This Means Everything // Restoration Power // Pastor LaRon Gordon

God doesn't want you to look better. He wants you to be better. Sometimes we're so concerned of what the outside looks like to everybody else. We're trying to impress everybody else, but guess what? When we stand before the father, it's gonna be us. Your friends is not gonna be there. The people you're trying to impress is not gonna be there. It's going to be you and the father. So why are we so concerned about everybody's opinion now? My salvation has nothing to do with you. I'm so sorry. I love all of you. Me following the Lord has nothing to do with anybody else. So why am I so concerned about what you think? [00:15:07] (36 seconds)  #BeBetterNotJustLookBetter

See, Peter needed identity shift. Sometimes we want the door to be open. God said, you're still in chains and you're still in bondage. I wonder if God would've opened the door first. And Peter tried to walk out with that bondage. God said, I can't let you walk through those doors because you still have bondage in your life that I need to free you of first. What is the bondage that's holding us back today? Deferred dreams, broken relationships, shame. God says I need to heal and restore your soul first before those windows and doors open up. [00:13:59] (39 seconds)  #HealBeforeDoorsOpen

I believe there's people in the world that need to see you struggling. They need to see every single step that you are taking that God is with you. Sometimes when we only testimony over here, people are like, I don't even know how to get there. People need to see you here still praising the name of the Lord, and people need to see you here still praising the name of the Lord. And when I have a setback, I'm still praising the name of the Lord. That is the testimony. That means shame becomes testimony. Loss becomes ministry. Pain becomes the authority. [00:17:23] (37 seconds)  #ShameBecomesTestimony

God says I will restore the time. Sometimes when we get off track, we look back at our failures and we feel that God has missed us. God says, I will restore the time. I will compress your blessing, and I will shake it up and overflow it for you if you just come back to me. Yeah. Sometimes we just want the crops back. Sometimes we just want the money that we spent back. God says, I'm going to restore the years back. Those of us know money comes and goes. That paycheck come and be gone before you even spend anything. [00:10:15] (32 seconds)  #RestoreTheYears

God is saying if I just give you this back, it's gonna be gone. But if I restore those years, the enemy cannot take that away. God can restore your opportunities, and he can restore what you thought was wasted. Sometimes the enemy whispers it's too late. But the restoration power says that God is always on time, and he is never too late. God says, watch what I can do with the years that you have left. He can compress your blessing and accelerate your healing, and he will redeem delay. [00:10:47] (31 seconds)  #GodIsNeverTooLate

You've cried pry privately, struggled quietly, wondering, can God hear you? Can he see you? And I promise you he can. The restoration power means that what was meant to break you will not define you. Sometime God allows seasons of challenge because he can reveal a greater authority in you through your challenges more than success. Sometimes we wanna show everybody to the success. God says, I need people to see the struggle so that I can identify with the struggle. Sometimes people can identify with the miracle, but everybody identifies with the struggle. [00:18:01] (38 seconds)  #NotDefinedByTheStruggle

I want my praise to be so great that people still don't understand. When I just lost my job, I'm still praising. How can you be praising the Lord because I know the Lord got something better and greater for me, and I'm just gonna wait. I got a bad review, that's okay, because I ain't got no choice but to get better. I praise the Lord for that. And sometimes I need to sing the song of David that I will bless the Lord at all times, and his praise shall continually be in my mouth. I'll magnify the Lord with me and exalt his name. This means everything when you can praise in the midst of the storm, and that's what people need to see. [00:18:40] (35 seconds)  #PraiseInTheStorm

If they fall away, God is saying, trust me, I will restore them too. If you would just trust me. Trust is hard. Every single day, it's a fight. This promise means your children will praise him. They will prophesy. They may fall away, but trust God. My seasoned saints, there's a promise in here for you too, that you will dream dreams. Your time has not come every day that you're here. My father always said, comes with an assignment. God, what is your purpose and plan for me today? I love talking to the seasoned saints because God gives them dreams to reveal. [00:23:50] (50 seconds)  #TrustRestoresGenerations

We all have a past. Nobody's as worse than anybody else's. Sometimes we get in this comparison. Like, didn't did this, did this. And some of us have a miracle testimony. So I've been following the Lord my whole life. We all got stuff. Trust me. The miracles I've been restored. I'm not perfect, but I'm walking in victory. Yeah. The Lord has already promised it to me. I hope you know that the war and the battle has already been won. When Jesus did it on the cross, grayed the grave thought that it won, but the resurrection power rolled the stone away. [00:22:13] (37 seconds)  #VictoryIsAlreadyWon

Sometimes we wanna be all loud and bang the doors down. We want everyone to recognize me and look at me and look at my accomplishments and look what I'm doing, and God says when you are in the right place, those doors will open up on their own. When you walk up to them, you just don't wonder why they just open up, and everybody else looking, you're the most unqualified. God says, I don't know. God must have done it. God said, just be patient and wait. Restoration is not a quick fix. [00:14:38] (29 seconds)  #DoorsOpenWhenYoureReady

