Out Numbered, Out Resourced, and Out of Options | Jentezen Franklin

♪ ♪

>> Thank you so much

for joining us today.

Many times miracles happen

when we get down to nothing.

When you understand that God

is your source,

nothing is impossible.

I believe this service today,

and what I’m gonna preach

is going to touch you

and build your faith

for the miraculous

provision of God

in your life.

Check this out.

♪ ♪

Go with me to Exodus 14:3,

“For Pharaoh will say

of the children of Israel,

‘They are bewildered

by the land;

and the wilderness

has closed them in.'”

They don’t have any other

place to turn.

Notice Exodus 14:9

“So the Egyptians pursued them,

and all the horses and chariots

of Pharaoh,

his horsemen and his army,

and overtook them camping

by the sea beside Pi Hahiroth,

before Baal Zephon.”

Exodus 14:13: “And Moses said

to the people,

‘Do not be afraid.

Stand still, and see

the salvation of the Lord,

for He will accomplish

for you today.

For the Egyptians whom

you see today, you shall see

again no more forever.

The Lord will fight for you,

and you shall hold your peace.’

And the Lord said to Moses,

‘Why do you cry to Me?

Tell the children of Israel

to go forward.'”

And they did,

and the sea parted.

Now, I wanna preach

to you for a few moments

on what to do when

you are “Outnumbered,

Outresourced, & Out of Options”.

And the Bible said

they were overtaken.

What do you do when you’re

overtaken by your problems?

You’re hemmed in,

and you can’t —

you don’t have any more options.

You’re overtaken,

but you’re not forsaken.

You’re outnumbered,

and you’re out of options.

What do you do?

The option is defined

as being something chosen,

an alternative.

Different pathways

to the same destination.

We are an

option-oriented society.

We need and want options.

If we’re gonna buy a car,

we wanna know the options.

If we’re buying insurance,

we wanna find out the option.

If we have a medical problem,

the first question

we’ll ask the doctor is,

“What do I do about it?

Should I treat

it with medicine?

Should I treat it with surgery?

What are my options here?”

We all want options.

But the word opportunity means

circumstances that are favorable

for a purpose to be

accomplished.

An opportunity means

a good chance

to advance yourself.

A good moment

to accomplish something.

Listen to it one more time.

Opportunity is circumstances

that are favorable

for a purpose

to be accomplished.

And what I want you

to understand is, with God,

when you run out of human

options, you always have hidden,

a divine opportunity.

An opportunity for circumstances

that are favorable

for a purpose

to be accomplished.

When you have no options,

that can become

your divine opportunity.

Sometimes, you run out

of options, but you never run

out of opportunities

to seek God.

Just as Israel had

come out of Egypt,

and they were headed

to the promised land,

God ordained that they encounter

a place where they

were outnumbered,

outresourced, and out of options

and alternatives.

Your enemy, Satan,

delights in shutting down

every option in your life,

so that we concede

and we compromise, and we quit,

and we give up.

But when you run out of options

in any area of your life,

it presents you with

an opportunity to experience

God like you’ve never

experienced Him before.

You may have run out of options,

but somewhere in

your circumstance

is a hidden opportunity

to see God’s power revealed

in your life.

And I believe I’m preaching

to people today

who are like Moses.

You feel like Moses,

and the children of Israel

must have felt,

in some situation.

The Bible said that they had

come to the Red Sea,

it was in front of ’em.

There was a mountain

on the left,

a mountain on the right,

and they turned around,

and there was nothing

but a desert,

and the chariots and army

of Pharaoh, and they were

advancing, and they came

and overtook them.

It’s in that moment you

have no options.

You don’t have any options,

but you have

a divine opportunity.

For it’s in those moments,

when you can’t go forward,

you can’t here, there.

You’ve run out, the doctors

can’t do anything,

the banker can’t do anything,

the lawyer can’t do anything.

Your friends can’t help you.

It’s in those moments that you

start being forced to realize,

“It’s not by might,

it’s not by power,

it’s by My Spirit,”

sayeth the Lord of Hosts.

And you know what?

