Latest / Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE / God Goes Undercover! - Bishop T.D. Jakes

Transcript

God Goes Undercover! - Bishop T.D. Jakes · Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE

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Speaker 1: I want to talk to you this morning out of
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Speaker 1: the gospel of St. Luke chapter 1, verse 31 through 35.
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Speaker 1: And let's stand and read it together. And as we
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Speaker 1: turn to it, let's understand. Let's understand that we're eavesdropping.
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Speaker 1: that we are sneaking into the room and overhearing a
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Speaker 1: conversation between divinity and humanity, between the celestial and the terrestrial,
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Speaker 1: between an archangel and a woman of which we have
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Speaker 1: not heard even the mention of her name. until the
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Speaker 1: prominence of this conversation brings her into a spotlight that
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Speaker 1: goes on and perpetuates itself throughout time. But now at
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Speaker 1: the time of the conversation, she's just a girl called Mary.
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Speaker 1: And verses 31 says, And behold, thou shalt conceive in
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Speaker 1: thy womb and bring forth a son. And his name
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Speaker 1: shall be called Yeshua, Jesus. He shall be great and
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Speaker 1: shall be called the son of the highest. And the
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Speaker 1: Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father, David.
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Speaker 1: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever
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Speaker 1: and of his kingdom forever. There shall be no end.
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Speaker 1: Good God Almighty. Can you imagine being some young girl
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Speaker 1: trying to conceive the magnitude of what is being said
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Speaker 1: to a girl who has not had any relationship at all?
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Speaker 1: You're going to have a baby, period. It's mind-boggling. The
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Speaker 1: baby's going to be great. It's still more mind-boggling. The
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Speaker 1: baby is God. My head just popped off. And of
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Speaker 1: his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary
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Speaker 1: to the angel, this is too much for me. How
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Speaker 1: shall this be, seeing I know not a man? See,
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Speaker 1: that's what gets us is because when we start hearing
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Speaker 1: God talk, we start talking about what we don't have.
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Speaker 1: You can't bless me, I'm too old. You can't do it.
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Speaker 1: It's too late. You can't do it. You can't do it.
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Speaker 1: I don't have a degree in that. You can't do it.
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Speaker 1: God can do whatever he wants to do whenever he
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Speaker 1: wants to do it because he's sovereign. And the angel
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Speaker 1: answered and said unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come
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Speaker 1: upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
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Speaker 1: Therefore also that, check this out, holy thing. This is
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Speaker 1: the first time in scripture that Christ is referred to
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Speaker 1: as a thing. That holy thing. And it's not so
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Speaker 1: much that he is an object. And I don't want
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Speaker 1: to objectify him as much as he is unexplainable. Said
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Speaker 1: what I'm getting ready to do is a holy thing.
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Speaker 1: You're not even going to be able to explain it.
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Speaker 1: We shall be born of thee and shall be called
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Speaker 1: the son of God. Can you say amen? I want
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Speaker 1: to use this headline. God goes undercover. God goes. Those
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Speaker 1: are the headlines that came out in the angelic press
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Speaker 1: that morning. God goes undercover. That's what we are celebrating
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Speaker 1: in this season and at this time. But in deeper ways,
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Speaker 1: we are celebrating it in our own lives as just
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Speaker 1: to understand that God disguises himself. That God disguises himself.
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Speaker 1: I don't want to get ahead of myself, but that
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Speaker 1: God disguises himself and God goes undercover. I want you
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Speaker 1: to type on the line or yell at somebody and holler,
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Speaker 1: God goes undercover. You may be seated. Those are the headlines.
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Speaker 1: God goes undercover. undercover headlines are designed to catch your
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Speaker 1: attention so that you can get into the article and
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Speaker 1: begin to read and I have been thinking about this
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Speaker 1: for some time because because the Holy Spirit dropped it
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Speaker 1: down into my heart and I was watching my wife
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Speaker 1: is a Christmas person you know she she's I'm a
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Speaker 1: Christmas person but she is like Mrs. Santa Claus and
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Speaker 1: everything in my house is blinking and The toasts, the bacon,
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Speaker 1: everything is blinking and flashing and all of it. You
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Speaker 1: can't touch nothing. It ain't an angel or something flying
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Speaker 1: in the air, you know, all in the bathroom and everywhere.
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Speaker 1: It's just flying around, gauze everywhere, Christmas balls everywhere, all
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Speaker 1: lit up. And it's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's amazing. But
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Speaker 1: what really shocked me is, When we got ready to
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Speaker 1: celebrate Christmas, we downsized, we did it very small. Normally
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Speaker 1: we have lots of friends and people and different ones
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Speaker 1: over and we do a big hullabaloo, but we just
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Speaker 1: had just our family. It's been an unusual Christmas for us,
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Speaker 1: but it was safe and it was good and it
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Speaker 1: was wise and we had a good time together and
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Speaker 1: it was wonderful. What surprised me though is that Everybody
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Speaker 1: in my family is so sneaky. It's not like they
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Speaker 1: just went to the store. They have been hiding stuff
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Speaker 1: for months. Stuff started coming out of the attic, out
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Speaker 1: from under the bed, in closets, up on the drapes,
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Speaker 1: things tucked away. And I even did, okay, all right,
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Speaker 1: I did a little bit of hiding myself. I did
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Speaker 1: a little bit of hiding myself. And when I was
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Speaker 1: reading the text and looking at the family and everybody
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Speaker 1: started bringing stuff out of hiding, I thought to myself,
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Speaker 1: every person in this room is hiding something. You cannot
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Speaker 1: deny it. I hear you. There's two generations having a conversation.
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Speaker 1: My generation, what goes on in this house stays in
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Speaker 1: the house. My children's generation is keeping it 100. But
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Speaker 1: then they got older and they found out 100 ain't
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Speaker 1: so cool. So they don't say that as much as
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Speaker 1: they used to. Because the truth of the matter, if
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Speaker 1: you say everything you think, you won't have anybody or anything.
