Change Night - Jackson Revival Center Church

isn't opposition outside of me. Sometimes the ops are issues in me. And today I came to expose, to identify, and hopefully help us arrest an op that is extremely dangerous yet often dismissed. It's an op called average. Yes, come on! Please allow me to boldly I'm gonna get right to business. You are too anointed to be average, too radical to be regular. You are too special to be simple. Woo! You have been created, called, and commissioned to stand up, to stick out, and to set it off for the glory of God. Yes! Your purpose is too profound and your assignment is too imperative for you to haphazardly live your life meandering through the maze of mediocrity. As a matter of fact, Elton Trueblood The former chaplain at Harvard University said this: intentional mediocrity is—it is mismanaging and poorly stewarding the gifts, talents, and ability that God has graciously granted us. And I came to announce tonight that if you and I are going to accomplish our God-given assignment, then we must be. willing to address and arrest a principality called mediocrity. Pastor, a principality? Yes, a principality called mediocrity. Because, because listen to this, family, a principality manifests itself in dysfunctional social norms in a geographical region or in a demographic of people. I'm gonna say it one more time, a principality manifests itself in dysfunctional social norms. So you see norm— you see— watch this— you see dysfunction becoming normal. Mm-hmm. Did you hear what I just said? You see dysfunction becoming normal, and you see patterns of dysfunction that are not necessarily taught. They're caught. So regions and families and people groups seem to have similar challenges. But when dysfunction becomes normal, you feel comfortable with dysfunction because everybody is. To the degree that when you step out of dysfunction and you actually become functional— because people have misinterpreted dysfunction as normal— when you stop being dysfunctional and start becoming functional, people start looking at you As if something is wrong with you, as if you are confused, as if you are deceived. The devil is a liar. We are coming for the principality of mediocrity, and Jackson, your season for playing small is coming to an end. This is why I'm praying that God gives you discernment about your circle, because some of you are surrounded by People that unconsciously put you in positions where you have to play small because you being your authentic self disrupts their sense of self. So they only feel big when you are small. But I pray that God sends you people that are able to receive the fullness of who you are. Yes! Here it is. I'm praying that God sends you people That you don't have to censor your testimony to. What happened? It was all right. No, I'm praying God sends you people that can handle the totality of what God did. What happened? He blew my mind. What happened? He opened the door. What happened? He did exceedingly and abundantly above all I asked or think. We got to break this principality called mediocrity. All the men in the room! Principality, dysfunctional social— it manifests in dysfunctional social norms that show up in regions or demographics of people. We see it. We see evidence of this in action in Daniel chapter 10 when the Bible says Daniel prays. He's waiting for clarity regarding his prayer, and then He fasts for 21 days. And in Daniel 10, the text says on the 21st day, an angel, a messenger, comes to Daniel and says these words: From the first day that you set your heart to understand, I was sent to you. That's me! Listen to what the angel said: But the Prince of Persia withstood me 21 days. Now, how can a literal human prince Hold up the arrival of an angel. Obviously, Daniel's not referring there to a literal human prince of Persia, because here's what the messaging angel said. The messaging angel said that the prince of Persia was so strong he had to go up in rank in angels, and he said, "I had to call for Michael to help me. I had to call for an archangel, one that was higher in authority, to come and assist me." So this wasn't a human prince. It was a principality that was assigned to the region of Persia, responsible for orchestrating dysfunction. families, in people groups, in regions. Satan's kingdom mimics the organizational infrastructure of God's. Come on here. And this principality of— y'all sit down, we all right, we all right. This principality is rooted In an inaccurate and unbiblical understanding of humility. If I don't have a biblical understanding of humility, I will always fall victim to mediocrity. If I don't have a biblical understanding of humility, I will always fall victim to mediocrity. If I don't have a biblical understanding of humility, I will always fall victim to mediocrity. Pastor, what do you mean? When I have an unbiblical understanding of humility, I operate with the assumption that arrogance comes when I have an awareness of what God has done for me. Oh, that's good. Or what God has put in me. An unbiblical understanding of humility confuses awareness with arrogance. Are y'all here tonight, Jackson? Yeah. I need somebody to repeat after me. Don't tell your neighbor because I don't know what kind of energy they on tonight. But somebody just repeat after me. I want you to say, I'm not arrogant. I'm just aware. And some people are so used to people who have no self-awareness or low self-awareness, they don't know what to do with somebody who know who they are. One writer puts it this way, he says arrogance doesn't come when you know who you are and you know what God has done. He says arrogance comes when