Where Are The God Chasers?

Remain standing. I want to share with you about our guest speaker. I've known this man of God six or seven years. We got connected. I don't really remember exactly, but we've gone to lunch a few times and I was out on my porch praying. I get up early and sit on the porch and read the word and Chapman, his name is Matthew Chapman. Chapman popped in my heart. I'm like, why Lord did Chapman pop in my heart?

So I prayed on a little bit more and the Lord said, invite, invite Chapman to come and share a word at True Life. And said, all right. So I reached out to him later that day. I said, would you come? He said, I would be honored to come. This man has a word from God for us today. And I want you to get your expectations up. I want you to be ready to receive what the Lord has from this man of God.

Why don't you welcome to this platform, Minister minister Matthew Chapman. Glory to God. Come on, give the Lord a shout of praise. Hallelujah. Real quick, I forgot to announce, he's also the associate minister at Victory Christian Center right down the road. He's been there all his life, his entire life. Praise God. That's faithfulness right there. Our teenagers, today is Youth Sunday. I will dismiss our teenagers.

Go to your left, my right you are dismissed for you sunday my brother have your way today. Music. Muted there you go now to help, father in jesus name we thank you lord for your for your goodness we thank you lord for your mercy we thank you lord for all that you have done and all that you're doing for us in our lives Father, we thank you for your faithfulness. We thank you, Lord, for this time.

We call it blessed in Jesus' name. We thank you, Lord, for using me, spirit, soul, and body to deliver the word and to deliver it accurately. And for all, we will give you the praise, the honor, and the glory for all that will be said and done today. In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated at this time. I believe the first time I came here was Jeremy Pearsons was ministering the word of God. And that was my first time coming. And then I met you, Pastor. And then I think you came to the church for the late Pastor Robin Gould. He was meeting with pastors. And we came and we spent the day together. And then we just kept it going, having lunch and talking. Went to the Copeland meeting when he came to Charlotte. So we've had a relationship.

So it's been a blessing so we thank god for that everybody good all righty i got so many thoughts for today so we're gonna believe the spirit of god to put it all together all right so, the the first thing i want to give you is a is a is a quote and the gentleman said this he said the first step towards success is the ability to lead yourself exceptionally well.

I'm gonna say that again the first step towards success is the ability to lead yourself exceptionally well it's the ability to discipline yourself it's the ability the ability to discipline your mind I wrote down several things successful people manage several things and I'm gonna give you the list and then we're going to talk about them one by one number one they manage their emotions Moses lost control of his emotions and it cost the,

people got on his nerves the people got on his nerves and God says Moses you you speak to the mountain and Moses say you rebels must we fetch you water and then And he hit the rock. God said, that cost you, buddy. I didn't tell you to hit the rock. I said, speak to the rock. He lost his emotions. Samson lost control of his emotions. He let a woman that he was interested in rob him of his destiny. If you don't get a hold of your emotions, it'll rob you. It'll cost you.

If you don't get a hold of your emotions, it could cost you a job. You might tell your supervisor, you can have this. You can have this and you don't even have another job lined up and you got a mortgage you got rent and you got Duke Energy and you got the water bill and you got all these different obligations, and because you lost it and you told that man you can have this job now you about to struggle without God's divine intervention.

So we got to make sure that we stay in control of our emotions. We have to manage our emotions. The Bible tells us, and I believe it's in the book of James, it says to be slow to speak. We're to be slow to anger, but we're supposed to be quick to hear. So we got to be slow to anger. Number two, we have to manage our time. Some of us act like we have till eternity to accomplish dreams and goals.

We have to manage our time. We have to ask ourselves, are we taking advantage of the time that God has given us? Or do we spend all of our time on social media? Do we spend all our time watching TikTok? Do we spend all of our time on Instagram? Do we spend all our time on Facebook? book? Do we spend all our time on YouTube? How can you accomplish goals and dreams and vision when you're on YouTube all day? Unless you're researching whatever it is that you want to do.

We have to take control of our time. A man or a woman who takes control of their time takes control of their life. Number three, we must manage our priorities. We don't major in minors.

We don't major in minors everything is not a big deal but we must manage our priorities, we must make sure that God has number one first place in our lives we have to make sure our family has top priority in our lives we must make sure our jobs have top priority in our jobs we can't make our jobs take priority over our families now we might have to give a little We have to compromise, but we have to always prioritize.

Jesus says something like this. He said, what if a man gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Because you didn't prioritize right. Instead of coming to church on Sunday, he said, well, I can work an extra job. Now knocking an extra job because I worked on Sundays in the past. What happens if you just keep working Sunday after Sunday after Sunday? And then you start drawing up spiritually. You've gained, but then you lost. Don't ever sacrifice your spiritual life for money.

God says, seek, Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. And once again, sometimes you got to do what you got to do. Thank God we have live stream now. Thank God we got YouTube now.

You can go back and watch the replay of services. Even depending on what kind of job you work on, and they might allow you to listen to things while you're on the job. But we never sacrifice our spiritual life for this carnal, natural world. The Bible says we're to set our affections on things above. Number four, we have to manage our thinking. The Bible tells us that we're supposed to renew our minds. We don't think like the world. We don't think impossibilities.

