where are the Saints who will remain where are the ones who have decided that come hell or high water I've decided that as for me and my house what we going to do is we going to serve the [Applause] Lord that the political landscape may change that all those around us may change that our financial situation may change but no matter what happens around us we've decided that we have made a decision to follow Jesus it was September of 2008 when a hurricane named Ike swept through those of you that were around in 2008 you
might remember that Hurricane Ike it caused extensive damage particularly in Texas 110 mph winds swept through and ripped through one town in particular that was most impacted it was called Gilcrest it's a little Beachside town in Texas it's a community that boasted about 200 homes just a small neighborhood mostly retired couples who had gone there moved there to this little Shoreline Community to enjoy a little peace and rest fit in that season of their life and just when they were looking for some peace the storm came and the aftermath of Ike was devastating in fact
the people that had visited the site afterward said that it was nearly completely unrecognizable 24 hours later after the storm the once populated neighborhood with brightly colored homes and detailed landscaping and green Lawns and friendly sidewalks now the neighborhood they said didn't really resemble a neighborhood at all it looked more like a swap it was almost completely desolate just a mudded patch of ground there was almost nothing left except fragments of what once was but the only thing that gave a slight nod to the history the only Landmark that gave evidence that there was once
a community that existed the day before is that of the 200 houses that had been there only one remained 199 of them had been wiped out by the storm but there was one that was still standing I think we have a couple of images so that you can see the odd remarkable sight of this one house remaining standing after the store and oh I wish I had time because if I had time tonight I would just ask the question what is it about this house that kept it standing when the storm wiped everything else out
because the truth is if I had time I'd tell you about the owners who had been through previous storms so they made the wise proactive decision to to retrofit their house so that it would be prepared for future storms oh we could spend some time right there if we had time but rather I would like for you to consider that shocking image that you just saw and think about how it not only displays for us a look at geographical landscape but honestly sadly if you think about it it looks a whole lot like the landscape
of some of our Lives because the truth is there's a whole lot of people that started out on the Journey with us but now in these years we're in right now we look around us and realize that everybody ain't building houses that are still standing that the truth is when we started out and made a commitment maybe to follow Christ or made a commitment to see our marriage through to the end or that endeavor that the Lord had entrusted to us or that Ministry that he asked us to start everybody had so much fervor at
the beginning of the building project but then the storm came and now we look around us and realize that everybody ain't building houses that are built to last lives that will go the distance where are the Saints who will remain where are the ones who have decided that come hell or high water I've decided that as for me and my house what we going to do is we going to serve the Lord that the political landscape may change that all those around us may change that our financial situation may change but no matter what happens
around us we've decided that we have made a decision to follow Jesus where are the Saints who will remain why is it that it's becoming harder and harder to find people who were playing old Flatout faithful that have decided to follow Jesus that have decided there's no turning back there's no turning back people are drifting in away have you noticed there are spouses who are leaving there are parents who are giving up there are dreamers who are throwing in the towel and the dream God put in their heart there are ministers who are quitting what
they said was a calling how do you quit a calling many people are abandoning their faith they're deconstructing their faith to the point where what they have left doesn't even look like Faith anymore where are the people who will remain who will stay who will plant their feet firm and choose faithfulness and can I tell you the older and older I get y'all the less impressed I am with the famous and the more and more impressed I am with the people who were just plain old flat out faithful they may not be famous but they've
remained they may not be rich but they've remained they may not be applauded but they've remained they may not have best-selling books or millions of followers on Instagram but they ain't concerned about that they try to be steadfast unmovable and always abounding in the work of the lord we need some people who are just just faithful not comparing themsel with somebody else's house not wondering whether or not their house looks good compared to the other people's house around them no this is the house the Lord has entrusted to me and so I'm going to make
sure this Foundation is firm and I'm going to make sure that the scaffold on this house is solid and I'm going to make sure that I have a house that is still standing so I came to encourage you to stay to remain to be faithful what is it that God has called you to do only you know the assignment that he has entrusted to you the ministry that you know he has called you to start that you feel ill equipped for you feel like you're not gifted enough not talented enough so you've delayed doing what
God has asked you to do and you've thought maybe you'll throw in the towel cuz you tried it for a little while but it doesn't seem like it's flourishing or growing so you're just about to throw in the towel I came to tell you to stay the entrepreneurial that God has birthed in your heart the marriage the relationship that he has entrusted to you the parents the teen teenagers Lord have mercy that the Lord has entrusted us toay parents I came to tell you don't throw in the towel now sis stay and maybe it's just
you know one or two of you that are in the room or on the other side of the screen tonight and honestly you just said to the Lord this week that if you don't show up and do something real specific to encourage me to let me know that you will never leave me nor forsake me Lord I feel so isolated and alone and Abandoned and confused and if you don't don't do something God I'm getting ready to throw in the towel well the Lord sent me all the way over from Dallas Texas to tell you
to stay remain be faithful not in that situation that maybe is unhealthy and with with wise counsel you do need freedom from there are situations like that but a lot of times y'all we're just abandon ing stuff cuz we're tired we're just abandoning stuff cuz you know it's gotten difficult and it has and the storm is open the clouds have opened up over our life the rain is Fall Fallen the hail has fallen the winds are blowing hard against us and so we're about to throw in the towel but the spirit of the Living God
