Latest / Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE / The Journey to Spiritual Maturity - Bishop T.D. Jakes

Transcript

The Journey to Spiritual Maturity - Bishop T.D. Jakes · Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE

• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Get your Bibles and go to Genesis chapter 21 verse
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: 2 through 12. Tonight we're going to talk about spiritual maturity.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Managing my faith and my fallacies. Spiritual maturity. Help me
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to have equilibrium. Help me to be able to balance myself.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Bring me into spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity. The Bible said,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: make your moderation made known unto all men. The Lord
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: is at hand. Spiritual maturity is as much about balance
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: as it is about anything else and how you manage
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: your faith and your fallacies. And hopefully before the night
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: is over, I will prove that we have them both.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: We like to think that there are people who make
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: mistakes and there are people who don't make mistakes, but
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: even the most successful person makes mistakes. Even the most
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  Speaker 1: spiritual person makes mistakes, missteps, bad judgment, listening to the
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: wrong advice, partnering with the wrong person, hiring the wrong contractor,
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  Speaker 1: moving into the wrong position, dating the wrong person. I'm
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: not going to look at nobody. Dating the wrong person. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: You thought it was God. And then you realize you
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: ate too much pizza and had a dream. And you
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: followed the wrong, come on somebody, come on. Genesis 21,
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  Speaker 1: 2 through 12, when you have it, say amen. Now
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: listen at the word of God and listen real closely.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: There's so much going on in this text, I don't
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  Speaker 1: even know where to start. So we're going to pick
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  Speaker 1: up right in the middle. For Sarah conceived and bare
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Abraham a son in his old age. But watch this,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: at the set time of which God had spoken to him,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: he didn't mean for him to have it any sooner.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: And Abraham called the name of his son that was
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  Speaker 1: born unto him whom Sarah bared to him, Isaac. And
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  Speaker 1: Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old as
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  Speaker 1: God had commanded him. And Abraham was a hundred years
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  Speaker 1: old when his son Isaac was born unto him. My God.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if I want no baby at 100, Jesus.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying. I'm just, let me praise the Lord. Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: and Sarah said, God have made me to laugh so
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  Speaker 1: that all that hear will laugh with me. And she said,
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  Speaker 1: who would have said under Abraham that Sarah should have
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  Speaker 1: given children suck for I have born him a son
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  Speaker 1: in his old age. And the child grew and was weaned.
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  Speaker 1: And Abraham made a great feast in the same day
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  Speaker 1: that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar,
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  Speaker 1: the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham mocking. Wherefore
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  Speaker 1: she said unto Abraham, cast out this. But wait, how
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: did this story go bad so quick? We were at
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  Speaker 1: a party one minute. And now she's putting the woman
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  Speaker 1: out and her baby in the next verse. Ain't life crazy?
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  Speaker 1: One minute you're dancing for joy and the next minute
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  Speaker 1: you're opening the door to tell her to get out.
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  Speaker 1: And take her child with her. Wherefore she said unto Abraham,
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  Speaker 1: cast out this bondwoman and her son. For the son
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  Speaker 1: of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son
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  Speaker 1: even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in
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  Speaker 1: Abraham's sight because of his son. And God said unto Abraham,
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  Speaker 1: let it not be grievous in thy sight because of
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  Speaker 1: the lad and because of thy bondwoman. In all that
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  Speaker 1: Sarah has said unto thee, hearken unto her voice. For
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  Speaker 1: in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Can you say amen?
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  Speaker 1: Let's pray. Spirit of the living God, bring this word
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  Speaker 1: to life tonight. as we teach and as we touch
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  Speaker 1: and as we begin to understand what you have in
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  Speaker 1: store for us. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.
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  Speaker 1: So before I get into the text, I want to
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  Speaker 1: talk about faith and fallacies. When I talk about faith,
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  Speaker 1: you can't talk about faith and not talk about Abraham.
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  Speaker 1: Because Abraham is called the father of faith. Abraham is
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  Speaker 1: called the father of faith. Abraham believed God and it
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  Speaker 1: was counted unto him as righteousness. Abraham believed God in
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  Speaker 1: such a way that he became the friend of God.
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  Speaker 1: The friend of God. He was so close to believing God. See,
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  Speaker 1: when we don't believe God, we insult God's character. To
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  Speaker 1: suggest that God has promised something and can't do it
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  Speaker 1: or won't do it is to suggest that God is
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  Speaker 1: a liar. And Abraham believed God in such a vivacious
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  Speaker 1: and powerful and profound and prolific way that he became
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  Speaker 1: the friend of God. Now the Bible defines faith as
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  Speaker 1: the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things
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  Speaker 1: not seen. And then it goes on to talk about
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  Speaker 1: through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by
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  Speaker 1: the word of God. So that things that do appear
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  Speaker 1: were not made from things that do appear. Saying to
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  Speaker 1: us that the visible starts in the invisible. That the
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  Speaker 1: tangible starts in the intangible. That everything that you see
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  Speaker 1: and everything that you receive started out in the spirit
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  Speaker 1: world before it manifests in the physical world. And we
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  Speaker 1: know that is true because every stitch of clothes you
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  Speaker 1: got on started out as an idea. Every vehicle you
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  Speaker 1: drove started out as an idea. before it became a
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  Speaker 1: drawing on paper, before it entered the manufacturing stage, it
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  Speaker 1: started out with a thought. All of these pews started
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  Speaker 1: with a thought. This carpet started with a thought. So
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  Speaker 1: we need to give a lot more attention to our
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  Speaker 1: spiritual self because we must understand that everything starts on
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  Speaker 1: the inside and flows out. Healing starts on the inside
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  Speaker 1: and flows out. You receive it in your spirit before
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  Speaker 1: you receive it in your body. The baptism of the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit starts on the inside before it comes out.
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  Speaker 1: You can't overflow a vessel that's not filled. Come on, somebody.
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  Speaker 1: And when God starts filling you, it's happening on the inside.
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  Speaker 1: And after a while, it overflows on the outside. And
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  Speaker 1: you get outer evidence of an inner filling and the
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  Speaker 1: indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And it starts on the inside.
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  Speaker 1: Believe it or not, somebody's being filled right now. Somebody's
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  Speaker 1: being filled right now and it may not manifest on
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  Speaker 1: the outside immediately, but once your cup overflows, you can't
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  Speaker 1: hide on the outside what overflows on the inside. Can
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  Speaker 1: I get a witness in here, somebody? And so we
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  Speaker 1: understand about faith. We understand that we are called to
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  Speaker 1: walk by faith and not by sight. And so we
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  Speaker 1: are not looking at the things that are seen for
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  Speaker 1: the things that are seen are temporal and the things
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  Speaker 1: that are not seen are internal. are eternal. When it
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  Speaker 1: comes to fallacies, it's a different thing because it's not
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  Speaker 1: so much a Bible word. And I want to take
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  Speaker 1: a moment and define fallacies. Fallacies is a noun, a
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  Speaker 1: plural noun, fallacies. A mistaken belief, especially one based on
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  Speaker 1: unsound argument. For example, the notion that the camera never
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  Speaker 1: lies is a fallacy. Or it could be a failure
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  Speaker 1: in reasoning, which renders an argument invalid. For example, Kraft
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  Speaker 1: exposes three fallacies in this approach. In other words, when
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  Speaker 1: you start talking about fallacies, fallacies deals with faulty reasonings,
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  Speaker 1: misleading or unsound arguments. The potential for fallacy, which lies
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  Speaker 1: behind the notion of self-esteem is an example. So a
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  Speaker 1: fallacy is something that you have a conviction about that
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  Speaker 1: is not based on a sound decision. Okay, it may
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  Speaker 1: or may not be a sin. But it can be
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  Speaker 1: a fallacy. It can be bad judgment. It can be
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  Speaker 1: a faulty concept, a faulty notion, a faulty idea. And
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  Speaker 1: so fallacies stand on one side and faith stands on
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  Speaker 1: the other. And I can see both of them happening
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  Speaker 1: in this house. I would have hated to live in
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  Speaker 1: Abraham's house. Abraham lived in a house with two women.
