What Will You Do?
Evangelist Ethan Elms 2/1/2026
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40:19
Summary
Through the examples of Joshua at the Jordan and David's unashamed dance, Evangelist Ethan Elms challenges believers to move from passive belief to active faith, trusting that God is working in the invisible realms even when circumstances seem dead.
Key points
- •Faith is the evidence of things not seen, meaning that the invisible spiritual realm is responsible for the visible world we experience.
- •True faith demands action and obedience, moving beyond 'mental assent' to taking concrete steps before we see the final outcome.
- •God often works in 'patterns' that require us to step into the water (like the priests at the Jordan) or shout before the walls fall (like at Jericho).
- •Worship should be directed toward God rather than being inhibited by the judgment or ridicule of others, following King David's example of unashamed praise.
Scripture
Faith
Obedience
Praise and Worship
Spiritual Vision
Life application
This week, identify one area where you are waiting to 'see' before you 'believe,' and instead take one small step of obedience or praise in that specific area as an act of faith.
Reflection questions
- What are some 'man-made structures' or obstacles in your life that you have been trying to solve in your own strength instead of through obedience?
- Why is it difficult to maintain faith when we can't see God moving, and how can scripture help bridge that gap?
- In what ways have you been a 'hearer' of the word but not a 'doer,' and how can you move toward application this week?
- Is there a 'shout' of praise you are holding back until your 'walls' come down, and how can you release that praise now?
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Full transcript
0:00service. This is a monumental moment. Thank you, Jesus. I've got two sections of
0:04scriptures for you today. First, 2 Corinthians 4:18. and the second will be hebrews
0:0911 1-3 you can flip there in your bibles or you can look at the
0:15technology we've placed on the back wall here it's very convenient and you can't rip
0:20the pages of the tv screen but i've accidentally ripped pages of my bible and
0:25thought i was going to immediately be struck with lightning but i stand here today
0:30witness that god's mercy is great i'm so thankful i have my wife with me
0:36today we celebrated a year of marriage together on our cruise It's been the
0:41greatest year of my life. I love you, Lorraine. Let's read 2 Corinthians 4,
0:47verse 18. Paul writing says this, Now, while we look not at the things
0:52which are seen, not at the things which are seen, but at the things
0:58which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the
1:04things which are not seen are eternal. And then over in Hebrews chapter 11,
1:09this is the great chapter, the hall of faith we have kind of
1:15Coined it, if you will. It's just all the superheroes in the scriptures. There's a
1:21few missing, but there's a lot of great people in here. But it's all about
1:26faith, and it starts like this. It gives a definition for what faith is. Now,
1:32faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For
1:37the things, oh, that's the wrong verse. Through faith we understand, verse 3, that the
1:43worlds were framed by the word of God. So that things which are seen were
1:49not made of things which do appear. I don't know if you see the connection
1:54between those two verses. But I hope I can get you to see that connection
1:59today. Over the next few moments I'm going to speak on this subject. What will
2:03you do? What will you do? A question that demands action. Won't you pray over
2:08this service with me? Lord, I thank you for your sweet presence that's already swept
2:13across this room in the first service. And just now we've experienced it again in
2:18the worship service. I thank you Lord that you don't change. There is no variable
2:24of turning with you. There's no change within you God. You are Jesus the same
2:29yesterday, today and forever. We trust Lord that if you've done it before, you can
2:35do it again. You are not a God that is dead. We do not serve
2:41a God that remains in the grave. But you are the Savior. that took
2:47deliverance in His own hands so you can place it into ours.
2:52We worship You today, Lord, and if you believe that to be
2:58true, lift up your voice and lift up your hands and worship
3:04the only worthy God. Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Everybody say in Jesus' name, Amen.
3:10You may smile at your neighbor as you're seated, unless you didn't
3:16brush your teeth today, in which case grin with no teeth showing,
3:22please. Mints and the receptacles in the back. Before there were mountains
3:28that you could touch, before there were oceans that you could stand beside and
3:33breathe in the fragrance of the salt in the sky, there was a word
3:39spoken that you could not hear. And there was a command given by God
3:45that you weren't there to experience. Before there was light in the atmosphere, there
3:51was a voice that spoke in the darkness. Because that's how God does things.
