Changing Faces Ministries Podcast
Never would have made it
[ Music ] >> Welcome to the Changing Faces Ministries Podcast. If you can see yourself the way God sees you, you will have a changing face. Here is your host, Pastor Jeff Landrum. [ Music ] >> Good morning, good morning, good morning. We want to welcome each and every one of you to our Changing Faces Ministries Podcast. I'm your Pastor Jeff Landrum, and where we do believe, if you can see yourself the way God sees you, you will have a changing face. Once again, it is another exciting Friday morning, and we're glad to have each and every one of you to come beside of us and join us this Friday morning. We're so super excited to have you. So before we begin anything, we'd like to welcome all of our guests, all of our visitors, everyone who returns with us every Friday morning, and we just want to thank God for each and every one of you coming back to. And if you're here for the first time, we praise God that you decided to come and listen to us this Friday morning. So we thank each and every one of you, our listeners. And we always, we ask you to every chance you get to like, share, and support our ministry on your various social media platforms. You know, you can always go back and listen to this as well, but we're so super excited to have you this morning. We also want to thank One Voice Radio for giving us this awesome opportunity to come to you every Friday morning. I think we're going on about three years now. You know, my, how the time flies when you're having fun. And there's always extremely exciting and fun to be able to come to you and share with you the word of the Lord. So we definitely want to thank One Voice Radio and our great founder of this radio station, Dr. Lord Sam Oram, just for giving us this moment and this opportunity every single Friday morning. So we're excited and we're happy to have each and every one of you. So once again, let us get ready to get into it. So we're always excited about this. But you know, we had, I do come here to tell you what the Lord says to me. And I just want to share with you. You know, one of the things that I've noticed, when I'm studying and I'm reading through our scripture, we oftentimes see men, women of God who are faced with impossible, what appeared to us, be impossible circumstances. But yet they always emerge victorious because they had one thing in common, their faith in God. Whether it's David fighting against Goliath, whether it's Joseph going through the family circumstances and the house of Pharaoh being accused of raid going in jail and rather than to the Second Command in Egypt. You know, we can look at a lot of different people who have been faced with task, but because they believe and have faith in God, they was able to overcome. So I want you to think about what we're going to talk about this morning, and I'm going to give you a subject in a minute, but I want you to think about, we think we're talking about people that have already come through what it is that they were dealing with. So we're reading about them. We're reading about them, and we're studying about them based on what they have already happened. Now, that's important to know that it has already happened because we're reading about it. The reason that's important to know, because my Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever more. And if God is the same, and these people made it through their situation because they have faith, that leads me to believe that whatever it is that we're going through, whether we're facing giants in our lives, whether we're facing starvation, whether we're facing family, turning our back, turning our back on us, whether we're facing being accused of a crime that we didn't commit, whether we're being faced with being thrown in prison and forgot about. Whatever the case may be means, if we're reading about it, that means these people have already come through it, and because they've already come through it and God does not change, we are in the same place to where all we have to do is have faith and trust and believe in God. Then we can also overcome anything because if God did it before, he can do it again. So we are looking at people that are faced with things, and we're going to talk about a gentleman today that was faced with things from birth. He was faced with things. But because we're reading about it, that means he overcame what we're going to talk about today. And I'm coming here today to encourage somebody who may be on the verge of wanting to give up, throw in the tile, and just throw it in. I want to encourage you this morning because this profound example of this gentleman is going to talk about his journey from being hidden infant as an infant in the river to a deliverer of people out of Egypt in Israel. The Israelites out of Egypt. This is truly a testimony of God's divine intervention and power. Moses never could have come out of this what he was dealing with if it had not been in having faith in the one true and living God. Being born in a situation, being raised up, leaving out of a place, then being called by God to lead his people out of a place, you know, to be able to do that, that took some courage. So if you got your Bible this morning, I'm going to read, I'm going to read some scriptures to you. And after I read the scriptures to you, I'm going to give you this subject and then I'm going to give you some foundational information that no matter where you are and what you're going through, you should be able to walk away from today knowing that you too can make it. So if you got your Bible, turn on me to Exodus chapter 2. We're going to read some verses here. We're going to talk about a lot of things in Exodus and I'm going to give you the