God, Where Are You?!

Good morning, Victory! It's so good to be with my family in Oklahoma! Oh my gosh. Can I say this? This has been on my heart all weekend since last night. You know, I've been coming, I think, to 21 straight Word Explosions, now called Victory Conference. You know, when Paul and Ashley took the helm and it changed to Victory Conference, and the worship just kept going boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And I was like, okay, it's just a conference. And I gotta tell you, last night when I walked in here, I was amazed. I was floored by the presence of God and by the amazing worship, and it's been getting better and better every single service. Thank you guys so very much. And, you know, I love being here. My heart is so connected to this church. I absolutely love the Daughtry family, and I love all of you, because you are still one of the premier churches in America, and what makes you a premier church is your heart to give, your heart to give to local people, your heart to give to this nation, but especially the nations of the world. Billy Joe and Sharon set a course and put it in their own children's hearts

that continues on and on. And I'm watching Paul and Ashley. As they get more mature, I'm just seeing such a great, phenomenal leader. He is so seasoned, leading this ship so well. I love it. You need to be so proud, Mama Sharon. Right? Uncle John is proud and in the house. But listen, some of you don't know me because I haven't done like a weekend here in like 15 years. So for those of you that don't know me, the best way I can introduce myself is introduce my family who I love so much. And for those of you who do know me, I got lots of news. We've had two weddings in the last seven months. Here's one picture. This is my baby boy, Arden. He's with me here today running the PowerPoint. He got married to Christian. She's running around doing social media, taking pictures. And she's an Auburn girl. So there's no problem there because we're not in SEC. So we don't have people getting upset. And my second born son, Austin, he got married to Jessica.

Now they got engaged within four days of each other. And the Bevere household, we get married quick. We don't believe in long engagements. Okay? So they were like, we're ready. We got to get married. And Lisa and I looked at them and said, our entire fall is booked. Like we're in like every continent on the planet except Antarctica. And they were like, we don't care. We're getting married this fall. So Austin actually got married on a Monday night in Seattle. First Monday night wedding I think I've ever seen. And then this was the only weekend Lisa and I had booked for ourselves. Lisa and I have been married 37 years this year. Woo! I told her a few months ago, I said, baby, if you were single, I would be so on your trail. But anyway, that's our four sons. They all work for us. We love them so much. You can see Addison and Julie have been married 10 years now. My G babies are growing up. You say, what is a G baby? I am way too young to be grandpa. So it's G daddy and G for short, right?

So anyway, I got an announcement to make. I turned 60 in less than a month. Woo! I know, don't say it. Don't say it. I don't look a day over 80. But anyway, I am just really excited about being here. I really believe God's given me a prophetic word for you. And so I could be the greatest communicator on the planet, but if the Holy Spirit doesn't touch these words, you're just getting information. And I'm not leaving my family this weekend just to give you information. I believe we need transformation. Can you say amen to that? So how many of you believe that the Holy Spirit can change you forever? How many of you believe that? Then put up your other hand, because we don't have, because we don't ask. We're going to ask, all right? Father, in the name of Jesus, you love this church. I love this church. I'm so thankful that they've received me as a family member. But Lord, we're asking today, Holy Spirit, that you do what you love to do the most, invade this sanctuary and reveal Jesus to us in a way like we've never, ever known him before. I'm asking as you do this,

that we would go from glory to glory and faith to faith. For I declare it will be done in here, today on earth as it is in heaven. And for this, we give you all the glory, the honor, the praise, the thanksgiving. And it's in Jesus' mighty, wonderful, majestic, holy, awesome, magnificent name we pray. And everybody that agrees, shouts! Come on, give him praise for what he's going to do. Amen, amen. You can be seated, Victory. Watch this. Refine pure gold. The trials you face as a human being are the furnace designed to remove the impurities in us so the only thing that remains is what was placed at the core of us, God's nature. character. Some of you are in the furnace right now. All you see is the fire. All you feel is the heat. Each day feels like a struggle and you want to give up. You want to hit the snooze button. You want to give up on that marriage. You want to quit that job. Take the easy way out. But you weren't created for easy. You were created for victory. When the fires of life are raging, keep going. And always remember, on the other side of pain, on the other side of trial, is your promise. All right. So let me just share with you a little of my background. I was actually raised in church. My parents took me to church every weekend, but I had absolutely no relationship with God. And it was quite evident, because in high school, people are witnessing to me like crazy, right? And I'm not getting a clue. And in college, one guy told me, after I got saved, he witnessed to me for two hours my freshman year, and he said, John, I left your room with tears because you were completely not connecting with what I was saying. But, you know, athletics is a

