Set the Record Straight - Sarah Jakes Roberts

1:22 share with you. God's been speaking to me. It took a while for him to speak. I'm gonna be honest. You know, I don't know how many of you all have been granted this incredible privilege and call of preparing to feed the sheep. But I tell you, sometimes God gives you a word two weeks in advance, three weeks in advance, and you can marinate and simmer on it. And then sometimes he just makes you wait on it. Now, I was in my waiting season this week. I didn't know what was going to happen. I was hoping worship would just take over and we would decide that it wasn't going to be no word. But look at God up here at 10-11 with plenty of time. Plenty of time I thought, you know, if worship gets to going real good, you know, you just get up there and say, well, God told me something. I got five minutes. I'm going to tell you, but look at me with at least an hour and a half worth of word. But God is faithful.

2:15 Amen. I'm in Genesis 18. start in verse 9. This is a very interesting text. When we enter into the text, God is having a conversation with Abraham. And for those of you who may not be familiar with Abraham's story, in Genesis 12, technically at the end of Genesis 11, we first experience his name and his background. But in Genesis 12 is when we first see the Lord begin to speak to Abram. He begins to speak to Abram and he says, get out of your father's house into a land that I will show you. And he makes all of these promises, all these covenants to him. He says, and I'm going to make you the father of many nations. And so throughout Genesis 12 and a little bit past where we are today, we see the unfolding of this relationship with God and Abram.

3:11 When we enter into the text, though, some interesting things have happened. And God promises Abram, I'm going to make you the father of many nations, but then his wife Sarah can't have children. God makes him a promise, but it doesn't look like the promise is going to be fulfilled. Sarah takes things into her own hands, and she says, here is my maidservant Hagar. Like, maybe what God had really meant is that you're going to do it. But have you ever tried to modify God's plan for him? You know what I mean? Like, because sometimes God be busy, and you'd be like, you know what, don't even worry about that. I got a plan. I'm going to help your plan with my plan, and then we're going to see. And God was like, see, nobody even told you to do that. Now I got to clean up your mess. So, Hagar has Ishmael, and he says, no, I'm still going to give you a child through Sarah, and it hasn't happened yet. And the Lord appears to him in Genesis 17, and he talks about circumcision and how his household should be reigning. He says, I'm still going to give you this child.

4:11 And in Genesis 18, we see the Lord come to him, and it says the Lord appears to Abram. But then the text is interesting because it says the Lord appears, but then it also says that there are men there with him. And this text vacillates between like, is it the Lord? Is it men? Is the Lord taking on different forms? And yet he's still trying to belabor this promise that he has given Abraham. And Sarah overhears this promise between the Lord and the men. And so as I'm reading this text, you may say, I thought it was the Lord. I thought it was men. I think that this is part of the mystery of the way that God speaks to us. Sometimes it's clearly him. Sometimes we're wondering if it is him, and so we have to know his voice in order to understand what is him in different seasons. Genesis 18 verse 9 says, it says, then they said to him, this is the they, it was the Lord, now it's back to them, and it says, then they said to him, where is Sarah, your wife? So he said, here in the tent. And he, this is God said, and I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah, your wife shall have a son.

5:30 Sarah was listening in the tent. You know women know how to ear hustle. You said it to my husband. You said it to us. We are ussy. And we don't have no secrets around here. He be praying. I'm like, what the Lord say to you, huh? Sarah was listening in the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age, and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also? And the Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I surely bear a child since I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord?

6:26 At the appointed time, I will return to you according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid. And he said, no, but you did laugh. God really need to check y'all sometimes, because how are you going to lie straight to the Lord as he's sitting there listening?

6:55 Lord, I really do have faith. I wasn't laughing. I really do believe you. But he knows what's in your heart, regardless of the words that you speak. Even the text says that Sarah laughed within herself. That means that the Lord knew what was happening inside of her, even though she never gave it language. With that in mind, Lord, you know what's happening on the inside of us. Certainly you know what's happening around us. We open our insides to you. Speak a word that you know we need to hear. Breathe your life inside of us until those dead bones come back to life. God, I thank you for the spirit of wisdom, of prophecy, of revelation. God, I thank you that in this moment, it would just be you standing tall in me, where there would be nerves, where the enemy would dare to threaten me with inadequacy.

