Latest / Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE / T.D. Jakes_ Fight Back Against Negative Thoughts and Say Yes to God _ FULL SERMON _ TBN

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T.D. Jakes_ Fight Back Against Negative Thoughts and Say Yes to God _ FULL SERMON _ TBN · Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Whenever you ask for change, you've got to be prepared
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: for disruption. If you plant an oak tree in the earth,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: it's going to disrupt the soil. If you plant a
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: peach tree in the soil, it's going to disrupt the ground.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: There's no way you can have growth without disruption. But
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: God said to me, when you say change, I send disruption,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: but don't let the disruption become a distraction. You won't
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: come out of this You're not smart enough. You're not
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: bright enough. You waited too late. You should have started younger.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Those are the kind of voices that we all live with.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: For me, our ministry was growing. We lived in a
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: nice house, nice house we never had. Driving a nice car.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Living from paycheck to paycheck, making it. Every night, I
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: lay down at night. After she goes to sleep, I
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: hear the voices. Those voices are the kind of voices
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: that stop you from buying into your own life. Stop
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: you from enjoying the good times and believing that they
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: will last. The anxiety and the pressure and the strength
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: that it took to get from where you were to
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: where you are doesn't go away so you don't really
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: believe it's yours. You're driving it, but you don't really
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: believe it. And you're scared to relax and really rest
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: in whatever it is or whoever it is. Because everything
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: else went away. Maybe this will go away too. We
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: talk about faith for bad times, but you also need
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: faith in good times to actually believe The goodness of
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: God is not going anywhere. To silence the voices that
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: keep saying you'll never make it. You're about to lose everything.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Fear gets in your heart. See, I know what it's
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: like to be poor. And I know what it's like
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: to be without. And I know what it's like not
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: to have dinner for my kids. Returning to that, the
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: idea that that could happen It's terrifying. And the enemy
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: always has some sort of tool or memory or situation
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: that he uses to terrify you, even though the good
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: times are here and the dream is there, the blessing
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: is there, and the goodness is there. But there's always
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: this haunting, nagging, defiance that says, don't you relax. You're
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: not worth it. You don't deserve it. And it's not
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: going to last. Resting in what God has done is
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: often more difficult than receiving what God has done. To
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: rest in it, to believe that it will last, to
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: believe that you will last, that love will last, that
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: life will last, that that good times will come, that
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: things will be better. It's difficult because of the voices.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: And you are what you eat, and the voices are
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the food that feeds your faith or fear. So if
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: you want to change your diet, you can change your outcome.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: But you have to stop talking to yourself the way
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: you do. Because if you continue to talk to yourself
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: the way you do, you will always be where you've
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: always been. It is what you say within yourself that
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: heals you. The woman with the issue of blood said
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: to herself, if I can but touch the hem of
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: his garment, I'll be made whole. There was no scripture
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: to validate that. She could say, she wasn't quoting Deuteronomy
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: or numbers or anything like that. It's just something she
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: said to herself. There was no doctrine around it. We've
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: never seen that happen before. But she said to herself,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: if I can but touch the hem of his garment,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: I'll be made whole. And all the while she was crawling,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: she kept saying over and over again, if I can
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: just touch, if I can just touch, if I can
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: just touch, if I can just touch the hem of
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: his garment. And without Jesus' permission, and without the support
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: of the disciples, she creeped up on him and snatched
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: a miracle. Snatched it. Snatch it because of what she
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: said to herself. You see those voices that say what
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: you can't do, what you can't have, what you can't be,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: what's not going to last, what's not going to work
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: is how the enemy pulverizes the promises of God in
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: your life. And it takes word to combat word. That's
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: why when Jesus was in the wilderness and Satan was
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: throwing word at him, he was throwing word back. And
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: what we have to do is put word on word.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: I'm blessed. I'm blessed in the city. I'm blessed in
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the field. I'm blessed in my uprising. I'm blessed in
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: my down setting. I'll be blessed into my old age.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: I'll be blessed when I'm an old man. My grandchildren
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: will be blessed. My body is blessed. My body is,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: my mind is blessed. My head is blessed. I got this.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: I can handle it. I can do it. Bring it on.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Here it is. That kind of talk Saying that to
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: yourself drives back the other voices of negativity that we
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: all have creep up behind us and tell us that
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: we're not capable and we're not competent and we're not
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: gifted enough and we're not good enough or we waited
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: too late or God is punishing us. To talk back
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: to those voices shuts the enemy down. The pressure I
