Latest / Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE / Steady in The Storm - Bishop T.D. Jakes

Transcript

Steady in The Storm - Bishop T.D. Jakes · Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE

0:10
Speaker 1: And when you have it, say amen. Now, it happened
0:26
Speaker 1: on a certain day that he got into a boat
0:29
Speaker 1: with his disciples. And he said to them, watch this,
0:34
Speaker 1: let us cross over to the other side of the lake.
0:39
Speaker 1: And they launched out. But as they sailed, he fell asleep.
0:50
Speaker 1: And a windstorm came down on the lake and they
0:53
Speaker 1: were filling with water and were in jeopardy. And they
1:02
Speaker 1: came to him and awoke him saying, Master, Master. Then
1:11
Speaker 1: he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of
1:17
Speaker 1: the water and they ceased and there was a calm. Calm,
1:24
Speaker 1: there's something good about a calm. You can't even pay
1:28
Speaker 1: for a calm. And he said unto them, where is
1:33
Speaker 1: your faith now? And they being afraid wondered saying one
1:39
Speaker 1: to another what manner of man is this for he
1:42
Speaker 1: commandeth even the winds and water and they obey him.
1:52
Speaker 1: And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes which
1:57
Speaker 1: is over against Galilee. They got there. Somebody say they
2:02
Speaker 1: got there. I want to talk from the subject, steady
2:08
Speaker 1: in the storm. Steady in the storm. Anybody can be
2:17
Speaker 1: steady when there is no storm. But the Lord spoke
2:24
Speaker 1: to me to share with you about being steady, not hysterical,
2:31
Speaker 1: not frantic, not anxious, not fretful, but steady in the storm.
2:42
Speaker 1: Looks bad, looks tough, but remains steady in the storm.
2:49
Speaker 1: You are closer to there than you have ever been before.
2:58
Speaker 1: And in order to get there, You must be, you.
3:05
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about the boat. You must be steady.
3:14
Speaker 1: The true, the true skill set of a leader is
3:20
Speaker 1: to be steady in the storm. I used to tell
3:25
Speaker 1: my kids and my wife and say, I tell them
3:27
Speaker 1: all the time, don't you get scared till I get scared.
3:32
Speaker 1: Don't you get nervous till I get nervous. Don't you
3:35
Speaker 1: panic till you see me panic. If you see my
3:38
Speaker 1: eyes bucked, buck your eyes. But as long... Spirit of
3:56
Speaker 1: the living God, fall fresh on us right now. I
3:58
Speaker 1: feel you already. I thank you for your presence and
4:01
Speaker 1: your glory. Let something transformative happen today in this building
4:06
Speaker 1: with this people, with the people that are streaming online.
4:09
Speaker 1: There are some people that are streaming online, Lord, who
4:12
Speaker 1: are in the middle of a storm and a blessing.
4:16
Speaker 1: They got a word from God and a storm. Amen.
4:22
Speaker 1: Everything's rocking and reeling and going crazy at the same
4:26
Speaker 1: time that they know they got Jesus. And you are
4:30
Speaker 1: speaking to them to be steady when everything around them
4:35
Speaker 1: is going crazy. Penetrate every natural propensity to panic and
4:46
Speaker 1: anoint them with steadiness, tranquility, Even rest. Even sleep. Let
4:59
Speaker 1: them be steady in the storm. In Jesus' name, amen.
5:06
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you. I was flying back.
5:08
Speaker 1: I was in Washington on Thursday. I did an empowerment
5:15
Speaker 1: session for a business conference on Saturday morning. I got
5:18
Speaker 1: on the plane Saturday afternoon to fly home to get
5:21
Speaker 1: in Saturday night. to preach Sunday morning, and the pilot
5:25
Speaker 1: came out, and he said, in order to get you
5:28
Speaker 1: from Miami back to Dallas, we're going to take you
5:31
Speaker 1: out across the water, so I want to give you
5:33
Speaker 1: the instructions myself. He said, if we go underwater, don't
5:38
Speaker 1: try to go out the big door. Don't do that.
5:41
Speaker 1: He said, go out the small exits in the back.
5:46
Speaker 1: There are life rafts under your seats, and we catch
5:50
Speaker 1: on fire, there's... There's fire extinguishers here, here, and here.
5:57
Speaker 1: And they always give you that stuff, but he went
5:59
Speaker 1: into a little bit too much detail. Yeah, he went
6:04
Speaker 1: into a little extra detail, you know. But I thought
6:09
Speaker 1: how amazing it was that they were prepared for all
6:15
Speaker 1: types of calamities before they came. If the cabin loses pressure,
6:22
Speaker 1: we're prepared for that. If it catches on fire, we're
6:25
Speaker 1: prepared for that. If it goes underwater, we're prepared for that.
6:29
Speaker 1: If we pass out and die, we're prepared for that.
6:31
Speaker 1: With any inevitable situation, we've got guidance to bring you in.
6:36
Speaker 1: We're going to get you home. The problem is most
6:42
Speaker 1: things start out calm. The flight started out calm. My
6:47
Speaker 1: flight started out calm. The disciples on the sea with
6:51
Speaker 1: Jesus started out calm. Jesus gave them one command. Let
6:56
Speaker 1: us cross over to the other side. But God is
7:01
Speaker 1: not big on details. He tells you we're going to
7:08
Speaker 1: the other side. He does not tell you what's going
7:12
Speaker 1: to happen on the way. And the reality of the
7:18
Speaker 1: thing is, This guy who did this video could have
7:23
Speaker 1: taken his own ticket and gone home and not had
7:27
Speaker 1: that experience. As horrific as that is, and that sounds
7:32
Speaker 1: like really horrific to me, for both my pilots to
7:36
Speaker 1: pass out and I'm on there saying hello, hello. That's
7:39
Speaker 1: not a good hello. That for me would be a
7:42
Speaker 1: very smelly hello. Hello. When I got down, I wouldn't
7:48
Speaker 1: want anybody to come get me out because this would
7:52
Speaker 1: be personal, okay? Yeah, I would be in a bad way.
7:56
Speaker 1: There are things that scare the living daylights out of
8:00
Speaker 1: you on the way. It's not the takeoff that you
8:08
Speaker 1: have to be concerned about because most things take off good.
8:13
Speaker 1: Most marriages take off good. Most business ventures take off good.
8:20
Speaker 1: Most little babies start out good. They so cute. They
8:27
Speaker 1: just cute. They don't try to be cute. They just cute.
8:32
Speaker 1: They don't try to have dimples. They don't put on makeup.
8:34
Speaker 1: They don't do nothing. They just lay there. They just
8:37
Speaker 1: go cute. The takeoff is always great. It's the things
8:43
Speaker 1: that happen in the middle. That are the most disruptive.
8:50
Speaker 1: It's the things that happen in the middle that challenge
8:54
Speaker 1: your ability to be steady. Now I know he could
9:00
Speaker 1: have bypassed all of that and followed his, as my
9:03
Speaker 1: mother would say, followed his first mind and went home
9:06
Speaker 1: in a conventional way and avoided that. But look at
9:10
Speaker 1: what he would have missed learning. He learned some things
9:16
Speaker 1: about God. He learned some things about life. He learned
9:20
Speaker 1: some things about discipline. He learned some things about obedience
9:24
Speaker 1: that only the storm can teach you. Listening to that
9:31
Speaker 1: podcast can't really teach you how to handle the storms
9:36
Speaker 1: that come in your life. Because you're listening. You're listening.
