Hazardous Conditions- Pastor Sarah Jakes Roberts

We’re all anchored to something. Some anchors will weaken you and others will give you strength. Even if God has broken you free from something that has chained you down, make space for His presence in your life. It’s time to move on and drop your anchor in the promises and message of Jesus. As Hebrews 6:19 (NIV) says, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” When you’re locked in with Him, through word, praise, worship, or connection with the body of Christ, you can endure whatever storm comes your way.

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We’re gonna take it by storm.
We’ve got some of the greatest lineup I have ever seen lined up to deal with every area of your life.
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Okay. I am in Luke 10 verse 17 through 22.
God gave me the subject, hazardous conditions.
Context for the scripture is Jesus is headed to Jerusalem.
And we often hear about Jesus and the 12 disciples, but we don’t hear as much about Jesus and the 72 disciples.
Depending on which theologian you listen to, it’s either 70 72, but he has these 12 disciples.
But as he begins to move closer and closer to Jerusalem, he dispatches even more disciples.
And when he has an encounter with these disciples in Luke 10, he anoints them much like he does the other He gives them authority and he sends them out.
And he tells them to prepare the way in these different cities for his coming.
And they go when they do what they have been told, and we’ll get into what that was in a little bit.
But when they return, that’s where we are at this point in the scripture.
They have returned from being obedient to that initial stage of the call.
Then the 70 return with joys saying, lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.
And he said to them, I saw Satan followed like lightning from heaven, Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in the spirit and said, I thank you, father, lord of heaven and earth that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.
Even so father, for so it seemed good in your sight, All things have been delivered to me by my father, and no one knows who the son is except the father and who the father is except the son.
And the one to whom the son wills to reveal him. Spirit of the living god. Thank you.
For constantly going ahead of us, for not leaving us without leaders or tools or voices, to help lead us along the way.
Father, it is my prayer that in this moment, you would allow my gift, my voice, this anointing to be used for the edification of those in this room.
And god in order for that to happen, that means that there can be none of me, only you.
And so I ask father that I would decrease that you may increase.
I pray a special blessing over every person in this room, every household represented online, that their hearts would be open to receive that which you have prepared for them.
We ask that you would remove distractions and clear their mind that they would be hungry and that they would be filled to the overflow.
Doing this room, that, which only you can do in Jesus’ name. I pray. Amen. Amen.
Whether it. Okay. No pressure, guys. Listen. Okay.
So I was reading a news article that said, when it comes to Americans getting their news, that most trusted news sources are not necessarily the big cable news networks that we’re used to hearing from.
It’s not necessarily CNN or Fox is not MSNBC that when Americans want to experience trusted news, they turn on their local news station, and I am turned on the news years old.
I didn’t really eyes that I was turned on the news years old until I was sitting at home one day, and there was so much going on in the world I just needed to feel connected and that we were in the midst of the pandemic, and we were having a contentious election.
And anytime I turned on the news, I started feeling heavy and sadness and despair, at least the national news.
But when I turned on the local news, there was everything from human interest pieces to what was happening in the community the weather, there were all of these different varying stories.
And just for a minute, I felt a little bit more connected to what was happening with me.
The local news has this knack of covering all of these different stories within a short span of time.
In order for them to cover all of these different stories, in such a short span of time, they need a personality.
They call this personality an anchor.
It is the role of the anchor to make sure that we can go from talking about community service to talking about crime without feeling like you’re being jerked in a 1000 different directions.
When I was looking at some of the qualifications of what it takes to be a good anchor, especially in this local news spot, I read that one of the key characteristics that a news anchor should possess is adaptability.
News anchors often have to think on their feet and adapt to breaking new situations.
The ability to remain calm and composed under pressure sure is essential.
This is not necessarily exclusive to just news anchors.
In our lives, we have people who serve as anchors as well.
And while we are facing all different numbers of challenges from work to raising children to financial, our anchors are the people in our lives who remind us who we are.
There there are people in our life who we can call no matter what’s going on, and they ground us.
They give us a sense of belonging just when we were about to go off on somebody, we called that one person.
