whenever you ask for change you've got to be prepared for disruption if you plant an oak tree in the earth it's going to disrupt the soil if you plant a peach tree in the soil it's going to disrupt the ground there's no way you can have growth without disruption but God said to me when you say change I send disruption but don't let the disruption become a distraction [Music] you won't come out of this you're not smart enough you're not bright enough you waited too late you should have started younger those are the kind of

voices that we all live with for me our ministry was growing we lived in a nice house nice house we'd ever had driving a nice car living from paycheck to paycheck with making it every night I lay down at night after she goes to sleep I hear the voices those voices are the kind of voices that stop you from buying into your own life stop you from enjoying the good times and believing that they will last the anxiety and the pressure and the strength that it took to get from where you were to where you

are doesn't go away so you don't really believe it's yours you're driving it but you don't really believe it's yours and you're scared to relax and really rest in whatever it is or whoever it is because everything else went away maybe this will go away too we talk about faith for bad times but but you also need faith in Good Times to actually believe the goodness of God is not going anywhere to silence the voices they keep saying you'll never make it you're about to lose everything fear gets in your heart see I know what

it's like to be poor and I know what it's like to be without I know what it's like not to have dinner for my kids returning to that that the idea that that could happen it's terrifying and the enemy always has some sort of tool or memory or situation that he uses to terrify you even though the good times are here and and the dream is there the blessing is there and the goodness is there but there's always this haunting nagging defiance that says don't you relax you're not worth it you don't deserve it and

it's not going to last resting in what God has done it's often more difficult than receiving what God has done to rest in it to believe that it will last to believe that you will last and love will last that that life will last that that good times will come that things will be better it's difficult because of the voices and you are what you eat and the voices are the food that feeds your faith or fear so if you want to change your diet you can change your outcome but you have to stop talking

to yourself the way you do because if you continue to talk to yourself the way you do you will always be where you've always been it is what you say within yourself that heals you the woman with issue of blood said to herself if I can but Touch the Hem of His Garment I'll be made whole there was no scripture to validate that she could say she wasn't quoting Deuteronomy or nude numbers or anything like that it's just something she said to herself there was no Doctrine around it we've never seen that happen before but

she said to herself if I can't even Touch the Hem of His Garment I'll be made whole and otherwise she was crawling she kept saying over and over again if I can just touch if I can just touch if I can just touch if I can just touch them and without Jesus permission and without the support of the disciples she creeped up on him and snatched a miracle snatched it snatched it because of what she said to herself you see those voices that say what you can't do what you can't have what you can't be

what's not going to last what's not going to work is how the enemy pulverizes the promises of God in your life and it takes word to combat word that's why when Jesus was in the wilderness and Satan was so unwarded him he was throwing word back and what we have to do is put word on word I'm blessed I'm blessed in the city I'm blessed in the field I'm blessed in my Uprising I'm blessed in my down setting I'll be blessed into my old age I'll be blessed when I'm an old man my grandchildren will

be blessed my body is blessed my body is my mind is blessed my head is blessed I got this I can handle it I can do it bring it on here it is that kind of talk saying that to yourself drives back the other voices of negativity that we all have creep up behind us and tell us that we're not capable and we're not competent and we're not gifted enough and we're not good enough or we waited too late or God is punishing us to talk back to those voices shuts the enemy down the pressure

I was going through I was causing because the pressure I was going through was coming from the things that I allowed to reverberate in my head and I'm wondering if there are things echoing in your head right now that are stopping you from living your best life because you will not silence him by speaking back you shall have whatever you say so say it's the word of God you shall have whatever you say if it's betrayal you shall have whatever you say if it's a life without love you shall have whatever you say it doesn't

just work positively it also works negatively you shall have whatever you say she touched him and she was made whole and he says who touched me which means he's oblivious to what's going on this is all happening in her head the whole thing happened in our head and the Lord who is omniscient asked a question who touched me and the disciples wanted to be important to answered him so everybody touched you he said no no no no no no no no that's not what I'm talking about everybody around me don't touch me everybody around me

