The Pathway To Success Pt. 9

All right, here's our word for today. Our foundation scripture is Joshua chapter 1 verse 8. I am going to read it, but I want to read it in a way that is personal to us like we did last week, and I want you to repeat after me because part of what I want to discover is what the energy level is in this room. I'll be able to determine it really quickly here. Here it is. It says, repeat after me. This book of the law shall not depart from my mouth, depart from my mouth. It shall not depart from my mouth, but I shall meditate in it day and night. I shall meditate in it day and night. Day and night. There is no wrong time to spend time in the word of God. It is always the right time to spend time in the word of God. So I shall meditate in it day and night that I may observe to do according to all that is written in it, that I may observe to do. I'm not listening to this sermon so I can go correct somebody else. I'm not trying to go into the word so I can find a scripture to rebuke you. I want to rebuke me so 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. And it all starts with this book. You may be seated. When God gave Joshua the pathway to success in Joshua chapter 1 verse 8, it is replete with God's word. This book of the law, it is everything. Everything in your life that is going to go up is connected to and pivots around this book. It must be in your mouth. It needs to be in your meditations, and it needs to be in your movements. And I want you to understand that what we've been doing in this series is giving success tools. We talk about the importance of focus. We talk about the importance of grieving the right way so you don't get stuck on Moses and you can't get to the promised land because Moses ain't here anymore. We talk about the importance of saying no to stuff to protect your yes. We talk about the importance of resting. We talk about the importance of health. All of that stuff are tools, you understand what I'm saying, that are part of success. And this tool today is no less important. And when I was writing this message, God said to me very clearly that for many people listening to you, their next level of success is in my word. It is going to be connected to your relationship with his word. I can't tell you how important that is. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his, watch this, this is the blessed man, his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates both day and night, and he shall be like a tree that is planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth fruit in his season, and his leaf shall not also wither,

and whatsoever he does shall prosper. Notice the importance of the word in there. You are not going to succeed at the level God's trying to take you and be ignorant of and be deficient in the word. It's critical. And I'm telling you, why just settle for natural success when you can have supernatural success? And supernatural success is spiritual in nature. And in order to have spiritual success, you got to be doing something that involves the Holy Spirit. Now, if you're a believer, the Holy Spirit indwells you. He lives inside of you, but he only responds to the word. The word makes the Holy Spirit perform. I got Bible for that. Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void. And in the midst of this chaos and darkness and emptiness, the Bible says the Spirit of God hovered over the earth. When the Spirit of God is hovering, he is waiting on a word. He is waiting to perform. I promise you the Spirit of God is hovering over your life. I promise you he's hovering over your life. What's going to make him move is not a poem. It is not some nice song that you came up. He only responds to the word. So in verse three, when God says, let there be light, the Spirit said, that's my move. When he got, when he go through each day and he's given a new word from God, that's when he moves. The reason why things don't move in your life is because there's no word to make the Spirit of God move. And there's some things you can't get to in the natural without the Spirit, because you are a child of God and God doesn't want you to get into something on your flesh. So instead of trying to kick doors down, the Holy Spirit will open doors for you that no man can close, because he's got the key. I don't know who I'm talking to here. He's got the key. You don't need to manipulate the door. You don't need to know who's on the other side of the door. If God be for you, I said, if God be for you, he can open the door that no man can close. And I don't care who you know on the other side of the door, he loves you so much,

he can close a door that no man can open. So it is critical that we have a relationship with the word, the word of God. Now, the reason why this is so important is because the devil will fight you around the word of God. We started this year, I was saying we want to have an allegiance to the word of God. That's where all these series started with our pledge allegiance to the word. And it's like, God is bringing us full circle in this series to say, when I told Joshua, you ain't gonna make it without keeping that word in your mouth and keeping that word in your heart and your meditation and keeping it in all the things you do in your movements. It's interesting how much the devil will fight us around the word. I want you to go to Mark chapter four, and I'm gonna tell you three things about what the devil was doing to fight this very word and what we need to do to be victorious in this area of our lives. In Mark chapter four, beginning in verse three, it says, well, let me start in verse 14. Because Jesus gives a parable about a sower, seed, and soil. He tells this story, and then in verse 10 of Mark chapter four, his disciple says, what is that about?

