SPEAKER_00: Back up and pick your Bibles up and wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.
SPEAKER_00: Say this together.
SPEAKER_00: Say, Heavenly Father, thank God for Sunday night.
SPEAKER_00: It's right on time for me to get filled back up because I'm always giving out.
SPEAKER_00: Rivers need to come in to replace the rivers that are going out.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe I received tonight revelation from the Word of God that will strengthen me and help me to maintain victory in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at Psalm 25.
SPEAKER_00: That's a Psalm of David.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 25.
SPEAKER_00: We'll start.
SPEAKER_00: We won't read the whole thing, but we'll read a pretty good portion.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
SPEAKER_00: O my God, I trust in thee.
SPEAKER_00: Let me not be ashamed.
SPEAKER_00: Let not mine enemies triumph over me.
SPEAKER_00: Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed.
SPEAKER_00: Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.
SPEAKER_00: Show me thy ways, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Teach me thy paths.
SPEAKER_00: Lead me in thy truth and teach me.
SPEAKER_00: For thou art the God of my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: On thee do I wait all the day.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindnesses, for they have ever been of old.
SPEAKER_00: Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions.
SPEAKER_00: According to thy tender, according to thy mercy, remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Good and upright is the Lord, therefore will he teach sinners in the way.
SPEAKER_00: The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way.
SPEAKER_00: All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
SPEAKER_00: For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.
SPEAKER_00: What man is he that feareth the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.
SPEAKER_00: And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled Finding the Way.
SPEAKER_00: Finding the way.
SPEAKER_00: The sweet psalmist of Israel is what he's known as.
SPEAKER_00: He was a man after God's own heart, shepherd of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's a lot of different names that David had, but David was not a perfect person.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, we try to make, you know, statues of people, you know, and and uh make them bigger than life, but he had it, he's right here.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling you, don't remember my sins, you know.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you've forgiven my transgressions for your sake.
SPEAKER_00: So he just he doesn't come to the Lord, you know, like we can't see our transgressions are gone.
SPEAKER_00: I don't ever pray like that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't come, I don't come to the Lord and say, well, you know, I'm a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: No, I mean my sins are gone.
SPEAKER_00: So we got a better covenant than David.
SPEAKER_00: But what I wanted you to see here is that he, you know, didn't come as a perfect person.
SPEAKER_00: He came as a dependent person.
SPEAKER_00: Here he is a king, he's a mighty warrior.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he killed Goliath, he killed a lion and a bear.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when he's a teenager.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's a pretty mean motor scooter.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's you know, one of the reasons he didn't get to build the temple is because he'd shed so much blood in the face of God.
SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, he is a he's a killing machine, if I can say it that way.
SPEAKER_00: And he trained his mighty men the same way, they were the same way as he was.
SPEAKER_00: How can you train somebody to do what they did if you weren't able to do it yourself?
SPEAKER_00: And so yet here he is seeking God for his ways and his paths.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Show verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Show me thy ways, O Lord, teach me thy paths.
SPEAKER_00: Lead me in thy truth and teach me.
SPEAKER_00: See, no, notice, I mean, he's a king.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's a mighty warrior, and yet he's he's he's so dependent.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Teach me.
SPEAKER_00: Show me, teach me about your ways and your paths.
SPEAKER_00: The word way there is uh the Hebrew word derek.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it means a course of life, a mode of action, a pathway, a highway.
SPEAKER_00: And then that word path, you know, show me your ways, teach me your path.
SPEAKER_00: The word path is auroch.
SPEAKER_00: It's a well-trodden road, it's a way of living.
SPEAKER_00: And as I was meditating on this recently, I thought about a game trail.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you go hunting, and like I used to, I just I'm sorry, I'm just too impatient to sit in a blind.
SPEAKER_00: I've done it, but I hate, I hate deer hunting sitting in a blind.
SPEAKER_00: It's the most boring thing in the world to you, unless you can kill one, but I hardly I don't think I ever kill a deer out of a blind.
SPEAKER_00: You know, most of the time I killed them when I, you know, was walking and I came up on them, scared them up.
SPEAKER_00: In some parts of Texas, you can, especially the hill country, you can do that successfully out in South Texas, it's pretty impossible because you're it's flat.
SPEAKER_00: And so in South Texas, you need to find a game trail.
