Well, thank you all. I'm honored to be here. And let me tell you this, right off the gate, probably one of the hardest days to come preach anywhere is Mother's Day. It's a real sad thing.
I'm not going to lie. I have a wife. I have five kids forward, home two teenagers, and a four and three year olds. I have a bunch of kids.
And I'm home too. And I'm always like, especially with you all here. I know your heart. You're all as hard as a lot like mine.
I've gotten to know. I don't know if Fred really will, but I know his heart. I've just seen so much that he does. I'm going to definitely feel and Seth and everybody in house.
Like, you're all as hard as my heart. And the fact that even I'm a director of a team challenged now in Cumberland. And we're not in competition with each other. We're supposed to be are on the same team.
And I love the fact that you all act like it. You know what I mean? Because that's hard to get everywhere. Just being honest.
Not only in the recovery room, but in the church room too. And so it's an honor to be here. And I love your all's hard. But when you message me and say, hey, man, you want to come preach?
I'm like, yeah. He said, May 14. They didn't even dawn on me when he first said it. And till I said, I told my wife.
And she's like, what day? I was like, May 14. She said, did you tell him? Yes.
I'm like, uh-huh. She said, I didn't see anything on the schedule, honey. I mean, I looked at my calendar and was up in the corner and she said, well, that's my other stay. I'm like, ah.
But my wife knows the plans that the Lord has and knows that he asked me out a lot. And then I found out there was one on the Nicaraguan and all that. And I'm honored to be here. And I would just watch.
The Lord does things that give you a little, not only the fact that I love you all guys and would love to be here. I came here and taught not too long ago. I'm evangelist at heart. I hit the streets all the time.
That's just I have a church and I pastor and I preach. But really, I would rather be out there somewhere right now in a homeless camp or a drug neighbor, food or somewhere preaching the gospel and minister. And we need this too. But my heart and passion and my main thing is that.
And so we was watching anybody sing Jesus' revolution. And y'all have seen that, right? Well, there's also a documentary that goes with it called Frisbee and a very good mentor leader of mine in Jesse West Virginia Pastor J. After I watched that movie, he's like, you got to watch the documentary.
I watched the documentary. And only Frisbee was definitely an evangelist and definitely different. I mean, God used him. It still blows my mind.
Like it makes me realize that God can still use us. Because he was a mess. You know what I mean? He was almost sexual all of that.
And God chose to use him because he was seeking after something and he found him. And God used him to start, was it, Calvary Chapel, I think. And then after that went away, like when she found out in the documentary, that movie's all about Greg Lorie and Calvary Chapel and all of that in Chuck Smith. But then after that, Lonnie messed up, fell back in the homosexuality, came back out of that and got tapped into another place and started a whole other church called DaVinard, which is now huge.
So there's like 20,000 churches that Lonnie Frisbee is responsible for. And the day that we just, when you messaged me, we had just gotten the night before watching this documentary. And the first day that had happened that Lonnie Frisbee preached and it turned into DaVinard was a Mother's Day messaged. And I'm like, okay, Lord, I think I'm supposed to go, even though it's Mother's Day.
And I said, but my wife's gotta be okay with that. And so she said, yes, honey, go. But I also wanna tell you that I told Phil and the way over here, like, because it's Mother's Day, you know, it was really hard, this one. How many of your mother's feel that?
How many moms will we have in here again? I couldn't see them all. Thank you all. Like really, I'm honored to be here, trying to give some hope and message from Christ on a day that is hard.
I love your transparency to get up there and say it's not always a celebration day. Even for the moms, it's not really in loss. And I'm just a transparent person. So my wife knows she's transparent, whether it's coming out of my mouth or hers.
I'll be transparent for her too. Today was a rough day. We got a 17 year old, anybody else got moms? You got somebody graduating this year or close?
Like, or I've had that happen already? That's a hard day for mom. It's just that, it's like, yeah, kids are graduating. Moms are emotional.
You know what I mean? In a week, my 17 year old turns 18 Monday tomorrow. And she graduates Saturday, or two Saturdays now. So like, it's emotional for mom right now.
You know what I mean? Everything's coming together. I'm like, yeah, go five. So she's like, no, I don't lose my baby.
You know what I mean? So she's going through emotions and all kinds of things. And you know, I just realized this morning, and as I've been preparing all week to even come here and with the Lord, it's like, what in the world am I going to say? On Mother's Day.
