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

• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Grab your Bibles, your phones, your iPad, or however you
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: read the Bible, through your lipstick tube. Y'all ain't got
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: so fancy now, I don't know how you're reading the Bible.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: But wherever you got it, go to it, and go
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to the book of Judges chapter 14, 1 through 20.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you something before I start reading one.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be reading more scripture than I normally
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: read to open up a text. I'm pretty much going
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: to read most of the whole chapter. And two, this
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: is one of the kinds of messages that I enjoy preaching,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: but I hate seeing on Instagram and Facebook because it's
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: got the kind of content that a clip doesn't always explain.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: If you don't follow the continuity of the thought, you
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: might take one isolated concept out of context and lose
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the continuity of the story. Again, we will be examining
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: a historical figure for contemporary content. Okay? So we're not
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: in a history class just to learn history, but we
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: are using the historical data that is given us through
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: the Word of God to fight the battle we got
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: on Monday. Okay. So I bring both parts of my
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: brain to the text. I bring the historical part of
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: my brain that explains the text in context, but I
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: also bring the part of my brain that digests the
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: information and appropriates it for the contemporary fight I'm having
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: with my child, with my marriage, with my finances, with
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: my future, with my career, because this is how I
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: fight Oh, y'all ain't talking to me. Let's go into
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: the word of God. Verse 1. So Samson went down
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. When
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: he returned, he said to his father and mother, I
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  Speaker 1: have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah. Now get her
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: for me as my wife. His father and mother replied,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: to get a wife? But Samson said to his father,
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  Speaker 1: get her for me. She is the right one for me.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: His parents did not know that this was from the
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  Speaker 1: Lord who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines,
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  Speaker 1: for at that time they were ruling over Israel. Samson
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: went down to Timnah together with his father and mother,
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  Speaker 1: and as he approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a
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  Speaker 1: young lion came roaring toward him. The Spirit of the
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: lion apart with his bare hands as he might have
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: torn a young goat. I always laugh when I read
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  Speaker 1: that because I don't think I could tear a young goat.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: And the way the text is written, it sounds like
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: tearing up a young goat would be an easy thing
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: to do. But, well, anyway. But he told neither his
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: father nor his mother what he had done. Then he
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: went down and talked with the woman and he, yeah, man.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: What's up, girl? How you doing? He liked her. Sometime
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: later when he went back to marry her, He turned
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: aside to look at the lion's carcass and in it
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. He
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: them some and they too ate it. But he did
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: not tell them that he had taken the honey from
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the lion's carcass. Now his father went down to see
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: the woman and there Samson held a feast as was
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  Speaker 1: customary for young men. When the people saw him, they
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: chose 30 men to be his companions. Let me tell
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  Speaker 1: you now, listen closely, let me tell you a riddle
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  Speaker 1: Samson said to them. If you can give me the
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: answer within the seven days of the feast, I will
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: give you 30 linen garments and 30 sets of clothes.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: And if you can't tell me the answer, you must
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: give me 30 linen garments and 30 sets of clothes.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Tell us the riddle, they said. Let's hear it. He replied,
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  Speaker 1: out of the eater, something to eat. Out of the strong,
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  Speaker 1: something sweet. For three days, they could not give the answer.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: On the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, coax
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  Speaker 1: your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: will burn you and your father's household to death. Did
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: you invite us here to steal our property? Then Samson's
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: wife threw herself on him, sobbing. You hate me. You
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  Speaker 1: don't really love me. You've given my people a riddle,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: but you haven't told me the answer. I haven't even
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: explained it to my father or mother, he replied. So
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: why should I explain it to you? She cried the
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  Speaker 1: whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day,
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  Speaker 1: he finally told her. because she continued to press him.
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  Speaker 1: She in turn explained the riddle to her people. Before
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  Speaker 1: sunset on the seventh day, the men of the town
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: said to him, what is sweeter than honey? What is
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: stronger than a lion? Samson said to them, if you
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: had not plowed with my heifer, If you had not
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.
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  Speaker 1: Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him.
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  Speaker 1: He went down to Ascalon, struck down 30 of their men,
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  Speaker 1: stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those
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  Speaker 1: who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: to his father's home. And Samson's wife was given to
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: one of his companions who had attended him at the feast.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Ain't that hot? Don't that sound like a Tyler Perry movie? Lord,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: in days of our lives, you don't know what's going
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: to happen from moment to moment. I want to talk
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  Speaker 1: to you simply from the subject, the riddle. The riddle,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the riddle, the riddle. Let's pray. Thank you, Holy Spirit,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: for the opportunity to delve into the word, to be
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: privileged with access so that we might better be able
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  Speaker 1: to articulate the things of God. I thank you for
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: your word and its relevance and its power. And I
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: thank you how you are gradually unveiling your plan for
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: man through the word of God itself. Speak, Lord, for
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: thy servant hears. I thank you in advance for what
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: you're about to do. Have your way, great God that
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: you are. In Jesus' name we pray. Somebody shout amen. No, no,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: you said amen. Somebody shout amen. There you go. There
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: you go. You may be seated in the presence of God. So,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: my brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen, Christians and friends,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: we are gathered at the very impetus of this text
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  Speaker 1: with an assumed understanding that God is unveiling himself to
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  Speaker 1: Israel as the invisible king. He has not allowed them
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: to have a king because he considers himself to be
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the king. Instead, the highest person in the chain of
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: political influence and spiritual development has instead become judges. We
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: have seen judges of various descriptions. We have seen Eglon
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: and Deborah, and now we are looking at Samson. Samson
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: is a judge amongst the people of God. He is
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: in a position of power and authority. The only odd
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: thing is... He has authority under the banner of the
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Philistines who have subdued and subjugated the children of Israel
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  Speaker 1: into a bondage. So he is the king of underlings.
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  Speaker 1: He is the judge of the oppressed. It is the
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: amalgamation of two cultures coexisting simultaneously in a polarized way.
