Steven Furtick - Don't Skip Dessert (01/27/2026)
This sermon from 1 Samuel 14:24-30 focuses on the "danger of deprivation," using King Saul's foolish oath that forbade his troops from eating during battle. Steven Furtick argues that we often defer celebration and strength until we reach perfection, which weakens us. The key is to "feed your troops"—to celebrate small victories, enjoy God's blessings, and "take a bite" of the "honey" (joy, encouragement) God provides along the way to sustain us for the larger battles ahead.
The Danger of Deprivation: Don't Skip Dessert
How many are hungry for the Word of God today? My name is Stephen. I'll be taking care of you this year. Let me know if you need anything. I'm going to have some fresh biscuits for you in just a moment, and some butter and some sweet iced tea. The Lord has been filling me full of concepts and ideas that I believe come from him, and I believe that this year is going to be a year of crossing over. You didn't get it. How many of you have somewhere that you're going this year? Somewhere you're going. All right. How many of you, where you're going is not where you are right now? All right. So touch the person next to you and say, I'm crossing over. Now this is unofficial, but the Lord led me into a little series. It's not an official series.
It's not going to be on the screen or videos or any of that, but it's a, it's a, it's an underground series. This is black market Bible teaching. All right. Bootleg series. And I'm going to come out of first Samuel 14 for one or two or three weeks or whatever longer, but I'm going to talk about for the next few weeks, keys to crossing over. Keys to three people are excited. I'm going to give you some keys from the word of God, not from my own intelligence. You don't want that from the word of God, keys to crossing over. How many are ready to receive the keys? Yeah. So today we're going to have some fun. Next week is kind of the high point. Next week is kind of the high point. Next week is going to be the one this week though. Let's set the table. First Samuel chapter 14, verse 24.
The presence of the Lord is in this place and anything can happen when he shows up. So don't even limit yourself on what you can receive today. Something powerful is about to happen in your life. First Samuel 14, verse 24. This is our scripture for today. Here it comes on the screen. Now the Israelites were in distress that day because Saul had bound the people under an oath saying, Cursed be anyone who eats food before evening comes, before I have avenged myself on my enemies. So none of the troops tasted food. The entire army entered the woods and there was honey on the ground. When they went into the woods, they saw the honey oozing out. He had no one put his hand to his mouth. What's up with that? What would keep you from eating what God put right in front of you? The text says, Because they feared the oath.
But Jonathan... Everybody say, but Jonathan. Jonathan. But Jonathan had not heard that his father had bound the people with the oath. So he reached out the end of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it into the honeycomb. He raised his hand to his mouth and his eyes brightened. You're going to see things a new way today because of what God puts inside of you in these moments. And then one of the soldiers told him, Man, you shouldn't have done that. Your father bound the army under a strict oath, saying, Cursed be anyone who eats food today. That is why the men are faint. And Jonathan said, My father has made trouble for the country. See how my eyes brightened when I tasted a little of this honey? How much better it would have been if the men had eaten today some of the plunder they took from their enemies? Would not the slaughter of the Philistines have been even greater?
Would not you be so much stronger? And would not your victories be that much more magnificent if this year you would eat what God gave you? I feel like preaching, man. I want to share today a piece of New Year's advice. Your first key to crossing over in the New Year. You ready for this? I got a title. Don't tell your physical trainer, your dietician that I told you this. But I want to preach today from the subject. Don't skip dessert. Don't skip dessert. You weren't expecting this kind of message. I know you have Weight Watchers on your phone. But spiritually speaking today, I want to encourage you. Don't skip dessert. Now touch somebody next to you and tell them, neighbor. It's going to be a sweet 16. Find three more people. Tell them it's going to be a sweet 16. Sweet 16. In Jesus' name. How many hungry people are in the house? All right, sit down. I'll feed you. Don't skip dessert.
