Dharius Daniels - Don't Miss the Point

Jeremiah Chapter 18. There’s something on my heart, y’all. Too tired for a word? Are you ready? You want everything God has for you today? Yeah! Welcome to a Sunday revival. Jeremiah Chapter 18, verse number one. There’s something on my heart I want to share. I have a few things to talk about; hopefully, I’ll get to mention them at the end, but I want to go right into this message. Jeremiah Chapter 18, verse number one says this: «This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.» So, I went down, Jeremiah said, to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands, so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as it seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, «Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does? Declares the Lord: Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.» We’re in this series called «Christian-ish.» I think today is part four; next week is part five. It’s Labor Day weekend, so it’s all-white weekend! We’re all in white like first Sunday at the Baptist church, except you don’t have to wear skirts and hats. Let’s have an all-white weekend next weekend, like we’re going to a Frankie Beverly and Maze concert! Huh? Yep! Next week, we’re going to go to part five, and I’m going to talk to you about a recipe for right relationships, because some of us are Christian-ish in how we’re choosing. How are you picking? Today, in part four, I want to talk from this subject in our time together: Don’t miss the point. Don’t miss the point. In my estimation, one of the most profound charismatic Christian thinkers of a generation, Dr. Miles Monroe, is quoted as saying, «When purpose is misunderstood, abuse is inevitable.» In other words, you will always, intentionally or unintentionally, mismanage what you misunderstand. This is why the enemy aggressively attempts to get us, as believers, to operate in ignorance. I want us to be okay with the utilization of the term ignorance to describe certain areas of our lives because, in one way or another, we are ignorant. It has been used in culture in a condescending way, but the truth of the matter is that it is used in a condescending way because people conflate ignorance and intelligence. Intelligence deals with your capacity to comprehend a thing; ignorance simply deals with the information you have or have not been exposed to. So just because I’m uninformed doesn’t mean I’m unintelligent; it just means that once you give me the right information, I’m going to get a revelation that’s going to cause a revolution in my life. I’m not dumb; I just don’t know everything about everything. Are you hearing what I’m saying? Now, the enemy understands this, so he aggressively attempts to keep us in states where we are either uninformed (that’s one type of ignorance) or misinformed (that’s another type of ignorance). The misinformed state is more dangerous than the uninformed state because, at least when you’re uninformed, you know you’re ignorant. When we are misinformed, we are ignorant and arrogant—arrogant about what we’re misinformed on. Some people will argue you under the table, and they are just as wrong as wrong can be! It’s like, how are you this confident in being wrong? He wants us to operate in this way because he knows that whatever I misunderstand, I mismanage. Mismanaging something, watch this, isn’t always a wrong utilization of a thing; mismanagement can also be an underutilization of a thing. Watch this: Meaning that when I don’t understand what something is, I can take this iPad, right, and I can use this iPad only to send emails. That’s not wrong management; that’s not wrong utilization. But if that’s all I use it for, that’s underutilization. Sometimes we’re underutilizing something because we have not been informed with any information or the right information about that thing’s capability and its potential to make a certain type of contribution to our lives. Today, as we explore part four of this series, «Christian-ish,» as we sit in this sacred space experiencing what we call revival, I think it’s important that we do not underutilize God. I’ll say that one more time: We are trying to be Christian without God. We’re trying to overthrow the spirit of heaviness without God, and we’re trying to advance in our careers without God. You’re trying to stay married without God; you’re trying to choose the right person without knowing that wolves come in sheep’s clothing. You can meet people one way in one season, but life changes people in ways you cannot predict. I don’t care how solid someone is; if you are with somebody long-term, you’re going to hit a season where you wake up to a stranger, and now you’ve got to relearn how to love that person whom life has shaped in a different kind of way. You are not that smart to be picking on your own; you need God. It’s easy to hear something like this, and because you recognize the importance of God cognitively, you can assume you’re practicing it experientially. I could say, «Hey, do you know you can’t do this? You can’t have level three without God.» Cognitively, people will say yes, but experientially, I’d ask: Are you living that way? Is there a childlike dependence? Is there a resilient reliability? Is there a passionate pursuit of Him because you seek what you need? I guess I need to say that again.