Sabotaging Success // Night School Part. 4 // The Blueprint with Dr. Dharius Daniels

What's up everybody? Welcome to the blueprint. Incredibly excited about this opportunity to connect together. Here's what I want to do. I want to welcome first of all everybody that is watching at all of our change physical locations. I want y'all to put your hands together right now. Go crazy in the room.

Shout out to you. So grateful to you. And to those of you that are joining us online, I want y'all to drop some, you know how we do it. Drop some fire in the chat. What do we believe in? What are two elements that are essential for people's transformation?

Truth and fire. We do an event at Change Church each year called truth and fire. We need both. We need scripture and spirit. We need principles and presence. Come on, guys. We need pedagogy and we need power, truth and fire. And uh we're we're believing that that that's going to happen for us on tonight.

Man, I'm incredibly grateful to have you a part of this blueprint Bible study. Uh I believe that the scriptures are true and it says that people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. That's what the prophet prophesied back then. It is applicable to us now. We people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.

Watch this family. Ignorance is expensive. Whatever area I'm ignorant in, I suffer in. The enemy uses ignorance as an instrument to afflict God's people. He uses ignorance as an instrument to afflict God's people. When I say ignorance, I don't mean lack of intelligence. I mean lack of information in general or lack of accurate information.

But we are disarming the enemy of the tool of ignorance through this blueprint Bible study and super super grateful for the opportunity to connect. All right. One of the things I think I want to make clear before we leap into this lesson today, we're in a series called Night School.

Uh, but one of the things I want to make clear like when I say Bible study, here's what I mean. And for me, whether I'm teaching sermons or whether it's something we call a sermon or something we call in a Bible study, it's really it's all Bible study with me.

Because frankly, what are we exploring? We're exploring either books of the Bible, and I've done that before. Dr. Dutley and I did a pretty significant teaching on the book of Hebrews called It's About to Get Better. um themes in the Bible, themes like prayer and fasting and relationship management and resource management and destiny, right?

And spiritual gifts and fruit of the spirit. So when you when we talk about a Bible study, that's not just studying things about the Bible. It is studying the it could be books of the Bible. It could be themes from the Bible or what we're doing here, characters in the Bible.

And so this series called Night School is really helping us learn life lessons from biblical characters in the book of Genesis. I hope you see the trajectory that we're on if you've been journeying with us through Genesis. So we're increasing our biblical literacy, right? So we're learning scripture.

We're becoming more familiar with scripture. And but it's not just education in terms of increasing biblical literacy. with building a bridge, which is my assignment to application right. Watch this. Somebody put this in the chat. You deep if you do it. You people say I'm deep. You're not deep unless you can do it.

Did you hear what I just said? You're not deep unless you can do it. You faith without works is dead. Anybody can talk it out or or or the majority of people at least can talk it out. Those that are deep, that are spiritually mature are those that can walk it out.

You can put your faith into practice. And um I'm excited about how this series is helping us do that. I want to read several verses of scripture in the book of Genesis chapter 9 verse 18. It reads like this. It says, "The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shim, Ham, and Japheth.

Ham was the father of Canaan. These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth. Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of the wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.

Ham, who's the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside, but Shim and Japth took a garment, laid it across their shoulders. They walked in backward and covered their father's naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.

When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, "Cursed be Canaan. The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers." The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. I want to talk tonight from this subject.

Sabotaging success. Sabotaging success. Sabotaging success. All right. It can be said and suggested family that part of the role of the church is to serve as the educational arm of the kingdom. I'm not saying that the church is a school. I'm not saying that the church is a school.

But the church does have educational responsibility. Somebody put in the chat, "Teach me." Yep. Let me get Let me get my book. Let me get Let me get the book. I need the book visible. My God. Yeah. Somebody say, "Teach me." Yeah. The church isn't a school, but Jesus, the head of the church, has given the church educational responsibility in what we call the great commission.

It's captured in Matthew chap 28 18-20. Dr. Dallas will calls this the great omission. He says this is what churches omitted. But it is it is the it is the instruction that Jesus gives the church. It's the assignment that Jesus gives the church. Wait a minute. And an and an an array of individuals have a plethora of opinions about what the church should be doing.

