Speaker 1: Well, here we are again.
Speaker 1: Small steps they still count.
Speaker 1: Anybody ever had an argument with yourself in your head before?
Speaker 1: Some of you probably out loud in the car.
Speaker 1: People think you're talking on the phone.
Speaker 1: Little do they know you're having an argument with the biggest problem you know yourself.
Speaker 1: If you'll stand for the reading of God's word just for a second, we're going to be coming out of Psalm 37, 23 through 24.
Speaker 1: Two short verses and then we're going to dive in deeper to some scripture and we're going to end on a story of Daniel, if you want to flip over to there for later.
Speaker 1: So verse 23, it says this the Lord directs the steps of the godly.
Speaker 1: He delights in every detail of their lives.
Speaker 1: 24, though they stumble, they will never fall For the Lord, say the Lord.
Speaker 1: The Lord holds them by the hand.
Speaker 1: Let's pray.
Speaker 1: Father, we thank you so much for your mercy and your grace.
Speaker 1: We thank you, god, for another chance to be able to come into your house and sing your praises and listen to your word.
Speaker 1: I ask God that no one here leave the same as they came in.
Speaker 1: If someone is struggling today with addiction, I pray you free that bondage.
Speaker 1: If someone is sick, I speak healing and life over that body, if marriages are being torn apart by the enemy.
Speaker 1: I speak restoration In the name of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: In your name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1: Y'all may be seated.
Speaker 1: We're going to be diving in today, so on the February 11th, $18 a person.
Speaker 1: We are going to have a Valentine's banquet Okay, so if you want to be a part of that, there's a signup sheet.
Speaker 1: It's going to be right here at the church, so go out there.
Speaker 1: Signup sheet says $16.
Speaker 1: It was a mistype, it's actually 18.
Speaker 1: So do that.
Speaker 1: Beside that is growth track.
Speaker 1: If you want to be in the February growth track, I'm going to send that text out this week and we're going to start preparing and get everybody's schedules aligned so we can all do it together.
Speaker 1: We have several people in February, so it's exciting.
Speaker 1: Sister Jessie and I open up our home and we have the growth track.
Speaker 1: People come in.
Speaker 1: If you don't know what our growth track is about, it is about.
Speaker 1: The first week is about this church.
Speaker 1: You need to know what we believe here.
Speaker 1: If you want to be a part of this body, you need to understand our core values and core beliefs.
Speaker 1: You need to understand your own core values and core beliefs that will help you stand when the wind blows.
Speaker 1: Week number two between those weeks, I give you a little booklet.
Speaker 1: It's got some questions in it and you fill it out.
Speaker 1: It is not a thousand percent accurate, but what it does it's a spiritual gifts little booklet thing and we talk about our numbers, we talk about our top three, we talk about our worst three.
Speaker 1: It's a fun thing, interactive.
Speaker 1: We go back and forth and some of us see things about ourselves spiritually that maybe we didn't think about before, or something you already knew about yourself, and you say, well, I actually that kind of fits exactly how I, what I love to do and what I would be fulfilled in doing.
Speaker 1: And this will allow me, as the pastor and the staff, be able to implement you into where you need to serve and where you will thrive.
Speaker 1: Have you ever done a job?
Speaker 1: You did it because you were asked.
Speaker 1: You never felt like there was an out, you could never get out of it and you were stuck teaching or doing something or greeting at the door and you're like I hate this.
Speaker 1: No, you're not going to admit it in church, of course not, but we all do it If you've been put somewhere before, especially in a smaller church, you want to be put somewhere that you will enjoy it and you will be able to find your purpose.
Speaker 1: That is the point of this church is to make disciples and make sure that we all, individually and together, understand our purpose.
Speaker 1: So sign-up sheets are out there.
Speaker 1: Anything we ever mention, there's always going to be a sheet on that table.
Speaker 1: So if you heard of something you're like what were they talking about?
Speaker 1: Go, look out there and it will be out there.
Speaker 1: So one little small announcement is we're all adults in here except for this little baby up here.
Speaker 1: But let's help the people who clean the church to keep it clean, can we do that?
Speaker 1: So let's make sure you're not leaving trash in places.
Speaker 1: Let's make sure you're not leaving crumbs or whatever you know.
Speaker 1: It just helps when they clean to keep wanting to clean.
Speaker 1: Okay, just throwing that out there, all right.
Speaker 1: So we got the love month coming up.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all hate it, some of y'all love it, some of y'all are in the middle.
Speaker 1: We are going to start in February our love series and it's going to be called Strings Attached, Strings Attached.
Speaker 1: No matter what you do in your life, there's always a string attached.
Speaker 1: They could be good, they could be bad, it could be a little bit of both, but everything that you do, there are strings attached.
Speaker 1: When you get married, there are strings attached.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be a little blunt.
Speaker 1: Lord, forgive me right now.
Speaker 1: If you're whoring around, if you are whoring around men and women, you go out to the club on the weekends and then you come in Sunday service.
Speaker 1: Those strings are still attached to you.
Speaker 1: When you enter God's house, and then you come in Sunday service, those strings are still attached to you when you enter God's house.
Speaker 1: When you do things in sin, they fashion themselves to you and you can call them strings, but I call it bondage.
Speaker 1: We're going to move on.
Speaker 1: That's for February.
Speaker 1: All right, calm down.
Speaker 1: We often want the goods without the growth.
Speaker 1: Everything in life has strings.
Speaker 1: We're going to look at what you are attached to.