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  Speaker 1: On one hand, the Philistines had a different God. They
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: had a different culture. They had a different food. They
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: had different values. They had different methodologies. They had different functions.
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  Speaker 1: And the Hebrews had a different God that they worshiped. Yahweh, Jehovah, Elohim,
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  Speaker 1: El Shaddai, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father. They had
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: a different way of doing things. And God has allowed
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  Speaker 1: us the idolatrous behavior of the Philistines to oppress the
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  Speaker 1: children of Israel, Judah specifically, into a bondage of subjugation
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  Speaker 1: that has allowed them to hold on only to the
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  Speaker 1: fragments of their culture. And that is controlled by Samson,
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  Speaker 1: who is a judge. Now Samson's mother and father have
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: birthed him and given him to God. Much like Hannah
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  Speaker 1: gave Samuel to God, they have given him from a
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  Speaker 1: baby to God and given him the Nazarite vow. And
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  Speaker 1: the Nazarite vow requires, amongst other things, that none of
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  Speaker 1: his hair was to be cut, that he was to
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  Speaker 1: touch no dead thing, no unclean thing. There were many,
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  Speaker 1: many rules in Numbers chapter 6 that regulate that. How
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: you are to be handled when you have a vow.
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  Speaker 1: And God has supernaturally endowed him with this amazing strength
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  Speaker 1: whereby he could do superhuman feats when the spirit of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord came upon him. And so when we think
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  Speaker 1: of Samson in our society, we think of Samson as
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  Speaker 1: this superhero in the Bible because he is very strong
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  Speaker 1: and he is very powerful. But he is also very
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  Speaker 1: flawed and very human. And when you read the text,
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  Speaker 1: this chapter and all the chapters surrounding Samson's reign as
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: judge is pretty much a tangled web of events. It
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: has more twists and turns than the WWE. And if
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: you ever watch the WWE, you don't know who will
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  Speaker 1: fight who. He comes out here to fight one guy
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: and two guys jump in the ring. And by the
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: time you're 15 minutes into the movie, somebody has gotten
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: out of the crowd and took their towel off and
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: yanked their coat off and come on stage. And now
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: the fight is down here on the floor. That's the
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  Speaker 1: way this takes it. It is everywhere. It is absolutely everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: Why in the world would the judge judge? of the
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Israelites fall in love and choose a Philistine woman. He
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: is choosing a wife from his oppressor. He is choosing
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  Speaker 1: a wife who is an idolater. He is choosing a
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  Speaker 1: wife who has a completely different custom and ideology. And
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: out of all the Hebrew women, he has decided she
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  Speaker 1: is the one for me. And when he saw her,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: he liked her. His arms were strong, his biceps were big,
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  Speaker 1: but he was also amorous and affectionate and tender and soft.
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  Speaker 1: and a little bit stupid. It becomes strange to us
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: that victories and victimhood could cohabitate in the same space.
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  Speaker 1: That in the space of one text, one reading, we
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  Speaker 1: can see Samson the victorious. We can see Samson killing 10,000
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  Speaker 1: Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. We can see
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  Speaker 1: Samson going to a rage and destroy 30,000 men to
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  Speaker 1: get their clothes to fulfill his obligation to the Philistines.
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  Speaker 1: He's tough. He's bad. And when he gets mad, you
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  Speaker 1: don't want none. On the other hand, he has allowed
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  Speaker 1: this woman to You were all for that. My wife
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  Speaker 1: said half of it. He has allowed this woman to
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: get up under his skin. He doesn't know her. He
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: might like her. He might have chosen her. But it
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: takes a long time to know people. If you don't
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: write down any other note, write that down. It takes
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: a long time to know people. You don't know what
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: you're dealing with. You don't know what you got. You
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: don't know just because they're cute, just because they look good,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: and just because they said the right things doesn't necessarily
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: mean that they have the right motive. The outcomes are unpredictable.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: The storyline is amazing. If somebody sent me a script
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: like this, I would throw it in the trash and say,
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  Speaker 1: this can't happen. How can this guy go back and
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  Speaker 1: forth and in and out and up and down and
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  Speaker 1: go down the Timnah and go back and they got
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  Speaker 1: a lion in the story and we got a woman
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  Speaker 1: in the story and we got his parents in the
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: story and we got these fake friends in the story
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  Speaker 1: and we got deceit and treachery and affection and And
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: all of this stuff cohabitating in the same text. This
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: is madness. This is crazy. This is ridiculous. Maybe not
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: to you because you know how the story ends. But
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: back up for a moment and live in it. Live
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  Speaker 1: in the text in such a way that you are
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: not informed of its outcomes. Because that's how you live
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: your life. You live your life just going through what
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: you're going through not knowing how it's going to end up.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: You don't know the outcomes which makes the ambiguity of
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the circumstances that much more overwhelming because of the uncertainty
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: of life itself. One phone call can change your whole life.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: One text can change your whole mood. One Instagram, one message,
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  Speaker 1: one note, one call can leave you in a state
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: of total depression and cause you to burst into tears
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and have to run out of the room because you
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: don't know from one moment to the next moment what
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: is going to happen. And that's the way Samson's life is.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: It is a strange concoction. of victory and victimhood, of
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: mayhem and miracles, of mightiness and meekness, of strength and
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: embarrassing weakness, of force and folly. They're all collected together
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: to make up the complexities of him. And I'm a
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: little bit uncomfortable with preaching this text in this environment
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: because church people have strong opinions about victory. Church people
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: like to say I have the victory as if having
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: the victory means you have no victimhood. We don't like
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: to mix victory with victimhood. And I said, Lord, if
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: I preach this and they play a clip of it
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: and it goes on Instagram or Facebook, I'm going to
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: get all kinds of criticism because there are these people,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: these deep people who write in and talk about the
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: devil is a lie. I'm walking into victory. Now, I've
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: been pastoring long enough to know that you can walk
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: in victory in one area and Y'all ain't going to
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: talk to me. You're not going to say nothing to me.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: You can have absolute victory in one area and have
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: victimhood in another area of your life. You can have
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: total victory in the gym and have victimhood in your credit.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: You got biceps and triceps everywhere. Don't pay nobody. You
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: got hair all the way down to your hinder parts
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and a liar. It is possible to have a PhD
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: in On one side of your life and on the
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: other side, bad credit so bad you can't even pay attention.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: The cohabitation of victory and victimhood leaves us in a
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: conundrum because we like to put people in nice little categories.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: She got the victory. As if having the victory means
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: in no place in her life is she a victim.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: And yet you could have the victory at work and
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: come home and get beat half to death. And it's
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: amazing to me how Samson is strong enough to be
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: a leader and strong enough to defeat the Philistines and
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: couldn't put up with the crying of a woman for
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: seven days. Why didn't he just say let her cry?
