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Purpose in my Prison - Bishop T.D. Jakes · Pst T.D Jakes -The POTTER'S HOUSE

• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I want you to go to Ephesians chapter 3 verse
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: 7 through 12. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 7 through 12.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: In this moment we interrupt Paul in mid-sentence. as he
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: writes to the beloved church at Ephesus. A word, a
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: confirming word, a centralized word that sets him in the
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: center of his purpose individually and theirs collectively and what
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  Speaker 1: he will call the eternal purpose of God. Beginning at
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: verse seven. Whereof I was made a minister according to
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the gift of the grace of God given unto me
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: am less than the least of all saints, is this
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: unsearchable riches of Christ, And to make all men see
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of the world hath been hid in God who
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: created all things by Jesus Christ. To the intent that
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  Speaker 1: now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might
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  Speaker 1: be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: according to the, watch this, eternal purpose, which he hath
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  Speaker 1: purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Come on, somebody. In
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  Speaker 1: whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the
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  Speaker 1: faith Of him, good God, all mercy. I want to
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: talk a few moments about purpose in my prison. Purpose
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: in my prison. Let's pray while we're standing. Spirit of
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  Speaker 1: the living God, Breathe on us. Breathe on this word.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Like a smoldering, flickering flame, breathe on it till it
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  Speaker 1: blazes with the fire of your presence. I thank you.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I extol thee. I adore thee. I exalt thee. I
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  Speaker 1: honor thee. I humble myself before you to speak in
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  Speaker 1: this place today. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: About 33, 34 years ago, I guess, I was living
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: in St. Albans, West Virginia, and contemplating making a move
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: to Dallas. But in the meantime, I was traveling around
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  Speaker 1: the country preaching. I would travel by myself everywhere all
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  Speaker 1: the time. Sometimes by the time I got back to
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  Speaker 1: my room, I was wet and I was tired. One time,
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  Speaker 1: I was so tired, I slid down the wall onto
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  Speaker 1: the floor and fell asleep in my clothes, wet. But
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  Speaker 1: I traveled by myself. When I got back home, a
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  Speaker 1: gentleman named Holloway Gray, who was my senior deacon at
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  Speaker 1: the time, came to me and said, I want to
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  Speaker 1: quit my job and go with you and travel with
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  Speaker 1: you everywhere you go. And I said, that's nice. But
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  Speaker 1: I didn't. I wasn't really sure. I wanted nobody to
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  Speaker 1: travel with me everywhere I went. That's number one. Number two,
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  Speaker 1: you got a good job working for Columbia Gas Company,
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  Speaker 1: and you've been there a long time, and you're going
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: to get a pension. You're going to be well. I
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: don't want to be responsible for a setback Number three,
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  Speaker 1: I'm living by faith. I don't know what's going to
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  Speaker 1: happen from day to day, and I don't want to
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  Speaker 1: invite you into the vortex of this faith experience because
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  Speaker 1: this is not for the faint of heart. Sometimes it's feast,
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes it's famine. Sometimes they don't tell you the truth,
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes the check pounds. Hi, Denise. I didn't know
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  Speaker 1: you were sitting out there talking about her husband. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: he was my best friend. And he got, Holloway had
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  Speaker 1: a temper. So I don't know what about my answer
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  Speaker 1: gave him an attitude, but he had an attitude. I
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  Speaker 1: mean a big old attitude. He said, I'm just as
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  Speaker 1: called in my ministry as you are to yours. Yes.
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  Speaker 1: got smart with me, walked out the door, slammed the door,
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  Speaker 1: and went on about his business. And I thought to myself,
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  Speaker 1: could that be possible? That somebody's actually called to help you? See,
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  Speaker 1: I was used to be surrounded by people who were
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  Speaker 1: called to help themselves. And it sounded foreign to me
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  Speaker 1: that somebody could feel that convicted about helping you. And
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  Speaker 1: as we traveled, we went all over the world together.
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  Speaker 1: We went all over the world through time zones and
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  Speaker 1: airplanes and helicopters and boats and canoes with water, no water,
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  Speaker 1: with toilets, no toilets. We went everywhere together. And as
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  Speaker 1: he would go from place to place, people would tell him,
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  Speaker 1: you won't be a preacher. He said, no, I'm not.
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  Speaker 1: He said, I'm not going to be no preacher. They
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  Speaker 1: recognized that there was an anointing on him and they
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  Speaker 1: wanted to ascribe an assignment to him. But he was
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  Speaker 1: so sure of his purpose that he did not see
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  Speaker 1: being a preacher as an elevation if it meant forsaking
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  Speaker 1: his purpose. Amen. It is rare to find somebody who
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  Speaker 1: is sure that they are living on purpose. That you
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  Speaker 1: are doing that thing that you were created to do.
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  Speaker 1: That thing that releases endorphins when you do it. That
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  Speaker 1: thing that gives you energy when you do it. The
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  Speaker 1: thing that makes you innovative and creative when you do it.
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  Speaker 1: That thing that you think about and you enjoy doing
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  Speaker 1: and you don't even realize you're working because you're doing
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  Speaker 1: the thing you were created to do. The thing that
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  Speaker 1: God has inventoried you with talents and gifts and resources
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  Speaker 1: that accommodate what he designed you to do in the earth.
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  Speaker 1: That thing is your purpose. And whether it's a big
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  Speaker 1: thing or a small thing, to settle into your purpose
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  Speaker 1: is to be comfortable in your own skin. To be
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  Speaker 1: sure of yourself. To be envious of no man. To
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  Speaker 1: know that God has put you in a place where
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  Speaker 1: he wanted you to be and you are at your
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  Speaker 1: best when your feet are planted right in the center
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  Speaker 1: of your purpose. When you are in your purpose, the
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  Speaker 1: check is just a byproduct of the blessed assurance of
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  Speaker 1: knowing that you are doing the thing that you are
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  Speaker 1: created to do. And when we talk about purpose, most people,
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  Speaker 1: there is a certain, Paul uses in the text the
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  Speaker 1: word mystery. There's a certain mystery as to whether I
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  Speaker 1: am living on purpose or not. Am I in my purpose?