7:52 I thank you, God, that the spirit of God will sustain me. And I thank you that as the spirit of God sustains me, that what happens in me and through me will overflow and touch every soul, not just in this room, but even those watching on live stream who are in need of what you're doing on the inside of me, God, I submit myself to you, a vessel. And I say, have your way, great God that you are. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Say something nice to the person beside you as you sit down. Let's go to work. There is a unique paradox that comes with parenting that I feel like is not something you fully understand until you enter into the stage of life in which you are an adult child. When you become an adult child, there's a revelation that hits you as it relates to you reconciling your experiences with your parents and perhaps your experience while raising children.

9:04 That paradox is this, is that human beings are forming other humans while they're yet still being formed themselves. We don't realize this when we're young and when we're children. We think our parents know everything and that they have all of the answers. My son, he's 23 years old, and every now and then he'll reach out to me and he'll say, Mom, I cannot believe that when you were my age you had two children and you had it all together. And I was like, and the gag is, I didn't have a clue what I was doing. You can't tell the kids that when they're young because there's a certain level of respect that you want them to have and you want them to be able to trust you and to feel safe. But I am beginning to believe that one of the best parts of seeing your children grow up and enter into adulthood is the gift of being able to finally tell them, you know I didn't know what I was doing, right?

10:02 Let me tell you, I realize now, even in my adult relationship with my parents, like, y'all, I mean, I love y'all, but, like, y'all really didn't know what y'all, not like in the disrespectful way, But like y'all didn't really know what y'all was doing, right? You know, like this was their first day on the earth as well. Like who could have known that you were going to move to Dallas and this church would explode and how do I raise the children and balance the church and balance the ministry? You really didn't know what you were doing. I get it now. I get it that you really weren't upset that I didn't take the chicken out. It was that you were so upset trying to navigate through the world, and I got to pay the bills, and the job is going to get let go, and I got betrayed, and I don't know what I'm going to do from day to day to day. And all I asked you to do was to take the chicken out the freezer.

10:54 It was never about the chicken. I get it now. You didn't care that Johnny had two apples. You were upset because you didn't know what you were doing. I feel like this is where we have an opportunity to experience parental forgiveness in whatever ways it feels like my parents didn't show up my parents didn't do this your parents didn't know what they were doing they were doing the best that they could and in the process of them doing the best that they could some of them dropped some balls some of them may have missed some things but it was the best that they had to offer. I'm not talking about abuse. I'm talking about people with good hearts and good intentions doing the best they could with what life had offered them, trying to form you while also taking care of themselves. There are a lot of parents in this room who did the best that they could. And when we step into adulthood and we understand just how hard it is to take care of yourself, nevertheless taking care of other people, you begin to have a little bit more compassion on those parents. And you know why you can have compassion? Because the Bible tells me that when my parents, when my mother and my father forsake me, the Lord will take care of me. That means you do the best that you can and God will take care of the rest. I got a word for somebody whose parents didn't show up in every single way that you needed them to show up. Maybe they didn't show up at all. In Psalm 27, it says that when my mother and my father forsake me, the Lord will take care of me. See, you got to know God well enough to know that there are some things that your mother and father weren't meant to do so that you would have a reason to come to the one father who knows everything about you. I know every hair that's on your head. I know every thought that's in your mind. I know you wish someone would have seen you, but because they didn't see you, now you came searching. And because you came searching, you found out I'm a good, good father. And when you need me to be, I can be the breasted one. I can nurture you like your mother

13:02 never did. I can discipline you in the way your father never could. I can be your mother and your father. I want to talk to somebody who didn't have either. And I want to let you to know we call him father, but he can be anything you need him to be. I can be your nurturer. I can be your nourisher. I can raise you up. I can sit you down. I can discipline you. I can teach you. I can guide you. I can put morals on the inside of you. Maybe nobody taught me this. You didn't need nobody to teach you. You just needed to be hungry enough to go searching for the ultimate teacher, the master teacher, the one who knows all things, who holds eternity in his hands. He knows your end from your beginning. He was in the birthing room when he was in the room when they conceived you he'll be in the room when you take your last breath you won't go anywhere where God won't be with you you may walk through the valley of the shadow of death but you won't be there by yourself I've been in some things my parents don't know nothing about but God was standing in the midst of it oh I know him as a father I know him as a friend that's good to somebody I don't know who you are but I'm gonna give you five seconds to thank God for doing what somebody else couldn't do to thank God for being what your parents weren't to thank God for your parents but to also thank God for the extra he did on top of your parents They was good, but you was better.