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: was going through, I was causing Because the pressure I
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: was going through was coming from the things that I
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: allowed to reverberate in my head. And I'm wondering if
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: there are things echoing in your head right now that
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: are stopping you from living your best life. Because you
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: will not silence them by speaking back. You shall have
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: whatever you say. So says the word of God. You
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: shall have whatever you say. If it's betrayal, you shall
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: have whatever you say. If it's a life without love,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: you shall have whatever you say. It doesn't just work positively.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: It also works negatively. You shall have whatever you say.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: She touched him and she was made whole. And he says,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: who touched me? Which means he's oblivious to what's going on.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: This is all happening in her head. The whole thing
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: happened in our head, and the Lord, who is omniscient,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: asked a question, who touched me? And the disciples, wanting
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: to be important, answered him, said, everybody touched you. He said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: That's not what I'm talking about. Everybody around me don't
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: touch me. Everybody around me don't touch me. You missed that.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Everybody around me don't touch me. Just because you're around
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: me don't mean you touch me. Somebody touch me. Somebody
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: touch me. And she came out from the cross. She
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: was leaving. And see, it was me. It was me.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: She got a miracle while Jesus wasn't looking because of
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: what she said to herself. When I say excellent, you
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: say excellent. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. The problem is
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: we all said the same word, but we don't all
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: mean the same thing. Because what you call excellent, what
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: I call excellent, may be two different things. Based on
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the lives we've lived, the things we've experienced, the places
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: we've been exposed to, our ideas of excellent may very
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: drastically change. Based on how we define excellence. The problem
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: with the English language is that it is limited to interpretation.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: So how do you know when I say I love
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: you that I mean what you meant when you said
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: you love me? So we're having a conversation and I'm
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: making an assumption that your love is my love and
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: it may not be at all. Or we're planning a
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: banquet and I make an assumption that your excellence is
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: my excellence. And it may not be at all. Because
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the reality about it is your definition of excellent rises
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: no higher than your level of exposure. Whatever you've been
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: exposed to, that becomes the new paradigm of what excellent
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: is to you. And it shifts from day to day.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: And the hardest thing in the world is to have
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: a conversation with somebody and all you have to use
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: is words. Because I'm not sure that you mean what
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: I mean when I say excellent. I'm not sure that
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: you mean what I mean when I say love. I'm
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: not sure you mean what I mean when I say loyal.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure you mean what I mean When I
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: say hurt, because all we have is words, the reality.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: is we have to make up in our mind that
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: whatever our definition of excellence is, it's going to change.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: It's going to get higher. It's going to get broader.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: It's going to get better. It's going to be different
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: or it's going to go down And a lot of
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: it depends on who you hang around and what you're
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: exposed to. There are people that take you up. There
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: are people that bring you down. They bring you down
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: to their level of excellence. That's what a job description
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: for a hater looks like. The job description of the
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: hater is to bring you down to the level that
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: they are on. So that while they're trying to pull
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: you down, I'm trying to get up. And if I'm
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: going to get up, I have to know that there's
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: going to be a cost in getting up. I'm going
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: to have to put my back to it or it's
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: not going to happen. God wants somebody to work with
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: him and give what it takes to make it happen.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Is it worth it? Absolutely. I do not want to die.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Let me explain. I was born in between two dead babies.
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  Speaker 1: The baby before me died, the baby after me died.
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  Speaker 1: I was raised by a dying father and I do
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  Speaker 1: not want to live my life and die. And at
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: the last moment of my life, ask this question, wonder
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: what would have happened if I'd have pushed a little harder.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: I don't want to get down to the end of
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: the road and wonder what would have happened if I'd
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: have pushed a little harder. I don't want to wonder that.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I want to get down to the end of the
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: road like Paul and say I fought a good fight.
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  Speaker 1: I kept the faith. I finished my course. And now
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: later for me as a crown of righteousness in heaven,
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to get down to my last breath
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  Speaker 1: and wonder what would have happened if I went back
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: to school, if I took a course, if I worked
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: a little harder, if I changed the way I dress,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: if I changed the way I talk to people, if
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: I forgave somebody, if I released somebody. I don't want
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: to wonder about nothing. Because that is excellence. Excellence is
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  Speaker 1: to come out with the conclusion, I have no regrets.
