SPEAKER_00: Tonight as um the message that I want to share with you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're living in a time where it's all about being strategic.
SPEAKER_00: We serve a strategic God.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that God does, there's a strategy behind it.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that He does, everything that He has done, everything that He's going to do, there is a strategy behind it.
SPEAKER_00: And even today, Christians all over the world celebrate Resurrection Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: People call it Easter, you know, I you know, it's not about a bunny rabbit, a bunch of eggs, but it's about the one who hung on the cross, who gave his life.
SPEAKER_00: And even Resurrection Sunday speaks of a strategy that the Father had: God's strategic plan to bring salvation, redemption, and restoration to mankind through the death, burial, and resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It truly is a reason to celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: We really have a reason to celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Even John 3.16 speaks of God's strategy.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world, you know the scripture, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
SPEAKER_00: This is speaking of a strategy that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I'm going to do something that will give you eternity with me.
SPEAKER_00: And it goes on in verse 17 to say, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he had a strategy in mind.
SPEAKER_00: But that the world through him, through who?
SPEAKER_00: Through his son Jesus, might be saved.
SPEAKER_00: A strategy.
SPEAKER_00: Even all of creation in the book of beginnings, as we see in the book of Genesis, we see God had a strategy to turn the earth that was nothing, void, without order, and chaos into something of order.
SPEAKER_00: And something beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: You know the story over in Genesis chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: You probably could quote it.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: The earth was without form and void and darkness and was the face, was on the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad God's spirit was hovering?
SPEAKER_00: It was hovering here tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Hovering.
SPEAKER_00: Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you know the story.
SPEAKER_00: And God saw the light and it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And then God called the light day and the darkness he called night.
SPEAKER_00: So the evening and the morning were the first day.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on to talk about all the other things he did.
SPEAKER_00: To turn nothing into something, to bring order to chaos, to turn something that was out of control and bring it in control.
SPEAKER_00: And he did that in six days because we also read that on the seventh day he rested.
SPEAKER_00: And so tonight I want to talk to you.
SPEAKER_00: My message title, if you're taking notes, is called Strategies from Heaven.
SPEAKER_00: We're living in a very strategic time.
SPEAKER_00: The first of the year, Pastor shared a word with us that 2026 was the year of new things.
SPEAKER_00: I guess I'm the new things cheerleader this year.
SPEAKER_00: Give me a rod, give me a rod.
SPEAKER_00: New things.
SPEAKER_00: You know, every word that Pastor shares and everything that we are receiving from the throne of God that God wants to do in the earth today, listen, folks, you gotta you gotta jump on it and grab it and take hold of it and don't let go of it.
SPEAKER_00: Hang on to it.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's for you.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know you gotta you're gonna have some throne room practice experiences here on the earth before you get to it?
SPEAKER_00: And two weeks ago I shared a message.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you were here two weeks ago and that message that I shared, lessons learned, crossing over?
SPEAKER_00: Crossing over, lessons learned.
SPEAKER_00: And we talked about how God was ready to bring the children of Israel out of something old into something new.
SPEAKER_00: And in that message, there were several things, several lessons and things that we learned.
SPEAKER_00: I won't go back into it, but if you were not here, I encourage you to listen to the media and I'll pick up from that, and I just want to pull a couple of nuggets from it.
SPEAKER_00: There were four strategies in that message, and I just want to quickly review those and then I'll go into the rest of the message tonight.
SPEAKER_00: The first strategy was this God recruits Moses and gives him the strategy to bring the children of Israel out of bondage and slavery found in Exodus chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: You all know the story of just last night.
SPEAKER_00: Charlton Heston was on in the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Watch the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: I never get tired of watching that movie.
SPEAKER_00: Especially that part, that part that jumped out at me last night was after after uh Moses had had his first encounter with the Lord in the burning bush and how his face showed.
SPEAKER_00: One encounter with God will change some things.
SPEAKER_00: The second strategy is that we see that God had a plan to deal with or to judge the oppressors, to deal with Pharaoh and all of the people on his team that had mistreated the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, we see the first phase of that plan or that strategy with that he enacted through ten plagues.
SPEAKER_00: Ten plagues.
SPEAKER_00: And some of those plagues were pretty rough.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if it had been me, I'd have got it the first, I'd have got the memo, the first one, or the second one, for sure.
SPEAKER_00: Ten plagues.
SPEAKER_00: That was phase one.
SPEAKER_00: Then the second phase was when the children of Israel, when Pharaoh finally got the memo and got with the program and told them you could go and take your stuff.
SPEAKER_00: The children of Israel left and they began to ask the Egyptians for things of value, and the Egyptians were so happy that they were leaving that they gave them everything.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that they plundered Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: What were they doing?
SPEAKER_00: God was restoring recompense.
SPEAKER_00: He was restoring their wealth.
SPEAKER_00: Our daddy keeps excellent books.
SPEAKER_00: Not one jot, one tittle, as the Bible says, will be overlooked.
SPEAKER_00: If you owed and you do something, he's gonna see you get paid.
SPEAKER_00: Get the check, baby, get the check.
SPEAKER_00: And so as the children of Israel left Egypt, they plundered the Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, restoration, reparations took place.
SPEAKER_00: That was the third strategy, which was phase two of the strategy.
SPEAKER_00: And then the fourth point of that strategy was the actual Red Sea crossing, where Pharaoh and his army were eliminated.
SPEAKER_00: Where God kept telling Moses, Moses, every time you say something to him, I'm gonna hearten his heart.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna harden his heart.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna hearten his heart.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna say one thing, but he's gonna do another because I'm gonna harden his heart.
SPEAKER_00: God knew that.