Impossibilities never exist until you give life to them. As long as you think something is impossible, it is. As long as you think it's impossible for you to get a better job, it will be. As long as you think it'll be impossible for you to get a better house, it will be. As long as you think it'll be impossible to get a better car, it will be. There are no impossibilities in the kingdom of God. The only impossibility is it is impossible for God to lie. It is impossible for God to change.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

There are no impossibilities in the kingdom of God. It doesn't matter what you're facing in your health. It doesn't matter what you're facing in your finances. It doesn't matter what you're facing in your family. God asked a question in his word. He said, is there anything too difficult for me? Is there anything too hard for the Lord? And I don't care what you're facing. It is easy for God. You know, the late Pastor Robin Gould, he gave an example one time. He said he was in Louisiana.

And he said that the Spirit of God spoke to him. He said, son, I want you to watch the healing line. I want to teach you something today. So he said he watched the healing line. And the pastor was going down the healing line. And he asked the person, what's wrong? And the person might say, I have a headache. And he said, well, let's pray for the headache. And he prayed a little soft prayer. And then he said, okay, what's wrong with you? Well, I'm having trouble with my shoulder.

Well, let me pray for you. and then it got to the next person. What's wrong with you? He said, dealing with cancer. Then the pastor said to the crowd, I need everybody to stretch their arm out. I need everybody to pray. This person is dealing with cancer. And then the pastor started praying more strongly with more intensity. And God said, the cancer is just as easy for me as the shoulder pain. The headache is just as easy as the cancer.

He said, but you act, he acted like Like, he needed more prayer. He needed a stronger prayer because it was cancer. What's hard for you is easy for me.

We have to manage our thinking. Joshua and Caleb, they managed their thinking. They said, God is well able. We can take the land. The other 10 spies, they didn't manage their thinking very well.

They said, we can't take the land. We're like grasshoppers in our sight. We got to manage our thinking. God says in Isaiah 55, I believe it's in verse 8, he says, my thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. But you know what? But if we learn to think like God, we'll start to talk like God. And when we start to talk like God, guess what? You'll start living like God. And God lives in victory every day. And you'll live in victory as well. Amen? Amen.

Number five, you've got to manage your words. We're talking about leading a successful life. You have to manage your words. The Bible tells us in Proverbs chapter 18 that death and life is in the power of the tongue.

Death and life is in the power of the tongue and Jesus said to Mark 11 23 that whosoever shall say unto this mountain be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass he shall have whatsoever he saith, Bible tells in Romans 4 17 that like God, God calls those things that be not as though they were and we have to do the very exact thing when we see lack we call abundance,

when we see sickness we call for health we call those things that be not as though they were, because the Bible tells us that we walk by faith and not by sight doesn't matter what my bank account looks like my God is able that was the problem with the Israelites, see Joshua Caleb said we're able we see the giants we're able, so you can see the same situation you and somebody else and have two different results.

Story goes, heard this story growing up. There was a man, there was actually two boys that was raised in a home where the father was an alcoholic. And so the boys got older, went their separate ways, and somebody wanted to find out what happened to the two boys. They found one of the boys. He was a grown man. He was a successful businessman. They said, why are you so successful? He said, it's because of my father. And they found the other son. The other son was an alcoholic.

And they said, well, why did you become an alcoholic? He said, because of my father. Two boys raised in the same home. Two different results. They saw the same thing. One person said, I'll never live like that. The other one did. There's a story Jesus told a parable. He said there was a man that dug his house. He built his house on a rock. And the storms came. And hit that house. But guess what happened to the house? It stood.

Another man, he built his house, the foundation on the sand, I believe.

House fell because what it was built on, when you learn to manage your mind when you learn to manage your words and base both on the word of God, your house will never fall no matter what kind of storm comes tornado hurricane it don't matter your house will always stand because you built your house on the rock, now the last thing I want to give you and this is really what I really want to get into is how you manage your relationship with God.

Our relationship with God should be seen as an obsession. Our relationship with God should be seen as an addiction. Obsession. Addiction. Now, this is the Olympics. And as I was pondering this message, I thought about Michael Phelps. One of the greatest Olympians, American Olympians, greatest American swimmers. And it was said of Michael Phelps that he trained for six years, seven days a week. Seven days a week. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, birthday. He had an obsession. He had an addiction.

His addiction was swimming. His obsession was swimming. He thought about it. He said, I'm not going to let a day go by out on train. I thought about the late Kobe Bryant. They said when he was in high school, he would get up at five o'clock in the morning. He would work out before school. And then after school was over, after he did his homework, he would practice with the team. He would train and then he would practice some more. And that was his life in high school. Day after day after day.

Training in the morning, training in the evening. Training in the morning, training in the evening. And of course, we know that he went from high school to the NBA. But it was said of Kobe Bryant that once his Adidas contract was up, he was visiting Nike and then he visited Reebok. And when he got to Reebok, he was touring the facility and they had a gym at the Reebok facility. And he said, well, while I'm here, you guys mind if I work on my fadeaway?