Speaker 1: So week number one we're going to talk about I'm debating, I don't know if they'll kick us off of facebook, but probably because of copyright but what?
Speaker 1: What is love?
Speaker 1: Baby, don't hurt me.
Speaker 1: That's week number one.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about love, what it is and what it's not.
Speaker 1: Love is not a feeling.
Speaker 1: It is what you do when you don't feel like it.
Speaker 1: That's week number one.
Speaker 1: I'm going to see what my production team can do with that, because I think that would be a lot of fun to come out and sing it.
Speaker 1: Anyway, week two is going to be reflections Seeing yourself clearly.
Speaker 1: Who you surround yourself with is what will come out of you.
Speaker 1: Who are you allowing to speak into your life and define you Reflections?
Speaker 1: Who are you allowing that place in your life to hold up your mirror to you?
Speaker 1: Who holds your mirror is just as important as how you see yourself.
Speaker 1: Week number three bound.
Speaker 1: One simple word bound.
Speaker 1: Now, oftentimes, especially in life, if you have had a past and we all do your past can be drug along with you.
Speaker 1: Have you gotten married before and you've been married before?
Speaker 1: Or you've been dating and you have all these other relationships?
Speaker 1: Or you're trying to date now and you have a kid, and all it is to everybody else is a bunch of baggage and you feel like you have been trapped in your own luggage.
Speaker 1: You can become bound, and so February can be a terrible week for you or a terrible month for you, because you don't want to see anybody holding hands or kissing Anybody touches anybody else else, get a room.
Speaker 1: You don't want to see it.
Speaker 1: Well, you're bound and you're being tethered to something in your past that's actually hindering you from seeing clearly now.
Speaker 1: Bound, trapped by failure, you could be trapped by hurt.
Speaker 1: You could be trapped by shame.
Speaker 1: Past you could be trapped by shame.
Speaker 1: Past.
Speaker 1: Mistakes can oftentimes sit on the throne of your heart and make you its subject.
Speaker 1: But you do not have to remain bound.
Speaker 1: We serve a God who is about freedom, he is about restoration, he is the chain breaker, and we're going to go expound on that in week number three, week number four.
Speaker 1: So we've been building up.
Speaker 1: You find out what love is.
Speaker 1: Then you start talking about who is defining you, who you're allowing into your life.
Speaker 1: Then we go into the bound week where what is holding me down, what have I been allowing in my life to come into my life and put chains on me and I may not even realize it.
Speaker 1: And then week four is going to be breaking those chains, breaking free no more chains, living in the freedom only found in Jesus.
Speaker 1: Not now.
Speaker 1: Listen to this, not another person, if you're not comfortable with who you are and you have to have somebody else with you to be okay.
Speaker 1: We call that codependency.
Speaker 1: And even so, if you are in an abusive relationship and this happens all the time in places we don't even know are going on this is called trauma bonds, and we're going to talk about trauma bonds and breaking free from that.
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
Speaker 1: You hunger for the abuse eventually.
Speaker 1: So then you keep having bad relationship and bad relationship and you can't understand why this keeps happening to you, but you keep accepting those kinds of people into your life, blaming other people, when really you've had trauma bonds.
Speaker 1: You've had some damage done to your heart.
Speaker 1: You've had some damage done to your mind, your self-perception, you've let the wrong people hold your mirrors and define you in a way.
Speaker 1: That is not how God sees you and is the opposite of the word.
Speaker 1: Of God says that you are, and now you are bound and you love the trauma.
Speaker 1: You ever heard of a trauma drama, mama?
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I added the trauma in there for special effect, but you get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: People crave drama.
Speaker 1: You don't believe me?
Speaker 1: Go through your Netflix or Amazon Prime list and you like watching dramas, crime dramas, drama dramas that's the ones with all the women in it, and I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: My wife loves watching, like the ooey-gooey, mushy relationship.
Speaker 1: It's the same movie every single time.
Speaker 1: Every time it's the same outcome.
Speaker 1: It's the same movie every single time.
Speaker 1: Every time it's the same outcome.
Speaker 1: It's the same beginning.
Speaker 1: Oh, they meet, they fall in love.
Speaker 1: Something happens, tragic, oh, they find someone else and they come back to each other.
Speaker 1: It's like it's the same thing.
Speaker 1: Does Hallmark have, like, what do you call it when you own something?
Speaker 1: Like rights to that?
Speaker 1: Like you have to do that on every single movie they put out?
Speaker 1: Yeah, same actors too, anyway.
Speaker 1: So we're going to be talking about trauma bonds in week four and we're going to be talking serious stuff about how you can break free from the damage that the enemy has done to you, and I know, I know this is hard to hear, but sometimes the damage we allow the enemy to do to us is self-inflicted and sometimes self-welcomed.
Speaker 1: If you don't believe that you deserve more, you'll stay in the place that you aren't happy.
Speaker 1: If you can't see yourself clearly in the mirror and the wrong people are holding the mirror up to you.
Speaker 1: You need to get better people to speak into your life, which is why I love a to you.
Speaker 1: You need to get better people to speak into your life, which is why I love a church community.
Speaker 1: You need to have community with the people in your church.
Speaker 1: So now let me explain something.
Speaker 1: I'm glad by the gym, okay, so seriously, my book was closed up here.
Speaker 1: He did not see my notes, but he touched on about 90% of what I'm gonna preach today.
Speaker 1: So y'all got sermon number one.
