Playing To Win

We live in a culture that says, focus on your success, but Jesus says focus on impacting the world. We live in a culture that says focus on building a personal empire. But God says, start focusing on building a kingdom movement, because that's what's eternal, and that's what's fulfilling. See, success is not fulfillment. Many people think that if I can just become a safe I can just become successful at this, and successful, you know, my my job successful, and my business successful, and my finances and everything. And that's good. That's a it's a critical place to be in that. But that's not the end all, the place that you're really striving for significance. And here's the thing about significance. In significance, you start giving away everything that you achieved in success. That's why many people don't want to move out of success. They become hoarders.Success is the place where we become the greatest hoarders, and we Americans are hoarders. Did you know, the Self Storage business is a $46 billion business, annual business, 46 we spend $46 billion on storing stuff we'll never use, or we'll forget about. It's like William Randolph. Hearst anybody familiar with him back in the turn of the 1900s of media magnet for the day, newspaper, radio stations. All that, because when one of one of the most wealthiest men in the world, he became this ardent art collector, and he had heard about this piece of art that he wanted. And so he told one of his art agents. He said, Go and buy that piece of art. This is back in the day where, you know, the piece of art was supposedly in Europe. So he jumps on a ship, goes there, spends months, comes back, months, comes back, and he tells William Randolph first, he said, the good news is we found the art piece, and he's excited. He goes, the bad news is, is you can't buy it. He goes, what? I'm one of the wealthiest men of the world. Whatever they want, I'll pay whatever they want. I want that piece of art. He says, You can't have it. And he's pounding the table. What? He goes, I must have that bizarre he says, You can't buy. He goes, tell me why I can't buy because, because you already own it. He said, We found it in one of your warehouses. I think sometimes that's where we're living our lives, is that we don't realize what is ours, what Christ has given us through His death, burial and resurrection, and we're crying out for things, and God says you already have it. You just you haven't aligned your heart, haven't aligned your wisdom, having aligned your knowledge with this book to understand what is yours. You it's not my notes, but that was good. So let's get into, let's get into Joshua's story here. This is Joshua chapter six, as you know, is the story of the account of the walls of Jericho, but the city of Jericho, how many have heard grew up Sunday school or the walls of Jericho? Everything about that? Yeah, it's still an epic story. I tell you in verse one, it says this. Now, the gates of Jericho were tightly shut up because the people were afraid of the Israelites, and noone was allowed to go out or go in. Jericho was shut up solid. It had become a confinement to the people in that city. They couldn't go out, nobody could come in, nobody could go out. It's sometimes it's a picture of of our lives where we get we get it almost becomes like a fortress where nothing's coming in and nothing's going out. We're not receiving anything, and we're not giving anything because we're in this bondage. It reminds me of, you know, because Jesus gives us this picture in the New Testament, and he uses this scripture out of Matthew, chapter 16, verse 18, he says, and I will tell you you are Peter and on. This rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. What he's talking about, this fortification, the first thing that is significant about that scripture, he says, he says that you are Peter and on this rock. What was he talking about? He's talking about the rock is our revelation and our confession of Jesus Christ, and living our lives from that revelation and that confession as an immovable and impenetrable foundation in our lives. See, the thing about gates is gates are a defensive mechanism, not an offensive and when he says, The gates of hell shall not prevail. What he was talking about, the picture that He's given us is that we're not, we're not being, you know, defensive of the devil. The devil is being defensive of us. We're to be on the offensive. And if we, if we don't understand that, because through the years, you know, I pastored local church for 25 years, and I'd seen people all the time. You know, they wouldn't necessarily say this, but the way they would act, I said, you know, the devils are chasing me around. The Devil's just a pursuing me. I said, Well, I'm sorry. It was supposed to be the other way around. You resist the devil and you will flee. That's what the scripture says. See, the reason that there is this momentum of God right now that we're seeing in the earth is that there was a shift about 10 or 12 years ago within the world, and this shift that became this intensiveness of prayer from the body of Christ. The body of Christ began to cry out to God in a fresh way. People began to gather and pray. They begin to gather and pray for 24 hours at a time, seven days a week, 365 days a year, they begin to cry out to God. And what we're seeing today, in this momentum is God's response to that cry of the