It’s an opportunity for me

to pray and fast.

It’s an opportunity for me

to go to this Book

and find answers again.

It’s an opportunity for me

to seek the face of God,

and when I don’t have

any visible options,

I always have divine

opportunities.

For He said, “Come boldly before

the throne of grace,

that you might obtain help

in the time of trouble.”

So, listen.

When you have too many options,

you think you don’t

need divine opportunities.

God led Israel into a trap,

not to trap Israel,

but to trap Pharaoh

and his army.

And when God is going to do

something powerful in your life,

the opportunity

will work for you.

Many of you are frustrated,

because you don’t

feel any options.

You turn to the right,

the left, nothing’s opening up.

Nothing’s going on that

you thought would happen.

But when you have options,

you are in control.

But when you run out

of options, God is in control.

And when you reach a point

where you’re being overtaken

by the enemy,

it feels like you are not

forsaken by your God,

and God is about to show Himself

strong on your behalf.

Pharaoh overtook them

by the Red Sea, and this

is the moment where you have

to turn to the Lord.

This is the moment where you

get desperate and say, “God,

I’ve gotta have a miracle.”

A divine opportunity.

That’s what happened to ’em

in Mark 2, when Jesus

was teaching in the synagogue

in Capernaum,

and the Bible said that

the place was so full

that they could not get in.

And four men brought

a sick man on a bed,

and they tried to get

in the back door,

and they couldn’t.

They tried to get in

the windows, and they couldn’t.

They tried to come

the back door, they couldn’t.

The front door, they couldn’t,

and you know what they did?

They tore the roof off,

because when you understand,

I don’t have any options,

but I have a divine opportunity,

that means something,

that means this is

an opportunity

to seek God.

And sometimes, to take advantage

of an opportunity,

you’ve got to look foolish.

Sometimes, you’ve gotta

let somebody lay a hand

on you and anoint you with oil.

Isn’t that crazy?

Sometimes, in order to look —

to take advantage

of an opportunity,

you have to take risks.

You have to override protocol,

and normal,

and you have to say,

“God, I’m desperate for You

and I can’t look to the left

or the right.

I don’t have anybody else

to look to, but to You.”

And God says, “That’s what

I’ve been waiting on.

I’ll turn it into

a divine opportunity.”

You see, when you reach that

point where you’re outnumbered

and outresourced

and out of opportunities,

then you step into the dimension

where God can lead you now.

God can lead you now,

because you’re willing

to be led, because you don’t

have any more options.

Nobody likes to get to the place

where you can’t fix it,

where you don’t have

any more options.

Moses was told by God to tell

the people to go forward.

What do you mean go forward?

There’s a Red Sea.

There’s mountains on the side.

The enemy’s coming,

and You’re telling me

to go forward into an obstacle,

into an impossibility?

How can I do that?

God was saying,

“If you want an answer,

challenge the obstacle.”

If you want an answer,

go forward.

Don’t let the obvious overwhelm

you, but move forward,

and attack your problem.

Walk into it with faith.

Walk into that addiction

and say, “I am coming

against this thing.”

Walk into that situation

that seems impossible,

and just by faith say,

“Here I come, I am not afraid,

I am not fearful, but I stir up

my faith, and I walk by faith,

not by sight.”

You take a chance.

You risk, you even look

foolish at times.

Moses, in that moment,

held the rod out over

the Red Sea, and when he did,

it parted, and they walked

across on dry land,

but it wasn’t until all options

were gone that God turned it

into a divine opportunity.

And when we start talking like

there’s no way out of this,

and I don’t know

what I’m gonna do,

and I can’t fix it, and there’s

no escape, and God’s up in

heaven, going — snickering.

And we make funny statements

like, “It’s so bad that

all we’ve got left is God.”

As though God is not able

to handle your little problem.

The One who spoke the world

into existence,

the One who raised the dead

and walked on the sea,

He is in this room today.

I’m not playing games up here.

And we’re here to declare

that He is a Way Maker,

He’s a Mountain Mover,

He’s a miracle working,

He is a light shining

in the darkness, and nothing

is impossible with Him.