SPEAKER_00: A game trail is a little tiny trail, and it's straight for a while, and then it turns, and it's it's about this wide.
SPEAKER_00: It's just wide enough for a deer to go down it, or a javelina, or a coyote, or any other animal.
SPEAKER_00: It's a game trail, and it's it it you you can walk right past it and not see it.
SPEAKER_00: And you can't see it from any other angle unless you're just looking right straight down it, and then you find that game trail.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this from this word reminds me of a game trail.
SPEAKER_00: It's a trail that's not obvious, it's it's a pathway that you that's not going to be obvious to you.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we need the Holy Ghost to show us.
SPEAKER_00: Finding the way.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in Isaiah 55 that God's ways are higher, his thoughts are higher, but they're not unattainable.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be terrible if we couldn't attain, see, this is this is God's ways, these are God's thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: So we, you know, the Holy Ghost can reveal the way that God has for us.
SPEAKER_00: And we prayed a little bit about that tonight with different ones.
SPEAKER_00: They have a pathway they need to find to get to the place where they want to be.
SPEAKER_00: They're not always obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you it's hit and miss.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you try this, you try the other.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, if you don't quit, you'll win, you'll win.
SPEAKER_00: You just don't quit.
SPEAKER_00: If you hadn't found the pathway yet, just keep keep praying, keep seeking, keep knocking, keep asking.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna find the Holy Ghost is gonna show it to you.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna teach it, teach you.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you have to be taught, which is why I'm teaching this tonight.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh I had three things, three keys to finding God's way.
SPEAKER_00: You know, along the last uh 31 years of this church, I mean, I didn't do a lot of seeking.
SPEAKER_00: We come up against things and decisions that have to be made, and and not making a decision becomes a decision.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, if you say, well, I'm gonna put that off, sometimes if you put it off, you go, you're too late to make the decision then.
SPEAKER_00: So so you really need to not be procrastinating about things that you that are in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's make sure we hit the game trail.
SPEAKER_00: And uh maybe we'll shoot a deer, maybe we'll kill a coyote, maybe we'll rid the land of a hog.
SPEAKER_00: Man, those hogs are terrible.
SPEAKER_00: Those are not javelinas, those are domestic hogs that are wild and they tear the land up.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I feel sorry for ranchers and farmers that have that they have these these big herds and they just tear a whole pasture up and ruin it.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so anyway, getting back to the word.
SPEAKER_00: So three keys to finding God's way.
SPEAKER_00: Number one that I see is in verse nine the meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way.
SPEAKER_00: The meek.
SPEAKER_00: And so the first thing, first key is one must be meek.
SPEAKER_00: Now that doesn't mean weak, meek essentially means teachable.
SPEAKER_00: See, notice in verse four, show me your ways, teach me thy path.
SPEAKER_00: See, teachable, humble when you look it up, it actually means dependent or even needy.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes we can get so sophisticated, you know, and we can kind of have a little bit of a, well, I'm a I'm a I'm a mature Christian.
SPEAKER_00: No, you need God, you need everything you can get out of the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: You're not nobody's so big that they can find their way by themselves.
SPEAKER_00: The surest pathway to destruction is to pick your own way.
SPEAKER_00: And so, needy, uh teachable, dependent.
SPEAKER_00: And I in 1 Samuel 30, you know, David came back from a bunch of warfare with the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: He was having to, you know, he was having to be uh acting like he was their friend so that they wouldn't turn on him.
SPEAKER_00: Because Saul was after him, too.
SPEAKER_00: So he he he would go and he would, as long as it didn't affect Israel, he would fight with with the Philistines on their side and he gained their their uh confidence, some of them anyway.
SPEAKER_00: So they they took a break, him and 600 men, they went back to Ziklag, their hold, their home, and they found it burned with fire, and all the women and children and stuff was gone.
SPEAKER_00: The Amalekites had come through and decimated it.
SPEAKER_00: And all of them just laid down and cried and wept until there was no more power to weep.
SPEAKER_00: David included.
SPEAKER_00: And then there was talk of stoning David because he's the leader and it's all his fault.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you're not ready for leadership if you can't take a few stones and a few, you know, threats.
SPEAKER_00: Because leadership always is criticized.
SPEAKER_00: There's always Monday morning quarterbacks everywhere you go.
SPEAKER_00: There's always somebody that could have done it better.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, you just have to realize that about leadership.