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  Speaker 1: That's the first problem. One of them is his wife
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  Speaker 1: and the other one is his situation. And it's not
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  Speaker 1: a side chick because he is not a righteous man.
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  Speaker 1: It is a side chick that is brought in the
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  Speaker 1: house at Sarai's request as a surrogate more than a
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  Speaker 1: side chick. And they didn't have artificial insemination in those days.
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  Speaker 1: So they had had relationship and intimacy. And it was
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  Speaker 1: his wife's idea. Where are the women like that today?
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  Speaker 1: I don't know none of them. I don't know none
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  Speaker 1: of them. Maybe one of them's here. And not many
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  Speaker 1: women that'll bring a woman in and say, I tell
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  Speaker 1: you what, you borrow her for the weekend. Yeah, that
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't go down real well. In fact, it's so bad
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  Speaker 1: now that they say, what's she looking at you like
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  Speaker 1: that for? That girl don't want no prayer, you know.
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  Speaker 1: Oh God, can you imagine living in that house? That
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  Speaker 1: girl don't want no prayer. She don't want Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: I saw her.
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  Speaker 1: You already got, can you imagine the tension in the
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  Speaker 1: house with these two women sharing this one man and
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  Speaker 1: Hagar gives Abram something that Sarai could not. She gave
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  Speaker 1: him a child. And that's what she was supposed to do.
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  Speaker 1: That was her job. That's what she was asked to
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  Speaker 1: do by his wife. And there is a reason for that.
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  Speaker 1: It is hard in this Western culture to understand this
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  Speaker 1: Eastern tradition. But it so happens that she births him
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  Speaker 1: a child called Ishmael. We often say Ishmael, but the
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  Speaker 1: correct pronunciation is actually Ishmael. And she has this child
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  Speaker 1: to him called Ishmael. And she has Ishmael. And Ishmael
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  Speaker 1: grows up and it's cool and it's fine and it's wonderful.
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  Speaker 1: And everything is going just according to how Sarah planned it.
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  Speaker 1: Because since she could not have a child and since
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  Speaker 1: they were getting old, she wanted to be able to
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  Speaker 1: make sure that he had a child and everything is
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  Speaker 1: going good. She never understood when she made the choice
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  Speaker 1: that the time was going to come that God was
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  Speaker 1: going to bless her to conceive. Sometimes our impatience leads
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  Speaker 1: us to fallacies. Because the Lord doesn't move when we
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  Speaker 1: expect him to move. In the way that we expect
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  Speaker 1: him to move. In the time period that we have
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  Speaker 1: allotted him to move. I hate to tell you this,
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  Speaker 1: but God does not work on your time clock. He
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  Speaker 1: works on his own time clock. In his own good time.
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  Speaker 1: God does not work according to the trends of the times.
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  Speaker 1: Or the cultural expectations in which you are surrounded. God
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  Speaker 1: moves when he gets ready to move. And God wanted
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  Speaker 1: to get the glory out of this. And in order
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  Speaker 1: to get the glory, God had to wait until everybody
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: was shut down. Her factory was shut down. Y'all know
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  Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. His factory had cobwebs. The Bible
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  Speaker 1: said his body was good as dead. And it ceased
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  Speaker 1: to be with her after the manner of women. My
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  Speaker 1: grandmama would say she'd gone through the change. When it
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  Speaker 1: was totally impossible, she'd get night sweats and waking up
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  Speaker 1: to bed is wet with sweat and all that kind
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  Speaker 1: of stuff, mood changes. And she's gone through all of that.
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  Speaker 1: And it is now totally impossible for her to be
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  Speaker 1: able to conceive. God says, oh, goody, goody, goody, goody, goody.
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  Speaker 1: Now is the time to do it. I've waited till
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  Speaker 1: you couldn't. I waited till you couldn't so you couldn't
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  Speaker 1: praise yourself for this. I waited till it was impossible
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  Speaker 1: for you. I waited till it was ridiculous. I waited
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  Speaker 1: till all human efforts and biological equations had completely been
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  Speaker 1: shut down so that it would have my signature on
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  Speaker 1: this miracle. As long as you are able to do
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  Speaker 1: it on your own, don't ask God to do anything
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  Speaker 1: you can do for yourself. When it is impossible with men,
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  Speaker 1: it is just right for God. And when it's just
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  Speaker 1: right for God, God moves into that position of calling
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  Speaker 1: those things that are not as though they were. Somebody
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  Speaker 1: write down it's never too late for God to move.
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  Speaker 1: I don't care if you're in the fourth stage of cancer.
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  Speaker 1: I don't care if you're in the eighth stage of cancer.
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  Speaker 1: If God gets ready to raise you up, he will
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  Speaker 1: raise you up. I have seen life leave the body
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  Speaker 1: and the paramedics pronounce people dead and God wake them
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  Speaker 1: back up again. Y'all don't hear what I'm saying. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: back when we used to have church the old time way,
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  Speaker 1: God would wake them up again. Amen. And shock the
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  Speaker 1: medical professionals and shock science and do the impossible and
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  Speaker 1: wake them up in their right mind because nobody is
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  Speaker 1: God but God. And nobody can do the God types
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  Speaker 1: of things that God does except God.
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  Speaker 2: But Sarai, in her.
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  Speaker 1: Need to fulfill a promise that she was unable to fulfill,
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  Speaker 1: has now gotten Hagar, who is an Egyptian slave, to
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  Speaker 1: be a surrogate mother. And this is the first biblical
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  Speaker 1: reference to a surrogate in the scriptures. It may not
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  Speaker 1: be the first in history. But it's the first one
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  Speaker 1: in scriptures. And it came with a blessing and it
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  Speaker 1: came with a problem. It came with years of tranquility.
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  Speaker 1: But then after a while, things that are built fallaciously
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  Speaker 1: and things that are built erroneously and things that are
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  Speaker 1: built on bad wisdom and bad advice eventually come back
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  Speaker 1: to bite you. Oh, I'm preaching. I'm preaching good right now.
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  Speaker 1: How many of you have ever made decisions that worked
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  Speaker 1: out good for a while and later on it came
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  Speaker 1: back to bite you? And it's much easier and much
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: more fun to get into trouble than it is to
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  Speaker 1: get out. We pick up the text at a time
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  Speaker 1: when that which Sarah never expected to happen, that which
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  Speaker 1: she had laughed at, that which she had said was
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  Speaker 1: impossible happened. Suddenly happened and she was with child. Can
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  Speaker 1: you imagine how happy she was to be a 99
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  Speaker 1: years old and pregnant? Walking around at Big Bear and
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  Speaker 1: Kroger's in the grocery store with her stomach all stuck out.