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Speaker 1: If you tell everything you know, you will self-destruct. And
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Speaker 1: it's not always good to keep it 100 at the
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Speaker 1: expense of the absence of privacy. Because some stuff just
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Speaker 1: ain't your business. It just ain't your business. It's just
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Speaker 1: none of your business. Some stuff, it's not time for
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Speaker 1: you to know some stuff. You'll never know. People go
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Speaker 1: through all kinds of things in their lives and it
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Speaker 1: causes them to hide something. All of them are not negative.
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Speaker 1: You hide your will. You hide your insurance papers. You
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Speaker 1: hide the deed of trust. And hiding isn't necessarily evil.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes we hide for different reasons. I'm going to talk
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Speaker 1: about that. It's not always about shame or guilt or
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Speaker 1: something hideous or heinous that leads us to a place
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Speaker 1: of hiding. Now, shame is an emotion that occurs when
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Speaker 1: you evaluate or judge yourself in a negative light. And
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Speaker 1: when you do it, for example, you might experience shame
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Speaker 1: if you view yourself as worthless, weak, bad, or useless.
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Speaker 1: Guilt is when you are upset about something you did,
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Speaker 1: a person you owe or you borrowed money and you
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Speaker 1: didn't pay them and every time you see them you
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Speaker 1: feel guilty. And guilt is in that way a healthy
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Speaker 1: emotion because sometimes it will lead to repentance and make
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Speaker 1: you change and it'll make you pay me back. But
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Speaker 1: shame isn't about I did something bad. Shame is about
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Speaker 1: I am bad. And you have to understand that with
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Speaker 1: that comes a certain degree of trauma and pain. and
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Speaker 1: feelings of condemnation. And so when we start talking about
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Speaker 1: things that make people want to hide something, we have
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Speaker 1: to talk about, I picked out four prominent things that
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Speaker 1: stood out to me that make people hide a thing.
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Speaker 1: A thing, anything. Number one is hidden out of our shame.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes there are some things that we hide because we
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Speaker 1: are ashamed. And we don't want anybody else to know
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Speaker 1: because we personally live with the shame of something we
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Speaker 1: did or something we said or something that happened or
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Speaker 1: something that we can't do or something in some area
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Speaker 1: are dysfunctional. And instead of dealing with that issue, we
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Speaker 1: become ashamed of it. And we don't want anybody to know.
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Speaker 1: And it could be something as simple as being dyslexic
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Speaker 1: or somebody's anorexic or has an eating disorder, whatever it is.
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Speaker 1: The devil makes sure that there's always something you can
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Speaker 1: accuse yourself of. And if you give ear to him,
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Speaker 1: he will talk you not into what I did was bad,
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Speaker 1: but I am bad. And when you get in a
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Speaker 1: place of shame you will find a way to reject
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Speaker 1: any other opinion of you. People who live in shame
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Speaker 1: are often impossible to love. Because if you love them
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Speaker 1: they will drive you away because they disagree with you.
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Speaker 1: And anytime somebody thinks highly of you and you don't
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Speaker 1: think highly of you you will think something is wrong
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Speaker 1: with them. Because the companionship of your shame has become
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Speaker 1: so all engulfing that there's not room in your life
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Speaker 1: for anybody to contradict and challenge how you see yourself,
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Speaker 1: even though you don't say it. Anything good, you push
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Speaker 1: it away. Shame comes often with PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder,
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Speaker 1: and all of a sudden we have all of these
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Speaker 1: issues exploding in us at the same time. And when
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Speaker 1: we get in this state of being, some people are
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Speaker 1: not safe to love. They're not safe to love because
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Speaker 1: they don't know how to receive love. They don't know
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Speaker 1: how to be open to love because they don't feel
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Speaker 1: themselves worthy of loving. The definition of shame is to
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Speaker 1: feel worthless. And so when I think you are valuable,
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Speaker 1: you will say I don't like him because I disagree
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Speaker 1: with your framework of thinking. It's not always the way
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Speaker 1: we see ourselves because number two leads us into we
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Speaker 1: hide things out of the disdain of others for fear
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Speaker 1: of being shamed publicly. To be shamed publicly, to be
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Speaker 1: humiliated publicly is one of the most devastating things that
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Speaker 1: can happen to an individual, guilty or not. Right or wrong.
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Speaker 1: The public is so harsh on That whether you're guilty
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Speaker 1: or not, there are going to be consequences when you
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Speaker 1: have public shaming and people hide things because people are
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Speaker 1: cruel to each other. We are better at inflicting pain
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Speaker 1: than we are receiving it. And so anytime your life
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Speaker 1: gets into the public domain and everybody starts weighing in
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Speaker 1: on it, even the people who did something themselves... Will
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Speaker 1: come along and attack you. Because it's kind of like
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Speaker 1: a group mob mentality. Everybody just starts throwing stuff. They
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Speaker 1: don't really even realize what they're doing. And all of
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Speaker 1: a sudden you are victimized. You might as well stone me.
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Speaker 1: In the Bible they stone me. Everybody picked up stones
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Speaker 1: and starts stoning it. And Jesus stopped the stoning by
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Speaker 1: making them remember that they themselves stoned. We're also guilty.
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Speaker 1: I wonder, are you a rock thrower? Because I get
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Speaker 1: a lot of amens when I talk about what's being
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Speaker 1: thrown at you. But I know that some of the
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Speaker 1: people that have had rocks thrown at them are also rock.
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Speaker 1: Y'all not going to talk to me. I'm not going
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Speaker 1: to bother with that because I'm just getting to the point.
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Speaker 1: But I do want you to be as open to
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Speaker 1: admitting that sometimes you are not just the victim. Sometimes
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Speaker 1: you're the perpetrator. You can be both. You can be
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Speaker 1: the victim of somebody else's ire and you can contribute
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Speaker 1: to someone else's pain because you jump into conversations and
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Speaker 1: start acting funny toward other people based on things that A,
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Speaker 1: ain't your business. Two, you don't know it's true. Three,
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Speaker 1: you didn't hear the other side of the story. But
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Speaker 1: can I work on this a little bit? And then
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Speaker 1: number three, we hide things out of love. A proposal,
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Speaker 1: a wedding ring, a surprise. We hide things out of love.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes we make bad decisions in hiding things out of love.
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Speaker 1: Maybe we don't want the child to know they're adopted.
