Latest / Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE / Following God In Transition - Bishop T.D. Jakes [March 18, 2020]

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Following God In Transition - Bishop T.D. Jakes [March 18, 2020] · Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE

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Speaker 1: As you all may be seated, thank you for joining
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Speaker 1: us online, around the city, around the country, around the world,
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Speaker 1: as we explore truths out of God's Word and we
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Speaker 1: find a way to worship Him no matter what's going
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Speaker 1: on around us. We will not allow the center and
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Speaker 1: the apex of who we are as believers to be disrupted.
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Speaker 1: So welcome to the Potter's House. Welcome to the service
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Speaker 1: of the Lord. Welcome to the Wednesday night Bible class.
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Speaker 1: Honor to all the pastors that are joining us. Amen.
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Speaker 1: We appreciate each and every one of you. Dr. James
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Speaker 1: is in the house, the mighty woman of God that
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Speaker 1: normally stands in this office. Thank you for your ministry
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Speaker 1: and your teaching and your revelation, your sharing. And I
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Speaker 1: got her hooked in that Wednesday night and wouldn't let
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Speaker 1: her go. So tonight she gets a break for a
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Speaker 1: minute as we begin to share the word of God.
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Speaker 1: I will be taking some live questions, so I encourage
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Speaker 1: you to write your questions and send them in, and
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Speaker 1: I'll get to as many of them as I can.
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Speaker 1: Some of you have already sent in some questions for
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Speaker 1: us to consider, and I'm going to take them as well.
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Speaker 1: But I'm going to direct your attention to the Gospel
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Speaker 1: of St. John, chapter 16, verse 1 through 11. And
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Speaker 1: today I'm going to be talking about following God in transition.
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Speaker 1: Following God in transition. Amen. Following God in transition. There
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Speaker 1: are times that you have to follow God with a
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Speaker 1: degree of uncertainty. Because you don't clearly understand what the
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Speaker 1: Lord is doing. And anybody that's too sure of themselves,
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Speaker 1: I'm doubtful of them. Because the Bible said we walk
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Speaker 1: by faith and not by sight, and people scare me
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Speaker 1: when they know too much. There should be a certain ambiguity,
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Speaker 1: a certain apprehension, a certain respect, a certain reverence, a
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Speaker 1: certain progressive revelation as you walk with God, as he
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Speaker 1: begins to unfold himself to you and it becomes more
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Speaker 1: clear to you. The word of God, we go from
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Speaker 1: glory to glory and from faith to faith. But now
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Speaker 1: we see through a glass darkly. Later on, we'll see
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Speaker 1: face to face. So if you're going through something right
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Speaker 1: now and you don't see everything clearly, don't be upset
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Speaker 1: about it. Because God doesn't always give us details. Come on, somebody.
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Speaker 1: He doesn't always give us details. He'll give you just enough.
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Speaker 1: Give us this day our daily bread. I'm not promising
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Speaker 1: you next week. I'm not promising you next month. But
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Speaker 1: I'll give you this day your daily bread. And I
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Speaker 1: chose this scripture as just a jump off point because
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Speaker 1: I think it's a good one. It says, these things
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Speaker 1: have I spoken unto you that ye should not be offended.
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Speaker 1: They shall put you out of the synagogues. Yea, the
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Speaker 1: time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he
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Speaker 1: doeth God's service. And these things will they do unto
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Speaker 1: you because they have not known the father nor me.
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Speaker 1: But these things have I told you that when the
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Speaker 1: time shall come, you may remember that I told you
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Speaker 1: of them. And these things I said not unto you
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Speaker 1: at the beginning because I was with you. I didn't
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Speaker 1: give you everything at the beginning because I was with you.
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Speaker 1: It reminds me, that little phrase reminds me of having
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Speaker 1: adult children. If you raise children, there are certain things
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Speaker 1: you can tell your children as they get older that
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Speaker 1: you couldn't tell them when they were children. And they said, well,
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Speaker 1: how come you didn't tell me that earlier? It wasn't
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Speaker 1: time to tell you. A relationship has to ferment. It
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Speaker 1: has to grow. It has to develop. Come on, somebody.
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Speaker 1: And these things I said not unto you at the
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Speaker 1: beginning because I was with you. But now I go
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Speaker 1: my way to him that sent me. And none of
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Speaker 1: you asketh me whether goest thou. But because I have
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Speaker 1: said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.
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Speaker 1: And I chose this text in part because I wanted
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Speaker 1: to show to you that even in the days of
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, changes brought anxiety. Anytime something changes from your norm,
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Speaker 1: it brings anxiety because we're out of our comfort zone.
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Speaker 1: And Jesus is ministering to them because they are heavy
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Speaker 1: of heart because he's leaving them. He's leaving them. Now,
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Speaker 1: to put this in context, you have to realize that
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Speaker 1: following Jesus was controversial to begin with. To leave the
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Speaker 1: traditional Orthodox Judaism and start to follow Jesus, you were
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Speaker 1: kind of ridiculed and considered a cult to begin with.
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Speaker 1: You were ostracized from the beginning. You were riddled with
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Speaker 1: critics from Pharisees and Sadducees from the beginning. There were
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Speaker 1: other sects and groups of people that had different ideologies
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Speaker 1: that persecuted them just because they named the name of
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Speaker 1: the Lord. Yet they were motivated to follow Jesus because
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Speaker 1: they thought that he was going to bring the kingdom.
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Speaker 1: John the Baptist had preceded him in saying, repent for
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Speaker 1: the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now you must
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Speaker 1: understand that the Orthodox Jew now is oppressed by the
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Speaker 1: Roman Empire. And when you start talking about the kingdom
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Speaker 1: coming and the king coming, they are looking for Jesus
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Speaker 1: to set up his kingdom on earth. They could see
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Speaker 1: the kingdom, but they could not see the cross. See,
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Speaker 1: often when we get these prophetic words, we see the crown,
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Speaker 1: but not the cross. So they're following him in anticipation
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Speaker 1: of the crown. And then he began to interject as
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Speaker 1: they matured a little bit more and a little bit
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Speaker 1: more about the cross. He says, for example, if you
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Speaker 1: destroy the temple in three days, I'll raise it up again, okay?
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Speaker 1: And this they thought, Oh, how can you destroy the
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Speaker 1: temple and raise it back up again? They didn't really
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Speaker 1: fully understand the full measure of what he was saying
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Speaker 1: to them, but they had to follow him in the fog. Okay.
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Speaker 1: This is the real test of faith is can you
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Speaker 1: follow him in the fog? Yes. If everything were clear
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Speaker 1: and everything were paid for and everything was okay and
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Speaker 1: everything was in order, you wouldn't need faith. You need
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Speaker 1: faith because if you're going to walk with God, you
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Speaker 1: have to walk with him in the fall. And the
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Speaker 1: Bible says we go on to know. It's progressive knowledge.
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Speaker 1: We go on to know. God doesn't reveal everything all
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Speaker 1: at once. We're just seeing glimpses of his glory. Amen.
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Speaker 1: We're just seeing glimpses, little excerpts of the story that
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Speaker 1: we go on and follow from faith to faith and
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Speaker 1: from glory to glory. And now he's getting ready to
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Speaker 1: go and they are sad, not only at his departure,
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Speaker 1: but at their inability to fully comprehend that God did
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Speaker 1: not do what they expected him to do. Now I
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Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about that because I
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Speaker 1: want to know, can you follow him when he doesn't
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Speaker 1: do anything? what you expect him to do? Can you
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Speaker 1: serve him in disappointment? Anybody can serve him when everything's
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Speaker 1: going good. Can you serve him with a broken heart?
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Speaker 1: Can you say like Job, though he slay me, yet
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Speaker 1: will I trust him? Can you serve him when you
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Speaker 1: don't understand him? Can you follow him when your vision
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Speaker 1: and his vision creates a division? Because you had in
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Speaker 1: your mind how you expected things to go and then
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Speaker 1: he has a higher purpose that deviates from your purpose,
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Speaker 1: and you thought you had one vision, but your vision
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Speaker 1: is that vision, are you humble enough to submit your
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Speaker 1: vision up under his vision and let his vision reign?
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Speaker 1: If you're not, no need to talk about Jesus being Lord,
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Speaker 1: because he's really not Lord. If you're going to boss him,
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Speaker 1: if he's going to be your butler, if he's going
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Speaker 1: to be your maid, if he's going to be at
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Speaker 1: your beck and call, then he's not Lord at all.
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Speaker 1: The real proof of Lord and the real proof of
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Speaker 1: submission is not obeying when you ask me to do
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Speaker 1: what I wanted to do anyway. The real test of
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Speaker 1: faith is to obey even though my heart is broken,
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Speaker 1: even though I'm disappointed, even though things didn't go the
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Speaker 1: way I thought, even though there is a division between
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Speaker 1: your vision and mine, I will bring my vision up
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Speaker 1: under subjection even if I have to go to the
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Speaker 1: Garden of Gethsemane and pray three times to get there
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Speaker 1: I will eventually come out with not my will. Come on, somebody.
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Speaker 1: Not my will, but thine be done. Now I'm a disciple. Okay,
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Speaker 1: now I'm a disciple. I'm not a disciple because I
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Speaker 1: wear church clothes. I'm not a disciple because I have
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Speaker 1: a church title. I'm not a disciple because I go
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Speaker 1: to church. But when I discipline. Okay, when I discipline
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Speaker 1: my vision and bring it up under submission and I
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Speaker 1: can follow him with a broken heart, now I'm really
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Speaker 1: starting to be a disciple. He told his disciples, follow
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Speaker 1: me and I will make you. Just because you start
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Speaker 1: with him, you are not what you're going to be.
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Speaker 1: He's going to make you into what he wants you
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Speaker 1: to be. Are y'all getting what I'm saying to you?
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Speaker 1: He said, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is
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Speaker 1: expedient for you that I go away. For if I
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Speaker 1: go not away, the comforter will not come unto you.
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Speaker 1: But if I depart, I will send him unto you.
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Speaker 1: And when he has come, he will reprove the world
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Speaker 1: of sin. So what we are seeing is a transition
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Speaker 1: of authority. The transition has started when we see in
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Speaker 1: the Old Testament, we see the father reigning and ruling.
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Speaker 1: And except for a few exceptions, we don't see a
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Speaker 1: manifestation of the son in the Old Testament, except occasionally
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Speaker 1: the fourth one in the furnace, I believe Jacob wrestling
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Speaker 1: with the angel. There are occasional manifestations, theophonic manifestations of
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Speaker 1: Christ in the Old Testament. But for the most part,
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Speaker 1: we do not see him until we start to hear
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Speaker 1: the story, hail Mary, you've been highly favored amongst women,
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Speaker 1: you shall bring forth a son. Now we behold the
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Speaker 1: wonder of his glory according to the Gospel of Saint
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Speaker 1: John chapter one, full of grace and truth. And so
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Speaker 1: we see the advent of the reigning of the son
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Speaker 1: As he moves to and fro, he is the king
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Speaker 1: of glory. He is the mighty God. He is the
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Speaker 1: great I am. He is the everlasting father. He is
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Speaker 1: the father dressed up in flesh, walking amongst us. And
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Speaker 1: we got to see the wonder of his glory. We
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Speaker 1: couldn't see the naked glory of God. Our eyes couldn't
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Speaker 1: stand to see the naked power of God. Have you
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Speaker 1: thought about how great God is? I'm not talking about
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Speaker 1: how great church is. I'm not talking about how great
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Speaker 1: religion is. I'm talking about how great God is. Have
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Speaker 1: you thought about how powerful he is? That we're going
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Speaker 1: to a place that his presence will outshine the sun.
