Recalculating

What up, what up, what up, what up, church by the glades, what's happening? Come on, you can do better than that if you know that God is good all the time, from the front to the back. Let me hear you make some noise. Come on, let's give it up for King Jesus. Awesome. Oh, you guys came ready, ready. Oh, you guys may be seated. This is the best service so far. I mean, you guys are lit. We're going to have a great time today. For those of you guys that are new, welcome. My name is Scott Williams. I'm going to be your host for today. I'm going to be your host. I'm going to be your host. I'm going to be your host. I'm going to be your host. I'm going to be your host. by the glades is my home away from home. I love it here. I love preaching here. I don't need to go through all the stuff. You guys have an amazing passion, an amazing church. This is my church too. I love you guys, and man, I can't wait to preach God's Word today, but let's start by welcoming everybody to join us all around the world online. We got people literally joining us from everywhere. Just give a hand clap to everybody joining us all around the world online. This is awesome.

I could imagine if I was a guest, how many of you guys, this is your first time at church by the glades. First time here? Raise your hand. Keep them up. Keep them up. Oh, wow. Lots of you. Give them a hand clap. Now, what we need you to do, we need you to go ahead and come down to the front so you can share your testimony. I'm just playing. First of all, if you're new, if I'm new and I'm coming to church, I mean, what is going on? Seriously, you got the animal kingdom on stage. It's crazy. To be honest, when some people see this stage and stuff like this, some people are like, wow, and shock and awe and all that. There's others of you come here like, man, some of you got invited by your uncle or your aunt or whatever. Some of your niece invited you. Come like, Jenny, what you doing inviting me too? What's going on? Got the animal kingdom on stage. Some of you guys just preach the word. Just preach the word. You don't need all this. I'm going to let you guys know, it's not either or. The creator was creative. And sometimes you need to be creative to be able to tell the story.

I mean, if we look at Jesus' example, Jesus, a third of his teaching are what we call parables, which are stories of the time to help illustrate the word and to give these biblical and divine truths. And that's what he'd do. So, literally, this is kind of like a living parable. The same people would be like, just preach the word, would be the ones that'd be out there when Jesus was teaching, like, yo, man, you're going to keep talking about farms and animals and all that stuff. And that's why I love my church by the glades. We are about Jesus and his word. So you're going to get the word, the word matters, and we're going to preach the word. Because what we got to understand is about creativity is creativity is often just the translator of truth, because people may forget what you said or what I said, but they'll never forget what they saw. And that's what's important. So we want you to be able to see things. We want to be able to bring the word to life. As a matter of fact, the last time I was here, I kind of came up with a new little thing that I was trying. This is my second time doing it. But I'm going to say, are you ready? And then you're going to say, I'm ready for the word. All right, online, you go ahead and type it in. Are you ready? See, that's what we're about. We're about Jesus and his word. And so what I'm going to do, like, this series has been awesome, been lots of things, like, you know, first week, got a chance to hear about some monkeys, then some okapi, opaki, whatever the little thing with the stripes that was kind of — what's it called? Opaki, yeah, that thing right there.

And then the — Pastor Charlie, yeah, the burning bush, there's lots of things, like, but they've all been these great revelations of creativity. I think it's really important. So I'm going to go ahead and set up the stage for the time we're going to look at in Scripture today. If you have your Bibles with you, you can open up to Numbers, Numbers 22, but I'll go ahead and kind of summarize it for you, and I'll bring us down to about verse 26. So there's a time in Scripture where Israel's balling, right? They're just taking down two kings. They're fresh off defeating two mighty kings, two nations, two battles. And when that happens, the word started spreading. People putting on TikTok, they're putting on their Instagram story, like, they're like, yo, man, these guys are — man, they're taking folks out. So the word had got around, and the word starts spreading, so every other nation began to get nervous. And King Balak of Moab, what he did is he looked across the plains, he realized if they're moving in like this to everybody else, we're next. And so his fear turned into desperation, and sometimes that's what happens in life. Our fear turns into desperation. What we've got to understand is that God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, so what it is is if it ain't from Him, the desperation ain't from Him, and so that's important. And so he reaches out to Balaam, and Balaam is kind of the more interesting cats-and-olives in Scripture, translation, interesting guys that we're looking at in Scripture, right? And because Balaam, like, he was kind of like, he was a prophet, so he would hear from God, but he was a prophet for hire, because he would go out and he would share different things and put different curses on people. So the thing is, is like, some people say he's a false prophet, but if you really look from a theological perspective — He was more like a wicked prophet because he did hear from God,