It's the first time ever being in the church. Like, Lord, you're really like, woo, it's got to be you. And he said, I just need you to be honest. And I really feel like what I've seen since I've been asking that question, it's not only for mothers, it's also for every Christian city.
Right now, things are tough. And the enemy just wants to wear it. The moms, I just want to encourage you today. I hope this message is something that builds you up today and not just for moms, for ones, it's not moms, for Christians, for leaders, for people that just came to Christ.
Like you need to know, I promise you, and I may throw my notes to the side. I don't know, this is what God does to me. But right now, what I know and a lot of pastors would probably disagree with me, is the enemy's main goal and main focus is not to fill up hell. We might think that, but it's more I've walked with him and done this and been in the trenches.
There's a scripture and I want to just give you a biblical background to what I'm saying here. That makes sense to me. Second Peter 3'11, and it's just hit me in worship. I was just thinking about this.
It says, since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives should we live. Look forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. Like you got to catch that. There's something we can do as Christians to hurry along, God coming back, Jesus coming back.
He's saying, how can we do that? That doesn't sound right? It's in the Bible. Like it says it.
Look forward to the day of God, of Jesus coming back and hurry it along guys. Like we've got something to do to hurry it along. Well, if that's the case, then what do you think the enemy's main focus would be? Slow it down or stop.
He can't stop it. It's inevitable he's going to spend eternity in hell. Okay? We've already got the victory.
And for those of us that believe in Christ, we have an eternal salvation that we get to go to when all of that happens. But what about the in-between? We have a thing to evangelize, to spread the gospel, to live godly lives. That's what it said.
What godly lives you should live. Looking forward to the day of God, hurrying it along. And on that day, he will set the heavens on fire and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we're looking forward to the new heavens and the new earth as he's promised, as a world filled with God's righteousness.
So if I'm the enemy, and I know like this is my in-game result, I can either work to try to fill it up or I can prolong it as long as I can so that I still have something I can do here. Because it's also in the Bible that he is the prince of this earth, that he has some power. If we give it to him, his authority's been stripped. The cross took all other way, right?
And so we have to look at this. It goes right now, moms, I mean, let's just be honest. I mean, people would hopefully agree with me. And if Seth was here, he would too.
I know he would. Like we are the head, yes. And yes, we're the ones that set the tone in the standard, but I'm gonna be honest with you. If the enemy can mess up the mom, if the enemy can make the mom weary, oh, house gets a little chaotic, does it not?
I mean, come on. Like if moms, cause we can be strong and we can go work and we can do things, but there's just, my mom's y'all are amazing. Like we don't give y'all enough credit because we can't do what they do. I can't hold it all to get my mocks going for four or five days.
She comes back and I'm like, oh God, how do you do this? The toddlers are driving me crazy. The drama with the 17 year olds and then dinner and then and then and then. And y'all just do it daily cause it's what you do.
Like I sometimes sit back and just watch my wife and I'm like, oh my goodness. What? How do you and then they got us to deal with on top of it? Which is a whole nother, it's like, my wife says I got six children, I'm the sixth one and the worst one sometimes.
But honestly, like just being for real, like moms carry things and do things and they shoulder so much stuff. And the enemy knows that. And I watched my wife, I went and preached for five days, straight four days and five places in four days last weekend. And I was going and I get a call on Sunday night.
I left on Friday and I came back like 2 30 in the morning, Tuesday night Wednesday morning. But on Sunday I get a call. As I'm thinking about being here and as I'm thinking about all this stuff in the middle of what I'm doing and my wife's in the hospital. I'm like, wait, what's my life?
I called her phone and her best friend answered at 10 30 at night. I'm like, why are you answering my wife's phone at 10 30 at night? She says, oh, don't worry. Don't tell me that, tell me.
You know what I mean? And she's like, she's okay. She's in the ER. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Whoa. Her blood pressure's through the roof. They don't know what's going on. They're checking for blood clots, they're doing this, they're doing that.
And I'm like, well, I'm coming home. She's like, no, you're not. You're on assignment from the Lord. And I'm okay.
And I'm like, but she said, let the test come back. If there's anything wrong, you can come home. But right now, you know where you need to be. And like, we know, me and her know that the enemy's trying to disrupt the plans that the Lord has to all of us.