SPEAKER_00: And so they they were talking about stoning David.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they wouldn't be, they wouldn't have anything if it weren't for David.
SPEAKER_00: Go back to their beginning, they were all in debt, you know, discontented.
SPEAKER_00: They were a bunch of losers.
SPEAKER_00: They knew how to lose because they did a they were steady losing all the time.
SPEAKER_00: In debt.
SPEAKER_00: And David made them a group of mighty men.
SPEAKER_00: He made them mighty warriors.
SPEAKER_00: Now they're thinking about stoning him.
SPEAKER_00: And what did David do?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Bring me hither the ephod.
SPEAKER_00: See, he he could have just assumed, I'm gonna go after those rascals, I'm gonna catch up with them, I won't kill every one of them.
SPEAKER_00: But no, he said, bring me hither the ephod.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, part of the uh the way that they would seek the Lord and pray is the ephod.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have time to get into all of that, but but he prayed and sought the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Shall I pursue?
SPEAKER_00: Will I overtake them?
SPEAKER_00: You know, will I overtake them?
SPEAKER_00: Shall I pursue?
SPEAKER_00: See, he didn't presume.
SPEAKER_00: See, he was meek, he was needy, he needed to know God's way, he needed to know God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't assume.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, if you're gonna assume the course of action, you're you're probably gonna miss it.
SPEAKER_00: Many times God gives you things that are that don't make any sense.
SPEAKER_00: No rational sense.
SPEAKER_00: They they you know, God, God has a way about about him that you he's gonna put you through your paces.
SPEAKER_00: I like what what about meek, you know, I like what what uh James, my son-in-law, taught on meeking a horse.
SPEAKER_00: You know, horses have to be meeked in order to be battle horses.
SPEAKER_00: They have to be trained to ignore danger.
SPEAKER_00: And when you're riding a horse in battle, of course, we don't do that anymore.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have horses to go into battle.
SPEAKER_00: But back then they would have a certain way that they would train the horse and meek the horse so that the horse would not be intimidated by loud noises, by explosions, by arrows, by anything.
SPEAKER_00: They would just simply obey their rider and their master, and they would go into battle, and that they the but the horse had to be meeked.
SPEAKER_00: It had to be bridled, it had to be put into subjection to the rider.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, that that horse is going to react and throw the rider off, and now you've lost the battle.
SPEAKER_00: And so part of this meeking, it's not weakness, it's strength to to stop your flesh and to stop your reason from taking over your panic and trouble and start, you know, just going here and going there and going a little bit nuts.
SPEAKER_00: No, I mean settle down and and and you've got to be meek, you've got to be teachable.
SPEAKER_00: So when David prayed, he said, Shall I pursue?
SPEAKER_00: Shall I overtake?
SPEAKER_00: See, he didn't just react.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and God said, Pursue, for you shall overtake and surely recover all.
SPEAKER_00: So he had a word from God then.
SPEAKER_00: He had a word from God, and so when 200 of the 600 soldiers were too weak to go, if he hadn't had a word from God, he might have been tempted not to pursue, because he only had two-thirds of his army with him.
SPEAKER_00: But since he had a word from God, he went ahead, okay, 400, y'all, the 200 can stay here.
SPEAKER_00: They were so worn out and I think also emotionally drained.
SPEAKER_00: I think they just, you know, I think they just came apart at the seams.
SPEAKER_00: You know, mama's gone, my kids are gone, my stuff is gone, what am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: And they were just not able to go and do another battle, you know.
SPEAKER_00: So he left them behind and they went off, and they, I mean, they not only overtook them, they they spoiled them, and they brought not only all the women and all the children and all the stuff back, but everything that the Amalekites had.
SPEAKER_00: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_00: And the 400 didn't want to give the 200 any of it, except the women and kids.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't want to give them any of the stuff or any of the stuff that they that belonged to them, didn't want to give it back.
SPEAKER_00: And David says, No, that's that's not, we're gonna part alike.
SPEAKER_00: We don't we don't do that here.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't do that here.
SPEAKER_00: Just because somebody's going through something and going through a trial and and and might can't maybe can't go, maybe can't produce, maybe can't volunteer as much as they want to.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they've got to tell you right now, we're all parting alike.
SPEAKER_00: We all have the same reward of the things that we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Another time in 1 Chronicles 14, as soon as the Philistines heard that uh David had been crowned king, they came against him.
