Stake Your Claim

Legacy House

Thank you. Well, before you sit down, it is an extreme honor for me to be here today. And I’m very grateful. I love being in a house that is a legacy house. A house of God that’s 45 years old. And so I’m grateful because I know that there’s been a lot of battles fought, and there’s a lot of people’s lives, thousands of lives that have been touched through those last four and a half decades. And so I want to honor the founding pastors, Pastors Marshall and Pastor Cindy, hopefully the morning’s gonna go better than this. Yes. Thank you. Thanks for setting a foundation and a legacy, and thanks for blazing the trail and pioneering when there wasn’t anything like this and tilling up the ground and sowing seeds.

Thank you for that, and then thank you for generously passing that baton on to the next generation, Pastor Jordan and Pastor David. I’m super grateful for you guys. So grateful. Because sometimes in churches I’ve been to, pastors can hang on to the position too long, but they see what God, the anointing and the calling on your life and what God’s gonna do through your life is building on that legacy, and that foundation is gonna be far beyond what you could ever imagine. So I think sometimes we can become overfamiliar with the gifts God has given us. And so this morning I want you to like, well, if you haven’t already done it, make sure you’re telling them thank you because all of them are on their knees praying for you and doing battle for you in ways that you don’t even know. But this morning, maybe we can give them a hand and just thank them for what they’ve done in building this house. Amen.

So good. Yes, amen. Let’s give the band. How great was worship this morning. Right? Yes, and yes, I am learning Texan. I thought bless your heart meant that they were blessing my heart. And it meant I was an idiot, apparently. So I’m learning all that. Go ahead and give someone a high five and you can be seated this morning. Thank you.

Entrusted to Lead

I loved Pastor Marshall’s message this morning. And I don’t know about you, but if you are our daughter served tables for a while at Capitol Grill, so I know what it’s like to be part of the wait staff and how much that tip meant. So I would just say to you, if you are currently waiting on tables somewhere, let him know what restaurant. He’s a good tipper. I wrote a book. I’ve written several books. This is the second book I’ve written. It’s called Entrusted to Lead. And so how many leaders are in the room? Every hand should be raised. Because you’re influencing somebody. Amen.

So I just wanted to give this away. Did anybody have a birthday this weekend that did not get a book? You have a yellow shirt on. Oh, you know what? There’s a guy. Did you raise your hand? Oh, you’re pointing to your wife? Okay. All right. Happy birthday. Okay, thank you. Look at you. Okay, if I can get yellow shirt, if I can get your address, I’ll send you one. That’s my mom. Which that’s your mom? Okay. And so here’s the deal is I have ADHD, which means you may never get the book, but no, that’s my intention. Thank you for wanting it. Anybody else want a book? Anybody else want a book? Go buy it. It’s on Amazon.

A Bigger Story

And you should get Psalms 23 from Pastor Marshall. My they sent me a copy at Christmas and it disappeared. And I was up in my husband’s office a couple weeks ago and I was like, Did you steal my book? And he’s like, it is so good. And so I think it’s it’s a little book. It doesn’t take a long time to read, but it’s well worth your while. So it’s such an honor to be here. Let me, in fact, let me show you a picture of my husband. He is standing right next to me. This is our family. He is for we’ve been married 47 years. I always forget how many years he always corrects me, but 47 years this year, I think. And he we are more in love than we ever have been. He is to me the most handsome, hot man ever on the planet.

And then on the very end to the right is my daughter Bethany and her husband Alex, and they have our only two grandkids, and so any if you’re a grandparent, you know they’re really our favorite children. On the other end is our other favorite kids, Gabby, she’s married to Colby. They all still live in DC. And then our daughter, the standing Jessica standing next to my husband, and I said this to the girls, but I feel like there’s some maybe some single men in the room, but she is single and she’s available. And so follow her on Instagram if you feel a leading. And next to me is my very handsome son, Evan, who started working out, called the ministry, a youth pastor, an incredible community communicator, and he also is single, he’s 29, and I believe it’s biblical for arranged marriages. So if you’re interested, message him.

Stake in the Ground

So I’m excited about the message this morning. I want to get right into it, and I would encourage you to strap your seatbelts. I’m gonna be like a spiritual mama in the house this morning. Is that okay? Because I feel like sometimes we can become overfamiliar with the things that we’re used to. And so if you’ve come into the room and it’s your first time in this church, just relax. You’re amongst friends. It may be a little bit different than what you’re used to. If you have never been to church and you were expecting like organs and grandma’s church, again, relax. Nobody is here by accident this morning. God brought you here for this message.

So a number of years ago, as Pastor Cindy mentioned, Dennis and I started a church. We had traveled and done missions all over the world and settled and felt like God was asking us to start a church in Washington, DC. So we didn’t know anything about church planting. All we knew was we had we bought a sound equipment and we rented a hotel room and just started putting the word out there, and little by little the church started growing. And the hotel that we were meeting in was just a couple blocks off the mall area in Washington, DC. So there’s the Capitol building, the Lincoln Memorial, all the Smithsonian museums are around there, and that’s where we were meeting weekly for several years.

And one Sunday morning, a man came into church and he gave us a stake, similar to this one, and he said to us, I feel like God spoke to me to give you this stake, and that you pray and you ask God where to put the stake in the ground, and wherever you put the stake in the ground, God wants to give you that land. And so, of course, what a great real estate strategy, right? So we took a couple of weeks to pray, and then we saw an old design warehouse not too far from where we were meeting. It took up an entire city block. It was way too big for our little church. But you know what? With God, nothing is impossible.