If you believe it,

give Him praise,

all over this place.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

You see, once you stop

looking around,

you’ll start looking up.

And we only look up when

looking around hasn’t worked.

There’s no escape.

We want to escape,

but God wants us to experience.

We want to get out,

but God wants us

to go through.

And when you reach that point,

where you run out of options,

you turn to God.

You wanna know why many people

are not living for God?

Because they’ve got too

many options.

The world offers you options,

but Jesus never gives you

a bunch of options.

He says, “Follow Me,

and I’m not giving you

a road map,

and I’m not giving you

a brochure of what this trip’s

gonna look like.

You follow Me wherever I go.

And if I take you to a valley,

walk in the valley,

and praise Me.

And if I take you through

a fiery furnace or a lion’s den,

trust Me.

And if I take you to a mountain,

praise Me there, too.

But your job is to follow Me,

and believe Me, and trust Me.”

Oh, I feel like shouting

right now.

I’m telling you,

there’s a Miracle Worker in this

place today, His name is Jesus.

And when you’ve got too

many options,

you don’t turn to the Lord.

And I hate to tell somebody,

but you might

run out of options,

because somebody’s

been fasting

and praying for you.

And the party’s gonna dry up,

and the fun is gonna run out,

and you’re gonna hit a place

of desperation,

but praise God,

you’re gonna make the greatest

discovery you’ve ever made,

that Jesus came to give us life,

and life more abundantly,

and you can’t find it sometimes.

Most of us wouldn’t be here

if we hadn’t run out

of options.

These programs we support,

like the Dream Center,

and like New Beginnings,

and all these ministries,

and these homes that we build

for these ladies in our church.

Most of those people in those

addiction programs

wouldn’t be there,

they’re not there

’cause they just really

got hungry for God.

They ran out of options.

They were either going

to prison, or going into

a program where they heard

about Jesus 24 hours a day.

People laid hands on ’em,

and broke the power of Satan

off of ’em,

and restored their families,

and maybe you’re

in an addiction,

maybe you can’t quit the alcohol

and the drugs,

but I serve the One who is able

to set you free, call on Him.

You’ve tried this,

you’ve tried that,

but Jesus is the answer.

You hear me preaching out there,

Jesus is the answer.

Abraham Lincoln said,

“I have often been driven

to my knees by the overwhelming

sense that I have nowhere else

to go but to God.”

And I feel like saying,

move over, Mr. Lincoln.

I’ve been driven to my knees,

and there’s some things

I don’t have the answers for,

and I don’t have

any more options.

All I can do is look to God,

but that’s when

the miracles happen,

when you turn it into

an opportunity to seek

His face.

In 2 Chronicles 20,

Jehoshaphat was completely

invaded, and Israel was

invaded by three

confederated armies.

Three of them got together

to destroy Israel,

and Jehoshaphat.

And the Bible said that God

let him be surrounded.

And they were so desperate

that he makes this confession

in 2 Chronicles 20,

he says, “We have no power,

we have no might against

this great multitude

that is coming against us.

We don’t have any options.

We’re outnumbered.

We’re outresourced.

We’re out of options.

We’re overtaken,

but we’re not forsaken.”

And then, he says this,

“Nor do we know what to do.”

You ever been there?

I can’t turn this way,

that way, this way, or go back.

I don’t know what to do,

but here comes an opportunity:

“But my eyes are upon You.”

God didn’t tell you

to try harder,

to believe for the — He said,

“Just turn your eyes on Me.

Just get your eyes on Me,

because I can do it when

you can’t do it.

I can fix it when you

can’t fix it.

I can’t deliver you when you

can’t deliver you,

and put your eyes on Me.”

And the Bible said that when

they began to fast and pray

for three days, nobody ate.

They didn’t even feed

their animals.

Little Rover didn’t get

his meal, and the little

kitty cat didn’t get its meal.

Nobody got to eat

and the animals didn’t

get to eat for three days.

They put the singers

on the front line,

and they started singing,

“O, God, You’re good,

and Your mercy endures forever.”