But Jesus made it very clear his intentions for what the church should prioritize. It's in Matthew 28 18- 20. It is the job description of the church. And other people can have opinions. Other people can have perspectives. Other people can have preferences, but Jesus makes very clear in Matthew 28 what the primary purpose of the church is.

Watch what he says here in verse 18. Then Jesus came to them. Somebody put Jesus in the chat. Just put Jesus in the chat. Say Jesus if you're at one of our change church locations. Jesus. This is this is what Jesus said, not what Darius said. Not what another individual said.

Jesus came to them. Who's of them? It's the disciples. And he said to them, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, he says, now since I since since God the Father has vested authority into me, the Son, he says, I am telling you, therefore, go and make disciples.

Everybody look at me. Look at me. If you're ready for this, put in the chat, "I'm ready." Say, "I'm ready in the room." A disciple is a learner, an apprentice, and a student. A learner, a student, and an apprentice. A learner, a student, and an apprentice. Not a learner or a student or an apprentice.

A learner, a student, and an apprentice. What does that mean, Darius? Well, a person can be a learner and a student and never become an apprentice. So, let's say I'm an electrician and someone says, "I want to learn how to be an electrician." There are some things they got to learn.

There's some stuff they got to study. Like, they got they got to understand the way wires work. They got to understand some realities about electricity, right? They got to understand some best practices. But watch this. At some point they've got to not just learn about it conceptually. They have to engage in it practically.

It means they got to follow me and watch me and imitate me and emulate me. So when a person says they're a disciple, come on. They're not just learning about Jesus. That's that's that's important. You got to learn about him, right? You can't emulate if if if we don't we can't have emulation without some education.

But it's not just learning about what Jesus did. It is learning about what Jesus did, becoming like who Jesus was so I can do what Jesus did. So he says, "Go make people go form people that are apprentices of me. Show people how to live, love, uh-oh, and lead like me.

Show them how to live like me. Come on. Show them how to love, how they handle other people like me. Show them how to lead, how they steward power like me. Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Look at verse 20. And teaching them to obey some things. most things. Nope. Everything I've commanded you and surely I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. You see that? So, he makes it very clear that part of the role and the responsibility that the church is to carry, it's a teaching responsibility.

We're supposed to be a teaching entity. Watch this. Not just inspirational, not just motivational. Come on. but transformational. Somebody put in the chat again, teach me. Don't have to entertain me. This is not a circus. It's a church, but but teach me. And so part of our responsibility as a teaching entity is to equip people to live like Jesus in all seasons of life, including night seasons.

I was about to quote a song, but I don't know if it was I don't know if it's nasty, so I'm not going to quote it. It's a old school song, but y'all know how we It's It's a old Some of y'all, you're too young for this song, but I don't know if it's nasty or not.

So, I'm hesitant about quoting it. My god. I don't know what that means. Somebody put in the chat. Somebody tell me if if the song is nasty. The nighttime is the right time. I think that's nasty. That's an old school song though. That's old school. Anyway, anyway. >> [laughter] >> ya.

What is it? Nighttime's the right time to be with the one you love. Is that it? I don't know. Anyway, we must be equipped to be apprentices to live like Jesus in every season of life, including night season. So, every disciple must be developed to handle dark times.

Jesus seemed to emphasize this to his disciples when he said in John 16:33, "I've told you in the I told you these things so that in me you might have peace. In this world you will have trouble or tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world." Jesus articulates the inevitability of night seasons.

He does not want them to be naive. He does not want them to be naive. To be surprised by the inevitable is to be naive. He's saying you're going to have some night seasons. And tonight I want to remind you that that is the primary purpose of this series called night school.

We are looking at biblical characters in the book of Genesis and using these individuals as our instructors to teach us what to do or to teach us what not to do when we encounter night seasons. The apostle Paul says those things that are written a four time are written for our learning that we might through the patience of the scriptures have hope.

It means that even though we live in a New Testament dispensation, we look back on the Old Testament and we learn lessons in the Old Testament. Everything is not prescriptive in the Old Testament, it is descriptive in the Old Testament. Everything is not descriptive in the Old Testament.

