Faith Is Flooded | Pastor KJay | Radiant Church TXK

Pastor KJay preached a powerful sermon titled Faith is Flooded.

Key takeaways:
1️⃣ “Sometimes your faith is going to go through trying times but if you have flooded faith you can survive the storm.”
2️⃣ “If you truly trust God in the storm He will not let it sink you or bring you to the lowest point — He will actually lift you up and elevate you.”
3️⃣ “The water destroys the old parts of you and releases you into new life.”

📖 Genesis 6:9–22 PARTNER WITH US 
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome, podcast family. My name is Kaylee, and thank you for tuning in today. If you haven't already, please be sure to subscribe to our podcast today of today each week. We believe that God has a powerful word for you today. So let's dive in into this amazing message.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

That sometimes your faith is gonna get flooded. Sometimes your faith is gonna go through a storm. Sometimes your faith is gonna go through many waters. Sometimes your faith is gonna go through trying times. But if you have flooded faith, it can survive the flood. If you have flooded faith, it can survive the storm. Do you have flooded faith this morning? Come on, do you got flooded faith this morning? It can survive the storm. God wants to give you flooded faith. Why? Because God don't want you to have a conditional faith. He wants you to have an unconditional faith, which means that your faith can survive anything. It can survive the toughest times, the hardest times, the roughest times, the mountain highs in the valley lows. You have to have a flooded faith. You got to have a faith that can survive the bad times. That in this life, the Bible says you will go through hard times, trials, and persecution. And Jesus allows it because you were designed to actually get better under persecution. You were actually designed to get better under fire. You was actually designed to get better under the flood. There's always gonna be a flood in life. There's always gonna be seasons where it rained. There's always gonna be seasons where it pours. But if your faith is flooded, you are ready for the flood. You're ready for the rain. You're ready for the storm. There's always gonna be seasons like that, which means that we have to stop trying to control the seasons and we have to control our hearts. We can't always control what happens around us, but we can't control what happens in us because I can't always choose my season, but I can always choose my spirit. What spirit am I gonna walk in? I'm gonna walk in the spirit of faith, I'm gonna walk in the spirit of love, I'm gonna walk in the spirit where I trust God. Do you trust God? Do you believe in God? Because if you trust God in the middle of the storm, you won't lose your head. If you trust God in the middle of the storm, you won't lose your peace. Peace. If you trust God in the middle of the storm, you won't lose your hope. And what happens to so many Christians today is we trust God when it looks good. But the moment it looks bad, we stop trusting God. And we doubt God because something goes bad. I saw something on Facebook the other day, and this girl she posted a status and I inboxed her. She said, if God is so good, then why have I been struggling so long? If he's good, why am I struggling? But before I answered the question, I first attacked the premise. I did a little bit because your struggling doesn't negate his presence. And your struggling doesn't negate his existence. Just because you struggle don't mean God don't exist. So I explained that to her. And sometimes you struggle because you're not getting what God was trying to give you through the struggle. God don't just remove the struggle because you don't like it and it hurt. God removes the struggle because you got double in the struggle. You grew in the struggle. You got faith in the struggle, you got better in the struggle. That it was the per the testing of your faith that was supposed to purify you. God uses the flood for purification, which means that if the flood comes and you don't get purified, guess what's gonna happen? It's gonna keep raining. But when you get purified and do what God wants you to do in the flood, the rain will cease. And some of you guys got rain happening in your life because you're still not doing what God would have you do in this season. God says, I'm bringing a cleansing and a purification, and when that happens, I'll hold back the rain. And God says, if you really got your heart right, the rain won't work against you, it'll work for you. Because the believer, we're better in the rain. We praise God in the rain, we worship in the rain because we know he's the maker of the rain. We know he's the sender of the rain. So let's get better in the rain because guess what? It's going to rain and it's gonna flood. And you have to decide if that's good news or bad news. Let's go to the book of Genesis. Come on, chair. Don't be hating on me. Genesis, Genesis. Genesis chapter six. When you guys are there, say ready. It's the first book in the Bible. You got one job. Six, seven. I'm getting a little healed. I don't practice that real hard. I used to say six and seven, and the kids was like, Stop. Stop, you old now. Okay. Genesis 6, first book in the Bible. Verse 9. And this is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man. Blameless among the