9:41
Speaker 1: But you're not really listening until it's you. When I
9:46
Speaker 1: can tell you all day long about grief and you
9:49
Speaker 1: can say, oh, bless him, Lord, I'm praying for you.
9:52
Speaker 1: But when it happens to somebody you love, you say,
9:54
Speaker 1: oh my God, wait a minute. Hold on, Jesus, Lord,
9:57
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can. don't know if I
10:01
Speaker 1: can make it through this. And most of the time,
10:05
Speaker 1: most of the time, our trauma triggers other traumas. And
10:12
Speaker 1: our reaction to the trauma is compounded by the other
10:18
Speaker 1: things that happen along the way. And there you are
10:22
Speaker 1: in a crisis, in a storm, and you're trying to
10:27
Speaker 1: get to the other side. I'm trying to get there.
10:32
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I'm trying to get there.
10:35
Speaker 1: Wherever there is, wherever God has predestined for me to go.
10:41
Speaker 1: I want you to notice that he determined the end
10:44
Speaker 1: from the beginning. He said, let us cross over to
10:48
Speaker 1: the other side before they ever even started. He knew
10:51
Speaker 1: where he wanted to go before they pushed off into
10:54
Speaker 1: the water. He knew where he wanted you to go
10:59
Speaker 1: before he formed you in your mama's belly. He knew
11:02
Speaker 1: what he had predestined for you to do before you
11:05
Speaker 1: ever took your first day at school. And your mama
11:08
Speaker 1: walked you down to the bus station trying to make
11:10
Speaker 1: sure you had your pants on straight and your lunch
11:13
Speaker 1: money in your pocket or your lunch satchel. Before all
11:17
Speaker 1: of that stuff ever even started, he had predestined for
11:20
Speaker 1: you to go to a place. But in the process
11:26
Speaker 1: of getting there, storms will rise. I was talking to
11:32
Speaker 1: a friend of mine the other day about, he was
11:36
Speaker 1: writing a book about marriage. And he'd been married about
11:38
Speaker 1: three years. And it kind of like, I know I'm
11:44
Speaker 1: getting old and getting a little foggy and stuff like that.
11:47
Speaker 1: But it kind of got on my nerves. It's not
11:51
Speaker 1: that he's not smart enough to write a good book.
11:55
Speaker 1: But you ain't. got there yet you haven't hit the
12:00
Speaker 1: storms the inevitable storms I'm not saying you picked a
12:05
Speaker 1: bad choice as yet to be determined I'm not saying
12:08
Speaker 1: she picked a bad choice as yet to be determined
12:11
Speaker 1: you'll find out who you got in the storm you
12:21
Speaker 1: hire people to be in a position and the resume
12:25
Speaker 1: is amazing And the interview is great. And the first
12:31
Speaker 1: few weeks on the job, they're impeccable. But you don't
12:35
Speaker 1: know who you got till you get in a storm,
12:41
Speaker 1: till there's pressure applied, until they have to do something
12:45
Speaker 1: after work, until they are inconvenienced. Until they're in crisis
12:51
Speaker 1: mode and they're stressed out and they're talking about hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello.
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Speaker 1: The one thing that we all have in common, black
13:01
Speaker 1: or white, rich or poor, Democrat or Republican, short or tall,
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Speaker 1: vegan or a foodie. I don't care what philosophy you
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Speaker 1: choose to fly up under, the one thing I can
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Speaker 1: guarantee you that all of us will face, male or female,
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Speaker 1: is a storm. Single or married is a storm. Divorced
13:35
Speaker 1: or not is a storm. There is nobody you're going
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Speaker 1: to meet or greet or fall in love with or
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Speaker 1: fall out of love with That will avoid the fact
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Speaker 1: that storms are built into God's plan for getting you
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Speaker 1: to the other side. You have to know that he
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Speaker 1: equips you. With a fire extinguisher. And a life raft.
14:04
Speaker 1: And an emergency exit. And a door that moves. And
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Speaker 1: an automated system. And a microphone. That even when you
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Speaker 1: can't see him, you can hear him. And if you
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Speaker 1: will follow his voice, you will get to the other side.
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Speaker 1: The problem is storms are noisy. And they're loud and
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Speaker 1: they're disruptive. And there's so many people screaming and hollering.
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Speaker 1: And people are saying, hold back. And people are saying,
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Speaker 1: push through. And people are saying, turn the wheel. And
14:40
Speaker 1: somebody else is saying, grab the rudder. And somebody else
14:43
Speaker 1: is saying, throw the weights off. And somebody else is saying,
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Speaker 1: cast the anchor. And somebody else is saying, put up
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Speaker 1: the sail. And you're standing there, you don't know whether
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Speaker 1: to put up the sail, throw the anchor, cast the anchor.
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Speaker 1: And the real art I have learned so far in
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Speaker 1: the storm is not fixing the storm. The first thing
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Speaker 1: we do when we get in the storm is to
15:10
Speaker 1: try to fix the storm. The storm is not yours
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Speaker 1: to fix. The storm is yours to survive. You cannot
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Speaker 1: fix the storm. That's number one. You cannot fix the storm.
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Speaker 1: You cannot fix the storm. And this drives you crazy.
15:34
Speaker 1: And I'm going to make a generalization. It's not always true,
15:38
Speaker 1: but I'm going to make it anyway. But it's particularly
15:40
Speaker 1: difficult for men because we are raised to fix stuff.
15:47
Speaker 1: We grew up fixing stuff. Women grew up, a lot
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Speaker 1: of women grew up with relationships with dolls, with doll babies,
15:53
Speaker 1: playing house, all that kind of stuff. You grew up
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Speaker 1: with that kind of stuff. We grew up fixing stuff.
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Speaker 1: Most of us that didn't give us doll babies, they
16:01
Speaker 1: probably should have. Maybe we'd have been better fathers if
16:06
Speaker 1: we'd have practiced with babies. We practiced making them better
16:09
Speaker 1: than we did having them. Amen. So maybe we would
16:14
Speaker 1: have been better. But they gave us tools and they
16:16
Speaker 1: gave us stuff to build and they gave us stuff
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Speaker 1: to fix. And so whenever you give us a problem,
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Speaker 1: we want to fix it because we feel like we're
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Speaker 1: a failure if we don't fix it. And there are
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Speaker 1: some women who feel that way too. You feel like
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Speaker 1: you failed if you don't fix it. If your daughter
16:33
Speaker 1: doesn't turn out the way you wanted her to turn out,
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Speaker 1: if your son doesn't turn out the way you wanted,
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Speaker 1: if your marriage doesn't turn out the way you want
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Speaker 1: it to turn out, you lose self-esteem because you feel
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Speaker 1: like it's your fault because you can't fix it. And
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Speaker 1: you're embarrassed to admit to other people that you're on
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Speaker 1: your third marriage and that you can't fix it. And
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Speaker 1: you're embarrassed to admit to other people that you have
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Speaker 1: been here a year and gone through three jobs and
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Speaker 1: you can't fix it. And I came to tell you,
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Speaker 1: every storm that comes your way is not your job
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Speaker 1: to fix. I'm going to let that sink in a
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Speaker 1: little bit. Because a lot of you pride yourself on
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Speaker 1: being able to fix people. And that's why you pick
17:17
Speaker 1: out fixer uppers. Because you think you're so good at
17:24
Speaker 1: fixing stuff that you are drawn to people who are
17:30
Speaker 1: fixer uppers so that you feel needed and you can
17:35
Speaker 1: fix them up. You are not on this boat to
17:41
Speaker 1: fix this storm. When they set sail, everything was cool.