And for me, I can deal with a lot of stuff and just start messing up my family. You know what I mean? That's gonna wrap me up a little bit. And so I want to come home and see, I love her.
How you all showed her this kind of stuff, setting in the ER? She's like, I know where you need to be. I'm good. I mean, there's four kids at home.
She's in the hospital. And she's like, go ahead. And I started thinking about it. I'm like, I see this is what the enemy's plans is.
If he can just distract us and slow us down and frustrate us. If he can get us focused on, because I feel like this is what the Lord wanted me to encourage your moms today. Like for those of you that have kids, how many, I got five. So I got from 27 to three, okay?
I got the whole variety in there. How many of us have some right now, if we be honest? Or dads or moms either one? They just stay walking where you want them to walk.
Like, and I feel like this is the stuff that mom showed. I seen this reality this morning in my wife who's always strong. And what they said in the hospital was she had a panic attack. My wife never had a panic attack in our life.
Never. I was the one by polar manic depressive parent who was schizophrenic in a 17 year drug addict. I got saved in prison 13 years ago, radically delivered in one encounter with Jesus. I understand what panic attacks look like.
She's never had one. But her blood pressure was through the roof and all they come up with was a panic. And I'm like, why is this happening? She's never had that.
And it's like a new warfare that the enemy's just trying to do to slow down what God's trying. Cause right now, like I was just talking to John earlier, like most of the church and most pastors even now have this thing of all the world's going to hell on the hand basket and it just looks so bad and it looks so bad and gloom and do. And if we focus on that, man, we're missing the hope. That's not what I see.
And I know not what this church sees cause we're on the front lines. We're seeing people getting saved in baptize in the canal parkway and the dirty fish was biting. He ate on, we're just looking at what is that? I'm like, I don't know, just keep going.
He said, but we're seeing that there, but most people that's not on the front lines that are called differently, they don't see that stuff. So they think, man, it's just getting worse and worse. I'm seeing a lot of good things. I'm seeing a massive amount of salvation.
I just baptized two people last night down in Carmichael's. We baptized people out in Summer's Field. There was just so many things going on. It's crazy.
I remember going with Nick Walker in Martensburg and there were 68 people back in Martensburg. Like things are happening that are good. But moms and us, man, like all of it right now, the enemy just wants us to worry and focus on the bad. And man, I feel like this scripture really just needed to come out this morning.
And man, it's like a basic scripture. It seems like one everybody knows. But I want you to catch all of that in Peter and then go into this. I feel like the word for everybody setting in here is just warning if you just came in, if you don't even know Christ, maybe you've been walking a long time, but this is it.
Don't be misinsquellations six, seven, through 10. I didn't want to just do verse nine. That's really where I want to hit, but I want you to see what he's saying. Don't be misled.
You cannot mock the justice of God. Like no matter how bad it looks, like God suggests this in mercy. I love what we sing about his mercy. It rules and rules, okay?
Like his justice, his kingdom. You have to understand the language. Like there's a different thing of living in the kingdom and living in the world. We've been adopted into a new kingdom.
We've got a new family. We've got new rules. This is what we live by, not by the world. No matter how bad that looks, we have a kingdom of heaven inside of us that we can rule and reign out of and live in.
We stop that this morning. Like to understand that. It's just what he's saying. Justice can't be my, listen to this, moms, you need to hear this.
For those kids that you're praying for that you don't see the fruit, for those kids that just seem like they don't get it. Cause teenagers can act like they ain't paying attention to nothing, but they are listening. I've found this out, cause I was a youth pastor for over four years. He used to drive me nuts.
They'd be on the phones. They'd be doing all kinds of stuff. They ain't listening to nothing. Not a thing.
They're listening. They're listening. I'm telling you to listen. This is what it says.
You will always harvest what you play. Like moms, you need to hear that. Like you're going to harvest what you're planning. Even though it don't see it right now, it don't look like it right now.
Your kids, I got one running off too. Okay. I've got three actually, that really ain't where I want them to be. The ones completely not talk to me for a year and a half.
So I'm speaking from a dad point of view that understands this. Like I pray for my 17 year old, four years, she stayed with her mom and never came around me. She was cutting herself, depressed, having sex, getting her and kissing girls. Just me.
And I've seen all that from an hour and a half away on social media, it couldn't do nothing but pray. Which is not God, I knew that's what I should do. Because if I stuck my hands in it, I messed it up. Well, after four years of that, I now have full custody of her and she's in my house.