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: cry till you run out of salt. I'm not telling
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  Speaker 1: you nothing. I'm not telling you the answer to anything.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: His life is so full of chaos and confusion and
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: lions and bees and honey and Philistine that you don't
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: know what's going to happen from sentence to sentence. Which
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: I suggest to you, brothers and sisters, is a lot
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: like you. You don't know what's going to happen before tonight.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: You don't know what your friends from your enemies... I've
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: had enemies that bless me and friends that curse me
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and left me confused because I thought you was my friend,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: but you tried to destroy me and cut my throat.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: And then I've been blessed by people that I never
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: liked and couldn't figure out. You see, if you intellectualize life,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: you will be frustrated. You will be confused. You will
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: be upset. It is like the line that Shakespeare quotes
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: in Macbeth, that life is a tale told by a fool.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Or I think he said told by an idiot, full
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: of sound and fury signifying nothing. In this soliloquy of Macbeth,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: it happens at a time when he has lost his wife.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: And the losing of his wife has drawn a conclusion
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: in his life that life doesn't make any sense. Because
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: there are moments in your life that are not explainable.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Short caskets are unexplainable. The prospering of the wicked is unexplainable.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: The dying of good people is unexplainable. The longevity of
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the wicked is unexplainable. It's unexplainable how you can train
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: somebody and they end up with your job. There seemingly
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: is no rhyme or reason or logic. And to those
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: of us who are logical and try to intellectualize life,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: we end up feeling much like Macbeth that life is
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: a tale told by an idiot. This text looks like
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: it's been told by an idiot. It's insane. It's crazy.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: It's ludicrous. He's on his way to get married and
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: a lion comes out. And he fights the lion with
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: his bare hands and subdues him and destroys him and
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: kills him. And on his way back from Timnah, the bees,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: not maggots, the bees, not buzzards, the bees have set
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: up a hive in the carcass of the lion since
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: it almost seems bipolar. Angry enough to kill at one
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: moment and couldn't put up with the whining of a
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: woman the next moment. He is as bipolar as honey
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: in a lion. Nobody goes to the carcass of a
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: lion to eat. And all of the text is centered
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: around around the understanding of this riddle. He states that
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: life is full of events and actions, however absurd and
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: short and completely meaningless at the end. His conclusion is
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: my conclusion with this text. This don't make no sense.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: I read it and read it and read it and
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: read it and read it again and I thought this
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: makes no sense. And there have been moments in my life,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: and maybe in yours, that you have set up at
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: 2 o'clock in the morning and say, this makes... I
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: got a master's degree and this makes... No sense. I
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: went to a junior college and this makes... No sense.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: I made straight A's in reading comprehension, but this makes...
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Is there anybody in here that's willing to admit that
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: sometimes your own life has stumped you and confused you?
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: And sometimes your own behavior has stumped you? How could
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I be so smart about this and so dumb about that?
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: How could I be so strong over here and be
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: so stupid over here? How could I have so much
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: power in this area and be so passive in that area?
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: And you want me to explain myself to you when
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: I can't explain myself to me. And in the midst
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: of the chaos and the confusion, I still got lions
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: to fight. The lions don't wait for me to figure
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: myself out before they jump out and attack me. I
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: want to talk to somebody who's had lions to fight.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: In the middle of your confusion, in the middle of
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: your chaos, you had lions to fight. And without warning,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: you went from happy to hell. From excitement to torment.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: And lions jumping out from everywhere. And if you don't
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: get him, he's going to get you. Macbeth determined that
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: life made no sense at all. It seemed like it
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: was told by an idiot. And he had decided and
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: concluded that it was all meaningless. And I would argue
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: that Jeremiah 29, 11 gives great clarity. For I know
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: that the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: are thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: you an expected end. That it doesn't all end in meaninglessness.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: That there is an expected end. There is an expected end.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: That God has determined the end from the beginning. That
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: he never picked up his pen to write the story
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: and just said, let me make this up as I go.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: God has determined the end from the beginning. That God
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: is alpha and omega. That he is the beginning and
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: the end. That he is the first and the last.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: And so he starts it, he finishes it. He begins it,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: he completes it. He's alpha, he's omega. The problem is
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: he says nothing about the middle. And the riddle of
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: life is in the middle. It's in the middle of
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: this text. It's in the middle of his life. It's
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: in the middle of his story. And in your life,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: life is the biggest riddle in the middle. I don't
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: see toddlers at day camp worried about anything. I don't
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: see old folks in nursing homes upset about nothing. But
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: the hell... is in the riddle in the middle the
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: riddles of life come in the middle of life just
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: when you're trying to get yourself together and you're trying
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: to do something and be something and turn into something
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: and make it work and make it happen that's when
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: life acts a fool it don't act a fool until
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: you buy a house. It don't act a fool until
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: you get married. It doesn't act a fool until you're
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: on your way somewhere and then all of a sudden
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: it becomes a riddle and the older you get, the
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: dumber you recognize you are. Amen. And you suddenly, oh,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: when you're young, you're impressed with yourself. Oh, let me
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: tell you who I am. They need to understand who
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: I am. They need to recognize that's what you do
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: when you're young. By the time you get to the
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: middle of your life, you say, Lord, I don't know
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: who I am. I'm not sure what I got. I
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: don't know which way it's going to go. So Samson
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: goes down to Timnah to marry His oppressor. He has
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: fallen in love with abuse. See, you can be around
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: abuse so long that it gets sexy. Oh, y'all ain't
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: gonna say nothing in here. Because you're in church. But
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: I know there's some freaks up in here. You can
