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Sermon of the Week 
Tuesday, November 03 2020

This little guy whose picture is on the screen, has discovered his feet and he is infatuated with them. My hope is that we will all rediscover our feet so we can watch our step, before we leave here today…

I want to open by sharing about a young couple, who were madly in love, and decided to get married. But as the wedding day neared, both grew nervous over secret problems they had never shared with anyone. Privately, the groom-to-be approached his minister. “I’m really concerned about this marriage,” the young man said.

“Don’t you love her?” the pastor asked in surprise.

“Of course,” the groom said. “But I have unbelievably smelly feet—and I’m afraid my fiancée won’t be able to stand them.”

“Oh, is that all?” the pastor replied. “Look, all you need to do is wash your feet twice a day and wear socks all the time.”

Meanwhile, the nervous bride had privately approached the minister’s wife. “I’m so worried,” she sobbed. “I have really bad breath when I wake up each day!” “Oh, that’s nothing,” the pastor’s wife replied,” everyone has bad breath in the morning. Don’t worry about it.”

“No, you don’t understand,” the bride implored. “My morning breath is so awful, my fiancé won’t even want to be near me!”

“Well, I have an idea,” the pastor’s wife said . “Set your alarm just a few minutes before your husband wakes up. Run to the bathroom, brush your teeth, and gargle with mouthwash before he gets out of bed. The key is not to say anything until you’ve taken care of your breath.”

In time, a beautiful wedding was held and the bride and groom enjoyed the day without once worrying about their secret problems. For several months they managed to keep their issues to themselves.

Until one morning, the husband awoke before dawn to find that one of his socks had come off in the night. Frantic, he searched the bed, afraid of what might happen if he didn’t find his sock soon. His bride woke with a start, and, without thinking, blurted out, “What in the world are you doing?” “Oh, no!” the young man wailed. “You swallowed my sock!”

Where the feet go, the entire body goes with it. Without good balance, there is no stability. What affects the feet, affects the whole body and can limit what you can and cannot do. 

I recently read that one of the top things that puts soldiers out of commission is foot problems. If you can’t walk, you can’t fight, you can’t fulfill your normal duties, and you are greatly hindered in doing a lot of things…

Here’s some foot facts for you….75% of all Americans will experience foot problems at some time in their lives….If you think you need a new pair of shoes, the oldest preserved shoe, incidentally, is 5500 years old…. The average adults takes 4,000 to 6,000 steps a day…25% or sixty million Americans in the United States have flat feet…. there are 250,000 sweat glands in your feet…. it wasn’t until the 19 hundreds, that women’s shoes were different from men’s…. Plantar fasciitis affects about 10% of the US population….. 25% of all the bones in the human body are in your feet. When these bones are out of alignment, your entire body is out of whack.

I have a Kodak moment of a time when Winnie and I both were affected by plantar fasciitis and had great difficulty walking. It was very painful and uncomfortable. We had to do special exercises to get our feet back in working order. Instead of our feet being just an appendage, it was like our entire life had become all about what our feet had limited us to do….

Lana Wilder is quoted as saying “The dream is only out of reach when you choose to keep your feet flat on the floor and refuse to take the leap.”

Our feet are about the way we walk, how we walk and where we walk. 

God told Moses in Deuteronomy 11:24 “Every place where the sole of your foot shall tread I have given it unto you”.  At that moment God instituted a program of foot care for Moses, that would influence an entire nation of people, and change all of history!

It is concluded by most, that Moses was second in line for the throne of Egypt. He was groomed and shaped to walk that path, even though he was Hebrew by birth. His training was designed by God, in Egypt’s palaces, with access to the best education available, to prepare him to lead his people out of Egypt to the promised land. The oppressor was being prepared to be the liberator…                                                                               The mystery of righteousness was at work in the midst of the mystery of iniquity! Believe me, the natural mind can’t figure this kind of thing out…. It’s a God thing, and it is marvelous!!