You know, have you ever not you all because you’re so saved But if there is one person that you call, because you’re like, let me call them.
Cause if I don’t call them, I’m going to go ahead and go slap off. Let me call my mama.
I know y’all saved some of y’all called Jesus. You’re like, listen.
Let me get on the phone with somebody because if I don’t get to my anchor, I may forget who I am. I find this interesting because when I look at the role of just not a news anchor, but a relational anchor, It helps me honestly to be more compassionate towards people who do not have an anchor.
It’s so easy to be assaulted by what someone did.
But when you look at the tools that they were working with, You recognize that expecting a different outcome from them was actually a little unfair because they really didn’t have much to work with in the first place.
If you think about the moments in your own life where you did something that felt out of character, it was because you were going through a season in your life where you were not connected to an anchor.
I didn’t have an anchor. I couldn’t find it in my parents. I couldn’t find it in my friends.
There was nothing grounding me to something that would help me understand what I should or should not do.
And when you don’t have an anchor, you really can’t say what you won’t do.
It would be arrogant to say, oh, I would never do that.
You don’t do that because someone anchored you.
Someone told you knew that you did it, the consequences of you doing, it meant that you would have to answer to someone who didn’t play that.
But when you don’t have an anchor, anything is possible.
When Moses kills an Egyptian, it’s because he doesn’t have an anchor.
He’s neither Hebrew nor is he Egyptian.
And because his identity isn’t anchored at anything, you start drifting and doing things you never thought you would do because you weren’t anchored to something.
I don’t know what’s more challenging, though.
The seasons where we don’t have an anchor, or the seasons when we’re anchored to the wrong things.
What we understand as the residue of trauma is that trauma is not just what happens in the moment.
It would be different if it just happened in the moment and it was finished in that moment and you could move on without ever having the residue of what happened to you.
But the true problem with trauma is that it anchors you.
To an existence that doesn’t necessarily align with your present, but because you are anchored to what happen in that moment, you cannot even see yourself properly.
Anchored to shame. Anchored to people, please think. Anchored to fear failure.
What I love about our relationship with Jesus is that Jesus doesn’t just understand what we go through.
Jesus understands how what we go through changes us, how it anchors us, to something other than him.
I know this to be true because when I look at the woman with the issue of blood, Most of the time when we hear people preach about her reaching for the hem of his garment, we commend her for her faith.
And we take a lesson from her faith, and it is your faith that made you well.
But what I see in this story is that even though she was healed, the woman went back into hiding.
She touched the hem of his garment, but then she went back into hiding, so she was healed, but still hiding.
Part of the reason why she was hiding is because a woman with her condition was supposed to be in the background.
She wasn’t supposed to be out and about she should have been staying in the house.
The mere fact that she was even outside of the house was a sign that she was so desperate for her healing that she was willing to break some of the rules of that time in order to get what she needed access to.
But then when she had the healing, she didn’t let the healing change the way that she was functioning because she was still anchored to the actions of someone who was in a disease, even though she was healed.
I wish I could say that better. I’m healed, but I’m still anchored to the neighborhood.
I’m not in the neighborhood, but I’m still anchored to the mentality of the neighborhood.
I’m not in the relationship, but I’m still anchored to the mentality that was produced in the relationship.
Sometimes we catch the wrong anchors And what I love about the texts that Jesus could have just let the woman be healed and gone about her business, but he searched, he stopped what he was doing to search for her.
Who touched me? Who touched me?
She should have just came out in hiding, but the scripture says that when she saw when she could not be hidden.
She came out and she failed to the ground.
We marvel at the fact that she touched the hem of his garment.
I marvel at the fact that he made sure that she would no longer be anchored to hiding even though she was healed.
The woman caught in the act of adultery thrown at the feet of Jesus, surrounded by those who wanted to stone her, And when Jesus says he without sin cast the first stone and they scatter and move out of the way, she should have been out of the situation, but he goes a step further and he asked the woman caught in the acts of adultery, woman who condemns you, and she looked around and she said, no one, and he says, neither do I now go and send no more He couldn’t just allow her to be rescued.