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  Speaker 1: The dying words of the thief on the cross was
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: remember me. The words of Jesus at the last supper
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  Speaker 1: is as often as you do this, you do this
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  Speaker 1: in remembrance of me. What does remember mean? Remember, re-put
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: back together again. Remember me. When we remember what God
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: has done, that becomes the foundation on which we build
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: our lives. Now, a house is not a foundation. And
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: nobody can live in a foundation. But it has to
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: have a foundation in order to be a house. And
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: I'm not suggesting that your life begins, ends, and all
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: through the middle It's nothing but Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Because
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: you got to take out the trash. You got to
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: brush your teeth. You got to comb your hair. You
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: got to get your nails done. You got to get
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: your feet done. Or you're going to cut your blankets
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: when you're laying in bed at night. All of that happens.
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  Speaker 1: But I am saying that God is the foundation. When
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, he
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: did it as a foundation for them to remember. And
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: all through the Old Testament, he says over and over again,
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  Speaker 1: am I not the God who brought you out from
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: the Red Sea? Am I not the God who brought
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: you out by my own hand and my strong arm?
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  Speaker 1: It becomes a point of reference to which you face
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the future, remembering what he did in the past, remembering it,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: putting it back together again, again, and again, and recreating
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: it as a point of reference to fight from, to
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: stand from, to drive from, to preach from, to teach from.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: What do you have to remember? It's important that you
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: have something to remember, something on God's resume that you know,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: that you know, that you know that he did for you.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: And it tells you that if God would do that,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: he can do this. If he can drive back the
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Red Sea and bring me across on dry land, then
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: he can fight you off. He can deal with the
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Amalekites and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Gershites.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: God does certain things so you will have something to remember,
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  Speaker 1: a point of reference to which you build your life upon.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: And you stand on it and you say, I'm not
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: sure about this and I'm not sure about that. But
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: this one thing I do know, you have to know this.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: You have to know this in your knower. You have
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: to know this when your girlfriend doesn't know it, when
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: your prayer warriors don't know it, when your children don't
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: know it, when your mama doesn't know it. Something that
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: you know, that you know, that you know becomes the
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: catalyst against the trials, against the traumas, against the sleepless nights.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: against the virus, against the crisis, against the times that
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: we're living in. We have been living in the most
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: perilous times that we have seen in a hundred years.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: We are living in a time where nearly 700,000 people
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: are now dead from something we can't even see. We
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: are fighting an invisible enemy. And that enemy has friends
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: that has created trauma and distress until we are overwhelmed
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: even when nothing else is going wrong. Just the feeling
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: that other people are going wrong gives us a certain
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: degree of stress and trauma. How do we stand up
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: against this unseen foe we fight right now? Of course
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: we need to do everything we can to protect ourselves
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: from the virus. But I'm not just talking about the virus.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about your mind. I'm talking about your emotions,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: your will, your spirit, your fight, your drive, your tenacity,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: your sense of normalcy, your courage to get out of
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the house, your courage to get out of the bed,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: the courage to continue when there's a threat. Requires... that
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: there's something about God that you have to remember. For
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: the children of Israel, it was the blood of the
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: lamb that was painted on the doorposts. And the angel
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: passed by and said, when I see the blood, I
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: will pass over you. It was walking out to the
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Red Sea and hearing 600 chosen chariots coming with Pharaoh
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: chasing them down, saying, I'm going to get you back.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: He was going to get them back. But let me
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: tell you a secret. He was also trying to get
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: back the wealth they'd taken. For the wealth of the
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: unjust had been laid up for the just. And they
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: had borrowed all the gold and all the silver and
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: they had broken the GDP of Egypt. It wasn't just
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: the slaves he wanted. He wanted the money back. He
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: wanted the jewels. He wanted the gold. He wanted the silver.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: He wanted the things that the tabernacle would actually end
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: up being built by. He was trying to get it
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: all back. He could have got some more slaves anywhere.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: He was trying to get what they had borrowed. They
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: had borrowed the whole economy of Egypt was running through
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: the Red Sea. For the wealth of the unjust is
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: laid up for the just. And when God brings you out,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: he brings out enough for your children. The Bible says
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: that God put so much wealth on them that their