But Egypt was instilled and implanted within him. When he was forty, Moses saw there were two different pathways he could walk out through his life. One path, the Egyptian path, involved being known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, involved the pleasures of sin, and involved in being caught up with the treasures of Egypt. 

Moses realized something: that if he stayed in Egypt, he would probably follow this path of sin and worldly pleasure. He knew that for the good of his soul he needed to follow the other path. This other path, the Hebrew path, involved refusal of his adoption as an Egyptian, it would involve mistreatment, disgrace and walking away from whatever his heart desired in material goods.

So by faith, Moses chose to be identified with the people of God. By faith, Moses chose to be mistreated along with the people of God.

Deep within, he knew that faith demanded a response to God's Word, and God's revelation. Moses knew from revelation that Israel was God's covenant people, the chosen people, the people of the promise, the people belonging to God. His feet were taking him, where his brain was struggling to understand. So, Moses identified himself with these people. 

That's what the path of Moses’ feet was declaring louder than any words could say. The world says, I won’t believe you when you talk the walk, I’ll believe you when you walk the talk!!

I quote Kate McGahan “We set our own limits. Some of us do like the Chinese women who bind their feet. The binding is painful at first but eventually you get used to it and the pain is not as bad. The saddest part of all is that by binding your feet with the choices you have made, you forget that there was ever another way to live.”

God wants to amaze you with what He can do as you let him guide your feet…. And take the binding off….

I heard about a quick thinking country boy, who applied for a salesman's job at a huge city department store, you could get anything there. The boss asked him, "Have you ever been a salesman before?"

"Yes, I was a salesman in the country" said the country boy.

The boss liked the looks of him and said, "You can start tomorrow and I'll come and see you when we close. You’ll get paid hourly + commission"

The day was long and boring for the young man, who was used to staying very busy on the farm, but with little pay. So, finally 9 o'clock came around. Sure enough, the boss showed up and asked, "How many sales did you make today?" "I only managed to make One" said the young man. 

"Only one" (the boss was shocked), "Most of my staff make 20 or 30 sales a day. How much was the one sale worth?"

"Three hundred thousand, three hundred and thirty four dollars," said the young man. "How in the world did you manage that?" asked the completely amazed boss.

"Well" said the young man "this man came in and I sold him a small fish hook, then a medium hook and finally a really large hook. Then I sold him a small fishing line, a medium one and a heavy duty one. I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast. I said he would probably need a boat, so I took him down to the boat department and sold him that twenty eight foot schooner with the twin engines. Then he said his Volkswagen probably wouldn't be able to pull it, so I took him to the car department and sold him that new Deluxe dual cab Cruiser."

The boss took two steps back and asked in astonishment, "You sold all that to a guy who came in for a fish hook?"

"Well, No" answered the country boy "He came in to buy a box of Tylenol forhis wife and I said to him, You're weekend's already shot, you may as well go fishing." 

God can make your way prosperous and give you good success….“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delightsin his way. Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, for the LORD shall lift him up”. He said that He would make us the head, not the tail, above not beneath…..

Craig Lounsbrough has good advice for anyone…“I can get on my knees and pray all day, but until my heart and my ego are down on their knees, nothing will be different once I’m back on my feet.”                                         We’ve got to give the Lord something to work with!….

To Moses successor, Joshua, God spoke once again about the feetto a new generation…. Joshua 1:2 “Now therefore arise, you and all your people, and cross over the Jordan into the land that I am giving to you. v3 I have given you every place where the sole of your foot will tread, just as I promised”

Sorrow may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning!

A little further on in Deuteronomy 11 after this great promise that God would give them every place their foot would tread…. He tells them in verse 26… Deuteronomy 11:26 "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse." This word came as the camp was pitched between the two mountains, Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal…                                            Gerizim means blessing, and Ebal means the curse…. They had to decide to direct their feet close to the blessing or walk next to the curse. 