14:38 They did the best they could, but you came and finished the job. I want to give you five seconds. Oh, is that all he did for you? Is that all he did for you? When you had to bury your parents, who stepped in? When you felt like you was uncovered, who stepped in? When you felt like no one understood you, who stepped in? Sometimes we have to realize that our parents were still being parented by the Father while also showing up for us.

15:19 Understanding our parents outside of just being our parents and seeing them as humans offers us a broader perspective, a greater context for who they are. I feel like in our relationship with God, even to fully understand the depth of who God is, there's something to be said about properly understanding Scripture in context. God is greater than even the greatness we understand through the lens in which we engage with scripture. Lord, help me. When we look at this Bible, especially through the lens of modern, perhaps even westernized Christianity, we see it in a bit of a vacuum.

16:12 It is the dominant religion of this nation, of most westernized nations, even if it is some form of Christianity. It is considered the number one religion. And yet, we don't always engage with this book because it's been around for so long in the way that it was originally written and presented. because this has been around for thousands of years, but it hasn't been around in this way for thousands of years. Because we have these big buildings and there's churches on every corner, we kind of take for granted the accessibility we have to Scripture and to God and to environments that lift His name up. So for a moment, I want to ask you to suspend everything you know and to travel back in time with me.

17:11 Before we had these leather-bound Bibles, before they got the council together and decided that they were going to divide the letters and the manuscripts up by numbers and to give them chapters and names, I want to take you back, back, back in a time where we were being introduced for the first time to this God of Israel, the one true and living God. When you read the Old Testament, and I grew up in church, I read the Old Testament like I was reading a history book. Like everything there was to know about how the world came to be was in that one book. And while the creation story is there, we also have to understand that the Old Testament is being told on a backdrop of the Mesopotamian religions that existed at that time. Huh.

18:07 And when we begin to see that this Old Testament was told on a particular backdrop, it helps us to understand just why our God stood out amongst that religion. The New Testament itself, too, is being told on the backdrop of a Greek-Roman world, a Greco-Roman world, in which there were Greek gods like Zeus and Aphrodite. Aphrodite, there were all other gods that were in the mix. But when we read the scripture, we don't realize that Jesus is speaking about being the one and true living God and talking about his relationship with the Father on the backdrop of those who were worshiping to the gods of the water and gods of the sea. That's why what he said was so profound. We go back to the Old Testament. I need you to understand that what Israel was saying was unique because they were not just saying that we have a God, because having a God was not uncommon. What they were saying is that we have the one true and living God. Oh, God's going to help me.

19:14 The God that I have is not like your God. I don't have a God for the sun and a different God for the storms. I don't have a special God for fertility. I don't have a different God for war. My God is God all by himself. He spoke the sun into existence. I don't need a separate God when I want the rain to come because my God is in charge of the seas and the storm. Jesus stepped out on the boat and said, peace be still. Who is this that the winds and waves obey him? Why did they ask that question? Because in our, in that world, there would have been a different God for the storms. But this is the kind of God that is the God of peace and the God of the storm. This is a different kind of God. The God of fertility is not the same God as this God. This is a God who is unique and stands alone. Above him there shall be no other. These words make better sense in context. When you realize that other people were praying to different gods for different things, all of a sudden there came this God of Israel that says, I shall have no other idols before me.

20:19 There came this God of Israel that said, you can trust on me for anything you need. You got to know what kind of God you have. Please turn me up in the monitors because I feel like we're going to have to break this thing down. The God of Israel is different than the other gods that existed at that time. He wasn't just mighty enough to command the seas and the sun. He was holy too. You see, it's one thing to understand God is mighty. It's another thing to understand him as holy. that means that his power is directly connected to his holiness that means that there is no moral failure in my god that means that my god is whole he's not jealous of me my god is whole he is complete my god is powerful but not powerful for the sake of being powerful my god is powerful enough to let his holiness invade the earth if you touch my god you'll become whole if you touch my God, if anything in you is broken, it'll rise to the surface because my God is different from your God. I'm sorry that in your God, you got a bargain and you got to set out bowls and you got to dance all night. All I got to do is call his name. My God is different than your God. I got a kind of God that you wouldn't quite understand. And when I tell you he's holy, I'm telling you that the angels bow down before him. When I tell you that he's holy, I mean that there was something in me that was broken by sin, but I let him in my life and his holiness fix my brokenness. He's not just powerful. He's holy. He's gentle with me. He knows my soul. He orders my steps. He speaks a word and it is complete. He is not just mighty. He's holy. He's a different kind of God. You got to see in the backdrop of what was taking place in the Old Testament. They had never heard of a God like this. You've been hearing about this God for so long that you take it for granted. But I think