3:58That's how God works. He does His greatest work in places that your eyes
4:03cannot see. Places your ears cannot reach. And this is what Paul and the
4:09author of Hebrews is telling us here. There is a force behind the invisible
4:15that is responsible for everything that we see. It is the invisible that is
4:21responsible for the visible. And it's not the other way around. There is an
4:27entire world that's just Beyond the vision of possibility. And that is what we
4:32struggle with. We're people of sight. That's how we know things are accurate. We can
4:38see them. We trust the things we can measure. We trust the things that we
4:44can count. The things that we can calculate. Myself, I find myself calculating a lot
4:49of things over and over again. By the time I go to write down the
4:55answer, I immediately forget it. I can't tell you how many times I've I've tried
5:01to calculate my tithes. Now, I'm not that dumb. That's 10%. But then you try
5:06to calculate the offering, and you're trying to give it at the same time. And
5:12I'll calculate it out on my calculator, and I will close the calculator app. And
5:17in the span of time it takes to get from the calculator app to the
5:23church center app, I have forgotten what I calculated. And I'm like, well, God, I'm
5:28not afraid of giving too much. But, you know, you know the bank account, Lord.
5:35So let's rendezvous to the calculator app again. We're people that just try
5:40to calculate things over and over. It's just our nature. When the waiter
5:46comes with the check and it says suggested tip amounts, 18%, 20%, 22%,
5:5125%. I'm not there yet. One day I'll give with the 25 percenters.
5:57I do my best. But it'll say what the percentage is with the
6:03exact amount in money. And immediately I go, hmm, is that accurate? Is
6:08that actually 20%? I carry over the decimal, multiply it by two, yeah, it checks
6:13out. It's just who we are. We calculate things. That's how we know something's true.
6:17Even if it doesn't change the situation, if you can see it, it kind of
6:22makes you have a little bit more confidence. This was Sophia's first cruise, and you
6:26handled it like a champ. But any time a wave hit the boat, first of
6:30all, I didn't mean to lie, but I immediately was like, no, somebody just dropped
6:35luggage outside. Because I needed this to be a good cruise so that we could
6:39cruise for the rest of our life. And eventually you found out when the waves
6:45came splashing by our window that, well, it wasn't that bad. I don't want to
6:50be dramatic. We found out that they were waves, in fact. But for Sophia, the
6:55thing that helped her is just if you go on the little channel guide, in
7:00that little devil box on the wall, you can see there's a compass of where
7:04the boat is. And knowing we're close to... Cuba or maybe not Cuba, but we're
7:10knowing we're close to any of these other islands we can get to accessibly. Man,
7:15praise the Lord. But knowing we're close to these islands that could save us if
7:21we started sinking helped us, even if it didn't change the fact that waves were
7:26hitting the boat really hard. It's because it's in our nature to have more faith
7:32if we can see it. If we can see it, then I can believe it.
7:37If I can calculate it, then obviously I can put my faith in it.
7:43But the thing is, when we can't see it, we panic. And the moment we
7:48don't understand it, we assume that God is not doing a thing. But Paul said,
7:54"While we look not at the things which are seen." Not at the things which
7:59are seen. What do you mean, Paul? That's all I have my faith to base
8:05off of? No, no, no. Not at the things which are seen. In other words,
8:10stop staring at what is in front of you. Because that's only half of the
8:15story. There is a world beyond what you can see. There is something that's not
8:21tangible with your hands, but it is tangible with your heart. There is a vision
8:26that you can't see with your eyes, but if you'll do as the song says,
8:32"Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. I want to see you." There's a world
8:37beyond the visible. We tend to live backwards. We say, "God, once I see it,
8:42then I'll believe it." But the reality is, if you will believe it first, Then
8:48you'll see it. That's just the way the Bible works. Faith isn't pretending problems aren't
8:54real. That's not applicable to our life. That's not what faith is. Faith is trusting
9:00that although I only see this much, faith is trusting that God is working in
9:06the places I cannot see. He is doing a work in what I cannot change
9:12with my own hands. That is what faith is. And I want to stir
9:18Faith in the house today. Faith that God is working even
9:24though you don't have any reason to believe that he is.