big part of my background. I played varsity tennis at Purdue University. My sophomore year, one of the best athletes in the state of Indiana was in my fraternity, and he came up to my room and began to share Jesus with me. And I remember, as he shared, something changed. I really realized that the one who created the heavens and the earth wanted to reveal himself to me personally, and that blew me away. I mean, he actually wanted to be a father to me. He loved me uniquely. He loved me deeply. He wanted to make promises to me that he would actually keep. And I remember, in that fraternity room, giving my life to Jesus Christ, and everything changed. And what I noticed, first and foremost, was the presence of God. And let me really explain something really quick. There are two types of the presence of God. There's the omnipresence of God, and there's the manifest. Omnipresence is the presence that David said, where shall I go from your presence? If I make my home in the highest mountain, you're there. If I'm in the lowest valley, you're there. That's the presence of God that says, I'll never leave you, nor forsake you. But the manifest presence of God, that's when he reveals himself to our senses. That's a real part of Christianity. And that was overwhelming to me. I mean, I'm not a crying type, and I'm in services during worship, just tears pouring down my eyes. I remember one time a storm was building in the distance, and I just started weeping. And I said, man, the one who created all this is actually my dad. I mean, I was just overwhelmed. And the other thing that I noticed was he was answering prayers so quickly. I mean, I remember one time my cassette player... just Google it later, it's prehistoric. But anyway, it broke. And I'm a broke college student, so I've got no way to listen to worshiper teaching. And I was like, oh my gosh, I can't afford to get another cassette player. So I thought, Jesus said, lay hands on the sick and they'll recover. My cassette player is sick. I laid hands on the cassette player. Not kidding. This is a true story. And then I put a cassette in, and it started working, and it never broke again. Amazing. So I'm like, this is amazing, being a Christian, right? Well, a few years later, the presence of God started seeming a little more elusive. And I'm like, God? And I remember prayers weren't

getting answered as quickly as they were. And I started having these questions in my mind, questions like, God, why aren't your promises being fulfilled right now? In fact, why does it seem... I'm going backward from the promise. In fact, why does it seem like nothing's going right in my life? Well, there was an overarching question that I kept asking over and over, and I hope you can relate to this question. I was saying, God, where are you? Can anybody relate to that, or am I like way over your head this morning? Okay, so I'm talking to you. All right. So there was a process that I didn't get. There's a three-step pathway that God leads every one of us to get us to our destiny. Now, how many of you know you have a destiny in God? Do you know your steps are actually ordered? Do you know that David said every day of your life was written in a book before a single day began? So God's got these sub-destinies and major destinies for our life, right? And what he does is he'll give us a little glimpse of where he's gonna take us. You know, with David, it's the prophet coming saying you're gonna be God's anointed king. When it's Joseph, it's dreams. With Jeremiah, God says you're gonna be a prophet, and on and on and on. So God will give us a little glimpse. I know with me, I have actually prophetic words in a file folder in my desk drawer, and there is a prophetic word, and there's not many of those prophecies in there. I'm telling you, I've gotten a lot of prophecies, but they don't all make it there. It's the ones I know God spoke, right? I have actually this word that God spoke to me, and it's dated July 1981, and the things that he showed me I would be doing, I didn't start doing them until I was in my 50s, okay? Somebody may be sitting there going, yeah, but God hasn't shown me a glimpse or promises of where I'm going, well, let me just challenge it in a loving way, okay? The Bible says God rewards those who diligently seek Him in faith, not God rewards those who casually seek Him in wonder and doubt. So you might wanna check up on the seeking.

