Watch out for the story you tell yourself. We are all guilty of telling ourselves horror stories and making up what-if scenarios. Many of us could give Stephen King a run for his money with the scripts we write in our heads. But here’s a helpful insight, I choose the story I tell myself. And when I constantly take in information from media sources that inspire fear and anxiety, I am much more likely to tell myself that scary story. This is a big reason why we should check the news, not watch it. We should check social media, we shouldn’t live on it.

and when you don’t know what’s next in

your life or you can’t make sense out of

what’s happening I mean some of y’all

are going through that with your job and

some of you are going through that with

school and then you thought it was gonna

be one thing and now it’s the complete

opposite thing and somebody you counted

on they turned out to be an absolute

snake and now you’re trying to figure

out what to do about that and the crazy

thing about this is in the stories that

we tell ourselves a lot of times we will

we will substitute in the place where we

don’t understand we will substitute

fiction for facts be careful about

selective stories you know what I mean

selective stories leaving out certain

things and then putting in certain

things you know when you start thinking

about worst-case scenarios you know you

start going in in your mind and what if

this I mean it can just come in a flash

cannon I don’t even watch the news

anymore I check it once a day I don’t

watch it I check it I don’t watch it I

check it I don’t watch it

I checked it I don’t watch it I check it

I don’t watch it I check it cuz I found

out the same people who are giving me

the news or selling me the pills that I

have to take after watching them this is

a grown-up sermon once I found that out

I found out they are controlling the

narrative and then so we we take the

pill in the panic all on the same

channel the same screen same feed so I

don’t watch it but I what I do in my

life is sometimes I make up stories to

fill in the space about what I don’t

know okay well the reason they did that

was because Donna got a book and I will

make up things that might not and here’s

what I call it I call it I’m just being

prepared

I’m just being responsible that’s why I

have a closet full of batteries and

socks that’s why I have kerosene in

every room of my house I’m just being

responsible so a lot of us we write

stories about our future that we haven’t

experienced yet but we fill them up with

fear

not faith a lot of us we write stories

about what’s gonna happen in our life

but we write in the we write in the

genre of horror we write horror stories

in our hand oh no I got a flat tire

oh no I’m gonna be late for work oh

they’re gonna fire me oh I’m gonna end

up on baby I’m gonna hold on Gavin job

I like I pay the bills I’m gonna be on

the street I may end up on drugs I’m end

up in rehab oh my the kids are gonna be

there

the kids are gonna hate me I guess

they’re gonna speak to me again oh my

god you just have a flat tire there’s a

spare calm down stop the story stop the

story stop the story stop the story stop

spinning it stop if you’re gonna spin it

spin it by faith goddess for me not

against me it might be a flat tire

to keep me from an accident God is good

to me the Lord is good to me

some of us we make up such scary stories

about our future we could give Stephen

King a run for his money and yet

somebody somebody else will tell a

completely different story about the

same situation oh I want to bridge this

so bad

I wish we had I wish we had a little bit

longer because I would tell you how when

Peter thought the story started is not

when it started look at acts 10 verse 1

I didn’t show this to any other service

y’all are so spiritual you were drawing

the Word of God out of me at

unimaginable depths all the way back to

verse 1 Sean real quick at Caesarea

there was a man named Cornelius watch

this

Peters story started in Acts chapter 10

verse 18 the story started in Caesarea

Peters story started in Joppa

the story really started in Caesarea God

is doing stuff right now in places you

know nothing about God is putting you on

the mind of people right now who are not

even in this zip code

God is Allah he is directing your paths

right now there’s a hole in your story

you don’t know what goes there but God

does shout if you know that the story

started before you got here God said I

know the plans I have for you plans to

prosper you and not to harm you so I

just want to talk to you about your

story I want to talk to you and talking

about selective stories because you

don’t get to choose every situation in

your life but you get to choose the

story no I don’t I didn’t choose for my

dad to walk out I didn’t choose for them

to break my heart I didn’t choose to

that’s the situation I’m talking about a

story

[Music]

Jesus Jesus one of our good friends in

ministry lost their ministry last year

he made some horrible decisions they had

to move across the country they had to

leave everything of course his wife

didn’t do anything wrong and she lost

everything too right at the same time

this was happening she was diagnosed

with cancer it made me mad at God that

this was happening I’m not supposed to

be mad at God he’s a big boy he can

handle it

bunch of fake Saints talking about what

you’re supposed to tell God how you

really feel about it just tell him I

don’t like this this makes no sense

that’s why people don’t pray cuz they

don’t have permission to pray what’s

really on their heart you’re gonna talk

to somebody about it you might as well

talk to God you might as well talk to

God you might as well get it out and

detox so it doesn’t destroy you you can

tell it tell him about your troubles

tell him about your tears tell him about

those those things that you don’t

understand give him space to explain it

give him time and so while I was getting

mad and kind of wondering like this

doesn’t make sense she didn’t do

anything wrong she doesn’t deserve this

I don’t get it she’s being stripped of

everything this is not slow Wi-Fi the

stuff we complain about cold Starbucks

the stuff we complain about this is like

she’s losing she’s lost her community

she’s lost her ministry she’s lost her

familiarity the the town she grew up in

and gets cancer moving to the other side

of the country by the time that we

talked to them about it what annoyed me

was she wasn’t mad

you know I had my face on she was

smiling I’m like why are you smiling

she said insurance

I said who she said if we had it lost

the ministry wouldn’t moved across the

country and if we hadn’t moved across

the country I wouldn’t have got on this

other insurance plan and our old

insurance didn’t cover it and the best

doctors were in the town that we moved

to and if I wouldn’t have been in that

place the best doctors will hold on hold

on all that stuff the stuff don’t clap

I’m not done with this yet

while she’s saying this I’m shaking my

head I’m not doing it like where she can

see it I’m just like I still don’t I

still don’t like this mm-hmm and make

any sense if God can move you across the

country he can keep the cancer from

coming y’all aren’t gonna be real with

me today if God can get you across the

country for better insurance why can’t

he keep you from from having cancer to

begin with I thought about that thing

for months and I thought about how it’s

still not fair

if God can part a Red Sea but the best

he can do is get you a better benefits

package I didn’t like it I was working

on this Erma called them yesterday I

said I’m still mad about this insurance

thing tell me again

now every time I call them every time I

call them they and I called them to

encourage them they make they make me

mad because they start encouraging me

stop it

this is my deposit into your

encouragement piggy bank

stop it you know like when you’re trying

to unlock the door and somebody else is

pulling on your stop it stop it

canceling each other out stop it I said

I just don’t get it if God could get you

across the country why you have to lose

everything just I don’t get it she said

you don’t have to it’s not your story

[Music]

LJ I do some finger stretches real quick

because I think somebody needs to shout

until the devil is not your story it is

not your story

it is not your story you don’t have to

understand my praise because you don’t

know my story you don’t know what he did

for me

you don’t know how he kept me you don’t

know what he kept from hitting my life

you don’t know what he rescued me from

you don’t know how many ways he made

when nobody else was looking with nobody

else care you don’t know my scoring and

I feel the Spirit of the Lord saying

tell the devil I want my pen back this

is God’s story this is a redemption

story this is a great story this is a

blessing story this is a gospel story

this story does not end in defeat

I got a resurrection pistol

you don’t have to shout it’s not your

story but if God carried you through

some dark nights and dry places give

them a shout right now hey thank you for

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watching