The Gift of Volition:"Choose This Day . . ."

I have a testimony.

I have a.

Story to sing.

This is my story.

This is my song have a testimony, see my testimony Rain came, wind blew My house was built for me I say with you I, I feel somebody's faith rising with you this is the reason you made it.

Sa.

Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Those of you who were with us on the prayer call, everybody who's on here for Bible study, good morning. It's a beautiful day because we woke up this morning. It's an awesome day to praise the Lord, to bless the Lord, to worship him with our thoughts, with our words, with every action. So I'm excited. I am obviously in a different location. I am in Minnesota at Riley's house. Came up here a couple days ago, get some podcast recordings in and spend some good quality time. And last night, he had to jet out of here for kind of an impromptu emergency shareholder meeting with a. A company he has interest in. So I'm here. He's in Michigan. Roger's in Florida. You guys are spread out throughout the nation. What's up, Roger? How you doing?

I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. We're anchored out through the nation. Ready to, like, get charged up, take some. Take some territory. Let's go.

Amen. Amen. I am excited about today's Bible study. Like, I am every. Every Wednesday morning. We've been going through some topical studies, and they're all kind of all somewhat related. And as I was prepping for this week, I just happened to be. You know, I don't even know how the Lord led me there, but was in First Kings and just reading story of Elijah and that awesome showdown between Yahweh and in baal, the God that they were worshiping there in Israel at the time where most. Most of them, it was under. They were under the reign of Ahab at the time. Ahab and his wife Jezebel. Is it interesting that a lot of people, whether you're a boy or a girl, have biblical names, but you don't come across a lot of Jezebels, right? At least I haven't. I don't know about you guys, but Ahab, of all the. The evil, wicked kings in the north, there in Israel, he was the. The wickedest. He was the most evil, and that's saying something. And Elijah was called to be a prophet, a voice for God in that season. He's introduced in. In chapter 17, where he brings forth the word of the Lord that. That he's going to bring a drought into the land. He tells Ahab and God tells him to go, to not run and hide at this point, but go kind of take cover. The Lord provided for him. He had the sparrows bring him food and he had them hang out. The, the book could dress. I believe I don't have it in front of me this, this second. But, but it's a mighty story. And then we have, in chapter 17 of First Kings, we have ultimately the story of the, the widow and her oil. God set it up that Elijah would find this, this widow and Zara. Zara path. And ultimately she was down to her last bit of, of supplies, last bit of oil. He said, go bake me a cake, right? She said, I just have enough for, for me and my family. Then we're going to die. Like this is our last meal. He says, well, well, bake me a cake first. And she does. And ultimately the Lord continues to provide a daily supply of oil and her son dies of, of sickness. Elijah prays over him three times and he, he's revived. And it's the first account in Scripture of somebody being brought back from the dead. And it just kind of sets the stage for chapter 18 of First. First Kings. And as I was reading it, it's always been a particular verse that stands out to me. And, and it's when, if you don't know, we're not going to cover the whole chapter today. But the, the verse in particular is when Elijah's on Mount Carmel and you have the 450 prophets of, of Baal, the 400 prophets of Baal, 450 prophets of Asherah and Elijah. Right? And the, the issue at the time was it's not that all of them were just simply worshiping baal, it was that they were worshiping Yahweh and baal, right? Getting a little bit of the real God and serving also this false God, this pagan God. And it's really 100. It's different context than the days we're living in today. However, it's the same issue. The, the hearts of man where even you see people who do worship God, they believe in God, they, they may be spirit filled. Not just somebody who, you know, kind of is a quote unquote Christian, but somebody who's actually spirit filled, but their heart's devotion is divided, right? They, they serve God at times, but they have other allegiances that they're loyal to. And that is idolatry, right? That, that's idolatry 1,000%. So in particular in First Kings, Elijah says to them, he says, how long Are you going to waver between the two? Right between Yahweh and baal and the, the word in the Hebrew, that word waiver, it actually, it depicts a bird that's kind of hopping back and forth from branch to branch, hopping over here, kind of pecking a little bit, hopping over here, pecking a little bit, and saying, how, how long? How much longer will you falter? Will you waver? Going back and forth between the two and ultimately calling on them to make a decision, right? Choose this day whom you will serve. It is essentially what he's saying, which was the words of Joshua as he was on his deathbed, essentially like his final charge to the people, choose this day who you will serve. And I believe every single day, we. We certainly have that option to choose whom or what we will serve. And that's. That's volition, right? Volition is the power to choose. And God gives us volition. We have the opportunity to choose. He. He didn't create us to be robots. Love wouldn't be love if we couldn't help but to love and be 100 loyal to God. But I'm going to read this verse In Joshua, chapter 24, starting at 14 and verse 15, I'm sure everybody's pretty familiar with. You might even have it hanging in your house right now. But Joshua, this is his final charge to the people of Israel, says, now therefore fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord. He's saying, choose this day. And he's basically saying, you know, not that he didn't have a heart for them, but he's saying, I don't even care what you choose. Whatever you choose, that's on you. Because I know for me, in my house, we're going to serve the Lord. But the fact of the matter is we just need to make a decision, make the choice, whatever it is. And we've talked about this in the past. At any time, we are serving another master, right? And we have an idol in our life, and we've talked in the past that idols that, you know may not be a pagan God, that is that idol in our life. But an idol could be finances, our job, our family, our spouse. We can make anything our. Our idol. It's just anything that. That takes allegiance of our heart away from God. We should have 100 devotion, 100% allegiance to God. And Joshua, he's simply saying, make a choice. Whatever it is, it is. And we know in revelation that, you know, it's like, either be hot or cold, but if you're lukewarm, gonna spit you out of my mouth. It's the same thing. Make a decision. If you're gonna serve me, then serve me. Be all in. Dive in with two feet. And if you're not, then. Then jump out of this thing with two feet. Because there's a higher likelihood that if you. You totally jump out of your relationship with God, right? If you totally jump out of the church, it. You have a far better chance of falling on your face of stumbling and bringing like. Like the prodigal right, and find yourself waking up in a freaking pig pen and having that aha moment when he came to himself, like, what in the world am I doing? But when you're lukewarm and you're going back and forth and you're serving both, you're just kind of coasting. And we.

We.

We know we all have a lot of responsibilities, a lot of distractions in life, and that. That's fine, right? A lot of them are good things. They're blessings. But ultimately, we tend to put God on a back burner when things just start getting busy in our life. And for everybody who has, you know, but as for me, my house, we will serve the Lord. I pray that we are serving the Lord and that charge right, right before there. Now, therefore, fear the Lord. Serve him in sincerity and in truth. Serve God in truth, right? He already knows where our heart's loyalty is, where. Where our allegiance is. He knows it. But to serve him in truth, where it's like, okay, I. I know I'm not on the exact path that I should be on, but serving him in truth is not just having that. That realization that you're not, but getting back on. On the path, right? And Moses, he. He echoed similar words to what Joshua said here at the end of Joshua's life. And we know Moses died before the Israelites entered the promised land and Joshua took charge. Raj, what do you got?

I just had this thought, man. Like, you know, hot or cold, you know me, my to. To make a choice. And sometimes I think the Enem can use this verse or this thing to.

To.