9:30I believe he's working even when I don't see it, he's
9:35working. Even when I don't feel it, he's working. He never
9:41stops. Never stops working. Sometimes we're looking at situations that seem
9:47to be dead. Situations that should be alive. Relationships that look
9:53dead. Dreams that look dead. Finances that look dead. Callings that you thought were
9:58alive, but now it's starting to feel like God's kind of retreated from you. Health
10:04that looks more like death. These are things we look at and we think to
10:10ourselves, "How come this is the part you trusted me to see?" Because you can't
10:16see movement, you think nothing's happening. But hear me today. Just because you can't see
10:21God moving doesn't mean He isn't working. Just because you can't trace the
10:27place his hand has been does not mean his hand is short. Does not mean
10:33his hand is weak. Does not mean that his hand is not moving. You've got
10:39to have faith in the things that you cannot see. Because the truth is, if
10:45you could see it, then it's not faith. Let's go to the definition. Faith is
10:51the substance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things that you cannot
10:56see. I can see it. Why do I need faith? But
11:02I want to tell you, if all you have is faith, that's all the evidence
11:08that you need. Because it is the evidence that something is going on that I
11:14cannot see right now. You know what the scriptures say? Eye has not seen, ear
11:19has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man. All of these
11:25things. There's something going on you can't see. Oh, you can feel it. But
11:31it's easy to ignore when you don't have that picture you can put in
11:37your mind. There's no cruise seat compass for faith. I wish. Sometimes you have
11:42to borrow some. It's like an IOU. Somebody else gets their miracle. And I'm
11:48like, you got a little extra of that faith? Like, you know, you're scratching.
11:54You got extra? You got extra hope? Because sometimes we come to services so
11:59hopeless, hoping, so desperate for a breakthrough that even if my neighbor gets it,
12:05Let me get close enough that maybe some of that faith will rub off on
12:11me. Maybe a little bit of that miracle juice will rub off on me and
12:17I'll get a little bit of hope. Maybe if I'm close enough to where the
12:23miracle will happen, I will get the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews continues to
12:28say the things which are seen were not made of the things which do appear.
12:34In other words, God built everything you see out of something you couldn't see. So
12:40why is it that we don't think He can do that in our life the
12:45same way? We have the faith to believe that He spoke, "Let there be light
12:50in the middle of darkness," and there was light. We have faith to believe absolutely
12:55the evidence is there. The Big Bang doesn't make sense when you compare it to
13:00the Bible. It's just like this makes way more sense than all this happening on
13:06accident. I've got evidence. I can believe that God spoke to the firmament
13:11of the waters and they divided. That makes sense to me. But the thing
13:17we cannot grasp today is that if God made the world out of nothing,
13:23can He make a way out of nothing? If God spoke and there was
13:29light in the middle of darkness, could it be the middle of my darkness
13:35He could speak and there be light? That's what we've got to get a
13:41hold of today. There is a world that we cannot see. I
13:47wish I could tell you it's easy to see if you follow
13:52this exact fasting program. But you can't fast your way into forcing
13:58God's hand. I'm sorry, you just can't. You fast to work on
14:04you so that when he speaks, you're listening. But there's no... program
14:09that helps you see the invisible it's just one of those things you
14:15have to have faith and the good news is the Bible says to
14:21every man is given a measure of faith every man I'm a Chargers
14:27fan that means I use my faith in dumb ways alright don't clap
14:33but here's why I wanted to get practical because preachers myself included get
14:39so caught up in metaphors that you leave kind of confused so I
14:44want you to know this Faith is not just believing something
14:50in your head. Faith is not making up in your mind,
14:56I believe that's what God said. It's not what is coined,
15:01the term is coined as mental assent. Lifting up my mind,
15:07I believe, yes, God, you do want to heal me. It's
15:12not just that moves. Faith takes steps. Faith does something because
15:18faith isn't just what you believe. Faith is the things that
15:23you're willing to do. Faith demands action. If faith never leaves your head, then
15:29it never changes your life. At some point, faith has to come along and
15:35say, "I'm done asking. It's time to do. It's time to act." James comes
15:41along and he says it plain. I love how James says things so matter
15:46of fact. He says in James 1:22, "But be ye doers of the word."