And when they did,

God sent angelic forces

into the enemy’s camp,

and destroyed every one

of them, and they saw

a great victory,

but it didn’t happen until

Jehoshaphat was out of options.

What you can’t beat,

God can beat.

And when you run out

of options, it’s an opportunity

for God to show Himself strong.

I may not have any more options,

but watch this.

I’ve got the anointing.

And when you run out

of stuff out here,

that’s when you turn

to what you’ve got in here.

The greater One in here

is more powerful than

the obstacles out here.

And sometimes, we don’t really

look for what’s in here,

and stir it up,

until things are desperate

out here.

I thought about that woman

in Mark 5,

who had the issue of blood,

for 12 years, and the Scripture

said that she had gone

to many physicians,

and she was not better.

They couldn’t help her.

She actually grew worse.

This is running out of options.

Doctor after doctor,

situation after situation,

it grew worse.

But, here comes the opportunity,

when she heard about Jesus,

came behind the crowd,

touched the hem of His garment,

and Jesus stopped, and said,

“Who touched Me?”

And to make a long story short,

the Bible said for virtue

flowed out of Him,

and healed her,

and her blood was dried up

that very moment.

But it did not happen as long

as she had other options.

It only happened when she

was desperate.

I close with this.

But in Luke 15,

the prodigal son,

the Bible said, had spent all.

He went to his father and said,

“Give me my inheritance.”

And the father gave him

his inheritance,

and he went out,

and he spent it all.

And when he had lost all

of his money,

and when he had lost

all of his friends,

and when he was in the pig pen

and the hog trough,

eating from it with the swine,

something hit him,

and he said,

“I’m out of options.

But in my father’s house,

there’s bread enough to spare.

I will arise.”

When did he get that miracle?

When he realized,

that I’m out of options.

I don’t have any friends,

I don’t have any money.

I don’t have any party to go to.

I don’t have nothing,

but a piggy lifestyle.

It’s filthy here,

and I can’t get out,

but I will arise,

and I’ll start moving out,

and when he did,

the father came running.

That’s the power of the gospel.

That’s the power of what

you’re hearing right now.

I thought about Samson.

I thought about how that he

had had his eyes plucked out,

and his head shaven,

and blind and bound in chains.

But something happened.

When they brought him

in to the temple of Dagon,

he said to the little lad,

“Put my hands on the pillars.”

And when he put his hands

on the pillars of the temple,

the Bible said

that power from another world

hit him, and he said,

“God, remember me

one more time.”

And he pushed those pillars,

and when he did, the Scripture

said he destroyed more

in his death than he did —

think about that.

He destroyed more

in that moment, when he had no

other options, than he destroyed

when he had all of his options.

Because what you face

when you run out of options

is a divine opportunity,

and some of you have hit

as low as you can hit.

You’re trying to change,

you want to change,

but you don’t — you’ve tried

this, and tried that,

and you can’t change.

Here’s the answer.

Jesus is the answer.

And if you’re sick,

if you’re diseased,

if you’re infirmed,

if you need provision

and financial mountains to move,

why not look to Him?

Why not say,

“God, I need Your help?”

And get desperate,

and then, move forward.

When you don’t have the answer,

He said, “I want you

to confront the obstacle.”

See it like

the children of Israel,

stepping off the bank

and walking forward into

the issue, into the addiction,

into the sickness,

into the problem, and saying,

“Now, God, I don’t have

any other options but

to trust You, so I’m moving,

I’m not running from it.”

I’m confronting it.

I’m facing the problem,

but I’m focusing on God.

And my eyes are upon You.

♪ ♪

>> It’s such an honor

to be able to come

with these telecasts,

and tell people about

the opportunity they have

to make Jesus Lord and Savior

of their life.

What you just heard

is the truth.

You’ve felt outnumbered,

and outresourced,

and overwhelmed by life,

but God had you tune in.

See, that’s why we call

this program

“Kingdom Connection”,

that we prayed in the vision

when we started many years ago

on television.

It was that God would find

the right people out there,

and He would cause them

to hear the right message

that we were putting out

from right here.