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Speaker 1: We hide things out of love. We try to keep
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Speaker 1: to protect them from pain. We hide things out of love.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes addictions, we hide them out of love. We don't
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Speaker 1: want to hurt anybody. And sometimes we hide out of love.
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Speaker 1: Number four is We hide because something is significant, a document,
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Speaker 1: a will, a treasure, a sentimental value. It doesn't even
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Speaker 1: have to be the normal value, but a sentimental value.
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Speaker 1: If something is valuable, they laugh at me because at
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Speaker 1: Christmas time when they give me all the gifts, I
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Speaker 1: take mine and go away and put them away because
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Speaker 1: in the hoopla they might fool around and throw away
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Speaker 1: my stuff. And if you treasure something, sometimes you hide it.
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Speaker 1: It's valuable. You put it away. You don't put your
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Speaker 1: valuable stuff and leave it laying around just anywhere. Not
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Speaker 1: just anywhere. I had almost had a heart attack the
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Speaker 1: other day. My wife said, where's your ring? And when
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Speaker 1: your wife says, where's your ring? And you look at
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Speaker 1: your finger and it's gone and you don't know exactly
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Speaker 1: where it is, you panic. Because even though she didn't
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Speaker 1: say it loud, there was something in her eye that
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Speaker 1: was red. And I knew I had better find that
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Speaker 1: ring really quick or move. And the weird thing about
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Speaker 1: it is I almost never take it off because it's valuable.
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Speaker 1: And when I do, when I do have to take
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Speaker 1: it off, I'm careful to remember where I put it
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Speaker 1: because I... Value it. I'm not talking about it's worth,
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Speaker 1: it's valuable that way, but I'm talking about it's valuable
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Speaker 1: in sentiment. When something is valuable, you often hide it,
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Speaker 1: whether positively or negatively. Everything hidden is important. That's what
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Speaker 1: all four points have in common. Everything hidden is important
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Speaker 1: to us or we wouldn't hide it. Whether it's based
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Speaker 1: in shame or whether it's based in the fear of
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Speaker 1: gathering the ire of other people around us or whether
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Speaker 1: it's based in protecting somebody or whether it is based
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Speaker 1: in personal value. Everything hidden is hidden because it's important.
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Speaker 1: If it's hidden treasure, it's important. If it's hidden documents,
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Speaker 1: it's important. If it's hidden secrets, it's important. It has
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Speaker 1: to be important to be hidden. And what you have
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Speaker 1: to realize when we begin to grapple with this text
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Speaker 1: is that what Gabriel is telling Mary has been hidden.
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Speaker 1: It is God's secret. He announces God's secret to a virgin,
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Speaker 1: not a prophet, not a priest. It is God's secret.
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Speaker 1: How do you know it's God's secret? Because Paul said
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Speaker 1: great is the mystery of godliness for God was manifest
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Speaker 1: in the flesh. If it is a mystery it had
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Speaker 1: to be hidden. The word mystery comes from the word
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Speaker 1: apocalypse to be to unveil which means it was there
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Speaker 1: all the time but it was hidden. The lamb was
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Speaker 1: there all the while because the Bible said that the
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Speaker 1: lamb was slain from the foundations of the world. But
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Speaker 1: nobody knew because it was hidden. A few times he
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Speaker 1: may have shown. up but they called him the fourth
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Speaker 1: one in the fiery furnace about his name was hidden
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Speaker 1: they didn't say anything about him or he wrestled with
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Speaker 1: Jacob and he wrestled with Jacob and Jacob said, tell
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Speaker 1: me thy name. And he never answered that question. He
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Speaker 1: told Jacob who he was, but he didn't tell Jacob
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Speaker 1: who he was because it was hidden. God knows how
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Speaker 1: to hide a thing. Some things that God has for
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Speaker 1: your life, he doesn't tell you. Because if he had
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Speaker 1: told you, you couldn't handle it. And it was hidden
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Speaker 1: from you. The prophet Elijah says, surely the Lord hath
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Speaker 1: hidden this from me. And he was a prophet and
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Speaker 1: yet God hid it. What would make God hide something
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Speaker 1: and drop hints about it? Because in Genesis 3.15, he says,
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Speaker 1: I will put enmity between thee and the woman and
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Speaker 1: between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy
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Speaker 1: head and thou shall bruise his heel. It is the
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Speaker 1: first messianic prophecy in the book of Genesis. And every
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Speaker 1: woman thereafter wanted to fulfill that prophecy. Have you noticed
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Speaker 1: that the women in the Bible are crying out for
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Speaker 1: something that women today are not? Give me a child
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Speaker 1: lest I die. Every woman gave birth to a child
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Speaker 1: remembering the messianic prophecy as it passed down from generation
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Speaker 1: to generation that what is going to save me, I
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Speaker 1: am going to birth it. That went right over top
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Speaker 1: of your head. That didn't touch nobody. Nobody got that
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Speaker 1: but you. Because you've been waiting on somebody to come
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Speaker 1: and save you. But the premise is what comes out
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Speaker 1: of you is what delivers you. Oh, God. Y'all don't
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Speaker 1: hear what I'm saying. And this is what made the
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Speaker 1: first family have so much turmoil because Eve thought she
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Speaker 1: was the one. And she thought, well, it's going to
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Speaker 1: be Abel. And they killed Abel. And then she looked
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Speaker 1: at Cain and they sent him to the land of Nod.
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Speaker 1: And then God gave her Seth. And the Bible said,
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Speaker 1: another seed hath God appointed me in the place of
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Speaker 1: the one whom Cain slew. Because she's trying to have
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Speaker 1: the seed that is going to stop this conflict. Between
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Speaker 1: hell and earth. Between demons and flesh. Between carnality and spirituality.
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Speaker 1: She's trying to fix this thing. And Cain hated Abel.
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Speaker 1: You have to realize when God has something over your life,
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Speaker 1: people are going to hate you. They're going to hate you.
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Speaker 1: They're going to want to destroy you. And Eve wanted
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Speaker 1: to fulfill this promise, but Eve was not the one.
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Speaker 1: Rachel said, Lord, give me a child lest I die.
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Speaker 1: And she had significant children, but none of them redeemed her.
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Speaker 1: Hannah stammered into the church like a drunk woman and
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Speaker 1: fell out on the floor. And it started moving her mouth.