And so when nobody was looking, because we either look like vampire hunters or crazy people, and there’s so much security in DC, right? There’s Secret Service, there’s the Metro Police, there’s FBI, there’s everybody’s there. There’s about a million different types of security. Excuse me. Your world has dehydrated my entire life. So if I look like I’m smiling at you, it’s only because my lip is stuck to my teeth. And so we found this place when nobody was looking on this city block, and we put the stake in the ground, and then for months we prayer walked it, which simply meant we walked around the entire block and we declared two things.

The first thing we declared was Luke 1:37, for with God, nothing is impossible because it was surely impossible. And the second thing was because the city is known for the declarations and proclamations. I mean, they’re on every memorial, you hear them all the time in the news. We thought, how great would it be if our city was known for the word of God and what God speaks? So we declared those two things that the word of God would come forth from this place, because you know when you say in King James, it has a little bit more authority, come forth, right? For months.

Well, we never got that property. We got other properties. Years later, we would chuckle and we’d say, maybe we should go back and get that stake because we need it in another place. Maybe we missed God that we never got it. And it was a number, almost a decade later that Dennis and I were crossing over the threshold of a new museum in Washington, DC. And both of us looked at each other because we realized that was the block we had put the stake in the ground. And with tears in our eyes, we were overwhelmed that God had invited us to be part of a much bigger story. It’s where the museum of God does come forth from that place. Amen.

Assumptions and Faith

Now, is the museum there because we put the stake in the ground? No, God had already established that land for this purpose. He just invited us to have a part of the story. Our stake in that story was prayer. There were other people that sewed into it, but our part in that story was prayer. Well, I love this because I feel like far too many of us have perhaps based our faith on the assumption of the outcome we hope to see. And yes, of course, when you’re believing God for something, you have to be specific on what you’re believing for. But sometimes when it takes too long, our assumption almost stops us because we don’t have full clarity on what God is doing in that moment.

In fact, I would say my husband and I, the biggest mistakes we’ve ever made is in our communication where we assume, where I assume I know what he’s thinking. And I never know what he’s thinking. I mean, sometimes I do, but is there any men in here that could? Yeah, everybody raise their hand. That’s great. Assumption communication gets us in trouble when we assume what God is doing, because sometimes we only base our faith on the outcome and not. So we carry the burden of the outcome rather than the burden of obedience. And so it was taken too long. So I’m assuming God must be doing something else.

See, I think that if we miss the context of the moment we’re in and assume we fully understand it, we may miss what God’s doing because He’s doing far more, more than you could ever imagine. In fact, I wonder if in a thousand years people will start looking at our texts and our TikToks, whatever. And they won’t know the difference between a booty call and a butt dial. Because context matters. And we can miss what God’s doing because we’ve missed the context historically and currently of what’s happening in the church. And I want to talk about this this morning.

The Character of God

Because if our faith is only based on the outcome and on not on the character of the God that you’re hoping to see do this work, we will always stop a little bit short of what he’s doing. And I wonder if far too many of us have been basing our faith on butt dials rather than on what the word of God actually says. You can’t get your theology, you can’t get your faith from TikTok. You can be inspired, I’m sure, but don’t let that be your only source. This has to be your source of faith. Faith comes where? From the word of God. Amen.

I love this story I heard talking about at the internet. I love this story that I heard. It’s become legendary. I’m not a hundred percent sure if it’s true, but you know, Abraham Lincoln said, if it’s on the internet, it’s for sure true. This young boy came bounding home one day after school, and his teacher had given him a letter and he couldn’t read. And he was so excited to be singled out in his class. So he gave the letter to his mother and said, Mama, the teacher gave me this letter. He said, Please read it. He was so excited about it. So she opened up the letter, and this is what she read. Your son is a genius, and this school is too small for him. And so from that moment on, that mama changed everything about his education. She homeschooled him, she saw his curiosity, she didn’t shut it down. And this man, this young boy, became a man who accomplished incredible things in his lifetime.

And it was years later when his mom passed away, that he was going through all of her things, that he opened up the letter, and with fondness in his heart, he began to read, but he realized that it was a little bit different than what his mama had told him. Now, what he did with tears in his eyes, scribbling in his diary that day, Thomas Alva Edison was a mentally deficient child whose mother turned him into the genius of the century. See, I’m convinced at my age, almost 67, that what looks like problems is actually an answer to prayer. Can I say it again? An obstacle is usually an opportunity. It’s just wrapped up differently than the answer we were hoping for.

In fact, maybe some of you in here you would say, I wish I had Thomas Alva Edison’s mother. You know, I wish my parents didn’t do that for me. Some of you had that. I didn’t. I didn’t have a teacher who encouraged me. I always felt two brain cells short of smart. I never fit into the mold that I was supposed to fit into because of my superpower called ADHD. But God himself speaks over you. In fact, I love what it says in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3. You can open your Bible, you can open it on your phone, you can take notes. So if you’re a note taker, take notes. If you’re not a note taker, oh, I didn’t hear you. Why? Oh, that was good. Thank you.

