It Didn’t End How I Thought It Would

0:14 you don't know what he did for me he gave me the victory and i love him today bless the lord would you just look at your neighbor tell him something good is getting ready to happen to you Bless his name. Bless his name. Can you thank God that you survived the month of July? Bless the Lord. Would you stand to your feet all over this room? Stand to your feet, those of you who are physically able.

1:05 Hallelujah. Don't worry, be happy. Amen. If you'll join me in the book of Deuteronomy, there's an echo. Help me, please. Deuteronomy chapter 3. Deuteronomy chapter 3. If you're hearing people shout and scream and yell, that's the sound of parents who are getting rid of their kids tomorrow.

1:50 They had nothing to do with the Holy Ghost. They are glad to get them kids out the house tomorrow. Amen. Deuteronomy chapter 3. If we'll consider verses 26 and 27.

2:12 Deuteronomy chapter 3, verse 26 and 27. Won't you say, I got it? If you can't find it, say, Lord, help me. Amen. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Woo, there it is. Deuteronomy. chapter 3, verse 26 and 27. Let's read it together. But because of you, the Lord was angry with me and would not listen to me. That is enough, the Lord said. Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going across this joint. Let's go back to verse 26.

3:07 This is going to be heavy stuff today. Deuteronomy chapter 3, verse 26. Come on, let's read it one more time. But because of you, the Lord was angry with me and would not listen to me. That is enough, the Lord said. Don't speak to me anymore about this matter. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. The Lord said, don't talk to me about it no more.

3:41 I don't even want you praying about this no more. I want to preach today using as a subject, it's just not in the cards. It's just not in the cards. Elbow the person beside you, tell them, get yourself together.

4:02 Look at them, tell them the bitter truth is, it's just not in the cards. A few weeks ago, my wife and I went to her first professional soccer game, which happened to be at the World Cup. We were there cheering on the Congo when they faced Great Britain. Since that time, she has fallen madly in love with the game and invested in the politics surrounding the support. Her favorite player is Cristiano Ronaldo. who she's never seen play a day in her life. So I'll let you surmise as to why.

5:04 Ronaldo has played in six World Cups and has scored more international goals than any other player in soccer history. This year, at 41 years of age, when his team got defeated, it was confirmed that he was retiring. The dream he pursued his entire career will never be achieved. Dr. Jim Lohr, a sports psychologist who studies elite athletes, concluded that the most significant moment in an athlete's life is not victory, but the moment they recognize that the goal they have pursued their entire life will never be achieved.

6:06 It is the wake-up call with no snooze button. When you find out that what you are going after, you are never going to get, is a sober reality. It's a bitter pill. to find out that your womb is barren.

6:32 Your first choice school has declined you and won't even put you on the wait list. The person who you absolutely adore only sees you as a friend. That being thin is not in your DNA. having millions isn't a milestone you will ever cross and moving abroad is not bound to happen in 1785 Robert Burns the Scottish poet said the best laid plans are made of mice and men often go awry I wanted to pause this morning because in all of my years of growing up in church being the son of a parsonage I've never heard any sermons about what happens when life doesn't work out and God changes his mind everything that we hear is keep believing your season is about to happen keep hope alive things are about to change not one message about what if it doesn't how convenient that we often skip over the incident in Numbers chapter 20 verses 1 through 13 when the Israelites were complaining about not having any water and the Lord told Moses to speak to the rock so water would come out of it.

8:25 But instead of speaking to the rock, Moses struck it twice with his staff. And from that infraction, the Lord said, because you didn't trust in me, you are not going into the promised land. Wait one cotton-picking minute. That's what Moses said, not me. I brought these ingrates through 10 plagues.

8:57 I crossed the Red Sea. I watched my own sister turn into a leper. I traveled through the desert 40 years when it should have just taken me 11 days. And now because of one hiccup, I can't get a passport. Lord, you got to extend some grace because I used to hit people. and this time I didn't hit nobody, I just hit a rock, and you saying because of that I can't get into my promise, and Yahweh replied, after I delivered you from all the plagues, got you out of the Nile River, healed your sister didn't let you die in the desert how did you still doubt me?

9:54 You are not going in. Look at what God has done for you over the last 90 days. and after what God has done for you over the last 90 days you got the nerve to still doubt him how do you doubt him and sit in his house it's the second of August and you acting like he ain't gonna pay the bill like he ain't gonna handle the tuition like he ain't gonna restore your body like he ain't gonna maintain your children god is saying look what i did for you through covid look and for what i did for you when you didn't have a job look at what i did for you when you were laid up in the hospital how in the world do you want me to bless bad behavior This is a call for all of us.