The Paradox of Progress and the Need to Celebrate
Isn't it funny how your kids teach you stuff about yourself while you're trying to teach them? If there's one gift that your children give you, it's self-awareness. All the stuff that you want to see in yourself and other stuff too. I see it when I'm helping my oldest son. He sits in on this sermon each week, trying to teach him the family business. Get him some exposure to good preaching early. Amen. Amen. He gets frustrated. He gets frustrated like his father does. And since the text we read was about a father, Saul, and a son, Jonathan, and how a father's frustration was affecting the next generation. I thought it would be appropriate to share a little story with you, just a little personal story, and I'll get back to the text in a minute. But I want to frame this message in a personal story about how a couple of years ago I went to go take tennis lessons.
Now, I've mentioned this before in the church, and I've told you, don't ask me to go play tennis with you. I am not good enough to play in a real match. I just go out there and pay somebody to hit the ball to me so I can hit it back and get some exercise, all right? That's all there is to my tennis game. I'm not trying to train for anything. No, I don't want to be your doubles partner. I will let you down. I'm insecure about it. I'm not a very good athlete now, but I have gotten a little bit better. Everybody say, a little bit better. The problem with getting a little bit better is you see how much better you've got to get to be any good. When I went out and hit the ball with your husband, Nicole, he sucked too, so both of us didn't know what we were doing. And as long as we sucked equally, I had no standard. It's easy to celebrate yourself when you have no standards.
So, I want to talk from this idea... I'm trying to tell a story. Don't make me preach. I want to use this as a first partition for this sermon about the paradox of progress. That's the first thing the Lord showed me in this text, is the paradox of progress. The further you go, the further you see you have to go. That is why, often, progress in our own lives doesn't feel very fulfilling. Take, for instance, my tennis game. You know? I would take some lessons, hit it off the ball machine, hit it with my instructor, go out and beat Holly a little bit, give her the alleys, still whip her, don't even feel bad about it. That's what I do. And then go play somebody else who started playing, you know, younger and got their strokes early and realized I hadn't learned anything. So, I've retired from tennis like 10 times in the last couple of years. I keep quitting and coming back.
The reason I keep coming back, I like my instructor. He's a good guy. And one of the reasons I like him, he comes to the church. Now, he didn't always come to the church. When I first started going out there, he didn't come to the church. He watched me on TV a little bit. And he said, I'm going to come one day. I said, you know, you keep saying that. And so, when my Clemson Tigers beat his Georgia Bulldogs, just like my Clemson Tigers beat all of y'all this year. He lost a bet. He came to church. He hasn't left. And God's done a work in his life. His name is Robert. Robert's a good teacher because he knows when to push. I think I'm going to preach a sermon one day about knowing when to push. Wouldn't that be a good sermon for parenting even? And knowing when to push. And he's kind of good about that.
And so, he knows when to push and when to back off and all of that. But he said something recently to me about my frustration level that became a metaphor for life. And I didn't know that he was going to give me therapy on the tennis court. I'm getting two for one. It's kind of efficient. But he stops the lesson one day after I'd done something stupid and I yelled at myself. I always yell at myself. I do something stupid, make noises and all that. And he stopped the lesson. He goes, I've noticed something about you. You only make noise out here when you do something wrong. You don't ever open your mouth when you do something right. Even when I tell you good shot, you don't say anything back. You drop your head even after a good shot. He said, what's up with that? We have to get you a fist pump so you can have a way when you make a shot.
Now, in my mind, I'm thinking, I'm not going to be that guy. You know what I'm saying? That guy that acts like he won Wimbledon because he did good on his tennis lesson when his instructor put it in the right place so he could hit it. I am not going to be that guy. So I told him, no, man, I'm not really into all that. I'm not Rafa. I'm not going out there like it's in the US Open. But he said, you know, you need to consider this because if you don't learn how to celebrate your strengths, you can't address your weaknesses. Fast forward a couple of weeks or months later, I was here at the church for a recital for our worship academy. We have a program to teach young kids music who have some talent and want to use their gifts for the Lord, who want to jam for the lamb. I came out because my kids are in it.