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  Speaker 1: Say yeah. Or how proud he was coming up behind
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  Speaker 1: and talking about yeah. That's right. That's right. On his cane.
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  Speaker 1: That's right there. Don't let the cane fool you, baby.
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  Speaker 1: Don't let the cane fool you. Don't let the cane
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  Speaker 1: fool you. God has been good to me. Glory to God. Hallelujah.
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  Speaker 1: Can you imagine? Can you imagine testimony service? When I
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  Speaker 1: think of the goodness. Come on, brothers. Y'all know what
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  Speaker 1: I'm talking about. When I think of the goodness and
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  Speaker 1: all he done for me. My soul cries out, hallelujah.
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  Speaker 1: When people say that, you don't know what they're hallelujah about.
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  Speaker 1: Abraham was hallelujah because God had done it again. He
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  Speaker 1: had resurrected. That's all I'm going to say about that.
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  Speaker 1: He had resurrected. He had so resurrected Abraham's body that
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  Speaker 1: Abraham's body stays resurrected throughout the life of Sarah. And
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  Speaker 1: he marries again and continues to sire children way into
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  Speaker 1: his old age. God, hallelujah. Before there was Viagra, before
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  Speaker 1: there was anything like that, there was a Holy Ghost
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  Speaker 1: power that quickens that which was dead. Now, he had
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  Speaker 1: to resurrect Abraham's body. And when Abraham's dead body produced
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  Speaker 1: the seed and hit Sarah's dead womb, it quickened it
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  Speaker 1: and brought it back to life again. And there's some
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  Speaker 1: significance in that because when Jesus was to come later,
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  Speaker 1: he would say, I am the seed of Abraham. So
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  Speaker 1: he literally shot Jesus into the womb of Mary and
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  Speaker 1: it quickened it and brought it back to life. And
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  Speaker 1: the old woman's belly started swelling. She started getting a
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  Speaker 1: mask on her face and started vomiting because when Jesus
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  Speaker 1: comes into a situation, he will bring it to life again.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus never said, I can resurrect. He said, I am resurrected.
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  Speaker 1: the resurrection and the life. He that believeth on me,
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  Speaker 1: though he were dead, yet shall he live. Now we
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  Speaker 1: got a problem because that which she had given up
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  Speaker 1: on just happened. That which she thought she had timed
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  Speaker 1: out of just occurred. And see, anytime somebody chooses you
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  Speaker 1: based on a need, they will only want you as
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  Speaker 1: long as the need arises. When the need arises, the
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  Speaker 1: feeling changes. You need to watch people who fall in
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  Speaker 1: love with you while you're afflicted because they're drawn to
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  Speaker 1: your pain. And that's good as long as you're hurting.
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  Speaker 1: But when you recover, all of a sudden the pain
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  Speaker 1: was the only thing you had in common. And when
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  Speaker 1: you recover, all of a sudden they are jobless because
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  Speaker 1: they only wanted you as long as you were afflicted.
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  Speaker 1: Come on, y'all don't hear what I'm saying. And Sarah
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  Speaker 1: only wanted Hagar as long as she couldn't. But the
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  Speaker 1: problem is now she can. Somebody shout, now I can.
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  Speaker 1: That's a game changer. Once I find out that I
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  Speaker 1: can do what I thought I couldn't do, that changes
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  Speaker 1: who I want around me. That changes what I need
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  Speaker 1: in my life. That changes how I interact with people.
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  Speaker 1: That changes my expectations. That changes everything around me because
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  Speaker 1: now I can. Type on the line, now I can.
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  Speaker 1: The thing that they said I'd never be able to do.
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  Speaker 1: The thing they said I would never be able to have.
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  Speaker 1: The places they thought I'd never be able to go.
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  Speaker 1: The degree they said I'd never be able to have.
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  Speaker 1: Somebody say, now I can. That's the power of this text.
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  Speaker 1: The power of this text is that God has reversed it.
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  Speaker 1: He has turned it around. The tail has become the head.
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  Speaker 1: That means God has reversed the entire situation. And what
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  Speaker 1: was impossible with men is now possible with God. Are
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: you following what I'm saying? And you begin to wonder
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  Speaker 1: where this idea originated with Sirius. to take advantage of
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  Speaker 1: this Egyptian slave as a surrogate. And I began to
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: study the code of Hammurabi. When you study the code
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: of Hammurabi, this is not a scripture. This is not
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  Speaker 1: a Bible. This is a historical understanding about language. When
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: you study the Code of Hammurabi, you begin to understand
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  Speaker 1: that the Code of Hammurabi was developed in Mesopotamia. And
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: it was some of the early writings that concerned things
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: like marriage. It concerned the marriage of a natatu, which
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: is a priestess attached to a temple who is not
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: allowed to bear children. In this code, these are some
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: of the first laws that were ever written in the
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: code of Hammurabi. And when you read about it, it
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: says her husband has the right to take a second wife.
