جارٍ تحميل الأرشيف الحي.
Part 10 of 10
A New Series: Proof
واصِل الاستكشاف
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I want to start a new sermon series today entitled Proof. In a world where people say "I need proof before I believe," the Bible is filled with undeniable evidence that God is a way maker, a deliverer, still a promisee keeper.
In this sermon series, we will walk through the receipts of God's faithfulness. God has given us proof that he still heals, proof that he still provides, proof that he still protects, proof that he still restores.
When somebody comes to me with something I don't really believe, I have to ask for the receipts. It's good to come to church and hang around people who have seen God move, because when your faith gets low, you need to see a receipt. I came to speak to you and tell you: I got the receipt that if everybody walks out of your life, God will not leave you nor forsake you. I got receipts that if nobody supports you, God will make a way out of nowhere. I got receipts that when you don't have the money to do nothing you're dreaming, God will still be Jehovah Gyra.
That's why your circle can't understand what you're going through. They know your situation, but when they look at you, you don't look like what you're going through—because you ain't looking at your problem. Your neighbor better thank God they sat next to the right person, because if they need to see what proof looks like, you ought to just turn around and tell them: here I go.
Have you ever been to Walmart and bought all you needed? Then when you got ready to walk out the door, there's a man standing there who stops your cart and asks for your receipt. He wants to know if what you got in your cart matches what you paid for.
Some of y'all keep trying to figure out why God ain't done it yet. God said, "I can't do it in February, but I may do it in May." The devil's got you held up because he's checking if you paid for what you believe God for. That's why you favor like you're favored, anointed as you are, covered in the blood. You ought to just jump up and shout: "I got the receipt!"
I stayed up for about two weeks figuring out the definition of this. At one point it was "the receipts of his miracles," then "the receipts of his goodness." We settled on the receipts of his faithfulness because everything he does for me is not a miracle, and everything he does for me don't feel good—but he is faithful.
The receipt you need, the proof you need for what you're believing God for, is not just found in the Bible. You can also find evidence on your road. That's why the devil likes keeping you antisocial, keeping you at a place where you think nobody cares about you—because he doesn't want you to mess around and see what you're about to be.
It's only bragging to people who thought you couldn't do it. That's why you've got to be careful who you have in your circle. You just be excited about what God is about to do, and they look at you like, "Why you bragging?" I ain't bragging—I just thought you were the person in my life that I could throw my receipts on.
What if I told you God may be taking you through something that you don't want to go through because you are going to be the proof for the people around you? That's critical. You might be going through pain so someone else can see what faithfulness looks like.
We live in a world full of addicts. You've got people addicted to alcohol, addicted to drugs. But when I say addicted, let me come down your row: addicted to attention, always got to be seen, always got to let people know what you do. Addicted to your phone. Addicted to affirmation. Addicted to the Past.
Some of you are addicted to Miracles. You've become a professional at not doing nothing because you think God is supposed to come through. So many Christians are missing God because they have a spirit of entitlement. The worst thing that God has done for some of us is been good. He's been so good for so long that now, even when you know you're wrong, you have no remorse—because you expect him to still be good.
But one of the greatest addictions facing our generation is the addiction to answers. We want answers. We want to know when, how, why, where. But here's the truth: it is impossible to live by faith when you can't live without answers.
We want to know what God will do. But the reality of our faith is that we know who God is—we don't know always what God will do. You won't move till God speaks. That sounds good, but I've lived long enough to know there are two seasons. There's one season where you don't move till he speaks, but then there's another season where he's spoken and he's waiting on you to move.
You're so busy thinking about what you're going to do that you don't realize you ain't did nothing. Now it's March and you're still thinking about it. Now it's June and you're still thinking about it. Now it's September and you're still waiting on the answer. God is like, "I'm not talking no more. I told you last year what you should have been. I don't send new words when you ain't obeyed the last word."
You're contemplating taking another job, but you don't want to move till you get an answer because you can't move boldly without proof. But faith is the substance of things hoped for; it is the evidence of things not seen.
You say, "I'm believing God for this new job and I feel like my season's up, but I don't know yet." So what you want is to hear God tell you everything that's going to happen. You want to fall asleep on your couch, eat a Subway sandwich with chips in the middle, take your socks off and put your feet between the couch cushions—and then you want to wake up to hear: "This is God. I want you to know that the next season of your life is about to be special. Your time at that job is over. Walk in, let everybody know where they can go, walk out by next Tuesday. Your phone's going to ring and you're going to make 300 times what you made before."
But that ain't how God works. God doesn't tell you everything that's going to happen. God told Moses, "Go tell Pharaoh, let my people go." God never told Moses: "And when y'all get let go, you're going to see a red sea." God suggested to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, "Be faithful." He never told them: "As a result of being faithful, you're going to go into a fiery furnace."