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Speaker 1: You're talking about a kind of glory that is so
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Speaker 1: all encompassing that no evil thing can stand in his sight.
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Speaker 1: He'll share his glory with nobody. Every idol that they
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Speaker 1: ever brought up in his face, like Dagon, he knocked
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Speaker 1: it down to the ground. Because he said, I alone
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Speaker 1: am God, and besides me there is no other. That's
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Speaker 1: who we're talking about when we're talking about God. We're
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Speaker 1: not talking about church. We're not talking about religion. We're
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Speaker 1: not talking about your bishop. We're not talking about your cousin.
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Speaker 1: We're not talking about your hymn book. When you start
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Speaker 1: talking about God, you're talking about somebody who rules and
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Speaker 1: super rules and has all power in his hand. And
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Speaker 1: we see him parting red seas. And we see him
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Speaker 1: swallowing up nations in the earth. And we see him
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Speaker 1: shaking mountains and setting them on fire. And we see
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Speaker 1: the mountains shake and quake with the glory of God
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Speaker 1: the Father. And then in a manger, in a humble place,
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Speaker 1: wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid amongst lowly places, in the
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Speaker 1: view gaze of the shepherd, the Lamb of God enters
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Speaker 1: into the world, God obeying his own word. through Job,
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Speaker 1: that man that is born of a woman has but
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Speaker 1: a few days in order for him to enter into
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Speaker 1: the earth realm. He didn't want to break his own law.
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Speaker 1: He could visit us, but to abide with us, he
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Speaker 1: had to submit himself and be born of a woman,
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Speaker 1: not just wrapped in swaddling clothes, but wrapped in flesh.
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Speaker 1: Come on, you hear what I'm saying? Now he needs
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Speaker 1: this body because he is coming to redeem us from
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Speaker 1: the sin and the curse of Adam. And he needs
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Speaker 1: a body that he might be a sacrifice for our sins.
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Speaker 1: Are you with me? Okay, so he comes in the
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Speaker 1: body and then he's getting ready now to offer himself
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Speaker 1: up and the disciples are following God in transition. And
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Speaker 1: the hardest thing in the world to do Ah, it's
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Speaker 1: to follow God in transition. Oh, you talk big, you
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Speaker 1: talk good, you testify real good, you make a lot
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Speaker 1: of noise, but I'm talking about two o'clock in the morning,
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Speaker 1: sitting on the side of the bed, wondering how things
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Speaker 1: are gonna turn out. It's easy to talk a good
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Speaker 1: game when you're in church on Sunday morning, but I'm
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Speaker 1: talking about three o'clock in the morning, driving your first
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Speaker 1: day to work, going your first day to school, moving
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Speaker 1: across country. Anytime God destabilizes things, that's a real test
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Speaker 1: of your faith. Can you stand? Having done all to stand,
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Speaker 1: can you stand? Therefore with your loins gird about with truth.
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Speaker 1: And what we do know is that they are following him,
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Speaker 1: but they are troubled in their heart. Are you with me?
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Speaker 1: And he says to them, he says, if I stay,
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Speaker 1: the comforter cannot come. See, he can't come. We can't
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Speaker 1: occupy the same space at the same time. What we
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Speaker 1: are seeing is a transition of authority, a changing of
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Speaker 1: the guard. We're seeing him handing authority over. When you
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Speaker 1: go to Acts chapter two, and you can run over
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Speaker 1: there right quick if you want to. Acts chapter two,
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Speaker 1: verse one. And it says, and when the day of
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Speaker 1: Pentecost was fully come and we were in one place
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Speaker 1: with one accord, suddenly there came a sound from heaven.
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Speaker 1: like a mighty rushing wind and cloven tongues appeared like
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Speaker 1: as a fire and sat upon each of them and
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Speaker 1: they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. This is
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Speaker 1: the only time that you see this much drama with
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Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit coming. You do not see that in
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Speaker 1: Acts chapter 10 when they were baptized in the name
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Speaker 1: of the Lord and when Paul laid his hands on them,
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Speaker 1: they received the Holy Ghost. You don't see it in 10.
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Speaker 1: You don't see it in Acts chapter 19. Paul having
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Speaker 1: passed through the upper coast of Ephesus finding certain disciples.
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Speaker 1: said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since
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Speaker 1: ye believe? They said, We have not so much as heard,
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Speaker 1: whether there be any Holy Ghost. Unto what then were
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Speaker 1: ye baptized? They said, Unto John's baptism. And then he
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Speaker 1: goes on to baptize them in the name of the Lord.
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Speaker 1: And when Paul had laid his hands on them, they
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Speaker 1: received the Holy Ghost. But we don't see a mighty
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Speaker 1: rushing wind. We don't see cloven tongues of fire. We
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Speaker 1: don't see this great inaugural procession because in Acts chapter 2,
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Speaker 1: this is bigger than them being filled with the Holy Ghost.
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Speaker 1: This is the inaugural reign of the Holy Spirit as
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Speaker 1: he sets up residents in the earth realm to rule
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Speaker 1: and control. And anytime you go to an inaugural service,
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Speaker 1: there's going to be a processional. So the wind comes
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Speaker 1: first and then cloven tongues of fire come next. And
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Speaker 1: then you see the Holy Spirit come in and sit
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Speaker 1: down and take his authority and his rule. And he
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Speaker 1: begins to reign and he begins to take over this era.
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Speaker 1: and the kingdom has slipped into the spirit. It has
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Speaker 1: moved from the physical manifestation to the spiritual manifestation of
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. You missed that. The kingdom has slipped into
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Speaker 1: the spirit. They were looking for an earthly kingdom, but
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Speaker 1: the kingdom has slipped into the spirit. It's not meat
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Speaker 1: or drink, we will later hear, but joy and peace
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Speaker 1: in the Holy Ghost. A lot of people are stuck
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Speaker 1: in the flesh, But God has slipped this thing over
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Speaker 1: into the spirit. He said, I was with you, but
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Speaker 1: I shall be in you. Come on, talk to me, somebody.
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Speaker 1: So we are seeing the kingdom come in a spiritual way.
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Speaker 1: We are seeing the disciples then having to move from
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Speaker 1: understanding the temple to be a place of worship to
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Speaker 1: understanding that their body was the temple. Of the Holy Spirit.
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Speaker 1: That God has moved inside of you. And that he
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Speaker 1: reigns inside of you. This is a new idea. Are
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Speaker 1: you all following me right now? So what we're seeing
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Speaker 1: is a transition. And in transition there's stumblings. There's stumbling,
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Speaker 1: there's confusion, there's uncertainty. And we see the disciples trying
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Speaker 1: to figure out certain things like who is going to
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Speaker 1: be a successor now that Judas has committed suicide. Who's
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Speaker 1: going to be a successor? And the one guy says, well,
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Speaker 1: let's cast lots. And so they took one stick and
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Speaker 1: made it shorter than the other. And then the book
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Speaker 1: of Acts, they began to cast lots and the lot
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Speaker 1: fell on Matthias. And Matthias was inducted in as who
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Speaker 1: they had chosen to be the next apostle. As they
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Speaker 1: were choosing Matthias, God was picking out Saul. See, but
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Speaker 1: they're stumbling trying to figure out their way. And they
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Speaker 1: figure they're going to cast lots. And a lot of
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Speaker 1: us find ourselves in places where we're casting lots and
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Speaker 1: gambling on destiny. gambling on purpose, playing little man-made games,
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Speaker 1: trying to step into the purpose of God. But you
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Speaker 1: never have to go by chance when destiny is already predestined.
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Speaker 1: It's not up to a lot, it's not up to
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Speaker 1: a game, it's not up to a ritual. God already
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Speaker 1: knew that he was gonna take Saul and Saul was
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Speaker 1: gonna have an encounter on the road to Damascus that
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Speaker 1: would turn him into Paul. that would be so transformative.
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Speaker 1: And he couldn't have told them that he was going
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Speaker 1: to use Saul because at that time, Saul was a
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Speaker 1: Christian killer. And sometimes people won't let you evolve into
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Speaker 1: who you're going to be because they're so stuck on
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Speaker 1: who you, oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying. They're
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Speaker 1: so stuck on who you used to be that they
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Speaker 1: cannot update their understanding of you. And so we're following
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Speaker 1: God in transition. Most of the epistles are written in transition.
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Speaker 1: And if you study them closely, the epistles are argumentative.
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Speaker 1: Because everybody has an opinion of how much do we
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Speaker 1: bring of our history into our destiny. So there are
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Speaker 1: debates about circumcision. Should we circumcise or not circumcise? Should
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Speaker 1: we eat meats, these types of meats or not eat
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Speaker 1: these because their present is informed by their past. And
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Speaker 1: this is the problem with transition because anytime you're going
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Speaker 1: through a transition, the only thing you have to draw
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Speaker 1: from is past references. See, all I know is all
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Speaker 1: I know. And all they knew was Orthodox traditional Judaism,
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Speaker 1: and they were walking with Jesus, but they didn't understand
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Speaker 1: how much do we bring and how much do we
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Speaker 1: leave behind. And Paul begins to make a strong argument
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Speaker 1: for the grace of God, whereas James is talking about works.
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Speaker 1: And there's a debate because they're like you and me. Ah,
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Speaker 1: come on, come on, come on. We're trying to get
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Speaker 1: it right. We don't really know what we're doing. We're
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Speaker 1: in transition and we go on to know, but we
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Speaker 1: stumble into destiny. You will notice in the early part
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Speaker 1: of the book of Acts, and I won't even take
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Speaker 1: the time to have you turn to it. They started out,
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Speaker 1: they commanded everybody to sell everything and said, we're going
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Speaker 1: to have all things in common. OK, we're bringing all
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Speaker 1: down to a level playing field where we were going
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Speaker 1: to have all things in common and we're going to
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Speaker 1: distribute out to each man according to his need. And
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Speaker 1: this is the interesting thing about that. Obviously, that was
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Speaker 1: not God's plan. But even though it was something that
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Speaker 1: they came up with, God honored it. You know, God
21:24
Speaker 1: will honor things even though they're not his ultimate destiny.