Speaker 1: Here comes number two.
Speaker 1: Let me explain something I want to be very clear.
Speaker 1: There is a method to the madness of the challenge of 17.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're going to break it down today a little bit.
Speaker 1: This is what it will not do.
Speaker 1: You will not do these challenges every single day, every single week.
Speaker 1: You are not going to instantly become a prophet or instantly be perfect.
Speaker 1: You're not going to instantly become a millionaire.
Speaker 1: It's not like winning the lottery All of a sudden you have this bunch of cash and you don't know what to do with it.
Speaker 1: It's not anything like that.
Speaker 1: It won't make you immediately start overflowing with love and gratitude towards people you don't like.
Speaker 1: You won't magically have perfect kids or a perfect marriage.
Speaker 1: It will not happen, guarantee.
Speaker 1: But here's what it will do and this is a guarantee.
Speaker 1: It starts your mind thinking on things above.
Speaker 1: Colossians 3.2 says I think on things above.
Speaker 1: It's about getting your mind out of the space that you're in and rising above it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes, in situations, especially hard situations, it's best to shut your mouth, give it some space and time and back up a little bit.
Speaker 1: I have a policy as a pastor and a minister that if I'm upset with somebody or they say something to me, I wait 24 hours before I respond.
Speaker 1: At least, if it's not 24 hours, it's at least that day.
Speaker 1: And I respond in the evening Because I need the time to process my anger, I need the time to process my hurt.
Speaker 1: I need the time for Steven to have conversations with his wife so that I can filter that out and get it out of my system.
Speaker 1: I run it by her and she's like oh, I wouldn't say that.
Speaker 1: I'm like I'm not going to say that, I'm just saying it to you so it won't come out later.
Speaker 1: We just had this conversation like two weeks ago.
Speaker 1: I'm like I'm not mad at you, I'm not mad at anybody, I just need to let this out so that it does not come out the wrong channel later.
Speaker 1: That's how I filter two things.
Speaker 1: I know that space and time allows me to calm down.
Speaker 1: I don't spank my child immediately when he is being a brat.
Speaker 1: That was the nicest word I can come up with.
Speaker 1: You saw, I had like paused for a second.
Speaker 1: That was like the nicest word I can come up with Because I know Now sometimes I get him, but most of the time I'll tell him to go sit on your bed or mainly it's his bed because it's secluded and away from me.
Speaker 1: I do this because I need time and space to get through my thoughts so that my anger and my emotions don't control the truth that I know that he's just a little boy trying to work through some stuff.
Speaker 1: Because what if God came down and did that to me every time I was acting like a brat?
Speaker 1: That was parenting advice and all free.
Speaker 1: So it gets your mind thinking on things above all free.
Speaker 1: So it gets your mind thinking on things above.
Speaker 1: It brings focus and clarity, and these two things are so hard to get today because there's so many things grabbing for our attention.
Speaker 1: The smartphones now have these things called notifications and they will run your day.
Speaker 1: Will run your day Like I've had to put my phone on, like on the iPhone.
Speaker 1: It has focus or work or whatever.
Speaker 1: So I put that thing on when I'm studying, when I'm doing anything, if I'm running around.
Speaker 1: If I don't text or call you back right, then it's because I need some me time or I am busy.
Speaker 1: If I answered everything that came to me or looked at every notification, I would not have time to breathe.
Speaker 1: But doing these things first thing in the morning it brings a level of clarity, it starts your day off where your mind's in the right space.
Speaker 1: And, number three, it gets you in the habit of taking and this brings me to today's title it brings you, or it gets you used to taking small steps.
Speaker 1: Because, let's be honest, out of a 24-hour period, if you sleep eight of those hours, the rest of that time 15 minutes is not that much.
Speaker 1: So he asked you earlier how are you doing on your 15?
Speaker 1: Because we often overlook the baby steps and the little, small steps that actually lead to greater gain down the road.
Speaker 1: And it's oftentimes the small things, the small things in life that no one sees, that results in the things and the outcomes that everyone wants.
Speaker 1: I'll say it again it's oftentimes the small things that no one sees that results in the big things that everyone else wants.
Speaker 1: Let me break this down in real, proven data.
Speaker 1: Now, most of y'all know that we are on the Ramsey plan, which that means we are getting out of debt so that we can start putting money rightfully so as much as we want in retirement and start building wealth.
Speaker 1: God ain't mad at money, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But the Bible does say that I am slave to my lender, so if I owe somebody money, they own me.
Speaker 1: That's the way it is.
Speaker 1: That's working for your money, so that you can just send it out to someone else and you never get to own it.
Speaker 1: God doesn't desire that for us.
Speaker 1: He actually desires the opposite for us to flourish and be blessed.
Speaker 1: So we're getting out of debt.
Speaker 1: And so, in this Dave Ramsey whole tornado of information I pulled this thing out yesterday and I've known this for a while, but I listened to their podcast and they have this real, proven data that will show you that small steps actually work.
Speaker 1: So they did this study, and it's a study of 10,000 millionaires, and I'm going to go through some stats right quick.
Speaker 1: 79% of these millionaires did not receive an inheritance.
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
Speaker 1: That means they're self-made.
Speaker 1: That means they started from where we're all at right now.
Speaker 1: They started from nowhere, but they had the audacity to say I'm going somewhere.
Speaker 1: They're self-made.
Speaker 1: Eight out of 10 of them put money in their jobs, 401k or some sort of retirement plan.