heart of the people. And what's happening as as people have been praying and crying out to God, what it is is that we're seeing a diminishing of the force of the influence of the enemy in our land, the kingdom of God is advancing, the kingdom of darkness is diminishing. That's what we're after, right? But it just doesn't just happen. It's because of intentionality. You gates are defensive features of a wall, not offensive. I like what Pastor Matt talked about last week as somebody, somebody came up to him, if you're in the service and you're a very brave person, maybe but he said, Do you know how momentum starts with the force? And he kind of punched pastor Matt chess, remember, you talked about that? And so it is. And so for many of you today, maybe there's some things that the enemy has had too much of a place in your life, too much of a stronghold in your life. And today, you need to take the word of God. You need to take your paradise. Need to punch him, and begin in that spiritual momentum in your life, begin to punch out of the stronghold that you're in, take the force of the Word of God, the power of the promise of God, and begin to align your heart with the will of God, and you'll begin to see spiritual momentum in your life that maybe you've never experienced before. And it can start today. See Matthew, chapter 11, verse 12 says this from the days of John the Baptist, until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has suffered violence, and the violent taken by force. The violence that Jesus was referencing in this was an intensity of spiritual warfare. It wasn't this physical thing, sometimes it can feel physical, but it was this the spiritual warfare that was that was happening. It was happening around Jesus ministry. It happened around our lives. But it it's also this intensity that we need to have, this fervency that we need to have in pursuing the will and desire of God in the earth. You so it's the church attacking the gates of hell. That's why you're seeing things in Lincoln. That's why we're seeing things in Omaha. Why is it? Because there is the body of Christ that began to pick up this spiritual fervency and. In this momentum and beginning to push back and begin to blow open the strongholds. I'll tell you a quick story. I gotta be careful, because I only have too much time, so I can't tell too many stories. But Omaha, Nebraska was known as a city that kills its Prophets for many years, and there were no great works that could really people would start, try to start, and everything, and they would always end up, you know, getting discouraged or beat up, or whatever it was, and and there was no really significant works of God that happened in Omaha for years. And then something happened in the in the late 70s, there was a group of people in Omaha. It was led by a by Pastor that was there at the time. And they begin to pray. And they begin to pray against the strongholds that have been in Omaha for years. And they prayed for years, over a decade before they saw any results. And then all of a sudden, they start seeing these works of God come together and begin to make significant impacts. And one of those churches was Trinity. Trinity Church in Hong Kong called Life gate. It was one of the first entities that was that was created a significant movement of God in Omaha, and there were some others. But this is that's a picture what I'm telling you that what happens when a people begin to align their hearts and begin to make sacrifices and become, if I can use this word, almost become militant
in the advancement of the Kingdom of God and The Earth. See how many of you play sports. Do I have anybody in here that coaches sports? Good? Okay, so especially, I mean all of you, those that coach and those that are playing, you know, there's a difference in strategy from playing to win versus playing not to lose. My concern is that too many people in the body of Christ have been living their lives in such a way that they've been playing not to lose versus playing to win. Jesus didn't come and just play not to lose. Jesus came to play to win. He's one that said, thanks God, who's be to God who's given us the victory. There's a victory in Christ, what he played to win. And that's the way that we need to be. We need to be living our lives in such a way that we're if I can use the word playing to win in this life. See strong men and women focus on mission, not on circumstances. I have two words for you, for 2025 boldness and power. Those are the two words that I believe that God is speaking to his body today to say, I want you to live your life in a greater boldness and walk in a greater power, his power than you have before I when the Lord begin to speak to me about this, I thought, yeah, that's that's where I'm going to live my life. That's going to be my intentionality. That's going to be my focus this year, is to walk in a greater boldness and walk with greater power, the power of God, not the power of my playing. That won't get you anything. Probably get you annoyed. But when we walk with the power of God in our lives that helps set people free, that helps transforms environments, it's a power of God that will change a city, change the environment of a city. So let's get back to Joshua chapter six. So you know the story. Let's drop down and let's read verses five and six. So they come in. They come before Jericho, it's all you know, locked up tight.