21:28
Speaker 1: How do you say God honored it? Because when Ananias
21:32
Speaker 1: and Sapphira came in and lied to them about not
21:35
Speaker 1: bringing all the money, it was serious enough that God
21:39
Speaker 1: killed them for lying to Peter even though Peter's plan
21:44
Speaker 1: was flawed. I want to talk to some people that
21:48
Speaker 1: God defended you when you was wrong. I need two
21:54
Speaker 1: or three witnesses that you didn't have the full revelation,
21:58
Speaker 1: but God still didn't let the witch have you. He
22:00
Speaker 1: still didn't let the enemy have you. You didn't really
22:03
Speaker 1: know what you was talking about, but God protected you
22:05
Speaker 1: in your foolishness. Oh my God. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
22:12
Speaker 1: I got to stop a minute and praise him myself.
22:15
Speaker 1: Thank you, Jesus. And God stood up for them and
22:19
Speaker 1: still would not allow them to be disrespected. What a
22:23
Speaker 1: mighty God. See, we're following him. We haven't caught up
22:27
Speaker 1: with him. We're following him. We're looking for footprints and
22:33
Speaker 1: we're tracing his steps and we're trying to understand his
22:37
Speaker 1: way and get in his path. But we have not
22:40
Speaker 1: caught up with him, nor have we overrun him. We're stumbling. Yes,
22:45
Speaker 1: your pastor is stumbling. I'm stumbling. The bishop is stumbling.
22:50
Speaker 1: The super bishop is stumbling. The pope is stumbling. All
22:54
Speaker 1: of them are looking through a glass darkly. Don't nobody
22:57
Speaker 1: know what they're talking about as much as they'd like
22:59
Speaker 1: to make you think that they do. Because God is
23:02
Speaker 1: so high, you can't get over it. And he's so low,
23:06
Speaker 1: you can't get under it. His ways are higher than
23:09
Speaker 1: our way. There's nobody in the church world that's going
23:13
Speaker 1: to be selling their books in heaven. So whatever you write,
23:19
Speaker 1: you better sell it down here because you're not going
23:21
Speaker 1: to be teaching theology when the master himself comes along.
23:26
Speaker 1: All of these teachers are going to have to sit
23:28
Speaker 1: down and shut up because all of us at our
23:31
Speaker 1: best are just trying to follow him. Are you seeing
23:36
Speaker 1: what I'm saying to you? Now, as we're coming into
23:42
Speaker 1: this spiritual thing, this spiritual thing this spiritual thing see
23:49
Speaker 1: Christ has birthed the church and the church is a
23:54
Speaker 1: thing it doesn't even have a name yet it's a
23:57
Speaker 1: spiritual thing some people later at Antioch will call them
24:01
Speaker 1: Christians and some called it the way and then I
24:04
Speaker 1: can show you the scriptures where they called them believers
24:07
Speaker 1: because we go through many phases of understanding who we
24:11
Speaker 1: are yeah but it is a holy thing. That term
24:17
Speaker 1: holy thing, I didn't create that. That's what they call Jesus.
24:20
Speaker 1: When Mary was having Jesus, they called him that holy thing.
24:25
Speaker 1: Anytime God births something in you, it's a holy thing.
24:29
Speaker 1: Before we get a name for it, before we can
24:33
Speaker 1: induct it into our vernacular and make it fit into
24:37
Speaker 1: our theology, when God first births it, you don't even
24:41
Speaker 1: have a name for it. It's just a holy thing.
24:45
Speaker 1: And the church in its core is a holy thing.
24:49
Speaker 1: Now much has been said today. A lot has been
24:52
Speaker 1: said today about, you know, the churches and who's open
24:56
Speaker 1: and who's closed and this and that and other and
24:58
Speaker 1: how we're doing this and that. And the problem begins
25:02
Speaker 1: when you start thinking that the church is a building. See,
25:08
Speaker 1: that's the first problem we have to get down to
25:11
Speaker 1: that because the kingdom is not meat or drink, but
25:15
Speaker 1: joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. It was never
25:19
Speaker 1: about a building in the first place. When Jesus said,
25:23
Speaker 1: upon this rock, I will build my church, he wasn't
25:25
Speaker 1: talking about your church building, your building fund committee, your cathedral,
25:30
Speaker 1: your temple of the living God, fire baptized, got it
25:33
Speaker 1: going on in Jesus' name. He wasn't talking about any
25:37
Speaker 1: of this man-made stuff. The church that he's talking about
25:40
Speaker 1: building is a holy thing. Oh, my God. It's a
25:44
Speaker 1: holy thing. It has no address. It has no location.
25:50
Speaker 1: GPS can't track it. The church is a holy thing.
25:55
Speaker 1: It'll get in the car with you. You can be
25:57
Speaker 1: in the shower praying. And wherever you lift up holy hands...
26:01
Speaker 1: The church is right there. It's not a building. It's
26:05
Speaker 1: not a stage. It's not a platform. It's not a
26:07
Speaker 1: choir stand. It's not an usher boy. It's not a
26:10
Speaker 1: greeting committee. The church is a holy thing. The only
26:14
Speaker 1: reason this building is a church is when we come
26:16
Speaker 1: in here. If we start serving liquor in here and
26:21
Speaker 1: put poles in here, it could be a club. This
26:24
Speaker 1: is just a building. So don't get into a fight
26:29
Speaker 1: with somebody about whether we meet in a building. Because
26:36
Speaker 1: if you start fighting about locations and addresses, you're driving
26:41
Speaker 1: me back into the Old Testament, which is a shadow
26:45
Speaker 1: of things to come. The truth of the matter is
26:48
Speaker 1: the early church didn't have a building. They went from
26:53
Speaker 1: house to house. breaking bread and in fellowship. And when
26:58
Speaker 1: they went in the temple, they were going in the
26:59
Speaker 1: temple to persuade the theology of the Jews to embrace Christianity.
27:06
Speaker 1: They weren't going there to worship. They were going there
27:09
Speaker 1: to make a defense for the gospel. That's why when
27:11
Speaker 1: you see later in the book of Acts, when Peter
27:13
Speaker 1: and John came up at the hour of prayer, it's
27:16
Speaker 1: not so much that they're coming to worship. They're coming
27:19
Speaker 1: to lay out a case to see if they can
27:21
Speaker 1: convert the Jews. And they were successful at converting some
27:25
Speaker 1: of them for a while. But the book of Hebrews
27:28
Speaker 1: will show you that many of them went back. they
27:32
Speaker 1: went back and the Bible said it is impossible for
27:35
Speaker 1: those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly
27:38
Speaker 1: gift if they should fall away to renew them again
27:41
Speaker 1: to repentance seeing as they crucify the son of man afresh.
27:46
Speaker 1: That whole crucify the son of man afresh is a
27:49
Speaker 1: clue that this refers to the people who crucified him
27:53
Speaker 1: the first time by rejecting him when they backslide they
27:58
Speaker 1: go back into the apostasy of rejecting him and crucify
28:03
Speaker 1: the Son of Man afresh. A careful study there, my
28:08
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters, of the book of Romans will show
28:10
Speaker 1: to you that the whole call of the Gentile nation
28:15
Speaker 1: is a result of the rejection of the Jews. He
28:19
Speaker 1: comes first to the Jew and then to the Greek.
28:23
Speaker 1: That's what the scripture says. And so as the Jews
28:26
Speaker 1: begin to reject them, more and more we see the
28:30
Speaker 1: transition Over to the Gentiles. Now watch then, my brothers
28:35
Speaker 1: and sisters, how stealthily the Holy Spirit moves. I'm starting
28:38
Speaker 1: to sweat. Glory to God. Watch how stealthily the Holy
28:44
Speaker 1: Spirit is transitioning them. And in the process of transitioning them,
28:50
Speaker 1: he is educating them. He is maturing them. He is
28:54
Speaker 1: developing them. It's not transitioning just about moving in a
28:59
Speaker 1: new realm and a new reign. It's a new mentality.
29:04
Speaker 1: It's a new mindset. It's new revelation. It's new understanding.
29:10
Speaker 1: They have yet to discover deacons. See, they had the church,
29:18
Speaker 1: but they didn't have the five-fold ministry. They didn't have
29:21
Speaker 1: the five-fold ministry until the Apostle Paul comes along and
29:24
Speaker 1: says he gave some apostles and some prophets, some pastors,
29:27
Speaker 1: some teachers, some evangelists, all for the perfecting of the saints.
29:31
Speaker 1: But the church existed before structure. There wasn't any organization,
29:39
Speaker 1: but it's existed. So if the enemy thinks that he
29:44
Speaker 1: can change our address and shut us down, he needs
29:48
Speaker 1: to watch this Bible class. Because it was never about
29:51
Speaker 1: a building in the first place. Oh my God. It
29:54
Speaker 1: was about a belief system. It was about a lifestyle.
29:57
Speaker 1: It was about a message. It started in the house.
30:01
Speaker 1: Jesus did most of his preaching in the house. So
30:04
Speaker 1: we're back to where we started. Oh, we're back to
30:07
Speaker 1: where we started. We're going full circle back to where
30:10
Speaker 1: we came from. Again, the gospel and the anointing and
30:13
Speaker 1: the power and the preaching that used to be your
30:16
Speaker 1: understanding had it locked up in a building. But even
30:20
Speaker 1: through this adversity that we're going through, you're going to
30:23
Speaker 1: have to rediscover the sanctuary in your house. In this
30:31
Speaker 1: transition that we're going through, you can no longer relegate
30:35
Speaker 1: the teaching of the faith to somebody who is doing
30:40
Speaker 1: children's church. You're gonna have to go back and do
30:45
Speaker 1: it like we did old school where your mama told
30:48
Speaker 1: you who Jesus was. And your daddy told you who
30:51
Speaker 1: Jesus was. And they taught you the fundamentals of the faith.
30:55
Speaker 1: You can't just bring them out and throw them on
30:57
Speaker 1: somebody and put all the responsibility on the teacher at
31:01
Speaker 1: children's church to tell them about Jesus. Let me show
31:03
Speaker 1: you why. If they're telling them about Jesus at children's church,
31:07
Speaker 1: but they going home and they're seeing something else, all
31:10
Speaker 1: you gonna do is confuse the child. Since you are
31:13
Speaker 1: the one that God gave the child to, the responsibility
31:18
Speaker 1: of training up the child is not in the babysitter.
31:21
Speaker 1: It's not, oh, I'm going to get in trouble. I'm
31:24
Speaker 1: going to get some letters. It's not in somebody that
31:26
Speaker 1: you're paying 40 bucks an hour to watch your child.
31:29
Speaker 1: They may be helpers, but the responsibility rests on you.
31:36
Speaker 1: So where is your sanctuary? Where is it? your sanctuary.
31:43
Speaker 1: If you're going to follow him in transition, and we're
31:46
Speaker 1: in transition right now, and in the middle of all
31:49
Speaker 1: of this transition and all of this chaos, the Lord
31:53
Speaker 1: said to me that everything that can be shaken will
31:57
Speaker 1: be shaken. So that those things that cannot be shaken
32:03
Speaker 1: will remain. And we're seeing a shaking. Now, depending on
32:06
Speaker 1: where you live in the world, what you're seeing in
32:09
Speaker 1: Dallas right now, it is illegal for us to have
32:14
Speaker 1: over 50 people in a gathering of any kind, not
32:17
Speaker 1: just church, anything. So the gym classes are shut down.
