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Transcript

Walk Me Through It - Bishop T. D. Jakes · Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: In the book of Acts chapter number 12 verse 1
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: through 14 it would almost appear and we're pretty organized
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and we're pretty structured and we put a great deal
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: of effort and energy in trying to present our best
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: selves to you but we don't always confer between the
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: worship team and the and the preaching, but it sounds
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: like that we did because what they just got through
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: singing is in alignment with what I'm about to preach.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Acts 12, 1 through 14. This is probably more Bible
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: reading than you did this month. We're reading out the
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  Speaker 1: message Bible. You can follow along if you want or
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: you can look at the monitors on the screens. That's
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: when King Herod got it into his head to go
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: after some of the church members. What in the world?
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Why is the king going after the church members? Why
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: are politics... Going after the people of God. He murdered James,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: John's brother. James didn't even do nothing. When he saw
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: how much, watch this, when he saw how much it
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: raised his popularity ratings with the Jews, he arrested Peter.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Said if killing one is good, let me kill another one.
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  Speaker 1: All this during Passover week, mind you. and had him
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  Speaker 1: thrown in the jail, putting four squads of four soldiers
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: each to guard him, 16 to one. He was planning
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: a public lynching after Passover. That's what he was planning.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: All the time that Peter was under heavy guard in
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: the jailhouse, the church prayed for him Most strenuously. That's
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: why we got to keep our intercessors up. Then the
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: time came for Herod to bring him out for the kill.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: The time was right to bring him out for the kill.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: This was a strategy. It had a timing. It had
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: a date. It had a sequence. It had structures. It
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: had order. It's a plot. It's a plot. That night,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: even though shackled to two soldiers, one on either side.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: I love this. I love this, y'all. I can stop
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: right here and preach on this all day. Peter slept
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: like a baby. Glory to God. When's the last time
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: you slept like a baby? And there were guards at
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the door. I almost called it sleeping with the enemy. Amen.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Because if you can sleep and have inner peace when
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: your outer circumstances are totally contradictory to everything, that's faith
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  Speaker 1: at its best. Sometimes faith don't say a word, it snores.
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  Speaker 1: And there were guards at the door keeping their eyes
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  Speaker 1: on the place. Herod was taking no chances there. Suddenly,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: there was an angel at his side. Oh my God. Suddenly,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: somebody holler suddenly. Suddenly, there was an angel at his
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  Speaker 1: side and light flooding the room. The angel shook Peter
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: and got him up. Harry! The handcuffs fell off his wrist.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: That's not how that works. The handcuffs fell. Fell off
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  Speaker 1: his wrist. Glory to God. Something's getting ready to fall
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: off of you. Something that they thought they had locked
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: tight is getting ready to fall off you. The angel said,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: get dressed. Put on your clothes. Peter did it. Then
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: grab your coat and let's get out of here. Whew.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Let's get out of here. Look at somebody and say,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: let's get out of here. Peter followed him, but didn't
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: believe it was really an angel. He thought he'd taken
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: some Ambien. Don't sue me, Ambien. I'm just being funny.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: He thought he was dreaming. Can you imagine living in
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: a way that you think it's a dream? That you're
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: scared to believe that this is real? He thought it
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: was a dream. They passed the first guard and then
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: the second. They came to the iron gate that led
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: into the city. It swung open before them on its own.
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  Speaker 1: Good God have mercy. And they were out on the
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  Speaker 1: streets free as a breeze. Because the angel got him
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  Speaker 1: to it. At the first intersection, the angel left him
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: going his own way. That's when Peter realized, this ain't
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: no dream. I got to stop there a minute and
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: tell you, that when God answers your prayer, sometimes it
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: takes you a while to believe it. Does anybody know,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: can we be honest for a minute? Have you ever
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: had God do something for you, but you was afraid
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: to lean on it because you weren't sure it was
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: going to last and you weren't sure it was, yeah, okay.
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  Speaker 1: He said, I can't believe it. This really happened. The master,
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  Speaker 1: look at how, look, look, look, look, look, look at this.
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  Speaker 1: The master sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's
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  Speaker 1: vicious little production and the spectacle the Jewish mob was
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  Speaker 1: looking forward to. Still shaking his head, amazed, he went
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  Speaker 1: to Mary's house and the Mary who was John Mark's mother.
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  Speaker 1: The house was packed with praying friends. Oh God, give
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  Speaker 1: me some praying friends. When he knocked on the door
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  Speaker 1: to the courtyard, a young woman named Rhoda came to
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  Speaker 1: see who it was. But when she recognized his voice,
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  Speaker 1: Peter's voice. Oh, she was so excited and eager to
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  Speaker 1: tell everyone Peter was there. And she forgot to open
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  Speaker 1: the door. And left the answer to prayer standing in
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  Speaker 1: the street. This morning, for what God is going to do,
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  Speaker 1: For what the enemy has conspired to circumvent what God
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  Speaker 1: is going to do, my subject is walk me through it.
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  Speaker 2: This is not for the people who take
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  Speaker 2: no risk. This is not for the people who see
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  Speaker 2: their way clear. This is for the people who dare
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  Speaker 2: to go into adventurous spaces that they have never gone before,
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: that you have never been trained for before. It doesn't
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: make sense that you would have this opportunity that's been
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: afforded to you, and yet you got it today. I
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: want you to throw your hands up and say, walk
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: me through it. Father God, in the name of Jesus,
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  Speaker 2: let the word be made flesh while it's being preached today.
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  Speaker 2: I thank you for your power. I thank you for
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  Speaker 2: your grace. I thank you for your anointing. I thank
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  Speaker 2: you for your consistency. I thank you for your patience.