And they looked at him and they said, sure. They said to Kobe Bryant, he took 300 fadeaways, 300, of the same move, 300. He was obsessed. It was said of Kobe Bryant that he would take 500 shots with his left hand because he never knew that there may be a time he might get injured and he might not be able to use his right arm. He wanted to have a backup. He wanted to make sure that he was able to use his left hand, and it turned out one game, he separated his shoulder.

Didn't even know he had separated his shoulder. Got the ball, shot the ball with his left hand, fade away. Nothing but net. You want to know why? Preparation. Your level of preparation will determine your level of success. Your level of preparation will determine your level of success. But it starts with obsession. God is obsessed with us. God is so obsessed with us, he said, I got to get my man back. I got to get my man back. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to send my

son to the earth. Hey, Jesus, I need you to become a man. I need you to go through the human experience. I need you to know what it's like to be hungry. I need you to know what it's like to be thirsty. I need you to know what it's like to be tired. I need you to be willing to lay your life down to get punched in the face nails in your arm nails in your feet. I got to get my man back. I didn't create my man to be walking in a level of defeat like he is right now. Like she is right now.

I don't want them sick. I don't want them broke. I don't want them experiencing the curse. I don't want them overcome with sin.

Every time we take communion like we took this morning. Every time we take communion it is a reminder of God's obsession with us. There's a song that we sing it's called I'm chasing after you. I'm chasing after you. Well he chased after us first. We love him because he first loved us.

God's blessing was his idea. Man didn't come up with the idea of prosperity. God was the one, rather, who came up with the idea of prosperity. Man didn't come up with the idea of blessings coming upon us and overtaking us. When God approached Abraham, he said, Abram, I'll bless you. Abraham didn't say, listen, you're talking real good right now. But I'm not doing any of this until you bless me. I'm not going to do any of this unless you give me some gold, you give me some silver.

No, God says, listen, Abram, you leave your family and you go where I tell you to go and I will bless you. Not only that, but you will be a blessing. God is obsessed with us. Bible says while we were in our sins, Christ died for us. While we were in our transgressions, while we were in our sins. Because he was obsessed with getting us back. God says, I got a plan for your life. God says, I love you. It's only right we show the same love. But you know what we do sometimes?

We treat God like a hobby. You know what a hobby is? A hobby is something you work on when it's convenient. Say that again. We treat our relationship with God like a hobby. It's something that we work on, it's something that we do when it's convenient. My daughter celebrated her 19th birthday Friday. And every time my children have birthdays with Jace, Jada, or Madelyn, I would say, I remember when you were born. I watched you being born.

You know, there were times when the children would cry. If you have children, you know what I'm talking about. They didn't say, well, you know what? Dad is working right now. I think I'm going to wait. I'm not going to let him know he needs to change my diaper right now. I'm going to wait until it's convenient for him. The baby don't say, you know, dad look like he over there sleeping. I don't think I might not make, I shouldn't make any noise right now.

I know I'm hungry, but, you know, it doesn't matter. If the child has a need, whether it's convenient or not, we get up out of the bed and we feed them. If they're crying, we get up and we tend to the baby. We tend to our children. It's not about convenience if you're a good parent. You set your, you stop whatever you're doing. You drop whatever you're doing. You want to know why? Love. Love. I love you. that's what God does for us.

We gotta turn it around God if you tell me to get my last $50 I'll give my last $50, God you tell me to sew a car I sew a car we're in covenant with God you know we love talking about covenant oh everything God has it belongs to me, my God supplies all of my needs according to his riches and glory. I got access to everything God has. And then we forget, but covenant means he has access to everything that we have. Yeah. You know, I remember years ago, years ago.

I think my mom had given me $50 or something. She just wanted to be a blessing to me. I said, I'll praise the Lord, $50. I said, okay, well, I'm sure I can do something with this. Anybody got some money, you thought about what you could do with it. So I went to church that night. Sunday night, we have Sunday night Bible class at Victory. And went to church that night. And church was over with, and I'm walking up the aisle from the stage, walking up the aisle.

No, I'm walking down now and the lady was walking up and we crossed paths across paths with this woman And when we crossed paths, I just turned around. I just felt myself turn around and I turned around I Said excuse me, ma'am, and I pulled the 50 out. The party was saying what you doing? What you doing? I took the $50 off my hand. I said, hey, I just won't be a blessing to you. What you doing?

Shut up. That's their flesh. Shut up gave her the $50 she held that $50 she came up to me she said minister Chapman can I talk to you for a second I said sure she said I was just at the altar, I was at the altar and I said Lord I don't have a dime in my pocket I don't have a penny to my name she said I'm not going to leave this altar. Until I get some money I'm not leaving this place till I get some money. She said, I sat there at that altar. I kneeled at that altar.

Nothing happened. I said, okay. She said, she got up and she walked towards the door. And when she walked towards the door, our paths exchanged. And then she said, you just turned around and you put $50 in my hand. And you didn't even know that you were meeting a need. You didn't even know I didn't have a penny to my name. Do you know that we are God's hands and we are God's feet? Do you know God doesn't drop money down from heaven?

So the blessings come through us. We are blessed to be a blessing. And what if I had been selfish that day? I said, God, you can't have this $50. $50? No, it's mine. Let's go keep it right here. This is at least three days worth of lunch. Isn't that how carnal we think? Isn't that carnal? Isn't that terrible?