22:27 some of us just need a reminder that he's still the only God standing. Zeus has gone away. Aphrodite is gone wherever she has gone. But my God still remains. You know why? Because he is the one true and living God. And you got to know who your God is. And you have to know the distinction of your God from the other gods that people will try to convince you or God. No, that's not God. I tried it and it didn't heal me. That's not God. I had to work up on it. And my God says, if all you have to do is have faith, it's not even about what you do. It's about what you believe. My God is different. He has complete moral perfection. He is holy. He's not a man that he should lie. He's holy. He's not so drunk off of who he is that he cares about who you are. Matter of fact, my God said, I'm going to make you in my own image. Be holy for I am holy. He's not threatened by me. Other gods back there, they'd be threatened. God got jealous of you. My God, don't get jealous of me. My God provides for me. My God reaches down into his resources and goes ahead of me so that I lack nothing. I have a good shepherd I know no lack.

23:47 you got a different kind of God. And it is important that you understand the distinction of your God. And Daniel says, those who know their God shall do great exploits. You got to know who your God is. My God is powerful. Yes, the son obeys him indeed, but he is also holy. You got to know who your God is. When you read this book, you are not just reading these old stories that no longer apply. You are reading about who God is. The character of God is hidden in these pages. I don't just call him faithful because he was faithful then. I call him faithful because he was faithful then and he's still faithful now. I don't just call him a provider for what he did now.

24:42 I look back over his history and I see that the same God that provided for me provided for Hagar when she was in the wilderness ready to die. I call him a healer because the same God, when the woman touched the hem of his garment, healed her body, healed my body. Healing is what he does. Liberation is who he is. I wish I had about five people who didn't mind getting ignorant for a second so I could brag about who your God is. Do you understand that the same God that delivered then is delivering now? The same God that was speaking then is speaking now. The same God that was prophesying through people. the same God that split the Red Sea the same God that told David I'm going to be with you when everybody else turns their back on the same God Uh-oh.

26:06 I think somebody just remembered who their God was. Sometimes you need a reminder that my God's not sitting in a corner office. My God cannot be limited to a tabernacle or a temple. My God doesn't need a ritual for me to experience his presence. We can turn all the lights off and all the sound off and you can never preach another word And God would whisper in my ear, do you know who my... We'll see you. and the ancient middle eastern religions when they wanted to hear from god they had to perform rituals they had to get out at a certain time of day and do things a certain way but our god is not like their god he doesn't need any rituals that's why we could turn the lights off and have no music and he'd still show up because he's not bound to rituals he's connected to a people Yeah.

27:34 One of the most unique attributes of our God, in contrast to the little gods that existed at that time, is that our God pursues us.

27:57 I'll tell you like this. We serve a God who will make the first move. You see, those ancient religions, they had to pursue their God. That's why they needed the rituals. That's why they had to perform certain tasks and do certain things, because that was their way of reaching out to their God. So when the God of Israel is introduced, we're looking at a God who goes, I don't need you to reach out to me. I'm going to reach down to you. we serve a God who makes the first move in the old testament before Adam could even figure out how he was going to tell God what happened our God says where are you because I'm so in love with who you are that I will pursue you I will make sure nothing stands in the way of us staying connected I'm not waiting on you to reach out to me I will come get you you see and that word only resonates with certain people who understand what it's like to have God chase them down.

29:04 You think that they in this church because they chose to came to church. They in this church because God chased them down. You ought to see some of the places God chased them from. He made somebody get out of the bar. He made somebody get out of the club. They wanted to stay, but God chased them down. God pursued me. It's not that I was running after him. I run after him now, But he chased me down first. He came and saw about me. he pursued me is there anybody in here who can resonate with that god came looking for me god chased me down he got a burning bush from moses he said abraham we don't even know where abram came from what was it about abram god pursued him he saw no one no one found favor in God's sight we serve a God who pursues us and I am telling you that now more than ever I feel this prophetically you were going to have to know who your God is and know who your God is not my God is not in technology though he can use it my God is not in the government though he can work through it my God sits on the throne of heaven he is the king of kings and the Lord of Lords David knew who his God was that's why he wasn't afraid of Goliath because he wanted to know who is it this uncircumcised Philistine who would dare come up against my God if you're going to do anything for God you better make sure you know who your God is because you're going to stand against some giants and some people who think they're God and you got to be able to look them square in the eyes and say you are not God I know who my God is and I won't bow the knee and I won't kiss the ring because my integrity is more important than your opportunity.