32:22
Speaker 1: The nightclubs are shut down. The restaurants are shut down.
32:25
Speaker 1: I was driving up here looking at the empty parking lots. Yes.
32:30
Speaker 1: All of them shut down. All kinds of people laid off.
32:32
Speaker 1: And the latest decree is you would get a fine
32:36
Speaker 1: and or up to six months in jail if you
32:39
Speaker 1: exceed the requirement because they're trying to stop the virus. Now,
32:44
Speaker 1: it's noble that they're trying to stop the virus. But
32:46
Speaker 1: I do understand that while they're trying to stop the virus,
32:49
Speaker 1: the enemy is trying to stop the church. See, two
32:54
Speaker 1: things can be true at the same time. There's a
32:57
Speaker 1: nobility of them trying to stop the virus, but the
33:01
Speaker 1: enemy is trying to stop the church because he thinks
33:04
Speaker 1: that if you can't find your way to an address,
33:06
Speaker 1: you will lose your vision of God. But I came
33:10
Speaker 1: to serve notice on the devil tonight that it was
33:13
Speaker 1: never flesh and blood. It was never meat or drink.
33:16
Speaker 1: It was always in the Holy Spirit. And even if
33:19
Speaker 1: we couldn't scream, we could connect in the Holy Ghost.
33:23
Speaker 1: Because if we start praying in the spirit, you don't
33:26
Speaker 1: even have to walk by sight to feel the power
33:29
Speaker 1: of the Holy Ghost. That's why we got to get
33:31
Speaker 1: back to the Holy Ghost. We cannot depend even on
33:36
Speaker 1: technology to convey glory. Because all the technology in the
33:43
Speaker 1: world cannot produce glory. Glory is not coming through Wi-Fi.
33:49
Speaker 1: Glory is coming out of my spirit and out of
33:52
Speaker 1: my heart and out of my life. Oh, you don't
33:55
Speaker 1: hear what I, glory to God. I had this before
33:58
Speaker 1: we had Wi-Fi. Oh, no, no. We don't have to
34:03
Speaker 1: have Wi-Fi. We don't have to have no crowd. We
34:06
Speaker 1: don't have to have no big assembly. I cut my
34:09
Speaker 1: teeth preaching in empty buildings. Two or three people. It
34:12
Speaker 1: ain't no problem because it was never about the crowd.
34:17
Speaker 1: Now to all of you that it was about the crowd,
34:20
Speaker 1: you can't preach if you don't have a crowd. But
34:23
Speaker 1: I can preach if everybody walk out this room because
34:26
Speaker 1: it was never about the crowd in the first place.
34:30
Speaker 1: Maybe that's why he gave me the crowd because I
34:32
Speaker 1: never trusted. You see, you have to have this thing
34:41
Speaker 1: on the inside. What Jesus is trying to teach the
34:45
Speaker 1: disciples is that you must have him on the inside.
34:50
Speaker 1: He says, I'm going to send you another comforter, alos pericletes,
34:56
Speaker 1: one who stands alongside to help. At his rudiment understanding
35:05
Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit, he is your helpmate. He stands
35:11
Speaker 1: alongside you to empower you, to make you effective. You
35:17
Speaker 1: can sing, you got a gift, you got a talent,
35:19
Speaker 1: you can sing, you can sing, that's nice. But if
35:21
Speaker 1: you want to be effective, you got to go past
35:24
Speaker 1: talent to anointing. Because the world got talent. The thing
35:30
Speaker 1: that sets us apart is the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
35:35
Speaker 1: How we doing so far? When you think about transition,
35:39
Speaker 1: I'm going to say this and then I'm going to
35:40
Speaker 1: take a few questions. When you think about transition, I
35:44
Speaker 1: went back to the Old Testament and thought about how
35:46
Speaker 1: difficult it was for the Old Testament Israel to come
35:50
Speaker 1: out of Egypt and make that transition. And an entire
35:54
Speaker 1: generation died in the wilderness in the middle of transition.
36:00
Speaker 1: Because the influence of where they came from, they came
36:03
Speaker 1: out of Egypt, but Egypt didn't come out of them.
36:06
Speaker 1: Are you hearing what I'm saying? And it took an
36:08
Speaker 1: entire generation to scrub Egypt out of them enough to
36:14
Speaker 1: get them ready to go into the promised land. Sometimes
36:17
Speaker 1: God will delay your promise in transition because he's still
36:21
Speaker 1: scrubbing out your perspective. Oh, y'all ain't gonna talk to
36:29
Speaker 1: me tonight. See, you're out and you got the promise,
36:33
Speaker 1: but your perspective, is tainted by your experience. Do you
36:39
Speaker 1: hear what I'm saying to you? Now, I'll prove it
36:42
Speaker 1: to you. When Moses, as long as Moses was with them,
36:45
Speaker 1: they were good. But when Moses went up in the
36:47
Speaker 1: mountain and had to go away for 40 days, when
36:50
Speaker 1: he came back down, they had built an image of
36:53
Speaker 1: God and the image of God looked just like the
36:57
Speaker 1: Egyptian God because they'd been with the Egyptians so long
37:01
Speaker 1: that it affected how they saw God. You cannot hang
37:06
Speaker 1: around the world all the time and get a good
37:09
Speaker 1: glimpse of who God is. And so we begin the
37:13
Speaker 1: scrubbing process. This is grandma stuff. Y'all don't scrub nothing now.
37:20
Speaker 1: But I can see my grandmother's arms shaking, scrubbing, scrubbing
37:25
Speaker 1: out a stain. And life will scrub out a stain.
37:30
Speaker 1: Some of you right now, you think that the enemy's
37:32
Speaker 1: attacking you. It's not the enemy. God is scrubbing out
37:36
Speaker 1: a stain. Changing your perspective so that you can see
37:41
Speaker 1: him more clearly. And he's got you in transition because
37:46
Speaker 1: you have come out of who you were. But you're
37:48
Speaker 1: not ready to go into who you're going to be.
37:51
Speaker 1: And so you have to get into a little wilderness
37:54
Speaker 1: and a time of transition. We see it clearly in
37:57
Speaker 1: the Old Testament. It is less clear but equally true
38:01
Speaker 1: in the New Testament that the epistles are written in
38:04
Speaker 1: the wilderness of becoming. Yeah, they have come out of
38:10
Speaker 1: the relationship that they had with Christ where he walked
38:13
Speaker 1: amongst them, which incidentally was Old Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke
38:17
Speaker 1: is all Old Testament to begin with. Why is it
38:20
Speaker 1: Old Testament? It has to be Old Testament because Hebrews
38:23
Speaker 1: says that the Testament is not enforced until the testator dies.
38:28
Speaker 1: So it's not divided by where King James divided it.
38:31
Speaker 1: What divides Old Testament from new is the cross. So
38:38
Speaker 1: Jesus died under the law and rose up under grace.
38:44
Speaker 1: That's where the transition occurs right there. But they're still
38:47
Speaker 1: trying to understand what does that mean? What do we
38:52
Speaker 1: take with us? What do we do? And so they're
38:54
Speaker 1: in a wilderness where they're having to be scrubbed out.
38:58
Speaker 1: They almost got into a fight at Antioch. Over what
39:01
Speaker 1: do we take? What do we leave? Because God is
39:04
Speaker 1: scrubbing out. See, this uncomfortable stage of disagreement and controversy
39:10
Speaker 1: and what we call haters and people saying this and that,
39:13
Speaker 1: that's not new. That's not new. That's always been. It's tragic,
39:19
Speaker 1: but it's true. We are most often and most likely
39:24
Speaker 1: to be wounded by our own brethren. Yeah. Yeah, sometimes
39:31
Speaker 1: you're safer with the sinners than you are with the saints.
39:36
Speaker 1: If there's anybody going to come out and criticize you
39:38
Speaker 1: and attack you, a lot of times, because we have
39:41
Speaker 1: different levels. We're all in one house, but we have
39:44
Speaker 1: different levels of understanding, and we tend to criticize what
39:49
Speaker 1: we don't understand. Amen. And we tend to criticize what
39:53
Speaker 1: we can't duplicate. And we tend to criticize often what
39:57
Speaker 1: we admire. Criticism is often a sign of admiration. Because
40:08
Speaker 1: if they didn't want to be you and they didn't
40:11
Speaker 1: see you where they see you, they wouldn't attack you
40:14
Speaker 1: like they attack you. So when you have haters, you
40:17
Speaker 1: ought to thank God because you are significant enough to
40:21
Speaker 1: be attacked. Because if you weren't effective, they wouldn't fight you.
40:26
Speaker 1: Come on, somebody. Yeah, yeah. Don't nobody fight somebody who's losing.
40:34
Speaker 1: Nobody fight somebody who's failing. Nobody wants to stick up
40:39
Speaker 1: a bag lady. She can walk down the roughest part
40:42
Speaker 1: of Chicago pushing her cart and nobody bothers her because
40:47
Speaker 1: nobody thinks she has anything. In order for somebody to
40:50
Speaker 1: want to mug you, they have to respect that you
40:53
Speaker 1: got something. Oh, y'all not talking to me. So you
40:56
Speaker 1: got to begin to understand that these light afflictions, which
41:00
Speaker 1: are but for a moment, work for us a far
41:03
Speaker 1: more exceeding way to go. For we look not at
41:05
Speaker 1: the things that are seen, for the things that are
41:08
Speaker 1: seen are temporal, and the things that are not seen
41:11
Speaker 1: are eternal. Are you in transition tonight? Are you in
41:16
Speaker 1: transition in your life? I'm not just talking about coronavirus.
41:19
Speaker 1: I'm talking about in the entirety of your life. This
41:22
Speaker 1: just made it worse. But are you in transition? Are
41:27
Speaker 1: you trying to follow God and change your perspective of
41:31
Speaker 1: who he is and who you are in him? If
41:35
Speaker 1: you are, you must understand that the God that you
41:39
Speaker 1: perceive on the outside has to come and dwell on
41:42
Speaker 1: the inside and become more intimate and more personal in
41:46
Speaker 1: your life. If this is helping somebody, give them a
41:48
Speaker 1: praise right now. I'm going to take a few minutes
41:54
Speaker 1: and I'm going to begin to answer some of the questions.
41:57
Speaker 1: Put some of the questions up that are coming in.
41:59
Speaker 1: We'll see where we go with them. Thank you, Jesus.
42:08
Speaker 1: Is the coronavirus part of God's plan to wake us up?
42:13
Speaker 1: I am careful about definitively saying what God is doing
42:22
Speaker 1: by any particular thing. Because I have lived long enough
42:26
Speaker 1: to see people misrepresent God in crisis like this. I
42:31
Speaker 1: remember 9-11 and they said that God was trying to
42:35
Speaker 1: purge New York and people are always quick to speak
42:39
Speaker 1: on what God is doing. But the truth of the
42:42
Speaker 1: matter is, I don't know whether it is part of
42:44
Speaker 1: God's plan to wake us up, but I do know
42:47
Speaker 1: that the coronavirus is waking us up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
42:54
Speaker 1: I don't know whether he sent it or whether he
42:57
Speaker 1: allowed the enemy to send it for whatever reason, but
43:01
Speaker 1: I know that one of the benefits of the burden
43:05
Speaker 1: of the coronavirus is that it is waking us up.