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Speaker 1: Jesus is taking a nap because this is an important trip.
17:55
Speaker 1: This is an important trip because to cross over the
17:58
Speaker 1: Sea of Galilee and go to the other side was
18:01
Speaker 1: to go to Gadarenes. Not just that the man was
18:03
Speaker 1: possessed with demons, but the man who was possessed with
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Speaker 1: demons was a Gentile. And getting the gospel over to
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Speaker 1: the Gentiles was a very important trip. It was a
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Speaker 1: prophetic trip. Jesus experiencing the Jews on one side and
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Speaker 1: the Gentiles on the other was a prophetic picture of
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Speaker 1: what was going to happen to the early church. The
18:28
Speaker 1: early church was going to start being offered to the
18:31
Speaker 1: Jews and consequently end up going to the Gentiles. It
18:35
Speaker 1: was going to start out being based in Jerusalem and
18:38
Speaker 1: end up based in Rome. The church was going to
18:41
Speaker 1: take the same journey that the boat did. The church
18:47
Speaker 1: is the boat. The sea is the world. And here
18:53
Speaker 1: we are trying to navigate the church through the tempest
18:57
Speaker 1: of the world. And the boat has one culture and
19:03
Speaker 1: the sea has another culture. And we are in it,
19:07
Speaker 1: though we're not of it. And we have to survive it,
19:10
Speaker 1: being in the middle of it. Because even though we're
19:12
Speaker 1: not of it, we are still in it. And we
19:15
Speaker 1: get tossed and beat to and fro because we can't
19:19
Speaker 1: get the boat to work without putting it in the water.
19:23
Speaker 1: And the church doesn't work without the world. The church
19:31
Speaker 1: doesn't work without the world. Every time the church has
19:34
Speaker 1: tried to escape the world, we've made fools of ourselves.
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Speaker 1: If you know church history, there are many times we've
19:40
Speaker 1: gone up on the mountain to wait for Jesus. We've
19:43
Speaker 1: colonized and moved out and become cultish to wait on Jesus.
19:48
Speaker 1: Anytime the boat tries to escape the sea, it ends
19:52
Speaker 1: up embarrassed because the boat only works in the sea.
19:58
Speaker 1: And the church only works in the world. And the
20:02
Speaker 1: world is unpredictable. One text can change the next 10
20:08
Speaker 1: years of your life. One phone call can change how
20:14
Speaker 1: the rest of your day goes. One text and you're
20:18
Speaker 1: trying to book a flight to get out of here
20:19
Speaker 1: on the next flight possible to get to someplace that
20:22
Speaker 1: you never expected to get to as quickly as you
20:24
Speaker 1: could because all of a sudden a storm hits you.
20:27
Speaker 1: Storms don't always warn you that they're coming. It's not
20:32
Speaker 1: like they send out a notice and say you get
20:34
Speaker 1: ready to get on a boat and all hell's going
20:35
Speaker 1: to break loose. Oh, about 50 fathoms out into the water.
20:39
Speaker 1: You're going to run into the worst time of your life.
20:41
Speaker 1: You're going to think you're going to die. Oh, once
20:43
Speaker 1: you get so high in the air, the pilot is
20:46
Speaker 1: going to pass out. And you're going to be scared
20:48
Speaker 1: out of your wits and you're going to almost lose
20:50
Speaker 1: your mind. Oh, you're going to have a baby and
20:52
Speaker 1: the baby's going to die in your arms and you're
20:54
Speaker 1: going to be sadder than you've ever been in your life.
20:57
Speaker 1: You're going to lose all three of your first pregnancies.
21:00
Speaker 1: Your husband is going to leave you for your girlfriend
21:03
Speaker 1: and your sister, your auntie, your cousin, run off with
21:06
Speaker 1: your mama. Nobody, you don't get to pick. Oh, you
21:13
Speaker 1: think that's funny? You think that's funny, don't you? Yeah,
21:17
Speaker 1: you think that's funny, but that's happening. That's happening. That's happening.
21:24
Speaker 1: That's happening. That's happening all around you. Nobody gets to
21:27
Speaker 1: tell you that your beautiful bride is going to fall
21:30
Speaker 1: in love with a beautiful bride and leave you home alone.
21:33
Speaker 1: But it's happening. And how do you sit down at
21:50
Speaker 1: the sports bar and tell your boys you lost your
21:54
Speaker 1: girl to a girl? But it's happening. You don't get
22:03
Speaker 1: to pick the storm you face. Peter didn't ask for
22:10
Speaker 1: this storm. He didn't vote for this storm. He didn't
22:13
Speaker 1: have a meeting with God and say, oh God, I
22:17
Speaker 1: want to deal with leukemia. I pick leukemia. What do
22:21
Speaker 1: you want? Do you want to go blind or would
22:23
Speaker 1: you prefer leukemia? How about losing a couple of toes?
22:29
Speaker 1: Would you rather lose your family or lose your toes?
22:32
Speaker 1: Would you rather lose your leg or lose your sight?
22:35
Speaker 1: Would you rather lose your mind or just lose your memory?
22:38
Speaker 1: Which you don't get to pick what life is going
22:42
Speaker 1: to hand you. You cannot control the storm. And to
22:47
Speaker 1: all those control freaks, which come in both genders, you
22:51
Speaker 1: have a special degree of trauma because the only time
22:54
Speaker 1: you feel safe is when you're in control. And what
22:59
Speaker 1: binds together the story between the airplane and the boat
23:03
Speaker 1: is both of them faced a season of being totally
23:06
Speaker 1: out of control. And I confess to you, I hate it.
23:12
Speaker 1: I absolutely hate it. I don't want to be in
23:17
Speaker 1: something I can't control. I don't want to be in
23:20
Speaker 1: a plane because I can't fly it. And if you
23:23
Speaker 1: can't fly it and I can't fly it, I don't
23:25
Speaker 1: want to go. I don't want to operate on myself
23:30
Speaker 1: because I'm not trained to do it. I don't want
23:33
Speaker 1: to be picked for a job I can't perform. I
23:37
Speaker 1: want to know clearly what the expectations are for me
23:40
Speaker 1: before I get the job. Because I'd rather give you
23:45
Speaker 1: the check back. than to take the money and disappoint
23:50
Speaker 1: you because I can't deliver what you're asking for. And
23:54
Speaker 1: when you're in a storm, the big question in your
23:57
Speaker 1: mind is, do I have what it takes to stand
24:02
Speaker 1: against this storm? Am I equipped? Am I fully equipped?
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Speaker 1: Can I get my hand on my life vest? Can
24:10
Speaker 1: I swim out of here? Can I withstand how cold
24:14
Speaker 1: this water's going to be? Can I make it through
24:16
Speaker 1: at my age? Can I make it through at my stage?
24:20
Speaker 1: Can I make it through at this moment in my life?