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: be around abuse so long that it starts to get sexy.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: And the only thing you understand to be love is
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: fighting because you grew up in it and you experienced
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: it all your life. And if somebody's too nice, it's
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: not normal. Uh-oh. I'm going to meddle with you. Come on.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: I'm going to meddle with you. Talk back to me.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Talk back to me. What in the world would make
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: him fall in love with his oppressor? I like the
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: way you dog me. I like the way you mistreat me.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: I like the way you betray me. I like the
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: way you manipulate me. And so I will bypass everybody
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: who really meant me well. And I will go out
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: here and pick a lunatic. Because that has become my normal.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Can I go a little bit deeper? See, I'm picking
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: at a wound. I'm picking at a scab. And I
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: know it makes you uncomfortable. But if you look back
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: over your life, some of the hell you got into,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: you can't blame it on the devil. You got yourself in.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: You went out and handpicked that devil and said, I
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: like that. I like that. And Samson's parents are baffled.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: All the parents say, man. His parents are baffled. Your
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: kids can do stuff that make you scratch the hair
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: out of your head. Out of all the people we
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: got in our community, you couldn't pick nobody? You got
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: to pick the people that's been killing us and beating
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: us and destroying us. Don't tell me you haven't had
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: one of them meetings where they brought home somebody and
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: you looked at them and you thought... Police. I want
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: you to think for a moment about all the lions
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: that jumped out while you were on your way. I
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: want you to think about all the lions... They tried
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: to kill you while you were coming.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: I want you
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: to think about all the lions that leaped out at
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: you when you were happy and all of a sudden
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: you had to fight. You had to change your whole
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: mood and go into fight mode just Just up out
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: of the blue. No warning. It just come from nowhere.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: And you had to pull out Jack the Ripper on people.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: They don't even know that you carry him in your
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: back pocket. But every now and then you got to
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: be able to pull out Jack the Ripper. And he
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: was going down there to get married. You don't plan
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: to fight when you're going to get married. Look at
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: somebody and say a lion jumped out. That's why I'm late.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: That's why I got here late because a lion jumped out.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: That's why I got blood on my clothes because a
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: lion jumped out. That's why I got scars on my
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: heart because a lion jumped out. That's why I got
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: a sharp tongue and a quick mouth because a lion
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: jumped out. That's why I overreact on people because a
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: lion jumped out. jumped out. There's some people in this room,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: people don't understand why you are the way you are,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: but so many lions have jumped out of nowhere that you, you,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: you always half cocked. You always half ready. You always
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: looking in the bushes and looking in the trees because
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: you don't know when the next lion is going to
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: jump out. And a lion jumped out to kill him.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: And he knew in an instance it was kill or
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: be killed. I'm telling you, if you don't kill that thing,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: that thing will kill you. You didn't hear me. I'm
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: going to stand over here and say, if you don't
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: kill that thing, that thing will kill you. Everybody in
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: here got a different lion. Everybody in here hears a
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: different roar. But everybody in here needs what I'm saying
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: right now. If you don't kill that thing, that thing
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: will kill you. And killing a lion empty-handed is no
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: easy thing. He killed him with nothing in his hands.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: He killed him without having anything in the world. Oh
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: my God. You don't have to have all the advantages
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: that other people have to kill your lion. You can
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: kill your lion. Who am I preaching to? I'm a
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: living witness. You can kill your lion barehanded. God's going
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: to give somebody a barehanded victory over every attack that's
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: come in your life. He's going to give you a
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: barehanded victory. You're not going to be able to praise
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: your sword. You're not going to be able to praise
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: your shield. You're not going to be able to talk
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: about how strong— God' s just going to give you your bare hands.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: It ain't even going to be a fair fight. The
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: lion got claws, you got fingernails, but you're still going
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: to kill the lion barehanded. That's a prophetic word to somebody.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: I don't know who it is, but take 30 seconds
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: and praise him like it's your word. Praise him like
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: it's your word. Praise him like it's your word. Praise
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: him like it's your word. Pray them like it's your word.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: Strut around a little bit. Strut around a little bit
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: and say, I'm going to do it barehanded. I'm going
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: to do it. I'm going to do it barehanded. I'm
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: going to do it with a part-time job. I'm going
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: to do it with a junior degree. I'm going to
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: do it as a single mother. I'm going to do
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: it as a single man by myself. I don't have
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: everything you've got to work with. I'm going to kill
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: my lion barehanded. I wish I had some warriors in here.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: I'm tired of jelly-backed, passive, laid-back people who let the
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: lion come in and destroy you. The devil is a lie.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: God said, I'm going to give you a bare-handed victory.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: And the devil's been in your face and saying, you
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: don't have this, and you don't have that, and you
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: don't have the other, and you don't have this, and
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: time is not on your side, and you waited too late,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: or you started too early, or you don't have enough money.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: Look right back at the devil and say, yeah, I'm
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: right where God wants me. I got nothing in my hands.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: I got nothing in my hands. But I'm still going
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: to fight you with my bare hands. And the lion
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: roared at first, but when Samson got through with that lion,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: he had ripped him apart. And the lion is both
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: predator and prey. Samson is victorious and victim, but the
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: lion is both predator and prey. And the carcass is
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: dead and the honey is alive and the whole text
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: is about life. the riddle. And everything that makes you
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: you is in the riddle. You are a mystery. You
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: are a tale told by an idiot. Because you don't match.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: This don't go with that. And that don't go with this.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: And this part don't fit with that part. And anybody
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: who came from what you came from is not supposed