43:09
Speaker 1: How is it waking us up? It's waking us up
43:11
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. It's waking us up that
43:14
Speaker 1: the silly bickering we have been doing for the last
43:17
Speaker 1: decades now seems foolish in the face of a real attack.
43:23
Speaker 1: It is waking us up to appreciate the walk of
43:27
Speaker 1: faith in a way that we didn't appreciate it before. See,
43:31
Speaker 1: now you're fighting wanting to come to church, but before
43:35
Speaker 1: when you could come, you were standing home in the bed.
43:40
Speaker 1: And some of the very people who are complaining about
43:42
Speaker 1: not having church weren't half coming when we could have church.
43:46
Speaker 1: Come on, talk to me for a minute, somebody. It
43:48
Speaker 1: is waking up because sometimes we don't appreciate something until
43:52
Speaker 1: it is pulled back from us. And when it is
43:55
Speaker 1: pulled back from us, we have a deeper appreciation. It
43:59
Speaker 1: is waking us up to the perspective that we must
44:01
Speaker 1: bring our church experience into our house. Yeah, it's waking
44:08
Speaker 1: us up to the experience that we must read our Bibles.
44:14
Speaker 1: What happens if they shut us completely down? What happens
44:18
Speaker 1: if we get into a war and we're unable to
44:20
Speaker 1: do it? And to all of you who think that
44:23
Speaker 1: the church cannot survive save we meet, can I take
44:26
Speaker 1: you to China? where the church was meeting underground in
44:31
Speaker 1: basements for years? Can I take you to the upper
44:34
Speaker 1: room where the disciples were locked up behind closed doors
44:37
Speaker 1: for fear of the Jews? The church has often had
44:40
Speaker 1: to go underground. And even when it had to go underground,
44:45
Speaker 1: it has never been destroyed for 2,000 years. Many times
44:49
Speaker 1: we have gone through periods and eras where the church
44:52
Speaker 1: had to go underground to survive. Hitler was trying to
44:56
Speaker 1: kill the church. The enemy has always been after the church,
44:59
Speaker 1: but the church has always survived every attack, whether it
45:03
Speaker 1: was a virus or a man. Jesus said, upon this rock,
45:07
Speaker 1: I will build my church and the gates of hell
45:09
Speaker 1: shall not prevail against it. What is happening now is
45:12
Speaker 1: that this new kind of saints we got now who
45:16
Speaker 1: are more church members than they are saints, are having
45:21
Speaker 1: to become saints in a way they didn't have to
45:24
Speaker 1: before because the pacifier is taken out of your mouth
45:29
Speaker 1: of being able to depend on somebody else to pray
45:32
Speaker 1: for you. Now you got to get down by the
45:34
Speaker 1: side of your bed like your grandmother and pray yourself through.
45:39
Speaker 1: and drive the enemy out of your house. Now you
45:42
Speaker 1: got to go, I'm gonna really go old fashioned and
45:44
Speaker 1: get you some consecrated oil and anoint your house and say, coronavirus,
45:49
Speaker 1: you should not come in my dwelling place. And I
45:51
Speaker 1: anoint the head of my doorpost and I anoint every
45:54
Speaker 1: wall and every window. And you got to walk through
45:56
Speaker 1: your own house and plead the blood and sanctify your space.
46:00
Speaker 1: Since you're in the house anyway, you might as well
46:03
Speaker 1: use it to overcome the enemy that's come against your life. Yes,
46:08
Speaker 1: it's waking us up. It's waking us up. And it
46:12
Speaker 1: is high time that it wake us up. I am
46:15
Speaker 1: just careful about saying what all God is doing because
46:19
Speaker 1: I have learned in my life that sometimes it takes
46:22
Speaker 1: you 20, 30 years and you look back in retrospect
46:26
Speaker 1: to fully comprehend God. What God is doing. Whatever God
46:30
Speaker 1: is doing, I can tell you this, it's bigger than America.
46:36
Speaker 1: Whatever he's doing, it's global. It's reaching all over the world.
46:40
Speaker 1: Whatever he's doing, I don't see us arguing over who's
46:43
Speaker 1: got the biggest weapons anymore. Because God had a weapon
46:47
Speaker 1: that outdid all the weapons we were talking about. I
46:50
Speaker 1: don't see us fighting and arguing between Democrats and Republicans.
46:54
Speaker 1: Sometimes it takes a common enemy To create unity. Thank you, Father.
47:02
Speaker 1: Sometimes it takes a real threat to make you appreciate
47:06
Speaker 1: your spouse. You don't see anybody fussing, oh, I can't
47:11
Speaker 1: stand him. No, now y'all praying together. Now you're trying to, see,
47:16
Speaker 1: sometimes hardships create gratitude. Are you following what I'm saying?
47:23
Speaker 1: I'll take another question. As I get older, my fears
47:26
Speaker 1: seem to be challenging my faith to act on my instincts.
47:32
Speaker 1: How do I overcome? Well, let me say this. Let
47:38
Speaker 1: me just speak for myself. I have never had faith
47:45
Speaker 1: without it being surrounded by fear. The notion that you
47:52
Speaker 1: either have one or the other, destroys the very definition
47:56
Speaker 1: of faith itself. Because faith springs out of the ground
48:03
Speaker 1: and the fertility of fear. Do you hear what I'm
48:08
Speaker 1: saying to you? Now, if there were no fear, there
48:12
Speaker 1: would be no need for faith. Let me show it
48:14
Speaker 1: to you real plain. When the children of Israel got
48:17
Speaker 1: ready to go down into the Red Sea and God
48:20
Speaker 1: made the water stand up on the right and the left,
48:23
Speaker 1: we talk about the faith that they went down into
48:26
Speaker 1: the dry bed with, but we don't talk about the fear.
48:30
Speaker 1: But imagine walls of water 40 feet high, and you
48:34
Speaker 1: got your children walking through walls of water that could
48:37
Speaker 1: collapse at any moment. You don't think there was no fear?
48:41
Speaker 1: The real art to life is not to be controlled
48:45
Speaker 1: by the feeling of fear, but to let faith drive
48:49
Speaker 1: the wheel, even if fear is sitting in the back seat.
48:54
Speaker 1: Y'all don't hear what I'm saying to you. Yeah, because
48:57
Speaker 1: you cannot count on fear to get out of the
49:00
Speaker 1: car in order for you to be mobile. You just
49:03
Speaker 1: don't want fear to drive the car. You want your
49:07
Speaker 1: faith to drive the car. And just because you have,
49:13
Speaker 1: even though you acknowledge the fact that you have a
49:16
Speaker 1: feeling that wants to drive called fear, it's up to
49:21
Speaker 1: you not to turn your car keys over to your
49:24
Speaker 1: fears and be driven by fear. You want to be
49:28
Speaker 1: driven by faith. So I want to encourage you to
49:33
Speaker 1: read Hebrews 11. By faith. Abel offered up a more
49:38
Speaker 1: excellent sacrifice than Cain. By faith, Noah built an ark
49:42
Speaker 1: to the saving of his house. By faith, Enoch walked
49:45
Speaker 1: with God and was not. How did they do it?
49:47
Speaker 1: By faith. That doesn't mean that they didn't have fear,
49:50
Speaker 1: they didn't have problems, they didn't have opposition, they didn't
49:53
Speaker 1: have insecurity. If you're waiting for a clear path before
49:57
Speaker 1: you walk, you don't need faith. You need faith because
50:02
Speaker 1: you're facing fearful times. You understand? Though he slay me,
50:09
Speaker 1: yet shall I trust him. See the paradoxical dilemma of faith,
50:14
Speaker 1: how faith is flourishing in an adverse atmosphere? Now, you
50:20
Speaker 1: as an act of your will have to decide what's
50:23
Speaker 1: going to drive your next move. I'll take another question.
50:28
Speaker 1: The bishop, how do I stay holding to God when
50:31
Speaker 1: I feel more and more depressed daily? I'm sorry you
50:37
Speaker 1: feel depressed. On one hand, I want to dig down
50:41
Speaker 1: into why you feel depressed. Because there is a reason
50:46
Speaker 1: that you're feeling depressed. It can be an emotional reason,
50:49
Speaker 1: it can be a biological reason, or it can be
50:52
Speaker 1: a spiritual reason. And depending on where the depression is
50:55
Speaker 1: coming from, how you ought to handle it. Not everything
51:00
Speaker 1: is resolved just by laying hands on it. Sometimes depression
51:05
Speaker 1: is a result of suppressed anger and frustration and it
51:11
Speaker 1: would be better for me not to lay hands on
51:13
Speaker 1: you but for you to confront the issue that you're
51:16
Speaker 1: angry about so that you can get that anger out
51:19
Speaker 1: because depression is often anger turned inside. Okay, but let's
51:25
Speaker 1: fly up into the higher aspects of your question. How
51:28
Speaker 1: do I stay holding to God when I feel more
51:32
Speaker 1: and more depressed? That's all the more reason you ought
51:35
Speaker 1: to be holding on to God. You cannot let your
51:41
Speaker 1: relationship with God be based on your feelings. The trick,
51:46
Speaker 1: the answer to your question is when I feel your
51:50
Speaker 1: relationship with God is not based on feelings. Your relationship
51:54
Speaker 1: with God is based on his word and the facts
51:58
Speaker 1: of his word. And they often stand in total opposition
52:02
Speaker 1: to your feeling. I'm not a Christian because I feel
52:05
Speaker 1: like one. I'm a Christian when I don't feel like one.
52:09
Speaker 1: I'm not a preacher because I feel like a preacher.
52:11
Speaker 1: I'm a preacher when I don't feel like being a preacher.
52:14
Speaker 1: I don't need my feelings to align with my calling.
52:18
Speaker 1: So let's not give too much power to our feelings
52:23
Speaker 1: because they're going to change in the morning. See, so
52:27
Speaker 1: you can't build no house on sand because sand is
52:31
Speaker 1: not stable and emotions are not stable. And if you
52:34
Speaker 1: build your house on sand, when the storm comes, it's
52:37
Speaker 1: gonna come down. That's conditional circumstances. You have to build
52:42
Speaker 1: on something that won't move and feelings will move. Today
52:45
Speaker 1: I'm happy, tomorrow I'm not. Sometimes before the day is over,
52:49
Speaker 1: my moods change altogether. You cannot base your relationship with
52:55
Speaker 1: God on feelings. Listen, dear heart. You have got to
53:01
Speaker 1: get back into the word of God and build your
53:05
Speaker 1: faith on things that are eternal and hold to God's
53:10
Speaker 1: unchanging hand. You cannot build your faith on feelings and circumstances.