To. To speak into our minds. You Know, while we're going, remember we're all going through a sanctification process and we're all. We're all. You know, we're all on. We feel like we're unworthy, and we are unworthy. But sometimes. And this has just happened, maybe it's just me, but it's happened in my life where, you know, I've come to this point, it's like, oh, man, either be hot or cold. And like, I failed again. And, you know, maybe I'm. Maybe I'm not in this thing. And you knew the enemy almost plays with your mind. Like, well, you should just. If you're not in, you should just. You should just get out. Like, you're, You're.

You're not.

You're. You're not worthy, you know, so it's just kind of one of those things, just a thought to bring up. Like, don't let the enemy. Don't let the enemy steal. Steal your salvation when you're realizing that you're. You're going through a sanctification process and you're not. Perfection. Hot doesn't mean perfection, I guess, is what I'm saying.

Right?

Yeah. Yeah. I would. I would say probably hotness would equate to desperation, right. The. The more desperate you are for the Lord. And sometimes when you're in those seasons when you. You feel unworthy, right, you feel desperate, but it's really that desperation for God that. That makes you hot. But, yeah, 100.

That's really good because sometimes I think the church is like, you know, hot or cold, and, you know, we get this vision of what. Of what hot is. Right?

Right. Yeah.

Hot isn't. You know, you walk out your house today and you're just laying hands on everybody and healing them and, you know, throwing your jacket at them and they're falling over like. Benny Hinn. That. That doesn't. That's not what hot is. I. I think. I think desperation, the more desperate you are, leads you to a hotter place. And typically, once you're. You're totally desperate and you're. And then you fully surrender. Not that. Not saying that you haven't surrendered your life to Jesus, but you're in that complete submissive state, that state of surrender. And, like, he's there. God. You feel God. He shows up. He is answering prayers. He's speaking to you. You feel his presence. And then usually that's when the desperation in our heart wanes a bit because we have them. We got it right.

We're.

We're floating, we're Our heels are clicking where we, we feel on top of the world. And then that desperation for him wanes a bit, and then we kind of lose some of that, that hotness. And you know, I, I think a lot of times we do get to this place of lukewarm and lukewarm. Not necessarily, you know, turning from God and rejecting God and being an apostate, but just that, that hunger in your heart, that, that hunger and thirst. I pray that over my son every night that his heart would remain hungry for you, Lord God, remain hungry. I want to remain hungry. And oftentimes, you know, as we talked a little bit in prayer, we see these other places of the world where they're, they don't have a lot materialistically in the physical and the natural. They don't have a lot. But their hearts are so hungry for the Lord. And you know, God 100, 1000% he gives us the ability to create wealth. I don't think that, that God shuns anybody who, who is rich. However, typically the, the habits of mankind and kind of the, the way we're wired, the, the more money we have, the more things that we have, the less dependent we become on God in God. So can we be rich and have generational wealth and be 100% reliant and dependent upon God? Yes, we can. But our natural tendency is to then put our trust in those finances and the financial securities. We find security in our bank account rather than security in God. So I started to mention Moses when he was at the end of his life and he gave a final charge to, to the people before Joshua led them into the promised land. He, he said something very similar. And he said, I set before you life and death. And this is Deuteronomy 30, blessings and curses. Now choose life, right? He's telling them at the end of his life, his charge is to make a decision. Choose. He said, you know, you know the law. I've given you the law. I've revealed the law to you. If you do this, you'll be blessed. If you do this, you'll be cursed, right? And he's saying, I set before you life and death. So when you choose, you're not just choosing to serve God or not choose God, you're literally choosing life or death. And he's saying, choose life. And obviously now with the new covenant, we have a better understanding of that, the everlasting life that we receive when we put our faith in Jesus. But ultimately God is a God who blesses us with volition. And it started in the garden, right? He. He gave man free will, and he gave. Well, first he created man in his image, in his likeness, and then ultimately he gave Adam freedom within boundaries. He said, you are free to eat from any tree, but you must not eat for the tree of knowledge, of good and evil. And this is like the prototype of volitional freedom.

It.

Because God wants our hearts. He wants nothing more than our hearts to be loyal to him. But. Well, he'll know. But you don't really know where your heart is unless you have options, right? If my only option is to love the Lord God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, then that's not really love unless there's other options. So we have the volition. We have the, the. The power to choose what we're going to love, what we're going to worship. And then ultimately, the enemy didn't force Eve, right, to eat of that tree. It. He persuaded her, right? The enemy is always going to try to persuade us to. To choose anything but God. Gita.

Oh, yeah. I don't know if you're taking comments now or at the end, at any time.

Whenever. Whenever the Holy Spirit prompts you, that's when I take comments.

Amen. Okay, so, you know, I just want to also add in that sin is an idol, right? And that's what the Holy Spirit gave me. I had a really big revelation this past week of just Romans. If, you know, we should totally read that Romans 5, how he talks about we're dead to sin, right? And he's talked a lot about the volition. I just love that because we. We always have that choice. But what we need to remember is when Jesus died, like, we died with him. But sin no longer has dominion over us, so that means it doesn't affect us. God showed me the way it affects the regular person in the world. So it's almost different. Like, it's so hard to explain, but I just had like such a rhema moment of that. And he said, do you not realize you're dead to sin? So when Jesus Christ died, the sin in you died. And when he rose again, it's now his spirit living inside of us. But when he actually puts that into words just so, or that feeling is so powerful to know that we actually have overcome it. So we're not responsible, like, for the ramification of that sin. And those are all idols, right? And I think that most Christians, we don't realize how much power we actually have through Christ. I just want to reiterate that we really have it in Us. Praise the Lord.

