Latest / Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE / In the Lake Alone - Bishop T.D. Jakes

Transcript

In the Lake Alone - Bishop T.D. Jakes · Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go to the Gospel of St. Matthew,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: chapter number 14, verse 22 through 33. There is a
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: life lesson even in the turmoil that I told you
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: we were having behind the scenes. And I came out
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and told you about it because often the people in
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the restaurant don't know that the oven blew up. There's
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: a great deal of difference between being out front and
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: being in the back. Amen. And I told our people,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I said, we're going to go on. The best way
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: to respond to crisis is move forward. You might not
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: have everything you want to have. It may not be
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: lined out. But if you keep moving forward, if you
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: keep moving forward, God will work out everything if you
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: keep moving forward. That's a sermon all by itself. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: When I got in the building, it was hot, but
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  Speaker 1: we kept moving forward. My people have been up on
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  Speaker 1: the roof. They've been everywhere, but we kept moving forward.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Are we going to go through with service? Yes, we're
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: going to move forward. If we have to bring fans
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: in here, if I have to get a Mahalia Jackson fan,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: and fan like we did in my grandmama's church. We're
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: going to move forward. You got to be a fighter.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: You can't just be a church goer. You got to
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: be a fighter. Come on, talk to me, somebody. This
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: is good. This is good. This is good. I'm excited.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. Honor to the Lord
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: and to all of our associate pastors that are here.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Give God a praise for our associate pastors. To our elders,
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  Speaker 1: to our deacons, to our members, our saints, our friends,
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  Speaker 1: our visitors, we're just glad for everybody. I trust you
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: feel welcome. I want you to feel welcome in this place.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: And don't think of this as a sermon. Think of
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  Speaker 1: it as a conversation. In the Gospel of St. Matthew,
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  Speaker 1: chapter number 14, verse 22 through 33, there you will
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: find an almost embarrassingly familiar scripture. And yet there is
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: something to extrapolate from this text that is fresh. The
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: story is known, but the perspective is fresh. And it
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  Speaker 1: is fresh because it is the bread that God has
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: caused to fall in front of our tents this morning
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  Speaker 1: to address where we are this morning in our lives.
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  Speaker 1: And the reason we come to church is not to
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  Speaker 1: sport a Gucci bag. I'm not throwing off if you
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  Speaker 1: got one. I'm glad you got one. It looks good.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: But we did not come to see a Fendi watch.
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  Speaker 1: What we came to do is to get the sustenance
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  Speaker 1: we need for the times we are in. He that
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  Speaker 1: hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is
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  Speaker 1: saying to the church. Now our custom is to stand
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  Speaker 1: for the reading of the word and we won't bother
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  Speaker 1: you anymore after that. You can sit the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the way. You can even duck walk out of here
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  Speaker 1: if you get ready to leave. Okay, but the gospel
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: of St. Matthew chapter number 14 verse 22 through 33
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  Speaker 1: and we come into a very unique moment. Immediately Jesus
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  Speaker 1: made the disciples get into the boat and going ahead
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  Speaker 1: of him the other side while he dismissed the crowd
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  Speaker 1: watch that closely I'm going to read it again immediately
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  Speaker 1: Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and going
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  Speaker 1: ahead of him where to the other side while he
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  Speaker 1: dismissed the crowd after he had dismissed them he went
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  Speaker 1: up on the mountainside by himself and pray later that
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  Speaker 1: night he was there alone and the boat was already
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  Speaker 1: a considerable distance from land buffeted by the waves because
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  Speaker 1: the wind the wind was against Shortly before dawn, Jesus
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  Speaker 1: went out to them walking on the lake. When the
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  Speaker 1: disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified.
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  Speaker 1: It's a ghost, they said, and cried out in fear.
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  Speaker 1: But Jesus immediately said to them, take courage. It's me.
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  Speaker 1: It's I. Don't be afraid. Lord, if it's you, Peter replied,
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  Speaker 1: tell me to come to you on the water. Come,
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  Speaker 1: he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat
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  Speaker 1: and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But
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  Speaker 1: when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning
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  Speaker 1: to sink, cried out, Lord, save me. Immediately, immediately, immediately,
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  Speaker 1: suddenly straightway without hesitation, Jesus reached out his hand and
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  Speaker 1: caught him you of little faith he said why did
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  Speaker 1: you doubt and when they climbed into the boat the
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  Speaker 1: wind died down then those who were in the boat
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  Speaker 1: worshipped him saying truly you are the son of God
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  Speaker 1: can you say amen I want to use for a
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  Speaker 1: subject in the lake alone in the lake alone. Let's
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  Speaker 1: pray and then we'll be seated. Spirit of the living God, delicately, gently,
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  Speaker 1: like dew, fall in this place today. Annoying these lips
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  Speaker 1: of clay that they may be endowed with the power
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  Speaker 1: that's necessary to articulate the word of God. I thank
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  Speaker 1: you in advance for your omnipresence. but even more specifically
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  Speaker 1: for your manifested presence. Manifest what is already here, not
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  Speaker 1: just in the room, but in the hearts of your people.
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  Speaker 1: For many of us have found ourselves in a perplexing
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  Speaker 1: time in the lake alone. Speak out of the volume
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  Speaker 1: of that book, oh God. In Jesus' name, amen. You
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  Speaker 1: may be seated. Yeah, let's talk. Let me begin by
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  Speaker 1: saying for the last 10 days or so, I've been
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  Speaker 1: living alone. My wife has been at the bedside of
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  Speaker 1: her brother, and I want to ask special prayer for him.
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  Speaker 1: His name is Ray Williams, actually Aldo Ray Williams. And
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  Speaker 1: if God does not intervene, he is likely to transition
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  Speaker 1: without our prayer and without God's intervention. And we are
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: at the point of distrusting God, but she is at
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  Speaker 1: his bedside now. That has been difficult for her and
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  Speaker 1: for us and for our family and for his siblings
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  Speaker 1: and for all our loved ones. And most of you
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  Speaker 1: know what that's like because you've been there. Some of
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  Speaker 1: you know what it's like to spend day after day
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  Speaker 1: after day after day in a hospital room. Watching someone
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  Speaker 1: slip away in pieces is traumatic all by itself. And
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  Speaker 1: so every time I text her, I tell her, I
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  Speaker 1: can feel your heart beating in my chest, meaning I
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: can feel her pain without talking to her because I
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  Speaker 1: know her 40 years. You melt into each other like
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  Speaker 1: ice on a hot day. It is impossible to separate
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  Speaker 1: the cubes when they start to melt. So I told her,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: I said, no matter how long it takes, I'll be
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  Speaker 1: here when you get back. But I have to confess
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  Speaker 1: to you that I'm used to being the one gone.