complete story, a summary of the story. We're going to give you five key principles that you can live by to help you get through. So Exodus chapter 2, and it reads, "And there went a man of the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and buried son. And when she saw him that he was a godly child, she hit him for months. And when she could not lower hide him, she took for him an arch of the bull rushes and dab it with a slime and with pitch and put the child therein. And she laid it in the flags by the river brink. And his sisters stood afar off to it. What would be done to him?" And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river and her maiden walked alone by the river side and she saw the arch among the flag. She sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child. And behold, the babe wept and she had compassion on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrew children." Then said her sister to Pharaoh's daughter. She let go and called to the nurse of the Hebrew women that they may nurse the child for thee. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go." And the maid went and called her child's mother. Called her child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, "Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages." And the woman took the child and nursed it. And the child grew and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter. And he became her son. And she called his name Moses. And she said, "Because I drew him out of the water." For a subject this morning, I want to simply talk about never would have made it. Never would have made it. I want you to think about that. Never would have made it. Dear Heavenly Father God Almighty, we thank you once again for allowing us this moment in time. Lord, I'm asking right now you prepare our hearts to allow us to receive what it is that you have for us on this morning. And I'm asking right now that you touch, just touch us in a special way. Lord, I'm also asking that you remove me that you're not a meep and hear all of you and let your word go forth with power to make us better than war before we came. And we will always be so grateful and careful to give you all the praise, all the honor and all the glory. And your son Jesus Christ's name we do pray. And we all said amen. Never would have made it. You know, that's a song. And he talks about never would have made it without you. I would have lost it all. But now I see that you were there for me. And I can say I never would have made it. I want you to think about that. At some point in all of our lives, we have that story. We can sing that song that I never would have made it without you in my life. And I want you when we think about that. And if I know what you're saying, you might be saying I've come all this far by myself and I did it all by myself. And you know, I didn't need anybody. Only thing I tell you and I caution you first of all, you don't know what you went through. You don't know all of the hell that you didn't see. You don't know all of the things that happened that you don't even know about. You don't know the illness that God protected you from. So first thing I caution you about. Be careful of what you're saying that you did on your own. Second thing you need to be careful about is to just keep living. Because if you hadn't seen something that you have to pray your way through, keep living because it's on the way. I often tell people there's only three kinds of people. The ones that are in something, the ones that just came out of something and the ones that's on the way to something. Wherever you are, you can be singing that song and never would have made it. So when we think about that, we're going to look at a man. Look at a man today that can say those words. Never would have made it without God. So when we look at that, we're looking at this man known as Moses. And if you want to go back and read the whole thing yourself, look at it in Exodus chapter 1 through chapters 14. It'll give you some details on Moses. But just to give you a summary of it, you know, Moses was born at a time when Pharaoh had ordered the death of all male Hebrew babies. You know, all the boy babies got to die. But his mother hid him in a basket and set him afloat in a Nile where Pharaoh's daughters found and raised him. Only God can do that. You're supposed to have been dead. But you find yourself floating in a basket where Pharaoh's daughter finds you. And when she finds you, she gives you back to the mother to be taken care of. So I want you to think about that. But despite being raised in royalty, Moses eventually fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. If you go back and read the story, it says something about Noah, look right in love and make sure when nobody was looking. But God knows all things. But read the story for yourself. So that after that event, Moses fled Egypt. But years later, God called Moses through a burning bush to return to Egypt and deliver the Israelites from slavery. This, you know, just, just a side note. This ain't, this ain't the subject, but just a side note. Despite your past, God can still use you. So I don't want anybody to ever think that you're not significant or that God can't use you. My Bible talks about if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. Well, when you, when the mere fact that you're still here, there is something that you need to be doing and God has a work for you. So, but that just a little side note for you. You know, so after all these years, God calls Moses because the children was, was crying out in Egypt and wanted to be delivered. So God needed someone to deliver him out of Egypt. So he called Moses to deliver him out of Egypt. And, but despite