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: children had to carry on their backs the wealth that
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: God placed on them. I want the kind of blessing
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: that affects my children and my children's children and my
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: children's children's children. I want my grandchildren to blow kisses
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: at my picture when I'm dead and gone. I want
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: them to be able to say, if it hadn't been
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: for that old man, I'd have never been able to
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: go to college. I'd have never been able to get
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: a job. I'd have never been able to work for Google.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: I'd have never been able to work for Xerox. I'd
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: have never been able to preach the gospel. I would
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: have never been able to do it. I want that
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: for them. So I have to have something to remember
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: that I can count on that won't break. And I
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: want to ask you, what do you remember when life
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: get hard? When things get tough, when friends get few,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: there ought to be something in your life that you
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: remember God brought you through or brought you from or
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: brought you out of that feeds you. That is the
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: foundation that makes you to rise above the crushing and
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: turns grape juice into absolute wine. The Bible says that
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: we are a chosen generation a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: a peculiar people that we didn't just wander in to him.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: We were chosen. He said, you have not chosen me.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: I have chosen you. I picked you out. I chose you.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: We are chosen. We know this from a biblical theological
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: perspective that the reason that we are here is because
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: he drew us. No man can come unto the father,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: save the son, draw him. He drew us to him.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: But we don't think about this, that we as a
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: generation are chosen to go through a challenge that this
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: country or the world has not seen in a hundred years.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Of all the generations, my mother missed it. My father
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: missed it. My grandmother missed it. My great grandmother missed it.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: They had trials, they had tests. They didn't have COVID.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: They didn't have masks all over their face. They didn't
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: have people arguing and fighting about this, that, and the other.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: They didn't have George Floyd. They didn't have racial combat
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: like it is right now. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: so crazy that there is enough stress in the world
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: to take your sleep. And then when you add to
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: it the stress of your own life, what's going on
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: with you and the people in your house and the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: people you're related to and the people you love and
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: you take that stress and you put it on national
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: stress and then you add global stress, it's too much stress.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Too much stress coming at us from all directions leaves
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: us with unsuppressed trauma. Suppressed trauma. Trauma that has no
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: way to escape. That comes out in rage and self-medication
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: and overindulgences and excesses and tempers and flaring and people
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: jumping on stewardess and flight attendants and Road rage and
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: shooting people over parking spaces. That's too much stress. I've
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: got good news. Jesus said, my peace give I unto thee.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Not the peace of the world, but the peace which
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: passeth all understanding. This is the peace that you stand under. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: You heard me. Yeah. This is the peace that you
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: stand under. You stand under a peace that defies logic.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Crazy peace. Ridiculous peace. The kind of peace that other
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: people will call you a fool for. But you just
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: got a peace in your spirit and in your heart
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: that he that has began a good work and you
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. You've
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: got the peace to understand that even though we are
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: living through a crushing season as a planet with global
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: warming and everything else going on and people shooting and
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: people fighting on planes and all kinds of sickness and
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: people dying on respirators. You've got to know in the
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: midst of all of this that God is not taken
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: by surprise. That he chose us to go through this.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: And he wouldn't have chosen us to go through this
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: if we didn't have what it takes to go through this.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: And I have chosen what to try you with. And
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: I have chosen what to crush you with. And if
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: I thought you couldn't take it, I wouldn't expose you
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: to it. I put you in the middle of it
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: for you to stand up to it. And so today,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: it is very important That as we embrace our faith,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: we do it with a new tenacity. We do it
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: with a new tenacity because we have an enemy that
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: is ubiquitous. Absolutely everywhere. And yet invisible. Absolutely intangible. And
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: we can't touch him anywhere. We can't see him. And
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: we don't know who's next. But we have to know
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: in whom we have believed. And that he that has
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: began a good work in us shall perform it unto
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: the day of Jesus Christ. And we have to know
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the difference between being crushed by the Lord and being
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: crushed by life. I will not let life crush me. God,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: you can do whatever you want. You can take me
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: through whatever you will. Order my steps in your word,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: dear Lord. I am chosen for this generation. I was
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: called to preach during a global pandemic with people dying
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: and getting sick and people in the hallways of hospitals