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  Speaker 1: And it is a striking difference when you're the one
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  Speaker 1: left home alone. When you're the one gone, you are
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  Speaker 1: preoccupied with whatever you went to do. And you might
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  Speaker 1: think of the person and miss the person. But when
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  Speaker 1: you're the one left home alone, after a few days,
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  Speaker 1: the house seems hollow and meaningless and empty. And there's
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  Speaker 1: a strange type of persecution that comes out of aloneness.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Are you hearing what I'm saying to you? Yeah, it's
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: not that we're hanging all over each other like you
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  Speaker 1: do in the first five years. After 40 years, you
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  Speaker 1: don't have to hang all over each other. She might
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  Speaker 1: be on one side of the house, I might be
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  Speaker 1: on the other. It is just the knowledge of knowing
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  Speaker 1: that you are not All of a sudden, what she
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  Speaker 1: had been telling me about me traveling began to ring
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  Speaker 1: strong in my ears. She said, when you're not here,
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  Speaker 1: I double lock all the doors and I set the
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  Speaker 1: alarm system and I'm more apprehensive and I don't sleep
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  Speaker 1: as well because I am a woman alone. And it's
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  Speaker 1: one thing for a man to be alone, but it
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  Speaker 1: is more threatening in some ways to especially in the
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  Speaker 1: contemporary society in which we live, where people have literally
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  Speaker 1: lost their minds, for you to be alone. Aloneness is
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  Speaker 1: a difficult thing to deal with for any gender or age.
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  Speaker 1: Aloneness is the punishment that they extend toward inmates, murderers, killers,
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  Speaker 1: gang leaders, crumble and weep like babies in solitary confinement. See,
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  Speaker 1: it's a different thing to be alone and it's another
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  Speaker 1: thing to be trapped. If you are trapped and alone,
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  Speaker 1: then that exponentially intensifies the agony.
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  Speaker 2: Of the moment.
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  Speaker 1: And yet we realize that that to some degree, even
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  Speaker 1: those of us who have not experienced isolation in a
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  Speaker 1: prison or loneliness in a home, we are going through
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  Speaker 1: a time right now of being alone, even in a crowd,
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  Speaker 1: even with a spouse, even with children, even with friends
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  Speaker 1: calling and Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and All of
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  Speaker 1: the methods whereby we can communicate, LinkedIn, it doesn't matter
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  Speaker 1: how you're LinkedIn, you're still left out. Alone with your thoughts,
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  Speaker 1: alone with your ideas, alone with your frustrations, alone with
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  Speaker 1: your limitations, alone with your aggravations, alone with yourself. Dealing
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  Speaker 1: with whatever you've got to deal with because not all
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: storms fall like rain. Not all storms come with wind.
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  Speaker 1: Not all storms come with lightning or thunder. It is
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  Speaker 1: possible to have an emotional storm, an intellectual storm. Have
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: you ever gotten into an argument with yourself? I have
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  Speaker 1: gotten on my own nerves. I have told myself, I
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  Speaker 1: am sick of you. Are you stupid? Have you lost
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  Speaker 1: your ever-loving mind? Why are you so crazy? And there's
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  Speaker 1: nobody talking and my lips don't even have to move.
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  Speaker 1: I can argue with myself. We come to a point
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  Speaker 1: in life that we begin to realize that no matter
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  Speaker 1: who is around us, we can no longer relegate to
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  Speaker 1: other people the responsibility for our contentment. It is not
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  Speaker 1: her job to make me happy. It is not my
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  Speaker 1: job to make her happy because sometimes She doesn't know
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  Speaker 1: what she wants. We can spend 15 minutes trying to
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  Speaker 1: decide where to go to eat and another 20 minutes
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  Speaker 1: trying to decide what to order. And sometimes I don't
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  Speaker 1: know what I want. I know I want something. I
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  Speaker 1: know something is missing, but I cannot have the intellectual
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  Speaker 1: ability to articulate the abstract feeling that I'm having even
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  Speaker 1: to decide what is bothering me and I realize that
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  Speaker 1: although I have a partner I am yet alone. So
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  Speaker 1: single people think if I only got married then I
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't have to be alone. Only to get married and
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  Speaker 1: get over into the marriage 10 years and find out
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  Speaker 1: that if you don't perfect aloneness, then marriage is not
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  Speaker 1: the antidote. Come on, somebody. If you can't be happy
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  Speaker 1: in a room with you, don't invite me into your unhappiness.
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  Speaker 1: Because people who cannot find peace within themselves invite you
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  Speaker 1: into their drama and their drama becomes your trauma and
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  Speaker 1: sometimes though you have the same address and you live
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  Speaker 1: in the same house and you pay the same property
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  Speaker 1: taxes you are still alone in the house to escape
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  Speaker 1: the drama in the room down the hall you'll get
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  Speaker 1: it tomorrow and so this this this This particular text
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  Speaker 1: is an unscheduled encounter with God. It was not on
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  Speaker 1: the agenda. It was not on the itinerary. He did
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  Speaker 1: not tell them that this was going to happen. This
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  Speaker 1: is something that seemingly happens by happenstance. You see, this
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  Speaker 1: text is in between miracles. There is a miracle waiting
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  Speaker 1: for them at Gennesaret, but they've got to get to it.
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  Speaker 1: My God. You do know that there's a miracle waiting
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  Speaker 1: for you, but you've got to get to it. And
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  Speaker 1: there is a miracle behind them of the fish and
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  Speaker 1: the loaves, but that is over. And according to the text,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus has now sent them to go get in the
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  Speaker 1: boat while he sends the fed people away. This will
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  Speaker 1: tie into Wednesday night very well. He has finished the
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  Speaker 1: miracle and he says, go get in the boat and
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  Speaker 1: go to the other side while I send the people away.
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  Speaker 1: He did not say to them, go get in the
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  Speaker 1: boat and wait on me. Amen. He told them to
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  Speaker 1: go to the other side. And we step into this
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  Speaker 1: text because this text happens because they obeyed him and
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  Speaker 1: got into the boat. But they did not complete the mission.
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  Speaker 1: And they got stuck at this nebulous point between two miracles.
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  Speaker 1: I know that God has been good. I know that
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  Speaker 1: God will be good, but I'm trying to get to next.
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  Speaker 1: And that's where all hell breaks loose. It is not
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  Speaker 1: in the miracle that all hell breaks loose. It is
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  Speaker 1: in between the miracles that all hell breaks loose. When
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  Speaker 1: I look back over my life, I have a long,
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  Speaker 1: extensive resume that God has provided of the many things
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  Speaker 1: he has done in my past. And when I look
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  Speaker 1: into my future and my legacy, I have some things
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  Speaker 1: that are almost within my reach that I haven't quite
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  Speaker 1: touched yet. If it's nothing but my children and grandchildren
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  Speaker 1: and the hopes I have for them, there are dreams
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  Speaker 1: and prayers that have gone up before God in an
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: attempt to reach and to touch and to help and
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  Speaker 1: to minister to them. But sometimes I find myself in
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  Speaker 1: a hard to describe place between miracles. This is what
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  Speaker 1: makes difficult the conversations that you have in relationships today.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: When people say, what are you thinking? Because it is
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  Speaker 1: hard to articulate what you are thinking when you are
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: neither here nor there. When you are in route but
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  Speaker 1: haven't reached your destination. When you are nautical miles away
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  Speaker 1: from where you've been and still nautical miles ahead of
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  Speaker 1: where you are going and you are stuck between It
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: is hard to explain to people where your head is at,
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  Speaker 1: where your mind is at, what is going on in
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  Speaker 1: your spirit when you are neither here. here nor there
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  Speaker 1: it is into this extreme condition now that we experience
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  Speaker 1: this unexpected encounter with God Now, in the King James Version,
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  Speaker 1: which I did not read, I read from the NIV,
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  Speaker 1: because in the NIV, it calls it a lake. But
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  Speaker 1: in the King James Version, it calls it a sea.