don't touch me you've been sad everybody around me don't touch me just cause you're around me don't mean you touch me somebody touched me somebody touched me and she came out from the crowd's cheapest league and see it was me it was me she got a miracle while Jesus wasn't looking because of what she said to herself when I say excellent you say excellent excellent excellent the problem is we all said the same word but we don't all mean the same thing because what you call excellent what I call excellent may be two different things

based on the lives we've lived the things we've experienced the places we've been exposed to our ideas of excellent may vary drastically based on how we Define Excellence the problem with the English language is that it is limited to interpretation so how do you know when I say I love you that I mean what you meant when you said you love me so we're having a conversation and I'm making an assumption that your love is my love and it may not be at all or we're planning a banquet and I and I make an assumption

that you're excellent is my excellent and it may not be at all because the reality about it is your definition of Excellence Rises no higher than your level of exposure whatever you've been exposed to that becomes the new paradigm of what excellent is to you and it shifts from day to day and the hardest thing in the world is to have a conversation with somebody and all you have to use is words because I'm not sure that you mean what I mean when I say excellent I'm not sure that you mean what I mean when

I say love I'm not sure you mean what I mean when I say loyal I'm not sure you mean what I mean when I say hurt because all we have is worse the reality is we have to make up in our mind that whatever our definition of Excellence is change it's gonna get higher it's gonna get broader it's going to get better it's going to be different or it's going to go down and a lot of it depends on who you hang around and what you're exposed to there are people that take you up there

people that bring you down they bring you down to their level of Excellence that's what that's what a job description for a hater looks like the job description of the hater is to bring you down to the level that they are on so that while they're trying to pull you down I'm trying to get up and if I'm going to get up I have to know that there's going to be a cost in getting up I'm gonna have to put my back to it or it's not going to happen God wants somebody to work with

him and give what it takes to make it happen is it worth it absolutely I do not want to die let me explain I I was born in between two dead babies the baby before me died the baby after me died I was raised by a dying father and I do not want to live my life and die and at the last moment of my life ask this question wonder what would have happened if I'd have pushed a little harder I don't wanna I don't want to get down to the end of the road and

and wonder what would have happened if I'd have pushed a little harder I don't want to wonder that I want to get down to the end of the road like Paul and say I fought a good fight I kept the faith I finished my course and now later for me is a crown of righteousness in the heaven I don't want to get down to my last breath and wonder what would have happened if I went back to school if I took a course if I worked a little harder if I change the way I dress

if I change the way I talk to people if I forgave somebody if I release somebody I don't want to wonder about nothing [Applause] because that is excellence excellence it's a come out with the conclusion I have no regrets the dying words of the thief on the cross was remember me the words of Jesus At The Last Supper is as often as she do this you do this in remembrance of me what does remember mean remember re put back together again we remember me when we remember what God has done that becomes the foundation on

which we build our lives now A House Is Not a foundation and nobody can live in a foundation but it has to have a foundation in order to be a house and I'm not suggesting that your life begins ends and all through the middle it's nothing but Jesus Jesus Jesus because you got to take out the trash you got to brush your teeth you got to comb your hair you got to get your nails done you got to get your feet done or you're going to cut your blankets when you land in the bed at

night all of that happens but I am saying that God is the foundation when God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt he did it as a foundation for them to remember and all through the Old Testament he says over and over again am I not the God who brought you out from the Red Sea am I not the God who brought you out by my own hand and my strong arm it becomes a point of reference to which you face the future remembering what he did in the past remembering it putting it back

together again again and again and recreating it as a point of reference to fight from to stand from to drive from to to preach from to teach from what do you have to remember it's important that you have something to remember something on God's resume that you know that you know that you know that he did for you and it tells you that if God would do that he can do this if he can drive back the Red Sea and bring me across on dry land then he can fight you off he can deal with

