Welcome to another episode of The Charlie Mitchell Teachings Podcast. Today's sermon, "Help Is On The Way," recorded live at Hopeville in September 2023, dives deep into the spiritual encouragement we all need to face life's mountains.
This teaching brings a powerful message based on Psalm 121:1-2 & 2 Peter 1:3, reminding us of the ever-present help available to us.
Key Scripture References: - Psalm 121:1-2: "I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." - 2 Peter 1:3: "His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."
In This Episode: 1. Stop Focusing On The Ground: - Charlie discusses the importance of shifting our focus from our immediate problems to the vastness of God's power. - Application: Identify your personal "mountains," but don't let them paralyze you.
2. Remember Your Heavenly Helper: - Exploring the depth of God's assistance and the personal nature of His help. - Application: Remember to lift your gaze to God, the omnipotent helper in difficult times.
3. Unlock Your Access: - Understanding how believers have been equipped for a godly life through divine power. - Application: Recognize and utilize your spiritual resources through a relationship with Jesus.
4. Tap Into The Living Help - The Holy Spirit: - Discussing the role of the Holy Spirit as a teacher, guide, and source of empowerment. - Application: Seek the Holy Spirit's guidance in every aspect of life.
Life Work: - Recommendations for growing in the knowledge of God, cultivating spiritual growth, seeking community support, and actively living out faith.
Conclusion: - A reminder that the help we seek is not just on its way. It's already within us, thanks to the Holy Spirit.
Encouragement for the Week: - As you face the week's challenges, remember that the ultimate helper is within you. Keep looking up and let the Spirit of the Lord lead the way.
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Listen & Subscribe: Don't miss out on future episodes full of wisdom and biblical insights. Subscribe to The Charlie Mitchell Teachings Podcast on your favorite platform.
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Stay inspired, stay faithful, and remember, help is always on the way with God by your side.
Welcome to another episode of The Charlie Mitchell Teachings Podcast. Today's sermon, "Help Is On The Way," recorded live at Hopeville in September 2023, dives deep into the spiritual encouragement we all need to face life's mountains.
This teaching brings a powerful message based on Psalm 121:1-2 & 2 Peter 1:3, reminding us of the ever-present help available to us.
Key Scripture References: - Psalm 121:1-2: "I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." - 2 Peter 1:3: "His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."
In This Episode: 1. Stop Focusing On The Ground: - Charlie discusses the importance of shifting our focus from our immediate problems to the vastness of God's power. - Application: Identify your personal "mountains," but don't let them paralyze you.
2. Remember Your Heavenly Helper: - Exploring the depth of God's assistance and the personal nature of His help. - Application: Remember to lift your gaze to God, the omnipotent helper in difficult times.
3. Unlock Your Access: - Understanding how believers have been equipped for a godly life through divine power. - Application: Recognize and utilize your spiritual resources through a relationship with Jesus.
4. Tap Into The Living Help - The Holy Spirit: - Discussing the role of the Holy Spirit as a teacher, guide, and source of empowerment. - Application: Seek the Holy Spirit's guidance in every aspect of life.
Life Work: - Recommendations for growing in the knowledge of God, cultivating spiritual growth, seeking community support, and actively living out faith.
Conclusion: - A reminder that the help we seek is not just on its way. It's already within us, thanks to the Holy Spirit.
Encouragement for the Week: - As you face the week's challenges, remember that the ultimate helper is within you. Keep looking up and let the Spirit of the Lord lead the way.
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Listen & Subscribe: Don't miss out on future episodes full of wisdom and biblical insights. Subscribe to The Charlie Mitchell Teachings Podcast on your favorite platform.
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Stay inspired, stay faithful, and remember, help is always on the way with God by your side.
