Awe and Wonder Part 2

In this room. Exodus chapter 13, we're going to go to today. Because of everything that's going on, I want to go ahead and hasten to get into the word of God, because I want to give God all the time he needs to do what he wants to do today. Amen.

Exodus 13, verse number 17, reading from the New Living Translation, says: "When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through the Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the promised land. God said, 'If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.' So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea."

Anybody in here ever felt like you've been on the roundabout way? Yeah. Yeah, I felt that way too.

I remember a few years ago, it's probably three, maybe four years ago, it was Labor Day weekend, and, uh, I was going down to preach for a friend of mine in Oxford, Mississippi. And then we were leaving right after service, and driving down to Florida, and then back up on that Tues. It was just a crazy long trip. And for one leg of it, we were going to be in a rental car. So I wasn't thinking about the fact that it was Labor Day weekend, so I did not in advance plan to rent a car. And when I got there, the only thing they had was a, it was a Nissan roller skate. And I rented it. And it was a spec or a spot. It was, it was, it was, it was so small a car. And this is not me being preachery, all right? This is for real deal here. I could sit in the driver's seat and shut the passenger door. That's how big a car it was.

So I, I get it. And I get on I-40, and I'm heading west to try to get down and make my way towards Oxford. And it's one of those moments when the interstate just shuts down. This boom, you know, you turn the corner. There was no warning, no sign. There was, there was an accident, there was construction. I don't know what, what it was that actually happened, but something had the interstate just at a dead standstill. And I mean, we were moving at, at basically, uh, a snail's pace. I mean, it was pretty much dead.

I'm on my phone trying to figure out where we go, because I had places to be, you know. Last thing I want to do was to sit on the interstate. So I'm just sitting there. I'm slowly creeping along. I go basically the distance of the width of this sanctuary we're in. And I happen to see what appears to be a little access road right there. I'm thinking, all right, because if I can get to the other side of the interstate, traffic is just moving and flowing over there. I mean, they're zinging down the road. And you can tell them, they're, they're just smiling, looking at all of us on the other side of the interstate. They're saying, so you can see their faces, they're just like, "Look at them. They're stuck." They're just zinging around alone.

So I'm thinking, man, if I can get there to that access road, I'm going to take it. And as I'm approaching, I'm noticing nobody else is taking this road. Like, I'm looking at it. You can see the beginnings of it. And it, and it, you had to go left, and then it went back a little bit ways. But from the best I could see, it went down just a little bit, and then it cut over, and you could get on the other side of the interstate. Now, there was no sign. I wasn't breaking any law that I could see, because there was no sign that said that you were not allowed to do that. Because I know some of you, like, "He's getting up there, and I know those signs are on. This says, 'For official vehicles only.'" There was no official vehicle only sign there.

So here I am in my roller skate. And I get up there, and I veer off to the side. And I zip around the corner, and the dust is flying. And I'm, I'm headed down. And it's, it's a straight stretch for just a minute. And I'm like nailing the gas. And I'm going down through there. And I'm looking over now to my left, everybody who's setting steel. And you can see them. And in my mind, they're like, "Look at that guy. Rebel. He's a renegade. He has found a shortcut. He is going through there." And I can see a few people just like, "Yeah, brother. Beat the system." So I'm like, yeah. And I'm coming up, and I'm coming up on a little bit of a rise there. And I'm thinking for a minute, I could probably be like Dukes of Hazard if I wanted to just go ahead. But again, I was in that roller skate, so I was giving it all it had. And not, I crested at the top of that hill. And on the other side was a body of water.

And that had a moment. Anybody else ever have a moment in the car? I had a moment in the car where I'm like, "Oh Jesus, forgive me, for I have sinned." And I remember hitting the brakes. And I'm skidding, this me and my roller skate, and I'm just like pleading the blood of Jesus over everything. And I get right to the edge of the water, dust flying all around me over there. And it kind of settles down. I look over, and everybody's sitting still over there. And there's that one guy going —

So I had to put her in reverse, and humbly back all the way down that road. Pulled right back up almost to the exact spot in which I departed. Thankfully, somebody seen the embarrassment on my face, and like, "Come on, you've had enough. You can, you can take your spot back here with the rest of us who are not going anywhere soon."