If you were to ask most people, “Do you want to be blessed or cursed”? Most folks would say they want blessing! But the bible says in the last days they would call good, evil, and evil good. Sowhen things get all twisted and perverted, often folks become oriented that whatever they desire to do in their own walk, will be good enough. I hear folks say, “I’m going to hell, and I’ll have plenty of company, and we’re all going to have a hell of a party”

Moses had to have a revelation from God to break with Egypt and the lifestyle he had been groomed for…. You see when God told Moses to take his shoes off, Moses was taking off his preconceived ideas that had hindered and disqualified him for the walk that he must walk. He took off prejudice, compromise, the world’s rose colored glasses, wrong priorities, and that being good is good enough. He put on God’s favor, compassion, heaven’s values, and God’s will for his life. When God shows up, leave your shoes and your worries at the door…

God is letting us know that it is not about our ability, but our availability! When He calls, He qualifies and equips…

Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light unto my path” .. David is saying that our walk needs some foot care from the one who created our feet and the path they are to walk in, if we are to keep from stumbling and falling, and not lose our way to the mountain of blessing, take your shoes off. 

How many have mistaken Mount Ebal for Mount Gerizem… and we now have a lot of very busy Psychiatrist, rehab centers, broken homes and families, heart issues, addicts, and a rising crime rate… 

The little children’s song…”Oh be careful little feet where you go, oh, be careful little feet where you go, for the father up above is looking down in love. Oh, be careful little feet where you go.”

Mahatma gandhi said “I will not let anyone walk around in my mind with their dirty feet.”

Don’t let other people’s dirty feet, cause you to be compromised in the path God has called you to walk in… Don’t let the compromised living of those around you, influence your commitment to get to the promised land of your personal Divine destiny. Don’t let the pull of the world’s shallow fun and compensation for the pain in their lives, fool you in coming short of God’s glory in your life. 

Hebrews 11:1: begins with the words …“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for”

We must be like Moses, who saw the end of the journey from the beginning and lived, spoke, and acted as though it was as good as done. Listen to his words as he speaks in the past tense of fullfillment, even though they had not actually walked in it yet and were far from Canaan…

Deuteronomy 26:1 “And it shall be, when you come (with his words, the past overtakes the future and delares it so) When you come into the land which the Lord your God has given you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, (he’s laying it out before they ever lay eyes on it) v2 that you shall take the tithe of all the produce of the ground, 

which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. v3 And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have cometo the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.”

Moses is saying, “If God says it, it’s a done deal, you can walk it out, you can put your foot on it”….

The Hebrew children had come into possession by an ancient deed which secured it for them from generation to generation. God held the title deed to what He had promised, so that no one could snatch it from them, or trick them out of it. And He is holding the deed to your promise. Your healing, your abundance, your marriage, your future and your hope. And the devil and all the demons of hell cannot snatch it out of His hands…. Hallelujah!

It’s already given, and He will not repent of what He has given. God is not a man that He should lie. That means what He has given is available to those who will see it as done, and receive it by a covenant God to His covenant people. Claim your covenant deed…. With man it is impossible but with God all things are possible, to those who believe…..

We must surrender our plans to His plans, our way to His way, our thoughts to his thoughts, He knows the way that I take and after I have been tested I will come forth as gold.. Keep on walking…..

A woman went to the doctor for her yearly physical. The nurse started with certain basic information. "How much do you weigh?" she asked. "I’m 115 lbs" she says. The nurse puts her on the scale. It turns out her weight is 150. The nurse asks her, "And what is Your height?" "I’m 5 foot 8 inches" she says. The nurse checks and sees that she only measures 5 feet 5 inches. She then takes her blood pressure and tells the woman it is very high. The woman starts crying, and yells “Well Of course it's high, when I came in here I was tall and slender! Now I'm short and fat!" The world will mess with your head if you let them!

We must give up our fantasies and accept God’s word as our reality. 

When God met Moses at the burning bush, and told him to take his shoes off, (in that moment, God was preparing, and anointing Moses’ feet to walk out of Egypt, followed by the nation of Hebrew people”….Moses wanted to tell God. “Here am I, send Aaron…. But God knew him better than he knew himself….