Because it may not relate to you right now, but at some point, if you’re like me, I can’t remember my kids’ names half the time. I want to go back to what that preacher said because it’s gonna speak to you somewhere in your life. Although it says Praise be unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed. Everybody say blessed? Blessed. That word in the Greek is eulogio. Us in heavenly realms with just a few spiritual blessings in Christ. Every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Now I’ve read that scripture for years. But until you understand what the word blessed means in the original language, you might miss the power of what God is speaking to us. The word eulogio, does it sound like an English word? Eulogy. Eulogy. So when somebody dies and you say a eulogy over them, they may have been the worst human in the world, but you’re not going to get up there and say, you know, thank God he died. He was a scoundrel. I would never have bought a car from him. He was a cheat. Right? A eulogy, you’re gonna speak the blessing. You’re gonna speak the good things.

So what is this saying? God 24-7 is speaking over you blessing. He’s speaking over you purpose. You can’t hear it all the time. It’s it’s already written in here. This is how you’re gonna hear it. But if just in case you walk into a hard place and you’re like, if I only had people cheering me on, I feel like people are putting a lid on me. It doesn’t matter what man has done or not done. The God in heaven who created universe after universe, galaxy after galaxy, knows the numbers of hairs on your head, is speaking over you with me. Nothing is impossible. I am able to do exceedingly abundantly above what you ask or think. There is no limitation when God is invited in.

Grace and Performance

But I do feel human nature is that we feel like we have to perform for God, and the guilt and the shame tries to stop us from believing God. So maybe you didn’t read your Bible every day. Maybe you maybe you got angry on the way to church today. Maybe I don’t know where you’re. In fact, Laney, Delaney, Delaney, come on up. There you go, beautiful girl. I need her to help me with this one thought. Because you’re, I want you to understand this. Your faith and what God does for you is not based on your behavior. Come on, right, right. That’s not grace. That means if you’re basing it on your behavior, you become your own savior.

So here’s this beautiful girl. She doesn’t know why she’s up here exactly, but can you do a cartwheels? You have a dress on. Maybe not. Yeah, no. I want to read this scripture to you. I want to speak it over you. This is what Paul wrote to the early church in Philippi. And it’s so powerful. You know, we think like our culture right now is so bad, and maybe it is, but it’s nothing compared to what the early church walked. Like, it’s we’re not the first people to walk through a difficult place. So Paul’s writing this to this church that’s facing incredible difficulty.

And he says, not this is Philippians chapter 3, verse 12 and 13. Oh, good, it’s up there. That’s great. My hair came out pretty good today. Not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but let’s say that next part. But I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. But then it continues on. Don’t re don’t do it now. Just silence. No, just kidding. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind, and I’ve inserted failure, shame, insecurity, what I feel entitled to, and straining toward what is ahead. And again, he says, I press on toward the goal.

So several times in this, I’ve always read this verse. Paul’s talking about pressing. He’s talking about straining. It’s and we anybody else ever following Jesus, and there’s just moments of pressing and straining. Right? It’s not always easy, but the glorious part is you get you’re not doing it for him, you’re doing it with him. There’s a big difference. But I realized not too long ago the secret sauce. Now, Paul was a man, first of all, he says, not that I’ve already obtained it. This was a guy who had like the equivalent of many PhDs. Like he was brilliant. He knew multiple languages, he understood the old testament. He was a brilliant man, and this brilliant man says, I didn’t have it all together yet.

Which I’m like, dear Lord, if he didn’t have it together, I don’t have it together either. But his secret sauce was I hold on to what God is asking me to stake in the ground. But the secret sauce is I can’t do that unless I remember he’s holding on to me. And he’s never ever ever gonna ask you to do something that he hasn’t already holding on to you for. There’s not one thing in your life that you have done that is so terrible that God’s like, figure it out. And when you get your act together, then I’ll start holding on to you again. He knows you can’t get your act together unless you realize he’s holding on to you. And this is the difference between grace and performance.

Grace is I screwed up today, and God’s like, no worries, you keep leaning into me, and that area that’s been the most difficult, I’m gonna begin to transform, and the weakness will become a portal for my strength. I love that he never I you know, I can’t tell you I had four children, and getting to church on a Sunday morning was miraculous. I I can’t tell you how many times I we got to church. I’m like, where are Evan’s shoes? Is he wearing underwear? I don’t know anything that’s happening. Sometimes Dennis and I would be so stressed out, we couldn’t even talk on the way to church. We just blasted the worship because we knew if we started talking, we’d probably start arguing, and we were the pastors.

So Albert Brooklyn, you’re way too holy. I bet you don’t argue at all ever with anybody. And we just knew. And so in those car rides, when we finally got to church, I mean, God didn’t step back and say, okay, now you’re here, now I’ll hold you. Listen, you I you have to know that this is God’s posture. From the moment you take your first breath to the moment you stand in front of him, condemnation and shame have no place. He is not that kind of God. He loves you wherever you are right now, whatever you face this past week, whatever addiction you’re wrestling with, whatever shame is telling you, you gotta figure it out. Then you come to God. God’s like, No, I’m here right now. Love you. Let’s give him Lady a hand. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

The Power of Jesus’ Name

In fact, this morning I was telling Pastor Marshall, I in the hotel I was in, there was a couple in the next room. If you’re here, I’m glad you’re here, but you probably I don’t know. But I could hear them arguing really loudly, and then he said, Jesus Christ, whatever. You know, I’m not gonna, I can’t say what he said in church. And I felt like the Lord spoke to me, and he said, you know, he was saying my name like a curse word. He said, but he has no idea that when he said my name, even angrily, it pulls me into the situation. God’s a God of grace and mercy. So I love that we’re being held on to for what he’s asking us to hold on to for. So whatever he’s asking you to do, you cannot do it without the idea and the understanding that you are held on to first.

