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T.D. Jakes God Hasn t Abandoned You FULL SERMON TBN · Healing the Strong Ones: Faith & Purpose

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  Speaker 1: You must understand the joy coexists with suffering, that that
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  Speaker 1: is what the annoyingting is made out of. That it's
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  Speaker 1: made out of crushing and mirror and bitterness and sweetness
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  Speaker 1: and calumbus all mixed together. Then if you took away
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  Speaker 1: the suffering, you wouldn't be annoying it. You have to
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  Speaker 1: understand that God knows what he's doing. Joseph told his
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  Speaker 1: brothers about his dream. You intended to harm me, but
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  Speaker 1: God intended for I. Good reality is either live godly,
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  Speaker 1: shall suffer persecution. And you don't get to pick when
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  Speaker 1: or how or what the suffering is. But it still happens.
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  Speaker 1: I'm building my church. My church is exploding. It's some
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  Speaker 1: twenty years ago. Everything is amazing. I'm reaching around the
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  Speaker 1: world for Jesus' souls are being saved. And then the
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  Speaker 1: bottom dropped out. It started dropping when my mother in
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  Speaker 1: law died, and they kept dropping when my mother developed
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  Speaker 1: Alzheimer's and she died. And there I was preaching and
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  Speaker 1: ministry and helping and even healing to give some healing
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  Speaker 1: operating in my life, couldn't help my own mother, and
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  Speaker 1: she died. And just when I thought I couldn't take
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  Speaker 1: any more. My thirteen year old daughter walks in the
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  Speaker 1: room and tells my wife and I that she's pregnant.
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  Speaker 1: My wife collapsing the floor and all the air goes
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  Speaker 1: out the room. And suddenly I begin to understand that
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  Speaker 1: there are times that crush the human soul, that try
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  Speaker 1: your emotions that are not judgment or penalty or God
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  Speaker 1: being angry or God hating you, but God developing you.
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  Speaker 1: That you don't get everything just because you go to
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  Speaker 1: a class or hear a sermon. You have to live
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  Speaker 1: these sermons out in your life, both the hearer and
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  Speaker 1: the speaker. What gives you the integrity of the messages
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  Speaker 1: and things you suffer behind the scenes, to have the
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  Speaker 1: conviction to be able to declare them, to know that
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  Speaker 1: God has been proven in you. I found myself asking
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  Speaker 1: questions that I'd never asked myself. Where is God? Why
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  Speaker 1: aren't you moving like you moved in the Bible? Move
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  Speaker 1: for me, like you move from Moses and Joshua and
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  Speaker 1: Jacob to me Israel. Move for me. And I had
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  Speaker 1: to seek him, and that's a good thing. I had
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  Speaker 1: to search for him. I had to search my heart
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  Speaker 1: to understand what level of faith do you have. You
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  Speaker 1: don't need to search your heart when everything's going right.
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  Speaker 1: You need to search your heart when all hell is
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  Speaker 1: breaking loose and trouble is everywhere, and you feel deep
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  Speaker 1: down inside like you want to die, and you're asking
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  Speaker 1: questions that you dare not utter aloud let the church
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  Speaker 1: judge you. But in your secretcy, in your private times,
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  Speaker 1: along with God, you said where are you? When are
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  Speaker 1: you coming? When it's a happy ending? And I didn't
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  Speaker 1: understand that tribulation is a part of training, that crushing
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  Speaker 1: and suffering is a part of how God develops us
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  Speaker 1: to become what he wants us to be. I didn't
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  Speaker 1: understand how to recognize him in trouble. But I kept preaching,
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  Speaker 1: and I kept serving, and I kept going on, and
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  Speaker 1: I didn't realize that I was earning my stripes by
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  Speaker 1: my battles. You don't get stripes as a soldier if
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  Speaker 1: you don't get in a fight. They don't give them
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  Speaker 1: to you for longevity or how many years or seniority.
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  Speaker 1: They give you the stripes because of the battles you've
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  Speaker 1: endured and the things you've been through, and the crushing
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  Speaker 1: you've gone through. And you find yourself in any emotional
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  Speaker 1: quick stay and you wonder if you can get out.
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  Speaker 1: Will this be the big one that takes me out?
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  Speaker 1: Will this be the big one that brings me down
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  Speaker 1: to my knees? Will I be able to stand it? Emotionally, mentally, spiritually?
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  Speaker 1: Do I really have what it takes? Or have I
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  Speaker 1: been selling wolf tickets? We would say, wolfing talking talking
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  Speaker 1: at the big gate, saying all this wonderful stuff, and
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  Speaker 1: then when it comes down to trial, does it really
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  Speaker 1: work in your own life? Not understanding that God is
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  Speaker 1: with you in the pain and in the suffering, and
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  Speaker 1: in the trauma and the childhood trauma. When the medical
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  Speaker 1: report comes back bad and the business comes back bad
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  Speaker 1: and you lose a loved one, or you go through
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  Speaker 1: a painful moment in your life, that does not mean
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  Speaker 1: that God has abandoned you. We can sometimes feel aimless
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  Speaker 1: and loss and confused and uncertain and still love God.
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  Speaker 1: We can feel like God has abandoned us. It's okay.
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  Speaker 1: Even Jesus cried out on the cross Eli Lai Lamas
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  Speaker 1: is about that name, my God, my God? Why has
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  Speaker 1: our forsaken me? And if Jesus had a moment like that,
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  Speaker 1: then then we can expect to have moments like that.
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  Speaker 1: I found out that the way God rewards you for
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  Speaker 1: passing the last tests is giving you the next test.
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  Speaker 1: That's promotion, graduation. You kill the lion. Let me see
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  Speaker 1: what you do with the bear. You kill the bear.
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  Speaker 1: Let me introduce you to Caliath that the way into
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  Speaker 1: your destiny is riddled with bloody battles and scars and
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  Speaker 1: bruises and hurts and pain, so that when you get there,
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  Speaker 1: you will stand there and you will endure because you
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  Speaker 1: have been through something. It was fainful, it was tough,
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  Speaker 1: it was crushing, and there were no demons to rebuke
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  Speaker 1: and no witches to rebuke, and no Satan to come
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  Speaker 1: up against. I was in the hands of the potter
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  Speaker 1: and he was pressing in on the clay. I have
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  Speaker 1: come to realize that in life there are seeds, there
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  Speaker 1: are weeds, and the seeds and the weeds come up
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  Speaker 1: at the same time like the weed in the tear.
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  Speaker 1: That you can have good moments and bad moments simultaneously,
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  Speaker 1: to the point that you don't really know how to
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  Speaker 1: enjoy the good moments because you feel the bad. And
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  Speaker 1: I don't know what it is about the human experience,
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  Speaker 1: but our attention seems to be distracted by the pain
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  Speaker 1: we go through, to the point that we ignore the
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  Speaker 1: powerful blessings of God in our life. You'll scroll past
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  Speaker 1: all the good comments on your social media and find
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  Speaker 1: that one bad comment and focus in on that. I'm
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  Speaker 1: a pastor, I'm an author, I'm an evangelist. I've inspired
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  Speaker 1: millions of people around the world as susceptible as anybody
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  Speaker 1: else to life suffering. Nobody gets a past nobody gets
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  Speaker 1: an exemption. I discovered that my authentic experience requires that
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  Speaker 1: I have more than theology, and more than commentary, and
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  Speaker 1: more than rhetoric, and more than analogies and more than artistry.
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  Speaker 1: That it has to come from a deeper place, that
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  Speaker 1: it has to come from a bleeding place. Jesus gives
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  Speaker 1: a parable about the wheat and the tear, And the
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  Speaker 1: most amazing thing about the wheat and the tear is
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  Speaker 1: that they both grew up together simultaneously. And there's not
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  Speaker 1: a person in this room that can't see wheat and
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  Speaker 1: tear coexisting at the same time. And if you remember
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  Speaker 1: the parable, they said, let us go in there and
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  Speaker 1: remove the tear, and Jesus says, leave them alone. Leave
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  Speaker 1: them alone. The weeds have just as much purpose as
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  Speaker 1: the seeds do. Let it all grow up together. Because
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  Speaker 1: Jesus knew that there was nothing in the weeds that
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  Speaker 1: could kill the seeds. And you have to know that
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  Speaker 1: there's nothing in the weeds that will kill the seeds,
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  Speaker 1: even though they're threatening, and even though they're overwhelming, and
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  Speaker 1: sometimes the weeds get so high you can't even see
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  Speaker 1: your own garden. You must understand the joy coexists with suffering,
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  Speaker 1: That that is what the anointing is made out of.
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  Speaker 1: That it's made out of crushing and mirror and bitterness
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  Speaker 1: and sweetness and calumnus all mixed together. That if you
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  Speaker 1: took away the suffering, you wouldn't be annoying. You have
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: to understand that God knows what he's doing. Joseph told
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: his brothers about his dream. You intended to harm me,
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  Speaker 1: but God intended for my good. He allowed you to
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  Speaker 1: betray me for my good. I am stronger because of
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  Speaker 1: your weakness. I am stronger because of your wickedness. I
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  Speaker 1: am stronger because of your strife. You taught me that
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  Speaker 1: I didn't need you to be able to stand. You
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  Speaker 1: taught me that you can't vote on my favor. You
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  Speaker 1: taught me that my glory is not in my coat
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  Speaker 1: of many colors. And so I thank you for hurting me,
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  Speaker 1: and I thank you for crushing me, and I thank
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  Speaker 1: you for crushing my heart, because you know what, I
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  Speaker 1: am broken in all the right places, all the right places,
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  Speaker 1: like a key that unlocks the door. I'm broken just
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  Speaker 1: right to unlock my next dimension of grace. And you
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  Speaker 1: can only have that kind of faith, that kind of knowing,
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  Speaker 1: that kind of reality when you agree with the Apostle
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  Speaker 1: Paul in Romans eight twenty eight when he says that
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  Speaker 1: all things, not just the good things, but all things
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  Speaker 1: work together for the good of them that love the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: who are the called according to his purpose, is working
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  Speaker 1: for you're good when it doesn't feel good, is working
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  Speaker 1: for your good. When tears are running down your face,
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  Speaker 1: it's working for your good. When you're up at three
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  Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, you have to believe that it's
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  Speaker 1: working for your good. You have to understand that a
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  Speaker 1: breadmaker always needs to do, and needing it is what
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  Speaker 1: makes it rise. Pressing it down that's what makes it
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  Speaker 1: goes up. Putting it up under pressure is the reality
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  Speaker 1: that proves that I am called according to his purpose
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  Speaker 1: and not my comfort. I am called according to his
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  Speaker 1: purpose and not your opinion. I am called according to
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  Speaker 1: his purpose and not my convenience. That God didn't come
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  Speaker 1: in my life to secure my convenience. That He comes
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  Speaker 1: into our lives. And often his will is disruptive, and
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  Speaker 1: when it is disruptive, sometimes it feels destructive and you
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  Speaker 1: wonder and you're, oh, my God, are you killing me?
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  Speaker 1: When in fact God is preparing you for something bigger
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  Speaker 1: than yourself, and greater than yourself, and stronger than yourself.
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  Speaker 1: And it may be years before your questions are answered
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  Speaker 1: and you begin to understand why you had to go
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  Speaker 1: through what you had to go through to get to
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  Speaker 1: where you had to get. And in the meantime, that's
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  Speaker 1: where faith operates. Faith stands in the gap between you
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  Speaker 1: understanding and you experiencing. You hold on with all of
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  Speaker 1: your might, and you believe Him in the storm and
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  Speaker 1: the hurricane and the tsunamis of life. I must be
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  Speaker 1: transparent with you because you saw the television, and you
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  Speaker 1: saw the preaching, and you saw the churches grow, and
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  Speaker 1: you saw the crusaders, and you saw the conferences, but
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  Speaker 1: you never saw behind the scenes. It's like going to
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  Speaker 1: a restaurant where all the tablecloths are white and the
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  Speaker 1: candles are lid and everything is beautiful, but you didn't
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  Speaker 1: see the kitchen behind every major moment in my life,
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  Speaker 1: there were periods of stress that I thought would kill me.
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  Speaker 1: To be honest with you, I enjoy my accomplishments more
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  Speaker 1: in retrospect than I did in real time, because while
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  Speaker 1: people were seeing the outside, I was dealing with the kitchen.
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  Speaker 1: While you were eating in the restaurant, I was dealing
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  Speaker 1: with the employee that didn't show up, and the one
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  Speaker 1: who ran off with the money, and the person who quit,
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  Speaker 1: and the person who betrayed me, and the person who
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  Speaker 1: sold me out for thirty pieces of silver. And yet
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  Speaker 1: I had to walk out on the stage and remain
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  Speaker 1: the same. And so do you. You have to walk out.
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  Speaker 1: You have to work. Welcome to Jays Pennis. You have
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  Speaker 1: to do what you have to do. You have to
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  Speaker 1: do what you have to do. You cannot allow how
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  Speaker 1: you feel to dictate how you respond. When you begin
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  Speaker 1: to understand, you begin to understand that you're the greatest
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  Speaker 1: successes are riddled with periods of stress. They go together,
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  Speaker 1: and if the enemy could, he would break you with
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  Speaker 1: the stress. But endure the stress because it means success
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  Speaker 1: is on the other side. Jesus said that he despised
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  Speaker 1: the shame of the cross, the humiliation, the pain, the degradation,
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  Speaker 1: the destruction, But he looked behind it and said, but
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  Speaker 1: for the joy that was set before him, he endured
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  Speaker 1: the shame of the cross. And you have to begin
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  Speaker 1: to realize that these crushing moments are a sign that
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  Speaker 1: God is about to do something amazing in your life.
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  Speaker 1: You have to understand that the greater, the more intense
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  Speaker 1: the labor pain, the closer the baby is to coming.
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  Speaker 1: And you can't have the baby without the pain. But
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  Speaker 1: no mother wants a baby is born, focuses on the pain.
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  Speaker 1: She focuses on what comes out of it. And I
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  Speaker 1: am telling you success and stress cannot exist without each other,
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  Speaker 1: no more than babies can come without labor, no more
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  Speaker 1: that clouds can come without rain. Combined, they help us
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  Speaker 1: to reach our full potential, to bring us into our
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  Speaker 1: destiny and into our purpose. The path to progress takes
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  Speaker 1: wild detours and breakdowns and unplanned stops and oil leaks
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  Speaker 1: and running out of gas and trouble everywhere, and a
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  Speaker 1: fender bender and the crisis and pull over to the
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  Speaker 1: side of the road. But that's part of the trip.
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  Speaker 1: We feel the anxiety, we feel afread, we feel loss,
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  Speaker 1: we feel, we feel, we feel. But we cannot go
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  Speaker 1: by how we feel. We must go by what we know.
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  Speaker 1: We must go by what we believe. And we believe
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  Speaker 1: that God is with us, even though we can't see,
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes he doesn't hold our hand like we want
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  Speaker 1: to feel him holding our hand, but we have to
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  Speaker 1: know that he is. There. Is there more to our
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  Speaker 1: suffering than what we can see. Absolutely, absolutely, the very
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  Speaker 1: emblem of our faith is a suffering savior. We don't
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  Speaker 1: wear crowns around our neck to depict our faith. We
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  Speaker 1: don't have a throne around our neck as an emblem
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  Speaker 1: of our faith. The emblem of the Christian faith is
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  Speaker 1: a bloody Savior stretched right and hung high on a cross,
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  Speaker 1: an old, rugged cross. That's a big clue. When Jesus says,
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  Speaker 1: follow me, take up your cross and follow me, he's
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  Speaker 1: not joking that somewhere, sooner or later, you're going to
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  Speaker 1: go through something that crushes you, and he knows exactly
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  Speaker 1: where to hit you to get the oil out of you.
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  Speaker 1: He knows exactly what it takes. He knows he especially
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  Speaker 1: designed tool just for you, something that wouldn't bother anybody else.
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  Speaker 1: But he knows exactly what it takes to bring you
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  Speaker 1: to the point that you begin to secrete the glory
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  Speaker 1: of God and the anointing of God. He knows how
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  Speaker 1: to do it. This is crushing. This is crushing. This
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  Speaker 1: is pain with a purpose. This is understanding that God
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  Speaker 1: has a future for you. And this is how you
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  Speaker 1: begin to understand that He is the master ventor, that
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  Speaker 1: as a ventnor, he controls the pressure to accomplish what
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  Speaker 1: he wants done, that he is sovereign, that he is absolute,
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  Speaker 1: that he is reigning, that he is in full control.
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  Speaker 1: And the only way that you can withstand the crushing
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  Speaker 1: is to trust the hand that does it. It's not
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  Speaker 1: that you like the pain, it's not that you're even
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  Speaker 1: sure you're going to survive until you know that God
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  Speaker 1: loves you too much to kill you in the process.
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  Speaker 1: You can't praise him in the process, but we praise
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  Speaker 1: Him in the process because of the hand that is
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  Speaker 1: applying the pressure. Is not any enemy that's gone wild
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  Speaker 1: in my life, but a God that monitors how much
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  Speaker 1: I can bear, and skillfully with the skill and the
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  Speaker 1: artistry of a surgeon. His precision is so absolute that
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  Speaker 1: he knows exactly where to cut and exactly where to
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  Speaker 1: push to get what he wants to get out of
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  Speaker 1: your life. And he is a master. He is a master.
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  Speaker 1: Vinor