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  Speaker 1: Am I doing the thing I was created to do?
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  Speaker 1: Because most of the time, we only acknowledge the purpose
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  Speaker 1: of God in what we call big things. But sometimes
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  Speaker 1: the purpose of God is demonstrated in big things. And
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  Speaker 1: other times the purpose of God is demonstrated in small things.
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  Speaker 1: The little maid, you would have never thought that she
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  Speaker 1: was living on purpose. She was making up the bed.
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  Speaker 1: But God had planted her in close proximity to Naaman's
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  Speaker 1: wife because she knew Elijah. And she didn't write any
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  Speaker 1: books of the Bible. She didn't prophesy. She didn't do anything.
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  Speaker 1: She was just in her purpose. In the right place
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  Speaker 1: at the right time on station ready to do something
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  Speaker 1: that only she could do. And she saved the king
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  Speaker 1: because she made the bed. For some people, the purpose
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: of God is to raise a child that nobody could
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  Speaker 1: raise but you. But you have the giftings and the
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  Speaker 1: grace and the wherewithal and the wisdom to raise that child,
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  Speaker 1: to guide them through danger, seen and unseen. And you
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  Speaker 1: are not just a mother because you gave birth. You're
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  Speaker 1: a mother because you're filled with all the tenacity that's
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  Speaker 1: necessary to raise that child to completion. Every woman can
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  Speaker 1: have a baby, but every woman is not a mother. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: Or the little boy, had he skipped church that day
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  Speaker 1: with his two fish and five loaves of bread, who
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  Speaker 1: would have known that he would have wrecked the whole
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  Speaker 1: service and shut down the meeting had he not been
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  Speaker 1: on place with a sandwich? Or David, who goes down
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  Speaker 1: to bring lunch to his brethren, never realizing that he
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  Speaker 1: is living on purpose in leaving the sheep And carrying
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  Speaker 1: a lunch, he enters into another dominion of purpose because
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  Speaker 1: he was obedient in the small things. God made him
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  Speaker 1: ruler over many things because he wasn't trying to be big.
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  Speaker 1: He was trying to be in his purpose. Lift your
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  Speaker 1: hands and say, set me in my purpose. I'm best
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  Speaker 1: in my purpose. The world is better when I'm in
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  Speaker 1: my purpose. I feel better when I'm in my purpose.
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  Speaker 1: I function better when I'm in my purpose. My moods
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  Speaker 1: are better. My attitudes, my emotions, my disposition, my character,
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  Speaker 1: my personality is all affected by allowing me to do
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  Speaker 1: what I was created to do. Whatever it is, whether
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  Speaker 1: it's big or small. or whether I'm in midstream, or
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  Speaker 1: whether it's in one stage of development and it's going
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  Speaker 1: to ultimately go to another level, but I have been
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  Speaker 1: warehoused to do this. Paul calls it the grace of God.
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  Speaker 1: The grace of God simply means that God has warehoused
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  Speaker 1: inventory of you to do that. It's within your power
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  Speaker 1: to do it. That doesn't mean it's going to be easy.
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  Speaker 1: Purpose can be painful. Purpose can be problematic. The first
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  Speaker 1: time I rose up in front of a decent-sized crowd
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  Speaker 1: to preach, my hands were shaking so bad I couldn't
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  Speaker 1: hold the mic. And if I had judged myself by
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  Speaker 1: my feelings, I would have quit. Because I was trembling
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  Speaker 1: all on the inside and trying to keep people from
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  Speaker 1: seeing it on the outside. And the more I thought
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  Speaker 1: they saw it, the more nervous I got. And the
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  Speaker 1: more nervous I got, the more my hands shook and
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  Speaker 1: it just did not look like it was going to
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  Speaker 1: go well. Getting into your purpose doesn't always mean getting
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  Speaker 1: into your comfort. The purpose of God can escape the
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  Speaker 1: parameters of your comfort and put you in a position
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  Speaker 1: to cause things to come up and out of you
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  Speaker 1: that have never been challenged before. Being in your purpose
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  Speaker 1: challenges you to discover in your inventory things that life
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  Speaker 1: has never brought out of you before. In your purpose,
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  Speaker 1: you are fruitful. In your purpose, you are bountiful. In
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  Speaker 1: your purpose, you are fulfilled or feel full because everything
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  Speaker 1: that you do in your purpose is a reflection of
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  Speaker 1: how God formed you. He told Jeremiah, before I formed
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  Speaker 1: thee in the belly, I knew thee, I ordained thee,
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  Speaker 1: and I sanctified thee to be a prophet unto the nations.
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  Speaker 1: Being in your purpose doesn't mean that you won't have problems.
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  Speaker 1: Purpose and problems go together. The more you're in your purpose,
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  Speaker 1: the more problems you're out to have. Because hell hates
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  Speaker 1: you in your purpose. I'm going to say that again.
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  Speaker 1: Hell hates you in your purpose. It does not want
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  Speaker 1: you to be in your purpose. It wants to drive
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  Speaker 1: you away from your purpose so that you can do
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  Speaker 1: lots of work and get no reward because you were
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  Speaker 1: never in your purpose. God does not reward me for
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  Speaker 1: doing what he didn't call me to do. God does
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  Speaker 1: not reward me for what he didn't create me to do.
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  Speaker 1: God does not reward me for needing to please you
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  Speaker 1: so bad that I succumb to the need to please
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  Speaker 1: you more than the need to please God, and I
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  Speaker 1: get out of my purpose to satisfy you. Then I
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  Speaker 1: have made you God, and God said, thou shall have
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  Speaker 1: no other God before me. So if I'm a people
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  Speaker 1: pleaser more than I'm a God pleaser, I'll never discover
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  Speaker 1: my purpose to because I will live to make you smile.
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  Speaker 1: He says, Jeremiah, I knew thee, I ordained thee, I
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  Speaker 1: sanctified thee to be a prophet unto the nations. Before
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  Speaker 1: you got here, I equipped you for omega while you
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  Speaker 1: were still alpha. Somewhere inside of you are the clues,
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  Speaker 1: the ingredients that are necessary to collaborate together to form
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  Speaker 1: the essence of your purpose. Sometimes those things inside of
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  Speaker 1: you are complaining and murmuring and pushing and nudging you
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  Speaker 1: and making you take risks and chances that you wouldn't take.