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Speaker 1: No words came out of her mouth. And Eli thought
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Speaker 1: she was drunk, but she was not a drunk woman.
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Speaker 1: She was trying to burst something that would do something.
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Speaker 1: And anytime you're trying to burst something... That will do something.
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Speaker 1: You're going to have to go into labor to do it.
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Speaker 1: You're not going to get it through divine osmosis. You're
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Speaker 1: not going to get it by hanging around the right circle.
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Speaker 1: You have to go into labor and prevail in order
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Speaker 1: to do it. Hannah had to empty out all of
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Speaker 1: her shame and all of her guilt in order to
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Speaker 1: be eligible to be filled with Samuel. You can't get
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Speaker 1: pregnant with the promises of God while you hold on
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Speaker 1: to the pain of the past. Thousands of generations passed down,
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Speaker 1: down through the ages and down through the period, and
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Speaker 1: yet we have not seen the emergence of that which
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Speaker 1: was hidden until we find out that Eve's prophecy is
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Speaker 1: Mary's promise. Eve's prophecy is Mary's promise. Mary never met Eve.
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Speaker 1: Eve never met Mary. They come from two different worlds
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Speaker 1: and eras and times. And yet God spoke something to
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Speaker 1: Eve that came to pass for Mary. Sometimes the word
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Speaker 1: God gives you is not for you. It could be
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Speaker 1: for your children and for your grandchildren. Sometimes. Sometimes the
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Speaker 1: only reason God gave you the promise is to set
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Speaker 1: it off. You are the ignition switch. You are the
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Speaker 1: place that gets it started. You are the place that
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Speaker 1: changes the trajectory of the family that causes them to
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Speaker 1: want something better. Sometimes God opens up a door to
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Speaker 1: cause your family to want something better. It's not even
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Speaker 1: about you, but you set it off. There are some
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Speaker 1: set it off people in here. You may not finish
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Speaker 1: the work, but you see it and you set it off.
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Speaker 1: And every generation is going to take it to the
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Speaker 1: next level, to the next level, to the next level,
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Speaker 1: to the next level, to the next level. Because it's
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Speaker 1: not all about you, boo. It's not about Eve. It's
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Speaker 1: not about Rachel. It's not about Hannah. The prophecy has
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Speaker 1: landed like the dove. The prophecy has landed on this daughter.
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Speaker 1: The prophecy has fallen on Mary. And behold, thou shalt
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Speaker 1: conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and
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Speaker 1: thou shalt call his name Jesus. This text is startling
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Speaker 1: because from heaven's perspective, from earth's perspective, Jesus is an immigrant.
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Speaker 1: He's an outsider coming in. His kingdom is not of
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Speaker 1: this world. He has to seek legal entry into the world.
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Speaker 1: And legal entry into the world for him to abide
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Speaker 1: in the world as the son requires that man born
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Speaker 1: of a woman has but a few days. And he
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Speaker 1: has to come in through the woman because the woman
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Speaker 1: is the door. But when he comes through the door,
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Speaker 1: he can't come through the door as God because he
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Speaker 1: would blow up the walls. From heaven's perspective, what are
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Speaker 1: you doing in heaven? There you are pouring out yourself,
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Speaker 1: your preexistent glory, your omnipotence, your omnipresence, your omniscience. You're
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Speaker 1: pouring out your preexistent glory and reducing yourself to your
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Speaker 1: lowest common denominator and then coming down and going undercover.
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Speaker 1: Jesus is God undercover. You know how the police officers,
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Speaker 1: when they go undercover, Jesus is God going undercover. Jesus
27:42
Speaker 1: is God reducing himself because he had to reduce himself
27:47
Speaker 1: to incarnate himself. Because had he come in the fullness
27:51
Speaker 1: of himself, she couldn't contain all the glory that couldn't
27:55
Speaker 1: be housed there. In her body. And so he laid
27:59
Speaker 1: aside his garments and girded himself with a towel. It's
28:04
Speaker 1: nothing but God going undercover. Watch me. I'm going somewhere.
28:09
Speaker 1: You got to go with me somewhere. You got to
28:11
Speaker 1: think with this one or you're not going to be
28:13
Speaker 1: able to get it. God is going undercover and the
28:17
Speaker 1: angels are shocked. That God is pouring out his omnipotence
28:21
Speaker 1: and omnipresence and omniscience and that God would be made flesh.
28:28
Speaker 1: That he would put on a meat suit and become
28:32
Speaker 1: incarnate as human is so startling that Gabriel has to
28:38
Speaker 1: come and announce to the suit. God is getting ready
28:44
Speaker 1: to put you on. And when God goes undercover, you're
28:50
Speaker 1: going to access him by calling his name. Y'all don't
28:57
Speaker 1: hear what I'm saying. Paul says without controversy, great is
29:04
Speaker 1: the mystery of godliness. It was mystified. It was withheld.
29:09
Speaker 1: For if the princes of this world would have known
29:13
Speaker 1: what God was up to, It would have changed everything.
29:18
Speaker 1: So God hid it. I wish I had time to
29:22
Speaker 1: work with it, but this ain't Bible class. God hid it.
29:26
Speaker 1: He never lost it, but he hid it. He hid it.
29:29
Speaker 1: I want to talk to some people that have hidden
29:31
Speaker 1: some things. You never lost it, but you hid it.
29:35
Speaker 1: You put it out of sight because you knew they
29:37
Speaker 1: couldn't handle it. You knew they weren't ready for it.