Now, why not bring that story up? Because I don't know how everyone else is in the room, but I dare say there's at least one other person who's like me. If there's a shorter way to do something, I find that way. I'm all about the shortcut. I love the shortcut. I'm constantly, my mind is a constant calculation when I'm in the car, of how I can save time. In fact, there has been a discussion or two with my wife on which way is the quicker way to get a place. Sometimes we don't always see eye to eye. I say this way, she says that way. I'm thinking of traffic patterns, and weather, weather, and construction, and flights of geese, and all this stuff is going into my mind on how we can get there. And if need be, I've been known to make my own path. It hasn't always worked out, evidently. I told you that story there. There's been other times when it didn't work out quite the way I had planned for things to go. But I feel like in a lot of ways, most all of us have inside ourselves this ability to think, why do I have to go the long way?

Now, bring this up because we, we see here in this, this story that I read today, where, where Israel is being brought out. And to give you a little backstory: they cried out to God. God heard their cry. He shows up, and he, he's bringing them out of Egypt. He's bringing them out of their captivity. But it says there in, in, in chapter 13 of Exodus, and verse number 17, that, that he did not carry them through the Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the promised land. Now, I feel like there was probably one or two going, "Isn't it, it is a little shorter to go that way. But then why are we going this way?" See, sometimes it feels like we know what's best for our lives. Sometimes we feel like we should be able to say to God, "God, I know what you want to do with me, right? I know that you want me to get to heaven. I know, God, you have a ministry opportunity for me. So Lord, I don't understand. If you have this, and I feel it, and I know this is your plan for my life, then why don't we just go from here right there?" But God has other things in mind. The Lord's perspective often times is quite different than our perspective on life.

God had a plan for Israel. And what I want to show today is, I felt like a continuation of last Sunday, as we talked about the all and the wonder of God, standing and, and being sure that we are always mindful that we are talking to the Creator of the universe. Today, I want to continue on that same vein. And I'll preach for just a few minutes on the all and the wonder of mercy.

You see, God, in his divine mercy, had placed Joseph in the position where he was able to save Israel. He didn't understand why his brothers hated him so much. Now, admittedly, those who have, have studied the Bible a little bit, and are familiar with the story of Joseph and his brothers, I think most of us would agree that he did a few boneheaded things himself. I don't think it justified or merited the response that the brothers had. I don't think it, I think it was worthy of them selling him into slavery. You know, those of us who have siblings in the room, raise your hand. Let's be honest. There's a time or two that we wouldn't mind to put them up on the block. 50 cents would be good.

But we see that God had, had his hand in all that was taking place there. They were saved by the mercy of God. Even Joseph himself had a moment when he is encountering his brothers again, and the whole unveiling, the, the revealing of what took place, when Joseph says those, those, uh, unbelievable words of kindness and compassion, when he says, "What you intended for bad, what you intended for evil, God intended for good." Why? Because God is a God of mercy. And even though we don't always understand everything that's taking place in our life, there's some way, some point, there should be a revelation in your mind that he desires for me to have good things in my life. And even though it doesn't seem like those good things are unfolding in this moment, maybe, just maybe, God is beginning to reveal himself in a new way, and I should trust him.

The Bible tells us that there are rows of Pharaoh that didn't know Joseph. And the Israelites became enslaved with the Egyptians. And, and we're not really given all the, the details of how this happened. All we know is, is that for about 430 years, they seem to, to work, and, and, and become slaved, and they, they worked really hard. And to the point that those harsh conditions caused them to cry out to God, and say, "God, please deliver us from our captivity." And because of that cry, God sent Moses in to be their deliverer. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and things didn't work out the way that they, they thought they were first. But God continued to be faithful, even through the plagues. Even though Pharaoh continued to refuse their release. But on the tenth plague, all the firstborns throughout the land died, man and beast. God was merciful to Israel, gave them instructions: "Listen, do this, and you'll be spared."

Can you even, for just a minute, imagine the cry that morning that went out in the land? I can't hardly comprehend all of the firstborn males dying in a nation in one morning. All the firstborn of all the animals dying, and one morning. Can you imagine the cry that came out from the land, from, from, from not just the moms, but the dads, and, and the brothers, and the sisters, as, as this great whale comes out that morning? Because Pharaoh's heart was continuing to be hardened. And God was moving and operating. You see, the entire time, through everything that was going on, God was working on a way out for Israel.

Aren't you thankful that God is always working a way out for you and I? Aren't you thankful you're not just stuck? There's not another plan for you. Even though you and I oftentimes will mess things up, that God doesn't say, "Well, I gave you one way. You didn't like that, so I don't know what else to tell you." I'm thankful that God shows up where I am, no matter my circumstances, no matter my situation, no matter what I have done, or what others have done to me. He always has a way out, and I'm thankful for that.

So we get up to our text this afternoon. He's leading them out, but he doesn't take them down the short way. And he explains why, because he says, if the people are faced with battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt. Now we see that he says that — King James says they're well harnessed. In other words, that they were prepared for battle.