you forgot or you forgot Forget who gave it to you. Yeah, I'm not arrogant. I'm aware of who I have, of what I have, but I'm humble because I know who gave it to me. And if he gave it to me, I'mma use it. If he gave it to me, I'mma walk in it. If he gave it to me, I'm gonna unleash it. And if you have an issue with me walking in my awareness, don't expect me to bring mine down. You need to pull yours up. Hey, hey, just having a conversation. Love, baby. I told you he hear me. He hear me. He hear me now. Your season of playing small has to come to an end. And I am not articulating this just for the purpose of your peace. I'm articulating this because of the reality of your purpose. Hmm. Because mediocrity is an assassin to your assignment. See, come on here. We can stay comfortable in mediocrity when we have an inaccurate understanding of what purpose requires. And what most people don't realize is that purpose requires the unleashing of your potential, that the potential that you have is for the purpose that you've been given. And, and if I am not properly stewarding my potential, it means that I will not be able to walk in my purpose, because purpose will require all you got. You can cheat on the test, you can cheat on the documents. Come on here. You can cheat— are y'all following me? Yes! You can cheat in school, you can cheat on the job, but you can't cheat purpose. Purpose will require All that you have. How do you know, Darius? Because when Jesus was accomplishing his purpose on the cross, he didn't just hang on the cross, he was stretched on the cross. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. Let me say it one more time. He didn't just hang on the cross, he was stretched on the cross. Because purpose will stretch you. Purpose is going to require everything that you have. And I want to know, is there anybody that has the spiritual sensitivity similar to the sons of Issachar, where you can discern the time and know what you ought to do. Is anybody discerning, I'm being stretched right now? Yes! He's stretching my faith. He's stretching my ability. He is stretching my mind. He is stretching my patience. Is there anybody in stretching season? Well, if you're in stretching season, you better get ready, because when God gets through stretching you, he's gonna use you in a way In ways that your eyes hadn't seen and your ears hadn't heard and your heart— What you call suffering, he calls stretching. What you call trials, he calls stretching. Trying to get you to see something. Tell me more. I'm trying to get you to see something. That your ability to accomplish your assignment is tied to your willingness to overcome the art of average. And it's relative. This is what's scary. It's relative. It means that I can't authentically declare and determine whether or not I am walking in my potential by comparing my progress to another person. Did you hear what I just said? Because what God is judging me on is how I am stewarding what he gave me. So it means I can't compare myself to them and then determine how good I'm doing. I gotta compare myself to me. And God's like, for some of us, he say, I've given you so much, you can give 50%. And your 50% is somebody else's 90%. So you don't feel the pressure and the urgency and the unction to take it to another level because you're still doing better than most. But I came to agitate you tonight. I came to not— come on here. I didn't come to give you a wow message. I came to give you an ow message tonight. I came to tell you there's more in you. I came to tell you God wants to use you in ways that blow your mind. I came to tell you that it's time to unlock and to unleash dormant potential. Yes, sir. And the text that we read in Daniel is an amazing example of this. This passage is an incredible passage that exposes us to an individual that I think we would all agree accomplished his purpose. Now here's catch this: He's widely known as a prophet. Got me? But his impact on us is not his prophecy, because most of us don't know his prophetic messages. You know Jeremiah's. You know you know you know some of Jeremiah's prophetic messages. I know the plans I have for you, but give me a Daniel. Because are you hearing me? Because he's widely known as a prophet, but his greatest impact for us was not his prophetic ministry. It wasn't come on him being known as a prophet. His impact was because he was a picture. God not only used him as a prophet. God also used him as a picture. As a prophet, God uses gifts. As a picture, God uses life. And we got to be conscious of this if we're serious about being used by God, because it's one thing for God to use your gifts, it's another thing for God to use your life. And most of us want to be used as a prophet because it didn't cost me anything to let him use my gifts. But when God uses you as a picture, He says, I'm gonna let you go in the lion's den, and I'm gonna let you stay there and not be consumed by something that would consume somebody else, because I want to use you as a picture. That if I do— y'all do remember the story now. We don't have to go back to Sunday school, do we? Do we not know that when Daniel went down in those lions' den— in the lion's den, He didn't go down by himself. Somebody went down there and shut the mouth of the lion. That because I'm not gonna bother this, but because Daniel was functioning functioning in a way that was consistent with his assignment, God honored his faithfulness. Y'all missing this? He honored his faithfulness. By making the creatures behave in a way that was consistent with kingdom order. Because before sin, Adam in the garden was living in harmony with animals because that's the Father's original intent. So when Daniel went in the lion's den, Wow. The same God that did it for Adam is the same God that does it for Daniel because he speaks lion. Did y'all miss what I just said? Daniel doesn't speak lion, but God— you do know God speaks multiple languages. You do know the Bible says when Jonah got out of that whale, what happened? God spoke to the fish because he speaks well. You do know water came out of a rock. God told Moses, speak to it, not him, because he speaks rock and he speaks lion. He speaks the language of whatever is holding you hostage, and when he speaks to it, it's got to let you go. He used Daniel as a picture. Come on, that is some revelation. He uses Daniel as a picture of possibility. For us, and many of us are saying, God, I want you to use me. You want to use you? Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna let you go in this, in this lies thing. You want me to use you? Okay. All right, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take something that— I'm gonna take pain that you want to stay private, and I'm gonna make it public. Wow. Because if I don't make it public, they can't see the picture. And if they can't see the picture, then they won't be able to see the, the, the, the potential for them. So I'm gonna take something that you want to stay private— Wow! And I'm gonna make it public because I need the same people who saw you go in the lion's den to stick around long enough. Because I want the same people that saw you go in to be the same people that'll see you come out. Somebody throw your hands up and say, keep watching. You saw me go in and you gonna watch me come out. You saw me broken, you gonna watch me whole. You saw me sick, you gonna watch me well. I'm coming out. If I say Daniel's name, you don't know many of his prophecies, but you do know the lion's den. Daniel's what's called a major prophet. Right? He's not a minor prophet, he's a major, which is not— it's not that he's more prophetic than others. It means that the span of his writings was more exhaustive. That just means his prophetic writings are larger. He had a lot to prophesy about. You don't know it, but you know about that Lion's Den because your picture Your picture is louder than your prophecy. Did you hear what I just said? Your picture is louder than your prophecy. Good. Now, he's, he's, he's, he's a picture. I'm almost done. I got 8 minutes. Y'all all right? Yeah! Here it is, here it is. Some of y'all, I came a long way. So I don't have time to unpack this the way I would like to, but I want you to see— I want you to see here, um, not just what is accomplished but where it's accomplished. I'm actually getting ready to spend 2 days next week walking people through some of this revelation because I want you to see where this is accomplished is not at church. Let me read. Let me just make sure I'm reading right. Daniel chapter 6, verse— I want to make sure I'm reading this right. And it pleased Darius, who's the king of Persia, to set over the kingdom, 120 satraps to be over the whole kingdom and over these 3 governors, of whom Daniel was one. That's not church. That is a Persian pagan king. It is a sector, or some people call it a mountain. I call it a street. It is the governmental street. He works in government with a prophetic gift. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah, he works in government and he is working for an unbelieving supervisor. Okay, amen. You came all the way over here. All right, come on now. And so, and so he's just trying to do his job. That's it. This is second supervisor. The first one was crazy. See, I'm not even gonna bother this. This is what Daniel had. This is what I want— the anointing of longevity. Yeah. Y'all missed it because most people think Daniel's story starts in Daniel 6, but the entire book is called Daniel. So if you go back to Daniel 3 and you see this story about the Hebrew boys, Daniel's in there. Are y'all here? Which means whenever whenever Kneza was around, he was there. And when Babylon got conquered by Persia and Darius took over, he looked at Daniel and said, "You with me?" Are y'all ready for this? This is the reason, and I'm getting ready to show you this. He's experiencing workplace warfare. I thought I read the text. I thought the text says that Daniel, come on, Daniel was one of three governors. Come on. Okay. And he distinguished himself above the others because an excellent spirit was on him. And verse 4 says, so the governors and satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel. So he is just trying to do his job and he's dealing with shady Competitive, insecure, combative coworkers that's upset that they don't have what he has, but they can't do. They're missing something. They can't have what he has because they don't have what he has. In the house! It's in the text. It says he just— he distinguished himself above. Is that the text? I said he distinguished himself above. Y'all missing it? This is what's called hermeneutical loop. Start off saying one thing, talking about a not directly tying the concept to the text. And so you're wondering, what does the concept have to do with the text? But I pulled the concept out the text, and then I start talking about the concept, then I start talking about the text, and then I show you how the concept I was talking about has been in the text all along. He distinguished himself. He was different. He wasn't average. Y'all missed what I said. He, he wasn't average. He distinguished himself. Oh my God. Yeah, and here's some of our issue. You scared to walk in your distinction because you're— oh Lord, I