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  Speaker 2: I thank you for your love. I thank you for
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  Speaker 2: your grace. I thank you for your hand of mercy
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  Speaker 2: over our lives. I thank you, Lord, for the things
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  Speaker 2: you're about to do. I believe you're for miracles. In
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: the name of Jesus, we pray. Somebody shout amen. You
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: may be seated in the presence of the Lord. There
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  Speaker 2: is a word. There is a word. There is a word.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: There is a word. There is a word.
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  Speaker 1: From the Lord. I'm wondering if you've ever found yourself
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: in a situation that you didn't really belong in. This
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: text is so It is so exciting. It is so
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  Speaker 1: excessive that it is easy to get caught up in
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  Speaker 1: what happened without examining why it happened. That's the way
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  Speaker 1: much of life is today. We deal with the what.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Because the what is so flamboyant and difficult and challenging
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  Speaker 1: and scary. that very few people have a tendency to
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  Speaker 1: ask why. We pray about the what. We ignore the why.
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  Speaker 1: But part of the ability to be able to navigate
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  Speaker 1: through something is to understand not only what happened, but why.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: If you get caught up in what happened without the why,
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  Speaker 1: you will become emotional Because you will think everything that
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: happened is your fault. I must have done something. Who
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: said the mother of the father that the child should
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  Speaker 1: be born blind? We're always looking for somebody to blame.
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  Speaker 1: The first thing they start talking about in time of calamity,
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  Speaker 1: who are we going to blame? Did the fire department
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: get there on time? Did they set the buzzer? Did
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  Speaker 1: they send the signal? Did they do an Amber Alert?
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  Speaker 1: Because we always want somebody to blame for what happened.
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  Speaker 1: But a lot of times in order to be able
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  Speaker 1: to think clearly and succinctly and intelligently so that you
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  Speaker 1: can pray effectively, you have to get beyond what is
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  Speaker 1: happening in your life to why is this happening in
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  Speaker 1: my life? Why is this happening in my life at
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: this time, in this way, in this place? So I
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  Speaker 1: know how to handle it. If I don't know why
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  Speaker 1: it's happening, I don't even know how to pray. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know whether to rebuke the devil, plead the blood,
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  Speaker 1: bind the witches, come against Satan. Or thanking God for
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  Speaker 1: counting me worthy to go through a test or development.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know whether to repent because I did something wrong.
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  Speaker 1: Or accept it as a test that I have to face.
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  Speaker 1: Or is this a season in my life I'm going through?
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  Speaker 1: Or am I self-sabotaging myself? And I don't know whether
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  Speaker 1: I need a therapist or an exorcist. I know I
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  Speaker 1: need a yeast. I don't know whether it's a therapist
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  Speaker 1: or an exorcist because I don't like what is happening
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  Speaker 1: in my life. I don't like what's going on in
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  Speaker 1: my life. I don't like being in trouble. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know anybody in the room who likes being in trouble.
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  Speaker 1: When I was raising my kids, I had a saying
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  Speaker 1: I'd tell them, when we get home, we're going to dance.
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  Speaker 1: And I didn't mean the good way. Yeah, yeah. And
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  Speaker 1: they knew right then they was in trouble. My mother
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  Speaker 1: didn't have to say none of that. She didn't look
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  Speaker 1: at you. She would look at you like you was crazy.
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  Speaker 1: Your blood would stop moving through your body. Your heart
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  Speaker 1: would stop beating. They could not get a pulse on
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  Speaker 1: you anywhere because without parting her lips, the look announced
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  Speaker 1: to you, I see you and I got you. And
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  Speaker 1: if you don't stop right now, I'm going to get
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  Speaker 1: you right now. If you're lucky, you're going to wait
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  Speaker 1: until you get back home. But if you don't stop,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to get it right now. And all of
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  Speaker 1: a sudden you find yourself, I don't like the feeling
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  Speaker 1: of being in trouble. My pulse quickens. My stress levels
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  Speaker 1: go up. My body goes crazy. I have all this
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  Speaker 1: mental imagination of what's going to happen. She's going to
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  Speaker 1: kill me. She's going to absolutely kill me. Well, I
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  Speaker 1: had good reason to think she was going to kill me.
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  Speaker 1: My mother told me she could kill me and have
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  Speaker 1: another one that looked just like me. And she said,
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  Speaker 1: she said, they won't even know you gone. And I
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  Speaker 1: was about four years old. I thought, can you do that?
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  Speaker 1: Can you really just like replace a brother like that?
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  Speaker 1: You know, and you go from that kind of trouble.
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  Speaker 1: You go from that kind of trouble to adult trouble.
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  Speaker 1: The mortgages do. The rent is due. The wife and
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  Speaker 1: I are not getting along. I have a daughter that's
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  Speaker 1: not speaking to me. I have a son who's upset
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  Speaker 1: with me. That kind of trouble. And though you are
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: experiencing adult trouble, you experience it like a child. I'm
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  Speaker 1: in trouble. I'm in trouble. You lay down at night.
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  Speaker 1: Oh God, I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. I'm getting
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  Speaker 1: ready to retire. I got nothing to retire off of.
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  Speaker 1: I'm in trouble. The doctor says my creatinine is running high.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: I'm in trouble. They found a knot over in the
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  Speaker 1: corner of my breast and the test hasn't come back yet.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: I may be 50, but I'm experiencing it as a five-year-old.
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  Speaker 1: I'm in trouble. I can tell how everybody stops talking
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  Speaker 1: when I come in the office. I'm in trouble. I'm
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  Speaker 1: in trouble. But a lot of the things, most of
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  Speaker 1: the things that happen in our lives, we're actually just
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  Speaker 1: caught in the crossfire of a bigger fight. Oh, this
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  Speaker 1: is so good. You might be the victim. You might
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: be the pawn. You might be the recipient of the tragedy.