And the order matters. It matters, and it’s why it’s one of the biggest battles and will be the biggest battle in your life because you can’t grab hold of God to prove yourself. You’re responding to the grip that is already there, and that’s intimacy and relationship with him. Amen. This changed my life. I was raised spiritually in a very performance-driven church culture. And so for me to understand grace, I had to dig into the word so I could fully understand what God had already done for me.

Staking Your Claim

So the etymology of this whole idea of staking your claim comes from the early West. Remember when the go west young man, remember they the America was like, if you go west, we’ll give you property. And I’m not ignoring the fact that some of the ways that was done was not really the great, the best way, and there were people hurt in the process, but the point is they were staking their claim. And one of my favorite stories was also during the gold rush, they were staking their claim. And there’s this guy, his name is R. U. Darby. And he had heard about he got gold fever and his uncle, and so they got people to invest in their idea. They bought some land in Colorado and they bought all the equipment and they indeed found gold.

And it was weeks of this gold that just kept coming, and then all of a sudden it stopped. And so frustratedly, they just kept trying to find where the gold was, kept moving the machinery, and it completely dried up. So after months of frustration, they sold the land to a junk man for a dollar. Now, the junk man, he was a wise man, so he got somebody who was able to do the what do you call it, surveyor? He was a land expert. So he’s looking around there. He comes back to the junk man and he says, Well, he said, there is indeed gold in this ground. It’s three feet past where they stopped.

I wonder how many of us have stopped three feet short of what God has promised us because we haven’t seen the outcome yet. We’re looking for an oak tree sized answer, and God’s like, here’s an acorn. Go ahead and plant it, water it, and work the ground, because eventually you’ll be able to handle the answer. You can’t handle the answer just yet, because he’s transforming us and giving us muscles through the wrestling the battle to hold what he’s planning to do. Amen.

Here’s a word for your church. Isaiah 54, too. Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch forth your curtains wide. Do not hold back. Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. And you have to strengthen them because in a storm, if the stakes aren’t strengthened, the tent blows away. And I know you guys, as founders, have had years of this, but I’m just saying, for the next season, I don’t see that all of a sudden there’s gonna be peace and harmony in our country. I just feel like the winds are gonna keep blowing stronger than they ever have. And this is not a political statement, this is just like the times we’re in, because we’re praying for revival, and people are only going to turn to God when it’s difficult.

So can we be the people that are holding the stake in the ground, no matter how fierce the wind blows? But there’s a battle over it. And in fact, I shared this with the women. One of my favorite scriptures was what Paul wrote to Timothy when Timothy was facing one of the largest battles in his life. 2 Timothy 1 14. Guard the good deposit that has been entrusted to you. I don’t have to guard. If you gave me a gift card to 7-Eleven, that might mean a lot to you, but I’m not. It doesn’t mean anything to me. I don’t like big gulps. I don’t like Surveys or whatever they’re called. But if you gave me a gift card to a Ritz-Carlton or a cruise, baby, I’m I’m guarding that. Nobody’s see, you guard what you put value on.

And sometimes when the busyness of life and the distractions of life, we stop guarding what God has already placed in our life, and we give up in the middle because it doesn’t look the way we thought it was gonna look. So the seed isn’t growing the way I want it to, so I I just got tired of watering the seed, and God’s like, if you’ll just keep going three feet further from where you are right now, you’re gonna begin to see the sprouts of what I promised. And the sprouts are in you, not just what you’re believing. Amen. Donna, that’s such good preaching, I know.

Claim Jumpers

So in that day, what was very common in the pioneer days was, or in the gold rush days, was when they finally found the vein of gold, or when they finally got the land cleared and planted their seeds and the harvest started to come. There was something called claim jumpers. In fact, if you research this, there’s many, many journal entries of claim jumpers coming in right at harvest time to rob and steal the harvest. And I love this. My I was telling my son, he’s just incredible, by the way, single. About this with claim jumpers, and he said, Mom, he’s a you know, like it would be one thing if the enemy came in with horns and a tail and a pitchfork. You’re like, there’s Satan right there.

But it doesn’t come in that way. Normally it just comes in little by little. Evan said, What if he just comes came in with like a few nuts and bolts and then a few boards, and then before you know it, you got somebody squatting on your land telling you a different story than what God’s already given you. Claim jumpers. One of the stories I think has one of the best pictures of a claim jumper is the story of David and Goliath. And I want to talk about that a little bit this morning, because I feel like sometimes we can miss that it wasn’t just Goliath that was a claim jumper in David’s story. David’s claim jumpers began when he was a child.

And some of us in this room, you had lies that were spoken over you or that you believed from a very young child that are now informing you, and now you’re facing a Goliath, and it’s very difficult to even believe that God’s capable of doing it, because the lie of a little tea truth, which is actually a lie, but you believe it as truth, is now informing you, and that becomes louder than the real truth that God, nothing is impossible with God. Amen.