SPEAKER_00: That was part of the plan.
SPEAKER_00: That was part of the strategy.
SPEAKER_00: And if God had a strategy to deal with the people that mistreated his people, how much more will he deal with the people that mistreat you?
SPEAKER_00: How much more will he bring vengeance?
SPEAKER_00: You know, too many times we we get in God's way and we don't give God the chance to execute vengeance because we think God needs our help.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you something?
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't need your help, but he does require your cooperation.
SPEAKER_00: Can I say that again for those of you that maybe want to write that down?
SPEAKER_00: God does not need your help, but he does require your cooperation.
SPEAKER_00: Nowhere in the Bible will you find it says help God.
SPEAKER_00: But you will see phrases like co-labor with.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean, cooperate?
SPEAKER_00: Work with him.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see that phase three of the strategy was to eliminate Pharaoh's and his army.
SPEAKER_00: Not one of them got away.
SPEAKER_00: Now in the movie last night, Pharaoh actually went back to his house and talked, had a little chat with his wife.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm thinking, wait a minute, that's not right.
SPEAKER_00: But not one, my Bible says not one got away.
SPEAKER_00: I just read something just recently where they uncovered some parts and they actually found chariot wheels, and now they're validating what really happened in the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_00: We already know because it's in the scripture, but now science and scientists are going back and saying, that really happened, because here's the way, here's the chariot wheels.
SPEAKER_00: And so tonight for a little bit, I want to look at some different types of strategies from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And some of the examples, you know, from the in the Bible is full of strategies.
SPEAKER_00: From Genesis to Revelation, there are strategies.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what you need, what you're facing, what you're dealing with, God has a plan for it.
SPEAKER_00: He has a strategy for it.
SPEAKER_00: And so tonight I want to point out a couple of those strategies to you.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe we're gonna see God release some strategies.
SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be a releasing of strategies tonight.
SPEAKER_00: You may be sitting in this room tonight and you're wondering what's the next step?
SPEAKER_00: What do I do next?
SPEAKER_00: What do I do?
SPEAKER_00: Or how do I proceed?
SPEAKER_00: Or how am I to deal with this?
SPEAKER_00: We know it's a year of new things.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: We know it's a year of new things.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I believe tonight strategies are going to be released.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's talk about some of the strategies.
SPEAKER_00: The first strategy that I want to point out to you is the strategy of preservation.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know God has a strategy for preservation, for preserving mankind, preserving you?
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do you know that, Pastor Joseph?
SPEAKER_00: Well, over in the book of Genesis, chapters uh startling in chapter six and seven, it talks about how Noah built an ark.
SPEAKER_00: Well, why did Noah build the ark?
SPEAKER_00: Noah built the ark because God was about to do something in the earth.
SPEAKER_00: He was about to judge the people of that time.
SPEAKER_00: And he found Noah to be a righteous man.
SPEAKER_00: He found Noah to be a man in right standing with him.
SPEAKER_00: And so he said, Noah, build an ark.
SPEAKER_00: And at the appointed time, I want you and your family to get in the ark.
SPEAKER_00: But not only do I want you and your family on the ark, I want you to bring one, two of every male and female, of every type of animal and species, and I'm going to preserve them.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see that God is strategic in preservation.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you may not be in a situation where he's about to destroy something, but he may be telling you to build an ark.
SPEAKER_00: Build an ark because something's about to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Build an ark.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he has a strategy to preserve you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I just marvel at God's faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: You know, even with what appears in our economy for things to be really expensive and gas to be real high.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I praise God every time I go to the pump because I have a supply.
SPEAKER_00: He's preserving me.
SPEAKER_00: And and and my wife, she she picks at me because I I just seem to be at the right place at the right time, and I just seem to get gas set prices that are just like, well, how did you get 50 and 60 cents off?
SPEAKER_00: And and and well, if you know, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: If you know, you know.
SPEAKER_00: He preserves.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know that God has a strategy for wealth increase?
SPEAKER_00: We know the Bible says that he gives us power to get wealth so that he may establish his covenant in the earth.
SPEAKER_00: But over in the book of Genesis, turn to that.
SPEAKER_00: I want to look at that.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis chapter 30.
SPEAKER_00: You know the story.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis chapter 30, starting at verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the story of Jacob, who had served his father-in-law for years and years and years and years.
SPEAKER_00: And how many know his father-in-law didn't treat him right?
SPEAKER_00: Lied to him, tricked him, said he would serve his father-in-law for Rachel, and he ended up with Leah.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that wasn't his first choice.
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't plan A.
SPEAKER_00: But then his father-in-law, LeBan, said, Well, you know, it's it's just not right for my youngest to get married before the oldest.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll give you the oldest first.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he wanted.
SPEAKER_00: God keeps records.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see in Genesis chapter 30, starting in verse 25, where it says, And it came to pass when Rachel had borne Joseph, and that Jacob went to his father-in-law and said, Send me away that I may go to my own place and to my country.
SPEAKER_00: Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go, for you know my service which I have done for you.
SPEAKER_00: And Levant and Laban said to him, Please stay if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, he knew God blessed him.
SPEAKER_00: He knew it.
SPEAKER_00: He'd experienced the blessing.
SPEAKER_00: There are places that you are in right now.
SPEAKER_00: It may be an employer, it may be something, but they are blessed because you are there.
SPEAKER_00: Can I say that again?
SPEAKER_00: That company is blessed because you are there.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not bragging, I'm just reporting.
SPEAKER_00: They're blessed because you are there.
SPEAKER_00: And so he said, Please say if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said, Name your wages and I will give it to you.
SPEAKER_00: So Jacob said to him, You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me.