24:22
Speaker 1: Can I make it through after all the other stuff
24:24
Speaker 1: we've been through? After all, we were busy before we
24:27
Speaker 1: got on the boat. We were journeying before we got
24:30
Speaker 1: on the boat. All hell had broke loose before we
24:32
Speaker 1: got on the boat. And now I'm on the boat
24:35
Speaker 1: and I'm so tired that Jesus has gone to bed.
24:39
Speaker 1: This is not a good time to have a storm.
24:42
Speaker 1: I want to talk to some real people who were
24:45
Speaker 1: tired before it ever even started. All hell was breaking
24:49
Speaker 1: loose before it ever even started. And you know if
24:51
Speaker 1: Jesus went to bed, Peter was sleeping. Because everywhere Jesus
24:57
Speaker 1: had been, Peter had been. And the worst time to
25:00
Speaker 1: have a storm is when you're already tired. That's why
25:04
Speaker 1: the enemy waits till you're tired. He waits till you're
25:08
Speaker 1: burned out. He waits till you're frustrated. He waits till
25:11
Speaker 1: you're out of gas. He don't jump on you when
25:14
Speaker 1: you're fresh. He don't jump on you when you feeling strong.
25:18
Speaker 1: He don't jump on you when you got it all together.
25:21
Speaker 1: He waits till you are exhausted and you feel like
25:24
Speaker 1: if one more thing hits me, I am going to
25:28
Speaker 1: lose it up in here. And that's when the storm comes.
25:42
Speaker 1: Over and over and over and over and over and over.
25:45
Speaker 1: From Old Testament to New Testament, there's one consistent phrase
25:49
Speaker 1: you see over and over again. And it came to pass.
25:54
Speaker 1: And it came to pass. And it came to pass.
25:58
Speaker 1: After many days, Jesus was in Genesaret. And it came
26:01
Speaker 1: to pass that Ezekiel found himself in a valley. And
26:04
Speaker 1: it came to pass. And what you don't realize is
26:08
Speaker 1: that phrase is not just a lead-in to the story.
26:13
Speaker 1: Every storm that ever hit the planet came. Let me
26:27
Speaker 1: try this side over here. Maybe I can find a
26:29
Speaker 1: little bit more faith. Every storm that ever hit the planet,
26:33
Speaker 1: no matter how fierce, no matter how devastating, no matter
26:36
Speaker 1: how many homes were destroyed, no matter how many people
26:39
Speaker 1: died in it, they always come back. They give them
26:44
Speaker 1: new names. They give them different names. They run out
26:47
Speaker 1: of alphabets for it. Hurricane Ira. Hurricane Zozo. Hurricane Mabel. Hurricane,
26:54
Speaker 1: I don't care what you call it, it's still a hurricane.
26:58
Speaker 1: And no matter how severe, no matter how terrible, no
27:01
Speaker 1: matter how many lives were lost, dogs were lost, horses
27:05
Speaker 1: were lost, people were lost, families were lost, it still
27:09
Speaker 1: comes to pass. One of the saddest stories I heard
27:15
Speaker 1: in Katrina, I was down there with the men that
27:17
Speaker 1: were pulling people out of the houses. One of the
27:20
Speaker 1: saddest stories was so much water had filled up the
27:23
Speaker 1: apartment that the dresser had pinned the father up against
27:27
Speaker 1: the wall. And he had a little baby and he
27:30
Speaker 1: was holding the baby up in the air. And they
27:34
Speaker 1: found him, him and the baby dead. And he was
27:38
Speaker 1: trying to keep his child alive in the storm. dying
27:50
Speaker 1: with his arm extended, trying to minimize the loss of
27:56
Speaker 1: the storm. Storms as fierce as that are over. Hundreds
28:10
Speaker 1: of thousands of people dead, but the storm is over.
28:20
Speaker 1: How many times in your life have you gone through
28:24
Speaker 1: something you thought you wasn't going to make it? Where
28:29
Speaker 1: are my real people at this morning? Where are my
28:32
Speaker 1: real people at this morning? You remember Fred Sanford when
28:39
Speaker 1: he grabbed his chest and said, oh, this is the
28:41
Speaker 1: big one. I have grabbed my chest so many times
28:44
Speaker 1: I should have a handprint on my chest because I swore,
28:48
Speaker 1: oh my God, this is a big one. I'm never
28:50
Speaker 1: going to make it out of this. Oh God, this
28:52
Speaker 1: is too much. I can't handle it. I can't take it.
28:56
Speaker 1: I can't. And half of the stuff that broke my
28:59
Speaker 1: heart and brought me to tears and almost drove me crazy,
29:02
Speaker 1: I can't even remember. I can't even remember. I can't
29:08
Speaker 1: even remember what I was so frantic about. I can't
29:11
Speaker 1: remember why I was so frantic. I can't even, it's
29:13
Speaker 1: in my rear view mirror. But in that moment, in
29:17
Speaker 1: that second, when that storm hits and your feet get
29:21
Speaker 1: wet and the boat starts filling up with water and Peter,
29:25
Speaker 1: who is an experienced sailor, doubts, can I be steady
29:32
Speaker 1: in the storm? I've had some tough storms. I'm not
29:41
Speaker 1: without storms I've had storms I've had storms on camera
29:48
Speaker 1: I've had storms in people's face and I learned that
29:52
Speaker 1: what I have to do is be steady in the
29:57
Speaker 1: storms can I talk to you this morning I never
30:02
Speaker 1: will forget when we were doing our first Megafest. You
30:03
Speaker 1: have to understand, I'd never done it before. My pastor
30:07
Speaker 1: hadn't done it before. None of my pastor friends had
30:10
Speaker 1: ever done it before. Everybody thought I was crazy to
30:12
Speaker 1: do it. I was upstairs in the conference room when
30:15
Speaker 1: we came up with the name Megafest. We really wanted Manifest,
30:19
Speaker 1: but somebody else had that name. So we ended up
30:21
Speaker 1: calling it Megafest. I had a vision for which I
30:24
Speaker 1: had no name. So you remember when the event occurred.
30:31
Speaker 1: I remember when the name came. I named my vision.
30:38
Speaker 1: And then I got in the vision. And it was working.
30:43
Speaker 1: And nobody knew for sure whether it was going to
30:45
Speaker 1: work or not. It was working. But it didn't feel
30:48
Speaker 1: good working. Because I could not get away from the fact,
30:53
Speaker 1: do you really have what it takes to pull this off? 86,000
30:59
Speaker 1: women had registered, not to mention the men. We were
31:04
Speaker 1: over 100 and some thousand people. The Georgia Dome, the
31:07
Speaker 1: World Congress Center, the Phillips Arena were all jammed and packed.
31:10
Speaker 1: I should have been happy. I wasn't. I was sick.
31:13
Speaker 1: I was nauseated. I was worried. I was afraid. Did
31:17
Speaker 1: we forget anything? I remember we had to pay $ 300, 000
31:19
Speaker 1: just for insurance because we had 10,000 children. Because you
31:30
Speaker 1: got to have your life, yes. And you got to
31:32
Speaker 1: have your fire hydrant. You can't jump into this and
31:35
Speaker 1: be faint of heart. Stop wishing for other people's stuff
31:38
Speaker 1: because you don't understand all the things they have to
31:41
Speaker 1: put into it to be ready to handle it. So
31:52
Speaker 1: it's the night before the press conference that leads up
31:55
Speaker 1: to it. And Jordan, we had 300 different press outlets
32:01
Speaker 1: from as far away as the London Times to the
32:04
Speaker 1: New York Times to all over the world. And I'd
32:07
Speaker 1: never done a big press conference like that. And the
32:12
Speaker 1: devil said, they're going to eat you up in the morning.