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  Speaker 1: And because I have always known this particular body of
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  Speaker 1: water as the Sea of Galilee. And I had really,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: to be honest, growing up in West Virginia, I had
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  Speaker 1: never seen a sea. So my imagination conjures up this huge,
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  Speaker 1: massive area of such massive proportions that when I went
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  Speaker 1: to Israel for the first time and they took me
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  Speaker 1: down the winding roads in the mountains to the side
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  Speaker 1: of the seashore to see the Sea of Galilee, I
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: found out that the sea was actually a lake. Most generally,
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  Speaker 1: if I were to preach this text, I would go
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  Speaker 1: into the ability that Peter has to step off of
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  Speaker 1: the boat and step into the water and walk on
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  Speaker 1: the one word that Jesus said when he said, come.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not so sure that he walked on water as
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  Speaker 1: much as I think that he was walking on the
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  Speaker 1: word when Jesus said, come. But before I deal with
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  Speaker 1: the fact that the word will hold you up in
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: what other people sink in, allow me the luxury to pontificate,
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  Speaker 1: to study, to analyze, to consider, to contemplate, to imagine,
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  Speaker 1: to understand the question that arises in my mind when
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: I read this text is not so much about how
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  Speaker 1: Peter walked on the water. But the real question for
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: me is why are they still in the lake? If
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: you have 12 men in a rowboat trying to get
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  Speaker 1: across a lake, let me contextualize it, especially for the
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: people in Dallas. The Sea of Galilee is not quite
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  Speaker 1: as large as Joe Poole Lake. If you got on
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  Speaker 1: a boat on Joe Poole Lake and decided to cross
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  Speaker 1: over to the other side, I just don't think it
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  Speaker 1: would take all night to get across to the other side.
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  Speaker 1: This is not a long journey. In fact, you can
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  Speaker 1: see the other side from the seashore. And some of
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  Speaker 1: the torment is when you're close enough to see where
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  Speaker 1: you're going. But you don't have the ability to reach
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  Speaker 1: where you're going. And they are stuck in the middle
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  Speaker 1: of something they should be finished with.
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  Speaker 2: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
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  Speaker 1: And I thought I would talk to you about being
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  Speaker 1: in the lake alone. Jesus did not tell them to
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  Speaker 1: wait for him. He told them to go on to
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  Speaker 1: the other side. So for them to not be there
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: yet brings up the anxiety and the frustration that emerges
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: from in the heart of an individual who has seen
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: where they're trying to go and can't get there. It
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: is the kind of conversation you have with yourself when
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: you say, I thought I would be there by now.
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  Speaker 1: Is there anybody else in the room who thought you would?
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  Speaker 1: In my plan, in my head, with the inspection that
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: I made with my eye, I thought by the time
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: I was 30, I would be there. I thought by
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the time I got 40, I would be there. I
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: thought that by the time I was 50, I would
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: be there. So not only am I dealing with the storm,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I'm dealing with the disappointment of the fact that I
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: had estimated incorrectly because I underestimated what all can happen
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Between here and there, I didn't see the contrary winds
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: that would be against me. When you start talking about
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: things you never thought you would see coming, you have
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: to realize that we are living in a moment that
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: we thought we would never see. Sea coming. I don't
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: know about you. Maybe you did. I never thought that
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: we would see over a million people in body bags
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: so big that our morgues couldn't handle them and our
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: funeral homes would stack them up in trailers and lay
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: bodies in hotel rooms in America. Maybe in war in Beirut,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: but not maybe in Vietnam, maybe in Iraq or Iran,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: but in America, I never thought that we would see
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: bodies stacked up faster than we could bury them. I
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: never thought that I would see a time in the
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: history of my life after 100 years without any type
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: of plague or rampant disease of the magnitude that we
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: saw when COVID hit. It had been 100. hundred years
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: since we've seen it and yet in the last three
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: years we have seen so many variations of it that
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: by the time you get over one you had another
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: and by the time you get over another you got
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: yet another and I never thought I would see the
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: time that I would have to protect myself even from
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: people I love I never thought I would see that
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I never thought that I would see people scaling the
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: walls in our nation's capital, scaling the walls in protest
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: about to do a coup on the vice president in America.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: And when I watched it on TV, I thought it
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: was a movie, but it said it was the news.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: And all of a sudden... I was rattled because I
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: didn't expect this kind of contrary wind. The kind of
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: contrary wind that shut down big box stores like Toys
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: R Us and closed down all types of industries. The
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: kind of... contrary winds that you can pay for overnight
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: mail and you might get it two weeks later. I
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: never thought the time would come that we wouldn't have
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: enough trucks, that we would be able to make deliveries,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: that we would have that kind of uncertainty. I never
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: thought that I could book a flight for a plane
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: and not be able to board the plane because there
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: wasn't enough pallets to fly me over to the other side.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: I never thought that that we would fight over everything
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: imaginable amongst ourselves in our own country and literally hate
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: each other over a piece of paper over your mouth.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: I never thought I would see the kinds of times
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: that big businesses would go bankrupt, that the stock market
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: would go down, and not just nationally but globally. I
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: never thought the time would come that France and Europe
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: would catch a fire and California would catch a fire
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: and the middle of the country would catch a fire.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: I never thought that we would see tornadoes in Dallas,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: hurricanes in Dallas, ice storms in Dallas, people freezing to
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: death in Dallas. I never thought I would see that.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: In my lifespan, I never thought that we would settle
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: to see our children murdered in school and it become
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: a normalcy or political debate to save babies in a classroom.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: I never thought that we would disagree about that. I
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: never expected to see it. And these people never expected
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: to still be Alone in the lake. There are people
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: in this room who never expected to lose their mother.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: And yet they lost her suddenly or slowly or fragmentally
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: or emotionally. or mentally. And the pain and anguish was
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: there because I know it makes sense. that she should
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: go first, but the fact that she did, somehow I
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: thought she was invincible. Somehow I thought she would last forever.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Somehow I thought she would always be there. So I
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: didn't go over every Saturday, and I didn't stop by,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: and I wish I would have called more often, and
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: I wish... I would have spent more time. But before
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: I knew it, time was up. Time up. She's gone.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: There are people in this room who understand they never
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: thought the day would come that their heart would be
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: broken by somebody that they had laid in bed and
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: told all their secrets to. and yet they find themselves
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: in a situation that their secrets have gone to somebody
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: else's bed and they would be left alone laying in
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: the bed wondering if they're talking about me. I never
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: thought I was... Is there anybody in this room who's
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: going through something in your life you thought you'd never see?
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: I thought I'd never be backed up on my mortgage.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: I thought my car would never be repossessed. I thought
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: I would never lose my home. I thought if I
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: had a degree... Surely I would have a great job.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: I thought that if I had a great skill, surely
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I would have a great job. I thought if I
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: was a good man, surely somebody would want a good man.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: I thought if I was a good woman, somebody would
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: surely want a good woman. I never expected to see
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: the kind of storm I'm in today. I'm praying about
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: stuff I took for granted yesterday and I find myself
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: alone in the lake I never thought my daughter would
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: turn against me I never thought my son would grow
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: up and hate me I never thought my grandchild would
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: steal out of my pocketbook I never thought is there
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: anybody in here who's humble enough and willing to admit
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: that you're dealing with something that you never thought would.