You know what I mean? So listen, I'm telling you, like what you're planting, what you're sowing, you're going to reap it. It might take some time and I may have to go through and figure it out, but I promise you, there'll be a day. No matter how much they think you're crazy right now, I'm tired of hearing it right now.
They're going to say, thank you for what you planted in it. Thank you for always showing me. Because I feel like that's what moms need to see. Like you're carrying in your shoulder and you're doing so much and you think nobody's paying attention.
Like I'm getting weary, I'm getting wore out. Like what good is it even doing? To example, this godly life of my own kids won't even listen. But I'm telling you, God says you will always, always harvest what you plant.
You can't go out in the natural and put corn in the ground and not get corn. You can't put corn down and get tomatoes. Okay? You're not going to harvest, you will harvest, I feel like that for you, heavy.
I'm sorry, I keep looking at you, but the fortune's doing it. Like you're going to see the harvest of what you were planting because it's rough. It's rough to hold this godly standard. It's rough to shoulder all of that for moms and dads, but man, it's mom's day.
We're talking about it. It's rough to shoulder that stuff and hold a godly example and live godly and holy and righteous and give a standard and not cave in and be their friend and not cave in and just have the relationship. Because four years, I didn't have it. Now I got my 27 year old and they talked to me since Roe versus Wade.
It's like I got one back and now the other one's coming. But it's like I trusted the Lord because I planted something and it's not for me to determine when it sprouts. It's what I told my wife, I held my wife today and I said, honey, this word's for you too. You will harvest what you planted.
It's going to take time. It takes before it too. It's going to do it. It's coming.
It's going to reap a harvest for generation and generation and generation. And so it goes on to say, you will harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own simple nature will harvest decay and death from central nature. But those who live to please the spirit will harvest everlasting life from the spirit.
Then he says verse nine, so let's not get tired of doing what is good. We're at just the right time. You will reap a harvest of blessings if we don't give up. Just stand, just walk, just so, just keep doing.
Like we just can't stop. We can't stop this thing. I want to build Johnson message the other day when I'm a little tiny ones. I was driving five hours and it just popped up and I thought, okay, he said somebody told him one day that even though he's walking with the Lord and he's marching, like that the enemy was marching beside him with all he could running, trying to keep up with his walk.
But the enemy wants to convince you that you ain't doing no good because he's trying to slow down the process. That's why this all ties together. It's like he's trying to slow down that. And man, if we just don't quit, if we just don't give up, if we just keep sowing, keep planting, keep doing these things for the Lord, keep living, Godly, keep living holy, keep walking, keep marching, like we will see it.
Not only in our kids in our city, I love that it's city, rich, you know what I mean? It's a point of a church, it's not to build a country club. It's to reach the city. It's to change the culture, change the environment, plant the kingdom of God there and make him lower over the city.
Like I want to see Cumberland in this whole region, declare and walk and make this thing the kingdom of God. Make this thing Jesus being a lower, not just Jesus being part of your service. Thank you for that. Not just being part of your service.
Like we've incorporated it in a little bit and made him fun. Listen, I've had so much fun for 13 years living for him. The way hitting the streets and doing this stuff, it's exciting for me. I'll just say it gets gooder and gooder and gooder.
That's my real big language. I'm from West Virginia, so give me some slack. I don't know the city talk around here, but it gets gooder and gooder. I guess I'm gonna have to learn being in Cumberland working now.
You know what, you got to teach me the city lingo. I come from Martinsburg, so I lost it. I had it at one time. But really, like living for him, walking with him, it produces life not just in you, but all around you.
The enemy would like to convince us that living this way and following the rules, which religious people look at it that way, is boring and you don't have any fun. For those who come out of addiction in here, you know what I mean? It's just a lot of media. Like y'all understand my language too.
Like I used to look at it when I come to Christ. Like I had to quit having fun. I had to just be boring and go sit in the pew and not move. Well that was alive on a pizza hill because I remember all my fun now.
And it's good. But like if we don't set this in our mind, it's like I think it's first John six or something like that. Or one six, you know, it's in there somewhere first John. It says, I follow your commandments and they're not burdensome.
Like to live by the word of God is life in abundant life. The enemy wants to steal, kill and destroy. He wants to slow you down. If he can't kill you, I stopped the John.