15:53and not hearers only. Watch this next part. Deceiving your own
15:58selves. You know what happens when you've heard something enough times,
16:04but you don't act on it? You convince yourself that you
16:09did it. When I was younger, my mother would say, take
16:15out the trash. And I'd say, yes, ma'am. And a few
16:21minutes would go by, and she'd say, did you take out
16:26the trash? I said, in a minute, ma'am. You better say
16:32that, ma'am. That ring finger. But, I had said yes
16:38to taking out the trash so many times that I had
16:43genuinely persuaded myself. I indeed took out the trash. And I
16:49found out through the leather that keeps my dad's pants up
16:55that I did not take out the trash. I had deceived
17:00my own self because I was a hearer of the word,
17:06but you know I was not a doer. If you hear
17:12the word constantly... but you do not apply it, you will
17:17deceive yourself into thinking you're living right. You can hear somebody preach conviction
17:23enough times that you think you're living with conviction, but you're not. And
17:29it's not your fault. It happens to anybody that refuses to be a
17:34doer. It just happens. It's natural. You deceive yourself into thinking. What happens
17:40is you get inspiration, but no application. But real faith moves.
17:46Real faith does something. Real faith steps out and
17:52does something before it even understands what's going on.
17:57Real faith demands action. Sacrifice is great, but don't
18:03get it twisted. The scriptures tell us obedience is
18:09greater than sacrifice. I want you to know, if you want, you can
18:15make up your mind that it's going to be done. And with the help of
18:19Jesus Christ, it shall be done. There is a prosperity in doing. Psalm 1 tells
18:24us this. It says, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of
18:28the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of
18:33the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His
18:37law doth he meditate day and night." Now notice, he did not say, Doing something.
18:43He just said not doing something. If you don't walk with the counsel of the
18:48ungodly or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the
18:53scornful, the byproduct is your delight will be in the law of the Lord. And
18:58His law, you will meditate day and night. And then there's this promise. He shall
19:03be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. that bringeth forth his
19:09fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he
19:15doeth shall prosper. Now we love that! Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Get
19:20a little shake in your system right there. Whatever I put my hand
19:26to. And it's true, Ecclesiastes says, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, doeth
19:32all thy might. Paul told us do everything in the name of the
19:38Lord. But here's the deal. Whatsoever he doeth, prosper. If you live
19:44by the Bible, I promise you this scripture will come to pass. It doesn't
19:50matter what you do for work. If it's along the lines of scripture, put
19:56your hands to the plow and it will prosper. Flip things on Facebook marketplace,
20:01it'll prosper. Sell homes, it'll prosper. Make cartoons, it'll prosper. But live your life
20:07by this. But the thing is, you must do something.
20:13There's prosperity in it, but you must do something. It can't stay up here
20:19forever. God will place a burden on your heart in an altar call, but
20:25I want you to know it can't stay in here forever. At some point,
20:31it has to move. It has to become, I can do this. And then
20:37you see a whole other level. James just doubles down, man. Sometimes it'd be
20:43easier to live for Christ if James wasn't a book. Because he's like straight
20:49up. But he says in chapter 4 verse 17, he
20:55says, "Therefore," let me take it up a notch here, "to him
21:01that knows to do good and doeth it not, it is not
21:06a slap on the wrist, it is not a look down the
21:12nose or a frown, it is accounted to him for sin." It's
21:18now not just, "I didn't know," it's, "I knew but I didn't
21:23move." And that's why every preacher that gets in this
21:29pulpit will do everything in their power to tell you Jesus saves. And
21:35He does save. And they will sit up here and they will shout
21:41until their face turns red and blue. And they'll cover their iPad and
21:46spit. But it's just because they want you to know there is a
21:52way to escape the life of sin. There's a way which seemeth right
21:58unto a man. but the end thereof is destruction. So don't do what seems
22:04right to a man. Make sure you do what's pleasing unto God. Don't stand in
22:10the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. Find your delight
22:16in the law of the Lord, because once you know, it's on you.