He had to make sure that she wasn’t anchored to a mentality that would have her be rescued, but still ashamed, that would have her feel like you saved me, but maybe I wasn’t worthy of you saving me, so I still walk with my head held down because I’m still anchored to the trauma of what happened to me and I say that I’m safe and I say that I believe that I’m fearfully and wonderfully made, but when it’s time for me to actually walk it out, I can’t do it because I’m still anchored to this idea that maybe I was an accident.
Maybe you don’t really know who I am. Sometimes we get the wrong anchors.
And so when we are in relationship with Jesus, it’s not just for a one off encounter.
It’s because we understand that when we sing break every chain that we’re talking about breaking the chains of what I’ve been anchored to, that keeps me from walking out the salvation that I’m hungry for.
I believe that’s why in Hebrew 6, we get the scripture that I have this hope as an anchor for my soul.
What is this hope? That no matter what I have been anchored to in the past, that I serve Jesus and because I know who Jesus is and because Jesus went out of his way to save me and to rescue me, I no longer have to be anchored to who I used to be.
You see, there are some people in this room who quite literally do not look like what they had been through because when they got in relationship with Jesus, Jesus broke the chain of what they were anchored to.
You’re right, it doesn’t make any sense how I got from point a to point z.
The only thing I can tell you is that he broke the chain of what I been anchored to.
I wish we could have testimony service because I would take about 5 seconds to let someone testify about how they thought depression would be all they ever knew how they thought abandonment would be all they ever knew, how they thought addiction would be all they ever knew, but he broke the chain of what I was anchored to.
I shouldn’t have any business dream in the way that I dream, but he broke the chain of what I’ve been anchored to.
I have no business raising this family, being in this relationship, going into mental health and wellness, but he broke the chain of what I’d been anchored to.
I don’t look like what I’ve been through.
I don’t look like my community because he broke the chain of what I’ve been anchored to.
If I told you my rap sheet, you would be surprised that someone like me could be standing where I’m standing, but it broke the chain of what I’ve been anchored to.
I wanna take about 5 seconds and thank god for being a chain, breaking god, for being a way making god, for being the type of god who understands that you may have been pound, but you don’t have to say tied up any longer.
Sometimes you gotta get out of it and buy men because it changed you to who you used to be.
And when god is trying to break the anchor,
you gotta give him something work with.
I lift my hands in worship, not because it’s easy,
but because I gotta chain the break.
I gotta break this chain up on my family, so I walk a little differently.
I gotta break this chain up on my generation so I talk a little differently.
I gotta break this chain of what’s been hatching my family.
So my worship is a weapon because my worship breaks the chain.
The sacrifice of praise means that it’s not always easy, but I understand in order to break this chain.
I gotta lay something down on the altar. Anchored.
I don’t know who you are, but I hear god saying you’ve been anchored to the wrong thing for too long.
I don’t know who you are, but I hear god saying we could break that train today if you’re wanting.
I don’t know who you are, but I hear god saying you might need to check your road
because if an anchor break off from me.
There might be
a wind that breaks the chain up off of you.
That’s why you gotta be careful when you get into an environment of praise because all of a sudden change start breaking.
I of setting your mind,
trusting right. All of a sudden, your worship,
starts making you think I can’t have joy You worship starts making you believe.
I may make you to the other side.
And they’ll wonder how I got over and I’ll tell them I don’t really know how he did it.
I just know that I gave him permission to break everything China.
Sometimes.
All we can pray, Miss God, I give you full permission to break every chain.
That’s got me anchored to a discounted version of who you know I can be.
That trauma, that pain, that infidelity, that brokenness, change your marriage.
Change your family.
But we serve a guy who says if you wanna break it, your worship is the weight that puts pressure on the thing that’s holding you down.
Yeah.
God, I thank you.
For breaking chains.
Oh, god, I thank you for seeing what I was anchored to.
Even when I didn’t see it myself.
God, I didn’t know that it had affected me that deeply.
I didn’t know that I’d really start telling that I didn’t have any value.
I didn’t realize that I was anchored to something, but sometimes god sends a word.
So that you can see that what you are anchored to has enough power to keep you from moving in the direction of your purpose.