I remember playing high school football. I remember going into my, my first high school game. It was different than playing peewee ball, right? Now, there's a lot of the, the basics are the same, right? The rules of the game are the same. But I remember being there with, with, with, uh, with my team. And I remember we had practiced, and we had prepared, and our coaches had done their best job with us. And I remember thinking to myself, as I put my pads on, my helmet on, and I got all my gear and my equipment, I looked the part. And I remember going out there, and I was feeling really good about myself, because I, I'm looking the part. And then I remember the first time I really got hit. I mean, really hit. Not just where practice said. Not just my buddy hit me. Not just we're running through some drills. I mean, the first time that there was another man on the other side of the line, whose sole desire was to annihilate me. When he hit me, I realized that I was inadequate. I realized that I was not prepared. It didn't matter the pads were on. It didn't matter I had the helmet. It didn't matter that I looked the part. I felt like I was dying. And what I wanted to do was to go back to the locker room. To be honest, I wanted to cry a little bit.

It's a lot like this story. Because we see in the scriptures here, it says that they were harnessed. They were prepared in their mind. "Hey, we know how to hold a sword. Hey, we know how to, how to put on the, the armor and look the part." So they're like, you know, talking to each other, and like pumping each other up. "We got this. We got this." And, and yeah, you see this in sports a lot, especially in football. They just beat the stew out of each other. "We got it. We can do it. Yeah, come on." They're bumping, and beating each other up. That wastes all that energy. But what are they doing? They're trying to get themselves psyched up that they actually can win.

We see in this moment, the word of God tells us that they're a lot like this. They're harnessed. They're ready to go. But God knows the truth: you ain't ready. You ain't ready. You're gonna go get whooped. And I'm afraid if you get whooped, you're gonna turn right back around and run to Egypt. You're gonna run back to that thing you've been praying to get out of. All of a sudden will become the security blanket. Oh, we — but I'm thankful for a God of mercy. So instead of taking the short route, God sends them the long way around.

That short route, let's, let's speak about it maybe for just a few more minutes. The shortcut was called the Way of the Land of the Philistines. This was the shortest and most direct route from Asia to Egypt. It was a trade route. More than likely, it was a well-worn path that they would be able to see and know, this can get us from where we are to where we need to be. It was a road that was heavily traveled. There would have been military outposts, and bands of guards, that would have had to face along the route. And God knew that Israel was not ready for that type of confrontation. God knew that the barbaric Philistines were better equipped. They were better trained. They had better weapons. And they would be outmatched. And it was his mercy that said, "We're not taking the shortcut."

Now, you may want to argue and say, a merciful God would have taken them to a quickest way to get where it was he wanted to be. But, but I dare say, if you really think about it, it was mercy who said, "I can't let you go that way, because if you go that way, it's going to kill you."

See, we see just one chapter later that God was right in his decision. Because the Israelites found themselves backed up against the Red Sea in chapter 14. Look at me in verse number 10: "As Pharaoh approached, the people Israel looked up and panicked."

Now, I know you and I — because I'm, I'm just going to assume that you probably think about this a lot like I do — and what I want to say is, how can you forget the ten plagues? How can you forget what God said he was gonna do, he actually did? How can you forget that God has already brought you this far? What reason, what reason do you have to think he's not going to continue the process he said he was going to do? Yet where do we see them? Backed up against the sea. And what are they doing? Panicking.

Maybe I should bring this into today. How many of you has God started a good work in your life? How many of you has God brought you from where you were, in your pit and your despair? How many of you did he pull you up out of the muck in the mire, and clean you up? How many of you has he healed your body before, and touched you, and been a provider, and a waymaker, and a healer? How many of you in this room are living a testimony, yet sometimes you still find yourself panicking? So before we get to feeling all superior inside ourself — you see, God knows where we are. And God also knows where we are going. It's the process between that oftentimes gets us in trouble, because we like to argue with God on the route.

They cried out to the Lord. And Moses said, "Why did you —" and said to Moses, "Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Wasn't there enough grace for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave each other?"

I wonder if any point Moses was saying, "I was on the back side of the desert over her ring. I was tending sheep. I was minding my own. And there was a burning bush, and a God who said, 'You have been complaining and desire to be taken out.'" But he did. He listens to the gripes.

"Didn't we tell you this would happen? We're still in Egypt. We said, 'Leave us alone. Let us be slaves to the Egyptians.' It's better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness."

Listen to these words. But Moses told the people, "Don't be afraid. Just stand still, and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. And the Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm."