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  Speaker 1: But if she wishes to forestall this, she can give
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  Speaker 1: her husband a slave. In the world of ancient Near East,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: a slave woman could be seen as an incubator, a
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: kind of womb with legs. Now, it is no mistake
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  Speaker 1: that the Code of Hammurabi was developed in Mesopotamia And
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Abraham and Sarah came from Mesopotamia. The Bible calls it Ur,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: but the Old Testament Ur is the new reality of Mesopotamia.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Out of their old culture, there is this lingering idea
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: that this is not a Hebraistic law. This is part
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: of the Code of Hammurabi. Now let's go deeper into this.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: In the Code of Hammurabi, they use cuneiform. Cuneiform is
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: a logosyllabic script that was used to write several languages
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: of the ancient Near East. The script was in active
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the Common Era. It kind of looks like hieroglyphics. It's
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: the kind of content that you would see in Egypt.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: It is named for the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions. Latin cunis,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: which form its signs that you had to draw in
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: order to be able to write. Writing did not exist.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Cuneiform was originally developed to write the Sumerian language of
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: southern Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq. Along with Egyptian hieroglyphics, it
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: is one of the earliest writing systems. So we've got
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Writing is growing and being developed at this time. The
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: ability to write, the ability to translate verbal language into
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: writing is something we shouldn't take for granted. We must
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: understand that there was a time that there was no
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: language that could be written. So history, if you go
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: back far enough, becomes oral more than written. In the
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: ancient antiquities of time, we see etches and drawings on
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: caves that begin the first dimensions to develop a written
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: example of an oral expression. The code of Hammurabi is
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: an example of that. And up until recent years had
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: never been discovered. But archaeologists had dug down and found
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: the code. And in the code, it kind of reinforces
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: this idea, having come from the same place that Abram
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: came from and the same place where Sarai came from.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: When God tells Abram to leave thy country and thy kindred,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: he left his country and his kindred, but no doubt
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: his culture goes with it. Oh, you didn't hear what
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: I'm saying. It is possible to leave your country and
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: your kindred and still hold on to your culture. And
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: so even though he has left a polytheistic form of religion,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: an idolatrous form of religion, and heard the voice of God, Jehovah,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: call him out and call him out from his people
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: and out from his country, there's still a residual culture
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: that affects his thinking and her thinking. And backed in
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: a corner and shoved to the wall, her old traditions
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: start to manifest in her decisions. That sounds a lot
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: like us. No, that even sounds a lot like the
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: children of Israel who have been slaves for 400 years
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: and they left Egypt, but Egypt didn't leave them. And
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: when they got ready to build an image of what
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: they thought God looked like, they built an Egyptian image
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: because the influence of the Egyptian culture, they could not
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: escape just because they crossed the Red Sea. They left
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: the country, they left the people, but they had trouble
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: divesting themselves of the culture. How much of your old
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: culture is still lingering on you today? Shaping your value systems,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: shaping your choices, shaping your apparel. I never will forget
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: being in Kenya and we had dug wells out in Kenya.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: And there were two tribes that had been fighting over
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: water in Kenya. And when we got ready to do
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: a reconciliation service because we dug a well, one of
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the tribes got up on stage and they started singing.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: And they started swinging from side to side and started
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: clapping and they started singing. I remember thinking, so that's
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: where we got that from. See, when you go back
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: far enough, some of your inclinations, your proclivities didn't just
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: start with you. They are innate to where you came
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: from and they travel down and they become organic and
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: natural to you without you even being conscious of it.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: That's why culture is important to understand your culture so
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: that you can separate your culture from your Christ. Oh,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: y'all don't hear what I'm saying to you. And so
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: it is understandable that all of this is rooted in Mesopotamia.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: All of this comes out of the same region. So
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: her reasoning is a result of where she came from.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: How much of your reasoning is a result of where
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: you came from? If you came from poverty, how much
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: of your reasoning is affected from the impoverished surroundings that
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: you came from? Now, you may not be in poverty
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: any longer, but your judgment may be being fed by
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: the time that you were. Your values, how you handle money,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: how you handle resources. There's a certain mentality that comes
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: with poverty that tends to lean away from things like investment.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Because you've been without so long that when you finally
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: start having, you don't really know how to handle money.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: And when you give people who don't have money some money,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: the first thing they do is spend it. And the
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: second thing they do is spend it. And the third
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: thing they do is spend it. And the fourth thing
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: they do is spend it. And the fifth thing they
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: do is spend it because they didn't come up in
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: a house where they talked about investment. They didn't come
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: up in a house where they talked about life insurance.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: They didn't come up in a house where they talked
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: about annuities. They didn't come up in an environment that
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: gave them a strategy for the success they prayed for.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: So it is possible to have a success that you
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: can't handle. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying. How
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: much of your behavior is a direct result of where
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: you came from? What you think about men, what you
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: think about marriage, what you think about relationships, what you
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: think what is normal to you may be affected by
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: where you came from. If you were raised in a
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: house where there was a lot of violence... Violence may
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: be normal to you and if people are too nice
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: to you, you may irritate them on purpose to provoke
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: a response that is familiar and then complain about what
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: you provoked because that is normal to you. Or you
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: might inflict punishment on somebody because that was the model
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: that you came from and it affects how you express yourself. rage, frustration, aggravation.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: It affects everything about you based on where you came from. Now,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: the Bible says any man being Christ, he is a
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: new creature. He is a new creature, but you can
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: still have old ways and be a new creature. Oh,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: y'all don't hear what I'm saying. I know you don't
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: know anything about having old ways. But you can't have
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: old ways and be a new creature and not even
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: understand it. It can drive you towards success. It can
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: make you a workaholic. It can cause you to do
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: things that you wouldn't do because it's not what you're
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: going to, it's what you're running from. What causes some
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: people to be more intense than other people? Because they're
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: running away from something that they never want to see again,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: which causes you not to have balance in your life
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: because you're so busy trying to get away from what
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: you think is horrific that you overdo what you're going
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: to do because you were so affected by where you
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: came from because you never want to see that happen
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: again in your life. If you can understand what I'm
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: talking about, hold your hand up. wave at me make
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: some sort of sign so you understand how Sarai reverts
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: back to this ancient Mesopotamian ideology and there seems to
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: be some reference to it in scripture because even when
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: God promised Abraham to bless him he said I'll bless
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: whatever is born in your house So the culture of
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: the times lends itself to creating the quagmire of this
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: situation that has erupted in Abraham's life in such a
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: dimension that now we find ourselves in a situation. It
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: was fine at first. Somebody say it was fine. at first.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Say it again. Watch out for making decisions in the
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: early stages of any situation because almost everything starts out
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: fine at first. If marriages were as good as weddings,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: everybody in the room would be married. It was fine
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: at first. Oh, when you first took the job, everybody's
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: so nice. Everybody treats me so good. They're so kind.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: They're so loving. Everything starts out fine at first. That's
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: why the Bible said, judge nothing before it's time, but
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: judge the righteous judgment. You got to be patient before
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: you judge. You can't say for sure somebody you just
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: met who they are and how they are because you
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: may not have met them yet. You may have met
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: their representative. But over time, they will drop their mask
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: and show you who they really are.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: It takes time.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: I want you to understand that patience has to have
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: its perfect work in your life. It takes time to
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: know people. It takes time to know people. It takes
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: time to know organizations. It takes time to know yourself.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go a step further. You are still
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: learning you. Oh no, Bishop, I'm 40 years old. You
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: are still learning you. Read my lips. You are still
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: learning you. I'm 50 years old. Yeah, you are still
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: learning you because life keeps changing and stages keep changing
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: and you knew yourself, your 20 year old self, but
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: you're not that anymore. And you got to see how
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: you react to 50 because who you are at 50
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: is not who you were at 20. That's why marriage