God was preparing his feet by fire… His feet were being purged of every trace of Egypt’s influence, and his mind was being cleansed of his stink’n think’n, so that he could fully walk in and stand as the representative of Jehovah as he spoke to Pharaoh and released the plagues of God’s confirmation seal, which brought Egypt to it’sknees….

God is preparing your feet now, to walk in places you have not been, have not seen, and have not even imagined. 

I want you to see this scene which John captures for us in…..                 John 13:4-14 “As Jesus Rose from supper, He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feetand to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you shall not be able to go with me.”

Jesus was anointing their feet, blessing their feet, preparing their feet, for an amazing journey that would lead from an upper room of communion and into their destiny, to bring God’s kingdom into the earth. 

As you hear this message today, he’s anointing, blessing and preparing your feet as well, for the places He has already given to you, the places that are already yours, that He has planned for you long before you arrive. You just have to walk them out as though you already have them…..

That’s the meaning of Ephesians 1:22 And He (The Father) has put all things under His (Jesus’) feet and given Him to be head over all things unto the church, (that is a description of delegated authority and power of attorney) which is his body (His physical and spiritual representatives in the earth).

Past completion of the finished work, comes together with present reality through the claims of faith, so that future promise might now be our guaranteed possession! (let me say that again)                                                       Can you Say … “I have the answer and I’m waiting for the right questions”

Jesus said to the disciples, Luke 24:39 “See my hands and my feet, that I am He. Handle Me and see, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see me having”.

Jesus wanted them to handle His feet, and his hands, His side and head… They were the deed of inheritance he made available to us, written in blood, and the canvas was His body.    

His feet were nailed to a cross, so your feet could walk in power and authority. His hands were nailed so that you could lay hands on the sick and they would recover. His side was pierced so that His compassion through us, might pour out to all who needy, His head was pierced so we could receive discernment, wisdom, and knowledge. He did it all so you and I could stand on and claim the promises, and cross over into every covenant guarantee He has given unto us.

Chorus, ‘ I’m Standing, standing, standing on the promises of Christ my savior. Standing, standing, I’m standing on the promises of God”…..

Prayer……Father, thank You for establishing my steps. Thank You for shifting things in my favor. I declare that You are ordering my steps and leading me into the life You have prearranged for me.Lord, today I stand believing that You are working behind the scenes on my behalf. I thank you for giving me Your strength to continue believing until I see every promise fulfilled. As I walk in love and wait on Your marvelous plan to unfold. I declare that You are opening doors for me that no man can shut. Father, thank You for Your protection, Your faithfulness and goodness in every area of my life. I stand strong on Your word as I set my heart and mind on You. It is Your Word of truth which releases me and sets me free as it deposits faith in my heart. I receive Your strength to make it through the challenges I face and I declare that You have equippedme for victory in every area of life. Lord, thank You for completing what You have started in me as I continue walking in Your truth.                                    Lord Jesus, I am confident that you are bringing me into victory as I put my trust in You. I speak life and joy and health into my family, my community and my own life and I believe Your word which goes forth out of my spirit and my mouth, shall not return void, but it shall accomplish all that it is sent forth to do, in Your mighty name, Amen!

RECEIVE AND WALK IN THE TITLE DEED WHICH IS WRITTEN ON THE PARCHMENT OF HIS FLESH….

It’s time to take your shoes , and let Him give you what He desires… He has already declared that it’s yours, long before you ever get there to set your foot upon it…..

Listen friend, God sent someone who was willing to come and take His shoes off for you. Those unshod feet, walked up Calvary’s hill, carrying the cross that should have been mine. Then those beautiful feet were pierced by nails. But those feet marched into hell and took the keys from Satan, and marched out victorious as our kinsman redeemer. All this, so that we might receive the inheritance that Satan had stolen, but the nail scarred feet of Jesus, are our guarantee that it has been redeemed.  

Exodus 6:8 “And I will bring you there, concerning all which I did swear to give you, and I will give it you for an heritage, I am the LORD”.

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