And I feel like somebody here today needed to hear these words: that you need to just stand still and stay calm, because God's desire is to fight for you. Don't get so wound up in the circumstances. Don't get overwhelmed by everything that says it's not going to work out. If you are a child of God, I'm saying to you right now, why don't you just calm down a little bit, and stand still, and just see if God won't show up in your life like he has in the past, as he has in time gone by, and do a miraculous work in your life.

Do you know what this is? It's the awe and the wonder of mercy.

They saw the mighty Egyptian army behind them. Before they can even cross the Red Sea, they're beginning to doubt already, in trouble. They're starting to question their leader. In the wisdom — and our God was there. God had a divine plan. God is an omniscient God. He knows everything about you. He knows everything about me.

Psalms 147, verse 5, says, "Great is our Lord, and of great power. His understanding is infinite." Aren't you glad that we serve a God who's not only all-powerful, but he's also all understanding? He's also all-knowing. Aren't you glad that you serve a God whose ways are above your ways, who's higher than your ways? Aren't you glad that, that we have a God that we can't conf fit inside our own mind, that he's bigger than that? Aren't you glad that we serve a God that sometimes you just can't understand what he's doing, because his perfect will is being unfolded in front of you? And it's bigger than anything you could possibly come up with on your own, anything that you could dream up. He's doing something bigger and better than all those things. Aren't you glad you served that kind of God? My God's not weak. My God's not frail. My God's not limited. My God's not powerless. He's all-powerful. He's almighty. He's all-knowing. It doesn't matter whether or not I can figure it out, or you can figure it out. He's still God. He's still on the throne. And his will will still be done.

Jeremiah 29 11. Daniel was trying to preach my message today. Do a good job, Daniel. "For I know the thoughts I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." I love the way the New Living says it. It says this way: "To give you a future and hope." Hope. It means I got something to hang on to, something to grab a hold of when everything seems to be spinning out of control. Something I can grab a hold of that kind of anchors me down, when it seems like all the world is falling apart around me. I come to tell somebody today that God has a plan for you. Not just any plan, but your plan, your future. He's wanted to give you hope in your life. You just need to settle, and let God lead you. Let him do his work. He's omniscient, and he knows everything. He is leading you to a future that is bright, and it's unexpected, beyond anything you could possibly imagine.

See, sometimes what you think is a mistake is God moving us around the obstacles that are in our life. What you think is drifting off course is not drifting off course. It's God re-routing you. Ever seen that with your GPS? That ever happened to you? Yeah. Well, re-re-routing. Recalculating.

Now, remember when the GPS first came out? You remember, I remember my first garment I got. Anybody else like get on board early, early adopters? They got that thing. And I remember punching number one time, and Chastity members, as we were together, we were trying to go to Cracker Barrel. All right, we were in the city. I don't know, man, I think, I don't even know, where was it? What, Jackson, Tennessee? We want to go to Cracker Barrel. And we just put in, you know, the Cracker Bro, and it pulls the address up. And like, "Yeah, that's it." So we hit go. And it pulls us up and says, "You have arrived." It's just an empty parking lot. I don't know if that's where a future Cracker Barrel was going to be. Maybe it's going out in the future and saying prediction, that's where it's going to be. But there was no Cracker Barrel. There was no biscuits. There was no gravy. There was just asphalt.

Rerouting. Sometimes God has to take the circumstances in your life into account: things that you have done, decisions that you have made, things that have happened to you, things that were out of your control, yet others have done those things. And he'll take those and recalculate, and reroute you around the obstacles in your life. How many times have you and I've been guilty of fighting him, when he's trying to put you on the right path? You think you're still going down the right road. You think, "I know where it is I'm supposed to be. I can see it right over there." But God says, "I know you can see it, but you're never going to get there if you go that direction. Instead, you need to follow after me. It may seem like I'm taking you down the wilderness path. But something happens in the wilderness that's good for you. Something's going to happen to you in the motors that's going to mold you, and shape you, and make you, and prepare you, and gift you, and talents you in such a way that when you arrive, you're able to handle what you're going to face."

Psalm 17 and 5: "Uphold my steps in your path, that my footsteps may slip." You see, when you're on God's road, when you're in his divine plan, you can carry on in the midst of overwhelming circumstances. You can face things that you didn't plan for, and your feet won't slip. Do you know why? It's the all and the wonder of mercy. You may think there's no way you can handle those things. But God's saying, "Just trust in me. Hang onto my hand, and do what I'm telling you to do, and your feet won't slip." It may feel like it's heavy. It may feel like it's difficult. Don't focus on those things. Stick to the path I have for you.

Allowing God to lead you comes with the assurance that he'll provide, and that he will protect. We serve a God who wants to want you to make it. And his desire is for you to have a victorious life. He has a plan for you.

