The Pathway To Success Pt. 8

So this week, let's go to the word of God, Joshua chapter one, verse eight. And here's the scripture we've been, let's read it together, let's do that. On three, one, two, three. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. That's God talking to Joshua, but he's not talking to Joshua and it's exclusive to Joshua. When God talks to somebody in the Bible, he's talking to us indirectly, like this is the pathway to do this. This is how this gets done. If you wanna get to good success, my word is very important in the process. It's gotta be in your mouth, it's gotta be in your meditations, it's gotta be in your public conversations and interactions, gotta be in your private conversations, and it's gotta be in your lifestyle. You gotta observe to do it. So what I want you to do this time, I'm gonna read it one more time, I'm gonna read a clause and then I want you to repeat it, but I wanna make it personal.

This is a good way to read the Bible to yourself to personalize it. That's why you can say that's my verse right there. That's not just Joshua's verse, that's my verse, my life verse, I stand on that. So do it like this, repeat after me. This book of the law shall not depart from my mouth, but I shall meditate in it day and night, that I may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then I will make my way prosperous, and then I will have good success. Amen, you may be seated. Amen. It is undeniable that the word of God is critical to Joshua's pathway to success. Now I'm gonna give you the end of this message right now, and then I'm gonna go back and walk you to the end again, but I wanna share something with you about Joshua and about people who are successful that is critical to your pathway to success. It is something you gotta develop a skill to do that is very important to your success, and I talked about it earlier in the series, I'm doubling down on it today, and it's really counterintuitive because it's like one of those nuances. What I wanna give you today is a nuance in your life. It's not really, it's major, but it's a tweak. I don't know if you ever had somebody teach you something

and you were doing it wrong and they said do it like this, you'd be like. And you'd say, I've been, that's how you do that? Yeah, you didn't have to do all that. Or you worked out the wrong way, or it was something you were doing wrong, and somebody came along, and watch this, when they taught you that, you never went back to the improper way or the ineffective way of doing something. This is one of those lessons, and I'm gonna give you the main thing, and it is this. In order to be successful, you're gonna have to master the art of saying no. There's actually an art to saying no, and you gotta be skillful at it and proficient, and you gotta have something else that God told Joshua he's gotta have to do what he had to do to be successful, and that's courage, all right? Now, remember, remember, God told Joshua this book of the law, that's a reference to the Bible. Now, notice Joshua's limitation. He only had five books to work with in his lifetime. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, I can't even say it, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. That's all he has. He has the Torah, the Pentateuch, that's the total volume of content that he had to work with, and God says, this must be an important part of your life,

your conversations, your conduct, your thinking, and I don't just need you to talk about it when you're around other people who follow me. I need you to talk about it when you're alone to yourself, because those are the kinds of conversations, if they're not informed by the word, you will be a public Christian, but you'll be a private, like, just, you'll privately sabotage what God is doing in your life. I mean, understand what I'm saying. Like, God can say, you're the head, not the tail, but in your private, in your mind, you'll listen to the devil tell you things, and you'll hold onto that more, because those conversations are more frequent, the ones you have with yourself, than the ones you have with other people in small group or in church. Like, you can get good at church, right? You really can get good, oh yeah, that's what I'm, won't he do it? You know, once you learn all the little sayings, you can really get good at church, but do you say, won't he do it, when you're by yourself? I know you're gonna do this. I know you're not gonna forsake me. I know you're not gonna let me down. You gotta say that stuff to yourself when the devil tell you, look at you a little, where your God at now, right?

So these, When your heart is broken and you can't understand why, but you trust his hand when you can't trace it. You trust his heart when you can't trace his hand. And you're like Job said, don't you slay me yet while I trust you. I ain't going nowhere. I'm all in with Jesus. That was the limitation he had, only five books of the Bible. We have 66 books. We have more data, more content. So when I give you a scripture, I want you to keep in mind that just like God told Joshua, this must be in rotation in your life. The scripture verse I want to give you today is a verse that I want you to make sure is in rotation in your life. And it's in first Corinthians chapter 10, verse 23. Here's the thing, Joshua didn't have this verse. It could have been really helpful to him, but we have it. And this is what it says. It says, I have the right, this is Paul talking to the people in Corinth, the church people in Corinth. He says, I have the right to do anything you say, but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything, but not everything is constructive. So what I want you to understand about this verse