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  Speaker 1: But it is generally about something bigger than you. It's
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: bigger than you. You hear people say, devil came in
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  Speaker 1: my room last night and I had to wrestle with
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  Speaker 1: the devil all night long. Come on, girl. You know
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  Speaker 1: the devil ain't come into your room last night. You
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  Speaker 1: know you're not that important. That the devil would make
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: house calls and come to your house and spend the
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  Speaker 1: whole evening wrestling with you in the room. The devil
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  Speaker 1: only showed up a few times in all of the Bible.
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  Speaker 1: And you mean the devil is over your house? Drinking
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: a hot latte and telling you what all he's going
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  Speaker 1: to do to you. But come on, come on, come on,
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  Speaker 1: come on. Come on, we got to get down into this.
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  Speaker 1: But we're experiencing trauma as a five-year-old and we don't
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  Speaker 1: know the why. We just know the what. We don't
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: understand where it's coming from. All we know is that
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: we're in trouble. And generally, once you conclude that you're
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: in trouble, you start looking for somebody to blame. And
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  Speaker 1: there are three different classes of thought. One group of
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: people blame spiritual elements. It's always the devil. The devil
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  Speaker 1: made me do it. My daughter Sarah says she's not here.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: I'm going to tell her this morning why she's not here.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe she's watching online. She broke my tiger in my
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: living room. When she was nine years old, she broke
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: the tiger completely. It was a beautiful tiger that we
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: had behind the sofa, a beautiful tiger. Broke it into,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know what she did to break the tiger.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know whether she was jumping up and down
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  Speaker 1: on it. I don't know whether she hit Cora with it.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know what happened to it. But she broke it.
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  Speaker 1: When I confronted her, she said, the devil made me
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  Speaker 1: do it. I thought now I can't even punish you
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: because I'm trying not to laugh. Just totally disarmed me.
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  Speaker 1: Just ruined all of my daddy fire with the devil
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  Speaker 1: made me do it. A lot of people think the
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  Speaker 1: devil is the root of everything that happened to you.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: We blame the devil for everything. Even if we broke
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: the tiger, we blame the devil because we are taught
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  Speaker 1: in this spiritual environment that everything is spiritual and we
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: blame the devil. Other people blame other people. They don't
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: blame the devil. They blame other people. My first husband
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: was crazy. My second husband was crazy. My third husband
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: acted like he didn't have no sense. My fourth husband
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: didn't appreciate a good woman when he had her. My
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: fifth husband acted like he never complimented me on my hair. Now,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: after about five, you ought to start thinking, maybe it
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: ain't the man. It might be. No, but y'all don't
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: do that. You know what y'all say? Ain't no good
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: men left in the world. It never comes up an
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: issue that it might be you. It just ain't no
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: good men left in the world. You dated five men
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: out of eight billion people on the planet and you
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: have concluded that the rest of us are all crazy
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: because you had a bad experience and you have never
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: considered yourself. It's got to be her. She crazy. That's
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: what the brothers say. That's what we say about y'all
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: when we break up. Man, she crazy. Crazy is a
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: catch-all phrase. You don't know what kind of crazy she is.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: We don't do a complete diagnosis, but when one guy
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: tells you another guy's crazy, all the other guys look
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: at her and go, hmm. Okay, so you go down
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: that road, and we blame other people. We blame other people.
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  Speaker 1: We blame other people for being late. We blame other
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: people for not paying our bills. We blame other people.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: I don't understand. This is what I don't understand. I
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: don't understand how you can borrow money from me, not
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: pay me back, and then blame me. Now, you're mad
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: at me. Wait a minute. I'm the one broke. I'm
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: the one out the money. I'm the one you didn't
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: pay back, and you rolling your eyes at me. We
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: blame other people for stuff we broke. The third group
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: is we blame ourselves for everything. Stuff we had no
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: control over. Things we couldn't fix. We beat ourselves up
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: about everything. We defend ourselves in front of the attacker,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: but when we get home alone, We blame ourselves. I'm
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: not enough. Imposter syndrome. I'm inadequate. I can't do it.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Look at me. I mess up everything. We go all
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the way back to the first grade. That's why I
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: flunked the first grade. That's why I went through a test.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: That's why I made an F on my report card.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: We go all the way back, all the way, read
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: a whole resume to validate why we are no good
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: and we start attacking ourselves. In our text, it is
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: clear it does not lead it to our imagination to
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: conclude what category this is in. Peter is definitely in trouble. Yeah,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: he's going to die in the morning. Yeah, that's right.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: He's going to die in the morning. But it is
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: not the devil. It is not the other disciples. And
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: the worst part.