And when you truly believe that you being anchored in Jesus makes the difference.
You get hungry to get yoked up. Yeah. Poof. Yeah. No. That’s it.
Paula Silas. Understood something about being anchored and how being anchored can change your condition.
Paula Silas was sitting in a cell chained up.
And somebody else’s anchors. Oh, god.
But they had understood that somebody else’s anchors don’t change what I’m anchored in.
So they’re sitting in the prison sale, and they start doing the only thing they can do because they can’t really move this thing on their own.
They can’t really break this chain on their own, but they use the weapon that is available to them because sometimes you can’t just flip a switch and make things shake.
But what you can do is change the condition.
You can change your position in the condition when you decide to worship in the face of what is oppressing you.
Now I was underneath it, but when I worship, I get on top of it.
And pollen silence start singing and pollen silence start worshiping and all of a sudden chains start breaking I didn’t have to manipulate to do it.
I didn’t have to sleep with anybody to do it.
I didn’t have to pretend to be someone I wasn’t. I just had to step and to the fullness of who I am, your authentic worship will break the chains of what’s trying to keep you bound.
My worship changes where I am positioned, in the conditions.
Can’t change the condition, but I can change where I’m positioned.
I don’t have to let this thing whipped me.
I don’t have to let this thing challenge my, my worth and my value.
I can change my position. And if I align my position with what god sees, then I don’t even have to worry about how the condition is gonna change.
I just have to stay aligned with what god knows about me and what I know about him.
That’s why the enemy will always go after what you know.
Cause if you start questioning what you know, then you cannot align and be established in what will bring you breakthrough.
At minimum.
You gotta have the hope of Jesus as an anchor for your soul.
That no matter what my condition is, I have a hope that is greater than this condition.
And that hope always shows up for me.
And that hope always guides me and leads me when we hear the scripture, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me it comes after Paul talking about he could be up and he could be down, he could be rich, and he can be poor, but he said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
That’s his anchor. And nautical vessels, It is not uncommon for a ship to have more than one anchor.
Because different anchors serve different purposes, depending on the conditions.
I asked them to put an illustration on the board, because I just wanna show you how different anchors work for different conditions.
These are just a few, but there are literally countless different types of anchors.
The fluke style anchor is similar to the plow anchor, but it’s more lightweight.
It’s good for most boats, and it gets its holding power from its pointed flukes.
There’s a plow acre that is most effective in grass mud and sand. There’s a claw anchor.
And the claw anchor works well because it resets quickly.
Depending on the condition of where you are headed, you will need a different type of anchor.
Oh, god.
It is not uncommon for a vessel to have multiple anchors based on where they’re headed.
So, yes, I do have to have the hope of Jesus as an anchor for my soul, but I also recognize that as I move in the direction of my purpose that god sometimes sends me a specific anchor for a specific condition because god recognizes that in this season, you’re gonna need a different type of anchor.
You have a different type of anchor when you’re at the job, than when you’re at home messing with the kids.
I need a different type of anchor for this condition.
I have a different type of anchor when I’m standing up here versus when I’m listening to my children, when I’m here, my anchor is spanking.
When I’m with my children, my anchor is listening. Different circumstances require a different type of anchor.
Bishop Jakes is just as much Bishop Jakes as he is chairman Jakes.
As much as he is the entrepreneur.
And in those settings, but depending on the condition of the room, he needs a different type of anchor.
This is why I have a book that’s coming out April 30th that’s called Power Moves, ignite your confidence and become a force.
I wrote this book because I recognized that we were a culture becoming obsessed with one expression of power.
As long as I show up looking strong.
And like I have it all together, then I’m powerful.
But I wrote power moves so that we understand that power often moves.
And sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is not be the strong friend at all.
Sometimes it’s being quiet and letting someone else find the strength that god put inside of them tell somebody power moves.
I wrote power moves so that you understand that the same power that got you through that land season could find you in this season if you stop looking for it to show up in the same way that you’ve always known it, the question has to be god, what is the hour that has gift me this day, my daily bread.
God, I don’t wanna be eating off a stale bread because power moves, and I wanna move the way that power moves.