Let's look at, I don't want you to say, you know, Pastor brought in a man, he didn't even open up the Bible. This man didn't even open up the Bible. He up there just talking. So let's look at Acts chapter 10. What kind of man is this? This man preached when I opened up the Bible. And he had me on YouTube. That was a joke. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Had me on YouTube. All right. Acts chapter 10.

Starting with verse one. I'm reading in the New King James says there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people and prayed to God. How often? Sometimes. Every now and then. When it was convenient. When he felt like it. No, he prayed to God always. That should be our testimony.

We pray to God always. I'm not talking about now I lay me down to sleep. Verse three, about the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius. And when he observed him, he was afraid and said, what is it, Lord? So he said to him, your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Not one of his just Cornelius. I wonder if our prayers and I wonder if our almsgiving goes up to God and I wonder what it smells like.

I wonder if it smells good. I wonder if God says, boy, I sure am pleased. They give every time they come through the door. They give every time the buckets, but they don't want the bucket to pass them and they don't give anything. Pastor, can I tell you a secret? Every church I go to, whenever I talk about giving, it gets quiet. Never fails. As soon as I start, I say, it's about to get quiet. On the inside, it's about to get quiet.

You used to offend me. Now I don't get offended no more. Now I know. It's going to get quiet.

That's how we get blessed. the Bible says give and it shall be given unto you again good measure pressed down shaken together and running over and the Bible says that when you sow bountifully you reap bountifully, let's look at 1st Chronicles chapter 29 because we saw Cornelius man he prayed all the time and he gave all the time that's our testimony we pray all the time and we give all the time, now I promise you me and pastor did not get together and say look we're going

to talk about offering today because I know you got this project coming so this is what we're going to do I promise that that was not the conversation. First chronicles chapter 29 we're going to read a little bit it's in the new king james, furthermore King David said to all the assembly my son Solomon whom alone God has chosen is young and inexperienced notice that God didn't choose him because of his experience he didn't choose Solomon because he looked good.

He said God chose Solomon. We don't know why. We don't know all the dirty detail. We don't know all the details. That's just a habit. I always say dirty details. Anyway, but we don't know why God chose Solomon and it's none of our business. God can choose whoever he wanted to choose. But he says, I chose Solomon or he chose Solomon. He's young and inexperienced and the work is great because the temple is not for man before the Lord God. What's the temple for?

It says the temple is not for man, but it's for the Lord God. Now, for the house of my God, I have prepared with all of my might with what? All of my might. It's on the screen. He says, I have prepared with all my might. Gold for the things made of gold. Silver for the things of silver. Bronze for the things of bronze. Iron for the things of iron.

Iron, wood for the things of wood, onyx stones, stones to be set, glistening stones of various colors, all kinds of precious stones and marble slabs in abundance. Moreover, because I have set my affection on the house of God. Where did he set his affection? One more time. Where did he set his affection? On his house. House of God. Because I have set my affection on the house of my God, I have given to the house of my God over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house.

My own special treasure of gold and silver. Three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir and seven thousand talents of refined silver to overlay the walls of the houses. The gold of things of gold, silver of things of silver, and for all kinds of work to be done by the hands of craftsmen. Who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the Lord? That's a good question. Who is willing to consecrate themselves this day to the Lord, to the house of the Lord?

We got to be dedicated to something. You know what's amazing? It's amazing how we look up to people who are obsessed with other things.

Now, I am a Marvel guy, you know, I like the Marvel movies, don't judge me, I don't watch all of them, okay, I didn't go see Deadpool, okay, I didn't do that because it's rated R, so I don't do, I got my limits, you know what I'm saying, I got my standards, I do most of them, okay, I'm confessing my sins there. But when Robert Downey Jr., who played Iron Man in the past movies, they would take snapshots of him, you know, just going out around his daily business, doing his whatever.

And he would have comic books in his possession. He'd have Iron Man comic books. He had when they did the Infinity War movies.

He did the he had the Infinity War comics Because he was obsessed with what he was doing, He wanted to make sure that he did it right He wanted to make sure that he played the character the way it was supposed to be played, They had meetings him and the gentleman had played spider-man and some of the other characters They would get together and they would have meetings all set to discuss the movie because they wanted it, right?

They wanted to make sure that the fans got the right kind of movie It was said of Heath Ledger that when he got the part of Joker, he locked himself in a hotel room for 30 days. And he will look at himself in the mirror and he will watch Batman, the animated series. He will watch all this stuff on the Joker because he wanted to know the character. He was obsessed with it. And we talk about and acknowledge these things and we give these people all this credit.

But then if you become obsessed with church, if you become obsessed with the things of God, they say what's wrong with you why you go to church twice a week, you went on Sunday why you going on Wednesday why you got to go to the prayer meeting why y'all got two prayer meetings why you always watching church online when you're obsessed about the things of God is it an issue, He tells his body, hey, man, I'm going on a vacation. We're going to Vegas or, you know, we're going to go to California.