is that there's a difference between what I have a right to do and what is right to do. There's a difference between what is okay to do and what is beneficial. And successful people make more beneficial decisions and do more beneficial things than okay things. They do more constructive things than destructive things. And what the context of this verse is, is first Corinthians chapter 10, right? In first Corinthians chapter 10, it's all about Christian liberty, Christian freedom. It's about people in the church of Corinth who wanted to be able to do what they wanted to do. You ever been around grown people say, I'm grown. So they were like spiritual versions of that. We grown, we don't want all these rules and regulations. So they started, they were professionals at the gray areas, but God didn't say you can't do this. That ain't in the Bible. You ever see somebody say that ain't in the Bible because they want to do it. Bible ain't never say you couldn't do this, right? So here's what Paul says. I'll tell you what, you say you had a right to do anything, but is it beneficial? Because the question for successful people, the question for successful people is not what is okay, it is what is beneficial. You tracking with me? So what does that mean?

That means even though there are opportunities to do things, you got to get proficient at saying no to things. Now, when I say say no to things, I don't just mean evil things, wicked things, demonic things. We know that those kinds of things can impede progress and success. Am I right? Not only can doing evil things impede success, it can actually cause you to lose the success ground you gain. Like it's not just recently that we saw somebody who was in a high position of honor and position of success and lost their job, lost their money, lost everything, is in jail because of, and I'm not trying to highlight anybody. I'm saying that's a public, he's on TV for doing it. Some of us did it and it never got to TV. Talk about it. Y'all ain't saying nothing over here because you, isn't that a blessing? Oh, thank you God you didn't put me on TV. Amen. My stuff didn't go viral, right? But so we understand that not only can doing the wrong thing impede success, but doing the wrong things can actually cause you to lose the progress you've made. But this is what successful people do. They don't, it's not just saying no to evil things, it's actually saying no to neutral things.

Is it beneficial? Is it constructive? It's also saying no to good things. It's also saying no to good people. Why? Because what no does, no is a protector of your yes. Now let me explain that. No protects your yes. Before I go into that, let me give you a quote by Warren Buffet, one of the wealthiest men that ever been in this country. Warren Buffet says this about successful people. Now check out, this is what he said. He says, the difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything. It's so true, they say no to almost everything because everything, watch this, it's so many things that they have opportunities to do that wouldn't protect their yes. What is your yes? There are really about four things that comprise your yes in life. Number one is your relationship with God. Number two is your family and domestic responsibilities. Number three is your calling. And number four is your vocation. Some people's calling and vocation are the same, but those are really the four things that claim your energy, your responsibility,

your creativity, it is my relationship with God. Can I say yes? to anything that would impede or impact my relationship with God? Should I say yes to anything that would impact negatively my relationship with my family? Should I say yes to anything that would negatively impact my calling or my vocation? Because all four of those things require energy from you. They require time from you. They require your skills. They require your voice. They require your presence. So the reason why you got to learn how to say no to things is because it's protecting your yes. Because I don't have enough of me to go around to give a yes to something that will take what I need to give to give all that I have to my yes. Am I making sense right now? So no is not really about rejection. No is about protection. No is not being petty. No is being focused. And some of us can't be uber successful and have good success because we're not focused. And here's what Steve Jobs says. He says actually being focused is about saying no. How about that? He narrowed down being focused in life to being saying no. Saying no. Everybody try it real quick. Everybody say no. Now I want to tell you how I say it nice. Because it's a skill but it also takes courage. How do you know it takes courage? It takes courage to decide that even if people are disappointed I'm still going to say no to the thing that's not best. Isn't it interesting? That's everybody say courage. If you look at Joshua's story in this passage in Joshua chapter 1. I'm gonna go back to Joshua chapter 1. It's like God has to tell him over and over again to be courageous. Now when God tells somebody over and over again to be something that means that's a struggle for them. So Joshua all obviously had some issue with some level of timidity even though he could fight. He was a warrior. They would use him to fight but he had. See you can be strong in one area of your life but be wimpy in another. So when God would tell Joshua to go out and fight, Joshua's like who we going to fight? But when God told Joshua how to deal with people that you know that he had to lead it was different. So go to verse 6 of Joshua chapter 1 where it says God tells Joshua now be strong and of good courage. Of what? Good courage. For to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. He says I want you to have good courage because first of all part of your assignment is going to be when we get to the promised land you're going to have to divide up the land to the various tribes of Israel. And the reason why that's going to take courage is because you're going to have some people