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  Speaker 3: Is, it's not even Peter.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Peter has done nothing wrong. Why do bad things happen
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: to good people? And you find yourself in this situation
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: where not only are you trying to endure the problem,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: you're perplexed because you don't understand the problem. I don't
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: understand why you don't like me and you, my child.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: And everything I ever did was for you. I don't
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: understand why you don't like me and I'm your son.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: How could you not like your child? And you go
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: through all of these questions in your mind. And when
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: you come to church, all we do is tell you
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: is give him a praise. But let me tell you
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: what praise won't do. Praise won't answer your questions. Praise
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: won't always resolve your issue. Praise won't take the place
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: of an apology. You dance all over the church, but
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: you still didn't apologize, and you don't have no peace,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and I don't care how fancy you are, you can
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: run around this church until you need a water bottle
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: that says Father House on it, and you still won't
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: solve the problem. Amen. Because praise won't fix what you
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: need to fix. I knew I knew what nobody gonna shout.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Give them a B1 shot. They need to shout. Let
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: me tell you something. You're trying to figure out what
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: is going on and the church comes to you and
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: just tells you, just praise the Lord. Hey, I got
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: a lump in my breast and I'm going to give
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: God the praise. But when I got through dancing, I
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: still had a lump in my breast and it's growing.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: And what do I do when I find myself in
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: a situation and I don't know who to blame and
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know how to pray? And I don't know
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: how to respond to it. And I don't know how
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: to talk about it. I don't have language for it.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: I'm going through it. And I'm going through something. Peter
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: is going through something that the other disciples could not
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: relate to. And he's going through it alone. Even if
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: they could relate to it, he can't talk to them.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: I want to talk to some people who are going
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: through some stuff alone. You're going through some stuff alone,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: even though other people are around. You're going through it alone.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Even though other people have an opinion, you're going through
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: it alone. Even though other people may be talking about it,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: you're going through it alone. Peter is going through this alone.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: There's no James. There's no John in the room. There's
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: no people standing around him because misery kind of enjoys company.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: If I got to go through it, let me go
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: through it with somebody. Let me go through it with somebody.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: But most of the things that torment the soul, we
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: go through. alone we go through alone and single people
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: think they go through it alone because they're single but
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: married people know that being married doesn't mean that you're
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: not going through it alone that having somebody laying next
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: to you doesn't mean that they're going through it with
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: you applause Thank you for the 10 people that aren't hypocrites.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: The 10 people that can admit that you can lay
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: next to somebody and you can even spoon. Alone. Because
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: this is a king test for men. Ladies, when you
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: ask him what he's thinking and he says, nothing. Nothing.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that we're not thinking nothing. It just
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: means that we figure we're going through this alone. Peter
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: is going through this alone. What did he do to
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: go to jail? Thank you, Luke, when you wrote the
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: book of Acts, you do not leave me to guess
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: about how Peter got in jail. He got in the
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: crossfire of Herod Agrippa I's Ego. He got in the
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: crossfire of a political decision where the king decides to
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: attack the church member for strategic advantage to go up
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: higher in rank amongst the Jews. Backstory is King Herod
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Agrippa I was partly Jewish. He had been sent to
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: this outpost. He wanted to be their king, but the
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Jews did not legitimize him as being authentically Jewish. So
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: he's trying to get some Jewish points. I don't know
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: if Jewish people have points, black people have points, but
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Jewish people, I don't know if y'all got points or not,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: but he's trying to get some points. And so he
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: knows that the Jews don't like the Christians. So he
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: is hating on who they are hating on to gain
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: status so that he'll have more power to get where
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: he's trying to go. He doesn't even know Peter. He
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: doesn't even care about Peter. He's not thinking about Peter.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: He doesn't care about Christianity. He doesn't care about what
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: they're trying to teach. He doesn't really care about Orthodox Judaism.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: He cares about his career. If you don't understand why
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: you are being attacked, you don't know how to respond
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: to the attack. If you don't understand that the bloggers
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: get paid by the hits they get, then you don't
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: think they're talking about you because you're you. No, they're
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: talking about you because people know you. And people are
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: going to argue about you. And the more they click,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: the more you click, the more they get paid. And
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: you don't understand that talking about people has become a business. Amen.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Some people don't do nothing for a living except talk
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: about people. I mean, this is your full-time job. What
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: do you do for a living so I talk about people?
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: That's what I do. And it pays really good. Because
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: if I talk about big people, I get a lot
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: of hits. And if I get a lot of hits,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: then I get paid a lot of money. And if
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: I get paid a lot of money, I don't need
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: to work any other kind of job. All I need
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: to do is say something titillating and salacious enough to
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: get you to click on it. And the more clicks
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: I get, guess what? The more checks I make. Thank
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: you for clicking. Thank you for arguing both sides of
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: the issue. Thank you for responding. Because you driving my
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: algorithms up and I am getting paid. So they pick
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: you out not because you are Luther Vandross or whoever
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: you are, James, whoever you are. No, no, no, no.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: They pick you out because everybody knows you and everybody's
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: going to click on it. and you got caught in
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: the crossfire. Peter had priesthood at Pentecost. He was an
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: influential Christian. He had ignited the switch that provoked the
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: outpouring of the Holy Spirit down on the people that
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: cost 3,000 souls to be added to the church that day.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Peter had influence. Peter had such influence that Herod figured,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: if I kill the first disciple and they like that,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: if I get the ringleader, I will really be on top.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: I'm going to really be on top. See, that's why
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: every neck got to pray for every head. You can't.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Get into a fight between the neck and the head
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: and argue about position. You need to understand heavy is
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: the crown that rests upon the head. The higher you go,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: before you pray about going up, realize the higher you go,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: you're going to get caught in fights that you didn't start.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: You don't even know the person. You don't know what's
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: going on. I called a friend of mine one day.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: And I was reading an article in the Chicago Sun,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: and the guy was just giving me the blues. I mean,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: it was an entire op-ed, of which I was at
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: least a third of the op-ed. And I didn't even
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: know who he was. And I called a friend of mine.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: I said, who is this guy? And he told me, well,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: I know now y'all want to know who it is.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: Y'all got all quiet like we at Starbucks, and I'm
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: going to tell you who it is. Come on, please. Now,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: I said, who is this guy? And he told me
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: who it was. I said, I never even met the guy.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: He said, doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you did
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: or didn't do when you're in the crossfires of somebody
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: else's ego. There's something about what I just said that
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: felt prophetic. As it was coming out of me, it
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: felt prophetic, like somebody in this room is in a
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: situation right now, and you are bearing the brunt force
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: of other people's decisions that are affecting you, but they
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: are not because of you. They have their own agenda,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: and you have to stop worrying about yourself and worrying
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: about your efficiency just because somebody is trying to get
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: in with the Jews so that he can set up
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: his kingdom. It has nothing to do with Peter's theology,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: his preaching, his teaching, his gifting, his power, his favor,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: his anointing, yet Peter is in jail. It has nothing
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: to do with him, but he's in jail. It was
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: not even his fight, but he was in jail. It
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: was not even his problem, but he was in jail.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: He has had no argument with Herod, but he is
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: in jail. He has not ticked off the city, but
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: he is in jail.