Jesus gives them the answer in verse 14. So I'm gonna start with the answer and then go back through the parable. Jesus says, the farmer plants seeds by taking God's word to others. So here's what you have to understand. This whole parable is about three things. There's a sower who's called a farmer, and what he's sowing is the word. And what the result of the word is what happens when that word hits soil. When the seed hits soil, the results of the seed have nothing to do with the sower or the seed, because it's the same sower and it's the same seed. The only thing that changes from a successful result to an unsuccessful result is the condition of the soil. Is the soil rocky? Is the soil rich? Is the soil shallow? You know, is the soil got thorns in it? Did it fall off the soil into rocky, onto the pathway? Whatever, whatever, the determination of the success of what the sower sowed by way of the seed of the word of God is always on the soil. You know what the soil is spiritually? It is your heart. It is your heart. Let's go through this parable. I'm gonna take a shortcut through here.

Let's go right to, no, I ain't gonna take a shortcut. Let's go to the long road. Listen, a farmer went, verse three, out to plant some seed. That's a, watch this, that's a sower sowing the word of God. Verse four, as he scattered across his field, as he scattered across his what? Notice the field is the target. Some of the seed fell on the footpath. That was not the goal. The goal was the what? The field or the soil. Because seed doesn't work on a footpath. Seed only works in soil. How many of you understand? You can't plant a seed in concrete. It has to stay in the soil. But some of you are so soilless and so street at the same time that sometimes that seed hit both your street side and your soil side, and so sometimes it fall off into the street. Ooh, that was so good. I'm gonna have to get this tape. So here's the deal. It says the birds came and ate up the seed because the seed was available, because it didn't go in the, it's harder for a bird to get seed in the soil than it is on the footpath. Now how does that translate into us?

When the word of God is preached to you, your heart is the soil, your head is the footpath. If the word only goes into your ear and it only hits your brain, then it's still on the footpath. Well, the brain is the devil's territory. It is the playground of the enemy. The devil can always outsmart you. So if all you do is intellectually embrace the word of God, it can be snatched away immediately. In fact, that's what, if you go down to verse 15, that's what it says about this same seed. It says, when it fell on the footpath, it represents those who hear the message only to have Satan come at once and take it away. How can he get it at once? First of all, it didn't go deep enough. It only touched your mind. You know what at once means? As soon as this service is over, everything God said to you, the devil snatched. So you can hear a word about love or whatever about Whatever God's trying to challenge you about as soon as you get in your car you snap back to your old self Like gosh, I gave you something that could have transferred if it got in your heart If it got in your spirit, it can work on your life But if you just heard he said yeah, that's something to think about it something you you can't You you got it's got to get into a place where it can be it can develop fruit And it can't develop fruit in your head it must get to your heart so the devil comes to snatch it Why is it so important for the devil to snatch the word? It must be because the word is valuable. Have you ever heard the scripture that says the thief comes to steal to kill and destroy?