his initial reluctance, Moses obeyed and through many signs and wonders, including a great party of the Red Sea. God brought Israel out of Egypt and they were led by a man who wasn't even supposed to be here. That's a message to somebody. Despite how you see your life and despite what you may think about your life. Despite you thinking you being useless, God can use anybody when he choose how he choose. You just got to be willing to be used. That was good. You might need to write that down. Despite how you see your life, you may see your life as useless, but just know God can use anybody who choose to be used when it's time for him to use them. You just got to be willing. Moses faced countless obstacles from Pharaoh's resistance to his own doubts about his ability to lead. Yet every step of the way, God empowered Moses to do what seemed impossible. Ultimately, through God's intervention, Moses led the Israel lights to freedom, demonstrating that he never would have made it without God's guidance and power. So just make sure you take some notes now because just five key points that I want to share with you from Moses' story. First thing we want to look at is God has a purpose for your life, even when the circumstances seems against you. You know, one of my favorite scriptures, Jeremiah 29 and 11, which states, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Moses was born into a situation where his life was at risk, but God had a greater plan for him. And that's similar to us. No matter how dire your situation may seem, your situation, my situation, our situation may seem. Despite any of that, God's purpose for your life remains. God's purpose is outweigh your circumstances. God's purpose outweighs your circumstance. So despite what it looks like, despite how you may seem and what you think about your situation, just know that God has a purpose for your life, even when circumstances seems against you. That was one. Two is God equips you for the task he calls you for. "Whomever God calls, he equips." When we look at Exodus 4, 10 through 12, it says, "Moses said to the Lord, 'I am not elken enough. I am slow of speech, but God says, 'I will help you speak, and I will teach you what to say.'" Moses told God, "I got a speaking problem. I can't talk right. You want me to go do what I just can't say right, but God comfort Moses and letting them know at the time, I'm going to give you what you need, and I'm going to share with you what you need to say." Because I think it goes, if you go back in there and look at the story, Moses says, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what do I say to him?" And God says, "Tell him I am sent to you." This is what I want you to understand. Stop looking at what you have or don't have, but look at who you need to leave in and who you trust. Because if you're going to reach a point to say, "I never would have made it without God in my life," you got to first know that God is in your life, and when God is in your life, and if he has called you, he's going to equip you with everything you need in order to do what you need to do. When Moses came to God, sharing with him that I'm not elken enough to speak, God told Moses and gave him what he needed in order to go and what he needed to tell Pharaoh. Moses doubted his own ability, but God assured him that he would provide the words and skills needed. When God calls you to a mission, he will provide the strength and resources to accomplish it. I want you to think about this. Just think about something. Why would God create you, me, us, if he didn't have a plan? A perfect God and perfect will of God won't create anything because as I read and I study, it says everything that God made was good and very good. Why would God go through the trouble of creating, allowing two people to come together, allowing sperm and egg to come together? If he was going to produce something over a period of nine months, if you went through a natural childbirth, to come into this world without a plan and a purpose, and then allow you to come into this world and give you a plan and a purpose and not allow you to be able to do it. That doesn't sound like the God I know. So you, me, all of us can sing that song that never would have made it without God in my life. I want you to think about that. Third thing we need to do is trust in God's timing and his ways. And this is a hard one for me. And maybe a hard one for you too. You know, and I'm sure when Marvin Satt was singing that song never would have made it going through all of the stuff that he was going through in life, I'm pretty sure that was him and trusting in God's timing and his ways. When you look at Exodus 14, 13 through 14, it talks about Moses answered the people, do not be afraid, stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. I think they was faced with some situations and circumstances in their lives. And at this point, you got to trust in God's timing because this was the point they came up to a point where, you know, they was always whining and complaining all along this way. And they came up on the Red Sea and coming up on the sea, they got, it didn't look favorable in front of them. And they had the enemy chasing from behind them. And they stuck in the middle with a man who had a problem, a speech problem that he, but the one thing about Moses, he had faith and he trusted in God. Because at this point, at the Red Sea, Israel's light saw no way out, but Moses trust in God's timing. God's deliverance may not come in the way or time we expected, but it will come when we trust him. I grew up listening to my grandmother always making this statement, and I didn't understand it at the time. But as I've gotten older, it makes so much sense to me. Jesus always