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: to be where you are right now. But God in
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: his infinite wisdom and mercy chose to raise you up
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: and give you an opportunity that you would never have.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: And if it had not been for the Lord. That
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: was on your side. You would have been swallowed up.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: You're a mystery. You ain't got to read the Bible
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: to get a miracle. You are walking, talking, squawking, miracle.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: I want every miracle in the building to make some noise.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: I want every miracle online to make some noise. I
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: want every miracle that's on Facebook to make some noise.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: I want every miracle on YouTube to make some noise.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: I want every miracle in the app to make some noise.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: Take about 15 more seconds and praise him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hallelujah.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: Tell your neighbor I'm a miracle. I'm a miracle. I'm
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: a mess, but I'm a miracle. I'm crazy. I don't fit.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: It don't make no sense. One arm is longer than
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: the other arm. One leg is longer than the other leg.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: One foot is bigger than the other foot. I feel
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: like I've been made out of mix-match parts, but I'm
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: still God's miracle. And if you mess with me, I'm
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: a bare-handed Negro. I don't need an AK-47. I don't
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: need a 9mm Luger. I'm a barehanded back me in
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: a corner. I'll beat you with a switch. I'll fight
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: you like I own you. I'll beat you like I'm
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: your mama because I'm a barehanded. I want to hear
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: from some people who got where you are barehanded. Barehanded
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: warriors make some noise. He teaches my fingers to war.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: That's what David said. He teaches my fingers to war.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: He teaches my fingers to war. I can't fight my
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: devil with your weapon. I got to use what I got.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: He teaches my fingers to war. Fight back, fight back,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: fight back. Type it on the line. Speak it out
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: your mouth. Fight back, fight back, fight back. The odds
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: are against you, but fight back. His teeth are longer
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: than yours, but fight back. They got more money than
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: you do, but fight back. Their claws are longer than yours,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: but fight back. Fight cancer back. Fight leukemia back. Fight
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: diabetes back. Fight depression back. Fight fear back. Fight loneliness back.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Fight agony back. Fight back or it'll kill you. The
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Bible says it is better to be a live dog
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: than a dead lion. In the Bible days, dogs was
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: like rats. They were rodents and they ran wild. God
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: said it is better to be a live dog than
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: a dead lion. So you can take your cute lion
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: suit off trying to impress people, being a lion, and
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: talking about me out to church, calling me a dog. Yeah,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: I'm a dog, but I'm a live dog. You a
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: dead lion, and it is better to be a live
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: dog than a dead lion. Holler at your boy if
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: you understand what I'm saying. So sit down, give me
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: 15 minutes, I'm almost done. So Samson reaches, Samson goes
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: on to Timnah and on his way back, he comes back,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: looks over in the carcass and out of the eater
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: has come something to eat. And out of the strong
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: has come something sweet. The dichotomy of the riddle is
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: a picture of his own life. Out of the eater
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: has come something to eat. And out of the strong
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: has come something sweet. He gave some to his parents
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: and they ate it, but he never told them where
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: it came from. Because sometimes you got to keep stuff.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: To yourself. Just because you love me don't mean you
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: have the right to know all my business. All of
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: my business ain't none of yours. But you mean where
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: I got it from? You want some honey or not?
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Do you want some honey or not? It's all we
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: got to eat. You want some? I got my greatest
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: honey through my greatest fights. They didn't hear me, let
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: me tell y'all. I got my greatest honey through my
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: greatest fights. The bigger the fight, the sweeter the honey.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: The bigger the fight, the sweeter the honey. Let me
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: take you all in the balcony. The bigger the fight,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: the sweeter the honey. Somebody in the balcony has been
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: in a fight. The bigger the fight, the sweeter the honey.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Let me take you all away. The bigger the fight,
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: the sweeter the honey. The bigger the fight, the sweeter
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: the honey. Go back to the crime scene. Go back
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: to the altercation. Go back to the place. Show me
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: where you laid him down. Go back to the place
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: that almost killed you and make sure you get your
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: honey out of it. Oh my God, they didn't hear me.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Go back to the place that almost killed you and
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: make sure you get your honey out of it because
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: God is going to put your honey in your last battle.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: Who am I talking to? Get the honey out of it.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: Get the honey. You watching me online? Get the honey
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: out of it. Get the honey out of it. You
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: got the pain. You got the bitterness. You got the
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: black eye. You got the hurt feelings. You got the
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: broken heart. Go back and get the honey. Get the honey.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: The lion is dead, but the honey is sweet. Somebody
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: just shake your head and say the riddle, the riddle,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: the riddle, the riddle, the riddle. Quickly. So Samson, who
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: to me is a bit bipolar. He's a bit bipolar.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: Because when Samson got mad, he did crazy stuff. Who
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: sets foxtails on fire to burn down cornfields? That's a bit... Crazy.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: Picks up a gate and throws it on people. Takes
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: the jaw of an ass and ain't in shape right.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: And kills 10,000 Philistines. When Samson got mad, he was
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: a fool. But on the other hand, So tender that
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: he could not stand to hear a woman cry. And
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: he is everything that the riddle is. He is a riddle.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: What makes you mad? What makes you mad? What makes
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: you weak? What gives you victory? While in other areas simultaneously,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: you are a victim. Can we accept the human in
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: our heroes? Or will we forever demand that they be
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: something that we are not? If Samson is my superhero,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: I don't get to pick the parts about him I like.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: I have to be able to deal with his temper
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: and his power and his crazy choices about women And
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: his ability to overthrow the Philistines. You don't get to
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: pick the parts of your husband you like. And leave
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: the parts you don't. You don't get to split your
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: wife in half and take half of her. You got
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: to take all of her. You got to take the
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: parts that get on your nerves. You got to take
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: the parts that you lack. You got to take the
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: parts that you need and the parts that aggravate you
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: or it won't last. You can't split your children in two.