31:00 I know who my... Now is not the time for you to be a stranger with God. Now is the time for you to be empowered. Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. It ain't no greatness in this world. Greater than my God. I don't care what the headlines say. I care what God says. I don't care what the streets are talking. I want to know what God is saying. Because when God points me in the direction of what I'm supposed to do. I leave myself. No other option. you gotta know, you gotta know them for real.

31:59 Oh, cause you gonna need them for real. You gotta know them for real, cause you gonna need them for real. in the new testament the centurion man comes to jesus says my servant is sick jesus says i'll go right now he says no no no you don't have to go because i know who you are If you just speak a word. I wish I could say this better than the way I'm saying it. But you need to understand the power, the authority, the holiness, the integrity, the faithfulness, the righteousness, the mercy of who your God is. You got to know this.

32:56 So that when he says I'm with you, it means something to you. I'm not talking about an Instagram quote. I'm talking about confidence when God says I see you through this situation. I'm talking about the kind of courage you're gonna need for the rooms God takes you in You gotta know who your God is that I'll give you language on the spot I'll give you rest in your heart I'll give you strength to raise the child I know who my God is I don't just say this Because it's cute I know what I got when I got you.

33:30 I don't deserve you, but I know what I got when I got you. Oh, God, Holy Ghost, help me. The enemy will try to make you believe that you don't got what you got when you got God. So did God really say, maybe I don't have what I really have when I got God, but I came here to let you know that you got to know what you got. You don't need another degree if you don't know who your God is. You don't need another opportunity if you aren't going to know who your God is in the midst of it all. I'll be your protection. I'll be your public relations. I'll be your security. I'll be your partner. I know you're grieving. I know you're upset that you don't have everything you need. But if you know who your God is, you won't have to worry about those things. So when we look at Abram and Sarah in the text, we have to realize that unlike you, who's been exposed to faith and religion and all of who God is through your mother and your grandparents and just television, that we're introduced to people who are just learning who God is, who are just beginning to understand what it means to be in relationship with him.

34:53 who are just beginning to understand what it means to understand his faithfulness and his courage. When we see them in the text, we understand that Sarah's in a little bit of a predicament because God has given a promise to Abram. And I'll be honest, I'm not entirely convinced that Abram fully told Sarah what God said.

35:23 I'll say that because I know what it's like to have a partner who don't be telling all the details of the details of the retails. You know, like what's the dress code? What can I anticipate? I'm not entirely convinced that Sarah knew what to expect. Because for some reason we see the words the Lord appear to Abram. We see that in Genesis 12. We see it in Genesis 17 where it says the Lord appeared to Abram. When the Lord appears to Abram in Genesis 17, he basically says exactly what he said in Genesis 18, that Sarah's going to conceive a child. Even though they have Ishmael, he basically says it again. But there is something about Genesis 18 in which the Lord goes out of his way to make sure that Sarah understands exactly what the promise is. I love this if I could just sidebar for a moment because if you look at the scripture and you look how scripture has been manipulated you could be fooled into believing that you serve a God that doesn't care about women but Genesis 18 proves that God went out of his way to make sure that Sarah received the same message that he had been given to Abraham straight from him in Genesis in 9 it says where is Sarah the Lord says where is Sarah because I have a word that I want to give to her and I want to make sure that she hears it straight from me and I want her to know that I hear what's happening on the inside of her he goes out of his way to make sure that Sarah gets this word because Sarah's belief in this word is critical to the manifestation of it happening. We call Abraham the father of faith as we should, but we have to recognize that it was going to require as well Sarah's buy-in, Sarah's participation, Sarah's belief, and sometimes you cannot borrow someone else's faith. You need a word from God for yourself before you step into

37:32 faith. That's a word for somebody. You've been wondering why I don't, why I can't have someone else's faith be enough faith for me. God says you don't need someone else's recycled borrowed faith. What you need to ask for instead is that I would speak to you directly because the same God that got a word to Abram will go out of his way to make sure he can get a word to Sarah and if he got the word to Sarah he'll go out of his way to make sure that that word gets to David to make sure that word gets to Jessica. I don't know who you are in this room but I want you to understand that God will go out of his way to make sure that the word resonates with you. He'll raise up voices. He'll raise up teachers to make sure that the word gets to you. I don't know who you are and where you've been, but I need you to understand that God knows how to find you. God knows how to make sure that the word reaches you in a way that only you can understand in a season where you are positioned to take it and make it turn into the manifestation of what he said. He goes out of his way.

