The enemy knows if he can't take you out, he'll wear you out. Cause if he can get you wore out, you'll stop making clear-minded decisions. You'd be like, I don't know. He seems like he's a good guy. He didn't even come to church. He's not your Boaz. Like he's not your mission field. She's not brother. She's not the one... The enemy knows if he can't take you out, he'll wear you out. Or watch this. If he can't take you out, he'll speed you up to make you just busy.
[00:10:20]
Maybe that's the way your life has been, maybe that's the way you've been living your life. You're like, the beginning of this year, Pastor Daniel, like I was fired all the way up, like January here, you hit the reset, you fasted, you prayed, you felt the joy of the Lord that was your strength, and then you got distracted, and then February came, you got filled back up in March, and then April and then May, and then now we're at the six month mark and maybe you're standing there and your bucket looks empty because maybe throughout this year you lost that job, maybe that diagnosis hit you harder than you anticipated, maybe you lost your courage along the way, maybe there has been cracks along the way and I want you to catch this at the very beginning of this sermon tonight even in the midst of all the emptiness that you might currently be experiencing here's the promise from God: God doesn't just refill what's empty, he replaces it with something so much better.
[00:12:39]
Your exhaustion isn't the end. It's the invitation for you to trust him. Your exhaustion is not the end. It's the invitation for you to trust him. When you're weak and you're exhausted, that's a really great place for God to show up and kick in.
[00:19:39]
This is why accessing this new strength and allowing him to renew your power every single day, not every once in a while, but every day is essential so that we're not just surviving life so that we're not just getting through the day, but no, there's a plan and a purpose, an incredible call on your lives.
[00:20:06]
Your breaking point is his breakthrough point. Wherever you're at, no matter what you're going through, when you access that new strength, wherever your breaking point is, oh, that's where he shows up and that's where your breakthrough point is at.
[00:20:30]
Strength isn't the absence of struggle. It's the presence of God in the, in the middle of it. If you are struggling in the midst of this and you're like, but my strength, I feel like strength isn't the absence of struggle. No, no, no. It's, it's knowing that his presence is with you in the middle of it.
[00:21:05]
He's with you in the low point. How many of y 'all have ever been in a low place? Come on, come on. Crap participation. You've been in a low place. It's okay. He's with you in the low place. He's with you when your heart got shattered. He's with you when you found out that your parents are falling apart and they're getting a divorce. He's, he's with you when you got laid off or when your money got really, really funny. He's with you in the midst of that, that situation in school that didn't go as planned or that business that you put all of your energy and your money into. And it just didn't take off whatever you're believing for that didn't happen. He's with you. And I know you felt alone, but you weren't there. You weren't there alone ever. He was with you the entire time.
[00:21:18]
Strength is in the absence of struggle. It's the presence of God, right? Smack dab in the middle of it. And then there's these promises all throughout the Bible. If you're not reading the Bible, you need to get in the word. Like if you're just like reading it just as like a quick little devotional moment, y 'all, there is so, this is the moral compass of our lives. This is what steers our life. And when you're squeezed in life, what comes out of you is what's hidden inside of you.
[00:23:14]
We need to stop monitoring what we placed in God's hands because once it's been put in his hands, he is big enough and strong enough to handle all of it. And then in return, he gives you new strength.
[00:25:26]
God is not limited by what limits you. I think in our small mindedness or our human mindedness, we assume that our limitations is his limitations. God is not limited. Put on the screen by what limits you. If you feel weak, he's strong. If you feel like you don't have enough wisdom, guess what? He is infinite in wisdom. Maybe you don't have the clarity you need. He's the one that can provide the clarity. I don't know the way. Well, he's the way maker. I don't know how I'm going to get through this sickness while he's the great physician. God is not limited by what limits you.
[00:25:54]
Waiting is where real strength grows. This is the season. You know, the thing about trees, you watch them grow really, really big, but the reality is it's the deep roots of a tree that you don't see that causes the strength on top of the surface that causes them to grow strong. Waiting is where strength grows and we hate waiting.
[00:27:47]
Waiting on God is not, it's not about being passive. I feel like I'm weak when I'm just waiting. It's not about being passive. It's about positioning yourself for promotion. Every single time, Pastor Jackie and I've had a season where we waited, that waiting season was never, we preach this all the time. It was never a wasted season. That's where God equipped us here for a place called there.
[00:30:17]
Strength is a person, not a feeling. I used to always think like, I got to get my strength from God, but it was less about getting my strength from God and recognizing God doesn't just give you strength. He is your strength. He is your strength.
[00:31:27]
Some of you are in a hidden season right now, a hidden season right now where God is restoring you and recalibrating you. Maybe some doors have closed and you didn't realize those closed doors were for your protection and redirection to keep you from making a mistake and going down the wrong path and ending up with the wrong person. God is showing up and he's fighting for you.
[00:32:04]
Don't rush what God is rebuilding in your life. Cause if you rush what God is rebuilding in your life, you'll recognize what he was trying to restore all along to set you up to be the wife and the future wife and the husband and future husband that you're called to be. You can't rush that process.
[00:32:52]
If the enemy can distract you long enough, you'll stop believing that healing is in your hands. If the enemy can distract you long enough, you'll start believing that you don't have a word and season or prophetic edge. That when you pray, you don't know if God answers your, your prayers. You just kind of get through life.
[00:37:14]
My prayer tonight is that you would stop running on fumes. That you would realize that you don't have to be fake strong anymore. That you don't have to try to hustle your way to your healing. I'm praying tonight, I don't know who this is for, daughter of God, I need you to hear me. I'm praying that you trade in all that pressure, that pressure to be accepted. That y 'all would trade in that pressure to be chosen. I just pray that someday will be enough. Instead, I pray that you would trade in that pressure for his peace and that you would receive his grace. That you would trade in all that exhaustion for his strength.
[00:37:47]
You don't have to prove anything. And you don't have to keep pretending that everything's fine. Just let your guard down. Allow the spirit of God to download supernatural strength in your life. And here's your part. Here's our part. We just have to wait well. Breathe deep. Walk strong. Not because you have it all together, but because we're clinging to the one who's holding it all together.
[00:40:04]
The strength isn't a feeling. It's a person. And his name is Jesus. Your name is Jesus. It's a promise from you, God, the promise keeper.
[00:40:31]
We're done pretending. We're done performing. We're done trying to hold on to things that we really need to let go of. So right now, and this is when I say it, if this fits you, I want you to just apply it to your life. Tonight, God, I trade in the pressure. If that's you, just say I trade in the pressure. Right now, God, we trade in the weight. If that's you, just say, Lord, I trade in the weight. I trade in the burnout. I trade in all my fear. God, tonight, I trade in all that anxiety. I trade in, God, the part of me that feels like I have to...
[00:40:58]