don't have time. Your distinction becomes a trigger. Here it is, here it is, here it He distinguished himself above the governors and the satraps. Listen to this, look at the text. Because— An excellent spirit. Not just excellent habits. Not just worldly excellent tactics. Not, not Not simple, not cultural, uh, organization. But, and so the writer attributes Daniel's ability to excel to be the fruit of the work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit does more than excite us. Come on here! The Holy Spirit The Spirit empowers us to excel. He says, I want to do more than make you shout. If you let me, I'll make you soar. I'll make you rise. I'll make you distinguish yourself. The text says it was an excellent spirit. Now here's what we got to understand, guys. God doesn't have many You know, the technical prophetic writers, they talk about the spirits that surround the throne. Those are manifestations of the attributes of the Father. He's all of that. That's so deep. Well, I've been teaching our church that, that the anointing isn't separate from the Spirit. That's right, that's right. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he Has anointedness. That's right, that's right, that's it. The empowering presence of the Holy Spirit that makes you uniquely effective at what you've been called to do. Anointing, the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit that enables you to be uniquely effective at what you've been called to do. The anointing, the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit that makes you uniquely effective at what you've been called to do. Not what you want to do, not what you like to do, not what you're able to do. But what you— see, just because you got ability doesn't mean oil's on it. Oil is on the thing that you've been called and assigned to do, and it is an X factor. It is a distinguishing factor, and it goes beyond mere inspiration and beyond Here's what the Bible says about the anointing: it removes burdens and it destroys yokes. So y'all following me here? Yes. So, so the fruit or the evidence, the outworking of the person of the Holy Spirit empowers Daniel to excel. An excellent spirit. This is not a different spirit; it is the Spirit of God. Psalms 8:1, I think, puts it this way: O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name! Your name, your name is, your reputation is excellent. Yeah, your nature is excellent. When we see your working, it is not normal. The fruit of your work is not normal. It's abnormal. You're excellent. Excellent is who you are, and excellence is what you do. When you created the world, you created and then stepped back and evaluated. and said it's good. You didn't say it'll do. You didn't say it's good enough. Oh my God. And you didn't move on to the next day until your evaluation of your creation was good. And even when he got to the 6th day and he created man and looked at man and said it's not good, he didn't leave not good alone. He said it's not good, but because I'm a God of excellence, I can't stop with not good, so I'm gonna put you And I'm gonna pull out of you a rib, and then I'm going to fashion a woman so that— Glory to God! So he empowers you to accept. So often when we talk— are y'all following this? When we talk about the work and the person, Of the Holy Spirit, it's inspiring but not empowering. I came tonight because I—I want you to know it's time to do more than shout. It's time to soar. But there's a way. that you can't— that you cannot soar if you're trying to soar with human effort. Yeah! There's a way that you cannot soar if you're just using self-reliance. Yeah! There's a way that you cannot soar if you're simply using willpower. Yeah! But if you will surrender to and submit yourself to the work and the person of the Spirit, he will empower you to excel. Here it is, family. Here it is. And we see this, we see this here in, in Daniel. This is how he lived his life. This Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of Excellence, was in Daniel. It empowered Daniel to excel, and it aids and assists us in doing the best we can with the resources we have available. However, because we live We live in a culture that cuts corners. We live in a society of just enough. We've been conditioned to try to get maximum results with minimal efforts. And this may work on the school, on the job, and in relationships, but it will not work with purpose. Come on, what if I told you this is This is the issue that's holding up some of our effectiveness and advancement. You keep working a gift not knowing your gift has taken you as far as it can. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah. Paul says in Romans 11:29, for the gift The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. They're without repentance. So watch this, I want you to catch this. So when God gifts you, he doesn't ungift you. Right. Now he'll lift an anointing, but he won't remove a gift. Right. So if the enemy can't ungift me, how does he render now my gift ineffective? He renders my gift ineffective by getting me mired in the mud of mediocrity. That doesn't mean— when I say ineffective, it doesn't mean not effective at all. It just simply means not as effective as we could be. And if I'm mired in the mud of mediocrity, I can help some people But the only people I can help are people that are impressed with mediocrity. Sir, sir, sir. So it limits how God can use me, and it limits where God can send me because he can only use me with people that are in such dire straits. That they need my gift so much that they tolerate what comes with it. My Lord, my Lord, my God! Are y'all here tonight? And