Why does God only tell you part of what you need to know? Because your faith couldn't handle the details. If God said, "Your season at that job is up, but stuff's going to get cut off in May. You're going to get repossessed in June. You're going to feel like you're losing your mind in July, but by next September everything you lost, you're going to get back double"—you would ask: "But why I got to lose?"
That's why I believe God put Adam to sleep before he made Eve. If he'd asked Adam what he wanted, he wouldn't have even been able to describe it. Most people in this room, including myself, know we want God to do something, but we're not sure exactly what we want him to do.
The reality of our faith is that we know who God is—we don't know what he's going to do. I know God is a Healer. I don't know how he's going to heal. You say, "My heart is broken. I don't know what I'm going to do next. I just need God to heal my heart." So God removes everybody. Then you go back and pray: "God, I told you to heal my heart, but now I ain't got nobody—because they were the ones chipping at your heart."
You pray, "God, I just need overflow in the name of Jesus." You think God's going to send you a million. But sometimes God just allows certain stuff to go missing so you can actually see what you actually have.
The text says: "My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts." You're so busy waiting on God to give you the answer that you don't realize your quest of waiting for the answer has now made you the problem.
You want confirmation, but God says, "No, you don't. What did I tell you to do?"
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil—not because I'm big and bad, not because I got a savings account. I will fear no evil because thou art with me.
All you really need to know is if God is going to be with you. Should you fear what's in front of you? God says, "I want you to be faithful."
Proof equals evidence. And you've got to be careful how you treat evidence.
I used to work the night shift at a hotel—11 p.m. to 7 a.m. I'd sleep during the day and always wake up watching Law and Order. When Law and Order came on, that let me know it was around 9 or 10 p.m., and I needed to get myself together.
I like Law and Order because it always starts out with a problem. Soon as it comes on, you hear that music, and then the noise comes on: "These are the particular cases of law and order." It always starts with the problem. They'd say, "What do we have?" "We have a male, 36 years of age. Looks like he was beaten and battered." "Do we have any evidence of the murder weapon?" "Yeah, there's the hammer right there."
Then what does he do? He doesn't just pick it up. The first thing he does is put on gloves, because when evidence is important, you be careful how you handle it. Certain people don't know they were better off walking away from you than putting their hands on you the wrong way. Whenever you mistreat evidence, you prolong what God is trying to do in your life.
He puts on his gloves and examines it. He's careful about how he deals with it. Then he places it in a container. He zips it up.
2024 almost drove me crazy because God was doing everything I prayed for, but he had me in a bag—the bag that you put the evidence in. This bag represents consecration. This is so valuable. I got to keep it isolated because I don't want it to become contaminated.
Did you hear what I just said? That's why you've got to stop begging people to be around you. That's why, when God removes stuff, you can't go chase stuff. What if God's got you in a type of consecration because he sees what you're about to become in the future? He said, "I can't let nobody contaminate your spirit."
That's why I like Psalms 34:8, because the psalmist doesn't just tell us God is good. The scripture doesn't say, "Hey y'all, the Lord is good." He says: "Taste and see that the Lord is good."
Why is that important? He doesn't just tell you God's good. He doesn't say, "God's so incredible he's going to blow your mind." He says, "I want you to do me a favor. Stop what you're doing. Taste and see that the Lord is good."
Why is that important? He wants you to understand: I'm not just going to tell you he's good. I need you to experience it for yourself. Some things can't be explained. They must be encountered. They must be experienced.
When he says "taste," it means a personal encounter. Tasting is intentional.
I have a friend who's a chef. He said, "Mike, I got a new dish I'm working on. I need you to try it for me. Taste it for me. Let me know what you think." I got over there and I'm just smashing it. "Oh, this is so good!" He said, "Hey, hey, hey! I told you to taste it!" I said, "I am!" He said, "You're eating it. Taste it. That's your problem. I spent all this time putting this fine delicacy together, and you're devouring it so quick. You're missing the flavor."
You cannot rush the process that God has in you because if you move too quick, you miss the details. What if the Breakthrough you're waiting on isn't about you knowing more, but about you experiencing more of God?
Who watched your mama cook? Throw your hand up. Who watched the Auntie cook? Big Mama cook? You've watched them cook so many times you know exactly what they're going to do, but you still can't cook yourself.
When we get home today, we're going to watch the Super Bowl, and it's easy from the sidelines. We say, "All he's got to do is slip the defense. Yeah, we're going to win. He's got to cut back right there." But the problem with the new school church is that everybody thinks they know what to do because they've seen somebody else fail at it.
What God is saying in this season is: if you're going to go to another level, it's time for you not to just know about me. It's time for you to experience me.