And enemies try to kill you over and over and over and it ain't worked. You know what I mean? So he's like, well, forget trying to kill you. Now I want to destroy things and slow him down.
Like that's what the enemy's plan is to just slow us down, make us sit in the church, have fun, and just have a country club, not affect our city. Cause now he's like, cause I feel like that's why y'all are getting this frontline attack and why so many here feel so weary and so heavy burden and feel like they're not doing anything is because you're affecting your city and your region and you've stirred up more than ground level demons. Like if I can speak like that in here, is that all right? Like I deal with deliverance all the time.
And I've done it for years as a street minister and hit in the streets and running the freedom house I had and all of that. But you know what? It's like there's an area of that and I feel like it's trained to me for something. And I was talking about it when I came here and talk.
Like the Lord has me on the summit this year. I didn't feel like preaching this today. But I want to sign it this year of going after the night walkers, going after the ones that come out of addiction that's not afraid to run back in and do some damage. And once you start doing that, going from being one to training some, now I've done stepped into a whole different level of demonic warfare and the principalities in the air.
I'm not just attacking Odinism in the jail. Now I'm not just attacking the drug addiction on the street. I'm attacking the principalities up there with the word of God and Jesus through me because I've been delivered from that. And now I'm calling this stuff down so that regions and cities can start living and activating the kingdom of God where they're at and it changes the whole environment.
I feel like y'all are doing that by the outreach, by the obviously the missions thing. Y'all are doing that stuff. So there's a whole different level of warfare. And that's what I feel like not only moms, but all y'all need to realize today.
It's going to seem even worse because the enemy is going to try to pour on and pour on. There's different principalities coming. And the biggest thing that it wants to do is attack the family. I'm telling you, if he can disrupt moms, if he can disrupt dads right now, it just messes everything up.
I was sharing my story on this video thing for this ministry called Mount Mama Rising. For some reason I was the first man to shave a head on there. I don't want to think, we all are not. But her ministry is Becky Keener.
She's part of the Western Prairie Alliance I'm involved in. And her thing is, man, she's praying for families. He's building mamas up. He's going after rebuilding families and getting kids back.
And we got to talk in. And I had a grandmother. I never went to church all my life really. I went twice a year with my ex-wife when I was married.
I just was a creaser that went because I had to because her mom said go, I didn't pay attention. They never saw anything in to me. I never listened if they did. But I had a grandmother that prayed for me all my life, but I never knew it.
Until she was in a nursing home after I got saved. And I got out of prison. I spent only half of your straight in prison. When I got out of prison, I started visiting a nursing home.
You kept saying, I prayed for you all your life and you're going to be a preacher. I was like, absolutely not. Are you crazy? Grandma, shut up.
You've done all the medicine they got to you. I was like, I'm not going to preach. You might be getting seen now. I don't know.
But you're talking to the wrong one. I'm the one who just got out of prison nine months ago. And she's like, I'm telling you, I've prayed that and you're going to be. And before she died, I actually later became one and got to go tell her that.
She said, I told you, I knew it. But the one thing I can say is this is what I feel like that she, and this was not written down. I don't know. This is always weird.
The one thing I can say is I found out at the end of her life that she was praying. And so what I think the Lord wants me to really tell you this morning is don't have that happen. Although I'm glad that I had a grandmother that prayed for me feel. It would have been nice for me to see her pray.
It would have been nice for her to say, Hey, Rob, come over here. This is what I'm doing for you. I'm warfaring in heaven right now that you get saved. I mean, like I never seen my grandmother read about.
I never seen my grandmother. She never prayed with me. I never even seen her praying. I really honestly didn't really know she was a Christian.
I mean, just being for real. Like God bless her. I'm thankful that she prayed for me in private and we need that. But right now this warfare that's coming against all of us, our kids really need to see it model.
We need to pull them in and pray with them. We need to pull them in. I know you have to say grace at the dinner time and that's amazing. But I can tell you like I just be transparent.
My four year old about a year ago, he came to me and I know y'all had this happen. Welcome to the middle of the night. I learned that I run in there. He said, there's monsters.
I start to do what every parent did. My parents know such thing as monsters son flip on the lights and walk around. And that's okay. But the Holy Spirit hit me and said, don't do that.
He needs to hear the truth. I'm like he's four. I went even for you. He was like three.