people of his time. And he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on the earth had had corrupted their ways. This all the people, this is crazy, which means everybody was just going left. So God said to Noah, I am going to put it in to all people, and I know you're gonna think that's mean, we'll explain it. For the earth is filled with violence because of them, and I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood, make rooms in it, and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it. The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. So, in other words, he's saying, make the boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. These are the dimensions. I just did the translation for you, so you didn't have to add all that up. I know you could do it, but I just figured I'd help you out a little bit. Verse 16, make a roof for it, leaving below the roof and opening one cubit high all around, put a door in the side of the ark and make a lower, middle, and upper deck. I am going to bring flood waters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens. Every creature that has breath in it, everything on earth will perish. This seems really mean. Verse 18. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark, you and your sons and your wives, and your wife and your sons' wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind, of bird of every kind, of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground, will come to you to be kept alive. I'm like, Lord, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna be in that boat with all these things. Just I don't know, you're gonna have to flow me above it, but I can't do that. Especially if they got bugs in there. And Lord, you should have left the mosquitoes off the ark because we don't need them. Should have left the roaches out too. I almost said something that was mean, but I'm gonna keep reading this Bible. Verse 21. You are to take every kind of food, okay? Now we're talking, Lord, I can do that. That's what I can do. That is to be eaten and stored away as food for you and for them. Noah did everything just as God commanded. Let me read that part again. Noah did everything just as God commanded. Let's read it again. Noah did everything just as God commanded. Can we say that of you? Can we say that you did everything just as God can? Michelle did everything just as God commanded. Can we can we say that? Are we like, Michelle didn't do nothing God said, and then Matt, because God didn't do what he said. Like, like you have to obey God. So, so let me give a little breakdown of this story. So we have Noah, and Noah is a preacher of righteousness. That's what he does. Noah preaches. He's a preacher, he's a preacher, which means Noah's my brother, he's a preacher, he's a preacher of righteousness. And in his day, um, the world was full of violence, and Noah was the only one found blameless. I don't want to get really, really theologically deep. I can, but it'll take us off track. But let's just say this that when it was prophesied that Jesus, the seed of the woman, would come into the earth, Satan knew about that prophecy, so he's tried to do everything he could to destroy humanity, to taint humanity. And there was all kinds of crazy things that was happening, and angels was coming down, they were being with the darters of men, they were creating giants like Goliath and the sons of Anak, and all kinds of crazy things was happening, actually to pervert and taint the human race, so regular people can be, regular people couldn't be born. They would be like hybrids and and all the Greek mythology stuff you read, it was real. I know this sounds super crazy and it's super off my message, but this is what's happening. And Noah was blameless in his in his blood, in his DNA. He wasn't tainted by the devil's plan. The devil had a plan. We always preach about David and Goliath, but have you ever asked the question? How did a giant get on this earth? Because they were actually tainting humanity. So God wasn't just destroying regular people, that the whole human race was being tainted by this demonic, evil agenda. So God said I had to destroy humanity because Satan was trying to destroy humanity, and he was trying to make sure the Son of God would never be born, so you can never be saved and never be restored. So God had to start over. And you're like, okay, but God sent these waters and a lot of animals and a lot of things died. And yes, from our perspective, dying is evil, it's really bad, it's really cruel, it's really evil. But from God's perspective, when you die, you're with him. So it's not evil from his perspective. God gave time, he could take it back as he sees fit. So this is kind of what happened. But God said, before some people would get tainted, God gave an opportunity for repentance. He said, Hey, you can repent and you can enter the ark. You can repent and you can enter the ark because I preached a couple weeks ago about the scarlet cord. And I don't know if I said this in the sermon, but I'm gonna say it right now. The scarlet cord it starts at the front of the Bible and it reaches all the way to the end of the Bible, which means the scarlet cord has always been in the Bible. There's always been a chance for redemption, there's always been a chance to get saved, there's always been a chance to get restored, there's always been a chance to be be