what happens is some people they get away with that for a season. They're hot and they're popular and they're in demand, but their attitude is nasty and they're not punctual and they're not honoring and they're not. Considerate, and they don't have pleasant attitudes, and they're not displaying the fruit of the Spirit. But because they're hot and people want who's hot, they tolerate all of the stuff because of the gift. But then when the hotness wears off and the gift is there, now they say, I got to weigh whether or not I want not just you but everything that comes with you. This is change night, right? This is how I render that gift. So hence, if one is serious about accomplishing their assignment, They must make a commitment to avoid the offer of mediocrity. All God's asking you is, are you really partnering with me by giving me your best? Thank you. And what's scary is only you and God know. That's how you can— oh gosh, that's, that's what's Only you and God know what he put in you. And so that's all I'm asking you is to just think for a minute and just be honest. Are you partnering with God? Now we know God's giving you his best. Are you? All right, sir. And I got I know I'm about to get out of here, but can I have 5 more minutes? Yes! Here it is, because I see some stuff in the text. Just real quick, just 3 quick things that I see in the text that I want you properly prepared for when you make this shift. Here it is, here it is, here it is. And don't you shout, Jackson. Don't you shout on point number 1. You better not shout. You better not stand up and you better not receive this with prophetic implications. You better not, because the first thing I see in the text when Daniel made a decision to be empowered to excel, what I see in the text is promotion. Okay, Pastor, what do you mean? You know, see, here's what I want you to see, cuz I might not be talking about what you're talking about, cuz in the text, the text shows us 2 things. It shows us, number one, the king saying, okay, I got 120 administrators, I need 3 C-suite leaders to oversee 40 of them apiece. So Daniel gets selected to be one of the 3. Now you would think initially that's the promotion. You would think that's the blessing. That's enough to shout over right there. But that was just God putting Daniel in place. Some stuff you've been calling promotion It's just placement. He said, "I ain't promoted you yet. I just put you in place to get you ready for the promotion." That's on the. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah. You remember in the book of Genesis when Joseph had that dream and he saw himself in an elevated place of influence, and he goes down in that pit? He gets Sold into slavery, and he ends up in Potiphar's house. And he goes from a slave in Potiphar's house to second in command in Potiphar's house. He's probably thinking, "This is what I saw in the dream. I got influence." And God's like, "You have no idea. That's not promotion; that's placement." I put you in Potiphar's house, but you're gonna end up in Pharaoh's house. That's the promotion. And Daniel got selected. to be one of the 3. But the text says, because of the excellent spirit, the king said, you know what, I'm gonna put you over everybody. And I pray that somebody is receiving this tonight, that what you've been shouting about isn't even the promotion, it's just the placement. I gotta get out of here. That's the word! That's what I see in the text. I see, I see promotion. Let me tell you why he wants to do it, cuz it can sound— this can sound selfish, it can sound self-centered, but I want you to see the kingdom implications of this. Let's make He says, if I'm gonna use you as a picture when you're in the lion's den, I'm also going to use you as a picture when you're in the palace. Don't miss it, don't miss it. See, see, this is what I want you to see. When you experience this kind of advancement, here's what God's able to do. And he can't do this with people who are mired in mediocrity. But when you make the shift, he can, he can use you differently. He can use you when you're mired in mediocrity. When you make the shift, he can use your name. I know in the Bible you see people using his name, but I can show you in the Bible on an occasion or two where he used people's names. When he introduced himself to a man named Moses in Exodus 3, here is how he introduced himself. He didn't just say, I'm God. He said, I'm the God of Abraham. I'm the God of Isaac. I'm the God of Jacob. You see what happened with Abraham? I did that. You see what happened with Isaac? I did that. You see what happened with Jacob? I did that. And I don't know what your name is, but my prayer is that in this next season in your life, God starts using your name. Yo, I did that. You see what happened with her? I did that. You see what happened with him? I did that. Promotion is in the text, but with the promotion, here it is. Number two, persecution. I need you to be prepared for this because it'll. Persecution is a prize wrapped up in pain. Y'all listen. Yeah, it's a prize wrapped up in pain because it is the gift of exposure. You're not here because you don't want to be elevated and unaware of who's around that's not really with you. Come on, come on, sir! The price is too high, the consequences are too great. And this is why some of you have to submit to divine separation without an explanation. Some of you are looking at some relationships that separated and you're confused because you don't know what happened. And God orchestrated separation without explanation because The separation had to happen before your elevation. Y'all aren't talking to