DON'T STAY IN THE PLAIN, GO TO THE MOUNTAIN

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DON'T STAY IN THE PLAIN, GO TO THE MOUNTAIN

• Presented by Pastor Tutu Sofowora
• 3rd May, 2014

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DON'T STAY IN THE PLAIN, GO TO THE MOUNTAIN

• Don't stay in your comfort zone, take risk
• 1. There is a uniqueness about each and every
  one of us but whether you actualize it, is really
  up to you
•  
• 2.  There is fragrance that you carry, whether we
  ever smelt it is really down to you
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• 3. Many are just content with just getting by
  in life. Living the life of a mediocre Living in
  the plain when God wants them to soar like an
  eagle
• 4. They are eagles but just content to flock with
  the chicken
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• 5. They dream of a better life but take no action
  to see it realized. Wishful thinking. Day
  dreaming
•  
• 6. They want many great things in life but they
  see the price they had to pay and think oh it's
  too hard
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•  

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DON'T STAY IN THE PLAIN, GO TO THE MOUNTAIN

• 7. So they are content to live less than what
  they are
• 8. They apply for jobs that pay less and below
  their potential.
• 9. Don't stay in the plain. It is a place for
  the non-entity
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• 10. The plain is very crowded. They are many
  vacancies at the top
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• 11. Going to the mountain is doing what you have
  never done
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• 12. Stretching yourself to the limit
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• 13. You are a package of surprises

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DON'T STAY IN THE PLAIN, GO TO THE MOUNTAIN

• Isaiah 541-6
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• Sing, barren woman, who has never had a baby.
  Fill the air with song, you whove never
  experienced childbirth! Youre ending up with far
  more children than all those childbearing women.
  God says so! Clear lots of ground for your
  tents! Make your tents large. Spread out! Think
  big! Use plenty of rope, drive the tent pegs
  deep. Youre going to need lots of elbowroom for
  your growing family. Youre going to take over
  whole nations youre going to resettle abandoned
  cities. Dont be afraidyoure not going to be
  embarrassed. Dont hold backyoure not going to
  come up short. Youll forget all about the
  humiliations of your youth, and the indignities
  of being a widow will fade from memory. For your
  Maker is your bridegroom, his name, and God
  -of-the-Angel-Armies! Your Redeemer is The Holy
  of Israel, known as God of the whole earth. You
  were like an abandoned wife, devastated with
  grief, and God welcomed you back, like a woman
  married young and then left, says your God.
  (Isaiah 541-6 MSG)
•  

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DON'T STAY IN THE PLAIN, GO TO THE MOUNTAIN

• 15. STRETCH YOURSELF
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• 16. Whenever God wants to promote you, He brings
  you a test like a mountain that you have to
  climb. Something that would stretch you to do
  what you have never done before
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• 17. It is either you run from it or goes for it
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• 18. Like David, his defining moment came just
  like every other day
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• 19. Every challenge is a set up for promotion
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• 20. His father sent him to go and check on his
  brothers who were part of Saul's army

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DON'T STAY IN THE PLAIN, GO TO THE MOUNTAIN

• 1 Sam 1717-18 - Then Jesse said to his son
  David, Take now for your brothers an ephah of
  this dried grain and these ten loaves, and run to
  your brothers at the camp. And carry these ten
  cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see
  how your brothers fare, and bring back news of
  them. (I Samuel 1717, 18 NKJV) 
•  
• 21. Saul's army and the Philistines were in
  battle array in the valley of Elah
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• 22. For forty days morning and evening, Goliath
  presented himself to the army of Israel taunting
  them and asking someone to come and take him on.
  Challenges beckon at us every time
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• 23. But each of them saw Goliath- A giant
  nearly ten feet tall stepped out from the
  Philistine line into the open, Goliath from Gath.
  He had a bronze helmet on his head and was
  dressed in armor126 pounds of it! He wore bronze
  shin guards and carried a bronze sword. His spear
  was like a fence railthe spear tip alone weighed
  over fifteen pounds. His shield bearer walked
  ahead of him. (1 Samuel 174-7 MSG)