38:35 to get this word to Sarah. I told myself that the subject for this message would be set the record straight. And I called it set the record straight because I believe that part of the reason why God goes out of his way to have this moment of making sure that Sarah has heard this word and heard this promise is because the Lord recognizes that there's something taking place on the inside of Sarah that would prohibit her from fully believing what God said. there's a record that she's keeping, but what's in the record is false. Oh God, help me. She's got facts, but she doesn't have truth.

39:29 And sometimes you can have a fact about who you are, but it not be the truth about what God says about who you are and you will chain your destiny to the facts when God has subscribed your destiny to be connected to the truth. And so he goes out of his way to set the record straight with Sarah because if Sarah doesn't get out of facts, she's going to miss destiny. That's somebody's word in this room. You got a lot of facts, but you don't have truth. You got a lot of facts about your age, a lot of facts about your education, a lot of facts about your community, but you don't have truth and because you don't have truth you don't believe what God says because you're taking what God says and you're comparing it to the facts you don't understand that God doesn't need the facts to add up in order for his truth to come alive my truth does not need the facts my truth steps over the facts of who you are if you don't believe me you better ask that woman at the well who had no business talking to Jesus that was a fact but what was true is that he sat at that well and he waited for that woman and you got to know the difference.

40:35 between what you're calling facts and what God calls truth. The enemy will start replaying the facts in your head over and over again. Come on ministry. I don't know who you are, but you got a replay of facts in your head over and over again of the things you did wrong, of the places you didn't go. And you got all of these facts, but I feel like God wanted you to know before 2025 is up that you cannot walk into 2026, replaying those same facts in your head over and over again, because what God is going to do in 2026 is going to be the truth. And you can have the facts or you can have the truth. But if you're going to have the truth, you're going to have to lay down the facts and step over into a realm of faith. And that realm of faith says, I believe what God says about me. That truth is going to have to be whatever God lays ahead of me. I'm going to step into it with boldness, with courage, and with confidence. Yeah, but you was this.

41:37 That's a fact, but the fact didn't change the truth. I wish I could say that real good for the place inside of you where the enemy has been tormenting you with facts. I want you to understand that God counted the cause and called you anyway, that God saw the mistake before you made it and still had a destiny for you anyway. I saw the facts, but the facts didn't change my truth. You're still my child. You're still anointed. You still can raise that family. You still can be everything I called you to be. And that's the truth, baby. You let somebody else play in your face with facts. God said, if you get in my presence, I'm going to tell you the truth that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, that you can still be holy because I am holy, that you are still anointed and appointed that you haven't seen your best days yet that no weapon formed against you will prosper and every tongue that rises up against you and that's the truth and you better start telling the enemy the truth instead of letting him play with the facts because the truth is my god has gone ahead of me the truth is he will anoint my tongue the truth is that i'm filled with the Holy Ghost. The truth is that the blood covered it all.

43:00 The truth is that the child's gonna be okay. The truth is that I'm gonna make it through the end of the day. The truth is that the disease is out of my body. The truth is I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. The truth is I'm forgiven. The truth is I woke up this morning with new mercies. The truth is that he's already seen my past and still holding my future. Oh, I wish somebody could receive that. He didn't see my past and throw my future away. He saw my mistakes and said, I'm still holding it. For the day that you get up and rise up into every, that's the truth. So, the question is, are you willing to lay down your facts to lay hold of his truth?

44:21 Are you willing to build an altar with your facts? in exchange for his truth. This is a critical moment in God's plan. In this critical moment in God's plan, God wants to make sure that every participant will have the correct heart posture so that the plan can be executed. you don't have to figure out the math of how it's going to be done you just need your heart postured in alignment that it's done do you understand and some of us get caught up because we think we have to figure out the plan no we don't have to figure out the plan we just need our heart aligned with what the plan is Thank you.

45:29 So, what you have to ask yourself is this, why is it hard for me to believe what God is saying or what God is willing to do? Why is it hard for me to believe that? Because that's what's in your heart. This is not a question that you may even be able to answer right now. Some of you may. But others of you, in your prayer time, when you ask God to search my heart, I want you to dare ask God why is it so hard for me to believe what you're saying why is it so hard for me to believe what you're willing to do for me There's a record somewhere in your heart.