made whole. There's always been a chance to follow Jesus all the way from the beginning to the ending. Because some of you guys ask the question Well, what happens to the people before Jesus was ever born? How would they get saved? I got you. There was a scarlet cord. And in this particular time, the scarlet cord was the ark of God. And if you got in it, you got saved and you got protected from judgment. And if you didn't get into it, you weren't saved and you wasn't spirited and protected from judgment. God always had protection from judgment, and the ark was the same thing Jesus Christ was. It was a piece of wood that would save humanity because God had covered it with his presence. It's the same thing. The book, it keeps repeating itself. It's the same exact thing that judgment came on humanity, but there was a piece of wood that saved us through Jesus Christ, and there was a piece of wood that saved them through Noah because he was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ at this point. God has always made a way. He don't kind of make a way, he don't sometimes make a way, he always makes a way. It's the scarlet cord, and it flows through the Bible. So everyone that day had a way. So you may be like, it's evil to bring flood waters. No, it's not. God just accelerated judgment. And guess what? It's gonna happen again. Are you in the ark of Christ? Because another flood of judgment will come, and this time it won't be with water, it'll be with fire. But you have an opportunity to be saved, you have an opportunity to be inside the ark, which is the will of God. And Noah was a preacher. The Bible says he was a preacher of righteousness. And when Noah had to build the ark, roughly, scholars said he built the ark for about a hundred years. Which means it took a hundred years for Noah to build the ark. Imagine what kind of cycle you have to be to build a boat for a hundred years. And not only did he build a boat for a hundred years, but check this out. Do you know it had never rained in the earth yet? It had never rained, so God watered the world with dew. There was a dew that came up that watered the plants. We had never had rain. So imagine Noah, what if he's in a place where there is not even a lake or water by his house? What if there's no pool or jacuzzi or anything like that around his house and it had never rained, and you're walking around telling people, hey, hey, hey, hey, repent. It's gonna rain. Bro, what's rain? No, better yet, it's gonna flood. What's flooding? Literally, Noah was a preacher of righteousness, and he had one of the most powerful sermons that's ever been preached, but the shortest sermon that's ever been preached. Noah's sermon was so short that if you don't listen closely, you may miss it. I'm gonna show you a sermon. It was so short you may miss it. He would get up and preach for a hundred years, and this is how the sermon went. Everybody, listen to the word of the Lord. It's gonna rain. Amen. And that was it. That was it. His sermon was that short, and guess what? Mine could be the same way because it's going to rain, and you need to repent and turn back to Christ. It's gonna rain. It's always rain and it always will rain. It's gonna rain in your life, it's gonna rain in our society, it's raining in our nation right now. Did you repent for the rain? Did you repent for the rain? It's gonna rain. Amen. That was his whole sermon for a hundred years. He preached it's gonna rain. And because they never seen rain, they never repented. And sometimes you gotta repent before you see the rain. Sometimes you gotta repent before you see the flood. Sometimes you gotta repent before you see the storm. Because you gotta have faith. And the Bible says, by faith, Noah built the ark. Sometimes you gotta be willing to move by faith. And my question for you is if you're gonna be who God has called you to be, can you move by faith? Because faith isn't always a belief, it starts that way, but it ends as a behavior. And the first step of faith we see is walking by faith, but then when God turns it up a little bit and he wants to strengthen your faith, sometimes gotta ask you to build by faith. And my question is, can you build by faith? Can you build by faith? Last week, I told you the ingredients of faith, of what makes faith. But it wasn't the whole picture. Because faith starts with a word from God, then it goes to a belief from man, then it goes to obedience from man, then it goes to power from God. I'm gonna show you again. It starts with a word from God, the belief of man, the obedience of man, the power of God. Look where God sits. He sits at the beginning and the end, because the Bible says he's the author and finisher of your faith. He starts it with a word, he ends it with his power. He starts it with a word, he ends it with his power. And most of the time we don't see a miracle because of what we do in the middle. We don't believe, and if we believe, we don't obey. We don't believe, and if we believe, we don't obey. And if we don't obey, that means we don't work. And the Bible says faith without works is what? Dead. So a lot of people aren't seeing the power of God because you have dead faith. And dead faith is a faith that don't work. You're not saved by works, but your works activate your faith. So we have dead faith because a faith that's not working is a faith that's dead. A faith that is dead is like your faith without