acting like this say well why we don't get that land? We want that parcel. Why does Benjamin's tribe? It's a car. We Judah. We praise. You understand? We nebulon. Like you're going to have to have the courage to deal with people who are difficult to deal with. Who are entitled. Y'all don't know entitled people. It's hard to deal with entitled people because telling them no is hard. And you're going to need courage to deal with that kind of thing. So that's part of it. And then he says in verse 7 he says only be strong and very courageous. Now I'm going to give you a hint. He says then he goes on to say because you can observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn to it from the right or to the left that you may prosper wherever you go. That you may prosper wherever you go. Joshua you're going to need courage because I'm taking you places you've never been. And because you're going into strange places you're going to be walking into places that I'm giving you. That I'm giving your people that you're leading. But there are going to be people there. There are going to be enemies there that aren't happy about you. See sometimes God will take you into places where there are people who are intimidated about your presence. And the reason why they can't really celebrate your excellence and your elevation is because what and they'll say sometimes they don't even say it aggressively. It comes out in snide remarks. Like okay here come Mr. Boss. Or here come Miss Suchy Much. Or come on through. Watch out y'all here she come. And what they're saying to you without saying to it is your success makes me uncomfortable. And your success makes me feel like there's no room for me to grow because my mind is so scarcity driven that I don't think it's enough pieces of the pie left over for me when you get a big piece. Did that just go over your head because I ain't said that all day. So you're going to need courage because I'm going to bless you right in front of your haters. Because I'm taking you in the strange places and bless. Who am I talking. I feel like somebody is listening in this room. Need to understand that what God's trying to do for you is not just to take you up but to take you wide God's trying he says wherever your foot tries. I'm gonna give you that if you can walk to it I'm gonna give it to you because here's how you know, the blessing is from the Lord when you can prosper wherever you go You don't just have a Prince George's County anointing. You got a national anointing. You got an international anointing You got a global anointing the recipe I gave you will work wherever I take you You can do hair anywhere. You can do business anywhere. You can design anywhere because I'm a guy got I'm gonna put a global But I'm gonna put a GPS tracker on you. So that wherever you go, the blessing will go with you

I'm prophesied of somebody here right now that the blessing is on you. So good that wherever you go I'm talking about God opening doors that you never thought you'd walk through I'm talking about God making ways as you never thought he'd make you thought you were limited to one Geographical region but God is about to take you to places and hook you up with the right partners and hook you up with the Right resources because wherever you go, he's gonna bless you. Somebody give him ten seconds of break. God. I just praise you Then I got away Prosperity if I rise up I'm going if I go west I'm going if I go away to school I got in it if I go to the military If I go back home, I got it if I move down the street I got it Wherever you take me the blessing somebody say the blessing is on me. It's on me. It's on me. It's on me Wherever you go, wherever you go, wherever you go, wherever you go. I got a blessing on me I got a blessing on you. Don't let the devil think you're limited to what you can do. I Has not seen It has not heard Neither is it into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for you Don't you limit yourself when you was in Detroit his hand was on you when you came to Maryland his hand was on you if You go south his hand on you. Whither can I flee from your presence? Whither can I go from your spirit if I make my bed in hell thou art there If I ascend to heaven thou art there if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea Even there shall thy hand lead me wherever I go the blessing the blessing the blessing is on me I said the blessing is on Wherever you go and the word prosper doesn't even mean money in that verse. It means skills God's gonna give you the stuff you need to operate in any environment Give you the language give you the connections And watch this and watch this it ain't gonna come without opposition. See some of y'all get too intimidated Cuz God will elevate you amongst people that don't like you And so you immediately shrink back because you don't want to you don't want the drama You don't want the smoke where you can't get the blessing without the smoke. I said you can't get the blessing without the smoke How do I know that because the Bible says he prepares a table? In the presence