SPEAKER_00: I can just imagine Abimelech, he was the king, he was their king, you know, and he he and he liked David.
SPEAKER_00: But a lot of the underlings, they didn't like David.
SPEAKER_00: They were suspicious of him all along and kept questioning why he's around, and so when he's crowned king.
SPEAKER_00: They uh probably got mad.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, I don't know if they killed Abimelech or not.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so they uh they decided to array themselves in the valley of the valley of Rephaim.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and they came out against David.
SPEAKER_00: And David didn't just go down there.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's a warrior, he's a king, he's king of the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: Is he gonna go down there without no, he had he prayed.
SPEAKER_00: Shall I go down there?
SPEAKER_00: And God said, Yeah, go down there.
SPEAKER_00: I've given given you the battle.
SPEAKER_00: And so he went down there and conquered the Philistines, wiped them out.
SPEAKER_00: And so they fled.
SPEAKER_00: And then they came back again and spread themselves again.
SPEAKER_00: They got some more warriors and went back in the same place.
SPEAKER_00: And David could have just decided, well, I'm gonna go down there again.
SPEAKER_00: No, shall I go?
SPEAKER_00: He said, No, don't go down.
SPEAKER_00: But go down to the mulberry trees and wait for the sound of uh that's at the top of the uh of the mulberry trees.
SPEAKER_00: And one translation, the the sound of marching in the tops of mulberry trees.
SPEAKER_00: That's see, that's the that's the angelic host marching to battle.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he had angels helping him the second time.
SPEAKER_00: He probably had him helping him the first time.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, because David always sought God's ways and God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he stayed alive in those battles.
SPEAKER_00: His mighty men, there's not one record of one of the 600 mighty men that ever fell in battle.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they go to war and nobody dies.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, they're so protected.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they're following the Rhema of God.
SPEAKER_00: They're following God's plan and God's way.
SPEAKER_00: And so David stayed meek and dependent on God's plan and God's way.
SPEAKER_00: Very, very unassuming.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not, let's not be assuming, let's be unassuming with God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's always, let's always remember to pray and stay dependent on Him.
SPEAKER_00: That's not weakness, that's meekness.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're if you're seeking a way or a path, that's step number one.
SPEAKER_00: Because He's got it.
SPEAKER_00: He He will reveal it to you.
SPEAKER_00: He will teach you, and He will show you.
SPEAKER_00: All right, number two.
SPEAKER_00: Uh one must be weak, number one.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, one must walk in the fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: What man is he that feareth the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.
SPEAKER_00: He will teach in the way that God himself will choose.
SPEAKER_00: And who does he teach?
SPEAKER_00: The one that fears the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14 the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.
SPEAKER_00: And he will show them his covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Now think about that game trail again.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a secret, little pathway.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not obvious.
SPEAKER_00: You can walk around for miles and miles.
SPEAKER_00: You can go up and down, up and down and never and never even find the game trail.
SPEAKER_00: What's the game trail for?
SPEAKER_00: Well, those little animals use it to travel from uh feeding ground to where they're gonna bed down.
SPEAKER_00: They use it to travel to the water, they use it to travel to where they uh feed.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, there's all kinds of reasons that they have, and they all use the same one.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they don't go carve another one, it's there, so they use it.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's there's a game trail, so to speak, for you that's not obvious, and he will show you if you fear him, you fear the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What's the fear of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord is basically to put him first.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you care more about what he thinks than man thinks.
SPEAKER_00: That's something I had to get straight real soon.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, really, before we ever started the church, I had to I had to get really practiced in the fear of the Lord and not getting sensitive about people's opinion about me or the jealousy or the whatever that they would have about me.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I just took it in stride.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I fear the Lord more than I fear man.
SPEAKER_00: I don't fear man.
SPEAKER_00: Fear of man brings a snare.
SPEAKER_00: No, we we get we fear the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We love the Lord, we fear the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You mean I'm afraid?
SPEAKER_00: No, you reverence him.
SPEAKER_00: And so part of being dependent on him is that you reverence him too.
SPEAKER_00: They kind of go hand in glove.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the burning desire for God's way in our life is the fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You want that above anything else.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when couples disagree, husbands and wives, you know, if you've got the fear of the Lord, the burning desire in that decision is whether what is God's way?
SPEAKER_00: It's not my way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the head of the house.