now When we hear to keep these come to steal and kill and destroy we immediately understand that he's coming out to something He's coming out to my family. He's coming out to my children. He's coming to destroy my marriage He come to destroy my home destroy my job destroy my health destroy my future, right? Because it's he's only coming to steal kill and destroy what's valuable So if he comes to snatch the word immediately, it must be valuable We don't even know how valuable what he's trying to snatch is and the reason why he wants to snatch it is because he knows how Valuable it would be because if that word ever got in you and regulated your life It would tell you who you are It would tell you what you could have it would tell you what you don't have to accept in life It could tell you what you don't have to tolerate it can do your mental health counseling for you It could tell you how to handle your business It could tell you how to discern between what is good and what is evil It'll tell you how to respond to the devil Do you know when Jesus was attacked by the devil for 40 days? All he did was responded with the word all he responded with was the word after 40 days of temptation He didn't give poetry. He didn't give nice songs. He says it is written I said it is written and what says the devil knows if you learn what is written You become so powerful that no weapon formed against you can prosper. That's why he wants to snatch the word That's why by the time you get to your car Those doors became erasers and everything God settled in you has been gone because he came to snatch it Amen But if he can't snatch it if he can't snatch it watch what he does next he's gonna attack it The next thing he does is he says look at the next group of people the next type of seed the next next type of Soil is in verse 16. It says the seed on the rocky soil Represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy now. I need you to understand something Remember the sower is sowing on the field some of it falls on the footpath easily snatched it ain't even get to your heart It's gone

It was just a nice intellectual conversation But sometimes it gets in the soil. It's in real soil, but the soil is shallow So because it's shallow watch this it says in verse go back to verse 7 Verse 5 other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock Watch this the seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. So so you grow fast You look healthy, but you're shallow But you wouldn't know it until verse 6. It's the plant wilts under the hot Sun See, you really don't know how deep you are or how shallow you are until that fire and that heat comes into your life Tony Evans said that Christians are like teabags. You don't know what you really got today in hot water You really know when that heat comes whether you got some deep religion a deep relationship with the word or you shallow But see here's the deal because the goal is is to have deep roots Everybody say roots Roots always grow in the dark Only fruit is revealed in the light. Oh, uh, let me break this down for you I said roots only grow in the dark if a root hits the light that means it's coming out. It's dying Roots only grow in the dark. So what happens is the devil attacks the word Now help me Lord. Let me slow down Let me slow down the way he attacks the word is the person in verse 16 It says go to verse 16. It says the person receives it with joy They're shallow, but they receive it with joy. That means this person is very responsive to the word. They love sermons They love it and I love preaching to people like that because I don't know whether you live in it or not I'm just saying it gives me good energy when you respond I'd rather preach to a joyful audience than a dead one any day. I can tell you that right now now I preach to both but I'd rather you be joyful because at the end of the day It really doesn't matter in your life whether you receive it with joy or you receive it and your contemplative The goal is do you take it deep enough that it controls your life? So some of you judge people who don't Respond to the word with joy and others you rejoice you judge people who do respond But whether you quiet or you loud on the word is not what matters most is does that word work when the fire comes? Because the word is going to attack the devil is going to attack the very words you celebrate

Because here's what you have to understand the devil is listening to the same sermon to listen. The devil is listening to this word Everybody in his getting the same word the same seed and guess who's listening the devil So he's not only listening to the sermon He's also listening to your response and when you leave and say child that word Oh that word was so on time is it just changed my perspective. You know what? I'm believing God for my healing down I'm believing God I believe that I'm healed from head to toe from the top of my head to the soles of my feet I am whole in the name of Jesus. I am healed by his stripes. You come out of there with that So, you know the devil does I hear you then he says symptom at the symptom at the symptom at the symptom because watch this Watch this the word wasn't just meant for you to post it was meant for you to fight with But you weren't expecting symptoms when you claim your healing you thought you just said I'm healed and the devil's gonna leave you alone But he came to fight the bird look at verse 17. He says you're good until you get persecuted for believing that word It's when you have problems about the word You're celebrating and the devil knows that you're good as long as the circumstance are good But if I ever give you a problem or persecutes you in the area of the word, you're celebrating you back up off the word So if what's this which is if you were in church That's why you got to have a word that responds to the thing that the devil is tacking when the devil attacks you financially When he takes you wish what is written Righteous forsaken. Yeah, or his seed-begging bread My God shall supply all of my needs According to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus because if I ain't got it God's got it and he will make a way somehow You gotta have you got you see see the devil knows that you're so soft that if life gets hard You'll watch this you'll he can attack the word. So you watch this you take it down off your post But watch this the way you develop roots is in the dark That's how you get deeper with the word not in the light Man, they were you this is a pleasant word But when you got a fight in a dark time, it strengthens your the devil said I can't mess with her about that I usually can mess with her about her mental health, but now she's stable now I got to mess with her about her money But if she ever learns what God is as a provider if she ever meets him as Jehovah Jireh