So the first one, the first claim jumper that I think David deals with the opinion that you’re forgettable. Now we know that Saul was king at this time, and so David is a shepherd boy in this specific season, and God speaks to Samuel the prophet and tells him, I’m I want you to go to the house of Jesse, and I want you to anoint one of his sons to be the next king, and you’ll know who it is. And so Samuel goes to Jesse’s house, and he’s like, Jesse, one of your sons is gonna be the next future king. And so these sons, Jesse begins to pass his sons, he’s got many sons in front of Samuel, and Samuel’s like, No, he’s not him, not him, not the oldest, not, and finally, he has to say to Jesse, um, it’s none of them. Do you have another son?

So even David’s own father didn’t consider him king material to bring him forth before the prophet, that there might be that purpose and potential. He had to send for David later to come into the and can you imagine David coming into the house and he can smell the anointing oil, and he sees there’s a party that he’s not been invited to. He’s been out with the sheep, and the sheep, the sheep and the sheep, and the mess they leave. I’m not gonna say that. And some of you feel like you’ve been out in the field and nobody sees you, and nobody’s understands you, and so you’ve been waiting for somebody else to to inform you. But David had been out in the fields getting to know God, he’d been worshiping God, his intimacy, his relationship with God didn’t matter what somebody else said to him, he was building his confidence in who God was, and who God was in his life.

So that’s the first claim jumper. And the second claim jumper is number two. So now we find out that the Philistine army. I’m I’m gonna give you the cliff notes. I’m running through this story really quick. So if you haven’t fastened your seat belts, do it now. I’m gonna go real quick. Because I got about two more hours worth of information. So Goliath and the Philistines are facing the children of Israel, and they’re all quaking in their boots. And David still was in the shepherd field, and his dad, Jesse says to him, Can you bring Uber Eats to your brother? They need some what do you have here? McDonald’s? Mexican food. Oh, yeah. Whatever. They need sustenance.

So he gets out there, and he can’t understand why Israel is so afraid. It doesn’t, it just boggles his name, his mind. He can’t imagine it. And so as he comes forward with the food, and he’s like, Who in the world? Why are we scared of the Philistines? We have God on our side. And so Eliab, his older brother, who’s probably already kind of irritated that he wasn’t picked to be king, looks at David and he says this in 1 Samuel 17, verse 28. Why did you come down here? Who did you leave those few sheep with in the wilderness? So, claim number two is the accusation that you’re insignificant. It begins to mock your motives and belittles your assignment.

Well, well, you’re just doing this. You’re just you’re just serving in this area. You’re you tried to start this business. You’re you’re just a homeschooling mom. You’re just like number 45 in the pecking order of your bit of your workplace, whatever that is, it’s that’s what it speaks to. You’re insignificant. But David knew his significance wasn’t based on what other people thought. In fact, David doesn’t argue or defend. It’s huge. He doesn’t defend his position because he knew God was his defender. He turns towards the battle. See, even each of these accusations and each of these claim jumpers are trying to keep you from seeing what God has for you in the future.

And the third claim jumper, finally, David gets before Saul, and there’s so much more. Maybe go home and read this portion of scripture. So much more, but when Saul sees David, and he’s just this young shepherd boy, and he’s just a young teenager. Saul says to him in 1 Samuel 17, verse 33 You are not able to go against this Philistine. You are only a boy. How many of you have heard the you are only lie? You are only, maybe you’re too young. You are only, maybe you’re too old. You are only, you don’t have any college degrees. You are only, you have enemy brings every failure you have ever done in front of you to keep you from what God’s getting ready to do. The condemnation and the shame is huge.

But I want to just encourage you today that whatever claim jumper that you have, like for me, all three of these claim jumpers were lies that I believed from the abuse I faced as a child. But I didn’t know that they were lies because I thought they defined who I was and they kept me from the calling and the purpose that God had on my life. And I I’m telling you what, I never want to be in another church or another room where claim jumpers are stopping you from what God has called you to do because the God you serve is way greater than anything you’ve ever faced in the experience of your life. That you are only. But you have to deal with those original lies that you’ve been listening to that are not truth before you can face a claim jumper as big as Goliath.

But David had formed his intimacy with God and his relationship with God, which empowered him. And I love this. Nobody raised their hand. Sometimes those lies are on repeat over and over and over again. And you can’t just you can’t stop a lie, you have to replace a lie. Because there are neural pathways that go through your brain that are like channels. And if you don’t rewire your brain, that’s what’s called neuroplasticity. It’s the way God designed our brains. You can rewire the way you think by replacing a thought. Replace a lie with the truth. David had been doing this in the foundation of his life.

So claim jumper number four is that you’re the enemy you’re facing is way larger than what you could ever imagine. Tries to drown it out. But I love what David said. David started recalling what God had already done. Because if the enemy can shake your confidence in who you belong to, he’ll steal your courage to fight for anything else. So you won’t be fighting for your marriage. You won’t be fighting for your kids. You won’t be fighting for the prosperity. You won’t be fighting over your finances because you’ve been shaken in who God is. But David said this to Goliath in verse 37. The Lord who delivered me then, he was remembering what God had already done.

Sometimes all you can do is remember what God already did. Like I’m grateful. I remember the day he met me. I remembered what God does. So I just could make a list of the things you’re grateful for. And David’s like remembering how God helped him defeat the lion and the bear. When he was guarding the sheep, and now David’s like, I’m looking at this sheep, Israel, and I know that the God who delivered me then is gonna deliver me now. If that’s all you can do for the next 10 days is write down a list of five things you’re grateful for, your faith. Now when you read the word, you’re like, right, he is the God who delivers. And doesn’t leave me stuck.