me? When you are stewarding responsibility and influence, when you're responsible for people, when your decisions have implications beyond you, one thing you can't afford to be worried about is who around you. Did you hear what I just said? Yes. When you are stewarding what God has given you to steward, you can't worry about that and worry about who's around you. So the persecution sometimes is exposure of who's not healthy. It doesn't mean— it doesn't mean they're not holy. It can mean they aren't healthy enough because it's their health Not their holiness that determines how they handle your elevation. How emotionally healthy. It's like getting God cut their army down. That was a gift. He thought it was a disadvantage. He's like, "Get in." I'm. want you thinking. I don't want you going into war thinking you got more than you have. You're going to be at a disadvantage if you think you got more than you have. So you think I'm subtracting? I'm revealing. This is all you really have. I know, I know, I know you have more numbers in your phone. But this is all you really And here's what's crazy. Read the text. It says they sought to find some charge against Daniel, right? But they say nothing to him. Come on now. So that persecution is pride. It's not what they said, it's what they didn't say. And here's what I teach our church. I teach our church, don't just monitor and watch what people say when you lose it. Watch what they don't say when you win. Because when you lose it, some of them vocal, but when you win Number 3 is silence of the lambs. I got to go. Number 1 is promotion. Number 2 is persecution. Number 3— don't you shout— is protection. It's in the text. The text said— it says Yes! That they started looking to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find no charge or no fault, because that is what the spirit of excellence does. It defends you in your absence. You didn't hear what I said. And some of you right now need to tie up loose ends because you gotta start living your life today like he's about to elevate you tomorrow. Now I got another theory because the text says they can find no charge concerning the kingdom, meaning his work. But we know since no man is perfect but Jesus, that if they wanted to find some other issue, maybe not concerning his work, if they looked long enough, they would have found it. But God is so good. The Bible says when a man's way Displease the Lord. He makes his enemies be at peace with him. Some of you need to shout because he made them look in the wrong place. Okay, all the perfect people sit down. This is not for you. This is for the people who made some mistakes and who made some choices and, and want to praise God because it was something to find, but he didn't let them find it. I feel God breathing in here. I got to get out of here, but I need somebody to just take 10 seconds and praise God for his protection. The devil thought he had me, but when the enemy came King like a mother. The Spirit of God lifted up a sinner, ascended a thief. Is there anybody here that can testify the reason I'm here tonight is because he protected me? King nobody. Do me right, Jesus. King nobody. Do me right, the Lord. I got to get out of here. But I got one more point. Not only was there promotion, not only was there persecution, not only was there protection— I gotta leave you now. Bye-bye, Jackson. I'll see you next time. But number 4, there was preservation. Wow. In the middle of a life Is there anybody here that can testify in the middle of it? God kept me. Now unto him be praise to keep me from falling. Is there anybody here Is there anybody here that's been kept alive? I got to pray. I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore, buried deeply, laboring, seeking to rise no more, but being the master of the From the sea, he heard me, my despairing cry. From the waters, he lifted me, now safe, safe am I. Love lifted me, love lifted me. When? He kept Daniel in what he didn't keep him from. Deserved it. Wow, some of you in it right now. Where the victory came from. I want to share something with you. I shared this with some of our team in a meeting we had a couple weeks ago, and honestly, this experience prompted me to release this message tonight. Um, I was speaking at an event In Atlanta in April, and there was a guy there that was an investment banker. It was an event where there was actually two conferences going on at the same time. One was a leadership conference, and then the other was like a next-gen conference. And this guy was an investment banker from London who's a believer, and he was speaking at the leadership conference, and there was a friend. Who was helping run that leadership conference, a friend of mine, who came over to hear me speak at this event. So he brought this guy with him. I never knew— I didn't know him, he didn't know me. So there was a lot that went on prior to that event. And, um, there's a guy, he's in heaven now, named Bishop Tony Miller. He said something to me a long time ago. He said, um, he said, Darius, you may— sometimes your information may be unorganized, he says, but So you're never unprepared. All right. Because you got a well of resources that you've been pouring into your soul for years. And so, but I never lean on that. I'm always trying to be as prepared as I can. But there was a lot that had went up to that event, and frankly, I didn't want to be there. The only reason I was there was to let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. So there was a lot That's right. That went into that week, and so I wanted to keep my word. And so I get up and speak, and, um, I worked on the talk the day before, so I was prepared. And I sit down, and this guy who doesn't know me— I'm gonna tell you, he had 2 things going for him that made him very free to speak to me. One, he rich. He got money, money. 