I'll lose that area too now I'm gonna mess with her marriage But if she ever puts a boundary around her marriage and understands what I said about two shall become one and what God has joined Together let no man put asunder you can build a garrison around your whole life Just with who am I talking to it just with the word and you develop those roots in the dog Somebody praise them that there's a word for every attack. I said there's a word for every attack I will fight him every attack Every attack give me a pocketbook. Give me a purse. I won't give me that purse right there I'll give it back to you. Give me that purse. That's a nice one, too Give me that purse. Amen. This is for don't you don't you take no pictures of me like this? Yeah, I've known Lonnie for decades This is a purse right and if you're walking around and it's safe, you know, you carry it a certain way But you ain't really paying a lot of attention to it. But if you ever get around thieves I Wish somebody knew I was going with this Turn me up as I said if you ever get around thieves They call it clutching that purse Because what's in this thing is more valuable than the thing itself And you gonna have a fight on your hand. In fact if you come for it, I'm I might Y'all ain't ready for me today The devil is a thief. I said the devil is a thief and you gotta be able to throw that word at him And you gotta hold on to that word and say no No weapon falling against me. You better learn how to fight somebody say God teach me how to fight teach me how to fight Teach me how to hold on to it. Teach me how to clutch your word You don't need a word when all is well, you need a word in a fight You need a word when the thief shows up If you can't snatch it I gotta go we got a baby dedication if he can't snatch it if he can't attack it He'll try to distract you with it The devil just doesn't want you to become a word oriented He don't care about you being oriented and other stuff and knowing stuff. Don't know the word. That's where your power is

I can't snatch it because it went in it went in him and I can't attack it because he knows how to fight back with the word You you you got to talk back to the devil with the word If you have a conversation with the devil, first of all, that's unsmart, but make sure you keep it to the word Because he will out think you But the next thing you'll do is try to distract you look at the next verse verse 18. He says There is some soil Hmm The seed that fell amongst thorns. That's it right there Represents I'm in 18 others who hear God's Word, but all too quickly. The message is crowded out. Everybody say crowd it out Now watch this move But what the devil does is to a person who killed the word can't be snatched from you Some of you got that word in you. He can't snatch it And if he attacks it, he gonna get a fight from the word, but here's the next level This is what he does is so he says I can't snatch it. What I'm gonna do is I'm a crowded How you gonna crowd it three things the worries of this life? the lure of wealth and the desire for other things Who this so good right here? This is this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna get you so distracted by stuff that your your your spirit that was stocked with scriptures are now mixed with Satan's messages and Worries and wealth and things sometimes the things are not evil. These are not really evil things necessarily Now worrying is a sin It's a sin because God said don't do it And you really when you worry you really often minding business. It ain't your own And when you worry about something you need a word to go alongside the worry to replace it Otherwise that worry will take you down and down it'll snowball Well, I'm worried about how this gonna work out. I'm worried about the lawyer's gonna say I'm worried about what my test results Well, you got to have a word say I'm already healed the test results just gonna manifest what I already know about myself. I