We're going to go to Disneyland and we're going to go here and we're going to go here. We're going to spend all this. But they're going to say, whoo, man, y'all will have fun. Y'all have a good time. Then you say, well, you know, I'm saving some money because I really want to get to the Exodus project. You know, pastor, we believe in God and I want to I want to give a thousand dollars. Now, why you got to give all that money? That's a lot of money, man. What's wrong with you?

See, my thoughts are not yours. That's what God says. We don't think the same. The world thinks it's foolishness to the world. The Bible says that spiritual things are foolishness to the world. They don't understand why you give your tithes and your offering. They don't understand why you got to keep giving and giving and giving and giving. See, we have an obsession with the things of God. We have an obsession with the house of God.

We want to see the kingdom of God expand. We want to see the captive set free. We want to see the oppressed set free. We want to see the deaf hear and the blind see and the lame walk. We want to see devils cast out. Because that's the last thing Jesus told us to do. And he said that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church. So we got to have an obsession with the things of God.

But it starts with us in our personal relationship with God a pastor lay pastor Robin go he made a statement that I that stuck with me he said ministry comes out of a life he said ministry comes out of a life he said you can't have ministry on one side of life on and you live your life on the other side, it's a life you can't believe God for stuff for the ministry and you can't believe God for stuff in your own personal life.

You can't try to have intercessory prayer with the church and then you don't pray on your own. You can't separate the two. We have to have an obsession with the things of God. People have an obsession for all kinds of things. Right now, it's the political season. Conservatives, liberals, people are obsessed. They're watching MSNBC. They're watching CNN. They're watching Fox News. They're watching all the different outlets. They're watching all the different talking points.

And they're watching and, you know, we're not talking politics. We're just making an observation that it's the political season.

But people can be obsessed with politics NFL they just had a game a couple days ago the Bears and somebody else now you about to have some NFL analysts in the barbershops, you about to have some people they obsessed they obsessed with the Dallas Cowboys and they obsessed with the Redskins the commanders Washington commanders the Carolina Panthers and whoever else obsession Obsession. The Olympics are going on right now. People are talking about the Olympics.

Me and my son, we were talking about the USA men's basketball team. Are they going to win the gold? You know. How often are you talking about the things of God? You show that same obsession. You know, you ever woke up in the morning, you left out. Oh, I didn't brush my teeth. Oh, my God. I always brush my teeth. I can't believe I got to go home. I got to get a pack of gum. I got to do something. It should be the same way when we don't pray. Oh, my God, I didn't pray this

morning. I didn't read the word this morning. My God, I didn't, you know, I didn't talk to the Lord. I got to talk. No, said a Smith Wigglesworth. That he wouldn't go, I believe, was 15 minutes without talking to the Lord. He wouldn't go 15 minutes without talking to the Lord. After he raised like what, 12 people from the dead, nine people from the dead. I forgot the exact number.

And he had all kind of healings, all kind of miracles. But he said he would not 15 minutes if he was at dinner, if he was at dinner with with some people, with a group of people. He'll say, excuse me for a second. I got to talk to the Lord. He would talk to the Lord very briefly and get back to the conversation. And then there was something else that he would do if he was at dinner with

a group of friends or whoever, colleagues, whatever. whatever, after they would eat, he would say, all right, guys, we just fed our physical man. It's time to feed the spirit man. He would pull out his New Testament and he would read a scripture. Got to feed. We got to be just as diligent about feeding our spirit man as we feed our natural man. Some of y'all like the snicker commercial, you know, the snicker commercial

like a whole other person. And they say, have you was last time you ate and eat the snicker and they're back to their normal selves. That's how we got to be when it comes to the things of God. Man, I ain't read my Bible. I ain't talked to the Lord. See, he is our sufficiency. He is our ability. We are who we are by his grace. Without him, we can do nothing. It's in him we live and move and have our being. So we got to understand. We got to get our life from God.

We get our orders from God. There's a scripture I gave them. That's a blank piece of paper. Ain't nothing on that. oh boy here we go if we can do um psalm 32 verse 8 i got in the living bible, psalm 32 verse 8 in the living bible it says this it says i will instruct you says the lord and guide you along the best pathway for your life notice now not a pretty good pathway way. It says the best pathway for your life. I will advise you. Not only will I advise you, but I expect there to be progress.

When God is leading you and when God is guiding you and when God is advising you, there should be progress. You know, when you get that advice, you know, when you get that counseling session in prayer.

When you're before him and you're seeking him in prayer. Oh boy there was something I wanted to tell you men and women of prayer are men and women of exploits I got that from Daniel, because in Daniel it says that the people who know their God they will do exploits, David did exploits, The Bible says. That David would go before the, not David, not David, I'm sorry, Daniel. Forgive me, Daniel. David did exploits too. We're going to talk about Daniel. Daniel was doing his thing, serving the king.

And he had some haters. They said, man, we don't like this guy named Daniel. Well, we got a problem. We can't really find nothing. We can accuse him of. But then they said, but when it comes to his God.

And it says hey look hey king why don't you make a declaration why don't you make a decree that no man can ask anything of any being any god they wanted they got to ask it from you 30 days he said man that sounds good he wasn't even thinking about daniel, and so daniel heard the decree because if you were to ask a deity or anybody of anything without going to the king whatever it was then they were going to throw you in the lions and Isn't everybody familiar with the story?