Some things are descriptive in the Old Testament. You see things like polygamy in the Old Testament. That's prescriptive. I mean, that's descriptive. It's describing what happened. It's not prescribing that we should do it. Am I making sense? And so, as we examine, we've examined um Adam and Eve.

We've examined Cain and Abel. And on today, we need to examine Noah. Watch this. Because Noah's narrative arrest an assumption about dark times. And here's the assumption. Noah's narrative arrests that dark times are only the result of things going in a downward spiral. I'm arguing that dark times, which which which when I say that, I'm referring to night seasons.

I'm referring that dark times are not only the result of things going in a downward spiral. I'm arguing that Noah's narrative teaches us that some adversity is a result of things headed in an upward trajectory. Sometimes, watch this, it's the winning that creates the losing. M and if I don't know how to properly manage winning, I end up losing.

And all throughout scripture, we've got evidence that corroborates this claim, but one of the clearest examples of this is seen in Noah's narrative. Now, watch this. Many people are familiar with Noah simply building the ark, right? And I think it's important for us to learn from Noah building the ark.

I think it's important for us to learn from Noah concerning what happened before the flood. I think Noah building the ark teaches us some things that we should all apply and implement into our lives. Noah building the ark teaches us number one the importance of prophetic preparation. Somebody put in the chat, I'm prepared.

Prophetic preparation is the willingness to act on instruction. Watch this. The willingness to act on instruction without full explanation or evidence. It is when you're preparing for something, but you don't know everything about the something you're preparing for. [laughter] It is when you're getting ready for something but you don't know everything you are getting ready for.

So you are building the ark by faith. You are developing by faith. You are aligning by faith. You are eliminating by faith. God told Noah to build an ark before it rains. Not when it rain, not after it rains, but before it rains. It is prophetic preparation. And sometimes God, watch this, prophetically prompts his people to construct things because rain is coming.

Boy, listen. I've been out of the church building now for a couple of weeks, so I just feel like preaching. Anyway, [laughter] yeah, there are times God prophetically prompts us to build something before it rains. Rain in scripture is a metaphor for blessing. And rain in scripture is a metaphor for burdens.

And there are times when God prophetically prompts us, hey, I need you to build something. I need you to construct something. I need you to align something. I need you to eliminate something cuz rain is coming. Either blessings going to come and you're going to need to construct something to contain this or burdens are going to come and you're going to need to con to construct something that is going to preserve you in the midst of this.

So prophetically we can get prompings to build personally, to build relationally, to build financially, to build physically, to build professionally. So yeah, we can learn from Noah the importance of prophetic preparation. We can learn from Noah. Number two, the importance of personal consecration. The only way we can have prophetic preparation is if we have personal consecration.

Because personal consecration makes you and I, excuse me, personal consecration positions you and I to be sensitive to prophetic prompings. Noah, watch this. Noah couldn't build the ark if Noah couldn't hear God. Now, I don't have time to bother this, but somebody put in the chat, "Bother it bother it."

Anyway, when I'm talking about personal consecration, I'm not just talking about sanctifying our life. I'm talking about sanctifying our ears. One of the most important and consequential decisions we will ever make is who we choose to give our ear to. And sometimes we can't hear, not because God isn't speaking, but because everything else in our life is too loud.

People's opinions are too loud. People's perspectives are too loud. Our passions and our ambitions and our issues are too loud. So Noah teaches us the importance of prophetic preparation. Noah teaches us the importance of personal consecration. Why? God, watch this. Even Elijah talks about, remember, he talks about how God wasn't in the fire.

He wasn't in the wind, but a still small voice. There are times when God doesn't scream. There are times when God whispers. Somebody said, "Pastor having pullpit withdrawals." [laughter] You got that right. I think some of y'all have impew withdrawals too. [laughter] Here it is. Here it is. So, he teaches us the importance of prophetic preparation.

Teaches us the importance of personal consecration. Noah's life also teaches us the importance of emotional regulation. This is perhaps the most overlooked part of Noah's story. I want you to think about what he had to navigate. Mockery from onlookers, managing delay 120 years. Like 120 years. like that's that's that's a long time between the time you get a word and a word comes to pass.