the amalekites and the Hittites and the Jimmy sites and the girl sites God does certain things so you will have something to remember a point of reference to which you build your life upon and you stand on it and you say I'm not sure about this and I'm not sure about that but this one thing I do know you have to know this you have to know this and you're nowhere you have to know this when your girlfriend doesn't know it when your prayer warriors don't know it when your children don't know it when your

mama doesn't know it something that you know that you know that you know becomes the Catalyst against the trials against the traumas against the sleepless nights against the virus against the crisis against the times that we're living in we have been living in doubles perilous times that we have seen in a hundred years we are living in a time where nearly 700 000 people are now dead from something we can't even see see we are fighting an invisible enemy and that enemy has friends that has created trauma and distress until we are overwhelmed even when

nothing else is going wrong just the feeling that other people are going wrong gives us a certain degree of stress and Trauma we how do we stand up against this unseen foe we fight right now of course we need to do everything we can to protect ourselves from the virus but I'm not just talking about the virus I'm talking about your mind I'm talking about your emotions your will your spirit your fight your drive your tenacity your sense of normalcy your courage to get out of the house your courage to get out of the bed

the courage to continue when there's a threat um requires that there's something about God that you have to remember for the children of Israel it was the blood of the Lamb that was painted on the doorpost and death angel passed by and said when I see the blood I will pass over you it was walking out to the Red Sea and hearing 600 chosen chariots coming with failure of chasing them down saying I'm going to get you back he was going to get them back but let me tell you a secret he was also trying

to get back the wealth they taken yes for the wealth of the unjust had been laid up for the just and they had borrowed all the gold and all the silver and they had broken the GDP of Egypt it wasn't just the slaves he wanted he wanted the money back he wanted the jewels he wanted the gold he wanted the silver he wanted the things that the Tabernacle would actually end up being built by he was trying to get it all back he could have got some more slaves anywhere he was trying to get what

they had borrowed they had borrowed the whole economy of Egypt was running through the Red Sea for the wealth of the unjustice laid up for the test and when God brings you out he brings out enough for your children the Bible says that God put so much wealth on them that their children had to carry on their backs the wealth that God placed on them I want the kind of blessing that affects my children and my children's children and my children's shoeless children I I want my grandchildren to blow kisses at my picture when I'm

dead and gone I want them to be able to say if it hadn't been for that old man I'd have never been able to go to college I'd have never been able to get a job I'd have never been able to work for Google I'd have never been able to work for Xerox I'd have never been able to preach the gospel I would have never been able to do it I want that for them so I have to have something to remember that I can count on that won't break and I want to ask you

what do you remember when life get hard when things get tough when friends get few there ought to be something in your life that you remember God brought you through or brought you from or brought you out of that feeds you that is the foundation that makes you to rise above the question and turns grape juice into absolute wine the Bible says that we are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation of peculiar people that we didn't just wander in to him we were chosen he said you have not chosen me I have

chosen you I picked you out I chose you we are chosen we know this from a Biblical theological perspective that the reason that we are here is because he drew us no man can come unto the father save the son draw him he drew us to him but we don't think about this that we as a generation are chosen to go through a challenge that this country or the world has not seen in a hundred years of all the generations my mother missed it my father missed it my grandmother message my great-grandmother missed it they

had trials they had tests they didn't have covid they didn't have masks all over their face they didn't have people arguing and fighting about this that and the other they didn't have George Floyd they didn't have racial combat like it is right now it's crazy it's crazy it's so crazy that there is enough stress in the world to take your sleep and then when you add to it the stress of your own life what's going on with you and the people in your house and the people you're related to the people you love and you

take that stress and you put it on National stress and then you add Global stress it's too much stress too much stress coming at us from all directions leaves us with unsuppressed trauma suppress trauma trauma that has no way to escape that comes out of rage and self-medication and and overindulgences and excesses and and tempers and and flaring and people people jumping on stewardess and flight attendants and road rage and shooting people over parking spaces as too much stress I've got good news Jesus said my peace give eye unto thee not the Peace of the

