:58 But when you are having a hard time, just remember this.
06:02 Whenever you're having a hard time, please remember this.
06:05 You cannot--read my lips--you cannot complain your way to happiness, health, and success.
06:16 You cannot.
06:18 So just griping and complaining and if you gripe and complain about your problems and your issues too much, you'll run all of your friends away.
06:26 Because nobody will want to hear about your problems because everybody has their own set of problems
06:32 of what's happening in their own life, in their own family, with their own relatives, on their own job, in their own neighborhood.
06:39 They've got their own drama and their own issues that they are dealing with,
06:42 so they don't want to hear you every time they see you complaining about your life.
06:47 You will never be able to complain yourself out of your situations into happiness, into peace, into prosperity, into success.
06:57 It just doesn't happen.
06:59 But this is why I'm so glad that we have the good news.
07:03 The good news of the gospel is that Jesus is our blessed Redeemer by no merit of our own, but by his amazing grace.
07:14 The victory of the Word of God and the sacrifice, that inestimable, incalculable sacrifice that was made by Jesus the Christ himself.
07:24 Now I want you to watch this discouraged prophet begin to transition from God's people being overwhelmed to their becoming an overcomer.
07:37 And it takes something.
07:39 Here's what I want you to understand. If you remember the Scripture in Romans chapter 12 and verse 2,
07:45 "Be not conformed, but be transformed."
07:49 Now I want you to notice how the apostle Paul phrases that.
07:53 He puts that in the passive tense. He says, "Be transformed." He doesn't say, "Transform yourself."
07:59 See, we're in the image business of trying to transform ourselves.
08:07 We do it. But when the Bible says, "Be transformed," it lets you know that the source of the transformative power is coming from something outside of you.
08:16 Be transformed. That means that you submit yourself to God's Word and to God's process,
08:22 and that God will begin the process of the transformation by what he does in us, for us, to us, and then through us.
08:29 Be transformed. It doesn't say transform yourself.
08:32 It's saying, "Let God's Word." Submit to this and watch it transform you.
08:36 Submit to the voice of the Holy Spirit in your life, walking with you in every situation, and watch him transform your life.
08:43 Submit to prayer. Watch it transform your life.
08:47 But I want you to watch the transformation that happens from all of this attack and all of this gloomy stuff that they mentioned in the earlier parts of Lamentations chapter 3.
08:57 But now we pick up the story in verse 19. Notice what happened.
09:01 "The thought of my sufferings and homelessness is bitter beyond words."
09:07 He said it's--the King James Version calls it like wormwood.
09:12 And--but notice in verse 20, he says, "I will never forget this awful time as I grieve over my loss."
09:19 You ever lost something and it just broke your heart?
09:22 But notice verse 21. Here's the shift, "yet." That's that pivot word, "yet."
09:27 Those three "yet" letters, when somebody say, "You ain't nothing," just throw in that "yet."
09:33 You haven't won yet. You ain't got no money yet. You ain't got no husband. You ain't got no wife yet.
09:40 Just yet. Three words can help you to pivot your whole situation.
09:45 Yet, yet, yet. Yet I will still dare to hope.
09:50 I don't care how hard it gets. I don't care how deep your darkness gets, how lonely you get, how strong the depression is.
09:57 Yet I still dare to hope. I still dare to hope. Always dare to hope.
10:04 Dare to hope. Dare to hope. Dare to hope. He says, "When I remember this, I will dare to hope."
10:10 When I remember this, the faithful love of the Lord never ceases.
10:16 It never ends. His mercies never cease.
10:20 Great is His faithfulness. Great is His faithfulness.
10:26 When you're in trouble, great is His faithfulness. Great is His faithfulness.
10:31 His mercies begin afresh each morning. Afresh each morning. His mercies begin afresh each morning.
10:37 Just go to bed. Tomorrow God's going to give you a brand new start.
10:42 A brand new start. His mercies. And then notice he says in verse 24,
10:47 "I say to myself, 'The Lord is my inheritance, therefore I will hope in Him.'"
10:53 "The Lord is my inheritance, therefore I will hope in Him."
10:57 I love the way that that particular verse reads in the message version of the Scriptures.
11:01 He says it this way, "I'm sticking with God."