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: Happen And if I had thought it would happen.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: I would have been better prepared. If I thought you
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: would leave me, I wouldn't have told you my business.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: If I thought you wouldn't stay with me, I wouldn't
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: have been as transparent as I was. If I thought
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: you would betray me, I wouldn't have confided in you
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: as a friend. If I thought you would go back
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: and tell your girlfriend, I wouldn't have told you my business.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: If I thought, if I thought, if I thought, if
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: I thought, I would have saved more. I would have
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: put more back if I thought I could lose my car.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: If I thought I was going to get laid off.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: If I thought they were going to downsize. If I
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: thought they were going out of business. How do you
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: prepare for an attack in the part of your life
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: that you never saw coming? And the Bible says that
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: they should have been there but because of the contrary winds.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: The contrary winds. Anybody face contrary winds? Almost everything I've
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: ever gone to do, I always had to do it
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: in contrary winds. If you fly to L.A. and you
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: expect it to be a three-hour flight and the pilot
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: comes on the speaker and he says, we will be
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: there in two hours because of the winds behind us.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: And you say, well, it's two hours now from Dallas
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: to L.A., But when you get ready to fly back
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: from L.A., they say it's going to be three and
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: a half hours because we are flying against the wind.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Is there anybody in here anywhere in the balcony somewhere
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: in the back somewhere who has had to fly through
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: contrary winds? It feels as though Everything that comes easy
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: for other people comes hard for you because every time
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: you try to get there, there's always something pushing against
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: you that's slowing down your progress. And I should have
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: been further and I should have been married and I
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: should have been more successful and I should have been
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: more accomplished. Don't judge me. You didn't have to go
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: against the kind of wind I had to go against
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: to get where I am. How dare you look down
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: your nose at me and act like I don't have
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: any fight and I don't have any fuel and I
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: don't have any tenacity. You didn't have to deal with
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: the kind of wind. Is there anybody in here besides me?
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: that's outraged at people who judge your life and brag
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: about their accomplishment without assessing the win that was against
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: you in the middle of the fight. And maybe, just maybe,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: just maybe, just maybe, just maybe you should forgive yourself.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Maybe you should forgive yourself for not being furthered. Considering
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: the contrary winds that were against you in the first place.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: The odds were stacked against you in the first place.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: The trials were against you in the first place. Every
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: day I'm just hustling, hustling, hustling. Every day I'm just hustling, hustling, hustling.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Every day I'm just hustling, hustling, hustling.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: Every day I'm... Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and I am still... I am still
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: alone in the lake. I'm sweating. In the lake, my
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: arms are tired. In the lake, I'm 30 years old
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: and exhausted. Where my people at? I'm 40 years old
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: and I'm starting to feel old because I've been hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: have changed the time of arrival and the pilot was
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: late and there was a problem with the plane and
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: the crew got there late and they left my bags
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: at the terminal and all the damnedest. This text happens
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: in this environment This people live in this environment. I
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: should have been further. The marriage for all the work
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: I put into it should have been further. For the
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: way I love that child You mean you gonna stand
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: up and talk to me like that when I worked
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: two jobs and got off and went to your PTA
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: meetings and went to your recitals and sent you places
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: I couldn't afford to go myself and miss the ballet
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: and miss the opera and miss everything I wanted to
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: do to make sure that you had an opportunity and
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: you gonna buck up at me like you lost your mind?
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: I worked hard to expose you to everything I wasn't
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: exposed to so that you would benefit from the opportunities
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: that I only dreamed of and the response I get
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: from you if you don't get up Out of my...
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Where are my real people at? I ain't got time.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: I ain't got time to talk to no church folks today.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: I want to talk to some real people. I don't
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: want to talk to the saints. I want to talk
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: to some real people who understand the frustration of being
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: alone in the lake. And now I'm getting older and
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: now I'm getting tired and you don't even come see me?
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: And you 40 and you weren't alone. I thought if
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: I got you to 21, you would be giving back
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: to me. And at 40, you're still, you're blaming me
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: for your struggle? Hey, have you noticed you're a grown man?
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Have you, do you know you're a grown woman? And
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: all of these are contrary winds that are against me.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: Because I didn't just have to make your payment, I
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: had to make mine. I had to make mine and
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: yours and hers and his and help them with this
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: and that and the other. And no, I'm not ready
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: to retire because I invested in you. And now I
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: am Alone. In the light. If I'm preaching the right message,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: give me 30 seconds of crazy praise. The other day
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: I was on a Zoom. In fact, every day I've
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: been on a Zoom. I have Zoomed out. And somebody
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: on the Zoom, there were four people on the Zoom,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: and one of them was talking, but we couldn't hear them.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: Their face was frozen, and they didn't know it. Though
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: they were expending the effort to communicate, the impact was
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: not coming through because the screen had frozen and the
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: conversation was proceeding without them. Frozen. Stuck. And they didn't
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: even know it. See, this text, my brothers and sisters,
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: is about faith and it's about fear and it's about
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: being frozen. Sometimes frozen and you don't even know it.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Sometimes frozen and you don't even realize it because you
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: are expending the effort but unable to measure the impact.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: Somebody has to come and tell you You froze. The
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: truth of the matter is, 12 disciples are frozen in
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: a zone with Jesus. They are frozen and he is
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: waving the 5,000 away. I feel like preaching. They are frozen.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: And Jesus has gone apart in the mountains, the same
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: mountains I came down to the Sea of Galilee. He
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: had climbed up into the mountains to pray. When I
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: came to the Sea of Galilee, on the side of
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: the mountain was a shepherd tending his flock. In the
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: same sense, Jesus, the chief shepherd, had gone up on
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: the mountain. Pray. Seemingly oblivious to the fact that they
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: are not in Gennesaret because they are frozen. Wait a minute.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about how bad Jesus is. Jesus says, you
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: take the boat. I'll walk over. Considering the size of
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: the lake and considering the command to go on to Gennesaret,
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: Jesus didn't start walking to meet them in the water,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: but to join them in Gennesaret. Jesus is bad, y'all.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: Jesus defies the law. of gravitational pull. He transcends the law.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: He is the lawmaker. He walks on what other people
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: drown in. That's what I love about Jesus. I am
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: so glad, Pastor Tudman, that I don't serve a God
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: I have to carry. I am so glad that I
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: don't serve a God who is depending on my hustling.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: I don't have to carry Jesus. Jesus. So when Jesus
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: finishes praying, He starts walking across the lake, no doubt
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: headed for Gennesaret, but finds that they are frozen. Are
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: you stuck? I know you're alive, but are you stuck?