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: and morgues backed up and funerals delayed for two weeks.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I was called. I was chosen for such a time
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: as this. That means that God has given me something
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: that's stronger than the times I'm in. Because we have
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: been chosen. And so have you, and you, and you,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: and you, and you, and even you. And God would
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: not have chosen you if this were going to destroy you.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: I'm always fascinated by leaders. I read about leadership, corporate leadership,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: church leadership, spiritual leadership, family leadership, everything I can find
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: about leadership because I am a leader. And the more
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: proficient I am at being a leader, the more impactful
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: my life becomes. Just because you're up front doesn't make
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: you a leader if the cars aren't moving. Leaders are
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: determined by how much you move something from one place
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: to another. Are you quantifiable? You ought to have some
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: metrics to which, not a title. It's not a title.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: It's a metric. You're a leader when we move. When
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: we move. To the degree that you move me, that's
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: the degree that you led me. And so I'm fascinated
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: about leadership. I'm fascinated that God says to Abraham before
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: he puts him to sleep, he says, your descendants shall
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: be in Egypt For 400 years. But afterwards they shall
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: come out. With great substance. And Abraham dies. Believing a promise.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: That he never got to see. And God says. When
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: he looks at the children of Israel. And how they
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: were being crushed. In Egypt. The Bible says that God remembered.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: His promise to Abraham. Gosh, that excites me. Because Abraham
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: was dead. And if God kept his word to a
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: dead man, then surely God will keep his word to
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: a man that's alive. To a woman that's alive. Abraham
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: went to sleep trusting God's character to honor his word.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Now we have gone 430 years. which is 10 generations,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: almost 11, and Abraham has been dead, and God speaks
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: to Moses, and God says to Moses, I want you
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: to go down there and tell Pharaoh to let my
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: people go. But before he tells him what he wants
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: him to do, he describes to him who he is.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: who I am. I am the God of Abraham. Isaac
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: and Jacob, I am the God of three of your
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: ancestors that are dead. I am their God. And today
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: I have become your God. So take off your shoes,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: sign of covenant. Take off your shoes for the ground
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: you stand on is holy ground because this day I
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: call you into covenant. How do you know it was covenant?
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Because he calls his name twice, Moses, Moses. And whenever
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: God calls your name twice, it's covenant. Thy will be
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: done on earth as it is in heaven. Once has
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: he spoken it, twice have I heard it. Power belongs
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: to God. So whether you're saying Moses, Moses, or Abraham, Abraham,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: or verily, verily, I say to you, this day shalt
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: thou be with me in paradise. This is a bilateral
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: covenant that God has made to Moses to get them
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: out of Egypt. God to the day had a stopwatch
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: of when they would go in And when they would
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: get out, he knows exactly when it's going to be over.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: He told Abraham that his descendants would be there 400
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: years as slaves. The reason they were there 400 and
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: 30 years is because the first 30 years they were
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: not slaves because Joseph was alive. But then after Joseph died,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: a Pharaoh arose who did not regard Joseph or his God.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: And they begin to afflict them. And the more they
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: afflicted them, the more they grew. And all of a sudden,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: they have been in captivity 400 years. And Moses' mama
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: gets pregnant on the 399th year and births a boy
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: named Moses. And there's a hit list to destroy him.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: But God protected him, not because Moses was Moses, but
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: because Moses had purpose. And all things work together for
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: the good of them who love the Lord, who are
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: called according to his purpose. So when you know you
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: got a purpose, no matter who set out a decree,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: they can't kill you. So when he could no longer
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: be hidden, they brought him out. And there Pharaoh is
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: raising in his house the very one he is trying
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: to kill and he does it he raises Moses on
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Pharaoh's money he educates Moses in Pharaoh's school He diversifies
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Moses to the point that Moses is genetically connected to
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: the Hebrews, but experientially connected to the Egyptians, which gave
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: him the courage to be able to come back after
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: he had been in Jethro's house for 40 years and
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: face Pharaoh and speak his language. And he was not
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: afraid of him because he was raised in the palace
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: and not in the slave quarters. When you are chosen,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: God will take everything that you went through and make
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: it work for your good. We got to see normal
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: disappear right in front of our face. It is not
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: normal to preach in an empty church. It is not
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: normal to be afraid of somebody when they cough. It
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: is not normal to be reluctant to shake a hand
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: And we have seen the memorial of normal, which leaves
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: us without a compass to understand how do we get