11:05 And then he says, "I say it over and over, 'He's all I got.'"
11:09 "I'm sticking with God. He's all I've got."
11:12 "I'm sticking with God. He's all I've got."
11:15 "I am sticking with God. He's all I've got."
11:20 Will you say that with me? "I'm sticking with God. He's all I've got."
11:25 Come on. "I'm sticking with God. He's all I've got."
11:29 Say it again. "I'm sticking with God. He's all I've got."
11:38 Listen, whenever it is hard to pray, pray hard.
11:42 Pray hard, pray hard.
11:44 Why do I say that? Because if you're in a slump, prayer can help get you out.
11:49 I love the words of St. John of Christendom.
11:52 He says this, that "Prayer is the place of refuge for every worry."
11:58 It is the place of refuge, prayer, for every worry.
12:02 It is a foundation for cheerfulness.
12:05 It is a source of constant happiness, and it is a protection against sadness.
12:11 Prayer, prayer.
12:13 "Prayer is a place of refuge for every worry, a foundation for cheerfulness,
12:18 a source of constant happiness, and a protection against sadness."
12:22 Prayer, prayer.
12:24 Here's what I would say to you.
12:26 Whenever you are overwhelmed by life, retreat to prayer.
12:33 It is a place of refuge.
12:36 And let your lonely places be turned into holy spaces.
12:42 Let your lonely places be turned into holy spaces.
12:49 So in this time of loneliness where I feel like I'm all by myself,
12:53 I'll turn this into a holy space by inviting the Holy Spirit
12:57 to come into my darkness, to come into my loneliness,
13:01 to come into my depression.
13:03 Allow your lonely places to become holy spaces.
13:09 And you'll realize here that as the prophet Jeremiah is talking here
13:15 in Lamentations, the first part of his writing here in Lamentation
13:20 is reactionary, but then the latter part is decision-oriented.
13:27 You ever notice when something happens in your world,
13:30 the first thing that you do is react?
13:32 I mean, you say something, something happens,
13:34 the first thing that we do, we don't respond, we react.
13:37 Reaction is a reflex.
13:39 Response requires thought, it requires thinking, it requires prayer,
13:45 it requires consultation, coaching, mentoring, study, discovery,
13:50 and then you come back and intelligently respond to something.
13:54 You don't just react.
13:56 But the first part of it is that we react, "I'm doomed. It's over."
14:02 And, you know, we just throw in the towel, "It's a reaction."
14:05 But then you come back and it becomes decision-oriented.
14:09 He said, "No, no, no. God is faithful.
14:12 I'm having a hard time, but his mercies are new to me every morning.
14:16 Every morning, every morning, every day is new to me."
14:20 It was Winston Churchill who said that fear is a reaction,
14:24 courage is a decision.
14:26 And you have to shift from reactionary things of fear
14:31 and move into the decision of courage, "I will hope in God.
14:36 I'm not going to give up.
14:38 Yes, this is tough, but I'm built for it.
14:40 Yes, this is tough, but God will help me.
14:42 Yes, this is tough, but God is building a team around me
14:46 that everything that I need will be in its place
14:49 when I get to the place to where I need it.
14:51 God is with me."
14:53 We have to move from reacting to deciding.
14:57 I'm going to decide that I'm sticking with God
14:59 no matter whatever.
15:01 What else happened? I'm sticking with God.
15:03 I'm sticking with God. People will let you down.
15:05 Some trust in horses and some trust in chariots,
15:08 but I'm telling you that when you put your trust in the living God,
15:13 God will never, ever let you down.
15:16 I'm sticking with God.
15:18 I don't know about you, but I'm sticking with God.
15:21 And after you freak out over what's happening in your life,
15:25 make a courageous decision to dare to hope in God.
15:31 Here's what I want you to remember
15:33 is that every day, regardless of its difficulty and pain,
15:38 has some blessings and some beauty in it.
15:42 Find them.
15:44 Every day, regardless of its difficulty and its pain,
15:49 has some blessings and some beauty in it.
15:53 Find them. Find them.
15:56 You're on a scavenger hunt every day
15:59 because every day His mercies are made new.
16:03 Every morning, God has hidden blessings in every day.
16:07 He's hidden beautiful things in every day.
16:10 There are beautiful memories that are in every day.