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: is a miracle. Because you picked somebody now for then.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: When I got married, I was 24 years old. I
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: didn't know who I would be by 64. I had
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: no idea who I would be at 64. And so
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: it has to be, it can't just be a roll
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: of the dice. It has to be a God divine
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: thing to pick somebody who can move with you and
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: flow with you throughout age. It's a difference between having
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: little kids and having kids who want the car keys.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: That changes everything. So don't write any books about parenting
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: when you got a five-year-old. I, for one, will not
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: be buying the book. I don't want to read it.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: If you have survived having a child that's 30, I
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: might want to talk to you. But until you have
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: survived adolescence... Aggravation, frustration, humiliation, been fussed out, been cussed out,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: been through trials and tribulations, ran down to school on
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: your lunch break, got back to work late, trying to
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: understand things that are going on, defending somebody that you
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: know is guilty. Oh, y'all not going to say nothing
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: to me. It takes time. Don't write no book on parenting.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: Don't write no book on marriage if you've been married
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: three years. It takes time for you to figure out
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: how to stay together through different stages. It's a difference
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: between a parent whose biggest problem is to make sure
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: you brought the bottle and you got the blankets and
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: you got the car seat in place from somebody whose
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: kid just took the car. I ain't going to look
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: at no particular person in case you're in here right now.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: You got to survive all of that to understand. It's
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: a difference between being married to somebody when they're young
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: and you're laying on the beach and you got sand
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: all over your body and your biggest job is to
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: put some tan protection lotion on them and somebody who's
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: going through menopause or somebody who's going through midlife crisis.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: And there he is with gray hair and a red
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: sports car with the top down. And the music turned
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: on and he's playing hip hop. You got to survive
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: all these different stages and ages and twists and turns.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: And it's not what you're running to, it's what you're
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: running from. Almost everybody I know who is inordinately successful
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: is running from something. They put in long hours. They
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: work extra hard. They work when other people say, I'm
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: going to take it easy. You don't understand why you're driven.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: You are driven by the thing behind you. Somebody got
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: a getaway spirit in here right now. I got to
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: get away. I got to get away. I don't want
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: that to ever happen to me again. I don't ever
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: want to be that vulnerable. I don't ever want to
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: trust anybody like that again. I don't want to ever
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: be dependent on anybody else again. So the thing that
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: drives it, isn't it funny how bad things can drive
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: you to good things? But if you're not careful, it'll
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: drive you so far that the good thing will go
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: bad because it'll drive you over a cliff that you
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: should have stopped at because you're still running from ghosts.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Where my real people at? I want to talk to
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: some people that want to keep it 100. You so
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: busy trying to pick somebody that's not like your old
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: boyfriend that you pick somebody he's not like your old
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: boyfriend but you swapped the devil for the witch. Your
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: last one was too aggressive and this one is so
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: passive he won't even go to work. You fixed the
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: old problem, but you created a new problem because you
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: are driven by where you came from. Do you hear
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying to you? Sarai is driven by where
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: she came from and it leads and affects her decisions
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: and it causes her to have fallacies. And ultimately, it
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: seems to work out at first. And Hagar births a
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: child for her called Ishmael. And Ishmael is called Ishmael,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: which means God will hear. God will hear. This Egyptian
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: woman who comes from an idolatrous background names the child.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: And it's an Egyptian woman who has now named the
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: child Ishmael in reference to Abram's God. God hears. God
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: will hear. Later on, we will see where she is
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: out in the wilderness and she's about to die. And
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: the Bible said that God heard the cry of the baby.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: God will hear. It's a prophetic name. Be careful what
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: you let people call you. Be careful what you adapt.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Be careful what you let people call you because it
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: has prophetic inferences to it. Little did she know when
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: she named him, God will hear that that cry of
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: that baby would lead to her deliverance because it wasn't
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: so much her cry that God heard. It was the
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: cry of the child. And God said, I heard the
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: cry of your child and God will hear. I came
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: to tell somebody tonight that God will hear you. I
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: don't care how far in the desert you are. I
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: tell you, if you make your bed in hell, God
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: is there. If you take the wings of the morning
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: and ascend to the uttermost parts of the earth, God
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: is still there. If you get behind the door and laugh,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: God will hear. If you murmur in your own head,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: God will hear. If you think in your own mind,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: God will hear. The Bible says that he is a
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: discerner of the thoughts and the intentions of the heart.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: There is nothing that you think that God can't hear.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: So don't sit there with your holy self and your
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: nose up in the air trying to be important and
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: impress me because I didn't hear what you thought, but
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: God heard what you thought. And if you aren't dirty
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: in your life, you've been dirty in your mind. God,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: talk to me somebody. God will hear. There's none good
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: but the Father. There's none righteous but the Father. No,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: not one. Not the bishop, not the elder, not the butcher,
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: not the baker, not the candlestick maker. None of us,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: none of us are that righteous. If you get in
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: our head, we'll all lose our position. How many people
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: in here are glad that your mind is not on
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: a loudspeaker? You can't even trust your mind to be
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: on a loudspeaker when you're in church because you have
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: to reel your thoughts in even in the house of God.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: You have to cast down imaginations even in the service
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: of God. You have to capture your thoughts even in
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: the spirit of God. You can be worshiping one minute
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: and think something crazy the next and you don't even
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: know where it came from and look around and wonder
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: did anybody hear what you thought because if somebody next
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: to you heard what you thought they wouldn't even ride
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: home in the car with you. Ishmael, God will hear.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: There is a prophetic power over this child. Even though
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: he is born through a fallacy and a failed attempt,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: a human effort to bring to pass the promise of God,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: there is still a prophetic utterance over his life. God
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: will hear. Just because you're not the one doesn't mean
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: you're not a one. Oh God, I'm talking good tonight.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: Just because you're not the one doesn't mean that you're
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: not a one. The problem with this generation that we're
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: living in now, everybody wants to be the one. Out
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: of 8 billion people on the planet, you want to
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: be the one. So you don't mind who.
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: You stand against.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: On, who you step over, who you step across, because
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: you think there's only room in God's plan for one person.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: But I came to serve notice on you. God has
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: a plan for your life. You might not be the one,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: but you are a one. You are the apple of
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: his eye. You are chosen of the Lord. God has
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: a destiny for you to fulfill. And stop fighting over
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: one chair because God has other sheep that are also
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: of this fold. Them also must he bring. And you
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: don't have a franchise on the favor and the hand
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: of God. I smell. God will hear.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: Ice, ice, ice, ice.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: In the Old Testament, it talks about Isha. I will
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: call thy name no more Balaam, but I shall call
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: it Isha. That's a converting moment. When the prophet married
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: the prostitute, she changed the name from Baal to Isha.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: She had found Isha, Ishmael, Isaac. All of these are
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: references and utterances that have God in it. Later Sarah
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: will have Isaac, meaning Isaac, I, God has made me
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: to laugh. Ishmael, God will hear. I will call thy
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: name Ishi. God dwells amongst us. God is in it all.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: I said God is in it all. Ishmael means God
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: will hear. Look at Genesis 21, 18 through 21 for
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: just a minute. Genesis chapter 21, verse 18 through 21.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Am I teaching good tonight? This is what God says
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: about Ishmael. Up, lift up the boy and hold him
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: fast with your hand for I will make him into
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: a great nation. Then God opened her eyes and she
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: saw a well of water and she went and filled
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: God is taking care of Abraham's mistake in the wilderness. Oh,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: somebody ought to shout me down right now. Because you
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: made a mistake and you think God doesn't care about it.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: But God will take care of your mistakes as well
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: as your miracle. And God cared for Ishmael and wouldn't
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: let him die in the wilderness. And God was with
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: the boy and he grew up. He lived in the
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: wilderness and became an expert with a bow. He lived
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: in the wilderness of Paran and his mother took a
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: wife for him from the land of Egypt. History will
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: teach us that Ishmael will go on to have 12 sons.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: He will have 12 sons. Isaac is the promised seed.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: He will only have two, Jacob and Esau. But Abraham's grandson, Jacob,
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: will have 12 sons. And those 12 sons will become
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: the 12 tribes of Israel.