Yeah. Amen. Amen. And when we're tempted, right, Whatever it may be. Whatever it may be, whenever we're tempted, we. We do have an out. We. We do have the Holy Spirit, which allows us to withstand whatever temptation we go through. And our temptations aren't lesser because now we're saved. They're the same temptations as any unsafe person would have. But now we. We have something within us beyond our willpower, someone in us beyond our willpower to resist it, and that's the Holy Spirit. Last week, when I was on the road, I was with one of our. Our guys, Andre, and we had a little bit of downtime, and I was like, oh, watching any shows or, you know, what are you spending time with? And because there's like a couple shows that I watch and I mentioned there's a show called Mayor of Kingstown, right. If anybody's seen it. And Mayor of Kingstown is to me similar to what Sons of Anarchy was, a show that I like to watch, but it's feeding my flesh. You know, there's cursing, there's violence, right? It's a show like that. And like, I got convicted when the new season came out because I watched it, I got convicted, and now something like that. And obviously, you know, my flesh wanting to see what happens in the storyline, it's not a major issue by any means, right? As, you know, some people are tempted with lust. You know, I struggle with, like, addiction to pornography, things like that. Drugs, alcohol, whatever it may be. So what I'm talking about, on the scale of. Of sin, it seems relatively harmless compared to something like that. But the point I'm trying to make is with something like that, it's like, oh, I know I. I can just not do it, right? As much as my. My flesh may. May want to, I know I. I could just make the decision not to. And whatever desire I have to. To watch that thing or. Or drink that drink or take that drug, whatever it is, I know it will subside, right? That happened to me when I got my first craving after I gotten saved and sober. It didn't happen for months later. Literally no desire to take drugs, no cravings, no withdrawals, no nothing. Then literally in the middle of nowhere, I was literally walking up the stairs from the laundry room, my apartment where I lived. And like, halfway up the stairs, I'll never forget, it just hit me like a ton of bricks. It was like the biggest craving temptation I ever felt. And it hit me out of nowhere, and I literally sat down on the stair started to, like, cry. And I was taking a while. Like, Lucy was in my apartment. She came down because I was taking a while. She saw me there and she said, let's just pray and just prayed. And as quickly as that temptation came, it just went away. And this peace filled the place where that. That craving was. It was. It was nothing but supernatural, right? So, but sometimes with these smaller issues, right? Like. Like watching a show that, you know the Lord's convicting you on, sometimes you're just like, I'll watch. What's the worst that'll happen? I'm not going to hell. If I do this right, it won't be the end of the world. Oh, God will forgive me, whatever it may be. Or it's like, I'll watch. I'll pray before, I'll watch it, then I'll pray again after, right? And I'll be honest with you. These are some things that I've actually said to myself and, and done. But at the end of the day when we. When we're reading passages like this, it's like, who are you going to serve? Make a choice, right? Do you want to make a choice between God and pleasing your flesh? Make a choice between God and your finances. God. And fill in the blank. Whatever it is. Make a choice between God and whatever it is that is trying to draw allegiance from your heart. There's two categories of God's promises. First would be conditional promises. It's when God says, if you, then I will, right? So if you do this, then I will do, do that. A conditional promise. And part of that. And towards the. The latter part of Deuteronomy, before Moses says, you know, I've given you the law. Choose life over death, right? Choose life prior to that. In chapter 28, he says, now it shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. So that's a conditional promise. If you diligently obey right and observe, then I will set you high above the nations, and all the blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the lord your God. 2nd Chronicles 7:14. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. John 15:7. Jesus says, if you remain in me, and my words remain in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

Right?

So it, it's conditional promises. If you do do this, I will do that. Oftentimes we just expect God to, to do for us when he's saying, no, no, I told you, you have to do this first, then you're going to receive this right? But we, we do serve a mighty God who loves us, who blesses us beyond what we're deserving of. So some, a lot of times we don't do our part. Galatians 6, 9 and, and let us not grow weary while doing good. For induced season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. So if we do not get weary, if we don't give up and doing what God is calling us to do, then we will reap a harvest, right? If we simply don't give up. So the, these promises, they require volition, right? Again, the power to choose, to act an act of the will to obey, believe, respond, and they really reveal our partnership with God, the covenant that we have with Him. He initiates by grace. But in faith, we respond, then we have unconditional promises. Just simply, I will. God is going to do what God says he's going to do, sometimes without a conditional part two to it. And, and they depend solely on God's faithfulness, His character, not based on our obedience or our merit, not Jesus. God said, never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.

Right?

Genesis 9, 11. So that's a, an unconditional promise that the earth is never going to see a flood like that. And he gave us the rainbow as a sign that of that covenant, that promise, it's just simply an I will. No matter how evil the world gets, no matter matter how many wicked people there are, if everybody turns from the Lord once again, then he's not going to take us out by way of flood to the Abrahamic covenant. Genesis 12. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and all the peoples on the earth will be blessed through you. We have the Davidic covenant with David. Your house and your kingdom will endure before me. Your throne will be established forever.

Right?

And we went through it last week. David messed up quite a bit with Bathsheba and having Uriah killed, but that was an unconditional promise, a covenant that he had made. When, when the Lord spoke through, the angel said, you will conceive and give birth to a son. He. He will reign over Jacob's descendant Forever. His kingdom will never end. Obviously speaking to Mary there, that's the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. When Jesus says, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it. The gates of hell will not overcome. Right? Period. That no, no matter how, if we were the only righteous ones, those on the zoom call right now, if we're the only righteous ones on planet Earth right now, that the gates of Hades will not overcome. And ultimately Revelation 21, he who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. I will be their God and they will be my children. That that's going to happen no matter what we do, no matter how many people are along for the ride, no matter how many people are in this new heaven, new earth. That is ultimately going to happen. But I want to get into a little more that this the story of Elijah and I'm going to pick it up. Verse 20 of, of First Kings, chapter 18. Now this is in the third year of the drought. The drought ultimately lasted three and a half years. And think about Elijah and the heart that he had for God. He knew that there would be famine in the land if the people turned to idols, and that's what they did. So this was the judgment of God. It was no surprise that it was coming. Just didn't know when it would come. But it says later in the chapter that all, everything you see that Elijah did, it was at the command of the Lord. So Elijah, he gave the word to Ahab in the beginning of chapter 17 that the drought was going to come. Right? And then what did he do after God said the drought was going to come? He knew the drought was going to come, but he still went and prayed for the drought to come. He prayed for the, the rain to stop. And in James he says that Elijah would had a nature like all of us, right? Yes. He was a prophet. He was a mighty man of God and God used them in mighty ways. His name is in scripture. There's a lot of Elijah's walking this earth because of Elijah in the Bible, right? But he was a man, same nature as we have, but he was devout. He was devoted. He had made a decision. He had made the choice to, to choose God. So even after God told him to tell Ahab there's going to be a famine, there's going to be a drought, he still went and prayed for it, which is remarkable. You still pray the, the prophetic words of God until they come to pass. Joe Sharaldo. My goodness, if anybody doesn't know who that man Is, I know he hasn't been on about a year.

Guys, I just want to let you know I was raptured. And yeah, they sent me back just to tell you to keep listening to brother Christian over here.

So.