And at the end of the day, it was a battle about David’s relationship with God. And who, which claim jumper was he gonna listen to the most? It’s about relationship. And I, you know, in Israel, I just want to say this real quick. Look at this. You guys aren’t listening quick enough. In Israel, you know what the Philistines did first? They stole all the blacksmiths before they came against Israel. Why? Because the blacksmiths were what sharpened the tools and the instruments, the weapons. So when the Philistines actually came against Israel, they didn’t have sharpened weapons. So what’s the enemy gonna do? He’s gonna try to dull the sword. He’s gonna try to dull the word of God.

He’s gonna get you so distracted that maybe you’re listening to a verse of the day, which that’s a start, but he you’re not gonna be digging into the word. This is the source of life. This is the source of victory. This is the source of relationship with Jesus. So every claim jumper obstacle that you face is actually an incubator for a miracle. Let me say that to this side. Every claim jumper obstacle you face is actually an incubator for a miracle. It’s how you see it. And it’s so important for David, this was so important. For you, it is too. Every future victory is dependent on you completing your current assignment.

Because in our culture, we have destination addiction. I can’t wait to get there. When I get there, then I’ll do this. Do you know what I’m saying? When I win the lottery, then I’ll give. When I get the job promotion, then I’ll serve God. And we keep waiting for there, and God’s like, no, no, this place, this present place, and you holding on in the faithful steps of saying yes when it feels like nothing’s happening, you keep watering that seed. This place is what gets you to that place. And you you’ll be stuck here forever if you just keep looking there. Don’t stop hoping and believing, but you can’t get past here until you deal with this battle.

So we live in a world that only celebrates big. Like on Instagram, and and right? So you see churches that thousands of people. I mean, I’m in Texas. I’m like, I’ve never seen so many big churches in my life. DC didn’t have big, massive, like 200 million people in them churches. We were just holding the ground. We had a stake in the ground. We’re like, we’re holding on. But we celebrate big and we forget to realize it’s faithful steps that get you to that place of multiplication. And if you miss this, you’ll miss that.

So I love how David said to Goliath with so much confidence in 1 Samuel 17, verse 47. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. Is that the welcome? You’re welcome. Go to lunch right after this. Why the head? Why not his hands? Why not his feet? Why not his legs? Did you ever think about that? Okay, rain, the spirit of mortal combat. Everybody say it together. Finish that claim jumper. And sound very convinced. Some of you are whispering it. Some of you got some claim jumpers right now that you you know God’s already finished, but you gotta agree with it. Somebody say, finish that claim jumper. Much better.

I love this. Because I don’t know if you realize this, but the obstacle in the way is the way. You keep waiting for God to move the obstacles, like you gotta go through it. I love the story about the canyon here, how there were mountains in the way and they built a road. And right? Wasn’t there a road built? They had to blow up the. I don’t know the whole story. I know enough to be dangerous with it. All I know is that somebody made a way, and there’s now a road that you pass through. The obstacle in the way is the way. You can go over it, around it, but God’s like, I’m gonna have you go through it because as you go through it, you’re gonna be transformed and changed to handle what I’m calling you to do.

And so the obstacle in the way, and what you overcome is what you now have authority over. It’s a lived authority, it’s a practical authority. Look, I know God did that, now he’s gonna do this. So David took, I love this. David now cuts, so here’s the powerful thing. David cuts off Goliath’s head. He’s nine feet tall. I think he smells like a trash truck. He probably is the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen. He’s nasty and hairy. Like, can you imagine? Like how nasty he is. David doesn’t just with his sling and a pebble hit the Goliath in the middle of the forehead, and Goliath dies. Now David goes over to the dead body and cuts his head off.

Why? Why was that important? Because in that culture, the head represents dominion, it represented authority. It also represented every lie that he was spewing out of his mouth. And David doesn’t just end it, end it there. He doesn’t just cut his head off and leave it laying there. I mean, do you think his eyes were open or closed? Was this I don’t know. But he takes the head gross. He’s a teenager. He takes a nine-foot giant’s head, picks it up, and he carries it 17 miles to the next stronghold. Scholars believe that Jesus that David actually pinned the head of Goliath on the doorposts of that next stronghold. It was a Jebusite stronghold.

And why is that important? Because David’s like, you didn’t silence me here. I’m taking dominion and authority of what all those lies were, and I’m gonna pin it to the future. You see, that city is Jerusalem that is now called the city of David. David would be king and would rule from that place, and he’s like issuing a decree. No matter what claim jumper came against me, I’m now saying you will not affect my future. I’m silencing you now. And then whose sword did he use? Because he had a sling in his hand. Here’s what’s so powerful. He used Goliath’s sword to cut off Goliath’s head. Why is that important? Because the very same lie that came against you that’s been trying to cut you up, that’s trying to cut you down.

That very same lie is you’re gonna silence it. And then you’re gonna take that line. The testimony of how you overcame it is gonna silence every other claim jumper, not just in your life, but in the life of your neighbors, your co-workers, the people at Starbucks, the waiter who you need to tip well, like everybody. For me, the sexual abuse that I faced as a child, I have used the very sword that the enemy tried to silence me with to silence him, and everywhere I go, I tell the story of redemption and healing and restoration because I don’t want another person to have to wrestle with a claim jumper. They don’t have to because it’s already been won. Powerful.