53:17
Speaker 1: I know there is a God because he gave me
53:19
Speaker 1: a husband. I know there is a God because he
53:22
Speaker 1: put the dress on sale. I know there is a
53:24
Speaker 1: God because I got the mortgage approved. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
53:29
Speaker 1: I know there is a God if there is no house.
53:31
Speaker 1: I know there is a God if my spouse leaves me.
53:34
Speaker 1: I know there is a God if I'm shut up
53:37
Speaker 1: in a hospital. Oh! Because my faith is not built
53:40
Speaker 1: on my circumstances. If your faith is built on your circumstances,
53:45
Speaker 1: all the enemy has to do to kill your faith
53:48
Speaker 1: is attack your circumstances. The reason he couldn't bring Job
53:51
Speaker 1: down is Job's faith was never in Job's possessions. You
53:56
Speaker 1: got to build your faith on the integrity of God's word.
54:00
Speaker 1: And we have got to wean this church we have
54:04
Speaker 1: today from leaning on conditional circumstances rather than building your
54:10
Speaker 1: faith on the integrity of God's word. Are you hearing
54:14
Speaker 1: what I'm saying to you? This next question, I'm going
54:16
Speaker 1: to take this next question. We doing all right? Everybody good?
54:20
Speaker 1: Everybody with me? Let's do this thing. How do you
54:23
Speaker 1: explain all that is currently going on to your children,
54:27
Speaker 1: especially if you have raised them to pray and trust God? One,
54:32
Speaker 1: the fact that you've raised them to pray and trust
54:34
Speaker 1: God does not mean that because we have trouble, this
54:38
Speaker 1: in some way is an indictment against prayer. You wouldn't, listen,
54:46
Speaker 1: I would need to trust this chair if I wasn't
54:49
Speaker 1: gonna put weight on it. You see, the whole notion
54:57
Speaker 1: of trusting God means I trust you when the circumstances
55:02
Speaker 1: are against me. So what you want to do is
55:06
Speaker 1: teach your children to believe God and to trust God,
55:10
Speaker 1: but to differentiate God from Santa Claus. He didn't just
55:17
Speaker 1: come down the chimney to give you good stuff. Sometimes
55:21
Speaker 1: God orders sunshine and sometimes he orders rain. Sometimes he
55:25
Speaker 1: orders pleasure and sometimes he orders pain. Well, why should
55:29
Speaker 1: I serve him if he's gonna order pain? Because sometimes
55:32
Speaker 1: pain is what it takes to get you into your purpose. See,
55:36
Speaker 1: so it might not be good, but all things are
55:39
Speaker 1: gonna work together for good. So you begin to teach
55:43
Speaker 1: the children. This is a trial of our faith. And
55:47
Speaker 1: this is a season that we're going through right now.
55:50
Speaker 1: And we're going to lean and trust God to take
55:53
Speaker 1: us through those circumstances and to bring us out safely.
55:57
Speaker 1: And so we're going to pray tonight and we're going
55:59
Speaker 1: to trust God. And you must understand that our faith
56:03
Speaker 1: is being challenged by a virus that has been talked
56:08
Speaker 1: about since January. I know people whose faith had been
56:12
Speaker 1: tested by hundreds of years of slavery. See how many
56:20
Speaker 1: weeks are we into this? Let's go back to the Holocaust.
56:25
Speaker 1: Let's look at how long the saints were persecuted. Let's
56:28
Speaker 1: tell your children about how the disciples were crucified upside
56:33
Speaker 1: down and thrown into snake pits and died. Tell them
56:36
Speaker 1: how Stephen was stoned and he died looking up into heaven.
56:40
Speaker 1: We got to teach a real faith, not a candy
56:43
Speaker 1: cane faith. A real faith. A faith that struggles. A
56:47
Speaker 1: faith that wrestles. A faith that fights back. And you
56:51
Speaker 1: start that early. Every time I think about this, I
56:57
Speaker 1: get emotional. Every day of my life, I thank God
57:01
Speaker 1: for the way my parents raised me, because they were tough.
57:05
Speaker 1: They were rough. They didn't give you a whole lot
57:08
Speaker 1: of anything. Borrowing money from my mother, you just as
57:11
Speaker 1: soon go to the Internal Revenue and try to get
57:14
Speaker 1: them to pay your taxes. Yeah, because she raised you
57:18
Speaker 1: not to expect something for nothing. We have got to
57:22
Speaker 1: stop creating a euphoric world for our children, trying to
57:29
Speaker 1: give them everything that we didn't get because in the
57:32
Speaker 1: process of giving them everything that we didn't get, we're
57:36
Speaker 1: not going to get the results that we became from
57:39
Speaker 1: the hardships we encountered. So prepare them for a real world.
57:45
Speaker 1: Some days, it's going to be a Disney World kind
57:48
Speaker 1: of day. And other days, you're going to not feel
57:52
Speaker 1: like getting out of the bed. But when you don't
57:55
Speaker 1: feel like getting out of the bed, and when you
57:58
Speaker 1: are afraid, you keep going. This is a great opportunity
58:02
Speaker 1: to teach your children obedience, boundaries, structure, order. And you
58:10
Speaker 1: can teach it if you are not terrified yourself. But
58:16
Speaker 1: it's hard to teach a child something that hadn't fully
58:21
Speaker 1: penetrated the parent. In other words, if you're afraid, they're
58:27
Speaker 1: gonna be afraid. I tell my children all the time,
58:30
Speaker 1: don't be scared until you see me get scared. Yeah,
58:34
Speaker 1: don't be scared until you see me get scared. And
58:36
Speaker 1: I live by that. I'm on a plane, I can't
58:38
Speaker 1: fly a plane. And as long as the pilot don't
58:42
Speaker 1: come out of that door white as a sheet, I'm good.
58:46
Speaker 1: But the day the pilot comes out the door and says,
58:48
Speaker 1: oh my God, we got a problem. I don't know
58:51
Speaker 1: what he's talking about, but I'm worried about it. As
58:53
Speaker 1: a driver, as a leader, all my leaders listen at me.
58:57
Speaker 1: You cannot allow your feelings to be projected on your passengers.
59:04
Speaker 1: You can't vent on your children. You have to be steadfast.
59:11
Speaker 1: because when you are not steadfast, you represent their whole world.
59:16
Speaker 1: So this is a great opportunity to teach them about life,
59:20
Speaker 1: that things come out of nowhere. Change all your plans.
59:25
Speaker 1: Rearrange all your affairs. But your adaptability quotient has to
59:30
Speaker 1: be so designed that you adapt to change. I know
59:35
Speaker 1: you thought we were gonna go away on vacation. Now
59:38
Speaker 1: we're not gonna go, we're gonna have a staycation. So
59:41
Speaker 1: take the sheet off the bed and let's make a tent.
59:46
Speaker 1: And let's learn how to play with what we got.
59:48
Speaker 1: Let's do some creativity in here. This is an opportunity.
59:53
Speaker 1: It's not an opposition, it's an opportunity to teach your
59:56
Speaker 1: children the reality. Because if you don't take this opportunity,
59:59
Speaker 1: when they get out in the real world and something
1:00:02
Speaker 1: happens out of the blue, they don't know how to
1:00:03
Speaker 1: handle it. See, because we have created this world of
1:00:09
Speaker 1: euphoria that's really not real. This is real. I'm sorry,
1:00:13
Speaker 1: I don't like it, I don't want it, I want
1:00:16
Speaker 1: it to be over too, but this is real. And
1:00:20
Speaker 1: we have to operate without boundaries. We have to obey laws.
1:00:23
Speaker 1: We have to respect leadership. This is a great opportunity
1:00:27
Speaker 1: to teach your children a lot of life lessons and
1:00:30
Speaker 1: how to be happy in confinement. That you don't need
1:00:36
Speaker 1: all these people to make you happy. Oh, I can
1:00:39
Speaker 1: think of so many things that you can teach from this.
1:00:42
Speaker 1: I'm excited. I want to teach your child myself. Glory
1:00:46
Speaker 1: to God. This is going to be good. Do you
1:00:48
Speaker 1: think the current... A coronavirus situation will cause a shift
1:00:53
Speaker 1: in how we experience church after all of this is over.
1:00:57
Speaker 1: I hope so. I hope that when all of this
1:01:03
Speaker 1: is over, we have a deeper appreciation for the right
1:01:09
Speaker 1: and the privilege to come together and worship. I hope
1:01:12
Speaker 1: that we'll get up out of the bed a little
1:01:14
Speaker 1: bit more and drive to service a little bit more. Yeah.
1:01:18
Speaker 1: I hope that the scarcity of this moment would increase
1:01:21
Speaker 1: our Bible study so that when I'm preaching, I don't
1:01:26
Speaker 1: have to always go back to fundamentals before I can
1:01:29
Speaker 1: build on it because you have a foundation. I hope
1:01:31
Speaker 1: that it does that for us. I hope that it
1:01:33
Speaker 1: makes us love one another more. I hope that it
1:01:37
Speaker 1: makes us reach out across generations more. I hope it
1:01:41
Speaker 1: makes young people care for the elderly. Elderly respect the
1:01:45
Speaker 1: young people in a way that sometimes we're at odds
1:01:48
Speaker 1: with each other and we don't need to be. And
1:01:50
Speaker 1: now we're in a situation where we need each other.
1:01:53
Speaker 1: Now I need the grandchild to go to the grocery
1:01:55
Speaker 1: store for me. Might not be able to go for myself.
1:01:58
Speaker 1: Those kinds of opportunities either make you weaker or wiser.
1:02:03
Speaker 1: How you handle it is up to you. Is there
1:02:06
Speaker 1: another question? I feel like my faith is on trial.
1:02:13
Speaker 1: Any words of encouragement? First of all, me too. I
1:02:19
Speaker 1: have had periods that I didn't feel like my faith
1:02:21
Speaker 1: was on trial, but I'm in a period now that
1:02:23
Speaker 1: I think that my faith is on trial. And it's
1:02:25
Speaker 1: not necessarily about coronavirus, but anytime there is going to
1:02:29
Speaker 1: be elevation, there's generally preceded by frustrations. And the fact
1:02:36
Speaker 1: that I feel like my faith is on trial is
1:02:38
Speaker 1: not necessarily a bad thing. Because a lot of times
1:02:44
Speaker 1: I think we have been taught faith wrongly. That we
1:02:47
Speaker 1: think that faith is magic. And that we're using our
1:02:51
Speaker 1: faith just to get what we want. But faith aptly
1:02:56
Speaker 1: taught says if I don't get what I want, I
1:03:01
Speaker 1: still believe God. See, others not accepting deliverance that they
1:03:06
Speaker 1: might obtain a better resurrection. Some dwelt in caves. See,
1:03:11
Speaker 1: the Bible doesn't teach faith that always ends up in
1:03:14
Speaker 1: a mansion. The Bible is open that some of the
1:03:18
Speaker 1: people with the greatest faith hid in caves. So don't
1:03:23
Speaker 1: think that your faith is on trial because your conditions
1:03:26
Speaker 1: are being tested. It might be that your choices are
1:03:31
Speaker 1: on trial. Oh, wow. See, because a lot of times
1:03:38
Speaker 1: we are not where we are because of the weakness
1:03:40
Speaker 1: of our faith. Sometimes we are where we are by
1:03:44
Speaker 1: the poverty of our decisions. So before you think that
1:03:52
Speaker 1: you are where you are because you didn't believe God
1:03:55
Speaker 1: and God didn't come through for you and all of that,
1:03:58
Speaker 1: I've got a whole litany of things I go through
1:04:00
Speaker 1: before I get to that. Is there anything that I
1:04:02
Speaker 1: did that brought this on myself? Is there a better
1:04:06
Speaker 1: choice I could have made? Am I handling my money correctly?