16:12 There are beautiful possibilities that are in every day.
16:15 There are beautiful promises to embrace in every day.
16:19 Every single day, there's something beautiful
16:23 to be discovered.
16:25 Find them. Find them.
16:26 It's there on the ugliest of days,
16:28 there's something beautiful to find.
16:29 On the ugliest of days,
16:31 there's something absolutely beautiful to find.
16:34 There's something of a blessing to be able to recognize.
16:36 You could say, "I mean, if your blessing is nothing but this,
16:39 "yeah, it's bad, but it could have been worse."
16:42 Sometimes my greatest thanksgiving in my heart
16:44 is that, "Lord, I thank you that it wasn't any worse
16:46 "than what it is."
16:47 I mean, I just--I want to find something to thank God over.
16:50 It could have been worse.
16:51 It honestly could have been worse.
16:53 And always remember this truth.
16:56 God is good even when life is not.
17:01 Life is not always good to you.
17:03 You will go through some difficult, troubled periods.
17:06 There are people that will hurt you,
17:08 that will disappoint you, that will break your trust,
17:11 that will let you down,
17:12 but God is good even when life is not.
17:16 God is good even when life is not.
17:20 And here's what I would say to you.
17:22 When you cannot fix your problems, fix your focus.
17:27 When you cannot fix your problems, fix your focus.
17:31 Listen, this is Life University here.
17:33 We didn't come here to play church.
17:35 I'm trying to school you and tool you
17:37 with things that will help you
17:39 when life starts striking you over the head
17:41 with a 2x4 and a crowbar,
17:44 and when people that said that they were going to be there
17:46 said that I'm behind you, and they're so far behind you
17:49 that you can't even see them.
17:52 I'm trying to give you some strategy
17:54 to say that when you can't fix the problem, fix your focus.
17:58 Fix your focus.
17:59 Fix your focus on something that you can do something about.
18:03 Fix your focus. Fix your focus.
18:06 Because we're the only species on the planet
18:10 that has the power of choice.
18:13 It's one of the things that separates us
18:15 from all of the other animal kingdom
18:17 is the power of choice.
18:19 Every day you get to choose to do some incredible things.
18:23 Every day you get to choose.
18:25 You can blame others or you can work on yourself.
18:29 "It is always my husband and I, we do it,
18:31 my, my, my, my wife, she, he, me."
18:33 Listen, you can blame others or you can work on yourself.
18:36 It's a choice.
18:37 You can feed your fears or you can feed your dreams.
18:41 Feed your fears or feed your dreams.
18:43 You can speak badly of others or you can bless them.
18:46 You can give up or you can keep trying.
18:49 You got a choice.
18:50 You can think the worst or you can think the best.
18:53 It's your choice.
18:54 You can be jealous of others or you can live your best life.
18:58 You can follow the world or you can follow the Lord.
19:00 It's your choice.
19:01 You can complain or you can be grateful.
19:04 You always have a choice.
19:06 You always have a choice.
19:07 You always have a choice.
19:09 Every day you get to choose.
19:11 It's a wonderful privilege that we have to be able to choose.
19:14 Listen, your attitude is like a flat tire.
19:17 You're not going anywhere until you change it.
19:19 [congregation laughing]
19:25 But I want you to realize this, that it is being grateful.
19:28 It is being grateful that safeguards you
19:32 from becoming a negative, cynical, pessimistic human being.
19:39 It is gratitude in your heart.
19:41 It is being grateful that is your greatest safeguard
19:45 against becoming a negative, cynical, pessimistic,
19:50 narcissistic human being.
19:52 Just being grateful, grateful, grateful.
19:56 Every morning, Lord, your mercies are new.
19:59 Lord, I thank you.
20:00 Great is thy faithfulness.
20:02 Great is thy faithfulness.
20:05 Even when other people are unfaithful to you,
20:07 Lord, great is your faithfulness to me.
20:12 Great, great, great is your faithfulness.
20:15 Remember, whatever you focus on expands.
20:20 Whatever you focus on, it expands.
20:22 It gets bigger and bigger.
20:24 Whatever you focus on expands.
20:26 I mean, just think about it.