Managing uncertainty and fear anyway like fear of a flood had to have emotional impact. So the point that I'm making is whether it's personal whether it's prophetic preparation, personal consecration or emotional regulation, there's much we can learn from Noah before and during the flood. But here, here tonight, what I want to talk to you about is what we can learn from Noah based on what happened after the flood.

Come on. I know it rained 40 days and 40 nights, but what happened after that? I know how God uses a dove as a way of signaling and suggesting that the flood had receded, but what happened after that? I know how God used the rainbow at a as a sign and symbol of covenant, but what happened after the flood?

After Noah got out of the ark, Noah's narrative is tailored to teach us something. Watch this. Noah's narrative shows us this. Noah didn't fall off until he came up. Come on. I said Noah didn't fall off until he came up. Noah didn't fall off until he came up.

Look at Genesis chapter 9 20. It says, "Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard." Now, watch this. When the text says Noah is a man of the soil, what does that mean? It's suggesting that Noah is a farmer, right? He's an individual that has expertise in agriculture.

He's skilled at cultivating soil. He knew soil. He knew seeds. He knew seasons. He knew soil. He knew seeds. He knew seasons. He knew soil. Right soil. He knew seeds. The right seeds. And he knew seasons. Watch this. This is important. He is an individual who had expertise in the area of the soil.

So I'm not going to bother this. But after the flood, so so you got a man whose expertise is in soil. But then God calls him to construction. [clears throat] And then after a season of engaging in construction, he resorts back to his area of expertise. And we don't and we don't know.

The text is pretty silent about this. So I'm not going to engage in inserting my opinion into what happened into the narrative. But there is definitely there's nothing in the text that says God blatantly prohibited Noah from going back to the soil. Watch this. But there's nothing in scripture that also [snorts] shows God clearly commanding Noah to go back to the soil.

Somebody put in the chat, "Don't go back unless God sent you. Just because you can go back doesn't mean you should go back. Just because they're asking you to go back doesn't mean you should go back. Just because you want to go back doesn't mean you should go back.

Doesn't just because it's easy to go back doesn't mean you should go back. Just because it's comfortable back there doesn't mean you're called back there. Did you hear what I just said? He didn't fall off until he came up. So his dark time wasn't connected to a downward spiral.

His dark se his his dark time, his night season was connected to the mismanagement of upward trajectory. Cuz what did he do? The Bible says he's a man of the See, that's that preaching thing. There it is. It came out right there. Why did Why did I do that?

There's no reason to do that. It just It just came out Sunday. Sunday. Anyway, so he goes back to the soil. Watch this. And he plants a vineyard. He's successful. How do we know? Because he gets tipsy. No, no, no. Let come on. Let's not sanitize the scripture.

He get more than tipsy when you so drunk you naked. I mean and then like this is no it's no moonshine back in this day. It's no Hennessy like this is wine. That was some [laughter] Noah. What is happening? [gasps] That's some that's a lot. I just put it that way.

That's a lie. I don't know what that was. I don't know what that was. So, wine's called the fruit of the vine. So, watch this. So, if he wasn't successful with the soil, there's no fruit from the vine. If there's no fruit from the vine, if there's no abundance, there's no intoxication.

Did you catch it? If there's no abundance, there's no intoxication. If there's no abundance, there's no intoxication. So he gets intoxicated with the fruit of his success. So he didn't fall off until he came up. But before we judge Noah, watch this. Just like Noah can get intoxicated with the fruit of his success, it is possible for you and I to get intoxicated with the fruit of our success.

Come on. Abundance, affirmation, influence, affluence, accomplishment can all impair our judgment, reduce our awareness, and remove our restraint. And like Noah, we can end up exposed. Now, I really don't won't have won't have time to bother this. This is an aside, but I do want you I do want you equipped, particularly if you're part of our spiritual family.

Um, I want you equipped. I want you equipped in this area. Here's what I want you to see because there there was something there was like a a really demonic doctrine that was perpetuated uh based on this scripture here in verse 25. You'll see when Bible says um curse be Cain, cursed be Canaan.

Um the lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. There was a stream and it was really kind of popular in uh a certain period in uh the history of the church here in America at least is called the Hidic curse. So when Noah says curse be Canaan, the lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.