46:41 and God wants to set the record straight.

48:34 what message did I receive as truth what message have I accepted as truth that I will have to reject in order to trust you in order to believe you What is it? Somewhere along the way, I accepted something as a fact, but now your truth is bumping up against my facts. and I'm going to have to set the record straight Sarah's got something on the inside of her and she has accepted this fact about her biology, about her social shame, and it has made her suspicious of God.

49:39 which you would never say because you're so saved and you're so dressed up anybody that dressed up could never be suspicious of God but if we're honest, there have been moments where God says, I'm going to send you in that room. I'm going to heal that thing on the inside. I'm going to break that generational curse.

50:15 But because it hasn't happened yet, there's a part of you that has not completely given up, but you've become so suspicious that his promises almost land like a joke. oh I wish I could say that real good Sarah laughs within herself as if to say that'll never happen for me how many times is God sending you a word that you deflect from because you don't want to become who you'd have to become in order to accept it the vulnerability that would be required for you to accept the hope that would be you see Sarah had put that hope away it's not just going to happen for me it's just not going to happen for me and now here comes God sending a word that what I gave up on you going to bring back to life I don't know who you are, but you don't want to want it anymore.

51:35 I don't want to want it anymore. I finally let it go. I don't want to need it anymore. But all of a sudden, God sends this word that says, at an appointed time, you wanted it then, but then wasn't the appointed time. Now was the appointed time. And I need you to get back to a heart posture where you can believe that it's still for you. and what happens in this text is so beautiful because when we read later on later much later on in hebrews 11 hebrews 11 11 tells us that when all was said and done that sarah judged him faithful. The same Sarah that laughed. It says by faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed and she bore a child when she was past the age. How did she do it?

52:37 How did she receive strength to conceive? She received it because she judged him faithful. Whoo. Whoo. That's so good to me. She judged him. She looked at his track record. She looked at who he was. I don't want you to have somebody else's faith. I want you to judge him for yourself. She looked at who he was and what he'd been through and what he said he was going to do. and she judged him faithful, you got to know God for yourself. Because my faith won't get you through. I can inspire you, but it won't be no better than you getting a hit. If you don't judge him faithful for yourself, you won't receive the strength you need.

53:38 Woo! She judged him faithful. Faithful to perform what he said he was going to do. but look at where she started. She started laughing at what he's saying until she took a minute and realized that there is something about God that I've missed.

54:07 Something about who he is and what he's capable of that I've missed. Is it possible that you could come to church and weekend and week out that you could spend your life in church and miss out on the fullness of who God is. in this season of your life there is an expression of who God is that he wants to reveal to you and you have to be willing to receive as truth that you don't know everything there is to know about God I know that sounds crazy but sometimes you come to church all the time and you like it's the same old message. It's the same old, I heard this before, I heard this before. And you think because you've heard everything from man that you've heard everything there is to hear from God.

55:02 You can know a lot about church but never know God. to wake up every day, say, God, there's something I want to know about you today.

55:26 Open my heart, God. I don't want religion. I want relationship. I want to get to know you so that I can judge you faithful for myself. So that when you speak a word, I know that you're faithful to deliver that word. And you have to know that the enemy has tried to make you believe some things about your identity, about your destiny, about your capacity that does not align with what God says. That means that there are some records inside of you that God didn't write. And the more that we know God, the more that we behold the spirit of God, the more we are transformed into that image. What are we being transformed from?

56:19 We're being transformed from the identities that we accepted that do not align with what God said. And for me, this text is a beautiful example of what work must be done in our heart. in order for us to receive what God says. I want you to ask yourself one more question. I'm closing. We did the first one. Why is it hard for me to believe what God is saying or willing to do? This is the second question I want you to ask. What would I have to believe about God to accept this word? what would I have to believe about who God is in order for me to say yes to what he's asking me to do that he'll provide for me.

57:19 I'd have to believe that he was a healer. I'd have to believe that he'll comfort me. I'd have to believe that I don't need them in order to do this. What would I have to believe about God, that I'm enough, that I've got what it takes, that I haven't ran out of time? What would I have to believe about God to make this marriage work? What would I have to believe about God to raise these children, to build this business, to create this ministry? What would I have to believe about God? You know what our problem is? Is that we want to believe in ourself. And if I could just build enough confidence and build enough belief in myself, then I'll say, yes, this isn't about believing in you. Look at Sarah's response.

