Jentezen Franklin - Somebody Always Will
I do have a word from the Lord for somebody. Somebody needs to hear what I'm gonna say today. Job 1:15: "When the Sabeans raided them and took them away - indeed they had killed the servants with the edge of the sword", listen to these words, "And I alone have escaped to tell you"! Verse 16. "While he was speaking, another came also and said, 'The fire of God fell from Heaven, and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them'". Here it is again. "And I alone have escaped to tell you".
Any time you see the same words over, and over, and over, there's a sermon in it. Always. Every time. Just remember that. God wastes no verses, and if He says something over, and over, and over, He's trying to get your attention to say something. And this kinda sounds like 2020. It kinda sounds like this year. It's not that we've dealt with one thing. It's one thing after another, after another, after another, after another. Watch. Verse 17. So you already had two incidents, and only one guy escaped the first one. Another guy escaped the second crisis.
Verse 17. "While he was speaking, another one also came and said, 'The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels, took them away, yes, killed all your servants", all your employees quit, "With the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you!'" Verse 18. "While he was yet speaking, another also came and said, 'Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness, struck the four corners of the house, it fell on the young people... they're all dead", but, "'I alone have escaped to tell you'. Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head".
If ever he was gonna quit, this was the time to do it. If ever he was gonna lose faith in God, this was the time to do it. If anybody had an excuse to say I'm out, I'm done - I don't believe in God anymore, I don't believe in the Bible anymore, I don't believe in nothing - it was Job. "Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, fell on the ground, and worshiped. And he said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord'".
So I wanna talk to you for a few moments about this. What is so evident in this text is that it's a time of tragedy, and crisis, and trial, and difficulty after difficulty. Just when you think it can't get worse, it gets worse. And every time, though, the scripture - for a reason - points out that the servant would say, "and I alone". I alone. I'm the only one who made it out. All the others - it wiped them out, but I made it. I alone made it. When it looked like nobody could, somebody did, and somebody always will. I wanna preach on that subject today: "Somebody Always Will".
Did you notice that out of every trial, no matter how severe it was, somebody always made it out to tell the story? And what kills others, and what takes others down, and what causes others to give up, and what causes other people to let their dream die - there's always somebody who's gonna get out of it, and come through it, and tell the story of how it took them out, but I survived. Somebody always will make it through. Well, it took others out, but somebody always made it through. The devil never has and never shall get 'em all. Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail. Somebody is going to make it out.
And you may be going through something, and you may be facing things, and the enemy's whispering - nobody else has made it. Nobody else can live it. Nobody else can stand. Nobody else can live like they oughtta live. So why are you even trying? When nobody could, somebody did, and somebody always will.
When I read the scriptures - in Genesis, we have Satan presented as a hideous serpent. But then you go to the Book of Revelation, and he is a devouring dragon. And that dragon has a flood when he opens his mouth - that comes out of his mouth. And I believe that we are facing a foe that is at flood stage. The enemy's flood is coming against the world, and this nation, and our families, and our lives. People in this year perhaps have suffered more setbacks and more battles. It wasn't just one thing, but it was one thing after another. But somebody always made it through. Somebody made it out. And we're sitting in this room today as a testimony. I still believe, and I still am standing, and I still know that God is my defense.
Isaiah 59:19 said, "When the enemy comes in like a flood", at flood stage, "The Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him". With smugness, and arrogance, and conceit, the devil has plotted and planned and thought that his plan was undefeatable. Only to find out that throughout the Bible always, God had somebody who made it through what took out and would have taken out anybody else. And they made it through because of their faith. And the reason that I'm preaching this is since somebody always will, it oughtta be you. You oughtta make up your mind - I'm gonna make it. I'm not gonna quit, I'm not gonna lay down, and I'm not gonna be a statistic. I'm going to make it because God is on my side.
Hell's theme song to the young people, to the youth in this day, and especially in the middle of this pandemic, is everybody is doing it. That's hell's theme song. Everybody's doing it. Everybody's compromising. Everybody's partying. Everybody's getting high. Everybody's getting drunk. Everybody's losing their morality. Everybody's sleeping around. Everybody's doing it. Nope. That's not true. Somebody always will. There's somebody who's living right. There's somebody who's saying no. There's somebody who's saying I love Jesus so much, I'd rather have God's purpose in my life than any... There's somebody who's gonna live holy in 2020. There's somebody who's gonna abstain and say I'm waiting till I get married.
But the devil wants you to think everybody's doing it. Everybody. But he's a liar. The thing about the devil is he hates the Bible. And the two books that he hates the most in the Bible is the Book of Genesis because that tells where he started from. 'Cause God put him on his belly. Defeated him. And he crawled out. And the devil hates that, and I enjoy preaching it. Walked in. Crawled out. That's how he's gonna leave this service. Walked in and crawling out. 'Cause Jesus is Lord. Every knee must bow. Every tongue must confess that Jesus is Lord.