32:16
Speaker 1: They're going to have you for breakfast in the morning.
32:19
Speaker 1: You might as well come over there with a coffee
32:21
Speaker 1: pot because you are going to be the muffin. So frantically,
32:29
Speaker 1: about 2.30, 3 o'clock in the morning, I called my
32:32
Speaker 1: PR person, and I just went nuts. I just went nuts.
32:37
Speaker 1: I just said, this is crazy. This is stupid. What
32:39
Speaker 1: in the world are we doing? What were we thinking about?
32:41
Speaker 1: We should have never got into this. We don't have
32:43
Speaker 1: to have no press conference. We don't need no press conference.
32:45
Speaker 1: This is silly. And then I don't know what happened.
32:49
Speaker 1: And she said to me, I hope she's watching right now.
32:53
Speaker 1: She said this to me, Bishop James. She said, the
32:59
Speaker 1: whole world has turned its head to hear what you
33:04
Speaker 1: have to say. Do you have to say anything or not?
33:13
Speaker 1: And I hung up the phone and I thought, is
33:16
Speaker 1: that what this is? All I saw was what could
33:21
Speaker 1: go wrong. And all she saw was what could go right.
33:33
Speaker 1: I called her about my agony. She told me my
33:37
Speaker 1: agony was my opportunity. And all of a sudden my
33:43
Speaker 1: perspective about the storm changed because it is your perspective
33:50
Speaker 1: that has to change. If your perspective doesn't change, you
33:56
Speaker 1: will misunderstand that God allowed the storm to give you
34:00
Speaker 1: an experience that nobody else ever got to have in
34:04
Speaker 1: all of their lives so that you would know him
34:07
Speaker 1: in a way that other people never knew him because
34:10
Speaker 1: you went through something that other people didn't know. You
34:13
Speaker 1: want an uncanny anointing? Go through an uncanny storm. You
34:17
Speaker 1: want an uncanny influence? Go through an uncanny storm. You
34:22
Speaker 1: want uncanny influence? Endure an uncanny storm. You don't get
34:27
Speaker 1: this by wishing for it. You don't get it by
34:29
Speaker 1: getting on your knees for it. You don't get it
34:31
Speaker 1: by me putting oil on your head for it. You
34:34
Speaker 1: get it after you've suffered a while. The Bible said,
34:37
Speaker 1: I'll establish you and make you perfect. There are no
34:41
Speaker 1: shortcuts to the storm. Hallelujah. The girl paid a price
34:45
Speaker 1: to sing that song. She paid a long price. The
34:48
Speaker 1: song was not nearly enough. As long as the sickness...
34:55
Speaker 1: But if she hadn't have been sick... She wouldn't have
34:57
Speaker 1: got the song... So you couldn't bless millions of people...
35:03
Speaker 1: If you didn't go through months and months and months...
35:05
Speaker 1: And perhaps years of utter agony... To sing a three
35:09
Speaker 1: minute song... But it was the storm... That put an
35:12
Speaker 1: anointing in your voice... To minister a healing... That you
35:17
Speaker 1: couldn't have gotten any other way... Oh, do you hear
35:20
Speaker 1: what I'm talking to you about? And I'm talking to
35:24
Speaker 1: you because some of you are right smack dab in
35:27
Speaker 1: the middle of your storm. And this is not a
35:31
Speaker 1: time to faint. And this is not a time to
35:34
Speaker 1: give up. And this is not a time to die.
35:38
Speaker 1: The man said, I can't fly, but I can talk. Hello, hello, hello.
35:44
Speaker 1: I don't know etiquette. I don't know what I'm supposed
35:47
Speaker 1: to say. I don't know what to do. Hello. Sometimes
35:57
Speaker 1: God takes you through something that you don't have a
36:00
Speaker 1: point of reference for. That it looks like you got
36:06
Speaker 1: it together. And nobody helps you because it looks like
36:10
Speaker 1: you got it together. And you are scared out of
36:14
Speaker 1: your mind. You are nervous as all get out. You
36:18
Speaker 1: got the worst case of diarrhea that you have ever
36:21
Speaker 1: had since you were two months old. And nobody knows it.
36:32
Speaker 1: I'm just keeping it real. I'm not talking about that
36:35
Speaker 1: little bit of stress where your hands are shaking. I'm
36:37
Speaker 1: talking about that kind of stress where your bowels are
36:39
Speaker 1: disrupted and you can't sleep at night and you're walking,
36:43
Speaker 1: looking out, talking to yourself and you're looking out into
36:46
Speaker 1: the night and you're wondering if this is, oh, this
36:49
Speaker 1: is a big one, Agnes. I'm coming home. I'm going
36:52
Speaker 1: to die. And God sent me to tell you to
36:55
Speaker 1: be steady. In the storm. Third thing, you didn't cause
37:05
Speaker 1: the storm. The storm is not your fault. It's not
37:09
Speaker 1: like Peter went in the wrong direction. It's not like
37:13
Speaker 1: this guy knew that this guy was going to pass
37:15
Speaker 1: out on the plane. You did not cause the storm.
37:18
Speaker 1: So stop allowing that voice to accuse you. Because Satan
37:23
Speaker 1: is an accuser of the brotherhood. And he will say,
37:25
Speaker 1: you brought this on yourself. You're a fool. You shouldn't
37:28
Speaker 1: have never done it. You must have lost your mind.
37:31
Speaker 1: What is it about you that made you think you
37:32
Speaker 1: could do something that big? You must be crazy. You
37:35
Speaker 1: must know storms come to everybody. Anointed people, saved people,
37:41
Speaker 1: unsaved people, backslidden people, whorish people, straight people, gay people,
37:47
Speaker 1: cute people, ugly people, fat, bow-legged people. Everybody has storms.
37:53
Speaker 1: What made you think that you would be exempt from
37:57
Speaker 1: going through storms? Everything that I know about God that matters,
38:12
Speaker 1: I learned it not in a concordance, not even in
38:16
Speaker 1: a scripture. I learned it all in a storm. I
38:23
Speaker 1: learned it all on the cliff, on the edge of
38:29
Speaker 1: the cliff, about to die, so sick I could throw
38:33
Speaker 1: up and wondering if I would live to see another day.
