Encounter @ the Chapel
Pastor Joshua Goodin
“I’ve Gotta Go”
Genesis 12:1 (NIV)
It’s time for some of you to shift from where you are to where you’re supposed to be. You have been in the same place for too long, and the shifting is necessary.
*Sometimes the hardest thing to do is go. To go from the house, you’re in now to a new home, walk away from relationships or friendships that you’ve been in for so long to new doors. Leaving jobs, you’ve been in for long periods of time, you’ve mastered and can do with your eyes closed, now you begin to feel like you have no fulfillment in what you do. The passion or desire you once had you no longer have and now you just show up. That’s not just limited to the workplace, for some of you it’s what you’ve been doing in marriages, friendships, and other relationships, just showing up. The sad thing about just showing up is you think that just by showing up you’re doing somebody a favor. When you show up with that mentality it makes the people who are expecting you or waiting for you begin to think that there’s something wrong with them. When in reality you’re the problem. No longer is it ok for you to just show up. Sometimes the boss will say instead of doing away with them, I’m going to move you.
*One reason God wants you to go is that you’ve become too familiar with the people. Familiarity can breed laziness, laziness can breed complacency, and complacency breeds the bare minimum. You should never come into a place with your walk with God that God is just getting the bare minimum. You should never come to a place in your role in your family, your home, or your job where you’re giving the bare minimum. It’s a problem when you show up and you give nothing.
*When you say you’ve gotta go, there are some people that are so dependent on you now have to find a new person to lean on. That’s scary because some of you have become so comfortable being leaned on that you don’t know how to operate when no one is leaning on you. The problem is when you become comfortable with being needed and you’re no longer needed. You say, “they’re not going anywhere without me, they can’t afford to live by themself, or they can’t survive without me.” When you develop that mindset, you immediately welcome God into the situation because he is a jealous God and will have no other gods before him. Whenever you become a god or lord over someone else that’s when God will find a way of escape for that person. That’s why some people don’t want you to make moves without them, because who are you to make a move without your god?
*When God sees the purity of your heart, he will not allow you to stay in places that will only lead to your demise. You should thank God because some of you were in some places that if you stayed there, you would be dead today. In some things that were sucking the life out of you, it felt like there was no hope in sight. That’s why certain things happened, and God allowed you to leave right before they took place. Sometimes you don’t realize when it should have been you. You take it for granted and think God owes you another day when in reality he should have taken you a long time ago. You come in and serve, don’t do what you’re supposed to do, don’t give, and live the way you're supposed to live and keep expecting every day to live off God’s grace as if it’s owed to you. It’s not owed to you, it’s a gift. Your trauma will make you grateful. It’s a reminder every chance you get to tell God thank you. Don’t be found guilty of forgetting what God has done.
*There are some things that God has in store for you, and if you stay in that place, you will never accomplish what he has in store. Your go is not contingent on how old you are. God can use who he wants when he wants, however, he wants to. Age is not a limitation to possibility. You can’t get the benefits that fully come from God as long as you’re disobedient. Your obedience is the release of what God has in store for you. You’re praying for things and asking God to do things and open doors, to heal and turn things away, but the question is are you obedient to what God has told you to do. Obedience will yield blessings. When you know more is coming you have to make room. It’s better to give than to receive. In order for God to keep sending you new things, you have to release some old things. The more you give the more God gives to you, he will bless you in ways that you can’t even imagine if you be obedient to what he tells you to do. God will use you to be a blessing to other people. Sometimes the greatest fulfillment is not what you do for yourself, but what you do for somebody else.
*Sometimes you just have to get up and go and do what God has called you to do, even when you don’t feel like it. It’s when you don’t feel like it that God gets the greatest glory out of you and uses you to make the best impact. It’s not about your feelings, because sometimes you don’t feel like it. God will use you in your most uncomfortable moments, when you feel like there’s nothing left, God can take the reserves to get you where you’re supposed to be. Because for some of you replenishing and restoring is not where you’re at but it’s going to happen when you get where you’re supposed to go. You’re not going to find joy where you are, but it’s waiting for you where you’re supposed to be. Go is not limited to proximity, but go is speaking more to your position, your mindset, and your attitude. Change your outlook, don’t approach it the way you’ve been approaching it. Get a new perspective and hear from a new voice, because the voices you’ve been listening to tend to side with you and not identify with you when you’re wrong.
***June 6, 2022, Afternoon
Pentecost Sunday 2K22
Encounter @ Greater St. Matthew Baptist Church
Pastor Joshua Goodin
“A Posture of Oneness”
Acts 2:1 (NKJV)
*The posture of the church has become twisted, where it seems like the last thing we do together is pray. The posture in church makes it seem like the unsaved will make it to heaven and the saved will go to hell. The church has to shift its posture back to where it started.
*You can be different and one at the same time. Before the spirit can move in the individual it has to move in the collective. When you bless someone, else God will bless you. You learn how to set aside your feelings to get the work of God done.
*Realign yourself with the mission and purpose of God. If you change your perspective on the things of God, then you can be one. Your posture can be corrected. You can’t move forward until you first get in line. Why do you have to be silent to walk? You have to be silent so you can hear from God.
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