Isaiah 55, verse 8: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are my ways your way, stay at the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

I'm so thankful that we have a God that doesn't get stuck just in this moment. He doesn't just get stuck in this moment. You and I, we're in this moment. We get stuck right now. We get here, and, and all we have to deal with is, is what we have in this moment: the doctor's report, how we feel, what the relationship's dealing with right now, the circumstances of, of our world, when the political environment we're in — all we have is the right now. But we have a God who's not stuck inside a time. He's outside of time. He looks down from the end back through the beginning. He's looking 10, 20, 30, and 40 years ahead of you. And he's placing things in your life. He's strategically moving this obstacle and that obstacle. And you facing, you're like, "God, why did you put this in my way?" And God said, "I'm put that in your way to keep you from moving forward. Because in this moment, I need you to go sideways for a little while."

I'm only 44 years old. So for me to think 40 years down the future, that's kind of hard for me. That's like looking for my entire life down the road. But there is no doubt in my mind that God looks down through the portals of time to where we are, and he sees where it is we're headed, and the things that you and I are facing in our life, and decisions that we are making. And he goes in front of us — because the word of God says he goes ahead of us — and he begins to move things around. Why? So that he can keep us on the right track, and going down the right path. And sometimes we come up on those things, and we want to climb over it. And we want to move it out of the way. Sometimes we stand in front of it, and we're trying to pray the very thing out of our life that God put in our life for a reason. Not everything that causes you frustration is evil. Not everything that makes you step back for a minute is the devil.

I love Daniel. You did an awesome job. I'm going to pick on you for a minute, all right? Just for a minute. Youth. I love youth. I love the honesty of youth. Not everything's the devil's fault. It's not always the devil's fault. You know, sometimes it's your fault. And we don't like blame, so who do we go to? Devil. There's one guy — I remember his name, Bishop. Who is the guy that said, "The devil made me do it"? Flip Wilson. "The devil made me do it." Look here, I'm gonna tell you something. The devil don't make you do some of that stuff. You just wanted to do it. Why don't you own it?

Sometimes you face some stuff in your life that God has put there for a reason, because he sees you running off course. And the best way he knows to stop you is to put an obstacle in your way, to keep you from running off the cliff. We can only sense approaching danger, but God sees the end from the beginning. He knows what we're going to face. And sometimes he knows the danger that has not yet appeared in your life. And he continues you down a path that he know that will lead you away from those things.

That's why we pray Matthew 6 13: "And lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, of the power, and the glory, forever." You may feel like God has made a mistake. But it's not a mistake. It's the all and wonder of mercy.

We pray, "God, don't lead me into temptation." And God starts leading us away, and taking us on his divine road. And we start kicking and bucking. "But God, don't lead me down temptation." Guy's like, "Okay, let's go this way." "No, I don't want to go that way, God. Just don't lead me into temptation." "Well, in order for me to do that, we have to go over here." It may not be the shortcut. It may not be the easy way. It may seem like it's the long way. But it'll lead you around the obstacle, and leads you around the enemy, and leads you around danger. The long way around can be God's mercy in your life.

First Corinthians 10 13: "There hath no temptation taking you, but such is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but with the temptation also make a way." What kind of way? And then why is that way of escape there? So that you can bear it.

See, here's the deal. You know I'm a straight shooter. You know I don't sugarcoat things. Sometimes you just don't like the way. It's there. It's even well marked. It's even got a blinky sign on it saying, "Go this way." And you don't like it. And you don't feel like it's right. And just like I said last Sunday, you got to be very careful when you get into playing the part of, "I know what the word God says, but —" Because inside that is your way of escape. You can argue with it all you want to. You think it's outdated. You can think it's not right. You can think it's not relevant for the time. You can think this book is not necessary. You can think lifestyle convictions are a thing of the past. And as long as you're just loving and free and good, and God's going to grade on the curve, you can do all those things. But I'm going to tell you right now, you're going to be sorely disappointed on rapture day. Man, "Pastor Kevin, you're being rough." I would rather be rough and truthful to you than to sugarcoat something and lead you right to hell.

Quite often, the way of escape looks like the wrong direction. It looks like it's going to take the long ways, more difficult. But it's the all in the wonder of mercy.