The Lord says, when you hear the priests, and he's speaking to Joshua three. Joshua about this, he says, when you hear the priest give one long blast on the ram's horn. US have all the people shout as loud as they can, then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town. So Joshua called the priest together and said, Take up the Ark of the Lord's covenant. That's key, because what he was reminding them of is that they were a covenant people of God. So you you need to understand, and you need to continually remind yourselves that I am a covenant child of God. The words like I will never leave you nor forsake you, those are covenant words. God is a covenant God who loves his covenant sons and daughters. See, that's why. See, we interact emotionally as much as we don't like to admit it, we interact emotionally. It's like, it's like, I love Jake. Jake loves me, I think. And Jake and I are good. I mean, we're this is good, good relation, everything. And then all of a sudden I'm like, Well, Jake, I'm an Ohio State fan. And he's like, we're not friends anymore. Of all the places God decided to move recently was in the campus of Ohio State. Come on, God, that's all I'm going to say about that. But see, see that you said that emotional variance can bring a division to us. God has emotions. The Bible says that he's joyful, he's happy, he's sad, he cries, he weeps, all of those things. God has emotion. But the thing about it is, is his relationship, his interaction with us is not emotional. It's covenant. And that is so powerful to know, because then when we mess up, because as people, we mess up emotionally, then we can disconnect and distance ourselves from people. But the thing about, what I found out about God was when I mess up is when he draws near, because he's continually leading me in this place of redemption, of aligning my life and my heart with his I one of the places that we see God so close to humanity. One of the greatest nearnesses of God to humanity was in the plane of place of pain, suffering and death. Call it the cross. Why is it? Because God has got a covenant, and we need to know when, when we're in these places of suffering and pain and tragedy, those are the places that God is the closest in our lives. Sometimes it may seem distant, but that's only because our emotions are screaming so loud, but that's where God is so close. That's the amazing thing about God. So he says this. He said, When you take up the Lord's covenant, the Lord's Ark of the Covenant, and signed seven priests walk in front of it and carry the rams horn and to go around the city. And you do this seven times every day, seven times. And you think, and you know, these were people. They had learned a war. The people of Israel had learned a war. And God says, No, what I want you to do is walk around this seven times. Seven days, I want you to walk around this, blow some horns. Walk around it, blow some horns, he says. And on the seventh day, what I want you to do is walk around and blow some horns, and then I want you to yell at it. That sounds reasonable, not but see what we miss here. And then this is so strategic, what we miss here, because that's a way a lot of times we look at it, is that they walked around and then and then it says, because in verse 16, it says the seventh time the round, as a priest sounded the long blast on the horns, Joshua commanded the commanded the people shout for the Lord has given. Knew the town. You ever wonder what they shouted? Do you think it was just, Oh, I did for a long time, many years, I just thought that they just know what they shouted was something very strategic. It was a war cry that God had given them. This war cry was here is a term rock Kazakh amats Say that real fast. Rock. Kazakh amaz, can you throw that up on the screen? Do you have that in the notes? There you go. Rock. Kazakh amaz, everybody say that rock. Kazakh amaz, here's what it said, only be strong and courageous. Do you ever hear that before? Have you heard that before? See rock amaz is a Hebrew war cry that means only be strong and be courageous. It can also be interpreted as facing your enemies without shrinking back. That's what it meant to them. That's what it meant to the people of Israel. And we see in the Bible that God had given this war cry to Moses and Joshua back in Deuteronomy chapter 31 and then Joshua's is passing this war cry on down to the children of Israel, the people of Israel. And we even see David giving this war cry to Solomon over in First Chronicles, chapter 22, verse 13. It was the war cry of Israel. It was the war cry of the people of God, do you have a war cry in your heart that when you're faced with impenetrable circumstances, that this is the thing that comes up in your heart, and you begin to declare it rock? Kazakh amas, see, we read Joshua, and I be strong and be courageous. And we think it's almost we read that, I don't know about you, but we almost read that in a passive tense, oh, be strong and be courageous. No, my friends, it was a war cry. It was a war cry the reason that there is the momentum of God that is building in our world right now, because there is a people that have caught the war cry of the heart of God and taken it as their mantra, and that has become their war cry, and he wants us to have our war cry. When I was studying this and had come upon this, it reminded me, how do you any of you ever see