There are individuals who took that scripture and applied that inappropriately, erroneously, incorrectly. It's what Paul would call a doctrine of devils. That mean the people were devils. But it means that that doctrine was influenced by the enemy. The enemy influenced their interpretation and application of the scripture. A and they it was called the habitic curse, the curse of Ham. and and they suggested that this this validated, substantiated, authorized the enslavement of people of color.

And it's just erroneous exesus. It's just I mean, first of all, the person that's cursed is Canaan, right? And I'm not even going to bother this, but um the the the the label, the homicidic curse. Look at me. I'm bothering it. The the label [laughter] the homidic curse. The label the hemetic curse doesn't even fit here because what did Noah do?

Noah levied it on Cain first of all, not Ham. Got me? And then I mean not Kane. It's on Canaan, not Ham. And then watch this. It's on Canaan, not Kush. Kushites, which means burnt people of color. So anyway, it's just it was it was eronous. But I want you to be aware that that's if you've ever heard the curse, that's where it come from comes from.

But that's not what we're exploring tonight. I want you to see how Noah enters a, watch this, a dark time, a night season, not because of a downward spiral, but because of upward trajectory. He doesn't know how to he's not discipled into how to handle winning. So, he ends up losing.

And this is this is really really important, right? This is really really important. This is why we must resist what we call reactionary theology. Theology that is formed in strict and exclusive reaction to what somebody else has taught. So what has happened is there was something called poverty theology and then a reactionary theology to that was prosperity theology.

Then a reactionary uh uh theology to prosperity theology was poverty theology. And both are extremes and both are are are are influenced by error. Here's the point that I'm making. Biblical theology includes prospering, right? It includes prospering. Um, and I think that that's important. So, it's a theology of prospering, not prosperity theology.

Here's the point that I'm making. When there's a reaction and we just only talk about surviving, we only talk about surviving. We only talk about surviving the flood. Then what happens is disciples aren't discipled. Come on. Disciples aren't discipled on how to handle winning. And when we aren't discipled on how to handle winning, we end up losing.

What if God breathes on the business? What if God breathes on the church? What if God breathes on the venture? What if favor uh blows behind you and blows on you like a wind and places you in positions of influence and affluence? Have we been discipled on how to handle winning?

Because if we're not discipled on how to handle winning, we end up losing. If I'm making sense, somebody put in the chat, you're making sense, Bishop. And like Noah, there are so many that don't fall off until they come up because disciples need to be discipled on how to handle life after the flood.

You survived. Now what? You made it through the flood. Now what? We didn't drown in the flood. Now what? God protected me in the flood. Now what? Because if we don't know how to handle winning, here's the topic of today's teaching. We're going to sabotage our success. We're going to blow blessings.

We're going to fumble favor. And I don't know about you, I don't want to sabotage divinely orchestrated success. I don't want to blow blessings. Come on here. I don't want to fumble my favor. I want to be a good steward of every season that God um um orchestrates and arranges for my There.

See, there's that preacher again. Somebody come get me for my life. There's a lot of conversation in Christian circles about how to survive floods, but not a lot of conversation in Christian circles on what to do once you survive. [laughter] And some of us, like Noah, sabotage our success.

We blow blessings. We fumble favor not because we bad people, but because we've been unprepared and untaught for what success requires. Here it is. I'm going to give you I'm going to give you just a thought here. I'm going to give you just an just a thought. And if you in I need y'all to be active at change now.

I need you we're participatory uh spiritual family need you to be active here. So if you're at change I need you to be active. If you're in the chat I need you to be active here too. If you're in the chat, I want you to put an emotion emoji that describes the way you feel after I give this statement.

And if you in the building at change, I want you to give a look. Look at your neighbor and give them a look. Here it is. Don't re Don't be rebellious. Now, don't be rebellious. My God. All right. Noah's drinking wasn't just a moral failure. It may have been a coping mechanism for burdens he didn't know how to manage.

[laughter] Woo. See, we're not excusing Noah's activity, but if we're going to learn from Noah, we need to understand his activity. So, it means we need to do more than just look at what Noah did. We need to try to explore why did he do it? We shouldn't just look at what Noah did.