SPEAKER_00: For what you have, for what have what for what you have had, what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord has blessed you since my coming.
SPEAKER_00: And now, when shall I also provide for my own house?
SPEAKER_00: He's the one who provides for his own house.
SPEAKER_00: And so it goes on, and he said, So what shall I give you?
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob said, You shall give me, you shall, you shall not give me anything.
SPEAKER_00: If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flock.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, Okay, here's let's make a deal.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes on to talk about what he's gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: And so then he goes on a little bit further.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna skip down to about verse 34, and Levine said, Oh, that it was according to your word.
SPEAKER_00: And so he removed that day the male goats that were speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, everyone that had some white in it, and all the brown ones.
SPEAKER_00: And then you know the story, how when the when the when they would go to the feeding troughs, how he would put the put the special sticks in there, and it would cause them to make.
SPEAKER_00: And how his flock increased, just exploded compared to his father-in-law.
SPEAKER_00: Well, God has a strategy, and if he gave him that strategy, imagine what he'll give you.
SPEAKER_00: He has a strategy for you to increase your wealth.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why is that important?
SPEAKER_00: First of all, if God can trust you, he doesn't mind giving it to you.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know all wealth is created for kingdom purpose?
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't mind you having some of it when you know what to do with it for kingdom purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see that he gave not only him the wealth increase, but a wealth transfer because he took from his father-in-law, God took from his father-in-law, caused his father-in-law's crop uh herd to begin to decline as Jacob's flock increased.
SPEAKER_00: There's a strategy for wealth increase and transfer.
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about another strategy that I found in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that God is all about making entrepreneurs?
SPEAKER_00: God has a strategy for entrepreneurs.
SPEAKER_00: Go with me to 2 Kings chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: You know this story too?
SPEAKER_00: It's the story of Elijah and the widow, the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: Elijah chapter 4, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: It says, And a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets called unto Elijah, saying, Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, and the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.
SPEAKER_00: Elijah said to her, What shall I do for you?
SPEAKER_00: Tell me, what do you have in the house?
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a couple of things I want to point out there.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, not only does God want to make God has a strategy for entrepreneurs, but it's just not gonna happen if you just sit there and say, Make me an entrepreneur.
SPEAKER_00: You got to give him something to work with.
SPEAKER_00: What does he have?
SPEAKER_00: What do you have that he can work with?
SPEAKER_00: And it may not look like anything.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine her when she said, All I've got, she, what do you have?
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.
SPEAKER_00: Now she's thinking, you've got to be kidding me.
SPEAKER_00: What can we do with a joy of oil, uh a jar of oil?
SPEAKER_00: Did he not hear me?
SPEAKER_00: The creditors, the popo's coming to take my children.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta pay this bill right now.
SPEAKER_00: And Elijah said, Chill out, sister, you're about to become an entrepreneur.
SPEAKER_00: She probably couldn't even pronounce entrepreneur.
SPEAKER_00: So then he says, Your mate, well, she says, your maidservant has nothing in the house but nothing in the house, but.
SPEAKER_00: So what does it say to me?
SPEAKER_00: It may seem like nothing, but there's something God can work with.
SPEAKER_00: And you know the Holy Ghost will show you.
SPEAKER_00: You it's staring you right there in the face and you don't see it.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing but a joy of oil.
SPEAKER_00: So then what does he say?
SPEAKER_00: Go borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors, empty vessels, and do not gather just a few.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, don't think small, think big.
SPEAKER_00: You're about to be an entrepreneur.
SPEAKER_00: This is a strategy from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And when she had when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you, you and your sons, and pour it into all the vessels and set them and set aside the full and so when she had gone in and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she poured it out.
SPEAKER_00: Now it came to pass when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, bring me another.
SPEAKER_00: And the son said, There's not another.
SPEAKER_00: So the oil ceased.
SPEAKER_00: Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest.
SPEAKER_00: Entrepreneur.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: She went from broke, about to lose what I have, which is my sons, to becoming an entrepreneur, well off, living large.
SPEAKER_00: That's a strategy from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: That's a strategy from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at another one.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know God has strategies for healing?
SPEAKER_00: And everyone is different.
SPEAKER_00: The widow, the woman with the issue of blood, she got her healing when she touched the hem of his garment.
SPEAKER_00: One received their healing when Jesus went into the house and laid hands on him.
SPEAKER_00: But let's talk about Naam.
SPEAKER_00: You all know the story of Nahum.
SPEAKER_00: Naam had leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: Naaman.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, Naam is the Bible, the book in the Naam.
SPEAKER_00: Naam 1-9.
SPEAKER_00: I shall put another end to this affliction and it shall not return again.
SPEAKER_00: But Naaman had leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: And Naaman thought he was all of that in a bag of chips.
SPEAKER_00: He was he thought he was a full-mill deal.
SPEAKER_00: I'm an important man in the military and God out of strategy.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, he didn't even know that God had a strategy, but God used a little slave girl that was able to hear about his suffering and was to tell him about the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: And then when he heard about the prophet, he sent somebody to go talk to the prophet, and the prophet said, Oh, just tell him to go dip in the pool seven times.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if I'd have received the word, I'd have been in the pool and I don't swim.
SPEAKER_00: I can't swim.
SPEAKER_00: But if that was the word and that was the pathway of the strategy for my healing after I'd suffered for so long, I'd have been in the pool.
SPEAKER_00: But Naaman, because he had an attitude, he said, The water's nasty.
SPEAKER_00: You want me to go jump in that nasty water?
SPEAKER_00: He got hot.
SPEAKER_00: But you know God was merciful.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't want him to miss the opportunity to receive his healing.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't want him to mess the strategy up.