Turn into your Bible to Psalm 1 21. If you got a Bible open up to it. Now check this out. I'm gonna, I'm gonna challenge you a little bit'cause we all technological and I'm savvy on tech and all that kind of stuff, but listen, how Many of you like Kobe Bryant? All right. Tiger Woods. You ever heard of him? All right. Serena Williams. You ever heard of her? All right. Now listen, these are all people who were athletic and goats in their own lane. Now the issue is when it came to the thing that made them famous, that thing became. An extension of them. You cannot think of Tiger apart from a golf club. You don't think of Serena apart from a racket. You don't think of Kobe apart from a basketball, but how is it that you can think of a Christian without a Bible? So I need you to get familiar. Y'all saw my stuff on social media, so I'm not as nice. anymore. All right, but I want you to get familiar because power can go out. Batteries can die, but the word of God will be there for you. So if you're depending on something else to get you to word when you're in crisis, you in trouble. Okay. But I need you to be able to pull it up and say, man, this is what I need at this particular moment. So we'd looking at Psalm 121 and we're only going to look at a couple of verses. Cause I only got a little bit of time. Psalm 121 verses one and two, and then we're going to look at another passage further back. Psalm 121 verses one and two says this, I lift up my eyes towards the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. Now, I want you to jump back to second Peter, second Peter real quick. And there's just one verse I want us to look at. Second Peter chapter one, verse three. Here's what it says. His divine power has given us everything required for life in godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. That's the word of the Lord. Now check this out. Some of you don't know me. Um, I had to, you know, I got this transplant and all this stuff pretty early in our coming together And then some of y'all, this is your first time here this morning. So what I want to do is give you a little bit of context about who I am because you go, I'm gonna have a word for you and I want to encourage you and all that kind of stuff. But you like, man, I ain't trying to hear this from no dude. I don't know if he's ever gone through anything. So I want to share a little bit of my journey. Okay. So that's me on March 29th in January 2016. We had just moved here from Camden. We had only been here two, maybe three weeks. I go to the doctor cause something's a little strange when I went to the bathroom. We're not going to get into details. That's all you need to know. So I go to the doctor to get checked out five days in the hospital. They diagnosed me with stage four kidney disease. I had 35 percent left in my kidneys. So that was March 29th. The Lord provided a kidney for me. They told me I only had a couple of years, but that was five years after I was diagnosed. The second picture is, some of you've heard me talk about my mom and my dad. That's a picture of Lucy and Charlie, Charlie Senior, who my son is named after, Tripp. Lucy and Charlie are my parents. My dad died when I was 13 years old. When he, when I was 11, he got diagnosed with cancer in his, in his stomach, in his, in his intestines. Got surgery, everything went fine. A year later, it came back. He said, I can't fight it this time. So for a year, he trained me in how to help take care of my mom, my brothers, and my sisters. Now watch this. You think, okay, well that's a lot for a 13-year-old who's failing algebra class in eighth grade trying to talk to the girl next to her on the bus. But when I turn 22, newlywed six months into the game on my marriage, I get a call from my wife. Charlie, you have to go home right away. Something has happened to your mom. Little did I know I would have to leave work, drive to my house. My mom's house stand over her lifeless body. 22 years old, I had to cover up my mother and care for and comfort my brothers and sisters. Now mind you, I am fourth or fifth depending on how you count my brothers and sisters. There's an asterisk next to my siblings cause I don't really know how many I actually have. Okay. But I'm fourth and I had to be the one to carry and comfort them. After my mom passed away, that last picture is me sitting lower down. I did have hair at one time, but you can't see the glory I had up there but above me is my oldest sister. 2016 is I was preparing to move to Baltimore, preparing to come here to plant this dog on church, to leave people to care for people. I would get a Facebook message saying you need to go home and see your sister. I'm in New Jersey. She's in Florida. You need to go see her. I can't tell you much more than that. I went home to see her. It would be the last time. Weeks later, I would proceed and do her entire funeral by myself. No other minister, no other pastor, no other leader, no other lay person, nothing. I officiated my sister who would call me to open up and help me to laugh when I would get down, had to help lay her to rest. So the word I have for you today, I have to tell you a little bit about my journey because I need you to understand that I've needed some help on the road. I've needed some encouragement. I've