You keep comparing your foundation with other people's finishes, so you are distracted, and you are discouraged, but if you change your frame of reference…I mean, really, really change your frame of reference… Remember how Dad used to talk about heads of hair? He was a barber. We'd be going out to Ryan's… Did y'all ever go to nice restaurants?
Or where they had the yeast rolls…Quincy's. When we would be eating, he would be doing calculation, how many heads of hair he'd have to cut to pay for the meal. Heads of hair.
Then, today, God will do a little something for you. God will bless you a little bit and all of that. I guess, compared to some people, I don't have a lot, but compared to some people, I have so much, yet either one is a death trap.
When I think about my dad who had to drop out of school when he was still in middle school to help with the family expenses, and I look at what God did through me (or for me, really; it wasn't even me) and the foundation he laid… I can get so grateful so quickly, and stuff stops being such a big deal when I reframe… That's the word: reframe. It's your frame of reference that makes you praise God. It's your frame of reference that makes you have a pity party.
Same foundation, different frame. Honestly, some people probably, if they had all of the things God gave me, would do much better with it. You know what I'm saying?
Some people who you look at and are jealous of… The stuff they are hiding from you, the expense of what you envy, the people you think you want to trade lives with… Some of them would give anything to have what you take for granted. Graham asked me the other day, "Would you trade [this and that] to be Kanye? " I don't want to be Kanye.
I said, "So, I get his creative brilliance and all that, but I don't get to be your dad? No. Bad trade.
" Deal is off, Devil. I'm going to be me. I'm going to dance over this foundation that God gave me, and I'm going to work on it, and I'm going to get better at it.
I'm going to read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Proverbs and Philippians, and I'm going to do it, but I'm not going to wish I was you, because wishing won't work. Neither will worrying. You've been so disappointed you've become distracted, discouraged, and comparing the empty rows in the arena… What in the world has the Devil gotten you focused on that is so bad you can't just simply look around for a moment?
So, I'm working on it. It's hard for me. For me, I'm more of a tears than a trumpet person.
I'm more of a "What's wrong" than "What's right" person. Glass half empty. Didn't I tell you last week?
I'm not a glass half empty or glass half full; I'm a "Who spilled the water so I can…? " But I'm working on it. I'm working on what God gave me.
Isn't it crazy? Their enemies opposed the rebuilding to the temple, but they couldn't stop them, yet what their enemies couldn't do, they could do to themselves. For 16 years the foundation sat there until the word of the Lord came through Haggai and said, "What God is going to do next will be better than what he did before.
" Better will not be found in going backward. Second Corinthians 3:17-18 says, "Now…" There's that word again: now. So, they wrote the book Making Peace with Your Past.
I wonder, does somebody need to write a book called "Making Peace with Your Present," with how it really is? The idolatry of tomorrow and the lie of yesterday. "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord [was]…" Wrong answer, Furtick.
"…where the Spirit of the Lord [will be]…" Pay attention, class. "…where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. " But now be strong.
"And we all, who with unveiled faces…" That's the old veil they had to wear to look at the glory. Moses would come down wearing a veil so they couldn't see his face, but they don't need that anymore. Now we contemplate not the old glory, not the former glory…the Lord's glory.
We are being transformed into his image. The hard part is God gives you an image of himself. That's who you're becoming.
But the Enemy gives you a different image: worst-case scenarios, past mistakes, other people's lives. The Bible says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. " It is the freedom to become the version of me that God sees.
It is the freedom to build the life with the resources he gave me that he called me to build. We are being transformed into his image. So, when I say our word as we end the year is better, I'm not saying that because you're going to get a better spouse or a better house.
I'm saying that he is transforming you, the better image, with ever-increasing glory. And watch where it comes from. It comes from the Lord.
It comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. The trumpet… Did you get a trumpet? I don't know, LJ.
That doesn't sound too much like a trumpet yet. Oh, you know what? We don't need it.
They have one. If you believe the word that came through Haggai, I want you to give God 60 seconds of glory! But now be strong!
Yesterday is over, but now be strong. Lift your hands. Come on, open it up!
Riverwalk, open; eFam, open. Open, open, open! Come on, open your mouth!
But now be strong. Not one day in the future when you get stable, but now be strong. Does it not look like nothing?
But now be strong. The Spirit of the Lord is here. But now be strong.
"I will grant peace in this place. " When Joshua got ready to fight the battle, he was looking at walls. God told him something very strange.
He said, "Before the walls fall, blow a trumpet. " That's the exact opposite of logic, but when you have faith, when you have Holy Ghost, ever-increasing glory, "The Spirit of the Lord is here" faith… When you have that Haggai word of the Lord, "The glory is coming…" When you have that kind of faith, you announce to the Enemy, "I am strong in the Lord and in the power of his might," and get back to work. For 16 years you're going to stand there and cry over something that's never coming back.
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. We give you glory, Lord. Some people will look at this sermon, and they'll laugh at it.
"Oh, they look so stupid shouting like that. " Well, God, I'd rather look stupid shouting than be depressed crying. So I give you my shout, my hallelujah.
I give you glory! We're not shouting over the finished product; we're shouting over the foundation. The deeper you dig, the higher you build, God, so thank you for everything you've dug out.
Thank you for everything you've cleared away. Thank you even for the tears, because the tears taught us how to praise you. I pray for every man and woman, boy and girl who heard this word today.
Not just that the word would come through the microphone, but that it would get into their temple. And the glory of this present house…the one I'm looking at right now, the job you gave me right now, the place you put me right now, the challenge you gave me right now, the season you gave me right now…would be greater, above anything I could ask, beyond anything I could imagine. We receive this word right now.
In Jesus' name, amen.
