Dharius Daniels - I Want The Smoke

I want to use this scripture to illustrate my point. Genesis 22, verse 1 says: «Some time later, God tested Abraham. He said, 'Abraham! ' 'Here I am, ' Abraham replied. Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.' So early the next morning, Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut the wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place that God had told him about. On the third day, he looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, 'Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship, and then we will come back to you.' I want to talk from this subject in our time together. For those of you who are going to talk back to the preacher today, I want the smoke. Yeah, I want the smoke. Family, you’ve heard me communicate this before, but it bears repeating: out of all the words used in the Bible to describe those of us who follow the person, practices, and principles of Jesus, 'normal' is not one of them. Words like salt, light, chosen, special, royal, peculiar, and anointed are all terms that the Scriptures use to describe those of us who are attempting to live according to the virtues, values, and vantage point of Jesus. I believe there’s some intentionality on God’s part in reminding us of who we are. He’s not repeating Himself because He needs to; He’s repeating Himself because we need to hear it repeatedly. The Scriptures teach, „As a man or woman thinks in his heart, so is he,“ meaning you will always behave in a way that is consistent with how you see yourself. Therefore, God has to regularly remind us of how He sees us in hopes that we will see ourselves the way He sees us and not the way we see ourselves. God wants all of us to know that who you have been is not who you have to be, that your history is not your destiny, and that what happened in your past does not control what can happen in your future. Peter will tell you, Jacob will tell you, Abraham will tell you, Gideon will tell you, Moses will tell you, Jeremiah will tell you that there is a 'you' on the inside of you that you haven’t even mentioned. God’s whole intention is to introduce the old you to the new you and say, 'Hey, this is who you’ve been, but this is who I created you to be.' Is there anybody in this place today that believes there’s a better you in you, a stronger you in you, a more disciplined, focused, productive, and wiser you in you? This is the year for more, and I believe God’s going to show you more of you. Did you hear what I just said? God doesn’t just want to show you more of Him; He wants to show you more of you. He is ready to surprise you with you! I believe this time next year you’re going to look at yourself and say, 'I didn’t even know this was in me.' Other people are going to look at you, perplexed and surprised, and you’re going to look back at them and say, 'I’m surprised too! ' They’re going to be asking you, 'How did you get here? ' and you’re going to be like, 'I’ve been asking myself that same question.' But when I think of the goodness of Jesus and all He’s done for me, my soul cries out. We’ve been called, crafted, and created to be different, because difference makers are different. So, you’ve got to accept it. You’ve got to embrace it. You must walk in it. Because whenever you attempt to settle in an arena called average, God’s going to agitate you out of it. It’s going to be divine agitation, divine frustration, holy discontent. He says, 'You think I’m going to let you settle after all I pulled you out of? After all the investment I’ve made in you? I need a return on that investment! You think I brought you out of where I brought you out of just for you to stay in a place and become stagnant? Oh no, I’m going to agitate you until you elevate! ' Here it is: agitation is your elevator. Did you hear what I just said? God said, 'The way I’m going to get you to go up is to agitate you on the level that you are, so that you don’t settle for a space and a season that is less than God’s best for your life.' You won’t fit neatly within any cultural category; boxes are for things, not for people. You don’t have to be limited by the labels that others put on you, because in the kingdom, we don’t have to be this or that; we can be this and that. Give somebody a high five and say, 'Do it all! Do it all! Bring home the bacon and fry it! Do it all! ' I don’t hear anybody talking back to me! Do it all! All that God has put in your heart to do, do it! It’s different. It’s one thing to know that we’ve been called to be different; it’s another thing to operate with an awareness of what actually makes us different. Now I’m going to see how authentic I can be, but I believe I have the right service! This is the 11th or 11:30 service, so I can press the gas at this service! We can really go all the way in. Take a deep breath—buckle up!»