SPEAKER_00: So what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: He sent the guy that worked with him and said, Listen, if it had been anything else, an easy thing to do, would you have done it?
SPEAKER_00: Check yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Go do it.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says he went and dipped seven times.
SPEAKER_00: Came up healed.
SPEAKER_00: Now leprosy back then was incurable, but God had a strategy for it.
SPEAKER_00: A strategy from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that God has strategies for recovery of lost things?
SPEAKER_00: Has anybody lost anything recently?
SPEAKER_00: Lost something.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't seem like it's gonna turn up or show up, or you can't find it.
SPEAKER_00: It's gone.
SPEAKER_00: Have you written it off yet?
SPEAKER_00: But don't write it off.
SPEAKER_00: This ring, this wedding band that I wear.
SPEAKER_00: I had this ring made in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: I was on a trip.
SPEAKER_00: Picked the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Joshua 24, 15, that's for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Hebrew.
SPEAKER_00: This ring means a lot to me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't go anywhere without it.
SPEAKER_00: I have left the house without my wedding band, and I turn around and go back.
SPEAKER_00: Because I want people to know I'm married.
SPEAKER_00: My wife wants people to know I'm married.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_00: But it means something.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I got a revelation on one of the trips about being a bride of Christ, and I let him put a ring on it.
SPEAKER_00: One day I lost my ring, misplaced it, could not find it.
SPEAKER_00: I was upset, Lord, and I mean I was almost to the place of tears because it meant that much to me.
SPEAKER_00: And I began to cry out to the Lord, Lord, you know how much that ring means to me.
SPEAKER_00: You know what covenant and promise I made to you.
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like a part of that's missing.
SPEAKER_00: I can't find it.
SPEAKER_00: I've looked everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: I can't find it.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you're gonna have to show me where that ring is.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I had to endure my wife asking me 50 questions.
SPEAKER_00: Well, where did you have it last?
SPEAKER_00: What'd you do with it?
SPEAKER_00: And you didn't check here.
SPEAKER_00: Did you look there?
SPEAKER_00: Did you?
SPEAKER_00: And she was just trying to help, but it's like I can't find it.
SPEAKER_00: Retrace your steps.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to retrace my steps.
SPEAKER_00: I can't find it.
SPEAKER_00: Hey y'all, I'm a blessed man.
SPEAKER_00: I got a wife that loves me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm blessed.
SPEAKER_00: And I began to cry out to the Lord because I couldn't find that ring.
SPEAKER_00: And I went a couple of days without that ring.
SPEAKER_00: And then I heard this little voice whisper, Well, you know, you got another wedding band in your little chest there.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you just put it on?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want another one.
SPEAKER_00: I want that one.
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, all of these places and thoughts of where that ring could be, you know, you know, you could have dropped it in, it could have been in the trash can, it could be anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: It's gone.
SPEAKER_00: Let it go.
SPEAKER_00: No, Father, you and the word that I said was, God, you have a strategy for me to find that ring.
SPEAKER_00: You have a strategy?
SPEAKER_00: The very next morning, I'm standing in our closet and I'm pulling out a pair of shoes to put on.
SPEAKER_00: I've got this shoe rack here.
SPEAKER_00: Don't judge me.
SPEAKER_00: I got a lot of shoes.
SPEAKER_00: I like shoes.
SPEAKER_00: And I pull out a pair of shoes that I had just put on that rack a few days before.
SPEAKER_00: And as I pull the shoes off, there's the ring.
SPEAKER_00: Now I knew that ring wasn't there, but there was a strategy.
SPEAKER_00: And the strategy was prayer to seek, to ask.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the Bible, there's a story of a strategy for recovery of lost things.
SPEAKER_00: In the story of the floating accent over in 2 Kings chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go there.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's really bad when you lose something that you borrowed.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever lose something you borrowed from somebody?
SPEAKER_00: Or broke it?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, don't be looking at me like that.
SPEAKER_00: Am I the only one?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's really bad when you've borrowed, and then you got, oh, I broke it.
SPEAKER_00: And so 2 Kings chapter 6, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Then the sons of the prophets said to Elijah, see now that the place where the dwell where we dwell with you is too small for us.
SPEAKER_00: Please let us go to the Jordan and let every man take a beam from there and let us make up their place where we may dwell.
SPEAKER_00: So he answered, Go.
SPEAKER_00: Then one said, Please consent to go with your servant.
SPEAKER_00: And he answered, I will go.
SPEAKER_00: So he went with them.
SPEAKER_00: And when they had come to the Jordan, they cut down trees.
SPEAKER_00: But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron axe head fell into the water, and he cried out and said, Alas, master, for it was burrowed.
SPEAKER_00: Now notice they they clearly identified what type of axe head it was.
SPEAKER_00: It was an iron one.
SPEAKER_00: And so what does that tell you?
SPEAKER_00: They're in the Jordan, over the Jordan, cutting down trees, and an iron axe head falls.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know about you, but my my my understanding of iron means it's heavy.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so when it fell off the handle, where did it go?
SPEAKER_00: To the bottom.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about strategists from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Went to the bottom.
SPEAKER_00: There were no magnets, couldn't even see it, probably.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's borrowed.
SPEAKER_00: And so then the man of God said, So the man of God said, Where did it fall?
SPEAKER_00: And all he could say was it fell over there.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, as it fell, it could have shifted a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: And where it went in didn't necessarily mean that it stayed there.
SPEAKER_00: Where did it fall?
SPEAKER_00: And he showed him the place.
SPEAKER_00: So he cut off a stick and threw it there and he made the iron float.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in your natural mind, that I mean in your engineering mind, would that make sense to you?