22:23And we will do all we can to say be baptized today for we do
22:28not know the hour that the Lord is coming back. Be baptized in Jesus name.
22:34Be baptized again if you were baptized in the titles. Not because you didn't take
22:40a step of faith but because there is more for you. For neither is there
22:45salvation any other name there is no other name under heaven given amongst
22:51men whereby we must be saved my brother my sister there is no name
22:57like the name of jesus you can call on the father and jesus will
23:02show up you can call on the son and jesus will show up and
23:08my god you will be filled with the spirit of jesus for in him
23:14dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily There is one God
23:20and one mediator between men and God, the man Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. It's not
23:26just, "I didn't know." It's what you did know, but you didn't do. That's
23:32why Bible faith is different than a thought. It walks, it takes steps into
23:38uncomfortable places. At some point you've got to stop talking about it and you've
23:44got to do it. Don't push it off another Sunday. "Oh, I want to
23:50stay here a second." Don't push off baptism another Sunday. Don't push it
23:55off another Sunday. Don't wait for a special guest. Don't wait for your hair to
24:01look pretty, it's going in the water anyway. Don't wait for the right heels, you
24:07won't wear them in the baptismal tank. All I'm saying is, there's no feeling like
24:13coming out of that water and knowing all of your sins drowned in the blood
24:18of Jesus Christ. You came up child of God. Don't wait, don't wait, don't wait.
24:24Today is the day of salvation.
24:31Some of you already know what the Lord's been speaking to you
24:37all week. And I just want to confirm it. True faith does
24:43not move on feeling. It moves in obedience. The Lord is telling
24:49you, pray just a little bit more. Forgive them. Let it go.
24:54Serve in ministry anyway. Give sacrificially. Step out in faith. Make
25:00this the first service where you take the leap of faith to break
25:06the chains of comfort and come to the altar for an altar call.
25:12That is today. I'm going to tell you there's a whole realm right
25:18on the other side of that fear you feel. And it is a
25:24realm you cannot see, but I know you can experience. Hallelujah. So the
25:29question today is not do you know? The question is what will you
25:35do? What will you do when you study your
25:41Bible? You start to see patterns repeat themselves and I encourage you when you
25:47read the Bible Try to find patterns repeating it'll change your life. It'll change
25:53everything about how you read the Bible You will see revelations of Jesus in
25:58Exodus. You'll see revelations of Jesus and Corinthians. You'll see revelations of Jesus in
26:04Zechariah just look for the patterns You see a pattern that repeats itself following
26:10this journey of the Ark of the Covenant. You see it in Joshua chapter 3.
26:16God instructs His people to go to the Jordan River. Now, the Jordan River is
26:22flooded. The Bible says its banks were enlarged because it was flood season. They couldn't
26:27pass. There was no bridge, no boats, there was no, I don't know, no cranes,
26:33I guess. There was no way that they could get past this Jordan River.
26:40But God said, I want you to go over it. And here's what I'll do.
26:45I'm going to split it just like I did the Red Sea. But there was
26:51one requirement. I want those priests that are carrying the Ark of the Covenant to
26:56step in before I split it. I want them to get their feet wet.
27:02Get a step into that river. I want you to feel that fear that comes
27:06over your body when that cold water rushes past your foot. And you know if
27:10I went any deeper I might get taken in the current. I want you to
27:14feel that fear. Why? He doesn't want you to be afraid. No, no, no. We
27:18are not subject to the spirit of fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Fear has
27:23torment. That's not for us children of God. No, it's not so you can feel
27:27afraid. It's so that you can know. It's not you that split that Jordan River.
27:31Because when your foot goes in you immediately know God I'm in over my head.
27:37I can't do this. That is called faith my friends. When you know I cannot
27:43do this alone but God. Here I go. I'll take the step anyway Jesus. You
27:49split the river. I'll take the step anyway Jesus. I'm afraid I can't make it.
27:55But you said you'd do it. You said if I took the step you'd split
28:01it. So God I'm closing my eyes. And you know what happens?