but he used it in a very, very perverse way. And so what he does, he says, you know what, let's go to Balaam, again, this famous prophet, and if you wanted someone blessed or you wanted someone broken, you would go to Balaam, you'd pay him some stacks, you'd pay him a rack, you'd pay him a bag of money, and he would take care of it for you. And so Balaam sends his crew to go with a message, and so he's like, hey, we come to you, the king said we want to come to you and we want to offer you some money, we want to offer you this bag, but what we need you to do is we need you to curse Israel. So y'all tracking me right? So he does this and he's like, you know what, he listens and he goes to God, and God says, no. And so that should have been the end of the story, right? God said, no, we ain't doing that. But what we got to understand this is that temptation doesn't just disappear, it reappears in something shinier. Because some of you guys, like you had some temptation with that one guy and you said no, but then the cuter cat showed up, you're like, oh, but he's, you don't even know what to say, but he's, you just stop right there, right? And so like, but again, it shows up, so that's the same thing that happened to Balaam.

So again, it showed up, and so he said no, so should have been the end of it. So Balaam sends a second group of more powerful men, and they had a bigger bag, they're like, yo, man, I know you said no to our first offer, I know you said no to purity that first time, but just come over to Netflix and chill this time, like that, I know you said no, and so that's what he did. So this next group, they show up, they show up and then they come to him like, hey, this is what we want you to do, and this and that, and Balaam, he knew God had said no, but instead of standing firm on God's word, Balaam folded, he started negotiating with disobedience. And many of you guys, you find yourself in that situation you're in right now, you know why? It's not their fault, it's because you were negotiating with disobedience, and some of you keep praying for confirmation when God is already giving you the command. Here's the deal, you have the gift, but you're on the wrong road, and that's the situation is with Balaam. So he saddled up, said I'm gonna go ahead and do it, he got on his donkey and he hit the road. And he was chasing what looked like destiny, but it was like I said, disobedience in disguise. And many of you guys, that's what you're chasing. Matter of fact, many of you guys, that's what you're in right now. So y'all track me, so he's on his donkey,

gets on and he says, this is what we're gonna do, I'm gonna go out there and we're gonna go get this bag and I don't know what God said, but this is what I'm gonna do. And I think that's important for you to understand because when he's chasing the bag, it represents different things for different people. And as we go along with this mess, I want you to begin to think about what does the bag represent for you? Because for Balaam, it was the money, that's what he was chasing, that's what he was spending all his money and time, but for some of you, that's not what it is. But I want you to think about what does this bag represent? What are the things that you're chasing that you know are not of God? What are the things that you're chasing that your parents told you not to do because they know that that's not in the word of God? What are those things that you're chasing because culture tells you that's what to do, but you know every single time you finish doing it, you feel busted and disgusted and you're going to God and saying, I don't want to do it again. What is the bag that you're chasing? You see, Balaam was on the donkey on the road. He didn't have the bag yet, but the bag already had him. Oh yeah, that's good right there, ain't it? That's funny too, the fact that you thought it was funny.