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: Look at Abraham's tree.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: The branch on one side is coming up with Hagar's
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: ice mail. And on the other hand, something just sprouted
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: out of the dead womb of Sarah called Isaac. And
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: another branch is growing. Later on, when Sarah is dead,
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: he will marry Keturah and another branch will come out.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: No wonder God said, you will be the father of many.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: You will be the father of many. You will be
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: the father of many. Many nations came out of the
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: loins of one man. And he was significant to God.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: And his life is just reaching the apex of significance
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: at a hundred years old. Give yourself some time. Calm down.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: quiet yourself. Both sons were circumcised. Look at Genesis 17,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: 10 through 14. Both sons were circumcised. Circumcision was a
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: covenant that God made with Abraham and his seed as
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: a sign of the covenant. It is not the covenant.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: It is the sign of the covenant. So Ishmael has
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: the sign of the covenant just like Isaac does. This
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: is my covenant which you shall keep between me and
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: you and your offspring after you. Every male among you
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: the covenant between me and you. He who is eight
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: your generation, whether born in your house or bought with
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: Both he who is born in your house and he
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: He has broken my covenant. Are you with me? It's
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: amazing to me. When we pick up the text, we're
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: dealing with a circumcised Isaac at eight days old and
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: an Ishmael who has been circumcised. And ultimately, Sarah is
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: going to ask him to put the bondwoman out and
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: her son, which is a circumcision. The removal of Ishmael
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: is as much a circumcision as the cutting of his flesh.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: This whole text is circumcision. Are you hearing what I'm
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: saying to you? In every case we are seeing flesh
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: being cut away and cast off. Put out the bond
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: woman and her son. That's circumcision in the family. Every
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: male child should be circumcised. There's circumcision in the body.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: And God is into circumcision. What have you cut off lately?
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: Cutting off certain things, certain people, certain situations is not
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: the covenant, but it's the sign of the covenant. This
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: is an equal opportunity chance, male and female. We all
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: got some cutting to do. Write that down. We all
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: got some cutting to do. In order for us to
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: receive the promise of God, we've all got some cutting
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: to do and we've all got some bleeding to do
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: and we've all got some pain to bear. Because cutting
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: off that which you are connected to is painful. So
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: in our text, there is pain. There is a party
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: and then there is a pain. In our text, language
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: is growing, genealogies are growing, nations are growing, and God
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: is pruning. There is a continual ongoing pruning in your
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: life that does not stop. It is highly unlikely to
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: live a life void of poor judgment or fallacies. That's
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: what I want you to see. The second thing I
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: want you to see is that God's grace is broad
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: enough to offer a plan for your fallacy while his
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: greatest providence rests on your faithfulness. I'm telling you that
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: God can get the glory out of your humanity as
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: well as your holiness. Yes. God said, I'm going to
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: make a great nation out of Ishmael. He's not the one,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: but he's still a one. And I'm going to make
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: a great nation out of Ishmael. And that nation today
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: is called Arabs. And the Arabs are descendants of Ishmael.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: And they have become a great nation and a warring people.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: And God bless them to survive to this day. And
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: yet they were not B1, but they were still A1.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: You've got to make peace with your fallacies so that
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: you can walk into your faith and your destiny. A
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: separation is often required when your fallacies mock your faithfulness.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: There is a rumbling in this house. Because for a while,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: your fallacies and your faithfulness can live together under the
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: same roof. But eventually, your fallacies will begin to mock
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: your faith. And this is what's happening in this text.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: They were cool. They were having a party. Ishmael. has
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: been weaned. Abraham throws a party. They were all having
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: a good time until Sarah looked out the window and
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: she saw her mistake mocking her miracles. I wonder how
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: many people in this room have had your mistakes mock
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: your miracle. Oh, it's getting quiet in here. As long
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: as I'm looking at Isaac, everything is fine. But you
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: look out the window and you know that Ishmael is
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: making fun of Isaac. That Ishmael is making fun of
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: Isaac and it's all in your house. Anytime you have inconsistencies,
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: eventually one will mark the other. And at some point
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: along life's journey, you got to put one of them out.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: In order to be whole, in order to have peace,
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: in order to have tranquility, in order to have unity,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: there comes a point that something that is mucking, something
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: that God has promised you has got to go.
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: That's what's happening in this text.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: But Jesus says of his father, he says, I am
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: the vine, ye are the branches in John 8 chapter 1.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: And my father is the husbandman or he is the
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: vine dresser or he is the gardener. And there is
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: nobody in that text that doesn't get cut. Every branch
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: in me that beareth not fruit, I cut it away.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Every branch in me that beareth fruit, I cut it
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: that it might bring forth more fruit. No branch escaped
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: the cut. There's not a person in this room that
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: can escape God's knife. There's not a person in this
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: room that won't have party one moment and pain the next. Oh,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: do you hear what I'm saying? How could this switch
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: from one verse to the other? They're having a party.
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: They're having a celebration. Isaac is weaned until Sarah looks
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: out the window and she begins to see the mockery
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: in her own life. This is the catalyst of change.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: When you confront what is mocking your destiny. The real
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: lesson here is the promotion of patience. It is understanding
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: that letting go of your fallacies is painful and problematic,
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: but it is also the real lesson here is the
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: promotion of patience. If Sarah had only waited, she wouldn't
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: have had to deal with this fallacy.
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: Now Abraham is in a crisis.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: He is in a crisis because now his wife has
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: asked him to put out his son. His son who
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: he knows, not the son he just had, the son
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: he's grown up with. He wants him to cast out,
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: she wants him to cast out the bondwoman and her son.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: And Abraham ain't hearing it. He's not hearing it. He's
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: not hearing it. And an argument has broken out in
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: the house because Abraham told Sarah, you must be tripping.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: He wouldn't have been in the house if, this is
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: what I said, this is Jake's version of the Bible.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: He wouldn't have been up in this house in the
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: first place if your mouth hadn't have made this decision
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: to bring him in the house. Now you're going to
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: turn around and change your mind in the middle of
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: the story. It's a good argument. It's a true argument,
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: but it's not right. Oh God, can I go deeper?
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: It can be true and not be right. It is
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: true that Sarah is reversing her own idea. It is true,
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: but it's not right. How do you know it's not right?
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: Because God said, hearken unto the voice of thy wife, Sarah,
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: which I have given you.
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: Sarah is right. But the problem is.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: They're asking Abraham who has waited till he was a
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: hundred to.
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: Have a child while all.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: Of his brothers and all of his family and all
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: of his kin people are having children.
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: He has nothing to show for a hundred years.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: And you know how it is when you get something
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: after not having something for a long time. And now
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: they want to take it from you. Now you're ready to.
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: You come up. You ain't going to take this. Because
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: when you've waited a long time to get something. And
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: now you got to give it up. It is difficult.
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: It is painful.
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: It is hard. And it takes faith.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: It took faith for Abraham to submit to the voice
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: of God. To hearken unto the voice of a woman
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: who got him in the mess in the first place.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: Now y'all know you will change your mind. Can you
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: feel the tension in this text? Can you feel the
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: marital discord in this text? Abraham is the father of
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: faith and he's having trouble in his marriage because he
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: is sick of Sarah. This is a part of the
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: Bible that we don't teach. These are our spiritual parents. Amen.
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: Our covenant parents, the patriarchs of all that we embrace
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: as faith are having marital problems. They're having a fight.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: They went from a feast to a fight. From a
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: party to pain. But they still stayed together. Can you
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: stay with somebody that you have a right to leave? Oh,
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: y'all ain't going to talk to me. Let me go
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: on back home. Y'all not ready to talk to me.
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: I can imagine what's going on online. Y'all are not
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: ready to talk. Can you stay on a job that
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: you have a right to quit? Can you stay because
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: God put you there? Can you stay because you're called there?