28:06They take the step and the river splits in two. And they go across
28:12on dry land because this is a pattern. They step before they know the
28:18outcome. A few chapters later we see there's another situation that the Israelites are
28:24facing. But equally as impossible, equally as immovable, but this time it's not a
28:30God structure. See, the river was a God thing. But Jericho is a man-made
28:36structure. It's a man-made structure. And sometimes the crisis that we face, it feels like
28:42it's God against us. And I know that's not true because the Scripture says He
28:46will neither leave us nor forsake us. And if it feels like He's blocking us,
28:51He maybe is trying to get us to go another direction. But it's not out
28:56of hatred or bitterness or anger. No, no, no. He corrects us. He guides us.
29:01But there are times where we feel forsaken. Sometimes God just wants to know,
29:07"Will you serve me when I'm not giving you all these goodies?" "Will you love
29:12me when I don't give you the promotion?" "Will you love me when they take
29:18the car?" "Will you love me when your child cusses you out and leaves off
29:23to their bedroom?" "Will you love me anyway?" And those are Jordan rivers. Things that
29:28only God did and only God can fix. And you know you can trust Him
29:33through it anyway. But there are times where what you're facing is man-made. That can
29:39mean a few things. It can mean people around you are an obstacle that you
29:45are saying, "God, I don't like what the Holy Ghost is making me do when
29:50I have to bite my tongue around them." Or it could be generational curses. "Lord,
29:56help me. My daddy did this. His daddy did that. His daddy did that. Lord,
30:01help me. This is just all I know about families." It could be any of
30:07these things, but there are times we face problems that are man-made. But there
30:12is an answer for those two. God tells them the strangest battle plan. He says,
30:17"Keep your swords down. Keep your ladders in the tents. Don't try to take this
30:22wall down because that's what we'll do when we see it's a man-made obstacle. We
30:27think, 'I'm a man. I can take this down.' He says, "No, no, no. It's
30:32not going to work that way. You need to know without a shadow of a
30:37doubt, I did the work." So He says, "Go for six days. Walk around." And
30:42then a seventh day do it, but this time do it seven times. And I
30:47want you to do it in silence. I want you to be obedient. And I'm
30:51going to tell you in advance, the shout is going to tear down the wall.
30:55But then I'm going to say, wait to shout, wait to shout, wait to shout,
31:00wait to shout. Sometimes God will give us words to give someone. And you know,
31:04that's the word that will change their life. But then he says, wait to give
31:08it. wait to give it it's not time if you gave them that word right
31:14now they won't receive it and they'll turn on me don't give them that word
31:19yet what do you do when you know how to win but god tells you
31:24to wait faith faith makes you walk when you have to keep your mouth shut
31:29faith makes you think that i i can end it now but i'd rather be
31:35obedient i'd rather be submitted to his will so they walk around six times in
31:40the seventh day they walk around Seven times, one each day for the six days.
31:45And on that last time, you know that it was bubbling up inside of them.
31:51I can't imagine the kind of ridicule the people of Jericho was screaming down at
31:56them. You think your God can save you? Oh, you're going to shout these walls
32:01down? All right. And they shouted with all... They could. And you know the story.
32:07You might have heard it in Sunday school. This might be your first time hearing
32:13it, but I want you to know when they shouted, the walls came crumbling down.
32:18It means a whole new thing when you're facing a wall that you can't destroy.
32:24When you're facing a problem that you can't solve. But suddenly when God gives you
32:30the release to shout, There's something that wells up
32:35inside a son and a daughter of God when they say, "Now is
32:41the time!" But they shouted before the walls fell. See the pattern? It's
32:47repeating. David brings the ark of the covenant back into Jerusalem. It's in
32:53his heart to build God a house, but it won't be him that
32:59builds it. He doesn't even know that yet. All he knows is this:
33:04"I don't know what's going to happen, but right now, I'm going to
33:10dance anyway." I'm going to rejoice because the presence of God
33:16is with me. I'm going to rejoice because I don't know what
33:21the future holds, but He is worthy of my dance. Let's read
33:27it together. 2 Samuel 6:13 And it was so that when they
33:33bare the ark of the Lord, had gone six paces, He sacrificed
33:38oxen and fatlings. Every six steps He had a praise break. Took
33:44six steps, said, "God, You're worthy." God, you're worthy. And you can
33:49only worship Him so much before you start getting a little bit of energy behind
33:55it. Because when you think about the goodness of Jesus, all that He's done for
34:00you, your soul will cry out, "Hallelujah!" Take six steps and he sacrifices. And David
34:06danced before the Lord with all his might. And he was girded with the linen
34:11ephod. This is not what kings wear. So David and all the house of Israel
34:17brought up the ark of the Lord shouting, The sound of the trumpet.