SPEAKER_00: Woman, get in line, shut up.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's not the fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I've known women that are so me and you know, so weak, and uh they think their husband is their Lord.
SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus is your Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Stand up, quit quit being so mealy mouthed.
SPEAKER_00: You've got a voice in that marriage.
SPEAKER_00: You're heirs together of the grace of life.
SPEAKER_00: Ask the Lord to help you uh, you know, word your concern to your husband, and then just don't cave in.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just agree just because he decided.
SPEAKER_00: No, you you're part of the you're a part.
SPEAKER_00: The deal.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who this is for.
SPEAKER_00: I've had women whose husbands weren't saved, and uh and one of them came up to me one time and said, You know, Pastor, I just want you to know I'm not gonna be tithing because my uh my husband's not in agreement.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, do you work?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I'm I'm not gonna tithe.
SPEAKER_00: I thought, well, you're stupid.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say that to her, but that's what I thought.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what is wrong with you, lady?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, is he your Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna violate the word of God and walk in a curse just because your idiot husband doesn't believe in tithing?
SPEAKER_00: My sister persuaded my brother-in-law.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she sat with him and God gave her the right kind of thinking about it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I mentioned him this morning, he taught uh radiation safety all across the country.
SPEAKER_00: He was a school teacher.
SPEAKER_00: He made nothing as a school teacher, I think.
SPEAKER_00: When I was younger, I went and sat in one of his junior high classes.
SPEAKER_00: I was probably about, I don't know, 11 or 12.
SPEAKER_00: I've known him a big part of my life, you know.
SPEAKER_00: He's in heaven now, Frank.
SPEAKER_00: But uh he went all over the country teaching these uh radiation classes, and he would come home and he'd be home like a week or two at a time with nothing, no money coming in.
SPEAKER_00: And so she went to him and said, Frank, you know, let me share, let me read to you what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: I want to do something here.
SPEAKER_00: And she read him Malachi and she said, Frank, listen, you know, you're sitting home, you let's let's tithe.
SPEAKER_00: If you will let me tithe, I'm I know the teaching will turn around.
SPEAKER_00: You'll get more uh teaching and everything will line up and you won't have these gaps.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and and and and it says, prove me now, Frank, if it doesn't work, I I will not bug you about it again.
SPEAKER_00: And he reluctantly agreed.
SPEAKER_00: They started tithing, and I mean his calendar got filled up.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, not next week, no, I mean right instantly his calendar started filling up, and he could he wore out I don't know how many cars driving all over the country teaching that class.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he'd drive to Missouri, he'd drive to, you know, Montana, he'd drive, he wouldn't fly, he wouldn't pay an airfare, he'd just drive that car, you know, drive all the way, you know, drive all night at night to save a penny.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, but you know, successful because what he did, he obeyed the word.
SPEAKER_00: And she was, you know, she she was uh she had the fear of the Lord working in her life to persuade her husband.
SPEAKER_00: And then later he did get saved.
SPEAKER_00: He went, he got saved after that.
SPEAKER_00: And got, you know, and he's in heaven today.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: And my sister is still alive, 96 or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: God, it's hard to believe I've got a 96-year-old sister, but anyway.
SPEAKER_00: 95.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Marion.
SPEAKER_00: Uh all right.
SPEAKER_00: So no matter, you know, we we are we are with God, no matter who it identifies us with or separates us from.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the fear of the Lord will separate you from some people.
SPEAKER_00: Because they'll want you to compromise, they'll want you to do their thing, they'll want you to be with them, to do their little uh wine bibbing and their little, you know, party and their little this and their little that, and let's have a let's have a keg of beer.
SPEAKER_00: It's just, you know, it's only right as St.
SPEAKER_00: Patrick's Day.
SPEAKER_00: No, I just don't participate.
SPEAKER_00: I just don't participate in any of that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care whether they like it or not.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care if they're there.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have, see, I just don't count people like that my friends because I can't be friends with the world.
SPEAKER_00: I can love them, I can try to influence them, but that's as far as it goes.
SPEAKER_00: I don't mess with them, I don't go, you know, fraternize with them.
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all with me now?
SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we don't stand before God in our own righteousness, but in the righteousness which was given to us by Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's the righteousness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're in Him.
SPEAKER_00: That's the righteous right standing that we have.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about our behavior, it's not about our success, it's about what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: It's all him, and we can stand there in that place.
