[Music]
people's expectations can hurt you
before they can help you
other people's expectations do not
define you
never allow someone's expectations to
have room in your heart
i don't know about you but over the
course of my life
i've come to understand that sooner or
later
you will face opposition we all will
and i mean people that come against us
people that make negative comments
people who are naysayers
and no matter how good of a christian
you are
no matter how much faith you have
sooner or later there's always one
there's always going to be someone who
will attempt to discredit
undermine or belittle you now as for me
i know that if i wasn't saved lord knows
i'd be trying to take matters into my
own hands
you might have your own way of dealing
with such people but i thank
god i met the lord because when i meet a
naysayer
a discourager a holier-than-thou person
then the flesh in me the carnal man or
rather
human nature is to try to straighten
them out and prove them wrong
but here's the thing the way in which we
think we should defend ourselves
is often not god's will or way
god says i am your defender i
am your refuge i am your strong tower
so we think we have to defend ourselves
we think we have to defend our
reputation
we think we have to make them respect us
but in doing so we are saying
god it's not enough that you said in
your word that
you will prepare a table before my
enemies
it's not enough that you promise to
defend me
i would rather take matters into my own
hands
you see if you're constantly trying to
defend yourself
if you're constantly taking matters into
your own hands
it will drain you it will drain your
energy
it will drain your enthusiasm
and the second thing is if you're
constantly taking matters into your own
hands
you'll get distracted fighting battles
that you were never supposed to fight
but may i remind you that you don't have
to take matters into your own hands
god will defend you leave it to him to
fight your battles
i had to get to a stage where i had to
stop worrying about the negative
comments
i had to stop getting drawn into fights
which are real distractions and energy
drainers
often it's the enemy that tries to throw
up all of these conflicts
so you'll waste your time and energy
involved in battles that don't matter
yes you may be a good person and they
may be provoking you
yes what they're saying about you may
not be true but let me tell you
it doesn't matter how good you are how
loving or kind and upstanding
people are people and somebody somewhere
is not
going to like you someone is going to
try to discredit you
this shouldn't be surprising to you
because it also happened to jesus
despite his good works despite the
miracles despite the large gatherings
that saw people healed
and made whole jesus still had naysayers
and opposition he did nothing but good
and yet he was falsely accused but let
me ask you
how did jesus defend himself how did he
defend himself
he left it in god's hands now what about
you
what happens if you leave it to god
how much more peace would you have how
much more joy would you have
god can defend you better than you can
defend yourself
you don't have to try to pay people back
or sort them out
the truth is some people are never going
to be for you
no matter what you do they're never
going to
like you i had to get to a stage whereby
i said
lord jesus i'm turning this over to you
i'm not going
to spend my life worried about what
someone else is saying about me
no longer will i waste my energy trying
to change another person's mind
but instead i will focus on the lord to
defend me and fight for me
and when i did that i found that
whenever people tried to push me down
god pulled me up whenever people tried
to push me back
my savior pushed me forward those who
try to discredit
me and make me look bad the lord is ever
faithful
and he turned what they meant for evil
and made it for my good
so let me ask you why don't you put your
battles
in god's hands why don't you concede and
quit
spending all your time trying to defend
yourself
you have a defender who can protect you
better than you can
he knows how to vindicate you this is
what jesus did
he was disrespected they called him a
fraud
a cheat and an imposter but the
scripture
says he made himself of no reputation
meaning he wasn't concerned about having
making a name for himself
or about his reputation and you should
have the same
spirit too let god fight the battle
do you think he doesn't see what's
happening to you
god can intervene the more they keep
talking the more he will elevate you
the more they talk the more god uses
them as your footstool
when they think they're hurting you the
truth is god will work that for your
good and eventually
you'll see that they weren't hurting you
they were helping you
the lord will pay you back for what
they're saying by taking you to new
levels
that's why psalm 23 says he will prepare
a table before you
in the presence of your enemies that
table that god prepares for you is only
done
in the presence of the ones that try to
disrespect you or hold you down
they will see you in a position of honor
they will see you promoted
and elevated that's your defender at
work
so leave it to god let him fight and
deal with that negativity
all the while you place your trust in
him
there are times in life when you can
feel overwhelmed
like the pressure is too much you feel
like you're at the end of your rope
we go through a loss we're not being
treated well
or we're dealing with an illness but god
is faithful
he won't ever let you be tempted with
more than you can bear
he'll never let you face more pressure
than you can handle
he won't ever let more weight come on
you than you have the strength to bear
if god brings you to that situation that
struggle
that difficulty then he will bring you
through it
have you ever seen a huge skyscraper
building you see
when an architect designed such a
building he doesn't just focus on
designing the shape of the building
the color the size the features no
he calculates everything the structural
requirements
the core integrity whether to use steel
or reinforced concrete
how deep the foundation is and so on
he'll even consider
earthquakes and extreme weather like
hurricane force wind
it's all calculated the good news is
that
your architect is the most high god
he designed you when he laid out the
plan for your life
he calculated everything you would face
all the pressure
all the weight all the wind every loss
every hurt every mistake god designed
you to be big enough
your foundation is deep enough your core
is strong enough to withstand
so keep fighting keep standing you have
the determination you need to succeed
you have the courage you need to fight
the devil the wisdom you need to live
this life
the strength to withstand no matter what
comes your way
it will not be too much to bear you're
designed to withstand the storms
god has designed you to outlast the
opposition he designed you to endure
god has put in you exactly what you need
you may not be able to see but tell
yourself
i am built for this i am strong enough
my foundation is deep enough
i can bear whatever comes my way god
didn't miscalculate anything when he
designed you
he didn't forget about what environment
you would be in what conditions you
would face
nothing you face will cause you to
collapse under the weight
thoughts may tell you it's too much you
can't handle this
you need to remind yourself i have been
designed to withstand
i am determined enough i am bold enough
i am well able you see an
architect calculates everything way
before the ground is broken
all of the specs and measurements are
calculated ahead of time
it's not left to chance or some sort of
i'll wait and see attitude
so god knows ahead of time he knows to
give you big challenges because you have
a strong
infrastructure reinforced beams a strong
core
and a solid foundation as a matter of
fact
you don't really know what's in you
until you have some weight put on you
you don't know what you could handle
until the pressure comes
when you face a new situation something
you've never faced before
in the midst of all the turmoil you need
to trust that your architect
had it all calculated and if you do that
you will feel a strength that you've
never felt before a drive that you never
felt before
so remember you are built for this you
are built to withstand
[Music]
you