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  Speaker 1: Because they know the fact that God knew you, ordained you,
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  Speaker 1: and sanctified you to be something that you are not being.
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  Speaker 1: And sometimes you have to break barriers in order to
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  Speaker 1: be it. Sometimes you got a job grinding at the
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  Speaker 1: mill or you got a job where you are harvesting
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  Speaker 1: in the field and you are plowing the land, but
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  Speaker 1: there's a prophetic unction in you like Elijah and you're
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  Speaker 1: waiting for the right moment to pass by. And I
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  Speaker 1: believe this is a pass by moment where people are
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  Speaker 1: going to come into a realm of destiny that is
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  Speaker 1: going to be disruptive and that's gonna change your circumstance,
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  Speaker 1: gonna break ties with friends and even family to be
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  Speaker 1: in your purpose may require you relocating, you moving, you
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  Speaker 1: overcoming fear, you learning to hold a mic. It may
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  Speaker 1: require that you leave feeling not enough with two fish
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  Speaker 1: and five loaves of bread. But if you're in your purpose,
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  Speaker 1: God will amplify your gift to the level of your
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  Speaker 1: purpose when you're in your purpose. Put me in my purpose.
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  Speaker 1: That's where I want to be. I want to be
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  Speaker 1: in my purpose. And if I'm in my purpose, my
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  Speaker 1: problem loses its ability to be my focus. Yes. The
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  Speaker 1: reason we are so sensitive today and so on edge
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  Speaker 1: today and so upset today and so offended today is
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  Speaker 1: that we have very few people living in their purpose.
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  Speaker 1: You must realize that Paul has had a hard road
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  Speaker 1: to hold. He has had a lot of suffering. He's
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  Speaker 1: had a lot of agony. He's had a lot of pain.
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  Speaker 1: He's had a lot of problems. He has been beaten
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  Speaker 1: half to death. He has been thrown into a prison.
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  Speaker 1: Lacerations have covered his body. Swelling has engulfed the lacerations.
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  Speaker 1: Blood is oozing out the pores of his skin. Not
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  Speaker 1: a soft mattress to lay on, but a stony bed
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  Speaker 1: to lay on. And yet he does not write to
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  Speaker 1: us saying, God, get me out of prison. He writes
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  Speaker 1: to us saying, God, get me into purpose. Amen. I admit,
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  Speaker 1: if they had beat me and thrown me in the
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  Speaker 1: inner sanctum of a prison, my first letter wouldn't have
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  Speaker 1: been to Ephesus. My first letter would have been to
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  Speaker 1: my attorney. My second letter would have been to my mama.
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  Speaker 1: Get me out of here, pay the bill, do something,
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  Speaker 1: whatever's got to take. Do you know anybody? Can you
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  Speaker 1: work anything out? Because a lot of times we think
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  Speaker 1: that our conditions ought to be the object of our
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  Speaker 1: prayer rather than our purpose being the object of our prayer.
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  Speaker 1: He had gone through things that were unspeakable. And as
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  Speaker 1: he writes this letter, footnote, he is writing from a prison.
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  Speaker 1: But it does not stop him from writing about his purpose.
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  Speaker 1: It is oxymoron that he is in a prison talking
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  Speaker 1: about freedom. It is a dichotomous situation to recognize that
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  Speaker 1: he is talking about purpose while he is incarcerated. He
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  Speaker 1: thought it was so important and so necessary that he
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  Speaker 1: writes to us about the purpose of your life being
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  Speaker 1: far greater than your own personal fulfillment. See, a lot
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  Speaker 1: of us call God's purpose our purpose. And we are
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  Speaker 1: praying for our purpose to be accomplished, which is witchcraft.
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  Speaker 1: Anytime you try to manipulate the situation according to your will,
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  Speaker 1: that's witchcraft. But when you pray, not my will, but
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  Speaker 1: thine be done, that's holy. Amen. I want to be
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  Speaker 1: where you want me to be. I want to have
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  Speaker 1: what you want me to have. Even if it's a
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  Speaker 1: big thing and it's a high thing, if it's not
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  Speaker 1: my thing, let it fall apart. Let it break away.
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  Speaker 1: Let it fall to pieces. Because I would rather have
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  Speaker 1: a lower thing and be in your will than go
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  Speaker 1: after a big thing. All money ain't good money. All
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  Speaker 1: success is not good success. David said, I don't fool
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  Speaker 1: with things that are too high for me. In other words,
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  Speaker 1: nothing is too high for me if it's in my inventory,
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  Speaker 1: if it's in my power to do it. It's so
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  Speaker 1: natural to me that I don't know I'm extraordinary. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's true. That's true. It takes somebody outside of you
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  Speaker 1: to tell you it's extraordinary because you have been so
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  Speaker 1: equipped to do it that when you do it, you
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  Speaker 1: don't know what the fuss is about because you are
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  Speaker 1: living your life on purpose it makes sense to you
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  Speaker 1: it is organic to you it is natural to you
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  Speaker 1: you are equipped for it you are prepared for it
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  Speaker 1: and even when you got problems with it the problems
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  Speaker 1: can't stop you from doing it because greater is the
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  Speaker 1: purpose than the prison you can't put parameters on purpose
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  Speaker 1: A prison is parameters. It puts guardrails. It puts limitations.
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  Speaker 1: But if you let me get in my purpose, there
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  Speaker 1: is no limitation on what I can do. If I'm
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  Speaker 1: in my purpose, the jail cell can't stop me from
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  Speaker 1: being effective. I can be effective and hated all at
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  Speaker 1: the same time and be good with both of them.
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  Speaker 1: I can be okay with you hating me. I can
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  Speaker 1: be okay with you talking about me. I can't be
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  Speaker 1: okay if I'm not in my purpose. Touch somebody and say,
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  Speaker 1: I'm bad when I'm in my purpose. The truth of
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  Speaker 1: the matter is most of us are not sure. Many
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  Speaker 1: of us are not certain. We don't know why we're here.
