The Best Way To Victory

You can not skip a stage of development, but you can skip disobedience. I'm going to work on this. I'm going to break it down. When they went through the Red Sea, listen to me, it was required. God didn't ask, "Do you want to go through the Red Sea?" He said, "Either go through the Red Sea or stay here crying about it and die." I guess they didn't have to go through the Red Sea, but it was their only option if they wanted to survive. You've got to go through this. Hey, that's what keeps me preaching, because somebody's got to be up here talking. I don't really get to pray about—you know how you get to pray about, "Lord, speak to me," and then if he doesn't, you can—I can't do that. I'll be making bargains with God like God. I'll sell it all. I'll give it all away. Give me a word. Why? Because I've got to go through the process to do this, so it is for you. There are some parts of your process that you cannot skip. If you skip the Red Sea, the Egyptians will follow you to your next assignment. If you skip the uncomfortable thing, you're going to still be dealing with the dysfunctional thing when you get to the place where God has taken you. You've got to go through this. The Red Sea is requiring. You can't skip that. You can't skip the practice of coming into the presence of God and saying, "Lord, I need your strength today," and I really don't want to get out of this bed, but I've got to go forward. You can't skip that and not expect it to catch up with you. Even at this stage of my life, there's stuff I used to skip.

I can't skip now, stretching, stretching. Stretching to me used to be a nice idea. Now it is a necessary life-saving practice, huh? I'd rather not wear my seatbelt in my car than not stretch before I'd do my squats because I'd rather take a chance God will protect me on the road, but I know He's not going to protect these hamstrings. I've got to stretch. I didn't used to have to stretch. I've got to stretch. They didn't have to go through the Red Sea when they were slaves. They had to go through it when they were free. There are some things in your life in this season that God is leading you through because He's calling you to be a leader. You can't skip this. That's why you had to come to church, and one of your friends is just washing their car and getting a head start on the wings. Nah, I can't eat wings with you before church. I can eat wings after, but I've got to get in the house of God to save that weight on the Lord. We'll mount up on wings like Eagle, so you eat your wings, but I've got to get mine. I can't skip this. The Red Sea was required. The Red Sea was necessary. The Red Sea is where God drowned their enemies, whom I'm preaching to. The waters were necessary, and so were the walls. So were the walls. When the walls of Jericho fell, God had to do something supernatural so that they would have the faith to fight the rest of the battles. Jericho was the first city they had to take. They had many more battles to fight.

You've got to face this, and the walls wouldn't have fallen unless they walked around them, and the sea would not have split if they didn't walk through it. The water was necessary. The walls were not optional, but the wilderness was. The waters were God's tool to set them free. The wilderness was what they chose, because they were not willing to fight. Let me explain this to you. In Hebrews chapter 11 verse 29, you want me to share all this, or you want me to skip it? You said, "Don't skip it." That was so polite. I'd like to hear it. I mean, I can't speak for the entire congregation. It's a very diverse group and body, and I know everyone else might know this part, but fool me in if you'd like. This is the greatest church in the world, man. This is the greatest church in the world. (applause) Okay. Well, write this down. God is in the gap. That gap where they wandered 40 years, God is in the gap. And the enemy wants to take that gap too. Now, for the Israelites, the gap was between their identity as slaves and their identity as sons and daughters of God. And on their way out, I should probably just break this down generationally. Verse 29 is Moses' generation.

Verse 30 is Joshua's. It's a generation gap. 40 years in the Bible represents a generation. That's how they counted generations. So it's a generation gap. And the generation that saw the walls fall is not the same generation that saw the waters part. All of the men who were above the age of 20 didn't get to go in to the promised land. And even though Joshua isn't named, he is the exception. Joshua and Caleb, they're the ones who, when they went out to spy out the land, they come through the Red Sea, they do a little recon. They say, hey, go see what's going on in there? Is it walled, is it fortified? What's the grape slide? Bring us back some grapes. Well, they brought back grapes, but they were talking about giants. And they talked about the giants more and they talked about the grapes. So they got stuck in something that God wanted to bring them through. That's the wilderness. The wilderness they lived in for 40 years. And they died in a desert that God could have delivered them right through. We know from Deuteronomy that the trip through the wilderness to the promised land,

the edge of Canaan, Kadesh, Barnia, where they sent out the spies and 10 came back with a bad report and two with a good one, Joshua and Caleb. We know from Deuteronomy that it was an 11-day journey. How do you turn 11 days into 40 years? How do you get stuck in something that God wanted to take you through in a week and a half? I mean, look at the Scripture again in verse 30. Put it up there. It says, in seven days, the wall fell. Seven days was all it took, 10 minutes a day. Seven days, okay, hour and a half on the seventh day, 'cause they marched seven times that day. And the walls fell. Just that quick. So, something that one generation couldn't do in 40 years. Another generation did in a week. With God, what should take years takes days. With God. So, in case you feel like it's too late for you, with God, what should take years takes days. In case you've wasted some seasons and you're feeling kind of bad, because you've been in a wilderness of your own decisions. Oh, I tried to blame others, but it's really not them to blame. You know how I found out? Because even after they left my life, I kept struggling with the same thing. I'm here in this wilderness and I wish I had not disobeyed God. I mean, I wish I hadn't gotten in that relationship.