And Graham rocked his song on the bass, rocked it on the bass. And I'm trying to teach him the bass is the real instrument of music. A lot of people underestimate the bass, but the bass is the pocket. So I got Graham on the bass. He's eight. And Elijah is on the drums and learning some piano. And they both did great. I mean, I'm not biased. They both slayed it in their performance, rehearsal, worship, whatever it was called, recital. Afterward, I'm going somewhere with this. It's going to go back to 1 Samuel 14 in a minute about Saul and Jonathan and eventually connect to you. Because I was backstage telling Graham and Elijah how good they did. Now, I told Graham, you nailed it. Graham said, I know. That's how he is. That's Graham. Graham said, I know. I know. I said, no, boy. You were amazing. He said, I know. That's Graham.
His song a couple years ago was You Can Tell Everybody. You remember that song? You Can Tell Everybody. I'm the man. And since I'm the man rhymed with Graham, he had his own song. Pray for him. But that's Graham. Graham said, I know. Elijah, on the other hand, I looked over at him, and he was looking at a piece of paper, which the instructors had given to each student, and at the top of the paper was all the accomplishments of that student that year and all the strengths of that student that year. But he went looking at that part. He skipped past that part, and he was down at the bottom, which was only about 20 percent of the page. There are four paragraphs of Elijah's show's incredible potential in this area, and he has impressed me with his ability to. He wasn't reading any of that. He's down at the bottom of the page reading, Areas for Improvement. And I went back to Robert that next week, and I said, I'm ready to learn how to celebrate my strengths, because I see it in my son.
If he's trained by example to always look at the bottom of the page for what he needs to work on before he gets fed from the top of the page by seeing what he did well, he will not be able to sustain his progress in life. But I said, Robert, I don't want to go over the top with this man. I can't fist pump. I can't do all that. That's a little ridiculous. He said, alright, let's start here. Slap your leg. When you make a good shot, just on the way back to the line, slap your leg. So, I've been doing it, not just on the tennis court now. I walk around the house. Watch me while I preach. If y'all don't say amen, if y'all don't stand up, watch me walk back to the pulpit. Slap your leg real quick. Say, good game. They put a song out this year, or I think it was this year. I think I found myself a cheerleader. But I need to announce to you, you can't wait for somebody else to cheer you on sometimes.
Let me say it on this side. You can't wait until you fight. You better be your own cheerleader. The Bible says that David encouraged himself in the Lord. That was the difference between David and Saul. That's why David built a dynasty, and Saul was sabotaged, because David encouraged himself in the Lord. Slap somebody. Say, slap your leg. And Holly's been helping me. She's been telling me this for years, you know, so now she has a language for it. When I do something good, she'll say, slap your leg. And then I tell her, well, I'll slap my leg if you'll slap... Preacher's not allowed to have fun. What's wrong with y'all? Y'all ain't going to take my honey. I'm going to get something sweet every once in a while and praise him. Leave the church. I wish you would. But look, it's the paradox of progress. It's like the fact that Saul wanted to win so badly is what kept him from winning eventually. Look at it in the text.
The Same Day: Deliverance and Distress
Come on. Slap your leg one time. Just get in the rhythm. Listen. It says in verse 24, the Israelites were in distress that day. Everybody shout, that day. That day. That day. They were in distress that day. But if you back up a verse before that to verse 23, which is before verse 24, it says, So on that day, the Lord saved Israel, and the battle moved on beyond Beth-Avon. That day. Verse 24, that day they were in distress. Verse 23, that day God saved them, which would make sense if they were different days. But those two verses are describing the same day. Verse 24 calls it a day of distress. Verse 23 calls it a day of deliverance. Let me ask you a question. Have you allowed the devil to turn your day of deliverance into a day of distress? That's what Saul did because of the paradox of progress. It said that day… Everybody shout, that day. The battle moved on, but it wasn't over.
And so Saul made an oath. He said, until this battle is over, nobody is going to eat anything until the battle is over. And often that's how we come into a new year. Until I lose 50 pounds, I'm not going to eat anything other than chicken. I'm going to peel the skin off the chicken breast. I'm going to bust the yolk out of the egg whites until I lose 50 pounds, until I'm back down to my 13-year-old weight and waist size. I'm not eating anything. But I want to talk for a few moments today about the danger of deprivation. The danger of deprivation. Not the danger of discipline, but the danger of deprivation. Deprimation, whatever you want to call it. A lot of people call it different things. Let's call it deprivation today. Deprivation is often disguised as discipline. Anytime you define your resolutions and goals more by what you won't do than what you will do, you will always disrupt your development because of the danger of deprivation.
