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We are living in a society that is devouring information and knowledge but starving for wisdom. It's not that we have financial problems, relationship problems, or emotional problems, or work problems—truth be told, it all stems back to a wisdom problem.
The one who gets wisdom loves life. The one who cherishes understanding will soon prosper. (Proverbs 19:8)
The quality of your relationships and your ability to produce in work is tied directly to the quality of your wisdom. It's grievous as a pastor to see so many good people making bad decisions.
Your gift will change others, but your wisdom will change you. It would be a sad thing for everybody to benefit from your gift and their life to change while you don't embrace wisdom and your own life doesn't change. Have you ever seen a good person continuously making bad picks?
King Solomon had everything—stuff, money, and power—yet none of it filled him. When God asked him, "What can I give you?" Solomon responded, "Lord, give me wisdom. Because even though I have favor, I don't want to fumble the favor that you have trusted me with."
You praise God for a promotion, a new house, or a new car. When was the last time you praised Him that you have your right mind? That you've been through some stuff and your mind is not insane, because God covered your mind?
You don't change your life by changing your life. You change your life by changing your mind. If you can get your mind out, you can get your life out. If you can get your mind out, you can get your family out. If you can get your mind out, you can get your marriage out.
You are born looking like your parents. But you will die looking like your decisions—based on your consistent daily decisions. Eventually your decisions will design your life.
You will either live your life by default or by design. This is the choice.
Jesus makes it clear in John 10:10: "I came so that you may have life, and have it to the full." It is God's original intent for us to have life more abundantly. Christ didn't just die on the cross to save those who were lost; He also died on the cross to help you recover the life that was lost.
Wherever there's lack, that is not God's will for you. In order to pursue this abundant life, you have to be willing to follow His design. If you don't follow His design, you'll ultimately live by default.
Within the first three days of having an iPhone or Android, you're going to use that phone for only 10% of what it's capable of being. There's nothing wrong with the phone—you just don't know how to use it to its fullest potential.
What if I'm talking about your faith? You're only using 10% of your faith when God has said, "If you really tap in and read the manuscript, you'll see that there's more to your life than what you're experiencing."
This ain't it means I'm allergic to average. I can no longer settle for mediocrity. It means you don't want an average life, average friends, or average results.
When you settle, you see yourself lower than how God sees you. Be careful—you may not be settling now, but you may be connected to settling people. Settling is a form of spiritual cancer. Settling is contagious.
God's original plan for an entire nation was to leave Egypt and enter the promised land. But an entire generation died short of the promise in the wilderness—not because of sin, but because of settling. Take an inventory of your life: Where am I settling?
You're saved, but you don't have saved relationships. You're saved, but you don't have saved conversations. You come and sing praises to God and shout on Sunday, but you're settling on Monday.
I came to disrupt and disturb your appetite for settling. Assess every area of your life and every person in your life. Have an executive meeting with yourself and say, "I made up in my mind. I love myself and others enough to have this conversation: This ain't it. There's more in store for us."
In 2 Kings chapter 7, a famine has struck the land. God didn't cause it—their enemy, the Syrian army, developed a blockade and surrounded the city. They can't get out and resources can't get in. Because of this, their settling has led to starvation. They're starving because they have no food.
While the nation is in one of its lowest, most difficult seasons, God sends the prophet Elijah with a word: "The blockade is coming to an end. The struggle is over. God is about to open the windows of heaven and pour out so much you won't even have enough room to receive."
But the king's men don't believe it. They say it's impossible. Sometimes you can be stuck in the problem so long that you focus on the problem and miss God's promise. When you focus on what's wrong, you can miss what God is saying is about to happen.
Have you ever been struggling so long that whenever you got your hopes up, you were met with disappointment after disappointment, after loss after loss? Now God sends a word that sounds familiar to the disappointment. You can't get your faith up because your heart is still broken for what God did not do.
I come to speak favor over your life—favor in your home, favor in your health, favor over your bloodline, favor in your bank account, favor on your job, favor in your community. You may not have the degree, but you're going to have the favor. You may not have the connections, but you've got the favor.
Some can't experience a suddenly because they've become addicted to settling. They've allowed settling to become a mindset. They've become comfortable with just barely getting by, always being at almost.
Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. Leprosy was considered a death sentence—there was no cure. They sat at the gate and said to each other, "Why should we sit here waiting to die?"
Leprosy meant your skin was diseased with hyperpigmentation and constantly itching so badly that they would quarantine you to live only in a leper's colony, away from regular people. Here they are around each other, sick and tired of being sick and tired.
They came to a conclusion: If we stay here at the gate, we'll die of hunger. But if we go into the enemy camp, they might have some pity on us and give us something to eat. We have to do something.
For some of you, your issue is not bad decisions—it's indecision. The enemy has you stuck with paralysis by analysis. You're not making a series of bad choices; you're just so stuck in fear that you're making no choices at all.
This is what some of you need this week: suddenly conversations. A suddenly conversation is when you discuss and decide that settling is not an option.