2, he's older. That's right. So that filter gone. I'm too old to, uh, play games. So I come off the stage, he doesn't know me, and, um, he didn't say it this way, okay? He didn't say it this way, but I'm summarizing what he said. He took out scripture and he showed something, and he basically said something along the lines of Your next is going to take more. So number one, I never had a man like, bro, we don't even know each other. You just— but it resonated with me in such a way. I said, I need to talk to you more because I need to unpack that. I don't know what that means. And I said, I'm getting ready to go over here to the leadership conference because I was speaking at both. I said, I'm going to speak at this. What time are you speaking? He's speaking after me. And that was like an hour hour break between the time I spoke and he spoke. And I said, okay, I want to talk to you. And so we sit and talk, and this man had prophetic gifting. And so biblically speaking, when you look at biblical— cuz some of the stuff is pathetic in culture— but biblical prophetic ministry, not only, not only can the gift at times Anticipate or predict something in the future. It interprets your present. It gives language to a season you in that you don't currently know. So he looks at me and we have this conversation. He says, "Darius, here's your problem. Your problem is you're too good." And he said, "Because you're so good, you cannot give it your best." And people not know. He said, "I don't know you. I've never heard you speak. You did not own that message." This wasn't last year. This was April. Now I'm gonna tell you, he says this to me in the very arena. That we had just filled for Easter. Okay, okay, all right. A month earlier, we filled that arena. Our church filled the arena Easter, and a month later I'm sitting there and he's like, yeah, you didn't own that. And he says, Darius, here's what this is about. He says, This is satisfactory underperformance. And he says, here's what I'm afraid for you. He says, I'm not afraid. He says, I don't pick up a scandal. I don't pick up— he says, I'm not as concerned about that. with you. He says, this is what concerns me. What concerns me is that you will live the rest of your days never fully seeing what God could do through you if you gave it your all. Wow. He's talking to a man who had just built— our church had just built that arena. A man who's speaking 4 services every Sunday. I work hard in my mind. And he says, my, my fear is you will live your life not seeing fully what God can do with a man like you who will give it His own. And this spoke to me, and it shifted something in me. I rearranged my whole schedule. My assistants here should probably tell you I changed my schedule 7 times since then. Here it is, don't miss this. Nobody would have known. Many people were impressed with what he called satisfactory underperformance. Wow. And I just believe that's not just a word for me. It's a word for us. That's why I came tonight. My wife and I were talking this morning. I'm in this really weird place pastorally. I'm so— I've never been so clear. Clear on my assignment to change. And so it's like I'm so spirit conscious now that even on a night like tonight, I got to say what I feel like I'm supposed to say, not what people think should be said on a night like this. We talked about excellence on the field. But I got it, I got it. But I came for you tonight because I'm afraid for you, that you won't get to see what God could do if you gave him everything. That thing in your back pocket, he said, I want that too. That area you don't— that area of your heart you don't want to give him, he said, I want that too. And I don't know what your root is or what the root issue that's got you holding back. For some of you, it's exhaustion. You're tired. You're tired of the work not working. So your heart posture is, why do I keep doing all this work? And it's not working. I'm tired. So now you're accepting your life instead of living it. Some of it is not exhaustion, some of it is injury. That persecution hurt you in a different way. Wow. Jesus. And there's a pain. I don't care how strong you are. There's a pain that'll paralyze you. There's a pain that'll slow you down. There's a pain that'll say, "Let me get myself together." I don't know. I know what your root is, and I know it's not my job to know. That's the Holy Spirit's job to show you. That's right. My root was image consciousness. That was the root. And until I dealt with that, I could not. I had to get delivered from the desire to control how I was seen. You know, I want to come off the wrong way. I want to say the wrong thing. I don't know what it is for you, but you can't leave out of here the same. Your future is demanding a different version of you, and that's why I came tonight, to wake it up, to set a fire down That you can't contain. Yes, Lord. And you can't control. So on this change night in Jackson, I don't care where you're from, but you're here in this moment, in this place tonight. And God's saying to you, like that man said to me, your next is going to require more. And I believe the Holy Spirit would ask us this question: will you give it to him? Will you say, God, all of me? I'll hold nothing back. I want more of you. I want more of you. Set a fire down in my soul that I can't contain, that I can't control. I want more. Yes. Set a fire down in my soul that I can't contain, that I can't