29:39
Speaker 1: They're some things I have for my children that they
29:41
Speaker 1: still haven't got yet because I know they're not ready
29:44
Speaker 1: for it but when the time is right I'm going
29:46
Speaker 1: to unveil little by little that's why I have a
29:49
Speaker 1: will and testament y'all don't hear what I'm saying you
29:53
Speaker 1: hide some things and space them out can I go
29:58
Speaker 1: deeper Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2,
30:02
Speaker 1: 4 through 11. And my speech and my preaching was
30:06
Speaker 1: not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
30:10
Speaker 1: of the spirit and the power that your faith should
30:13
Speaker 1: stand in the wisdom of men, but not in the
30:17
Speaker 1: wisdom of men, but in the power of God. How
30:22
Speaker 1: be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect,
30:26
Speaker 1: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the
30:29
Speaker 1: princes of this world that come to naught. Because the
30:34
Speaker 1: people who pretend to be smart and wise in this
30:36
Speaker 1: world are absolutely foolish. But we speak the wisdom of
30:41
Speaker 1: God in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom which God
30:47
Speaker 1: ordained before the world unto our glory. God hid it
30:54
Speaker 1: before the foundations of the world. He hid it because
30:59
Speaker 1: he vowed to it. Which none of the princes of
31:02
Speaker 1: this world knew. For had they known it, they would
31:05
Speaker 1: not have crucified the Lord of glory. But this principle
31:13
Speaker 1: brings up something. But as it is written, eyes have
31:17
Speaker 1: not seen nor ear heard. Neither have entered into the
31:19
Speaker 1: heart of man. The things that God has prepared for
31:23
Speaker 1: them that love him. Because God hides stuff. You can't
31:27
Speaker 1: see stuff that God has in store for you. That's
31:30
Speaker 1: why you can't take your life. That's why you can't say,
31:34
Speaker 1: I'll never be nothing. That's why you can't say, I'll
31:37
Speaker 1: never get up. Because God has some things that he
31:40
Speaker 1: hides for you. and eyes have not seen and ears
31:45
Speaker 1: haven't heard. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying, but
31:48
Speaker 1: God's going to do it. I don't know who this
31:50
Speaker 1: is for, but God is going to shock somebody. There
31:53
Speaker 1: won't be any wind. There won't be any rain. There's
31:57
Speaker 1: just going to be water. you're not going to see
31:59
Speaker 1: it coming you're not going to feel it in your
32:02
Speaker 1: spirit it's just going to suddenly immediately come upon you
32:07
Speaker 1: because God is masterful it was yours when you didn't
32:10
Speaker 1: see it it was yours when you didn't hear it
32:13
Speaker 1: it was yours because it was hidden under cover there's
32:16
Speaker 1: some of the stuff you're walking in now that shocks
32:20
Speaker 1: you but God knew before your mama had you you
32:24
Speaker 1: were going to be right here for such a time
32:27
Speaker 1: as this He couldn't tell you that sooner because you
32:31
Speaker 1: couldn't handle it sooner. But in the fullness of time,
32:35
Speaker 1: God reveals himself. All I'm saying is that God goes
32:39
Speaker 1: undercover with your destiny, undercover with your purpose, undercover with
32:43
Speaker 1: your will, undercover with himself. But God has revealed them
32:47
Speaker 1: unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yea,
32:53
Speaker 1: the deep things of God. I'm going to spend a
32:58
Speaker 1: minute there. I'm going to spend a minute right there.
33:01
Speaker 1: That's why you get healed in your spirit before you
33:04
Speaker 1: get healed in your body. Y'all can't handle it. You
33:13
Speaker 1: get prosperous in your spirit before you get prosperous in
33:17
Speaker 1: your bank account. Prosperity is a spiritual thing. It's not
33:22
Speaker 1: a natural thing. If you don't have it in your spirit,
33:26
Speaker 1: you'll never be able to call it into your account.
33:28
Speaker 1: You know why Jesus could call peace in the middle
33:31
Speaker 1: of the storm when the boat was rocking? Because he
33:34
Speaker 1: had peace in his spirit. If you have peace in
33:37
Speaker 1: your spirit, you can speak peace on the boat. You
33:41
Speaker 1: can't speak peace if you're in conflict. I'll prove it
33:44
Speaker 1: to you. The storm was raging and Jesus was asleep.
33:49
Speaker 1: He spoke peace because he was peace. You cannot speak
33:54
Speaker 1: what you are not. If you don't have it in
33:57
Speaker 1: your belly, you can't have it in your life. Oh,
34:02
Speaker 1: somebody shout me down. I feel the Holy Ghost. For
34:09
Speaker 1: what man knoweth the things of a man save the
34:12
Speaker 1: spirit of the man which is in him? Even so
34:15
Speaker 1: the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit
34:19
Speaker 1: of God. You're asking God for stuff that he can't
34:24
Speaker 1: tell you because it's undercover. Look at somebody say it's undercover.
34:35
Speaker 1: I don't think they heard you find somebody else and
34:36
Speaker 1: tell them it's undercover. How you're going to get out
34:41
Speaker 1: of this is undercover. How God is going to work
34:45
Speaker 1: this out is undercover. How things are going to end
34:48
Speaker 1: up is undercover. Who am I talking to? The way
34:53
Speaker 1: that God's going to make for you is undercover. God's
34:57
Speaker 1: got some stuff for you that he can't tell you
34:59
Speaker 1: right now. That's why you don't see it coming. That's
35:02
Speaker 1: why you don't hear it coming. Because God is going undercover.
35:11
Speaker 1: If we can't celebrate Christmas, the incarnation of God himself,
35:17
Speaker 1: without realizing that God has this propensity to go undercover,
35:24
Speaker 1: to hide stuff. And if you get it, you're going
35:27
Speaker 1: to get it in your spirit before you get it
35:32
Speaker 1: in your life. If you get something in your life
35:36
Speaker 1: that's not in your spirit, you're going to lose it.
35:42
Speaker 1: You can only receive commensurate to what is in your spirit. Oh,
35:47
Speaker 1: let me break it down another way. As a man
35:49
Speaker 1: thinketh in his heart. So is he. The word heart,
35:54
Speaker 1: there is spirit. As a man thinketh in his spirit,
35:57
Speaker 1: so is he. You're healed in your spirit. Let me
36:00
Speaker 1: say it another way. Woman, thou art loose. I don't
36:03
Speaker 1: look loose. I don't feel loose. I'm bent over. I've
36:06
Speaker 1: been bent over for 18 years. Jesus said, don't go
36:09
Speaker 1: by the outside. I hid it down inside of you.