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DON'T STAY IN THE PLAIN, GO TO THE MOUNTAIN

• 24. Then David spoke to the men who stood by him,
  saying, What shall be done for the man who kills
  this Philistine and takes away the reproach from
  Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine,
  that he should defy the armies of the living
  God? (I Samuel 1726 NKJV)
• 25. And they ran for cover, Not even the price
  that the king promised to give could move them 
• So the men of Israel said, Have you seen this
  man who has come up? Surely he has come up to
  defy Israel and it shall be that the man who
  kills him the king will enrich with great riches,
  will give him his daughter, and give his fathers
  house exemption from taxes in Israel. (I Samuel
  1725 NKJV)

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DON'T STAY IN THE PLAIN, GO TO THE MOUNTAIN

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• 26. Then David came and heard Goliath
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• 27. He saw Goliath and turned the battle to God
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• 28. He asked again concerning the prize attached
  to the head of Goliath
• 29 . Eliab, his biggest brother started
  chastising him and asking him what he was doing
  there. You are meant to be with the sheep. There
  are for us big boys.
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• 30. In your journey to facing your giant, watch
  out for big brothers of David that tells you are
  too young, too inexperienced. You can't do it.
  This is way out of your league

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WATCH OUT FOR THE BIG BROTHERS OF DAVID

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• 31. In David's mind, the size of the mountain may
  differ, but the principle is the same.
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• 32. The same principle that I applied when I
  confront the bear and the lion is what I would
  apply when I faced this giant
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• 33. Phil 413- (AMP) - I have strength for all
  things in Christ who empowers me I am ready for
  anything and equal to anything through Him Who
  infuses inner strength into me I am
  self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency.
  (Philippians 413 AMP)
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• 34. Phil 413- (MSG) - Whatever I have, wherever
  I am, I can make it through anything in the One
  who makes me who I am.

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BENEFIT OF FACING YOUR CHALLENGE

• 35. Killing a giant opens the doors for greater
  opportunity
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• We see it every time before our very eyes in
  every sphere of life. For example, the athletes,
  they performed outstandingly, the next thing you,
  they are on our TV advertising products,
  services.
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• Nobody wants to associate with whims, failures,
  and non-entities.
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• 36. You don't get rewarded when you cowered in
  the face of challenges, you get rewarded when you
  confront them and overcome.
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• 37. Take on new challenges. Do new things. Break
  new grounds in your career, in the things of the
  Spirit.
• BREAK THE CEILINGS
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• 38. There are lids over your life. Lift the lids.
  Break your ceilings. You are where you are today
  because of ceilings you have broken in the past-
  primary school, secondary, university,
  professional exams
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ASSOCIATIONS 

• 39. There are people who have done what you want
  to do, locate them and learn from them. They help
  you to break the ceilings and remove your
  limitations.
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• 40. Pick your association carefully. Association
  is powerful
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• Pro 1320 - He who walks with wise men will be
  wise, but the companion of fools will be
  destroyed. (Proverbs 1320 NKJV)
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• 41. The greatest association you can invest in is
  your time with God.
• 42. David's boast and confidence was
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• 1 Sam 1737 - Moreover David said, The Lord, who
  delivered me from the paw of the lion and from
  the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the
  hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David,
  Go, and the Lord be with you! (I Samuel 1737
  NKJV)
• 43. David have seen God do great things through
  him and He is confident that God can still do the
  same no matter what the size of the challenge is.
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DRAW STRENGTH FROM PAST VICTORIES

• 44. Draw strength from the victories of the past.
  Bring to your memories the mountains you have had
  to climb in the pass and they would help you to
  climb the ones in your future
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• 45. It is the principle of God. When God
  delivered the children of Israel from slavery, He
  established the Passover as a feast they must
  observe forever and He told them to always
  remember when He delivered them from Pharaoh and
  brought them out of Egypt.
• 46. When He divided River Jordan, He told them to
  take 12 stones from the midst of the river and
  set it up as a memorial to remember them of when
  they walked through River Jordan.
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• Before David confronted and killed Goliath, he
  recounted how he had killed the lions and the
  bears
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Things to Do