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: Can you stay because your destiny is there? Can you
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: work it out because God is about to do something
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: amazing in your life? Is there ever a time in
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: your life that God gets bigger than your feelings? Oh,
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: y'all not going to talk to me. Let me try this.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: Is there ever a time in your life that God
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: gets bigger than your fear? I hear you dance. I
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: hear you shout. I hear you speak in tongue. But
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: the moment something gets on your nerves, you are out
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: of there. Abraham is staying with a woman whose advice
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: has created a problem and her cure has created pain. Abraham,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: who didn't flinch at cutting the foreskin off his penis.
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: is going crazy about putting away his son. Men, back
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: me up. I have never had a day in my
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: life that I thought, No.
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: No, no, no.
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: You cut my fingernails or something like that. You cut
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: my toenail. You cut my hair. Don't you bring that
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: knife over there because I'm not hearing that because that's
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: going to hurt. Abraham didn't flinch at that. But at
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: putting away his son, now we got a problem. But
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: Abraham's problem was also Abraham's practice. Y'all ain't ready for
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: me tonight. Abraham's problem was also Abraham's practice. God allowed him,
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: he said, hearken unto the voice of thy wife. I
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: want you to get used to giving up your son.
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: Stay with me. Because by the time we get to
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: Genesis 22, when God says, take now thy son, thy
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: only son, Isaac, to the mountain to offer it up,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: it has become easier for Abraham to give up Isaac
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: than it was for him to give up Ishmael. He said,
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: I've been through this before. And if God took care
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: of Ishmael... God will take care of Isaac. So now
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: he takes Isaac to the mountain and he doesn't stagger
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: at the promises of God because the promise, the problem
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: led to the promise. Talk to me a minute in here.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: Talk to me a minute in here. Abraham said, I'm
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: used to cutting off stuff. I cut off my flesh.
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: I cut off my Ishmael. And if you ask me
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: for Isaac, You can have him too. And he told
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: his servants, me and the lad are going yonder to worship.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: But some kind of way, God is going to get
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: us out of this. If he took care of Ishmael,
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: he'll take care of Isaac. I survived the cutting of
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: my flesh. I survived the cutting of my first son.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: And I'll survive the cutting of my... Oh, y'all don't
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: hear me. Daddy, I see the knife. And daddy, I
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: see the wood. But where is the sacrifice? Don't worry
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: about it, boy. God himself shall provide the sacrifice. Your
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: faith comes out of your experience with God. And little
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: by little, Abraham is growing up. He's growing up through
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: the things he suffered. He is learning obedience through the
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: things he suffered. He's learning endurance through the things that
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: he suffered. And by the time we get to the
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: 22nd chapter, which is just another chapter away, Abraham has
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: gotten good at saying yes to God even when it hurts.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: Is there anybody in here that's gotten better at saying
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: yes to God even when it hurts? Or is God
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: just a God of your convenience and a God of
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: your good times and a God when things are working
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: out and a God when you agree with him, you
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: say yes. But when it draws blood, you back away.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: That's why the book of Hebrews said, you have not
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: yet resisted under blood. You got to be God's child
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: even when it causes you pain, even when it draws blood,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: even when it hurts your feelings. The promises of God
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: are sure. The promises of God are sure. He will say,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: surely blessings I will bless thee and multiplying I will
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: multiply thee. The promises of God are sure. Say it
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: with me. The promises of God are sure.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: Say it again.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: Say it again. Say it again. Now that's praise. That's praise.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: When you compliment God's character, when you brag on his integrity,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: when you trust him in uncertainty, when you praise him
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: in the middle of pain, when you give him the
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: sacrifice of praise, when you believe him even when you're hurt,
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: when you believe him even when you're frustrated, when you
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: believe him even when it doesn't feel good. When you
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: believe him, even when you're living in a situation that
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: is below what you want it to be. When you
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: believe God, even when your flesh is saying, leave this
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: crazy woman and walk out the door. And I'm not
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: talking about Hagar. I'm talking about Sarah.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: I'm sick of her.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: And her bad advice because now she wants to hurt
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: me again. And yet God says, wait, wait, go back
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: and hearken to the voice of thy wife. The woman
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: is right. I want you to practice giving up your son.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: Your problem is your practice. Can I go deeper? They
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: gave me my first church. It was in Montgomery, West Virginia.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: At that time, and I think even now, Montgomery had
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: one red light in the whole town. So you know
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: how big that was. You blink and you was out
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: of Montgomery. And I had to drive about an hour
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: or so To even get to the church. And I
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: was working a full time job. And it wasn't a church.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: It was a building. And the building wasn't a church.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: It was a hole in the wall. And I was
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: preaching my heart out. And preaching Sunday mornings. And Sunday night.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: And teaching Wednesday night Bible class. And had to be
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: at work at 7 in the morning. And the church
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: was not growing. And the church was not developing. And
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: I was teaching everything I knew. I was teaching on
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: the tabernacle ever since I was a teenager. I was
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: teaching Moses' tabernacle, the tabernacle of David, the temple of Solomon.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: I was teaching eschatology. I was teaching Christology. I was
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: teaching everything I knew how to teach to about five
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: old ladies and two little kids. And a big service
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: was 40 people. And if we hit 100, it would
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: have blown our mind. We'd have had to put out chairs.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: And I thought, God, eventually, it took me a while
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: because at first I was grateful to just be there
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: at all. But eventually I got tired of preaching to
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: a handful of people and people were making fun and
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: they were laughing at me and they were calling me
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: the boy preacher. I didn't realize that my problem was
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: my practice. What you may be wrestling right now, it
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: may only be preparation for what God is about to
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: do in your life. And stop being so frustrated because
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: it's not working out. This is not the recital. It's
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: just the rehearsal. And you know, the choir don't look
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: like the choir when they come to rehearsal. They don't
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: have on the robes when they come to rehearsal. They
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: don't have their hair done and the black dress with
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: the pearls around the neck when they come to rehearsal.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: And so don't be so upset about what you're going through.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: Your problem is your practice. Let me prove it to
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: you in Scripture. The Bible said if you can be
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: over many. And so I was faithful for 10 years,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: preaching to less than 100 people to prove to God
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: that I would preach even when the numbers were down.