I thought it was good, she thought it was funny. Okay, let's go ahead and pick up in the scripture, verse 27. This story is so, this is just gangster. Okay, when the donkey saw, so they're going and he's on the road, so he's riding on the donkey, they're on the road and he show up and the angel of the Lord comes out. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam and Balaam's anger was kindled and he struck the donkey with the staff. When the Lord opened the donkey's mouth and she said to Balaam, what have I done to you that you have struck me these three times? And Balaam said to the donkey, because you've made a fool of me, because you made me look crazy in front of all these people and these cats brought me this money, you over here doing this, they trying to get me, I'm trying to get to the bag and you tripping, I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would have killed you. And the donkey said to Balaam, am I not your donkey on what you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way? And he said, no. Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam and he saw the angel of the Lord stand in the way and with his drawn sword in his hand. bowed down and fell on his face.

And the angel of the Lord said to him, why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come to oppose you because your way is perverse before me. The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside for me surely just now I would have killed you and I would have let her live. Ooh. Hey, I'm not, this is what the word of God is saying. Then Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, I have sinned for I did not do that you know that you stood on the road in the road against me. Now, therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back. And so I want you guys to think about this. Like he's on the road, he's on his donkey. And sometimes when we're on a journey, like we're going in, we're paying attention, we're looking to our surroundings, we're looking around. And oftentimes we're just looking at our GPS. I'm a ways guy. Like I like ways because I feel like his ways are better than our ways, but that's a whole nother message for a whole nother time, right? And so, but sometimes when we're going, like we need to recalculate. So the title of today's message is recalculating.

I want you to turn around to your neighbor and say, don't chase the bag. No, you're supposed to say that out loud. This is a participatory sport. Turn around to your other neighbor. Your second choice is they don't chase the bag. Turn around to the other neighbor on the other side and say, follow God. Again, because we're all set. That means we're ready to go. We're all set, let's go. I thought ways was trying to tell us something. What are we getting ready to do? Y'all ready? Okay. Hazard reported ahead. And that's what you got to understand. Sometimes like there will be a hazard reported ahead and you need to adjust and make sure that you're prepared for it. So I think that's important for you. But many of you, that's not what you do. So what we're going to do today, when we think about donkeys, donkeys is obviously what we're going to look at. And again, I've done more research on donkeys in the last couple of weeks, preparing for this message that I've ever done on donkeys. I'm going to give you information that you didn't know about donkeys, I promise you.

And just as here's some unique facts. How many of you guys have ever ridden a donkey? What? Nevermind. I mean, y'all messing up my whole illustration. Why y'all riding donkeys? Like what is going on? It's a online, I don't know, a third of the people in South Florida have ridden donkeys, but that's another story for another day. That's crazy. Okay, so here's the deal. So Balaam's donkey was the only animal in all scripture that God spoke directly. God made him directly speak because contrast that to in Eden, that was Satan, not God giving speech. So culture of donkey represents humility, service and endurance. They have incredible memories. If you saw a donkey, for those of you that rode them, they remember you for 20 years. They can remember you for 20 years. They're intelligent problem solvers. Like donkeys can go open up gates. They can jump over stuff. Like they're really, really smart. They have nearly 360 degree vision. Like they literally have night vision and each eye works independent.

So they can be like, folks know you over here and then Johnny over there. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like that. But anyway, so they're stubborn and they have this heightened danger perception. They're hardier than horses in the heavier and desert conditions. They have lifelong bonds, they have big ears and it's also to amplify sound and to help regulate their body temperature. They're the only animal besides humans that are known to smirk. They'll be like, like matter of fact, when you get your phone out and you get a chance, I want y'all to find a really interesting image of a donkey and just tag me on Instagram. I'm gonna post all these. I mean, like I was looking up images of donkey. There's some crazy looking donkeys. Y'all got that? Find a smirking donkey. A smirking donkey is what you're gonna find anyway. And many bear this natural cross on their back of their shoulders, which, you know, you think about that. I think we got some picture of donkeys than what looks like the cross. That's donkeys. Those, that's not like it. Those are like normal donkeys.