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: Bad things do happen to good people.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: God does not always order sunshine in the morning. God
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: does not always order blue skies and sea waves and
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: seagulls flying over your window. That's not the way God works.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: God will order trouble for your life and allow you
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: to get in trouble because God is a present helper.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: in trouble. And if you want to be where God is,
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: God will let you get in trouble so He can
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: show Himself strong in your situation. I don't know who
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: I'm preaching to, but God will put you in trouble
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: just so that He can show you how strong He
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: is and that He is the King of kings and
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: the Lord of lords. See, Herod was the king. But
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: And what you got to understand is the accountant doesn't
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: have the last say. The lawyer doesn't have the last say.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: The judge don't have the last say. The court don't
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: have the last say. God is going to have the
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: last say. It may take some time. It may take
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: some tests. It may take some trial. But what God
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: has for you is for you. What I want you
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: to see in the first phrase of this text is
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: that this is a strategy of which he is being
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: victimized by a systemic strategy that set him up. The
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Bible says that we are not ignorant of the wiles
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: of the devil. The wiles of the devil is his strategy.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: That Satan has a strategy that is tailor-made for you.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: He has a strategy. He intended for him to be arrested.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: And the Bible says that Herod thought in his mind,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: if I kill him, it'll make me greater. Let me
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: tell you something, killing me don't make you king. Killing
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: me doesn't make me king. It doesn't make you king.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: But this is a strategy that he has employed. And
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: he is bent and determined to make sure that Peter
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: does not get out. Now he might not know Peter,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: but he must know something about Peter. Because this is
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: ear cutting Peter. You know, you got your Thomases and
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: your Johns and your James. And then in every church,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: you got a few Peters. They say they love the Lord.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: But if you flip them out, it's a few of
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: them in here. I won't point them out to you.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: But it's a few in here right now. They look
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: real safe. They nod and they clap in their hands.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: But down in the bottom of that pocketbook is a
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: nine millimeter... I'm sorry, y'all. This is Texas. Gods and guns. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of people in here right now. Yeah. Yeah. That, that, that, that, that, that, that, that,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: that they're, they're, you know, they, they, they, they, you
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: can't tell it in church. Go in the parking lot.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: That's when you find out who's saved in church. The
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: parking lot will tell you the Christians, the saints from names,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: because they're all going to be saints in here. When
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: they get in that parking lot and you cut them off,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: you're going to find out how much Holy Ghost they
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: really got. Don't pay those tongues no attention. Just go
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: in the parking lot. You're going to find out who
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: is who in the kingdom of God. Thank you, Lord,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: for telling me what the king was thinking. Because my
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: first question, whenever people do anything crazy who work for
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: me or I work for or I work with, my
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: first question is, who are you thinking? Whatever comes after
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: what were you thinking is not going to be good.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: But it is sincere. I want to know what you
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: were thinking. The Bible tells us what Herod was thinking,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: and it had nothing to do with Peter, but he
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: was going to die in the morning. Can you imagine
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: dying over something that had nothing to do with you?
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: He's not dying for his witness, for Jesus Christ. He's
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: not dying for the magnitude of his ministry. He's not
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: dying because he healed too many people and delivered. He's
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: dying because Herod is ambitious about Have you ever found
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: yourself on death row because of somebody else's ambition? Married folks,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: let me talk to y'all. Have you ever found yourself
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: in trouble because somebody was after your spouse? I bet
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: you better holler back at me right now before I
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: point you out. And it's not that you burnt the toast.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: It's not that you don't come home at night. It's
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: not that you're not a good wife. It's not that
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: you're not a good husband. But somebody's plotting on you
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: and they got a strategy at work and they're out
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: to discredit you and you find yourself in a situation
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: where you know they've been talking to somebody. You don't
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: know who they've been talking to. But I've been married
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: to you 20 years and you ain't talk like this.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: And here you come out to 20 years and now
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: you're talking strange. You've been talking to somebody.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: And Peter is thrust in jail. And listen, he gets
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: 16 soldiers, divides them into four quadrants. This is respect.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: This is respect. The level of attack determines the level
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: of respect If King Herod didn't know that Peter was
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: somebody to deal with, he would have put one man
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: on him to guard him and that would have been adequate.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: But he quadrupled the necessity of putting enough guards on
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: him because Herod knows that if he gives Peter half
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: a chance to get up, Peter will pull out his
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: sword and go to cutting off ears and setting people
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: free and breaking your— and that same devil knows that about you.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: That if he gives you half a chance to get
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: up on your feet, that all hell is going to
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: break loose in that place. Hallelujah. And y'all don't hear
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying. He knows that you got power. He
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: knows that you got power and he's attacking you because
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: you got power. High five somebody and say, I got power.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: I know I got power because I got problems. If
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: you got power, you're going to have problems. The problems
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: are a sign that you got power. Nobody sends that
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: level of problems if you don't have any power. You
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: don't get 16 soldiers to guard a three-year-old. You get
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: 16 soldiers to guard one man when that one man
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: is bad and he's got power. Somebody in here shout
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: because you got power. You're under attack because you got power.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: You're being besieged by the enemy because you got power.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: He's put unnecessary guards. But if it ain't this, it's that.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: If it ain't that, it's the other. Soon as you
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: get through that, here comes something else. And it's all
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: because hell is nervous about you. Hell is nervous about
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: what you're going to be. Hell is nervous about what
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: you're going to do. And he's increased the guards to
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: block you from getting where you're trying to go. Do
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: you hear what I'm saying? But throw your hands up
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: and say, walk me through it. Walk me through it.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Walk me through it. Walk me through it. Because I
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: will not die today. Cool points to Peter. He's got
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: 16 soldiers. He's handcuffed to two of them. He's handcuffed
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: to two Roman soldiers. This is the greatest expression of
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: faith I've ever heard. Silent faith screams. Silent faith screams.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: Faith that will not become discombobulated just because you're under
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: attack is faith at its best. Running all over the office,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: anointing the elevator with oil might not be faith at
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: its best. Faith at its best is peace in the
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: midst of the storm. Faith at its best is peace
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the storm. And I thought to myself, Peter,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: how did you sleep in prison on the night before
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: you were going to be killed? And Simon has just
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: been beheaded. Now, if you're going to kill me, you know,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: give me, stop by CVS and pick up something. You know,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: I'm not for this dramatic stuff. I like my head.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: You might not like my head. I know it ain't fine,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: but it's my head. I want my head. Don't cut
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: my head off. Cutting my head off would probably mess
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: up my nap. If I thought you was going to
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: cut my head off in the morning, I probably wouldn't
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: sleep that night. Peter. And so I asked.