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  Speaker 1: And if we were to be honest, often we ask God,
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  Speaker 1: why am I placed on this planet? You ask God
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  Speaker 1: because he placed you here. Stop asking people. They don't know.
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  Speaker 1: You must begin with God. because he has determined the
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  Speaker 1: end from the beginning. And according to Jeremiah, he says
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  Speaker 1: that you might have an expected end. So that God
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  Speaker 1: has so fixed things that he has not only an
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  Speaker 1: end for you, but he expects you to get there.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't shout when you get there. He doesn't dance
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  Speaker 1: when you get there. He's not shocked when you get there.
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  Speaker 1: He planned for you to get there, and he has
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  Speaker 1: an expectation for for you to get there. And if
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  Speaker 1: you could just get your expectation to line up with
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  Speaker 1: his expectation so that you stop being shocked too. Rick
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  Speaker 1: Warren wrote a book, The Purpose Driven Life. What on
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  Speaker 1: earth am I here for? Until I can answer that question,
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  Speaker 1: I cannot feel successful I cannot feel accomplished. I cannot
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  Speaker 1: be fulfilled. And Lord, please don't let me die not
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  Speaker 1: knowing why I'm put on this earth. God has a
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  Speaker 1: purpose and a plan for your life. Not just for
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: the things that go right, but also for the things
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  Speaker 1: that go wrong. In fact, the Bible is bodacious enough
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  Speaker 1: to say all things work together for good for them
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  Speaker 1: that love the Lord who are the call according to
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  Speaker 1: his name. That means if I'm in my purpose, it
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  Speaker 1: might not look good, it might not feel good, it
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  Speaker 1: might not sound good, but it's going to work together
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  Speaker 1: for my good. It might be a season of discomfort.
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  Speaker 1: It might be a season of tears. It might be
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  Speaker 1: a season of pain. But if I just have patience... Eventually,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to look back and say it was good
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: that I've been afflicted. It was good that I've been
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: through the divorce. It was good that I was forsaken.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: It was good that you walked off and left me.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: If I really look back at it, I can now
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: understand in hindsight what I didn't see in foresight because
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: God has a plan for your life. God doesn't exempt
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: us from problems, we all have them. Stop being jealous
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: of people who don't have your problem, they got their problem.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: But there's not a person in this room that doesn't
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: operate within the parameters of some confinement, some limitation, some guardrail,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: some prison. Because purpose is often manifest in prison. It's
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: manifest in prison. The last thing Joseph went through before
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: he became the prince of Egypt was a prison. Prison.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Because the prison was the incubation place where purpose manifested.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: When the 70 souls, descendants of Abraham, came into Egypt,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: as long as they were in Egypt, they were in
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: a prison, enslaved, encaptured. And the more they afflicted them,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: the more they beat them, The more they ostracized them,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: the more they humiliated them, the more they grew. Yes, sir.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Because purpose grows in prison. Bless you, sir. Bless you, sir.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Purpose grows in confinement, Susan. Purpose grows in restriction. Yeah, yeah.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Purpose grows in pain. Yeah, yeah. I know you don't
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: want to hear that. I know it's not popular. I
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: know it's out of style because we run away from
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: anything that is contrary to what we had in mind.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: We don't get incarcerated and start writing letters to people
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: who are on the outside encouraging them. Because we are
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: narcissistic by nature. It has become baked into the culture. WIFM,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: what's in it for me? This is not a WIFM letter.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: Paul does not write about what's in it for him.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: He doesn't spend a lot of time talking about his problems.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: He understands that problems are often used to introduce you
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: to a deeper ability to discern your purpose. Often your
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: passion aligns with your purpose. But sometimes your passion resists
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: your purpose. Father, if it be thy will, pass this.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: bitter cup for me. I don't want sometimes my purpose
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: is in being obedient to something that is inconvenient because
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: through my obedience I discover a purpose that may not
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: be witnessed by how I feel about it Maybe God
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: meant for me to be married to that person just
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: to produce that offspring. Oh, y'all not going to talk
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: to me. He makes the difficult decision, the choice that
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: all of us have to make. He makes the difficult
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: distinction between focusing on the humiliation, the injustice, the betrayal,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: the deeply painful but temporal discomfort of his inhumane treatment,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: the many lacerations on his body, the scars freshly inflicted,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: liable to be infected. Not even his eventual death would
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: deter him from his purpose. Am I talking to anybody
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: in here? Often changing our adversity dismisses the opportunity to
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: soar to higher consciousness of God. You see God is
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: a present help in times of trouble. So if you
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: never get in times of trouble, you never get a
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: manifestation I don't mind if you don't like this. I
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: don't like this, but it's true anyhow. I have learned
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: more about God through tears than I have ever learned
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: about God through running, dancing, leaping, and praising God. In fact,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: I would dare to say I have seldom learned anything
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: about God in a praise. I have never danced my
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: way into a revelation, but I have cried my way
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: into a revelation. I have been wounded. I have been stoned.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: I have been forsaken. I have been left for dead.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden got up and shook myself. Oh, shabbo, shabbat.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Shook myself and found out greater is he that is
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: in me than he that's in the world. But I
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: learned it through tears. Paul had to learn to use
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: his pain as a catalyst to catapult him into a deeper,
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: richer revelation of the purpose of God. It's easier said
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: than done, but it is necessary for you to understand
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: when you are weak, you are strong. Amen. When you
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: are poor, you are rich. When you are sick, you
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: are healed. Oh my God, I'm talking to somebody. I'm
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: talking to somebody. I didn't get my drive at the
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: top of my life, I got my drive at the
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: bottom of my life. I got my drive when we
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: were frying chicken down at the women's club trying to
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: get up $ 200 to pay the rent to keep the
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: church open another month. I got my drive when we
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: were painting on ladders wearing coveralls. I got my drive
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: when we were nailing wood and most of the time
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: I was nailing my thumb building the first pool, but
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: I got my drive building a baptism pool that leaked
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: all the water out and the whole church was flooded overnight.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: I got my drive through adversity, trials, and tribulation. You
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: don't have to fight Bishop E.D. Jakes. You have to
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: fight Elder Jakes. Bishop Jakes is easy to whip. But
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: that old Elder Jakes is relentless. He's tenacious. He's reckless.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: He's righteous. That old Elder Jakes will work all day
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: at work, get off work, drive up the road, teach
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Bible class to a handful of people, and then after
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: they leave, paint the bathroom before you go home because
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: you got to be back at work at 7 o'clock
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: in the morning. Elder Jakes is pretty tough. You can't
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: tell what he might do. He might bite your ankles.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: He might pull your ears. He might pull on your nose.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: That old Elder Jakes, that radical Jakes, don't have to
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: have a choir, a crowd, a band, a group, an assembly.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Old Elder Jakes will stomp his foot. and start playing
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: the piano. Is there anybody in here that's had enough
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: struggle to understand the words that are coming out of
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: my mouth? Look at your neighbor like you have crazy.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: and say you don't even know who you fooling with.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Do you know what I survived? Do you know what
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: I endured? Do you know what I did without? Do