• SET UP MEMORIALS
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• 47. Go home. Get a diary and write out specific
  dates in your life of mountains that you have had
  to climb, situations that looked so impossible
  and you came out from, difficult exams that you
  have passed. Whatever the Lord has helped you to
  achieved. Write them down and remind yourself
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• THERE IS NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE
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• 48. That is why we are blessed. We are never
  alone in the journey of our lives. It's delights
  the heart of God when we attempt the impossible.
  We know there is no impossibility in the
  dictionary of God, so also it must never be in
  our dictionary
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• 49. I have come to realize that something is
  impossible because I believe it is. What I
  believe does not necessary means the truth. It is
  my reality because that is what I believe.
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Things to Do (Contd)

• PREPARATION
• 50. Whatever you are doing now, do it well. It is
  a preparation for the great thing.
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• Ecc 910 - Whatever your hand finds to do, do it
  with your might
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• Colossians 323-24 - And whatever you do, do it
  heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing
  that from the Lord you will receive the reward of
  the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ.
• 51. Moses found himself keeping the sheep of
  Jethro in the wilderness for 40years before he
  led the children of Israel out of Egypt and
  through the wilderness for 40years
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• 52. Before David became king, he led the sheep in
  the wilderness, he led vagabonds and hide in
  cave. He poured himself into the vagabonds and
  they became his mighty men when he later became
  king.
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• 53. Whatever task or assignment you have been
  given, do it with every breath in you.
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• 54. Every assignment is a place of preparation.
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Things to Do (Contd)

• 55. Every customer is a door to many customers.
  Treat them well and they would keep coming back
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• 56. The reward of going to the mountain is so
  great that the price to pay is nothing compare to
  the fulfillment you experienced in actually
  attaining your fullest potentials.
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• 57. Go to the mountain- what are those mountains
  you want to climb. Write them down. Look at them
  everyday. It is the principle of God.
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• 58. Joshua 61 - Now Jericho was securely shut up
  because of the children of Israel none went out,
  and none came in. (Joshua 61 NKJV)
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• 59. I'm sure they looked at the wall and men! No
  way are we going to go in and take this place.
  Joshua, you must be dreaming.
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• 60.  Before the children of Israel entered in
  Jericho, they walked round it 13 times. God made
  them to looked at it and looked at it and looked
  at it.
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• 61. They began to reevaluate the wall. It's not
  really as strong as we think it is. Not really as
  solid as we thought. Look at cracks. God began to
  make the mountain look smaller and smaller and
  smaller until their faith can carry it.
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• 60. So on the 13th times, they shouted. Yes we
  can do it. They believed they can and they did.

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Things to Do (Contd)

• Write down your mountain. Keep looking at it.
  Until it grow smaller. And smaller. And smaller
  and your faith can carry it.
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• 62. Yes you can be great. Yes you can do great
  things

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HYMN IM PRESSING ON

• 1. Im pressing on the upward way,
• New heights Im gaining every day
• Still praying as I onward bound,
• Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
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• 2. Lord, lift me up, and let me stand
• By faith on Canaans tableland
• A higher plane than I have found,
• Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
• 3. My heart has no desire to stay
• Where doubts arise and fears dismay
• Though some may dwell where these abound,
• My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.
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• 4. I want to live above the world,
• Though Satans darts at me are hurled
• For faith has caught the joyful sound,
• The song of saints on higher ground.
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• 5. I want to scale the utmost height
• And catch a gleam of glory bright
• But still Ill pray till rest Ive found,
• Lord, lead me on to higher ground.

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Questions

• for
• Pastor Tutu Sofowora
•  cityofgod.rccg_at_yahoo.com