So Dana. Dana’s the keyboard player. Dana, can you come and play? Thank you. Play some claim jumper music. No pressure. And honestly, Dana, nobody’s looking at you. So a number of years ago, again, we have four children, and my son Evan, who is like amazing. And single. He had such behavioral problems when he was younger. I mean, he was kicked out of our own children’s program, and we were the pastors. So I homeschooled him for a few years, and then we put him into a Christian school, and I was getting phone calls weekly about his behavior. And then I was being called in to do team meetings with all of the administration and his teacher, and I said to my husband, he just has issues with authority.

I mean, the girls were so easy. You just said Jesus loves you and they’re sobbing and inviting him into their heart. And Evan’s like, he’s not real. And I was like, I don’t know. Maybe he’s got demons. I don’t know. He’s just like not listening. Words of confession. There you go. So I said to my husband one day, like, if he has such problems with authority, and it’s okay. I think you have to be honest with the things, the lies that you’re looking right. I said, I think if he has such problems with authority, doesn’t listen to us, doesn’t listen to anybody, then I mean, if he doesn’t lose you authority now, he may end up in prison and he doesn’t look good in orange, an orange jumpsuit, you know.

So you can go down that whole trip. Any am I the only person in the room who goes down? And it’s generally at three o’clock in the morning. Like, don’t have a serious discussion with a spouse at three o’clock in the morning. It’s never gonna go well. Dez looked at me, he’s like, What are you doing? I was like, I’m just preparing for the future. He’s like, Well, let’s just pray over Evan and ask God for strategy. And I was having lunch with a friend one day, and she said, What is he doing? That’s so bad. I said, Well, he just won’t shut up. Like, he talks way more than all three girls at dinner, and he’s still talking, he talks nonstop for hours. And I’m exhausted.

And I want to be the best mom, the perfect mom. And then he lays in bed at night, and you look at your child, and you’re like, I’m the worst mom. Because you’re so perfect right now, quietly laying there. And my friend said to me, Oh, he has a gift of communication. So, what felt intimidating or an intimidator was an indicator of a calling on his life. The obstacle was actually an opportunity. And so, Dennis and I, we’ve done this with all of our kids. We have specific declarations we make over them on a daily basis, but with Evan, we became a little bit more intense on it. And so we not only, everything he was dealing with, we found a scripture that was the opposite, because you’re putting a stake in the ground.

The word of God is a stake in the ground. Amen. I mean, there were times I wanted to put the stake in his feet to keep him still. But we decided to declare over him what God was speaking over him. So the first thing he saw in the morning and the last thing at night was what God said, not what people said. And we began to, I framed those declarations, and he hung them on his wall. And then before he could get out of the car, we did this for years. Before he could get out of the car, I’m like, Evan, we’re gonna do our declarations that you have the mind of Christ, that you are a leader submitted to authority, that you have a gift of communication, and all these verses with God, nothing is impossible.

And we continued with all these verses, and within six months, because we identified it was a gift and not a problem, his whole behavior changed. And now at 29, he still lives with the declarations over his life. Not the same ones, he’s custom made them for what he’s walking in right now. And I’m telling you right now, whether you do it over yourself, my husband has declarations over each of our children and over me that he does on a daily basis. And I’m just saying that transforms you. You can’t stop the thought, you can only replace it. Everybody say you can’t stop the thought, you can only replace it.

The Cross as a Stake

So here’s what was so profound is you know, I’d never really studied. We did that stake in the ground in the museum of the Bible, but I never really studied. We never really studied to see if that was actually biblical, even though it worked. You know, Jericho march around Jericho, and so I was speaking at a church in Washington, DC, and so I thought, let me, I love this story, let me go ahead and do some research on this. And what I discovered blew my mind is because God’s story from Genesis to Revelation has the stake woven through it, and I don’t have time to tell you of all those things. I’m my my current book I’m writing is is sharing all that, but the most profound place where the stake is mentioned.

Anytime the word stake is mentioned in the scriptures, it’s the Greek word storos, stake in the ground. It’s the same word as the cross. So 2,000 years ago, when Jesus died on a cross, it was God placing a stake in the ground of humanity, saying, I claim you forever and ever. And just like David cut off the head of Goliath, Jesus died on Golgotha, the place of the skull, and he’s silenced forever. Any claim jumper that ever comes against you, any lie that says it has power, it only has the power you give it because he already nullified anything the enemy could try to do when he said, It is finished. It is finished. Anything you’ve already faced, anything you face today, and anything you will ever face for generations, two thousand years ago, it is finished, releases and sets you free, gives you the freedom, gives you all that you could possibly need.

When I say he’s eulogioing you, speaking over you, what if just those words are it is finished over you? You don’t see the end from the beginning, but he does, and he’s walking you through. Don’t stop three feet short. Could we stand to our feet this morning? In fact, if indeed the cross means store else is stake in the ground. Can I just throw this out to you for your consideration? When Jesus asks us to carry our cross to follow him, is he perhaps asking us to be stakeholders in the kingdom? Is he asking us to be stakeholders in the kingdom?

In fact, I feel like Revelation chapter 12, verse 10 and 11. I’m gonna speak this over you.

It says, Now have come the salvation and power of the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah. Now listen to me. The accuser of our brothers and sisters, the claim jumper who accuses them before God day and night, has been hurled down by who? The ultimate claim jumper. You choose which claim jumper you’re gonna listen to. The false claim jumper who’s already been silenced, or the ultimate claim jumper, Jesus Christ, who has the power to transform, heal, and do the miracles. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.