So anyway, let's move on from there, okay? So the next thing is, I promise this is gonna get better, okay? The next thing is the process. Everybody say the process. So first is the promise, and then's the process. What's the process? The process is the wilderness, or what I like to call refining. Okay, why is the process so important? Because it gives you the character to handle the promise. And once you successfully navigate the process, then comes the promotion, which is the promise fulfilled. So the Apostle Peter writes about this process situation. All right, I wanna focus in on the process today. Peter makes this statement in 1 Peter 1, verse 6. He says, in this, in what? What's he talking about here? Well, the first five verses, he talks about heaven. And you know what I love about these guys? They write a little bit about heaven, but not a lot, because how many of you know we're living in the here and now? So he quickly goes from heaven, which is beyond amazing. You can't even describe it. In this, you greatly rejoice, though now, now he goes to the here and now, though now for a little while. Everybody say a little while. Now, you ever look at your friend and say,

I'll be over your house in a little while? What do you mean? You mean like 15 minutes, right? Well, can I say this? A little while to God is a little different than a little while to us. You know, a day, the Bible says, but the Lord is 1,000 years, and 1,000 years is a day. So I got this scientific mind. So one day I'm sitting there going, well, what's an hour to God? So I divided 1,000 years by 24, and I got 42.6 years is an hour. So 15 minutes is seven or eight years. I know you're sitting there going, why in the world did I come to hear that? So when God says a little while, think seven, eight years, not 15 minutes, okay? Now, notice the next statement. If need be, let me enlighten you, the need is there. You have been grieved, and that means greatly stressed, by various trials. Now, look at this. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. Isn't that wonderful? When you go through trials, just get real happy and just say, oh, wow, I don't have counterfeit faith. I actually have real faith. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold, though your faith is far more precious than gold.

So, you know, I'm now 24, 25 years old. I'm working for a church in Dallas. We were actually one of the best known churches in the United States in the early 1980s. We had 450 paid employees, and our church didn't talk a lot about character, holiness. We didn't talk about, we talked about the promises, about faith, about receiving from God. So I'm out praying one night. Lisa and I are living in an apartment, and this field's right beside our apartment. It's late, late at night. Nobody's out there, and I'm out praying, and the Holy Spirit speaks to me. I'll never forget this as long as I live. And he said, son, I'm gonna begin to teach you how to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. I'm gonna begin to do a work of holiness in your life. Well, boy, I got so excited, because that was a foreign word to me. I was like, whoa, and I ran back to my apartment. I said, babe, this is so cool. God says he's gonna begin to do a work of holiness in me. He's gonna make me a holy man. I said, all this excessive stuff in my life is gonna go, because I watch sports on TV like crazy. I ate so much food, you know. I mean, food was an idol. I mean, I ate when I wasn't hungry. I mean, all these games that I played,

this excessive, it's going. I said, I'm so excited. So you know what happened the next three months? I ate twice as much as what I normally ate. I watched twice as much sports on TV. I'm twice as fleshly, right? So three months later, I go out to that same field. I said, God, you said you were gonna work holiness in my life. What's happening? I'm worse. And God said, that's because you've been doing it your way. He said, holiness is not a work of your flesh. It's a product of my grace. He said, now I'm gonna begin to do it my way. Now I had no idea what he was talking about. But over the next six months, I started going through trials like I had never, ever in my life faced before. And they weren't self-inflicted trials. Do you know what I mean? For those of you who are mature, older, there are things we do that bring trials on us. And then there are things we didn't do anything wrong and we got trials coming on us. That's what was happening to me, right? And I remember in the midst of these trials, I'm like living in pain. Do you understand that? Does that make sense?

I mean, it's like Jeremiah makes a statement in Jeremiah 15, verse 18 that I so understand. He said, why is my pain perpetual? It doesn't stop. Like I woke up in pain. I ate breakfast in pain. I went to work in pain because these trials were so intense. I'm coming home at night in pain. I go to bed in pain. I wake up again in pain. And I remember over the next six months after the Lord said, I'm gonna start doing it my way. And these trials came on. I was like a terror to live with. I mean, I'm yelling at my wife for the stupidest things. I am so irritated with everybody. irritated with my nine-month-old son. I am angry at the people at work because they're not giving me the sympathy I think I deserve, right? I'm mad at my friends because they are avoiding me. Why are they avoiding me, right? I'm mad at my pastor because he's not giving me the attention I think I should get. I'm mad at everybody. I know, y'all are so holy, you don't understand what I'm saying, right? But just listen to me, okay?