And then there's the last book. And I just wanna beat up on the devil a little bit 'cause if you let him do all the talking, you're gonna lose. You gotta learn how to trash-talk the devil sometimes, and I plan on doing that this morning. He's not gonna win. Cancer's not gonna kill you. Heart disease - God's not through with you. God's not finished with you. And the devil may have walked in big, bad, and bold, but he's gonna crawl out. Because the blood of Jesus - you're standing in blood. You're sitting in blood. You're covered by the blood. And somebody always did, and somebody always will.
I alone have made it out to tell the story. When I think about - not only does he hate the Book of Genesis that tells where he came from, but he hates the Book of Revelation because it tells where he's going. The Bible said in the Book of Revelation that one angel - not a legion. One angel. All the hell, all the violence, all the murder, all the disasters of the universe come from this thing called - this being called Satan. Lucifer's spirit. And all its gonna take when God says that's enough is one angel. The Bible said it's gonna take one chain. And then it says He's gonna take the key and unlock the bottomless pit.
Anybody got a set a keys on you? Anybody got any keys? Thank you. But can you imagine? One angel. One chain. And then He's gonna take one key. Every time the devil hears a believer unlock their car... he goes into a panic attack. Is that that angel? Is he coming for me with that chain and that key? Because the Bible said He's gonna unlock the pit and throw the devil in it. And I love this. And it said and he shall be shut up. There's coming a day when the accuser, the liar, the deceiver, the fearing voice of Satan is gonna be shut up. And every time you rattle your keys - you oughtta get your keys out, and rattle 'em, and remind him. Not only did you walk in and crawl out, but one day you're gonna be shut up for eternity by one angel and one key.
Now you need to sanitize those. I'm telling you today that there's people that are going through things that you're going through, and they're gonna survive it. And if you don't change your mindset, you're not. Because if you don't get something in your soul - somebody's gonna always be praising God. Somebody's... God is going to be praised. And if the enemy takes everything we've got, some of us have made up our mind. And you say, that's easy to say. Yeah, but I just know. I just know at this point, nothing can separate me from the love of God. And so I've got plenty to praise Him for. He loves me. And even if I lose the house or the car, He loves me.
So I'm gonna keep on praising Him. And I'm gonna tell you something else. The devil can't stop the Rapture from taking place. The Rapture is going to happen, and he's not in control. He said to Noah, go in. He said to Lot, come out. And He's about to say to the church, come up. And the trumpet is going to blast. And when the trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ are gonna rise, and we who are alive and remain will be called up together to meet the Lord in the air. And what a day that's gonna be as we, and it's gonna look like Tribulation is gonna take over. Antichrist. Six, six, six on planet earth. And just as that's starting to take over - when it looked like nobody could, somebody will, because somebody always has. And we're gonna go flying through the air to a place called, "New Jerusalem".
And you can laugh at it, and you can mock it, and you can say that's that ol' stuff, but one of these days the trumpet is going to sound, and we are going to leave this world - Somebody will. Not everybody in here. There's wheat and there's tares, and they're growing up together. But somebody's gonna be living right. Somebody's gonna be loving everybody. Somebody's gonna be washed in the blood of the Lamb. Somebody's gonna be ready for the sound. Not everybody. But somebody. Somebody will. Somebody will. I intend to be somebody. When I think about how that the devil schemed and designed ways to stop God's plan of salvation, how that with the first family - Adam and Eve. And they had a son named Cain, and then they had another son named Abel.
And the devil thought when he heard the prophecy that the woman's child would crush - there would come a messiah through the woman - in Genesis was the prophecy. There would come a redeemer and a messiah, and He'll crush your head, serpent. And so the devil started getting nervous, and he began his addiction to Xanax then. And he began to worry. Just began to worry and be... And so he said, "I know what I'll do. I'll mess up that lineage. I'll mess up the blood line so that a messiah can't come". And so with the first family, Cain slew Abel. And when he slew Abel, the devil thought he had messed up the plan. But the Bible said that Eve had another son named Seth, and the bloodline kept flowing. The bloodline kept flowing.
And then the devil said, "Well, I know what I'll do. I'll mess up the whole human race". And in Genesis 6, it said that the sons of God, which is a biblical reference to the angels of God, they had relations with the daughters of men. Your Bible teaches that there was a time when fallen spirits with Lucifer had physical relationships with daughters of men on earth, and they created a freak race of giants. And the next verse says and there were giants in the land. And so the devil thought, I have messed up the plan of God to produce a redeemer because I've messed up the bloodline of the human race.
And God said, "Oh, no. Somebody's gonna get outta here. Noah, build an ark. Build an ark. I'm gonna have to clean the whole human race out. But my plans - I got somebody. I always got one little family. Just one little family that's gonna get in the ark, and they're gonna float right outta this mess into a new world. And I'm gonna start all over again, and they're gonna", and then the devil said, "I gotta stop this thing". So God says, "Well, it's about time for me to raise up a nation now. 'Cause if I'm gonna have a redeemer, I gotta have a nation, and the prophet said that it would be from the Tribe of Judah. So I gotta get a nation going here. But the problem is, my chosen people are over there in Egypt in slavery, so I need a deliverer. I need somebody to go say let my people go". And God says, "I'll just have me somebody at this time who'll be a deliverer, and I'll call his name Moses".