38:37
Speaker 1: Everything I learned about God that mattered came through a crisis,
38:43
Speaker 1: not a promotion, not an advancement, not a check in
38:47
Speaker 1: the mail, not the accolades of men. That don't teach
38:50
Speaker 1: you jacked. Going through sickness and pain and chaos and
38:55
Speaker 1: trouble and heartbreak and disgrace and embarrassment and frustration and
39:00
Speaker 1: humiliation and depression and grief unbearable. Everything I ever learned
39:06
Speaker 1: about the Lord is my shepherd. I learned it in
39:10
Speaker 1: a storm. I learned it in a fight. I learned
39:14
Speaker 1: it in a crisis. I learned it when the odds
39:17
Speaker 1: were against me. I learned it while they were talking
39:19
Speaker 1: about me like a dog. I learned it while they
39:21
Speaker 1: were rolling their eyes. I learned it while they were
39:24
Speaker 1: blogging about me. I learned it while they were lying
39:27
Speaker 1: on me. who am I preaching to and the word
39:35
Speaker 1: of the Lord is to stay steady in the storm
39:40
Speaker 1: don't back up don't give in don't give up don't
39:43
Speaker 1: retreat don't run from people don't worry about what they
39:46
Speaker 1: think their opinion is not your victory Changing their mind
39:54
Speaker 1: is not the crown that you're going to wear. People
39:58
Speaker 1: gonna think whatever they gonna think. People gonna say whatever
40:01
Speaker 1: they're going to say. Don't be distracted into trying to
40:05
Speaker 1: manage a storm that wasn't yours in the first place.
40:13
Speaker 1: What you have to do, this is a little bit
40:16
Speaker 1: I've learned, is to be steady in the storm. And
40:22
Speaker 1: I ask myself when I read the text, I say,
40:26
Speaker 1: when they woke up Jesus, Jesus didn't just rebuke the
40:30
Speaker 1: winds and waves. He rebuked Peter. I said, well now Lord,
40:37
Speaker 1: wait a minute. What did Peter do wrong? You told
40:44
Speaker 1: us to pray without ceasing. You were asleep. All Peter
40:51
Speaker 1: did was wake you up What did Peter do wrong
40:57
Speaker 1: that made Jesus rebuke Peter? Number one, Peter forgot the
41:04
Speaker 1: power of his presence. Peter was addicted to Christ's performance.
41:17
Speaker 1: And not his presence. Had Peter recognized the power of
41:22
Speaker 1: his presence. He would have known that the storm was lying.
41:26
Speaker 1: Because there was no way that Jesus could be drowned.
41:30
Speaker 1: Not the one who said I come that you might
41:32
Speaker 1: have life. And have it more abundantly. The very fact
41:35
Speaker 1: that Jesus is still with you. Is a sign that
41:38
Speaker 1: the storm is alive. I don't know how you're going
41:41
Speaker 1: to make it out. I don't know whether you're going
41:43
Speaker 1: to float out on pieces. I don't know if you're
41:46
Speaker 1: going to float out on a raft. I don't know
41:48
Speaker 1: if you're coming out on a boat. But as long
41:50
Speaker 1: as you got your anointing, baby, when all is said
41:54
Speaker 1: and done, the presence of God is enough to take
41:57
Speaker 1: you through anything. Hallelujah. Catch your neighbor and say, Jesus
42:07
Speaker 1: is on the boat. The other thing that Peter did wrong,
42:13
Speaker 1: Peter is in charge. And Peter became hysterical. And he
42:18
Speaker 1: started acting like he wasn't in charge of what he
42:21
Speaker 1: was in charge of. And what God wanted Peter to
42:25
Speaker 1: learn was how to be good. Steady in the storm.
42:32
Speaker 1: You got to be steady in the storm. You can't
42:34
Speaker 1: be a leader if you're not steady in the storm.
42:36
Speaker 1: You can't run in the hide and be a leader.
42:39
Speaker 1: You got to be steady in the storm. Tears may
42:42
Speaker 1: be running down your face, but you got to hold
42:44
Speaker 1: on to that wheel. You'll never get out if you
42:48
Speaker 1: let go of the wheel. And by the way, the
42:50
Speaker 1: storm ain't that bad. There was water in the boat,
42:54
Speaker 1: but it wasn't enough water to wake up Jesus, and
42:56
Speaker 1: Jesus was asleep in the bottom of the boat. So
43:02
Speaker 1: if the storm had been that bad, how come the
43:04
Speaker 1: water didn't wake up Jesus? But the enemy has a
43:07
Speaker 1: way of amplifying trouble in your mind to make you
43:12
Speaker 1: think that it's worse than it really is, and you
43:15
Speaker 1: panic because the devil knows his storm can't take you out.
43:20
Speaker 1: It's your fear that's going to take you out. And
43:23
Speaker 1: what God is trying to teach you to do, I'm
43:25
Speaker 1: talking to somebody. I don't know who it is, but
43:28
Speaker 1: God is saying, be steady. All hell is breaking loose.
43:33
Speaker 1: Be steady. Your emotions are all over the place. Be steady.
43:36
Speaker 1: Your enemies are everywhere. Be steady. You got to be steady.
43:50
Speaker 1: In the storm. You got to be steady when they
43:53
Speaker 1: like you. You got to be steady when they don't
43:56
Speaker 1: like you. You got to be steady when they're saying Hosanna.
43:59
Speaker 1: You got to be steady when they say crucified. You
44:02
Speaker 1: got to be steady at the wedding. You got to
44:05
Speaker 1: be steady at the funeral. You got to be steady
44:07
Speaker 1: when things are up. You got to be steady when
44:10
Speaker 1: things are down. Don't take your hand off that wheel.
44:14
Speaker 1: Come hell or high water. Hold on to the wheel
44:18
Speaker 1: and keep on aiming for the other side. Keep aiming
44:22
Speaker 1: for the other side. Keep your eyes on where you're
44:25
Speaker 1: trying to go and aim for the other side. The
44:37
Speaker 1: third thing Peter did wrong is he failed to believe
44:40
Speaker 1: that he had what it takes to get through what
44:44
Speaker 1: he was facing. The fact that Jesus rebuked him for
44:49
Speaker 1: waking him up means I equipped you with enough stuff
44:55
Speaker 1: to make it through this storm. This was not a
45:00
Speaker 1: storm for me to rebuke. This was a storm for
45:06
Speaker 1: you to rebuke. And you are asking me to do
45:13
Speaker 1: what I have called you to do. Behold, I give
45:18
Speaker 1: you power. I give you power over the enemy. I
45:21
Speaker 1: give you power over what's happening in your life. I
45:24
Speaker 1: give you power over what they said about you. I
45:26
Speaker 1: give you power. I give you power. And you're giving
45:29
Speaker 1: up the power when you're frantic and frustrated. And you
45:34
Speaker 1: allow your emotions... to control your decisions. I cannot afford
45:41
Speaker 1: to call an emotional leader because you're going to have
45:44
Speaker 1: to preach for me on the day of Pentecost because
45:47
Speaker 1: you're going to have to spread the word into cities
45:50
Speaker 1: that don't believe in you because ultimately you will be
45:53
Speaker 1: crucified upside down and I need to know when I
45:56
Speaker 1: commission you to go that come hell or high water
46:00
Speaker 1: you will hold fast to your profession of faith And
46:04
Speaker 1: don't panic. The storm was just a test in a
46:07
Speaker 1: controlled environment to prepare you for what I'm about to
46:12
Speaker 1: do in your life. Who am I talking to? I'm
46:15
Speaker 1: preaching to somebody. The Holy Ghost said be steady in
46:19
Speaker 1: the storm. Don't back up. Don't give in. Don't faint.
46:24
Speaker 1: Don't collapse. You may have to get on the walkie-talkie.
46:27
Speaker 1: You might not know the right language. You might not
46:30
Speaker 1: use the right word. But survival is the ultimate goal.
46:34
Speaker 1: Be steady in the storm. I don't know what you
46:37
Speaker 1: call it, but I'm... Hello, hello. Hello, can you hear me?