And so, finally, you know, I mean, I go out and pray in that same field six months later. I'm like, God, what is going on? I mean, I've never been this angry in my whole life. Before I got saved, I wasn't this angry. I wasn't as bitter before I got saved. I said, what do I bind? What do I cast out? And that's when the Lord revealed to me, you do not cast out flesh, you crucify it. And I'm sitting there going, God, where's this coming from? And you gotta understand, I have an engineering background, so God speaks to me sometimes in those kind of terms. And he said, son, look at the ring on your finger. And, you know, Lisa regave me this white gold when I entered 25th anniversary, but I had a yellow gold, 14 karat gold ring on my finger, right? And he said, look at your ring, son. He said, does it look like pure gold to you? I said, yeah, it looks like pure gold to me. He said, what happens if you put that ring in a furnace and heat it up a couple thousand degrees? I said, well, it liquefies. He said, then what happens? I said, well, the impurities. Now, let me explain this to you. A 14 karat gold ring, 14 parts out of 24 parts is gold, 10 parts out of 24 parts is impurities. Other metals like copper, zinc, nickel.

I said, well, it liquefies. He said, then what happens? I said, the impurities, which is the lighter metals, the copper, zinc, and nickel, begin to come to the surface. He said, they appear, right? I said, yeah, they appear. He said, did you see them before you put the ring in the furnace? I said, no, you didn't. He said, son, you keep saying, where's all this stuff coming from? He said, it's always been there. You didn't see it. He said, I've allowed you to come into this furnace of affliction. He said, now what you do with these impurities that are surfacing will determine your future. He said, you can keep blaming your pastor, your wife, getting mad at your friends. And he said, if you do, it'll all go right back down. We gotta start this process all over again. Or he said, or you can own it and you can repent of it. And he said, if you do, I'll take my big ladle and skim it right off. I remember during this time, you know, the pain, I'm living in the pain and I put my head against the wall in the office. I'm in the office, church office, you know, I close the door, nobody can see me.

And I just, I was hurting so bad. I just put my head against the wall. I said, God, why do I hurt so bad inside? And he said, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He said, cause you're dying. He said, son, there's always pain in death. He said, do you wanna know how you're gonna know when you're dead? I said, I'd love to know. How will I know when I'm dead? He said, you won't hurt anymore. You won't have any more pain cause dead people don't have pain. I said, God, would you please kill me quick? But here's the deal. You know, God said to me, he said, son, you're gonna preach the gospel to the nations, right? That was the promise that he had made. And I thought I was ready. I mean, it was 1985 and Jesus was coming back in 88. And I said, God, I only got three years to get this job done. But I realized if God would have put me in that position right then, that position would have destroyed me. And that's what happened with King Saul. King Saul's got this fake humility, right? I mean, the prophet speaks to him. He's like, who am I? The day when the whole nation was gathered

and his name was called, he was hiding in the equipment. He had this false humility. But after his first victory, he's building a monument to himself. If you look at Joseph, Joseph's got this dream. God gives him this glimpse of what he's gonna do with him. And you know, for those of you who don't know who Joseph is, he's the great grandson of Abraham, right? Just read Genesis 37 through 50 if you wanna know about Joseph and do it. It's really important. And when Joseph shows up, God gives him this dream. You're gonna be a great, great leader, right? But when he shows up, the very first thing that it says, it says Joseph reported to his father the bad things his brothers were doing. So we got a tattletale here, right? If you go a few verses later, verse eight, it says he was bragging to his brothers about his dreams, about the fact that he was the favorite son, he got the robe of many colors, and talking down to his brothers. So can we just list what we got here? We got a guy who is a bragger, we got a guy who is a tattletale, and we got a guy who talks down to people. So if God puts him in a position of leadership right now, you know what you're gonna have? A very narcissistic, insecure leader. So God says, okay, we need a little refining for this boy.

Now, God didn't author this. You gotta understand, God knows the end from the beginning. He already knows what people are gonna do. You see, we are bound to time. I can tell you all the events that happened with me yesterday accurately, but I can't tell you a thing about tomorrow. Why? Because I live in a body that is bound to time. God lives outside of time, so God sees the end from the beginning. knows what these boys are gonna do and says, oh, I'm gonna use these guys. So the first thing these brothers do, they don't like Joseph at all. They throw him in a pit, which for those of you that don't know, pit is an acronym for preachers in training, okay? So then they sell him as a slave, he is brought to Egypt, and now he is sold as a slave in an officer's house of the king of Egypt. Now, we don't get what they did. Let me tell you, please understand, hear me. It would have been much better if they would have killed him. And that's what they intended to do when they threw him in the pit, they were just gonna kill him. But they said, oh, we know how to,