Speaker 1: The top three careers of these 10,000 millionaires and this one, the third one, stuck out to them.
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, all right, well, let's see about that.
Speaker 1: We got to have a teacher at our house.
Speaker 1: So number one is engineer.
Speaker 1: These are the top jobs of millionaires.
Speaker 1: Number two is an accountant and the third top was teacher.
Speaker 1: Teacher.
Speaker 1: Who knows that teachers don't get paid enough, especially after COVID-19 made us be teachers for a while.
Speaker 1: Y'all don't, even you and the government payment should get switched.
Speaker 1: Y'all should get what they get.
Speaker 1: So 62% of those only 62% graduated from college.
Speaker 1: So that's almost 50% of these 10,000 millionaires didn't even get a college degree.
Speaker 1: Now, in this study, these proven facts that they did, every one of these millionaires, they had one common thing between all of them they started somewhere, and they started small and they stay consistent.
Speaker 1: So, step one in today's making small steps, take your first step.
Speaker 1: Take your first step, just start somewhere.
Speaker 1: If you work on a project or you have a marriage.
Speaker 1: You don't go into the marriage without some steps to get used to each other.
Speaker 1: There are some steps and some adjustments.
Speaker 1: When you have your first child, there's a lot of first steps that you have to go through just to get adjusted to a new little thing being in your house.
Speaker 1: You all of a sudden realize that your time is not your own anymore.
Speaker 1: But josh told me a story about he's like man.
Speaker 1: I had every intention of making breakfast.
Speaker 1: I was gonna do pancakes, he's like, and I ended up just making sausage for my wife because that's all I could do.
Speaker 1: Because, true, it was all you.
Speaker 1: What kids do?
Speaker 1: What babies do?
Speaker 1: They all started with small steps and they actually are called baby step millionaires.
Speaker 1: Now let me ask you this Do I have any overthinkers here in the house?
Speaker 1: Anybody overthink?
Speaker 1: Anybody online?
Speaker 1: If you overthink, just chat, overtank, overthink, I overthink, I overthink, I think about everything.
Speaker 1: The time that I overthink is when I lay my head down.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to go to sleep and my mind just goes whoo, you think I'm nuts.
Speaker 1: Now you should be in my brain when I lay down to try to sleep.
Speaker 1: It's a circus up there and we overthink and we overanalyze everything and this will cause me to be paralyzed and never take that first step.
Speaker 1: The hardest part of the diet is saying no to the fries.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a meal deal.
Speaker 1: They put the fries in there, you don't have to ask Technically, that's a meal deal.
Speaker 1: They put the fries in there, you don't have to ask Technically, that's on them.
Speaker 1: Like for me.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: I went out to eat the other day with Brother Dale, the bass player, and the youth pastor, pastor Aaron, and we went to a place.
Speaker 1: It was a Mexican restaurant.
Speaker 1: They had chips and salsa and I fill up usually.
Speaker 1: Usually before my meal gets there, I am full from chips and salsa.
Speaker 1: I don't know how he does it.
Speaker 1: I've never seen him hold it to his face and sip, but somehow Pastor Aaron blows through salsa like anybody I have ever seen.
Speaker 1: He will ask him to bring five cups of it and it's like one a minute and it's gone.
Speaker 1: I took one chip out, I dipped it in the salsa and I ate it and I pushed it over to Pastor Aaron and I said I'm done.
Speaker 1: He looked at me and he's like what's wrong with you?
Speaker 1: I said chips and salsa will not run my life anymore.
Speaker 1: It is my kryptonite.
Speaker 1: I can't stop myself.
Speaker 1: So me taking one chip, one chip out of the whole basket, a good basket of chips and the salsa was good and I pushed it to him and that was my small step to overcome my addiction of chips and salsa.
Speaker 1: Because if we have, y'all know, brother Vernon, he will sometimes hand out salsa and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you, I will get lost in a bottle of that.
Speaker 1: I will sit there until it's almost gone, every single time, because I don't have self-control and I know it don't have self-control and I know it.
Speaker 1: But the other day I took one chip one small step for mankind right.
Speaker 1: And I pushed it aside and I said I will stick to what I want to eat and not let my food run me Saying no to fries and chips, like I didn't go to Slim Chickens the other day because their fries are so good.
Speaker 1: Now, listen, I'm a dipper, I'm the thing you see in the sky, I'm the big dipper.
Speaker 1: Anything, any kind of sauce, I will find a way to dip something I love dipping fries in ranch and honey mustard.
Speaker 1: I will have two things of each and chowing down.
Speaker 1: So it is by design that they're trying to trick me at Slim Chickens by having that jalapeno ranch.
Speaker 1: It ain't right and it ain't fair, but I love it.
Speaker 1: I've had to take small steps and drive by what I love to get the result that I want.
Speaker 1: The hardest part is always the first step.
Speaker 1: So you're going to experience this.
Speaker 1: Don't be worried, it will happen to you.
Speaker 1: I had some friends, some very close friends, and they had a little baby boy, their first child, and they were so worried because he was the best crawler I have ever seen.
Speaker 1: That boy could take off faster than I could run on my feet and he was just and just.
Speaker 1: Every single time he wanted something.
Speaker 1: If you were over there and you had food, he was at your feet.
Speaker 1: He was almost like of, like a dog.
Speaker 1: But anyways, the parents started getting worried because they said I don't understand why he won't.