46:46
Speaker 1: If I'm preaching to you, shout in this house. Almost
46:59
Speaker 1: every day of my life, I got people telling me
47:01
Speaker 1: what all went wrong. Very seldom do they call me
47:05
Speaker 1: to tell me what went right. They always call me
47:08
Speaker 1: to tell me what went wrong. And so a constant
47:12
Speaker 1: bombarding with we got a problem. We don't have this resolved.
47:15
Speaker 1: We don't have that resolved. We don't have the other resolved.
47:18
Speaker 1: After a while, it feels like a tsunami coming from
47:22
Speaker 1: every direction. And when they get a moment with you,
47:26
Speaker 1: they quickly get to what's wrong. Because I don't get
47:30
Speaker 1: to talk to you often, so let me get right
47:32
Speaker 1: to it. Like you're not even human. They don't even
47:38
Speaker 1: ask me, how am I? Are you having a good
47:41
Speaker 1: day today? Is this a good time to have a conversation?
47:44
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what I need. Let me tell
47:51
Speaker 1: you what I need. Let me tell you what it takes.
47:53
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what's going on. Let me tell
47:55
Speaker 1: you this. And what I learned. Is that I cannot
47:58
Speaker 1: react to their stimuli. I have to keep a steady head.
48:08
Speaker 1: So that I can make a calm, calculated, accurate decision.
48:15
Speaker 1: And I can't make an accurate decision off of one
48:19
Speaker 1: person's opinions. Because every time I made a decision off
48:24
Speaker 1: of one person's opinion, I had to go back and
48:27
Speaker 1: fix it because I found out they didn't tell me everything.
48:36
Speaker 1: So my word as a leader is to be sober
48:41
Speaker 1: and be vigilant. For your enemy goeth about as a
48:45
Speaker 1: roaring lion. Watch this. Seeking whom he loves. If he's
48:51
Speaker 1: seeking whom he may devour, that means there's somebody he
48:55
Speaker 1: can't devour. I want to be the guy he can't devour.
48:59
Speaker 1: I want to be the guy who makes it to
49:01
Speaker 1: the other side. I want to be the guy who
49:04
Speaker 1: crosses over because I got an assignment waiting on me.
49:08
Speaker 1: Let me show you one more thing. In front of
49:10
Speaker 1: every major move of God, there will always be some
49:14
Speaker 1: sort of storm, some sort of challenge, some sort of test.
49:20
Speaker 1: when you run into your Goliath you have come into
49:23
Speaker 1: your kingdom David needed Goliath Goliath announced you have arrived
49:33
Speaker 1: Goliath is not there to kill you Goliath is there
49:37
Speaker 1: to introduce you Until Goliath comes, oh, I feel like
49:43
Speaker 1: preaching now. Until Goliath comes, David is just a shepherd boy.
49:49
Speaker 1: But Goliath put David's talents on full display. Goliath separated
49:55
Speaker 1: David from the other shepherd boy. Goliath put him in
49:58
Speaker 1: a class all by himself. If anything at all, David
50:02
Speaker 1: should have paid Goliath. Because the king wouldn't have paid
50:05
Speaker 1: David no attention if it wasn't for the Goliath he fought.
50:09
Speaker 1: The reason you're fighting what you're fighting right now is
50:12
Speaker 1: that God's creating a stage for his anointing to restore.
50:17
Speaker 1: Do you hear what I'm saying to you? The only
50:30
Speaker 1: reason this storm is out here in the first place
50:33
Speaker 1: is that Jesus is bringing the gospel to the Gentiles.
50:38
Speaker 1: This is huge. And the storm is trying to stop it.
50:44
Speaker 1: And the greater the storm, the greater the assignment. If
50:49
Speaker 1: God trusts you with that level of trouble, you got
50:52
Speaker 1: to be somebody. You got to be somebody. You got
50:56
Speaker 1: to be somebody. The storm didn't fall on nobody except somebody.
51:03
Speaker 1: The storm didn't fall on nobody. It only fell on somebody.
51:08
Speaker 1: And if the storm is in your life right now,
51:10
Speaker 1: guess what? You somebody. You somebody. Do you hear the
51:17
Speaker 1: words that are coming out of my mouth? Somebody shout,
51:21
Speaker 1: I am somebody. I know I'm somebody. Not because of
51:27
Speaker 1: my degrees, not because of my accomplishment, not because of
51:30
Speaker 1: my money, but because of the storm that has come
51:34
Speaker 1: in my life. The devil wouldn't attack me if I
51:38
Speaker 1: weren't somebody. Shout yes. Yes. Shout yes again. Shout yes.
51:46
Speaker 1: Whoever I'm preaching to, you're about to step into something.
51:51
Speaker 1: You're about to come into another dimension. You're about to
51:54
Speaker 1: come into another realm of the spirit. And the reason
51:57
Speaker 1: all hell is broken loose, this is Satan's last attempt
52:02
Speaker 1: to stop you from landing on dry ground. But the
52:08
Speaker 1: devil is alive. I'm going to be steady. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
52:28
Speaker 1: This young lady sang, everybody loves to hear you when
52:31
Speaker 1: you come out. But when you're in, don't nobody want
52:34
Speaker 1: to hear you. When you're in pain, don't nobody want
52:37
Speaker 1: to hear you. When you're struggling in your faith, don't
52:39
Speaker 1: nobody want to hear you. But you're just paying your dues.
52:43
Speaker 1: This is a toll bridge. You have to pay to
52:47
Speaker 1: make it to the other side. Y'all don't understand what
52:51
Speaker 1: a toll bridge is. It means it costs you something
52:55
Speaker 1: to get to the other side. And once you've paid
52:58
Speaker 1: the price, you ain't going to let nobody take your
53:01
Speaker 1: prize away from you. I need 30 seconds of crazy... spontaneous,
53:11
Speaker 1: holy ghost, supernatural, praise in this house. Praise him. Praise him.
53:21
Speaker 1: Praise him. Praise him. Praise him like you a king.
53:28
Speaker 1: Praise him like you're a demon chaser. Praise him like
53:32
Speaker 1: you're a water walker. Praise him like you're the head
53:35
Speaker 1: and not the tail. Praise him like you're a person
53:38
Speaker 1: of increase. Praise him with a significant praise. A significant praise.
53:44
Speaker 1: You are under significant attack. Give him a significant praise.
54:07
Speaker 1: Stand to your feet. I'm going to stop. I feel
54:10
Speaker 1: glory in this place. I feel anointing in this place.
54:16
Speaker 1: I feel power in this place. I'm raising up another
54:19
Speaker 1: generation of leaders. I'm raising up another generation of leaders.
54:23
Speaker 1: That's why I keep talking about leaders. I'm raising up
54:26
Speaker 1: another generation of leaders. And I want you to understand
54:30
Speaker 1: the trouble is normal. The trouble is a part of
54:36
Speaker 1: the job. The attack identifies you as being significant. The
54:43
Speaker 1: more significant you are, the more hellish the attack is.