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: you know I know how to make cornbread with no milk? Oh,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: y'all don't hear what I'm talking about. Do you know
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: anything about hot water cornbread? Do you know anything about
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: slow cooking grits that take 45 minutes to get done? No,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: you a quick grit person. If it doesn't happen right now,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: you don't think it's gonna happen. But some of us
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: have had such setbacks, such delays. such obstacles such trials
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: that it did something to us on the inside we
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: may be down but we're not out we may cry
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: but we'll still hit you back we may be delayed
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: but we're not denied because we had to fight to
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: get where we are i wish i had a hundred
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: people that would bear witness with me And here's the
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: crazy part. Now that I've reached the point that I
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: get interviewed, people often ask me, is there anything in
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: your life that if you could, you would go back
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: and change it? And even though there were many things
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: in my life that hurt, that I regret, that caused
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: me discomfort, that delayed my arrival, I wouldn't change anything.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: because it took everything to get me where I was.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: And if I hadn't, I had to go through the
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: hell I've been through. I wouldn't be where I am.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: The Bible said if the princes of this world would
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: have known what they were doing, they would have never
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: crucified the Lord. Because the more you crucify us, the
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: more we become. The more you afflict us, the more
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: we grow. The more you nail us down, the more
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: deadly we are in resurrection. We will walk through doors.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: We will show up in cities. We will appear on
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: the road to a massacre. We will show up and
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: do amazing works because you nailed us. Thank you for
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: every nail. Thank you for every drop of blood. Thank
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: you for every time I sweated. Thank you for every
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: time I almost gave up. Do you know there were
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: times I liked to die? There were times I wished
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: to die. There were times I prayed to die. But
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: let me tell you, purpose woke me up. Purpose woke
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: me up this morning. Is there anybody in here that
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: purpose woke you up this morning? Purpose, purpose, purpose. Ten,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: three people said, I got purpose. I got purpose. I
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: got purpose. I got purpose. I got purpose. Paul makes
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: the decision to focus on his purpose and not his prison.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: It's a decision. You got a choice. Either you can
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: look at your prison or you can write about your purpose.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: It's a decision. Most people spend too much energy focusing
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: on the prison and not enough energy focusing on the purpose.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: And if you focus on the purpose, whatever the prison is,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: it's going to work for your good. I feel a
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: shout coming home. If you came in here worried this morning,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: if you logged on the broadcast worried this morning, if
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: you're upset about something and tossed and turned all night long,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: I got one thing to tell you. It's going to
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: work for your good. If I'm talking to you, praise him.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: If I'm talking to you, praise him. If I'm talking
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: to you, praise him. If I'm talking to you, praise him.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Praise Him if you got to cry while you're praising Him.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Praise Him if you have to get on your knees
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: and praise Him. Praise Him if they stoned you and
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: left you for dead. It's still going to work for
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: your good. If they bypassed you and overlooked you, if
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: they never gave you a chance and ignored you, praise
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: God anyway because it's going to work for your good.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: You didn't need to be in the circle no way.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: The circle was toxic. God brought you out for a reason.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: To God be the glory for the things he has done.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: the victory. Sing unto the Lord a new song for
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: he has done marvelous things. Somebody open your mouth and holler.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: When I was a little boy, sit down. When I
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: was a little boy, we didn't have commercials like we
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: do today. The commercials we have today tell everything. You
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: can get sex education watching commercials. They talk about everything.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: Then you got to explain to your kids what that is.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: It didn't used to be like that. Remember back when
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: we used to have the Gerber baby? It was a
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: beautiful little fat-jawed baby on the cover of baby food,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: and it was the Gerber baby. It was her logo.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: It was her mantra. It was her example, the Gerber baby.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: So when my wife got ready to have a baby,
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: I was looking for... I thought the baby would come
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: out smiling. I thought the baby would come out with
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: eyelashes and hair and grinning and smiling and a little buff.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: The baby was bloody and covered with mucus and had
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: to be cleaned up before it could be presented. Because birth,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: write this down, birth is a bloody business. Birth is
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: a bloody business. You can't birth the Gerber baby. And
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: you keep throwing away babies because they don't look right.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Whether the baby is a dream or a business or
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: a company or a marriage, it doesn't look like what
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: you had in mind. It wasn't advertised to you that way.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: You got an idea of how marriage works because you
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: watch days of our lives and you got a feeling
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: that the days of your life ought to line up
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: with a script, but birthing is a bloody business. Type
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: it on the line. Birth is a bloody business. Ezekiel 16,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: 3 and 5. Take a look at this. And yes,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, thy birth and
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. Thy father
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: was an Amorite and your mother was a Hittite. And
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: as for thy nativity, in the day that thou was born,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: thy navel was not cut, neither was thou washed in
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: water to supple thee. Thou was not salted at all,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: nor swallowed at all. Nobody cared for you. You didn't
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: look no good because birthing is a bloody business. If
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: you're going to be birthed, it's what you come through.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: Birthing is a celebration of what you came through to
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: get where you are. And this is why this book
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: is birthed in a prison because birthing is a bloody business.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: Hit somebody and say birthing is a bloody business. If
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: you start anything, it's going to be bloody. If you
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: start a business, it's going to be bloody. If you
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: start a church, it's going to be bloody. If you
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: start a ministry, it's going to be bloody. I always
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: get tickled at people who run out to start churches
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: because they think you start here. But you don't start here.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: You start way back there. You're coming in at the
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: end of the movie. Right. You missed three quarters of
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: the movie, and you think this is natural or normal.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: Birthing is a bloody business. Starting your own company is bloody.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: It's painful. It's stressful. It's cannot make payroll. It's can
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: I get caught up on the rent? It's can I
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: get the right customer? Your relatives want to hook up.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: Your friends want to hook up. Your neighbors want to
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: hook up. Everybody wants to hook up except the bank.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: The bank don't want to hook up. They want a
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: cash payment. And birthing is a bloody business. Hit your
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: neighbor and say birthing is a bloody business. If you
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: waiting on the Gerber baby to come out, it ain't coming.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: If you're going to live your life on purpose, the
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: prison is a part of the process. He is expressing
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: to us the mystery of godliness. That's what the text says,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: that he would unveil to us mysteries. And the mystery
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: is birth in a prison. God gives you revelation in
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: a prison. In fact, the book of Revelations is written
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: in a prison, in a grotto, in a cave, rejected
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: and ostracized, surrounded by murderers and rapists and killers. And
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: John ignores all his surroundings and says, I was in
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: the spirit. on the Lord's day and saw things that
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: were not lawful to be uttered. How did you get
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: in the spirit when your body is in the cave?