SPEAKER_00: Strategies from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Recovering lost things.
SPEAKER_00: What have you lost?
SPEAKER_00: What in your life seems it's gone?
SPEAKER_00: God has a strategy for you.
SPEAKER_00: Why am I saying things?
SPEAKER_00: Why am I pointing these out and why am I saying this because this is a year of new things?
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about you, but I'm expecting things to happen that I've never experienced before.
SPEAKER_00: Things I've never seen before.
SPEAKER_00: New things.
SPEAKER_00: And if there are gonna be some new things, God has a strategy for those things.
SPEAKER_00: And so what do we have to do?
SPEAKER_00: Cooperate with it.
SPEAKER_00: Recovery of lost things.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that there's even a strategy for dealing with your enemy?
SPEAKER_00: We know that God had a strategy for dealing with Pharaoh, but there's another story in the Bible where God gave them a strategy to deal with the enemy, and it was a different strategy.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the strategy that God gave the children of Israel, God said, I'm gonna do all the heavy lifting, you just just go, just move, keep going.
SPEAKER_00: You know the story.
SPEAKER_00: They get to the to the Red Sea and they look up and here's Pharaoh and 6,000 chariots, and they panic.
SPEAKER_00: They start freaking out.
SPEAKER_00: So that's excuse me, start screaming, start hollering, start yelling.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they're coming.
SPEAKER_00: One of them even had the nerve to say, You should have just left us in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: We would have died there, but no, you gotta bring us out here.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: After everything you said, where were you when the ten plagues happened?
SPEAKER_00: And now you're gonna stand here whining about the truth.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: And so God said, I'm gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: You just keep walking.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy, as a matter of fact, he gave him a word, the enemy, the true enemy that you see today, you will see no more.
SPEAKER_00: That was the strategy.
SPEAKER_00: In case you missed the first two phases, just watch this third phase.
SPEAKER_00: Boy, it's gonna be a humdinger.
SPEAKER_00: Because the enemy that you see today, you will see no more.
SPEAKER_00: But in this particular instance, there's a little bit of different version of it.
SPEAKER_00: It's the story of King Jehoshaphat.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know that story?
SPEAKER_00: King Jehoshaphat is faced by the enemy on not just one side, but several sides.
SPEAKER_00: And him and all of the children of Israel go before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I like something that he said when he prayed, he said, Lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, really, there's no better place to have your eyes fixed on, but on him.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he's like, Lord, what are we gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: You see them, they they over here, they over here, they over here, they over here.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what you gonna do, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: My eyes are on you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking to you, I'm waiting for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trusting for you, I'm trusting in you.
SPEAKER_00: And so it goes on to say in that story that King Jehoshaphat and the children of Israel got a little song in their heart.
SPEAKER_00: They got their praise on.
SPEAKER_00: Two weeks ago I talked about there are times when the enemy tempts you to complain, like the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And anybody remember what I said there tests when you stop dropping praise.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You take a praise break.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's exactly what King Jehoshaphat and the children of Israel did.
SPEAKER_00: They declared they they didn't send out the soldiers, they didn't send out the most strong and able-bodied men, they sent the worshipers out, they sent the singers out, and they were singing, I've got a promise.
SPEAKER_00: No, they were not singing, I've got a promise, everything's gonna be alright.
SPEAKER_00: But that's in essence what it was.
SPEAKER_00: I've got a promise, everything's gonna be alright.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I know that?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord is good, and his mercy endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord is good, and his mercy endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: That was a strategy.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the natural looking at that, now you would think, okay, now did you not understand that all of these people are coming to take you and all of these people, you and your kingdom out, all of these people, all you can do is send the singers out there, and they're not even very good singers.
SPEAKER_00: And is that all you got?
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord is good and his mercy endures forever?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, for the Lord is good and his mercy endured forever.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord sent ambushments, confused them.
SPEAKER_00: They started attacking each other.
SPEAKER_00: A strategy from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: In the natural, it didn't make sense.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to stop and pause for a minute because I want to talk about strategies.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when strategies come, what you think and what they appear, what they appear to be and what you think are two different things.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do we know that?
SPEAKER_00: Because Naaman thought the prophet was just gonna come lay hands on it, but he had to go dip in the nasty water seven times.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he probably would have been alright if he'd had to dip one time, but he had to go set and go down seven times.
SPEAKER_00: I think that was one for every every time he had a bad attitude.
SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
SPEAKER_00: Seven times.
SPEAKER_00: Seven is the number of completion.
SPEAKER_00: But in his mind, I've heard this man can heal, so I'm just gonna go over there and he go bloop, you heal.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, Elijah didn't even come out to see him.
SPEAKER_00: He sent his servant.
SPEAKER_00: Tell him, just look, I got a board meeting.
SPEAKER_00: Just tell him to go dip seven times in that water over there.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't even come out.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Naaman got a bad ad.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't even come out.
SPEAKER_00: Said word.
SPEAKER_00: Your strategy may come a different way.
SPEAKER_00: King Jehoshaphat and the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the best strategists on the team, the best soldiers in the word thinking, look, we gotta hit them from here, we gotta hit them from here, we gotta hit it from here.
SPEAKER_00: We know Joseph said the word said, do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be uh don't don't be amazed, don't be scoured.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord will fight your battle.
SPEAKER_00: You don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you what you this is it's gonna be so funny to them.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna listen, they're gonna be so funny, they're gonna be so tickled when you send the singers out there, they're not expecting that.
SPEAKER_00: Look, it's dinner and a show.
SPEAKER_00: Jay was talking this morning about going to Lubies.
SPEAKER_00: Did y'all hear that story?