1:04:09
Speaker 1: Am I living beyond my means? What do I need
1:04:13
Speaker 1: to do before I even get to what does God
1:04:16
Speaker 1: need to do? You see what I'm saying? Because just
1:04:20
Speaker 1: because you're going through adversity doesn't mean you don't have faith.
1:04:25
Speaker 1: Just because Peter was in a storm didn't mean that
1:04:28
Speaker 1: there wasn't faith on the boat. Jesus was on the boat.
1:04:32
Speaker 1: But that didn't mean the storm didn't come. So don't
1:04:35
Speaker 1: think it's strange that fiery trials have come against you
1:04:39
Speaker 1: to try your faith. Don't think that's odd. That's supposed
1:04:42
Speaker 1: to happen. That's not a demotion. You're not gonna ever
1:04:45
Speaker 1: outgrow that. As far as I can tell, up to 62,
1:04:50
Speaker 1: there's always gonna be something that tries your faith. There's
1:04:54
Speaker 1: gonna be some gymnasium that God puts your faith in
1:04:58
Speaker 1: to work out in. That's what problems are. They're gymnasiums
1:05:02
Speaker 1: for your faith to work out in. And when God
1:05:05
Speaker 1: gets ready for your faith to get strong, he puts
1:05:08
Speaker 1: resistance in your life because you'll never build up strength
1:05:14
Speaker 1: without resistance. Hallelujah. Oh, glory to God. You'll never be
1:05:18
Speaker 1: strong without resistance. You'll never be tenacious without resistance. The
1:05:23
Speaker 1: resistance is good that we've been afflicted because through all
1:05:26
Speaker 1: of that, you become tough like our ancestors before us.
1:05:31
Speaker 1: What we call tribulation today, our ancestors would call Kool-Aid.
1:05:37
Speaker 1: Come on, somebody. What we call, oh, my God, lost
1:05:41
Speaker 1: my car. They never had one. See, a lot of
1:05:45
Speaker 1: it is we're conditioned to things that fluctuate. How do
1:05:52
Speaker 1: you handle being alone in times of trouble? That's a
1:05:58
Speaker 1: very good question. On one hand, we all go through
1:06:03
Speaker 1: periods of aloneness whether we are alone or not. You
1:06:08
Speaker 1: can be, you don't have to be alone to be lonely. Okay.
1:06:15
Speaker 1: Finding some safe place. And I'm not just answering your question.
1:06:21
Speaker 1: I'm also discerning you that sent the question. Finding some
1:06:27
Speaker 1: safe place where you can talk is very therapeutic. Now,
1:06:34
Speaker 1: that safe place may not be a permanent friend. It
1:06:38
Speaker 1: might be a temporary encounter. It might be a counselor.
1:06:41
Speaker 1: It might be a pastor. It might be a minister
1:06:44
Speaker 1: at your church. But choose wisely. In times of trouble,
1:06:51
Speaker 1: it's really not company that you need. It's sound wisdom.
1:06:58
Speaker 1: So this is not just about being lonely in times
1:07:02
Speaker 1: of trouble. This is about getting insight in times of trouble.
1:07:07
Speaker 1: Because you're really feeling alone because you're thinking inside of yourself.
1:07:13
Speaker 1: I do that sometimes. It's like I grew up in
1:07:15
Speaker 1: West Virginia and your wheels would get on ice and
1:07:18
Speaker 1: they'd be spinning and rubber would be burning and you're
1:07:21
Speaker 1: burning gas but you're not getting anywhere. Anytime you think
1:07:24
Speaker 1: the same thing five times, you're not thinking, you're worrying.
1:07:30
Speaker 1: Anytime you keep rehearsing the same thing over and over again,
1:07:32
Speaker 1: what am I going to do about this? Oh, my God,
1:07:34
Speaker 1: what am I going to do about it? If I
1:07:35
Speaker 1: don't do something, something's going to happen. Oh, it's coming
1:07:38
Speaker 1: back Thursday, and I don't know what I'm going to do.
1:07:40
Speaker 1: At first I was thinking, but if I keep repeating it,
1:07:43
Speaker 1: I'm just worrying. And you're never going to get the
1:07:47
Speaker 1: answers you need just by worrying. I'm going to take
1:07:51
Speaker 1: one more question, then I'm going to close. How do
1:07:55
Speaker 1: I draw closer to God in prayer? I love that question.
1:08:03
Speaker 1: The more real he becomes in your life, the easier
1:08:09
Speaker 1: it is to pray. Now let's back that all the
1:08:12
Speaker 1: way back and unpack that for a minute. When you
1:08:15
Speaker 1: first start praying, you don't really feel like anybody's listening
1:08:22
Speaker 1: because it's awkward because we are sensual. What do you
1:08:27
Speaker 1: mean by sensual? You mean I'm sexy? You might be,
1:08:30
Speaker 1: but that's not what I mean. There's a difference between
1:08:34
Speaker 1: being sexual and being sensual. Sensual means that we have
1:08:41
Speaker 1: a tendency to gravitate to that that titillates our senses. Eyes, ear, smell, touch, mouth,
1:08:51
Speaker 1: all those things are sensual through which we sense the world, okay?
1:08:58
Speaker 1: Prayer does not allow you to operate in your senses
1:09:04
Speaker 1: because you can't see God you can't audibly hear him
1:09:09
Speaker 1: answer you now you have to work on another set
1:09:12
Speaker 1: of senses did you know that we have another complete
1:09:16
Speaker 1: set of senses yes We have spiritual senses. The Bible says,
1:09:22
Speaker 1: I think it's in Hebrews 13, I'm not sure, that
1:09:26
Speaker 1: our senses are exercised by reason of use. So when
1:09:32
Speaker 1: we first start praying, it might be mechanical. It might
1:09:36
Speaker 1: be mundane. But if you keep praying, after a while,
1:09:41
Speaker 1: it becomes something that you can sense and that you
1:09:43
Speaker 1: can feel and that you can commune with God. And
1:09:46
Speaker 1: you rush to do it. You rush to do it.
1:09:49
Speaker 1: You can't wait to do it. Oh, God, I've got
1:09:52
Speaker 1: to talk to you. Oh, God, I need you right now.
1:09:55
Speaker 1: I want you right now in my spirit and in
1:09:57
Speaker 1: my life. And sometimes it's the only place where you
1:09:59
Speaker 1: can find peace. Sometimes he's the only one you can trust.
1:10:05
Speaker 1: Sometimes he's the only one you can really open up to.
1:10:09
Speaker 1: But that happens by reason of use. And then you
1:10:13
Speaker 1: discern him more clearly. And all of a sudden you
1:10:16
Speaker 1: can hear him in what your Bible calls your inner ear. Yeah.
1:10:22
Speaker 1: You can literally hear him, not in your natural ear,
1:10:25
Speaker 1: but in your spiritual ear. And you can sense him
1:10:28
Speaker 1: in the room. When God's glory comes in the room,
1:10:30
Speaker 1: you can sense his presence in the room. You know
1:10:33
Speaker 1: that he just walked in the room. Ah, bless his name.
1:10:37
Speaker 1: The choir can be singing. And the point where the
1:10:39
Speaker 1: glory comes in, everybody can sense the glory of God.
1:10:43
Speaker 1: Those senses I'm talking about are exercised by reason of use.
1:10:50
Speaker 1: They're asking me to answer two more questions. Yes. I'll
1:10:56
Speaker 1: do it. Put it up there. I have been trying
1:10:59
Speaker 1: my best to stay positive during this trial. How do
1:11:04
Speaker 1: I bring God and the Holy Spirit into the health
1:11:08
Speaker 1: care facility I work at to boost morales and show
1:11:13
Speaker 1: them God has got this? That's a very good question.
1:11:19
Speaker 1: I don't think that there's a way in the world
1:11:21
Speaker 1: that you could leave him out if you came in.
1:11:28
Speaker 1: You're asking me, how do I bring God and the
1:11:31
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit into the healthcare facility that you work in?
1:11:35
Speaker 1: He walked in in you. And as soon as you
1:11:41
Speaker 1: grasp that he may have not even put you there
1:11:45
Speaker 1: to make the money, oh, hallelujah, that you're on assignment
1:11:51
Speaker 1: in that place, And that when you walked in, the
1:11:55
Speaker 1: temple of the Lord walked into that health care facility.
1:12:00
Speaker 1: And I'm going to give you another little tip that
1:12:02
Speaker 1: will really help you. Sometimes influencing the morale of the
1:12:06
Speaker 1: people and show them that God has got this is
1:12:09
Speaker 1: not about what you say. It's what you do. It's
1:12:14
Speaker 1: the atmosphere you create when you walk in the room.
1:12:18
Speaker 1: It's the jovial disposition that you have. It's the care
1:12:22
Speaker 1: with which you touch them. And all of a sudden,
1:12:25
Speaker 1: your kindness creates opportunities for your witness. It's not where
1:12:31
Speaker 1: your witness creates opportunity for your kindness. Your kindness creates
1:12:35
Speaker 1: opportunity for your witness. Because they're going to want to know,
1:12:39
Speaker 1: how can you be that upbeat? How can you be
1:12:42
Speaker 1: singing this morning? Why are you always so happy? And
1:12:46
Speaker 1: it opens up a way, well, my peace comes from
1:12:48
Speaker 1: the Lord. And you can give that testimony because when
1:12:54
Speaker 1: you walked in that place, God, his Holy Spirit, his angels,
1:13:00
Speaker 1: his authority, his healing, his deliverance, all walked in, all
1:13:06
Speaker 1: walked in with you. So you don't have to get
1:13:09
Speaker 1: in there and talk God into coming. If you got
1:13:12
Speaker 1: in there, he's in there with you too. Amen. If
1:13:15
Speaker 1: you make your bed in hell, the Bible says, he's there.
1:13:18
Speaker 1: If you take your wings and fly to the uttermost
1:13:21
Speaker 1: parts of the earth, he's there. If they lock you
1:13:23
Speaker 1: in jail, look at Paul in silence. At midnight, wherever
1:13:27
Speaker 1: you go, God is still there. God is still there.