And the Bible said that Moses was born, and Pharaoh, this is the devil working, saying, "I'm gonna kill 'em all. I'm gonna get 'em all". And he said, "kill all the boys. Kill all the male children. Kill 'em all. Kill 'em all. Of a certain age, just kill 'em all". So that race that would ultimately produce Mary, and Mary would have a little lamb. 'Cause the blood line of Jesus came from God. God was the male, and Mary was the female. And so the lineage is all connected to Mary, you see.
And so, listen to me, what that was about was that Pharaoh's decree - and he's killing all the babies, but... Oh, he got 'em all. He got 'em all. No, you didn't get 'em all. There was one in a little basket that went floating down the river. Ended up in the palace and ended up walking up to Pharaoh and saying, "Let my people go". 'Cause God always has one that's gonna get out. And the devil says, "I gotta try again. I gotta get a master plan. I know what I'll do". And he gets him a man by the name of Herod. This is many generations later. And the devil thinks, "I sense something's coming. I'm nervous. I'm nervous. That blood line is still intact".
And Herod hears about a star over a manger. And he says, "I'll put a decree out. We're gonna kill all the babies two years of age and under 'cause I gotta stop this messiah stuff from happening". And the devil thought he killed them all. But one night, a little angel showed up and said, "Mary and Joseph, that little baby you've got is in danger. Get outta here. Go to Egypt. Just cross the border and get outta here, and hold the Baby Jesus down there until the coast is clear". And they slipped out. And Herod thought, "I killed 'em all".
And by the way, the reason that the devil wants to kill all the babies in every generation, including this one, is because he knows deliverance is coming through the seed. He knows there's prophets out there. He knows there's evangelists out there. He knows there's doctors out there that could have the cure of cancer. He knows there's all kinds of things and deliverance that wants to come into the earth. 'Cause God's a good God. He's not a mad, mean God. He's a good God. But the devil wants to wipe out the babies. And just when it - and I love what Jesus said.
I love what Jesus - you know, Herod was the one who tried to kill Him. And 30 years later, after He's grown up from a baby, the Bible said that Herod sent word and said "Are you the Messiah"? And He said these words in Luke 13:32 He said "You go tell that fox", he thought he was gonna get me. That ol' fox thought he would kill me when I was a baby. And listen to what Jesus' answer was. It's kinda sharp. He said, "You go tell that fox", speaking of Herod, "You tell him that I cast out devils, and I do cures".
And then it kinda gets a little - He just puts it on him. He says, "and I'm gonna do it today, and I'm gonna do it tomorrow, and on the third day, I'm gonna be perfected. If you think it's something what I'm doing now - you tell that ol' fox that tried to kill me when I was just a little baby that I do miracles, I do cures, I do healings, I cast out devils. And on the third day, if you think that's something", and he didn't know what He was talking about, "But on the third day, when I come up outta that grave, I'm gonna have all kinds of deliverance and victory going on in the earth. You can't stop it".
The devil thought that he could stop it, but the truth is he missed one. One got away. Every time, one got away. Jesus got away. Job 1:15: "I only have escaped". Job 1:16: "I only have escaped to tell you". After every devastating blow, somebody survived to tell the story. There will never be a time when the devil gets them all. Somebody's gonna come out. Somebody's gonna stand out. Somebody's gonna be a young man, a young woman of character and integrity. Somebody's gonna say I am willing to be the one. I am okay with being that somebody. Somebody is going to make it out.
The only thing worse than a compromiser is thinking that you're the only one. And that's what happened to Elijah. In 1 Kings 19, the Bible said that he - Elijah got feeling sorry for himself, and he said, "God, I'm the only one living it. I'm the only one who's not doing all this stuff. I'm the only one who's not compromising. I am the last bastion of holiness. I am it. Nobody else is living clean. Nobody else loves you". And God said, "You don't know what you're talking about. I have 7.000 people who have not bowed their knee".
Somebody needs to hear today that you're not the only one. When you go off to college, when you go off to school, when you go back to school - the devil loves to tell you everybody's compromising. Everybody's doing it. Everybody's letting down. Everybody is living wild. No, they're not. Somebody's living for God. Somebody loves the Lord. I remember when I was coming up, and I just made up my mind. I was gonna keep myself till marriage. I was just gonna - I was gonna do it. And the devil said, "Everybody's doing it". Even my friends made fun of me sometimes. But you know what? You can do it if you wanna do it. Somebody's gonna do it. Somebody's gonna live right. Somebody's gonna live clean. Why don't you be that somebody? Why don't you make up your mind?