Keion Henderson - The Complications With Surviving

Here’s the message: the complications with surviving. Without getting into a long introduction, today’s introduction will actually present the text from the moment of inception. Israel has just survived a lot: 400 years of slavery and 40 years in the wilderness. When they come through the Jordan River and prepare to enter Canaan, you would think that after 440 years of struggle, they would come to rest. They did, at a place called Rephidim, but after that rest came another war. Deuteronomy lets us know in chapter 7 that when they arrive, the Canaanites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites—all seven nations that are stronger than them—are waiting because Canaan isn’t empty, even though it’s theirs. So, something can be yours and still not be empty. A building can be yours, and another company can still occupy it. A house can be yours, and a family can live in it. At the Lighthouse Church, a church can be yours while another congregation worships in it. It doesn’t have to be empty for it to be yours. Israel has survived a lot, and at this point in the text, with all the struggles I’ve named, there are some other challenges they’ve faced, namely the ten plagues that God sent to free them. I want you to see how oxymoronic or sometimes just positionally difficult this can be. Here, God is supposedly delivering Israel out of Egypt, yet Israel must endure the same plagues that lead to their deliverance. What do you do when God’s deliverance also equates to your pain? What do you do when it seems like all hell is breaking loose, but God is actually trying to set you free? You can misinterpret the outcome because you are affected by the experience. You may misinterpret what God intends to do because of what God is doing. He allows Israel to go through the plagues, the Passover, and the Exodus. All of this is happening, and God has finally brought Pharaoh down to his knees after all these years of anger, frustration, and retribution towards His chosen people. I don’t know how this message will unfold, but God told me to tell you that your Pharaoh will fall to his knees. Whatever has held its steady grip over your destiny, at the name of Jesus, every knee must bow. He literally wakes Moses up at night and tells Moses and Aaron that now is the time for them to leave where they are and go worship the Lord they have requested to be released. Can you imagine all these years that Pharaoh has told the Israelites, «Ain’t no God; I’m God»? All these years, Pharaoh has told Israel, «I am the chief cornerstone.» Pharaoh has claimed that «the buck stops with me.» Finally, God has broken him down. Pharaoh wakes Moses and Aaron in the night and asks for forgiveness, saying, «I know what I said, but not only was I wrong, but I am now giving you permission and insisting that you get up and go worship this God you’ve been talking about.» You would think that when your enemies fall to their knees, the natural progression is that you would rise to your feet. However, listen to me: there is always a complication that comes with surviving. If you have the audacity to become the breadwinner for your family despite all that life has thrown at you, that will not come without a cost. If your church and your business have survived this pandemic, you have no idea that a second wave and possible shutdown in your state could occur. Who would have thought you’d be back where you started after having already survived? There are complications that come with surviving; there are things you have to deal with when your coat is purple. When your coat isn’t purple, no one throws you in the pit. When your coat is white, Pharaoh and his army don’t chase you, and Potiphar’s wife does not accuse you of rape; you don’t go to prison. Some things happen to you because of the color of your coat. When you have a musical gift, David, that’s why when you’ve been chosen to be king, certain things come with the territory. Now you have a king who wants to kill you, not because you’re a bad person, but because you have been uniquely gifted. You are shorter than your brothers, you have freckles, your hair is red, and you are nothing more than a shepherd. Yet somehow, the prophet Samuel found you, and you became the next king in waiting. Now I am angry with you because my name is Saul. There are complications that come with being a survivor. There are complications that arise when people try to kill you and fail, complications when you get fired, yet don’t lose your house. Help me, Holy Ghost! There are complications that arise when the enemy gets upset after throwing his best shot at you, and everyone who’s watching me right now is shouting in your house: «It didn’t work!» The road ahead of Israel was crowded with…