20:27 If you buy a red Toyota Corolla,
20:33 you may not have ever noticed them on the road before,
20:35 but I guarantee you after you buy one,
20:39 you will see everyone that's coming up and down the street,
20:41 everyone in a parking deck,
20:43 you'll see everyone that goes by you,
20:45 you're going to notice the red Toyota Corolla
20:48 because you're focused on that particular brand of vehicle
20:53 and that color of vehicle.
20:55 So now your mind catches everyone.
20:58 You know the most common colored vehicle?
21:01 It's not red, it's white.
21:05 But if you buy a red Toyota Corolla,
21:08 you will notice every red Toyota Corolla.
21:11 I don't care if it's your same year or not.
21:14 You're going to notice it because your focus goes there,
21:16 and wherever your focus goes, it expands.
21:19 And if you focus on good things,
21:21 you will recognize every blessing.
21:23 Those blessings will begin to expand into your life.
21:26 But if you focus on negative things and problems and attacks
21:29 and who's against you and what's wrong with the world,
21:32 the list will completely continue to grow.
21:35 If you focus on what's wrong with your husband
21:38 and what's wrong with your wife, the list will get longer.
21:43 Whatever you focus on expands.
21:47 Whatever you focus on expands.
21:50 It just expands.
21:52 And every day that you wake up,
21:53 it's a reason to really celebrate.
21:56 I mean, I want you to think about this for just a moment.
21:59 I mean, if you were having a bad day today,
22:01 if you were having a bad day,
22:03 and if somebody said to you, "You know what?
22:05 "Listen, Noah, I'll give you a million dollars
22:07 "if you'll change your attitude."
22:09 It's amazing how people could just cheer up.
22:14 You couldn't talk them into cheering up,
22:17 but money has a way of fixing some things
22:20 that other things just cannot even fix.
22:26 But now suppose I said to you,
22:31 "I'll give you $10 million, but here's the caveat.
22:37 "You won't wake up tomorrow.
22:39 "You can get to $410 today,
22:43 "but you won't wake up tomorrow."
22:46 How many would be interested in doing that?
22:50 You mean to tell me you wouldn't take $10 million
22:54 over just being able to wake up in the morning?
22:59 So if you wake up tomorrow,
23:02 and if that's worth more than $10 million to you,
23:07 why is your heart overwhelmed?
23:10 Shift your focus.
23:14 [congregation cheering]
23:20 You're getting up today.
23:21 This is worth more than $10 million
23:23 if somebody paid you today.
23:25 $10 million not to get up, but great is thy faithfulness
23:29 morning by morning, today, today, today, today.
23:35 It's amazing.
23:36 That's why I say every day that you wake up,
23:38 it is a reason to celebrate.
23:39 Every day, problems and all, hurt knees and all,
23:43 back issues and all, stomach issues and all,
23:46 hair turning gray and all, hair falling out and all.
23:51 Every day, every day, every day, every day
23:54 is a reason to celebrate every day.
23:59 [congregation cheering]
24:02 My friend Erwin McManus says that your freedom
24:05 is on the other side of your fears
24:08 and your greatness lies on the other side of your pain.
24:12 Just think about that.
24:13 Your freedom is on the other side of your fears.
24:16 If you're pressed through your fears
24:17 and greatness is on the other side of your pain,
24:19 that's why you have to press through the pain.
24:22 You have to go when you don't feel like it.
24:24 And so if you can't shift your situation,
24:26 shift your focus again, shift it, shift it,
24:29 and learn how to look at life
24:35 through the lens of the Bible.
24:37 You know, if you look, I want you to get this example.
24:41 If you, if you look at a telescope,
24:45 all you'll see is a telescope.
24:48 But if you look through it, you'll see worlds beyond it.
24:53 You'll be able to see definitions on other planets.
24:55 You'll be able to see stars
24:58 that you cannot see with the naked eye.
25:01 I don't know whether you understand this or not.
25:03 You know how many stars there are?
25:05 Scientists tell us, hear me carefully,
25:09 I'm good with numbers, you know.
25:12 There are 10 sextillion stars, 10 sextillion.
25:16 That's a lot of stars.
25:18 That's a one followed by 21 zeros.
25:22 That's a thousand to the seventh power.
25:25 A thousand million is a billion.
25:27 A thousand billion is a trillion.
25:29 A thousand trillion is a quadrillion.