We need to explore why did he do it. And I'm arguing. I'm arguing. I'm making the case that a man that demonstrated prophetic preparation, that a man that demonstrated personal consecration, that a man that demonstrated emotional regulation, isn't just this reckless and is going to get drunk and naked.

It's it's two it's two polar opposite expressions of of of of an individual. It's it's it's it's incoherent. I'm arguing that a man that demonstrated such prophetic preparation, such personal consecration, such emotional regulation is not a man that's just randomly getting drunk and getting naked. I'm arguing his drinking wasn't just moral failure.

It may have been only God knows a coping mechanism for burdens he did not know how to handle. He wasn't equipped. He wasn't prepared to handle what comes with winning. Hya. Thank you, Jesus. I felt the witness of the Holy Spirit on that. I said he was not I don't believe at least he was equipped.

He was prepared to handle what comes with winning. There are some things that come with winning. If we don't know how to if we're not discipled into how to properly handle those things, we end up losing. And so what I want to do is I want to look at Noah's story and identify three areas that I think we must be prepared to properly steward after the flood.

If life goes in an upward trajectory, in an upward trajectory in an upward trajectory, what are some areas we need to be properly prepared and equipped to manage so that our winning doesn't become losing? So that so that we don't fall off when we come up. So that we don't blow blessing. so that we don't fumble favor.

And here is if you're a part of our spiritual family, right? If you're a part of our spiritual family, I know I'm not everybody's uh blueprint has a wide tent. And so we reach a number of different people and some people have a pastor and but if I am your pastor and I know people don't take that seriously nowadays but if I'm your undersheperd my encouragement to you because I believe this is scriptural is to not just judge the people's activity in scripture.

Don't judge Noah learn from him because we can't just we shouldn't just see Noah in the text. We need to see oursel in Noah. And here is here may be some things that Noah was unequipped to manage. So he sabotaged success. He may have been unequipped to manage.

Number one, the stress of success. I want you to think about the unique stress load Noah had to carry. Come on now. We're not excusing the behavior, but we need to understand it. And some people's issues is they think they're above it. That's the only way you judge is because we think we're above it.

And the Bible says, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed unless he falls." So I want you to think about the stress he was under for all those years. He labored under relentless pressure. He's working on a project around. He's working on a project and everybody around him believed he's insane.

They think he's crazy. So he's dealing with mockery, social isolation, and then he's a man of the soil having to manage the logistics of a construction project. God, there it is. I'm sorry. God pulled him out of his comfort zone. That's stressful. He led him away from his area of expertise.

The text says he's a man of the soil. He's a man of a so he's a man of a so of the soil. So think about the stress of people's lives depending on what you build and you're not a builder. You're a farmer. God, I hadn't even done this before.

I want you to type this in the chat only if you agree. If you don't agree, it's okay. If you hadn't experienced this yet, at least it's okay. But I want you to put in the put in the chat, yes will give you stress. Sometimes giving God a yes [laughter] will give you some stress.

Am I right about it? So he's stressed. He's stressed. He's stressed. Then that's not counting the 40 days and 40 nights inside that ark with all them animals. Noah came out of that thing. He came out of that ark and he planted that vineyard immediately. [laughter] See, watch this.

We very often talk about the relief success brings but we don't talk enough about the responsibility that success brings. We talk about the relief that success brings in some areas, right? It might bring financial relief or professional relief, but we don't talk about the responsibility it brings in other areas that very often overwhelms and overrides the relief.

So in one area it's erasing pressure. In another area it's amplifying responsibility. Cuz success doesn't just remove weight, it redistributes it. And you and I must be discipled on how to handle the stress that comes with success. All right. Second thing. Second thing. Noah also had to manage the solitude of success.

Here's what I want y'all to see. Think about this. Noah built the ark with a team, but he drank by himself. Aya. He built the ark with a team, but he drank by himself. He felt isolated. His experiences felt to him so singular and so overwhelming that no one around him, not even his own family, could understand the immense weight and pressure he was under.