I wish I hadn't invested in that business. I wish I hadn't have dropped out. I wish I hadn't have tried it at that party. I wish I wouldn't have gone where everybody else was going. I wish I would have said I'm too drunk to drunk. I wish I would have been nicer. I wish I would have been around. I wish I would have traveled so much for work. I wish I would have put more aside. In case you are wishing in a wilderness today, you need to know, with God, by faith, what should take years, takes days. How do you know? In seven days, the walls fell. In seven days, what stood against them came crumbling down. In seven days, they made it into the land. In seven days, everybody shouts seven. I can do better than that. In seven days, God took darkness and made it into light. In seven days, God separated the waters and the firmament above. From the waters and the firmament beneath. In seven days, God made vegetation and plants and every seed-bearing thing. In seven days, God filled the sky with birds and the water with fish. In seven days, God reached into the dust and breathed into the breath of life. In seven days, and you tell me what God can't do. I got a seven day God who only needs six because on the seventh day, He put His feet up and said, "I'm done and I'm resting in it." See if you were making the world you'd have to get the wrong materials to do it. But God doesn't have to get the wrong materials. He can speak a word, and his word is the wrong material.

In the beginning what's the word? And the word was with God, and the word was God. So when God said let there be light, he didn't have to build a power plant. He said I'm going to skip all of that and speak what I want to speak. And I believe there are some people in this room today who need to know that God can do in one moment of favor what a lifetime of labor could never have come again. High five seven people again and say quick quick quick quick quick quick quick quick quick quick quick quick God can do it quick. Seven days. That's all it took. One night wiped out the entire Egyptian army. So you're sitting there figuring out what you're going to have to do about this situation. You're figuring without your father. With God what should take years takes days. And without God what should take days takes years. They could have been out in 11 days, they turned it into 40 years. Because instead of coming to God, their source, they sent their spies. And they went by what they saw instead of what God said. The second generation, they said 40 years is long enough. You know what I think is amazing about Jesus? He bridges the gap. He bridges the gap. He makes possible by faith what they can only experience through works. They could have skipped the wilderness if they had obeyed God. You can skip the wilderness if you believe. What are you saying? You're saying I don't have to go through hard things? No, I'm not saying you don't have to go through. I am saying that there is some stuff you can skip even within the hard stuff you go through. I need to use a stupid example right now.

Forgive me. Video games have changed a lot since my generation of video games. Really, they've improved so much. I don't ask God for much, but why couldn't I be 14 right now with the state of video games? It would have been so much more enjoyable, right? Because I walked in the other day, Elijah was playing Donkey Kong, the new Donkey Kong. But he was Donkey Kong. That was so trippy for me. In my generation, we were running from Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong flinging barrels at you. Running up on ladders. He was Donkey Kong. He is now, he can control Donkey Kong. Generation. They make fun of me. I was trying to play one of their games a couple of summers ago. I'm sitting there watching the screen because we didn't have this on my games. But it was like the game stopped and it played a little movie on the thing. And somebody was talking and I'm just sitting there. And Graham walks in and he goes, "What are you doing?" I said, "I'm watching the thing. It stopped. I'm watching it." He goes, "That's a cut scene. Why are you watching a cut scene?" I said, "It's a what?" He said, "It's a cut scene." Then he reached over. And he pushed a button on my controller that said, "X." And he said something.

And when I say it, I want you to shout. He said, "You can skip this." So I came here today. Like Joshua to see if I can find an X button on your controller. Because you're sitting through something. Suffering through something. Struggling through something. And you're going to skip it. You're going to skip it. They're not ready for that. Don't put that beat on them. Don't put that beat on them. You got to skip that. Because if you start playing those drums, we'll be here all day. When I start telling the people that you don't have to die in this wilderness that dry bones can live again that you don't have to spend the next 40 years. Come on, just push your neighbor like this. X button say, "You can skip this." You can skip this. You can skip this for real, for real. No, I can't skip the Red Sea. No, I can't skip the six days of walking. You got to walk around the walls, but watch this. You can skip it if you step. What do you mean? What do you mean? You mean that if I do the right thing