25:30 A thousand quadrillion is a quintillion.
25:32 A thousand quintillion is a sextillion.
25:35 There are 10 sextillion stars.
25:38 But do you know you can only see
25:40 slightly over 6,000 stars with the naked eye?
25:44 There is more to this world than what you can see.
25:50 So, if I look at a telescope, all I see is a telescope.
25:56 But if I look through it, I can see worlds beyond it.
26:00 I can see other stars that are hidden to the naked eye.
26:02 There's a lot of things that you cannot see.
26:05 You got to be able to learn how to live above sea level.
26:10 Oh, my, my, my.
26:15 When you do something and you shift,
26:17 when you can just learn to live above sea level.
26:21 Now, the same is true with the Word of God.
26:24 Don't just look at the Bible.
26:27 Learn to look through the lens of the Bible.
26:31 Develop a biblical worldview.
26:34 Learn to look through the lens of the Bible.
26:38 When you look through the Bible,
26:40 it'll help you to now begin to think in a biblical way.
26:45 To say, "What would the Holy Spirit have me to do
26:47 in this situation?
26:48 How would Jesus function in this situation?"
26:51 Look through the lens of the Bible.
26:53 Don't just look at the Bible on your coffee table,
26:56 on your nightstand.
26:57 Look through it.
26:58 Look through it.
26:59 Its power is never made available to you
27:01 until you begin to look through the concepts,
27:04 the precepts, the philosophies, the understanding,
27:07 the promises that are here in the book.
27:10 But life itself is a blessing because if we have life,
27:14 we have the possibility for a comeback.
27:17 As long as you've got life,
27:18 you've got the possibility for a comeback.
27:22 And this is why, remember Psalm 118 and verse 24,
27:26 that this is the day that the Lord has made.
27:29 Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
27:32 Let us rejoice.
27:33 That ought to be a decision that you make.
27:36 This is the day that the Lord has made.
27:39 Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
27:41 There's something to be glad about it in every day.
27:44 I'm telling you, there are blessings and beauty
27:46 in every day.
27:47 Find them.
27:48 There are blessings and beauty in every day.
27:51 Find them and change your focus.
27:54 One of the ways that the devil breaks us
27:57 is that he holds us in bondage
27:59 by keeping us focused on the brutality of life
28:03 and the burdens of life
28:04 instead of the beauty of life and the blessings of life.
28:07 It's amazing.
28:08 But God has been faithful to you,
28:10 and he's been gracious to you.
28:14 Can I give you a real secret of life about happiness?
28:20 You're still waiting to be happy?
28:24 I'm going to give it to you in one statement.
28:32 Happiness begins when selfishness ends.
28:39 Happiness begins when selfishness ends.
28:47 You would think that selfish people,
28:48 because they are narcissistic and all into themselves
28:51 and for themselves,
28:52 you would think that selfish people
28:54 would be the most happy people on the planet,
28:56 but they're not.
28:58 Selfish people are still--
28:59 the more you do for them, the more they want you to do it.
29:02 "Is this all you're going to do for me?"
29:04 They get mad because you didn't do more.
29:07 Selfish.
29:08 Still got it all, plate loaded down with more food.
29:11 It spoils in their refrigerator before they can eat it all,
29:15 and they're still not happy.
29:17 No dog and chicken was dry.
29:21 They got it all and still got something to complain about.
29:25 Still upset.
29:26 Happiness begins where selfishness ends.
29:32 Giving people are the happiest people on the planet.
29:35 Grateful people are the happiest people on the planet.
29:39 It's where you stop thinking about yourself
29:42 and you start thinking about,
29:43 "God, how can you use my life
29:45 "to be able to enhance somebody else's life,
29:48 "to make somebody else just to lift--
29:50 "just a good day, just to cheer them up,
29:52 "just for a moment?
29:53 "I don't have to feed them for the whole year,
29:55 "but if I can give a hungry person--
29:57 "I mean, at least I helped that one.
29:59 "There been times that I've been walking down
30:01 "along the beach,
30:03 "and there was tons of starfish that had washed up,
30:06 "and every now and then I'll just lift down
30:09 "and pick them up and throw them back into the water."
30:14 And somebody said to me,
30:15 "You see how many there are out here?"