SPEAKER_00: That's the fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: See?
SPEAKER_00: When you start trying to earn your way, you start trying to, oh, I'm gonna do this and God will do that.
SPEAKER_00: No, you're in the wrong place.
SPEAKER_00: One time in uh 1 Chronicles 21, David decided that he wanted to do a census of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And God had forbidden him.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I do not want you to count Israel.
SPEAKER_00: I, you know, you're blessed, and you don't need to know how many people are in the nation.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to count them.
SPEAKER_00: And he woke up one day and and he told Joab, his chief of staff, go count them.
SPEAKER_00: And no, Joab said, No, you can't do that.
SPEAKER_00: God told you not to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Please, please, please, King, don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't bring reproach on Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And he he wouldn't listen.
SPEAKER_00: He wouldn't listen.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, I don't know what in the world flew up his nose.
SPEAKER_00: But even a guy like David, I mean, we, you know, he, it's in the Bible for us to learn.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care how sophisticated, how uh mature you are, it's easy sometimes to have something fly up your nose and you just go haywire and do some stupid thing.
SPEAKER_00: And so he sent Joab out to number them, and he numbered Israel and he numbered Judah, and man, they had over a million soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and as soon as as soon as he got back the count, God began to plague the people, and people started dying.
SPEAKER_00: 70,000 people died, just like that.
SPEAKER_00: And he immediately started repenting.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, God, God.
SPEAKER_00: Don't lay this on them.
SPEAKER_00: It's all me, you know, punish me and my house forever.
SPEAKER_00: I I'm I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: See, I it just makes you go, what in the world were you thinking?
SPEAKER_00: Why would you why would you go against that?
SPEAKER_00: See?
SPEAKER_00: Why would you go against it?
SPEAKER_00: And so he did.
SPEAKER_00: And and and of course, being the king, it didn't, he wasn't the one that suffered.
SPEAKER_00: Which, when you love the people, he was a shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: When you when you see the flock dying, then you hurt.
SPEAKER_00: You you are decimated.
SPEAKER_00: And he felt so guilty.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, he's in over his head now because he knows that blood that's been shed out there, uh, the pestilence hit them.
SPEAKER_00: You mean God killed them?
SPEAKER_00: No, the devil did it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it says God did it, but no, read the Old Testament with New Testament eyes.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't in the killing business.
SPEAKER_00: They broke their covenant and allowed the devil to come in and kill them all, kill 70,000.
SPEAKER_00: And so he began to go to the Lord, and Gad the prophet came back, and the angel standing there between the earth and heaven with his sword drawn.
SPEAKER_00: He was about to come against Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: His sword is drawn against Jerusalem, and I mean, I mean, he's already had a bunch of people, 70,000 die, and now Jerusalem's fixed to get destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: And so he goes to the prophet, oh, you know, please give me a way out.
SPEAKER_00: And and God, uh the angel tells Gad, uh, the prophet, I'll give you three choices.
SPEAKER_00: You can you can have three months of your enemies coming upon you and uh being slain by their sword, or you can have uh, I forget the three, but there were three, and the last one was uh, or you can submit yourself to God and let God's uh wrath be shed.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Great is the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I know these others don't have any mercy.
SPEAKER_00: I I would rather fall under the hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: I choose.
SPEAKER_00: He had to choose the manner of death.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh so Gad told him, he said, quickly go to the to Ornan.
SPEAKER_00: He's got a threshing floor, and buy that uh threshing floor and erect right there an altar and do sacrifice to stop the killings, to stop the death.
SPEAKER_00: So he went to Ornan and he said, I want to buy your threshing for you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Oh no, I'll give it to you.
SPEAKER_00: He said, No, I'm not, I you can't give it to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'll buy it.
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't, I no, it's nothing.
SPEAKER_00: I just please, just take it.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Look, I cannot sacrifice to the Lord that which did not cost me anything.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pay you full price.
SPEAKER_00: And he weighed out 600, you know, pieces of silver, whatever it was.
SPEAKER_00: He weighed it out and paid him in full and built there an altar and did sacrifice, and then the angel put his sword back in his sheath, and it and Jerusalem was spared.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about the fear of the Lord now.
SPEAKER_00: And this is Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to worry about God killing us.
SPEAKER_00: But what we do have to do is we, you know, obedience is better than sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: See, if he'd have just obeyed in the beginning, nobody would have died.