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: I know you're still talking, but are you stuck? Are
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: you stuck? It is possible to still be conveying information
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: that is not being received because you are frozen. You
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: measure yourself by effort, but God judges by impact. So
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: you say, how in the world could I row this
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: hard and be stuck? Is there something wrong with my
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: oars that they're not responding to my effort because it's
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: taken me all night to do something I should have
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: done in a few hours have you ever considered that
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: you might be stuck See, can I go further? The
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: reason you are comfortable in this building right now is
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: because you know whenever you get ready to leave, the
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: doors are open, you can go. But the moment somebody
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: chains all the doors and tells you you are stuck,
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden you become disturbed by the knowledge
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: that I have gotten into something I'm going to go deeper.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go deeper. I'm going to go deeper.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go deeper because I just struck a
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: nerve right there. It is much easier to get in
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: than it is to get out. Have you ever got
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: into something that you couldn't figure out how to get
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: out of? If you do this, it's going to cause that.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: And if you do that, it's going to cause the other.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: And if you do this, It's going to create this
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: and that's going to be worse. And there you are
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: just ruined, even though you're not getting anywhere, even though
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: you don't want it, even though you don't want the relationship,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: even though you don't want the friendship, even though you
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: don't want the job. You keep rolling every day in
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: the same place because you are frozen, friend. You are saved.
• 49:26
  Speaker 4: Now the wind is blowing and the lightning is flashing
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: and the thunder is rumbling And the sea is tumultuous.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: And they are stuck. Surely the waves should have pushed me.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: But they were pushing against me. If I wanted to
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: go back, the waves would have taken me back. All
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: I have to do to go backwards is let go. Oh,
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: do you hear the words that are coming out of
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: my mouth? You don't have to take a class to
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: go backwards. You don't have to take a class on
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: how to fall. You don't have to take a class
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: on how to fail. All you have to do to
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: go backwards is let go. In fact, success is still
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: being in the middle of the lake. Because if the
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: waves had their way, you would be back where you
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: came from in the first place. I want to talk
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: to people, not successful survivors, people who survive. You didn't
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: get to where you were trying to go, but you
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: refused to go back to where you came from. I
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: wonder if there's anybody in here. You wish you were further,
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: but you're glad you're not where you came from. You
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: might not have all the show for it, but at
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: least you made progress. Give him 30 seconds of crazy
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: Holy Ghost supernatural praise. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him.
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: Praise him. Praise him. I'm stuck, but I'm still here.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: I'm stuck, but I'm still here. I'm stuck, but I'm
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: still here. And sometimes success is just being still here.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: I'm not where I want to be, but I'm not
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: where I used to be. I haven't got there, but
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: at least I'm not over here. To God be the
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: glory for being alone in the lake. Because at least
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: I made progress. You should have seen where I started from.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: You should have seen what I was up against. You
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: should have seen how much was against me. You should
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: have seen how I should have lost my mind. The
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: very fact that I'm on the boat is a testimony
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: to God. Somebody in this place that still You're tired,
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: but you're hustling. You're tired, but you're hustling. You're weary,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: but you're pursuing. You're disappointed, but you're still fighting. Give
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: yourself a hand. Clap for yourself. Come on, come on,
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: come on. Praise him for yourself. Lift him up for yourself.
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: Would it hurt you to turn my mic up? Lift
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: him up for yourself. Give God some praise for yourself.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: I know you're not in Nazareth, but at least you're
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: not back where you came from. And I want you
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: to celebrate right where you are. I'm going to praise
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: him for survival. I'm going to praise him because I'm
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: still here. I'm going to praise him because I still
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: got my right mind. I like to die. I almost
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: went crazy, but I still got my right mind. I'm
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: going to praise him for that. I got no Gucci watch.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: I got no stiletto shoes. I got no fine home.
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: But I still didn't lose my mind. And I got
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: my legs and my strength. Somebody give God a grateful praise. Somebody, somebody.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: I know I won't get everybody. Jesus didn't get everybody.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: Only one leper came back to say thank you. So
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: if I can get 10% of the crowd to come
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: back and say thank you in the middle of the lake,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: let the one that came back give him a praise.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: The one that's saved. The one that's healed. The one
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: that's blessed. Identify yourself. Come out of hiding and give
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: God some praise. What I saw when I read the
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: text is that this is an unexpected encounter. Wait a
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: minute before you sit down. Fist bump seven people and
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: tell them Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: Jesus is coming. Where you're stuck Jesus is coming. Where
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: you're isolated, Jesus is coming. Where you've been frustrated, Jesus
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: is coming. Where you've been alone, Jesus is coming. Where
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: you've been tired, Jesus is coming. At the point of
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: muscle fatigue, Jesus is coming. You got mental fatigue, but
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: Jesus is coming. You got financial fatigue, but Jesus is coming.
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: Anybody glad to see Jesus? Make some noise. Oh! Oh, oh, devil,
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: you thought you had me, but Jesus is coming. Suicide,
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: you thought you had me, but Jesus is coming. Frustration,
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: you thought you had me, but Jesus is coming. I
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: can see him. Here comes Jesus. Tell your trouble, here
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: comes Jesus. Tell your pain, here comes Jesus. Tell your defeat,
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: here comes Jesus. Tell your frustration, here comes Jesus. Praise
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: him like you know who he is. Sit down, let's
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: go further. Rachel, in all the years I've been studying
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: this text, I never saw that this was an unexpected encounter.
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: Jesus never told them he was going to walk the water.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: They never expected to be stuck at a stage in
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: life that you expected to be more successful than Now, now, listen,
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: let's define success. Because some people just say, God, no,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: he's not talking to me. My finances are good. My
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: education is fine. I went to Yale. I graduated from Harvard.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: I'm doing quite nicely. Thank you. I'm glad to hear
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: you encourage the little people who are struggling. But shut up.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: Success is not a degree It's not a document. It's
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: not a certain amount of money. There is somewhere in
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: your life that you are not successful, whether it's money
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: or not. What we do is hide our unsuccess behind
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: our successes. So we laud what we're good at and
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: we go home and cry. about what's not working. You
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: can be a successful attorney and feel like a failure
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: as a father. You can be a successful judge and
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: feel like a failure as a wife. You can have
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: public success and private failure. You can have success in
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: your business and be sick in your body. You can
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: be successful in your practice and have a nervous condition
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: that nobody knows about. Everybody in here has some area
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: in your life that you need a visitation from Jesus.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: So stop being arrogant and come down Zacchaeus out of
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: your tree and admit that you come up short somewhere
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: and you need Jesus. If you didn't need Jesus, you
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be here. If you didn't need Jesus, you wouldn't
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: raise your hand. If you didn't need Jesus, you wouldn't pray.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: If you didn't need Jesus, you wouldn't clap. There they
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: are in the middle of the lake. And they are.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: They are. Alone in the lake. I got into something
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: I can't get out of. No matter how much I
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: try and row and push and shove. I'm in the
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: lake alone. What are you thinking about? Nothing. I can't
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: tell her that I'm trying to figure out how to
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: get out of what I'm stuck with. I can't tell
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: the church. I can't tell the pastor. I can't tell
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: the bishop. I can't tell anybody that I'm stuck. I'm
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: frozen on the screen. And I can't figure out how
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: to get unstuck. I check the plugs. I check the wiring.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: I hit escape. I hit reenter. I logged off. I
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: logged back on. I can't get enough signal. I want
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: to talk to somebody who's stuck. It is so much
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: easier to get into something than it is to get
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: out of it. I leased a car. I got in
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: easy When I got ready to take it back, I
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: was furious. Because the fine print was designed for me
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: to be stuck in the lake. And the guy grinning
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: at me made me angry because I knew he set
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: me up to be stuck. So I've had faith and