I was raised in an old school church that would say, "God bless the child who has his own." They'd say, "You can't get into heaven off your daddy's relationship with God." I heard testimonies growing up. That's why I've got to put it back in church. We've got incredible worship, incredible lights, but we've got to bring stuff back—like testimony service.
They would tell you what God did for them. The only issue I've got is that too many Christians are living on secondhand faith. Don't tell me what he did for them. What has he done for you?
It's hard for you to have a testimony because you always run from your test. You don't want to go through nothing. The problem with 21st century church is that we've conditioned everybody for celebration, not suffering. Everybody wants to live—nobody wants to die. Everybody wants to win—nobody wants to lose. Everybody wants to be happy.
But God ain't concerned with your happiness. In order to be happy, something must be happening. If nothing's happening, you can't be happy. That's why happiness and joy ain't the same. Joy is not contingent on if something's going on. Joy is when I'm up and when I'm down.
That's why they said in First Peter that he will give you joy unspeakable. It's because God will put you through something, carry you through something, and be so good in it that you will experience him for yourself and not be able to explain it.
You want to shout but you don't. They don't want people in their business. They're trying to be dignified. But some of us in here right now have got two or three situations in our past where we still don't have a clue how God got us through that season of our life.
I need you to reach over your neighbor and tell him: "I'm still trying to figure out how I paid for college. I'm still trying to figure out how I closed on this house. I'm still trying to figure out how I made it through that health scare. It was nothing."
He's giving you a miracle that will be unspeakable. He's opening a door that you won't have the words for. He's showing you something in the present that's going to flip your future.
That's why you've got to check your circle. Some of them are going to be like, "No, you can tell me. You just don't want me to come up like you came up." But you want them to come up. Every now and then you don't even know how you did it.
Then you'll have one friend who's going to be like, "He did it for me too!"
That's why, when you come to church, don't sit here quiet and bougie. You don't know who needs to see somebody praising God because they're on the other side of it. I just need one of y'all to turn around and shout: "If you need to see what peace looks like, if you need to see what favor looks like, if you want to see a blended family blessed, if you want to see somebody walking in overflow—here I go. I am the proof."
That's why you walk different. That's why stuff doesn't bother you the way it bothers other people. "I've seen God do too much in my life to be panicking and stressing about this."
Taste is a personal encounter. Then here's what got me: see is a shift in your perspective.
He says, "I want you to taste and see." We can be looking at the same thing but not see the same thing. Faith is the lens that reveals God's hand in your life.
Have you ever taken your child to see a 3D movie? You get them some glasses, get some popcorn, sit down—and out of nowhere you start having a headache, looking at the screen like something's not right. It's a 3D movie. You've got to have the right lens glasses.
The glasses aren't what's special. It's the lens. The frame is your style—you can have a Gucci frame—but if the lens ain't right, you're still going to be blind. Some of y'all are fashionably blind. It's the lens.
Faith is the lens that lets you see the hand of God. If you put on the lens of faith, you see God. If you put on the lens of foolishness, you see something else.
Faith is the lens that reveals God's hand in your life. We can be looking at the same thing but not see the same thing. Some of us are miserable because we see it wrong.
Think of it like going to a 3D movie. You get the glasses, the popcorn, sit down—and suddenly you have a headache looking at the screen like something's not right. It's a 3D movie; you need the right lens. The glasses themselves aren't special; it's the lens that matters. The frame is your style—you can have a Gucci frame—but if the lens isn't right, you're still going to be blind. Some of y'all are fashionably blind. It's the lens.
Faith is the lens that lets you see the hand of God. If you put on the lens of faith, you see God. If you put on the lens of foolishness, you see the problem.
When you go through something, be careful who you call—because your circle determines your lens. Back in the day, when you found out you needed glasses, they sent you to a place called Lenscrafters. They got your prescription and molded it to what it needed to be for you. When a problem happens in your life, your circle becomes the crafter; they determine how you see it.
Say you're ready to leave your job. Your boss is nasty, you can't stand the people—you call someone and they say, "I don't blame you. If I were you, I'd go up there and tell them what I think." They gave you the wrong lens. What they should have said is, "Maybe that's God's way of telling you this isn't permanent. Go there and be faithful, and just believe something's coming." It's the lens.
What do you see? Do you have the right prescription? My glasses won't work for you. There's no medicine in them. Sometimes I wear fake glasses because they make me look smart. Some of you are going to miss God because you're trying to wear something that just makes you look a certain way and don't realize it's not benefiting you the way it needs to benefit you.
God's getting ready to give you proof. This is the introduction to the series proof. The first P stands for provision—God provides. God's provision means He is Jehovah Gyra, which means He is the God that provides.
Look at Genesis 22:14. Abraham called the place "The Lord will provide." You know the story: he needs a ram in the bush. He's getting ready to kill his son, and when he raised the knife, the Lord provided a ram—not just in a bush, but in the thicket, a thorny bush that is very painful. God caused a ram to get stuck in something that hurt him, but it would bless Abraham.