Exodus 13, verse 17: "But God led the people on the roundabout way through the wilderness." God led them through the way of the wilderness. It leads us to ask a question: why did he lead them the roundabout way? Like the New Living says. We know that the Bible — Egypt is a metaphor for sin. It's a representation for sin. It's a type of sin that is there. Often people that come to God feel the rejection of their friends and family. They're making these decisions. It's like all of a sudden, they feel really isolated. "And God, why would this happen? I'm sensing in myself that I need to be doing this. I need to be making changes in my life. But it seems like the more changes I make, the more isolated, the more alone I feel." You got to be careful. Because without understanding the process, the longing for Egypt comes back. "Oh, that we were there for the garlic and onions." At one point, that's what it says in the scripture. They're out there in the middle, that they're wandering around, said, "Oh, there was all these garlics, and we could eat all we wanted." Yeah, that was true. And they were beating the stew out of you every day. Did you forget that part? You were having to make bricks with a task master over you beating you. But yet you want to talk about garlic and onions.

God led them the wrong way, the long way around, so they could be equipped, so they could be trained, so they could be mentally and physically prepared. God had to do something, because Israel was in a slave mindset. Just because he brought them out of their captivity did not mean that the captivity immediately left their mind. And sometimes those that come to God, they come in, and they've been liberated at an altar. God has filled them with his Spirit. He has set them on the right path. But they don't feel in their mind as though things have changed, because somehow they've convinced himself that all the desires of the flesh immediately go away when God fills you with his Spirit. But there is no Bible to support that whatsoever. Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot cast the flesh out of you. It would be really weird. We'd just be a bunch of skeletons sitting here. We are wrapped in flesh. And with the Holy Ghost or without the Holy Ghost, you're still going to be tempted by flesh. But with the Holy Ghost, we have the ability to tune into his Spirit. We have the ability to be led by him. That internal guidance system will guide us, and direct us, and show us what — he'll show us the way of escape, so that we're able to bear the temptations that come our way. I'm not left by myself. I'm not left to my own devices. I don't have to do this alone. I may feel lonely, but I'm not by myself. My God Spirit is living inside of me. And when I'm faced with these overwhelming circumstances, I need to know his Spirit is desiring to lead me to where I need to go.

Exodus 13 21: "And the Lord went before them, but day in the pillar of cloud, and led them by the way, and night a pillar of fire, to give them light, to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of cloud by day, or the pillar of fire by night, from before the people."

I'm so thankful that God leads his people. I'm so thankful that he leads us.

Psalms 119 105: "The word is a lamp into my feet, and a light into my path." That's why you got to have the word of God in you. Because without the word of God, you're going to stumble around. You're going to trip over stuff in your life. You're going to get hung up on some things. That's why you, you end up being someone who is spiritually immature, because you refuse to put the word of God in you. It has to be more than just Sundays. It has to be more than just Wednesdays. You have to have a daily regimen of his word in your life. You have to be asking God for a fresh rhema word every day. Why? Because as long as you're getting a fresh frame of word, your light shines bright on the path that you're walking. It begins to illuminate everywhere you go. And you can say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. There's, there's something there. I'll trip over the other. There's a big hole over there. There's something I can fall into." Because I'm keeping the word in me every day. It's a lamp until a feet, a light unto my path. I have to have the word of God. It's not an occasional thing. It's not just once in a while. It's not, "I read the book one time. I know what it says." Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Every day, you've got to be put that word in you.

Do not worry or fret. Don't be overcome with doubt or fear, because God will lead you. Shortcuts, ladies and gentlemen, in life rarely ever work. A shortcut, usually you always have something that you are trading off. There's always something that you're missing out on. A shortcut process. That's why these people get hung up. And I hope you love me when I say what I'm fixing to say, all right? The, how many in the room remember this? How many remember the fin fin fad? Yeah, remember that? And then there was — there's always something out there, right, that, that tells all of us, people who really like to eat stuff we shouldn't eat — that if you just take this. If you just — I remember when I was a kid, I was probably five or six years old, for whatever reason it was. It was, it was the thought of the day that you could have this machine that jiggled your fat, and it would jiggle it away. My grandparents had one. It was like a belt, and you put around you. You did 30 minutes a day, jiggle that gut away. And there's right there, I'm gonna tell you this: the only thing that did was make you itch. And the reason I know this, because I remember being literally just like, we were doing everything we could on there. They didn't lose no way. You can't sand the fat off. There's no shortcut to this, ladies and gentlemen. You're not going to take a peel for a little while. You may lose a pound or two. But eventually, guess what? It comes back with vengeance.

You can't shortcut this process. Let me tell you, here's Bishop had, had a good, good diet plan years ago. It was, uh, T G S O. That was a diet: "Tastes good, spit out." Yeah, try that diet for a while. You can't shortcut some things in life. You can't shortcut growing your muscles. And you can't shortcut — you can't shortcut your spiritual life. It takes working with it on purpose.