Because even those, watch this, who feel you can't always feel what you feel. Your friends may feel you. I feel you. Your family may feel you. I feel you. Your team may feel you. I feel you. Your your church members may feel you. I feel you. But just because they feel you and they relate to you and they love you and they're connected for to you doesn't mean they feel what you feel.

Because nobody can feel what you feel until they sitting in that seat of responsibility. They don't understand your stress until they're sitting in your seat. And when you're sitting in that seat, it can feel alone. solitude building. So, I want you to think about how lonely he felt.

Watch this. How lonely he felt building something others didn't even believe in. Come on. And remember, many people don't believe in the importance of the ark until it rain. You're a fool until it rains. You're a fool until it rains. You're a fool until it rains. You're ambitious until it rains.

You're ego-driven until it rains. And then when it rains, oh, you did hear God. Yes, I did. So, there's the stress of success. That's a lot. No excuses, just understanding. There's the solitude of success. And then last but not least, there's the scrutiny of success. Ham. Watch this.

Watch this. Ham, his own son, scrutinizes, but he doesn't empathize. And Ham represents everyone who scrutinizes your watch this who scrutinizes [laughter] your failure without understanding your journey. See, with success comes scrutiny. Your mistakes become magnified. Your weaknesses become highlighted. Your bad days become documented. Your failures are publicized.

Uh what once was private now gets exposed. What's what once was overlooked becomes analyzed depending on your line of work. It's like what you wear. You understand what I'm saying? You can wear a tan suit. Yeah. All you did was wear a tan suit and now I it's all it's a whole upro.

You just wore a tan suit. That's all you did. You wore a tan. That's all you did. You wore you wore a tan suit. It's like everything becomes analyzed and and scrutinized and then when an individual inappropriately responds to that scrutiny, people don't tell the whole story because crit critics don't tell the full story.

They talk about the intoxication but not the trauma that preceded it. They see the failure but not the decades of faithfulness that came before it. They judge a moment without understanding the journey. And they have a snapshot without knowing the story that led up to it. And what exacerbates the pain of scrutiny is when it comes from ham.

It's one thing when it comes from strangers. It's another thing when it comes from blood or those that you love like blood. We're not excusing, but we do need to understand because what happened with Noah can happen with us. Noah didn't fall off until he came up. And just like it happened with Noah, it can happen with us.

Because the same man that had prophetic preparation, the same man that had personal consecration, the same man that for a while had emotional regulation is the same man laying outside his tent drunky and naked. Naked and drunk. Same man. Because stress, solitude, and scrutiny, stress, solitude, and scrutiny can drive us into behaviors that sabotage success.

So, we must steward every season, even the successful ones, with sobriety. It means slowing down enough to process what success has cost us. naming the trauma and the pressure we've carried instead of numbing it with the fruit of our achievement and refusing to let results replace relationship with the father.

Hallelujah. Instead of going to the vine in the ground, Noah should have went to the vine in heaven. Come on here. Come on here. Come. Come on here. Jesus said, "I'm the vine." Instead of going to the vine in the ground, he should have went to the vine in heaven.

Come on here. Instead of finding his peace, I'm sorry. Finding his peace in substance, he should have found it in the savior. I know this this not nasty. Who can I run to to fill this empty space? Who can I run to when I need love? Jesus. You can run to Gyra.

You can run to Ni. You can run to Yah Yahweh Jehovah. I need him just as much when I'm winning. [laughter] as I do when I'm losing. So may God give us the clarity and the courage and the wisdom to manage the stress that comes with success, the solitude that comes with success and the scrutiny that comes with su success in a healthy way.

Here is my prayer for us. May we not blow our blessing. May we not sabotage our success. May we not fumble our favor. Because the same God that gets glory in me surviving the flood is the same God that wants to get glory out of me thriving after the flood.

And I want somebody to put in this chat, I will thrive. Not just I will survive. I will thrive. Family, that ends our time together tonight. I um I want to end in a time of prayer because there are some things that come with um the other side of the flood that I think we need to have more conversation about.

And some of you have experienced this and you're dealing with success guilt because you feel like, man, I survived the flood. I'm thriving. Maybe you're thriving professionally. Maybe you're thriving relationally. And you don't want to feel like you're complaining. But here's the here's the truth. The stress of success is real.