30:17 And I said, "That's not going to make a difference
30:18 "if you're just picking up one or two."
30:19 I said, "It made a difference to that one."
30:21 [laughter]
30:28 You don't have to change the whole world.
30:30 Do what you can.
30:33 And I don't know about you,
30:34 but I felt good because I changed the life of one starfish.
30:39 At least I meant something to that one.
30:42 I meant something to that one.
30:44 If you feed one dog, if you feed one bird,
30:46 if you feed one cat,
30:48 at least it made a difference to that one.
30:51 There are millions of them in the world,
30:52 but I mean, it made a difference to that one.
30:55 And you'd be surprised how you can feel
30:57 something that will lift you and take you to a better place
31:00 just because you ended your own selfishness
31:03 and you thought about somebody else
31:05 beyond yourself, outside of yourself.
31:07 But here's what I want you to see,
31:09 because the writer here of Lamentations,
31:12 Jeremiah, was going through something,
31:14 and not only--you know, he was always crying.
31:16 You know, they called him the weeping prophet.
31:18 He was always, "Oh, God, oh, God, we're going down.
31:21 Oh, God, it's so bad."
31:23 Come on, Jeremiah.
31:25 Take your medication.
31:27 You need to see your therapist.
31:28 [laughter]
31:33 I mean, I wonder whether he suffered with depression.
31:35 He might have.
31:37 But here's what I want to say to you,
31:40 is that chaos precedes all significant change.
31:45 Chaos precedes, precedes all significant change.
31:52 Just when your life looks like it's in a mess,
31:56 just when it looks like it's over, like it's chaotic,
31:59 that's when it's ready for a miracle.
32:03 Chaos precedes all significant change.
32:08 Albert Einstein said that the measure of intelligence
32:11 is the ability to change.
32:13 The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.
32:17 So if your life is in chaos today, goody,
32:21 because it means that you're ripe
32:24 for the transformative power of God to touch your life.
32:28 You're really ripe for it.
32:30 And before God created the beauty of the earth,
32:34 you know the earth was in a mess.
32:36 It was chaotic.
32:37 It was full of darkness.
32:39 It was flooded.
32:40 Water was everywhere.
32:41 You couldn't make out anything.
32:42 There is always chaos before every redesign,
32:46 every reconstruction process.
32:48 There's chaos, you know, when a doctor goes in
32:51 and does major surgery, they tear up some stuff,
32:54 they cut it open, and it's chaotic
32:56 before they put it all back together.
32:58 Yet before the addict's life is restored,
33:01 the addict's life is in chaos,
33:03 whether it's drug addiction,
33:04 whether it's porn addiction, whether it's alcohol,
33:07 whether it's food, whether it's an attention addiction,
33:10 whatever, when your life is under addiction,
33:13 you are in chaos.
33:14 If it is a pet that needs to be trained
33:16 and they keep doing mess in the wrong place,
33:19 it is chaotic.
33:20 It's chaotic.
33:21 Life is messy before we come to Jesus.
33:24 Chaos precedes the order of God.
33:28 I mean, it's just the fact that chaos precedes
33:31 all significant change.
33:33 Chaos, it may be in a mess.
33:37 Chaos precedes change.
33:39 It precedes it.
33:41 It precedes it.
33:43 And I just want you to realize this,
33:46 is that at the end of it all,
33:50 it is our ability to be able to turn to God
33:53 in the midst of being overwhelmed
33:55 by the problems of life,
33:57 the circumstances of life,
33:59 the situations of life,
34:02 and to come into a place where we experience God.
34:06 To say, "God, I've got to find you in the darkness."
34:09 And amid the chaos,
34:12 it's when everything was chaotic.
34:16 And some people assume that if God were there,
34:18 there would be no chaos.
34:20 But you haven't read your Bible.
34:23 Because if you'll go back into the very book of beginnings,
34:26 Genesis chapter 1,
34:28 when darkness was upon the face of the deep
34:31 and everything was chaotic,
34:33 the Bible says that the Spirit of God moved.
34:37 He was hovering over the chaos,
34:41 just waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting.
34:43 Everything is chaotic down here.
34:45 But he was waiting, he was waiting.
34:47 Guess what he was waiting on?
34:49 He was waiting on a Word.
