If You Can Survive The Process, Progress Is Guaranteed Series

If You Can Survive the Process, The Progress is Guaranteed! - Sermon 2 of 4

Deuteronomy 8:18 - But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

Sermon:

Last week we looked at the fact that increase is not what you have in your outward possession, but rather what you have in your inward possession. Money and the acquisition of material things do not change you, but magnifies who you always were. We used the analogy that the same hundred-dollar bill could feed a crack habit or feed a family. You had the addiction before you got the money. You had the responsibility before you got the money. Only difference is now you have a resource to fulfill it. Increase is not what you have in your outward possession, but what you have in your inward possession. Paul said it this way, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all you can ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”

Today, the first thing that we must understand is that there are stages to success. The problem with most of us, young and old alike, is that we go through these stages voluntarily blind-folded. We take on this attitude of know-it-all when in actuality, we don’t know a thing at all. When we transition into the next stage, it is always unfamiliar to us, but we make face as if we got everything under control, when we don’t. We pretend that everything is ok when it is not, and if truth be told we struggle to survive.

We struggle to survive in a new position on your job.

We struggle to survive in a new relationship.

We struggle to survive in a new marriage.

We struggle to survive when we first become parents.

We struggle to survive in a new school.

We struggle to survive in a new grade.

We struggle to survive in a new community.

We struggle to survive in a new church.

But today we draw a line in the sand and stop the madness. Today, we throw away the blindfolds and open ourselves to the resources God has given us. He has given us his word, and every stage of life is depicted in the Old Testament, by example, and in the New Testament, by principle. When the children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt, they were economically dependant. Pharaoh didn’t even give them enough to survive with. God them out of Egypt through the Red Sea, and though the wilderness and for forty years they depended on God.

Forty years of God’s provision

Forty years of unemployment

Forty years without income

No steady income

No fixed income

No income

Forty years of Jehovah Jireh showing off in their lives.

Water from rocks

Manna in the morning

Quail in the evening

Clothes that fit no matter how much they grew

Shoes that never wore out

The Bible says as thy days are so shalt thou strength be. No leftever quail and dumplings for lunch. Just enough to make it through today, and measured up to his resume’, he supplied their every need according to his riches in glory. But the will of God is for you to do what you can while he does what you can’t

That’s why I like Bartimaeus, because he kept doing what he could, until God did what he couldn’t. I Mark 10, the Bible called him a beggar, but just so you know he was a hustle man from the fifth floor.

He had a flow that could make you melt like butter.

He had a rhyme to blow your mind every time.

He had game that left you calling his name.

And even though he couldn’t see, he had an ear that could what no one else could her so he could say what no one else said and get results no one else got. What am I trying to say? I’m saying there is something in you so unique, so personal and profound that if you use it, it will get results that no one else can get. You’ll be like Joseph telling Pharaoh to find a man to govern and Pharaoh telling Joseph you are the man.

I can’t quite put my finger on it but…

You have the flare I need

You have the creativeness I need

You have the type of forecasting I’ve been looking for

You have the ideas that can turn us around.

The key to getting from not enough is something you already possess. When Moses got to the Red Sea he already had the road. When you get ready to go from not enough you already have what you need, but it is buried under the munk, gunk, and junk that is been clogging your blessing valve all this time. Because not enough allowed you space to mope and complain, and host your pity parties, you whine because just enough is still a struggle but it is better than not enough. So God sends you into the wilderness to weed out that junk and wane you off of the milk.