Just ask Him to be your Savior,

ask Him right where you are.

There’s power in that name.

Say, “Jesus save me.

Today, save me.

Forgive me, use me, raise me.

In Jesus’ name.”

We would love to hear from you.

We would love for you to

just really reach out.

I know you maybe have never

done it before,

but there’s a number

on the screen.

There’s a website also

if you’d prefer to go online,

and we would love for you

to reach out to us today.

And it just thrills us

to hear that Jesus has made

a difference in your life.

Thank you.

We look forward to hearing

and we’re praying,

we’re praying for you.

In our closing moments,

I wanna tell you about

an incredible opportunity

we have to provide comfort

to the people in Israel

in the middle of a war zone.

I’ve been there,

I’ve stood there,

and it is both terrifying

and powerful to see people

of faith standing there

defending the holy ground

of Israel.

Thank you for your generous

support over the past two years

in different projects that

we have had going on

that we built in a section

of Israel called Eshkol.

We went and talked

and had conversations.

“What do you need in

this community more than

anything else?”

And this is what they told us;

they told us that we need

these shelters,

these bomb shelters,

and they’re also used for other

purposes, but you know,

they can feed people

during times of major crisis,

and it’s happening almost

on a daily basis.

You don’t see it in the news,

but I’m telling you

that it is.

And right in the beginning

of the new year you can help us

provide comfort

to the nation of Israel,

the people of Israel,

and fulfill Biblical prophesy.

With your help, we’re able

to preach the Gospel,

number one.

That’s our number one goal.

We’ve gotta tell ’em

about Jesus.

We produce inspirational

resources and we go above

and beyond to support

amazing, life-giving,

life-protecting projects

like this one in Israel.

Will you please pray about

what God would have you do

in a brand new year

on a brand new project.

I know, I know that the Lord

will bless people

who bless Israel.

>> ANNOUNCER: Imagine living

under the fear and stress

of constant enemy attack.

Jewish communities bordering

the Gaza strip have 15 seconds

to run for their lives

and to take shelter from

the ceaseless barrage

of rocket attacks.

That 15 seconds is the same

for a toddler,

or a Holocaust survivor.

Now you can be a part

of fulfilling Biblical prophecy

in the Holy Land by comforting

Jewish families living

within range of rocket attacks

and incendiary fire balloons.

With your best gift

to Jentezen Franklin

Media Ministries this month,

you’ll help us go above

and beyond to bring comfort

with grace to help these

precious Jewish families

as we join

with the Jewish National Fund

to help build a fortified

bomb shelter in Moshav Ohad.

This community

is a mile and a half

from the Gaza border,

and children and seniors

will be able to utilize

this safe shelter

when the sirens signal

another attack.

As our thank you

for your gift of $50 or more,

you may request the “Rooted”

bundle today as you give

and experience every good thing

God wants to release

in and through you

this new year.

With your gift of $500 or more,

you may request

the “Rooted” gift set.

You can have a place

to write down everything

God speaks to you and does

in your life

with the Rooted journal.

With your best gift

of $1,000 or more

you can experience

God’s best in your life

with this hand picked

“Rooted” collection.

And to show our thanks,

we’ll plant a tree in Israel

in your honor.

You can be a part of the miracle

of fulfilling prophecy

in the Holy Land,

and bring comfort with grace

to God’s people in Israel today.

♪ ♪

>> Cherise and I

wanna invite you to join us

on our Holy Land Tour.

It’s an amazing trip,

unlike anything

you’ve ever experienced,

and we’ll be on the trip,

we get on the busses,

our family will be on there,

and I promise you,

it will change your life.

And you’ve been

thinking about it,

you’ve been praying about it,

this is the year to go.

God’s gonna open your eyes

to things you’ve never seen

and experienced before

in the holy land.

Get signed up today.

♪ ♪

>> We hope you’ve enjoyed

this teaching

by Jentezen Franklin,

and thank you

for your continued support

of this ministry.

Your prayers

and financial support

make these programs possible.

For more information

about this message,

and other ministry resources,

visit us online

at JentezenFranklin.tv.