Speaker 1: They would lift him up, they put his little hands on a coffee table or something and he'd go just like this, do his little waddling thing and then boom, plop down and take off crawling every time.
Speaker 1: And the parents were getting worried because they said you know, I just can't get him to take his first steps.
Speaker 1: Is something wrong with him?
Speaker 1: Is something wrong with my baby, tristan, didn't walk for I mean, he was like 11 months, I think until he actually started stepping.
Speaker 1: Is there something wrong?
Speaker 1: What happened was is a baby, a very basic, very basic instinct that an infant displays is that he wanted to take the easiest path, the simplest and most familiar the steps that we have to take in life.
Speaker 1: They're not the easiest, they're not familiar and it's not always the most simple thing to do.
Speaker 1: But once that baby took that first step, this is what happens.
Speaker 1: We do this spiritually.
Speaker 1: Once that baby took that first step, he realized how much more ground he could cover when he stepped.
Speaker 1: He was the fastest crawler I had ever seen, but nothing compared to when he could finally step, nothing compared to when he could finally step.
Speaker 1: He was able to reach things that he normally couldn't reach when he would step.
Speaker 1: He was able to get places to get up on things when he stepped.
Speaker 1: Spiritually, let's apply this.
Speaker 1: God is trying to lead us to a place and we're not taking steps and asking God why can't I reach what I see right in front of me?
Speaker 1: Because we're not standing up, we're not taking the steps God has ordered for us.
Speaker 1: But once you took that first step, a whole new world opened up for that child.
Speaker 1: A whole new world will open up for you, child of God, when you decide to follow in the steps that God is trying to carve out before you.
Speaker 1: We do this in our spiritual walk.
Speaker 1: We shy away from taking very important steps that God is trying to carve out before you.
Speaker 1: We do this in our spiritual walk.
Speaker 1: We shy away from taking very important steps that can lead you to the promise that God is trying to take you to A very simple 15 minutes every day and we struggle like it's a huge mountain to climb up.
Speaker 1: Anybody guilty.
Speaker 1: One of the easiest things.
Speaker 1: So it's the little things that are vital.
Speaker 1: Little things make big things happen.
Speaker 1: Jesus challenges and encourages stepping out in faith, but also you must be disciplined.
Speaker 1: Jesus said to go and make disciples.
Speaker 1: If you don't receive discipline, you won't be disciplined enough to step up the baby automatically, without anybody trying to coach him or tell him what to do, drop back down and start crawling again Because it was the easiest.
Speaker 1: He had no discipline to say, okay, this may be a little shaky, this may be a little hard, but I just need to take that step, because when I do what mommy and daddy want me to do these things will be better for me.
Speaker 1: Anybody got some kids.
Speaker 1: You just say if you would listen to me and do what I say.
Speaker 1: Don't shake babies.
Speaker 1: I wasn't condoning.
Speaker 1: All right, we want the blessings without the battles.
Speaker 1: We want the ground gained without taking the steps.
Speaker 1: We want the winds without the wilderness.
Speaker 1: And here's step two Cling to discipline.
Speaker 1: Discipline is your friend, read in Proverbs.
Speaker 1: It is a full book of disciplines that will help your life become better.
Speaker 1: So step one is step out, take that first step, just take a step.
Speaker 1: You know when that baby first took that step.
Speaker 1: You know what usually happens.
Speaker 1: The next one will follow.
Speaker 1: Once you become trained in taking steps.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden you have momentum and some of us it's a thing called running that we'll never do unless someone's chasing us.
Speaker 1: But it's a thing that when you do one foot in front of the other, all of a sudden your feet are coming up and you're getting momentum and you're moving in a positive direction and things are happening.
Speaker 1: But discipline In the study of millionaires, they discipline themselves to keep going, no matter what it looked like.
Speaker 1: You ever dealt in the stock market before or know anything about it.
Speaker 1: It goes like this.
Speaker 1: So many calls call into that podcast and they say you know, I'm worried about the market, you know it's doing this and doing that.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Just like life, it goes like this.
Speaker 1: There's ups and there's downs, but you need to stay exactly faithful to what God has called you to do, because once you go down, guaranteed to come back up.
Speaker 1: Just be faithful, be faithful.
Speaker 1: Be faithful no matter how things look.
Speaker 1: Step by step by step, one foot in front of the other.
Speaker 1: Keep repeating that process.
Speaker 1: It's working.
Speaker 1: Keep doing what you're doing.
Speaker 1: Put one foot in front of the other.
Speaker 1: Keep walking in the direction God is leading you and you will end up somewhere.
Speaker 1: That's just a fact.
Speaker 1: Step by step by step.
Speaker 1: You can't walk into the promised land without taking steps.
Speaker 1: It's impossible.
Speaker 1: Proverbs 25, 28 says this.
Speaker 1: Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control or self-discipline.
Speaker 1: Discipline, discipline, discipline, discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.
Speaker 1: There's a difference.
Speaker 1: We do this in our Christian walk every day.
Speaker 1: We want the microwave version of Jesus.
Speaker 1: We want the microwave version of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: We want the microwave version of healings.
Speaker 1: It would be awesome if just every single time we prayed for somebody, miraculous signs and wonders would happen.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like if you give a kid everything they want throughout their life, they'll never really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: They'll never really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.
Speaker 1: What we want sometimes right now won't last long term.
Speaker 1: You ever had a child, brother, sister, mom, dad and they could not wait for something.
Speaker 1: They had to have it now.