Of my enemies And he rushes he anoints my head with oil in the presence of my enemies And my cup runneth over in the presence of my enemies and God is just like that He will pour blessings over you right in front of people that don't like you Somebody give him a praise that your haters can't stop you. Your enemy can't impede you You don't have to like it you can't stop it I don't have to be in your club. You can't stop it. We don't have to do lunch together You can't stop it him. You don't have to pray for me You have to get out my way because God didn't send me here to join. He can't sit me here to rule Where Mmm God is trying to enlarge somebody trying to give you locations Yeah, yeah, it's a you got national nuances Yeah, don't you get stuck in Merlin? Your platform is wherever he sends you I'm gonna give you the skills wherever you go I'm put you in conversation there people waiting on what you got But the reason why you got to have courage is because see when you're when you don't have courage People's dislike of you will make you will make you shrink back. So you don't want to act like you got nothing. I Ain't got no talent. I ain't got no skill I ain't got no resources a because you don't want no you don't you don't want people to not like you And so now you have to dumb down who you are It is dumb down what you bring to the table It is done down what you have so you can fit in and not stand out But what you have to understand the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and he has no With it and he's blessed you to be a blessing to others, but why are you trying to act broke you have what you say? That's good. You better stop trying to act like you broke and trying to talk like you broke You better talk like you're wealthy you better talk like you got every resource you need you better talk like the head You're the head not the tail who am I talking to you're above only see you know what's good about this service I preach better when people are hungry I

Said I preach better when people are hungry Some of y'all are getting stuff cuz you're pulling on me. I feel you pulling on me That's why I got it you understand I say the pool because watch this he's a reward of those who diligently seek him see I would be finished preaching right now For some of y'all cuz you ain't hungry, but it's the people in here That's good God some of y'all in here pulling stuff out of me And God will reward people who are diligently seeking him He's gonna expand your territory He's gonna do it. He's gonna do it in Virginia. Just like he did it in DC Just like he did it in Maryland and in Pennsylvania in New York God is about to show himself strong in your life because he's like that who am I talking to it? If I'm talking to you let him know you're grateful Let him know you're grateful Let him know you're grateful When you say pastor, thank you Asa pastor. I'm not qualified That's why he's gonna do it. I'm not qualified That's why he's gonna do it because when he's do it You ain't got enough sense to do it and you know better than to say anything, but if it had not been For the Lord who was on my side I would not have made it but God Did exceedingly and abundantly I could ask a thing and I'm standing here only because you made a way You made a way you made a way You made a way He made a way I Somebody's just praising for what's coming for what's coming. I thank you for what's coming wherever I go I speak it over your life success wherever you go ideas wherever you go strategies wherever you go Prosperity wherever you go victory wherever you go the right partnerships wherever you go haters wherever you go. You can't stop it You Give me give me verse 9. I ain't messing with y'all

Have not I commanded you Be strong and what there it is again The only thing standing between you and God doing crazy stuff in your life is do you do you have the backbone? Because because there's a there's a posture you have to have when you're blessed and it ain't arrogance. It's just tough And it's gonna hurt you who ain't happy It's Gonna shock you who ain't gonna be happy and beware of it in your own life Beware of your life when you see somebody to go up and party you like Don't let that spirit stay with you Force yourself to hit the like button say I'm so happy for you. I wish you the best. I Jelousy because our God is a big God and he's a great God and if he did it for somebody else He's got what I need. Oh y'all ain't ready for this. Even if you marry my ex-boyfriend Y'all ain't ready for this. Even if you marry my ex-girlfriend He's got somebody for me and I ain't got to worry about what I didn't get Cuz God's got some who y'all gotta believe that God's got something for me I Be of good courage don't be afraid don't be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go Wherever you go, that's how you made it That's how you made it Cuz he was with you That's how you made it cuz he's with you. You remember you wanted to kill yourself That's how you made it it because he was with you you remember it got so dark in your life that the darkness looked the same as the light in your life that it was dark all the time you didn't like the daytime or the nighttime because the whole time was dark but you made it because he was with you I said you made it because he was with you because one thing that won't change no matter how low you go he's in with you I got to go just I got to go cuz this thing will run out and they run out right it runs out I'm telling you the truth the whatever the thing is called runs out so y'all got to sit down sit down so I could finish I don't know