1:13:32
Speaker 1: Comfort yourself with those words. Let them know that God
1:13:36
Speaker 1: is with them in this season of their life. Let
1:13:38
Speaker 1: them know that the God that brought them through all
1:13:40
Speaker 1: of those years will be with them all the way
1:13:43
Speaker 1: back home. Let them know that the God that birthed
1:13:46
Speaker 1: them into the world and that they came out of
1:13:48
Speaker 1: their mother's womb and fell into his arms will be
1:13:51
Speaker 1: the same arms that tucked them into bed as they
1:13:54
Speaker 1: get ready to go back to the God that gave them.
1:13:56
Speaker 1: Let him know that he is Alpha and Omega, the
1:13:59
Speaker 1: beginning and the end. He is God in life. He
1:14:02
Speaker 1: is God over death. He's God over every stage of
1:14:05
Speaker 1: their lives. Let them know that aging is not failure.
1:14:11
Speaker 1: It's success. Old age is a reward for people who
1:14:16
Speaker 1: live right and make good choices. It's a benefit. It's
1:14:21
Speaker 1: a benefit. It's a blessing to grow old. It's a
1:14:24
Speaker 1: blessing to grow. What's sad is a short casket. Oh
1:14:29
Speaker 1: but a life well lived is a testimony. Thank you Jesus.
1:14:35
Speaker 1: Let's not abhor old age. Let's welcome it. That's why
1:14:41
Speaker 1: I wear my gray hair. I earned this gray. I
1:14:45
Speaker 1: earned this gray. I earned every strand of it. Glory
1:14:48
Speaker 1: to God. It's my crown. It's my grown man stuff. Hallelujah.
1:14:54
Speaker 1: I endured affliction. I wear this gray hair to remind
1:14:58
Speaker 1: myself that when I was suicidal, it didn't work. And
1:15:01
Speaker 1: I lived to be the age I am. This is
1:15:04
Speaker 1: success on my face. Oh, bless his name. Hallelujah. I
1:15:07
Speaker 1: don't know if I'm helping anybody or not. Hallelujah. Don't
1:15:11
Speaker 1: despise age. Don't despise age. Appreciate it. Glory to God.
1:15:17
Speaker 1: And all the people who despise it, you just wait.
1:15:20
Speaker 1: You hope to be lucky enough to get here. If
1:15:25
Speaker 1: God cover you and you make enough good choices and
1:15:28
Speaker 1: you're kind enough, you might get here. You might get here.
1:15:33
Speaker 1: Bishop just was wondering, could you do a worldwide prayer
1:15:37
Speaker 1: right now? I can always pray. I don't know if
1:15:41
Speaker 1: it's worldwide, but I can always pray. I can pray
1:15:45
Speaker 1: for the world. I can pray for you right now.
1:15:49
Speaker 1: And I think this is a good thing to do.
1:15:51
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you to stand with me as
1:15:53
Speaker 1: we do it. All over the world, there's chaos. All
1:15:58
Speaker 1: over the world, there's hunger. All over the world, there's poverty.
1:16:03
Speaker 1: And all over the world, there's pain. All over the world,
1:16:07
Speaker 1: there's political unrest. All over the world, there is disease.
1:16:12
Speaker 1: All over the world, there's disorientation. All over the world,
1:16:16
Speaker 1: there are people with dreams wondering how will they be realized.
1:16:21
Speaker 1: All over the world, there is turmoil. There is no
1:16:25
Speaker 1: place on the planet that sin didn't reach. No tribe,
1:16:29
Speaker 1: no culture, no color, no language of people that do
1:16:34
Speaker 1: not wrestle with their flesh. All over the world sin
1:16:39
Speaker 1: did abound. But the Bible said where sin did abound,
1:16:43
Speaker 1: grace did much more abound. All over the world the
1:16:47
Speaker 1: blood of Jesus will prevail. All over the world, the
1:16:50
Speaker 1: name of Jesus is high and lifted up and worthy
1:16:53
Speaker 1: to be prayed. All over the world, God is a healer.
1:16:56
Speaker 1: There's not a place in the world you can go
1:16:58
Speaker 1: that there's no power in Jesus' name. So as we pray,
1:17:02
Speaker 1: wherever you're watching from, it may be the middle of
1:17:06
Speaker 1: the night, you may be over in Europe somewhere watching
1:17:08
Speaker 1: me so sleepy you can't keep your eyes open. You
1:17:11
Speaker 1: may be in South Africa in the middle of the
1:17:13
Speaker 1: night watching me right now. It must be about four
1:17:16
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning over there. I'm praying for you.
1:17:19
Speaker 1: Glory to God. You might be in Hawaii watching me
1:17:22
Speaker 1: right now. I'm praying for you. Even though I'm a
1:17:25
Speaker 1: day ahead of you, I'm praying backwards and forwards. Hallelujah.
1:17:29
Speaker 1: Prayer doesn't have time zones. Prayer doesn't worry about calendars.
1:17:34
Speaker 1: Prayer doesn't watch the watch or care about the clock. Father,
1:17:38
Speaker 1: in the name of Jesus, as we come together in prayer, hallelujah,
1:17:44
Speaker 1: prayer knows no boundaries. We're right where I am. There's
1:17:47
Speaker 1: telling us to distance ourselves. But prayer is my hookup.
1:17:51
Speaker 1: It's my connection. It brings us into unity and fellowship.
1:17:55
Speaker 1: And I pray for pain all over the world. I
1:17:59
Speaker 1: pray for people in the hospital. I pray for families
1:18:02
Speaker 1: that are in divorce and trials and tests. I pray
1:18:05
Speaker 1: for emotions that are distraught and mental disorders and physical
1:18:10
Speaker 1: disorders and those that are wrestling with the virus and
1:18:13
Speaker 1: those who have lost loved ones and those who have
1:18:16
Speaker 1: incurred tragedies that are not even on our radar. While
1:18:20
Speaker 1: we're talking about one thing, somebody's fighting something else. I
1:18:23
Speaker 1: rebuke cancer and hypertension and lung disorders. I pray for
1:18:27
Speaker 1: my brother-in-law. I pray for my neighbors. I pray for
1:18:31
Speaker 1: my friends. I pray for people in South America and
1:18:34
Speaker 1: in Africa and in Europe and Japan and China and
1:18:38
Speaker 1: Australia and New Zealand. I pray for the Caribbean islands.
1:18:42
Speaker 1: I pray for wherever there is faith. I pray that
1:18:44
Speaker 1: God would touch amongst all the languages of the world
1:18:48
Speaker 1: that the hand of the Lord would make itself resident
1:18:50
Speaker 1: and known. Minister to the needs of your people, whether
1:18:54
Speaker 1: they're in the slums of Soweto or whether they're in
1:18:57
Speaker 1: the mansions of Hollywood. Prayer knows no boundaries. Go there
1:19:01
Speaker 1: now in the name of Jesus. Find them, Lord, in
1:19:04
Speaker 1: the name of Jesus. In the bush, in Kenya. Find them, Lord,
1:19:09
Speaker 1: right now in the name of Jesus in Watson, Los Angeles.
1:19:13
Speaker 1: Find them now. Walk in the street in South Chicago.
1:19:17
Speaker 1: Find them right now. God, in the name of Jesus,
1:19:20
Speaker 1: blanket the world with your love and your peace and
1:19:24
Speaker 1: your power because you're God all by yourself. You're not
1:19:27
Speaker 1: just an American God. You're the God of the whole earth.
1:19:31
Speaker 1: You sit on the circle of the earth. Everything is
1:19:34
Speaker 1: up under your power. My God, tonight, in the name
1:19:38
Speaker 1: of Jesus, let healing flow. Let it flow right now.
1:19:43
Speaker 1: Let it go into Italy. Hallelujah. Let it go into
1:19:47
Speaker 1: the Vatican. Let it walk up and down the streets
1:19:50
Speaker 1: of Rome. Hallelujah. Oh my God, I lift up sick
1:19:54
Speaker 1: people and disease and hurting people and dysentery and infections
1:20:00
Speaker 1: and disorders and mental disorders and strife and confusion and
1:20:04
Speaker 1: autism and arthritis and every kind of disease. I lift
1:20:13
Speaker 1: up Alzheimer's and kidney failure. I lift up blindness and
1:20:19
Speaker 1: blood diseases. I lift up the HIV positive and those
1:20:23
Speaker 1: that are wrestling with AIDS. I lift them up before
1:20:27
Speaker 1: you in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. I lift up
1:20:30
Speaker 1: worried parents that are sitting in waiting rooms praying over
1:20:33
Speaker 1: children wondering what the outcome is going to be. I
1:20:37
Speaker 1: lift up parents that are sick and diseased and aged
1:20:40
Speaker 1: and don't recognize their children but the children recognize them. God,
1:20:44
Speaker 1: let your power overshadow every situation. For thine is the kingdom,
1:20:51
Speaker 1: the power, and the glory forever and ever and ever. Amen.
1:21:01
Speaker 1: Give God the best praise you've got right now. My
1:21:08
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters, you ought to praise him right where
1:21:10
Speaker 1: you are. In your living room, sitting on the couch.
1:21:13
Speaker 1: on your job, wherever, in the hospital, you ought to
1:21:16
Speaker 1: lift up some hands and give God some glory right now. Comforter. Comforter. Comforter.
1:21:25
Speaker 1: When we think about the Holy Spirit, we think of
1:21:28
Speaker 1: him comforting like this. But in the original language, it
1:21:36
Speaker 1: is not comfort like this. The word is perikletes. Okay. Okay.
1:21:42
Speaker 1: one who stands alongside to help. The comforter is help.
1:21:48
Speaker 1: A paraclete is on the loading dock when you got
1:21:52
Speaker 1: something really heavy and you can't lift it. There's an
1:21:56
Speaker 1: apparatus called a paraclete. The paraclete makes you able to
1:22:01
Speaker 1: lift stuff that you couldn't lift because it leverages. If
1:22:07
Speaker 1: I tried to lift it in my own strength, I
1:22:10
Speaker 1: couldn't do it. and I would fail in my own strength.
1:22:15
Speaker 1: But if I just take a chain and hook it
1:22:17
Speaker 1: to the paraclete, I can pull it up easier because
1:22:21
Speaker 1: I got help. You see, that's what the Holy Ghost is.
1:22:28
Speaker 1: You better pay attention this year, because some of the
1:22:33
Speaker 1: stuff you're gonna grab, you're not gonna have the strength
1:22:37
Speaker 1: to lift. But don't give up on your vision. You
1:22:46
Speaker 1: got to call on the paraclete.
1:22:49
Speaker 2: Say, I couldn't lift this in my own strength, but
1:22:53
Speaker 2: I have a comforter that is a paraclete that gives
1:22:58
Speaker 2: me strength that's not my own. And he says, when
1:23:01
Speaker 2: you go in, I'm going in with you. When you
1:23:05
Speaker 2: go after it, I'm going after it with you. When
1:23:08
Speaker 2: you get in the fight, I'm in the fight with you.
1:23:12
Speaker 2: I'm going to stand alongside you to help. And when
1:23:16
Speaker 2: you run.
1:23:17
Speaker 1: Out of strength, that's when I'm going to kick you in.
1:23:25
Speaker 1: I will not leave you comfortless.