works, is like a body without a heart. It dies. And maybe you believe God, but because you never worked, you killed your faith. You killed it, you killed it because you didn't work. Yes, God, I believe you're gonna deliver me, but did you come to the altar? Because if you didn't, you just killed your faith. Yeah, God, I believe you're gonna provide for me. Did you walk out in faith like you would? Because if you didn't, you just killed your faith. And a lot of you guys, you got a word from God, you believe something, but you didn't behave, you didn't obey, and because you didn't obey, you killed your faith. That faith starts with a word, then it goes into a belief. But many times faith dies because it never goes into obedience. It's one thing for Noah to believe God, it's another thing to build something for a hundred years that's never existed for something you've never seen. Could you do it? Could you do it? Because many of you are saying, Well, God, you know, you promised me that you were gonna do this cool thing through me, but you know, the resources ain't there, so I'm just waiting till the money shows up. And God says, if you can't build blind, get away from me. Get away from me. You have to be able to build blind because here's what God can't do: God can't bless what you won't build. God can't bless what you won't build, God can't bless what you won't build. That radiant church was something that wasn't built inside of a building, it was built inside of my heart because God can't bless something that I won't build, which means this church was in my heart long before it was ever in the building, but I had to go start looking for buildings. Why? Because I gotta walk by faith, I gotta start looking for people to recruit to the vision. Why? Because I gotta walk by faith, I gotta create a plan. Why? Because I gotta walk by faith. I gotta get a 501c3. Why? Because I gotta walk by faith. You can't be blessed if you can't build. And many people are praying for the blessing of God, but they will not grab a hammer. What happens? Because you're like, well, God gave me a promise and it's been three weeks. God gave Noah a promise and it's been a hundred years. Sometimes he don't work on your clock. But can you still build? Sometimes he don't show up when you think he should, but can you still build? Sometimes he don't do what you want him to do when you want him to do it, but can you still build? And what the devil does is he shows you that something didn't happen because he wants to discourage you from building. Because God said it's gonna rain. There's the word. And then Noah obeyed and did everything God said do. Did everything God said do, did everything God said do, and he built an ark. Guess who didn't build the ark? God. And many of us would have sat there and thought faith would have been God building the ark. God said, I don't build arcs, you do. But I do build faith, and if you would believe what I said, I would give you the strength and the wisdom to build the ark. Because God's not gonna build it for you, but he will instruct you on how to build it. And God gave Noah divine instruction on how to build it. It was it was it was 450 feet. Here, we're gonna go to it because I kind of remember, but I don't all the way remember. It was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high. If you would take these dimensions, I should have done it to show you. If you would take these dimensions and put them together, the first thing is this modern engineers said that if there was a flood, this would have been the perfect design to build a boat in to make it survive a flood. So today, with all of our technologies and resources, the engineers that build boats, they said that don't even believe in God that if they had to build something that could survive a flood, they would have used this same template. How does a preacher of righteousness in the middle of nowhere preaching, let it rain, with no computer and no laptop, and no AI and no chat GTP and no Google and no engineers, how did he have the perfect instructions and the perfect template on how to build something that'll survive? Because God instructed him, God gave him instructions, God gave him to download. And secondly, if you draw the shape together, it forms something. If you would have seen the ark from above, the ark would have looked like a coffin. And if you read the scripture, if you read the scripture, the Bible says that the ark went under and then the waters lifted the ark up above the waters. What was the picture? It was the picture of baptism. In other words, God said it's a coffin because it's symbolizing you being dead in Christ, and then the water's gonna lift it above, and it's a symbol of coming up, being raised in new life. And some of you guys are gonna be baptized, and when you go down, it's the form of a coffin. Why? Because your old life is dying, your old ways are dying, your old mentality is dying, your old sin is dying, and you're gonna be raised above the water into new life, and you're and new things are gonna come. God has a new thing that's on the way, the old thing has to leave, the old man has to die, the old woman has to die, the new is gonna be birthed, the new is gonna emerge. Who inherites top of an old thing? They can trust God with a new thing. Who's talking about the old thing? And they want a new thing. I'm doing a new thing. You're not gonna walk