The ones y'all, when you see out there being crazy, they be smirking, but that's what the cross looks like. So that, I can preach a whole nother message on that about Jesus riding, but I'm not, that's not what I'm talking about Balaam today. But I want you to know that that's there. And I know all of y'all have ridden donkey, a third of you, but I had never even seen a donkey, like for real, for real, like I'm from Oklahoma. We see them out there, but when we were in Turks, I was there and when I got engaged, my fiance and I were there, like the town we were in in South Caicos, there was more donkeys than there were people. Like literally the population of donkeys, just Google it, was more than the people. And so there's donkeys everywhere. I remember we landed at the airport, true story. Like we're walking out the door and there's like six donkeys at the front door of the airport. My fiance, oh my gosh, they're so cute. Look at the donkey, look at the donkey, look at the donkey. She was so like amazed by, you know, she's from Arizona, like, I guess they don't have donkeys in Arizona, but she was amazed by the donkeys, right? And so we would go and then like one day, and we'd been there for a few days and she wanted to go see the donkeys. In her mind, we needed to go back. the airport where we saw the donkeys first, right?

But we would see them everywhere. And she decided she wanted to ride on a bike. So I'm setting the scene for you. The bike that her brother was on is the one with the basket on the front, right? And so I'm riding on the bike with the basket. I put the GPS in ways to go to the airport and we're pedaling, right? We're pedaling and I'll be honest with you. On the car ride, it was about like, it felt like a five-minute ride. On the bike, we had been riding like 15, 20 minutes and we were nowhere near an airport. You know what I'm saying? And I'll be honest with you, her brother was like, but again, I just got engaged. I'm trying to, yeah. And we're riding, true story. And there's a donkey on the side of the road. Babe, it's a donkey. So she stops, takes her hand. She wants to take pictures with the donkey and the donkey's there. And in true story, there's like this donkey. And then across the street, there's like two other donkeys that were like plotting against. She's like looking like, oh no. I was like, no babe,

I think we need to turn around and go back to the hotel. You've seen your donkeys. We ain't going to no airport, right? And so basically what we need to do, we were recalculating, right? Recalculating. Exactly, we were recalculating. So we turned around, true story. The Lord is my witness. We're riding, we're going back. It starts raining as we're getting close to the resort. The rain opens up and the brother got his locks. You know what I'm saying? It's pouring down. And I wish I could tell you that I was a gentleman and I just stayed right beside her. A brother started peddling like a tour de force. You know what I'm saying? Every once in a while, I'd turn around, look, and make sure she was still back there. You know what I'm saying? She got back, babe, you left me. No, I didn't leave you. I was making sure everything was good. Make sure there was no objects on the road ahead. You know what I'm saying? I needed to recalculate. I'm going to give you guys the three signs you need to recalculate. Everybody say three signs.

First one is if you're taking notes is this. Is others see what you don't? Let's go ahead and read verse 27 again. When the donkey saw, the donkey saw, right? The angel of the Lord, she laid out under Balaam. And Balaam's anger was kindled and he struck the donkey with the staff. Angel on road ahead. Like the angel was on the road ahead. Balaam was there and he struck the donkey. Like he's mad, right? The angel's trying to see some stuff and tell him, look. The donkey's like, I can see some stuff you don't see. I got this crazy 360 degree vision. I see over here and over here, player. You know what I'm saying? You don't even see it. And so that's what he did. So he tells her he sees it. And as I'm reading this verse, it kind of reminds me like, we got to think about it. Like there's so much in the text. If we look at this same verse in the King James verse, by a show of hands, how many of you guys are King James folks by a show of hands? Okay, we got a lot of interesting stats in here. A third of y'all read King James. Amen. As a man readeth. I love it.