say, God, he may not come when you're warning, but he is always on time. We need to learn to trust in God's timing and in his ways. Because those people on that day, when Moses told him this day, you're going to see the deliverance of the Lord. When they saw the sea in front of them and Pharaoh in this army chasing behind them, they had no weight on how it was going to work. They had no understanding what God was going to do. But I guarantee you that next day, they all could say that song that never would have made it if it had not been for the Lord in my life. Because what God did was God took that old Red Sea and blew those winds up and that Red Sea parted and they were able to walk across on dry land where the shoes didn't even get muddy. When they all crossed over on the other side, it says God allowed the sea to come back together and to drown Pharaoh in his army. When God brings you through situations and circumstances of your life and allow you to go through this stuff unscathed. I'm sure the three Hebrew boys can be a testimony, give a testimony about we never would have made it. We never would have came out of that fire if it had not been for God in our lives. I'm sure they can give you that testimony. But I mean, I'm sure somebody that's under the sound of my voice right now can give that testimony. I never would have came through that sickness if it had not been for God. I never would have been able to feed my kids if it had not been for God. I never would have been able to keep the doors of the business of my business open if it had not been for God. I never would have got through the job situation if it had not been for God. I never would have made it through the family situation. It had not been for God. I never would have made it. I would have lost it all. But now I see you are there for me. And I can say I never would have made it. So third thing is trusting God's timing and his ways. The fourth thing is you want to do is even in fear and doubt, God will strengthen your faith. When we read Psalms 46 and 1, it talks about God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in the time of trouble. I want you to think about this. Some of us wouldn't know the power of God if it wasn't for him allowing us to go into trouble. Some of us wouldn't understand who God is. If we didn't allow us to go through things. Oftentimes our prayer is God, get me out of this. God, don't let me do. God, keep trouble away from me. Sometimes God allows us to go through trouble so he can become our strength in the midst of trouble. You know, I don't remember. He didn't keep those three Hebrew boys out of the fire. He allowed them to go in, but in the midst of them going into the fire, he went in there with them. And when he went in there with them, they was able to go through the fire and come out not even smelling like what they've been through. Some of us right now have gone through hell and high water. And people look at us and they think we got it all together. And they don't, they don't understand that if it had not been for God in my life, I never would have made it. So when we walk around, we're smiling and we're, we're, even though all of the things and the stuff that we've been through, we understand something that if it had not been for the Lord who was on my side, he didn't show up when I want him to, but he was always right on time. And I've learned, like my grandmother used to say, I'm doing the best I can with what I got. And then sometimes in your life, the only thing you're going to have is your faith in God. We have to learn even in fear and doubt, God will strengthen you, strengthen your faith. Moses had doubts, but in each challenge, God showed himself strong. When he fell, when, when we feel overwhelmed by fear, God becomes our source of strength and courage. And I'm here to tell you, it's going to be come times in your life where you're going to be overwhelmed. It's going to look bad and you're going to be fearful. But in that time, you got to know that God is a very present help in the time of trouble. Last point I want to make for today is God's power is displayed through our weakness. 2 Corinthians 12 and 9, it says, but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. Moses, who thought of himself as inadequate became the vessel for God's miraculous power. I want you to think about that. What is a vessel? That's where it still flows through. Do you not realize you've been blessed to be a blessing for other people? When God becomes your strength and when God gets you through these situations and circumstances that you go through, he don't bring you through for you. He brings you through so that other people may come to know him, that you can be a blessing for other people. Moses' name means drawn out of. Think about this. Why in the beginning of his life, the drawing out of is when he was drawn out of the river. But then you got to think about when he was older in his life, the meaning of Moses' name is God used him to draw other people out. God used him as a vessel because he was blessed. God used him as a vessel to pull other people out, sometimes in your life. And most of the times in your life, when God allows you to go through and to come out of situations and circumstances, it's for you so that he can use you to bring other people out. Will you be used today? God often used our weaknesses to showcase his strength, proving that it's not by our power, but by his power. Give God the glory in all things. The good give him glory. The bad give him glory. And all things I think the Apostle Paul said, I have learned to be content because my trust is in the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. The earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof. And