control. I want more of you, God. I want more of you, God. Set a fire down in my soul. So today I want to, I want to pray over you as we prepare to dismiss, and I'm going to pray a very targeted prayer. I want to pray that God gives God's gonna give you the grace to release what you've been holding back. You can't even do it without him, but tonight God's going to give you the grace to release it. Thank you, Jesus. Grace is going to hit your heart to release. So Father, tonight, whatever your receiving posture is, get in that. If that's lifting hand, whatever your posture is, get in that posture. If it's lifting hands, if it's sitting, if it's standing, if it's Whatever your posture is. Father, I pray tonight for the grace, your enabling ability to release what we've been holding. Today we give it all. Yes, Lord. We repent of being poor stewards of the potential We thank you for the potential you gave us. We admit that we have not properly unleashed all you put in us, and from this day forward, we make a U-turn. Now, I thank you for the grace that is being released to Thank you, Lord Jesus. And I pray today that as they release it to you, that you would release them into their future. I pray that you would identify and expose every root issue, and I pray for the grace in the name of Jesus to step out of the old and into the new, to step out of the past and into the future. We declare the words of Haggai the prophet over your people, that the glory of the latter house shall be greater than the glory of the former. We declare the best is yet to come. Chains broken, yokes destroyed. He whom the Son sets free is free indeed. We declare we are free. Free to release it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you shout up to God with a voice of triumph? Come on, set up on him. Everything. I don't want it. I don't need it. I just want you. I just want you. I just want you. You can have Jackson, it's been our honor to be here with you tonight, and we pray that there's something about this change experience that changed something on the inside of you. Um, it's our custom as we dismiss our gatherings to, um, do a couple of things, and one is to always extend to some people an opportunity to make a decision to surrender your life to the leadership of Jesus. What you said. We standing in a great church. We can introduce you to Jesus and introduce you to a great church at the same time. So here's what I want to do. I want you, in the privacy of your own heart, to, to pray this prayer with me. If you're here today, I want you to know— I want to explain something very quickly called the gospel to you. The word gospel means good news, and here is the gospel. It is the good news that life as God intended is available to every human because of the life, the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus. That life as God intended is freely available to every human being. Yes. Because of the life, he's your example. His death, your Redeemer. His resurrection, the first fruit of what's to come with you. And his ascension, because him going up is the only way the Holy Spirit comes down. And that is the only way you can live life as he intended. That's good news, but it's a gift that has to be received. You got to believe that everything that needed to be done to make things right between you and God was done by Jesus on a cross 2,024 years ago. And you got to make a decision that if he loves me enough to do that. He loves me enough to lead me. So you make a decision to believe and confess. That means to say what you believe, that he's the forgiver of your sin, Savior, and from this day forward he'll be the leader of your life, Lord. That's the, that's the good news. So I want to pray for you. In the privacy of your own heart, I want you to repeat this prayer. It's between you and God. Lord, I need you. I can't do this without you. I surrender my life today. I believe that everything that needed to be done to make I don't know everything about him, but I believe he lived, he died, he got up, and he went up. And today I receive him into my heart as the forgiver of my sins and the leader of my life. Save me. Come into my heart. my heart, change my life. For the rest of my days, I'll live for you as you show me how. In Jesus' name. Amen. If you prayed that prayer and meant it, your name just got eternally etched in the Lamb's Book of Life. We're going to bring you right back here to this place on Sunday morning, uh, because you need a good church home now with a good pastor. Amen! We're going to pray a benediction over you too. I'm old school. It means final blessing. And I want you to receive this. Don't just listen to me pray. Receive this prayer by faith. I can't. I can't wait to meet some of you. I'm gonna. I'm not gonna go out in the lobby. I'll stay down here after service, and and I'll greet those of you that that have that have come and just wanna shake the preacher hand. We'll be down. Well, I want you to receive this benediction. May the Lord God bless you and keep you. May he cause his face of favor to shine upon you. May he be gracious to you. May he protect you. May he provide for And above all else, may he grant you peace. This is my prayer for your life. In Jesus' name, amen. Jackson, clap your hands. Come on, Jackson, clap your hands. God bless you. We love you. We'll see you next time. I'm going to the hotel. Y'all staying here? Yeah, I'm staying here. Y'all going out to get something to eat? Yeah, I'm gonna get something. I mean, I'm going back to the hotel, but I ain't ate. I'm sorry, I was thinking about that half bunch like, oh Lord, come on, let's find us something to eat.