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: You can't take the good part that you brag about
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: at work without dealing with the bad part of that
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: nasty mouse you got. You can't split people. Can you
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: stand to have a human hero? Can you eat honey
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: out of a carcass? Are you hungry enough? Maybe that's
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: a better question. Are you hungry enough To eat honey
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: without worrying about where it came from. Because if I
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: have to live up to your expectations to feed you,
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: I will always fail you. If I have to live
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: up to your expectations to love you, I will always
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: let you down. And if you have to live up
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: to mine in order for you to love me, I
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: will die without love. Because marriage is a riddle. And
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: family is a riddle. And love is a riddle. And
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: success is a riddle. Can I go just a little
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: bit deeper? The more heroic you are, the more misunderstood
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: you are. Because with that heroism comes a propensity to
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: try to live up to what people expect from you.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: All the while hiding your humanity. As if it were
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: wrong to be human. The riddle is that God puts
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: hero in human. That God puts treasure in earthen vessels.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: That God puts might in men. That God puts treasure
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: in clay. That we have this treasure in earthen vessels
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: that means I'm really good at this, but I'm really
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: bad at that. Am I preaching this morning? Can we
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: both be victorious and yet in other areas be a
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: complete victim? And can you live with both? One more
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: thing I want to point out, and then I'll close.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: The other part of the text that we read that
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: might have went over your head and bypassed you, but
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: it is the substratum of the text itself, is his
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: parents did not know that this was from the Lord
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines. For
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: at that time, they were ruling over Israel. In other words,
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: wait a minute. The time that the scriptures that says
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: his parents did not know that this was from the
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: Lord is when Samson says he wants to marry the Philistine,
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: which was the stupidest thing I ever heard in my life.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: And then the next verse says that his weakness was
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: of the Lord. Y'all don't want this. Y'all don't want this.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Y'all don't want this. That God willed for him to
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: love the wrong woman. That God had a master plan.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: Not just in the strength of him. but in the
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: weakness of him, not just in the victory of him,
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: but God even used the victimhood that was down inside
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: of him to accomplish his own divine purpose. And Paul
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: said amen to it when he said, for we know
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: that all things work together for the good of them
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: that love the Lord who are the call according to
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: his purpose. God sent me here to tell you, I'm
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: not just going to use your good stuff. I'm going
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: to use your bad stuff. I'm going to use your
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: dumb decisions. I'm going to use your mistakes and your proclivities. Jonah,
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: I'm going to use your rebellion. I'm going to use
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: you going down and being thrown off the boat and
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: swallowed up by a fish and spending three days in
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: the lower parts of the earth. I'm going to use
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: your mistake to prove my death, burial, and resurrection. Rahab,
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: I'm going to use the fact that you're not scared
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: of men and you've been a whore all of your
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: life to hide my spies in your house so that
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: I can get the glory out of the weakness in
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: your life. You may be trying to get over something
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: that God is going to use for his glory because
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: when you just love him, God has a way of
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: making everything work together for your good. God said, I'm
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: not like your husband. I'm not trying to split you up.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: I'm going to use your good and your bad, your
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: weak and your strong, your right and your wrong. In fact,
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: he said, my strength is made perfect in your weakness.
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: The weaker you are, the better I look. The more
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: incapable you are, the more they'll know it was me
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: that gave you the power and the glory to be
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: who you are. I feel something in this place. I'm
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: talking to somebody. I don't know who it is. You've
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: been quirky with men. but you're just right for God
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: the people don't understand you but the Lord made you
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: he made your stammering lips Moses I meant for you
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: to stammer I'm gonna use your stutter to get the
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: victory and I don't know who I'm preaching to but
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: I'm talking to somebody in this room God has not
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: lost control in your life. He's going to use the
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: very thing about you that you hate about yourself to
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: use it for his glory. If this is your word
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: from God, don't worry about what people think. Don't worry
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: about being their hero. Don't worry about what you got on.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: Don't worry about your eyelashes. But if this is God's
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: word for your life, then take a minute and praise
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: him for your brokenness. Praise him for your craziness. Praise
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: him for your quirkiness. Praise him for your weird ways.
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: Praise him for yourself. A work in progress. But I
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: give God the praise. If only perfect people could praise
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: the Lord, nobody would praise him. But I heard the
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: Bible say, let everything that hath breath... Praise ye the Lord.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: So if you're not dead in here, give him the praise.
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: If you're still breathing, give him the praise. If you've
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: been broken, give him the praise. If you're half right
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: and half wrong, give him the praise. If you're half
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: weak and half strong, give him the praise. I can't
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: hear you. God said I broke you. So I could
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: use you. I broke you. So I could bless you.