I'm going to help somebody today. I'm going to set somebody free. I'm going to let you see why you're in a weak state entering this year. It might not be because God didn't provide the strength. It may be because you refused to eat the strength that he provided. Listen, I get Saul. I get Saul. I get Saul. He was driven. Some of you need a little bit more of Saul in your life. Saul said, okay, we won that battle, but we have this enemy, the Philistines. I'm going to talk about the Philistines next week. I'm going to teach you how to advance against all of the Philistines that are blocking the passages in your life next week. I'm going to talk about getting past good intentions. Who's coming? Who's coming? Who's coming? Yeah, make it happen. You better be here next week because we're going to clear out the Philistines. But I'm preaching now about what happened after the fact that Saul had a victory and the battle moved on, but the battle wasn't done, and so Saul made a decision to defer his celebration until he reached a place of perfection and thereby stopped his progress.
It's the danger of deferring your gratitude. The danger of depriving yourself. The danger of only calling yourself an idiot when you miss the shot, but never telling yourself, you know, good game, chief, when you make one. We should all learn from Graham. We should all learn from Holly. Holly and I got married to strengthen each other. I believe we were perfectly fit together. I really think we complement each other. I'm too hard on myself, and she's too easy on me. And I appreciate her being too easy on me because I need something to balance out the fact that I'm too hard. In fact, she's a little too easy on herself sometimes, you know? She'll tell herself sometimes some things, and she'll be like, that's an excuse, isn't it? And I'm like, yeah, that's an excuse. But then she's right there for me sometimes when… You know what I did? This was sick. This was sick. I shouldn't tell y'all this. I shouldn't tell y'all this. I'm getting loose. I'm going to say stuff that they need to edit out. It's going to end up on YouTube.
I'm so Saul. Everybody say, you're so Saul. Because everybody has a little Saul in them. I think everybody has a little bit of drive, and that can be a good thing. It can be a good thing if kept in the proper dimensions. So I preached on New Year's Eve. You've got to go hear that message, by the way. Hello from the other side. You need that. It's on the app. It's online. It's on YouTube. It's on Roku. It's on satellite cable. Dish TV is everywhere. Go get the message. But I preached it, right? It's 1230. I preached so hard for over an hour. I sweat through my shoes. I squeezed my Jordans, and sweat oozed out. Ask Holly. She goes, ugh. And I squeezed it. And I changed my clothes, and I went out, and my team was around waiting to have a toast. They all had the… It was apple cider, man. What's your problem? And we had the toast out.
And while they're getting ready to have a toast, guess what I did? I didn't even think about it. I walked by the toast, and I opened up my phone, and I opened my notes for this sermon. That's kind of messed up. I mean, it's probably good that I'm thinking ahead, but God said, dummy? If you don't stop to enjoy the spoils of this battle, you won't be able to endure the struggles of the next one. So you better raise your glass and slap your leg, and every once in a while just tell yourself, here's a statement, I did that. Touch your neighbor and say, you did that. I don't know what that was for them, but there's something that God did for them or through them, and it wasn't them, but it was God, but God did it through them. Touch them again and say, you did that. You did that. You made it through another year. You paid the bills this year. You came to church. You did that. You did that.
Sometimes you've got to talk to yourself in the third person. Say, you did that. You put up with that. Other people would have crumbled. Other people would have quit. Other people would have faded, but you did that. Shout, I did that. Graham has no problem with this. I walked in the kitchen. Graham was walking around the kitchen the other day. True story. Doing a little chicken dance. A chicken dance. He had his thumbs under here. And he'd walk around in a little faith. And every once in a while, he'd do a little pet. I said, what are you doing, boy? He said, oh, during recess, me and Austin have been working on our victory dances. Let's pray for Graham. Can we intercede? Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Mother Mary, Moses, Jesus, Jonathan. But put it like this. There is such a thing as excessive celebration. This is when you celebrate before you score. Y'all don't want this message.