Don't know what the lawyers gonna do, but I know I'm more than a conqueror through him that loved me Amen. Amen. So you got to have a word that deals with your worries But you also got to be careful because sometimes it stings the lure of wealth the other things like it could be just having two jobs Sometimes it could be just playing video games or scrolling on social media all day. It's not that it's necessarily evil. It just takes your time So I don't have time for you really do have time to spend in the word. It's just somewhere in the distractions and This message is about learning to prioritize the word To prioritize the word if a personal trainer came up to me and say pastor barrel. I got a plan I know how I got a plan to help meet your physical fitness goals How much time can you do it every day and I say I can give you five minutes Why y'all laughing I can give you five minutes a day now a skillful trainer can do something with five minutes Do this for five minutes every day. That's all you got If they're skillful, but if I say I can give you 60 minutes a day that's gonna be even more beneficial to you You understand I'm saying see see so many people your time in the word might be five minutes And if you're skillful, it'll be helpful But if you extend it, it's gonna help you more Now Here's the problem some of us have I grew up when we when I grew up They told us you need to have quiet time in the morning your devotions Anybody ever heard that have you had your devotions and it what they taught us was you start your day with like that That's not a bad thing, but it's incomplete Because you shouldn't have devotional time your life is a devotion How you gonna say that I have my time with God today So you had your time with God at 6 30, it's now 10 o'clock at night. Do you know how much drama and hell and temptation and peril and bad news When every scripture of the successful people to where I say they in it day and night So now because you got you you believe in this I have my devotions and quiet time. So you gonna wait till tomorrow How do they do that at the same time I

It is amazing. Like how, you gonna wait till tomorrow? Like I'm telling you for me, I gotta end my day in the Word. If I'm laying down, I'm listening to somebody preach. The right person. I don't listen to just anybody. I listen to, I mean you know, you just, everybody just don't, and what I listen to may not work for you. I don't listen to me. But what I, you listen to me? Amen. Amen. Yeah, I listen to my pastor. Yeah, always, that's how I know who my pastor. I don't eat at any spiritual table. It's just, you know what I'm saying? There ain't no judgment. Who you listen to is who you listen to. But I like listening to that at night. After all the news I heard all day. Amen, I need that. I need him to be my Alpha and my Omega. My beginning and my end. Day and night. You understand what I'm saying? It matters.

It matters. It matters. The time you invest. So here's the deal. I'm gonna end this service right here. This sermon right here, not the service. And all I want you to do, we're not gonna do an altar call. We don't have time. If God is speaking to you about your time in his word, I wanna pray for you. Just stand up. Wherever you are, you just stand. I don't care if it's none of you or one of you. Just stand. I wanna pray for you. Now, why would I do that? Well, one is, you're not standing for me. You're standing to say, God, I heard you. You were speaking to me today. I have let your word diminish in priority in my life. I've made it like an option. Is that you? Just stand and say, I recommit. Well, I've committed for the first time

to honor your word. Why else is it important? We gotta get to the point where we start worrying about what people think about us. If your inability to stand is based on anything other than I don't need to stand or I don't need, I'm already solid in this area, then that means you care too much about people's opinion. If you don't get over that, how you gonna be successful? Let me show you something. I promise you this is true. All successful people are criticized. I mean, criticism everywhere you go and every level you go to comes with criticism. Some of it's public. Some of it's demonic. It's attacks. You in church and can't stand up because of somebody's opinion in church, how can you ask for something

you ain't tough enough to handle? You can't stand up in church because you worry about somebody's thing. It's time to grow up. I'm saying sometimes you got to care less. I say you got to care less about people and care more about God. I'm gonna pray for you right now. Lift your hands. Father, I thank you for everyone standing who's saying to you, I right now, not January 1st as a New Year's resolution, right now, I commit to prioritizing time in your word, skillful time in your word, time with the right teaching, the right resources, the right tools. Show me, lead me, where to start, where to read, what to research.

If I need scriptures about sickness, help me to find those scriptures, Google them, GPT, chat them, whatever it is so I can find the scriptures that fit my problems and my pain and help me to skillfully apply that scripture like medicine to that pain over and over and over again. Make me skillful and I thank you for everyone who's committing this to you and I thank you that people's lives are going up because they're going deeper in your word. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. You may be seated.