11:00 In terms of your faith, you got to learn how to double down before you crash out. It's a bitter pill to swallow when the story you told yourself becomes permanently out of grasp. It feels like grief. Because in a real sense, a part of you has died. But it's not a quick death. It's a long, grueling one. The prefrontal cortex has the awful responsibility to announce from your brain to your body, it's not going to happen. I want you to think about all the times you've been in church, all the times you paused for a praise break, all the times you lifted up holy hands, never once did you cry out under God that you got his message, it's not going to happen.

12:03 You feel disoriented, discombobulated, disconnected, and it's not going to happen. You've been tithing. You show up to church. You're moderately nice to people. you take the high road, you extend yourself the best you can, and it ain't gonna happen. And God is telling you, for those of you who are raised old school with a mother, a grandmother in church sitting next to you, who would lean over to you and say to you these words, and some of us are gonna be triggered, but you're gonna remember it, fix your face. it ain't gonna happen but fix your face pull it together shake it off don't fall apart there will be glory after this the enemy of your soul is banking on you losing it because of what you didn't get and forgetting to give God glory for what you did accomplish.

13:28 I know it's hard. It's what Dr. Maurice Watson calls grace for grownups, that you got to get to a place in your life where God, I trust you, even when I don't like your decision. I trust you even though I don't appreciate the cards that have been given to me. I do not like where it is that I am, and it doesn't line up with my prayer request form. But God, you tried to warn me, your ways are not like my ways.

14:04 My late mother lamented to me years ago before she passed. She said, I don't understand how the Lord has used me to preach all over the world and help people get healed. And yet my father has stayed in a veterans hospital my entire life and never heard me preach the bemoaning of my own mother. do you know what it's like to have to trust God and God still not heal your loved one of dementia to have to trust God and still the person who you love and have spent your life with gets snatched away by cancer to be able to trust God and no matter what it is that you do they still don't look at you as a valuable part for the promotion that you trust God and you're still driving that hoopty and the overflow is about to drown you.

15:08 You're trusting God, but you're still in that house and the thing you've been looking at on Zillow just got sold. You're trusting God. You've been there for everybody else, but you never find people who are in your corner cheering for you without any strings attached. And people who look at you who don't know the full spans of your testimony, the full spans of your history, they think that you got everything going on and they got no idea. This ain't even where I wanted to be. This was not on my bucket list. This is not what I chose. This is not even what I would pick again. But I thank God that I am not where I used to be. but God is not finished with me yet. Come on Langston Hughes. What happens to a dream deferred?

16:01 Don't sit here and act like every day been a Christmas list. If there's anybody who had to adjust and had to pivot and had to shift and you had to make a dollar out of 15 cents but you're saying God I trust you even though this ain't what I chose. Whatever my lot. He has taught me to say, it is well. You remember when Paul had a thorn in his flesh and the Bible said he prayed three times, Lord, take it away from me. And God would not take it away even though he prayed about it. And so Paul's prayer life changed.

16:58 and say, God, if you ain't going to take it away, give me the grace to deal with it. And some of you ought to be thanking God in this moment. You got the grace to deal with some stuff you never wanted. Come on, y'all ain't talking back to me. You got the grace. You never wanted to be a single parent. You never wanted to go through a divorce. You never wanted to have to bury your mother. You never wanted to be a caregiver. You never saw that you were going to have to deal with special needs. But his grace is sufficient. Y'all ain't saying nothing to me. You got addiction in your own house. You got to deal with anger management in your own house. You learned how to adjust on a fixed income. But his grace is sufficient. Hallelujah.

17:56 You may be seated. Oh, for grace. Oh for grace that I ain't drunk out of my mind this morning. Oh for grace that I didn't jump out of a window. Oh for grace I didn't treat people the way that they treated me. Oh for grace Thank you. Dr. Carol Oglesby found that athletes who retire without having developed identity outside of their sport deal with higher levels of depression. you put all of your eggs in one basket and you forgot that life will scramble you hard but you were not over easy you ought to thank God for the options that God provided for you that you didn't see at the beginning but he opened up some things that you didn't even know existed for your life come on keep it a hundred you ain't even in the field you trained for you ain't even in the position that you dreamed about but God said I got something in mind for you that you didn't even have for yourself I'm sick of you acting like a spoiled brat like if it don't go your way it's the only way i thank god for every mountain he brought me over for for every valley that he brought me through Thank you.