SPEAKER_00: No one, the devil would not have been able to attack Israel.
SPEAKER_00: If he'd just obeyed God to begin with, if our nation had just quit, you know, if the church had obeyed God and been part of the political solution out there and voted, if the church had done its job, if we had elected godly leaders like the original foundational uh people all said to us, all of them said that.
SPEAKER_00: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, all of the all of the founding fathers said you this this nation is only fit for godly leadership.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ever put somebody ungodly in office.
SPEAKER_00: And what did we do?
SPEAKER_00: We've got all these dirt bags.
SPEAKER_00: No wonder our country is falling apart.
SPEAKER_00: Obedience is better than sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: I like what one preacher said.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot make up by the sacrifice of prayer that which you lose through disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: And he he lost, and Israel lost through disobedience of taking that census.
SPEAKER_00: So, what am I talking about?
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about let's let's make sure that we've got uh the blood of Jesus applied to our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Let's make sure that we're not doing things that are displeasing to him and we have it put under the blood.
SPEAKER_00: If you put it under the blood, forget it because God forgot it.
SPEAKER_00: But make no mistake about it, when you're really trying to find the pathway, you need to make sure that you're clean and cleansed.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And so uh the last one, uh, one must be diligent in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: So the three are uh have to be meek, one must be meek, not weak.
SPEAKER_00: One must walk in the fear of the Lord, and the last one, one must be diligent in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And so, number one, you commit to God.
SPEAKER_00: Committing to God is that you're gonna stay on the case.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean you ask him every day, but once you ask once, then you thank him every day for the answer.
SPEAKER_00: You don't keep asking God over and over, oh Lord, show me the path.
SPEAKER_00: Show me the, give me the path, give me the no, say it one time, believe you receive it, and then thank him for it even before you see it.
SPEAKER_00: So commit to God, commune with God.
SPEAKER_00: You know, show me your ways, oh Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Teach me thy paths.
SPEAKER_00: Boy, that takes some connection.
SPEAKER_00: That takes communion with him.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it takes time to spend time with God for him to communicate.
SPEAKER_00: I was talking about the anointing within this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The anointing within is that anointing that that clears the pathway from the Holy Ghost that lives right beside your own spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And when the anointing within is weak, and we don't, we're not people of prayer, we're not people of the word, we don't pray much in other tongues, then the anointing within us is weaker, and then God's communication is blocked.
SPEAKER_00: It's got static, it's got it's got obstacles, and then you're not going to receive everything that God knows about what has to happen.
SPEAKER_00: So, what's what's the answer?
SPEAKER_00: Prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Be, you know, be diligent in prayer, commit to God, commune with God, and then verse 5, continue with God.
SPEAKER_00: For thou art the God of my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: On thee do I wait all the day.
SPEAKER_00: On thee do I wait.
SPEAKER_00: What does that word wait mean?
SPEAKER_00: Be still?
SPEAKER_00: No, it means to minister to Him.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean just be in your prayer closet day in and day out.
SPEAKER_00: We all have to go to work, we all have things, duties, and stuff.
SPEAKER_00: But you can walk around with that in your heart, and you can be have a heart of gratitude and expectation that God is moving and he is revealing this thing that you've asked him to, and you're thanking him before you ever see it.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's continuing.
SPEAKER_00: That's waiting on the Lord all the day.
SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, in fact, praying in tongues is the greatest, I think it's the greatest thing for finding ways and paths, because we just don't know how to pray as we ought.
SPEAKER_00: But the Holy Ghost knows and he will use your prayer language.
SPEAKER_00: He'll speak through you to pray the right thing, to pray.
SPEAKER_00: And also the same way is that your spirit gets so strong that finally the answer comes into your spirit, and now your spirit is so strong, the inward anointing is so strong that it can communicate to your mind what your mind hasn't yet picked up.
SPEAKER_00: And now you can be dependent on what uh on that.
SPEAKER_00: You can be dependent on, you can be confident in that.
SPEAKER_00: James 4.8 says, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
SPEAKER_00: So uh finding the way.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you are interested in finding the way going forward?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, let's lift our hands and praise God.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God for David.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God that he was transparent.
SPEAKER_00: He was transparent.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to meeting David.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: I hope he doesn't get mad at me talking about him.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got something that you absolutely have this hits you and really uh is something that you receive right now, you've got uh some things that, or maybe one thing particularly that you're really need God to show you uh the path and the way, and it's a glorious way.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, his paths are glorious, his ways are glorious.