Shortcuts rarely ever work. That usually leads you to being less than what you really ought to be. Usually it leaves you in a weaker state than it was, if you would not have made a change.

Matthew 7, verse 13: "Enter ye in the straight gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction. And many be there which go there at. Because straight is the gate, and there was the way which lead to life. And few there be that's fine." Those are red lettered words. What's red letter to me in the Bible. So Jesus says what? Few. Why did he say few? Because he knew the temptation would be to take a shortcut.

When someone comes up with something that seems to be easier and better, for whatever reason, that always captivates our attention. When anything comes in and it seems to be more complex, our natural reaction is to what? Resist. "I don't want to do that." Well, I want to do something in seven steps, and something can come up in two steps. That's why we love things. We love drive-throughs. We love ease and convenience. We love the Instapot. I want to take something that is brick hard frozen, and in seven minutes I want a full meal. So how do we take nuclear pressure? Because it's short, and I want it now.

And we want to, we want to Instapot our relationship with God. We just want to take whatever is the moment we have, when we need him, and we want to pull out our cold relationship, and we want to place it in, and pop the lid on, and dial up a prayer for a few minutes. "And God, give us miracles, signs, and wonders." Somehow we can work through that. I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, you cannot shortcut this process. If you're gonna become the man and woman of God that God desires for you to be, if you're gonna fulfill his original intent and purpose, as he was forming you in your mother's womb, the only way you'll find that is out on the wilderness path. When all the distractions have been taken away from you, and all you have is God, who is providing your daily manna. All you have is God, who's lighting the path or to you. All you have is God, because if he's not there, then you will die. That's where he wants you to be.

Jesus took his disciples up to a mountain. And on that mountain, he equipped them, and he trained them for ministry. And then he sent them out to do ministry. At one point, they became very frustrated, because they're trying to cast out a demonic spirit. They were upset, because Jesus felt like they were ready for ministry, yet they seemingly failed. In Mark chapter 9, verse 28: "And when he was coming to the house, his disciples asked him privately, 'Why could we not cast them out?' And he said, 'This kind cometh forth by nothing but prayer and fasting.'" Jesus was saying, you may be equipped. You may have knowledge. You may have witnessed what I have done before. But there's going to come a time in your life that you're only going to do this through consecration and prayer on your own. So you can have the degrees, and you can have all of the qualifications that are there. But if you don't have the relationship, you got nothing. At some point, you got to do the hard work of, of, of getting down and developing what you need to have with God.

Is it ready to close this today? To bring this down to a landing. What was supposed to be a short distance trip turned into a 40-year plan. All accounts, and everything that I can dig out of my own, it should have taken them about two years to get from Egypt, to get the instructions out on Mount Sinai, and to move into the promised land. It should have talked about two years. But it took 40. It took 40 because they were trying to shortcut some stuff, and didn't realize all that God was really trying to do.

You see, it happens sometimes when we're out on the long way around, that we allow to enter our mind, in our lives, things that should not be there, like doubt. You see, that they come up to the edge of the promised land, and they're with inside the time limit that God had originally allocated for them. They come up to the edge of the promised land, and God says, "All right, here's the deal. I want you to get 12 spies, two from every tribe. And I want you to go into the promised land and see what I'm giving you. See if it's not exactly the way I wa, I described it to you." So they do. They pick out the, the spies. And the spies go into the land, and they check out what is there. The word of God says they come back and get two of them with a, with a bunch of grapes on a stick, bringing out, because that bundle of grape was so big. It was a land that flowed with milk and honey. It was everything God said it was going to be. Everything. Nothing was any different.

But in their mind, instead of seeing everything God described, they could only focus on the one thing they couldn't get their mind around. You see, they developed a grasshopper mentality. For when they go there, they've seen the sons of Anec. They've seen the giants that were in the land. And they somehow convinced himself that God was able to destroy Pharaoh's army, that God was able to send all the plagues there, that God was able to divinely keep them, the God was giving them bread from heaven literally every day, that God was leading him by, by a pillar of fire. God was doing all these things. But for whatever reason, those giants, God can't handle that. That's what they say. Look at the Bible, that God can't handle a giant.

I'm speaking to somebody today. I feel this in the Holy Ghost. You got a giant in your life. And you have convinced yourself, for whatever reason, you're never going to defeat that giant.

They come back, and their words say this: "We are grasshoppers. We, we, we are grasshoppers in our own sight, when we see those giants." It wasn't what the giant thought. It's what they thought about themselves. And all of a sudden, they fall off the path.