19:59 Rinaldo, like Moses, Rinaldo, like Moses, never failed to pursue the goal. It's not a message for lazy people. This is a sermon for those who are industrious, those who have a drive, those who have goals that you are trying to meet. Ronaldo spends a million dollars a year just on diet and training. A million dollars a year on diet and training. Kicked 523 goals for Portugal. Made it to the World Cup six times. And still never accomplished the prize. He got caught. I need you to lean in. I'm going to hold your hand when I say this. he got caught in the gap between achievement and fulfillment.

20:56 many of us have achievement but no fulfillment you got a car but you have no drive you got a house but have no home you got a job but you have no joy you are in a relationship but you don't feel like it's a real friendship my prayer for you is that you are fulfilled in every area of your life what does it profit a man for him to gain the whole world and then to lose his soul i want you to be fulfilled from the top of your head to the sole of your feet i i know that y'all leave that just for the crazy holy rollers but there's somebody who ought to be saying lord fill me up let me overflow i i want to run over i want to be fulfilled because if you live long enough you'll discover your check won't do it money won't do it certificates won't do it but i want you to be so fulfilled that you got a reason to get up in the morning.

22:21 So fulfilled that you got a reason to get out of the bed. You got a reason to sing to yourself while you sitting in the car. Folk don't understand. You done had a whole lot of stuff and lost it. But this joy that I have, the world didn't give it and the world can't take it away. I need you to prophesy to your neighbor and say for the rest of this year and for the rest of your life may you be fulfilled may you be happy about who you are may you be happy about what you do may you be happy about who's in your life I want you to be fulfilled There's a word that this generation does not know how to pronounce. There's a word that has never gone trending on TikTok or Instagram.

23:28 There's a word that very rarely do we ever hear pronounced from the pulpit. some of you will think it's Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic but it's English the word is contentment I've learned how to be a base and I've learned how to be abound whatever state that I'm in I will bless the Lord there is no greater freedom I need y'all to hear this there's no greater freedom than not needing nothing from nobody. I want to be content about where I am. every time you pray you asking for something needing something begging for something pleading for something but God said when is the last time you pray just thanking me for something I want to pause right here because I believe August is the month you ain't gonna need nothing from nobody. I will look to the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord. I day to give him glory like every day this month food is on the table. Every day this month a roof is over your head. Every day this month your children are taken care of.

25:02 His grace and mercy has seen me through. I'm living this moment. Hallelujah. You may be seated. You may be seated. that's a prophetic praise you just gave come on come on give him glory

25:51 Whatever I need He's gonna supply you I ain't worried about nothing Hallelujah. I feel something right through here come on grab that neighbor's hand and tell your neighbor over the next 30 days don't worry about nothing look at the birds in the air look at the lilies in the field if God is taking care of all of that what makes you think he ain't gonna take care of you his eye is on the sparrow And I know he's taking care of me.

26:55 I ain't worried about nothing. You can talk about me. You can scandalize my name. Drag me through the mud. But I'm still gonna bounce back. I ain't worried about nothing. They can cut my check. Reduce my hours. Promote somebody over me. But I ain't wait about nothing!

27:25 Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! You may be seated. Y'all messing up my sermon. now I ain't even talking to your neighbor now I'm talking to the demon assigned to you I ain't worried about nothing no weapon that is formed against me shall be able to prosper in the time of trouble he shall hide me when my mother and father forsake me the Lord will lift me up this sickness is not unto death but to give him glory I ain't worried about nothing foxes have holes birds have nests But the man of God got nowhere to lay his hand.

28:48 Since Christ, my soul, from sin set free, this world has been a heaven to me. Oh, hallelujah. Oh. Pull throughout los puntos ropeけれども

29:14 Company gritístこう Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Softly musicians, play very softly for me. I wanted to show you something. Hallelujah. Moses thought, nobody ever preaches this, but I wanted you to hear it. Moses thought through prayer, he would change God's mind. He went to God three times pleading with God. Let me get in the promised land.

30:11 I've been through too much. Sacrificed too much. I've been a fugitive on the run. God, you gotta let me in. And the bitter pill you haven't heard in church your whole life is that sometimes you never arrive, even if you're spiritual. Sing, pray, tithe, greet, fellowship, host, volunteer.

30:48 The Lord said to Moses, stop asking me. stop asking me about it I done made up my mind stop asking me go to the top of Mount Pisgah look from the north the south east and the west and everywhere you look hear this new birth everywhere you look you gonna see it Daddygado ăn saint мі需 Even if you don't get in it.