Braveheart? You know Mel Gibson? I'm not. There's some colorful language in that movie. So if you go to watch it, it's you know. You just have to know that. But anyway, he was Mel GIZ, William Wallace, brave heart. This was about the the time when the when the Scottish people had gone, you know, England was wanting to do stuff with their land and basically take their land and give it to the English nobleman. And the Scottish people were like, No, that's not going to happen. And so they ended up with this war. And there's a scene. And I thought about it, I went back and I watched it again, and it's where William Wallace, Mel Gibson is. That is this band of Scotsman, this ragtag band of Scotsman. You know, they're standing in line waiting to to march into this military against, you know, this into this military action, this war with the the English, who are more well equipped and more numbered, and all of this are outnumbered, all of this stuff. And he's, you remember that he's riding back and forth in front of them on his horse, and he's saying all these things, this day, this day, all this and everything and and one of the individuals in the crowd says, but we may die. And he said, he said this, they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom. And then he begins to cry this out, Abba gubra. Abba go, bra, Abba, and they all start yelling this, what was it Scotland forever? That was their war cry. And when I was watching that is, that is that William Wallace begins, then the whole Scottish band begins to cry out. Abba. Raw, Avago bra, they picked up this whole war cry, and in the history, goes on to tell us that they went into that battle and they defeated the English army that day. Why is that? Because they caught this, this cry of the heart. And maybe the reason you're not seeing the things that you want to see as you've not picked up the cry of the heart of God for your heart, in your heart, you've not picked up your rock. Kazak amaz, be strong. Only be strong and be courageous. See, the war cry rocks didn't started Jericho, but its power became evident at Jericho. See, it's a covenant shout in the hearts of believer that aligns our hearts with the heart of God that then releases the force of faith that initiates spiritual momentum. Let me read that to you one more time. It's a covenant shout, because, you see, that's what rockets it's a covenant shout. Wasn't an emotional it's a shout that God gave them. It's a covenant shout in the hearts of believers that aligns our hearts with the heart of God that's so critical that then releases the force of faith that initiates spiritual momentum. If you don't have a cry in your heart of something that God has given you, I encourage you, I implore you to take this week and begin to ask God, God, what is it that you want to set in my heart? What is it that you want me to cry from my heart? What is the cry of my heart that aligns my heart with your heart, that sets me to where I can stand and not be intimidated my circumstances fortresses, doors that seem to be closed and locked up. What is it that will set, set freedom around me? And so I'm going to close with this poem. And it's a poem that I come across. Back in January, I was speaking at a men's retreat, and I spoke on three things to this group of men. I said, we need to be lions, not sheep. We need to slay dragons, and we need to read poetry. Last one wasn't quite as responsive from the group as we need to be lines. Need to slay dragon. We need to really read poetry. Oh, but here's this poem Who told you to put your sword down and lower your shield you were commanded to put on the full armor of God to no enemy. Do not yield. Who is the uncircumcised Philistine who would dare defy the people of God? The enemy has no authority over us. The claim of his mighty power is only a facade. Did the Lord our God not say, resist the devil and he will flee from you? He has said Satan's under your feet. Do you not believe it's true? How then did he end up on your shoulders to whisper lies in your ear? The devil has been a liar from the beginning, and he's the original author of fear. Rock. Kazakh, only stand your ground and do not and don't stand down. Kazakh, amaz, be strong. Be courageous. Fearless is fearlessness is contagious. For victory is not far did you forget whose you are Where on earth is your war cry. Declare that you will live and not die. Rock. Kazakh, do not be dismayed and do not be afraid. Kazakh amaz, stand firm and do not waver. The Lord is our Savior. Hold steadfast to what is true. Trust and believe in Him who shields you. Rock, be zealous and cry out loud with a mighty sound. Kazak. Be relentless and unmovable. Firm on solid ground. Amaz. Be fearless and don't ever back down. This is our war cry. Be strong and of good courage. For victories abound. God is with us, and I shall declare it over and over again. Rock Kazakh amaz, our God is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Come on, church. Yes. Father. I thank you. I thank you Lord, that we are not a people that are just complacent status quo, but we are a people that are fixed. We are a people that are focused. We are a people that have a cry of God in our hearts. We are a people that will keep pressing forward. We'll keep making the sacrifices that need to be made. We are a people who will not stop until Jesus comes and sets his feet on this earth in Jesus name, amen. Amen.