I'm like he said, listen, don't hinder the little children. Tell them the truth. Pray with him. He said, I want you to think about this.
Think about the word. Now, at three and a half years old, teach him how to use the word. And I'm like, okay. I sat down and it's hard to try to do.
He said, you can preach the gospel on the streets. He said, I preach the gospel to a three year old. They got, you know what I mean? I'm like, Joe, I need you to listen to me.
So I said, listen son. It's gonna be honest with you. There is monsters. And they're called demons.
And there you go. But this is what I can tell you. Jesus is way better. I said, so this is what I want you to say.
The word says that perfect love casts that fear, right? I said, who's perfect love? He said, Jesus. I said, you're getting it.
I said, where's Jesus live? He said, I say, he lives in your belly. He lives on the inside. That's what the word said.
He comes and dwells on the inside. I said, listen, Jesus is what? He said, perfect love. I said, perfect love lives where?
In my belly. Perfect love does what? He says, cast out fear. And I say, then what's that mean?
All the monsters have to leave in Jesus' name. He's four. He's four. And that's the prayer that I'm hoping he carries into the diagonal kindergarten and tells people, like I'm hoping it makes an effect.
And I'm not saying that to try to brag. It wasn't me, because I was getting ready to do the same thing. Yeah, there's no monsters. I think like the lights on and the, I was like, no, you need to model this one.
And so when I thought about my grandma, that didn't hit me until I was, don't want that interview that I never seen my grandmother pray. I never seen her do that. And we can say these things. And we can be like, well, I went to church.
Well, that's great. Thank God, we need to. But what are they really seeing? And I'm going to be honest, you see my devices up here.
I've gotten better at that. But what I'm realizing is if I'm sitting on my phone and my kids are running around, I was trying to read the word the other day. It's hard when I was running around trying to study. And I'm trying to study.
And he's like, dad, dad, dad, dad. I'm like, what? He said, quit paying attention to your phone and listen to me. And I thought, oh, he doesn't even know I'm reading the word because I don't have the Bible out.
I have my phone out. And if we don't notice the difference, y'all, we could be really doing it and studying it. Or we might not be on Facebook scrolling or whatever they do now Instagram and Twitter and all that. And all that.
But we could be on there. We really could be doing the word, but there's no difference to them. They see a phone and you're not giving them attention. So I'm using the actual Bible.
I know that's hard now. But I got to get the super jackprampers. I'm like, I'm getting up there and age. But I promise you, I feel like this is the simple things that we really need to do to not grow weary and to train up and do more.
And I want to give you some scriptures about not growing weary. Whatever you're standing for, whatever you're fighting for, we're like, like I said, moms, I don't even know how y'all do it. I'm baffled every day. But you're going to reap what you're selling.
I want to give you something really cool in the word as encouragement. Isaiah 40, 26 to 31, something y'all know Isaiah 40, 31. It's one of my favorite scriptures. Because I'm not going to lie, I've also, I mean, this category right now.
I just told you, I preached five places in four days and then drove home and then did Bible study Wednesday and then did stuff Thursday. And then like I've been going to, and this is what I've noticed before I read the scripture. Who in here barely gets sick in the natural? Okay.
I'm one of them people that I hardly ever get a cold. I hardly ever, I don't have allergies. I don't get all that stuff. But I'm going to tell you when it does happen.
And moms, y'all really need to catch it. When I don't pay attention to the signs of my body, because right now I've drove a lot of, I just went back to Carmichael's last night and got home at 1230, I start overdoing myself in the natural. Even though I'm doing ministry, and I'm sure you can relate, it gets taxing and weary some. And I get weary.
And when I don't pay attention to the signs that the Lord give me to pay attention to, I get echoey in my head when I'm really tired. I don't know if anybody else does that. Like I can go like, rub, rub, rub, rub, rub. I'm like, what's that?
But it's my voice. It sounds different. My voice gets deeper. My eyes get really dry.
And it's like, I know these warning signs, but probably what I don't do is I don't then say, okay, I see these signs, I need to take a day and rest. Cause I'm like, no, I got work to do for the kingdom. But listen, that's when I get sick. I've noticed that over the past five years, I paid attention when I don't take time to rest in my weariness.
I get fevers, I get sick. And then I'm down anyway for two or three days. Cause men can't handle sickness either. Come on.