Finding the Rhythm: Win a Battle, Take a Bite
I'm going to go preach it somewhere else where people want some good teaching. This is when you post stuff on social media that isn't your real life to try to convince others you're winning in areas to cover up areas of weakness. If it's just for you, I'm going to preach this. This is where you spend money you don't have trying to project a lifestyle that you're not ready for yet, but you better slow your roll every once in a while and celebrate on the level you're on. Some people celebrate too soon. In fact, let me look in the camera because people watching this online might need to hear it. You don't need to broadcast every blessing. Some stuff that God does for you is for you. It's for you. It's for you. It's for you. It's not to impress others. It's not to show your ex, look, I made it. I'm doing fine without you. Some stuff God does is for you. Touch three people. Say, keep it to yourself.
Now that we got that out of the way, excessive celebration. This is where you dab before you even made a first down. This is where you lose three pounds and gain four because you took yourself out for a brownie. You have to learn when to celebrate, what to celebrate. So watch this. I'm going to help you. A celebration that is not excessive. If you're losing weight but you got some money, when you lose the pounds, buy some shoes. If you're saving money, when you lose some weight, eat some cheap crap and get fat while your finances get fit. So you just got to…. You can't work on everything at once. You got to focus on something and then celebrate. This is the day the Lord has made. The battle moved on. The battle's not done, but the battle moved on. I'm not debt free, but I paid off a hundred. I'm not married, but I'm going on a date. I'm not going on a date, but I got some friends to hang out with. Does anybody have something, anything, something, anything to celebrate?
It's all right. Don't celebrate too soon, but you'd be like that field goal kicker. A couple of years ago, Graham was YouTubing victory celebrations the other day. He pulled up Celebration Fails. They put on that kicker from the Cardinals who kicked a 43-yard field goal, and he jumped up to celebrate, and he celebrated too hard. When he came down, he tore his ACL. He was out for the season, not on a play, on a celebration. Don't miss your season because you celebrated too soon. You sacrifice, and then you celebrate. Don't get it the other way around. Sacrifice, then celebrate. Save some money, then upgrade the car. Sacrifice, college fund, then celebrate, vacation. Sacrifice, celebrate. It's a rhythm. Come on. Sacrifice, celebrate. Sacrifice, celebrate. And some people are. Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice. But all sacrifice and no celebration means no strength. It's the danger of deprivation. Listen. Here's what God told me to tell you from 1 Samuel 14. Feed your troops. You hear me?
This year, don't expect your troops to fight for you if you don't feed them. Feed your troops. The man said, the reason the soldiers are weak is because they haven't eaten. It's not that they're weak soldiers. They're in a weakened state because they weren't allowed to eat. Could it be possible that you're failing not because you're weak but because you're not well-fed? Maybe you're stronger than you think you are, but maybe you're not eating what God put on the ground in front of you. And if you will eat this year what God puts before you, you cannot be beat. You're not weak. You just have to eat. Touch somebody and say, Eat. Eat something. Eat something. Eat the good stuff. Eat the honey. The ground was oozing with honey. It's a land of milk and honey. That's what God told the people he was bringing them into. But he brought them in the land, and the king was so foolish that he didn't let the people eat the very thing that God brought them there for. Feed your troops. Feed your emotions this year.
Breaking the Bondage of Bitterness
If you don't feed your emotions positive things, you'll only be able to feed people criticism. You won't be able to strengthen others if you don't strengthen yourself. This is what I call the bondage of bitterness. Saul bound the people with an oath. He bound. Isn't that an interesting term? He bound the people with an oath. Nobody eats until all of my enemies are destroyed. Nobody eats. Nobody... I don't want to hear anything from any of y'all until we get this right. I'm not going to be happy until. God isn't going to be pleased with me until. I'm not going to be worth loving until. What bad beliefs have you bound going in to this new year? Bound. It wasn't that the honey wasn't there. They were bound from partaking in it. It's not that the joy isn't there. It's that you're bound from partaking in it, and you're bound because of a belief. It could have been a parental figure in your life.