I was trying to save some time and not read it, but if I need to read it, I can. All right. The Bible says that Daniel did like he always did. Opened up the windows. He didn't say, well, you know what, let me keep the windows closed. No, he opened up the windows like he always did. And he prayed to the Lord because he prayed to the Lord three times a day. Three times. They called him on the carpet, brought him in. and the king says, oh my God, Daniel, Daniel.

And it was nothing that the king could do because he'd already given this word. They put Daniel in the lion's den, sealed it. The next day, Daniel, are you there? And he said, yeah, I'm here, king. He said, God sent his angels and closed the mouths of the lions. It was a den of lions. I'm going to tell you what's scary. He was in a den of lions. He don't know how many lions there are. All he hears is the growling. The growling. That's all he hears.

He don't know when one's going to jump on him. He might have had him brushing by his leg in this pitch black door. They didn't have lights back then. He couldn't turn his flashlight on to see how many lions was in there. He couldn't light a candle to see how many lions was in the den with him.

He had to totally trust God I'm going to be in the dark with all these lions and I got to trust that not one of them is going to bite me they might have licked on his hand and he had to hope that it wasn't going to bite him, can you imagine if he had a carnal mind his heart was probably racing the whole time but he went to sleep in the lion's den that's faith when you can sleep in the lion's den, You know, the other good part about that story is it's going to be a little

weird when I say it, but the people who are conspiring against Daniel, the Bible says when they were thrown into the lion's den, they didn't even make it to the ground. Lions tore them up before they even got to the ground. What says to me, my relationship with God will keep me. When everything else is going crazy and it's taking everybody else out. It's just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When they refused to bow,

the king got hot. The king said, look, I'm going to give you one more chance. Some of us would have said, are y'all sure y'all want to do this? He's talking about heating that furnace seven times hotter. He said, king, we're not careful to answer you on this matter. You throw us in, you throw us in. But our God is able to deliver us, but we're not bowing down.

All right? And the Bible says that as the men were getting close to the fire, the people that pushed the men, the fire consumed them because it was so hot. It consumed the men that put them in the fire. But when they were in the fire, the Bible says they didn't even smell like smoke. Nothing happened to them. Why? Because of God's protection.

But you know what? they had a relationship with God and your relationship with God will keep you when everybody else is going under now I'll give you another example and I'm gonna look in the Bible. Genesis. Look at Genesis. I believe it's Genesis 34. I was looking at it. No, it's not 34. It's Genesis. I was looking at it. I'm praising worship, but I was still singing. I was still singing. All right. All right. Let's go. Genesis chapter 47.

Genesis chapter 47 starting with verse 1 Then Joseph went and told Pharaoh and said My father and my brothers Their flocks and their herds and all That they possess have come from the land of Canaan And indeed they are in the land of Goshen And he took five men from among his brothers And presented them to Pharaoh Then Pharaoh said to his brothers What is your occupation?

And they said to Pharaoh Your servants are shepherds Both we and our father also Make sure I read that right Yeah, we and also our fathers. And they said to Pharaoh, we have come to dwell in the land because your servants have no pasture of their flocks for the famine is severe. What's the famine? Severe. In the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. Then Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, your father and your brothers have come to you.

The land of Egypt is before you have your father and brothers dwell in the, pretty good land the island the decent land now the best in the middle of the severe famine we want y'all to stay in the best. Let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know any competent men among them, then make them chief herdsmen over my livestock. Then Joseph brought in his father, Jacob, and set him before Pharaoh. Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And then we'll skip down to verse 11.

And Joseph situated his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh had commanded. Abandoned then Joseph now watch this now then Joseph provided his father his brothers and all his father's household with what in the middle of what and what kind of land that's a good preacher. According to the number of their families verse 13 now there was no land in

all there was no bread in all the land. And that's something. There was no land, there was no bread, brother, for them. But God wasn't responsible for them. He was responsible for the men he was in covenant with. But out of God's mercy and his love, they had already come up with a plan so the people wouldn't die from starvation. My point is this. Relationship with God.

Joseph had a relationship with God Jacob who was now Israel had a relationship with God they had covenant with God and because of their covenant because of the relationship, it kept them not only did it keep them now they're living in the best in famine, your relationship with God will keep you, it'll keep you and it'll keep your family you know what the Bible says about Noah in Genesis chapter 5. I'll read that one to you. Genesis chapter 5.

Nope, that's not Genesis 5. It's Genesis 7. Please forgive me. Nope, Genesis 6. Forgive me again. 7 times 70. All right. All right. Uh... Genesis chapter six, verse five. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. Sounds like today. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now, Jesus said in the last days, it'll be like the days of Noah.

Now you think about it, I'm going to tell them myself, when I was younger, around 12 o'clock, it would say, dun, dun, dun, dun, and then the channel went off. You couldn't watch TV past 2 o'clock in the morning or 1 o'clock in the morning. It was over. That's it. Once you hit a Star Spangled Banner or whatever it was, that's it. That's it. No more. Then as I got older, we had cable. And then certain stations you can watch for longer periods of time. But now it's evil continually.