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: Peter, I said, Peter, how in the world did you
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: go to sleep chained to two guards in the inner
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: sanctum of the prison that even if you whip them,
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: you got 14 more to go before you get out
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: and you sleep, dude?
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: Where did you learn how to sleep like this? And
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: then I remembered how Jesus would sleep on the boat.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: Y'all don't hear what I'm saying to you. And the
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: thing that Peter has learned from his mentor is to
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: sleep in the middle of a storm. If you can
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: keep your peace when all hell is breaking loose, if
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: you can refuse to react in a predictable way when
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: all hell is breaking loose, God will find a way
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: to bless you. And sometimes the best response to the
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: attack is peace. The sleep says, I don't know what
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: he's going to do, but he's going to do something.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: The sleep says, I don't know how he's going to move,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: but he's going to move something. The sleep says, I
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: don't have the answer to the problem, but I know
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: who does have the answer to the problem. The sleep says,
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: the battle is not mine, it belongs to the Lord.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: The sleep says, stand still and see the salvation of
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: the Lord. The sleep says, The enemies that you see today,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: you shall see them no more. The sleep says, when
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: the battle is over, I'm going to shout the victory.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to need some rest to get my
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: dance on. That's three people that say sleep through it. Yeah,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: sleep through it. Sleep through it. Don't argue about it.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Don't fuss about it. Don't fight about it. Don't get
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: mad about it. Don't get upset. Don't cuss nobody out
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: about it. Just sleep through it. He that hath began
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: a good work in you shall perform it unto the
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: day of Jesus Christ. I don't know who I'm preaching
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: to in this building, but God says sleep through it.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: Don't get even. Don't get revenged. Don't retaliate. Just go
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: to bed. Because God has determined your end from your beginning.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: And when it's all over, he's going to give you
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: a breakthrough. I need a 30-second praise break. I'm getting
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: my peace back. I'm getting my peace back. I'm getting
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: my confidence back. I'm getting my trust back. I'm learning
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: how to just go to bed and leave it in
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: God's hands. I'm leaving my children in God's hands. I'm
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: leaving my wife in God's hands. I'm leaving my marriage
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: in God's hands. I'm leaving my future in God's hands.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: For the Lord knows the way that I take. And
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: when he has tried me, I shall come forth as
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: pure gold. Somebody give me an old-fashioned hallelujah Pentecostal. And
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: while he was sleeping. You know God does his best
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: stuff while you sleep. When God got ready to bring
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: Eve into the world, he put Adam to sleep. Because
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: God doesn't need your participation in order to bless you.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: When God gets ready to give you what you need,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: you can be sleep. And he can still pull out
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: of you what he placed inside of you and cause
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: you to prosper. And Abraham... He said, Abraham, through thy
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. Go
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: to sleep and I'm going to make a covenant for
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: you without you. And Jesus hung his head in the
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: locks of his shoulders and died till the sun refused
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: to shine and the ground began to tremble and God
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: was working the night shift. Tell somebody, say, he's pulling
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: stuff out of me in my sleep. He's working it
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: out for me in my sleep. He's moving obstacles in
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: my sleep. He's turning it around in my sleep. He's
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: making a way in my sleep. He's providing in my sleep.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: I don't have to do nothing. I don't have to
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: say nothing. I don't have to plant no gossip. I
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: don't have to retaliate. I don't have to scheme and plot.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: You stay up. I'm going to bed. I'm covered. I'm protected.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: I'm loved. I'm cradled. I'm taken care of. I've got
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: the blood of Jesus over my life. Hallelujah. I'm blessed
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: in the city. I'm blessed in the field. I'm blessed
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: in my uprising. I'm blessed in my down setting. I
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: don't know who I'm talking to, but God said you've
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: been up too many nights. And it's time for you
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: to just go to bed and rest in the Lord
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: that he that hath began a good work in you
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Who
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: am I talking to in here? Sit down, I'm just
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: talking to you. He slept like a baby. Draw a
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: line between sleep and suddenly. Sleep and suddenly. Sleep and suddenly.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: Suddenly there appeared an angel in the room. Peter didn't
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: do anything to call him. In fact, I was trying
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: to find the hero in this text, and I'm kind
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: of confused. Because I wanted to preach it was Peter's faith,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: but Peter didn't even believe it was real. And then
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: I wanted to give the intercessors all the credit, but
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: they was praying for an answer, and when the answer came,
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: they wouldn't even open up the door. And when Rhoda
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: told them that God had answered the prayer, the people
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: who were praying didn't believe it. So where is my, yeah,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: now that's way back. Where is my hero of faith
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: in the text? Where is my hero of faith? Peter
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: doesn't believe it. The intercessors don't believe it. And still
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: there was a suddenly. Wait a minute. Maybe if Peter
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: didn't do anything to get himself in, maybe he doesn't
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: have to do anything to get himself out. Maybe if
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: God sees fit to get you in trouble, God will
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: get you out of trouble. And maybe you ought to
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: stop sitting up at night thinking, what should I do?
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: What should I do? What should I do about this?