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: I've had fear and now I'm frozen in a contract
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: that I'm going to have to buy my way. You
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: have to be upside down and alone to understand the
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: illustration I'm talking about. Is there anybody in here ever
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: been upside down and alone? Yeah. It was good when
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: you went in, wasn't it? Here comes Jesus. I speak
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: to you today in the name of the Lord that
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: you will have an unexpected encounter with God that is
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: going to break the chain over the thing that has
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: left you alone in the lake. The thing that wakes
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: you up at night and has given you insomnia and
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: you can't get rest no matter what you take or
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: what you drink or what you do because you are
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: frozen in the lake. You are going to have an unexpected,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: do you receive it? An unexpected death. encounter with Jesus
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: because he's going to reach you right where you are
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: thank you Lord for being a God who can come
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: to me when I can't get to you when I
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: can't reach where you told me to go and I
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: can't do what you told me to do thank you
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: for coming to me when I can't get to you
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: now here's the challenge can I go deeper whoo Here's
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: the challenge. You must recognize him when he comes because
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: he doesn't look in trouble like he looked on land.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: The Bible said that when Jesus came to them walking
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: on the lake, they misunderstood the answer because the answer
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: looked like a ghost. The problem in this text is
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: that religious people don't recognize God's answer when he doesn't
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: look like what you've been taught he should look like.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: Sometimes God will answer in a form that challenges your theology.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: God will use somebody that you didn't think God would use.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: God will speak to somebody that you didn't think God
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: would speak to. And you'll be afraid to receive it.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: Here comes Jesus and his own children are scared to
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: let him in the boat because they think he looks
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: like a ghost. So God told me to tell you,
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: you better recognize. You better recognize when I come to
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: get you, I might look different, but you better recognize
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: because your next encounter will not look spiritual, will not
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: look Christian, will not look like what you had in mind,
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: but I am coming to get you out of it.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: Whoever's been stuck, I want you to praise him like
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: you just got out of jail. coming to get you
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: out I'm coming to get you out I'm coming to
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: get you out I'm coming to get you out I'm
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: coming I'm coming I'm coming I'm coming I'm coming to
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: get you out and Peter decided to try the spirit
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: and he said hey Lord, if that's you, give me
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: permission to come. You have permission right now to step
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: out of the boat of your failure and step out
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: of the boat of your fear and step out of
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: the boat of your incapacitation. It's gonna be scary. It's
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: gonna be frightening. It's gonna be transitional. It's gonna blow
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: your mind. Your friends are gonna tell you you lost
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: your mind, but get ready To step off the boat.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: You've been rocking in that boat for years. It's time
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: to step out. Somebody take a step. This is your
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: season to take a step into the supernatural. This is
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: your season to step out into what you've been afraid of.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: This is your season to defy the laws of gravity.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: This is your season to step out of the familiar.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: Peter is about he knows how to handle a boat
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: but he's never walked on water this is a season
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: to do what you've never done before who am I
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: preaching to Excuse me, Nike. But fist bump somebody and say,
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: just do it. Just do it. Stop talking about it.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: Stop singing about it. Stop dancing about it. Stop praying
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: about it. And just do it. If God gives you
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: a word, a word from God is all you need.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: Sister Dyer, this is a time of disruptive thinking. This
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: is a time of innovative ideologies. Traditional methods will not work.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: What got you here will not take you there. You've
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: got to step out of the boat to have an
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: encounter with God on a territory you've never been in before.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: Something that is disruptive, unexpected. You're going to walk where
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: fish swim. The fish are going to be shocked to
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: see your toes because you're getting ready to step into
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: an area that you've never stepped into before. And that's
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: why you had to be here this morning. Because I
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: have a prophetic word for you. You're getting ready to
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: step into another dimension. You're getting ready to step into
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: another zone. What worked on the boat won't work on
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: the sea. You can't stand up in the boat. But
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: you can stand up in the water and God's going
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: to give you the power to do what you couldn't
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: do before. Every time you tried to stand in the boat,
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: you rocked the boat. That's why they don't like you.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: You're a boat rocker. Your feet weren't made for boats.
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: They were made for water. Step out into the deep.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: I feel the spirit of innovation. I feel the spirit
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: of disruption. I feel the spirit of creativity. I feel
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: God calling you where you've never gone before. That's why
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: he drew you here this morning. This word is confirmation.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: This word is confirmation. This word is confirmation. Kiss the
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: boat goodbye. You're getting ready to step out. Please. Please.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: You're going to look like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: You're going to show up in another dimension and another
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: place where you've never been before. You're going to be
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: running around with munchkins. You're going to be running around
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: with people who don't even get it. You got to
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: break your societal construct. You got to come out of
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: your circle. You've been hanging around the same 12 people
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: long enough. You're going to have to break into another dimension.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: Look at somebody and say, I'm coming in. You don't
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: have to like me. You don't have to hug me.
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: But I'm coming in. I spent too long rocking in
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: the same place. I got to step into another dimension.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: I'm tired of your jokes. I'm tired of your humor.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: I'm tired of your ideas. I'm tired of your limitations.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: Scared or not, here I come. I'm going to go
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: out even if my hands are trembling. I'm going to
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: step out even if my knees are knocking. I'm going
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: to step out even if I have to leave my
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: friends behind me. He called me to do this. He
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: anointed me to do this. He gave me permission to
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: do this. I will not die like I started. Somebody
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: help me praise him in here just a little while.
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: The devil didn't want you to get this word. He
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: tried to shut us down. But the devil is a liar.
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: I may not be on the stream, but I'm anointed
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: in this room. In the name of Jesus, the power
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: of the Holy Ghost is in this place. This is
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: a rhema word for this house. Watch this. Eleven people
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: stayed on the boat. One of them stepped out. Peter,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: oh loud mouth Peter, was used to being one out
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: of twelve. You're going to be one out of twelve.
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: You're going to be the only one in your family here.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: You're going to be the only one in your soror.
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: You're going to be the only one in your fraternity.
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: You can't get their permission to do it. You just
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: got to respond to the word of God and take
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: a step. Peter was used to being one out of 12.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: He was one out of 12. Out of 12 disciples,
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: he was the only one to cut the ear off
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: the Roman soldier. He was one out of 12. Glory
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: to God. Yes, he was. When Jesus asked, who do
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: you say that I am? Peter was one out of
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: 12 who said, thou art the Christ, the son of
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: the true and living God. When the Lord needed somebody
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: to preach on the day of Pentecost, Peter was one
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: out of 12 who preached the inaugural message of the
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: dispensation of the Holy Ghost. And when it came to
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: stepping off the boat, he was practicing it. for his
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: next big adventure. Step, step, step, step. If you can't
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: give up your friends, you can't go with Jesus. If
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: you can't give up your crowd, you can't go with Jesus.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: God says, stop idolatrizing your 12 friends and step off
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: the boat. Who am I preaching to? My next F
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: is focus. In order to be disruptive and innovative, you
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: have to focus. Your greatest enemy, hear me, I know
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: this from experience, your greatest enemy is distraction. The closer
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: you get to the next dimension, the harder it is
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: to focus. Things will happen to the left of you
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: and the right of you, the east and the west
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: of you, to draw your attention away from your focus.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: Peter walked as well as he focused. If you lose
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: your focus, you will sink in what God called you
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: to walk in. So don't respond to the naysayers. Don't
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: respond to the criticism. Don't respond to the crisis. Don't
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: respond to the chaos. Keep your.