54:49
Speaker 1: You don't have to fight the storm. You have to
54:53
Speaker 1: fight the temptation to become hysterical in the storm. You
54:59
Speaker 1: got to remain steady. Steady means whatever you were doing
55:04
Speaker 1: before the storm started, keep on doing it. When COVID came,
55:08
Speaker 1: I said I was preaching before it hit. I'm going
55:11
Speaker 1: to keep on preaching. They said, you ain't got nobody
55:24
Speaker 1: to preach to. I said, I don't care. I'm going
55:27
Speaker 1: to be steady in the storm. So every Sunday morning
55:31
Speaker 1: I got dressed. Wasn't nobody there to see me get dressed.
55:35
Speaker 1: I preached. Wasn't nobody to shout hallelujah. Nobody said, it's me, Bishop.
55:40
Speaker 1: You talking to me. But I kept on preaching. Because
55:44
Speaker 1: you'll never win if you stop being steady. You got
55:48
Speaker 1: to be steadfast. So everybody talks about Jesus rebuked the
56:03
Speaker 1: winds and the waves. And let me show you something.
56:07
Speaker 1: Another thing that the storm did, it made them reassess
56:11
Speaker 1: who Jesus was. Because when Jesus rebuked the winds and waves,
56:16
Speaker 1: they said, what manner of man is this that even
56:21
Speaker 1: the winds and waves obey his will? And I thought,
56:24
Speaker 1: y'all still think he a man? You mean you a
56:32
Speaker 1: disciple and you still think he's a man? You talking
56:38
Speaker 1: about what manner of man is this? You the disciples.
56:42
Speaker 1: These ain't Pharisees. These are not Sadducees. These are the
56:47
Speaker 1: church leaders who still have not recognized that Jesus is God.
56:56
Speaker 1: But you gonna learn today. You gonna learn today. Amen.
57:02
Speaker 1: You're going to learn today. You're going to learn today.
57:06
Speaker 1: You're going to learn today, baby. You're going to learn today.
57:09
Speaker 1: You're going to learn his voice. You're going to learn
57:12
Speaker 1: how to obey his voice. You're going to learn how
57:14
Speaker 1: to hear his voice. You're going to learn that he
57:17
Speaker 1: can walk you through the worst moments of your life.
57:34
Speaker 1: The worst moments of your life. The worst moments of
57:40
Speaker 1: your life. I was sitting right over there with my
57:45
Speaker 1: mother's casket laying in front of the church in the
57:47
Speaker 1: old building. I was sitting right in front of it
57:51
Speaker 1: and I told her all my life, she said, I
57:54
Speaker 1: want you to preach my funeral. I said, I ain't
57:57
Speaker 1: preaching your funeral. I'm telling you now so I don't
58:00
Speaker 1: have to feel guilty when you die. No. But I
58:06
Speaker 1: was sitting over there, and I thought, this is your
58:10
Speaker 1: last chance to do something she wanted you to do.
58:17
Speaker 1: So I told God, with grief, like something you ain't
58:26
Speaker 1: never seen until it happened to you, pushing you Down
58:29
Speaker 1: on the floor. I said if you give me enough grace.
58:35
Speaker 1: For the grief. I'll stumble up there and do it.
58:42
Speaker 1: And be steady. In the storm. I might fall apart
58:48
Speaker 1: when I get home. I might fall apart in the car.
58:54
Speaker 1: But in the storm. Since in the storm. You know
59:03
Speaker 1: how we was raised? In the storm. You know, mama
59:07
Speaker 1: didn't put up with that stuff in the storm. Get
59:10
Speaker 1: yourself together. Steady. In the storm. If you're steady, you're outlasting.
59:24
Speaker 1: If you're steady, you're outliving. If you're not steady, it's
59:28
Speaker 1: only because you don't have the faith to believe that
59:31
Speaker 1: there's something on the other side of it. And the
59:38
Speaker 1: reason I read the part about them landing is I
59:41
Speaker 1: wanted you to know they made it. Now watch this,
59:46
Speaker 1: you ain't gonna shout about this. They made it through
59:50
Speaker 1: the storm to face the demons. Yes. the reward for
1:00:06
Speaker 1: passing the test is earning the next test. Can I
1:00:16
Speaker 1: give you truth? So eventually you face so many of them,
1:00:22
Speaker 1: you learn not to delay your happiness for the test
1:00:27
Speaker 1: to be over for you to feel good. You've got
1:00:31
Speaker 1: to learn how to go ahead and find happiness in
1:00:38
Speaker 1: the midst of it because it ain't going to stop.
1:00:43
Speaker 1: It's not ever going to stop. There's always going to
1:00:47
Speaker 1: be something. There's always going to be somebody. There's always
1:00:50
Speaker 1: going to be something you're scared of. There's always going
1:00:52
Speaker 1: to be stuff that goes wrong. It's called life, baby.
1:00:56
Speaker 1: It's called life. It's not Satan. It's not demons. It's
1:01:00
Speaker 1: not witches. It's not hexes. It's life. People going to
1:01:04
Speaker 1: be born, people going to die. Accidents, shocking accidents, burning, killed, shot,
1:01:12
Speaker 1: set on fire, committed suicide. That happens in life. Does
1:01:19
Speaker 1: it hurt? Absolutely. Do you quit? Hell no. Ain't no way.
1:01:50
Speaker 1: Ain't no way. You have to kill me, dog. You
1:01:54
Speaker 1: have to take me out. It ain't even based on
1:02:01
Speaker 1: whether I win or lose. I'm just telling you got
1:02:05
Speaker 1: me to fight every morning. You got to fight me
1:02:07
Speaker 1: on Monday, fight me on Tuesday, fight me on Wednesday,
1:02:10
Speaker 1: fight me on Thursday, fight me on Friday. Wait a minute,
1:02:13
Speaker 1: let me get some breakfast. Fight you on Saturday, fight
1:02:15
Speaker 1: you on Sunday morning. Because I'm just as determined to
1:02:22
Speaker 1: get to the other side as you are to stop
1:02:25
Speaker 1: me from getting to the other side. I want to
1:02:28
Speaker 1: see what he has on the other side of this
1:02:30
Speaker 1: test for me. I want to see what he has
1:02:33
Speaker 1: on the other side of this test for me. I
1:02:36
Speaker 1: want to see what he has on the other side.
1:02:38
Speaker 1: Am I in it by myself? Is anybody in it
1:02:42
Speaker 1: with me? Are you ready to fight the good fight
1:02:45
Speaker 1: of faith? Are you ready to be steady in the storm?
1:03:07
Speaker 1: I'm not calling you up for prayer. I'm not calling
1:03:11
Speaker 1: you up for prayer. I'm not calling you up for prayer.
1:03:15
Speaker 1: Because if I call you up for prayer, it annihilates
1:03:18
Speaker 1: the integrity of this message. I ain't waking up for
1:03:24
Speaker 1: what you're going through. Because I know you got the
1:03:27
Speaker 1: stuff inside of you to fight back whatever is coming
1:03:31
Speaker 1: against you right now. And as long as I babysit you,
1:03:35
Speaker 1: you'll know who I am. But you won't know who
1:03:38
Speaker 1: you are. I command you now in the name of Jesus,
1:03:42
Speaker 1: rebuke that storm. Rebuke that devil. Rebuke that fear. Rebuke
1:03:49
Speaker 1: that fantasy. Rebuke it in the name of Jesus. I
1:03:53
Speaker 1: don't know who's watching me online But the Holy Ghost said,
1:03:58
Speaker 1: you got the power within yourself to be steadfast and
1:04:03
Speaker 1: unmovable in the star.