Speaker 1: If there's a big purchase in my life kind of like I do if there's a conflict I wait 24 hours or 48 hours.
Speaker 1: Nine times out of 10, what I thought I needed was more of a want and when I started thinking about it, the longer I have time to process, the longer I have time to realize it was just going to be a purchase.
Speaker 1: It wasn't going to be a necessity.
Speaker 1: Example people winning the lottery.
Speaker 1: Okay, it doesn't matter if it's 500 million or $1 million.
Speaker 1: This is the stat from the lottery.
Speaker 1: About 70% of lotto winners lose or spend all of the money in five years or less.
Speaker 1: They said it doesn't matter if it's 500 million or 1 million.
Speaker 1: What in the world can you buy with $500 million in five years?
Speaker 1: Some of y'all are like I'll try.
Speaker 1: Yes, lord, yes, lord, not that kind of service.
Speaker 1: Before you can start taking steps, you need to decide where you're going.
Speaker 1: You have to become clear on your goals for you and your family.
Speaker 1: You need to become clear on your spiritual goals.
Speaker 1: See, what I've learned in my life is that sometimes I just do things like this and then I'm like well, why was it so messy?
Speaker 1: Because I didn't plan it out.
Speaker 1: Well, I didn't plan the process to get to where I was going.
Speaker 1: I was just expecting something to happen.
Speaker 1: This could be from being a spoiled little brat when I was a kid, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm not blaming my parents, but we need to plan.
Speaker 1: Plan the process, enjoy the process.
Speaker 1: If you step with no purpose, you will soon lose your way and end up somewhere you never wanted to go.
Speaker 1: 1 Corinthians, 9, 26 and 27,.
Speaker 1: It says this.
Speaker 1: So I run with purpose in every step.
Speaker 1: I thought this was very interesting, the way it worded this.
Speaker 1: I am not shadowboxing.
Speaker 1: I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should Otherwise.
Speaker 1: Listen to this, otherwise I fear that after preaching to others, I myself will be disqualified.
Speaker 1: We self-discipline very well in telling other people how to do their thing, but we forget to self-examine.
Speaker 1: That's just as important as self-examination.
Speaker 1: God search me.
Speaker 1: What am I doing wrong?
Speaker 1: What can I do better?
Speaker 1: We have to self-examine, because at some point there will be someone in your life that will point something out that you do not want exposed.
Speaker 1: I'm going to leave that right there.
Speaker 1: So now I want us to go over to the book of Daniel.
Speaker 1: I'm going to leave that right there.
Speaker 1: So now I want us to go over to the book of Daniel.
Speaker 1: I'm going to just touch on the second verse of the first chapter, but we're going to be coming from the chapter 6.
Speaker 1: Now it says in the very first chapter of Daniel, king Nebuchadnezzar comes in and he overtakes Judah.
Speaker 1: He overtakes Judah.
Speaker 1: Now, if you study Judah, this is a place that is the people or tribe that Israel came from.
Speaker 1: Traditionally, they've been called the most powerful tribe of all 12 tribes and they've been overtaken.
Speaker 1: But the victory?
Speaker 1: Now listen to this.
Speaker 1: If you look in Daniel, chapter 1, verse 2, it the victory was given by God.
Speaker 1: Now does this seem like it's counterintuitive?
Speaker 1: Like wait a minute.
Speaker 1: These are God's chosen people and he gave victory to someone else over them.
Speaker 1: Sometimes in our lives we think that God is not in it when we are in a deficit or we're in a bad relationship or things are not going our way.
Speaker 1: But we know that all things work together for those that love the Lord, for the good of those that love the Lord.
Speaker 1: Now, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: That means, in hard times and troubles and positions that we end up in that we don't enjoy, god is up to something, no matter how he looks, he's up to something.
Speaker 1: When we can't see him, he's still working.
Speaker 1: When we can't feel him, he's still moving.
Speaker 1: When we can't hear him, he is still speaking.
Speaker 1: It says by God.
Speaker 1: Now, these steps we run from, these are the steps we run from constantly.
Speaker 1: You ever been guilty of running from something that you didn't enjoy?
Speaker 1: Being in the middle of Conflict is one of those.
Speaker 1: I don't mind conflict, but I don't enjoy it.
Speaker 1: Like I can handle conflict, but I hate that.
Speaker 1: I have to.
Speaker 1: It's uncomfortable, everything about it is uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: I don't want to have those conversations with people that I love.
Speaker 1: I don't want to discipline my child in the way that I have to sometimes to grab his attention.
Speaker 1: It hurts me.
Speaker 1: My dad used to say that when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: He's like I just want you to know this is gonna hurt me more than it hurts you.
Speaker 1: I'm like well, let's trade spots, bro.
Speaker 1: You only say that once.
Speaker 1: So these steps that God is leading us in, like this.
Speaker 1: Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted.
Speaker 1: Did you think God didn't know that the devil was going to be there waiting on him?
Speaker 1: The children of Israel were led into the wilderness so they would start to shed off the bad habits and thinking the stinking thinking that they were stuck in the negativity that they kept wallowing in.
Speaker 1: Oh, it would be better if we were back in Egypt.
Speaker 1: Really, really, how selfish and blind can you be?
Speaker 1: God's providing everything.
Speaker 1: Your sandals don't even wear down.
Speaker 1: I would have the perfect shoes.
Speaker 1: All the time You're talking about to be better back there in the heat and hot and making the pyramids formal, whatever they were doing, getting beat Dumb.