We see here a father and a son, and sometimes you can have a parent in your life or an authority figure in your life who tells you you'll never be anything or who never is there to say, good job. Many didn't have dads to say, that was awesome. I had a dad. I had a mom. I had somebody cheering me on, but many of you didn't, and so now you're bound by an oath. You swore to yourself that you'd never be anything. You came into an agreement with the enemy, and you're trying to fight the enemy on an empty stomach, and that's why you're losing. Saul was bitter. He was bitter within himself. You should read the whole saga. Saul is given the kingdom because he's handsome and good-looking, tall, attractive, stately. In 1 Samuel 13, Samuel gives an announcement. God is taking the kingdom away from you and giving it to another. In chapter 14, Saul still has the aftertaste of his own disappointment and failure, and that's why he doesn't want anybody else to taste anything sweet, because he's bitter.
Don't let bitter people keep you from enjoying your blessings. Not one more day. I don't know who that was for, but I get a sense that there's somebody that you have allowed the enemy to suck the sweetness out of your success. See, if the enemy can't keep you bound in failure, frustrated in failure, then what he'll do is he'll try to keep you from enjoying the success that you have. But this is the year. Come on. It's going to be a sweet 16. This is the year that God is going to put the sweetness back in your life. Your taste buds are going to pop again. You're going to enjoy things again. You're going to enjoy conversations again. Let me announce this. You're going to enjoy yourself again. Some of you haven't liked yourself, but this is the day. This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Get some honey. Get a scoop of what tastes good to you and eat it. Because watch this. Watch this. Watch this. If you don't eat what's sweet, you'll always turn to what's bitter.
Isn't this helpful? I mean, it is to me. I mean, obviously, y'all know all this already. But if it's helpful, wave at me. I need to know. Because God already showed me this. I'm trying to show it to you. God said, sometimes the reason that people don't want to be around you is because you never give them anything sweet to eat. You can't expect people to want to be around you, to want to be affiliated with you, to want to hang out with you, if every time they come to you they get something sour. So you have to ask God this year. Wash the taste out of my mouth of what I've been through. Wash the taste out of my mouth of how my mom treated me. Wash the taste out of my mouth of how the last person left me. I'm not carrying my bitterness into a sweet season. It's going to be sweet this year. High-five seven people. Tell them it's going to be sweet. It's going to be sweet.
Come on, why aren't you high-fiving anybody, man? High-five your neighbor. Tell them it's going to be sweet. You know, that's why you ought to talk back to me while I'm preaching. If I'm feeding you, I want some feedback. Is this a sweet sermon? Jonathan reminds me of Jesus. Because Jonathan wasn't bound by what the people were bound by. Oh, God, I want to work this point, but I don't have time. Let's hit a cliff's nose. The Bible says that when Jesus came, he said, The Spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to preach freedom for the prisoners. Now watch this. Jesus wasn't bound where you're bound. What the law was powerless to do, in that it was weakened and bound by the sinful nature. God did by sending his son in the likeness of sinful man. Jesus dipped his staff in the honey and said, Taste and seek. Taste the grace. Taste the mercy. Taste the forgiveness. Taste the goodness of God. It's the taste of triumph. Come on, shout on that, somebody. It's the taste.
What are you going into 2016 with on your lips? The taste of triumph. The taste of triumph. The taste of triumph. Not the aftertaste of my failures and my yesterday, but the taste of triumph. It's so close. I can taste it. So I got a new rhythm. Watch this. Watch this. Win a battle. Take a bite. That's what's going to make you strong this year. That's how you're going to cross over. That's how you're going to see development in areas where you've been bound and freedom in areas where you've been captive. Win a battle. Now don't take a battle. Now don't take a bite. Take a bite. Take a bite. Take a bite. Then you'll be like David who took a bite of Bathsheba because he wasn't at war while he should have been. And you got to win a battle and then take a bite. Come on, shout it. Win a battle, take a bite. Come on, Rock Hill. Win a battle, take a bite. Gaston, win a battle. University, take a bite. Lake Norman, win a battle. Providence, take a bite. Weddington, win a battle. Blakeney, take a bite. Blakeney Overflow, say take a bite. Overflow, say take a bite. Shout it out, say take a bite. Win a battle. Win a battle. Win a battle. Take a bite.