Awesome. Awesome. Love it. Well, good to see you. We're talking about volition, the power to choose. So ultimately, Elijah, he challenges the, the Baal worshipers to the showdown at Mount Carmel. And in verse 20 says, so Ahab sent all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. And Elijah came to all the people and said, how long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him, but if BAAL follow him. And again, that word falter, it's this idea in the Hebrew that it's a bird that's jumping back and forth between two branches, jumping over here, pecking a little bit, jumping over here, pecking a little bit. And some verses say, waiver. How long will you waver between two opinions? And when Alexander the Great conquered the world, he was asked, how did you do this? He conquered the world at such a young age in the Greek empire. And he said, I never wavered. He, he had a mission. He knew the mission. He never wavered from his mission. Right, we know that James tells us not to waver. We're going to be like a wave in a sea, being tossed to and fro if we waver. So if we waver between our opinions, waver between our options, waver between our, our loyalties and our allegiances, then we're like a double minded man. Right? And, and we're, we're not going to be blessed in anything that we do. Then he says, but the people answered him, not a word. Now Elijah confronted them, he challenged them and he, he said, listen, he didn't use the words choose this day like Joshua did, but he's saying, how long are you going to hop back and forth between what you serve? And again, the context is they weren't, you know, it. You can't compare these bail worshipers to like devil worshipers or, or the church of Satan today. These are people who served Yahweh and serve BAAL serve both. Yep. I, I love the Lord God, I love him. I, I know the law. I, I know the, the, the, the statutes. I know the commandments. I know it. I serve God. But bail, you know, he's the God of weather. He's the, the God of the storms. So if it's not raining, well, we got this God over here. We could pray too, right? And that's what we do. We. We have one foot in with God and then just in case, right? And this is why Hezekiah, to bring him up. Hezekiah was so remarkable because of the few good kings that Judah had. Hezekiah was said to be like, Ahab was the worst of the evil kings in Israel. Hezekiah was the, the best of the good kings in Judah. And because there were good kings that came before him and they, He. They restored worship of Yahweh, you know, people's hearts started to repent, turn back to God. But what, what did those other good kings before Hezekiah lack? They did not cut down the Asherah poles. They. They left them up. This is like, kind of like just in case, right? Just in case. A backup plan if God doesn't provide. Just in case. I got this other thing over here. You know, we're to be good stores with all we have. And, you know, you know, I, I trust God with my finances. I know he's going to provide. But just in case, I'm gonna keep this stash over here. I'm gonna maybe not give, not tithe, because I. Just in case God doesn't provide like he says he will. I got this. I got this over here. So putting your, your trust in something else and that. And then Hezekiah came along and he cut down the Asherah polls. He's like, no, no, no. It's going to be total devotion, Total devotion. We're not going to have an option to like a backup plan. There's no backup plans to God. When we're in, we're in. There's no backup plan. Now, our human tendency will always want a backup plan. And for people who are thinkers or overthinkers, very meticulous in, in their thoughts and plans, things like that. You know, I, I've shared on here. That's how I am. When we would go on vacation, I, I would have every, like every hour laid out of what we're going to do. Overthink things and just plan everything. And when your mind is more like that rather than somebody who's more spontaneous, then you start to overthink things and say, okay, I, I could do this, but if it doesn't work out, I got plan B. You have a plan B? C, D, E and F. Right. But with God, it's just plan A and plan A alone. That there's no backup plan to God. We. We trust in him and his word and all of his promises. Then Elijah said that. Well, the people said not A word. So they were confronted and that they just. I could just imagine that this stoic look that they had on their face, just, okay, like, telling me to choose. And they don't do anything. They don't say a word. Then Elijah said to the people, I alone and left the prophet of the Lord. But baal's prophets are 450 men. Therefore, let them give us two bulls and let them choose one bull for themselves. Cut in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. And I will prepare the other bowl and lay it on the wood and put no fire under it. Then you will call on the name of your gods, and I will call in the name of the Lord and the God who answers by fire. He is God. Now, you can imagine, like, if something like this happened today, this would be pay per view, right? This would be like when everybody's tuning in, when, like, Jake, Paul, box, Mike Tyson. It's like everybody's talking about. Everybody's got to tune in. This is the showdown, right? We're gonna see who. Who's able to light up this altar with fire from heaven. Is it Yahweh or is it baal? So all the people answered and said, it is well spoken. So that's it. It's like, agreement, contract, sign. We're doing it. Now. Elijah said to the prophets of baal, choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first for you are many. And call on the name of your God, but put no fire under it. He's giving them the option to go first because guess what if you defer, right? I know the NFL changed their overtime rules, but it used to be if the other team scored first in overtime, you simply lose. You don't get an opportunity. So guess what? If Bail actually, or. Or a demon or the devil himself found a way to spit fire from heaven in that moment, would have been game over. It wouldn't have been like, okay, your God did it. Now let me see if my God could do it. But he gave them the option because he knows that they're worshiping a false God. So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it and called on the name of BAAL from morning even till noon. Now, I commend them for their resilience in prayer, right? Hours of prayer. And you can imagine they're getting more desperate and more desperate and more desperate. And they said, oh, baal, hear us. But there was no voice. No one answered. Then they leaped about the altar, which they had made. And so it was at Noon. That Elijah mocked them and said, cry aloud, for he is a God. Either he is meditating or he is busy. In Hebrew, it actually means, like, going to the bathroom. So it's like he's mocking them. He's like, yeah, just cry out louder. Surely he's meditating. He's just tuning you out.

Right now.