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 3: Focus.
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: Focus. Focus is what lets me preach without notes. They
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: can shut down my equipment, but they can't shut down
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: my focus. Focus. I made the notes. The notes didn't
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: make me. And if the devil thinks for a minute
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: that my mind isn't bigger than my paper, he got
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: another thing coming. My paper was blank. It was my
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: mind that wrote it. And if I focus... I don't
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: need a note. I don't need a piece of paper.
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: I don't need an image on a screen because everything
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: that was written, this head wrote it.
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 4: And as long as I got this head, I can
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 4: preach this gospel.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: Somebody shout focus. The text comes to teach us to focus.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: Don't let anybody break your focus. All of them people
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: who's calling you, bringing you bad news, are trying to
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: make you fall. If you respond to the problem, you
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: have lost your focus. The problem is not strong enough
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: to stop you from the prophecy until you focus on it.
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: I call it false victory. To win the battle and
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: lose the war is not a victory. Why do I
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: care what you think? What does it have to do
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: with where I'm going? How many of my bills do
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: you pay? How much breath did you put in my lungs?
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: How did you make the blood run through my veins?
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: Your opinion is overrated. Your opinion is none of my business.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: Think whatever you want to think. I'm going to keep
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: moving forward. Listen closely. Because the last two or three
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: things I'm going to say are real important. Your focus
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: is under attack. Your focus is under attack. You have
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: to focus on your outcomes. Not your issues. Your outcomes.
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: Keep your eye on the past. Focus.
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 3: Focus. Focus.
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: Focus. This is the word of the Lord to the
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: people of God. And for some reason, God wanted the
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: people in this room, the people who extended the effort
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: to get in the car and drive and come out
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: into the weather to be here. This word is for you.
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: Somebody shout focus. Focus. Now think in your mind of
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: all the things that are trying to distract you. And delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, block, block, block, block, delete, block, delete, block, block, delete, block, delete, block, block.
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: I got to focus. Next point I want to tell you.
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: is that as long as Peter focused, he broke all
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: the rules with focus. The people who are the most
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: successful in life, in business, in church, in preaching, in ministry,
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: in soul winning, I don't care what it is, in archaeology,
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: in architectural designs are people who focus. The people who
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: write the best books are the people who focus. The
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: people who are the best students are the people who focus.
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: And your problem is you are so busy being in
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: with the 12 and keeping up with the rumors and
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: keeping up with the gossip The Lord told me gossipers
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: are not your audience. I did not call you to
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: preach to the naysayers and the catfish down in the mud.
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: I call you to preach the gospel. Focus. As long
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: as Peter focused, he walked on the water. He only
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: began to sink when he lost his focus. And the
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: falling of Peter is the freezing of his mind. Because
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you a question. What is Peter
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: doing sinking in the water? No, it's not just that
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: God told him to come. There's a bigger point. Peter
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: could swim. Peter jumped off the boat and swam to Jesus.
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: Up under pressure, you forget what you got. The only
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: reason Peter is sinking is that he forgot he could swim.
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: Never mind God could save him. Peter could swim and
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: under pressure, you will forget who you are. You will
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: forget what you got. You will forget what you know.
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: And you will sink in something that you could swim in.
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: He could swim to Jesus. You say, well, maybe the
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: winds and the waves were so contrary he couldn't swim. No,
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: the Bible doesn't say he tried to swim. The Bible
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: said he began to sink. Swimmers don't begin to sink.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: They began to swim. And the Lord told me to
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: tell you that if you can't walk on it, swim
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: through it. Hallelujah. If you can row, you can swim.
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: Don't forget what God gave you in the middle of
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: the lake. You can swim. No wonder Jesus said, O
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: ye of little faith. You didn't even use up all
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: you had. I never will forget. I was a young man.
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: I was with my father. We were carrying boxes up
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: a flight of stairs. And he said the most simple
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: thing to me, but I never forgot it. It stayed
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: with me all my life. I was, let me see.
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: I was on the back end of the box and
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: he was on the front end of the box and
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: he was going up the steps backwards. And I was
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: going up forward so I could see. And he said
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: something simple to me that was metaphorical, powerful, and stayed
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: with me all my life. He said, don't forget to breathe.
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: I said, breathe? He said, yeah, when you got a
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: lot of weight on you. Are y'all getting this? Is
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: it as good to you as it is to me?
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: This is a filet mignon. When you got a lot
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: of weight on you, your first impulse is to stop
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: breathing and just carry the weight. But if you breathe,
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: you renew your muscles. You oxygenate your blood system. Your
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: circulation system acts at maximum capacity. And that's why weightlifters
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: push out and in because oxygen is related to strength
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: And daddy told me, when you're up under pressure, I
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: need you to keep breathing. And somebody's frozen and falling
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: because you stopped breathing. You know what breathing is? Breathing
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: is not just taking care of what you're focused on.
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: It's taking care of you to get there. You can
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: become so focused on where you're trying to go that
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: you forget to take care of you while you're getting there.
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: And so if you're not careful, you will get there
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: and lose you. And what good is getting there and
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: losing you? When my wife left, I still had a
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: nice house, but I didn't have a home. Because the
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: difference between a house and a home is somebody to
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: share it with. Without her in the house, it's like
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: being an artist in a room full of blind people.
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: Being a musician to the deaf. What will it profit
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: you to get there If you lose them, it's them
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: you're doing it for. So you can't stop breathing. You
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: can't freeze and forget what you can do. You're good
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: at knowing what God can do. But I ask myself, Peter,
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: why are you sinking and not swimming? Even in contrary winds,
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: if you can swim, you can swim. Did you forget?
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: This is the Holy Spirit's question to you. Did you
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: get so stressed you forgot you could swim? And he
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: cried out, Lord, save me. And the Lord, the Bible
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: says immediately, Jesus stretched forth his hand. And we miss
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: that because we act like Jesus was right there. But
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: he stretched. He stretched. God can stretch. I can preach.
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: I can preach. Let me just play with it just
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: a minute, just a minute, just a minute. See, Isaiah said,
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: who have believed our report and to whom is the
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: arm of the Lord revealed? Jesus is God's arm. Jesus
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: is God stretching to a dying humanity. When God got
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: ready to stretch his arm, he sent Jesus, born of
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: a virgin. His incarnation is a stretched out arm of
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: the Father reaching to a dying humanity. What happened to
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: the lake is a picture of what happened in the world.
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: It is God stretching forth his arm, the arm stretched
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: out to save him. That is what Jesus is. The
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: arm of the Lord. His right hand and his holy
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: arm have gotten him the victory. He stretched forth his
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: arm and came where Peter was. Watch this and I'll close.
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: And took him by the hand and walked him back
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: to the boat. When they got back in the boat,
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: watch this. The wind ceased. The wind ceased, not when
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: they got to Gennesaret. The wind ceased when they got
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: back to the boat, which says this was all a
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: controlled test. So the final thing the Lord told me
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: to tell you is what looks like is out of control.