Sometimes we're more comfortable with the old. We're looking at our old selves. If I could just look like I did in high school, my life will be better. If I can get back to my high school weight, my life will be better. You know, you can look a certain way and your life still be messed up. Spiritually dry. God is saying I need to restore you from the inside out. I need to praise to be continuously in your mouth regardless of what it looks like. Because guess what? We're walk out of here and the circumstances are still going to be there, but I'm going to walk out with peace. [00:20:45] (36 seconds)  #RestoreFromTheInsideOut

Restoration power means that your story is not over just because the chapter you own is messed up. Sometimes we have these chapters that are messed up and we wanna throw the whole book away. God said the story is still being written, and I am the author and the finisher of your faith. Point number two, God restores your soul, not just the situation. Psalm 23 says, the Lord is my shepherd. Thou shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, and he leads me beside the still waters, and he restores my soul, [00:11:19] (35 seconds)  #YourStoryIsStillBeingWritten

I remember those days when I back in the old church that when stuff was going on, we had prayer service and everybody came to the prayer service. And you just prayed and you prayed and we didn't leave. I'm like, Lord Jesus, it's 05:00 in the morning, but the season saints that we're gonna tarry here until we hear from the Lord. Right now, we want the microwave breakthrough. We're put our prayer request in, hit that time limit, hit start, and then ding, it's there. It didn't work that way. And then now we're frustrated because God didn't answer it with the time limit that we put on it. [00:08:52] (33 seconds)  #NoMicrowaveBreakthroughs

Remember when you first got the job that you prayed for? You was happy and excited, and now you're in year two, three, four, twenty five, and now you can't wait to get off, and it's just Sunday. Total devastation. We shouldn't be surprised by this because John is very clear that the devil's goal is to steal, kill, and destroy, aiming to wipe out everything. The call is repent. See, once God gives us this warning, he calls us and we should be convicted enough to repent of our sins. [00:07:32] (37 seconds)  #RepentToOvercomeTheEnemy

It's a subtle sin, the secret sin, pride that starts to creep in. It's hardly noticeable, but it sets the stage for destruction. Maybe it appears there's small cracks in your communication with your spouse. Nothing big, but just something seems off. Anyone have that? No. It's just me. You talking, they talking, ain't nobody listening or hearing each other. It's the small steps. See, the enemy never comes in loud. It's always behind the scene, the decay that you didn't know that you had that dry rod in there and you're wondering why you're in this situation. [00:06:24] (37 seconds)  #WatchHiddenPride

but when I go to the dealership and I get my new truck and they bring it out, it's all shiny. They say they got everything you need, but the inside is still messed up like your old car is messed up. I wonder how many times you say, I just want the outside. That's good. Don't worry about the inside. I'll deal with it. I'll manage it. Some of us have been in bondage so long it's uncomfortable to be free. It is uncomfortable to be free. We come in here and we lay it down at the altar only to turn around and come pick it up again because I'm used to this heaviness at least. God is trying to say I'm trying to free you of that bondage if you just trust me. [00:20:03] (41 seconds)  #FixTheInsideFirst

every single day, I'm gonna celebrate and praise the name of the Lord regardless of what it looks like, regardless of what it feels like. God, I thank you even for the challenges. I want your glory to be seen in me. There's a blessing that comes in verse 28. And it shall come to pass afterwards, and I will pour out my spirit, and all flesh, and your sons, and your daughters will prophesy, and your old vantage will dream dreams and your young men will see visions. When my son was up here sick, that's the blessing. God, I just want my children to know you. [00:22:54] (55 seconds)  #PourOutTheSpirit

God says I need to restore your praise, not just the outcome. Look at verse 26. And you can shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God who has dealt wondrously with you. God is going to restore your praise. Somebody say praise. Praise. Praise. Some of us have been here every single Sunday. We're not able to worship freely. Don't know about you. There's been times I've been in church and I'm trying to sing them songs, I'm distracted. Stress, worry, pain. Anybody struggle with back pain? My back's been hurting for the better part of thirty years, and sometimes it's such a distraction. [00:16:00] (46 seconds)  #RestoreYourPraise

I'm gonna have a joy that no one can understand. People are looking like your stuff is still messed up. That's okay. Your back is still hurting. That's okay. How are you gonna pay the bills? I don't know, but I trust the Lord it's going to be okay. Sometimes the way I feel and what I see is not really the reality. The reality is I know who holds the world in his hand. That everybody, even doctors and lawyers and the physicians have to answer to him. I can't tell you how many stories of what the x-ray showed and they go back and they can't find it. [00:21:20] (42 seconds)  #JoyBeyondCircumstances

The swarming locust is a sudden overwhelming devastation. It is a mass assault, Visible damage to reputation, finances. It is a doom or gloom. Maybe it's the loss of a job, relational bake background, total collapse of a business. You start to see your children falling slowly away from the Lord. The hopping locust is persistent damage that follows the crisis. Maybe it's the bitterness that you start to have on your job. Remember when you first got the job that you prayed for? [00:07:00] (35 seconds)  #RecoverFromDevastation