lives inside of you and inside of me to give us resolve that we do not have in our own strength and in our own power so that we can remain I came to tell you to stay be faithful what is the assignment the Lord has entrusted to you Jerry and I had the opportunity to take our boys um some years ago to South Africa um we knew we were going to go a year in advance so at the time we were homeschooling the kids because they they just kind of traveled with us everywhere so I
knew a year in advance we would get the opportunity to go so we did did everything we could to make it happen we were saving up money to make it happen I planned their schooling around the fact that we would be there so six weeks leading up to it we were reading everything about South Africa and looking at the geography of South Africa reading about Nelson Mandela and the apartheid movement because my whole goal was when we get there we're going to go and try to see some of these things that you've only seen online
or you've read little articles about so we're going to go try to see that stuff I think they thought they were going there on vacation I was like uhuh y'all got the wrong Mama for that we're halfway across the world we're going to see this whole situation so every morning you know like I had a plan like we're going to go and maybe go see Table Mountain today or we're going to go take the little ferry across to Robin Island so you can see where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned like I wanted to milk it and
they were kind of like oh Mom can we stay in the bed today absolutely not you going get up you going to come here and see what we going to see today and you're going to enjoy it and one day you going to rise up and call me blessed is what you going to do shs have you ever done that where you make your kids do something you're like you going to be happy about it so one day we did have to wake up like at the crack of dawn to get to a safari that
was started we had to drive two hours outside of Cape Town to take a little halfday Safari so we woke up real early we we did the drive so glad we did it was a great experience we got in this open Jeep with a very bubbly um skilled learned guide that stood at the front facing us the entire time pointing out animals most of which we had only seen online so it was really cool to see some of them in person I remember when he came to a herd of zebra that I was thinking to
myself I hope he doesn't stop very long here to talk about the zebra like we've seen zebra before in the states we don't need a class on the zebra but in the end I was really glad that he paused for a moment because he said something that I can't forget he pointed out the zebra and he said you see the little baby the fo there with the herd he said do you know this is the first time I've seen that baby in about three weeks and the reason why is because the stripes on every single
zebra are as unique to each one as fingerprints on human beings you can't tell by the naked eye but particularly the configuration that is right smack dab in the middle of every forehead is unique to each and every zebra so when a baby is first born the mom will take the baby away from the herd by itself with just the mother for the first two or three weeks so that the baby gets to know the configuration of Stripes that belongs to his mother and then after a few weeks she'll bring the baby back to the
herd but now that the baby has spent so much time getting getting to know who his mother is he is not confused by all the other Stripes that he will now be around he can't be duped he knows the configuration that belongs to his parent because he took time to get to know the one who gave birth to him the reason why when you're in a fledgling stage you need to come away and get to know who your daddy is is because y'all there's a whole bunch of other Stripes out here and if you don't
know that by his stripes you are healed then you and I live in a culture that is going to try to play us for the fool that is going to try to introduce to us a new modernized version of Jesus that doesn't match up at all with the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob you're going to need to know who your daddy is you're going to need to know exactly who he is in the Old Testament and the New Testament we have a generation of Christians today I got to tell you that are growing up
too fast there's skipping this stage right here they're on their social medias teaching Bible study and they don't even know who their daddy is yet they haven't even taken time to just get to know the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob to see what it was like when God went and hand picked Abram out of her and changed his name to Abraham and changed the GPS coordinates on his Destiny you need to know who the angel of the Lord was when he met with a tired timid Gideon underneath an oak tree while he was beating
out wine in a wine press and called him to Greatness and victory with a less than impressive Army you need to know who he was in The Book of Ruth when basically he silently orchestrated her circumstances so that her story is a legacy for the record books you need to know who God was when he miraculously freed two million Hebrew refugees and brought them through the Wilderness and then into the land flowing with milk and honey you need to see God provide water from a rock and corn flakes from heaven and quail for his people
so that they can eat you need to know what it was like when their shoes did not wear out on their feet because God provided for them and took care of them you need to know who your God was so that you can be confident in who he is and so I implore you sisters don't skip this stage right here here this is the part that's going to make sure your house can stay standing cuz the foundation is firm so that when the culture tries to introduce to you a new Advanced version of Jesus you
can look back at them and say uh-uh that's not who he is cuz I know who he was when they say he is silent against Injustice or that he has a new modified lower standard for holiness you can say that's not who he is cuz I know who he was get to know who your savior is take the time to just steep yourself in the scriptures so that you have a firm foundation for this house you might know what it's like when you take your child to a pediatrician and you know our tendency when they're
little and not walking yet is to bounce them on their legs you know just kind of Happily in our laps bouncing them up and down and I've heard a pediatrician say before that man it could be very dangerous actually to put too much weight on their legs too soon because their bones are still soft and malleable and actually if there's too much weight on them too soon too soon it could cause just the slightest of distortion in their spine that you can't detect or see when they're young it's just when they get older there might
be a slight imbalance in the way their hips adjust because there was too much weight put on them too soon so I'm telling you when they're in when you're in the fledgling stage allow yourself to be there remain there until God releases you because often times you can't tell till somebody grows up that there's a limp in their integrity that there's a lapse in their character that they have no fortification in their spiritual backbone because they didn't take time just to get who to know who their daddy was so if you find yourself in a
fledgling stage I implore you don't grow up too soon go ahead and just relax there until God releases you because infancy is for intimacy yes