what time it runs out but it does run out and they can't watch it online it's it's technology yeah we can keep going cuz we don't need technology somebody say God make me tough make me tough amen give me the kind of toughness I need for my assignment yeah give me the kind of toughness that handles manipulative people and tricky people let me be able to discern who's really for me and who's against me and who's trying to use me because you're gonna take me up in the places that I ain't never been in before let me know which fork to use because there's too many folks around the plate you're gonna seat me and oh my god you're gonna sit me at tables and sometimes watch this watch this the enemy is not at the table he's watching show me how to enjoy my food while people don't like me show me how to enjoy my blessings while people rolling their eyes at me show me how to oh my god show me how to still rejoice when they don't want me to have it and they mad I ever got it show me how to keep my face my attention on you you understand what I'm saying I ain't got to my point yet that must have been the one it takes courage it takes courage and all I'm trying to do is encourage you that's all this is I just want to encourage you I want to encourage you the enemy wants to discourage you discourage you means you're without courage you can't make it without courage you can't make it without courage you gotta have courage somebody need to change your prayer stop asking God to make stuff nice ask God to make you tough it ain't nice as you go up it's vultures and dogs and rats and it's a rat race it's corruption stop asking God to make it easy ask him to make you courageous and sensitive and discerning amen we ain't got time to be crying we ain't crying we learning amen we expect this yeah we expect this yeah you had to be courageous because I'm gonna take you some places that are out of your comfort zone but the reason why you gonna make it cuz I'm with you let me go back to something let me go myself go back to first Corinthians 1023 I remember where I was your courage is necessary to be able to say no I'm going back to something because if you don't say no because and have the courage to do it because people that don't have

courage our people pleases so we're we're so concerned about disappointing somebody we're afraid there's people in your life you're scared to say no to now there's some people that because of their authority in your life see oh man how we get over here my wife and I were talking to some people we talked to people sometimes and we're we're almost amazed this stuff people do in church that we could never our pastor would never let us do like ooh some of you just aren't under authority you have no authority in your life if you married to ain't under authority that's a troubled situation if your relations right then under no authority like like like if I get out of line she can reach out to Pastor Jenkins if she got a line I can call first lady like that's under authority They tell us what to do like for real for real like like like like like we We were gonna buy a house. We're gonna get an apartment one time We went to them what do y'all think we should do does this make sense that's being under authority and we grown They put the house we bought in Florida. They gave us the real estate. I think this is a good move for you some of y'all We're not 50s you still in yours What what I'm what I'm saying, this is there people in this church do whatever you want to do But is it beneficial? You don't even let me take look at your life. Look at your life and Look at the decisions you made when you ignored authority I'm gonna marry who I want to marry I'm gonna do what I'm gonna live where I want to live and authority was saying Mm-hmm Look at the results of things when you didn't submit with her and you didn't go to the authority You didn't go to authority because you knew they wouldn't bless it It never works. I Don't know how I got over there Like like you who are you under you want to be over everybody who are you under Who can speak into your life and correct you and some of you your success is

Hindered because you don't submit to any authority. I Can tell you people who made their own decisions did their own thing and then when when it when when it goes sour Then they want to come back to you for help But I'm saying you didn't respect the authority All right. Let me let me get back to my note. I'm serious. Yeah job y'all getting too much now I Know it's protection of yes. How do you protect your yes? How do you protect your relationship with God your family responsibility? You're calling your vocation. I'm talking about the thing He calls you to do. How do you protect that? No No is protection It is it is important that you learn the skill to do it So this is how you say no nicely When somebody asked you to do something and it is not in see see if you just laying around house Are you resting and somebody said how come you ain't out with the fellas? How come you ain't doing that here? I'm just resting why you rest in case you asked me to do something cuz this much I want to be I want to be ready when y'all answer see too many times my family say hey k-pop That's what they come. Why don't you come with us and I couldn't do it because I said too many Yeses too many other things. I should have been resting doing nothing. So that when the my My responsibility my so so that I had energy for my yes See some of you had no energy for you. Yes, because you keep saying yes to things that's taking your energy See, yeah, this is a nuance and I know y'all don't y'all don't y'all do you understand what I'm saying? You can't keep saying yes to everybody. I do a lot of funerals and particularly with men I hear it a lot of funerals. You know what? He never said no. Oh Herman he always if you ever ask him anything was always yes, and then Herman is dead If Herman has said no, he'd be watching the game today. Amen I'm saying you can't say yes to everything and be available to the main thing. So no is your protection How do you say no, you know what you say somebody actually to do something say hey, would you come do this? Hey, can you come do this? Hey, can you just say you know what you start with a nice? No, you're like, you know what that is. So amazing What and first of all, first of all, you thought of me