I declare this over your life: Settling is not an option. Settling for dysfunction in your family is not an option. Settling with keeping old habits is not an option.
Who do you need to have a suddenly conversation with this week? The first suddenly conversation you need to have is with yourself. At some point you have to stop allowing everybody else to talk to you and start having a talk with yourself.
Look in the mirror and say, "Hey, you cute, but you crazy." I love you. I love that you love God. But you lack discernment because you keep confusing people who love you with people who are using you. They don't love you for who you are—they love you for what you can do. Sometimes you have to say to yourself, "Self, I know you love them, but you need to let them go." Self, it's time to have a suddenly conversation.
When the four lepers with leprosy reached the edge of the enemy's camp, they entered one of the tents, ate and drank. Imagine being starved for so long—suddenly there was lamb chops, and they were excited. They entered another tent, ate and drank, then took silver, gold, and clothes and hid them. They returned and entered yet another tent, taking more things and hiding them as well.
But then something shifted. The text says in verse 9: "They said to each other, 'What we're doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves.'" They came to themselves. They realized their mistake.
Here's the profound insight: what if the breakthrough is not that the enemy is not there? What if the breakthrough is not that there's gold, silver, and clothes? What if the breakthrough is God finally showing the four lepers why they were sick in the first place? What if this is a reflection of their past character that made them catch something they shouldn't have had?
Because they kept hiding what they took from somebody else, they were stuck in the same pattern. Breakthrough is not when God does something new for you. Breakthrough is when God shows you why you were stuck in the first place.
They looked at each other while eating all this food, drinking, hiding gold and silver and clothes. Then they got convicted and said, "This not it."
This moment gives us three options that we must navigate through our destiny moments:
They could not experience what God has for them as long as they stayed at the gate. They could have settled for sitting at the gate and died, but they refused to settle for where they were.
When you ask yourself the question, "Will I remain where I am?"—hear this: sometimes this is not a physical question. Sometimes this is a mental or emotional question. Sometimes the blockade is you. Not the enemy, but your inner me. Sometimes God will cause you to no longer remain with that same attitude in the same place. God doesn't want you to remain this way. He wants to give you a new experience in the same place.
They could have gone back to where they used to live and settled for famine and punishment. In other words: Will I return back to my same old habits, my same old attitude? Once I go and pursue what God has for me, will I keep it to myself and hide it, or take it back and be a blessing?
Will you risk it all for where God is? Because faith is risky.
In 2008, I graduated from Florida State University where I played football for four years. My dream was to go to the NFL. I was playing in my senior season against Boston College—I caught an interception, I believe against Matt Ryan. I was excited and went up to celebrate, but when I came back down, my knee went out. My career was over.
I was traumatized and frustrated because my dream had been taken from me. I dove deep into depression, drinking, partying, all kinds of crazy stuff. In 2009, I came back home with all of these issues. At the same time, Pastor Mike, who's my brother, was starting Rock City Church.
While I was hungover coming from the club, something in me said, "Go to church." I came to church hungover from the previous night. He was preaching about Samson. The praise team started singing, "Give myself away." I don't know how I got to the altar, but I was there crying and giving my life to God. And look at me now—I haven't been the same since.
I want you to hear me on this: For my young people, notice what I did not say. I did not say I became a better person because Jesus doesn't specialize in better. He specializes in new. He that is in Christ is a new creature. Behold, the old things are passed away. All things are made new.
One of the biggest challenges in my walk with God was that I was now a stranger in my own body. But the blessing was I made immediate sacrifices. I no longer went to those parties. I no longer drank what I used to drink. I no longer did what I used to do. Did I lose friends? Yes. But God will never ask you to give up something and give you less in return.
Did I lose friends? Yes. But did I lose good friends? During that time I finally got a good job making good money, good insurance, and I was young with no kids. I thought, "Woo! We got it!" But then we got a full house and tuition. But listen—all of a sudden I went from being saved to making a radical change when the Lord called me into ministry. So I walked away from what was comfortable not knowing what could be.
When God calls you, He doesn't always give you the details. But sometimes you don't know what's on the other side of your yes until you leave where you are. Because faith is risky. And I don't know about you, but I'd rather walk by faith than be stuck in what's familiar.
For some of you right now, you were like the four lepers stuck at that gate because at least it's familiar. And God is calling you out of the gate. He's calling you right now to get off that gate. I know you've been familiar with where you are. I know it's been comfortable for you. But it's time for you to pursue what God has for you.
Favor is not about me. When God favors me, it's about my assignment, not my fantasy. That's what the lepers understood when they said, "This not it."
Some of you have been stuck because you're willing to settle. But I want you to know: God will not release a suddenly over your life yet if getting favor means it's going to be all about you. He wants to show you why you were sick in the first place so you can help someone else who's going through the same thing.
I'm calling you to risk it all for where God is. I'm calling you to stop remaining where you are. I'm calling you to stop going back to where you were. And I'm calling you to start moving toward your destiny, even when you can't see the whole picture, even when it's risky, even when it requires sacrifice. Because on the other side of your yes is everything God has for you.