36:12
Speaker 1: I'm telling you in spite of what you see on
36:15
Speaker 1: the outside. Woman, thou art loose. When she received what
36:19
Speaker 1: he said, look. From thy spirit of infirmity. It's a
36:23
Speaker 1: spirit that's got you sick. And it's going to take
36:26
Speaker 1: a spirit to make you well. Give me 30 seconds
36:32
Speaker 1: of a deliverance praise. The reason I come to church
36:47
Speaker 1: is not to see you. The reason I come to
36:50
Speaker 1: church is not so you can see me. But I
36:53
Speaker 1: have learned that my Sunday morning affects my Monday morning.
36:57
Speaker 1: That if I can receive it in my spirit, it
37:00
Speaker 1: can happen in my life. If I can get peace
37:03
Speaker 1: in my spirit, I can get peace in my life.
37:07
Speaker 1: If I can break out in the Holy Ghost, I
37:09
Speaker 1: can break out in my life. And when the anointing
37:13
Speaker 1: comes upon me, it's a sign that God just broke
37:16
Speaker 1: something in my life. If I had 10 people... that
37:22
Speaker 1: the anointing was touching right now. Every time God touches
37:26
Speaker 1: you in your spirit, it is a witness that he's
37:31
Speaker 1: touching you in your life. If I'm talking to you,
37:36
Speaker 1: give God a praise. When God goes undercover, we start
37:56
Speaker 1: asking questions. How can these things be? Seeing as I
38:02
Speaker 1: know not a man. Seeing senses. My senses do not
38:11
Speaker 1: validate what the angel is telling me. How can these
38:16
Speaker 1: things be seeing as I know not a man? There
38:22
Speaker 1: is not a man in the earth that can stop
38:25
Speaker 1: what God has spoken over your life. They can't stop it,
38:33
Speaker 1: nor can they make it happen. When God gets ready
38:36
Speaker 1: to open a door, no man can shut it. When
38:39
Speaker 1: God shuts a door, no man can open it. I
38:43
Speaker 1: want to talk about God. I want to talk about God.
38:46
Speaker 1: I want to talk about God. I want to talk
38:49
Speaker 1: about God as the ruler of the universe. I want
38:52
Speaker 1: to talk about God as being the sovereign, mighty God.
38:55
Speaker 1: I want to talk about God as being El Shaddai,
38:58
Speaker 1: the all-sufficient God. I want to talk about God as
39:02
Speaker 1: being Jehovah-Jireh, The provision is already made while you're walking
39:06
Speaker 1: up the hill. You haven't seen it yet because it's hidden.
39:11
Speaker 1: But when the time is right, look over your shoulder.
39:21
Speaker 1: Look over your shoulder. I already got a ram tied
39:27
Speaker 1: in the thicket. I knew you were going to get here.
39:30
Speaker 1: before you ever got there. But I didn't tell you
39:33
Speaker 1: about the ram. I told you about the place. Because
39:37
Speaker 1: if you get in the place, I'm going to show
39:40
Speaker 1: you the provision. Oh, my God. I rebuke every devil
39:45
Speaker 1: that's trying to get you out of the place. Some
39:52
Speaker 1: of us haven't even got the provision yet. We're just
39:56
Speaker 1: shouting because we're in the right place. We finally got
40:00
Speaker 1: ourselves lined up in a place to receive something from God.
40:06
Speaker 1: Everybody that feels like you're on the verge of a breakthrough,
40:10
Speaker 1: give him a 30-second break. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
40:34
Speaker 1: Do you see how all this word is fitting together?
40:36
Speaker 1: Remember a few weeks ago when I told you you're
40:38
Speaker 1: at an inflection point? Things are getting ready to shift.
40:43
Speaker 1: You're getting ready to go into another dimension. You see
40:46
Speaker 1: how all of this is tied together? God is now
40:49
Speaker 1: telling you, I hid it. Because you couldn't handle it.
40:55
Speaker 1: But all the while you were coming up this side
40:57
Speaker 1: of the hill, the ram was coming up the other
41:00
Speaker 1: side of the hill. And even though the devil told you,
41:04
Speaker 1: you waited too late. I tied the ram in the
41:09
Speaker 1: thicket because what God has for you. Oh, I'm preaching
41:17
Speaker 1: better than you sound. What God has for you is
41:22
Speaker 1: for you. Can I go deeper with this thing? I
41:29
Speaker 1: feel like something's about to happen in this place. I
41:32
Speaker 1: feel like handcuffs are falling off somebody. I feel like
41:35
Speaker 1: chains are coming off of somebody. I feel like God
41:38
Speaker 1: is renewing somebody. You've been through all kind of stuff
41:41
Speaker 1: this year, but God brought you through it. Stop talking
41:45
Speaker 1: about what you went through and start talking about what
41:48
Speaker 1: you're going to. You cannot drive forward looking back. So
42:05
Speaker 1: as long as you're bellyaching about what you've been through,
42:09
Speaker 1: you're not ready for where you're going to. Let me
42:12
Speaker 1: ask you a question. Do you think God would have
42:15
Speaker 1: brought you through all of that if he didn't have
42:18
Speaker 1: something in store for you? What I'm trying to teach
42:28
Speaker 1: you respectfully, is that God can be sneaky. He can
42:37
Speaker 1: have a king hidden in a kid. God went undercover
42:51
Speaker 1: as a baby. Who would be looking For a baby.
43:04
Speaker 1: But somebody heard that God might be going undercover. Named Herod.
43:12
Speaker 1: And tried to kill all the babies. Because he couldn't
43:15
Speaker 1: tell which baby was the baby that was God undercover.
43:20
Speaker 1: Because God was undercover. He wasn't really trying to kill babies.
43:24
Speaker 1: He was trying to kill children. And so God came
43:34
Speaker 1: as a baby, a helpless, innocent baby, and nursed at
43:43
Speaker 1: the breasts of his mother's daughter. He made the milk
43:58
Speaker 1: he drank. God went undercover and said, we can't stay
44:08
Speaker 1: in a hotel because they would expect me to be
44:13
Speaker 1: in a hotel. I can't stay in a penthouse. Because
44:17
Speaker 1: they would expect a king to be in a penthouse.
44:20
Speaker 1: I can't stand in the middle of a royal entourage
44:24
Speaker 1: because it'll blow my cover. So we got to do
44:27
Speaker 1: this thing in a barn. And so they put him
44:29
Speaker 1: in a barn and they put him in a manger.