I don’t wanna us for the way that power used to be.
When Gus says I’m calling you to a new source of power, if you don’t move when power moves, you’ll be the sadducees and the pharisees working off our own power and asking god how do I accomplish what you’ve called me to do in the earth you can only do it if you move with my power.
Because when you understand this fundamentally, you recognize that different conditions require different anchors.
When we find our 70 disciples in this text, our 70 disciples are transitioning from having Jesus in his physical form as their anchor.
Into his word being what anchors them. Oh, this is quite a transition.
Because for almost 3 years, he has been their anchor in physical presence.
But as Jesus heads towards Jerusalem, he understands that if you are only used to me showing up in this particular form, you will miss that I have different expressions.
And so he begins training them to be broad enough and vast enough to understand that my word may be the only anchor that you have in this season.
In other words, even when you don’t see me, it doesn’t mean I’m not working.
That word may be the only see, this is a good word.
For someone who understands that I have been sent into hazardous conditions.
And I am not as comfortable as I once was, but the only thing that I have to keep me grounded in these hazardous conditions are the fact that I got a word from god.
It’s not that it’s not dangerous. It’s not that I feel like I am the woman for the job.
It’s not that I feel like I am the best man on the field.
It’s just that I got a word from god, and sometimes a word from god will send you into hazardous conditions because god knows that if you say anger to the word, It doesn’t matter who comes or who goes.
All that matters is that you stay anchored and why I sent you.
If you stay anchored and why I sent you. It doesn’t matter what the conditions are.
It doesn’t matter what trahader say. It doesn’t matter who is educated.
All that matters is that just stay anchored. Hit your neighbor and say, stay anchored.
Don’t you give us, stay anchored. Don’t you turn back, stay anchored.
Some you need a reminder that I didn’t get here by myself, that I came here from a word from god.
And if a word from god sent me, A word from god is gonna leave me, and I won’t move until you send another word, and I won’t go back until you send another word.
Anchored. Anchored by this word.
The word is all I got. The word is all I need. The word is all I got.
The word is all I need.
God you told me if I come to this city, that you’ll go ahead of me and make my crooked pass straight.
So I’m packing up and I’m moving to the city. I don’t have any friends.
I don’t know what the chop is gonna be, but I’m anchored in the word that she gave me.
I don’t know how I’m gonna raise this child, but I’m anchored in the word that she gave me.
I don’t know how. I’m gonna build
this ministry, but I’m anchored in the words it gave me. I anchored in this.
I’m anchored in this. And, of course, the conditions have been violent because the conditions are not coming for my finances.
Is not coming for my marriage. The condition is coming for my acre
because you
understand if I get off my square that you can take 10 territory,
but I hear god saying, I gave you that territory. Don’t you give it up?
I gave you that territory. I gave you that fishing. I gave you that child.
You better say hanker.
10 toes down. 10 toes down. Stand on business.
I’m standing on the anchor. Sanddog business. I’m standing on what god gave me. I’m gonna see this thing.
I’m a see it to the end.
I’m a see it to the end.
The wind and waves are coming, but I’m a see it to the end. The eyes are coming,
but I’m a see it to the end.
All hell is breaking loose, but I’m a see it to the end.
Anchored. Anchored.
Get your weight up.
You gonna have to be anchored for this. Go talk to your therapist.
You gonna have to be anchored for this.
Go take a nap. You gonna have
to anchored for this. I don’t know who you are, but god is calling you into a dimension that is going to require you’ll be anchoring because they’re gonna pull at you, and they’re gonna talk about you.
And they’re gonna try and hijack. Your anchor.
I don’t know who you are, but I hear god saying you got to take your anchor back Uh, you gotta take your anchor back.
The threat is over your anchor. The discouragement is over your anchor.
Somebody in this room, you’ve been dealing with grief, and you’ve been hurting because you lost your anchor.
And you feel lost at sea because you don’t have your anchor anymore.
And that anchor came in the form of a person, maybe it came in the form of a marriage, but you’ve been grieving that you’re not anchored to who you once were.
And I hear god saying that you were one ship with many anchors.