around with dead faith no more. You're gonna walk around with resurrected faith now because God is doing a new thing. And if you believe that, give him a 10-second. Praise break in this place. That it was a coffin and the water put it under. And then your Bible says the water lifted it above the water. It was a picture of baptism. And then Peter said the same thing. He said, he said in your Bible that the flood was a form of baptism. It was a form of baptism because what happens is when you go under the water, that that the water is judging the old parts of you and it's destroying it. So when you go in the water, the water is destroying your past. But you are in the ark of Christ because you're covered by the blood. It's releasing you, but it's holding your sin. It's releasing you, but it's holding your guilt. It's releasing you, but it's holding your shame. It's releasing you, but it's holding the worry. It's releasing you, but it's holding anxiety. It's releasing you, but it's holding the depression. When you go under the water, it is judging your past and it's releasing your future. Oh, give them a shout of praise, somebody. So baptism is judgment for your history. Oh, but it's freedom for your destiny. It is God's will. And through, and through the story of Noah, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His scarlet core runs through the Bible. And the same thing he did in the beginning is what he did in the middle, and it's what he does at the end. That God is the same. He's the same. So Noah, Noah, Noah was baptized. And then the Bible says something powerful. It says, Hey, I need you to cover the outside and the inside of the ark with pitch. The word pitch in the Hebrew means atonement. The Bible says, cover the ark externally and internally with atonement. Um, in other words, he was saying that I'm gonna atone for the sins of this world and the sins of the people that is on this ark. I need you to cover it with pitch. And that's what the blood of Jesus does, it covers you with pitch, it covers you with atonement. So now all of a sudden, when judgment hits this earth, it passes you by because it covers you with atonement. And then he said, Hey, hey, I need you to use, I need you to use cedar wood so you can build this with cedar wood. It was a treated wood that could actually survive storm weather. So he gave it a wood that can survive the storm. He coated it with pitch so there would be no leaks, so the water can come in, so the judgment can come in, because the judgment would hit the ark, it wouldn't hit no one inside of it. And the judgment would hit Jesus, he was the ark, and it wouldn't hit you because you're in Christ. If you be in Christ, you're not hit by the judgment, you're not hit by the pain, it just hits him, but it never hits you because you're in him. He coated you with pitch, and the ark got beat up, but the people in it never got touched because it was coated with pitch. When you're in Christ, you are coated in pitch. You're coated in pitch. This is Jesus, and I know you're like, how does all this fit? Because he's God and he's brilliant, and he tied it all together to show us that he's real, and he does this all throughout the Bible. I can preach on anything and show you this because it's all throughout the scripture, because it wasn't written by man, it was written by God, it came through man by God. There's not 66 authors of this book, there's only one, and his name is Yahweh. He's the author of this book. They were just pens. He's the author, they were the pen. He's the one telling the story. He's using history to tell his story. It's always been that way. It's always been that way. Can I go a little bit deeper? Can I go deeper? Can I go deeper? Okay, I'm gonna go deeper. So, so uh let me just read scripture because if I just keep preaching, y'all gonna think I'm making up stuff. Genesis 7-11. 7-11. I used to eat there all the time, get my snacks and drinks, and all the good stuff. 7-11. I couldn't go there too much. They always smoked outside of it, but we'll send an evangelistic crew up there. See, can we get them saved? All right, Genesis 7-11. It says, in the 600 year of Noah's life. So again, back in that day, before the floodgates came down, humans, people, animals, everything lived way longer. So if you read the beginning of the Bible, people lived to be a hundred years because the oxygen level was different. And this verse is kind of the transition point where people started dying sooner because of the climate and the oxygen level is different. So in the 600 year of Noah's life, of the 17th day of the second month, on that day, all the spring of the great deep burst forward. And the floodgates of the heavens were open. Everyone say, in the floodgates of the heavens were open. Okay, let me break this down a little bit. So, above the earth, before this event, the floodgates of heaven, there was this calvin of water, it would sit above the earth. And what would it create is it would create uh amazing amounts of oxygen. So people would live longer, the climate was different, the everything was different. And and you know, like when scientists lie and they'd be like, Yeah, millions of years ago there was dinosaurs and there was littlefoot millions of years. No, it wasn't millions of years ago. Because if it was millions of years ago, dumb dumb, we wouldn't even be able to find these fossils. You know how long