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter where my body is. It matters where
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: my head is. And my head is in heavenly places.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: I want to talk to somebody in this room whose
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: body can be in one place. and your head can
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: be in another place. And the enemy has trapped you
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: in one way, but God has strengthened you in another way.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: And they call the book, the book of Revelations, apocalypse.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: Literally means in the Greek, unveiling. That God unveils himself.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: That God strips himself in the furnace of affliction. That
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: God shows himself. When things are at their worst, God
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: shows himself. In times of trouble, he shows himself. In
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: the fiery furnace, he shows himself. When they stone you,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: he shows himself. When they leave you for dead, he
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: shows himself. When you're captive for 400 years, he shows himself.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: Shake your neighbor like you're about to shake them all
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: and tell them God's about to show himself. God is
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: about to show himself. I don't want nobody to praise
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: him except people who are in a prison. Help, help!
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: Hear my shout! He was. He was. He was. He was.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: I feel the glory of God about to hit this place.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: I need some power. I feel the glory of God
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: about to hit this place. Open your mouth and give
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: it 30 seconds of crazy praise. Praise him. If you're
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: an inmate, praise him. If you've been in confinement, praise him.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: If you've been stuck, praise him. If you've been down,
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: praise him. If you've been sick, praise him. If you've
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: been alienated, praise him. Because it's good for us to
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: be afflicted. These light afflictions, which are but for a moment,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: work for us a far more exceeding weight of glory.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: For we look not at the things that are seen.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: For the things that are seen are temporal, and the
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: things that are not seen are eternal. Can I get
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: a witness in here? That means God's going to get
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: some glory out of this. I don't know when. I
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: don't know where. I don't know how. I don't even
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: know who he's going to use. But God is going
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: to get some glory out of this. And I'm praising
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: him in the middle of my prison because I got
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: a purpose. There's a reason I'm here. There's a reason
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: my mother didn't raise me. There's a reason my father
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: didn't raise me. There's a reason I was rejected. There's
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: a reason my life fell apart. It was good for me.
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: I want all the good for me, people. the good
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: for me, people, to give God a praise. I want
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: you to praise him until hell gets confused, until demons
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: are frustrated, until they call a board meeting and say,
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: what is she doing praising the God? I thought we
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: left her in prison. And there she is getting a revelation,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: an unveiling of the mysteries of God, the wisdom of God,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: the manifold wisdom of God. Shout! Can I go a
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: little bit deeper? You see, Paul now says it is
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: the grace of God to minister to the Gentiles when
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: a few years ago he wouldn't even eat with them.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: But look at how his character has changed. That now
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: he considers it a privilege to lead people that he
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: wouldn't eat with. Just because you think about it one
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: way today doesn't mean you're going to think about it
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: the same way tomorrow. He said, I am less amongst
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: all of them. Imagine that. He spoke five different languages.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: He was part of the Sanhedrin court. He was a
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: Hebrew amongst Hebrews. Concerning the law, he was zealous. He
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: was a Pharisee. And yet he says, I am least
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: of the Gentiles. Look at how God has humbled him
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: in the prison. God puts you in some situations to
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: get your head on straight. Preaching is good. Counseling is good.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: Therapy is good. Medication is good. But trouble is better
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: because trouble will get you to the bottom line. Trouble
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: will make you humble yourself. Trouble will make you stop
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: looking down your nose at anybody else. Trouble will make
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: you careful. Trouble will make you relentless. If I had
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: ten witnesses in here, I would preach this place on fire.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Because I feel a blessing about to break loose in
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: this place. Somebody shout a hallelujah. Touch three people and
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: tell them there's purpose in my prison. I'm not in
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: here for no reason. I'm not in here by mistake.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: There's purpose in my prison. God's going to get some
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: glory out of my prison. There's purpose in my pain.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: For every night you cry, for every night you set
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: up wondering which way to go, God's going to get
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: some glory in your life. There's purpose in your prison.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: In fact, the Lord brought you here this morning To
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: get this message as a witness, it's not that God
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: didn't hear you. It's not that you didn't pray. The
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: fact that he didn't move doesn't mean that he's deaf.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: It's just that he works all things together. after the
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: counsel of his own will. And when he gets finished
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: with it, you're going to come out looking good. Take
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: a little strut around. Just take a little strut. You're
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: going to come out like that. You're going to come
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: out with your dignity. You're going to come back with
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: your joy. You're going to come back with your power.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: You're going to come back with your shoes on. You're
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: going to come back wearing your heels. You're going to
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: come back talking in tongues. You're going to come back
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: with more victory. You're going to come back with more power.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: Somebody shout yes. I need five seconds of praise in
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: this place. He says in the text that I am
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: least amongst all. And then he calls himself not an apostle,
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: not a doctor, not a PhD. He doesn't call himself
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: as having a D-man. He says I'm a servant. And
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: the word serving in Greek is diakonos, where we get
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: the word deacon. It means to serve. And let me
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: tell you what it's going to serve. Everything you're going
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: through is going to serve your purpose. It's going to
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: serve your purpose. It's going to usher you into your destiny.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: It's going to serve a purpose in your life. And
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: let me tell y'all something. For every night you cry...