needed some uplifting, but I'm not just talking to people that ain't never been through. And many of you have felt that before too. The weight of challenges, the weight of the, the shadow of uncertainty coming over in your life, walking through the Valley of the shadow of death. You have had the pain of disappointment, frustration, and betrayal. But today I want to tell you something loud and clear. Help is on the way. Look at somebody next to you and tell them help is on the way. Help is doggone on the way. Cause some of us have had to go through some situations and we ain't know if the help was coming or not. And for you that are believers, I even got a better promise than that. Not only is help on the way, but if you've trusted and live and depend on Jesus, you already have all the help that you need. So not only is it coming, but I already have everything I could need. So let's look at the first point. First point, and I told you I'm gonna get in your chest a little bit. Stop focusing on the ground. Stop focusing on the ground. What did the psalmist say? Psalm 121 verse one. I lift up my eyes toward the mountains. He's on the road. He's walking. This is a song of a sense. So they're, they're walking up. They're about to go to worship. They're about to go praise in Jerusalem, but this is a long, hard journey. You got to do some work and you got to do some, some of your, anybody like going on road trips. How many of you like the trip more than the actual destination? Very few. Most of us like the destination. I like the trip. I'm like, man, all right, we got 12 hours. This is going to be great. There's all kinds of scenery. There's all kinds of stuff and everything. But for the most of us, man, I'm trying to get to the destination. But when you look at the journey, these are people journeying towards mountains. And he's looking and he sees these mountains up ahead and he says to himself, where will my help come from? Now that's a real question if you're saying this is too much for me. The psalmist's eyes are directed towards the mountains. These are towering symbols of challenge, but also divine encounters. When you read the Bible and you look around and you encounter it a little bit, you look at the Old Testament and you see different things. There's all these things with mountains. Mountains are places where you get robbed. Mountains are places that are dangerous. Mountains are, they have valleys and pits and wild animals, and this, it can be dangerous to go through the mountains. Right now, today, if you climbed up Mount Everest, there are dead bodies that are left there because they can't even afford to bring you back down, down. So mountains are dangerous places, but mountains are also places where there are divine encounters. You think about the time Moses went up on the mountain to meet with God. You think about the fact that God brought his presence down on top of the mountain. And even when God brought his presence down on top of the mountain, the people got afraid because it was so much thunder and lightning and fire and loud noise that they were afraid to go near the mountain. So in life, in the middle of all of our hustle and pain, Amen. We find ourselves looking around, looking at our problems. And that's why I'm here to tell you, you got to stop looking at the ground. You're looking at the circumstances, you're looking at the chaos all around you and you're saying to myself, yourself, I don't know if I have what it takes to get through this. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm, I'm a big guy. And, um, every time I go to get a checkup now, they have to draw blood. They have to. And I hate needles. I hate needles. And you know what? It's always some doggone lady, small in stature. You nervous, huh? Yeah, I'm nervous. Well, what you nervous for? You too big to be nervous about some little needle. That ain't none of your business. This ain't got nothing to do with you. You do what you gotta do, so I can do what I gotta do. But we don't need to be having no discussion about how nervous I am. Mind your business. So, so what happens is a lot of times, I mean, I mean every time and it's vials and vials and vials of blood. I'm just like, Oh my gosh, I can't look, I can't do nothing. Palms sweaty, the whole deal. And a lot of times we look at the circumstances, we go, I don't have what it takes to do this. This is too much to lose a parent. To lose a job, to, to, to, to wrestle with my children, my family, the uncertainty of the future. I don't know if I have what it takes, but the psalmist says, I lift up my eyes. Why does he have to lift up his eyes? Because when you're looking down, the only direction left to look is up. Some of you have gotten so accustomed to the darkness of your situation. You've forgotten there, there is a blue sky of possibility above you. And so that's a call. It's not a challenge to your heart and to your, your issue and your circumstance, but it is a challenge to reframe your perspective. Look how big my problem is. Yes, but look how big the God who created the heavens are. And so what I want you to be careful about is the fact that a victim mentality can creep into your Christianity. It's easy for it to sink in this, this kind of woe is me narrative. It's always, man, life