34:22And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of
34:28David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked down through a window, saw her husband
34:34there, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord. And
34:40she despised him in her heart. Let's skip forward to verse 20.
34:46Then David returned to bless his household. Michal, the daughter of Saul,
34:52came out to meet David and said, "How glorious was the king
34:58of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the
35:04handmaids and of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly
35:09uncovereth himself." And David said to Micaiah, "It was before the Lord."
35:15I'm not dancing for you. I don't care what you think. It
35:21was before the Lord. which chose me above thy father, before thy father,
35:27and before his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord,
35:33over Israel. Therefore will I play before the Lord, and yet I will be
35:39more vile than thus, and will be base in my own sight. You know
35:44what kind of worship that is? That's the kind of worship that says, I
35:50don't care who's looking. I'm going to worship anyway. That's the kind of
35:56worship that fills this house. David, don't look up and see my cow. Lift your
36:01eyes a little bit higher, David. Look unto the hills from which cometh your help.
36:06Don't look up at those that are judging you, David. Lift up your head, O
36:12ye gates. "Be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors." David, don't look up at those
36:17that are looking down on you. Look a little higher. "When I consider the heavens,
36:22and the works of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained,
36:28what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that
36:33thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and
36:38crown his head with glory. David, don't look up at the doubters.
36:44Look up a little higher. Look up for your redemption draweth nigh.
36:50I am not ashamed of why I dance. I'm not ashamed of
36:55the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God
37:01unto salvation. So then, which believe on this cruise ship, Sophia and
37:07I passed by one of these adult scavenger hunt things. We peeked
37:12in there. And I saw people losing their
37:18mind. They jumped and they danced and they smiled the
37:23whole time. They spun in their chairs. They climbed over
37:29seats to get closer to the front. They were literally
37:35running back and they were losing clothing items, kicking off
37:41their shoes. And I thought that looks apostolic to me.
37:49I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't shame me because I
37:54worship a God that frees me and not a God that delivers me into the
37:59hands of death. Don't shame me because I'm not afraid. Don't call me crazy. Call
38:04that crazy. Because they're going to wake up with a headache. And they're going to
38:10wake up hating the night before. But tomorrow I'm waking up with mercy. He's brand
38:16new. I'm waking up knowing that someday the sky is going to split apart. And
38:22my Jesus is coming back for me. Music, y'all better come help me quit. I
38:28am not ashamed to dance. He gave me a reason to dance. He took
38:33me out of my shackles. He stepped my feet on a solid ground. I want
38:38to tell you, this is what God did. Lest you forgot, he took you up
38:43out of the pit that you were in. He washed your sins away. He took
38:48his stripes, applied them to your life, and gave you healing. Don't let me
38:54tell you something you don't know. Don't act like you forgot where you were.
39:00I know you're dressed nice this Sunday morning, but don't forget the street corner
39:06you used to be on. It was the Lord that changed your life. That's
39:12what he did. My question is, what will you do? I
39:17will be more vile than thus. I will become base
39:23in my own sight. Don't get this twisted. I'm not
39:29trying to hype up a crowd here. I'm not trying
39:34to spark up something so that people can look happy
39:40again. No, no, no. I'm simply saying you should have
39:46been there when I prayed through. The church was on
39:51fire. Holy Ghost too. From the top of my head
39:57to the sole of my feet I felt the Spirit moving
40:03all over me Listen, listen You don't believe I've been redeemed
40:08Follow me down to the Jordan stream I stepped in the
40:14water, water was cold Chilled my body but not my soul