You know what I'm saying? Here's what that verse says in the King James. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam. And Balaam's anger was kindled and he smote the ass with the staff. See, y'all don't even know what to do with that. The seventh grader in you comes out, you're uncomfortable. You're trying to hold your, hey kids, don't look. It's the Bible, right? It's the Bible. And that's what's interesting. As I look at that reading, like the word ass in scripture isn't vulgar. As a matter of fact, the old English term, it's a donkey. It was using the King James Bible for 300 years and until modern translation shifted to donkey to fit cultural language. So the problem isn't that the Bible had a problem, it's culture. Culture hijacked a holy word and made it perverse and vulgar. But that's what culture does. Culture hijacks things because you think about it, like the rainbow, it represented God's promise. If you look throughout scripture and culture hijacked the rainbow, I'm here to tell you, it's not pride, it's God's promise and that's what the rainbow means. Culture hijacked freedom

and turned it into rebellion instead of redemption. I'm just free, I want to do what I want. Culture hijacked marriage and made it preference instead of covenant. Culture hijacked faith and made it manifesting. And your rocks, your rocks in your pocket. I don't want you to run around with some rocks. I believe in the rocks and believing in your Gemini and Capricorn and all of that goofy stuff and y'all think y'all are man. manifested, but that's not faith. You've got to be trusting in God. And culture hijacked purpose and made profit off of it instead of calling. So some of you need to get off your ass and quit listening to culture. King James, King James, get off your donkey. King James, King James, y'all don't be clipping that and having some, no, King James, King James, King James. You see, sometimes God lets others see danger before you do. Young people, can I speak to you for a minute? I know you think your parents are just old folks and they don't know nothing, they be hard on you. But the reason why they're telling you the things that they're telling you is because they see things you can't see. They've been there, they were once your age. They were once your age. And they want what's best for you. And I'm here to tell you, like young people,

I don't know what it is. I'm not just gonna get on the young people, but young people and this vaping. Some old people too, it's a lot of y'all. Some of y'all got it in your pocket right now. I'm here to tell you, like honestly vaping, like the nicotine in vapes is 50% more carcinogenic than it is in old school cigarettes. And you young people around here thinking you're cool and ruining your lungs and ruining your body and ruining your future. And we're here to tell you that there's gonna be a class action lawsuit 20 years from now after you're in trouble like your grandma and great grandma on the M-World with cigarettes. And also for all my vapers, this is young and old, like do y'all know we see y'all? Y'all be trying to act like, y'all be like. I don't even know what they're writing. Y'all know a brother don't vape. Y'all don't even know what I'm doing with the thing. You know what I'm saying? That's what y'all gonna be doing in real life once you mess yourselves up so much with these things. Dear Jesus, I don't even know. Where am I at in the message though Lord? Let's get on to it, let's get to it. And old people, listen to your kids today. They're growing up in a different generation than you do. They got different stuff that they're facing.

And you just need to hear them out. Employers, I'm talking to you. You need to listen to your employees. You're creating a horrible work environment. You're not leading, you're managing. And they take those experiences, they go home because you're chasing the corner office and the bag and the money. You're taking all that negativity and putting it off on people in your work. They go home and take it out on their spouse and their kids. So you have a responsibility to do that. And again, I used to work in the prison system and in the prison system, one of the things we looked at was recidivism. That's whether somebody committed a new crime or they came back into the prison system. And it's important, it's one of the things that we measure. But many of you are caught in what I call spiritual recidivism because you're repeating the same sin cycle and expecting different results. That's what you're doing. And so you can't claim that you want deliverance when you're addicted to disobedience. If I never preached this message, you wouldn't know the things that you're supposed to do. You just don't wanna do them. We're educated well beyond our willingness to be obedient. So the second thing if you're taking notes is this,

is that caution comes out of nowhere. Everybody say out of nowhere. Out of nowhere. In other words, you know you need to recalculate when you get some caution out of nowhere because sometimes that's what it does, it comes out of nowhere. Let's read verses 28 through 30. Then the Lord, what? Opened the mouth of the donkey. And she said to Balaam, what have I done to you that you have struck me these three times? And Balaam said to the donkey, because you have made a fool of me, I wish I had a sword in my hand for then I would kill you. And the donkey said to Balaam, am I not your donkey that's loyal and faithful and will remember you for 20 years on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way? And he said, no. You see, God opened the mouth of a donkey and this doesn't sound crazy, but Balaam is having a full-blown conversation with his transportation. And we just read like he's having a conversation with his Uber driver. Before it was a Uber driver, right?