44:33
Speaker 1: And the only thing that lives in barns is animals.
44:37
Speaker 1: But the reason God could do it is that he'd
44:39
Speaker 1: become the lamb of God. So while shepherds were grazing
44:49
Speaker 1: in the field, it makes sense that the lamb would
44:52
Speaker 1: be in the crib because anytime there's shepherds, there's got
44:56
Speaker 1: to be sheep. But the sheep is God undercover. That
45:06
Speaker 1: holy thing that's laying in the milk rags. He is
45:16
Speaker 1: the milk of the word, laying in milk rags, born
45:21
Speaker 1: in a manger, swaddling clothes of milk rags. And he's
45:24
Speaker 1: laying there, and the government is on his shoulders. And
45:30
Speaker 1: of his kingdom, there shall be no end. And of
45:40
Speaker 1: his kingdom, there shall be no end. Look at the oxymoron.
45:48
Speaker 1: He is undercover to the point that he is born
45:52
Speaker 1: in a barn, in a manger, which was a trough,
46:00
Speaker 1: wrapped in swaddling clothes, which was milk rags, in the night,
46:07
Speaker 1: in the poorest of abject poverty, with nothing at all.
46:15
Speaker 1: And yet, three wise men are coming, bringing gold, frankincense,
46:21
Speaker 1: and myrrh. Look at the oxymoron between the gold, the frankincense,
46:26
Speaker 1: and myrrh, and the manger, and the rags, and the barn.
46:34
Speaker 1: That means you can't get so low, he's not kin
46:38
Speaker 1: to you. And you can't be so high that God
46:43
Speaker 1: cannot reach you. Either way you go, God is always there.
46:48
Speaker 1: He's the king of kings, but he's a kid in
46:52
Speaker 1: a manger. Y'all don't hear what I'm saying to you.
46:54
Speaker 1: I'm going to mess with you a little bit. I
46:59
Speaker 1: was thinking, I'm almost done. I was thinking this. Brother said,
47:05
Speaker 1: you don't have to be. I was thinking this. When
47:09
Speaker 1: we look at the story of the disciples feeding the 5,000.
47:14
Speaker 1: And the Bible said that after they took the little
47:17
Speaker 1: boy's lunch and gave it to Jesus, he took it
47:20
Speaker 1: and blessed it and broke it and gave it to
47:21
Speaker 1: the disciples. And the disciples gave it to the people
47:25
Speaker 1: and the people did eat. So Jesus is close enough
47:28
Speaker 1: to the disciples to feed them. And they know it
47:34
Speaker 1: is Jesus. They know it is Jesus. And then Jesus
47:39
Speaker 1: goes apart to the mountain to pray. And they get
47:42
Speaker 1: in the boat and start on the water. And then
47:45
Speaker 1: Jesus comes walking on the water. And we preach about
47:50
Speaker 1: Jesus walking on the water. But so far as practicality
47:54
Speaker 1: is concerned, I'm 65 years old and I've never needed
47:58
Speaker 1: Jesus to walk on the water. It is nice to
48:01
Speaker 1: know that if I'm ever in the middle of the
48:04
Speaker 1: Atlantic and I need to be rescued, that Jesus can
48:07
Speaker 1: walk on water. But for 65 years, I have avoided
48:11
Speaker 1: the calamity of being in a situation so bad that
48:14
Speaker 1: God had to walk on water to come get me.
48:17
Speaker 1: Nor have I been like Peter and had to get
48:20
Speaker 1: up and walk out of a safe place and walk
48:24
Speaker 1: out on water and walk out on the water literally
48:28
Speaker 1: to meet Jesus. So what is the usable content of
48:34
Speaker 1: the text? There's many things. You could use any of it,
48:37
Speaker 1: but I'm going to avoid all of it, and I'm
48:39
Speaker 1: going to use the obscure thing that's hidden. The hidden
48:43
Speaker 1: message is in the 11 who were close enough to
48:49
Speaker 1: be fed by him, but then didn't recognize him when
48:59
Speaker 1: he comes under cover. The God who wrapped up in
49:06
Speaker 1: the meat flesh, in the meat coat, is now walking
49:11
Speaker 1: on water. And the disciples who just got through eating
49:15
Speaker 1: out of his hands do not recognize him. because he
49:21
Speaker 1: is coming in the storm. You recognize God in the anointing.
49:37
Speaker 1: But the question is, Can you recognize him in the storm?
49:48
Speaker 1: You recognize him in the praise service. But can you
49:52
Speaker 1: recognize him in the storm? You recognize him in the preaching.
49:58
Speaker 1: But the real test of your discipleship is to recognize
50:02
Speaker 1: him in the storm. Because God goes undercover. In your storms.
50:08
Speaker 1: That's why you can't rebuke it. That's why you can't
50:11
Speaker 1: plead the blood. That's why you can't bind it. That's
50:15
Speaker 1: why you can't stop it. Because you cannot use God
50:19
Speaker 1: to rebuke God. God is hidden in your trouble. I'm
50:24
Speaker 1: talking to you and you and you and you. What
50:29
Speaker 1: you're going through right now is God in disguise. The
50:35
Speaker 1: wind is blowing. The lightning is flashing. The thunder is erupting.
50:41
Speaker 1: The boat is tossed to and fro. And there ain't
50:44
Speaker 1: a demon nowhere. It's all God. This is not a
50:54
Speaker 1: storm that Jesus rebuked. This is not a demon. This
51:00
Speaker 1: is not a witch. This is God undercover. Which means
51:07
Speaker 1: that sometimes the greatest manifestation of God in your life
51:12
Speaker 1: is your storm. Let me bring this on. I told
51:22
Speaker 1: the Lord, I was praying. One of my children was
51:26
Speaker 1: going through a storm. I was praying. I told God,
51:28
Speaker 1: I don't like that. I need you to fix it.
51:31
Speaker 1: I don't like that. I need you to straighten that out.
51:34
Speaker 1: You know, my nerves, you need to straighten this out
51:36
Speaker 1: before I straighten it out. If I straighten it out,
51:37
Speaker 1: it ain't going to be good. I need to straighten
51:39
Speaker 1: it out. He said, you need to shut up. Have
51:49
Speaker 1: you lived this long and not understood that I know
51:53
Speaker 1: how to raise your children? You got to trust me.