See? See? Don't let people listen to me. Don't let people who [snorts] have different kind of problems cause you to minimize the reality of your own problems. Must be nice. You know, don't don't must be nice. You don't let people minimize. God has entrusted us all with with specific sets of problems that we got to steward.

And I know sometimes you you can feel like you're complaining when you talk about the stress of success and the solitude and the scrutiny, but but don't don't let other individuals minimize the reality of your problems just because they wish they had them. Yep. Just because my problems aren't your problems don't mean my problems aren't problems.

And just because the problems you have now aren't the problems they have now doesn't mean you hadn't had their problems. Must be nice. I I've had your problems too. Now I got these. So don't let people call make you feel guilty about having these and you don't have those when you had those before and now you got these.

So, I want to pray. I want to pray over you and we're going to we're going to leave on this today. I was going to answer some questions because I um there are some questions in the chat. Some people just be asking random stuff. God bless you. I love you.

It nothing to do with what we talking about. Somebody's asking about fraternities, sororities. I I need to do something on that. I don't know why I want to talk about that, but need to do something on that. And I don't mean that in any negative way. I don't want you to take that the wrong way.

But um uh anyway, I want to I want to pray. I want to lean in specifically. This is what's on my heart tonight. So, I want to lean in specifically uh on this. And I'm working on something. I'm working on a platform where I can create where all of these questions that people have that may not be related to what the Holy Spirit is talking about on a given occasion where some of those things could get answered.

Um, so I don't want someone to mention fraternities and sororities because that was a real question, but I don't want someone to to uh to feel like I'm dissing or dismissing your question. That's just not my assignment tonight. And um and trust me, I'm not running from nothing.

Uh I stand on what I stand on. And um [clears throat] I don't live my life based on people's opinions. I live I live my life based on my own convictions. And um I give people the freedom to think differently, but I'm not going to live my life with your brain.

Um, and when I say your brand, I'm not talking about anybody specifically, but in general, [laughter] yeah, I'm not living my [clears throat] life with somebody else's, but God gave me one. I'm going to use that one. So, um, but I specifically want to lean into this today. I feel feel very strongly about this.

So, Holy Spirit, would you help us to extract lessons from Noah's narrative and apply them to our life? I give you praise [snorts] and I give you glory. I give you honor for the gift of the scriptures and the gift of insight into stories like Noah. So we can not only just see Noah in the text so that we can see ourselves in the text.

And father may may we give the cl get the clarity that we need to steward successful seasons wisely. May we have the courage we need to steward successful seasons wisely. May we have the stamina we need. Your word is very clear that that that if we wait upon you, if we serve you, you would renew our strength.

So I pray for renewed strength in Jesus name. And I pray for the grace to manage the stress. You told us to cast our cares upon you for you care for us. Give us the grace to let it go. Show us who we can run to and how we can run to you.

Father, I pray for those that are dealing with the solitude that comes with success. May they experience a revelation of Jehovah Shama. You are the Lord who is with us. You are present. And I pray that they would experience your manifest presence. They would sense your nearness and your embrace and your closeness.

And I pray for those that are dealing with the scrutiny of success. You are our defender. My God. You are our defender. You are our defender. You are Jehovah Ni. You raise our banner in victory against every accusation, against every misinterpretation, against uh all those that misunderstand us.

I thank you and I give you praise that Noah's story will not be our story because of your goodness and grace to us. And may our may our reality be we will not just survive, we will thrive in Jesus name. Amen. All right, family. Man, thank y'all so much for um for being here with us.

Uh they're going to put ways to give on the screen. And uh I want to encourage you to do that. Remember 2 Corinthians, I'm going to read it here. Verse uh 10. Chapter 9:10 says, "Now he who supplies seed to the sewer, who gets seed? The sewer. and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. As we give today, I just I want to, you know, no gimmicks, no games, but I want your faith stirred, rooted in the revelation of God's word that God honors and rewards my generosity that that that he commits to not be outgiven.

And as you receive this teaching tonight or whenever you receive it, we're encouraging you to sew seed into ground in Jesus name. All right. We love you. Grateful for you. We'll see you next time. Take care.