SPEAKER_00: We were just at Lubi's yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry we missed, you know, he had dinner and a show.
SPEAKER_00: The Moabikes thinking, okay, we got dinner and a show tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Did you see who they sent out?
SPEAKER_00: They sent the singers out.
SPEAKER_00: What what were they boy?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we can just do that.
SPEAKER_00: The singers.
SPEAKER_00: So we know that strategies don't always align with what you think.
SPEAKER_00: Strategies, if you really want to receive a strategy from heaven, receive it the way it comes.
SPEAKER_00: It may not be what you think, it may not be how you think.
SPEAKER_00: It may not, he takes the the word says he takes the foolish things to come.
SPEAKER_00: It was foolish.
SPEAKER_00: It looked like it was foolish to send the singers out to fight a battle.
SPEAKER_00: To name it, it was foolish to tell him to go dip in nasty, dirty water, especially when I already got a disease.
SPEAKER_00: What you want to do?
SPEAKER_00: Get six more.
SPEAKER_00: God's strategies may not line up with what you think.
SPEAKER_00: Your strategic thinking, in other words, may not fully align with his strategic thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And so what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: That means be prepared to make an adjustment.
SPEAKER_00: The word of today is be flexible.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you have to be flexible?
SPEAKER_00: Because you want it, you want the victory, the end result is you want the end result, right?
SPEAKER_00: You want his end result, then do it his way.
SPEAKER_00: Follow his plan.
SPEAKER_00: Victory over the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: God has a strategy.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've got something or someone that you've been dealing with and it just seemed like it's not getting any better.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's a relationship, maybe, I don't know, someone at work, something.
SPEAKER_00: God's got a strategy for that.
SPEAKER_00: And it may be just you declaring for the Lord is good.
SPEAKER_00: And his mercy endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: And you're everything in you, your flesh is like, I want to take his head off.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord is good.
SPEAKER_00: And his mercy endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: Follow his strategy, follow his plan.
SPEAKER_00: Did you also know that God has a strategy concerning debt and financial obligations?
SPEAKER_00: Now we know about the widow in the oil, who he made an entrepreneur out of, but God is interested in you getting out of debt and you paying your bills.
SPEAKER_00: He's interested in that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do we know that?
SPEAKER_00: Because we know the story of Jesus and Peter when they went to the temple over in Matthew chapter 17.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go there.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 17.
SPEAKER_00: Starting in verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: If you got it, say I got it.
SPEAKER_00: If you look in, say I'm looking.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we all got it.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 17, verse 24, and it says, And when they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?
SPEAKER_00: Is he exempt from tax?
SPEAKER_00: He don't pay.
SPEAKER_00: Peter said, Yes.
SPEAKER_00: And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, In other words, Peter went in and said, Jesus, they're asking about the tax.
SPEAKER_00: We got to pay.
SPEAKER_00: Now, last I checked, I didn't have any cash, and you didn't have any cash, and there was no ATM machine around.
SPEAKER_00: So how how are we gonna do this?
SPEAKER_00: And of all the answers and the ideas, what is Jesus telling?
SPEAKER_00: What is he telling?
SPEAKER_00: And he came into the house, Jesus anticipated him saying and said, What do you think, Simon?
SPEAKER_00: From where do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes from?
SPEAKER_00: Their sons are strangers?
SPEAKER_00: And Peter said, so then Jesus is gonna ask him a question.
SPEAKER_00: Riddle me this.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's like, look, we gotta pay.
SPEAKER_00: And you gotta you want to ask me a question?
SPEAKER_00: How are we gonna pay?
SPEAKER_00: What do you think, Simon?
SPEAKER_00: From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes from?
SPEAKER_00: Their sons are strangers.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter said to him, from the strangers.
SPEAKER_00: He just said, Then, the sons are free.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, first of all, really, we're exempt from taxes, but we don't want to make nobody mad, so tell you what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter's still thinking, okay, he's got something, he's got something in his back pocket that I didn't know about.
SPEAKER_00: He said, tell you what we're gonna do, Peter.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to offend anyone.
SPEAKER_00: Go to the sea and cast in a hook and take the fish that comes up first.
SPEAKER_00: Now, can you imagine Peter's face?
SPEAKER_00: You want me to do what?
SPEAKER_00: Look, I didn't even bring my best spin cast real.
SPEAKER_00: You want me to wait, wait, you want me to go fish again?
SPEAKER_00: The strategy in his mind didn't line up with, but it was a strategy from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook and take that fish that comes up first.
SPEAKER_00: And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money, take it that and give it to them for me and you, in the fish.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you are probably sitting there saying, Now, how did that fish end up with that corn?
SPEAKER_00: How'd that happen?
SPEAKER_00: Must have fell on it, must have fallen out of somebody's pocket.
SPEAKER_00: We don't care how it happened.
SPEAKER_00: We just see that the strategy, unconventional, uncommon, unusual, different.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Peter was probably thinking, okay, maybe you can borrow it from somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, No, we're not doing that.
SPEAKER_00: Go fish.
SPEAKER_00: And he went fishing and he caught a fish.
SPEAKER_00: There's a strategy for debt and financial obligations.
SPEAKER_00: Did you also know that there's a strategy for great harvest?
SPEAKER_00: This is the year to receive great harvest in your life.
SPEAKER_00: The year of new things.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, that's a harvest.
SPEAKER_00: And not just a small harvest, but a great harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: This year, new things means a great harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Not a small harvest, not something that is insignificant.
SPEAKER_00: But listen, it's going to be so big that when you testify, but it's going to make other people go, wow, God did that.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: I wow.
SPEAKER_00: I know I remember when, wow, God did that.