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: Who should I call? Where should I go? What should
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: I do? What should I do? Maybe you shouldn't do
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: nothing because you didn't get yourself in it. And maybe
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: you don't have to do anything to get yourself out.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: And maybe the best response is... Sleep suddenly. Sleep is
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: the method of Jesus. Only Jesus sleeps through tornadoes. Hurricanes,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: stuff flying all through the airboat about to go underwater.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: Ship being filled with water. Feet wet. Jesus. It matters
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: who mentored you. I ain't gonna finish. I ain't gonna finish.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: If your mama was hysterical or your daddy was hysterical,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: when you get in trouble, you become hysterical. Because they
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: taught you how to respond to stress. As a little kid,
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: you watched them react to trouble and you learned this
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: is how you react to trouble. If mama cussed everybody
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: out when she got in trouble, then when you get mad,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: you cuss everybody out. If she never said anything, you
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: don't say anything. Depending on whoever your mentor was, may
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: not even be your mother, may be your father, may
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: be your auntie, whoever had the deepest impression in your life,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: they taught you how to react. Jesus taught Peter how
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: to sleep Jesus taught Peter how to sleep. Lord, teach
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: me how to sleep. Teach me how to just stop
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: my wheels from turning and my brain from spinning and
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: me trying to figure my way out and me worshiping
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: the idol of my own intellect as if I had
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: to be smart to be delivered. So then my intellect
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: becomes my idolatry. Because I think I got to figure
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: my way out of everything. Teach me how to sleep.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: Because if I can get the sleep right, then you
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: can get the suddenly right. Sleep suddenly. Sleep suddenly. Suddenly,
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: you're watching online. You've been all worried, all upset, been
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: walking the floor, can't sleep, can't figure out what's wrong
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: with you, trying to figure everything, can't cut your brain off.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: Go to bed. Go to bed. If you didn't do
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: anything to get yourself in and you don't have anything
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: to repent about and you don't have anything to apologize
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: about and you were just doing what God created you
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: to do and somebody threw you in jail, get in
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: the jail and fluff up under your shoulder and And
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: go to bed because he's Alpha and Omega and the
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: beginning and the end and the first and the last.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: And if he got you in it, he will get
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: you out of it. And because all things work together
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: for the good of them that love the Lord, who
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: are the call according to his purpose. Let somebody say,
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: I'm going to bed tonight. That's what I'm going to do.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: In fact, I might not even wait tonight. I might
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: take a three o'clock nap. I might just go home
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: and get me a piece of chicken and climb in
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: the bed and go to sleep and sleep to about
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: five or six o'clock and then get up and practice
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: it again. I'm going to rest in the Lord. I'm
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: going to rest in the Lord. I'm going to rest
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: in the Lord in spite of my handcuffs.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: These
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: ain't nothing but handcuffs. These ain't nothing but handcuffs. They
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: don't stop me from sleeping. They tied up my hands,
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: but they didn't tie up my piece. I'm going to bed.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: Handcuffs and all. I'm not going to stay up all
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: night twisting my wrists. trying to figure out the combination,
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: trying to steal a key. I'm going to bed. Angel
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: appeared suddenly. God is a suddenly God. He will show
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: up suddenly. And see, this contradicts faith because you want
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: to see Him coming. You want Him to tell you
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: what He's going to do and how He's going to
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: do it. And I'm going to send an angel, and
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: I'm going to send it at 1035, and I want
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: you to be dressed and ready. And at 1035, we're
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: going to blow this joint, and we're going to get
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: out of here. And we're going to have to step
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: over all these sleepy people. But if you wear your
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: tennis shoes, you're going to be ready for it. So
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: don't wear your church shoes, wear your tennis shoes. So
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: you can be comfortable. And then we're going to crawl out.
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: We're going to go through the window because the door
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: is closed. And when we go through the window, I
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: want to measure you to make sure you don't get
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: stuck in the window. And then once you get through
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: the window, I'm going to pull you out of it.
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: You want God to explain God's stuff to human ears.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: God never explains how he's going to do it. He
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: just does it. He just shows up. He just appears.
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: He just moves. He just works it out. Suddenly. Somebody
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: shout suddenly. Let the devil hear you say suddenly. My God.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: Suddenly an angel appeared. The angel didn't come in. It
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: just appeared. It just showed up. The angel didn't walk
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: in and disturb all the guards and tell all the guards,
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: I'm coming. You think you got Peter, but I'm going
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: to show you something today. I'm going to wear your
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: behind out today. You think you bad, pull your sword,
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: bring your shield with you. No, the angel did not
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: create unnecessary disturbance. He just appeared. It just shrunk. It
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: just moved. Suddenly, an angel appeared. For every prison you're in,
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: there's an angel. For every prison, emotionally, mentally, physically, attitudinally, intellectually,
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: for every prison you're in, there's an angel. Just one.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: That's all you need. One. The host should encamp against me.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: My heart should not fear. The war should rise against
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: me and this will I be confident. One thing. I
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: just need one. angel appeared in the room shook Peter
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: woke him up and told Peter hurry up now he
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have had to tell me that I don't have
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: no revelation for that if you're waiting on me to
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: give a profound point I don't have a profound point
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: for that because if I was about to be beheaded
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: in the morning God would not have to tell me
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: to hurry up I would have beat the angel getting
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: out of there. I would have been talking about, come
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: on fool, we got to go. We ain't got time
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: for this fooling. We got to go. We got to go.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: The angel tells, Peter is so calm that the angel
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: has to tell Peter to hurry up about his problem.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: About his problem. Hurry up. Put your clothes on. Put
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: your shoes on. Watch this. I'm going to walk you
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: through it. This is the word of the Lord to you.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: Hurry up. Put your clothes on. Put your shoes on.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Follow me. I'm going to walk you through it. I
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: swear I don't have the address. I haven't been living
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: in your house. Now I'm not laying up under your bed,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: but somebody's been praying. I don't know how to get
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: out of this. And God is saying, I'm going to
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: walk you. I know you don't have wings. So I'm
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: not going to operate on a level and a dimension
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: that you can't operate in. I could fly out. I
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: appeared in. But since you're a walker, I'm going to walk. Wait, Lord,
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: we got to go through four quadrants of soldiers. I'm
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: going to walk you through every one of them. And
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: I would have thought that they were all asleep, except
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: the text says that at least one of them's eyes
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: was wide open. But do you know people can be
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: looking at you and not see you? You can be
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: moving up and the people in your office don't know it.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: You can be getting loose and the people in your
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: house don't know it. God can move in such a
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: way that he can make you invisible to people who
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: think they're watching you. They got surveillance on you, but
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: they can't trap you because God is bringing you out.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: Who am I preaching to? This is going to be
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: so slick that they walk through the guards and God
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: walked them through it. I don't know who this is for.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: I don't know why I'm preaching this today. I really
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: don't know. I'm just as dumb as a mailman who
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: cannot read the letter. I'm just delivering the letter. The
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: letter says God is going to walk you through it.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know what it is. You have to determine
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: what your it is. But whatever your it is, God says,
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: I am going to walk you through it. You don't
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: have to see your way clear. You don't have to
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: know how to get out of this. You don't have
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: to figure out anything. God says, if you just follow me,
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: I'm going to walk you through it. I don't know
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: who that, who is that for?