is unfair, huh? Here we go again. And then, then Joker start misquoting scripture. Man, God said, life always gonna be hard. That's just how I go. And you misquoting this passage? It says more after that. It says, yes, in this life you will face trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. But y'all forget about taking heart and you just done took your heart and went home. And so be aware of that victim mentality because in reality, when you look at any story, victims never change. They're always waiting for a hero or a villain to work on their behalf. You ever noticed that in a movie, the people running around all over the place, you see them running here and there crying, wailing, weeping, hoping that someone will come and save them, but they do nothing for the story. They are passive in the story. They never grow, they never change, they never adapt, they never nothin They're just, man, the bad guy came, hopefully the hero shows up. The hero came, and then they go right back to work. Victims never change. But I'm grateful that the Bible says that we are not victims when we walk with God, but we are more than conquerors. So do not let a victim mentality seep into your walk with Christ. So here, here's the first application I want you to think about today. What are the mountains that you are looking at today? What are those personal struggles? What are those vices that you think are impossible for you to conquer? What are those challenges? What are those health issues that you are wrestling with? Many, I'm sure there's, there's three fellas in here that have this issue going on in their body that they're afraid to go talk to a doctor about. What are those issues that are going on in your life? Here's what I want you to do. I want you to identify them, but don't be paralyzed by them. Yes, look at them. They are significant. They are serious. They are real issues. I'm not going to minimize that, but I don't want you to be paralyzed. Why don't I want you to be paralyzed? That's, that's point number two, because you need to remember your heavenly helper. Psalm 121 verse two says, my help comes from the Lord. And not only does it come from the Lord, he is something. There's something unique about this Lord that I serve. And it is this, he is the maker of heaven and earth. So what's so interesting is, is I want to help you to go, okay, I need to then not just look at the mountains, not just look at the circumstances, not just look at the hardship, but I also need to look beyond the mountain. So can we get a little nerdy on this, on this, on this passage right here? Can we go a little bit deeper than the surface? We can do that. All right. Now watch this. Watch this now. When you read this, my help comes from the Lord. Here's something that happens. That word is Esri in the Bible. So that just means what you think it means. Help, support and aid. Okay. So then he takes it a little bit further and he goes, it's not only a help, support or aid, kind of like you call 911 in Baltimore and that's a general help, support or aid. But, if too many people call for help, support, or aid at the same time, you are going to get a message that says, our line is busy right now, please call back in a few moments when the line has cleared up a little bit. Yes, so there is help, but it ain't my help. Now watch this, the, the, the, where the word goes in this passage is. This specifically translates to my help making the connection very personal. So what's funny is, man, if I'm having trouble and I need to call 9 1 1, that's fine. But it's a different thing when you live in the house with a nurse. Why? Because my help is a nurse that knows me. Man, I'm feeling threatened. I got all these threats coming against my life and I say, man, you better call the police. All right. I better call the police. Well, beep, beep, beep. They're busy. But my brother is the police. That's different. It's my help. And so in Psalm 121, he's using the possessive form that's expressing a personal relationship This ain't just any old help, it's the assistance that's specifically tailored, destined, and ordained for that particular individual. So many of you are walking around refusing to pray to Jesus because you think he's going to give you blanket, generic, old help. Not realizing that he specializes in tailored, destined, and ordained specific help based on your personality, your culture, your skin color, your hair texture, your eye color, your parental structure, your family of origin, your city that you live in, and the current cultural moment. So, this is a, this is a deeply personal reliance on God. So he ain't talking about some specific idea or some eight man, some, this is just a theological trope that we throw around. He's talking about God's direct intervention and support of his own life by anchoring his support. Now watch this. He's anchoring his support in the Lord who has made heaven and earth. In other words, he's emphasizing his omnipotence. Another way of saying his omnipotence is his unlimited and very great power. His supreme power, his absolute unlimited power, his undisputed sway and divine right in power. In other words, um, let me make it real simple because I feel like that's going over your head a little bit. If God can create the