SPEAKER_00: So uh I'd be glad to lay hands on you and believe God with you if you have uh that in your life right now.
SPEAKER_00: We all do at times, but if you just need a little extra help tonight about discerning what pathway to take or what way to go, the way that's before you, and you don't want to just assume, you're you're unassuming, and you want his way more than anything else.
SPEAKER_00: You want his way more than anything else.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Well, his way is always right, his way is always prosperous, his way is always peace.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've been on my way before and I just never had peace.
SPEAKER_00: One time I made a decision in business, I like what uh J this morning took the offering.
SPEAKER_00: He talked about, you know, the righteous always get up.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you get knocked down, but righteous always get up.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you want to just quit, well then you're wicked.
SPEAKER_00: And I just kind of laughed at how many times I've had to get up off the deck, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I've been made so many mistakes in business and so many mistakes with business decisions and money decisions, you know, just flattened.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it just, and uh I've been in such a tough position so many times, but I just kept getting up.
SPEAKER_00: I just, I'm not gonna quit on the word.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know the word.
SPEAKER_00: I might not be learning fast enough, you know, but I know if I just keep at it, God's gonna show me.
SPEAKER_00: And all of his paths are peace.
SPEAKER_00: And one time I'd just gotten so fouled up, my business had fouled up here in Houston, and I was just, I mean, I'd spent everything, didn't have anything left.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I prayed one morning, Lord, if I belong in another city doing something totally different, I'm I'm willing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just ready, I'm ready to, I this is, I'm tired of this.
SPEAKER_00: And so he took me up on it.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't his perfect will, but uh I got a job offer in Corpus Christi, and we moved our family to Corpus Christi, and I went from not making any money to signing a six-figure contract, and we, I mean, we were blessed.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, the whole year and a half I was there, I never really had the peace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it was God's acceptable will.
SPEAKER_00: It was not his perfect pathway, it was not his perfect place.
SPEAKER_00: And so getting back to what I told Teresa, see, I settled for something less than perfect, and then I got that.
SPEAKER_00: I got, I got uh, I didn't have perfect peace.
SPEAKER_00: I never could understand it while I was down there.
SPEAKER_00: I just, I was just always kind of disunfortable.
SPEAKER_00: And when I moved back to Houston, when I finally heard, you know, you need you belong back at Lakewood Church in Houston, he told me two things.
SPEAKER_00: You belong back at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why would he tell me those two things?
SPEAKER_00: I know where Lakewood Church is, but he given me the priority.
SPEAKER_00: Church is number one, your church is number one where you belong, and then your and your place of habitation.
SPEAKER_00: Houston is a big place.
SPEAKER_00: There's lots of places within Houston and surrounding area, but God cares about where you live.
SPEAKER_00: He establishes the boundaries of your habitation.
SPEAKER_00: When I got back here, peace came back.
SPEAKER_00: My circumstances weren't any good, but peace came back.
SPEAKER_00: All of his pathways are peace.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the ways you'll know that you're on the pathway.
SPEAKER_00: When you have the peace that passes all understanding.
SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the ways you know when you're not on it.
SPEAKER_00: Because your peace is interrupted.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because your spirit knows what your mind doesn't know.
SPEAKER_00: Your spirit knows there's something that needs to change.
SPEAKER_00: Stretch your hands out this way, folks.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I just pray for each one of these.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: And I agree with each one of them, Father.
SPEAKER_00: All your ways are peace in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, show him your pathways.
SPEAKER_00: Teach him your path, show him your way.
SPEAKER_00: Show him your way, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I agree with each one.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation comes, light comes, light be.
SPEAKER_00: Light the pathway.
SPEAKER_00: You know, back in World War II, we had uh the resistance fighters in France, and they they were cooperating with Great Britain and America, and they would have spies and they would have different people come and they would have to go out late at night and light a runway.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I just saw.
SPEAKER_00: I saw the runway being lit so the plane can land.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You light our pathway right now.
SPEAKER_00: Light that light, let their light, light, that light, light, illuminate, illuminate, illuminate in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Illuminate.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus, all these paths are peace.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Rabakata Sebere Kutalaya.
SPEAKER_00: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, let's thank the Lord right now.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: All these paths are peace.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.