34:51 A Word will shift everything.
34:53 Sometimes all you need is just a Word.
34:55 Now, for us, it was God that Elohim,
34:58 created God, that created--
35:00 he let a Word come out of his mouth
35:02 that began to shift things.
35:03 He said, because number one,
35:05 everything was in darkness.
35:07 Before he did anything, he turned on a light.
35:09 And this light was not the sun.
35:12 The sun was created on the fourth day.
35:14 The moon and the stars were created on the fourth day.
35:16 But this was in the beginning.
35:18 God said, "Let there be light."
35:20 He turned on a source of inspiration and enlightenment
35:24 until your soul gets enlightened.
35:27 You don't know what to do with the chaos
35:29 that is in your world.
35:31 And I'm telling you, it reminds me
35:33 of a story of two old women.
35:39 Back in 1949, between 1949 and 1952,
35:43 off of the west coast of Scotland,
35:47 in a group of islands there called the Hebrides,
35:52 a revival broke out.
35:56 And it was spearheaded by a man by the name of Duncan Campbell.
36:01 Duncan Campbell led the revival,
36:03 but it was not his charisma nor the dynamism
36:07 of his preaching that drew the people to the Lord
36:10 and caused the revival.
36:13 It was God and prayer to God that amid the chaos
36:18 that was happening that started it.
36:22 These two sisters, Peggy and Christine Smith,
36:29 they were senior citizens, golden girls, blood sisters.
36:35 One was 84 and blind.
36:37 The other one was 82 and crippled deeply by arthritis.
36:43 And when they heard that there were no young people
36:48 attending public worship in their local church,
36:52 something broke in their hearts and they had a burden.
36:56 They said, "God, don't let our church die.
36:59 Lord, send your Spirit.
37:02 Save the people."
37:05 These two senior citizens, the golden girls,
37:09 82-year-old Peggy, 84-year-old Christine,
37:16 here they are deciding that they would pray twice a week,
37:22 every Tuesday night and every Friday night.
37:26 They would get down on their knees every Tuesday night
37:31 and every Friday night at 10 p.m.
37:34 And they wouldn't get up until 3 or 4 a.m.
37:39 They had a burden in them.
37:42 They said, "Oh, Jesus."
37:44 In an humble village that decided to pray
37:48 to shift the godless culture that was in the Hebrides Islands.
37:55 And somehow every time that there is stuff that happens
38:01 in front of the scenes, it's never what's in front of the scenes.
38:05 There's always what's done behind the scenes
38:08 that's responsible for what's happening in front of the scenes.
38:12 And what was behind the scenes were these two sisters,
38:16 Peggy and Christine Smith,
38:19 that would get out on their knees blind and crippled,
38:23 but yet they could see God and they could be moved by His Spirit.
38:30 They were 84 and 82 years old,
38:32 and they prayed until God shook those islands.
38:37 And people started coming by the busloads,
38:40 and now the church that had once been empty
38:42 was now flooded with people, not because of brilliant marketing,
38:47 but in response to somebody praying.
38:53 And light came to where there was darkness,
38:56 and order came to where there was chaos.
38:59 And God, when you don't think that you can do anything else,
39:02 can God use you?
39:04 Oh, my God, if you can pray,
39:06 you can become a mighty warrior and create a legacy.
39:11 People came from all around those regions.
39:14 Many miracles were done, and many souls were saved
39:17 by the power of the Holy Ghost
39:19 just because they were responding to somebody's prayer
39:23 who saw a need, who sacrificed for Jesus,
39:27 who served them out of the earnestness of their heart.
39:30 And you wonder, "Lord, what can you do
39:32 with an 82- and an 84-year-old woman?"
39:35 You will be surprised if you will pray.
39:37 You can shift and take a situation
39:39 of where you're overwhelmed
39:41 to producing a nation of overcomers,
39:44 that God can bring you out of the darkness
39:48 and into His marvelous light.
39:51 Never underestimate the power of prayer.
39:56 When you can't shift your situation,
39:59 shift your focus and begin to pray.
40:02 And I pray that you got something
40:04 out of the Word of the Lord today.
40:06 Hallelujah to the Lamb of God.
40:10 We hope that you enjoyed that message.
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40:23 Thank you for what you do.