How many times has God come through for you in the last moment? If God is Jehovah Gyra, then He is a provider.
Provision is a spiritual word. "Pro" means before; "vision" means sight. God says, "I had the ram caught in the thicket before he got there. You just didn't see it till you needed it." Have you ever had somebody come through for you, and afterward you became tight—only to realize they were in your life the whole time, but they weren't who you thought would be there? You were so busy looking at them, thinking they were your ride or die, and then you found out the realm was already here. Your perspective was just in the wrong place. Which is why we spend too much time talking about who left and not enough time celebrating that God proved to be a provider.
R stands for rescue. God will pull you out. Look at the exodus: Moses raised his hand over the Red Sea, and the Lord opened a path through the water with a strong east wind. The wind blew all that night, turning the seabed into dry land. God tells Moses to leave Egypt; He doesn't tell him the problem he'll face. They've got water in front of them and enemies behind them—and God says, "I'm going to rescue you. I'm not going to send somebody to do it; I'm gonna do it."
God proved to be a deliverer. God will make an impossible way of escape for you. Declare over your life: If God parted the Red Sea for Israel, He will part the Red Sea for me.
You might think, "But I'm not looking at a Red Sea." When you see the Bible, you see a principle that you can take and make applicable to your life. The Red Sea was a body of water blocking them from going to the next level, with enemies behind them needing promotion. The way the Lord parts seas is this: there can be twenty-five people saying it's their turn, and then God will make a way for you to move to the front. He parts Red Seas.
Don't let anybody convince you not to do something just because they already know who they think they want. They don't know what God has planned for you. Seven of you in here have had God part Red Seas. When you look back over your life, you should never have been in the position you're in, but God parted it. I release that anointing over your life right now: you're not standing in line. God's getting ready to part the red sea in every area of life. Doors are opening for you. You may have been in the background the last seven years, but God's getting ready to part that sea so you can step out and be appreciated and seen in the light you need to be in. No weapon formed against you shall prosper.
O stands for overcoming. He is the God who gives victory. Look at what David told Goliath: "You come against me with a sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord." Victory belongs to the faithful. I didn't say to the best; I said to the faithful.
When God told me to stop putting emphasis on offerings about twelve years ago, everything in our life went down. We had no money, but we had to pay musicians, pay church bills—on credit cards. The Lord said to me, "Mike, if it's my will, it's my bill." I never had what I would consider a normal conversation with God. It was just a still voice: "I'mma keep you. My people have been through enough." Twelve years ago, I just stopped talking about giving. Everybody told me I was crazy. But somewhere in my mind, I wanted your heart more than I wanted your pocket.
Opportunities would come with no money, but I had people whose hearts were being transformed. I discovered I had to remain faithful when opportunities passed me by. Victory is reserved to the faithful. They may never tell you thank you; stay faithful. They may never say they appreciate you; stay faithful. That's critical.
The second O is outpouring—God's outpouring. He is the God who pours out His Spirit. Look at Acts 2:2: "And he came like a mighty rushing wind." God's presence in heaven filled the house where they were sitting. That's the day of Pentecost, where God showed up and filled that room. His proof is His presence.
I'm so grateful God keeps us in a place where His presence shows up. Two Sundays ago, when I heard the Holy Spirit say to go to overflow, it scared me because I wasn't sure if you would even hear or see me in the sanctuary. But I just did what He told me to do. I was willing to let twelve thousand two hundred people be mad for three hundred people in a basement because the Holy Spirit said, "My presence." I had no idea you could hear or see me until they put it on the screen behind me. Then it scared me because I wasn't even in the room, and you were worshiping. When the presence of God shows up, it is not confined to a program or four walls or a room.
I don't want you to get a big house if you're going to be miserable. I'd rather you have a two-bedroom apartment, but it's filled with His presence. When the presence of the Lord fills your room, anxiety has to flee, depression has to flee, doubt has to flee.
Last but not least, God is faithful. He is the God who finishes what He started. God is going to finish what he started in your life. If God was faithful then, He's faithful now.
All the proof we need, we already have. It's His presence; it's His protection. God is doing for you what eyes have not seen and what ears have not heard. Young and old, pressure is pressure—it doesn't care if you're sixteen or twenty-six or fifty-six. I speak by faith that today some sort of proof hits your life—that God, You are a provider. You rescue and restore. I will overcome. Your outpouring love will fill my heart. And I know without a shadow of a doubt, You've been faithful to me.
I'm proof of what God can do. There's never been a problem God couldn't solve. If you ask David, he'll tell you giants fall. I met a woman in the hospital—doctors did all they could do, and she's still alive to tell you that He still does miracles. I'm proof of what God can do. He still does miracles.