Speaker 1: But when you're in the middle of something you don't enjoy, you start fantasizing about where you came from and romanticizing about how good it was back.
Speaker 1: Then you start thinking about oh, if I only could go back there.
Speaker 1: If I only was with that person again, if I only was, if I had different parents, or only if I was raised different, if I was raised on this side of the tracks, or if I had this kind of church, or if I was involved in this kind of you know congregation, or if I had this kind of church or if I was involved in this kind of congregation, oh, how better I would be.
Speaker 1: And yet God placed you where you are for a purpose.
Speaker 1: God doesn't do accidents, and if he's wrong in where he has placed you and in the proper place that he has placed you and the purpose that he has assigned you to, then that, if he's wrong in that, then how can he be true in the word?
Speaker 1: He either lies or he don't.
Speaker 1: So when you start to believe that junk, understand that the devil is the father of all lies.
Speaker 1: God is not a liar and he's brought you to this place and time to appoint you to a supernatural, divine intervention in your life.
Speaker 1: That's just what I believe.
Speaker 1: Now let's pause for a minute, because these steps that we don't enjoy taking, especially when we can see Jesus went out to the wilderness the wilderness is not where the town is.
Speaker 1: So he had to be going in the opposite direction.
Speaker 1: The good stuff was in the back.
Speaker 1: The stuff that you don't want to see is in the front.
Speaker 1: He had to head in that direction for God to do something.
Speaker 1: Now, I know some of you may be super religious.
Speaker 1: Now, I know some of you may be super religious, but have you really submitted everything to God that where, when he says, step you step?
Speaker 1: I challenge myself daily on this because I want to grab a hold of something and say, no, I like it here.
Speaker 1: This is comfortable.
Speaker 1: God, stop.
Speaker 1: And he's like ripping my hands.
Speaker 1: I'm like Lord, I trust you, but just leave me alone.
Speaker 1: Like God, I want to do what you've called me to do, but I will not be active in it.
Speaker 1: I love that you put a calling on my life or you have blessed me in whatever gift you have given me, but I don't want to use it.
Speaker 1: That's scary.
Speaker 1: What if people don't like me?
Speaker 1: They probably won't.
Speaker 1: That probably means you're doing it right.
Speaker 1: All right Now.
Speaker 1: We don't like those steps that it leads us to.
Speaker 1: But listen to this In the very first chapter, we see that God ordained the demise of Judah.
Speaker 1: When you jump to chapter 6, here's what happens of Judah.
Speaker 1: When you jump to chapter 6, here's what happens.
Speaker 1: Daniel is faced with opposition because he had been taking steps already leading up to the reason that he was about to be thrown into the lion's den.
Speaker 1: He was taking steps of being faithful.
Speaker 1: Now, sometimes, when you're doing what God has called you to do, you could be doing nothing but being faithful.
Speaker 1: The enemy will try to set you up.
Speaker 1: The enemy will try to get you to trip.
Speaker 1: The enemy will try to get you to fall, because if he can get you to denounce, like Peter did, who you serve now he can put shame on you Now he can make you feel even worse, to where you don't want to come in the church anymore.
Speaker 1: Because what if people judge you?
Speaker 1: It don't matter if you're in the church or at Walmart, people are going to judge you.
Speaker 1: Let them judge and get right.
Speaker 1: Let them judge and be faithful.
Speaker 1: Let them talk how they're going to talk, because people talk, people say whatever they're going to say, no matter what kind of facts are dangling in their face.
Speaker 1: They're going to say and put their two cents with it.
Speaker 1: And that's called gossip.
Speaker 1: Who cares?
Speaker 1: I tell it sometimes my wife.
Speaker 1: She carries some heavy burdens about things sometimes and I say I tell her this who cares?
Speaker 1: She gets aggravated at me because I keep saying it over and over again while she's telling me this story and I'm like baby, who cares?
Speaker 1: Don't wear it, don't let it affect you, let it hit you and fall off.
Speaker 1: Who cares?
Speaker 1: Another thing, three words that'll save your life.
Speaker 1: It don't matter and you can get yourself out of a bad attitude fast If you're like you know what it don't matter or it is what it is.
Speaker 1: I like short sayings that I can remember and apply it because I'm slow.
Speaker 1: So in Daniel 6, daniel has the favor of God on him and all he's doing is simply praying.
Speaker 1: So they're trying to find something, these other people who are underneath the king.
Speaker 1: We go to verse 4, and it says the other administrators and the high officers began searching for some fault in Daniel, in the way Daniel was handling government affairs.
Speaker 1: So they were trying to trip him up, trying to find something.
Speaker 1: What is it that we can point out that is wrong in him?
Speaker 1: But they couldn't find anything to criticize or condemn.
Speaker 1: He was faithful, always responsible and completely trustworthy.
Speaker 1: So they concluded our only chance to finding grounds of accusing Daniel will be connecting with the rules of his religion, the stories we read in the Bible.
Speaker 1: They're about faith, but usually what we see in the miracle are the symptoms of the faith that has already been stepping.
Speaker 1: The miracle part is actually the echo of the faith that has already built them up to the steps that got them to where they got the miracle.
Speaker 1: We see echoes manifestation themselves in public of what has been being done in private.
Speaker 1: You want to start seeing miracles in the church?
Speaker 1: Get on your face before God, in private, in your own home, before you come here.
Speaker 1: If you are a Christian and you have been saved, here is not the place for you to get right.
Speaker 1: All right, go on.