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: I couldn't even imagine preaching in a building like this.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: I couldn't even imagine preaching to the crowds that I
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: had preached to. Later, I would preach to a million
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: people in Uhuru Park in the middle of Kenya. But
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: at that time, I couldn't get 100 people. But I
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: was practicing. And if you're faithful over a few things,
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: God will make you rule over many. I don't know
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: who I'm preaching to right now. Your business might be failing.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: You might be struggling to keep the doors open. But
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: don't you doubt the promises of God. Weeping may endure
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: for a night, but joy is coming in the morning.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: Your problem is practice. A few more quick points and
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: I'm done. God's promises transcend your circumstances. All we pray
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: about nowadays is our circumstances. Give me out, Lord.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 2: I'm sick of this. I'm tired. I don't feel good.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 2: They hurt my feelings. They don't respect me.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: Give me out. Give me out. And God has given
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: you a promise. And all you pray about is the circumstance.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: The second thing I want you to get out of
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: the class tonight is that walking with God often includes contradictions.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: Faith on one hand, fallacies on the other. Promises on
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: this side, problems on that side. The greater the promise,
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: the greater the problems. New levels, new devils. If you
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: cannot run with the footmen, how shall you contend with
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: the horses? So God has put you in a foot
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: race and you're ready to faint. And yet you told
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: me you could outrun the herd. How you gonna outrun
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: the herd and you can't outrun the footmen? I'm telling
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: you that God will test you before he promotes you.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you that he put Moses in the desert
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: and let him practice his miracles with nobody watching. So
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: that when Moses got before Pharaoh, he was good at
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: his tricks. He said, let me show you something. You
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: think your magicians are bad? Let me show you something.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: The magician threw down their rod, it turned into a snake.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: He threw down his rod, it turned into a snake
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: and ran their snakes off. He picked up the snake,
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: it turned into a rod again. He stuck his hand
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: into his bosom, it came out with leprosy. He stuck
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: it in again, it got healed. He poured out water,
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: it turned to blood. But Moses had been practicing. Tonight
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: we're talking about spiritual maturity creates patience in you that
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: you are willing to wait.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: And wait through contradictions.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: Removing the contradiction takes as much faith as receiving the promise.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: It took faith for Abraham to do what he did
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: not want to do And put out his son. And
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: by the way, I believe that Abraham was bond to
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: the bond woman. Come on, talk to me somebody. That
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: this is not just a laboratory exchange of fluids done
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: in a test tube. Abraham has spent some time with Hagar.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: And you know about pillow talk. And you sit up
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: there talking about what you want to be and what
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: you would do with your life and how you grew
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: up and where you came from. And now this is
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: a ripping of his flesh. And it is most painful.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: Because he's bond to the bond woman which is part
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: of the reason Sarah wants her out of there. Because
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: I was foolish enough to believe that she could incubate
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: my baby and not my man. That's stupid. And now
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: they're in a situation where Abraham has to have faith.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 2: To cut away His flesh again.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: Life is a series of losses. No shouting tonight. Life
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: is a series of losses. In order to gain, you
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: got to lose. In order to walk, you had to fall.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: In order to be healed, you have to be sick.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: In order to prosper, you got to go through pain.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: For every yin, there is a yang. For every north,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: there is a south. For every east, there is a west.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: Nobody gets away without bleeding. Everybody is going to have
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: some tears before this life is over. Stop being jealous
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: of people who look like they haven't been through anything.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: There is no way for you to have everything and
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: not go through anything. The only way you can have
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: anything is to go through other things. You are not
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: the only one in here bleeding. You are not the
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: only one in here lonely. You are not the only
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: one in here sore. You are not the only one
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: in here who has suffered loss. If your Savior suffered loss,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: then spiritual maturity requires that you face with the same
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: grace the loss as you do the win. One moment
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: he's partying, And the next moment he's in pain. One
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: moment he's happy and the next moment he's in an argument.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: Ain't that just like life? One text can take the
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: smile off of your face. One phone call and you
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: would have to leave the room. One incident could change
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: everything in your life. God is the righteous judge. God
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: is merciful if we repent. God knows how to fix
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: our fallacies and yet build our faith. There are people
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: in here who have made some bad choices, but God
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: wants to fix them. Stress often comes when our lives
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: are too complicated. And in order to detox from the complication,
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: you got to let some things go. What are you
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: willing to send away to bring peace to your life?
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: This is deep. There's too much stuff going on under
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: the same roof, which creates.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 2: Stress and depression. Depression.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: Paul said I was pressed above measure and beyond strength
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: so much so that I despaired of life itself while
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: I was in Asia. He left.
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: Some things are too much for you.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: You have got to develop the ability to say when
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: things are enough. Enough is enough. Something has got to go.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: Because my destiny is being mocked by my history. As
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: I close tonight, I'm talking about spiritual maturity. And I'm
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: telling you that while Abraham's tree of nations was growing,
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: Abraham and his faith was growing at the same time.
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: That Ishmael was growing. Isaac was also growing. And we
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: are also growing. And you know you're growing as you
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: deal with the inconsistencies of faith and fallacies and maintain
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: the integrity of staying through it all. As I closed tonight,
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: I was watching this man. He was paralyzed. He had
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: some sort of disease. And the only thing he could
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: move was his lips. And he had to talk through
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: a computer. And he was going to die. And they said, when...
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: When you start to get really, really down toward the end,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: do you want us to resuscitate you? He said, yes.
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: And I thought to myself, why would you want to
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: be resuscitated? Nothing works. Nothing moves. Nothing is going your way.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: You can't go to the beach. You can't go to
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: the party. You can't make love. You can't have fun.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: Why would you want to stay? He said, life is
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: so precious that I want to experience the whole thing.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: I will take no shortcuts. Every breath he gives me,
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: I'll take it. Because life is the most precious thing
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: I have ever known. And he talked so much about
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: the preciousness of life that I dropped my head. Because
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: here I am standing on two good legs with two
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: good feet and a strong body and a reasonable portion
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: of health and strength clothed in my right mind And
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: this man who can't move a muscle or turn his
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: head or chew his own food, this man who is
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: sucking his food through a straw still thinks life is precious.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: And suddenly I realized he was more mature than I was.
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: He had learned to value what I am taking for granted.
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: Spiritual maturity will stop you from leaving when things get tough.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: Abraham could have left Sarah, ran off with Hagar and
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: changed the course of destiny. But God had a plan
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: for him that required that he endure pain sometimes and
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: pleasure sometimes. And disagreements sometimes and inconsistency sometimes. I'm not
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: saying to stay in a situation where you're being abused
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: and being raped and being molested and all that kind
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: of crazy stuff. But I'm talking about leaving over burnt
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: toast and leaving because he lost his job and leaving
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: because she can't cook it. Leaving because it get on
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: your nerves. You're not worshiping God, you're worshiping you. Our
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: ancestors made dinner out of yams. They had no refrigerator.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: They covered the yams with leaves and fed the neighborhood.
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: My grandmother raised 23 children off of yams and peas
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: and greens. And you're sitting in air conditioning saying I
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: can't make it. And yet you are filled with the
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: Holy Ghost. And I love the way we dance and
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: I love the way we shout and I love the
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: way we praise God. But I'm wondering when are we
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: going to grow up? Growing up means that you glory
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: in tribulation because tribulation work with patience. Patience. Patience. Patience.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: and patience experience, and experience hope. But we are in
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: the generation of I want it now, and I want
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: it fast, and I want it quick, or I quit.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: You cannot become the father of many nations until you
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: learn how to stand, until your branches grow to their
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: full capacity. Let's stand to our feet. Tonight there may
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: be somebody. Were you blessed tonight? I don't know why
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: God had me teach this. But somebody in here does.
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know who needs this. but somebody in here
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: did it may be somebody in our virtual community that
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: has experienced a touch of the Holy Spirit right now
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: and you're tired and you're annoyed and you're frustrated and
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: you want to walk away and maybe God sent this
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: word to you about spiritual maturity and so you could
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: manage your faith and your fallacies and understand that this,
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: your problem is your practice. By the time I got
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: to Dallas, I was ready to pastor. Because being in
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: West Virginia raised me. I could stand tribulation. I could
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: stand storms. Things that would have made other people walk
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: away from this ministry in this city I passed through
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: it like it wasn't nothing because he had trained me
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: in the desert he had called me in the wilderness
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: he had taught me how to preach through pain and
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: preach through turmoil