And that person you were counting going to be your anchor, they may not be here with you in the way that you’re used to them being here with you.
But Gus said, I would never leave you without an anchor.
Maybe the marriage has come to an end and your identity was wrapped and who you were married to or where you were working and now that season is over.
And I hear god saying I will never leave you without an anchor. You are one vessel with many anchors.
If you would just trust me with this next phase of your life, you will understand.
You’re gonna feel rooted again. That’s the sound.
Somebody getting back to their anchor.
Can they mine together?
Because I haven’t been angry.
Jesus.
Sends these 70 disciples out in hazardous conditions.
If you read all of Luke’s 10, you’ll see that he tells them I’m sending you out as lambs.
Amongst wolves. Man, we get so upset with god.
When he exposes us to hazardous conditions.
And there was quite literally nothing in scripture that suggest that walking with god means that you avoid hazardous conditions.
Like, nothing, chow, in the wilderness for 400 years.
Hazardous conditions are a part of the walk.
He says to them I’m sending you out as lambs, amongst wolves.
Before he says they, he tells them that the harvest is plentiful.
But the labor is a few. This means you’re outnumbered. -one is dangerous.
And then he says, when you walk into certain places, see if your peace can rest in that house.
And if it doesn’t, then move on to the next house. It’s dangerous.
You’re outnumbered. And that everybody’s gonna be happy to see you.
Not everyone’s gonna roll out the carpet when you come in.
Just because you’re on fire and having an encounter with god, and you’re ready to expose them to your growth and your development, your creativity, and ideas.
And because they didn’t roll out the red carpet, you decide that the gift has no value at all.
Guuss is you should expect that some people are not going to understand what you carry.
Expect that. Don’t let that catch you by surprise.
Don’t be surprised when there is more work and there are people to accomplish the task because I told you you were going to be outnumbered.
You see, people wanna be called, but they don’t really wanna pick up the phone.
Because if you really picked up this phone, you would see that I wish I would’ve had a missed call because if I understood how outnumbered I was gonna be, how stressed I was gonna be, how many people would be wishing that I would have a downfall, then maybe I would have never picked up the call.
But because I have an anchor in the midst of the hazardous conditions, I can stand up even when you talk down to me.
I can pick up ahead and move to the next room because your no does not determine my yes.
Your no doesn’t determine whether or not I’m called because I was called before I sept in the room.
I was called before I even got here.
You can have a lot of things, but you can’t have my anchor.
Jesus.
He says, your peace is gonna be what determines whether or not this household is for you.
Which means that even in the midst of hazardous conditions, you have to tap into a certain level of vulnerability and sensitivity so that you can access your peace.
It’s maybe just one person in this room. Maybe you’re watching online.
And when you go through hazardous conditions, you don’t mind that because you grew up in hazardous conditions and you’re tough.
That don’t mean nothing to you.
But are you sensitive in a hazardous condition, or do you build walls to survive that keep you from feeling peace?
God be out here asking us to do stuff.
That I quite literally don’t wanna do.
God, I can go through a hard time if you let me be hard.
But you’re telling me to go through a hazardous condition and stay open enough that I can still have peace in the middle of a hazardous condition.
And you got to have real peace for the assignment because the assignment only works when you’re in peace.
God, I wish I could say that. You’re outnumbered. It’s dangerous.
It’s tempestuous. And you don’t have no food. He says, don’t take any food. Don’t take any water.
I don’t have any provision. So if I don’t stay sensitive in the midst of hazardous conditions, then I won’t know who’s for me or who’s against me.
Because the thing about building walls is that you’re not the best judge of character when you build walls.
You just shut everyone else out.
But if you shut everyone else out, you will miss the spot of provision.
You gotta stay connected to your peace.
Even when there’s no provision connected to your peace, even when it feels like they’re out to get you, I gotta stay in peace.
That’s the anchor that he gives them for this assignment. Protect your peace at all cost.
Your piece is gonna be what helps you to understand which relationships, which connections are important if you don’t have peace, you can’t move forward.
Because he gave them an assignment to prepare the way for him.
And when you know that you don’t just represent yourself, you represent god.