expanse of the universe, then surely, maybe, possibly, he has the power and potential to help you in your personal private struggle. So what Satan would do is he'll begin to tempt you to think, man, nobody understands what you're going through, man. Ain't nobody's ever been through something like what you're going through right now. There's no possible way. They, man, you just got to deal with this on your own because man, ain't no use in you telling nobody. Ain't no use in you going nowhere. Don't even look, don't even open it up because ain't no word in there for you. And that's a lie from the pit because he specializes in your personal struggle. So no matter how overwhelming these mountains might seem, remember my help, your help comes from the Lord. Not only the Lord, some abstract figure, but he is the maker of heaven and earth. And what we often forget is that he delights in helping his children. So I'm gonna give you a little bit of a rundown. I put some passages up here, but I'm gonna give you a little bit of a rundown. And listen, if you miss some of these slides or you miss something, and I see some of y'all are taking notes at the very end, you can take a shot and you can download the notes I'm using here. So if you miss something, it's all right, but keep tracking with me. Exodus 18 verse four says, Moses named one of his sons Eliezer. Which is the exact word that's in this particular passage. And what did he say when he named his son Eliezer? The God of my father was my helper. And he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh. Hebrew, in Hebrew it means my God is help. So a lot of y'all know my God is love and all of that. But you didn't realize that my God is help. He delights in helping. 29, Moses speaks to God's unparalleled majesty and help to Israel. There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help. Happy are you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help and the sword of your triumph. Psalm 33 20, Our soul waits on the Lord. He is our help and our shield. Psalm 46 verse one, God is our refuge and strength, a very present in times of trouble. Psalm 115 verse nine through 11, the psalmist encourages what all different kinds of people to trust in the Lord as their, and their shield. Scripture paints, Jesus paints the Lord as our helper, our protector and our provider. That is foundational to our faith. But we have grown up in such a culture that is so independent, so autonomous that we forget that the one who designed everything says, I'm here to be your help many of us are having sleepless nights. Headaches, high blood pressure, back hurt, neck hurt, arguing all day and all night because you think you've got to carry it all on your own. And I want to tell you, God is your help. So in moments of despair or doubt, lift your gaze higher than your doggone problems. Pick up your head! Stop looking at the problem and focusing on it. Elevate your vision toward almighty God. Now that would feel great if I left it right there. How many of y'all will be happy with that? Not me. God is my help. Man. Praise the Lord. Chata. You know, I feel good, but you know, I got to take it a little bit deeper than that. Ain't verse three. No, not verse 3. 3. Unlock your access. That's where second Peter comes in. 2 Peter verses 1 to 1 3 says this, his divine power has given us everything. Somebody say everything. Somebody say everything. What does everything mean? All right. All right. All right. You're with me. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his glory and goodness now watch this. Peter is reminding believers who were under threat and persecution of the divine power granted to them. So it's not just that God stand off afar and he can send you some help. It's that when you trust in Christ, he deposits the help in you. And that isn't just about some spiritual idea because too many of us go to church, listen to a message, do all this stuff, and then when y'all hit real life, then the wheels fall off. When I read that verse, that's about tomorrow morning when you need help. That's real time help when you don't know who or what or when to call. In this passage, he says three things. First, we've been given divine power. That refers to God's supernatural strength and ability. The power is beyond human capacity and comes directly from God. Did you hear my story? I showed y'all at the beginning. When I got diagnosed with stage four kidney disease, it was before I had ever said a word about planting a church. You know how many conversations I had with myself and with others. Maybe you shouldn't start this church. Maybe, maybe now ain't the right time. Man, this is a lot right now. You remember, I mean, sitting there 13 years old talking to my dad. Hey dad, okay. Dad, this is a lot. I know. And I don't know where the capacity is going to come from, but God says he gives us what divine power that is beyond human capacity that comes directly from God. Second, he says everything we need for a godly life. That means that you have been fully equipped by God to live the life that honors and reflects him. Now watch this. This is why you can't always sing the song that you hear on the radio. Try Jesus, not me, cause I throw hands. It's understandable and I agree most days. But when I read the