58:17 Sarah's response is about herself. I'm old and he's old. We can't do this on our own. And the Lord's response is this really doesn't have anything to do with you. Is there anything too hard for God? She didn't even factor God's ability into the equation. So the question is, what would I have to be willing to believe about God to accept this? I want to pray with you.

58:54 God gave me this message, and I believe that God gave me this message because there are some records he wants to set straight. I believe that as God was pouring this message into my heart, that he was highlighting for me people who have created a separation between what they're able to do and what he's able to do. That word in the Hebrew where it says, is there anything too hard for God? it's used in Leviticus and Numbers as well but it's not hard it's consecrated which means that what the Lord is asking in that text is is there anything that you have separated from my ability is there anything too hard for God what have you separated from me. Because what I have for you, what I'm asking you to do, this invitation to destiny is going to require that you include me every step of the way.

1:00:14 I want to pray with you. When I ask that question, specifically, why is it hard for me to believe what God is saying or what God is willing to do, you know exactly what it is. you know exactly what record keeps replaying in your head over and over again. That makes it hard for you to believe the bare minimum of what God says. If that's you, I want you to come to the altar for me. And I want you to imagine as you're making your way to the altar that you're bringing those facts with you. The facts that compete with God's truth. the facts that replay in your head over and over again.

1:01:18 We'll wait for you. It doesn't matter where you're coming from. I believe as you make your way to this altar that we're going to set the record straight. that there's a narrative that you have accepted, and God wants to change your story. I need you to understand, and I know this for myself in my own journey, what it's like to accept as fact some things about your identity that don't align with who God says you are.

1:02:10 I know what it's like to say, because of X, Y, and Z, I'm going to always be this. I can never be that I can never do that and I know for myself what it's like to buy faith oh that's the thing what makes our God different from those little gods is that this is just about faith this is just about belief it's not about what we do we aren't saved because we did everything the right way. We're not saved because we followed the law by the letter. We are saved because we believe in the one who fulfilled the law. Because we believed. Blessed are those who believe. We believe that Jesus truly paid it all on the cross. That's what I believe. I believe that he was a perfect man who got on the cross with all of my sins all of my failures not just for the error that existed at that time but for all of the errors to come that's what I believe and I believe that when he put it to death that he nailed my sin to the cross too that he nailed every lie that the enemy would ever use against me. We about to put some things back on the cross. There's some things that jump off of the cross every now and then, but we're going to put it back on the cross. You're in this room and maybe you don't know who Jesus is.

1:03:49 And I've been talking about Jesus and maybe for you, scripture doesn't fully make sense yet. And Maybe you haven't had your own encounter, but you can't deny that something happened in this room as you were worshiping. Maybe as I was speaking, I want to invite you down to the altar as well. Because I'm going to pray with you too. Yes, I see you, family. You're here and you don't know who Jesus is. I just want to invite you to come down. We'll wait for you. I want you to, if you're at this altar, I want you to lift your hands and surrender.

1:04:33 Lord, here's my story. Here are my facts. My worries, my doubts. My frustrations, my anger.

1:04:53 Here I am, Lord, presenting myself as a living sacrifice. Lord they're at this altar and we know without a shadow of a doubt that there have been some stories some records some facts that they have accepted as truth that don't align with what you say and God they've taken the bold courageous step of saying Lord search me if there's anything in me God that doesn't look like you that doesn't please you, that doesn't align with who you are, God. Let it rise to the surface. Let me become uncomfortable with it, God. If there's anything in me that's keeping me from receiving your word, receiving your truth, God, I want more than anything to be aligned with who you are. I want more than anything to know you for myself, God. I'm praying right now that every soul, every household represented at this altar, God. And even those watching online would begin to have a divine encounter with you, God. Allow your spirit to fall in this room like never before, God. Let it rest on that area of emptiness, that area of brokenness, that area where they haven't known you as faithful yet, God. And I ask right now in the name of Jesus that you would begin to minister to them in a way that is so deeply personal that they know that it is you and you alone. God, I'm praying for a weight of glory to fall on them like never before, that where the enemy has planted lies, where their family members have spoken words over them, not even realizing that they were being used by the enemy. We rebuke it right now in the name of Jesus. Every word that has been planted, every thought that has been planted in their lives.

1:06:47 God, I thank you right now for fresh revelation, for fresh knowledge coming into their spirit. I thank you, God, that you are offering them an opportunity.