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: For every time you did without, for every time they
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: laughed at you and thought you'd never make it, for
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: every time all hell is going to break loose, it's
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: going to serve his purpose. For every person who walked away,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: it's going to serve his purpose. Stop leaving the door unlocked.
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: Stop waiting on them to come back. Stop texting them,
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: asking them, will you let me back in? It's going
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: to serve his purpose. All things work together for the
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: good of them that love. I don't even know who
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: I'm preaching to, but I feel like I'm talking to somebody.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about something that I don't even know in
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: my head, but I sense in my spirit. God's about
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: to do something. Can you feel it? I said, God's
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: about to do something. Can you feel it? Is there
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: any evidence in your life? Look like things been going crazy.
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: First one thing and then another. As soon as you
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: straighten out this, you go through that. If it's not you,
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: it's your kids. If it's not your kids, it's your spouse.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: If it's not your spouse, it's your dog. If it's
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: not your dog, your fish died. All kind of hell
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: is breaking loose. You go to work and you got hell.
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: You come home and you got hell. You go to
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: church and they're trying to get your parking space. All
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: hell is breaking loose. But all of it's going to
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: work for your good because God's about to do something
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: in your life. My pain has a purpose. My pain
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: has a purpose in my life. My wisdom is born
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: out of my journey. It's born out of my affliction.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: My strength comes from my struggle. If I didn't have
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: a struggle, I wouldn't have any strength. Go to the
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: gym and watch them working out in the gym. The
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: muscle doesn't even begin to tear down until it gets
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: to be a struggle. That's why they'll tell you to
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: push it to the point of exhaustion because when the
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: muscle exhausts itself... It expands itself. I want to talk
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: to some exhausted people. You're exhausted because you're expanding. You're
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: exhausted because you're growing. Your capacity to endure more is
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: becoming stronger. Greater is he. Greater is he. Greater is
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: he that is in you than he that's in the world.
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: I'm about to feel like preaching. And if I feel
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: like preaching, something is going to get set off in
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: this place today. This prison can't stop me from preaching
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: the gospel because I got a purpose and I'm walking
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: in my purpose. And if I walk in my purpose,
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: I can walk through the fire and not get burned.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: I feel a praise about to break loose in this place.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: Somebody help me praise him. Anybody help me praise him.
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: Everybody help me praise him. I feel a blessing about
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: to hit the potter's house. Plow this house. Will you
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: receive the blessing of the Lord? I got grace for this.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: I can handle this. I can stand this. If somebody
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: else had to go through it, they would lose their mind.
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: But I got the grace for this marriage. I got
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: the grace for this condition. I got the grace to
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: have this baby. I got the grace to deal with
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: this boss. I got the grace to do it. Slap
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: three people and say, I got grace for this. If
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: you don't have grace for it, get out of it.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: If you don't have grace for it, walk away from it.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: If you don't have grace for it, stop making everybody
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: else miserable and quit. If you don't have the grace
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: for it, get out the kitchen. You got to have
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: grace to do this. I got grace to do this.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: I got the power to do this. I got the
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: anointing to do this. Come hell or high water, I
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: got the grace to do this. Talk about me all
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: you want to, but I'm grace for this. I got
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: enough grace. I got enough fire in my own belly.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: I'll shout for myself. I'll say amen for myself. I'll
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: dance for myself. I got the grace for this. Slap
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: your neighbor and holler grace. It brought me through the fire. Grace.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: It brought me through the bloody stuff. Grace. It brought
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: me through the prison. Grace. It brought me through the divorce. Grace.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: It brought me through the chaos. And grace is going
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: to bring me through this. I feel a praise about
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: to get loose in Zion. And if a praise get
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: loose in here, all you deadbeat people, going to have
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: to get out the way because us crazy folks about
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: to take over the church. I feel a blessing about
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: to take over this place because somebody just hit some grace.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: Somebody just hit some strength. Somebody just hit some power.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: So I was in a meeting the other day with
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: the foundation and we were talking about our prison ministry
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: and I got confused because I got two. I got
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: the Tory, which is a reentry program. And then I
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: got the church. And what they don't realize is all
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: of us are in prison somewhere. And we've learned how
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: to survive the prison of loneliness, the prison of singleness,
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: the prison of being married, the prison of being confined.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: The prison of having a child that cusses
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: you out. The prison, the prison, the prison. The prisons
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: you don't talk about. The prisons you don't mention. The
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: prisons you don't speak about. God is going to use
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: those prisons to show himself strong in your life. I
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: need a minute. Can I have a minute? Can I
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: borrow a minute? Tell your neighbor, say neighbor, there are
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: a bunch of devils looking at you right now. They
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: don't want you to move. They don't want you to rejoice.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: They don't want you to get a breakthrough. But if
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: you praise him right now, You're going to drive the
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: devil crazy. You're going to drive him out of his mind.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: You're going to drive him to have a nervous breakdown.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: If you praise him right now, if you praise him
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: right now, everything in you is going to come out.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: Everything in you is going to come out. Everything in you.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: Everything in you. Everything in you is going to come out.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: Everything in you. Everything in you. Everything in you. Everything
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: in you. Everything in you has got to come out.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: Everything in you has got to come out. If you
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: want to go to heaven and you want to go right,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: everything in you has got to come out. Everything in
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: you has got to come out. Everything in you has
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: got to come out. If you want to go to heaven,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: you want to go right, everything in you has got
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: to come out. Come on. What?