we know, let's let, we know how to make him suffer more. Let's sell him as a slave because you gotta understand something. Back then, it was everything for a young man to inherit his father's name, his father's heritage, okay? When you're a slave in a foreign nation, you'll be a slave the rest of your life. Your wife will be a slave, your children will be slaves, your grandchildren will be slaves. You will live always for building somebody else's life. You'll never live for your own. It's one thing to be born a slave, it's a completely, totally different thing to be born in the era of a very wealthy man who has a covenant with the creator of the universe and have your own brother strip it from you and sell you into slavery. Now, I can just imagine the first several months, Joseph's thinking, God is gonna show my dad, he's gonna come and rescue me. But after a year or two goes by, there's no dad's rescue. Can you imagine what he's going through? I mean, he is a slave for 10 years. Would you stop and think about 10 years? That is a long time. And you know, God's blessing him,

but you know, the whole time, something a lot worse is going on. You know what's going on? His master's wife gets the hots for him. Now, I can only imagine, if she's the wife of the officer of the king, this woman is good looking. She is scented in the best, or dressed in the best, scented in the best, and she's got a seducing spirit up to her eyeballs. She knows how to get a man. And the Bible doesn't say she approaches him once or twice. The Bible says she approaches him every single day. And you know what I love about Joseph? This is why he's one of my favorite characters in the Old Testament. He fears God. Now, most of us don't even know what the fear of God is. We think, let me say this. The fear of God is not to be scared of God. That is not the fear of God. The fear of God is to be terrified to be away from God. You got it? So this guy fears God. And he resists her every day. And do you know what's amazing to me? He doesn't have a connect group. He's got no Pastor Paul preaching to him every Sunday. But he is obeying God after being a slave for 10 years. I mean, Paul makes this statement to the Philippian church

that's absolutely amazing. He said, as you have obeyed in my presence, even much more now obey in my absence. Then he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, not with love and kindness. So I love that. It's easy to obey God when you're in the midst of this atmosphere, this worship, right? But what about Wednesday night when your kid's throwing up all night and you got the presentation of your life the next morning at 8 a.m. with the board? What about when somebody gossips at you at work, slanders you, accuses you of doing something you absolutely didn't do and you lose your dream job? Are you gonna obey God then? Or are you gonna be a little passive aggressive? You know what I mean by passive aggressive? Well, I should obey you. I'm gonna go out and have a drink, get drunk. I'm gonna, God, you know what I mean, right? Nah, none of you can relate to that. You're too holy, aren't you? Okay, so, it's scary, isn't it? You know, you're kinda like, God, you let me down. Why shouldn't I obey you? I know you've never done this, so just listen to me, okay?

Amuse me. It's so, so tempting. But Joseph doesn't do that. He resists her day after day after day after day. And then she waits. Nobody's in the house. She gets the right outfit on. She got a little breast showing, right? She got little legs sticking out of the slit in that dress. And she comes up real close. She says, I'm yours. My husband's gone, everybody's gone. Nobody will ever know I'm all yours. You're a single man. You haven't been married. You're a slave. And I love what this guy does. He flees sexual immorality. He obeys God still. And she's got a hold of his garment, and it tears off of him. He runs out of the house naked. She's a scorned woman. Now her lust turns to hate. And the very thing he ran from, she accuses him of. And you're a slave? You're working for the officer, the king, and you just tried to rape his wife? Let me tell you something. They throw him in the dungeon.

And can I say this? I just preached at Angola prison in New Orleans seven months ago. It's the largest prison in the United States, 62. 200 inmates, they're all in from 20 years to life with no parole. Can I tell you, listen, that place is a country club compared to a Middle Eastern dungeon. I've been in a couple of Middle Eastern dungeons. Now I want you to listen to me. They are usually hewned out cisterns underground. Do you know what that means? They once contained water and there is now no more water. There is no sunshine. It is damp, it is dark, and they usually, listen, have a ceiling of four feet. So you can't even stand. There is no mattress like I saw in that prison. There is no pillows, there is no toilets. You live in your waste. That is a Middle Eastern dungeon. And you know what they do? They give you what's called the bread of affliction. Read it in 1 Kings 17, I believe it is. You know what the bread of affliction is? They don't want you to die, it's too easy. They want you to live and suffer. So they give you just enough bread and water to keep you alive. That's what he's in.