Thank you so much for thinking of me and inviting me and asking me. I am so honored It sounds like really a cool thing. You're doing a cool event your wedding all the way over in Cancun. That's four days That's really cool. I thank you so much for even put me on the invite list But then you go to button but Due to my responsibilities and my schedule because here's the deal some of y'all already tired You're already doing too much. You're already busy. If you don't learn this skill, you'll never be successful You won't have good success because because success requires energy and time and your voice and your mind But you're everywhere because you don't say no to nothing because you don't protect what's gonna make you successful So so you say but you know given my responsibilities and my schedule. I just don't have the time To make it right don't tell them that day don't that day doesn't work Let me tell you how that'll trap you because you say no that day don't work. They don't say what day does work? Then they got you Now you got to give them a day and I'm saying there's no data will ever work for that So don't I'm giving y'all I'm giving y'all give me y'all. What'd you call it? Well, give you something I'm saying don't say that day won't work for me because they say oh, we'll work with your schedule Just say this is what just say this is given my responsibilities and given all this on my plate I just can't do that. That's it. I don't have any other but but didn't you go back to say But that was so kind of you to think of me and maybe consider me in the future Keep me in mind in the future If you mean that you can say that if you don't mean that don't clue that because you'll need I don't need Everybody keep me in mind in the future, but but you here's what you can also, but that's such a great event Oh, I pray it goes so well. I wish him. Well want the best. This is a nice. No Thank you so much for thinking about me. I can't do it given my my responsibilities I'm gonna have to regretfully say no, but I hope it works out. Well, in fact, here's another thing you can do You can say I have somebody else in mind if you go through the rolodex of your mind Who could do well and what they're asking me to do because they're asking you to do something if they ask you to serve or Participate in it because you do that. Well, so now you think you know who else can do this because whatever you do Well, you know somebody else that does what you do. You say hey, I have a recommendation somebody if you want I can recommend somebody who might be willing to do what you've asked me to do

Would you like me to you know, give you their contact information and that's work now. You're working for them Now I'm actually employing myself for you because I'm not gonna do it But I know somebody who might be able to do that for you Would you like me to make that, you know, reach out to the person for you now you're working for them You're not doing it, but you're doing some work. So now you got to call this person say hey Some people ask me to do something and and I I can't do it But I think you'll be a good fit for them because of what they're asking for it That's right up your wheelhouse and they might say well how much they paying and then you gotta So the person I do now you're working right you got to find it So what you want to do as quickly as possible just connect them. So let me let me put them in contact How should they email you call you now? You connected them You've given a resource a reliable resource because your name is on the line because you recommended them and then you get out of it That's a nice. No. Now if anybody can't accept that that's their problem. I told you I can't do it I told you I was honored that you asked I wish the best for you praying that it works out and also offer the recommendation What else can I do? You understand I'm saying then you go on with your life. But what you just did was you just protected your no You protected your yes. Now now here's the thing. You got to watch out for some people don't respect you or your no Even when you make a recommendation they will come back and ask you again. Let me give you an example There's a man named Nehemiah and Nehemiah chapter 6 Nehemiah is calling his assignment his life's work His most important work is in history that he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem His homeland was lying in ruins and it was vulnerable and God used him in 52 days to rebuild a wall and create garrison and protection around his Homeland and it's so many great stories about it While he was rebuilding almost completing the work verse 2 of chapter 6 says this now This is very important because you got to understand that some invitations a number distractions Sam Ballard and Gesham sent this message to me Come and meet with us in the village on the low land of Oh No, everybody say Oh No Well, that's your answer right there