You wanna be careful. About the environments you create for his presence.
I wish I can.
Which means that even if the conditions are hazardous outside of me, because I carry his presence, I can’t let those conditions get inside of me because I am a dwelling place for his presence.
It’s why I have to do the work to make sure that I get my soul anchored and that I do the therapy and that I do the forgiveness and that I move away from the friendship that bring out the worst in me because I am a dwelling place for his spirit.
And if he’s gonna release peace through me, then I gotta find a way to get to a place of peace and of me because I recognize that part of being on assignment for god means that I have to go into hazardous conditions.
I’m almost finished.
So the disciples come back, and they manage to do exactly what Jesus told them to do.
They’ve prepared the way.
The disciples, though, are a little blown away.
They are amazed at what they were able to do in Jesus’ name.
When my text opens up, it says, Then the seventy returned.
And when the seventy returned with joy, they said, lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.
I have to tell you God show me so many things.
This scripture, honestly, I am out of my weight class with this text, because there are so many implications here that literally we could do a series on it.
There are so many implications, but I can only give you what God gave me when I first read this text, and I saw that they came back and they were amazed that even the demons were subject to them in Jesus’ name, it revealed to me that they didn’t really understand the full weight of what god had given them.
If you read all of Luke 10, you’ll see that he tells him to heal the sick and to preach the gospel, but he never said for them to cast out the devils and the demons.
But when they finally got out there and they started using what god gave them, They realized that there was more to what god gave him than even what he told them in the initial stage.
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but I hear god saying that he just gave you the starting point that there is so much more to what god gave you that if you start exercising it, you’ll see that there are layers and dimensions to what god gave you.
It’s not just one thing. It is many things. I’ve read somewhere in Genesis to be fruitful and multiply.
It helps me to understand because I made in his image that I serve a god of multiplication.
So if god just gave me one thing, then that one thing has the ability to multiply into many things, but you’ll never see the many until you start working the one thing.
I hear god saying don’t let the one thing fool you, baby. There’s layers to what I gave you.
I’m just waiting for somebody bold enough to take that one thing and to start working it in hazardous conditions.
I don’t have a following. I don’t have a network. I don’t have community.
But I hear god saying, but you got one thing.
You got the one thing that I gave you was my word. You may not have the finances,
but you got one thing.
You may not have the resources,
but you got one thing that I desire of the lord. That will I seek after?
But I might dwell one thing is everything when that one thing came from god.
1 thing. One word from god will change your life.
One thing, one gift from god will change your life. Stop comparing that one thing.
To somebody else’s many things and start putting your one thing to work.
I thought I would just be a blogger, but guys says I got more to you than writing blogs.
Said, okay, god. I’ll write the book. Because here’s I got more for you than writing the books.
I said, okay, I’ll preach one sermon. Here I am 10 years later.
Still unwrapping that one thing god gave me.
That one thing turned into 40,000 women, and club all of that was in. One thing that god gave me.
Just one. I just got one thing. God’s got everything.
Trying to stay in my text.
These disciples worked their one thing, and they saw there were layers to it.
And Jesus tells to them, He says to them, that one thing did reveal to you many things.
But he says that that you’re rejoicing over, that ain’t nothing.
You call it remarkable. He calls it regular.
He says, that ain’t nothing.
I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning.
When I write the Ebonics version of the Bible, this scripture, in particular, will say that ain’t nothing to a boss because I’m not surprised.
That demons started trembling when you opened your mouth.
You are because you didn’t understand the power of what you had. You call it remarkable I call it regular.
You’re surprised that you’re finally in a position where generational wealth is actually a thing.
You’re surprised I call it regular. You call it remarkable. That you would actually have an access to education.
You call it remarkable. He calls it regular because what catches you by surprise was always in his plan.
Okay.
Yeah. You don’t even know.
How much more divinely regular things god has assigned to your name.
He tells them, don’t rejoice in that.
He says if you’re gonna rejoice in having anything, Rejoice in the fact that your name is written in heaven.
I’m a tell you this I’m a close.
You know what this showed me?
Is that success is a hazardous condition too.