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: Yes, if you want.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: Well, now, if you want to.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: Go to heaven, you want to go right.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: Everything in here has got to come out. It's in you.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: It's in you. Well, if you want to.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 2: Go to heaven, you want Everything in you's got to
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: come out. Everything in you's got to come out. Everything
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 2: in you's got to come out. Everything in you's.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: Got to come out.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: Everything in you's got to come out.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: Come on out. Come on out. Lay hands on your
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: stomach and say, everything in you has got to come out.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: Everything in you has got to come out. If you
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: want to go to heaven and you want to go right,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: everything in you has got to come out. Before you finish,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: everything in you has got to come out.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: Before it's over, everything in you has got to come out. Well,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 2: if you want to go to heaven, you want to
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: go right, everything in you has got to come out.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: Everything in you gotta come out.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: Everything. Everything in you gotta come out. Well, if you
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: want to go to heaven, you want to go right.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: Everything in you gotta come out. I'm gonna stop there.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: I'm not finished, but I'm gonna stop there. What I'm
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: trying to say is that there's purpose in my prison.
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: What got me into this message, Paul spends virtually no
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: time talking about prisons. All he talks about in the
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: book of Ephesians is purpose. Ephesians, he says, he wants
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: having made known unto us the mystery of his will.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: That we might seek him to abound in all prudence
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: and godliness. That he works all things out after the
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: counsel of his own will, that which he hath purposed
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: in himself before the foundations of the world are now
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: made manifest in us, the manifold wisdom of God, which
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: is the eternal purpose of God. Bring me that chair.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: Bring me that chair. Bring me that chair. God says,
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: I already set this chair that when it's all over,
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: she gonna be sitting right here. She may be way
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: back there right now. She might be crawling on her
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: belly right now. He might be jobless right now. He
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: may be at his wit's end, but I tell you what,
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: I'm holding you a seat. When I get through bringing
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: you and pulling you and tugging you, if you stop
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: looking for profit and start looking for purpose, the profit
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: is going to follow the purpose. We got it backwards.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: We're trying to make profit where we don't have purpose.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: You got to have purpose in order to have profit.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: If you get the purpose right, the profit is going
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: to come on its own. Don't pay the prison no attention.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: Don't pay the pain any attention. And for God's sake,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: don't pay any attention to potential. The potential to be
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: a great mother doesn't help any child. The potential to
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: be a great husband doesn't help the wife. The potential
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: to be a great wife doesn't help the husband because
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: potential is inborn. It's never delivered. Potential just means it's
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: in there, but it's still got to come out. And
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: the reason I sung everything in this got to come
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: out is that in order to end up here, everything
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: Your pride, your ego, your self-esteem, your worrying about what
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: people think about you, everything in you has got to
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: come out. Your strife, your jealousy, your self-righteousness, everything in
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: you has got to come out. That's why I put
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: you in prison, so it could come out. It's going
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: to come out. I locked you up so it could
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: come out. I shut you down so it could come out.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: I shut you down so you could think about it.
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: And before it's over, everything in you is going to
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: come out. It's not going to be easy. It's not
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: going to be nice. And it's not going to be
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: cute like the Gerber baby. But when it's all over,
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: it's going to come forth as pure gold. Pure gold.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: Pure gold. Everything in you. Who am I preaching to?
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: I feel like I'm talking to somebody. I wish I
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: knew who it was. If it's you online, type it
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: on the line. He's talking to me. Everything in you.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: A reporter walked up to Catherine Kuhlman and asked her,
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: what did, some of y'all don't know who Catherine Kuhlman is.
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: How many of y'all know who Catherine Kuhlman is? Okay,
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: to the ones who don't, Catherine Kuhlman was a pioneer,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: one of the first pioneers of women in ministry. She
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: headed the full Gospel Businessmen's Association and spoke in places
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: that women were forbidden to speak in. She laid hands
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: on people, and they came out of crutches and came
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: out of braces and out of wheelchairs. And they asked her,
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: what does it take to have your ministry? Because everybody
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: wants what somebody else got. What does it take? What
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: does it take to have your ministry? And she looked
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: at them and said, you remember how she talked? Simply everything, darling. Darling,
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: it takes simply everything. It takes everything. Not one tear
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: you shed has been wasted. The Bible said that he
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: captures them in a vial. If there was nobody there
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: to wipe your face, don't worry about it. Holy Spirit
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: got it. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: Do you hear what I'm saying to you? And I'm
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: just trying to tell you, nothing you've been through has
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: been wasted. There is purpose there. in your prison. I
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: came home with clothes I knew she couldn't wear right then.
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: I knew she couldn't wear them right then. But I
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: wanted to remind her of who she was. You're not
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: braces and ice packs. You're not pain and swelling. You're
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: not going to always be confined to a chair. Your
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: leg is not going to always be lifted up in
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: the air. You're not going to always miss service. You're
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: going to drive your car again. You're going to put
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: on your heels again. You're going to live your life again.
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: You're going to live your life. Sometimes you need somebody
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: to remind you who you are because the prison will
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: make you act like an inmate. The amazing thing to me, Lawrence,
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: is that Paul never acts like an inmate. He never
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: stopped acting like an apostle. He's in jail and he's
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: bloody and he's bleeding and he's swollen and his cheeks
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: are all torn and emaciated. His flesh is all jacked up.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: There is no medicine. There is no anesthetization of the
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: pain that he carries. There is no anesthetizing of the
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: pain that he carries. There are no painkillers. There are
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: no pharmaceuticals. There are no physicians. There are no medicines.
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: There are no blankets. There are no quilts. There are
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: no thermometers. And he doesn't even act like he's in
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: pain and he doesn't act like he's a prisoner. He
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: never forsook being an apostle because he knew his strength
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: was in his purpose. His strength is in his purpose.
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: When you know who you are, don't you let nobody
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: talk you out of who you are. Lift your hands
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: up and say, there's purpose in my prison. I will
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: not quit being who I am to succumb to my prison.
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: I will find my purpose. I will live on purpose.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: I will teach on purpose. And I will die on purpose.