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: Who is that for?
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: Who is that for? Then I want you to make
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: it yours. I want you to touch somebody and tell
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: them God's going to walk me through it. God's going
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: to walk me through this season of my life. God's
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: going to walk me through this season of my life.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: God's going to walk me through this season of my life.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: God's going to walk me through the pain of this
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: present danger. God's going to walk me through this political
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: toxic environment I'm in. God's going to walk me through
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: my enemies and my Judas's and my betrayers and my naysayers.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: God said he's going to walk me through it. It's
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: going to be a process. But little by little, every
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: step I take, he's going to take me a little
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: bit further. God is going to walk me through it. Listen,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: as I prepare to close, not because I'm finished, because
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: the text ain't finished, but I'm going to stop right here.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: If God walks you through it, no weapon... formed against
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: you shall be able to prosper. Now sit with me,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: stand with me a minute and think on this. How
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: many times in your life did God walk you through
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: stuff that you thought you couldn't get through? Didn't he
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: do it before? Didn't he walk you through things that
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: you thought were going to kill you? Didn't he walk
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: you through some dangerous moments that could have destroyed you physically, emotionally, financially, mentally?
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: Didn't he walk you through it? You lost your house,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: he walked you through it. You lost your spouse, he
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: walked you through it. You lost your parents, he walked
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: you through it. You went through pain you didn't think
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: you could take, but God walked you through it. The
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: word of the Lord to you today. is I'm going
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: to walk you... through it. The weirdest thing about the text...
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: as I hasten to close... is that the angel... didn't
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: leave him till he was safe. When they were free
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: as a bird... The angel went on his way. One
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: other thing I'll point out. I got 20, but I'll
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: point out one more. Every obstacle on the way out
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: opened automatically. The chains fell automatically. They walked through the
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: guards automatically. They got to the gate and the gate
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: just opened. Everything opened until they got to the believers.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: When they got to the believers, Peter is knocking at
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: the door. Why in God's name would you be knocking
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: now when every other door opened in front of you?
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: Because faith without works is dead being alone. So God says,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: I'm going to open every other door. But the last
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: door is on you. Now hear this good. The last
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: door is on you. The last door is on you.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: Because many, many people will not open the door to
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: better life. They have been raised in trauma and pain
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: and sin and degradation. And they'll knock at it, but
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: they won't open the door to better. They know what
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: to do. I was talking to a girl about eating healthy.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: I said, I know all that stuff. Yeah, but it
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: don't work because you know it. You have to do it.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: Don't eat processed foods and I don't want you to
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: eat over three ounces of meat per day and lean
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: meat and all this stuff. I said, I know all
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: of that. I know all of that. Extra happens with
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: vegetables and fruit and all that. I know. I know it.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: But until I do it, it doesn't work. So God says,
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to open every door because here's the
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: test of your faith today. Will you open the door
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: to the best version of yourself? Will you open? This
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: is a simple thing. It doesn't seem like it ought
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: to be hard, but would you open the door to happy?
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: After a lot of losses and a lot of pain,
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: Has sorrow become your address? And you knocking on it
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: because you like the idea of happiness and peace and
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: joy and contentment. But the last challenge the Holy Spirit
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: gave me is you have, the last door is on
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: you and you have, them people in there praying and
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: for Peter to come, Rona goes to the door, recognizes
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: Peter's voice, won't open the door on what they prayed for.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: How many times do we pray for things, and then
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: when it comes, we're scared of what we prayed for?
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: Let me break this down. No, no, don't clap, don't clap.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: Let me break this down. I believe in God for
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: a companion. I'm praying, I fasted, I fasted three times,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: three weeks from three cigarettes. You know, y'all got some
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: fasts we never heard of in our day. I'm fasting
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: from bubble gum. I'm fasting from Instagram. When I came
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: up in church, we didn't fast from Instagram. We fasted
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: from food. You've been on a 40-day fast. You look
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: like it. I was in Africa and they said, this
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: man's been fasting for 40 days. I thought, oh, I
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: don't believe it. When I saw him, I said, oh
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: my God, he's been fasting for 40 days. Brother came
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: in there, he looked like a skeleton in a doctor's office.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: And then when somebody comes, you open the door. You
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: pray for a job. And then when it comes, I
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: mean a job that fulfills your gifts in highest useful.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: You're scared of it. You prayed for your family to
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: be made whole, but you ain't going to apologize. God
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: is walking you through it because sometimes we ask for
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: stuff that we won't open to. God said, you're one
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: door away.