He's having a conversation with the donkey and that's what God will do. He will use unique situations. So, you know, if it's absurd, but sometimes when we ignore the obvious, God will start speaking through things that we see as absurd or. out of nowhere. You know, when something like, man, that just came out of nowhere. You ever said that? Or man, like, man, you ever had those moments where you're like, man, I knew I shouldn't have? Anybody by a show of hands, I knew, I knew? Anytime you have that I knew, what you need to understand is God already knew. That's the Holy Spirit reminding you and speaking to you through that I knew moment, but what he wants to make sure that you do is because you knew this time that you don't go and know next time and still do what you know that you're not supposed to be doing. And that's what happened. When you won't listen to conviction, he'll speak through consequence. That's what happened. He speaks through all sorts of things. I mean, think about like many of you guys, like the bag that you're chasing is what Balaam was chasing.

I mean, it was gold and silver at the time. Many of you guys, what you're chasing is the money, right? It's what you want, it's the money. By a show of hands, how many guys, you'd be honest enough to say, I'm chasing the money, chasing the bag. It's okay, a lot of you chasing the bag. So at least you're being honest. I don't want you lying to church and go to hell. You know what I'm saying? So like, but here's what we understand. Like, how many of you guys carry paper money? Got paper money? Anybody got any money in their pockets, like paper money? If you got any paper money, take it out real quick. Real quick, got like 10 seconds. Take it out of your pocket, your purse, whatever. Take it out. Everybody take it out. Just grab some deals. Grab a $100 bill, $5 bill, $10 bill. Now I want everybody to bring it down here and put it in my hand. No, I'm just playing. The new people are like, I knew the church was about money. I knew it. This edible kingdom is Satan. But look at the back of the bill. What does it say? In God we trust.

Even our money remembers what culture forgets. You see, that phrase was first approved in the U.S. a long time ago, like in 1864 after the Civil War. And it wasn't put on paper currency until 1957. And it's important to remember the reason why is because it was meant to be a public declaration that our national trust wasn't in wealth, it wasn't in weapons, it wasn't in D.C., but we put our trust in God. Yet today, culture will try to tell you something different. Culture wants you to spend it, and they want to try to redefine it. They turn provision into possession. They turn something that we were grateful for, gratitude, into greed. And they turn your faith into a flex. What we gotta understand is that no matter what culture says every single bill, and we say we wanna take money, God out of the schools, we wanna take God out of the workplace, we wanna take God, but have you ever heard anybody talk that they wanna take God out of the money? Every bill and every coin testifies that in God we trust. If God can make a donkey talk, he can make the money talk too. And money is still preaching louder than many of us, and it's definitely preaching louder than many of the influencers that you're following. That's what God will do, is he will have

this divine moment of revelation for you. Maybe that's what it is today, through something that's unexpected, through a very unexpected instrument. And so last point if you're taking notes is this, is you realize you're at a dead end. Everybody say dead end. Dead end. This is when the band will come play behind me and make me sound more spiritual. As I close. Y'all take your time, take your time, take your time. They really taking their time, you know what I'm saying? There we go. And give me a little like Pentecostal church organ, there we go. Verse 31, then the Lord, what? Opened the eyes of Balaam. One more time. Opened the eyes of Balaam. And he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with this drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face. And the angel of the Lord said to him, why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me. The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me,