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: It's being controlled. He puts you in this situation in
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: a controlled environment to show you how you respond to
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: contrary winds. How you respond to the wind is how
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: you turn success into being alone In the lake. Everyone standing.
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: Everyone standing. I've said several things to you. Only if
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: you can hear them. I've said some things to you
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: that are cut to the continuity of where you are
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: in life right now, where our country is, where our
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: world is, where we are eschatology wise our eschatological understanding
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: of the times says that we are nearing if not
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: into end times I never thought in all my life
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: when I started preaching at 19 that I would get
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: to see the book of revelations line up with my
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: paper I never thought that when the Bible talks about
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: that the earth would burn with fervent heat that sounded
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: like ridiculous and now I see fires breaking out all
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: over the world that we're unable to control and the
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: climate is getting hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: and we seem determined to keep making money even if
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: we burn up How in the world did a prophet 2,000
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: years ago prophesy the heat that the earth is burning?
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: I went to Alaska. I went to Alaska. And when
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: I went to Alaska, the glaciers were amazing. I came
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: back two years later. They were gone. They were gone.
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: These huge glaciers with these polar bears were gone. The
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: planet is melting. This ain't no time for you to
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: go a whore. This is no time for you to
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: go into self-indulgence and be selfish. This is a time
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: for you to wake up. We are having an encounter
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: with God of massive proportions. When they told me, they
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: texted me before I got here, and they told me
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: the heat had gone out, the air had gone out,
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: and the systems had shut down. And then when I
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: got here, they gave me updates. And then they said,
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: we got to announce to the people what's going on.
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: And we'll have somebody, and I said, no, you won't.
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: Because leadership speaks in a story. There is a difference
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: in my voice and other voices in this house. And
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: if there's something going on, I will speak to you.
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: If it's worth talking about, I will speak directly to
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: you and tell you what to expect. I said, pull
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: out every jug of water we got. Fill it with ice.
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: Put it in the lobby. Put it where they can
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: get it. I bring out some Gatorade so I don't
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: lose my electrolytes while I'm preaching. And we will go
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: on and have church. Because the more the wind blows
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: against me, the more I know I've got a word
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: from God. I've talked to you about faith. I've talked
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: to you about fear. I've talked to you about falling.
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: I've talked to you about focus. The Bible said when
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: they got back to the boat, They all rejoiced, even
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: those who didn't get off the boat. And said, surely
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: this is the son of God. And they entered into
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: a praise without an experience. I told you the only
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: way what you went through is a failure is if
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: you didn't learn anything from it. You remember when I
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: told you that last Sunday? I told you that last Sunday.
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: Hear me good. You can talk about Peter all you want.
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: But in all of history, Peter is the only disciple
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: who knew what it was like to walk on the
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: water with Jesus. The Apostle Paul wrote most of the
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: New Testament epistles about And he never walked on the
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: water with Jesus. Peter, oh unlearned Peter, was the only
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: one who knew how to survive in the storm. And
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: I don't care what you know, if you don't know
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: how to survive in the storm, it means absolutely nothing
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: at all. The Lord told me to focus on your focus.
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: As I come to the end of this message, he
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: told me to focus on your focus. I want you
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: to focus on your focus. I want to suggest to
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: you that 80% of the things you're worried about do
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: not deserve your attention. If you journal and you go
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: back to your three-year-old journal, what was a big problem
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: back then ain't nothing right now. If you're worried about
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: anything that's not going to affect the next decade of
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: your life, throw it out. Focus isn't hard. It's a
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: matter of knowing what to let go of. You trying
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: to fix people and change people and make people do
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: what you think they ought to do? You trying to
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: be God in people's life. No wonder you exhausted. You
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: everybody's God.
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 3: Stop.
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: You didn't break them and you can't fix them. It's
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: hard for me to learn that too. I'm a fixer.
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: I love to fix stuff. But some folks don't want
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: to be fixed. They like being broke. They choose to
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: be broke. and you love them but you can't fix
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: them I'm not talking about people down the street I'm
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: talking about people you love in your own house that
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: you can't fix that keep you up at night and
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: make you want to throw up because you're so scared
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: for them They'll figure it out. You figured it out.
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: You was a fool too. And you figured it out.
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: And if your crazy self figured it out, give God
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to work with them without you getting in
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: the way. Focus. This is why God wants you to focus.
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: I don't know what's happening to me these days. He's
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: talking to me in a different kind of way now
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: than he used to talk. This is why God wants
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: you to focus. It's because there's a miracle waiting on you.
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: And you have got to get through this to get
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: to that. I am not preaching to be preaching. Preaching
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: is not the only thing that I do or can do.
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: I am called to this. I do not want to
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: expend effort and not see impact. You are the measurement
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: of the validity of my ministry. Paul said, ye are
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: my credentials. You are living epistles. Your life change, your
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: perspective change, your catching a hold to the vision is
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: proof of my authenticity. If not, I'm frozen and I
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: don't know it. How many of you are identifying changes
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: you need to make right now? I am going to
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: pray because when you are the closest to Genasaret, the
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: storm will get worse. After a while, you will learn
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: by the intensity of the attack, the authenticity of the call.
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: Why would hell attack what it already had? That's stupid.
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: Russia won't fight Russia. If you are worthy to be attacked,
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: you are worthy to be effective. Count it all joy,
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: the Bible says, when you fall into diverse temptations because
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: that means Satan has noticed you. he has noticed you
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: every person who has an ear to hear lift your
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: hands up as I pray Father God into thy hands
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: I commend this people I rebuke all the feelings of
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: being in the lake alone. The loneliness, the feelings, the
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: emotional components of it, the frustrations, all of those emotional
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: upheavals are distractions. We acknowledge them, we admit them, we
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: release them. We let them go. We don't have time
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: to be stuck in a perpetual pity party We might
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: not can stop the storm, but we can walk on
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: top of it. And I pray today in the name
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: of Jesus that lives are changed and hearts are mended
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: and homes are restored and ministries renewed. And for God's sake,
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: give us our focus. This is not about the winds.
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: This is not about the waves. This is not about
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: the lightning. This is not about the people murmuring back
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: on the boat. This is not even about Jesus looking
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: like a ghost. This is about you have given us permission.
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: You know why I know I got permission? I can breathe.
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: I'm alive. I'm still here. I'm not in a bag
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: or a box. You gave me another day which is
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: permission to do exploits. I will do them. Not only I,
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: but they will do them too. God let faith rise
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: in the heart of every person in this room. It
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: has been a long, long time since you have put
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: me in a position to preach to this room alone.
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: I will not fight against what you ordered. I am
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: not addicted to the numbers on the screen or the
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: people around the world. I am addicted to obeying whatever
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: you decide. And if you decide that this is a
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: rhema word for the people you call to be in
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: this house, I receive it as such. I accept it
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: as such. And I dismiss every distraction. that would make
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: me worry about anything else. It has been many years
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: since I have spoken to this room alone. And if
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: you called us aside and gave us this word, there
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: must be water walkers in this room. There must be
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: water walkers in this room. There must be water walkers
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: in this room. There must be water walkers in this room.
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: There must be water walkers in this room. Let everything
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: that have breath praise the Lord.