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: back and what do we get back to and what
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: does normal look like in this current environment? And I
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: hate to say this to you, and it might really
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: upset you, but once a grape's been crushed, you can
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: never get the juice back in the grape. So from
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: that moment forward, that traumatic experience of having the pulp shatter,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: the skin lacerate, and the juice emerge, it signifies that
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: that grape will never be the same again. And I
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: suggest to you, my brothers and sisters, that there will
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: be no normal to go back to. There may be
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: a new normal, but the normal that we grew up
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: with will never be quite the same again. It has
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: changed the way we eat. It has changed the way
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: we shop. It has changed the way we travel. It
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: has changed how we receive packages. It has changed the
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: way we do business. It has changed every aspect of
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: our life. It has changed the way we educate our children.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: It has changed the way we go to the mall
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: or don't go. It has changed the way we get
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Christmas gifts or don't get them. It has changed everything.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: And that's what happens when you're making wine. It changes everything.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: All hopes of being a grape is gone if you're
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: going to be wine. If you're going to be wine,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: you got to be willing to give up being a grape.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: And the challenge for a lot of us is we
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: have a difficult time accepting change because we are so
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: in love with what was that we're not willing to
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: explore what is. And so there we are in a
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: situation where God has allowed something to come and crush
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: our normal and get us out of our normal. And
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden we are afraid, never realizing that
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: what's in front of you is always better than what's
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: behind you. That it's better to be wine than to
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: be grapes. When you are wine and not grapes, you
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: don't have to worry about insects. You don't have to
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: worry about weather conditions. You don't have to worry about locusts.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: You don't have to worry about disease. You don't have
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: to worry about fungus. You don't have to worry about problems.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: That whenever God disrupts you, it's only because he's got
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: something better for you. In the height of the disruption,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: he said something to me that I thought was very important.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: He said, when you pray for change, I always answer
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: with disruption. Because you cannot have change without disruption. You
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: can't have a baby without disruption. And whenever you ask
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: for change, you've got to be prepared for disruption. If
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: you plant an oak tree in the earth, it's going
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: to disrupt the soil. If you plant a peach tree
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: in the soil, it's going to disrupt the ground. There's
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: no way you can have growth without disruption. But God
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: said to me, when you say change, I send disruption,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: but don't let the disruption become a distraction. Because if
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: you're not careful, you will try to solve the disruption
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: as if that were the victory when that is not
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: the victory at all. I did not call you to
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: solve the disruption. I sent the disruption in answer to
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: your request for change. Come on, go with me. We're
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: going somewhere. I sent the disruption. So don't change goals
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: and make it a distraction. In other words, Nehemiah, you're
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: doing a great work. Don't come down to Sam Ballard
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: and Tobiah and make changing their mind your victory because
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: changing their mind won't build your wall. So that disruption
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: is a distraction. So the Lord says to me, and
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: I'll say this in rap. He says, when you pray
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: for change, I answer with disruption. The challenge of your
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: faith is not to allow the disruption to become a
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: distraction because in every disruption, there will always be an opportunity.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: So rather than wrestling with the disruption, look for the opportunity.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: And in the midst of this disruption, the people who
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: are going forward are people who see opportunity Where we
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: see distraction. What do we need that we didn't need before?
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: How do we serve that need in a way that
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: we didn't serve before? How do we get out of
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: the box in the way we think and how we
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: function and how we deal with it? What should we
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: take in school? How should we aim our children? What
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: should we point them at? Seeing as the world has
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: changed and every time you go into a grocery store
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: and you check out your groceries yourself through those machines
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: and you go and get a plane ticket and you
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: go through it and just flash your phone over it
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: and going in, every machine standing there is a job
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: that's gone. So don't fail to prepare for what's next
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: because you're trying to get what was. When the grape
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: comes through the crushing, it knows it will never be
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: a grape again, but it will be wine. It will
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: be Cabernet. It will be wine. And the challenge of
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: our lives is to turn our crushing And you can't
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: turn it into wine if the goal of your life
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: becomes to build back your grape. Let the grape go
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: and find the wine.