52:03
Speaker 1: Even when the lightning is flashing. Even when the thunder
52:07
Speaker 1: is erupting. Even when you can't see no way out.
52:11
Speaker 1: You can't let the devil tell you it's a ghost
52:14
Speaker 1: when it's just me undercover working out my will in
52:19
Speaker 1: your life. I know exactly what kind of trouble to
52:23
Speaker 1: put them through to bring out the power that lies
52:27
Speaker 1: inside of you. You'll never find out who you are
52:32
Speaker 1: until you get in trouble. I want to spend my
52:35
Speaker 1: last minute talking to somebody that's in trouble. God is
52:43
Speaker 1: in your trouble. Jehovah Shama, the Lord is a present
52:48
Speaker 1: help in the time of trouble. That means God is
52:53
Speaker 1: there in the trouble. But he is, he is undercover,
53:10
Speaker 1: in disguise. You walk in the floor. You're all upset.
53:15
Speaker 1: You're worried. You're in turmoil. Your food indigestion. You're not
53:20
Speaker 1: resting well. All hell is breaking loose. Suppose this happens.
53:24
Speaker 1: Suppose that happens. Suppose this thing happens. Suppose the other happens.
53:28
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do. Where is God? Where
53:31
Speaker 1: is God? I'm looking for God. I'm looking for God.
53:33
Speaker 1: I'm looking for God. They were looking for God. They
53:35
Speaker 1: were looking for God. But they were looking for God
53:38
Speaker 1: to look like what he looked like when he fed them.
53:43
Speaker 1: They didn't know that the God who came down out
53:46
Speaker 1: of the mountain was undercover in the storm. God says,
53:53
Speaker 1: I am the same God that feeds you on Sunday.
54:00
Speaker 1: Even though you go through trouble on Monday. And I
54:05
Speaker 1: don't look like what you heard on Sunday. But I'm
54:11
Speaker 1: going to do what you heard on Sunday through the
54:16
Speaker 1: trouble that you're going through on Monday who am I
54:19
Speaker 1: talking to listen there's not a person in this room
54:25
Speaker 1: that somewhere in your life you are not in trouble
54:34
Speaker 1: there's not a person in this room who was shouting
54:37
Speaker 1: a minute ago that wasn't shouting over top of trouble
54:41
Speaker 1: If you don't learn how to shout over trouble, you
54:44
Speaker 1: won't shout at all. The Lord said the reason he
54:51
Speaker 1: hadn't stopped the trouble is that he's using the trouble
54:55
Speaker 1: to work out his will in your life. And he said,
55:02
Speaker 1: what I want you to do is trust me when
55:06
Speaker 1: I don't look like myself. when I come in another form,
55:13
Speaker 1: when I show up in another way. Peter started drowning
55:20
Speaker 1: in the trouble. He began to sink in the trouble.
55:26
Speaker 1: But the Jesus he was walking to stretched forth his hand.
55:33
Speaker 1: How did his hand get to Peter? when Peter was
55:39
Speaker 1: walking toward him, his hand is a present help in trouble.
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Speaker 1: While you're yet going after your goal, God isn't just
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Speaker 1: in your destination. He's in your immediate dilemma. The dilemma
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Speaker 1: that's in your life right now It's just God under cover.
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Speaker 1: One more thing. You're not going to drown in it.
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Speaker 1: The Bible said that he began to sink, but he
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Speaker 1: never finished. You might feel like you're sinking, but you're
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Speaker 1: never going to sink because God is in the trouble
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Speaker 1: right with you. I want to talk to somebody who's
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Speaker 1: scared and you're feeling the water getting in your nose.
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Speaker 1: Before you go under, God is going to reach out
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Speaker 1: his hand and snatch you out of the trouble because
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Speaker 1: God is in your trouble. Amen. If you avoid the trouble,
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Speaker 1: you will miss God. There was no way for Peter
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Speaker 1: to have an encounter with Jesus and not have an
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Speaker 1: encounter with the storm. And God says there's no way
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Speaker 1: for you to raise your children and pray against the storm.
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Speaker 1: Because the storm is what raises you. You can't ask
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Speaker 1: me to raise something and then scream because they're off
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Speaker 1: the floor. Am I helping somebody? You prayed. It looks
57:59
Speaker 1: like God didn't answer because his answer doesn't look like
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Speaker 1: what you had in mind. They were looking for the
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Speaker 1: fish and bread Jesus. They weren't looking for him undercover
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Speaker 1: in the storm. But I declare unto you, there's not
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Speaker 1: a storm in this room that God is not in
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Speaker 1: with you. Stand on your feet. There's not a storm...
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Speaker 1: I'm going to say it again. There's not a storm
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Speaker 1: in this room that God is not in it with you.
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Speaker 1: He is not just the God of your Bible and
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Speaker 1: the God of your bishop and the God of your church.
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Speaker 1: He is the God of your storm. He will make
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Speaker 1: your storm Serve his purpose. Amen. you said you wanted
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Speaker 1: patience so he sent something to get on your nerves
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Speaker 1: you said you wanted power so he sent pressure. You
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Speaker 1: said you wanted resilience, so he gave you some pain.
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Speaker 1: Because God knows how to raise you too. The problem
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Speaker 1: with how we raise children today is that we give
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Speaker 1: them whatever they say. God is not in the business
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Speaker 1: of spoiling his children. God doesn't give us everything we
1:00:03
Speaker 1: ask for. He gives us what we need. Let me
1:00:13
Speaker 1: tell you what brings peace. Accepting where I am. That
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Speaker 1: I am right where I am supposed to be. Doing
1:00:29
Speaker 1: exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. And it is
1:00:35
Speaker 1: not about whether it works or not. Because even if
1:00:40
Speaker 1: what I'm doing doesn't work, it still works. The goal
1:00:52
Speaker 1: is not your goal. It is His goal. And if
1:01:00
Speaker 1: you can accept Where you are right now. And just
1:01:06
Speaker 1: trust him. That the only thing that matters is not
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Speaker 1: the lightning or the thunder. It is his presence. That
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Speaker 1: he is there. Undercover.