surely now I would have killed you and let her live. Then Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, I have sinned for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now, therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will do what? I will turn back. In other words, as ways off. Says I'm gonna make a what? We gonna make a what? Make a u-turn That's what you need to do Recalculating and once you do you're gonna recalculate and you're gonna start looking when you recalculate things start to look different Where you're going looks different, but many of you guys what you're still doing is you're you're holding on to the bag And you're still holding a bag. So some of you think you got all like oh I'm not worried about the money, but some of you maybe what it is. It's it's gambling You play the sports books every single week and you don't win not in their week I'm from Oklahoma nair means none. You don't win nada You never win, but you're always gonna win next week and you keep gambling and for some of you guys It's the bottle We talked about the people around you everybody around you tells you have a drinking problem But you call yourself a social drinker. The only problem is you're social every day And People don't want to admit that they're an alcoholic I had a friend that tried to get a guy from his work into a substance abuse program We went to the facility and they reached out to me said I'm not ready to go inpatient now and what the worker said is like he's gonna need some more consequence before he's truly willing to surrender and Unfortunately, maybe guys you're gonna lose your family before you surrender. So I need to go get some help Maybe your bag is social media. You won't it's how many likes you can get your you're posting pig You're at church on Sunday

And then on Monday you're posting some pics in your private Snapchat that you don't want your mama in the sea and you don't want God in them to see and you're in DMs that you Know you shouldn't be in and that's what you're doing. I Don't know what it is for you or maybe maybe it's video games I'm not saying it's something wrong with video games I mean I got something in here for everybody you just think about what your bag is Maybe it's a bandy ladies. Yeah, you spend all this money that you don't have trying to please people that don't even care Girl he ain't even looking at your story I Don't know what it is for you or maybe maybe it's video games I'm not saying it's something wrong with video games But some of you fellas you're spending more times on video games than you are on your purpose And this is the bag that you're carrying and this is the bag that you're trying to look at Some of y'all's lap let me stop Why get in trouble? I'm about to get in trouble put this stuff back in his bag Lord Let me get put this stuff back in his bag. I was watching a deal with Casanati's a big streamer you guys know Casanati is like big streamer, and he was doing an interview with Kirk Franklin and And it reminded me of something we looked at Balaam the shinier object because oftentimes some of us mistake. God's no for go And what we got to understand is that when the bag gets shinier we try to call disobedience opportunity Right and so in 2023 Casona was offered 60 million dollars to do a branding deal With a gambling service and and and he said what he did he says he went and prayed and he asked God if that's what He was supposed to do and he sought God He felt like that that was going to take him away from his purpose and he turned it down and he turned Around and what he said is I don't want any short-term money I want long-term purpose And that's what's important for you to understand if a streamer can understand that you need to and guess what just last week two years Later he became the most subscribed to streamer in twitch history with over a million subscribers and guess what that's more money He would ever make in some 60 million dollar brand deal

And I'm here to tell you what you got to understand and we got to be real some of you guys What you understand is you've been holding on to this bag You've been chasing this bag and some of you guys have been circling same road for years and God is trying to recalculate You but you keep hitting ignore you say you want change But you got to leave that chat that tempts you you say you want things to be different you say you want peace But you keep feeding chaos you say you want direction But you keep putting your GPS on me when it convicts you you can't outrun Disobedience and run towards disobedience and try to call it destiny you can't pray for breakthrough while you're holding on to the thing That's breaking you and many of you. That's what you're doing sometimes God has to let your plans fail so his purpose can prevail He will let you get to the proverbial wall that you're going to hit guess why he will make that car stop Not to punish you, but to protect you because what feels like redirection is normally It's divine protection, but you got to recalculate my friends You got to recalculate the more you chase the bag the more you lose sight of the blessing And some of you that are leaving right now I've been carrying the bag so long That you forgot what freedom looks like that two minutes We talked about he gonna stall that car Some of y'all gonna miss the blessing You can't hold on for two minutes You were never called to carry the bag But you were always called to carry the cross Let's pray Jesus I thank you for everybody. I'm the sound of my voice and Those you'd be honest enough to just admit. There's some areas my life I've been chasing the bag and I want to do different just raise your hand across this room got to pray for every person that's Honest enough to say they've been chasing the bag and as they Acknowledge that Lord, I pray they can't get through this week without opportunity to be able to drop it I pray that blessing and breakthrough come in their lives

I pray that freedom come in their lives And I pray that just like Balaam did that they turn around and when they do they turn around to the doors of blessing opening We love you, and we thank you and it's in Jesus name. We pray everybody said