31:42 I want you to see it. My favorite Sunday school story, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar said to them, you got to bow down or you're going in the fiery furnace. And Shadrach spoke up for the group and said, our God is able.

32:02 And even if he doesn't do it. Even if he doesn't do it for me, it doesn't mean he's not able. How will you worship God if God just lets you see what you prayed for? even if you don't walk in it let me see this is for mature believers right here God just give me a glimpse of what you working on When my girls were in elementary school, they had a magician come to the class. It was the day that I was visiting and had a magician come to class.

33:01 And the magician said something to my girls in that elementary school class that's messed me up, that I forgot about until I was getting ready for this sermon today. The magician told them little girls in the second grade, watch this, that today I'm going to teach you Arabic. In the second grade, I went to public school.

33:23 And no idea that this was even a possibility. And the magician said, watch this, the Arabic word that I want to teach you is abracadabra. All my life, I never knew that abracadabra was Arabic. I just thought they just made that word up. you're going to be the smallest person at work tomorrow.

33:51 I'm telling you, you're going to impress them all. You did not learn this from Rosetta Stone. You learned it at new birth. Here it is. It says, abracadabra is an Arabic word that means, hear this, I create what I speak. did you hear what I just said speak those things that are not as though they already are if you don't want to see nothing don't say nothing but if you want to see the hand of God In the month of August, I get abracadabra. Let all my bills get paid. I'm gonna see whatever I spoke. I'm almost finished. Musicians put me in strings. I'm almost done.

35:02 And while it is that Moses is praying to God to get to the promised land and the Lord tells him no, Moses never takes a moment to assess that Raul Waldo Emerson was right. that it is not the destination, it's the journey. it's not the destination it's the journey Jonathan you ain't gonna believe it Moses never realized on the journey while walking with God he never paid attention that while on the journey he never stuttered once while he was trusting God he lost his speech impediment you don't even know how God has shifted some things in you while you were on this journey y'all ain't saying nothing you ought to thank God your anger ain't what it used to be that you've been able to manage that bad boy you ought to be giving God glory I want to be proud of yourself that Moses, according to your LinkedIn, for 40 years, the only thing you ever led was sheep.

36:38 And now I let you lead 4 million people. I upgraded you with no previous job experience. Don't you get so caught up in the destination that you forget to thank God for the journey you went through. Can you thank God for the journey? Don't trade your testimony for anybody. I had to go through this. My time is almost done. I want you to take that neighbor's hand.

37:23 I can't hear you, sir. Walk with me. Thank you. The Lord said to Moses, the daunting responsibility that I now have to say to you said to Moses I'm not going to answer your prayer I'm not letting you in you are not going into the promised land I wish this was a Walt Disney story wish it was the Brothers Grimm and I could just smack right on the end and they lived happily ever after but the Lord said to Moses what is my responsibility my assignment to say to you today and to say to the person whose hand you're holding he said to Moses you are not getting in but this is what I'm going to do for you while you are not going to step foot in there the territory you never occupied your children will live in.

38:37 this ought to be your best shout this year God is saying I hope y'all will respond to it everything you don't get your children are going to have access to it if you want more and better and greater for your children I dare to give God glory for the territory for the opportunity for the real estate for the businesses for the finance for the spiritual gifts whatever you don't get whatever it is that you don't get your children will receive I want you to lift up that hand.

39:38 And as it were, it wasn't just Moses. Everybody of that previous generation had to expire before he let the new generation in.

39:59 Because he did not want the trauma of the parents to be alive with the children in new space. Thank you. He had brought the parents out of Egypt, but Egypt was still in the parents. So he said, behold, I do a new thing.

40:25 Whatever it is that you carry, whatever trauma you carry, whatever baggage you carry, God is offloading it in this moment. So your children will not have to sojourn under it.

40:48 Come on, I can't hear nobody in here. this is the craziest thing you have ever done will you thank god for shut doors will you thank god for blocked opportunities will will you thank god for the deals that didn't go through will will you magnify him for the callbacks you never got will you holler for the relationship that didn't work. God said, it wasn't for you. I'm saving your children. And it just wasn't in the cards. I said, just stand to your feet. I hope you are energized that you don't need an energy drink. What you just heard should have you off and running, chasing your dreams, pursuing your purpose, and answering your call.

41:56 If this was a blessing, share it with somebody else. Don't be selfish. This is what God gave you so that you can be a blessing to somebody who needs it worse.