The Bible says this, you need to read it. It says they hurt his feet with fetters. They laid him in irons until the time that his word came to pass. His promise, his personal promise was fulfilled. The word of the Lord tested him. Everybody say tested. He's in this dungeon. 10 years he's a slave. And do you know what? Every time he obeys God, his life gets worse. All I did is preach the dream, it gets me the pit in slavery. I flee sexual immorality. And what does it get me? Gets me the dungeon. So God says, now I shall bring the greatest test to Joseph. What's the greatest test Joseph faced? God brings two men to him, a butler and a baker. They both had dreams the night before. They want interpretation. What's the test? Can Joseph proclaim to them the faithfulness of God when he's not seen a shred of evidence of it in his own life for 10 years? Think about it. God says, you're gonna be a leader. Your brothers will be under your authority. He's going from pit to slavery to dungeon. Can Joseph look at them and proclaim God's faithfulness

when he hasn't seen any of it in his own life in regard to his personal promise? Joseph would have been like a lot of us. He would have looked at those guys, you had a dream last night. I had a dream once, leave me alone. Dreams don't come true. Just leave me alone. If he would have done that, he would have died in the dungeon saying, God is not faithful and God does not keep his promises. When the fact is, God is faithful and he does keep his promises. So Joseph does it. He proclaims the faithfulness of God. The butler forgets about him. He's in that dungeon for two more years. My gosh. But then the king has a dream. Butler goes, oh my gosh, I forgot about that guy. One day he's elevated number two in Egypt, really number two in the whole world because Egypt's the number one nation in the world. Seven years of plenty, add it up folks. Two more years of famine. 19 years later, here come his brothers. The dream is now being fulfilled. And we get upset when our dream's not fulfilled in six months. Sure is quiet in this Methodist church right now.

Here's the lesson from Joseph. Here's the lesson from Joseph. Listen to me. No man, listen carefully, no man, no woman, no child, no organization, no devil can ever get you out of your destiny. Joseph's brother said, we're gonna kill him and see whatever ever comes of his dream. See if he'll ever rule us. When in reality, God says, oh yeah, I'm gonna use you boys to fulfill that dream. The only one that can get you out of your destiny, point your finger, is you. God only intended Israel to be in refining for one year. Go read it. He intended them to be in the wilderness only one year. But Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10 that Israel is to be an example for us. Because listen, how would you like to be a pastor of three million people? I'm talking about Pastor Moses. And only two adults in your entire congregation ever fulfill their destiny. None of us would want that job. But that's what happened. And they're to be our examples. God only intended them to be in refining for one year. One year, that's it, one year. But you see, they had a pattern of complaining. See, I was reading the list in 1 Corinthians 10 one day.

I'm reading it carefully. It's like, they are to be our examples of, so we don't miss our destiny, right? And I started reading the five big things that kept them from their destiny. And it was like, tempting Christ, sexual immorality, idolatry, right? And then there's this one called complaining. And you know, my little sister grew up watching Sesame Street, and I remember the song they sang. ♪ One of these things just doesn't belong here ♪ And they'd have a picture of a truck, they'd have a picture of a boat, a picture of a bicycle, and a picture of an elephant. And it's like, the elephant doesn't belong, right? And I'm like, God, this complaining does not deserve to be in a list of idolatry, and sexual immorality, tempting Christ. I said, this, I'm obviously missing something here. And I prayed that day, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me, I'll never forget, he said, son, complaining, listen, is a very serious sin. I said, why? He said, because it's an affront to my character. He said, complaining says to me, God, I don't like what you're doing in my life, and if I were you, I'd do this differently. I went, oh my goodness. I remember from that day forward, I told Lisa, I said, we will discipline our kids

for rebellion if they complain. Now, there were people that thought we were extreme, but all four of them work for our ministry, isn't that interesting? And I remember one day, I'm on a four-day fast, and I'm like, kind of proud, I don't complain, I don't complain anymore, I got it together. And then I woke up on this four-day fast, and God said, I hear the complaining in your heart. I didn't get out of bed. I rolled to my knees, and I said, God, I'm so sorry. Are you with me? See, they had a pattern of complaining, and then their life-defining moment comes. Everybody say, life-defining moment. See, you never know when your life-defining moment comes. You never know. It's an open-book test, but you don't know when it's happening. Like with Rehoboam, you know he's Solomon's son? And the whole nation comes to him, he's just been made king, and all his young years, he and his buddies are probably going, my dad's counselors are so old, they're so out of date, they are so backward. So now he's king, and the people come and say, are you gonna be tough as your dad? He goes, I'll come back, I'll give you an answer in three days. So he goes to his dad's counselor, and he's like,

oh, gosh, those guys are so old-fashioned. Goes to his friends, his friends say, oh, man, you show him who's boss. Say, my little pinky's gonna be larger than my dad's waist. You think my dad was something, I'm gonna be twice as hard, right? He says it, and loses 10 out of the 12 tribes. That was his life-defining moment, he didn't know it. Israel's life-defining moment, they go in to spy out the Promised Land, and they do what they've been doing, complain. And they end up dying in the wilderness. Do you know there are Christians that are still in refining, and they're in perpetual refining, in perpetual wilderness, because they haven't learned how serious complaining is. Come on, come on. Come on. Come on. Cheer, come on. Come on, come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. You still with me? Yes. I'm sure, I'm almost positive,