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: I broke you. So I could raise you. I broke you.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: So my glory would be evident in your life. Because
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: I knew you would praise me. Because you know you
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: have no right to be as well as you are.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: But to God be the glory. I feel like preaching now.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: I better stop. To God be the glory. For the
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: things he has done. Some of us want to praise him.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: Some of us don't like to praise him. But some
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: of us got to praise him. Because when we look back.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: over our life and see what God brought us from
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: when we look back over our life and see the
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: lions that God blessed us to defeat we got to
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: give God the praise where are my praises praise him
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: till demons tremble Praise him until hell gets nervous. Praise
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: him until sickness gets off you. Praise him until you
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: stop feeling sorry for yourself. Praise him in the middle
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: of your tribulation. Praise him in the middle of your storm.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: Praise him in the middle of your... Somebody praise him
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: for the riddle you are. Praise him right now. Yeah,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: there's some gots to praise him. There's some gots to praise.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: There's some gots to praise. That brother's gots to praise.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: Somebody got to praise him. Somebody got to praise him.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: Somebody got to praise him. My first year of college
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: had it. My English teacher told me, you'll never be
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: a writer. I don't like the way you write. You
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: write too colorful. You write too picturesque. I want you
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: to write succinct like a journalist. You'll never be successful
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: as a writer. I don't know if she's still living,
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: but I wrote 44 books. Don't let nobody tell you
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: what you'll never be. The devil is a liar. They
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: said I'd never be a speaker because I had a lisp.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: But the lisp is a lie. I took my lisp
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: and preached all over the world. I preached in Australia.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: I preached in Africa. I preached in Canada. I preached
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: in Great Britain. I preached in Paris. I preached in Italy.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: If you make up in your mind that God has
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: called you to do something, take your lisp and go ahead.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: Take your limp. and go ahead take your pain and
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: go ahead take your walk and go ahead hop on
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: your cane and go ahead come out the woods come
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: out the projects come out the gutter come out the
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: alley come out the streets and tell them I'm a
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: riddle I'm a riddle figure me out if you can
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: I'm a riddle I'm not for everybody I'm a riddle
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: I may not be your cup of tea. I'm cool
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: with that. You don't like me? Leave me alone. I'm
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: a riddle. Everybody don't get me. You don't deserve me.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: I'm a riddle. You can't see it, but I'm God's riddle.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: I'm God's mystery. I'm God's strategy. I'm I'm God's man
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: I'm God's preacher I'm God's voice I'm just a voice
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: crying in the wilderness you may not like it but
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: I'm anointed and if he anoints me you can't do
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: nothing If he anoints me, you can't stop me. If
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: he anoints me, you can't block me. If he anoints me,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: is there anybody anointed out there? I need about a
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: hundred anointed people to take over this building and give
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: the Lord some praise. I'm crazy, but I'm anointed. I'm lonely,
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: but I'm anointed. I can't hear you. Thank you. Everybody's standing.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: I can't prove this, but I think. Samson's Wife betrayed him,
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: caused him to lose the bet. He went down there
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: and killed some Philistines to pay some Philistines. He got
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: out of debt. There is an anointing to bring you
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: out of debt. I don't know how you got in,
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: but there is an anointing to get you out of debt.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: God's going to kill something that's going to bring you
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: out of debt. And it may not be in your
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: bank account. And it may not be in your savings.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: Samson never spent a dollar getting out of debt. He
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: took the clothes from the Philistines and gave it to
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: the Philistines. Whose word is that? God is going to
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: bring you out of being in debt to the Philistines.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: Holy Ghost said there's some calls you need to make.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: There's some money in reserve for the kind of battle
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: you're fighting. Holy Ghost said you don't have to have
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: it to get it. Holy Ghost said I'm going to
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: release the resources to restore the debt load that you
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: won't have to Take 30 linen garments and 30 suits
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: that the wealth of the unjust is laid up for
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: the just. And God is about to do a transfer.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know who that's for. I don't know who
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: that's for, but God is about to do a transfer.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: He's about to do a transfer and he's going to
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: do it with other people's money. Samson paid his bills
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: with other people's garments and God's going to bring you
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: out with other people's money. You ought to be dancing
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: this place down. If you believe as many nights as
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: you've been up crying out to God, you ought to
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: be dancing this place down. There's some grants. There's some
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: allocations in the city. There's some services that you don't
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: know about that are going to meet you at the
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: point of your need. And it's going to change your
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: entire circumstances. You've been so busy worrying about it, you
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: haven't been working on it. Samson went down there and
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: worked on it and took the wealth of the Philistines
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: to pay off the Philistines. And he gave his wife
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: to his friend. Now this I cannot prove, but I believe.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: When she cried for seven days and he could not
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: stand to hear her cry, I believe that's where the
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: seed was planted for them to hire Delilah. Because they
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: found out that he couldn't keep a secret from a
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: crying woman. So what started with his wife ended up
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: with Delilah cutting his hair. Because Samson could kill a
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: lion and he could kill 10,000 Philistines. but his victimhood
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: was he couldn't stand to hear a woman cry. What
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: is the thing that makes you vulnerable to the attack
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: of the enemy? They blinded his eyes. They cut off
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: all his hair. And he was grinding at the millhouse.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: with the oxen. But while he was grinding, his hair
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: grew back. I want to speak to every person who
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: thinks your life is over. Your hopes have been dashed.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: Your heart has been shattered. You're living beneath your plans.
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: And you're hanging out with the oxen. God said he's
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: going to restore you. And he's going to cause your
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: hair to grow back. Everything that the enemy stole from you.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: God's going to give it back to you. And the
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: reason God is going to give it back to you
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: is because even when it looked like your life was
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: out of control, even when it looked like you were
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: falling to pieces, God wants you to know that he
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: was always in control. for his father and mother did
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: not know that God was in control and that everything
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: that happened was so he could overthrow the Philistines who
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: oppressed him so they brought Samson out blind watch this
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: and a little boy showed an old man where to
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: put his hands. Until we learned to work together generationally,
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: the little boy didn't have the power to bring down
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: the Coliseum, but he had the vision to know where
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: to put your hands. Samson had the power to tear
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: down the Coliseum, but he couldn't see where to put
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: his hands. God is going to bring somebody in your
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: life to cover the areas of your vulnerabilities. And they
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: may not be your generation, and they may not be
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: your skin tone, and they may not have come from
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: your side of the tracks, but they know where to
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: put your hands. And he brought the Colosseum down on
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: the Philistines. When I started preaching this, I said that
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: this was like the WWE and I talked about it
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: being like a drama, a Tyler Perry movie. It has
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: the plot, the twists and turns and angles and all
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. But I forgot something. The only
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: thing that stayed consistent in the whole story is that
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: God never lost control. So, cry at the tomb. Grieve
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: the miscarriage. Walk away sad because the loan was declined
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: for the house. But don't let anything that roars against
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: you make you think that God is out of control.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: He will use I knew he would use the good
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: but the great riddle is how God uses the bad
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: I knew he would use my victories I didn't know
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: that he had programmed my victimhood so I would need
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: him in all the right places so I would crave
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: him so that no matter how high I got, I
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: would always be humble. If you can relate to that,
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: clap for me. I've seen great actresses, beautiful actresses, amazing actresses,
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: accomplished actresses, but couldn't keep a man. And they wanted one.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: I've seen really brilliant people who were bright at what
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: they did but couldn't hold a conversation. Somewhere in everybody's life,
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: there's something that scares the heck out of you. And
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: God says, I'm going to use that too for my glory. Amen.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: As we stand here on this spot right now, I
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: see God ministering to weakness. I see God clearing up debt.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: I see God opening up finances. I see God opening
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: up a self-confidence, not arrogance, self-confidence that he made me
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: the way I am for a reason. And I'm not
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: going to apologize anymore for being who I am. Let
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: the record show, what's the date today? That on the 14th,
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: on a Sunday morning, I gave my last apology for
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: being who God created me To me. November 14th. I
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: stopped calling myself stupid or whatever you call yourself or
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: whatever you did to yourself it stops today are you
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: hearing God now this is a moment I want two
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: things to happen Out of the eater came something to eat.