You can watch TV all day, every day for the rest of your life if you want to. Different station every day. Now you got all these different streaming. You got Netflix and then Disney has one. You know, everybody got a streaming service. Then you got the Internet. Now you can watch stuff on the Internet. I'm telling you. And then he got some of these crazy video games. It's evil continually, man, all day, every day.

It says the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creepy thing and birds of the air. For I am sorry that I've made them. But no. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Verse 9 this is the genealogy of Noah Noah was a just man perfect in his generation Noah walked with God his relationship with God saved him and his family,

Now, I want to look at another scripture. How am I doing on time? Because I don't want y'all to say, Pastor, don't ever bring that man back again because he talked for six hours. Doing good? Okay, 1141. Okay, all right. Thank you so much, brother. All right, we're doing good. All right. Let's look at Ezekiel chapter 14.

This is one of my favorite scriptures. Ezekiel chapter 14. All right Ezekiel chapter 14 starting with verse 12 the word of the Lord came again to me saying son of man when a land sins against me by persistent unfaithfulness man those are two bad words put together persistent unfaithfulness geez Louise all right persistent unfaithfulness I will stretch out my hand against it. I will cut off this supply of bread, send famine on it and cut off man and beast from it.

Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness, says the Lord God.

And if I cause wild beasts to pass through the land and they empty it and make it so desolate that no man may pass through because of the beast, even though these three men were in it as I live says the Lord God they would deliver neither sons nor daughters only they would be delivered and the land would be desolate, so God is saying I would keep reading but for Tom's sake God is saying I don't care what's happening okay how bad it gets. Only the big three. Noah, Daniel and Joe. That's it.

What about Noah? What about Daniel? And what about Joe? I read about Daniel somewhat. We talked about Daniel somewhat. The Bible says in Daniel chapter one, he says, man, I'm not going to defile myself. The king tried to make him eat a different kind of diet, different kind of meal plan. I'm not doing that. I'm not going to defile myself. I got to eat the way I was raised. He had a prayer life.

And then there was a situation in Daniel chapter 2 where the king had a dream, couldn't remember the dream, and he wanted everybody to not only remember the dream for him, but also interpret the dream that they had never seen before. He said, if you can't interpret it, I'm going to kill all y'all. What a terrible king.

And the Bible says there wasn't a man on the earth that can interpret a dream but he said but we have a God Daniel went to God God gave him the interpretation gave him the dream and the interpretation God says boy that Daniel boy I'm telling you he's something, we just read about Noah, and then Noah Daniel Job you know the Bible says about Job God says have you considered my servant Job Joe? Look at him. He's an upright man. Perfect. Hates evil.

And the devil said, well, shoot, man. You put a head around him and you bless the work of his hands. God said, have you considered, Joe? So we're talking about an obsession with God. I want God to say, hey, angels. You see my servant, Matt. See how obsessed he is with the word of God. He goes to bed listening to it. Wakes up listening to He plays it while he's getting ready for work. Plays it in his car. He prays in the Holy Ghost. Prays in tongues throughout the day.

Building himself up on the most holy faith. I tell you, man, he's not ashamed of me. He goes out to eat. He don't pray a headache prayer. You know what the headache prayer is? You act like you got it. He don't pray a headache prayer when he prays over his food. He's not ashamed of the gospel. See, I want heaven to say, man, you know, the Bible says in Chronicles, I think it's 16, 9. It says the eyes of the Lord. I forgot if it's first Chronicles,

second Chronicles. But it says the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. And he's looking to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect towards him. I don't want God to look through the earth and say, man, I'm looking. I'm looking. Man, I'm looking. No, man, I want to say the Chapman household, the Alexander household.

I don't know all y'all names, so don't get offended. I know my name, I know his name. So, but man, they praise and worship me. When things look tough, they don't talk doubt, non-belief, and fear. They call their bodies healed when they feel pain in their bodies. They call those things that be not as though they were. They're not moved by what they see. They're not moved by what they see on the news. They're not moved by what they see on social media. They're not moved by what

their boss told them. The boss might have said, we've got to cut your hours. The boss might say, hey, we might lay some people off. We don't know who we're going to lay off yet, but it might be you. We don't know. You don't buckle at the knee. You say, well, my God supplies all my needs. I was looking for a job when I found this one. You've got to have some guts. us. But you can only talk like that when you know who you belong to. You can only talk like that when you've been walking with God.

See, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they can talk that big boy talk because they have been with God. But you can't talk that big boy talk and you have been walking with God. You don't pray. You don't read your Bible. You're just trying to depend on who you are. That's not going to work.

See, our righteousness is as filthy rags. we can't we can't we can't depend on who we know, we can't depend on our degree whether it's an associate degree master's degree whatever it is you can't who you know we can't depend on that we got to depend on God. I don't know if you knew this or not, but God is undefeated. I don't know if you heard or read. God is undefeated. And the Bible says, greater is he that's in us than he that is in the world.

So we want to be like the big three. I call them the big three. We want to be like Job. We want to be like Noah. We want to be like Daniel. God said, look at them. You know what's sad? There's a scripture, and I forgot to write it down, Pastor, so please forgive me. There's a scripture. God says, I sought a man to make up the hedge. I saw him because he's talking about how messed up the land was. And he said, I sought a man, he said, Ezekiel, to make up the hedge.