world but the peace which passive all understanding this is the peace that you stand under you heard me yeah this is the piece that you stand under you stand under a piece that defies logic crazy piece ridiculous peace the kind of peace that other people will call you a fool for but you just got a piece in your spirit and in your heart that he that has began a good work and you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ you've got the peace to understand that even though we are living through a crushing

season as a planet with global warming and everything else going on and people shooting and people fighting on planes and all kinds of sickness and people dying of respirators you've got to know in the midst of all of this that God has not taken by surprise that he chose us to go through this and he wouldn't have chosen us to go through this if we didn't have what it takes to go through this you have not chosen me but I have chosen you and I have chosen what to try you with and I have chosen

what to crush you with and if I thought you couldn't take it I wouldn't expose you to it I put you in the middle of it for you to stand up to it and so today it is very important that as we embrace our faith we do it with a new tenacity we do it with a new tenacity because we have an enemy that is ubiquitous absolutely everywhere and yet invisible absolutely intangible and we can't touch him anywhere we can't see him and we don't know who's next but we have to know in whom we

have believed and that he that has began a good work in US shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ and we have to know the difference between being crushed by the Lord and being crushed by life I will not let life crush me God you can do whatever you want you can take me through whatever you will order my steps in your word dear Lord I am chosen for this generation I was called to preach during a global pandemic with people dying and getting sick and people in the hallways of hospitals and more

expect up in funerals delayed for two weeks I was called I was chosen for such a time as if that means that God has given me something that's stronger than the times I'm in because we have been chosen and so have you and you and you and you and you and even you and God would not have chosen you if this were going to destroy you I'm always fascinated by leaders I read about leadership corporate leadership Church leadership spiritual leadership family leadership everything I can find about leadership because I am a leader and the more

proficient I am in being a leader the more impactful my life becomes just because you're up front doesn't make you a leader if the cars aren't moving leaders are determined by how much you move something from one place to another are you quantifiable you ought to have some metrics to which not a title it's not a title it's a metric you're a leader when we move when we move to the degree that you move me that's the decree that you led me and so I'm fascinated about leadership I'm fascinated that God says to Abraham before

he puts him to sleep he says your descendants shall be in Egypt for 400 years but afterwards they shall come out with great substance and Abraham dies believing a promise that he never got to see and God says when he looks at the children of Israel and how they were being crushed in Egypt the Bible says that God remembered his promise to Abraham I said excise me because Abraham was dead and if God kept his word to a dead man this surely God will keep his word to a man that's a lie to a woman

that's alive Abraham went to sleep trusting God's character to honor his word now we have gone 430 years which is 10 Generations almost 11 and Abraham has been dead and God speaks to Moses and God says to Moses I want you to go down there and tell pharaoh to let my people go but before he tells him what he wants him to do he describes to him who he is I am the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob that's who I am I am the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob I am the god of

three of your ancestors that are dead [Music] I am their God and today I have become your God so take off your shoes sign of Covenant take off your shoes for the ground you stand on is Holy Ground because this day I call you into Covenant how do you know it was Covenant because it calls his name twice Moses Moses and whenever God calls your name twice it's Covenant thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven once has he spoken it twice have I heard it power belongs to God so whether he's

saying Moses Moses or Abraham or Abraham or verily verily I say to you this day shall thou be with me in Paradise this is a bilateral Covenant that God has made to Moses to get them out of Egypt God to the day had a stopwatch of when they would go in and when they would get out he knows exactly when it's going to be over he told Abraham that his descendants would be there 400 years as slaves the reason they were there 430 years is because the first 30 years they were not slaves because Joseph

was alive but then after Joseph died a pharaoh arose who did not regard Joseph or his God and they begin to afflict them and the more they Afflicted them the more they grew and all of a sudden they have been in captivity 400 years and Moses's Mama gets pregnant on the 399th year and verse a boy named Moses and there's a hit list to destroy him but God protected him not because Moses was Moses but because Moses had purpose and all things work together for the good of them who love the Lord who are the