He's on the crapper right now. He's just busy. He's on a journey. Or perhaps he's sleeping and must be awakened. So they cried aloud and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out of them. Imagine that. That's how they're calling out to their God, by cutting themselves. Aren't you grateful that we serve a God who shed his blood for us and we don't have to shed our blood for him? Then Elijah said to all the people, come near to me. So all the people came near to him, and he repaired. I. I just picture this in my head. No, no. Come near to me. All the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the 12 tribes, of the sons of Jacob, who, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, israel shall be your name. Now, remember, the kingdom is divided at this point, but he's reminding the people of the God they serve. He's reminding them from everything. From the beginning, The. The. The Passover, the. The Exodus. He's reminded them that there's 12 tribes, there's only 10 up here. We're divided. We, Judah and Benjamin are down south, but these are The. The. The 12 tribes of Israel, God's people. And he said, israel shall be your name. Then with the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seas of seed. And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood and said, fill four water pots with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. Then he said, do it a second time. And they did it a second time. And he said, do it a third time. And they did it a third time. So the water ran all around the altar, and he also filled the trench with water. Now think about this. Think about this. Elijah just allowed these BAAL prophets and worshipers to cry out for hours and hours. Nothing happened. He builds his altar. And not only does he build his altar, in which God is going to consume this altar here in a moment with Fire. But he tells the people to pour water on it. Pour water on it. What. What's the context of the times right now? They're in a drought. They're in a drought, right? So when I first read this years ago, I remember saying, man, Elijah's a bad man. He's really showing off our God. God's going to consume this. This altar with fire. And it's wet wood. As if wet wood being consumed by fire from heaven is any more miraculous than just simply fire coming from heaven. When Elijah calls upon the name of the Lord, right? I was like, oh, Elijah's really showing off. But think about it. There's a famine, there's a drought. In chapter 17, the. The widow was down to her last. She was going to make her last meal, and her and her kids were going to die. So now they're on Mount Carmel. So you can imagine people who had their little canteens. This could be their. Their last water that they have. There's no more water. We've been in a drought for three years. There's no more water. And Elijah says, pour the water onto the altar. And some of these folks actually poured the water on the altar. So Elijah is. Is. Is leading this. But, you know, if nobody poured the water on the altar, I'm pretty sure God would have still sent the fire from heaven, right? He would have won this showdown on Mount Carmel. But the. The significance to this is God's miracles are activated when we move in faith first. It's a. It's an act of faith to pour out your water, especially if it's your last. Imagine you having kids, right? Maybe you haven't drank anything in days because you have kids that you're trying to keep alive, and you have just a little bit for them to. To live maybe a couple more days. And this man of God is saying, pour the water out onto the altar. And they do it. And then Elijah's like, well, do it a second time. Do it a third time. That. That's faith right there. That's faith. And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me that this people may know that you are the Lord God and that you have turned their hearts back to you again. If I'm Elijah in that moment, I'm saying, screw all These people, I'm thinking more like Joshua. He's like, for me, in my household, we're serving the Lord. You, you choose, you do what you want to do. You want to serve, serve. You don't want to serve, don't serve. But for me, in my house, we're serving right? For me, I'm heaven bound. Yeah, it's like deuces, I'm out of here. But like, whatever it is for you. But the heart of Elijah wasn't just to show off God. It was that the hearts of all the, these, these BAAL worshipers and everybody who had this divided allegiance between Yahweh and baal, would that their hearts would be restored and they would totally turn to God. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. And now when all the people saw it, they fell in their faces and they said, the Lord, he is God. The Lord he is God. Not everybody said, the Lord, he is God. His Elijah said to them, seize the prophets of baal. I'm fairly certain if any of those prophets of bail, if they were one of the folks that's saying, the Lord is God, the Lord is God, if their hearts had turned totally to, to Yahweh, they would not be a part of this right here. So Elijah sees them and brought them down to the Brook Kashan to execute them there. So it didn't work out so well for them, right? There was judgment there. Again, I'm fairly certain that if any of those BAAL worshipers were part of the group that did repent and put the restore the heart back to the Lord, that they weren't part of that. You know, I don't know if it's 450 executed in that moment. Maybe it was like 449, maybe it was like 200. However many was left, ultimately. I mean, when I'm in heaven, there's a lot of folks I'm going to search for. I'm going to be going, hey, were you one of those bail worshipers? Did you turn your heart after, you know, God consumed that altar and fire on Mount Carmel? You know, back in First Kings chapter 18, were you one of those, those bail prophets? Then what happened after that? God proved that he was the one and true living God. And Elijah goes to Ahab, says, go up, eat and drink, for there's a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and drank, and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. Then he bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees and said to his servant, go up now. Look towards the sea. So he went up and looked, said, there's nothing. And seven times he said, go again. Then it came to pass the seventh time that he said, there's a cloud as small as a man's hand rising out of the sea. So he said, go up, say to Ahab, prepare your chariot. Go down before the rain stops you. Now happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. So the rain comes, right? God proved who he was. But. And there's so much, I mean, you could do, like 18 different topics, you could cover just in this one chapter. But ultimately, for the hearts of man, he said, how long will you falter between two opinions? How long will you waver between two opinions? How long are you going to keep doing this? And what do I have to do? What does God have to do to get you to completely surrender to. To put your all and all into him and nobody else? Nothing else. And what happens throughout the Old Testament is God shows up in a mighty way. Hearts are restored, and then that. That loyalty, that devotion to the Lord, it wanes. God will show up in a mighty way in our life. And then it'll, like, we'll be hot. Like. Like Roger said, we'll be hot. And then the hotness will. Will kind of wane. And. And typically, it's not until we get to a point where we have to be desperate in our prayers again. We have to cry out like. Like. And look at Elijah. He knew the rain was going to come at this point. He knew it. But what did he do? He prayed seven times. And the posture of his prayer, sitting down with his head between his knees. So he prayed God's will to be done. But sometimes it takes the. The prayers of us, right, to activate heaven for. For what's already being done and has already been declared in the spirit realm to actually come upon us here in the natural. So we got about 10 minutes here. I want to open it up. There's a lot there in 1st Kings 18, a lot with Elijah, the prayer. But ultimately, at the end of the day and I. In the notes, there's a ton of notes about the call to choose Direct commands. I mentioned a couple where Moses says, I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life. When Joshua says, choose for yourself this day whom you will serve. But for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. This instance here in 1st 1st Kings 18. How long will you waver between two opinions? God gave Adam and Eve really and a choice, right? You could be obedient or be disobedient. Even in the the New Testament, Jesus himself says, no one could serve two masters, right? You can't serve both God and mammon. He says, enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. Choose. What, what road are you on? What gate are you walking through? Which, which one? We got to make a choice. Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy to follow me. We're, we're told God's how he will bless us, how he'll curse us. In the Old Testament we're given his commands and then we're given these conditional promises where if you do this, then I will do that. And. But it's the, the whole Bible is riddled with these options. We have options. We're not robots. Where we're forced to worship God, we have the option. We have volition. We have the power to choose whom or what we are going to serve. Brandon.

Hi.

Good morning, man. So this, it's kind of speaking to my heart this morning. Bear with me here. I'm gonna, I'm gonna try to be a little vulnerable this morning. So been having this conversation, right? I lost my job a couple months ago, about a month and a half ago. It was an answered prayer in my opinion. God's. You know, I'd started a business a couple years ago, so I'm trying to go full, full time into my job, right? I've seen God Bless and I had a friend the other day send me a job posting for FedEx that I could do in the morning because I'm not making really any income off my business. My paychecks will start ending here in a couple months and, and I've wavered between whether or not I, you know, I can go back to donating plasma, I can go look at getting a part time job to fill some of what might start being a decrease, you know, and we have some financial help that we've set up in the past to help us out to, to get to last us a little while longer. But I'm like, do I kind of double dip? Do I, do I Get a job while I'm still getting paid. And, and I was, and I was having this conversation and if I feel that God has put me in this place and he's told me to go into this business full time and I've started to see some of the fruit of doing it full time. And, and I was having this conversation with this person and they were like, you know, faith is good. Faith is good to have saying that God has put you here, but it doesn't negate common sense and effort. And, and I struggled with that for a little bit. And I was like, is that in, in this might not be an apples to apples comparison, but I was like, is that what Abraham said to God when he said Sarah was going to bear a child at her age? I mean, is that what. And then he went and did it on his own. Common sense said, no, you got to go take somebody else. You got to go take the, you got to go take the, the slave woman to, to birth it. And I don't want to birth an Ishmael in my rebellion or is this me choosing? And you know, and I said, I believe that God's called me here in this time and he was like, well then go forth and do it with all your heart and all your might. But so I'm wavering. Is that doubt? Is that, is that being tossed to and fro? Is that like the, the bird pecking from one, one side to the other? And I'm just, I'm kind of, you know, I believe that my heart is set on continuing down this path and not seeking any other income, income or revenue sources right now. Like, I don't, I don't believe that's what God's called me to. So right now maybe I'm just, I'm just having this conversation to seek wise counsel and to throw that out there to see what some other people's thoughts, what kind of advice or maybe encouragement you had for me this morning.

Yeah. Amen. I appreciate the vulnerability. And if anybody has any words of counsel, certainly raise your hand and, and we'll get you on here. I, I would say when you feel a prompting from the Lord, whatever that is. Right. Do it wholeheartedly because at, at the end of the day, if you're, if you think you know what you should do and don't do it, and the quickest way, even in general, if you're just speaking general business terms, the quickest way to, to, to get things going is just simply make a decision and do it. And if it's not the right decision. You'll find out quickly. And then you pivot and then you go another direction, right? So that. That's just a business mindset. But spiritually, if you feel like you said, you feel like the Lord has you on this road to not take another income, so then don't. But whatever everything else in that area looks like, then just be committed to that. What every step that you take say, okay, I'm not going to do it now, but I'm going to be all in with what I am doing. Right? And we talked about a couple weeks ago where sometimes there is a waiting period. And so if you. If you are in a waiting period, you. You persistently pray to. To seek the direction. But if you know the direction, even with Elijah, you know, he's introduced in chapter 17, and we see in chapter 17, 18, everything that he does, God will give him one step. And then once he gets there, you know, he tells him to go to a brook in the. In the middle of a drought. He doesn't tell him that he's going to be fed by ravens, right? He doesn't tell him that. It's like, why am I going to a brook? It's going to dry up. But then he. He obeys, and then God gives him the next step. He gives him the next plan. Leslie.