scriptures, here's what happens. Oh. He has given me the capacity not only to endure, but to love those who hate me. So y'all ain't ready for that kind of conversation. Not only has he able to do that, those who have abused me, he has given me the capacity to bless those who abandoned me. Oh man, don't go. So, so, all right. I don't, I don't know how to be a father, Jesus. I ain't never had no dad. He wasn't there to teach me. I become a father to the fatherless. I become an advocate to the orphan and the widow. So when we get into these situations where I go, man, but I ain't got what I need, nobody ever taught me. He says, I will then be your teacher. And not only does he give me everything I need and divine power. Here's where it hits you. You can access it through your knowledge of him. Now, this is where it gets tricky. Because many of us just want to go through life and say, I know, you know, just as much about Jesus as you know about Beyonce. What you read on the Instagram, what you heard in the street, what the preacher said, what grandma say, what the dude on the podcast said. He says, Through your knowledge of him is how you gain access to the divine power in everything you need in that godly life. This is crucial because the resources of the power of the godly life are accessed through your relationship with God. By your knowing him intimately, it isn't just, Oh, I go to church. I give a little money when I walk out the door. I got baptized. I, you know, I pray every once in a while. Nope. I read the Bible. Nope. It's about your personal relationship with this creator that gets you that access. So I need you to do this. First off, some of y'all need to pick your head up and you need to breathe in the very fact that I have been given the gift and the access to everything that I need. In spite of what's going on around me, in spite of what I feel, in spite of what the doctors say, in spite of what my family says, I have been given everything I need. And it's not merely about, well, I'm going to go to heaven when I die, praise the Lord. I just got to get through this life. No, that's very precious, but that ain't it. It's about every single day of my life. So believers possess everything you need for a godly life in every situation, every challenge, every decision. Remember that the resources of heaven are at your disposal. You are not ill equipped. Some of you need to hear that again. You are not ill equipped. You have not been left behind. You have not been abandoned. You ain't been neglected by the Lord of Heaven. He has given you everything you need for life and godliness. But not only that, we gonna get a little bit deeper. You gotta tap into your living hell. That's the Holy Spirit. So when I say something like that, some of you get a little nervous because you ain't grew up in a Pentecostal church. I know. And then I grew up in a Pentecostal church where we had people tearing down front and we had to put sheets over them and it was running around and all that kind of stuff. You seen that sweet little lady up there, Luke, Miss Lucy. Yes. She would, would that Jerry curl be running around the building and all kinds of stuff speaking in tongues. And it was crazy. And I was just embarrassed. But when I say the Holy spirit, I don't want you to get all nervous because it's actually your living help right now. The Holy Spirit is your promised helper. He dwells within you. He dwells within each and every believer, empowering, guiding, and comforting. Let me show you, I got, I got a few little slides up there about what the Holy Spirit's role is. The Holy Spirit is a teacher and a guide. Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as the helper or the comforter. So many of you say, man, I need a little help. I need a little comfort. I wish somebody would call me and say the right thing at the right time. Well, that's what his job is. The Holy Spirit teaches believers and reminds them of God's truth, guiding them in their decisions and actions. It's so funny to me because sometimes we'll find ourselves in a crisis and I wish, I wish I had somebody that knew a situation like this. Where you find yourself in a crisis and all of a sudden you hear grandma singing some song that reminds you about a promise of the Lord. That's why all of a sudden you'll be walking along stressed out. You don't know how you're going to make it. And you hear in your heart, great is thy faithfulness. Man, that's what happens. That's what he does. He comes along and he teaches and he guides. Second thing he does is the Holy Spirit empowers. Acts 1A says, but you will receive. Power. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses. Do I have a witness of anything that God has done in your life? So we have become his witnesses of his power. The Holy Spirit empowers believers to overcome challenges, resist temptations and bear witness of the goodness of Jesus. Third, the Holy Spirit produces fruit. Relations 522 and 23 describes the fruit of the spirit. Which are the character qualities of the Holy Spirit. He develops that in you. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Tell me y'all, man, I ain't never going to be patient. I'm so sick of these kids. Listen, he's got to put you there because that's where he forges the patience. Man, I'm so, man, I just wish things would move a lot faster for me in my life. I just, I'm so sick. Hey, he's got to put you there. Cause that's where character is developed. So these qualities enable you to, to navigate life's challenges with God honoring responses. That's why I love it. That's why I think more people need to travel. That's why I think some of you need to leave what's been home and what's been comfortable and what's been safe for you. Why? Because you're so used to the same people saying the same messages all the time around you. You never get to test God's faithfulness in this area because everything is so comfortable around you. But I love it. Cause now when I leave, well I'm not in Florida no more, but when I come back, hey Charlie, you different. Yeah. Well, Baltimore will do that to you. It'll, it'll, it'll, it'll do that to you. But also Man, you go in a hospital room by yourself and it's cold and everybody's going home for the evening. The faithfulness of God, what's that little boy say on YouTube? It hit different. Do your homework on God's faithfulness and how kind he is when you, when you feel like, man, I don't got nobody to call. I can't tell you how many nights I cried just saying, man, I wish I had dot, dot, dot. Holy spirit will sit there and whisper sweet nothings to me. Hey, hey, hey, I know you miss your mama, your daddy, your sister, your brother, whoever, but I am your father. And I walk with you in the valley of the shadow of death so that you won't have to fear no evil. So laying in that hospital bed, I could smile like that cause I didn't feel no anxiety for the first time ever because he gives you a peace that surpasses all understanding. So watch this. I want to give you a little bit of life work. I want to give you a little bit of life work because some of you are saying, man, Charlie, hear you that like help is on the way, but it just feels so far away. Part of the reason I said, man, I want you to open up your Bible and see it is because you need to grow in your knowledge of who God is. You ain't tested his faithfulness enough or you've forgotten when he's been so faithful to you. That's why some of us get emotional when we sing great is our faithfulness. When we sing songs about God's faithfulness, what's happening in the hearts and minds of people worshiping is they're remembering those situations that felt insurmountable that when they look back now, they go, yeah, you were faithful. The second thing you got to do is this. You have to cultivate spiritual growth. You've got to dig it up. Some of us want to just be passive and think, man, God transformed my life and I'm not going to do nothing. That's like standing out in front of Planet Fitness and going, okay, I want a six pack. All right, I'm gonna show up. Now you can't show up to Planet Fitness because you might get a Tootsie Roll and a donut and then be like, man, I'm winning. No, no, no, you're not winning, okay? You gotta cultivate, that means get in the dirt, sweat a little bit, test out his word, put him to the test. Sometimes you'll get bad news so that God can show himself faithful. Do you know Lazarus died so that God could show off his glory? And some of you, some of your dreams are going to have to die so he can show off his glory in your life. Cause your eyes were too, you thought he had a look. This is in store for you when really he had all of support, you need community support. Your pride is what's stopping you from leaning on somebody else and calling out to the Holy Spirit and saying, Holy Spirit, I need your help right now. Some of you won't say anything to anybody and then we got to find out that you were in crisis after the fact. I didn't want to be a burden. I ain't want to bother nobody, but sometimes you need my faith cause you ain't got it. And I'll let you borrow it. Sometimes you need the pastor's faith. So you can, sometimes you need your friend's faith. Hey, can I lean on your faith right now? Cause I ain't got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll walk you through it. Some of y'all need to get active, tested like Ted. I'm not telling you this cause I'm just like, man, let me just encourage them for nothing. I want you to test it. What does the Bible say? Taste and see. I mean, y'all go to Sam's Club, y'all be walking around just tasting all the little food. Y'all don't know who touched it, who cooked it, nothing. Taste and see, taste. Y'all be out there at the mall. Orange chicken? Yes. Give it here. I'm telling you. God's help shows up in the most unlikely places. But you gotta test it. Share the gospel with somebody. Encourage somebody at work. There's been something on your heart that you've known you needed to say to people. Things that you need to deal with, you refuse to deal with. And I'm telling you, man, put it to the test and see how faithful he is. Family, listen. The mountains may be vast. The challenges may be daunting. But the God of the universe is your helper. And this helper isn't just provided. He's not providing assistance from afar. He's placed his very spirit within you. So listen, as you face trials, tribulations, and tests this week, I need you to remember help isn't just on its way. It's right here and it's available to you. Transcribed by https:
