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Selective Service - Bishop T.D. Jakes · Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE

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Speaker 1: If you are coming and you're registered, if you aren't coming,
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Speaker 1: you're going to miss an amazing gathering, a very eclectic
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Speaker 1: gathering of bright, brilliant, anointed, gifted people who work in ministry, marketplace,
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Speaker 1: and mission fields and do it in the spirit of excellence.
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Speaker 1: And you're always saying you want to be mentored, and
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Speaker 1: when there's a chance to be mentored, you don't take it.
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Speaker 1: This is your opportunity to be mentored, to hear somebody
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Speaker 1: tell how they got where they got and leave. Let
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Speaker 1: me tell you something. Success leaves breadcrumbs. Yeah. Why just
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Speaker 1: wander into it when you can just follow the trail
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Speaker 1: and get in the pathway and follow the footsteps of
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Speaker 1: somebody else? It's not going to be easy. It's not
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Speaker 1: going to be easy as dreaming about it. Dreaming about
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Speaker 1: it and being about it is two different things. But
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Speaker 1: I want you to register, sign up quickly and immediately
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Speaker 1: to make sure that you get a seat in the house.
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Speaker 1: We could have it here, but we had it downtown
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Speaker 1: so you could be close to the hotels. If you
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Speaker 1: go online and register online for hotels, maybe you've got
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Speaker 1: a seat, but if you don't have a room, the
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Speaker 1: conference goes better when you're not sleeping in your car.
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Speaker 1: So go on our website and get your hotel rooms
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Speaker 1: as quickly as you can so that you can be
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Speaker 1: a part of this extravaganza. It's going to be a
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Speaker 1: unique experience and we want you to be included in it.
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Speaker 1: Why don't you make it a gift to your pastor,
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Speaker 1: to your leader, to your choir director, to your department head,
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Speaker 1: to the people in your company. to the staff that
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Speaker 1: you're trying to get to catch a vision that they
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Speaker 1: don't seem to be able to catch. Why don't you
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Speaker 1: make it a gift to them and sow something into them?
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Speaker 1: I found out you can't get people to sow into
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Speaker 1: you if you don't sow into them. Come on, come on,
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Speaker 1: come on. Talk to me, somebody. Talk to me, somebody.
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Speaker 1: I want you to be a part of that and
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Speaker 1: do not miss it. God has some great things in
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Speaker 1: store for you. In the gospel of St. Mark, Chapter
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Speaker 1: number 15, verse 9 through 21. You will find my
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Speaker 1: assignment this morning. There are many things that I want
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Speaker 1: you to consider before I delve into this text. It's
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Speaker 1: the globalness of God himself. A lot of times when
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Speaker 1: we approach scriptures, we approach them either from a Judeo
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Speaker 1: Old Testament understanding of scripture or or a Christian New
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Speaker 1: Testament understanding of scripture. But in our mind, we envision
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Speaker 1: what we have seen. So we make the Bible American
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Speaker 1: if we're from America. We make it from a Spanish-speaking
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Speaker 1: country if we're from Spain. We make it African if
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Speaker 1: we're from an African perspective, but the Bible is so
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Speaker 1: knit that carefully studied and weaved, God has included all
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Speaker 1: of us. It did not say that God so loved
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Speaker 1: the church. It said God so loved the world that
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Speaker 1: he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on
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Speaker 1: him should not perish, but have. as a possession right now,
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Speaker 1: not hope for, but have eternal life. You think you're
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Speaker 1: gonna get eternal life, no. You have eternal life. And
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Speaker 1: the reason it said God so loved the world It's
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Speaker 1: because it also says it is not God's will that
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Speaker 1: any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
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Speaker 1: So he had to pay enough, die enough, bleed enough,
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Speaker 1: suffer enough to be efficacious in his blood, enough to
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Speaker 1: be inclusive to invite the whole world into his experience.
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Speaker 1: But because we learn about God through movies and television
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Speaker 1: and Sunday school books, we have certain images of what occurred,
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Speaker 1: but your image is not as broad as your God. Okay?
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Speaker 1: Your God is broader than that. In the tapestry of
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Speaker 1: his history. in the study of his lineage. He includes
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Speaker 1: people of different backgrounds and ethnicities and types and different
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Speaker 1: moral makeup and complexities. He includes Rahab the harlot, Ruth
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Speaker 1: the Moabitess. I mean, Jesus claims these people as his great, great, great, great, great,
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Speaker 1: great ancestors. These people that some of you wouldn't eat
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Speaker 1: with We're in the lineage of Jesus Christ. So I
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Speaker 1: want you to think globally and I want to really
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Speaker 1: focus into it. It's Black History Month, but I want
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Speaker 1: to focus into this understanding that this is not something
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Speaker 1: that has been passed on to us. No, it is
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Speaker 1: not something that has been given to us through our
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Speaker 1: understanding of history. We were always in the tapestry as
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Speaker 1: well as everybody else. That's why we can have white
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Speaker 1: folks and black folks and brown folks all dancing and
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Speaker 1: shouting together. Because whether you are black, white, or brown,
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Speaker 1: we're dancing about the red. Y'all didn't hear what I'm saying.
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Speaker 1: We're dancing about the red, the red, the blood, the blood,
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Speaker 1: the blood, the blood, the blood. It wasn't a special
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Speaker 1: blood for a special people. It was enough blood to
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Speaker 1: save us all. So we are jumping into this at
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Speaker 1: a stress point, a stress point. We're jumping into this
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Speaker 1: story at a time of great derision and adversity. Jesus
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Speaker 1: has been passed from judgment hall to judgment hall. He
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Speaker 1: has faced all kinds of adversity. He has been beaten
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Speaker 1: with a cat of nine tails. He has been scourged
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Speaker 1: sorely to the point that Isaiah says his entrails were
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Speaker 1: hanging out. Not just back scarred and beaten, but his
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Speaker 1: entrails would be his guts were peeking out through the
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Speaker 1: lacerations in his skin. And in this state, this state
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Speaker 1: of adversity, this state of debauchery, this state of decadence,
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Speaker 1: this state of humiliation, he is paraded down the street
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Speaker 1: front of the crowd of people who were and were
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Speaker 1: not interested in him at all. I do not want
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Speaker 1: you to think that the 5,000 people who ate the
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Speaker 1: fish and bread were there. I do not want you
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Speaker 1: to think that the woman with the issue of blood
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Speaker 1: was there. I do not want you to think that
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Speaker 1: the 10 lepers were there. For the most part, Jerusalem
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Speaker 1: was the place where they came to do business. It
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Speaker 1: just so happened on this particular day, they came to
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Speaker 1: do business at a time that the scourge, beaten, bloody,
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Speaker 1: lacerated body of Jesus Christ has been put on Della
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Speaker 1: Rosa on the cobblestone streets of Jerusalem to carry a
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Speaker 1: wooden cross on a bloody back. Now, Pilate is in
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Speaker 1: a dilemma because he has to execute a sentence on
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Speaker 1: Jesus that his wife has warned him in a dream
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Speaker 1: might be to his detriment. Amen. So not willing as
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Speaker 1: a politician to take responsibility for being the one who
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Speaker 1: executed Jesus, he now brings Jesus out before the people
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Speaker 1: and gives them the choice. Do you want Barabbas or
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Speaker 1: do you want Jesus? Because the priests knew that the
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Speaker 1: people would get to make the decision, they had campaigned
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Speaker 1: against Jesus. Okay, this is the underbelly of the text. Okay,
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Speaker 1: are you ready? Let's go into it. But Pilate answered
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Speaker 1: them saying, will ye that I release unto you the
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Speaker 1: king of the Jews? For he knew that the chief
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Speaker 1: priests had delivered him for envy. So he's kind of
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Speaker 1: jesting when he called him the king of the Jews.
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Speaker 1: He's making fun. When you're anointed, people will make... They
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Speaker 1: will mock you. They will mock you. That's why you
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Speaker 1: got to get your feelings out of people. Because you
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Speaker 1: don't always get support from the place you sowed it.
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Speaker 1: It is possible to sow it over here and reap
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Speaker 1: it over there. But the chief priest moved the people
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Speaker 1: that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. They're playing games.
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Speaker 1: And Pilate answered and said again unto them, what will
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Speaker 1: ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye
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Speaker 1: call the king of the Jews? Whom ye call, look
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Speaker 1: at how he's modified it. Whom ye call the king
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Speaker 1: of the Jews. He had to be careful now because
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Speaker 1: he does not want to offend Caesar because Jerusalem has
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Speaker 1: become an outpost of Rome. As Rome has taken over
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Speaker 1: various territories, including the Middle East and various parts of
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Speaker 1: Northern Africa, the Roman Empire has grown. And they cried
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Speaker 1: out again, crucify him. Then Pilate said unto them, why,
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Speaker 1: what evil have he done? And they couldn't answer that.
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Speaker 1: So they cried out the more exceedingly. crucify him. And
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Speaker 1: so Pilate willing to content the people released Barabbas the
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Speaker 1: thief unto them and delivered Jesus when he had scourged him,
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Speaker 1: beaten him, demanded that he be whipped to be crucified.
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Speaker 1: And the soldiers led him away from the hall called Praetorium,
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Speaker 1: and they called together the whole band. They clothed him
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Speaker 1: with purple and planted a crown of thorns and put
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Speaker 1: it about his head. Now, nobody asked him to do that.
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Speaker 1: They're just adding insult to injury. It's not because they
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Speaker 1: adore him. And began to salute him. Hail, king of
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Speaker 1: the Jews. Be careful of people who say the right
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Speaker 1: thing for the wrong reason. I'm preaching already. And they
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Speaker 1: smote him on the head with a reed and did
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Speaker 1: spit upon him. And bowing their knees, they worshiped him,
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Speaker 1: but not really. How many not really people do you
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Speaker 1: have in your life? Who are going through the motions?
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Speaker 1: Let me get back to you. And when they had
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Speaker 1: mocked him, they took off the purple from him and
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Speaker 1: put his own clothes on him and led him out
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Speaker 1: to crucify him. And they compel one Simon, a Cyrenian,
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Speaker 1: who passed by coming out of the country, the father. Now,
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Speaker 1: let me go back because I want you to focus in.
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Speaker 1: And they compel one Simon, a Cyrenian, who passed by
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Speaker 1: coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus,
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Speaker 1: to bear his cross. My subject this morning is selective service.
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Speaker 1: Selective service. Now the people over 40, they're hollering amen
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Speaker 1: because they know what selective service means. But I'm going
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Speaker 1: to make it plain for everybody. Spirit of the living
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Speaker 1: God falls fresh on your word today. and let it
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Speaker 1: bring forth fruit in our lives. Open our minds and
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Speaker 1: our thinking and our understanding that we might be able
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Speaker 1: to behold your wondrous grace, your splendiferous ability to step
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Speaker 1: into our lives and do things that transcend human comprehension.
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Speaker 1: Great God that you are, I trust you to have
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Speaker 1: your way in this place. You are sovereign. You are Yahweh.
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Speaker 1: You are omnipotent and omnipresent and omniscient. manifest your glory
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Speaker 1: in this place I ask you in the name of
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Speaker 1: Jesus we pray amen you may be seated now the
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Speaker 1: term selective service may not be familiar to you if
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Speaker 1: you're a young person that's not a bad thing there's
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Speaker 1: a lot of things that you all know about that
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Speaker 1: we don't know about but we know about this selective
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Speaker 1: service was noted on the top of what we call
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Speaker 1: draft cards Back when I was a young man, teenager
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Speaker 1: or so, everybody was issued a selective service card, every
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Speaker 1: male at a certain age, because you were eligible to
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Speaker 1: be drafted. Drafting was often the way that men entered
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Speaker 1: into the Vietnam War. So we were born in war.
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Speaker 1: That's something you have to understand about boomers. We were
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Speaker 1: born in war. We were born in conflict. We were
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Speaker 1: not born in peace. When you are born in strife,
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Speaker 1: you have a different kind of resilience and a different
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Speaker 1: perspective because that was your normal. Not the strife. Now,
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Speaker 1: you had wars too, but they didn't show you the
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Speaker 1: bodies like they showed us. Do you remember the bodies?
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Speaker 1: How they would show you now they don't allow the
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Speaker 1: media to cover the bodies coming off because America doesn't
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Speaker 1: have the stomach for war. We talk about war from
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Speaker 1: a budgetary perspective. We don't talk about war from the
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Speaker 1: human capital that war costs. But we came up in
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Speaker 1: a generation that the human capital was always in front
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Speaker 1: of us. And so you had to have a certain
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Speaker 1: resilience to stress because you were surrounded by that between
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Speaker 1: civil rights and the dogs biting and barking and the
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Speaker 1: hoses turned on. That was the normative of the day.
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Speaker 1: So we don't respond to trouble the way you understand
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Speaker 1: because some of you were raised in peace. The draft
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Speaker 1: also known as conscription has been used in the United
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Speaker 1: States during several periods of history. This was not just
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Speaker 1: common during the Vietnam War. It goes all the way
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Speaker 1: back to the Civil War in 1863 to 1865 was
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Speaker 1: when the draft was instituted. The draft meant whether you
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Speaker 1: want to go or not. If you were drafted, you
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Speaker 1: had to go. They reinstated it in World War I
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Speaker 1: and they reinstated it again in World War II from
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Speaker 1: 1940 to 1947. They continued this method and it's only
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Speaker 1: in recent years that they have moved away from it
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Speaker 1: All the way through 1943, 1945, they continued down the
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Speaker 1: same path of drafting people into the war. In fact,
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Speaker 1: I believe shortly after the Vietnam War, they started moving
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Speaker 1: away from that technique. At the top of your draft card,
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Speaker 1: it would say selective service system. Selective service. You've been
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Speaker 1: selected to serve. You've been chosen To serve. So you
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Speaker 1: must understand while the draft has existed for about 20
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Speaker 1: years or so, it was interspersed between conflict. First there was,
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Speaker 1: and then there wasn't. And then there was, and then
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Speaker 1: there wasn't. In other words, you could be going about
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Speaker 1: your daily life, doing your own business, going to school,
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Speaker 1: taking classes, and all of a sudden get a selective
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Speaker 1: service card and you have been drafted. It's a funny thing,
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Speaker 1: but it's true anyhow. We have to understand that this
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Speaker 1: was the way that they kept the army base full
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Speaker 1: because we were more proficient at human capital and war
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Speaker 1: on the ground than we were airstrikes. We had the
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Speaker 1: Navy by water. We had the aircraft, but a lot
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Speaker 1: of wars were fought on the ground. Okay. One of
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Speaker 1: the reasons that we have so much population in the
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Speaker 1: world today is that we have less conflict. Less conflict
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Speaker 1: means more people. More people means more crowds. More crowds
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Speaker 1: means more housing. More housing means more jobs. And so
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Speaker 1: some of the benefits of us becoming a little more civilized,
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Speaker 1: not civilized, but a little more civilized has resulted in
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Speaker 1: having more people. So we get to have kiddie problems.
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Speaker 1: We argue about things that we didn't get to argue
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Speaker 1: about in the 60s because we had bigger problems. Small
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Speaker 1: arguments are for people who don't have big problems. Have
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Speaker 1: you ever had a problem and then another problem came
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Speaker 1: along and made the other problem seem irrelevant? You were
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Speaker 1: worried to death because you were behind on your mortgage
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Speaker 1: and then you found out that your spouse had cancer.
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Speaker 1: And all of a sudden you said, I don't care
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Speaker 1: about the mortgage. I don't care where we stay. I
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Speaker 1: don't care where we live. Because real trouble will make
19:37
Speaker 1: you recalibrate what a problem is. Now, the people who
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Speaker 1: are clapping are people who had real trouble. Real trouble
19:47
Speaker 1: will come into your life. You get a call and
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Speaker 1: say your mom and dead and all of a sudden
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Speaker 1: it doesn't matter that your wife is overweight. Y'all just
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Speaker 1: had a big argument. I know you're not going to
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Speaker 1: eat a Frosty. I bought you a treadmill for Christmas.
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Speaker 1: There you are slurping up an old Frosty on me.
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Speaker 1: And then you get a text and say your mama
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Speaker 1: passed away and now you got a Frosty. Now, I
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Speaker 1: escaped the draft. I was not a draft dodger. It
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Speaker 1: just so happened that by the time I became eligible
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Speaker 1: to be drafted, they had cut the draft off. And
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Speaker 1: I didn't have to go through that. But my brother
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Speaker 1: went through the draft, okay? He went through the process.
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Speaker 1: He didn't go to war, didn't go to battle because
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Speaker 1: for health reasons, he was rejected from having to fight.
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Speaker 1: But he had a selective service card. And the reason
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Speaker 1: I remember it so well is because I used to
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Speaker 1: borrow it. Well, don't judge me. I'm seven years younger
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Speaker 1: than him, but I grew fast. So when I was 13,
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Speaker 1: I was about six feet tall at 13, but I
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Speaker 1: looked old enough to be drafted. I had my brother
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Speaker 1: down the house the other day and he took a picture,
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Speaker 1: put it up on the screen. He took a picture posing. Yeah. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: That's my one and only brother. in the world, Ernest.
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Speaker 1: I hope he's not watching right now, because I'm not
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Speaker 1: sure that he knows that I used to take his
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Speaker 1: Selective Service card. I'm not sure, we never really talked
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Speaker 1: about it, but I borrowed it a few times to
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Speaker 1: get into places that I shouldn't have got into. to
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Speaker 1: buy things that I wasn't supposed to buy and do
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Speaker 1: things I wasn't supposed to do. They say, are you
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Speaker 1: old enough? What about the selective service card? And I
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Speaker 1: was as tall as he was then, and so I
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Speaker 1: fit the description. I had the profile, but I was
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Speaker 1: not of age. Selective service. Drafted. Drafted. Drafted is a
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Speaker 1: term that we use in the country, in the streets,
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Speaker 1: Selective service is what we use in the government. And
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Speaker 1: from a theological perspective, we would use a term called chosen.
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Speaker 1: To be chosen is to be drafted. Yeah. Means I
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Speaker 1: didn't ask for it. I wasn't seeking it. This is
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Speaker 1: not an answer to prayer. I have been selected. I
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Speaker 1: have been chosen. I have been chosen. And when we
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Speaker 1: think about chosen, it sounds so good, it's easy to
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Speaker 1: preach about. I am chosen. I am the Lord's chosen.
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Speaker 1: It sounds real good and pompous. It sounds just as
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Speaker 1: prestigious as the scarlet robe they put on Jesus and
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Speaker 1: called him king of the Jews. But in reality, Chosen
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Speaker 1: is not always fun. The reality is many times in
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Speaker 1: the Bible when you were chosen, you were chosen for struggle,
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Speaker 1: for strife, for resistance, for obstacles. And while it was
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Speaker 1: difficult to be chosen, it also was a compliment that
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Speaker 1: God thought you were worthy Enough to choose you. Somebody say,
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Speaker 1: I have been chosen. Now, yeah, yeah, you didn't say
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Speaker 1: it with much luster. Yeah, I understand. That's okay. That's okay.
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Speaker 1: I'm not going to have you say it over. Yeah, yeah.
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Speaker 1: I have been chosen. A lot of the things that
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Speaker 1: we are praying against, we have been chosen to deal with.
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Speaker 1: Let me prove this chosen thing. Jesus says, ye have
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Speaker 1: not chosen me, but I have chosen you. I know
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Speaker 1: it was you that walked up the aisle with tears
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Speaker 1: running down your face and you knelt at the altar
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Speaker 1: and you gave your life to Christ, but the only
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Speaker 1: reason you had the tears running down your face is
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Speaker 1: because I convicted you, I chose you, I drew you,
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Speaker 1: I pulled you, and now you say you chose me,
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Speaker 1: but in reality, I chose you. God chooses people. He
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Speaker 1: doesn't get them to vote. He doesn't get them to
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Speaker 1: have a say in the matter. He just simply chooses
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Speaker 1: them to play certain roles in life at a particular time.
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Speaker 1: And he doesn't always announce to you that you are chosen.
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Speaker 1: For example, with Jeremiah, who was trying to resist the call. Jesus,
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Speaker 1: the Bible said, before I formed thee in the belly,
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Speaker 1: I knew thee, I ordained thee, and I sanctified thee.
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Speaker 1: You don't get no choice in this. You're going to
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Speaker 1: be a prophet. Amen. You're going to be a prophet
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Speaker 1: to the nations and you shall go to all that
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Speaker 1: I shall send you. Say not that you cannot go,
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Speaker 1: that you are a child because I have chosen you.
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Speaker 1: There are people in this room that don't understand their
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Speaker 1: lives because you find yourself in a situation that you
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Speaker 1: didn't pick, that you didn't want, that you didn't choose,
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Speaker 1: that you didn't desire, that you didn't pray for. You
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Speaker 1: was praying for something way over here and God put
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Speaker 1: you way over here and you don't understand why. Look,
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Speaker 1: for example, the Bible said when the sons of God
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Speaker 1: came around the throne, among them also came Lucifer and
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Speaker 1: God said to him, where have you been? He said,
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Speaker 1: I've been going to and fro and up and down
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Speaker 1: throughout the earth. seeking whom I may devour. And God said,
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Speaker 1: have you considered my servant Job? And you know how
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Speaker 1: that story went. Have you considered my servant Job? He said,
26:22
Speaker 1: you know I can't do anything with Job because you've
26:25
Speaker 1: got a hedge all around him. Glory to God. That's
26:29
Speaker 1: why people who aren't going through shouldn't talk about people
26:33
Speaker 1: who are going through. Because the only reason you're not
26:39
Speaker 1: going through is that God has a hedge all around you.
26:43
Speaker 1: Satan says, if you remove the hedge from around him,
26:47
Speaker 1: I will make him curse you to your face. And
26:52
Speaker 1: God said, I will move the hedge from around everything,
26:55
Speaker 1: but from around his soul. Now you can attack him,
27:00
Speaker 1: but it's his decision how he responds to the attack.
27:04
Speaker 1: Job is a righteous and an upright man. Just because
27:09
Speaker 1: you're righteous and upright doesn't mean you don't go through trouble,
27:12
Speaker 1: but it does mean that you get to choose how
27:16
Speaker 1: you respond to the trouble that you're in. Are you
27:19
Speaker 1: hearing what I'm saying? Or Joseph was chosen. He didn't
27:24
Speaker 1: ask his father Jacob to make a coat of many
27:27
Speaker 1: colors and to put it on him. But the father
27:30
Speaker 1: made a coat of many colors and put it on
27:32
Speaker 1: him and it was thrust upon him. He didn't even
27:35
Speaker 1: know to hide that he was chosen. He told his
27:38
Speaker 1: brothers that he had a dream and told them his
27:41
Speaker 1: dream and expected them to be glad. This is the
27:44
Speaker 1: funny part for me because sometimes God can bless you
27:48
Speaker 1: and you can expect people to be glad for you.
27:51
Speaker 1: And the very people that you told thinking they would
27:53
Speaker 1: be glad for you secretly despise you because they are
27:58
Speaker 1: envious of the choice whereby you have been chosen. I
28:01
Speaker 1: just need 10 witnesses if I could get 10 witnesses.
28:10
Speaker 1: Joseph was chosen. He was chosen. He was chosen. He
28:14
Speaker 1: was actually chosen ultimately to be the prince of Egypt.
28:18
Speaker 1: But in between, he gets thrown into a pit He
28:24
Speaker 1: gets lied on at Potiphar's house. He gets cast into jail.
28:29
Speaker 1: Isn't it amazing how much stuff can get in the
28:31
Speaker 1: way of your destiny in between you and your destiny?
28:35
Speaker 1: Can you imagine Joseph sitting in the pit at the
28:39
Speaker 1: bottom of a well, in a dry well, and they're
28:43
Speaker 1: lying on him and saying that he is dead and
28:47
Speaker 1: they have taken the coat of many colors that he
28:49
Speaker 1: was so proud of smeared it with blood and brought
28:52
Speaker 1: it back as evidence that he was dead and Joseph
28:55
Speaker 1: said how can I be favored and be in this
28:58
Speaker 1: condition there are some of you that are going through
29:00
Speaker 1: some things right now that you say how can I
29:03
Speaker 1: be favored and be going through what I'm going through
29:06
Speaker 1: you don't understand that this is just a step in
29:09
Speaker 1: the process of God moving you into the place that
29:13
Speaker 1: he's got to move you to show forth glory in
29:16
Speaker 1: your life and he showed you the coat but he
29:19
Speaker 1: didn't show you the pit He showed you the palace,
29:23
Speaker 1: but he didn't show you Potiphar's house. He showed you
29:26
Speaker 1: you would be exalted, but he didn't show you you'd
29:29
Speaker 1: be fired first. He showed you in a big house,
29:32
Speaker 1: but he didn't show you you were going to be
29:34
Speaker 1: homeless first. But you have been chosen. Talk back to
29:38
Speaker 1: me and say, I've been chosen. David was chosen. David
29:43
Speaker 1: was chosen of God. He was chosen by Samuel to
29:47
Speaker 1: be the king of Israel. And Samuel had anointed him
29:51
Speaker 1: with oil, preparing him to be king, but sending him
29:54
Speaker 1: back to take care of sheep. Can you be great
30:00
Speaker 1: and still do menial tasks? Part of his testing was,
30:06
Speaker 1: can you be anointed to be king and go back
30:08
Speaker 1: and shovel sheep dung? This is a test of your character.
30:13
Speaker 1: This is a test of your humility. This is a
30:16
Speaker 1: test of your patience. Timing is everything. Division is for
30:22
Speaker 1: an appointed time. In the end, it will speak and
30:25
Speaker 1: not lie. God may not give you the details, but
30:29
Speaker 1: when it's all over, everything's going to be all right
30:32
Speaker 1: because you have been chosen. You have been chosen to
30:36
Speaker 1: be a delivery boy, a Uber driver, Uber Eats driver.
30:42
Speaker 1: David did not know when he went down to the
30:45
Speaker 1: field to bring lunch to his brothers who were enlisted
30:50
Speaker 1: in the service that this was going to be the
30:53
Speaker 1: moment in his life that he was chosen. All he
30:56
Speaker 1: knew was when he got down there with the lunch,
31:00
Speaker 1: he ran into an incident that he was not expecting.
31:03
Speaker 1: And that incident defined the fact that he was chosen.
31:10
Speaker 1: You know you're chosen by the level of trouble If
31:20
Speaker 1: a kitty cat scratches you, you might not be chosen.
31:24
Speaker 1: But if a lion comes after you, it's a sign
31:27
Speaker 1: you're chosen. The devil wouldn't attack you like he's attacking
31:31
Speaker 1: you if he didn't have something awesome to do in
31:35
Speaker 1: your life. David did not wake up that morning and said,
31:38
Speaker 1: I feel like fighting a giant. I feel like fighting
31:40
Speaker 1: a giant. I feel like taking my slingshot and going
31:43
Speaker 1: down there and running out in the field and seeing,
31:46
Speaker 1: telling a giant, what do you have? No, David was
31:49
Speaker 1: packing lunch to bring food to his brethren who were
31:53
Speaker 1: in a fight. It wasn't even his fight. I want
31:58
Speaker 1: to talk to some people that are fighting things that
32:01
Speaker 1: aren't even your fight. You just got drafted. You just
32:06
Speaker 1: married into a fight. You just got hired into a fight.
32:13
Speaker 1: You stepped into a situation. Here you are just whistling
32:17
Speaker 1: and skipping and going down there to bring them some
32:20
Speaker 1: lunch so they can get something to eat, never knowing
32:23
Speaker 1: that this is the day that you're going to have
32:26
Speaker 1: to use your weapons in a way you never had
32:29
Speaker 1: to use them before because you have been chosen for
32:33
Speaker 1: a fight. Nobody could beat Goliath but David. None of
32:37
Speaker 1: Saul's army could beat Goliath but David. Nobody could defeat him,
32:41
Speaker 1: not with swords, not with chariots, not with fire, not
32:46
Speaker 1: with any kind of weaponry, but David could defeat him
32:49
Speaker 1: because he was chosen. Look at somebody and say, I'm chosen. Yeah,
32:54
Speaker 1: you're getting a little bit better with it now. You're
32:55
Speaker 1: getting a little bit better with it. It's coming on.
32:57
Speaker 1: I'm chosen for this fight. I'm chosen for this giant.
33:01
Speaker 1: I'm chosen for this person. I'm chosen to raise this child.
33:05
Speaker 1: I'm chosen to do this job. I'm chosen to function
33:09
Speaker 1: in this office. The safest place for me to be
33:13
Speaker 1: is in the will of God. I'm in the right
33:15
Speaker 1: place at the right time doing the right thing and
33:19
Speaker 1: I don't have to find my giant my giant will
33:23
Speaker 1: find me. I think that David should send Goliath roses
33:36
Speaker 1: because Goliath put David on the map. If Goliath had
33:41
Speaker 1: not been there, Saul would not have noticed him. He
33:45
Speaker 1: would have never been invited into the palace. But sometimes
33:48
Speaker 1: God allows you to go through trouble because trouble becomes
33:52
Speaker 1: a stage that he places you on to show your resilience,
33:56
Speaker 1: your strength, your tenacity, your power. I'm talking to somebody,
34:01
Speaker 1: I don't know who it is, but holler at your
34:03
Speaker 1: boy and say, I'm chosen. When the mother packed the
34:09
Speaker 1: lunch for the little boy in case he got hungry
34:11
Speaker 1: since he was going to hear this Reverend Jesus preach
34:15
Speaker 1: down in the desert, she packed two fish and five
34:18
Speaker 1: loaves of bread and the boy's carrying a greasy bag
34:21
Speaker 1: with two fish, catfish probably in it and might have
34:25
Speaker 1: been cornbread, I don't know. And he's going down there
34:28
Speaker 1: with some catfish and some cornbread. He did not expect
34:33
Speaker 1: to have to give up his lunch he expected to
34:36
Speaker 1: eat his lunch but the little boy didn't know he
34:39
Speaker 1: was chosen he didn't ask for it he didn't seek
34:43
Speaker 1: it he didn't pack it and say I'm going to
34:46
Speaker 1: give away my lunch he just found himself in a
34:49
Speaker 1: situation I want to preach to some people who have
34:52
Speaker 1: found yourself in a situation you don't even know how
34:56
Speaker 1: you got there yourself And the disciples up there saying,
35:05
Speaker 1: we got to send the 5,000 men away, not to
35:07
Speaker 1: mention the women and children, because we don't have enough
35:09
Speaker 1: food to have. Jesus said, what do you have? They said,
35:12
Speaker 1: all we have is two fish and five loaves of bread.
35:14
Speaker 1: Excuse me. All you have is two fish and five
35:19
Speaker 1: loaves of bread. I don't get to vote in this.
35:21
Speaker 1: This is my lunch. You ain't got nothing. But people
35:26
Speaker 1: will count your gift as their gift when they, oh,
35:30
Speaker 1: y'all don't hear what I'm saying. When they need you,
35:33
Speaker 1: they will pull you in there and use their accounting
35:37
Speaker 1: and count it as if it was there. And here
35:39
Speaker 1: the boy who had a lunch ends up with no lunch.
35:44
Speaker 1: so that the people who had no lunch could get
35:47
Speaker 1: to eat. Now he got to go get in line
35:51
Speaker 1: and sit down and wait for them to count in
35:54
Speaker 1: groups of 50 only to get back what he already
35:58
Speaker 1: had in the first place. Sometimes when you're chosen, it's
36:02
Speaker 1: not right, it's not fair, it's not just, it's not true,
36:07
Speaker 1: but God has selected you to serve in an unjust
36:12
Speaker 1: situation And you got to be strong enough to give
36:16
Speaker 1: up your lunch to know that if you sow it.
36:23
Speaker 1: Oh my God, I felt the anointing on that. If
36:25
Speaker 1: you sow it, you're going to reap it back. Somebody
36:28
Speaker 1: holler at me just a minute. The disciples were chosen.
36:35
Speaker 1: Not one of the disciples just walked up to Jesus
36:39
Speaker 1: and said, hey, I'm looking for a job. And I've
36:43
Speaker 1: seen about being on your staff and being in your committee.
36:46
Speaker 1: Jesus chose all 12 of them, including Judas. He drafted it.
36:56
Speaker 1: I don't care what you're doing. Put your nets down.
36:59
Speaker 1: Come on and follow me and I'll make you fishers
37:02
Speaker 1: of men. I'm talking about life. I'm talking about what
37:05
Speaker 1: life will do to you. I'm talking about messing up
37:08
Speaker 1: your plans and messing up where you thought you'd be.
37:11
Speaker 1: There are some people in this room that wouldn't have
37:13
Speaker 1: dreamed in a thousand years that you'd be sitting where
37:16
Speaker 1: you're sitting right now. But when God has chosen you,
37:20
Speaker 1: he orders your steps right. In such a way that
37:24
Speaker 1: he'll bring you to a place you thought you'd never be.
37:27
Speaker 1: Am I preaching in the right place or what? Jesus
37:39
Speaker 1: was chosen. Father, if it be thy will, pass this
37:44
Speaker 1: bitter cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine.
37:53
Speaker 1: be done. I have been chosen to stand before the
37:59
Speaker 1: Sanhedrin court. I have been chosen to be ostracized by
38:04
Speaker 1: the Pharisees and Sadducees that have mocked me all my life.
38:10
Speaker 1: I have been chosen to be beaten with a cat
38:14
Speaker 1: of nine tails until my intestines are peeking out through
38:20
Speaker 1: the skin of my stomach. I have been chosen to
38:23
Speaker 1: be publicly humiliated in front of my disciples and my
38:28
Speaker 1: friends and my mother. I have been chosen to be ostracized,
38:35
Speaker 1: nearly faint from the loss of blood because the enemy
38:39
Speaker 1: tried to beat the blood out of him. Because he
38:43
Speaker 1: couldn't break the curse till he got to the cross.
38:47
Speaker 1: So the blood that fell on the ground didn't count.
38:50
Speaker 1: He had to go to the cross to redeem the world.
38:53
Speaker 1: He said, if I be lifted up from the earth,
38:56
Speaker 1: I'll draw all men unto me. Now we know it
39:01
Speaker 1: was God's design. Can I take my time? We know
39:04
Speaker 1: it was God's design. But I also want you to
39:06
Speaker 1: see that God can order something in heaven and you
39:10
Speaker 1: can still get set up on earth. Caiaphas, the priest,
39:15
Speaker 1: got together with Pilate and worked out a deal that
39:18
Speaker 1: led to Jesus' demise. It was the plot of the
39:23
Speaker 1: priest to put Jesus into this position. They had infiltrated
39:28
Speaker 1: public opinion and controlled it. public opinion. So that when
39:32
Speaker 1: Pilate would ask. Who do you want? Barabbas or Jesus?
39:36
Speaker 1: The Jesus who healed the sick. And raised the dead.
39:41
Speaker 1: And turned water into wine. The Jesus that many thought
39:45
Speaker 1: was the Messiah. And would be their king. They rejected him.
39:50
Speaker 1: The Bible prophesied it. He came unto his own. And
39:53
Speaker 1: his own received him not. They rejected him. It was
39:58
Speaker 1: a set up. But every setup is an opportunity for
40:03
Speaker 1: God to stand up and show himself strong in the
40:07
Speaker 1: lives of his people. Now to our text. We catch
40:21
Speaker 1: a stumbling Jesus. Not a standing Jesus. A stumbling bent
40:28
Speaker 1: over Jesus. broken down bowled over Jesus not a walking
40:35
Speaker 1: water Jesus not a resurrected Jesus but a bleeding wounded
40:41
Speaker 1: suffering Jesus the same Jesus who healed the woman with
40:45
Speaker 1: the issue of blood is now bleeding profusely himself and
40:51
Speaker 1: there is nobody to staunch the bleeding The bloody path
40:57
Speaker 1: that leads to purpose is stained with sacrifice. It does
41:03
Speaker 1: not come because you want it. He stained the streets
41:08
Speaker 1: of De La Rosa with his own blood. He who
41:12
Speaker 1: stopped bleeding did not stop his own bleeding. Sometimes you
41:20
Speaker 1: can help other people. Out of things you can't get
41:23
Speaker 1: yourself out of. Can I get a witness in here?
41:27
Speaker 1: I'm talking to selective service. People have been chosen. And
41:32
Speaker 1: now he's in this scene. And it would have been
41:36
Speaker 1: enough that they put a crown of thorns on his head.
41:39
Speaker 1: It would have been enough that they put the robe
41:42
Speaker 1: on him and called him the king of the Jews.
41:43
Speaker 1: It would have been enough. that they beat him almost
41:46
Speaker 1: to death till his guts were hanging out. And Isaiah
41:49
Speaker 1: said there was no beauty about him that we should
41:52
Speaker 1: desire him. He does not look good in this moment.
41:55
Speaker 1: There's somebody I want to preach to. You don't look
41:58
Speaker 1: good in this moment. This is not a good season.
42:01
Speaker 1: It's not a good period in your marriage. It's not
42:04
Speaker 1: a good stage in your life. It's not a good
42:06
Speaker 1: stage in your career. It's not a good stage in
42:10
Speaker 1: your home life. It's not a good stage between you
42:12
Speaker 1: and your daughter. It's not a good stage between you
42:15
Speaker 1: and your son. He's looking bad and he's trying to
42:19
Speaker 1: make the best of a bad situation. And he's stumbling,
42:23
Speaker 1: a stumbling Jesus. We've seen a standing Jesus. We've seen
42:28
Speaker 1: a sitting Jesus. We've seen a sleeping Jesus. But now
42:33
Speaker 1: we see a stumbling Jesus. He does not look omnipotent.
42:38
Speaker 1: He does not look omnipresent. He does not look omniscient.
42:42
Speaker 1: He looks weak and frail and broken and tattered and torn.
42:47
Speaker 1: But man looks on the outer appearance. God looks on
42:51
Speaker 1: the heart. I just want you to understand if you're
42:57
Speaker 1: a stumbling son, he understands you because he is a
43:04
Speaker 1: stumbling Jesus. And the Roman soldiers who got tired of
43:09
Speaker 1: making fun of him said, let's hurry up. Simon, Simon,
43:17
Speaker 1: come help him. Simon of Cyrene, come help him with
43:21
Speaker 1: the cross. Now, I need a little time. Can I
43:24
Speaker 1: have it? Okay. Now, in all of the synoptic gospels,
43:32
Speaker 1: they refer to Simon as Simon of Cyrene. Okay. But
43:37
Speaker 1: Mark is the only one that refers to him and
43:43
Speaker 1: his children. Everybody else, Matthew, Luke, refer to him as
43:52
Speaker 1: if he were a stranger on the side of the road.
43:57
Speaker 1: Most commentaries talk about Simon as if he were a
44:00
Speaker 1: stranger on the side of the road. But when Mark
44:04
Speaker 1: talks about him, he talks about him from a place
44:08
Speaker 1: of familiarity. He says, Simon of Cyrene. and his two sons,
44:15
Speaker 1: and he names his sons, which says to me, Mark
44:20
Speaker 1: knew Simon. Mark knew Simon. You don't look at a
44:28
Speaker 1: person and name them and their kids if you don't
44:32
Speaker 1: know the person. So Simon is not here by accident.
44:37
Speaker 1: Simon is here by providence. Simon is here on purpose. Incidentally,
44:42
Speaker 1: Cyrene was in the northern parts of Africa. He is
44:46
Speaker 1: here at this particular point, at this particular time. He
44:50
Speaker 1: is there at the moment that Christianity is being established.
44:55
Speaker 1: This black man from Africa had been planted in this
45:00
Speaker 1: spot and Mark knows who he is and he even
45:05
Speaker 1: knows his children. So it is not true that Simon
45:11
Speaker 1: has just showed up on the scene as if he
45:15
Speaker 1: were bartering to do business. This is a setup. This
45:19
Speaker 1: is an assignment. Simon has been chosen to play this
45:23
Speaker 1: role in history. This is an intervention where this dark
45:28
Speaker 1: man from Africa comes in to lift the weight of
45:33
Speaker 1: a cross that he would never die on, but he
45:36
Speaker 1: was there to lift the weight. Is there anybody here
45:40
Speaker 1: to lift some weight off of somebody? That's your call.
45:45
Speaker 1: That's your mission. That's your anointing. That's your gifting. You've
45:49
Speaker 1: got the capacity to lift the weight. It ain't in
45:52
Speaker 1: my cross. Amen. It's not my cross, but I've been
45:58
Speaker 1: drafted to carry it. And so I'm boggling in my
46:04
Speaker 1: mind trying to figure out how does Mark know Simon
46:10
Speaker 1: of Cyrene? And then I began to realize and understand,
46:14
Speaker 1: first of all, Mark is not one of the apostles.
46:16
Speaker 1: He's an evangelist. He writes the gospel, but he is
46:20
Speaker 1: not listed as one of the 12 apostles. He is
46:23
Speaker 1: Mark the evangelist. Second of all, Mark comes from Cyrene.
46:37
Speaker 1: Why didn't anybody tell us? that Mark is African? Why
46:51
Speaker 1: didn't they tell us that Mark knew Simon and his children?
46:58
Speaker 1: That Mark had been raised in Cyrene and had gone
47:03
Speaker 1: into Jerusalem and had been trained in Rome but he
47:07
Speaker 1: had not forgotten his roots? Why Didn't they tell us
47:16
Speaker 1: that this was a setup? That Simon would be selected
47:24
Speaker 1: to help Jesus carry the cross. We don't hear this
47:36
Speaker 1: kind of conversation because it was not beneficial for us
47:40
Speaker 1: to understand that our face was in the text. So
47:51
Speaker 1: I read it in the African Bible and I started
47:53
Speaker 1: studying it in the African Bible. And then I started
47:56
Speaker 1: verifying it through other sources that we had a very
47:59
Speaker 1: prominent place. According to the African Study Bible, we had
48:03
Speaker 1: a very prominent role to play that we were not told.
48:08
Speaker 1: We were not told that Augustine comes from Northern Africa.
48:14
Speaker 1: that Augustine who is responsible for fighting for the doctrine
48:18
Speaker 1: that would become the Nicene Creed was from Africa. We
48:23
Speaker 1: were not shown to be there lifting weight. But are
48:33
Speaker 1: we not weightlifters? Have we not always been weightlifters? Oh,
48:44
Speaker 1: I don't have time. I can't do it justice, Jesus.
48:48
Speaker 1: When Moses had to flee out of Egypt and he
48:53
Speaker 1: had to flee into the desert and he comes to
48:56
Speaker 1: a place where he runs into Jethro who was called
49:01
Speaker 1: burnt face. Jethro, who lived in the desert, did not
49:06
Speaker 1: Jethro lift the weight of Moses' pain up off of
49:10
Speaker 1: him and taught him how to survive in the desert?
49:15
Speaker 1: Because once you've been in a desert, you are there
49:18
Speaker 1: not to replace anybody. but i can tell you how
49:21
Speaker 1: to get through a desert because i was raised in
49:23
Speaker 1: a desert i was raised in trouble i can tell
49:26
Speaker 1: you how to take ten dollars and feed five kids
49:29
Speaker 1: because i've been in the desert i can tell you
49:32
Speaker 1: how to make it with your lights off and your
49:34
Speaker 1: water off I can tell you how to do that
49:37
Speaker 1: I can tell you how to do it because I
49:39
Speaker 1: was raised in what you're going through and your job
49:43
Speaker 1: is your job and my job is my job but
49:46
Speaker 1: God has me on assignment to lift the weight up
49:50
Speaker 1: off of you that I can tell you weeping may
49:53
Speaker 1: endure for a night but joy is coming in the morning.
49:57
Speaker 1: I want to talk to every depressed, broken, wounded, hurting
50:01
Speaker 1: person in this room that you might be weeping right now,
50:05
Speaker 1: but they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
50:08
Speaker 2: How do you know? I cried myself. I suffered myself.
50:14
Speaker 2: I agonized myself. There's something that you get from the tears.
50:20
Speaker 2: that makes you able to receive the blessing. Stop trying
50:24
Speaker 2: to take shortcuts to get to success.
50:27
Speaker 1: There's a reason you've been afflicted. There's a reason you've
50:31
Speaker 1: been ostracized. There's a reason you've been overlooked. God is
50:35
Speaker 1: training you to make you tough enough so that when
50:39
Speaker 1: you get there, having done all the stand, Having done
50:47
Speaker 1: all the stand, you'll stand with your loins girt about
50:51
Speaker 1: with truth. I feel like preaching this morning. I'm talking
50:54
Speaker 1: to somebody in this place this morning. Somebody give him
50:58
Speaker 1: 30 seconds of crazy praise. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
51:22
Speaker 1: Away with this idea that Christianity is the white man's religion.
51:26
Speaker 1: The devil is a lie. Christianity is man's religion. It's
51:30
Speaker 1: for everybody. All colors, all people can find their face
51:34
Speaker 1: in the Bible. You belong where you are. Touch somebody
51:38
Speaker 1: and say, you belong where you are. You didn't ask
51:42
Speaker 1: for it. You didn't seek it. You didn't desire it.
51:45
Speaker 1: It's not what you had in mind. But God has
51:48
Speaker 1: chosen you to play a particular role at a particular time.
51:53
Speaker 1: And I want you to stop crying about it and
51:56
Speaker 1: complaining about it and fussing about it and start giving
52:00
Speaker 1: God praise about it right now. Somebody, whoever I'm preaching to,
52:05
Speaker 1: you may be in the balcony. You may be all
52:08
Speaker 1: the way in the back. But whoever I'm preaching to
52:11
Speaker 1: in this place, God's got you right where he wants you.
52:32
Speaker 1: We are always preaching about Simon Peter. but hardly ever
52:39
Speaker 1: preach about Simon of Cyrene. These two Cyrenian men, we
52:50
Speaker 1: never acknowledge that they came out of Africa. It's not
52:54
Speaker 1: a big deal until you don't acknowledge it. It's not
53:00
Speaker 1: a big deal that the Ethiopian eunuch came from and
53:06
Speaker 1: went back to Ethiopia, until you don't acknowledge it, it's
53:10
Speaker 1: not a big deal that the Queen of Sheba comes
53:14
Speaker 1: out of Ethiopia and that Solomon didn't make her rich.
53:25
Speaker 1: She was rich when she got there. And it's not
53:31
Speaker 1: just that she was black, she was a woman, and
53:34
Speaker 1: she was rich, and in authority, and in a position
53:37
Speaker 1: of power, and there was no liberation movement. She was
53:41
Speaker 1: already walking in power. It's not a big deal until
53:44
Speaker 1: you don't mention it. So I heard to my close soul,
53:57
Speaker 1: the question arises, Can you serve unmentioned? Can you serve unnoticed?
54:18
Speaker 1: Can you love overlooked? Can you serve and people never
54:24
Speaker 1: call your name? Can you be the other Simon? The other.
54:33
Speaker 1: The other. The other Simon, I feel my Pentecostal roots
54:41
Speaker 1: standing up in me right now. I know what it
54:43
Speaker 1: is to be the other Simon. I know what it
54:46
Speaker 1: is to be overlooked. I know what it is to
54:48
Speaker 1: be pushed aside. The first time I came to Azusa,
54:51
Speaker 1: they almost knocked me down trying to get the best seats.
54:54
Speaker 1: I ended up in the balcony in the nosebleed section
54:57
Speaker 1: in the furthest seat all the way at the top
54:59
Speaker 1: because I was not Simon. I was the other Simon.
55:02
Speaker 1: I came to talk to some people. Everybody's overlooking you,
55:07
Speaker 1: but God has a plan for your life and a
55:09
Speaker 1: plan for your future and a plan for your destiny.
55:13
Speaker 1: And don't be afraid because it is not merely serendipitous.
55:17
Speaker 1: God has a plan for your life that he has
55:19
Speaker 1: chosen you to play a role in history that may
55:23
Speaker 1: not always feel good, that may put a weight on
55:28
Speaker 1: you that you didn't expect to have. Yes, Lord, I
55:32
Speaker 1: haven't forgotten, I'm gonna get it. That you have been
55:35
Speaker 1: chosen to raise that child. No, not the good one.
55:50
Speaker 1: The one that... gets your last nerve and drives you
55:54
Speaker 1: crazy and anybody else would have hit them in the
55:57
Speaker 1: head with a skillet, but there's an anointing on your
56:01
Speaker 1: life to play that role that nobody else could play.
56:05
Speaker 1: Could it be possible? That you have been chosen to
56:09
Speaker 1: be married to somebody that other people wouldn't be able
56:12
Speaker 1: to stand. But there's a grace on you. There's a
56:15
Speaker 1: gift on you. There's an anointing on you. There's a
56:19
Speaker 1: power on you. And your mama couldn't take it. And
56:22
Speaker 1: your sister couldn't take it. But God has chosen you
56:25
Speaker 1: to lift up the cross and carry a weight. I
56:29
Speaker 1: want to find Simon. Simon. Simon, are you in this room?
56:33
Speaker 1: Is there a Simon in the room? I don't care
56:35
Speaker 1: what gender you are. I don't care what color you are.
56:38
Speaker 1: Before life is over, all of us get an opportunity
56:45
Speaker 1: to carry something we didn't ask for. To carry something
56:51
Speaker 1: that we don't want to carry. To lift up a
56:59
Speaker 1: cross that's not even our own. all of us will
57:03
Speaker 1: get a turn to be spat on. To be treated
57:12
Speaker 1: without dignity. All of us will be a footnote in
57:20
Speaker 1: somebody's story. Simon of Cyrene. If it were not for Mark,
57:30
Speaker 1: we wouldn't even know this dude was a person that mattered,
57:36
Speaker 1: that had a family and a life and a history,
57:41
Speaker 1: and that he had been drafted when things were at
57:46
Speaker 1: their worst to walk with a stumbling Jesus. Peter walked
57:57
Speaker 1: with an erect Jesus, a strong Jesus, a water walking Jesus,
58:02
Speaker 1: But Simon of Cyrene was chosen to walk with a
58:07
Speaker 1: stumbling Jesus. I submit to you, in this age, as
58:14
Speaker 1: Christianity stumbles, and many have judged it irrelevant, and the
58:27
Speaker 1: number of church-going Christians is declining, Could it be possible?
58:36
Speaker 1: Could it be possible? Could it be possible that God
58:42
Speaker 1: has chosen you to lift up the weight of the
58:46
Speaker 1: cross in this season? Let me go deeper. That thing
58:56
Speaker 1: that you want to get out from under, That thing
59:02
Speaker 1: that you want to quit, that ain't even fair. That
59:10
Speaker 1: thing where you get no credit and no acknowledgement and
59:16
Speaker 1: you don't even feel appreciated. That thing that you didn't
59:24
Speaker 1: ask for, you didn't sign up for this stuff. I
59:29
Speaker 1: can hear your prayer going up to God. You told God,
59:31
Speaker 1: I didn't sign up for this. No, you got drafted.
59:44
Speaker 1: Because he knew you were strong enough to stand up
59:51
Speaker 1: under the load of something that would have crushed anybody else.
59:56
Speaker 1: And you're the only one Holding the thing together. You're
1:00:00
Speaker 1: holding the family together. You're holding yourself together. You're holding
1:00:04
Speaker 1: the kids together. You're holding your spouse together. It's not fair.
1:00:09
Speaker 1: You're not treated right. You don't always feel appreciated. Where
1:00:12
Speaker 1: are you? I'm talking to somebody. Wave at me if
1:00:15
Speaker 1: I'm talking to you. You have been chosen to play
1:00:23
Speaker 1: a role that nobody else in history could play but you.
1:00:29
Speaker 1: And sometimes you have been chosen to be attacked. You
1:00:36
Speaker 1: have been picked out to be picked on. You have
1:00:41
Speaker 1: been set aside for such a time as this. And
1:00:44
Speaker 1: you'll go through a season that it doesn't seem just
1:00:47
Speaker 1: and it doesn't seem fair and it doesn't seem right.
1:00:50
Speaker 1: But God has chosen you to bring down a giant
1:00:55
Speaker 1: that nobody else could bring down but you. To stand
1:00:59
Speaker 1: up to a test that nobody else could stand up
1:01:02
Speaker 1: to but you. That nobody could witness in the hospital
1:01:06
Speaker 1: and have breast cancer and still be a witness to
1:01:09
Speaker 1: the nurse while the nurse is treating your sore. It
1:01:13
Speaker 1: could be possible that God has set you in a
1:01:16
Speaker 1: situation that you absolutely hate. But God has drafted you.
1:01:27
Speaker 1: Because he knew. that even with your feelings hurting, tears
1:01:31
Speaker 1: running down your face, and your body wracked with pain,
1:01:34
Speaker 1: he knew you'd still bear up the weight of it all.
1:01:41
Speaker 1: As I come to the close of this message, and
1:01:42
Speaker 1: I'm not closing, I'm just quitting because it's polite. I
1:01:51
Speaker 1: want to talk to people who are kind of crazy
1:01:56
Speaker 1: like me. I thought life would be fair. I thought
1:02:04
Speaker 1: if you did good things, you'd be appreciated. I thought
1:02:08
Speaker 1: if you did your job, you'd be acknowledged. I thought
1:02:12
Speaker 1: if you help people, they'd help you back. I want
1:02:16
Speaker 1: to talk to somebody right now who has been chosen,
1:02:22
Speaker 1: selected to serve in the midst of pain and when
1:02:34
Speaker 1: nobody's looking you cry yourself to sleep and when nobody's
1:02:39
Speaker 1: looking you want to quit and you have threatened to
1:02:42
Speaker 1: walk away a thousand times but walk away is not
1:02:46
Speaker 1: in you and you're here today and I'm preaching this
1:02:52
Speaker 1: message for you to tell you that God knows who
1:02:57
Speaker 1: you are And God knows what's going to come out
1:03:01
Speaker 1: of you. And the reason your children are named is
1:03:05
Speaker 1: because you're going to break generational curses. I am here
1:03:11
Speaker 1: to tell you that God will always leave somebody around
1:03:16
Speaker 1: who understands what you've been through and where you came
1:03:19
Speaker 1: from and the pain you bear. And I am here
1:03:22
Speaker 1: to tell you for every Simon there is a mark.
1:03:30
Speaker 1: I know it's no mistake that you're here, that God
1:03:33
Speaker 1: has drafted you for this assignment and nobody can do
1:03:38
Speaker 1: what you do like you do it because you have
1:03:41
Speaker 1: been born for such a time as this. In Israel,
1:03:46
Speaker 1: it's a requirement that if you go to school, you
1:03:48
Speaker 1: have to be trained for military. You're born to fight.
1:03:52
Speaker 1: You have to fight. In Ukraine, they started drafting men.
1:03:56
Speaker 1: Didn't ask you, do you want to fight? They said,
1:03:58
Speaker 1: if you're a man and you have a certain age,
1:04:00
Speaker 1: you got to fight. Life does not ask you how
1:04:04
Speaker 1: you feel about the fight. You got to pull your
1:04:14
Speaker 1: big girl pants up and stand up to the fight.
1:04:21
Speaker 1: Who am I preaching to? Make some noise in here.
1:04:34
Speaker 1: I chose you. I chose you. I chose you. I
1:04:40
Speaker 1: chose you. I chose you. I chose you to raise
1:04:44
Speaker 1: that child with a learning disability, with a behavioral problem,
1:04:51
Speaker 1: with that temperament, with that attitude. I put something inside
1:04:54
Speaker 1: of you that you are the only one that can
1:04:57
Speaker 1: get through to that person and don't you stop believing
1:05:01
Speaker 1: in yourself because God sent me here to preach to Simon.
1:05:09
Speaker 1: I don't want Simon Peter to come to the altar.
1:05:13
Speaker 1: You get enough credit. You walked on water. You caught
1:05:20
Speaker 1: masses of fish. You preached on the day of Pentecost.
1:05:25
Speaker 1: You get enough credit. Your shadow falls on people and
1:05:28
Speaker 1: they get healed. I didn't come to preach to Simon Peter.
1:05:35
Speaker 1: I came to preach to Simon of Cyrene who has
1:05:41
Speaker 1: been placed at a particular place at a particular time
1:05:46
Speaker 1: to play a part in history and seldom gets mentioned
1:05:54
Speaker 1: at all. Simon of Cyrene, whether you are black, white,
1:06:01
Speaker 1: or brown, this is bigger than that, whether you are
1:06:04
Speaker 1: male or female, if you are carrying a cross you
1:06:09
Speaker 1: didn't ask for, I want you on this altar. If
1:06:18
Speaker 1: you are carrying a cross you didn't seek. If you
1:06:24
Speaker 1: just came down here to bring some lunch to your
1:06:26
Speaker 1: brothers and now you're standing in front of Goliath and
1:06:30
Speaker 1: he's trying to kill you and you're having to fight
1:06:34
Speaker 1: big stuff that wasn't even your stuff. If you're watching online,
1:06:41
Speaker 1: I'm talking to you. The anointing of God is in
1:06:43
Speaker 1: this place. The spirit of God is in this place.
1:06:47
Speaker 1: God is speaking right to your situation. He is answering
1:06:50
Speaker 1: your prayer. You thought it was going to be fair,
1:06:54
Speaker 1: didn't you? You thought it was going to be right.
1:06:57
Speaker 1: You thought it was going to be just. God moved you, Simon,
1:07:01
Speaker 1: to be at the right place at the right time
1:07:04
Speaker 1: because you have the anointing to lift a weight that
1:07:07
Speaker 1: would have crushed somebody else. Thank you.