When y'all may just be on my wife, it's like, y'all are such babies. You get a coach, like leave me alone. They're all women out there doing the mom thing, still doing everything, wiping your nose and rolling on. And we're like, I need a day to rest.
You know? So I'm just being real. I'm transparent. I'm like, God help me with that.
And so it's like, if we don't pay attention to those signs, then we get a physical illness. It's the same in the spirit. I'm really learning this. I'm really working on this myself.
Cause I'm a doer. I feel like this church is doers. And so as people, some are just here as the other word, but that's not what James says to be, we're to be doers of the word. So for the doers, we gotta watch, because we like to do.
The woman that came in and poured the alabaster jar over Jesus's feet, what did Judas say? Oh, wait, we could have used that money to go do things. And Jesus says, hold on. There always be needs.
You won't always have me. We've got to learn that. He went and got alone with the father. He did a lot.
Jesus, he delivered, did all of that. And at times when he knew, come on, if he did it, we gotta do it. It's what God keeps speaking to me. If Jesus did it, you better do it.
You're gonna have to learn more of that. And the warfare is getting ready to intensify. For this church's doers, the warfare's gonna intensify. You gotta find it more alone.
You gotta find more time to retreat. Cause if not, I'm gonna show you what happens. It might not look like addiction and all that. But when you get weary, you're more apt to doubt.
You're more apt to worry, which believe it or not, it's like we're not supposed to be double minded. James says a double minded man is unstable and all he does. He's tallse back and forth. That's when we feel weary, right?
So listen, it's in those times that he'll start tossing us and then he throws us in and then all of a sudden you're like, oh man, this is, you're focusing on finances. You're focusing on this. You're focusing on negative and how bad the world looks because you're weary and we're not taking the time to sit still with the Father. And I'm telling you that's the answer.
The answer we know in addiction, the answer's not fight it in all your strength. The answer's still on with that and he makes you new. You know what I mean? The answer's surrender to Jesus, right?
But then when we do all that, then we get into business and ministry and life and we forget that it's in the surrender. It's in the setting still. It's in the intimacy with the Father that we get filled up. Jesus, I'm sure.
I mean, can you imagine him being him walking around and the droves of people that just wouldn't ever leave him alone. Like, come on. I mean, I've been to Haiti praying for people and it's like the line just is like, oh my God. Like, where do they keep coming from?
And you're like, praise God, but you start getting weary praying for people. I can imagine everywhere Jesus went, he was tugging on all that, you know, everywhere. But when he felt that, he stopped and he got alone and he got refilled, he sat with that, then he came back out and did it. And I feel like that's what the enemy wants to do to slow us down.
If he keeps us from doing that, he's got us man. We'll complain and murmur. We won't have the Joshua and Caleb attitude. He realized that story with Joshua and Caleb.
That's what I was talking about right now, just looking at the world and how bad it is and how nasty it looks. What did all the other 10 spots say? We can't do it. Why?
They were scared, see, when your weary fear gets in there and that's the enemy's biggest of what, that's what I wanted somebody to say. They were fearful. They said, we look like grasshoppers in their eyes. How did they know that?
Because if you know the story with Rahab, what did Rahab say? We were scared to death that you all was coming over here to tell you, we were so petrified that you would come in here because we heard what God did at the Red Sea and we've been terrified that that was coming our way. Everything was given to him, the promise line. So the victory's ours in Christ, freedom from addiction, our famine, all of that's ours.
But if he can shift our perspective to know that, know who we are and sit with that being a son or daughter, he's slowing down the process for eternity that comes clear. And that's where he's at. He just wants this weary. He just wants this lukewarm and he wants us not knowing the Father.
John 17, eternal life is knowing him and the one whom he sent. It's not doing a bunch of ministry preaching really good and having a bunch of people in your church. It's knowing him. If the enemy keeps us from knowing him, we won't know who we are.
We won't be as effective as we could, which slows down the time. Cause it says to live godly and holy lives and we speed up the time. You know what I mean? That's not about getting it all right.
It's about sitting with the Father. First John says this, one through six. It says, he is pure light and in him there's no darkness. I love that.
He got an item, one bit of darkness in the Father. Nope, didn't exist in Jesus, nor him or Holy Spirit. So in him there's pure light. And if we stay an unbroken fellowship with him, the blood of Christ then cleanses us from all the righteous.