That's the answer right there Anybody call you to a meeting and Oh No has already given you a revelation of what you're supposed to say Absolutely. Oh, no, you want me to watch all for your kids for the whole weekend? And I don't know when you coming back and you got a passport in your hand They go had to go with you And it's not because it's hard see some people say well I don't want to do nothing that's hard Everything that you're called to do has some heart about it What I'm doing right now ain't easy Is this easy pastor Larry press release this is hard This is difficult But I can't do my difficult and your difficult and still be committed to my difficult Because if I do your if I watch for kids all weekend, y'all will not see me on Sunday. You may not see the kids either It's not that you're running away from difficult you're running away from what takes you from your yes But watch this he says he says I realize that they wanted to cause trouble for me That's another thing. The Holy Spirit will not only give you a quick. Oh, no Sometimes in your spirit, you'll know right away. Nah, I ain't supposed to do that That ain't even in my yes That ain't even that's it's fine. That's why I wish you well, I don't know but did he also gave the sermon the Holy Spirit? Let him know this is a Dangerous ask they trying to harm you the Lord will let you know when somebody means you you know He'll tell you something something ain't right about that How many ever got invited into something you say that ain't don't go over there. Don't you go over there something, right? You ever got that in your spurt the Holy Spirit. Tell you what car not to get don't get in that car Something ain't right with them people. You gotta listen to that. He's trying to protect you. So this is what he does Verse 3 so I sent this message back to them. I'm too busy to come to meet with y'all The work here is too important. You got to know the importance of what you're protecting. I Cannot stop the work here to come and meet you. I'm on assignment But watch what they did in the next verse the Bible says in verse 4. They sent me the same message four times Know what that is disrespect

Whenever somebody doesn't respect your first no, that means they don't respect you or you know So guess what Nehemiah did each time he said, oh, no Because watch this the frequency of the request doesn't make it come from God It wasn't God the first time You some of you give in to something because people keep pressing up on you about it Just because they're relentless don't mean God sent them Actually, that's disrespect Because anybody to respect you when you say no the first time you'd be like, oh, I understand I know you busy I respect that but when they come back and say well, come on. Why can't you do this? Why can't you do is your turn to do it and all that they don't that means they don't care about you They only care about what they can get from Y'all better pay attention to this That that coming back over and over again and what happens is there's some people even in your family who can make you do something because they keep pressing you and they keep Making you feel bad. So, you know, you finally say, okay, then okay, we're gonna do it Watch this when you have you ever say yes to somebody you really didn't want to say yes Watch this. They think they got what they want Because they wanted you but what they have now is a manipulated watered-down version of you So even if you give them what they want, you ain't gonna give them your best Cuz they cuz you didn't want to do it But now you're doing it and watch me what what is this what's this man? This is this man Peter Drucker Peter Drucker. Give me Peter Drucker Peter Drucker says this there is nothing He said something like give me the Peter Drucker quote for you. There's nothing so useless as doing efficiently What you should not be done doing at all Shouldn't even be here Shouldn't be here and I'm doing something. So watch this I'm not even gonna do it good because I was manipulated into doing it But because I didn't protect my yes I'm giving my energy and time and abilities or something that I can never get back because guess what? Yes has a cost Yes has a cost and guess who's gonna have to pay it

You you got to pay for it with your time and with your energy and with your voice and everything and guess what? One of the costs of saying yes to the wrong thing is sickness fatigue Being less than your best. So you're a masterpiece meant to be great But you'll find yourself doing a lot of good because you said too many yeses and some of you it's all your yeses That's messing with your successes You think you think you don't think you don't see it but all those yeses all those no problems all those I can make that Happen all that stuff is deteriorating you It is it is making withdrawals on the on on the on the universe or the the organization or the corporation of you and When you get overdrawn on your person, the penalty is sickness and the people that overdrafted you Won't even send you a card Because it ain't their fault is yours because you didn't know how to say and oh no, let's try it everybody say no And sometimes, you know, there's something you'd like, oh no, should I do it should I do it? I don't know you ever been in one. I don't know. That's a good Here's what a man his name is mark something I can't pronounce his last name, but I found this quote Greg McEwan He says if it's not a clear if it isn't a clear. Yes, then it's a clear. No, if you like this, nope Ha ha No Because the conflict is probably emotional not strategic it's not wisdom So so here's what so you protect the important by letting the unimportant go Because because here's the deal. I'm a close with John Maxwell's quote John Maxwell says this you cannot overestimate the unimportance of Practically everything and people make their things things. Oh, man, you gotta come we don't be able to get this done with you It's just ain't gonna be the same without you and you didn't go and they still worked It's just it stop Just it's not what I'm supposed to do. Amen You got it. See you see the point you got it. It's just a tweak You start with no You have to have an internal note almost everything that's what that's what Warren Buffett said