millions, uh 200 million years ago, a dynasty. No, no, no. Here's what happened. Before the flood, dinosaurs were so big, their nostrils were so big, they pick up so much oxygen. Before the floodgates was lowered, they can actually breathe in the old climate. When the floodgates came down, dinosaurs can no longer breathe no more because the oxygen, like it scientists will tell you, dinosaurs can live today, even if one was alive, because the oxygen climate isn't right. And it isn't right because the floodgates of heaven was poured down. And now we got all this water on earth because God opened the floodgates of heaven. He opened the floodgates. So all the water that set above the earth, for that 40 days and 40 nights when it rained, the floodgates came open and everything on the earth was drowned. It was buried. The floodgates were open. God sent the floodgates. Now, check this out. For 40 days and 40 nights the floodgates were sent. Why was it 40 days and 40 nights? Because 40 is the number of testing. 40 is the number of testing. All throughout the Bible, God uses 40 to test. 40 was always the number of testing. Jesus, when he fasted in the wilderness, he fasted for 40 days because 40 shows a new season. 40 shows that new things are coming. After the day of 40, it's a new season and new things are coming. So it rained for 40 days and 40 nights because God was prophesying that a new day is coming, a new people is coming, a new generation are coming, new things coming. You know, God was like, Jessica, darkness bow down to the day. Darkness, get up. Oh my well, I forgot it. We got a new thing coming. You know what I'm saying? God was up there singing that before we ever sung that. And that's what 40 days was for. And let me give you more numbers just to show you this. 40 symbolizes a new season. And then there was eight people on the ark. What is eight? Eight is the number of what? New beginnings. So it was 40, which was a new season, and then it was eight people, it was a new beginning because God was going to do a new thing. He was redesigning and re-engineering the earth. He was doing a new thing, new things is coming. And I want you to know if you get baptized today, new things are coming. God is doing a new thing. He's doing something new. God always wants to do a new thing. He don't want you to be stuck in the old regime, he wants to do a new thing. So God did a new thing. And now you have this aid and the earth. And the crazy thing is, the same instructions that he gave Adam and Eve, he gave them when they got off the boat. Be fruitful, multiply, uh, subdue the earth. He gave them all these instructions again because God had to do a redo because we messed up his first do. But God said, even though we messed it up, even though everything went wrong, new things are coming. And some of you guys have messed up your life. You have blew it, you have made mistakes, you have dropped the ball. But I want you to know you serve a you serve the God of the 40 and you serve the God of the eight. There's a new season and there's a new thing that's gonna begin today. I declare by the power of God, new things are coming. You don't have to be held by your past, you don't have to be held by your mistakes, you don't have to be held by your wrongdoing. New things are coming if you believe it, give them a shout of praise. So let's go deeper. The ark, the ark is crazy. And the ark would have required crazy amounts of faith. The ark would have required crazy amounts of faith. The first thing that the ark did was when God boarded up the ark, God didn't add any windows on the side. Oh, hold on. So there's a flood and there's rain, and I'm going in this ark, and I ain't got a window. Like I need a window, I gotta be, hold on, you I gotta peep. When stuff gets real, you know when it starts storming real bad, I don't know. I go look at the window. I'm like, bro, I need to know do I need to be under the bed? I need to go in the bathtub, like I don't know where I need to be at in the house. Can I lay back down? Can I watch TV? Should I turn it off? You know, like I don't know when it's storming bad. You turn everything down, I don't know what that's gonna do, but it feels like it's gonna do something. Like, shh, shh, it's storming. It's like so. I don't think the sound has anything to do with it, but I need to be able to look out the window. God said, No, I don't want you to look out the window. He said, But here's what I will do: I'm gonna put a window at the top of the ark, which means when the storm comes, you won't be able to look around you because you shouldn't be focused on that. But you can look up at God and His presence and his goodness and his power and his spirit. And maybe some of you are in a storm right now. You don't need to look to the left, you don't need to look to the right, you don't even need to look in front of you or behind you. You need to look up to God and say, God, I look up because my redemption dropped now. I know my blessing comes down from above, I know my power comes down from above, I know my peace comes down from above, I know my hope comes down from above. I don't need to look forward, backward, sideways, or the other side. I just need to look up because if you can look up, you can get up out of your situation, out of your depression, out of your despair. You need to look up. And God said, We got one window, and it's at the top of the ark