Hey. So, yeah, thanks for sharing that, Brandon. That's pretty incredible. And I love what Sean said about, like, yeah, it's pretty powerful story with, you know, bringing out the ishmael. So I raised my hand because I was in a similar position a while back a couple months ago where just, you know, the math wasn't mathing. And it came down, like, with, you know, my job and like, should I work more, should I work less? What should I do? And I had this deep sense in prayer that God was like, don't worry about money. And I'm like, the math isn't mathing. I don't get it. God, what do you say? The math isn't mathing. Like, I added up like, my, you know, divorce debt and everything, and I was just told, don't worry. And weirdly enough, I was like, okay. Which to me, by the way, I grew up really poor. So to me, like, a lot of this, you know, adult overcompensation about I need more money, I can never be poor again, is not in my conditioned kind of state. So trusting God with money and me not being lord over my finances was really hard to do. And it was crazy how much his provision has happened. Listening to that prayer. And also looking back knowing that all that worry that I didn't do never happened. And it was like, see, you had your life during that time of worry because you didn't worry, because you trusted me. And he did provide in a way that is, like, completely miraculous to me. And, I mean, there was still effort on my part to take action, but I think that's just my part of the provision that he's doing. You know, he's still sovereign. He's still doing what he did, but the piece he gave me to do, that has been amazing. And then just to add on to that, for personal, I got challenged to fully tithe. I've never fully tithed again. I had this fear of money. But it was funny where I fully tithed. When my business sold, I got this big income, and I was like, this makes no sense. I should be afraid to fully tithe. And I got this huge chunk of change to pay off this huge chunk of debt. And I was like, you know what? I have this piece about tithing because God told me. And so, Brandon, I just. I would. I recommend, you know, deep in prayer, just trust if you have been told, rest in that and don't even look back.

Amen. It's a good word, Raj. Brandon, go ahead. Go ahead, Brandon.

I've seen God's provision in the past. You know, we've. You know, my wife and I, you know, we've been tithing for a long time, but then, you know, we tithed on what was the income, not just what we brought home, right? We. We didn't think we could afford it. And we turned around and we saw God provide through that. And God is. God has blessed us immensely, for sure. And so, I mean, that's. That's kind of where I sit, right? Is like, I feel like God has led me here. And, you know, I saw Lawrence, that it's a refining period and that. And that's what I believe. Like, there's. There's going to be a time like, it's not about the money right now. It is about what am I learning in this moment? How can I grow closer to him and. And how can I. How can I lean more onto him and not trust in my finances and what he's prepared for us? And even if some of that goes away, even if that. Some of that dwindles down, you know, whether that's the retirement income or the emergency savings that we've built up, like, it's.

It.

You know, it will be either enough to sustain us or it will be returned to us like it was in Joe. A hundredfold, tenfold, whatever it might be. Right. Like, so there is a faith there. And I guess, you know, maybe I just needed to hear it a little bit more here. Need a different perspective of just saying, look, it's, it's not. I'm not right. I'm not leading my family down this dirt road of, of to. To heathenism or whatever. I don't know, you know, I'm just kind of throwing things out there. But right like that, that, you know, God, God, God is still in control. And we just gotta. We just gotta keep praying and, and seeking him in the midst of.

Of the difficulties.

And maybe I'm encouraging to somebody else that's facing the same thing.

Yeah. Amen, Raj. Wow.

So many good things here. That was really good, Leslie. And I would say, just to echo what Leslie says, prayer, prayer, prayer, prayer. Make sure that you are in prayer, that you're spending time fasting, that you are really seeking, seeking God's, God's voice in this. And. But I will say, and I not in a reckless way, that we do serve a God of. Yes and amen. And God is going to. God is going to test our faithfulness and remind us that it is not our money. It is 100% not our money. I've been in business deals. I had one just a couple. Couple of years ago. Some of the guys on here may. May remember I invested in an assisted living facility and, and I ended up losing about $75,000 in cash. It was everything that we had. It was everything in our savings account, our nest egg. It was up and looking back on that. God used that money to provide for seven employees, to get them through a very specific time in order to get them through the holidays and help that. And help them land. And I can see that looking back now, but going through it literally lost 75 grant. And God showed me that it's like, hey, I gave you that money. I like, you're my steward. I put that there for you to use it for that purpose. And it wasn't until afterwards that I saw it. So be careful about how you guard and not again, not. Don't be reckless, but be careful how you guard what. What you have in order to. In order to protect. Just draw close to God because there may be something that, that he's going to use some of that for. The other thing I'll say is in the yes and amen space.

A lot.

Of people who come from a career background and start to get into entrepreneurship. I've been an entrepreneur for 35 years, okay. I've, I ride a roller coaster. Literally, people look at my life, friends, close friends, and they don't know how we do it because we have, we have times of up and we have times of way down. I can, you know, I could make a quarter of a million dollars one year and the next year I'm looking at my taxes and it was $38,000 dollars. So the entrepreneur life is one that's very roller coaster and somebody who comes from a career standpoint, that's. That, that just doesn't. They, they freak. They freak out. They absolutely freak out. So I say that to say like you don't have to go get like a full job, something that would like take you away from, from you know, your productive time in your business. Because that's what a lot of people think about doing. It's like, well, I've got to go get a job because I need this amount of money. But if I do that then it's going to completely wipe out, have to work on my business. So maybe look at other alternatives, you know, driving Uber, Ubereats, you know, some, some kind of side gig, something that you can do that that's maybe on the side that for, you know, that idle time that you have that you might be able to do something with, you know, maybe getting up a couple hours in the morning and driving Uber or something like that. But there are solutions that it's not just a total other, other choice that, that you have to make. I said a lot there. Hopefully something in there served.

Yeah, yeah, that was great. That was great.

The Fed that he, he advised the FedEx job and that would be in the morning from like 5 to 8, you know, so it is getting up early, is it worth the sacrifice? You know, 100, you know, and that's, and that's what I'm weighing. Is it worth the sacrifice? You know, it do. Does that mean if I'm getting up at 4 in the morning to get to a job at 5 now, as opposed to getting up at 5:30 and being in my Bible by 6:30 30, like am I in my, and then on the back end in my, when I think that God's given me this opportunity because my job, my full time job in the past was a 70 hour during football season work week and I didn't have time to spend with my family. I didn't have time to do this ministry. If I'm getting up early to try to, to try to provide now, am I missing out on the opportunity to serve or minister to my family and be with my family, which is where I think God has led me to be in. Right.

So it's.

It's a. Hashing out of all these things. But, you know, again, it would be a side gig to. To what he tried to implore to me was like that common sense and effort piece. But again, I still think that God is. Is calling me to just trust in him. It is his finances we believe in, that he's prepared us, I believe, for this moment, you know, to give us an. A security blanket, if you will, but, you know, and not to be anxious as I maybe have to watch it dwindle away. You know, that's. That's the. That's the refining period that I think Lauren might have been talking about or being alluding to. And, and even in my own life of just, okay, I'm. Do I. Am I getting anxious as that. That. That emergency fund goes to zero? You know, Amen, brother. For me, Amen.

Or.

Or do I continue to trust in him and say, hey, even when it goes to zero, I still have faith in you?