Joseph felt abandoned in that dungeon. Like, God, you have left me, 12 years, 12 years! And every time I obey you, my life gets worse. I can only imagine he felt abandoned. Would you agree? Come on, let's be honest. Watch this video. Everybody has a hero. Mine's my dad. Yes, I get it. Since mom died, it's only been us. He has a way of filling my life with color. Dad, which one? That one. Sometimes, I don't understand his advice, but I trust him. And what always brought us together was our love for running. One day, I'll be faster than him. And when I am, I'm gonna win every marathon in the world. Abby? What's wrong, champ? Or at least that was my plan. I'm losing my sight. And real quick, read to me the lowest level that you can see on there. What is called is interocular melanoma. Eye cancer. Unfortunately, you will lose your vision. That was the day my father disappeared.

Dad! Wakey, wakey. Ready to run, champ? I thought he would always be there for me. I guess I was wrong. Dad, where are you? Dad! You abandoned me. Where are you dad? Where did you go? Do you not love me anymore? Am I still beautiful? Are you no longer proud of me? How could you leave me when I need you the most? Dad? Dad? Dad, why did you leave me? Abby thinks I've left her. And as much as it pains me to hear that, she's right. I've left her. The best that we can do is save the actual eyes so that cosmetically she doesn't lose them. That's my girl. That's my girl. That's my little girl. There's support groups and I know this is a very difficult time. I've left her to realize she's more courageous than she ever imagined. I've left her to discover how beautiful she is from the inside out. I've left her to challenge herself in ways she never considered. I've left her to discover how strong she really is. Abby? Abby, it's me. It's me, baby. Why did you leave me? I was right here. I was always here. Where did you go? I was always here, baby.

Listen, no one believes in you more than I do. You know that. Think about how far you've come. Don't you, baby? My dad says he gave me what I needed, not what I wanted. You ready? Yep. Folks, what we're seeing here is amazing. This is a testament of true love. What we're seeing here is amazing. This is a testament of true love. Love is allowing someone to see their true worth and beauty. I used to think my dreams were over. I thought I'd never run again. And even though I can't see my dad, I know he's guiding me the entire way. It's all right. It's all right to cry. The first four times I watched it in South Africa when our team made it, I cried. So I want you to listen to the words of Job. Job went through a very similar thing that Joseph went through. I want you to listen to the words of Job in the light of this video. Job made this statement. He said, look, I go forward, but he, God, is not behind me. Job made this statement. He said, look, I go forward, but he, God, is not there. I'm backward, but I cannot perceive him. Manifest presence. When he works on the left hand, so God's there.

He's right there working on behalf. Just like her dad was right there the whole time, she didn't know it because he wanted her to get strong. When he works on the left hand, I cannot behold him. When he turns to the right hand, I cannot see him. But he knows where I'm going. Why? Because he planned it. And when he tests me, can I ask a question? Why are we so freaked out about the word test? Can I say this? I flew over the Atlantic Ocean a few weeks ago, and I am so glad the pilot passed the test. Because he and I didn't end up at the bottom of the ocean. Tests only reveal to you what's in you. God said to Israel, I brought you into this wilderness to humble you and test you so that you could know what's in your heart. He knows what's in our heart. Because he's given us a free will, and he won't violate and take anything out of us unless we ask. When he tests me, I will come forth as pure gold. When I think about pure gold... Oh my gosh, did you know that pure gold is actually tender? It's soft, it's pliable, it's not rigid, inflexible. Do you know that gold has a counterpart called brass? Brass looks like pure gold, but you know it tarnishes. Pure gold never tarnishes. Do you know that when you go through God's refining, the world, the atmosphere of the world can't tarnish you? Do you know that pure gold, the streets of heaven are made out of it,