and if I pray the right prayer today and if I praise the right praise today and if I worship the right worship today that the thing in my life that I'm praying about is just gonna fall down like that. No, I am saying to you that you may not be able to skip the difficulty but you can skip the unbelief. That's what you can skip. No, no, you got to go through the waters. You got to face the wall, but you don't have to wander in the wilderness. Not one more day, you can skip this. You can skip this. I want you to hear my annoying voice in your mind all week long when you go to have that argument. And you know good and well that if you say what you're about to say, you're gonna be cleaning this up for the next 20 minutes, for the next two weeks. I was sitting at a family dinner this past week and I was just irritated. It was me. It wasn't the people at the table. They were delightful, but I found myself edgy. And you know, when you get edgy, you get petty and you know, 'cause you're stressed, you spiral and now you're edgy and you're petty, but now you got to edge, so now you just cut something and now you're cleaning up blood for the next hour

because your kids are all bleeding because you didn't know how to come to the table and skip what you wanted to say. So you could eat the food in peace. But I tell you, it's like slow motion too. I went to say it, I was so proud of myself 'cause I don't always skip it. Something most of the time I used to say it. I went to say it, I was like, "You know, you're old." (audience laughs) It went out of my mouth and I envisioned in the future a one hour over compensation of me. Now it's trying to be so nice because I was so mean. Y'all don't ever do this at home. I'ma go home and repent and y'all can polish your halo and we'll meet back here in a year when I get my life together. But I got it right and it was like the Holy Spirit said. You can go ahead and start this drama by just saying whatever you want to say or you can skip it. Mid sentence. You know, I didn't even have the presence of mine to make something up like I was gonna say. I just let the batteries die on my stupid mouth. (audience laughs) All right, I shouldn't say this. You can skip it if you'll shut your stupid mouth. Is that all right? (audience applauds)

I'm sorry. James says, "If you will control your tongue." That's what I meant to say. I see it came, I didn't need to say it like that, but I said it like that. After they marched, verse 30, isn't about, after they marched, after they marched for seven days, the wall fell down and they didn't have to live in the wilderness because they marched. Do you know what the generation before them did? Murmured. They went in and saw the giants. I got it ready for you in the King James version. You wanna see it? Look at it in number 14 too. They saw the giants, came back, and all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "Would that God we had died in the land of Egypt "or would God we had died in this wilderness?" And they did. Because they murmured. Second generation came along and said, "We can skip this." If we murmur, we're gonna stay here. If we march, God will make a way. I came to ask you a question. You're gonna murmur or march? You're gonna murmur or march? Last week I taught you that God can turn a mumble

into a miracle when you pray, but the enemy can turn a murmur into misery. You gotta bite your tongue. One thing that impressed me about Joshua, he learned from the lessons of Moses. He said, "We can skip this." Go over to Joshua 6. That's where they walk around the walls of Jericho. One day I'm gonna preach Allah, a remix of my favorite sermon from my youth. It was called, "Don't Stop on 6." I might preach it next week. I might preach, oh, the memory of it is probably better than the sermon was, but in my hand it was awesome. Because Joshua did something so strategic. Now, God met with Joshua. He said, "You gotta take the people into the land. blow, the rams horn which signify jubilee which signify freedom. I want you to blow the horns every day you march and march 10 minutes a day and then go back. Now Joshua knows something is very intuitive. Well, in 24 hours in a day the march is going to take 10 minutes. I guess we got to polish our stuff and get ready so that's an hour. We're going to do the other 23 hours. The last time the people of God started talking about their situation. They murmured themselves right out of their miracle. So God told Joshua have a march but he did not tell him to do this. This was just his instinct. God will tell you to do things by instinct that you don't even have a direct scripture for. I'll prove it to you. Verse number nine, the armed guard marched ahead of the priest who blew the trumpets and the rear guard followed the arch. All this time the trumpets were sounding but Joshua had commanded the army. Do not give a war cry. Listen to this. Do not raise your voices. Matter of fact, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout, then shout and they

marched instead of murmuring. And God is telling you today that you are going to have to bite your tongue and blow your trumpet so you can skip some of the stuff that you've been fighting with because you keep creating wilderness with your words. But your tongue is getting you in trouble but your trumpet can get you out because the trumpet represents what? Praise. The trumpet represents what? Victory. So I'm making a mantra for my life this week. More trumpet, less tongue. I'm going to praise God more this week and complain less this week because I don't want to dig myself deeper into a disappointment that I'm already dealing with. I've been in this wilderness long enough. I've been depressed long enough. I've been anxious long enough. So yeah, I've got to go through the sickness but I don't have to lay at home all day googling different symptoms about what the sickness could be. I've got to go to my treatment but I don't have to give the enemy my imagination. I can skip this. Because God is a healer. Because God is Jehovah Rapha. Because God is my banner. Because God is my medicine. I can skip this. (applause)