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: Out of the strong came something sweet. There are those
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: of you that God has positioned in a place where
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: he's going to challenge you to sow in a way
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: that gives something to eat. Out of the eater, you
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: have so devoured in your career. You have so devoured
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: in this season. Out of the eater will come something
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: to eat. Out of the strong will come something sweet.
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: And in this moment, for as good as God has
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: been to you, you know what the strangest thing is
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: about giving? The first people to give are often the
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: people who have the least. People who have the most
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: never give anything. This lion came to eat. Out of
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: the eater comes something to eat. Out of the strong
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: comes something sweet. That should happen spontaneously in your own
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: heart for where God's getting ready to take you as
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: a steward of the level of gifting he's placed in
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: your life. You should plan into this moment because you
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: with your quirky self are being rewarded for the gifts
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: in you. and nobody knows about the guilt in you,
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: and nobody knows about the flaws in you, and God's
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: got you covered, you should sow in this moment. The
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: other thing that should happen in this place right now
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: is that there are a lot of people who clap
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: and dance and shout, and they love Jesus, but they
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: don't like them. Because they're strong about this, but they've
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: been stupid about that. And they can't forgive themselves for
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: their own folly. This word was for you. I know
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: some of you sat down to give, but if you're
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: not giving, I want you to stand. Some of you
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: sat down to write a check or text to give,
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: that's okay. I don't know what it is about me.
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: I can't text and talk. If I start talking, I
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: will text what I said. So, that's another little weird
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: thing I'm not apologizing for. There are others who feel
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: like God could never use me because I didn't finish school.
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: God could never use me because I had a child
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: out of wedlock. God could never use me because I
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: had an abortion. God could never use me because I
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: had an affair. God could never use me because I'm dyslexic.
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: God could never use me because, because, because. And here
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: is the riddle. That's precisely why God can't use you.
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: So while the eaters give something to eat and the
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: strong give something that's sweet, who I want to call
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: to the altar are those who the devil lied to
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: and said you were disqualified because of something in your life.
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: I want to pray for you. If you're online, there's
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: a prayer number on the screen. Put the prayer number
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: up and the giving number because we have both things
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: happening at the same time. If you're in this building
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: and what I said really resonated with you and you've
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: been kind of hard on yourself, And sometimes you're so
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: focused on what's wrong with you that you don't see
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: what's right with you. Everybody got something wrong with them.
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: Everybody got something wrong with them. I know this seems
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: weird to somebody, but I came back to the Lord
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: during an offering. Bishop Wilson was raising an offering and
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: Mother McCaskill was singing. All of my life I've said
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: yes to it. And I chose that weird time to
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: burst into tears and come now. Not knowing that the
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: greatest offering I would ever give to God was to
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: give myself. And I fell right into the bishop's arms.
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: Because I had allowed myself to believe that God could
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: use me. And I didn't know that he loved me. Broken. Shattered. Incompetent. Incapable. Stuttering. Stammering.
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: Non-writing self. My first book's been translated into 12 different languages.
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: And I literally wrote it myself in the notepad of
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: a PC study Bible because I didn't know what word was.
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: I didn't know. And a guy named Clifford Frazier said,
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: what is this? I said, it's my book. He said, well,
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: why didn't you put it in a word processor? I said,
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: what's a word processor? It's not about what you don't know.
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: It's about how far you're willing to go to be
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: in the center of his will. Now, I don't want
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: you on this altar if you're going to carry guilt
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: and shame back to the car and back to the
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: house with you. I only want you on this altar
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: if we're going to settle this today. We're going to
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: settle this today. That you're going to walk away from
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: here knowing what Samson's mother and father didn't know. That
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: it was all in the plan. The right and the
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: wrong and the weak and the strong. was all in
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: the plan of God, and God used it all for
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: his glory. In fact, Samson killed more Philistines in his
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: death than he did in his life. Your latter days
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: could still be your greatest days. I want gang leaders
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: as deacons. I want people who have been up on
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: a pole singing in the choir. I want people that
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: everybody threw away and said you'd never be nothing. I
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: want you in this church. I want you in this ministry.
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: I want people who have been successful and sorrowful all
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: at the same time in this place. I want people
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: who always feed people and never get fed in this
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: place right now. Out of the eater came something to eat.
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: Out of the strong came something sweet. That was the riddle.
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: You are the answer. That's why I wanted to preach this.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: Because you are the answer to the riddle. Do you
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: hear me? You are the answer to the riddle. You
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: are our Samson's. You're our Samson's. When the Spirit of
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: the Lord comes upon you, you're going to do mighty things.
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: You're going to do awesome things. You're going to do superhuman,
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: supernatural things because of the anointing of God that's on
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: your life. And yet you will always be aware that
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: you're human. That's what makes you humble. Are you ready
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: for this assignment? The Lord has need of you. The
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: Lord has a plan for you. Not one lion that
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: roared against you shocked God. He was prepared for every
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: lion that roared against you. And he gave you strength
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: when you needed it most. And you are here by
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: the grace of God.