I think what Roger said, super important. He said fasting. And I.

If.

If health, if. If your health allows you to take it, I mean, Bible, over and over and over. Fasting, prayer and fasting within. With fasting and prayer, like, it's really important. God will speak to you in those moments of you putting the food aside and leaning into the life.

Well, that's. It's. It's cool that you say that, Lauren, because that's kind of how I think we got here, because we fasted back in February. We did the Daniel fast for 21 days, and it was the first time that we had done that, but we were seeking an answer to whether or not I went back to my job. And they didn't really get an answer. But then God took the job away. You know, I went back to it, and I think his answer to prayer was like, nope, this isn't where I want you now. Trust in me.

And then.

So after we. After I was being let go, we went back and we. Daniel fasted again for a couple weeks. And so this is kind of where I've. Where I've come from, where we've been. And so we are trying to seek the Lord, I believe, appropriately, and just listen to him. So again, I'm. I'm hearing a lot of good things come from y' all and. And affirmation maybe that we are seeking the right Direction. So I appreciate that, your words of encouragement, your words of direction are greatly appreciated.

Yeah.

Also Sean had his hand up, he did a sneak attack. So I don't know if he has something to say still or not.

Yeah, I want to say something real quick regarding fasting, like any fast is a good fast. If I could get a solid 24 hour water fast, like for me, I would take that more than like, you know, a three month Daniel fast. Just that, that one solid 24 hours. And if you could do more, then by all means. But just like that, water fast. And as far as, you know, trusting God, if all the money is gone from the bank account, well, when, when God, when that widow woke up every morning, there was more oil in her cupboard. It was just enough for that day. Right. If, if he had provided enough for the rest of the drought, then you stop depending on God. So it may be where you're down to absolutely nothing but that, that's where faith is activated in that time. Sean, you still got something or no.

Intimidation. Roger's comment. I'm blown away by you always, Roger. And so like the thought that I had prepared for the folks that are in Pakistan today was basically based on numbers when they were on the verge of going into the promised land. And the report came back from the ten negatively minded spies. You know, the people are too big and you know, the, the land will devour us. Like there's this, this image of, of the, the typology of being delivered from slavery to sin where they're brought out of Egypt and then they're given that progressive sanctification of a trust trial. The two years of being delivered from Egypt to the border of the promised land. And that's us. We're in that trust trial period of our sanctification. We've been delivered from the penalty of sin with our justification and we're going through our sanctification before the ultimate glorification. But like it's, it's so, it's so much of an ongoing thing of trusting God regularly and, and really just knowing that he has a purpose for us, that he's not going to just deliver us to the border of the promised land and then say, look at these giant obstacles that you will not overcome. That's not who he is. You know, Romans 8:28 to 30 talks about how like we've been, we've been called for a specific purpose and, and we don't know what that is exactly, but it's just like you said before, you know, Elijah's brought to the brook, not knowing how he's going to be blessed with food. So I love your testimony, Roger, of being, like, broke down to nothing from that $75,000 investment that wound up just going back to God's servants. You know, it wasn't yours to begin with, and that's such a faithful attitude to have. The only thing that is ours that we can give to God is our. Yes. And that's what we should give him. Not. Not like the fearful spies.

Amen. Amen.

Just to add to that real quick, just 10 seconds, that was not $75,000 at one time. That was $75 drained. A couple thousand. A couple hundred a day, a week over about six months.

Do you feel convicted, Raj, that you misled us.

A little?

I just didn't want, like, because we put down. I mean, obviously we put down money, but it was like that. I think that's. That just goes more to, like, how maybe to put the mindset of what we were going through. Like, oh, my gosh, is this. It's bleeding. Is it ever going to stop? They were going to stop.

Yeah, I was gonna say that's almost worse, Roger. I mean, if it's 75, 000 at one point, anybody. I feel like you can. You can grieve and you can stomach that, but over time, man, that's. Yeah, it's torturous.

Zach. Well, stay unmuted. You had your hand up. Unless you. Unless, Joe, I. I know. Zach got his hand up. I know you're getting impatient, Joe. Okay.

Don'T worry, Joe. Rapture might happen by the time I'm done talking, so we'll see. The Ephesians 5 came to mind, Brandon. And this is, like. It's really just the phrase there. So like it within the context of the whole chapter. Sure, it's great. But just the phrase there that talks about redeeming the time, making good use of your time, and that's the. The passage, I guess, that the spirit kind of stirred up in me as you were talking and what you were saying about going through this time, where you're like, oh, do I go and do this FedEx thing, or do I work on my business? Honestly, I don't think it really matters which one you do. You could do one or the other one. In the grand scheme of things, it probably really doesn't matter either way. What matters, I think, is that you make good use of your time. You know, if you're not going to take the FedEx job and make good use of your time. Redeem that time, it's being spent either way. It's just up to you how to spend it. And I think that the opportunity of the FedEx job, one, it could take a little pressure off and you make a little money from it. And you could prolong the time you're working on your business. But also if you don't make good use of your time, it's just a distraction, one more thing to keep you from working on your business. But if you don't do the FedEx job and it likes to fire under you and you work harder on your business because you're redeeming that time. Now, that time not spent on FedEx and spent on your business is costing you money you could have made then it could be a motivator. But if you don't do the FedEx job and you don't make good use of your time, it's just a big waste anyway. So I think that the most important thing there in it is that you make good use of your time, whether that's spending it at FedEx and working harder when you get off to try to make up for that lost time, or whether it's being delivered about the time you spend because you had another opportunity and you changed it for this. I think really the, the. The income constraint is more of a method to get you focused. An old pastor mindset that God is like a chemist and he knows exactly what situation he needs to put us in to get the result that he needs. Because we're really the chemical, he knows how we're going to react. So either way, do one or the other. Personally, in my, in my heart of hearts, I don't think it really matters which one you do. It's just all about making good use of the time that you have, redeeming it, working under the Lord with a good attitude, with thankfulness, knowing that at the end of the day, it's by his grace that he allows you to partner in your provision. Your provision is his job, but he allows you to partner with him and that's his grace. Because when you can't partner with him in your provision, that is a humbling experience. So praise the Lord that that's not where you're at. Praise the Lord that you have opportunity and things to work on and apply, to put your hands to, because that is a blessing and it's something that the Lord uses to refine you. And the Lauren said that it's because it's like we're in a perpetual refining. It's not a Refining season for us as a refining life. And so, I mean, in this situation, I. I think that I. I just want to speak over you that it's okay to have peace in it, and that peace is a sign of faith, and it's a sign of faith in the Lord, whether you do the FedEx thing or whether you work on your own business to have peace and work with all your heart and work with thankfulness and work unto the Lord, man. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, he is stubborn, and he works all things, and he's the one who's got your back, and he's the one that provides.

Amen. Good word, man. Good word. Yeah. Steward. The time. Steward of the time. Everything God gives us, we're the steward. And part of stewardship is adding value to it. So, like Zach said, redeem the time, Joe, then Gita still got some Joe?

Yeah.

I don't even.