In other words, to intercede. And God says, I couldn't find anybody. I couldn't find, and I had to destroy the land because I couldn't find anybody that would intercede. So you got to understand the Bible says that we are co-laborers with God co-laborers with God you know, the late Fred Price made a statement I never forgot it he said if we are all that God has is God in trouble. He said if we are all that God has is God in trouble sometimes I say man God

you in trouble Then I say, no, I'm just messing with you. No, I'm just messing with you. You're not in trouble.

But you think about it. You look at Jonah. Look at Jonah. God says, hey, Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh. Jonah gets on a boat and goes in the opposite direction. He had to spit, they had to throw him off the boat, put him in the fish, be in the fish for three days. Can you imagine being in the belly of a fish for three days? Can you imagine the smell? He couldn't pull out his lighter and see what's on the inside of this fish. Three days. After one day, I would say, Lord, after one minute,

Lord, I'm sorry. Three days. After day one, God, I'm sorry. Day two, I said I'm sorry. Three days. Then he spits them out on the shore and he begrudgingly. Ministers to the people, warns the people, the people repent. And then he got mad.

I knew you were going to be merciful that's why I didn't want to do it in the first place the guy's like bruh like really but that was his attitude I didn't want the people to be saved anyway the whole city was saved because of one man, that shows you how important we are as believers that's why we got to keep praying for our nation we can't keep talking about how terrible it is and we know it's some bad spots but we got to believe leave God that is turning around.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. So Father, we thank you for turning things around. We thank you for that inflation coming down. Gas prices coming down. Food prices coming down. Lord have mercy. You got to pray in tongues when you're in the store. Good God. You don't want to say what you want to say. Steak is how much? Bread is how much? Bacon is how much? I guess we not eat bacon this week. I'm joking, but that's what you want to say? We can eat bacon this week.

Seven dollars for bacon? Just being real. Then I say, my God supplies all my needs according to the rich Lord. Put the bacon in the basket. You know. Just being real, man. You know, you're filling your tank up, you know, and then after two days, you feel like I just did it yesterday. I just put gas in the car, you know. But you got to walk by faith. My God supplies all of my needs according to his richness and glory by Christ Jesus. And I move by what I see.

Thank you Lord God for protecting our nation thank you Lord you got to just kind of we got to intercede and we got to pray pray for the elections pray that the man or woman whoever yeah that God puts in we're not gonna talk politics we're gonna pray that God puts the person God puts the person in place, that's going to take the country in the direction that he wants it to go that your will be done in the United States of America you know so we just want to

just make sure that we understand we are co-laborers with God we are co-laborers with God I'm gonna wrap this up and just remind you that we are blessed to be a blessing God wants you blessed God has given us an avenue I wish we can be blessed it's called seed time and harvest it amazes me it It absolutely amazes me how people want to argue over tithing. And I say, hey, man, look, he says he'll open up the windows of heaven.

I care more about the blessing than the curse. If I do what he tells me to do, we bless. I don't even think about the curse. On top of that, I want to honor God. God says, honor the Lord with your substance and the first fruit of your increase. So shall your barns be filled with plenty. Now, either you believe God or you don't. Now it's amazing that we trust God with our salvation I guarantee you all of you, you know you saved.

Generally speaking all y'all believe you saved you didn't even see the Lamb's book of life, did you see the Lamb's book of life when you gave your life to Jesus brother I didn't see it either, I just assumed that they said there's a Lamb's book of life, there's a Lamb's book of life, it got my name in it, I trust it I ain't even got to see the book some of y'all don't even check your membership you just know you up there,

right that's how much faith you have in God if you can trust him with your salvation, can you not trust him with your finances. That's all I'm saying. If I can trust him with my eternal destination, I said the prayer, I believe it in my heart, I believe I'm saved. Well, if he says give and it shall be given, I believe it. If he says that I bring the tithe to the storehouse to open up the windows of heaven, I believe it.

I got to believe the word of God more than I believe my circumstances because the word of God will change my circumstances.

And so no matter what it is you're facing on today if you will become obsessed with God, become obsessed with his word become obsessed with your prayer time you gotta be like be like Daniel I ain't saying get in bondage Daniel three times a day morning afternoon night and you gotta pray three hours every day you start where you are but start becoming obsessed with God Lord I I love you throughout the day. Father, I just praise you. I bless you. You're so good to me.

I thank you that you meet all of my needs. I thank you for your faithfulness. I thank you for the angels being a canter around about me. No hurt, harm, or danger will come near me. No plague will come near my dwelling. Father, I thank you for my children. My children will never go the way of the world. They serve you all the days of their lives. I thank you, Lord. I'm the head and not the tail, above all, and not beneath. Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness to your word.

It's impossible for you to lie. Thank you, Lord. I just love and appreciate you. I thank you for the blood that cleanses me from all sin and cleanses me from all unrighteousness. I thank you, Lord, that as you are so am I in the earth. I'm seated at the right. I'm telling you, man, you can't lose. You talk like that all day. You talk like that, think like that. I'm telling you, you are a success going somewhere to happen. Amen.