That quickly, these disciples who were probably just excited that Jesus would give them an assignment.
Come back, and now they’re excited that demons are subject to them in Jesus’ name.
You think that if you finally get to a place of success, you’ll be settled.
But the danger of success is that it changes your definition of joy.
And all of a sudden, where you were just once glad for the opportunity.
Now you’re upset that it hasn’t moved as quickly as you thought it should.
At one point, you were just glad that you had finally found someone who understood god in the way that you understood god.
But now you keep moving the ball back because what happens in our culture is that we say it’s never enough.
No matter how successful, no matter how beautiful, no matter how fine, how big, how small, it’s never enough.
And now the culture of the world has poisoned your definition of success.
He says, if I am going to move on to Jerusalem, I have to make sure that you are anchored in what you should really be rejoicing about.
That your name is written in heaven.
Not just that you’re saved, but that I wrote your name in heaven before you took your first breath.
Rejoice in the fact that you finally realize what I’ve always known about you.
Is that I stamped you with heaven’s endorsement long before hell ever tried to break loose in your life, that your name was in heaven before they ever started a rumor that your name was written in heaven before you even started walking up this call.
If you’re gonna rejoice in anything, You gotta stay anchored in the fact that this started with god.
And don’t let effectiveness and success change your definition of joy.
Hazardous conditions.
I don’t know why god gave me this word, but I suspect that we are coming into a season in the world, and I do mean the world globally where everything is hazardous.
Everything is hazardous.
You don’t know who what to say, how to say it. Who are we gonna offend?
How do I show up as love and still tell the truth. Everything. Everything is hazardous?
Do I buy the house or not buy the house? Is the recession coming?
Are we in the everything is hazardous? Where do they say people are not coming to church anymore?
Do we go out into the streets to make sure they still know who Jesus everything is hazardous right now.
But we are a part of a royal priest hood.
We, as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, have an assignment to not get off our square just because the world is going crazy.
We have an assignment to make sure that the light of the world is able to shine through us, even in the mist of hazardous conditions.
So I believe that god gave me this word just for the ways that he’s moving in your life, but because of how he’s moving in the world And if you look at the hazardous conditions of the world, and you dare to think to yourself, My voice doesn’t matter.
My gift doesn’t matter. My assignment doesn’t matter.
Someone else is doing the guy that I don’t it doesn’t really matter anymore.
Then we cannot pull a generation out of the hazardous conditions of the world and into the kingdom.
When we talk about being in the world, but not of the world It is because we recognize that this world is a hazardous condition.
Baby, we can’t even breathe without pollution getting in our lungs. Everything is hazardous.
But I’m not of this world. I’m anchored in something that started in heaven.
And my one assignment and you wanna know what your purpose is.
Your one purpose is to make sure that heaven touches the hazardous your assignment is to make sure that Heaven touches the hazardous if we’re gonna take a city, if we’re gonna take a generation, If we’re really gonna be leaders who make a difference, then we have to recognize what our role is.
When Jesus says to them, rejoice that the fact that your name is written in heaven, I believe that it was also language to help them understand that you once were in a hazardous condition.
But because your name is written in heaven and you yolks with me.
What was once hazardous, not now has power.
And where the enemy wants what has scared you out of position, you not have authority over the one thing that used to scare you, and you ought to rejoice.
Because god did that for you. I wanna pray for you.
You’re in this room.
I have this image in my head of being in a hospital, and they have a special bin for materials that are hazardous.
And to handle those bins with care because they recognize that if you touch some of the things that are in this hazardous bin, that it could be problematic for your health.
You’re in this room, and the hazardous condition that was around you has seeped in you.
And it’s hard for you to even know what to be anchored to.
You’re in this room, and you feel like you’re lost at sea.
I wanna pray with you. I’m gonna ask you.
I know service went over a little long. I’m gonna ask you to not move during the altar call.
Unless you’re coming to the altar because one person may decide to come down here.
But because you needed to get to your car, they said, oh, I’ll just wait.
I’ll wait till next week.
In honor of the sanctity of this moment, I’m asking that you make it as easy as possible.
For someone to get reconnected to their anchor.