Yeah, right. Don't even know. No, you don't even say it. I'll allow you this though I know I ain't gonna do it. So you go ahead. Let me get my nice. No together I'm gonna try to get somebody to replace me and I'm not saying you can't do anything like I'm just saying your nose got to Go up Your nose have to increase and your rest has to increase I Use Kobe Bryant. I've been using them all day because he's a great example of somebody who was so great Because he said no to everything else when the other players was going out and clubbing and party. He's watching film Gavin When other people playing video games in a room, he's working on his craft. He's studying his opponent. He's meeting with coaches He's working on his body. I mean focus Steve Jobs said focus You gotta focus This one thing I do I'm gonna stop right there Me talking about net yes, and no, I would say the most important. Yes, you'll ever say in your life is yes to God Yes, Lord Yes, I receive your love yes, I accept your son yes, I accept the gift of your salvation Here's what God did John chapter 3 verse 16 said God has made a way for us to live forever This is what he did the Bible says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son He so loved the world the world the worst And gave his best Gave his only begotten son that whosoever Believes in him his son should not perish but have everlasting life God so loved that he gave God loved God gave we believe we live forever God loved he did his part. He gave Our part is smart small. We believe we say yes to it and we live forever Not because we doubted all our eyes across our teeth, but because we believed in the one who paid the penalty God loved God gave

Watch this and because we believe we won't perish which lets me know if we don't believe That's look at the Florida verse You're not gonna perish because you believe all of us are heading towards perishing Belief is the interceptor Belief in what he did through his love and what he gave to his love. It's not automatic. Everybody's saying it's not automatic and He won't force it on you It's a choice You say yes to it. Yes, I accept you Lord. Jesus is my Savior my Redeemer If that's you today in a moment, I'm gonna invite you to come to the front and say yes, I accept that I don't want to perish. I Want to live forever? Because the only way you can live forever if you don't go through Jesus is you got to be perfect Well too late Let me make it it's too late. How many you know, it's too late for perfection I Don't even I had to go back to preschool We've all messed up. We've all sinned falling short of the glory of God, but God has made a provision for us It's just believe I put my trust in Jesus. Maybe you're here today. You're not Doing that for the first time you've already accepted Christ as your Savior, but you say man I just don't feel like I'm saved. I feel like I'm disconnected. You might need to recommit your life to him You might just need to know have assurance somebody to pray with you somebody to share scripture with you to give you the confidence that You really are in the family of God if that's you in a moment We're gonna make space for you at the altar to come up And maybe you're here today. You need prayer. Just I just need somebody to pray for me. That's what we're here Let us do our job That's what we're here to help you in your spiritual life. Finally Maybe you're here and you're ready to join this church For years. I never even told people about joining this church I think it's funny because I didn't do it. My pastor came in again listening to your pastor

He says came in August 2024 I said he said I think you should give your church your congregation opportunity to join the church and accept Christ every Sunday So we started doing it With no system. We still working on the system, we just, I did it because he said it. And always receive correction. But one of the things that makes joining church make sense to me is because a lot of y'all are members at a lot of, of a lot of stuff. You remember, you, some of y'all members of Costco. You got a card in your pocket named Ronald Johnson, member. You can't just say that. You can't just walk in Costco and say, you know I'm a member. Show me, when did you go through the application process? There's some kind of way you become a member of Costco. Some of y'all in the bowl, in a bowling club, you're in the bowling league, you're a member. The black strikers. You throw gutter balls all the time, but we in the black strikers. You got pitches, you got the uniform, you got the glove. You got your own ball, you got the bag. Black strikers. Remember, you're AKA, Delta Sigma Theta Mega Psi Phi. You in there. You can't just say I'm a Q. You know I'm a Q. You gotta go, you gotta go through

whatever they do to be a member. Y'all got memberships in professional organizations. You, you remember the Big West, Prince George County Big West Fellowship. You in professional groups. You members, you got memberships. You members got a gym. How many of y'all got gym membership? Where you got, and some of you got multiples, and they still charging you. I'm saying you a member of five or six things, and you ain't a member of the household of faith. Nowhere, like, and this is the point. You call Zion your church. You know I go to Zion. You know, you know I go to Zion. I'm saying you can't just say that. You, yeah, there's a process, amen. Amen. So I wanna give you an opportunity today. It ain't even no pressure. I'm saying just make real what you said. This is what'll give you the opportunity. So if you need to make that commitment today to join the church, or you wanna come forward to say I'm receiving Jesus Christ as my savior, or I wanna be assured of my salvation, well, just pray for me. Whatever group you're in, just come on up to the front now.

Come on up to the front now. You're online right now. Put your hand up in the chat. Pastor Alicia.