Dharius Daniels - I Can't Believe They Are Getting Away With This

We’re going to discuss this subject in our time together today. I can’t believe they are getting away with this. Clap your hands, it’s 12 o’clock! It’s a little love, a little dreary. Have any of you been outside this weekend, or are you on your way outside? Slow family, I recently came across a quote that I thought would be an asset to what I’m going to attempt to talk about in our time together today. The quote went something like this: how people treat you will determine their harvest; how you respond will determine yours. Ouch! This phrase is a powerful principle that I think we should all put into practice when navigating seasons where we experience the inevitability of adversity. Did I just hear you correctly, Pastor Darius? Did you just call adversity inevitable? Yes, I did! I did because I eavesdropped on a conversation Jesus was having with his apprentices, and in John chapter 16, he says these words to them: I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In other words, if you are unaware of what I am about to articulate, it will create the absence of peace. Your lack of peace will be based on your lack of information. He says, I want you to know this because I understand the power of ignorance. I want you to know this because ignorance is expensive. I want you to know this because whatever area you are ignorant in, you are vulnerable in. I want you to know this because the prophet Hosea wrote in Hosea 4:6, «My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge,» because the enemy operates in the arena of ignorance. As a matter of fact, one of the metaphors the Bible uses to describe the enemy is that he is called the Prince of Darkness. Darkness is not just a metaphor for evil; darkness is also a metaphor for ignorance. When someone is ignorant, they are in the dark, and the Apostle Paul says that if we are ignorant of Satan’s devices, he gains an advantage over us. Please don’t mishear me: ignorance is not the same as intelligence. Intelligence speaks to your capacity to comprehend; ignorance speaks to the accuracy of the information you’ve acquired on a given subject. So ignorance is not merely a lack of information; ignorance is when you have the wrong information. This means the devil works diligently not just to keep us uninformed; he works diligently to keep us misinformed. He wants to provide us with bad information, and in order for us to accept that bad information, he must send it through good people and good sources. Therefore, one of the places where the enemy disseminates misinformation is the church. Y’all aren’t talking to me, and some of us are uninformed about the inevitability of adversity because we have received information that reduces and relegates our ability to achieve victory to merely avoiding trouble. We have been mistaught that you can rebuke everything and bind everything. You can rebuke the devil, and you can bind the devil, but you can’t rebuke God. And you keep binding life! Are y’all hearing this? So Jesus says, I want to say this to you so you can have peace. To be surprised by the inevitable is to be naive. So let me say this to you so that when it happens, you won’t think it’s abnormal. When you think it’s abnormal, you personalize your pain. You might say, «Why is this happening to me?» No, this happens to everybody. Come on now! It’s not that you’re glad it’s happening to somebody else; you’re just happy you’re not the only one! This side is not giving me realness today! I said, it’s not that you’re glad it’s happening to everybody else; you’re just happy you’re not the only one! So Jesus said, I’m saying this to you so that you have peace. In this world, that’s what he says: In this world you will… I got a witness; somebody’s going to help the preacher preach today! In this world, you will have trouble, right? I love it! He says, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart. Here’s what the King James Version says: be of good cheer, because I’m not finished talking yet! Be of good cheer, because I have something else to say! Be of good cheer — don’t put a period there, put a comma there, because I have overcome the world. In other words, he’s saying, watch this: your victory doesn’t come by always avoiding trouble. He says your victory sometimes comes by overcoming it. The gospel is not merely a gospel of avoidance; the gospel is also a gospel of overcoming. If you avoid, you win, and if you endure, you win. Y’all missed it! Either way, all I do is win! Sometimes I have a Passover victory where things pass me over, but then there are some seasons where it doesn’t pass me over, and I end up in the fiery furnace like the Hebrew boys. But here’s the revelation: if he doesn’t stop me from going in, it’s because he plans to get in with me. If he doesn’t bring you out, that means he’s on his way in. Is there anyone honest enough to say 2023 has not been without trouble? I’ve been in the middle of some fire, but I’m still in my right mind!