SPEAKER_00: And then some of them are going to be like, I didn't see that one coming.
SPEAKER_00: And so we know that God has strategies for great harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do we know that over in Luke chapter 5?
SPEAKER_00: You know the story.
SPEAKER_00: The fisherman been out fishing.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus even knew the story.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Hey, you catch any fish?
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to that.
SPEAKER_00: I like that story.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 5, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 says, And when he had stopped speaking, Jesus had been speaking, had been teaching.
SPEAKER_00: He said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.
SPEAKER_00: But Simon answered and said to him, Master, we have toiled all night long and have caught nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Go out into the deep, throw your net out.
SPEAKER_00: Simon said, Lord, we've been at this all night.
SPEAKER_00: We know when the best time, we know it's the difference between high tide and low tide.
SPEAKER_00: We know when the best time to fish.
SPEAKER_00: Last night was it.
SPEAKER_00: Now you're telling us to cast our net into the deep and we're gonna catch something.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't, you got jokes, right?
SPEAKER_00: We didn't catch nothing then, but now you say we're gonna catch something now.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be looking at me like that.
SPEAKER_00: You know y'all argue with God.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, they argued with the Lord when when Lazarus, when Jesus finally showed up on the scene with life, Lord, had you come in and to by now he stinks.
SPEAKER_00: He's long gone, he's nagging food now.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth.
SPEAKER_00: Get up.
SPEAKER_00: That was even that was a strategy.
SPEAKER_00: They got to see the power of God working on something that was dead and had been dead.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: So he tells them, cast your net out into the deep.
SPEAKER_00: Simon said, Lord, we've been at this all day long and have caught nothing.
SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, aren't you glad for nevertheless?
SPEAKER_00: Now, this was someone that was ready to make an adjustment, that was ready to be willing to.
SPEAKER_00: We see what do we see here?
SPEAKER_00: We see flexibility.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, it didn't work the first time, but you said do it again.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless.
SPEAKER_00: And so he cast his net out.
SPEAKER_00: At your word, we will let the net down.
SPEAKER_00: And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.
SPEAKER_00: So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come to help them.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, in obedience, even after trying it all night long, they followed God's strategy.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, and what did they receive?
SPEAKER_00: A boat sinking, net breaking, harvest.
SPEAKER_00: God has a strategy that will tell you exactly where to drop your net.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things I love about God's strategies is they are specific in instruction.
SPEAKER_00: And when you follow them, you will receive the full benefit of the results that He intended for you to receive.
SPEAKER_00: Even if it's a nevertheless, we've been at this all night, Lord, but you said do it, so I'm gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: I tried it before and it didn't work.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, try it again.
SPEAKER_00: Try it again, nevertheless.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see that.
SPEAKER_00: I want to share one last thing that I uh one last strategy that God has.
SPEAKER_00: And I talked earlier about God restores, he has a strategy for restoration.
SPEAKER_00: But God also has a strategy for household salvation.
SPEAKER_00: His word says, You and your household shall be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And I can personally attest to that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if any of you have heard this story, but I'm gonna share it with you tonight.
SPEAKER_00: My parents divorced when I was two years old.
SPEAKER_00: And so I didn't grow up with my father, didn't really know it.
SPEAKER_00: Except for the few occasional Saturdays where, uh summers where I would get to go spend a few weeks with them in another city.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't really know it.
SPEAKER_00: And as I got older and became an adult and had my own family, my wife, and we had our first child, and and um actually we had been at Lakewood Church in that particular year, Pastor John Osteen for an entire year taught on prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And I tell you what, every Sunday I would leave church either pumped and excited, or I'd leave church mad.
SPEAKER_00: And so God really began to just put it on my heart concerning my father.
SPEAKER_00: I got, I was reading one day and I read that scripture about household salvation, and it occurred to me this applies to my entire household.
SPEAKER_00: Not just the people here, but the people over there, my parents, my father.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd already been praying that the relationship that I did not have with my father had been stolen.
SPEAKER_00: And I got a revelation of that, and I got mad, and I wanted that back.
SPEAKER_00: That was not, I wasn't responsible for that, but I suffered because of that.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I mean I didn't have a relationship with my father growing up.
SPEAKER_00: And I I so I got man, and I remember reading that, and I held my Bible up and I pointed to the scripture and I said, Lord, if this does not apply, you tell me why.
SPEAKER_00: I want that relationship restored, and I want my daddy to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And I I wouldn't let up.
SPEAKER_00: I kept praying, I kept praying, I kept praying, I kept praying, I kept praying.
SPEAKER_00: God send somebody, God send somebody, God sent somebody.
SPEAKER_00: And then I found out my father was sick, and at one point it was pretty serious, and we thought he was gonna he was gonna leave this earth.
SPEAKER_00: And I began to to petition even more.
SPEAKER_00: God, don't let him die without sending somebody to tell him about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let him die, don't let him die.
SPEAKER_00: Send somebody.
SPEAKER_00: God had a strategy.
SPEAKER_00: And again, my prayer was twofold.
SPEAKER_00: I want that relationship restored, and I want him saved.
SPEAKER_00: According to your word, Lord, I want I want my father saved.
SPEAKER_00: I said, as a matter of fact, Lord, if he dies, but he receives you before he dies, fine, I can have it in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I can have that relationship in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how many of you know God is a God of completion?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have to do anything.
SPEAKER_00: My father lived in the state of New York.
SPEAKER_00: I ended up in New York on company business.
SPEAKER_00: And I had a boss, and I told my boss, I said, Hey, while I'm there on the back end of the trip, after I've completed the business, I'd like to spend a couple of days with my dad.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Hey, you got all the time you need, take over whatever.