We can't not sin enough. We can't fight sin enough. We can't, we will grow weary doing that. We can't physically fight for our kids enough.
We can't tell them what to do. We can't make them do it. But man, if we learn to stay an unbroken fellowship with the Father, sin just comes off of us. Whether it's worry, guilt, shame, condemnation, it doesn't matter whether it's addiction.
It comes off by spending time with the Father and being righteous, which means you're on right relationship. You know who you are. That's the biggest thing that if we get out of, we start getting weary and we start feeling it. And so this isn't a condemnation mess.
This is an encouragement that there's things that we need to know, even Old Testament that the word says, and I feel like these scriptures right now, really, I really want you to hear this and it's telling us on goodness of God. Like listen to this. Say it 40, 26, and 31. Look up to the heavens who created all the stars.
He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by his name because of his great power and incomparable strength. Not a single one is missing. It's not going after the one. Well, think about this.
Old Jacob, how can you say that the Lord does not see your troubles? And I feel like that's what we do sometimes. Like God, how can you not see my family right now? I can do that.
I can say my daughter doesn't even want to be in church right now. She don't even talk to me. Can you not see that God? But if I focus on that, I'm missing the entity with him because I'm focusing on this.
He sees that. He sees every trouble that my family's going through the matter of fact, what God, in my grandad, in my spirit, a long time ago is it's his daughter before she's mine. It's his kid before she's mine. I got entrusted with trying to disciple that, but it's his daughter.
Says like, God, you love her more than me. You'll take care of her. I'll leave you do that. And I'll work on this and trust you.
So he's like, he's not a single one is missing. Oh, Jacob, how do you say that you don't see my troubles? Oh, Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights? Anybody else like they don't have the right to treat me like that?
They shouldn't have said that. You don't know what? Come on. Just being honest.
Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of all the earth. Listen, as he never grows weak or weary.
The one that we have intimacy with, the one that's adopted us, that weary and weakness is not even in his vocabulary. Like it never happens. Like he never sleeps nor slumbers. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
We're not going to figure it all out. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even use will become weak and tired. And young men will fall into exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find renewed strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles, and they will run and not grow weary, and they will walk and not faint. It's where we're looking to. David said, oh, I know where my help comes from.
Like we can't look to our own strength to figure this thing out. When we're weary, we can't say, hey, I got this. I'm going to, yes, we need to read more. Yes, we need to study more.
Yes, we need to pray more. But we need to sit with him. Like we've got to know who we are. And there's a resting in that to be still and know that I'm gone.
That's hard for us because we want to do it. It's hard for the doers because we want to fix it. I got this. I can't make my daughter read about one of them.
I can't make her run after the Lord. And I can't make her see and taste what I. But he can. And oh, if I just let him be my help.
Oh, if I just remember God, you put the stars in the sky. He put the sand on the sea shore. Matter of fact, you even think about me more than that. God, I thank you that Lord, you love my daughters.
And you have them right where you need them. To cultivate that seed that I planted in that you that I sewed into them. I thank you that you're cultivating and working on that right now. And Lord, you're going to bring a harvest.
And I'll reap that one day. But right now, I'm just trusting you in the process. I'm thanking you for the process and the day that what I planted will come in. And we just have to really learn how to get in that place instead of trying to fix it.
And then I say a 52 12 says this, for you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight, for the Lord will go before you and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. This is what you need to understand too. And I know you was talking about losing a mom. And I'll listen, he's got your back.
Like, this is what I've always loved about that scripture. Like, as we go on the front lines, as you all were doers, you don't have to worry about this stuff back here. What that means to me is this is exactly what happened this past weekend. I'm out the one to work with the Lord.
And he's got my family. He's got my back when I'm not at home. He's always there. He always shows up.
He's always there. Did they go to the hospital? Yeah, but guess what? Not only that, my son got up 103 fever the next morning and the next one got one from school sick.
They're fine. Since I got home, they're perfectly fine. And I ran and came home. I'd have missed what happened up there in Buchanan and everywhere else.
And I'm telling you, I did a Celebrate Recovery meeting at Buchanan. I don't know if you all been to Celebrate Recovery and how that goes. I love them, all these kind of meetings. It's usually about 20 minutes to speak.
And that's it. And then they have their small groups. I started speaking at seven o'clock at 10, 15. I prayed with the last person.