and the Bible says in its pure state, it's transparent. You can see right through it. Do you realize that when you come forth as pure gold, they now no longer see you. They see the treasure in you. We need to see more of Jesus in the church. Job's response was exactly the same as Joseph's. Job said, for I've stayed on God's path, I've followed His ways and not turned aside. I have not departed from His commandments, but I've treasured His words more than my daily food. That's what I love about this church. This church treasures the Word of God. Always has. Hope it always will. But I look at some people today, Christians, I have nothing against social media. My daughter-in-law's around here posting for me right now. But I don't understand how people can spend two hours on social media and can't even read the Word of God for 15 minutes. I just don't get it. Job said, I treasured His words more than my necessary food. Just try and experiment. You know, if you don't believe me, just go without eating except on Sundays. Eat one meal, only one meal on Sunday, and do that for four months and tell me how you're doing. You won't be doing very well. You know what's really scary?

You know what's really scary? Our body screams when it's hungry. Our spirit does the exact opposite. It gets quieter. So you don't have your spirit screaming, I need the Word of God. It just gets quieter. And every day that goes by, it gets less appealing. Why do I sense such an urgency on this message? Because God, you know, in the early 1980s, I saw miracles like you can't believe. I mean, miracles I knew were upcoming. I mean, miracles I knew were upcoming. I mean, miracles I knew were authentic because I was the pastor's executive assistant. We literally saw people walk in with canes. They were totally blind that walked out seeing. Ambulance backed up to our church. The paramedics rolled out a guy who had less than 24 hours to live. The guy got so miraculously healed, he pushed his gurney out. I mean, we had a wall filled with wheelchairs, crutches, and canes, and all the people had gotten healed. I knew they were all true because I'm the pastor's assistant. But then God spoke to me in the midst of all of it and said, I give my church a thimble full of my power to see how she'll handle it. We didn't handle it well.

We marketed it, we made money off of it, we used it to promote ourselves. He said, so I'm gonna bring my church into a wilderness. Jesus went in filled with the Spirit, but he came out in the power. He said, when thy church comes out of the wilderness, she will walk in the greatest measure of my power than ever before. I believe we're right on the verge of coming out, but listen, the greatest attack against us comes at the end of the wilderness. If you look at David, he's in the deserts for 12 years, but when does the Amalekites steal all of his wives, his men's wives, all their possessions, days before he was anointed to be King of Hebron, days before he just came out of his wilderness, his harvest was just about to come and now his own men want to stone him. If you look at Jesus, he's tempted by the devil for 40 days, but it's at the end that the real notable temptations happen that are recorded in the Bible. The greatest attack comes just before. That's why I said to Martine, we've got to get this book out. I really feel prophetically we're at the very end and that's when the greatest temptations are gonna come. Did you get something out of this? Amen. I love you guys.

I love your love for the word of God. I want you to bow your heads. I want you to bow your heads. I want you to close your eyes. Just take a moment. I just want you to be honest. You say, John, I've really not navigated, I've not navigated my refining very well. I'm actually a little bit more like the children of Israel than I am like Joseph. I've been complaining. I've actually been disobeying God I've actually been disobeying God because I'm mad at him because things haven't been going my way. I love the word repentance. It's such a beautiful word. The good news is he's so quick to forgive, but it takes us repenting. So if you're in here today and you'd say, man, I'm ready to confess to God and I'm ready to repent of my complaining, my sin, my disobedience to him because I'm mad. I want you to raise your hand up high right now. I wanna pray for you. Just be honest. Wow, hundreds of hands are in the air. Hundreds. Just stand to your feet. Can I pray for you as you stand?

We'll all pray together. Keep your heads bowed. Some of you are sitting and you wanna be standing. Why aren't you? Be honest, don't deceive yourself. Yeah, yeah, more people are standing in. Good, I'm so proud of you guys. Yeah. All right, I want everyone to pray this out loud. I really want you to pray this from your heart. Don't just recite these words, pray from your heart. Say this with me, Father in heaven, thank you so much for speaking to me today. I realize you've been doing a great work for my life. You've been preparing me, not punishing me, but I've seen it differently. I've seen it through the wrong lens. And so I've complained, I've even disobeyed. For this, I'm so very sorry. I repent and I ask you to cleanse me with the blood of Jesus and with a greater understanding than I've ever had before. Jesus, I confess you as my king, my Lord and master. I'm completely yours in Jesus' name, amen. Let's give him praise. Come on, give him praise.