SPEAKER_00: God showed so much favor.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God had a strategy.
SPEAKER_00: My boss said, Take it, whatever amount of time you need.
SPEAKER_00: Your ticket is covered.
SPEAKER_00: If you need to change it to extend it, whatever, whenever you get back, we got you covered here, don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_00: Go.
SPEAKER_00: He was also a believer.
SPEAKER_00: So I had favor.
SPEAKER_00: So I get to New York, I go to upstate New York, I conduct my business, I do my meetings, and then it's over my last my last night in upstate New York in Rochester, and I'm gonna go back to Manhattan the next day.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in my hotel, and I know I'm gonna get to see my father.
SPEAKER_00: Now I don't really know this man.
SPEAKER_00: And in that hotel room, I got all my face before the Lord, and I said, Lord, I know you're faithful to your word.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how you're gonna do this, but I know you're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: And I even said, Lord, if there's anything that's in my heart or that I've done or haven't done that would hinder your move, show it to me.
SPEAKER_00: See, when you want God's strategy enough and you want to see God move, you've got to be willing to do whatever's necessary.
SPEAKER_00: And so I went to bed.
SPEAKER_00: I got up the next morning, I got into the city, I walked into the room where my dad was, who had just, but by the way, who had just been discharged from the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: And I walked in this room, and this man looked like death war, I mean, just death was on him.
SPEAKER_00: And I walked in that room, and the minute I walked through this door, there was such a supernatural love for him that just hit me that I couldn't explain.
SPEAKER_00: I loved him like he, we had always been father and son, not like someone that I didn't know, but I loved him like he was my dad.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just loving on him, and I'm ministering to him, and I'm caring for him.
SPEAKER_00: And and he's he's kind of like not really knowing what to do.
SPEAKER_00: And so they had brought a hospital bed in for him, and so we slept in the same room.
SPEAKER_00: I slept in the bed that was in the room, he slept in the hospital bed.
SPEAKER_00: So the next morning we're sitting on the side of the bed facing each other and we're talking.
SPEAKER_00: I'm still believing God to restore and for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And my petition had been, God, send somebody, send somebody to tell him.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're sitting there talking, and all of a sudden, out of my mouth comes this.
SPEAKER_00: I need to ask you to forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: If I've done anything to disappoint you as a son, I need to ask you to forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: And when it came out of my mouth, you ever say something and you want to grab it and pull it back in your mouth, because I get, what have you done?
SPEAKER_00: You hadn't done anything.
SPEAKER_00: But I realized as I became an adult, I could have pursued a relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: But what that what that request did was it touched him, and he said, No, no, it's not you, it's me.
SPEAKER_00: And he began to apologize.
SPEAKER_00: And he began to, and I stopped him, I said, Well, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I said, you know, none of that really matters when you stand before God.
SPEAKER_00: And I began to talk to him about the love of God and God's forgiveness and salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And I even said to him, I said, you know, I've been praying for you a long time, and I and I know you and my mother divorced when I was two, and I didn't have a relationship with you.
SPEAKER_00: And I've asked God to allow us to have to restore that.
SPEAKER_00: And I've even asked him that if I can't have it here on earth, I want to have it in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And in order for us to have that in heaven, you got to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And I continued to talk to him about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And finally I said to him, because he kept going on and on, well, you know, I was a bad member, this and I was that, and yeah, he did some pretty bad things, and I did this.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I said, when you stand before God, the only thing he's gonna ask you is, why didn't you accept my son?
SPEAKER_00: Because all of those things, had you known my son, you wouldn't have done those things.
SPEAKER_00: Those are a byproduct of you not knowing him.
SPEAKER_00: I said, So if you died today, where would you spend eternity?
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know.
SPEAKER_00: And so at that moment, I was able to ask him, Would you like to know?
SPEAKER_00: Would you like to receive Jesus into your heart?
SPEAKER_00: And he nodded his head.
SPEAKER_00: And in that room, sitting on the side of the bed, I led my dad to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now, fast forward, I've gotten to spend some time with him, actually spent a week there with him, and during the time, the course of time, from the time I arrived to the time that I left, he had made a marked improvement.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we got a chance to get out a couple of times and just do some things and laugh and talk and have a good time.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm sitting on the airplane, about to head back home to my own family, and I'm sitting there by the window, and all of a sudden I'm just overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm revisiting everything that's occurred, and I'm just overwhelmed at God's goodness.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting there by the window, and people are getting on the plane, and I'm trying to let the people see my eyes leaking, and I'm just overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_00: And I said to God, I said, God, you're so good.
SPEAKER_00: And I begin to thank him.
SPEAKER_00: Because not only did he answer the prayer to restore, but he answered the prayer for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And the somebody that he sent, why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I was part of the strategy, was me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting there and I'm just thanking God, and I'm just, I'm, like I said, I'm trying not to let the people see me cry because I'm just blown away at God's goodness.
SPEAKER_00: And I heard him whisper, I did that because you asked.
SPEAKER_00: Now the word of God in in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 11 says this if you then be an evil man, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask?
SPEAKER_00: Why is that scripture so important?
SPEAKER_00: Because he's got a strategy for whatever you are facing, whatever you need.
SPEAKER_00: There's a strategy.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you're dealing with, there's a way of escape.
SPEAKER_00: There's a strategy.
SPEAKER_00: And what he did for me, and what he did for all of these other people in the Bible that we talked about tonight, he will do for you.
SPEAKER_00: I said at the beginning of this message that God is very serious about you receiving your new things this year.
SPEAKER_00: And last time I shared the message, I said new things, plural, not new things.
SPEAKER_00: God's got a strategy for every one of us.