so everything belongs to God. You, me, we don't even own our own bodies. This is what I wanted to remind you of today. See, because when you start getting too proud and thinking about what you did and how you did it, look at me, look at what I've done, God has a way of allowing you to go through something so that you come out of those things and you too can be like Mr. Paul, do something that song, I never would have made it. When we understand and when we start looking at this thing known as life and we see how God is working in our lives and how God is doing things in our lives. Just as he did for Moses, when he allowed Moses to be born. Early in his life, Moses didn't ask to be born in that family at that time, but God saw fit to allow him to be born at that time. Sometimes we get put into situations that we didn't ask for, but because God allowed it, that means he had a plan for our lives. But when we learn to trust in it and we learn to go through it and we started to look at life situations and circumstances as blessings, not as curses and not as saying what was me, we can too sing. I never would have made it. I would have lost it all. But now, see, when you come out of it, you get easy to say, but now I can see that you were there for me and I can say, I never would have made it. See, that was Moses' day. There's people throughout our lives right now today. We don't know what they went through to get to where they are. But when we take a look at if you was to dive into it and people will start sharing their stories with you, you will start to see they can too be can say that I never would have made it. You know, it's one, he's a very famous individual and now if I would call his name, all of you would know him. But it's a modern, he's a modern day comparison and we can just look at his modern day life to what Moses had to go through. Because this gentleman, he writes movies and plays and all that. If I was to call his name, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. But he grew up in poverty faced with abuse and at one point lived in a car, but despite these hardships, he held on to his faith and his dreams. Now today, he is a successful film writer, actor and business man and he often speaks about how God's grace carried him through his darkest moments, allowing him to become a beacon of hope for others. Like him, he too was like a Moses. Success is a testimony to the fact that he never would have made it without God's intervention, provision, and strength. As in this film, Make Your Life, and if you want to know who it was, it was Tyler Perry, just as in Moses' life and this film Make Your Life, Tyler Perry, we see what seems impossible become possible with God. All things are possible to him that believe. Trusting in him, even in our weakest moments, is the key to victory. And if you were out there today and you've been ready to throw up your hands and quit and you was already throwing the towel, feeling like Rocky in the 12th round of the major fight of his life and he was about ready to give up and quit, God allowed you to come to the, and hear this moment. Hear this message for this moment that you're in because he knew that you needed to hear it. He knew that you was going to come through some things and you still weary and he knew that you need to know that you never could have made it this far without God in your life. And God hadn't brought you this far to leave you. Today will be a perfect opportunity for you. If you're under the sound of my voice and you've never received the praise of Christ as your Savior, today will be a perfect opportunity for you to do that. Not next week, not next year, but today. And because you are hearing this right now in this very moment, this could be that moment. This is that moment that everything can change for you by just allowing Christ to come into your life. And it's real easy, it's real simple. That's saying, I'm a sinner. I need a Savior and I choose you. I choose you Christ to come in. It talks about if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead, you can be saved. And if you're ready to do that today, today will be a perfect opportunity to do that. Or if you're here today and you want to become a part of this ministry, you know, it's not become, it's not actually become a part of this ministry. It's more about becoming a member of the family of God. But if you want to come every week that you've been coming and you want to support this ministry in any way you want to choose to support it, today will be a perfect opportunity to do that as well. You can go visit our website at changingfacesministries.com and just, just, you know, send us a message. You know, when you see, you know, the advertisement for the podcast, give us a thumbs up. I mean, just share and get the word out. It's not about us. God has allowed this ministry to be a vessel to touch other people, to lead other people from darkness into light. So support the ministry. You know, and we're so, I just want to say this, we're so super excited to have each and every one of you to join us. I can't, you know, there's no, without you, there's no us. And we're so blessed and thankful for all of our listeners all across the world. We so much appreciate you. We love you. We enjoy you. And we pray that you take away something from the day and remember this. We love you and always remember it. If you can see yourself the way God sees you, you will have a change of faith. God bless you and God keeps you in our prayer. This will conclude our podcast for this week. See you again on next Friday. God bless. Take care, everybody. Thanks for tuning in to the changing faces podcast. Be sure to download the podcast as well as like, subscribe and share. [MUSIC]