Come on, we're in good this year. Figs and honey and grapes and pomegranates. If you don't fill up on the honey that God provides, your appetite will find another way to be satisfied. If you're married, you better feed your spouse something sweet. You hear me? Keep something sweet in the pantry. I'm obscuring this. If you're married to a man and he's fighting to be a better man, you better give him a... Y'all are so depraved. That's not even what I'm talking about. I'm just talking about talk sweet to him. Tell him, you know, good job with that. Slap his leg, you know. Give him a little love so he'll have the strength to win another battle. Maybe if you give him a bite, he can win a battle. And then he wins a battle, and then he gets a bite. Win a battle. Win a battle. Win a battle. Don't deprive yourself of the very thing that God put in your path to develop you. Parents, feed your troops. Leaders, feed your followers. Pastors, feed your flock. That's what Jesus told Peter. He said, feed the flock.
And then the angel had to tell Peter, arise, Peter. Kill and eat. Because you can't feed people on strength that you didn't receive from food you didn't eat. Win a battle. Win a battle. Win a battle. That's your new rhythm. When they ask you at work, what's your New Year's resolution? Say, oh, it's kind of simple this year. I'm going to win a battle. Tell them again. Say, I'm going to win a battle. I'm going to win a battle. I'm going to win a battle. And then I win another battle. It's going to be good this year. It's going to be a sweet 16. Oh, it's going to be some bitterness. It's going to be some bitterness. When they made the anointing oil in Scripture, they didn't put all cinnamon in the mixture. They put some myrrh in there too. It's going to be some sweet. It's going to be some sour. But if you eat what's sweet, if you enjoy the blessings God has given you, you can endure anything that the enemy brings your way. I declare it. Do you receive it? I declare it. Do you receive it? I said, I declare it. Does anybody receive this word? Touch ten people. Tell them, whatever you do, don't skip dessert. When God blesses you, be grateful. When God helps you, when God works on your behalf, worship him.
I think we ought to take a moment right now and just thank God for this word he dropped in our life. Come on. Slap your legs. Say, God is good. Slap your legs. Say, I'm well labeled. Slap your legs. Say, I got this. Slap your legs. Say, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Slap like you mean it. Slap like you win. Slap like you're crossing under. Some of the sweetest times of my life have been in the greatest struggles. Samson reached his hand in a lion and pulled out honey. The Bible says that the devil runs around like a roaring lion. man, you know that God will take the very thing that was sent to kill you and let you get something sweet out of it. If you reach it, come on, reach in and grab it. I'm reaching in this here. I'm reaching for something. I gotta stop. You coming back next week? Bring somebody next week, too. Bring somebody. I got something for you, though, before you leave. I thought it'd be a nice little reinforcement of the message. Y'all like Krispy Kreme? Do you? Do you? Hand it to me? Yeah. Me, too. I love it.
But I had to make a rule because Holly got me fat. When we first got married, that girl, fettuccine Alfredo, tacos, she'd say, but they're whole wheat tortillas. Now, online, you don't get this lazy self up under the cover should be in church. But I told them, get one of these little donut holes, Krispy Kreme. They said, can it be generic? I said, I don't pastor a generic church. Get them that good stuff. Now, I know you're counting carbs. I know you're eating paleo. I'm CrossFit, bro. But just for today, because I don't eat this either. Not very much. Because if I eat one, I eat the box. No, not the donuts in the box. I'll start licking the box. I will literally eat the box. But I made a rule because I thought, well, you know, it's not sustainable for me to never eat a sweet ever again. So I made a rule. When I'm out with Holly and they say, did you save room for dessert? I have a rule. One bite. And I'm able to do it now. I mean, I sometimes eat more than one bite. But I'm saying, generally, I'll just eat a bite. Just a bite. Win a battle? I figure I preached pretty good today. I think I deserve it. I feel the Holy Ghost. I feel ready for the next battle because I took a bite. Come on. How many got a battle to fight this year? How many got a battle to fight this year? Well, you better get fooled for the fight. Lift your hands in the presence of God. Every battle is what we're in the name of God.