Brandon. What's up, man? I never met you before. Seem like a good dude. How are you? I'm back from the Rapture, in case you were wondering. But how do I follow Zach? That was great, man. Honestly, I was hit. I was gonna say a lot of that, but, yeah, what you're doing with that time, honestly, right, like, you could be a person of end, right. And you could work your business and crush it doing the FedEx, if that's gonna especially alleviate your stress. A question I was gonna ask you was, you know, and then I think you kind of answered. It seems as if your wife is on board with your decision, which is huge, Right? Because if your home life is not going to go well because you're saying, hey, I'm listening to the Lord with your family and your wife's fighting, or you're having issues with your kids, then maybe this FedEx thing will help you out and alleviate that. Prep those problems.

So.

But, yeah, I think everyone's hitting you off with very good advice, and I'll be praying for you, my man.

I appreciate it.

Amen, Ida.

Yeah, amen. Seems like a lot of great themes today. I really love it. Just want to touch on a couple of things. And by the way, Vijay has a FedEx route, but I stepped out. I had a phone call. My pastor actually called me, but I heard them talking a little bit about fasting. I just want to say that's such a powerful life changer. I encourage everyone to do it. So fasting doesn't have to be just from food. It can be just waking up early at a certain time. That's what it Looks like for me, like before sunrise and praying. And I can just say that my Christian life has literally evolved and transformed and changed just from fasting alone, because God has showed me during those moments when I really needed him and I was fasting and felt weak and tired. What I needed to repent from, to break generational cycles or just patterns of abuse and sin in my life which otherwise wouldn't have been broken. And then, of course, renewing, refreshing my identity from Romans, showing that I'm also. Those patterns are dead to me because I have Jesus Christ. So I also want to mention pruning and the harvest. So, you know, if you're waiting for something, like financially, things like that, like, and you feel like there's a dry season, I just want to encourage everyone. The pruning always comes before the harvest, you know, And I just went through a big pruning season, and I'm so grateful for it. I endured, I persevered. It was trial by fire. And God made it very clear. I believe in Isaiah where he said, I cut off all the dead branches in order to make room for the new ones to grow. So when the harvest comes, there'll be space and they can grow really tall. And the pruning and the cutting off the branches process is painful. And I felt a lot of pain when God was doing that. Just breaking off pride from me, you know, arrogance, whatever it was that I was, you know, dealing with. And. And then when the harvest came, it was just unbelievable, just tears of joy every single day. So I want to encourage you, wherever you are, whether it's harvest or pruning, if you're in the pruning, the harvest is coming. And if you're in the harvest, just continue to celebrate because God is so good and he will remain faithful till the end, if you will. Just don't quit. Thank you.

Amen. Another good word. Absolutely. Yeah. I. I think, you know, everybody mentioning fasting, and it's so key in Matthew chapter six, right after Jesus, he doesn't say, doesn't command us to pray, like that's a given you're going to pray. But when you pray, pray like this, right after that, when you fast, fast like this. And he gives instructions of how to fast. So. But all of us, I, me included, focus more on prayer than fasting, quite frankly. But Jesus mentioned, pray, fast, and 100. The more I fast, the more I hear from God. Brandon, you said that you feel the urging from the Lord, right? So if you feel the prompting from the Lord, you're obedient to it. You know, I, I know we're, we're all, we all try to make things happen, right? As far as if something needs to get done, we get it done. Not all people, there's some lazy people out there, but for the most part, if you're, you're stewarding your, your life, well, you try to make things happen. But ultimately I wouldn't worry about, you know, giving birth to an Ishmael necessarily.

Right?

That, that wasn't, it wasn't like, oh, I think God might be saying this. Like, no, that was Sarah who was like, ah, well, let's. Let's do it this way. And Abram was like, okay, you know, so I don't think he, he had a prompting. He was just, you know, he got the green light from his wife to sleep with another woman, you know, who wouldn't take him. Take her up on that. Just kidding. Anyhow. But I do want to mention this because, you know, back to the. The theme of this is the power to choose. Like, whatever it is, do it. Be all in. I think Joe's right. We serve a God of and not. Or Zach's right, Roger's right. Everybody is wise in the council, but steward the time, redeem the time. What, Whatever. When I, when as he was born, he didn't sleep, right? If I Woke up at 5 to pray, you get up at 5. If I woke up at 5, at 4:30, be up at 4:30. And I told Lucy, I was like, not. Just not a season for me spending time with the Lord, right? And she was like, what you're telling people like, like, like champions, like real men of God, they make adjustments, not excuses. What are you talking about? So I, I got up in the middle of the night to pray, right? So, and then whether you got up at 4, 5, 6, whenever it was, I got my prayer time in. And then, like, surprisingly, I wasn't as tired, you know, so, like, make good use of the time. But when God speaks, we, we all have to listen. And in Exodus chapter 14, when they're about to cross the Red Sea and God's telling them not to be fearful, he get, He. He gives them their charge. And then the Lord, like, they're still praying. They're like, God, God. They're still seeking answers when God has already given them the answer. And the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. Right? So probably the only time in the Bible see God saying, stop praying. Stop praying and start going. If you already have the answer make the, the choice, like go all in on it. And if it turns out you heard the, the voice of the Lord wrong, or you made a misstep or something like that. In my life, God has always seemed to honor the fact that I went forward. Our faith isn't faith if it doesn't have legs, right? So if you hear the voice of the Lord take those steps and, and then see, and then wherever that takes you, if it's the next day, if it's the next year, whatever that season is, this pruning season, this refinement season, then you're gonna, you're gonna. When God is ready to tell you the next step, then you're going to hear it. It's just all about taking that, that first step. But I appreciate your vulnerability. I think we, we all do. And I think I could speak for everybody where none of us claim to have all the answers. Right? But I definitely know most of us, if not all on this call when they're offering insight and counsel. It's not just earthly wisdom that they're feeling promptings from the spirit. So, yeah, certainly sit with some of the. The words that a lot of these awesome men and women of God share with you today.

By the way, Brandon, I think we all needed that encouragement to be fasting. So it wasn't just for you and to. With the message this morning to just trust in God's, God's plan and lay our water down.

Yes. Amen. Amen. So choose this day. Choose who we will serve. Choose life over death. And when we're Sean and mentioned Romans 28, right. What are our purposes? Philippians 2:13 says, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Right.

How does he. He will us to do things through his Holy Spirit. So for each and every one of us, whether it's a fast, if you didn't spend time with the Lord today, spend some time and just like empty yourself at the altar. Be that empty vessel where he could pour a spirit into you. And that's what we all need. So, Father God, pour out heaven upon all of us today in the name of Jesus, to the point of overflow. Speak to us. Even if it's a soft whisper, Lord, even if we see that that small cloud the size of a man's fist that turns into ultimate rainstorm. Lord of your words, God, speak to us, guide us, lead us today. And for. For me and my crew here on Wednesday mornings, we will serve you the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Love you guys. Have a blessed week. And if you didn't do that, watch that breathing meditation video yet, let me know. And maybe it's just for me. I've been doing almost every morning. It's phenomenal. So that's on the the King's Council YouTube page. But if anybody does do it, let me know what you think.

That's the link. Real quick. You guys haven't seen it? Grab it real quick.

I did it this morning on the.

Way to work and I loved it. Nice. Nice. Awesome, man. Love you guys. Have a blessed one.