I wish today that God will help you and I, that on this long way around, we don't allow the enemy to put doubt into our minds. To place thoughts that we are never going to make it. That our marriage is never going to make it. That my kids are never going to live for God. That I'm always going to struggle with depression. The financial ruin is just the state of mind in my life. That addiction is always going to be there, and I'm never going to get rid of it. It's going to end up killing me. That I'm destined to be single all my life. Don't allow him to tell you that your family has always failed, therefore you will always be a failure too.

Oh, how I wish today that you could somehow see that God is there. And his desire and his plan for you is for you to be victorious. What we need today is not a church full of doubters. We need men and women of God to stand up and say that we can possess the land. We can possess the land. We can't — we not always know how it's going to happen. But I trust that God is with me, and he will see it through to the end. With a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire, God and you and I with man and sustain us. What are we going to fret about? Why would we worry about the next phase of the journey, when God has already brought us this far? Just the fact that you're here is proof that God is a God of mercy. Oh, the all and the wonder of mercy. Just as yours here right now is proof that God is good. For if the enemy had had his way, he would have killed you long ago.

Some of you need to stop and think about this fact. He has kept you. What makes you think he's not going to continue to keep you? It was not supposed to be a 40-year journey. But because of doubt, a whole generation had to die off before the promise could be fulfilled. Because of doubt. Because of disbelief. Because they would not listen to the man of God. What turned out to only be two years ended up being 40.

David spent eight to ten years running from King Saul, at what would have appeared to have been the wrong road. Think about this for a moment. He was anointed to be the king. The prophet goes out to him. They finally fetch him off the back side of the mountain. And when he stands before the prophet, God says to the prophet, "He's the one. Anoint him." And he goes up and pours the oil, and the oil flows out of the vial all over him. He's the anointed king, right? He is. He's the king. "Now go sit on your throne." Didn't happen that way. In fact, he spends the vast majority of the next eight to ten years running for his life from the king that was sitting on the throne. You're gonna tell me that there wasn't a moment or two out there that David's scratching his head, saying, "God, what in the world? If I'm supposed to be the king, then why are you not taking me to the throne room? Instead you're leading me to a cave." But it was through the wandering, it was through the cave experience, that he was learning how to be a man that knew how to lead men. He learned to develop his leadership skills. He learned to understand the importance of allowing God to be who your supply comes from.

Joseph was kidnapped by his brothers, tossed into prison, wrongfully accused, all those things I started out the message with. But through every space, from Potiphar's house to the prison, everywhere God's hand was with him. And what was going on? He was in training. Joseph had the dream: "Everybody's going to bow down to me." Joseph had the dream, and the dream was true. It was from God. There's no way, there's no way Joseph ever knew the only way that dream comes true is for me to go and be sold into slavery, for me to be lied about, for me to be abandoned. There's no way. But every step of the way — and then all of a sudden, as he's the second in command, in Joseph's mind it clicks.

And when his brothers show up, he says, "What you intended for evil, God intended for good." And I can see in my own life that what I thought was the wrong road was actually the road I was supposed to walk him. Noria.

Some of you were struggling. This place, I feel my Holy Ghost so strong. You are struggling when you're saying, and you think you have been on the wrong road. I'm telling you, you're on the road you're supposed to be on. Just don't miss the process that God's taken you through.

For everything that has been added to and taken away, God uses for his purpose and his plan. For our God specializes in taking ashes and making a beautiful life out of them.

So as I close, as I get ready to pray — for those in the room, you are struggling right now to see how it's possible that you're where you're supposed to be — I want you to know: wherever you are, he's there. I'm gonna say that again. Wherever you are, he is there. And where he is, there's hope. And as long as you and I have hope, we have what we need.

So I'm going to pray. And if in this closing prayer, your desire is to move down the path he has for you, I invite you to come down to this altar. There's something about moving that signifies to God, "I'm serious about this, Lord. I want to be where you want me to be." So we're going to close our eyes and pray. And if you feel the Spirit pulling you, I invite you to come and let God work on you today. Will you pray?

"Jesus, oh God, your presence is so sweet right now in this place. I feel you moving. I've delivered your word to your church. Oh God, I pray that you walk down every aisle, that you touch every heart that's in this place. Lord, that you would invite individuals to come down, those that are hurting and struggling with doubt, with confusion, those that are having struggles with addictions and depression, those that feel like they've been wandering around the wilderness for so many years. God, I pray for a moment of clarity right now in their life. I'll let their eyes see, that they're spiritual — I see that you were there, and that you were putting things together. If they would trust you, if they would trust you. God, do a work that only you can do in this place. Change hearts. Change lives. Fill people with your Spirit. In Jesus name we pray, and amen."

This altar is open. I, I can't dismiss without giving a time for someone to get their life back on the right path. So will you come?