Speaker 1: We see the shoots coming out of the ground.
Speaker 1: When you see a plant, a new plant, coming out of the ground, the shoots coming out of the ground, we take that fruit and we enjoy that fruit.
Speaker 1: But oftentimes we do this spiritually.
Speaker 1: We look to other people and we're like.
Speaker 1: We're like oh, I don't see any fruit growing yet, but you don't see what God is doing in the roots, underneath the ground, where you can't see.
Speaker 1: No one sees it.
Speaker 1: That's where the faith is being built and grown Underneath the ground.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you feel like you've been covered up, forgotten about, you're in the dark.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you something today God has not forgotten about you.
Speaker 1: He's got you in a dark place to where you can focus and truly start to grow your roots.
Speaker 1: That way, when you come up where everybody can see you, you're already prepared, you're already matured and you have roots in the proper ground.
Speaker 1: You're already matured and you have roots in the proper ground.
Speaker 1: Pay close attention when reading about these miracles.
Speaker 1: Jesus always said your faith has made you whole.
Speaker 1: Now wait a minute.
Speaker 1: Your faith has made you whole.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't Jesus' faith that healed them, it was theirs that got them to that place.
Speaker 1: Hmm, all right, I'm going to let that one dangle and y'all can do what you want with that.
Speaker 1: Or did the small steps that led them to Jesus?
Speaker 1: That was when their faith was growing and being matured, not the time where they came up to Jesus.
Speaker 1: That was a part of it.
Speaker 1: But we always end up coming to the end of the story.
Speaker 1: We like the end of the story where the hero gets the girl, or whatever, superman wins and he comes back to life, or whatever stupid movie.
Speaker 1: You watch All these things.
Speaker 1: We like the ending, but there's always steps where it starts somewhere that leads up to this huge climactic issue and thing and the hero comes out on top, but we forget about all the junk that goes before it.
Speaker 1: There's steps that have to properly take place and we oftentimes push aside the field of progress.
Speaker 1: I oftentimes think of David when he was anointed to be king.
Speaker 1: He was anointed to be king given, directed by God, from the prophet of God, and he goes back out into the field to watch the flock.
Speaker 1: Again, from what I read, they try to guesstimate, but it's about 14 to 15 years of when he was anointed to, when he went and slayed the giant.
Speaker 1: And then he slayed the giant and still wasn't the king.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the steps that has to be taken are the ones in the field, when you're by yourself.
Speaker 1: Steps that has to be taken are the ones in the field when you're by yourself, preparing for the crown that God has for you, preparing for the giant coming your way, because you got to take the steps towards God to know that you can trust him, no matter what he says, that the word of God is true and it stands alone.
Speaker 1: It does not need our help.
Speaker 1: When you begin to trust that and you begin to live out in that the steps that you need to trust that and you begin to live out in that the steps that you need to take aren't so hard anymore, because you know that when I step and I start to fall, my daddy's got me.
Speaker 1: When I take my steps and I'm doing this in faith I know that when I start to waver a little bit, god has got me.
Speaker 1: Chapter 6, verse 10.
Speaker 1: But when Daniel learned the law had been signed, he went home and he knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its window open towards Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving God thanks.
Speaker 1: He didn't let the culture.
Speaker 1: He didn't let the culture, he didn't let the culture manipulate his faithful steps that he was taking.
Speaker 1: Step number three be consistent.
Speaker 1: The thing that Daniel did every single day.
Speaker 1: When he heard that there would be repercussions in a negative way, he still did what he was supposed to do.
Speaker 1: He said no matter what it looks like around me, I am going to stay consistent.
Speaker 1: I don't serve man, I serve God.
Speaker 1: The smallest things done over time make the greatest impact.
Speaker 1: Steps of consistency.
Speaker 1: 2 Timothy 1.7 says this For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
Speaker 1: The Spirit led Jesus to be tempted in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: God gave the victory to the king over Judah.
Speaker 1: Here's what I've learned and seen through my life and through others' lives.
Speaker 1: God never wastes a battle.
Speaker 1: It may stink being in the middle of it.
Speaker 1: It may be hard to keep walking when you can't see or you don't know what the next step is.
Speaker 1: See or you don't know what the next step is.
Speaker 1: Just keep stepping and knowing that if you are on your face before God, his will in your life will be done.
Speaker 1: Second Corinthians, 4, 8 through 9 says we are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed.
Speaker 1: We are perplexed but not driven to desire, Sorry, despair.
Speaker 1: We are hunted down but never abandoned by God.
Speaker 1: We get knocked down but we are not destroyed.
Speaker 1: Psalms 37, 23 says the Lord directs the steps of the godly.
Speaker 1: He delights in every detail of their lives.
Speaker 1: He cares that.
Speaker 1: He knows the number of hairs on your head, some of you less than others, but he still knows.
Speaker 1: He still cares that much.
Speaker 1: So are you willing to step out in what God has for you next.
Speaker 1: A lot of times it feels like you have blinders in front of you, where you can't really see where to step, and for the longest time I thought that that was the enemy.
Speaker 1: I did Like, oh, he's trying to block me so I can't see where I'm going.
Speaker 1: God's doing it, so I won't start just running off wherever I want, because if I have to lean on him and his understanding, I won't just be stepping to step, I'll be stepping with purpose.
Speaker 1: And when you step out with purpose and intentionality, things begin to change and shift in your life.
Speaker 1: Will you have the courage to trust and take that step with God?