because you don't need to look around you, you just need to look up because if you can see the presence in the hand of God, that's all you need. You can look up, and some of you guys are in a situation that's so dark, so hard, so painful, you don't see your way out, but you can look up because if you can look up, you can get up. And the ark was built by one man, and it wasn't even built by a contractor, it wasn't built by an engineer, it wasn't built by a builder, it was built by a preacher. It's hope for me after all. I can build something. See, wife, I don't know where she's at. I can build something, I told you. No, but she's like, you can't even unclog the toilet. I'm working on it. I'm getting there, I'll tell you. You know, like you have like the resourceful men. They're like, Yeah, I can, I'm Mr. Fix, I'm not Mr. Call It in. Hey, can you come fix this for? Hey, all right, I got everybody on speed. I got everybody. I'm like, oh yes. Um, Mr. Johnson, keep here in five minutes. I'll tip you. Like, like, like she, like, you gonna cut the grass? Nope, I'm gonna hire someone. Hey, can you come cut our grass and tick? That's me. I am who I am. Who I ain't, I'll never be. You know what I'm saying? Just saying. I am who I am. But this was a preacher. He was a preacher. And God had a preacher that built something that would save humanity. And there's two notable boats to mention. There's the Ark, and there's the Titanic. There's the Ark and there's the Titanic. Two boats. Two boats. But one was built by professionals, and another was built by an amateur. One was built with all the technology and engineering of the day, another one was just built by an instruction from God. One was built with one was built as a lavish cruise ship with food and entertainment and dance and music and Mary. Another one was built with dogs and goat and sheep and poop and rats and all the nasty animals that you don't like. Mongooses, snakes was on there. Like, what kind of boat is this? And the boat that was built with the greatest minds and the greatest technology and all the greatest things, that boat sank, and the one that was built by a preacher who wasn't a contractor sailed. Why? Because you can do more with God than you can do with the greatest minds of man. You can do more with God than you can with the greatest minds of man. I found this fascinating. Do you know that the Titanic had two steering wheels? Which means two people can steer it. Do you know when God built the ark, he built it with no steering wheels? Why? So he can steer it. I don't need a steering wheel. I don't have to be in control when God is in control. I don't have to steer my life because God steers my life. I don't have to know which way I'm going because my steps are ordered by the Lord. And some of you guys are in a situation right now and you feel like your hands isn't on the steering wheel. Well, that's good because I mean God's hands is on the steering wheel. Because when you have professional captains staring the Titanic, they crashed it and sunk it. But when you had God staring the ark, it stood the 40 days and 40 nights of rain. I'm sure it bumped into all kinds of buildings, but it stood the test of time because God was the captain. I got a question for you. Are you the captain of your life or is God the captain of your life? Because if you're the captain, you're building a Titanic, but if God's the captain, you are building an ark. What are you building? What are you building? I don't want to be the captain of my boat. God, you're the captain. I don't need a steering wheel. And a lot of us we got control problems, and that has to be broken off of us. We got to get rid of our control problems and have a and we have to walk in faith and let God steer our ships. And this was the beauty of the ark. That it wasn't instructed by man and it wasn't steered by man. It was steered by God. Maybe you keep wrecking your life. My question is, who's the captain? Who's the captain? Because when you're the captain, you run into things. But when God's the captain, he gets you to clear ground. And God is so good. He's so good. I was talking about you earlier. You went here, though I had something. I was just talking about how handy I am around the house, how I fix everything, how I be building stuff and screwing things in, how I'm a plumber, and all the things in between. I'm playing. Um back to the Bible. I'm sorry. But they go through this flood, and all of a sudden, Noah's faith is flooding. And he goes through this massive storm. This massive hurricane. The ark lands on a mountain. And you would think after 40 days of rain, 40 nights of rain, the ark will land somewhere in the valley. But it landed on a mountain. Why did the ark land on a mountain? It's because if you truly trust God in a storm, he will not let it sink you or bring you to the lowest point. He would actually let the storm lift you up and elevate you. That if you go through the storm the right way, you will land on a mountain, not in a valley. Let me say it again. If you go through the storm the right way, you will land on the mountain, not in the valley. Some of you guys are in a storm right now, and it looks really, really bad, and it seems really, really painful, and you see no way out. But if you trust God in the middle of the storm, you will not land in the valley, you will land on the mountaintop. Can we give him a shout of praise? Can we let him know he's a good guy? Man, I gotta hurry up. I'm running out of time. I'm up here playing. Um, I want I'm gonna read something to you guys and I'll I'll close here. Uh Genesis chapter 8, verse 6. And it says, So it came to pass at the end of 40 days that Noah opened the window of the ark, which he had made. Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. He also sent from himself a dove to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and he drew her into the ark to himself. And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly picked olive leaf was in her mouth. And Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. I want to tell you something about the story that most people miss. Um the part of this story that most people miss is this. We hear about Noah going on this, going in this ark, and we hear about this flood for 40 days and 40 nights. But many times we don't hear about this part of the story. That after the 40 days and 40 nights, it was a year before Noah got off the ark. So he survived the storm, but it was a year before he could walk on dry ground. And sometimes we'll survive a storm, but the worst part wasn't even the storm, it was the afterstorm. Because I made it 40 days through the storm, but now I'm stuck in the heart for a year. And some of you guys have gone through the storm, but it's still not back normal because you're waiting on the water to recede. Just because you made it through the storm don't mean it's not flooded after the storm. And some of you guys feel like, man, I made it through the storm, but everything is not better. I'm still struggling, my finances isn't where it needs to be. Nothing is how it's supposed to be. Everything is messed up, and God is saying, Yeah, give it some time because now I gotta make the water recede. And I'm gonna give you a chance to reflect. I'm gonna give you a chance to pray. I'm gonna give you a chance to get before me and get on your knees and pray. I'm gonna give you a chance to get some things in order, to make some changes, to grow, to develop, while I'm getting the ground ready for you. Maybe you survived the storm and now you're saying I'm not walking on clear ground. God said he's gonna make the water recede, but while you're going through this process, it's time to pray. It's time to regroup, it's time to get before God, it's time to get on your knees and let God do a work on you. So when he pulls back the waters, now you can walk on dry ground. And guess what? The first thing Noah did when he got outside the ark. The first thing the Bible said he did was he went and built an altar to God. My question is, what's the first thing you do when you come out of your storm? Do you do you go to a place where you can worship God? Maybe that's in your house, even if it's not the church. Do you build an altar? Do you go before an altar and you fall on your knees and you give God thanks and you give God gratitude? The first thing you have to do when you come out of a storm is give God praise. Give God worship, give him praise, give him worship. And while you're waiting on the water to receive, what spirit are you waiting in? What spirit are you waiting in? Because metaphorically, if you look at this story, there were two birds that Noah sent out, and these two birds represent two different kinds of spirits. Uh, the first bird is a raven, the second bird is a dove. When he sent the raven out, the raven went outside of the ark and he never returned. And why didn't he return? It's because he symbolizes the flesh and ravens like dead things. So when he went outside the ark and he saw all the dead carcasses, he said, Hello, thanksgiving, praise God, and he went feast, he never came back. When he sent the dove out, which represents the spirit, it went out and it didn't find no dry place and it returned. Why? Because the spirit isn't gonna settle in a mess, it's gonna always come back. But then when he sent the dove out the second time, the Bible says, then the dove went, it was dry ground and it grabbed a little olive leaf. But guess what? It didn't do, it didn't stay where it was. Why? Because the spirit always comes back, the spirit always returns. Why? There's always a return. On the spirit, when you respond in the flesh as a raven, there's no return, it never comes back. But when you respond in the spirit, the spirit always comes back with a return. It comes back with more peace. It comes back with more joy. It comes back with more anointing. It comes back with more. It always has a return. And guess what? He returned with it. What does olive symbolize? Oil. Olive symbolizes oil. Oil comes from crushed what? Olives. Which means the the dove returned with oil. Why? Because when you go through a storm in hard times, the Holy Spirit is going to return with more oil, more anointing, more fire. Oh, come on, somebody. He always returns with oil. And I want you to know when you send the spirit out in your storm, it'll come back with more oil and more and more anointing. But when you send the flesh out and you operate in the flesh, it will have no return. Oh, but when you operate in the spirit, it comes back with oil. So if you say, I want oil for this storm, I want oil for this pain, you respond in spirit. Everyone standing your feet. Let me pray for you.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

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