called according to his so when you know you got a purpose no matter who set out a decree that can't kill you so when he could no longer be hidden they brought him out and near Pharaoh is Raising in his house the very one he is trying to kill and he does it he raises Moses on Pharaoh's money he educates Moses in Pharaoh's School he diversifies Moses to the point that Moses is genetically connected to the Hebrews that experientially connected to the Egyptians which gave him the courage to be able to come back after he

had been in Jethro's house for 40 years and face pharaoh and speak his language and he was not afraid of him because he was raised in the palace and not in the slave quarters when you are chosen God will take everything that you went through and make it work for your good we got to see normal disappear right in front of our face it is not normal to preach in an empty church it is not normal to be afraid of somebody when they cough it is not normal to be reluctant to shake a hand and

we have seen the memorial of normal which leaves us without a compass to understand how do we get back and what do we get back to and what does normal look like in this current environment and I hate to say this to you and it might really upset you but once a grape's been crushed you can never get the juice back in the grape so from that moment forward that traumatic experience of having the pulp shatter the skin lacerate and the juice emerge it signifies that that grape will never be the same again and I

suggest to you my brothers and sisters that there will be no normal to go back to there may be a new normal but the normal that we grew up with will never be quite the same again it has changed the way we eat it has changed the way we shop it has changed the way we travel it has changed how we receive packages it had changed the way we do business it has changed every aspect of our life it has changed the way we educate our children it has changed the way we go to the

mall or don't go it has changed the way we get Christmas gifts or don't get them it has changed everything and that's what happens when you make it wine it changes everything all hopes of being a grape is gone if you're going to be wine if you're going to be one you got to be willing to give up being a great and the challenge for a lot of is we have we have a difficult time accepting change because we are so in love with what was that we are not willing to explore what is and

so there we are in a situation where God has allowed something to come and Crush our normal and get us out of our normal and all of a sudden we are afraid never realizing that what's in front of you is always better than what's behind you that it's better to rewind than to be grapes when you are whine and not grapes you don't have to worry about insects you don't have to worry about weather conditions you don't have to worry about locusts you don't have to worry about disease you don't have to worry about fungus

you don't have to worry about problems that whenever God disrupts you it's only because he's got something better for you in the height of the disruption he said something to me that I thought was very important he said when you pray for change I always answer with disruption because you cannot have change without disruption you can't have a baby without disruption and whenever you ask for change you've got to be prepared for disruption if you plant an oak tree in the earth it's going to disrupt the soil if you plant a peach tree in the

soil it's going to disrupt the ground there's no way you can have growth without disruption but God said to me when you say change I send disruption but don't let the disruption become a distraction [Music] because if you're not careful you will try to solve the disruption as if that were the victory when that is not the victory at all I did not call you to solve the disruption I sent the disruption in answer to your request for change come on go with me we're going somewhere I sent the disruption so don't change goals and

make it a distraction in other words Nehemiah you're doing a great work don't come down to sand ballad and tobiah and make changing their mind your Victory because changing their mind won't build your wall yeah so that disruption is a distraction so the Lord says to me and I'll say this in rap He says when you pray for change I answer with disruption the challenge of your faith is not to allow the disruption to become a distraction because in every disruption there will always be an opportunity so rather than wrestling with the disruption look for

the opportunity in the midst of this disruption the people who are going forward are people who see opportunity where we see distraction what do we need that we didn't need before how do we serve that need in a way that we didn't serve before how do we get out of the box in the way we think and how we function and how we deal with it what should we take in school what how should we aim our children what should we point them at seeing as the world has changed and every time you go into

a grocery store and you check out your groceries yourself through those machines and you go and get a plane ticket and you go through it and just flash your phone over it and go on in every machine standing there is a job that's gone yeah so don't fail to prepare for what's next because you're trying to get what was when the grape comes through the crushing it knows it will never be a grape again but it will be why it will be everyday it will be and the challenge of Our Lives is to turn our

crushing [Music] and you can't turn it into wine if the goal of your life becomes to build back your grape let the grape go and find the wine [Music]