So when I say to you, that’s a picture of a stakeholder, it’s the word of your testimony. You’re taking the very lie the enemy used against you, and you’re gonna declare what God’s already done. You’re taking the stake of the word of God and you’re declaring it daily over your situations. That’s what a stakeholder looks like. You overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of your testimony. It’s not what I’ve done, it’s what He’s done in me. Amen.

And I don’t want you standing for too long. But I want to pray for you. And so when I went to Home Depot, I usually bring stakes, but when I went to Home Depot, they didn’t sell me two stakes, they sent me, they sold me, sold me. My language has just stopped right now. They sold me 12. And so I want to give some of these out. And you normally don’t end your services like this, but I asked pastors if it was okay. So I’m gonna give a few of these stakes out, and they have it is finished on it. And some of you need to write down the verse that God gives you on the other side that’s gonna be your promise. Is this gonna give you the miracle? No, it’s a reminder, it’s a stake in the ground. Thus far and no far, I’m not giving up to the devil anymore. I’m listening to the ultimate claim jumper. Amen.

And so for you too, the Lord spoke to me, and he said, This is the beginning of a like you already know you’re in a new season, but there are fields opening up that the world needs your mother fatherhood spirit. And so you’ve been patiently waiting and just serving, but there’s a door opening, and that God’s moving you. You already go out and minister, but there’s something new happening in this this whole season. And God sees your faithfulness and the gentleness and the anointing and the legacy that you carry. And there are many, many men, not just this house, this house is grateful for you, but God’s gonna send you to other houses and other young ministers who need what you have.

So, Lord, we declare, Lord, you’ve already said it’s finished, you already have the doors opened. We always thank you that you have your provision. I don’t know what it looks like, but I thank you that you spoke to me in the next six months to a year. Things are gonna begin turning and opening up for both of you. We declare that now in Jesus’ name. And this is for you too. I saw that they had done a channel, dug a channel like a riverbed, but I also saw like a floodgate, and God said over the next five years, floodgates are opening, floodgates are opening. There’s hundreds and hundreds of young people, Gen Zers, teenagers in their 20s, college-age kids that are gonna begin coming to this church.

They’ve only started trickles right now, but the floodgates are coming down. So we declare the wisdom, the strength, the shoulders to handle it. And I thank you, God. God said there’s a move of the Holy Spirit. It’s nothing that you perform, nothing that you do. There’s a move, it’s so heavy on you. We declare that now in Jesus’ name over you. Where’s Lori? Lori, the next gen person. She’s in the back. Okay, so this is for Lori. Because Lori, what I saw you doing is putting stakes in the ground, hidden somewhere on a um on high school and meet middle school properties. And just declaring and then prayer walking it.

And Thomas, some of this is gonna be done by the teenagers. You’re gonna go back to, I don’t know if you’re teenager, I don’t know who you are, but you’re teen teenagers and middle schoolers, you’re gonna go back when nobody’s looking. Don’t be stupid about it, don’t put a flag on it. It’s hidden, right? Okay, and you’re just gonna begin prayer walking because there’s a revival coming to Albuquerque. Because whatever claim jumper has been trying to steal the kids, you cannot steal them any longer. There’s a brother in the back, you raised your hand. I’m just gonna leave these up here during the altar call if you want to get one. And if you didn’t get one, guess what? Home Depot has them. Put it in your backyard, put it in your refrigerator, whatever it is you’re believing God for, put it where it’s visible. It is finished. You don’t have to work for it, it’s already been done.

So if you’re in here this morning, I’m ending right now, but it would the cross. Let’s not become overfamiliar with the cross. Some of you have been following Jesus for a long time, and and I said this yesterday, but if the cross has become boring and familiar, then your Christianity has become about you. Sit in the verses about what Jesus did. It’s Easter time. Sit in it, let it become fresh, be broken by the cross. I know who I was before I met Jesus. I know what he’s done in my life, and I don’t want to get so far from the cross that I’m not identified by it.

So if you are not reaching out to the lost around you because you’ve gotten so far from the moment that God touched you, you’ve forgotten people around you need it. But I declaring today, and if you’re in this room and you came with a friend, and maybe you’re with every eye closed, maybe maybe you didn’t know it wasn’t about church membership, it wasn’t about your performance. It’s because you are held onto. Held onto by a God who sees you and knows you, knows your strengths and your weaknesses, and he’s never let go. Or perhaps you’re in here this morning, and maybe you once followed Jesus in distractions or difficulties, and you’re like, where is God? And you’ve kind of stepped away.

Or maybe life has been so successful successful, you’re like busy, but you’re empty. If you’re in any one of those three places, today is a morning to define your relationship with God. With every eye closed, if you would say to me, Donna, today I’m silencing the false claim jumper, and I’m saying yes to the invitation of the one who claimed me before I was even a thought in my parents’ mind. Just go ahead and lift your hand up so I know who I see those hands. See those hands. It’s awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome. Thank you, Lord. I just thank you for every hand that was raised, and I thank you, Lord, that your salvation is based on what you did on the cross that you already claimed us. Today, as we make the choice to follow you, we give our lives to you, we surrender to you. Have your way in our lives, and let every one of us in this room be the stakeholders you’ve called us to be. In Jesus’ name. Amen.